Living the American Nightmare

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By AMY ROLPH, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Published 09:23 p.m., Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Employees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation arriving to work early Wednesday will have company: dozens of sleeping people lined up on the sidewalk.

They'll be camped out under sheets of plastic outside the foundation's Seattle headquarters, and they could be there for several more nights. At least, they say they'll be there until some kind of funding comes through for two homeless organizations.

Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE) and Women's Housing, Equality and Enhancement League (WHEEL) were recently shuttered due to a cut in federal funding.

Now, people who used those services want the Gates Foundation to pay more attention to ending homelessness in the Puget Sound region -- and to appropriate a $30,000 grant to SHARE/WHEEL so it can reopen shelters.

But some say it's about more than just a way to get the attention of the largest philanthropic organization in the nation.

"We're making a stand, and we're trying to stay together -- for safety and for community," said Monty Smith, a member of the board of directors of the shelter.


Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Gates-Foundation-s-new-neighbors-Protestors-from-2214075.php

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1. Wake up! nt