16 year old blogs about being homeless

[Haole Girl]

Did anyone see this story yet?

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=6580767

Do you think they will find the help they need?

Do you think someone will step up and really - truly - make a difference?

:shrug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. Sad.

:shrug:

[Haole Girl]

2. It is...

very sad.

[Cleita]

3. We didn't have institutionalized homelessness until Reagan became

President and that was twenty eight years ago. Why oh why we don't go about doing things in the way of social programs like they were done between the end of WWII and 1981? It wasn't perfect but we weren't turning into a third world country either.

[Haole Girl]

5. Reagan was the beginning of the end...

of the great middle class in our country.

[JohnnyLib2]

4. Tough to even think about.

[Haole Girl]

6. Yes, it is

Very tough.

[wundermaus]

7. I think we need to send a message about American Homelessness

That it is not acceptable. That we need to do something about it. That we are mad as hell and not going to let our bothers and sisters... sons and daughters fall through the cracks of silence and neglect. I am sending her and her mother a card of encouragement and 5 dollars, today. I challenge every member of DU to do the same. Right now.

2009 is the year of walking the walk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OU7Nezg7Ls">So, are you ready boots? Start walkin'!

http://www.destinationanywherebuthere.blogspot.com/

http://www.forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com/

http://we-need-a-new-beginning.blogspot.com/

[Haole Girl]

8. I've got my boots ready

:hi:

[Xenotime]

9. This is so sad.

These are the kind of people the wealthy should be forced to help.. They could afford it.

I can't imagine the suffering.

[Haole Girl]

11. I *can* imagine the suffering...

if basically been homeless before. It's only by the skin of my teeth and a little luck that I could pull myself out of it. And I remember crying at night, while trying to fall asleep, because I was so hungry I couldn't think of anything else.

Believe me when I tell you this: it is a hell on earth.

I hope someone will come forward to help this mother & daughter... I really do.

[Quantess]

13. Those are fighting words

I agree with you, but when you put it that way, that's when you get the backlash opinion from most Americans.

[Xenotime]

14. Then the backlash is a reflection of their own greed.

If they feel that guilty about their bank accounts then they need to start turning some of it over.

[Two Americas]

71. we have tried all of that

we have tried being moderate, accepting that "these things take time," fearing backlash, going slowly, taking "baby steps," working within the system, making persuasive sales pitches, being practical and realistic, not getting "too radical." Those are all comforting illusions, easy ways out, places to hide.

Those arguments lead to passivity, acceptance, and ineffectiveness. They are little mental tricks we play on ourselves, to reassure ourselves that we are "on the right side" when we really are not. That enables us to avoid risk, and it supports and reinforces those who are causing the problems. Those arguments ere the opposite of what they pretend to be.

The reason that the public sides with the rich is because they are not hearing any other point of view. The reason they are not hearing any other point of view is because every time we try to do that, we have those among us - our "allies" - telling us to go slow, to be quiet, to fear backlash, to settle for the "practical" and "realistic," and every other argument imaginable to bet us to be silent and passive.

[JohnnyLib2]

10. kick for emphasis

[Haole Girl]

12. Thanks

:hi:

[Undercurrent]

15. This really hurts.

It's so wrong in so many ways.

Info gathered from Katy's blog:
http://www.destinationanywherebuthere.blogspot.com/



If you would like to help us out, you can send funds or notes several ways:

Elizabeth and Katy Hughes
PO Box 111525
Campbell, CA 95011

email: [email protected]

Brandilyn's post about this blog can be found here.
http://www.forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com/

You can send her donations through her Paypal account, and she is making sure we recieve every one of them. Her email is [email protected].

send Paypal funds to: [email protected]

(sic)

Brandilyn Collins' blog: http://www.forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com/

[Haole Girl]

16. Thank you, so much, Undercurrent...

for organizing that information! :hi:

[wundermaus]

18. Great post Undercurrent!

love the graphic too!

[wellstone dem]

17. Thank you for posting this

It is interesting to read about this from a teen perspective, she doesn't know to tell the details that might alleviate some of the criticism. She doesn't know to talk about in detail how exhausting it is. How hard it is to sleep, while wondering if someone is going to make you move the car, or someone is going to pound on the window. She doesn't talk about how hard it is to go out in public without a shower, let alone look for a job. She doesn't talk about how she needs the computer for school, for job searches, for normalcy. She doesn't know how to describe the grief of lost possessions, and lost security, on top of a lost father. Yet she writes so clearly with a sense of hope and optimism. How does she do this?

