BLACK AND GREY BUTTERFLY

ARTFUL SOLUTIONS: PATHWAYS FROM HOMELESSNESS at the (Pasadena California) ARMORY

The Armory Center for the Arts is located at 145 North Raymond Avenue in Old Pasadena. Isn't it a bit ironic that so many National Armorys are used as cold weather shelters for the homeless?

Here is what the official brochure for December 2008 Through December 31, 2009 says.

"The culmination of a series of art workshops for men, women, and children coordinated in partnership with the Pasadena Police Department's HOMELESS OUTREACH/PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION (HOPE) Team, the Armory, and Union Station Homeless Services. Much of the art is for sale, with all proceeds going to the artists."



Click on the title above for more information.

HERE'S AN ADVICE ARTICLE FROM A FAMILY WITH 8 CHILDREN THAT WENT HOMELESS

Called, HOW TO SURVIVE BEING HOMELESS, by By harleyangelbrat, eHOW writer. Now as you are reading about the potted meats, beans, and peanut butter, think about all that cholestrol and think about how those kids are going to be a success in school sleeping in the outdoors or in a crime ridden shelter....

MONARCH BUTTERFLY

SHELTER LOVE ? IS HOMELESS LOVE POSSIBLE?

CAN HOMELESS PEOPLE FALL IN LOVE WHILE LIVING AT OR SLEEPING IN A SHELTER AT NIGHT? WHAT ABOUT WHILE LIVING IN CARS AND VANS, TENT CITIES, OR IN THE PARK OR ON THE CITY STREET?

SO LONG AS THERE ARE HUMAN BEINGS THERE WILL BE THE WILL TO LOVE. AND LIFE IS A BIT EASIER WITH A PARTNER TO SHARE IN OUR LIVES.

SOME OF US HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS THAT DON'T CHALLENGE COMMONERS. SOME OF US DO HAVE DRUG PROBLEMS OR MENTAL ILLNESS. THESE ISSUES CAN FEEL OVERWHELMING AT TIMES THOUGH SOMETIMES THERE IS HELP. SOME OF US HAD IT TOGETHER FOR MANY YEARS BUT JUST LOST OUR HOMES.

WE MAY HAVE TO GO WITHOUT RINGS. WE MAY NEVER BE ABLE TO AFFORD FLOWERS OR TAKING EACH OTHER OUT ON DATES TO DINNER AND THE MOVIES. BUT LOVE DOES NOT REQUIRE A LARGE POCKETBOOK, ONLY A BIG HEART!

DIDO - THANK YOU!

Dido's video of an eviction set to such hopeful music... How many of us started out in homelessness due to eviction?

NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS

NEW LINK! LOT'S TO READ from the NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS !

HANNA TURNER's SOCKS FOR THE HOMELESS - www.hannasocks.org

People Magazine is reporting in it's February 9th, 2009 issue, that Hanna Turner, an 8 year old African-American young lady from Perrysburgh, Ohio, has started a campaign to put new socks on the homeless.

CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO GET TO HER CHARITY.

In an article written by Sharon Cotliar, we learned that on Thansgiving 2004, Hannah as a 4 year old wanted to give her own socks to a homeless person. Her mom Doris bought 100 pairs of socks to help her start her give away.

Says Hannah "Their faces," she says, "look happy," when a new pair of socks changes a person's day.

HURRAY HANNAH TURNER !!!

TONY HILLERMAN quote from his memoir

From TONY HILLERMAN's SELDOM DISAPPOINTED a Memoir
C 2001 by the author
HarperCollinsPublishers

page 66-67

"The Depression had made it socially acceptable to be out on the road without bus ticket money. With the unemployment rate about 30 percent, those fortune enough to be driving certainly had friends or relatives uprooted and homeless drifting around in the hope that they'd find work over the horizon. Then came the war, further uprooting, gasoline rationing, jam-packed public transportation, and millions of men trying to get home or back to camp. Failing to pick up someone with his thumb out was antisocial. Passing up one in uniform was akin to treason. For servicemen hitchhiking became so common that a protocol was developed. if others were seeking rides on your stretch of highway you moved down the line past them. They we4re expected to suggest to the driver who picked them up that you, too, would appreciate a ride. The point to the above being that hitchhiking was easy, orthodox, sometimes exciting....."

