"WE DON'T NEED COINS - WE NEED CHANGE" and FAMOUS AND WELL KNOWN PEOPLE WHO WERE ONCE HOMELESS

We saw this slogan on a web site we visited and we love it.

Wishing all of you Happiness, be it that you're homeless, homeless-curious, were once homeless, or heading for homelessness right now.

Check out our sidebar where we have posted a list of famous or well-known people who were once homeless.  Many of them got through it and changed their lives.

You may be surprised!

SKID ROW - DID LOS ANGELES INVENT IT? THIS DAILY BEAST WRITER SAYS SO!

DAILY BEAST - HOW LOS ANGELES CREATED SKID ROW by Forest Casey

Somewhere between 2,000 and 11,000 homeless people live in a 54-block area in Los Angeles...

The Union Rescue Mission...

The burst of the housing bubble of the mid-2000s happened to coincide with a hideous practice among several private hospitals found depositing impoverished, mentally ill patients on the doorstep of the Union Rescue Mission in 2005. One especially determined hospital spent five years busing nearly 500 patients to Skid Row from Las Vegas.

Homeless shelters and rescue missions exist county-wide in Los Angeles and throughout America. What sets Skid Row apart is the extreme density. According to a report released by the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, the 0.4 square miles that form the boundaries of Skid Row house over 2,521 homeless persons, meaning that “roughly 3% of the country’s entire homeless population [reside] within an area that comprises only .0001% of the country’s total land area.”

BUTTERFLY N IMPATIENTS - COLORING PAGE FOR OUR HOMELESS CHILDREN

LOS ANGELES and SAN FRANCISCO HAVE THE MOST ANTI-VAGRANCY LAWS and RESTRICTIONS in CA - FOLLOWED BY LONG BEACH and ANAHEIM

STUDY SAYS CALIFORNIA CITIES CRIMINALIZING THE HOMELESS  KPCC by Rina Palta

EXCERPT:

The study, put together by Law Professor Jeffrey Selbin and a group of law and public policy students, found California cities on average have more "anti-vagrancy" laws on the books than cities in other states.

Researchers surveyed laws and restrictions on the books in 58 California cities and compared them to a survey of cities nationwide. They found California cities were 50 percent more likely to restrict food sharing with homeless and 41 percent more likely to have restrictions on sleeping in vehicles. 

Los Angeles and San Francisco tied for the most anti-vagrancy laws and restrictions in the state - 23 - followed by Long Beach and Anaheim.

Enforcement of the laws shot up between 2000 and 2012, increasing by 77 percent, according to the study.

A decade ago, anti-vagrancy laws were relatively obscure, said Paul Boden, of the Western Regional Advocacy Project

 

BUTTERFLY with IRIS - COLORING PAGE FOR OUR HOMELESS CHILDREN

KERN COUNTY CALIFORNIA - HOMELESS COUNT SHOWS DECREASE

BAKERSFIELDNOW - KERN COUNTY HOMELESS CENSUS  There is only one homeless shelter in Kern County...  the stats since 2007 are impressive but there are lots of homeless children in Kern,

This year, 953 individuals were determined to be homeless, which is a 4 percent decline from 2014 and a 38 percent decline since 2007. ...   lot of times homelessness ... there is a cycle of homelessness. We see a lot of families that will say I was homeless as a child," said Lollar.

Currently, there is only one homeless shelter in Kern County, the Bakersfield Homeless Center.

"It's a very large shelter, but we need more. We need more shelters," said Lollar.

The census showed that in shelters people stay homeless for a shorter amount of time. In shelters, the length of time a person stays homeless is an average of 17 months, versus 29 months. Lollar said in shelters people can get job training, get enrolled in school, and get healthy.

DO YOU HAVE AN OBAMAPHONE and CAN YOU GIVE A THUMBS UP OR DOWN? ASK QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU SIGN!

WE KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE WHAT WE CALL AN "OBAMAPHONE."

The phones are from a lot of different places and with different plans.  For instance we hear of 250 - 500 - and even 1000 MINUTES.   BUT WE KNOW THERE ARE SEVERAL COMPANIES OFFERING UNLIMITED MINUTES AND TEXTS.

