LIBRARIANS and LIBRARIES - ENLISTING THEIR AID IN FIGHTING HOMELESSNESS - PEW TRUST

PEWTRUST ANALYSIS : ELISTING AID OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES FIGHT HOMELESSNESS


EXCERPT:


Public libraries have long been havens for people with nowhere else to go. Now, a growing number of library systems are adding services for patrons who are homeless, hungry, or suffering from drug addiction or mental illness. For the District of Columbia, that means hiring a social worker, partnering with nonprofits and organizing social hours.


The library can be part of the city’s efforts to reduce homelessness, said Jean Badalamenti, the social worker for the system here. “I see the library as playing a role in that, since this is where people are,” she said.


Libraries in the Internet age offer more than books and computer access. On a typical day, Washington’s central library, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, less than a mile from the White House, hosts all types of events, from free tax preparation assistance for adults to poetry workshops for teens.

CRANBERRIES - LINGER

BLACK FRIDAY PICKS? CHECK OUT THAT NO PROFIT BEFORE YOU DONATE!

THERE ARE SO MANY HANDS OUT...

Since we know that there is lots of fraud going on, we ENCOURAGE YOU today, and any day, to DO SOME RESEARCH about the non-profit that you are going to donate to.

We have a list of links on our sidebar but here are FIVE sites you should check out  before you write the check. 



NON PROFIT IMPERATIVE BLOGSPOT  (Gary Snyder)


CHARITY NAVIGATOR



NON PROFIT FACTS - A COUPLE HUNDRED THOUSAND NON PROFITS JUST IN CALIFORNIA


CHARITY WATCH ORG


MINISTRY WATCH

2017 as well THANKSGIVING - NEED A FEAST? TEMPLE BETH HILLEL - VALLEY VILLAGE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY MEAL

FLOCKING TO A FREE THANKSGIVING DINNER?
IF YOU'RE HOMELESS, THIS DAY IS THE DAY YOU ARE MOST LIKELY TO HAVE A HOT MEAL.


NO PLANS YET?
TEMPLE BETH HILLEL - VALLEY VILLAGE

JAMES TAYLOR - FIRE AND RAIN

HOPE OF THE VALLEY THRIFT STORE IN SUN VALLEY IS GONE! HELP CENTER IN VAN NUYS OPEN

HOPE OF THE VALLEY RESCUE MISSION THRIFT STORE IS GONE!  Rumor is that the whole building will be torn down for residential development and that the store will reopen in.... SIMI VALLEY?  Since this location also accepted donations, including food, and served hot meals to homeless, and once also had a shelter... we feel concerned...


HOPE OF THE VALLEY ORG


OK THE HELP CENTER is OPEN!


6425 Tyrone Avenue Van Nuys  (Corner of Tyrone and  Victory - enter on Victory)


9am to 4 PM  Monday through Friday


SHOWERS  MON - FRI  9 am to 11:45
LUNCH       MON - FRI 12:45 to 1:15 
MAIL SERVICE   MON-FRI  9 AM to 1:15 PM
COUPON SERVICES  MON, WED, FRI,  10 AM to 2 PM
CASE MANAGEMENT - UPON REFERRAL
COMPUTER CZENTER -  TBD   (?!?!)


Rules...
WANT A SHOWER?  YOU MUST SIGN IN.
AFTER YOU SHOWER YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE PROPERTY UNTIL LUNCH TIME.
WHICH IS NOON.  SHOW UP RIGHT AT NOON.  YEP, after LUNCH you gotta go again...


ACCESS THE LOCATION THROUGH VICTORY ONLY.  Don't walk the neighborhood which will cause the neighbors to complain.  Don't hang around the church property.... REMEMBER  You are a TRANSIENT who has to keep moving.  (This last sentence isn't on their flyer but it is the point.)




FROM THEIR SITE : HEADQUARTERS

We Would Love to Hear From You!

Location:
11134 Sepulveda Blvd. Mission Hills, CA 91345
Mail:
PO Box 7609 Mission Hills, CA 91346
Phone:
818.392.0020
Email:
info@hopeofthevalley.org


UPDATE DEC 6 2016  HOPE OF THE VALLEY IS RUNNING THE SYLMAR ARMORY AS A SHELTER UNTIL MARCH 1 2017
CALL 818-207-8776 for more information.