Thank you for posting this.

[wundermaus]

19. By her eloquence and grace, she spoke loud and clear

of her situation and to a greater extent, the plight of all of America's Homeless.

She has issued the clarion call!

So... what are we going to do about it?

[Haole Girl]

20. You're welcome, wellstone dem

Thank you for your reply. :hi:

[redqueen]

21. There are so many in that situation...

we need an institutional way to address this problem.

I hope she and her mom get the help they need... but I also hope people in Congress recognize the need for low-income housing is critical.

Thanks for posting this.

[Haole Girl]

22. Yes, and...

yes. And, you're most welcome. :hi:

[4 t 4]

24. Do you think they will find the help they need?

Absolutley not. This is our fine Pres. at work. They are trying to thin the heards and it's working. Maybe our new President can help. I hope and pray he can because this is so wrong, so wrong. I wish them the best of luck and recovery.

[Dystopian]

23. KandR.

Thank you for posting. Hopefully, this will give them a new start.
The plight of the homeless is horrific...it could happen to anyone.

peace~

[G_j]

25. K&R

[bobbolink]

26. K&R! Thanks so much for posting this!

I'm on an old computer and can't go to the article, but I have it bookmarked!

I appreciate your posting!

[Starry Messenger]

27. K & r

[ThomCat]

28. If anyone can offer help, to her and her mom, or to others, please do.

I was homeless for a while. So were a surprising number of other people here. It's a much bigger problem than people believe it is.

It's devastating being homeless. You are helpless, hungry, absolutely vulnerable to any drunk bully or joy riding thug who happens to find you. Often, the cops are out to get you too, not out to help you. You can't turn to them, and they won't do anything to help you if anyone else hurts you, robs you, abuses you, or does anything else to you.

Getting off the street is an urgent, imperative need. If you are fortunate enough to have a stable income and a little bit extra, Please help people get off the street. :(

Thank you.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

29. *

:hug:

[cannabis_flower]

37. And many other people are homeless...

in the less dramatic way of having to bum a friend or relatives couch for a time. I left a bad relationship and slept in the car for a day and then went and stayed with a friend for 2 days and then went to a motel but then ran out of money and went and stayed with another friend for a week. Luckily I was working a pretty good job this whole times. I can't imagine how hard it would have been if I hadn't been working.

[cannabis_flower]

38. And many other people are homeless...

in the less dramatic way of having to bum a friend or relatives couch for a time. I left a bad relationship and slept in the car for a day and then went and stayed with a friend for 2 days and then went to a motel but then ran out of money and went and stayed with another friend for a week. Luckily I was working a pretty good job this whole times. I can't imagine how hard it would have been if I hadn't been working.

[cannabis_flower]

39. And many other people are homeless...

in the less dramatic way of having to bum a friend or relatives couch for a time. I left a bad relationship and slept in the car for a day and then went and stayed with a friend for 2 days and then went to a motel but then ran out of money and went and stayed with another friend for a week. Luckily I was working a pretty good job this whole times. I can't imagine how hard it would have been if I hadn't been working.

[Jamastiene]

30. I wish I had made enough money to open a place for kids

who need homes. :(

[Haole Girl]

31. I wish I did too

:hug:

[Cleita]

45. What you need to do is force the government to

provide housing for families with children, either by paying their rent before they are evicted, or getting them into single family apartments that the government pays for until the family can get on their feet. It's been done before and can be done again. Pressure those elected reps of yours from your community council members all the way through every government office up to your Congressional Reps and Senators. Let's get back to doing welfare for the needy individuals who need help and not millionaires and the corporations they have run into the ground. I keep a list of them with addresses, email addies, and telephone and fax numbers, which I update every election. There isn't a politician that I haven't written to telling them what I thought of these recent billion dollar bail outs for what are nothing more than parasites on our system. That money could have been used for the people.

In the past even when a family lost their homes through foreclosure they could apply for interim housing from the welfare office until they got on their feet and they didn't have to wait in line for a couple of years like they do now for HUD housing. We don't do that anymore.

