Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Homeless couple weds today in Brandon
Tampa Tribune - Yvette C. Hammett
BRANDON - They've been together for 14 years. For five of those years, they've been on the streets with little work to sustain them. After suffering a brain aneurysm recently that landed Nan Schrack in Tampa General Hospital, she and longtime beau Mark Neville decided they should put it off no longer. "I asked Jim [Mcneil] at the church, "what does someone do who wants to get married, but doesn't have any money?," Neville said, just before his hair cut this morning. From there, a church volunteer at First Presbyterian of Brandon and Lela Lilyquist, director of the Portamento of Hope Café set to work arranging a wedding with at least some of the trimmings. The couple is scheduled to marry at 1:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian. Before.... Homeless shelter battles the county again
WPEC - Chuck Weber
Saidah Simon has been homeless since October. That's when her job hours were drastically cut and she experienced a falling out with her family. With nowhere else to turn, Simon came to Westgate Tabernacle, a church near West Palm Beach that houses the homeless Now eight months pregnant, Simon is among the 60 to 65 people currently staying at Westgate. "Being here has really helped my walk with Christ," said Simon. "Just fixing my life up." She's also making plans to take care of her baby. But housing homeless people like Simon has landed Westgate in repeated trouble with Palm Beach County Code Enforcement. Thursday morning, Westgate's pastor, Bishop Avis Hill, and the church's attorney, Barry Silver, went to the Palm Beach.... Unemployment Benefit Cuts, Higher Taxes Projected
ABC News - Scott Bauer
Benefits paid to suffering unemployed workers will have to be cut and taxes on struggling businesses will have to go up to pay for a staggering number of claims due to the recession, Wisconsin lawmakers were told Wednesday. However, no benefit cuts or tax increases will be recommended to the Legislature this year, Department of Workforce Development Secretary Roberta Gassman told the Assembly's Labor Committee. A council made up of business and labor representatives that advises the department recommended against taking action now for fear it could disrupt economic recovery and due to uncertainty with how Congress may act. "Neither employers nor laid off employees are in a position to shoulder an additional economic burden at this.... Homeless audit earns wasteful spending award
National Post (blog) - Megan O'Toole
The city’s 2009 homeless audit beat out three municipal contenders to earn top public censure from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation today. In announcing the Teddy Waste Awards on Parliament Hill, the federation’s prairie director, Colin Craig, called the audit a “slap in the face” to homeless people in Toronto. “The reaction among Torontonians was that it was a very bizarre use of tax dollars, one that had them up in arms,” Mr. Craig said in an interview after the tongue-in-cheek awards ceremony. Last year’s homeless audit, a program designed to assess the needs of street people, involved sending out about 50 planted decoys who were paid $100 each to pretend to be homeless. Then, volunteers, some of whom also received payment.... Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Downtown SLC homeless: Will they have a new place to dwell?
Salt Lake Tribune - Julia Lyon and Derek P. Jensen
Nobody wants to admit it, but many people would like the nagging panhandler, the homeless drunk and the grimy guy talking to himself in downtown Salt Lake City to just disappear. For years, rumors have percolated about moving the homeless shelter away from tourists and businesses to the outskirts of town. But critics say shipping off the vagrant, addicted and mentally ill to a more institutionalized "campus" seems dehumanizing and cruel, especially if they are plucked from public transit options. Like a third rail of social-service politics, capital leaders have been loath to touch the idea for decades. Until now. In early December, Mayor Ralph Becker's office staged a homelessness summit, flying in industry experts from San.... Storyteller takes look at Anchorage's homeless
KTUU - Ashton Goodell
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- It's hard to say exactly what Mark Horvath does. "I call it reality Twittering," he says. "I talk about, ‘Hey I'm going to do a ride along with Sgt. Allen... come along with me,'" he said of his work. He carries a video camera and documents social problems, but he's not really making a documentary. Maybe he's an activist, but still, he'd prefer being called something else. "I consider myself a storyteller," he says. Alaska's homelessness intrigued the storyteller, who describes it as a sad story of alcohol abuse. Anchorage police took him to Lion's Park in Mountain View, where homeless camps hide in the trees just off the walking trails. "First of all they're illegal camps. Second of all they are burning.... Homeless lose sleeping spot at Australia's Bondi Beach
BBC News - Phil Mercer
