Conversations: Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness

For America’s Least Fortunate, The Grip Of Poverty Spans Generations  -The Huffington Post “I found out I was poor in middle school,” Davis says between bites, as he recalls intermittent forays into the drug trade. “I had holes in my shoes and I started getting ripped on. So I just started hitting the block, and I was like ‘Man, nobody’s [...]

  Karen Spain spent several long months before receiving her tax refund this year in a state of suspended panic. The rent was three months late. Her car’s brakes were shot. And she could no longer afford to pay her electricity bill.   Read more of this New York Times article by Sabrina Tavernise by clicking here.    

Can you imagine living on less than $2 a day?  That’s exactly what nearly 1.5 million American families have had to do.   By Tami Luhby March 7, 2012: 11:59 AM ET http://economy.money.cnn.com/2012/03/07/living-on-less-than-2-a-day/

Rettele is one of the “chronically homeless” — people who typically have a disability, an addiction or both and have been continuously homeless for more than a year. Their needs and society’s cost have propelled a national push called Housing First that offers permanent supportive housing — apartments or assisted living with case management — to chronically homeless people without [...]

He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government….   ….Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. [...]

Initial findings on ‘housing first’ programs, such as Project 50 in Los Angeles, show that they may be a solution to chronic homelessness and possibly save taxpayer money.   In its recent series on a controversial program for the homeless, The Times described a project called Project 50 that seeks to put a roof over the heads of substance abusers [...]

February 13, 2006 Dept. of Social Services   Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage.   ….Johns and O’Bryan realized that if you totted up all his hospital bills for the ten years that he had been on the streets—as well as substance-abuse-treatment costs, doctors’ fees, and other expenses—Murray Barr probably ran up a medical [...]

The Reader by Brandon Vogel It was the first day — the first 6 a.m. shift — of Omaha Registry Week, a local effort to find and interview the city’s homeless population. Organizers and volunteers hoped to find housing for the most vulnerable folks. I was riding with Methaney and Smolsky, two of almost 75 volunteers helping with the weeklong [...]

Program’s goal: Make homeless healthier By Erin Grace   Being homeless can kill you.   Living on the street can shave 25 years off a person’s life. And death can come within seven years when being homeless is paired with one of eight risk factors, like age, disease and multiple emergency room visits.   Published Wednesday October 6, 2010 – [...]

Nashville’s Chronically Homeless: Housing Model Slow to Catch On   In Nashville, most homeless outreach agencies believe a home is something that must be earned. Roughly four years ago, the Metro Homelessness Commission decided that approach wasn’t cutting it, that too many chronically homeless lingered on the streets and it was costing the city money. The commission adopted a program [...]