FINCA - an IDEA FOR THE UNITED STATES

If You'll click on the title above you'll get to the site for FINCA "Small Loans Big Changes" a non profit that is truly inspirational.

NOW CAN SOME AMERICAN START A SMALL LOANS PROGRAM FOR THE HOMELESS and OTHERS IN POVERTY HERE IN THE USA! Because I was "out of business" over a $200 computer repair at one time!

TWO PASTEL BUTTERFLIES

SOMETHING IN THE AIR - THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN

ANOTHER HOMELESS BLOG TO LOOK AT - CEO OF PATH - LA

Click on the link below to check out this blog, supposed to be owned by a CEO of a Los Angeles homeless program called PATH

OASIS - WONDERWALL

NATIONAL HOMELESS UNDERGROUND - BLOG

Click on the title above to get to this blog!

Here are some blurbs from it:

"In Greater Los Angeles, the number of homeless families receiving welfare benefits from the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) increased 20 percent to almost 7,100 from June to August (2008), according to the paper."

"Similarly, the number of indigent adults, many of whom are homeless, receiving 221 dollars monthly general relief checks, has risen from about 61,500 at the beginning of the year to just over 70,000 in August, the paper said."

FIVE BUTTERFLIES

HOMELESS IN TEXAS - LIVING IN THE WOODS

HAVE A BETTER 2009!

The other day a woman who had spent some time downtown on skidrow before she became clean and sober told me that the first thing she wants to do when she's on her feet financially again is to go out and buy tennis shoes, jeans, and shirts, and cook up some soul food, and take it back downtown to give away!

What ever little you have, if you have enough to share, please do!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ! CINDI LAUPER - TRUE COLORS

 

Christmas is a hard time for many Homeless. Although this time of the year many people donate to Homeless Charities so that people can have a meal, there are still many who will go hungry tonight and do not have the basics of food, shelter, and clothing. In many places in the United States it will be cold and the day will be just one more spent looking for somewhere to keep warm. Some of us are also reminded of the rejection we have endured from our family and so called friends.

Whatever your circumstances, remember that YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL !

We HOMELESS ACTIVISTS send our love.

Here's Cyndi Lauper singing TRUE COLORS

UPDATE : CYNDI has the TRUE COLORS FOUNDATION and in speaking to Congress has admitted that she lived in youth hostels and shelters. 

https://truecolorsfund.org/   Link UPDATED APRIL 2016

NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF THE HOMELESS

Click on the link above to get to the New York City Department of the Homeless !

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW to go to INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS

Lots to read with reports from around the United States....

STATUE OF LIBERTY FOUNDATION and FAMOUS POETRY

Click on the title above to get to the poem and website or read it below!

The New Colossus

By Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,us
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

By The Way... We would like your OPINION of the SHELTERS WHERE YOU STAY

We'll be posting a lot of links over time. WE DO NOT NECESSARILY RECOMMEND ANY SHELTER OR OTHER CHARITY HERE. We would like your HONEST OPINION!

ARE YOU TREATED AS A HUMAN BEING?
ARE SOCIAL WORKERS TOO BURNED OUT TO SHOW EMPATHY OR CARE?
ARE YOU BEING PREACHED AT?

THANKSGIVING LA FAMILY HOUSING - GIVES OUT EVICTION NOTICES !

We've picked up our first ugly rumor! Please verify!

It seems that a caseworker for Los Angeles Family Housing actually drove to the shelter in North Hollywood, California, with a stack of eviction notices ON THANKSGIVING DAY, his day off, letting up to 30 homeless know that they had to be out on December first, the reasoning being that THE COLD WEATHER SHELTER in SYLMAR opens December first!

While some of these people know they have broken Rules, word has it that the new director John Horn and upper management are behind making RULES that are ARBITRARY AND RIDICULOUS in order to clear the house, which has a wait list of over 400 people... Further, we hear that the past director who had more heart, Jerome Nilson, is now at some branch of PATH...

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Here's some information on OPEN ID from Yahoo

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/open_id/