A group of homeless men have lost their fight to sleep rough at a historic pavilion at Bondi Beach, Australia's most iconic arc of sand. A panel of appeal court judges has ruled they have no right to camp out at the famous spot. Some of the group have been living rough at the Mediterranean-style pavilion at Bondi for eight years. It is estimated that there are about 120,000 homeless people across the country. The homeless men - who have been living within a few metres of Australia's most famous beach - have been told they have two weeks to pack up their meagre possessions and leave. Judges at the New South Wales Court of Appeal said that while they sympathised with the men's plight, they were compelled to order their.... Ronnie Walker, 14, Can't Get A Transplant, Is 'Virtually Homeless'
Huffington Post -
Ronnie Walker and her mother Kimberly Covington have been virtually homeless for months. They're moving from place to place -- a lifestyle that's even more taxing given Ronnie's condition. She's 14 and has a rare pulmonary disease. She desperately needs a lung transplant, or she'll probably die. Right now, she can't get on the organ transplant list, as it's critical that she has a stable home after the surgery to recover. Without this environment, doctors won't give her the transplant. It's medication that currently keeps her alive. As Change.org points out, families like Ronnie and her mother are a segment of the homeless population that are difficult to quantify. They don't live in shelters and have subsisted on the generosity of.... Cellular Phone Provider Offers Free Calling to Homeless Shelter
State Journal - Hillary Crowder
BECKLEY -- A local cellular phone provider helped homeless people in Raleigh County reconnect with loved ones March 9. U.S. Cellular provided free local and long distance calls to residents of the Pine Haven Shelter in Beckley. Officials at the shelter said a service like this is invaluable because it helps the residents feel like they are a part of the community. "One of the things we try to teach our clients is that to transition into independent living is that they must integrate with the community and when they see that the community is willing to integrate with them it really reinforces what we're trying to teach them," said Director Rick Titcomb. Callers also got to enjoy lunch, courtesy of U.S. Cellular associates. U.S.... Pitsch Elementary School could become homeless shelter
Wisconsin Rapids Tribune - Adam Wise
With Pitsch Elementary School set to close in June, a Wisconsin Rapids organization is considering the building as a possible site for a homeless shelter. Superintendent Bob Crist and Wisconsin Rapids School Board members Mary Rayome and Sandy Hett fielded calls from representatives of the Helping Hands Gospel Mission, who want to start the shelter to address a growing need for housing assistance. Last month, the board voted to close Pitsch School, at 501 17th St. S., to save money. Students who would have gone to Pitsch will move to either Howe or Washington elementary schools this fall. Crist informed the board Monday about Helping Hands' interest, but no action was taken. Once he has more information from the group, or any other.... Monday, March 8, 2010
Health laws halt hot meal program
Boston Globe - Peter Schworm
For eight years parishioners at the United Church of Christ in Medfield cooked up hearty batches of chili and chicken soup and brought them to the streets of Boston, handing out bowls of sustenance to the city’s homeless. But the Saturday evening Soup To Go ministry, however welcomed by the men and women who took comfort in the hot, home-cooked meals, was running afoul of public health laws. Not only was some of the food prepared in volunteers’ homes, rather than a licensed kitchen, it was handed out without a permit. Health officials cracked down last month after nine homeless men who ate a church meal complained of gastrointestinal illness. Officials were enforcing a state law requiring that all charitable food programs be.... Pastor seeks housing for men living in Montgomery County woods
Baltimore Sun - Darryl Fears
Valentin Del Cid lived and died in the cold woods of Rockville's Aspen Hill Park. He was drinking one night a year ago when he slipped on a patch of ice, hit his head hard and froze to death overnight. "I was one of the ones who found him," said Carlos Fernandez, a pastor who has brought food and read Scripture to the homeless Latino day laborers in ragged camps like the one where Del Cid, 40, died. Now Fernandez is proposing to help the men by converting an abandoned house to a rehabilitation center and residence for the laborers, many of whom are alcoholics. Fernandez and other activists have asked Montgomery County officials to select an abandoned house and provide him a grant to renovate it. He hopes to house as many as five.... Miami sex offender shantytown finally dismantled
Miami Herald -
MIAMI -- Officials have posted "No Trespassing" signs beneath a Miami bridge after a community of homeless sex offenders was finally dismantled. Workers took sledgehammers to wooden shacks and shingled huts beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway and tore down tents last week in the final steps of dissolving the shantytown. The encampment popped up in 2007 and once housed more than 100 people who said they were unable to live elsewhere because of stringent sex offender ordinances. The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust is relocating former residents to apartments, motels and trailer parks. The trust says it will pay their rent for up to six months. Cooking club raises hopes for homeless
Calgary Herald - Chuck Chiang
