Academic

Feeding bodies and souls (and exercising their constitutional rights)

Posted on March 25, 2009
Each Sunday, a picnic shelter in Orlando's Langford Park becomes the First Vagabonds Church of God, where homeless people receive food for their bodies and souls. Check it out in this nice little video from the Orlando Sentinel.In 2006, the church and Orlando Food Not Bombs sued the city over rules that limited the number of times they could share food with homeless and hungry people in city parks...

You won't believe this took 14 months

Posted on March 24, 2009
Today's mail contained a wonderful surprise -- a birth certificate for one of my homeless clients.You might think that ordering a birth certificate is no big deal. But most states require you to present a photo ID to get your birth certificate. And, of course, you need a birth certificate* to get a Florida ID card...

This city will pay you to pretend to be homeless

Posted on March 24, 2009
Spending up to $10,000 to hire 100 "fake" homeless people for an evening might sound to some like an odd use of tax dollars in a recession.But city officials say the "decoys" are needed to ensure the statistical validity of Toronto's second-ever survey of its homeless population...

This doesn't seem like the right way to go

Posted on March 23, 2009
Anna Richardson grew up in Santa Cruz and has been homeless off and on since leaving home at age 14. Now she and Miguel DeLeon are sleeping on the streets and accumulating tickets.Taking the criminalization of homelessness to an unusual level, the city of Santa Cruz, California, is seeking an injunction against a couple with more than 60 unpaid citations they've received downtown related to their homelessness...

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How Mr. Toast took a bath

Posted on March 15, 2009
Just in case you need to know: here's some advice on how to wash your entire body, one section at a time, in a public restroom without ever getting legally naked.Mr. Toast knew many of he intricacies of life on the streets. No one knows how he got his name, but he lived in a late-model Hyundai Excel that he parked in a vacant lot next to the East River...

"Economic homeless" becoming more visible

Posted on March 12, 2009
The population at Pinellas Hope, a "tent city" providing housing for homeless people, includes a growing number of people who have lost their jobs and their homes.At first most of the clients at the seasonal camp in St. Petersburg were chronic homeless people with histories of mental or substance abuse, said Frank Murphy, spokesman for Catholic Charities...

Court keeps homeless man off the ballot

Posted on March 11, 2009
Daniel Fore, a homeless man, speaks at a news conference after a Cook County judge ruled that he could not run for a suburban village board seat because he doesn't have an address. His attorney, Joseph Jacobi, watches.A homeless man's name cannot appear on the April 7 ballot for a Chicago suburb because he did not list a home address on his nominating papers, a court has ruled...

Are you bothered by a homeless guy with a cell phone?

Posted on March 08, 2009
I was going to comment on the uproar over Michelle Obama?s surprise visit to a soup kitchen and the homeless guy who took her picture with his cell phone. But SLO Homeless has it nailed. Check out the post "Journalism (or the lack thereof)."

Why is this happening now?

Posted on March 07, 2009
Over at LA2W, we've been getting a bunch of hits from people looking for the court ruling that sharing food with hungry and homeless people in public parks is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. It turns out that a couple of Food Not Bombs chapters are facing new legal challenges...

Fort Lauderdale takes on the homeless feeding issue -- again

Posted on February 19, 2009
Trying to balance aiding the homeless against resident complaints about their behavior, Fort Lauderdale commissioners have decided to research potential new spots for a homeless feeding site.The City Commission did not take a formal vote, but generally agreed to direct staff to look at city parking lots as potential sites to allow church groups and volunteers to feed the homeless...

Town rejects homeless man's run for office

Posted on February 13, 2009
A homeless man who wants to run for village trustee in a Chicago suburb will take his fight to court after the village's electoral board voted 2-1 to keep him off the April 7 ballot."We've been preparing for this," Daniel Fore said. "We knew it was not going to be an easy battle to fight...

Homeless may win round one as city considers overturning its camping ordinance

Posted on February 13, 2009
A homeless man sleeps on Main Beach in Laguna Beach. The ACLU recently sued the city Beach for treating disabled homeless people like criminals and cited ticketing homeless people for illegal lodging in public places as one of their concerns. Laguna Beach may soon revoke a 1920s era ordinance prohibiting nighttime camping in public areas, following a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contending the law unconstitutionally restricted the rights of the homeless...

Even in Florida, homeless people freeze to death

Posted on February 11, 2009
Affectionately called "Bobbo" by his family, Robert Raimondo weaved in and out of their lives as he wrestled with his drinking problem. "I wish he had had some place better to stay, but he wanted to be with his friends," said his nephew.A homeless man who spent the coldest night in six years wrapped in black garbage bags and huddled in a tent froze to death in Pompano Beach...

Why can't a homeless person run for office?

Posted on February 08, 2009
A homeless man is running for a seat on the board of a suburban Chicago village. Daniel Fore filed nominating petitions to have his name placed on the ballot for village trustee in the April 7 election. The petitions indicate he is homeless.But two Oak Park residents have filed objections, claiming a person without a fixed address cannot run for office or register to vote...

