orange_county Letter regarding homeless serial killer
pinkberry When Pinkberry becomes Punkberry
1950homeless Let’s recall poverty before the safety net
stereotype Killing homeless stereotypes in Orange County

Broken Social Safety Net is Making Americans Sick

By Joel John Roberts | Feb 6, 2012

I work within a few office spaces away from a waiting room filled to the brim with people that are so impoverished they have resorted to living on the streets. Those of us on the front lines battling homelessness in America know that the so-called American social safety net is tattered.

An incredulous gasp is my only response when a presidential candidate, worth a quarter of a billion dollars, publicly states on national television that this country has a “very ample safety net” for poor Americans.

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Welfare Expenditures at Strip Clubs Underscore Rationality of the Poor


A new bill being floated in the US House of Representatives aims to abolish a loop-hole that allows cash-aid welfare recipients to use welfare benefits at strip clubs and casinos. As reported by Politico, the bill, introduced by Republican Representative Charles Boustany is intended to prevent the “fraudulent misuse of funds” in the government’s welfare program.

Sounds pretty serious. So how big of a problem is this?

Apparently, it’s not a big problem at all. In California, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger enforced an executive order prohibiting casinos from accepting welfare benefits as payment. His order was in response to this LA Times expose on the unintended use of benefits.

DC Homelessness Figures Buck Nationwide Trends


This year’s State of Homelessness report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) presents, in some ways, a rosier picture than last year’s. Big headline is that homelessness decreased between 2009 and 2011 — not only the overall rate, but the rates for people in families, veterans and the chronically homeless, i.e., individuals with disabilities, including [...]
By Joel John Roberts | Jan 30, 2012
One, two, three… In the darkness of early morning, the counting can be monotonous, an exercise that almost puts you to sleep.
By Joel John Roberts | Jan 23, 2012
What is this country coming to when a guy in a car chases down a homeless man and pounds him with a tire iron, just because they exchanged angry words? Sounds like the old Wild West where guns were the primary mode of justice, or today’s drug cartels terrorizing its people just south of America.
By Kathryn Baer | Jan 20, 2012
Huffington Post blogger Dan Morgan looks back nearly 50 years to tell us what poverty was like in his early reporting days.
By Joel John Roberts | Jan 18, 2012
At first glance, he appears to be the stereotypical image of a killer of homeless Americans.
By David Henderson | Jan 17, 2012
Yesterday the country celebrated Martin Luther King Day.
By Kathryn Baer | Jan 12, 2012
Some Capitol Hill staffers and other interested parties, including yours truly, got an earful on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program from experts who know it well — five current and former “welfare mothers.