170 BED PROGRAM at 12860 Arroyo Drive, Sylmar, CA  91342  Walk up guests OK but not before 5:30 PM


Multiple van pick up locations include
HOPE OF THE VALLEY OLD THRIFT STORE SITE at 6:00 PM
8165 San Fernando Road
NORTH HOLLYWOOD OUTSIDE MCDONALDS at 6:30 PM
8045 Lankershim Blvd.
6:00, 7:00, and 8:00 PM in VAN NUYS at the bus bench at 6212 Van Nuys Blvd.  (Civic Center Area)
7:30 PM in WINNETKA at Winnetka Recreation Park, 8401 Winnetka Avenue.

JIM CROCE - OPERATOR

SAINT JOSEPH'S CENTER VENICE - FOR WORKING POOR FAMILIES and HOMELESS MEN, WOMEN, and CHILDREN

SAINT JOSEPHS CENTER -VENICE

 

Housing

• Our Chronic Homeless Initiatives reach out to the most vulnerable homeless individuals in Venice and Santa Monica and help them transition into permanent supportive housing.
• Veterans Administration Supportive Housing (VASH) works with the V.A. to provide housing and long-term case management to homeless veterans.
• Supportive Services for Veteran Families assists homeless/very low-income Veteran households with rapid re-housing, housing maintenance, and homelessness prevention services.
• Housing for Health helps high utilizers of LA County public health resources obtain and maintain permanent supportive housing.
• Homeless Family Solution System provides short-term rental assistance, resource referrals, and case management to homeless and at-risk families in an effort to support housing stability.
• Housing Services assists homeless and low-income households in securing and/or maintaining voucher and project-based permanent housing.

 

BRILLIANT BLUE BUTTERFLY

USE YOUR ACCESS BUS PASS TO TAKE THE METROLINK TRAIN and MANY OTHER SMALLER CITY TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

ACCESS LA - LIST OF TRANSIT SYSTEMS THAT TAKE THE PASS

THERE IS A LIST OF OTHER TRANSPORTATION SERVICES INCLUDED VOLUNTEER DRIVERS

EXCERPt:

Volunteer Driver programs are community-based transportation services in which a friend or neighbor in the community volunteers their time and automobile to help riders get to places they need to go.  In most cases, one must be a resident of the community where the program operates, and have few other transportation options to get to important destinations.  Some programs do ask for a fee or donation for each one-way trip, but others are free services for the riders. 

Please click on one or more of the links below to see if a Volunteer Driver program could provide you with an additional transportation alternative.

Community Connections - serves the residents of Claremont, La Verne, Pomona, and San Dimas with their transportation needs including crossing county lines

Independent Living Partnership - serves residents of Riverside County

Connect- serves residents of West Hollywood and a small portion of West LA

ITN GreaterLA - serves residents within the Communities of Brentwood, Culver City, Mar Vista, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Santa Monica, Venice and West LA

TREP (Transportation Reimbursement Escort Program) - serves residents within select areas of San Bernardino County

EVERY DAY WE MEET SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T KNOW THEY HAVE SOME OPTIONS

We often meet people who became homeless and who have so adapted to street life, or park life, that they don't think about getting back into the main stream or into housing.  Some of these people have first of all been moved along, others have tried to stay put while they wait months or years to be taken into a shelter with a housing program.  Bad news about the terms and conditions of living at shelters by others who tried them is all around.  It's discouraging. 


Then there are the RV and VAN homeless, the upper class of homelessness so to speak, who are able to camp or otherwise maintain the mobile lifestyle because their retirement, SSDI, SSI, or other funds at least allow them to do maintenance and repairs, get insurance and inspections and stickers, and who will continue to do so as long as they can afford to.  Some of these people also are on wait lists for either Section 8, Senior Housing, or Low Income Housing, or some other option.  One woman lived this way for years waiting for her crazy parents to die.  They had been abusive to her but she did inherit their house eventually.


We often meet people who have become homeless WHO DO NOT KNOW THEY HAVE ANY OPTIONS.


THIS BLOG IS FOR THEM TOO.  More than anything we want you to know that you do have options, even though it may be hard work and frustrating to partake in them.

We recently met homeless people WHO DID NOT KNOW THEY CAN GET SOME DENTAL CARE with JUST MEDICAL.