What is your experience with the OBAMAPHONE?  IS IT HELPING YOU?  Do you recommend a certain company or provider or store?

HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT WANT TO ASK before you walk away without reading the fine print.

1) DO YOU HAVE A WALK IN STORE - BRICK AND MORTAR STORE - THAT I CAN GO TO IF I DON'T WANT TO SIGN UP OR TAKE A PHONE WITH ME TODAY?  Can I pick up a phone there or will it have to be mailed?  Can it be mailed to a post office box?

2) WHAT IF I WANT INTERNET TOO?  IS THERE A PHONE I CAN HAVE FOR FREE OR BUY?  HOW MUCH FOR THE PHONE AND HOW MUCH A MONTH FOR THE INTERNET MINUTES?  CAREFUL - THIS CAN BE TRICKY -  because you may find that the fee for having internet means the phone is not a better deal than you can find with a prepaid carrier elsewhere.

3) WHAT IF I GET THE PHONE and it turns out that the service is poor.  Like if I only get one bar or there are missing messages and texts?  DO I HAVE TO KEEP THE PHONE ANY CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME?  CAN I RETURN IT TO YOU and TRY OUT ANOTHER OBAMAPHONE CARRIER?

*We know someone who has two OBAMAPHONES?

4) WHAT IF I WANT A FREE LANDLINE INSTEAD?  (We know that you have a choice of either a landline or a cell phone, but that the cell phone carriers seem to be out all over signing people up and having them walk away with a phone.  Some of these people appear to be on commission and some of them failed to answer these questions, sticking with a sales spiel.  So we are not sure they will answer this question honesty, or even know the answer.

5) Do you have TOLL FREE CUSTOMER SERVICE if there are problems or more questions?

6) WHAT COMPANY CARRIES Your calls?  Get this we already found one carrier that says they work off Sprint and another that says they work of T-Mobil... If your current phone doesn't function well on these carriers, look for an Obama phone that works off a different carrier.

7) DO YOU HAVE INFOMATION I CAN READ that comes with the phone?  I want to read it /take it with me before I sign up.  (Avoid any carrier that sets up tables at the Social Services office, at the bus terminal, at a shelter or rehab that DOES NOT PROVIDE THE CONTRACT printed up.)

MARK RIDLEY THOMAS ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL HOMELESS HOTELS - PROSTITUTION - and OUR OPINION

SCPR - MARK RIDLEY THOMAS ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL HOMELESS HOTELS - PROSTITUTION

EXCERPT:

A new proposal by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas aims to clean up hotels that temporarily house the homeless by discouraging prostitution - but his proposal includes a controversial element.

 

"Children as young as twelve years of age are coerced and are sold for sex," Ridley-Thomas said. "In some cases, hotel owners turned a blind eye to this sickening activity."
His proposal would require hotels that receive county funds to house the homeless  - $3.56 million in vouchers last year alone - to agree to anti-prostitution measures. They'd have to display a sex trafficking awareness poster, participate in training to spot sex-trafficking and make hotel guest lists available to law enforcement without a warrant....

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OUR OPINION:  Check out our previous posts by searching through this blog using the embedded Search feature in the side bar.  Look for posts on HOMELESS CHILDREN, SEX TRAFFICKING, and PROSTITUTION, as well as MOTEL KIDS.  We do consider these issues to be serious ones.

But we side here with Attorney Weiser.

First DPSS is overwhelmed with just handling the work load they have which has easily tripled in recent years as more and more people take food stamp benefits.  It is unlikely they could do much in 30 days besides come up with some letter that they send to voucher motels.  Let's say that a voucher motel would loose the opportunity to take DPSS vouchers if there were ANY ARRESTS... where would homeless people go?  There are not enough motels that take homeless vouchers as is.

By the way some shelters also take these vouchers, which are good for a once in a lifetime two weeks.  For instance Los Angeles Family Housing takes them - and there are no sheets, towels, or soap - just a cheap bed in an empty room.

