Steve Berg: What Ending Homelessness Looks Like

[OneGrassRoot]

She’s not going to be homeless, even though her boyfriend beat her and disappeared with her money. Even though her job disappeared next, she and her babies had to move in with her mom, and now her mom’s boyfriend wants them out.

She’s not going to be homeless because the domestic violence counselor sent over a woman who mediated, found some places that were hiring, contacted a new day care center, connected her with a different landlord, and paid the security deposit and her storage bill.

She’s not going to be homeless.

She’s going to unwrap the dishes. On one of the newspapers she’s using there’s a story about The Last Homeless Person in America. She laughs, thinking, “That could have been me.” She’ll have to read it later.

<snip>

This is a work of speculative fiction – for now. Ending homelessness in America will require us quickly and comprehensively to address the combination of vulnerability and crisis that leaves people homeless today. It will require us to elevate prevention and re-housing tools to the same national scale as our shelter systems. It will require that we invest the resources and passion necessary to confront and untangle – five thousand times a day – the personal, emotional, and physical afflictions of people who today experience homelessness.

Full article here: http://blog.endhomelessness.org/?p=935

[billlll]

1. 1. post pls.,also in Povrty Forum 2.Faster end if just fix physical shelter lack

1. This thread will stay on a Page One
for weeks at Pov Forum....vanish in hour fm Page One here.

2. Nice if we address job needs etc. but fastest plan I can see is to provide building methods and then rent subsidy to client hmless person. "Shelter first" some activist said.
I wonder if the claim of unused military facilities of many sorts could do the shelter job? Shelter meaning apartments not current hmlss shelters.

Your cost estimate for rent money? I see 1 Billion a year.

[Dappleganger]

2. Rent subsidies are a must!

There are probably hundreds of unoccupied apartments, condos and homes which could be occupied within a week if this were to happen. It would give a roof of their heads, stability, an address (!), the feeling of belonging and moving beyond their circumstances, etc. For the elderly, disabled and poor it's a safe place to be while getting medical care, in the benefits appeals process, etc. No more worrying about heatstroke or freezing each day!

[OneGrassRoot]

3. The empty buildings are appalling....

Every day I drive past buildings -- empty strip mall buildings, empty homes (I'm not even talking about foreclosed homes), etc., etc -- and can't understand why we as individual communities can't come together to invest in making these spaces available to those in need of shelter.

Some of these could indeed be homes -- not just temporary shelter -- rather than sitting empty with nothing but mountains of red tape standing between people and the dwellings.

I'm calling about a few such instances near me and, no surprise, getting the extreme runaround.

I know everyone else has to have the same thoughts about these empty, wasted spaces as they go throughout their day though.

It's obscene and pathetic. :(

Thanks, dappleganger. :hug:

[Greyhound]

4. But that's not nearly as important as pouring trillions into the corporate welfare

system while simultaneously indenturing a whole population.
:kick: & R

[AuntPatsy]

5. K& R I try to live my life by always saying to myself...

"There but by the Grace of God go I"...and for those that don't believe..."There but by extreme Good Luck go I"

Very discouraging to realize so many fail to believe that they themselves could easily find themselves in such circumstances and so fail to feel the compassion that otherwise they might feel for another..the human race has a long way to go if they desire to see themselves as the elite of all living things...

[OneGrassRoot]

7. You have no idea....

how many times I've tried to find an alternate phrase for "There but for the Grace of God go I."

It's what I think nearly daily, yet it was someone on DU that made me see that phrase in a different light (that it could be perceived as though "I" am more fortunate or more blessed by God/Spirit than another), even though that is never my personal interpretation. Still, being mindful of not offending another, I wanted to think of an alternate phrase.

I do believe I'll steal yours, if that's okay? ;) "There but by extreme Good Luck go I."

:thumbsup:

Indeed, more and more of us are truly one paycheck (or less) away from similar circumstances. Compassion and empathy could alleviate so much suffering, if acted upon, that is.

:hug:

[AuntPatsy]

9. Absolutely use it freely...;-)

compassion and empathy have been replaced by judging and condemnation...welcome to a world where faces have been replaced with objects, easy for some I guess to do since objects require no need to feel guilty if and when they fail....

[laughingliberal]

6. Thanks! Big K&R nt

[ceile]

8. K&R