Body found encased in ice

Posted on February 03, 2009
Inside an abandoned warehouse in Detroit, a body lies frozen in a block of ice.It took two days and three phone calls from a Detroit reporter, but city authorities eventually recovered a body frozen in ice in an elevator shaft at an abandoned building, The Detroit News reports...

Homeless sex offender dies in the cold after being turned away from shelter

Posted on February 01, 2009
Thomas Pauli didn't choose to die alone in the cold.He apparently froze to death because of a crime he committed nearly 20 years ago, and a law that's dogged him ever since his release from prison.Temperatures the night he died got down to zero in Grand Rapids, Michigan...

How can we count the homeless if the police are taking them to jail?

Posted on January 26, 2009
As counties across Florida prepare for their annual homeless count, Hillsborough will wait another month.Too cold? Too many transients? Not exactly. Homeless advocates fear police will arrest so many homeless to clear the streets for the Super Bowl that any count would be inaccurate...

A glimpse of how hell could look

Posted on January 25, 2009
The ?UNICEF-Photo of the Year? shows a girl in Cité Soleil, the largest slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.Cité Soleil has long been a poster child for the poorest of the poor. People live unprotected in stinking and burning waste, without work, without reliable sources of energy, without drinkable water, without clean air to breath, without money for their next meal...

Motivation for killing was "straight-up personal dislike and a little bit of crazy"

Posted on January 24, 2009
John McGraham, seen in April 2006, was doused with gasoline and burned to death Oct. 9 in Los Angeles. More than 300 people packed the church for his funeral.A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a homeless man who was doused with a flammable liquid and set ablaze on a street corner last year...

West Palm Beach church back in court over homeless shelter

Posted on January 23, 2009
"We've just begun to fight," says attorney Barry Silver.For years, Westgate Tabernacle Church has been fined for zoning and code violations by the county. Now the church is back in federal court, claiming its religious and civil rights are being violated by Palm Beach County...

It can happen to anyone

Posted on January 14, 2009
The National Coalition for the Homeless has a new public service announcement, with soundtrack by Radiohead.Read Advertising Age's report here.

"Bored" men planned to bomb homeless man's campsite

Posted on January 14, 2009
Three "bored" men face criminal charges over their alleged plan to bomb a homeless man's campsite in a wooded area behind a church.The men -- all in their early 20s -- were charged with possession of a destructive device, a felony carrying a standard 30-year prison term, and trespass, a misdemeanor...

A flood of volunteers turns out to help the homeless

Posted on January 03, 2009
Erin MacDevette, 7, Debbie Haruta and Debbie's children Grace, 7, and Jonathan, 5, help to convert an idle 12-story building into a homeless shelter.Three times as many people as expected showed up to repair, paint and clean a former hotel so that it can be a shelter for homeless women and their children...

Common sense prevails

Posted on January 03, 2009
Strong community opposition has led one city to put plans to clear out homeless camps on hold.Merced, California, had planned to start enforcing a "no camping" regulation on Jan. 23 that would mean citations and jail for anyone living in a tent on city land who refused to move...

The swankiest homeless shelter in the world

Posted on January 02, 2009
After a revamp by a concept artist, this building in Berlin has been dubbed the swankiest homeless shelter in the world.Italian wallpapers, gold trimmings, parquet flooring, red carpeting and crystal chandeliers have replaced the scruffy decor of a shelter for homeless men in Berlin...

Upscale community harasses the homeless, lawsuit claims

Posted on December 28, 2008
The upscale enclave of Laguna Beach has engaged in a campaign of harassment of the homeless, claims a lawsuit filed in federal court.The city offers no transitional or emergency shelter (other than a cold weather shelter which operates between December and March) and has refused to rescind an ordinance that makes it illegal to sleep on the beach, in city parks, on public streets, in alleys or in a car parked at any place in the city...

Last-minute tiff erupts in West Palm Beach homeless-feeding settlement

Posted on December 18, 2008
When the West Palm Beach city commission signed off on a lawsuit settlement a few days ago with groups that feed the homeless, all seemed copacetic.br /br /The city would rescind its ordinance that banned downtown meal giveaways. Lawyers for the groups would get $100,000...

Homelessness and hunger on the rise in American cities

Posted on December 14, 2008
Homelessness and hunger increased in an overwhelming majority of 25 U.S. cities in the past year, driven by the foreclosure crisis and rising unemployment, a survey shows.Out of 25 cities across the United States surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 83% said homelessness in general had increased over the past year while 16 cities, or nearly two-thirds of those polled, cited a rise in the number of families who had been forced out of their homes...

50 steps toward ending homelessness

Posted on December 09, 2008
Street homelessness can be ended, say experts who offer a practical guide to what can, and must, be done.The 50 steps are tailored for Vancouver, British Columbia, but -- with just a few tweaks -- could be applied to any community in North America.Read The Tyee's list here...

Saturday night at the bus station

Posted on December 07, 2008
Dave* was goin? home. He?d landed on the streets in Orlando and I was putting him on a bus to Cleveland.It?s 30 degrees and snowing there, but it?s home. And he hadn?t been home in 11 years.I?d talked to his sister on the phone, and she was excited by the prospect of seeing him...

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