PRIVACY RIGHTS are very important.  We do not like that once you stay at a shelter you are on a database that outs you as homeless or once homeless.  We don't trust the use of that database. IT JUST LEADS TO STEREOTYPING and PROFILING which is especially horrible for those who do not and never did fit the stereotype.  Being homeless, you should not experience loosing your right to privacy.  Who needs to know where you are really?  It's YOUR BUSINESS.

Next, it has always been up to motels and hotels and shelters that take vouchers to keep an eye on prostitution and to contact local police BUT LET'S FACE IT THAT THEY DO NOT.  The expensive motels and hotels do not either. 

WHICH IS WHY SO MANY LOWER RENT MOTELS and VOUCHER MOTELS are already targeted by police when it comes to not only prostitution and sex trafficking,  but drugs.  Domestic violence seems to be a low priority even then.

PHILIPPINE HOMELESS CHILDREN CAGED and TIED TO POLES TO KEEP THEM OFF STREETS

DAILY MAIL - HOMELESS CHILDREN CAGED AND TIED TO POLES - lots of pictures at this link as well.  This is an amazing article.

This article appeared in January of this year, right before the visit of the Pope to the Philippines.  We are not suggesting that the Pope knew anything about this or would approve.  Rather, it was an attempt to keep the streets clear of begging children.

EXCERPT:

'These kids are totally without protection. They have no legal representation. They are just put in jail and left to fend for themselves.'

 

Pope Francis famously washed the feet of inmates in a youth detention centre in Rome in 2013 but Father Shay, who has run a mission to help children in the Philippines for 40 years, said: 'Sadly, there is no way the Pope will be visiting these detention centres in Manila.

 

'They are a shame on the nation. Officials here would be horrified at the prospect of the Pope seeing children treated in this way.' ...

 

 

A survey by Bahay Tuluyan found the so-called 'rescue' operations to round up street children are indiscriminate, targeting youngsters who have committed no offences and do not want to go to detention centres.
 

Children are taken in simply for sleeping on the street, for begging, or for stealing food to relieve their hunger, with no proper judicial process, and are exposed to abuse and exploitation by older children and adults, the study found.

 

POVERTY DOESN'T MAKE FOR GOOD HEADLINES

BURBANK IKEA FREE BREAKFAST ON MONDAY MORNINGS ATTRACTS AREA SENIOR CITIZENS AND LOCAL HOMELESS

IKEA, the furniture and home fashions store, situated in Burbank, California, has an event every Monday morning.  The regular 99 cent breakfast is free, if you become a Ikea member the coffee is always free.  So any other day of the week you pay only 99 Cents for scrambled eggs, potato, and a couple sausages.

We decided to go undercover and have a volunteer investigate to find out if there really is a free breakfast and if the place is "full of homeless." 

Our first encounter with another shopper was with a person who said they were a liberal and in teaching but that "all these homeless people" eating free was giving a "wrong message."

So we looked around, expecting to see a lot of people who were clearly street homeless, dirty, stinky, possibly carrying garbage in with them - you know the stereotype.

To our surprise and pleasure we were there for over an hour before we spotted any Burbank homeless that we know of.  Otherwise we saw that there were a great number of senior citizens - most likely on a budget - and that even the homeless we know of were clean and neat.  We think that IKEA does this breakfast to attract shoppers on a slow day but the event appears to also be a community service.

Later, sitting with one of Burbank's senior citizens sitting alone till we arrived, we learned that many local seniors high-tail it over to IKEA to socialize together and keep within their food budgets.

IKEA has donated to homeless causes in the past.  For instance, Ikea provided furnishings for one of Los Angeles Family Housing's HUD/ Mental Health voucher building projects where the spare modern designs worked well with concrete floors.

IKEA has a number of other low priced food items for sale during the breakfast and at other times during the day including muffins, corn bread, and their Swedish meatballs.

We hope the store will keep it up.

MARY MURRAY - ONCE A HOMELESS YOUTH - INVENTING NEW BACKPACK FOR THE HOMELESS

FORBES - EX HOMELESS WOMAN MARY MURRAY INVENTING NEW HOMELESS BACKPACK  "Once Homeless, Mid-Life Social Entrepreneur Works To Ease The Pain Of Living On The Street"

EXCERPTS:

Mary Murray remembers being homeless. She was 15 then, and she vividly recalls the constant fight to survive.

