A HELLO TO EVERYONE READING EXPOSE HOMELESSNESS

Yes, we are still around - and it's nice to know that over a thousand hits registered on our blog, even though we have stepped away from it for a while.  As the cold season is upon us, we know that everyone out there who is in their cars and street homeless (which is easily 2/3rds of homeless) are gearing up for the cold and damp. 

Our friend who has been working while camped out is just one of many who needs a free blanket.
So those of you who have spares donate!

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. 


***************************************

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."

THE CLEARING - DAVID CROSBY and JAMES RAYMOND

FOOD ON FOOT - HOMELESS JOBS and HOUSING

NEED a JOB and HOMELESS?  JUST UNEMPLOYED and AFRAID OF BECOMMING HOMELESS?


Work for Food Program accepts ready to work individuals who will receive an opportunity to earn a FULL TIME JOB, a fully furnished and permanent apartment, a monthly bus pass, food cards, free ID voucher, free meals, gently used clothing, and rewards based on hard work.


APPLICATIONS SUNDAYS ONLY at
1625 North Schrader Blvd.  Hollywood  (north of Selma, east of Highland Avenue.)
in the parking lot of the Gay and Lesbian Center  (You do not need to be gay or lesbian)


NEW PARTICIPANT SCREENING 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM (be in the gate before 11:30 AM).


Let us hear from you after you go through the screening!


https://www.foodonfoot.org/

CATERINA's CLUB HAS EXPANDED TO INCLUDE SOME JOB TRAINING and GETTING MOTEL FAMILIES INTO HOUSING

Bruno Serato named his charity CATARINA's CLUB after his mom who suggested he feed the kids.  He's been doing so for several years.  We first linked to this organization in the fall of 2012.  We were able to listen to some of the KFI Marathon, and were happy to hear that Bruno's Charity has expanded.  Every night his volunteers cook up pasta and sauce for about 1,500 kids who live in motels.  His charity has expanded to giving some of the kids the opportunity to have some one the job training in the restaurant business.  Most of all, he has helped over 150 families get into apartments instead of living in the motels.


THE CHARITY GOT TONS OF PASTA AND SAUCE BUT IS STILL TRYING TO MEET IT'S HIGHER FINANCIAL GOALS FOR THE COMING YEAR.


CATERINA'S CLUB ORG


So if you're a motel kid, you might want to take Bruno up on what he's offering.


CHECK OUT HIS SITE TO FIND OUT IF YOU'RE IN HIS RANGE.

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

JAMES TAYLOR - FIRE AND RAIN

JIM CROCE - OPERATOR

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!

BUTTERFLY RAVE

HALLOWEEN

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

CHI-LITES - HAVE YOU SEE HER?

PINK FLOYD - COMFORTABLY NUMB

ALL THESE RESOURCES and IT'S STILL NOT ENOUGH!

ALL THESE RESOURCES that we want you to KNOW ABOUT just in case some or all of them are OPTIONS for you.  OPTIONS that  you can make CHOICES about!


There are a lot of HOMELESS RESOURCE BUSINESSES (even though they are called non-profits, they usually take in enough money to pay staff, pay their rent or mortgage, and so on) and yet THE GREAT NUMBER OF HOMELESS people IN NEED OF HELP, temporary or long term, is OVERWHELMING these resources.


WHAT WOULD MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?


A CULTURE THAT ACTUALLY UPHOLDS THE VALUE OF EVERY HUMAN BEING.  A CULTURE THAT STOPS PRETENDING IT'S "CHRISTIAN," or SPIRITUAL or RELIGIOUS and ACTUALLY IS!


THIS POST is DEDICATED to those who have TRIED SHELTERS and prefer THE STREET!