Even though it is not an official cause for putting a child into foster care, lack of housing can often bring US social workers in to separate parent and child. Social Workers can bring children into foster care if lack of housing makes what they think would be an unsafe situation for the child. Thousands of children are in foster care for that one reason. Once the parent get into a stable housing, the process to reunite the family is cumbersome, filled with delays and red-tape, and can take many months.From the Philadelphia Daily News, writer Dana DiFilippo exposes this problem.One fifth of foster children nationally landed in county custody - or languished there, as housing issues delayed family reunification - because of inappropriate housing, according to the Child Welfare League of...
A homeless shelter that has been in service since 1867 says that the problem is worse than ever. The Olive Branch Mission began as a home to feed newly free slaves, but it is now feeding people gone bankrupt from medical bills, laid off from jobs and more. From the USA Today, writer Judy Keen profiles the work of the mission. Growing need, shrinking resources and a shift in the face of homelessness from male panhandlers to entire families are challenging Olive Branch in ways rarely seen in its long history, President and CEO David Bates says."There are more people in the shadows," he says. "This is our busiest year ever." People who once donated to the mission are now clients. Sometimes mattresses fill the shelter's dining room to accommodate everyone.Since the recession began, more of...
With many unfilled oil jobs in North Dakota, people are arriving to try to fill the openings. For those who don't do the research on housing and the job requirements, it could make them homeless for a while. This adds to the homeless population already in the state, where few shelters exist especially in it's many rural areas.From CBS News, this Associated Press story highlights the problem. Many of the job seekers came to North Dakota without researching jobs or housing, said Louis "Mac" McLeod, executive director of the Minot Area Homeless Coalition. They arrive to find they are unqualified for the work that exists, or if they land a job, they can't get housing, which is scarce."If you got a roof over your head, stay there," McLeod advised. "We want people to come to North Dakota, but...
Haiti's earthquake demolished at least every other building in Port-au-Prince. So a big challenge has been finding shelter for all of the new homeless people. Tent camps are springing up everywhere, and some of those may exist for some time to come. With the tens of thousands of new homeless people, aid groups have been unable get enough tents to all of them. The lack of tents leave many vulnerable to the elements or grabbing any piece of fabric to live under. Many fear that they could still be without shelter during the upcoming rainy season.From this New York Times article writers Ray Rivera and Damien Cave examine this problem.“A lot of these people have maybe a sheet on four sticks over their heads right now,” said Niurka Piñeiro, a spokeswoman for the International Organization...
A forum at a homeless shelter invited city council members of Boulder, Colorado to hear their concerns. Only four of the 13 council members showed up. Homeless people in Boulder and many parts of the U.S. don't have enough shelter beds available to them. So when they have to sleep outside instead, they often get ticketed or arrested for "camping".From the Boulder Daily Camera, writer Erica Meltzer details the meeting.Four of the 13 Boulder City Council candidates -- businessman and endurance athlete Barry Siff, artist and former university professor Jyotsna Raj, Landmarks Board chairman and attorney Tim Plass, and care provider and activist Rob Smoke -- attended the forum at the Carriage House Community Table. Carriage House provides a case manager, access to showers, laundry and...
A Catholic Charity had hoped to create a tent city for the homeless in Tampa, Florida. But local government officials rejected the plan after protests from people in a neighboring community. Once again, the homeless are being told to stay in their own little corner of America, wherever that is. The problem with that is, the recession has created many more homeless, and the recession has closed many more shelters.From the New York Times, writers Damien Cave and Lynn Waddell tell us how the plans were rejected. Frank Murphy, president of Catholic Charities for the St. Petersburg Diocese, said the commissioners sidestepped a problem that had been ignored for years. “They just don’t think it’s important, I guess,” he said.The plan would have used a 12-acre church lot to serve 250...
A homeless coalition for a small city of Washington state filled a City Council meeting. The Puyallup Homeless Coalition wanted to talk to the council about the "crime" of being poor. Homeless people have complained of police smashing their tents and telling them to leave city parks, and are increasingly running out of places to stay. A church allowed homeless people to park their cars in their driveway overnight, but that was even stopped due to complaints of neighbors. From Puyallup's The Herald, writer Neil Pierson attended the meeting. Scott was just one of numerous homeless persons who filled the Puyallup City Council chambers on Sept. 1. For more than an hour, the group besieged officials to help them find solutions. Many said they simply needed a roof over their heads while they...
We usually skip by opinion pieces, unless it's a slow news day. August 8th was a busy news day, it was also the day that Barbara Ehrenreich had her latest op-ed published by the New York Times. Since it's release it has set off a flurry of comment, blog posts, and debates. Ehrenreich cites a recent study that was conducted by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which ranks the meanest towns to the homeless. The city is deemed "mean" if it's laws treat the homeless unfairly, such as prohibiting overnight sleeping or begging. Some cities are even going further by outlawing giving food to the homeless. You may remember our post about the survey from July.A national law advocacy group has put a mid-sized Michigan city into the list of the meanest cities for homeless people....
