Academic

Denying housing over criminal record may be discrimination, Feds say

Posted on April 04, 2016
It may be getting easier for people with criminal records to find housing.In new guidance, the Department of Housing and Urban Development tells landlords that turning down tenants or buyers based on their criminal records may violate the Fair Housing Act...

OMG! Homeless people are sleepingand bathing at the Orlando airport

Posted on December 26, 2014
Some Orlando airport employees have contacted the media to report that homeless people are using the airport's first level to sleep and even bathe in the public bathrooms -- and that's upsetting travelers."It is an issue," said Norma McCann, who's on vacation from West Virginia...

Outrage forces Marseille to scrap yellow triangle IDs

Posted on December 05, 2014
Authorities in Marseille were blasted for its plan to issue its homeless with ID cards featuring yellow triangles that detail their health issues. Although the initiative was aimed at making it easier for health workers to know what they were dealing with in emergency situations, human rights groups and government ministers were equally outraged, comparing the cards to the Nazi-era yellow Star of David that was sewn onto Jewish people?s clothes during the Holocaust...

French homeless forced to wear 'yellow triangles'

Posted on December 04, 2014
Arnaud, a homeless man, wears the controversial yellow triangle. Photo: AFP/Anne-Christine Poujoul.Authorities in France?s second-largest city have come under fire for issuing its homeless with ID cards that detail their health issues. Human rights groups and government ministers have slammed the ?yellow triangle cards?, comparing them to the Nazi-era Star of David that was sewn onto Jewish people?s clothes during the Holocaust...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

You can't get food in Florida but you can shower in the Vatican

Posted on November 14, 2014
The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis plans to build showers for the homeless in St. Peter's Square.The endeavor is a joint project being undertaken by Francis and Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner who, according to Religion News Service, is responsible for overseeing charitable acts on behalf of the pope...

California city bans homeless from sleeping outside: If they leave, ?then that?s their choice?

Posted on November 10, 2014
Two ordinances aimed at clearing out the homeless population have been passed unanimously by the city council of Manteca, California.One will ban people from sleeping or setting up encampments on any public or private property as of December 4, although the homeless won?t be jailed or fined...

?Why do they waste their money on junk food?? If you've ever said that, you need to read this

Posted on September 30, 2014
As a nation, we?re slowly realizing that whole, fresh foods are good for you and that cooking at home can save you money and provide you with better nutrition.Overall, this is a great trend. It?s becoming easier and more common to get fresh food, whole foods, local foods, and organic foods...

LA's homeless allowed to live in cars, appeals court rules

Posted on June 20, 2014
A federal appeals court has struck down Los Angeles? ban on homeless people living in vehicles, declaring that the law ?opens the door to discriminatory enforcement? against the poor.A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the city?s ordinance, which bans people from living in cars or recreational vehicles on city streets or in parking lots, is unconstitutionally vague...

If homeless people had a safe place to live, taxpayers could save millions

Posted on June 07, 2014
In a world where money talks, evidence that putting a roof over someone's head is a boon to city budgets could be the incentive cities need to build housing for the homeless.Researchers at the University of North Carolina?Charlotte's Department of Social Work have found that housing constructed specifically for homeless people saved the city millions...

Almost half of homeless men had a previous brain injury

Posted on June 05, 2014
A new study of homeless men found that 45% of the subjects surveyed had experienced traumatic brain injuries in the past.?You could see how it would happen,? says Jane Topolovec-Vranic, a researcher in trauma and neurosurgery at St. Michael?s Hospital in Toronto...

A Kissimmee native's view of homelessness

Posted on May 08, 2014
"Really it?s just a roll of the dice when you think about it, what separates you from the family living in the hotel room down the road," writes Samantha Stonebraker-Bailey. "When you can humble yourself to think about it, it?s very little. I am not too proud to say that there is nothing that separates me to the families who are homeless, what happened to these families was hardships, and could happen to my family too...

Los Angeles police arrest grandmother 59 times

Posted on May 03, 2014
Ann Moody believes that she has a right to be wherever she chooses to be.According to a federal appeals court, she is absolutely correct. The ruling, made in 2006, stated that due to the extreme lack of provided shelter, the city of Los Angeles could no longer arrest people for sleeping and sitting in public...

Americans are deeply divided over what causes poverty in the first place

Posted on January 26, 2014
The belief that people are poor more through their own lack of effort than their circumstances is widely held by large segments of the population, including 51% of Republicans, and 46% of people in the highest income group (which is not that high). If you fall into this category, then it clearly doesn't make sense for society to try to solve a problem that it had little hand in creating...

?What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can?t afford to buy a hamburger??

Posted on January 20, 2014
Over the years, Martin Luther King?s more controversial edges have been smoothed over. He was a strident critic of capitalism and materialistic society. Referring to the now iconic Greensboro Lunch Counter sit-ins, he asked, ?What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can?t afford to buy a hamburger??King also explicitly linked the problem of capitalism with the problem of racism...

Recently homeless older adults have different needs than those who have been homeless for a long time

Posted on January 19, 2014
In addition to the lifelong elderly homeless population, there are now elderly people who are becoming homeless for the first time in their lives. Recently homeless older adults have different needs than those that have been homeless for a long time, according to the study "Living on the Margins: Older Homeless Adults in Toronto," published in Journal of Gerontological Social Work...