We've met people living within a half hour by bus to M.E.N.D. who do not know about their TUESDAY MORNINGS for the homeless, where they can shower, get bus tokens to come back the next week, have a hot meal, and take away some groceries.


So if you've arrived here for the first time, please spend some time reading... our PAGES, our POSTS, ALL THIS IS FOR YOU!

GUNS N' ROSES - NOVEMBER RAIN

VETERANS DAY

USE THE SEARCH FEATURE ON THE SIDEBAR OF THIS BLOG TO EXPLORE PAST POSTS FOR VITAL INFORMATION FOR VETERANS!

STEVE HARVEY - HOMELESS TO A HUNDRED MILLION

YAHOO CELEBRITY - STEVE HARVEY ONCE HOMELESS MILLIONAIRE

EXCERPT FROM YAHOO ARTICLE FEATURING PEOPLE MAGAZINE COVER:
Harvey tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story that while he’s now amassed an empire estimated to be worth $100 million, he was once homeless and living out of his Ford Tempo.

“It kills me when I hear very successful people say, ‘I always knew I would get here,’ ” he says. “I didn’t. I always hoped I would get somewhere, but this is above and beyond. My imagination didn’t even go this big.”

He certainly seems to have it all. His bestselling 2009 book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man has been adapted into a blockbuster film and a sequel. He now hosts a syndicated radio show as well as the game show Family Feud and a hit daytime talk show, The Steve Harvey Show. Most recently he has hosted NBC’s hit variety series Little Big Shots.

But when he first quit job to take a chance at being a comedian, he found himself separated from his wife, on his own and living on as little as $50 a week.

“That was an ugly period, just very painful,” he says of becoming homeless in the late ‘80s.

TRUMP"S THE NEXT PRESIDENT! WILL HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES of JOBS for AMERICAN HELP THE HOMELESS?

SINCE JOBLESSNESS and WAGES that are INCOMPATIBLE with the COST OF LIVING in CALIFORNIA are tied into HOMELESSNESS, we are hoping that DONALD TRUMP intends to STIMULATE THE ECONOMY with LIVING WAGE JOBS and other opportunities for people who are DISABLED or PARTLY DISABLED to earn income.


We've met so many people who once held good jobs who have been on the streets a long time, senior citizens living on SS and in RV's, people who sleeping in the mountains and coming down the hills to use library computers to look for work.  We even know of someone who kept at a job as a secretary while living in a homeless encampment under a bridge.  When he employer found out she was canned!

WITHOUT A DOUBT, having a consistent place to live and safely and privately get mail, a place to shower, a place to iron and hang up work wardrobe, a PLACE TO GET A GOOD NIGHT's SLEEP (which usually is not a homeless shelter) are essential to getting and keeping a job, as is training or retraining, having references or meeting people really willing to give a person a fresh start, and so on.


MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE DESTITUTE IN OTHER STATES COME TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, reasoning that maybe they'll get lucky and if not it's relatively warm in the winters.

EVERY STATE and EVERY CITY NEEDS ITS OWN PROGRAMS TO COMBAT POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS.

So we HOPE TRUMP CAN MAKE ECONOMIC RENEWAL HAPPEN!

  SOUNDS GOOD...  STRONGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD....

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - VOTE!

BUTTERFLY RAVE

PLEASE VOTE FOR PROPOSITION HHH - 60,000 PEOPLE NEED HOUSING YESTERDAY! (IT PASSED!)

We came out for PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BERNIE SANDERS, who is no longer running ... and you CAN "Write Him In"... IN SOME STATES INCLUDING CALIFORNIA.  Though we think the Democratic candidates are more sympathetic to the plight of the homeless and poor in the United States of America,  ee know many who will go into the voting booth and vote for the party, or avoid voting for either Trump or Clinton, in favor of Jill Stein.


WHATEVER YOU DO, and we do hope you will vote,  PLEASE VOTE FOR PROPOSITION HHH.  We know it's complicated but it's the best thing going for the homeless at this point and WE MUST DO SOMETHING.  No easy answers, and much to be determined, we know, but we BEG YOU - PLEASE!


*If you are HOMELESS and did not REGISTER TO VOTE IN THIS ELECTION, PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE NEXT...  YOU CAN VOTE WHILE HOMELESS...  See our past posts and side bar for information!