The scene, as expected, took place in the kitchen: A line of chefs, all decked out in full chefs garb, delicately plating a single plate of lemon-spice chicken breast. A small bed of rice, neatly landscaped on the plate. A healthy heap of carrots and beans. The chicken, of course, and all of it delicately drizzled with mushroom gravy. Then it's onto the next plate. And the next. And so it repeats for every plate, each occupied with the almost 1,200 pieces of chicken breast in the kitchen. "Keep plating," Terry Carr, also dressed in chefs garb, yelled across the kitchen, himself scrambling from plate to plate. This, surprisingly, wasn't taking place at a fancy restaurant in the Beltline. It was at the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab.... Homeless men lose fight to sleep rough at Bondi Pavilion
Sydney Morning Herald - Bellinda Kontominas
A group of homeless men have lost their fight to sleep rough at the Bondi Pavilion after a court ruled they had no right to be there. The men had been sleeping at the pavilion on Bondi Park for between two and eight years until June last year when Waverley Local Council gave them seven days to leave. They continued to stay at the pavilion while the court battle continued. The men have now been given 14 days to seek special leave to appeal to the High Court, during which time they are allowed to continue sleeping at the pavilion. They had taken their battle against the council to the NSW Court of Appeal, arguing that the council had both known and accepted their tenancy of the area by providing them with cleaning equipment to keep.... Friday, March 5, 2010
The faces of homelessness
The Western Front - Jaynie Hancock
Mike Pyles is 49 years old, but his life of homelessness is only four years old. He said after being diagnosed with renal cell cancer in 2004, his right kidney and three ribs were removed due to the growth of a large tumor, which was taken out as well. About $230,000 in medical bills and no health insurance forced him to liquidate everything he owned worth $500 or more. “Medical bills wiped me out,” he said. Pyles said his kidney cancer is currently in remission, but the financial impacts led to his homelessness. A story like this motivates people like Gail de Hoog, housing specialist at the Whatcom County Health Department, to end homelessness in Bellingham. “We cannot continue to take the fact of people being homeless as a norm.... Workers begin transforming hotel into homeless shelter
Daily Commercial - Theresa Campbell
LEESBURG -- More than 50 volunteers worked away Thursday under the morning sun, ripping out old lumber ceiling joists from a former motel. A new roof will be installed next week, and the inn will soon become a shelter for homeless families. The old Big Bass Motel near the intersection of U.S. Highway 27 and Main Street in Leesburg is taking on new life as the Samaritan Inn, a transitional housing facility to help families affected by rising unemployment and the loss of their homes. The inn is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Leesburg. "For us, this is another way to share the love of Jesus Christ," volunteer Jack Logan said. "This has been a vision of the church for years." Project manager Chester Wood said nearly 20 units.... Report: Homelessness up in Pasadena
Pasadena Star-News - Janette Williams
PASADENA - The city's annual count of the homeless revealed 1,137 people are living on the streets or in shelters, officials said Thursday. That represents a 13 percent increase in the number of homeless over 2009. Single adults made up about 90 percent of those counted. However, the number of homeless children in Pasadena dropped from 233 in 2009 to 180 this year. William K. Huang, director of Pasadena's housing department, said the overall homeless increase over the past year was expected. "It didn't come as a surprise, given the continued economic issues and the difficulty people have in finding jobs and losing their housing," Huang said. "We're hearing from our social services partners that they're having unprecedented levels.... Survey aims to identify homeless in area
Pensacola News-Journal - Louis Cooper
Sandi Mitchell knows of what she speaks. Although she has a master's degree and works as a social worker at Myrtle Grove Baptist Church, Mitchell experienced homelessness as a teenager and again for about six months in 1999. Now, she's one of a small army combing Escambia and Santa Rosa counties for the EscaRosa Coalition on the Homeless' annual count of people without a stable place to live or those in fear of becoming homeless. "Some of these people I actually know from when I was homeless," Mitchell, 52, of Pensacola, said. "I tell a lot of the folks that there's nothing they can't do. Everything is possible. ... I can get everyone to talk. I may have to do a little more talking with someone who has mental issues. You put yourself.... Refurbished Red Bluff Victorian a haven for homeless women and children
Redding Record-Searchlight - Janet O'Neill
RED BLUFF - Monica Souza went from months in a jail cell to a hospital bed, where she gave birth to a daughter. Because she was homeless, child welfare workers appeared at the foot of her bed almost immediately. "I was so scared," said Souza, 26, terrified she would lose her baby. But today she and 1-month-old Taliyah share a cozy upstairs room in a rambling Victorian that's recently become home to women in similar straits. Sale House, which opened Jan. 1 after two years of toil and planning, is a transitional housing project of Poor and the Homeless of Tehama County (PATH). Looking out the dining room window on a recent wet, blustery day, Souza considered what her life would be like had she not found a temporary home. "I would.... 1234567891011121314151617181920212223