Please Help With This Important Issue: Violence Against Homeless People

[dajoki]

There are many different contacts, choose the best one for you, thanks!!


From our friends at the National Coalition for the Homeless

Stop Hate-Motivated Violence Against Homeless People

The National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty are leading a national campaign to prevent and end hate-motivated violence against people experiencing homelessness. NCH and NLCHP invite organizations at the national, state, and local level to stand with us in this effort, including : advocacy and direct service organizations that are concerned with civil rights, justice, crime prevention, homelessness, housing, and/or poverty.

NCH and NLCHP have prepared two policy statements. The first offers recommendations for preventing and ending hate crimes and violence against people without homes, written for policymakers at all levels of government. The second is an endorsement letter for homeless hate crimes statistics legislation (HR 2216) currently before the U.S. Congress. Both documents are linked here:

Joint Position Statement: http://console.mtgcp.com/_images/NLImages/JointPositionStatement.doc

Endorsement Letter: http://console.mtgcp.com/_images/NLImages/endorsement_letter.doc

If your organization is able to add its voice to this anti-violence effort, please email [e-mail]. Be sure to include your organization name and full contact information. We will be collecting organization endorsements on a rolling basis, with a first-round of responses requested by Friday, July 25. For more information, please contact Michael Stoops at [e-mail] or Tulin Ozdeger at [e-mail].

==========================

Please forward this e-mail!

Do not reply to this email. But we want to hear from you! See our contact information at http://www.chn.org/about/staff.html to contact us directly.

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for CHN emails at http://www.chn.org/signUp.jsp.

[smokey nj]

1. K&R!

[pleah]

2. K&R

[Libby2]

3. Thank you, K&R

[undergroundpanther]

4. As the ambitious middle class..

begins to unravel they always tend to blame poor people,easier to kick who's already down isn't it?
Just yesterday my roommate told me about went to a 7-11 and ran into a well off asshole complaining about poor people. disabled etc.He was repeating the "welfare queen" myth.My roommate shot him down, by bringing up examples and asked that fuck head what would you do? Let them die? Kill them off? The reason we have welfare is because there is a need for it.What kind of jobs would severely retarded people get, or what about the woman with two young kids who escapes a marriage where the guy punches her out every Friday night.When she is sick of winding up in the ER, One day she leaves him .But now she can't afford daycare to take care of the kids so she can go and look for a job and since she can't get daycare and cannot abandon her young kids to look for work, how does she take care of her family??

The asshole got another slice of life one I am sure he was insulated from for all his life and never felt the sting and humiliation of poverty himself.. After a few weak arguments that made him look even MORE like an asshole,he just became silent.

The world is chock full of aggressive me first bully assholes.
And when these assholes are threatened, or lose their job
.Trained to be obedient to believe are their betters, the bully pieces of shit look down for scapegoats instead of UP to the real SOURCE of their fears and financial pinches.

They haven't the GUTS to even consider it really is the greedy who create the needy..Instead,like the cowards they are, they kick the people who are already down.A homeless bashing bully has the emotional development of a middle schooler,a product of American psychopathic culture of me first and fuck everyone else.Sometimes ambition and a desire to WIN is NOT a good thing.Sometimes it is damaging to the culture itself.

And yes I hate rich bullies.I hate bullies period.
An I hope I never run into a homeless bashing because I will beat that bully so bad he will wish he was never born.And I'll take the homeless person to the ER.

[dajoki]

9. Single Moms' Poverty Spikes After Welfare Overhaul

Single Moms' Poverty Spikes After Welfare Overhaul
Run Date: 07/03/08
By Allison Stevens
Washington Bureau Chief
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3658

The ranks of poor single mothers have grown since the 1996 welfare overhaul that weakened their safety net, and 30 percent now live with neither job income nor public assistance. Third in "The Memo" series on the status of U.S. women.

MILWAUKEE (WOMENSENEWS)--In 2001, Lisa Craig snuck out of her home in Chicago and boarded a bus for Milwaukee with her three children, leaving behind an abusive husband, a stable job and most of her possessions.

The elimination in 1996 of federal welfare entitlements had its roots here in Wisconsin, where voters in the 1980s were angered over perceptions that poor Chicago "welfare queens" were heading north to take advantage of more generous programs. But Craig headed north because she had family there to help her.

After a short stay with her sister, Craig took her children--aged 1 to 8--to a homeless shelter. In order to receive a monthly welfare payment of about $600, she entered a three-month training program with the hope of a landing a job at the end of it.