[Two Americas]

51. "That money could have been used for the people."

Absolutely. The idea that "we can't afford" or "we don't have the money" is a big fat lie.

$800 billion here, another $700 billion there to prop up and reward parasites and predators. To put that into perspective, I heard an agriculture advocate recently say that a mere $10 billion would eradicate hunger globally. She said that this would mean a million dollars in seed money put into 10,000 locations, and were that money used to restore and strengthen local sustainable public agricultural infrastructure, the people could feed themselves indefinitely.

There is no shortage of money. That is a lie. The money, the wealth comes from the people to begin with - is created by the working people. The fact that there is not enough left over to feed and house people once the greedy few have stolen it all is an obscenity.

[maryf]

32. K&R We need to elimate homelessness completely

This girl and her mom live in their car because they can't find a place cheap enough, there are kids at the school I teach at in the same situation, far, far too many (one is too many). Please know the #1 cause of homelessness is lack of low income housing!!! HUD needs to go back to providing housing for the poor! One of the homeless here at DU is having car problems; when your car is your house thats huge...

[Two Americas]

36. "lack of low income housing"

One is one too many, as you say.

The lack of low income housing idea is a little bothersome to me. Lack of decent income is the prime cause. Another cause is rampant speculation is housing, driving housing costs up. Another cause is law enforcement actively and aggressively blocking any and all attempts by people to band together and help themselves.

If we ignore the ascendancy of an authoritarian police state, if we ignore the ongoing war on labor expressed as collapsing wages and deteriorating workplace conditions, if we ignore the collapse of protections for renters, if we ignore the favors and breaks and assistance given to the real estate speculators, if we ignore the obstacles and punishments and threats and abuse that the poor are faced with, if we ignore the "free market" within which we are all forced to live, then and only then can we see low income housing as the solution.

We run the risk of isolating and marginalizing people despite our good intentions.

[maryf]

40. When 3 people wait for 2 housing units...

We have a problem. HUD no longer builds housing and much of the housing they did provide for has now reached the time period of 15 years that HUD designated that they must be income based housing. Now many buildings are no longer providing for those who need housing at a sliding fee scale. 800 dollars a month?? try 670 a month to live on. Where are these people supposed to find a place to live?? Everything you say is true regarding the war on all the populous and I agree on all your issues, but to see your list as taking precedence over the universal right of housing first is to not provide millions of people with housing. Perhaps I need clarification?

Lack of decent income precludes those incapable of earning an income, elderly, children, disabled. Absolutely, we can agree that everyone regardless their status has to be given a living wage, one that allows them to have decent housing, food, healthcare...

I still say there should not be one homeless on the street, not one, housing for all, its tough to work when you can't go "home" after work because there isn't one...Being homeless wears one down, puts one in survival mode, not something many understand as well as some here do...

[Two Americas]

47. yes

Yes, all have a right to housing. Not "low income housing," though. See what I mean?

What is low income housing in practical application? Substandard, conditional, separate.

People should be subsidized so they can afford average housing, not some low end junk. If the average house, a decent neighborhood, a quality home, is $100,000, then that is what the subsidy needs to be. The whole thinking behind low income housing is that the poor do not deserve any better than some substandard level of existence. That is a compromise with the right wing "bootstrap" and punishment model. We are uncomfortable seeing people living in their cars, but we are also uncomfortable with "giving" them what they really need for "free." So we opt for alleviating our guilty feelings rather than seriously addressing the problem.

[bobbolink]

48. Yes, I get the lack of income stuff, and would MUCh PREFER to have enough money to live on!

However, we can't even get DUers to get active about low-income housing... can you imagine trying to get them to agitate for raising SSI, etc?????

They'd much rather forget us and let us fall off the cliff.

It's not what's RIGHT, it's what's POSSIBLE.

[Two Americas]

53. you are right

I understand.

OK I am going to say something crude here which I rarely do. The DUers and activists who are arguing bootstrap idiocy? F*ck them.

To get to what is possible, we need to strongly advocate for what is right. That will pry the wishy washy intimidated people in the middle away from the right wingers fear mongering and lying. The right wingers making us - calling themselves "liberals" and "progressives" and "Democrats" - won't support "possible" anyway. That is just a rear guard action, it is a lie when they say that they would.