A national law advocacy group has put a mid-sized Michigan city into the list of the meanest cities for homeless people. The study ranks the top ten cities that are unfriendly to the homeless, Kalamazoo, Michigan joins Los Angeles, Orlando, Atlanta and others. The law center that complied the reports says some loitering laws Kalamazoo have are anti-homeless. From this story in the Kalamazoo Gazette, reporter Kathy Jessup explains.The report, issued by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, put Kalamazoo in the top 10 alongside larger cities such as San Francisco, Atlanta and Orlando, Fla. Los Angeles was No. 1 in the ranking.The groups said the rankings are based on factors that include "the number of anti-homeless laws in the city,...
Once it gets warm here in the States, many families find themselves without a home. Landlords and relatives are not as patient when the weather gets warm, because the people who get kicked out are not in danger of freezing. Many parents will also try to sacrifice everything they can to stay in their homes, so their children can complete the years schooling. From The New York Times, writer Julie Bosman looks into this yearly surge in homelessness. Many New Yorkers view summer as a time for vacations, camp and lazy days at the beach. But city officials have been preparing for quite a different summer ritual: the swelling of the population of homeless families.They call it the summer surge, and say that this year could be the worst yet.Because the homeless population this spring was up more...
Teens from Wichita, Kansas learned more about the plight of the homeless in the U.S. Instead of heading to a foreign country for their missions trip this year, the teens from Andover's Hope Community Church spent a week working for the Inter-Faith Ministries homeless shelter. From the Wichita Eagle, writer Joe Rodriguez spoke to one of the teens, Aaron Schnieder."They're just nice people that something bad happened to," he said.Schneider learned the lesson as part of a mission project with more than 25 other teenagers from Andover's Hope Community Church.They spent the week away from their homes, and away from their cell phones and other electronic devices.They were allowed to bring only what fit into one backpack and $20 each to cover their expenses, including food....The idea was to...
Here is a story about a great program that strives to eliminate homelessness in a county of Alabama. The Sanctuary Trust finds homeless people in the county and has a group of churches sponsor the family. The Trust provides a temporary home, while the churches help with other needs, like food or starting savings. From The Birmingham News, writer Scottie Vickery introduces us to two leaders of the program. If Ken Flowers and Werner Beiersdoerfer have their way, the issue of homelessness in Shelby County will be eliminated one family at a time.Already the men, trustees with the Sanctuary Trust for Shelby County, can mark two Montevallo families off their list.Each of the families -- a father with two daughters and a single mother with five children -- lived for several months in...
A short film festival taks place tonight at the University of Marquette in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Students at the film school record stories about poverty and homelessness in the Milwaukee area. A web video of one of the films can be found at this page, from the University.From the Marquette Tribune, writer Tori Dykes describes the event. The films are centered on homelessness and poverty in Milwaukee, but student filmmakers chose how to address the subject matter. So the films will not necessarily all be shot in the style of a straight documentary, said John Ross, one of the festival organizers and a sophomore in the College of Engineering."We're trying to make a connection with people through the videos," Ross said. "Once you see these stories, these problems become a lot more...
We found a great story this morning from Business Week that examines the economy's downturn as it effects the battle against homelessness. The donors who came from Wall Street, well, they don't have as much money to donate anymore. Also, the fight to give all a place to live has been hampered by all the recent house foreclosures. Dionne Walker's piece for the magazine focuses on the efforts in the city of Atlanta, as they try to join other cities in the U.S. that have cut homelessness in half in recent years. The economy is hitting all sectors hard. When your goal is eroding a phenomenon directly linked to poverty, however, a crisis this deep delivers an extra gut punch."We're sort of holding our breath," says Steve Berg, with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a leader in forming...
from Fort Collins Now An effort in Colorado to end homelessness. Their goal is to end it in 10 years. - KaleBy Matt BradyPhilip Mangano, executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, made a special appearance in Fort Collins at a press conference held at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 21 to rally locals as the city announced its commitment to ending homelessness in ten years.In the first step toward that goal, UniverCity Connections' Homelessness Initiative Task Group unveiled a comprehensive report, over six months in the making, that lays out in detail the numbers and makeup of Fort Collins' homeless population. The report also provides recommendations, specially tailored for Fort Collins, for how to end homelessness.Recommendations include determining how many new...
from The National Alliance to End HomelessnessApproximately 744,313 people homeless on a single night.Washington—There were 744,313 people homeless in January 2005 according to Homelessness Counts, the first national assessment of the number of homeless people in over a decade. The report was released today by the Homelessness Research Institute of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. This estimate, a compilation of point-in-time counts collected by local Continuums of Care, provides data on every state and community in the country. The data included in the study represent a point in time; therefore the estimate only presents a snapshot of the homelessness problem in the Unites States. Many more people experience homelessness over the course of the year. Despite its limitations,...
from End HomelssnessThe problem of homelessness, many say, is an unsolvable problem. Communities across the country have struggled with getting homeless people off the street by building shelters, transitional housing, and soup kitchens. Although these strategies help address the immediate needs of our nation’s homeless people by providing food and temporary shelter, they have not been successful in decreasing homelessness, leaving communities frustrated and hopeless. In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness announced A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years. Drawing on research and innovative programs from around the country, the plan outlined a new vision to address the problem of homelessness. This vision included strategies to end the problem by providing...