As homelessness increases across Massachusetts, downtown Boston feels the surge

Posted on January 12, 2014
Local, state, and federal officials have reported record numbers of homeless people in Massachusetts, especially families and youths. In late 2012, city officials counted 6,992 homeless men, women, and children in Boston, 5% more than the year before and 17% more than in 2001...

Florida can't drug test people simply because they?re poor

Posted on January 03, 2014
Citing the 4th Amendment's protections against unreasonable government searches, a federal District Court handed down a blistering decision in the final hours of 2013 that knocked down a Florida law mandating that all applicants for the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program submit to suspicionless drug tests...

"We are this close -- this close! -- to losing our democracy to the mercenary class"

Posted on December 13, 2013
Award-winning journalist Bill Moyers says America's social contract has to cover everyone, not just the wealthy.He quotes Justice William J. Brennan, who said: "We do not yet have justice, equal and practical, for the poor, for the members of minority groups, for the criminally accused, for the displaced persons of the technological revolution, for alienated youth, for the urban masses ...

RIP Nelson Mandela

Posted on December 05, 2013
?Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.?

Obama: Income gap a 'fundamental threat' to US

Posted on December 04, 2013
President Barack Obama put a spotlight on rising income inequality in a major economic speech, arguing that the disparity is poses a "fundamental threat" to the American dream.Marshaling both the recent papal exhortation by Pope Francis and a flurry of statistics reflecting a growing income gap between the wealthiest Americans and most others, Obama urged Washington to adopt policies to address the economic divide...

New Mexico?s largest homeless shelter challenges new HUD report on homelessness

Posted on December 02, 2013
HUD has released its national estimate of homelessness, reporting that the homeless population in New Mexico fell by 18% since 2010, to 2,819 persons in 2013."We know from first-hand experience that the number of homeless in Albuquerque continues to grow, and the need for meals and other services are on the rise," said Jeremy Reynalds, Joy Junction CEO...

Church group ordered to stop feeding homeless on Thanksgiving

Posted on November 30, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving to all, but apparently not for the homeless living at Palm Beach County?s John Prince Park in Lake Worth.A dozen church members from Acts 2 Worship Center in Loxahatchee showed up with packaged Thanksgiving meals. "We brought our kids out here so they could see what it?s really like for people that are struggling,? said church member Brian Oakes...

No more home-cooked donations at Thanksgiving meal for Pasadena homeless

Posted on November 27, 2013
Mark Rice lines up to get a free meal at Union Station Homeless Services' Thanksgiving dinner. Photo courtesy of Union Station Homeless Services.The Pasadena charity Union Station Homeless Services will not be serving home-prepared dishes donated by community members at its annual Thanksgiving meal this year...

Elected official uses sledgehammer to destroy homeless people?s possessions

Posted on November 19, 2013
A state representative in Hawaii is going around town with a sledgehammer smashing the belongings of homeless people to bits. He is "disgusted" by the homeless, doesn't want to see them, and is so proud of his actions that he happily allows himself to be filmed while swinging the hammer at the meager possessions of the most vulnerable people in our society...

One giant lie

Posted on November 02, 2013
The Republican war on food stamps is based on one giant lie.Ask any Republican on Capitol Hill about the proposed cut of $39 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as food stamps, and they'll say that the billions we spend each year on the SNAP program are a waste, and that the program is hurting our economy...

Escambia County's panhandling ordinance challenged as unconstitutional

Posted on March 29, 2011
Does Escambia County's controversial panhandling ordinance unconstitutionally prohibit free speech?The ACLU of Northwest Florida is helping to represent Mark Brune, 49, a homeless man who was arrested Feb. 1 on a charge of violating the ordinance.The ordinance prohibits soliciting and panhandling under certain circumstances, including after sunset and before sunrise, at bus stops, within 20 feet of ATMs and bank entrances or from a driver in traffic...

City considers homeless exclusion zone

Posted on March 28, 2011
A downtown exclusion zone is being considered in Ashland, Oregon, as an alternative to the growing list of citations and thousands of dollars in unpaid fines accumulated by the city?s homeless population.The police are frustrated that repeat citations for nuisance violations like urinating in public and sleeping on private property are ignored by the homeless...

Church suspends minister for defying order to close homeless shelter

Posted on March 28, 2011
A church has suspended its minister 15 months after he defied orders to close a homeless shelter.Rev. Hedley Fihaki from the Cairns Emmanuel Uniting Church in Australia has been suspended for three months.But members from his congregation called the suspension a ?bully move? by the Brisbane head office who disciplined him for challenging directives and helping the homeless by delaying the eviction...

Activists still fight to eliminate meal limit for Gainesville homeless

Posted on March 28, 2011
The Independent Florida Alligator takes a look at the dispute over the legal number of meals Gainesville soup kitchens can give out every day. It's a long-running disagreement in which supporters have drawn lines in concrete, where city commissioners are called uncaring and a soup kitchen owner is seen as irresponsible and victimized, depending on who you talk to...

I hope it's not someone I know

Posted on March 24, 2011
A man was found dead early this morning behind a Save Rite store, in an area where many homeless people have camps, the Orlando Police Department said.Detectives called the death suspicious and said a homicide investigation has been opened.The man's identity or cause of death has not been determined...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.