“Looking back I had to use some savvy skills to avoid rape, death and who knows what,” she said. “Along the way I always had someone older than me that could provide helpful ideas for my survival. I slept where I could, ate out of garbage cans, then I started work as a dishwasher in a five star restaurant. Yes I did eat the scraps the servers brought me on the dirty plates. But I bet I constantly ate better than anyone I know.”

Sometimes the choices were as difficult as the living conditions. She moved in with her grandparents, and managed to graduate from high school – but at the cost of suffering sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather. She moved in with a male friend and his father, but remained on the very edge of homelessness.

...Mary eventually got off the streets, met her future husband, and raised a child. But she remembers, still. And now at age 52, Mary Murray is a student at Miami Dade College ...Together with group leader Thang Kim, and another student, Sofia Suarez – both 20-year-olds – Murray is working on a project that centers around the creation of the NapSak, a new kind of sleeping back designed for homeless people; Kim is currently designing the prototype.

TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS - SWEET CHERRY WINE

SWALLOWTAIL ON LILLIES - COLORING PAGE FOR OUR HOMELESS CHILDREN

A THANK YOU TO THE LIBRARIANS OUT THERE WHO KNOW WE'RE HOMELESS AND TREAT US GOOD ANYWAY!

We were talking with some friends the other day, friends who spend a lot of their time in the libraries throughout LA County, including the Beverly Hills library, the Glendale Library, and certain Los Angeles Public Libraries, because they have nowhere else to go, because they use e-mail to stay in touch with people, because they are looking for jobs and need the computers and printers, because they need to be near a toilet, because they need to stay in the air-conditioning before they go to their vehicle or a shelter at night, because BEING IN A LIBRARY AMONG PEOPLE and doing something intellectually stimulating helps them FEEL HUMAN.

SO MANY HAVE HAD THE EXPERIENCE OF FALLING ALSEEP SITTING UP IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER OR IN A CHAIR, and then the librarian has to come over and wake the person up!

SO WE WANT TO SAY, FOR OURSELVES and OUR FRIENDS,  THANK YOU TO THOSE LIBRARIANS WHO STILL HAVE A HEART and WHO HAVE NOT PUT US OUT!

WHAT IS THE "HOMELESS MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM" ?

https://www.hudexchange.info/hmis/

Homeless Management Information System

A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a local information technology system used to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness. Each Continuum of Care is responsible for selecting an HMIS software solution that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards....

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This means that if you are homeless and you go into a shelter or HUD housing your name and other information about you has been reported and is on some database somewhere originating with your local HUD.

READ MORE AT THE LINK and check out these links on that page:

CoC: Continuum of Care Program
RHSP: Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program
VHPD: Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration Program


AND READ FROM THIS BLOG, which also appears on our side bar!
HOMELESS LAW WORDPRESS - WHERE DOES THE INFORMATION GO AND HOW IS IT USED?

Excerpt:

Every community of homeless service providers, whether it is a city or a county or a region—depending on how homeless services are organized in that area—contracts with a database vendor to create its own HMIS.  Then, as a homeless person goes from one agency to the next, he or she does not have to go through the whole exhaustive intake process each time and the provider can see any facts that might help them to best serve the client and make referrals to other entities or new programs that will be relevant to that individual consumer.

You have two ways of protecting your information:

1. You can refuse to answer any of the questions that you object to. Refusing to answer will not make you ineligible for the service, but it will mess-up the provider’s records and can compromise its future funding.  In the unlikely event that a provider says that you are legally required to answer a particular question if you want the service, you should direct that person to page 11 of the HMIS Data Standards Manual https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/HMIS-Data-Standards-Manual.pdf which specifically says that “client refused is considered a valid response.”
2. You can obtain a copy of your database report and tell the provider to remove any items that you do not want to have on record.

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OUR EXPERIENCE IS THAT IF YOU REFUSE TO ANSWER SUCH SURVEYS OR DATA SHEETS they will either not take you into the shelter or they will kick you out of the shelter.
Some of us have lied on these surveys in some effort to have privacy.