Frustration When a local homeless debate goes viral
Lower standards Lower standards wrong way to increase outcomes
Homeless Ending homelessness or saving lives?
Out of order No help for homeless DC family

Charity Impossible: Do America’s Charities Need Rescuing?

By | May 16, 2012

Going Out of Business SignRobert Irvine charges in like a bull in a fine dining establishment, except the restaurant in need of rescuing is not fine. In fact, typically it’s failing. His television show on Food Network, Restaurant: Impossible, showcases Irvine’s talent for reviving dying eateries with a change of interior, menu, branding and, of course, food. At the end of each episode, the nearly-shuttered restaurant becomes a successful, vibrant community eating space.

Does the charity world need a similar hero? Read More »

House Ways and Means Shifts Costs, Wipes Out Services Grants


I wouldn’t want to leave the impression that the House Agriculture Committee’s attack on the food stamp program was the only threat to low-income people spawned by the Republican majority’s effort to protect defense spending.

The Ways and Means Committee also had to find more savings — $53 billion over the next 10 years. And it too met its target by shifting costs to low-income people. But they’re not the only ones who’ll be harmed by what it’s come up with — far from it.

Dispersing the Homeless through Sonic Blasts is Just Plain Wrong


I’m not surprised anymore when people complain to their council members about homeless people sleeping in the alleys behind their houses, or when homeowners call the police insisting that these people are breaking the law and need to be arrested.

What about angry neighbors who create blogs that post contact information of homeless advocates? Not surprised.
By | May 2, 2012
How would you like to try living on $275 a month — and in the District of Columbia no less? Inconceivable for a single person.
By | Apr 30, 2012
Can a push of a virtual button, or a click of a plastic computer mouse, really change the world? The generation before me consisted of traditional activists who rebelled against an American society that they thought had wrongfully sent young men to kill Southeast Asians without much clear rationale, other than to fight some political theory that supposedly threatened democracy.
By | Apr 25, 2012
You can’t have both guns and butter.
By | Apr 23, 2012
When homelessness touches a community, polarized stakeholder camps battle with each other like it is a high-stakes presidential campaign.
By | Apr 19, 2012
Measurements are often given meaning relative to thresholds.
By | Apr 17, 2012
I can only imagine losing my job, then my house, then ending up sleeping behind a trash bin behind the local grocery store.
By | Apr 12, 2012
I met a homeless family the other day.