A MESSAGE TO OUR READERS and HOMELESS FRIENDS

We were checking in today, to see what's happening with our blog as we continue to take a vacation from posting.  From the very beginning of this COMMUNITY SERVICE BLOG we have reached out for volunteers.  Homeless people are often struggling, taking things not one day at a time, but an hour at a time.  Constantly having to move also makes it difficult to make a commitment to working with us on this blog.  We know.  We thought that our volunteers should be or once have been homeless themselves.
One way people have given of themselves is through commentaries.  We get a lot that we don't post, but we do get valuable information about places and personalities in the nonprofits that say they will help the homeless.  Sadly, as the cost of living becomes more and more impossible for people to bear in Los Angeles County, our focus on this blog, we see more and more people over 50 homeless.  We see senior citizens who are living in RV's out of necessity, though some of these RV's are new.
Los Angeles made sleeping in vehicles in residential areas not legal earlier this year, and designated that parking has to be along "commercial zones."  These commercial zones have line ups of RV's and other vehicles every day and night. Where are the other 50,000 hiding?
In a city that needs HALF A MILLION AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS YESTERDAY, you might wonder why there isn't a mass exodus out.  Isn't that what homeowners, snobby renters, police, city councils, and other assorted politicians want? 
We think they do.
But to where?
Moving homeless from place to place and city to city and state to state doesn't work.  Sure, Southern California has better weather.  Or does it?  As we face heat waves and very unhealthful air, we do wonder.

EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS BLOGSPOT -COMMUNITY SERVICE ON HIATUS - LOTS OF USEFUL INFORMATION TO BE FOUND HERE!

HELLO EVERYONE.  It's MAY 2018.  Just wanted you to know that we're checking in as promised. 


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To our homeless brothers and sisters and the citizen activists who seek to end Poverty and Homelessness in the United States of America.


Researching, writing, interviewing, designing, and producing this Blog has been a Community Service and a Labor of Love.  We've posted near 1,500 times in our effort to help you.  As our own lives became chaotic, exhausting, and sometimes frightening, we have endured to keep at it for eight years now.

We've experienced so many thoughts and feelings in the process:






The hope that we're helping others.  (If even one person has gotten off the street and has healed and is happy because of the information we've posted, it's been worth it.)


The frustration of learning about so many resources yet knowing that the crisis of homelessness in Southern California - and around the world - is an ongoing crisis and that all these nonprofits and charities, all the grassroots organizations and individuals who give of themselves - even it's just going out homemade peanut butter sandwiches - is NOT ENOUGH to eliminate the suffering.


The anger that turns into disgust that we feel when we learn about individuals - male and female - who have turned their lives over to a shelter or housing program in trust, who have been sexually harassed by case managers who even demand sex in exchange for housing, or had the money they saved for apartment deposits kept when they were kicked out, or who were in one of these programs for years waiting for their turn or chance, meanwhile loosing their health and even sanity in the process.


The shock of realization that we live in the Greatest and Richest country in the world, one that pats itself on the back for being "Christian," while homeless who are not Christian or religious are discriminated against because so many organizations want to convert you in exchange for helping you.  Our horror that anyone is allowed to be homeless while others enjoy such prosperity.  It's a complicated issue but it seems to us that the Rich and Powerful are allowing the Poorest of the Poor to be killed off, slowly.


THIS BLOG WILL REMAIN UP...


Since we began blogging the opportunities for people to do their own research, on free or prepaid cell phones, and at public service computers at libraries, has expanded.  There are information hot lines for city and county and other governmental resources (though we don't particularly care for them), and referrals for information and advice all over, sometimes an endless cycle of go-nowhere referrals. We know that we're not as needed as we once were but there is a lot of valuable information here at Expose Homelessness BlogSpot too, which you can continue to use, though as time goes by it needs to be updated.


We are taking a break but we will continue to:
* Check your comments, including Answers to the many Questions we have asked.
* Update links and video and eliminate those that are repetitive or truly defunct.
(We stopped working on our YouTube station a long time ago and it's time to let it go!)
* Work on the innards and make technology updates that are important, including simplifying our labels so that your search word choices bring up all the posts applicable and getting rid of nuisance robot hits that mostly come from Russia.
Update and add information to our Pages, which some people think of as our advice and opinions on how to best survive a shelter, deal with case managers, and use your EBT-SNAP funds to keep to a healthy diet.

ALSO WE WILL ADD MORE HOMELESS BLOGGERS and POVERY ACTIVIST BLOGS ON OUR LIST THAT WE HAVE ON THE SIDEBAR as we discover them.


Please, USE THE SEARCH FEATURE embedded in the side bar of this blog in order to bring up the information that you need, using words such as "shelter,"  "AIDS-HIV,"  or "Homeless Children," in order to access years worth of posts.  Then, go to the linked site or article for the latest information posted by that link.


THANK YOU FOR READING and USING  EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS BLOGSPOT. 




