IRENE CARA - OUT HERE ON MY OWN

LOS ANGELES FAMILY HOUSING and NEW IMAGE GOSSIP OVERHEARD AT MEND : YOU'RE BRANDED IN THE 211 COMPUTER SYSTEM SO GO AHEAD AND TRY TO SHELTER HOP!

Several weeks back, in the waiting area of MEND, several residents or ex residents of Los Angeles Family Housing started talking about case management and the tactics used on them.

Residents or ex residents said that the threat of being sent to NEW IMAGE shelter in down town Los Angeles (skid row) had been made to them for "non compliance" (disobedience) when they were also threatened with termination from the LAFH program. "Non compliance" included refusing to "go mental" in order to get SSI benefits, having too many possessions in their assigned space, or not finding housing with a Section 8 voucher fast enough and included the threat that if they did not take an apartment they would loose the voucher and be "sent" to New Image.

We say this! NO ONE HAS TO GO TO A SHELTER just because CASE MANAGEMENT at one says they are "sending" them.

Homeless people who had stayed at NEW IMAGE said that they knew that case managers from both shelters seemed to have a relationship. There was even talk overheard of LAFH and NEW IMAGE employees going on a cruise together.

Then the fact that calling 211 for shelter or other needs means having your records accessed in a database. If you call for EMERGENCY SHELTER, if you are in the database (and you will be because LAFH and other Los Angeles County and Orange County shelters insist you sign that they be allowed to share information), you may be branded trouble because you DID NOT LIKE THE WAY YOU WERE TREATED AT ONE SHELTER OR ANOTHER and be refused admittance at another.
SHELTERS are NOT THE BIG SOLUTION FOR HOMELESS. They are temporary and better in most cases than being on the street but they are as close to the street as you can get.

Many homeless do not want to be part of a program that is cold hearted and all about statistics to get more funding which can be used for case managers pay checks.

SHELTERS should all be aware that homeless compare notes wherever they go.

SKID ROW NEEDLE EXCHANGE and HOMELESS HEALTH CARE

If you are living in an SRO or in SKID ROW HOUSING TRUST buildings, you are eligible for health care. This article from USC mentions the NEEDLE EXCHANGE and HIV prevention.

HILTON FOUNDATION PHILANTHROPY 13 MILLION TO FUND HOMELESSNESS PROJECTS

Conrad Hilton Foundation has pledged 9 more million in 2010 to create 2500 new places to live in Los Angeles for the long term homeless.

We appreciate that, but we also want the foundation to hold those organizations that have received funds to ACCOUNTABILITY.

Those of us in shelters often find that life in the shelter is difficult - even hellish. And shelters are where we wait for that permanent housing in some form:

"Rent Free" Caregiving assignments as long as the person we are assigned to is alive. Caregiving is one of the ways some of us became homeless.

Being forced or heavily pressured into room mating with other people we meet at the shelter.

And when you aren't compatible and one person gets arrested or goes back to drug use, then what?

Single Room Occupancies (SRO'S) like boarding houses often with no cooking and shared bathrooms. (So your food costs are high and diet is unhealthy.)

ALL THREE OF THESE ARE CONSIDERED "PERMANENT PLACEMENT" and then they claim they want to help us end our (endless) "cycle of homelessness."

At best, a liveable clean single costing, 1/3rd our fixed income is achievable.

But let's also NOT FORGET about holding the BIG DEVELOPERS who take down low income housing PROMISING a certain number of section 8 or low income units, who interpret that to mean A COUPLE THOUSAND A MONTH!

IS YOUR SHELTER CASE MANAGER SEXUALLY HARASSING YOU?

Harassing? Some case managers at shelters - male and female - expect or will accept "favors" from male and female clients in exchange for looking the other way when the client, drinks, uses drugs, prostitutes, etc.

Some of them will give priority to a resident who gives them favors when it comes to providing vouchers for housing, transportation, or other benefits.

SINCE WE WANT YOU TO HAVE A BETTER LIFE and we DON'T THINK THAT YOU CAN HAVE A BETTER LIFE WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF CONTROL OF YOURSELF OR YOUR SITUATION, we are sickened when we hear this.

Even when it's the homeless person who offers first - because that's street behavior and we want you out of the cycle of homelessness and a return to your self respect.
Don't think that just because we run videos and links to shelters and nonprofits that we don't know this goes on at some of them.

Since when did unprofessional behavior and illegal behavior become OK?

COMMENTS to this blogpost DO NOT REQUIRE ID.
THEY ARE READ BEFORE PUBLICATION by us.