No, you deserve quality housing, a good income, right now, just the way you are, and without any qualification. We shoot for that - for what is right - and yes we may have to settle for what is "possible" but I think we are in a very weak position - the position of a supplicant and a beggar and a pariah - to ask for what is "possible." We must start demanding what is right, what is morally right, what must be done.

[bobbolink]

56. The last liberal president, NIXON, was RIGHT on this, and so are you.

I'm usually the one railing against "the possible", but when you've been living in your car for three years and taking an immense amount of shit, and having a very hard time grasping the amount of IGNORANCE of "progresssives", you start to think of what can be done, rather than what is RIGHT.

Nixon was right about this, and so are you.

I just don't see it happening.

But what the hell, I'm more than willing to tilt at a few more windmills!

[Raksha]

64. Bobbolink, if you don't mind my asking...are you still living in your car?

I know there was talk a few weeks back about taking up a collection to get you a laptop, and someone mentioned that you also needed car repairs. Did either/both of those things ever happen?

[maryf]

59. Yes, yes, yes.

Yes, we must.

[Two Americas]

55. all of us, dammit, all of us

It is not right that some of us are pariahs, outcasts, objects of pity and charity.

Those who have homes and jobs - at what price? Forced to accept poor working conditions, to worry about losing that job or that home, forced to do the bank's or the landlord's bidding, forced to pay ever-escalating utility bills with no recourse, forced to worry about your health, forced to worry night and day about threats from every direction. Worst of all, forced to look out for number one or risk drowning yourself. Forced to look the other way, forced to become callous and indifferent - your heart breaking because you can not do more, cannot do something for those who have been kicked to the curb and ground under foot.

What is happening is unspeakably cruel and unacceptable. It is not a matter of a few falling off the edge, and it is not a solution to drag those who have fallen back into the same system that caused the problem to begin with. The crashing waves of greed and selfishness and cruelty that have washed some into the street are pounding all of us into submission and destroying our lives.

Never mind "getting people back on their feet" - as though the fault were with them, as though they were the problem. While that is good, while we should help people all that we are able to, it is no substitute for ALL of us standing up on our own two feet and speaking out and fighting for those who are falling, who are about to fall, who are being left behind, and who are living their lives in complete desperation and anxiety lest they too fall, or fall further than they already have.

We need to defend ourselves from those who are trying to kick all of us to the curb and trample us. We are all in this fight, and seeing homeless people as some separate class of people, some poor objects of pity, must stop.

[Raksha]

69. Repeating one line from that post because it deserves repeating...

The crashing waves of greed and selfishness and cruelty that have washed some into the street are pounding all of us into submission and destroying our lives.

And THAT is the story of the last 30 years in America. That's it, in a nutshell. And it's no accident either.

[maryf]

85. Great post TA, one of the best

wish I could recommend this, we need to act pre-emptively too, like you said we need to help all, catch all before they fall, stop the despair before it happens, change the system...

[maryf]

57. Got you and I am totally behind that!!

I do believe I used the term "decent housing", but I really see what you mean about referring to it as low income!! Housing for all, that all can live with. I have no problem giving housing to any and all regardless their status, as I said. We are on the same page. When I meant HUD housing I was thinking of the kind my mother in law lives in. Clean, nice, everything functioning and when it doesn't its fixed. Thats what I meant, I meant the rent could be afforded on a lower income, but I think all incomes need to be at a place where folks live in comfort and have a little time for recreation. Utopian? the only way to go, IMO. Think we're in the same place here TA, I used unfortunate terminology...

[maryf]

46. ps, slight edit

"If we ignore the ascendancy of an authoritarian police state, if we ignore the ongoing war on labor expressed as collapsing wages and deteriorating workplace conditions, if we ignore the collapse of protections for renters" (a major cause of homelessness, unlivable, unsafe living conditions)" if we ignore the favors and breaks and assistance given to the real estate speculators, if we ignore the obstacles and punishments and threats and abuse that the poor are faced with, if we ignore the "free market" within which we are all forced to live" then we are lost and we'll all be without any food, shelter, care...we must fight for our economic rights and justice...(and it would help if we could have a bed everynight...)

[Cleita]

42. The very first homeless we need to look at is the children. Although

women with children get preferences in the women's shelters, a shelter with a lot of strangers is no place for a child to be in a secure home situation. Welfare used to pay for rent for unemployed women with children. We need to get that back first.

