THREE DOG NIGHT - EASY TO BE HARD

new video Jan 2015  - a favorite of ours!

CALIFORNIA FOOD BANKS TO SUPPLY FRESH VEGGIES

Marketwire breaking news: YOU MAY BE ABLE TO GET ENOUGH VEGGIES IN YOUR DIET AFTERALL!

"Thanks to participation from international logistics service provider IFCO SYSTEMS, CAFB is now providing fresh produce to food banks and people in need throughout California and beyond through its Farm to Family program. IFCO is subsidizing the use of its reusable plastic containers (RPCs) to growers for the transport of fresh produce to local food banks. The pilot program was launched with Ocean Mist Farms and Pacific International Marketing (Pacific).

"The California Association of Food Banks' 43 member food banks provide over 5,000 non-profit agencies with food. These agencies in turn distribute food directly to over 2 million hungry families and individuals. More than 25,000 volunteers support the food bank network. The mission of California Association of Food Banks is to provide a unified voice among food banks to maximize their ability to build a well nourished California.

A 10 YEAR PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESSE in DENVER

This is about a 10 year plan - started in 09 to end all Homelessness in Denver.

WE THINK THE NUMBER ONE WAY TO END HOMELESSNESS is to HAVE MORE LIVEABLE GOVERNMENT HOUSING, or for builders to be given MORE INCENTIVES to build LOW INCOME HOUSING.

HAS THE RECESSION/DEPRESSION LOWERED THE COST OF APARTMENTS IN YOUR CITY? WE DOUBT IT. Landlords can deduct the "business loss" they take from leaving an apartment vacant.

CHILD ABUSE UP 10% in LOS ANGELES COUNTY

"Calls to the Child Abuse Hotline jumped from 39,611 in the first half of last year to 43,693 in the same period this year.

Department of Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn said she believes the increase in calls is a combination of two factors: the economic stress on families being taken out on children and greater awareness of abuse from news coverage of child deaths.

"I believe the recession and the stress caused by poverty, unemployment, homelessness and two or three families having to move into one home are all starting to take their toll," Ploehn said.

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE above (click on the title of this post.)

ARE YOU BEING PRESSURED BY YOUR PROGRAM TO FAKE AN SSI OR SSDI CLAIM?

so that you can have income that will be used for housing?

Are you being referred to doctors or psychologists who cooperate in fraud?

Are your case manager(s) telling you it's income or move out?

JENNETTE MC CURDY - HOMELESS HEART

HOUSELESS OR HOMELESS ? REBECCA's COMMUNITY HAS PLENTY OF LINKS !

This site attempts to address the problem of ISOLATION. According to this group, plenty of people who are homeless get housing but still spend most of their time with homeless people because HAVING KEYS TO AN APARTMENT is not the same as HAVING A COMMUNITY TO BELONG TO!

Link now to REBECCA's COMMUNITY - Plenty of homeless voices to hear!

HAVE YOU BEEN RAPED ON THE STREET?

Homeless women seem to be targeted for rape more than women who are housed. This is one of the reasons homeless women seem to seek programs and shelters more than homeless men. Sometimes it's linked to prostitution, often not.

There are a number of reasons that homeless women are attacked. Mostly they are more vulnerable. Unfortunately, some homeless people are unable to check their impulses due to drug use or mental illness. HOMELESS ON HOMELESS STREET CRIME is a terrible reality, although some homeless, by carefully selecting their street buddies, do avoid it.

NORTH EAST VALLEY HEALTH CORPORATION -WALMARTIZATION OF HEALTH CARE

Call Keani Christianson at 213- 276-7153 for activism

NORTH EAST VALLEY HEALTH CORPORATION has opened two new location in recent times in our base neighborhood but CANNOT PROVIDE ITS OWN EMPLOYEES health care?

This is to us the Walmartisation of HEALTH CARE!

From a flyer handed out in March 2010:

"Northeast Valley Health Corporation (NEVHC) is one of the nation's largest community health centers. However, due to wages that haven't kept up with the cost of living, combined with unaffordable health insurance, many frontline caregivers at NEVHC are facing the same economic hardships as NEVHC patients and participants.CURRENTLY ONE IN THREE NEVHC employees qualifies for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families.

NEVHC management's proposal includes 10% increase in health care costs annually over the next three years. This increase in costs combined with minimal wage increases, is like asking employees to choose between putting food on the table and paying for family health care. It's putting families last."

BUTTERFLY

COMMON GROUND - "PROJECT 50"

In 2009, Common Ground will open our 3,000th unit of permanent and transitional housing in New York City, Connecticut, and upstate New York. With the goal of creating 4,000 additional units of housing for the homeless by 2015.

Founded by MacArthur and Ashoka Fellow Rosanne Haggerty in 1990, Common Ground is a pioneer in the development of supportive housing and other research-based practices that end homelessness. Common Ground’s network of well designed, affordable apartments — linked to the services people need to maintain their housing, restore their health, and regain their economic independence — has enabled more than 4,000 individuals to overcome homelessness.

LOS ANGELES TIME "PROJECT 50" ARTICLES - 4 FRONT PAGES 2010

We're posting the links as we found them on the LOS ANGELES TIMES DATABASE. PROJECT 50 was followed by a journalist and photojournalist for a couple years. The idea was to give 50 "hardcore homeless" FOUR WALLS and A BED, and not force them to have psychiatric help or anything else:

We've added four enclosure links to this post
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0801-homeless-20100801,0,4294177.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0803-homeless-20100803,0,6915621.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homeless-20100805,0,2743180.story
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-0807-homeless-20100807,0,1678240.story

BUTTERFLY ON LAZY SUSAN

We've UPDATED our list of HOMELESS BLOGS

When we redesigned this blog, we lost some of our links and blogs... We've updated them. One or two have changed names or gone private...