And Thanks Also To:
Google for the opportunity to Blog at no charge, to the posters of YouTube music, documentary, experiential, and testimonial videos that make this Blog an experience of listening as well as seeing, to Dover Publishing for the many images of butterflies and coloring pages sprinkled throughout this Blog that are free for non-profit use, and to FlashVortex for the animated banners and flags that have also been gratis.


WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO NOT ONLY SEARCH THIS BLOG FOR INFORMATION (Use the Google Search feature embedded in the left side bar!) BUT TO CONTINUE TO SHARE INFORMATION. 


Your Friends at EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS BLOGSPOT

CAROLE KING - SO FAR AWAY

MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr. on FRIENDS

"In the end, we will remember NOT THE WORDS OF OUR ENEMIES but the SILENCE of our friends."

JIM CROCE - OPERATOR

GUNS N' ROSES - NOVEMBER RAIN

4 NON-BLONDES -: WHAT'S GOING ON?

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY

EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS BLOGSPOT - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A COMMUNITY SERVICE BLOG

If you've never hit on us before,  EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS is a COMMUNITY SERVICE BLOG focused on the homeless of the United States of America.  We are based in Southern California, which is the homeless capital of the United States, but we are interested in what's going on around the state and through the country and the world.

NOW THAT YOU ARE HERE, WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO STICK AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO READ THREE MORE POSTS BESIDES THE ONE THAT BROUGHT YOU TO US! 

Reading the news, we're aware that people are being driven out of homeless camp grounds all over the country by small and large cities who have little to no options for temporary shelters, temporary housing, or low income housing programs, and that some of them are putting people on buses to other towns with nothing more than their clothes on their back and a bag lunch.  We consider these "Round Ups" and "Shut Downs" and "Clean Ups"  as well as "Greyhound Therapy" to be akin to ETHNIC CLEANSING that happens in other countries where a minority group is unwanted.  In other parts of the world ETHNIC CLEANSING involves the theft of person's possessions (like when camps are mowed or police or other authorities take a homeless person's possessions) and often violent bloody death.  Here the deaths take longer and are less obvious when it's about lack of health care and dangerous living conditions that kill.


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We are always interested in stories you may wish to share about your actual experience of being homeless, living in a shelter, living in an RV or car, or depending on a non-profit that takes money from governmental agencies or donations with the stated goal of helping the homeless.  Use the COMMENTS FEATURE of this blog which is set on anonymous.  If you want us to know about a video, have music suggestions, want to give a testimonial but you DON'T want us to publish it, just advise us DO NOT PUBLISH!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO CALL FOOD BANKS - ASK ABOUT THEIR HOMELESS POLICIES

We have a list of about 20 FOOD BANKS and would like some volunteers to call them.  We prefer that you use your own cell or other phone and we have a list of questions for each of them.  Would you like to help us so we can report on what these food bank's have to offer the homeless?

Some food banks have more to offer the homeless than others.

If so, please leave a COMMENT with your e-mail address.  One of us will e-mail you about this little project.  We do not publish these comments so your name and e-mail address will not be seen by the world.

THANKS!

HOW TO USE THIS BLOG TO FIND SERVICES

HOW TO USE THIS BLOG TO FIND SERVICES

The SEARCH feature ( the white input block on the left side of the blog) is enabled so that you can run a search within EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS for information by using the exact name, part of the name, a TAG (which will bring up all posts in a category) such as "YOUTH",  "SHELTER", "ORANGE COUNTY",  or "QUESTIONS", as examples.

WE REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU LET US KNOW OF ANY OUT OF DATE LINK / INFORMATION YOU ENCOUNTER! 

You can do so using the comment feature, without having an e-mail address or blogger yourself.  We have the anonymous function turned on.  WE DO READ ALL COMMENTS before posting. 

You can also use this anonymous function to ask us to contact you without exposing your contact info.  Simply advise us DO NOT POST!

EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS IS A COMMUNITY SERVICE BLOG

EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS IS A COMMUNITY SERVICE BLOG!

WE DO NOT CHARGE MONEY AND WE DO NOT MAKE MONEY.
We do not anticipate charging or making money any time soon.
We do not pay for any Blog related services. 

GOOGLE BLOGGER IS FREE FROM GOOGLE as are all Google products we use.  Over the last year we have, according to Google Stats, enjoyed an average of 3000 hits a month.  We do not pay for any product or service to get these hits.  Interest in our blog is because of  the subject matter and thanks to the talent and energy put into it.

WE WANT TO THANK GOOGLE FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY.

If you are or were homeless and would like to volunteer to help us make phone calls about food banks and shelters, please leave your email address on a comment with the words DO NOT POST.  We will contact you privately!

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UPDATE OCTOBER 2013

Everything above remains true.  The only thing that's different is that we see more like 4000 to 5500 hits a month.  We'll continue to do this blog as long as we can!  We've put up some new PAGES on the sidebar with topics such as QUESTIONS TO ASK A SHELTER, or WHAT MAKES A GOOD CASE MANAGER!