DAILY NEWS - LA VOTERS GREEN LIGHT PROP HHH  By Brenda Gazzar, Los Angeles Daily News


EXCERPT:
The proposition would raise $1.2 billion to create between 8,000 and 10,000 permanent supportive housing units for the city’s homeless — and those at risk of becoming so — as well as facilities for access to mental health counseling, addiction services and housing placement, according to supporters.
Proposition HHH garnered the support of about 76 percent of votes cast by the time all precincts had been counted on Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office. It needs 66.67 percent to pass, a considerable threshold for a ballot crowded with other tax measures.
“Today we can look at the most urgent moral crisis facing our city and say that help is on the way,” said Elise Buik, president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, in a statement.

LA TIMES - VOTING FOR PROPOSITION HHH - HOUSING FOR THE HOMELESS!

LA TIMES on PROPOSITION HHH  by Doug Smith


EXCERPT:
What would Proposition HHH do?
If the measure obtains the two-thirds vote needed to pass, the city would borrow up to $1.2 billion over 10 years for construction projects to provide “safe, clean, affordable housing for the homeless and for those in danger of becoming homeless.”

LABOR UNIONS and ENVIRONMENTALITS AGAINST JERRY BROWNS AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS

LA TIMES - LABOR UNIONS and ENVIRONMENTALISTS AGAINST AFFORDABLE HOUSING  by Liam Dillon

EXCERPT:


"It would be a disaster for local government, local communities, the environment and the citizens of California,” said a May 18 letter to state lawmakers from the State Building & Construction Trades Council, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other labor and environmental groups.


Brown’s plan would exempt urban housing projects that reserve a certain percentage of their development for low-income residents from detailed local government review. By making it easier to build houses, Brown believes the state can reduce California’s major housing supply deficit, which is considered the primary driver of the broad home affordability crisis. A project only would qualify for Brown's exemption if it’s planned on land already zoned for high-density residential development.




****
We homeless are so environmentally correct when we live in the parks.....

JOAKIM ESKILDSEN's PHOTOGRAPHS OF AMERICANS PLAIN OUT OF LUCK

DAILY MAIL JOAKIM ESKILDSEN - PHOTOS OF U.S. POOR

EXCERPT:

Could it happen to you? Meet the average Americans forced into poverty by accidents, ill-health or tragic misfortune in searing photo essay exploring the crisis of the country's hidden poor

• Danish photographer Joakim Eskildsen grew up with mythical ideas of 'Coca-cola and American culture'
• But he found the American dream persisted within the US as well, serving as a dangerous set of ideals
• He visited poverty-stricken regions of the US for seven months to capture the reality for 45million people
• He acknowledged his subjects' unique stories and said: 'I had the feeling anybody could fall into hardship'

**** GREAT PHOTOS!  GO TO THE SITE!

WRITE IN BERNIE SANDERS FOR PRESIDENT - YOU CAN IN CALIFORNIA - and IT'S NOT A WASTED VOTE!

BERNIE SANDERS SITE - REVOLUTION CONTINUES


If you're a BERNIE SANDERS FAN LIKE WE ARE, YOU CAN WRITE HIS NAME IN when you vote for President on November 8th.   YOUR VOTE IS YOUR WAY OF SPEAKING YOUR PEICE, so if you're sick of the pathetic Presidential campaign and your heart isn't into either candidate... If you wondering if you want a sexual harasser as a president or a highly educated woman who stays married to one...  WHY NOT VOTE FOR THE MAN WHOSE BEEN LONG MARRIED TO ONE WOMAN and doesn't have any scandals attached to him?


We know BERNIE GAVE UP, and we know SINCE HE RAN AS A DEMOCRAT, he ENDED UP ENDORSING HILLARY CLINTON.  We know competitors can get nasty, but she thought it was funny to suggest he be killed by DRONE and that's just going too far, even as an off handed smart remark.  DO YOU WANT FOUR YEARS OF Trump's tax returns and Clinton's e-mails?


WRITE IN BERNIE... and don't forget about PROPOSITION HHH as in HOUSING FOR THE HOMELESS!


*** IT'S NOT PERFECT BUT IT IS A START.... the spring will bring OTHER/FURTHER opportunities to do the same.   THE ONE THING THAT CANNOT BE OUTLAWED IS GREED, and DEVELOPERS ARE USUALLY GREEDY and RICH ENOUGH TO LAWYER THEIR WAY AROUND...