Many of these blogs have MANY contributors or writers: Don't feel all alone! Read what others have to say!

ARETHA FRANKLIN - R E S P E C T ! ! !

MALIBU HOUSE OF HOPE

MALIBU HOUSE OF HOPE directs money towards helping homeless children and youth, many who come out of the Foster Care system.

Yes this wealthy beach community does have some homeless adults, some who are camping out on the beach, many traveling north from Santa Monica, California.

DO YOUR CHILDREN HAVE ACCESS TO A LIBRARY THAT WILL ALLOW TUTORS and STUDY AREAS?

Are your homeless children allowed to go to your local library after school for tutoring and do they have a study area? (Some libraries are not happy with talking or don't have special areas for children.)

CHARITY JEWISH STYLE BOB ESHMAN, JEWISH JOURNAL

CHARITY JEWISH STYLE
Rob Eshman, the Editor in Chief at the Jewish Journal wrote a story in the July 27th 2007 edition about the Jewish notions of PHILANTHROPY.
I would like to share his list here which he called "abbreviated."

LEVELS
8) One gives donations grudgingly.

7) One gives less than he should, but does so cheerfully.

6) One gives directly to the poor upon being asked.

5) One gives directly to the poor without being asked.

4) The recipient is aware of the donor's identity but the donor does not know the identity of the recipient.

3) The donor is aware of the recipient's identity, but the recipient is unaware of the source.

2) The donor and recipient are unknown to each other.

1) The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person before they become impoverished by offering a substantial gift in a dignities manner, by extending a suitable loan or by helping them find employment or establish themselves in business so as to make it unnecessary for them to become dependent on others....


(We thank a reader for forwarding this to us!)

BUTTERFLY ON LAZY SUSANS

REMEMBER OUR HOMELESS CHILDREN.

COUNTY UCLA OLIVE VIEW - AVERAGE 12 HOUR WAIT

Here in Los Angeles County there are several "free clinics" many who offer a sliding scale or who take Medicare, but most of them cannot take more patients or are too booked to help you if you are having a sort of emergency.

If you are having problems breathing, having pain in the abdomen, think you may be miscarrying, you are told to go to Olive View, or one of the other county hospitals that are operating on no money somehow...

Olive View in particular has a 12 hour wait on the average in the emergency room. Of course patients ambulanced in go first. But have you ever sat that long next to someone who was pretty sure they were going to need surgery on a gallbladder or an appendix? We have.

Some people say they get excellent care for all their waiting, others remain unable to work waiting...

And YES there is a small homeless population sleeping sitting up in the lights and uncomfortable chairs of the Olive View waiting room...

EBONY AND IVORY PAUL MCCARTNEY and STEVIE WONDER

What we need to survive...

OREGON HAS THE HIGHEST CONCENTRATION of HOMELESS POPULATION IN THE NATION

"For example, according to one study, Los Angeles was spending $6 million a year to pay for 50 extra police officers as part of a crackdown on crime in the Skid Row area at a time when the city budgeted only $5.7 million for homeless services.

The growth in homelessness fuels the debate. In Multnomah County, a count in January found 1,591 people sleeping outside, 820 in emergency shelters and 27 staying in motels with vouchers. That was 13 percent higher than in 2007. The deterioration in the economy since January means there are probably more homeless on Portland streets now, officials said.

A recent study by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development found that Oregon has the highest concentration of homeless people of any state in the nation, .54 percent of the population.

Portland tried to work out a solution in 2007 by providing benches, public bathrooms and the promise of a new center for homeless people where they could hang out during the day and access services such as permanent housing."


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2015 note.  As of last year FLORIDA has the highest percentage of HOMELESS FAMILIES.

HOMELESS VOICE - UPDATED 2015!

THIS BLOG is right in line with us... so check them out!http://www.homelessvoice.org/

VENTURA COUNTY HOMELESS and HOUSING COALITION

VENTURA COUNTY, semi rural, lots of farm land and farm workers bending over in the fields...

We encourage you also to do a little research into what resources are available for those who become homeless in your area. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAD NO ONE TO TURN TO, HAD LOST YOUR JOB and NOW YOUR HOME? Here is a link to one organization in Ventura County that says it will help...

Here is what CC said:
I was criticized by the neighbors who had known me for years. They were nowhere for me, did not lift a box to help me get things into storage. One practically spit on me as I left my home (an apartment) of a decade... I WILL NEVER FORGET THE MEANESS... And I hate being a charity case..."

WEALTHY SANTA BARBARA PARKING LOT IS HOME

This is an old news article from 2007 but it's about all the homeless who are living in vehicles in parking lots in Santa Barbara...other articles have appeared saying the same in 2008, 2009... Apparently there is work in mansions as a servant, but who trusts a homeless person to work in a mansion?

"We've lived in the homeless shelter, and it's full of people that are drunk and on drugs," said Carlos Cortez.

Working but too poor to afford rent in this expensive city, Cortez and his wife, Naomi, scraped together enough money to buy an old recreational vehicle they can live in.

It's a phenomenon that is happening all over the country as people are priced out of local housing and have nowhere else to go where life might be better.

California alone has about 350,000 homeless people. Santa Barbara has 2,000, some still trying to make it in the working world."