In all of this mess, there is a forgotten problem. And no one is talking about it: Homelessness.

[Taverner]

3.5 million people are homeless right now.

1.5 million of them are children.

And we, the richest country on Earth, do nothing. Worse than nothing - we are scrapping the safety nets that keep them alive.

The number is going up every day. Many families are one layoff away from it.

But if you listen to elected officials (Democrats and Republicans alike) they're all just a bunch of lazy people who don't want to work.

Many Americans buy into this myth - that the homeless are just lazy. I'd like to think it was because of the MSM portraying them that way. But I know that's not the case. Because the idea is so horrifying to Americans, they just tune out or make up a reason why they don't 'deserve' help. Or that there are no homeless children. Or that a rising tide lifts all ships.

In San Francisco, even some of the most liberal people joke about killing them off.

The homeless - they are people. Some have mental illness, some are victims of abuse and some just have bad luck.

The best way to judge a society is how they treat the most unfortunate.

By that measure, we're not much of a society.

[hamsterjill]

1. When you're right, you're right.

And you're right on this issue. It's absolutely shameful.

[Taverner]

7. Sometimes I have three martinis in a 20 minute period and post

It happens to the best of us

[leftstreet]

2. It's actually bigger than that

Those stats don't include things like families sharing residences or adult kids moving back home due to inability to maintain residence.

It's getting really huge

[Taverner]

3. I went with the most conervative numbers - because they were staggering

And yes, it is getting huge

[lbrtbell]

4. That's why we need to bring jobs back here

Those who can work can afford rent or mortgage payments.

It's so simple, even a Republican can understand. They just don't want to.

[Taverner]

6. They don't want jobs here

During the tech boom of the 90s, there were lots of jobs here. Republicans I knew complained, saying people didn't work hard enough and that they needed to be scared.

[EFerrari]

5. OcupySF coordinated with a group of advocates for the homeless.

They occupied a hotel last week.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I think that's great. I hope the occupation doesn't end until justice is served.

[EFerrari]

8. Just read that OccupySF is also feeding folks who stop by. n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. It's always forgotten. Even when someone brings it up, it's almost immediately

forgotten again. I don't know if it's "Not my Problem" or if it's "I can't fix that by myself" but it's rare that discussions on homelessness, here and elsewhere, stay afloat for long. :(

[starroute]

11. Occupation Philadelphia has been interacting with the homeless

I've been following their Facebook page. It started with cautions to the occupiers that they had to be careful not to displace the homeless who were accustomed to sleeping in the City Hall area they were occupying -- but it sounds like things have gotten to a stage of mutual support.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/flexicontent/item/28271-13lfoccupy/

The tent city of protesters on the west side of Philadelphia City Hall is more permanent as it marks one week. In that short time, "Occupy Philadelphia" has improved life for some of the city's most vulnerable. . . .

FIEDLER: You're holding up a flyer that says 'Harvey's Homeless Reality Tour at 4pm daily presented by Occupy Philly's public relations team. So you're sleeping here now?

LOCKRIDGE: Oh I've had some great sleep! I finally got a tent myself. I get food too. I don't have to get up at an odd time in the morning. I can sleep as long as I need to.

Lockridge said it's nice not to have Police wake him up at odd hours prodding him to move along.
A nurse working in the medic tent said homeless people are also taking advantage of the medical services. While she said she doesn't provide anything beyond bandages and a hug, those have come in handy for several street people. If the problem is more than she can deal with she'll get the police or an ambulance. That hasn't happened yet.

-----------------

On edit: There's also a Facebook post saying, "As of last night there were approximately 88 homeless sleeping in Dilworth Plaza alongside the Occupants. We are asking for donations of basic comfort supplies to be specifically allocated for the homeless population. If you would like to contribute this please make sure to notify comfort when you drop off your donations."

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. +1

:thumbsup:

[AndyTiedye]

13. It Says Something, Exactly What is Not So Clear

While the USA has a great deal of surplus housing, it is not in places like San Francisco or Manhattan.
A lot of people who can afford to live anywhere are living in the city, where they might have chosen the suburbs in the past.
Some are doing it to have less of an impact on the environment. Unfortunately, when they move in, someone else has to
move out. The city is full. Gentrification certainly exacerbates homelessness, but the processes that bring it about can all
occur with the best of motives: certainly fixing up a property is better than letting it deteriorate, and those who are moving
in are frequently doing so for the best of motives as well.

What went missing is rent control. That used to protect city residents from skyrocketing rents, and for a lucky few, it still does.
Nobody looking for an apartment now can benefit from it, anywhere in the USA, afaik, only a few grandfathered units.
Other than that, rent control has gone away. How did that happen? There wasn't any vote on it that I can remember.


It also says something about the way our government agencies work.

All those government forms expect you to supply an address. What do you put there if you haven't got one?
If you haven't got an address, it is too easy for officials to say "you don't live here, you're not our problem."
particularly if they are swamped with trying to help other people who indisputably ARE their problem.

If the benefits are provided at a state or federal level, this becomes less of a problem, at the cost of dealing
with a larger bureaucracy. A happy medium might be provide more funding to the localities to provide such
help, and to fund it in a way that gives them an incentive to help, rather than to pass the buck.

[TheKentuckian]

14. You are right as rain and the sad thing is I'm starting to believe

that most won't get it until and unless they get at least a dose themselves.

For a lot of folks the deal is alien or so it seems.

[KoKo]

16. It will come to them suddenly... probably won't be too much longer

the way things are going. I've read that many Hedge Funds have gone under this year and Wall Street and Banks are laying off workers. The "Golden Goose" is very sick...but like all fools they won't know until it's lying dead next to that Bull Statue on Wall Street or they've come to take your home in the "golden places" that are still thriving on the 1% who haven't yet been touched. :-(

[KoKo]

15. It doesn't feed the "He Said/She Said" Cable "News Pundits" nor the "Reality Show"

or "Social Issues" show crowds. Nor the other muck that passes for entertainment on Cable these days. So...they don't show it unless they can make a "This Side or That Side" argument.

Too nuanced and not part of the Media/Infotainment/Industrial/Military Complex. :-(

[Odin2005]

17. K&R! The fact that homelessness even happens is proof that Capitalism is evil.

[Taverner]

18. [phone]

[Tsiyu]

19. Another winter waits in the wings

Millions of homes in foreclosure.

No new affordable housing.

Instead of addressing these issues, Congress is wanking off to their deal on free trade with Korea, and the idea of creating more felons and further encroaching on Americans' right to free speech. And where is Obama on the issue of affordable housing?

Though any idea he had would only be quashed by that salivating, greedy horde we call the House of Representatives.

If only we could put most of them on the streets.