HOMELESS TEENAGERS - SPOKANE WASHINGTON

Homeless Teenagers are often Homeless alone, without family. Often they have fled bad family life and been on the street in street families. Or left foster care without anywhere to go. Like the teacher says in this video, looking back, she knows there were homeless teenagers in her classes. Homelessness makes it real difficult to study and get good grades. A few who succeed anyway are the exceptions and make for good news stories and movies but the reality of poverty and even shelter life is that it's not the best atmosphere for studying and doing homework.

RV LIVING IS THIS AN OPTION FOR YOU?

For those of you who use an RV for a few weeks a year vacation, life always going down the road looking for a place to sleep where you won't be disturbed by the cops or theives is no way to live.

CYNTHIA'S STORY AS REPORTED BY ONE OF OUR WRITERS

"When I first became homeless I knew some homeless people from the library I went to. One of them was Cynthia. She was sleeping in her truck and part of a caravan of homeless people who slept in their cars and lived around the park. Cynthia had one friend who let her come into her house once a week for a shower and to get mail there. But even in the coldest weather she would not go to a shelter. She wore snow suit outfits most days, washed her face and hands and brushed her teeth in the library bathroom, and kept to herself.

A couple years ago Cynthia got her SSDI and saved enough to move into an apartment. She let her park friends move on and invited a man to live in the apartment with her. I don't know what happened, but I've been seeing Cynthia walking down the street every day with one of the biggest wheeled suitcases they sell. I think she is homeless again, and this time without a truck.

I don't know what happened to her friends in the park.

I don't know why she won't go to a shelter.

I don't know if there is something more wrong with her - maybe dementia set in?
She's getting older now.

AUSTIN HOMELESS RV PARK ?

EAST TRAVIS COUNTY HOMELESS PARKUPDATE! IT LOOKS LIKE AN AUSTIN HOMELESS PARK HAS BEEN APPROVED> SEE THIS ARTICLE


NEW VIDEO JUNE 2014


PLEASE SEE THE NEW COMMENT and OUR ANSWER, which we will also be posting in the near future on this BLOG.

We feel that ANYWHERE the Homeless can park officially, so that they don't have to deal with police problems is an improvement on their situation.  The problem of where to put a shelter is also very real.  Homeless people are supposed to keep moving on.  With what gas costs today, it may be cheaper for the homeless to stay parked.  The fact that there is no grocery store nearbye is a challenge.  However, people who have RV's and hook ups can at least cook!  We see advantages to that financially.

FAMILY SERVICES KING COUNTY SEATTLE AREA

"So, I went from having this amazing potential future to, literally, in under a year living in a van I remember just the terror and fear. How am I going to raise this baby? What am I going to do?

Melissa, mother of 2-year-old Rowan is just one story out of the thousands of families who become homeless every year in Seattle and King County.

Children and families are the fastest growing portion of the homeless population today!! The tragic effect on families is devastating to families, and communities around U.S."

Link to this Youtube video and many others sent to us by one of our Youtube subscribers. Click on Family Services title.

Get involved in helping your community by visiting www.family-services.org or connect with a local non-profit in your area.


Click on the title to get to the link...

GLITTERY BUTTERFLY

Please go to the sidebar where you'll find a link to take you to our latest posts!

HOMELESS COURT IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY, COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA, LITTLE ROCK, MILWAUKEE

"Many criminal charges against the homeless stem from their homelessness: loitering, sleeping on the sidewalks, drinking or urinating in public. Once cited, they don’t have a mailing address to receive summonses if they fail to pay the fine. That means a single infraction can often mushroom into multiple summonses, resulting in an inability to secure a job and housing."

35 such courts — half of them in California — have sprung up, including in Columbia, S.C., Little Rock, Ark., and Milwaukee."

HOMELESS COURT LOS ANGELES COUNTY IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR BLOGPOSTS WE HAVE! So we thought we'd look to see if there are HOMELESS COURTS IN OTHER CITIES AND THERE ARE!

LA TIMES - FULLERTON POLICE BEAT HOMELESS MAN TO DEATH

"Officers responding to reports of an attempted car break-in near the station confronted Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old schizophrenic homeless man who had become a fixture in downtown Fullerton. Six officers fought with Thomas and Tasered him several times, according to witness accounts. He emerged severely beaten and in a coma. A photo taken of him at the hospital shows his face grotesquely swollen and covered with bruises and cuts. He died five days later after being removed from life support. Now, both the FBI and the Orange County district attorney's office are investigating, and the case has generated an emotional response from residents of the college town, who are demanding answers from the Police Department."