But the training didn't pay off. She didn't find full-time employment until 2006, when she was hired as a retail clerk at Goodwill, which paid enough to cover her $600 rent but not much else. The job lasted only until last November and she has been looking for another since....

[undergroundpanther]

10. I wish Reagan had to PAY for his lies with shame.

Welfare refers to financial or other forms of public -- government -- assistance to people in need. Welfare also means health, happiness, well-being..

Corporations don't need welfare, they aren't even people.Corporations don't have children or get battered, they don't need food or heat or shelter or health care ,what do CORPORATIONS need these costly bail outs and welfare for?The rich don't need welfare but it seems they get more welfare out of the government than all of the poor combined.
Total federal spending on a safety net for the poor costs the average taxpayer about $400 a year, while spending on corporate welfare programs costs the same taxpayer about $1400 a year. (source: Congressional Budget Office figures)

The Savings and Loan bail out (which we are about to repeat) costs us about $37 bil a year and will for the next 30 years.
* Agribusiness gets about $18 bil a year
* In 1997, the FCC handed out broadcast licenses for digital TV for free. The estimated value had they been auctioned was set at $20-70 bil.
* Timber industry: $427 million +tax breaks
* Aviation: $5.5 bil a year, not to mention the bail out after 9/11.
* Mining: $3.5 bil a year
* Tax avoidance through off-shoring $12 bil a year
* Defense Contractors , the top ten of whom took home $67 bil in 2002 and $108 bil in 2006).

http://thecitizens.blogspot.com/2007/04/welfare-vs-wealthfare.html
Rich people have enough,So why do they want wealthfare for? Greed?
Greedy corporate wealthfare kings? All upset at the poor needing something to live on. In a sick corporate empire system the rich built and rigged against the poor to get ceep labor??

Corporate welfare is estimated to cost the federal government between $170 and $200 billion each year . This figure far exceeds the amounts ever budgeted for individual welfare programs. The Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program cost the federal government $11 billion in 1989.
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=L31VGXJhZbCf7CQ22fwJTv37GGfgdGyhTJrpJm1CyW3Ns1LnnWmq!1329294186?docId=5001373809

Rutherford B. Hayes wrote in his diary:

"The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few....It is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations."

Get the RICH off welfare.They don't need more,They already HAVE enough..

[dajoki]

11. Website I came across...

some time ago and saved it because it debunks the conservative line of thinking on welfare and poverty.

Myth: Welfare increases poverty.

Fact: The more welfare, the less poverty -- both historically and internationally.

Summary

The historical evidence is clear: welfare reduces poverty, and the lack of it increases it. In the 1920s, fully half of all Americans could not make ends meet. Roosevelt's New Deal programs had reduced poverty to about 20 percent in the 50s. Johnson's Great Society reduced this to 11.1 percent by 1973. Since the rise of the corporate special interest system in 1975, individual welfare benefits have been shrinking, and poverty has been steadily rising, to over 15 percent today.

MORE...

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-welfarepoverty.htm

[bobbolink]

38. Wonderful Rutherford B. Hayes quotation!

You come up with some good ones! Ones that I haven't found.

Much appreciated.

Also, all the facts you find.

As I said, I can't imagine how you keep it all organized so that you can find it so quickly to post like this.

Why do I have an image of your bed resting on file cabinets???

:rofl:

[knitter4democracy]

29. As my MIL said to me once, "It's just better not to think about that."

She wanted to buy something from the Gap for my son, and I told her I was uncomfortable with supporting a company that used sweatshops, and that's when she said it. It showed me how the Republicans really think: they just don't want to think about how people are hurting from their policies. Ick.

[Prophet 451]

5. Is this common?

Don't misunderstand, if it's common then HR 2216 is an excellent idea. Maybe I've just lived a sheltered life.

[dajoki]

6. Yes it is too common...

When my daughter lived in Fort Lauderdale three homeless men where killed at the bus station she used for no other reason than they had nowhere to go.

[Prophet 451]

7. Cripes, I had no idea

The law is an excellent idea then.

[bobbolink]

14. Yes, in a way, you've "lived a sheltered life" -- pun? ^_^

Homelessness isn't "sexy", and doesn't get much attention, even from "progressives", so it's not a surprise that you don't hear about.

This is VERY serious, and if it were happening to blacks, or Jews, or Indians, etc., there would be OUTRAGE.

We homeless people are the n-word of today..... it's blind prejudice, but it's OK because we aren't recognized as a real Social Justice issue.

You can help change that!!