[bobbolink]

50. We keep trying to explain that when you SEPERATE out the preferred populations,

it just keeps the problem going.

You want to concentrate on children.

Another DUer wants to concentrate on vets.

Somebody else wants to concentrate on "mentally ill".

Don't you see what that does?

Don't you see that it plays right into the hands of the POWERS THAT BE?

And what about the rest of us?

We just jump off a cliff?

Then you can say, "See, they were so mentally ill that they killed themselves."

We've done this damned separation thing for 30 years now... do you see the big improvement in homelessness? I don't either!

SEPARATION DOESN'T WORK--it's Housing For ALL!!

[Cleita]

54. I'm not segregating any one but moving them in groups.

First the families with children should be taken off the streets. It's also a demographic that the neo-cons can't complain about not trying hard enough to lift themselves up by the bootstraps. If you move them into apartments, then rooms at the women's shelters will open up for homeless women without children. It gets a certain segment off the streets so we can start working on getting the rest of the homeless into permanent homes. I know you are idealistic, but sometimes you have to tackle the problem with what at first is the best possible way of starting a reverse trend. As it is now more and more people are hitting the streets with loss of jobs and homes so the shelters and other programs will be even more stressed. Reducing some of that population would be with the idea of starting a reverse trend, or you could have a revolution and that hardly ever ends well.

[bobbolink]

58. As I said, that has been the program for 30 years! Do you see all that much improvement in

homelessness?

Be honest, do YOU see how that has made it better????

And I will also repeat... you leave me out, and when I can't make it any longer and do myself in, then you will happily say, "See, she was crazy and wouldn't get help." Then you have blamed me, feel absolved of any further need to reassess your stand, and it's all settled.

Another life gone because we REFUSE to get HOUSING FOR ALL, but it's all wiped away because I must be crazy.

and you win....

[Cleita]

61. Go beyond thirty years and welfare took care of families with children

by putting them in apartments alongside people who paid rent. We didn't have homeless then. I had a couple of families in my apartment building then who were on welfare. I can't believe that you wouldn't want children to be taken care of immediately.

[bobbolink]

63. Great, then. Focus on the kids, and watch the rest of us die.

Happy New Year.

You win.

[Lilith Velkor]

72. Gotta make some babies if you want to be worthy of the dole

What could possibly go wrong with that scenario?

:sarcasm:

[Cleita]

82. No one ever understands what I'm saying.

You know when you stand in line any where, the women and children go first. It doesn't mean that the rest of the line is going to get nothing. The next neediest homeless next to the children would probably be those with illnesses that need immediate shelter and health care access. That would certainly apply to any elderly, and women and men with health problems. They would be next in line. Probably the healthy unemployed and working poor would be last in this scenario. It doesn't mean that any meaningful program to end homelessness would exclude anyone once fully implemented.

[Two Americas]

83. I will go farther than that

I will take the last place in line.

Of course the most vulnerable go first. Not sure why you feel the need to keep emphasizing that.

The problem with focusing on the most vulnerable is that we wind up only taking care of the most vulnerable and don't do a very good job of that.

[Cleita]

84. Because others are saying that nothing will change if the

most vulnerable are seen to first. That has been true since Reagan was President, and we have had nothing but Republican administrations or Republican congresses who have eroded all the programs to help the poor making what you say true. However, that was not true prior to Reagan. Even Nixon recognized the need for welfare. But this is a new day and our President unfortunately will be concentrating on the economy and wars not poverty and health care, which will be on his desk but not on top of the pile. So therefore by your reasoning, if every poverty problem isn't solved at the same time, then no one should get any help at all. Instead you seem to prefer stagnation. All or nothing. Am I wrong?

[Two Americas]

87. ah

Obama.

I don't think anyone is saying "that nothing will change if the most vulnerable are seen to first."

No one said that "if every poverty problem isn't solved at the same time, then no one should get any help at all."

"Our President unfortunately will be concentrating on the economy and wars not poverty and health care, which will be on his desk but not on top of the pile."

Any sense for how absurd that sentence is? WHAT economy? What economy is it that is a higher priority than and separate from the needs of the people? "Concentrating on wars?" That strikes me as the problem, not a solution.

