My father was in the Army infantry in World War II. When I was a child he never talked about his experience. For an out-going, talkative man, my father’s silence was peculiar. The rifles he took home from the war were hidden in our garage. His weapons were curiously labeled, “thirty-aught-six.”
I could never figure out why he did not speak about the war until I became an adult, operating homeless programs in Los Angeles. For many soldiers drafted into combat, the sights, sounds, and smells of organized death were just too much.
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According to the United States Department of Labor, Labor Day “is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”
While American Workers have contributed to our country’s overall strength and prosperity, in the current economic climate, the prosperity of the American worker is threatened by the staggering national unemployment rate.
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Susan Madden Lankford
A tragic accident 20 years ago brought about a surprising revelation for Susan Madden Lankford, inspiring her to get more involved with what was happening in her community. Four local teenage boys got high and were involved a terrible car accident right outside her family’s property in San Diego. All of the boys were students at her daughters’ high school. One of the boys died in the accident.
“It was a harsh reality as a young mother with three girls. This was their high school,” Lankford said. “It took me into very sharp focus internally.”
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Dr. O'Connell with a patient.
The delicate dance between housing and health continues to fascinate and bewilder us. The frequent utilization of emergency rooms and hospitals by urban “rough sleepers” has challenged us to understand the obstacles and barriers to health faced by those struggling to survive each day on the streets of our cities.
Information about this elusive sub-population of homeless persons has been sparse, and this past December we completed a 10-year prospective study of a fixed cohort of 119 individuals living chronically on Boston’s streets. The deplorable results are a clarion call to all of us working in public hospitals and academic medical centers: despite an average age of 46 at the onset of this study, over 40% have died and another 10% are now permanently in nursing homes. The causes of death were primarily medical, with cancer and end-stage liver disease most common.
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A warehouse full of tiny storage units is a sign of society’s indulgent excess.
Back in the 1970’s when the economy was roaring its monetary might; a company called Public Storage was created to store the excess collectibles from this country’s populace. Small rooms, the size of bedrooms, were rented to store old family photos, 8-track music tape collections, and treasured furniture that just don’t fit into their homes. Last year, Public Storage was a $1.6 billion dollar company.
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Editor’s note: On Tuesday, August 24th, Andy Bales, the CEO of Union Rescue Mission (URM) in Los Angeles, CA wrote a piece describing the rationale behind URM’s decision to charge some shelter residents a fee. In this post he describes the implementation of URM’s new policy.
When I wrote about the idea of charging some Union Rescue Mission (URM) guests a fee for their shelter stay on our blog, we received fantastic feedback. We also met with local community activists who formerly experienced homelessness, and gained valuable insight from them.
From these discussions we developed a pilot program, now called the Gateway program, of twenty-five beds that would consist of a covenant relationship with some benefits in return for participation.
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Vanada Lewis is grateful that her dog, Milo, can stay at Petco Place while she receives housing at PATH Hollywood.
In July, People Assisting The Homeless (PATH) won funding through the Pepsi Refresh Project, a monthly contest in which voters decide which 32 projects, out of 1,000, will receive grants. PATH received the second-highest number of votes in its category, and on August 22nd Pepsi awarded the organization $5,000 to help support Petco Place, an innovative project providing shelter to the pets of people experiencing homelessness.
Approximately 10% of homeless people have pets, but very few shelters allow animals. Petco Place, a unique “shelter within a shelter” located in PATH’s Hollywood Center, is one of only two programs in the U.S. that offer housing to both homeless individuals and their companion animals. Read More »
Editor’s note: On Monday, August 23 we ran a piece about homeless shelters charging their guests fees to stay in their shelters. Andy Bales, the CEO of Union Rescue Mission (URM) in Los Angeles, CA recently announced URM would charge some shelter residents a fee. Andy has written a two-part series for Poverty Insights explaining URM’s reasons for moving to a fee-based model for some guests.
I first became aware of the idea to allow guests to participate in their eventual transition out of homelessness by paying a proportion of the cost of their program when I walked into the Door of Faith mission in Des Moines, Iowa, over twenty-four years ago.
The Door of Faith was an interesting place, because it had been established by a man, George Holloway, who had himself experienced homelessness for thirty-seven years. George did not like what he had experienced, so he established a mission that welcomed men, fed them extremely well, helped them avoid addictions, expected and enforced sobriety, allowed them to stay in all day or rest on their bunks when they were not working, and required them to either work or utilize their income to pay a portion of their own way.
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In this tough economy, consumers are getting hit hard. If you are lucky enough to dine out to eat, you don’t get free water unless you ask. Sit on an airplane seat, and you will be charged for checking in baggage, eating a meal, or using one of their blankets. Soon, pay toilets may be installed on planes.
The world of homelessness is no different. Consumers of homeless services just got hit over the head with a fee that some critics think could be a significant barrier toward getting off the streets; a fee for a bed.
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Working on poverty is like being in politics, everyone has an opinion on the subject. While I welcome multiple view points on an issue, having an opinion does not necessarily mean having something worth saying.
My professional work with my company, Idealistics, is based in U.S. poverty, as is the focus of this site. However, I try to stay current on developing world poverty and its consequences, such as the recent floods in Pakistan that have affected an estimated 20 million people.
I, like most people who work on domestic poverty issues, have a global appreciation for the depth of developing world poverty. It seems to make sense that if one cares about improving the lives of hurting people, political borders do not restrict one’s compassion.
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