[dajoki]

20. "Social Justice"

I have been thinking about this for some time now and you are the first person that I have seen phrase it this way. Some may call me crazy, but I would like to see a new CABINET position to oversee and deal with ALL these issues; homelessness, poverty, healthcare, etc. FDR tried to establish the Dept. of Social Welfare, but I was thinking of the Dept. of Social Justice being headed up by John Edwards. What do you think?

After all they did it with Homeland Security, and these issues are just as important!!

[Prophet 451]

22. Great idea

Department of Humanitarian Services perhaps? When I did my Benevolvent Dictator For Life essays (a kind of "If I ruled the world" flight of fancy), I actually did exactly that. Think I picked Dennis Kucinich to head it though.

[dajoki]

24. I LOVE IT!!

I knew I couldn't be the only one thinking along those lines, I had trouble coming up with a name but I like yours though, "Department of Humanitarian Services"!! Kucinich or Edwards would both be good choices. Mind if I spread it around? I will be sure to credit Prophet 451!!

[Prophet 451]

28. Of course you can

Don't worry about any sort of credit, the ideas are more important.

[dajoki]

30. Thank you...

and I think we have a good idea!!

[bobbolink]

34. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE!!

Now, THAT has a ring to it!

:bounce: :yourock::bounce: :yourock::bounce: :yourock::bounce: :yourock::bounce: :yourock::bounce:

You commie, you. :rofl:

The other thing would be to have it CEMENTED into the Constitution, as some countries do.

Yes, I'm a dreamer, too.

[dajoki]

37. I have been...

thinking about this for a long time now and the proper name was a sticking point for me, Profit 451 suggested the Department of Humanitarian Services, which I like, but DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE has a more authoritative sound to it. What do you think?

I may be a dreamer, but this is something long overdue and yes, it should be CEMENTED into the Constitution. What do you think of John Edwards as the Secretary? Maybe we should start a poll or a thread to see what other "progressives" think about it.

[Prophet 451]

21. Accidental pun

It's not that, it's more that I had no idea violence was so common against the homeless.

[dajoki]

8. kick

[bobbolink]

12. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

RATZ!!

I wish I had seen this in time to recommend it!

thanks so much for posting this... it's such an IMPORTANT issue... yet, it doesn't get much attention!

Thanks! :yourock:

[dajoki]

15. To back up your point...

of no attention. Here is a website tracking this bill that is ASKING for stories.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h2216/show
In the News
We are not currently finding any news articles on this topic using our daily automated search of Google News. However, if you know of a relevant news article to display here, OpenCongress site editors have the ability to add it manually. Simply e-mail us the web address of this page and the web address of your suggested news article: [e-mail] We'll post relevant links as quickly as possible. Also, if this topic is important to you, you could write a letter to the editor -- if a news article refers this specific topic by name, a link to that news article is likely to appear here soon.

[bobbolink]

18. oh, my... why do I feel like crying?

There have been so many newspaper stories... why aren't they showing up?

Wha's going on?????!

I don't understand...... :(

[dajoki]

27. Because it hurts...

it hurts like hell when you have to search for stories about an issue that has become nearly epidemic. Like you said, if this was happening to any racial or ethnic group it would not be tolerated. Why then is it tolerated against people who have the least and NO chance for justice?

[cliffordu]

13. Kicked anyway. I'd recommend if I could.

[bobbolink]

17. thanks, cliffordu! We all appreciate your attention to this!

:hi:

[cliffordu]

19. You're welcome, kicked again!

There are going to be a lot more homeless Real Soon Now.

[bobbolink]

31. This may sound mean.....

"There are going to be a lot more homeless Real Soon Now."

I'm afraid that's what it's going to take to wake people up, start some awareness (including at DU!!!), and get folks interested in working for some PROGRESS. Something "progressives" should ALREADY be involved in!

[pleah]

16. Kick!

[lonestarnot]

23. Speaks volumes about us and how we treat the least among us.

K but too late to R. :(

[varelse]

25. Too late to rec, so...

:kick:

This is a serious problem that is getting even worse as the economy falters.

[flvegan]

26. I'm ashamed that my Florida Senate failed to vote on our hate crime bill

last year. But then, I'm not surprised considering such a majority of them are worthless pieces of shit.

IIRC, it went through the House with unanimous support.

[bobbolink]

32. thanks for your awareness, and attention to this!

:bounce: :yourock: :bounce:

[Danger Mouse]

33. People who attack homeless folk are among the lowest type of scum.

[bobbolink]

35. IN the same category as people who would blow up a church and kill four innocent young girls.

At least that received the necessary outrage.

Where is the outrage about beating and killing homeless people?

Have we lost that much compassion in the intervening years????

[Danger Mouse]

36. I think we have, sadly.