You are preemptively making excuses for the new administration. That is throwing a momkey wrench into the discussion.

[Cleita]

89. No I'm not. You are not looking at the situation realistically though and

no matter what I say it's not going to make a difference. We really are both on the same side. I hope over time you will see that.

[Two Americas]

90. not up to me

It depends upon what the new administration does. If the new administration focuses on "th economy" - the well being of the investing class - and wars, then I doubt you will ever be on the same side that I am. If in the other hand the administration fights the economy and the war industry, then I suspect that you will be over on the same side with me. But I won't be shifting my position. The way to get you over on the same side is to move the administration in that direction by pressuring them, and that starts by speaking out, not by "being realistic."

You are correct - I am not "being realistic" in the way that you mean. "Realistic" too often means resigned, passive, complacent.

[Two Americas]

70. correct tactics are not what is missing

Will and clarity and solidarity and courage are what we lack. All people must be taken care of. That is in all of our interest. That does not mean that we do not want children to be taken care of immediately.

[bobbolink]

78. SOLIDARITY???

What the hell is that???

It's all about being worthy and unworthy, isn't it?

[maryf]

86. Being human warrants worthiness...

we need to hold true to that...

[Two Americas]

92. Bobbie contributes more

Bobbie contributes more of value to society than any 100 "gainfully employed" people I know combined. It is not her fault that she is not paid for that.

The truth is that almost none of us are paid for doing the things we could be doing that would contribute the most to society. We are paid in proportion to how well we serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful few, and their interests are almost always at odds with what would be of the greatest benefit to the entire society. The degree to which we do not or will not line the pockets of the wealthy few is the degree to which we will be struggling with poverty and threatened by law enforcement and other authorities one way or another.

Most of us are not happy with this state of affairs. We have convinced ourselves, though, that it is hopeless, so we focus on making our lives as pleasant as we can, on adjusting to and accepting the insanity.

[maryf]

96. Complacency

Is one of the greatest sins in this country. Bobbie fights the fight of a legion....bless her...

[formercia]

33. Internet access is important

I wish them well. I wonder about all of the homeless that do not have Net access or the ability to use it.

Our Internet connection was knocked out for several days, so it induced me to get a library account in case it happens again. Maine has a great program that ensures everyone can have access via schools and libraries. From the 7th Grade, students get their own laptop and learn to be Net literate.

Every State should do the same.

[maryf]

34. kick nt

[4 t 4]

35. this is her paypal acct. brandilyn (at) brandilyncollins (dot) com.

k&r

[maryf]

44. I hope

People will start to investigate how many homeless there are in their communities, and consider that the vast majority of them are people in the exact same boat...we had three families we adopted at my school anonymously, but charity is not justice, we have to fight the source of the problem while we help those we can....

[Cleita]

41. Unfortunately, institutionalized homelessness will have to be solved

by the same government who brought it to us in the beginning. Reaching out to one family in need is commendable but doesn't solve the overarching problem. The politics that led to homelessness in California was hatched during Ronald Reagan's governorship by Howard Jarvis who founded the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association, which led to Proposition 13 being passed by referendum and vote during Jerry Brown's governorship. Jerry Brown was able to keep the social programs going that prevented homelessness during the rest of his administration with a budget surplus he had created (Arnold take note), however, in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected President and Jerry Brown left office, the number of people on the streets became visible almost over night. I remember walking to work one morning and thinking that the sidewalks looked like Calcutta in India as it was at the time. The problem spread to the other states like rings around a cast stone in a pond.

Also, the cars that some homeless are fortunate enough to have, eventually break down, and the people who can't afford to get them fixed are left on the streets with a shopping cart. I know a couple of formerly homeless whom this happened to, making it even harder for them to get on their feet even though they had jobs. That is something that people don't talk about either are the working homeless, people who have jobs but don't make enough to pay rent. It's like an epidemic in my area, which relies on the tourist industry and agriculture economically creating lots of low paying service and ranch jobs. However Arnold, our Goobernator, doesn't see the need to raise minimum wage to a living wage or to not veto a universal health care bill that had passed our legislature in both houses, you know by the will of the majority of the people. Both would have gone a long way to end homelessness in this state.

The best way back to ending homelessness is to go back and look at the Jarvis Amendment and fix what made it into a keystone document for social Darwinism. Similar documents have created homelessness in every other state of the union too. Only then will we get people into housing and jobs and take care of those damaged souls who should be given care in institutions and homes that specialize in meeting their needs.

[maryf]

43. Thank you Cleita!

We really do have to get to the sources of the problem here, your post gives some good clues, hopefully this article which got to people's hearts will cause them to start using their brains about what the government has accomplished in decimating the standard of living in this country for at least 90% of us...

[Two Americas]

49. very important

You are making a very important point. Well said.

[Raksha]

60. You are so right about the Jarvis Amendment and Proposition 13.

I have lived in California the whole time and watched the social safety net disintegrating and the standard of living declining. The parking lot encampment of homeless people in downtown L.A. was absolutely shocking to me when I saw it a few years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me or I would have taken some pictures.

I wonder if there is any political will in this state for the repeal or radical revision of Proposition 13. It could still apply to people on fixed incomes, who I believe were supposed to be the main beneficiaries.

[Cleita]

62. Also, all California children could get a free education through university

if they were California residents. Proposition 13 destroyed that as well.

[Raksha]

65. I know that!!! Both of my kids went to college on a combination of

Pell grants and student loans, which I doubt they will ever be able to repay. My pathetic Social Security pension is also being offset (garnished) for a parent loan my son took out in my name in 1997. I'm applying for a financial hardship exemption--or reduction anyway--but I doubt if that loan will ever be repaid either.

I can remember when California residents could get a free education through university. California had the best education system in the country in those days.

[bobbolink]

52. " thanks to the kindness of strangers. "

If people and strangers were REALLY kind, they would see the need for housing for all, and STOP HOMELESSNESS.

But, they want to feel good about themselves, so they give charity to ONE person, and forget about the rest.

Kindness?

We need to take a closer look at ourselves!

[maryf]

88. Absolutely!!

the best help happens when the system is changed.

[TWiley]

66. I was homeless when I was 15

I lived in abandoned cars, garages, and vacant warehouses. It was a brutally tough life, but it was exciting at the same time.

[bobbolink]

67. You can really, truly, make a difference by responding to the requests for

calling your congresscritters about National Housing Trust Fund.

Did you do that?

By calling Obama's Transition Team and asking them to create more low-income housing.

Did you do that?

By pushing Housing For All?

Will you be willing to do that?

NO?

Then, you are part of the problem

CHARITY for one or two is NOT THE ANSWEr!

[Haole Girl]

73. Phone calls to government agencies

is no substitute for immediate action, either.

[bobbolink]

75. That's as good an excuse as any, I guess.

You're covered.

Just complain that nobody is really, truly doing "anything".

:crazy:

[Haole Girl]

76. I don't think one strategy, alone, will solve this problem. That's all. nt

[bobbolink]

79. CHARITY sure as hell won't, but that's what everyone wants to push.

Just try to get people to actually take action on JUSTICE.... and watch all the excuses come pouring out....

[JNelson6563]

68. Thanks for posting this!

The more people who learn about the state of affairs out in this country of ours, the better.

Julie

[sasquatch]

74. "GET A JOB" Yep the assholes came out in full force already, comment #4

:eyes:

[Haole Girl]

77. huh?

Who said that? :shrug:

[sasquatch]

81. Commentors at the newslink

[Haole Girl]

93. Oh, thanks

Guess some people have to live through it, themselves, before they understand. :-(

[sasquatch]

97. Until then they'll pretend that they did and look down at us for not being as great as them

[Fire1]

80. SELL THE CAR AT A USED CAR LOT AND GET ON A GREY

HOUND AND COME EAST!!! THAT'S THE FIRST THING THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN!! CA, is the LAST place they need to be!! They have shelters in the mid-west that will help them get jobs and three squares a day!

[Haole Girl]

94. What you said has some truth to it

And I've been wondering what will happen as soon as their car breaks down. :-(

[valerief]

91. The elites of this world won't be content until we're all like that girl and her mom.

I mean that sincerely. That's the aim of the elites' "ideology."

[Haole Girl]

95. It would be a big mistake, if it happens, in our consumer-driven economy

The elites would end-up as hurt as everybody else.

[valerief]

98. If the elites weren't elite, we could start over. nt