homeless

Local Council Tells Woman She’s Fit Enough To Sleep On Streets

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homelessNiamh Harris – Local authorities in Devon have told a young woman with mental health problems that she could “manage being homeless”.

The comments were made by Torbay council in a letter informing the woman that she did not qualify as ‘priority need’ status for a council home, after she had been told she was losing her emergency bed& breakfast accommodation.

The letter said they has decided she was “resilient enough” to manage being homeless even if that meant sleeping rough “occasionally or in the longer term”.

The letter adds: “We are unfortunately, as a result of this decision, not able to continue to provide you with temporary accommodation.” Continue reading →

Kansas City Will No Longer Pour Bleach on Food for the Homeless After Outcry

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foodMeadow Clark – Kansas City, Missouri Health Department made a national splash when their staff literally poured bleach on food intended for homeless people earlier this month. A coalition of friends called Free Hot Soup (FHS) Kansas City had formed picnic-style food gatherings to provide hot meals for homeless people, and all went according to plan until officials trashed the food and doused it in bleach to render it inedible.

The Washington Post reported:

“It looked ugly Sunday,” the Star reported last week. “Home-cooked chili, stacks of foil-wrapped sandwiches, vats of soup and other food prepared by volunteers with Free Hot Soup Kansas City were dumped in bags and soaked in bleach to make sure no one went back to try to recover it.” Continue reading →

Amanda Froelich ~ Give and Take Exchange (Without Money)

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“Give and Take” Founder is 69, hasn’t used money for 15 years and has never been happier!

give and take
Heidemarie Schwermer

Twenty-two years ago, Heidemarie Schwermer left her difficult marriage and relocated to the city of Dortmund (in Germany’s Ruhr area) with her two kids. A middle-aged secondary school teacher, she quickly became aware of the large population of homeless people in the town.

It shocked her so much she decided to do something about it. Schwermer believed the homeless didn’t need actual money to be accepted back into society, only a chance to empower themselves by making themselves useful. With this decided truth, she opened a Tauschring (swap shop), called “Gib und Nimm” (Give and Take).

Give and Take became a place where anyone could trade stuff and skills for other things and skills they needed, without a single coin or banknote exchanged. Old clothes could be traded in return for kitchen appliances, and car service rendered in exchange for plumbing services, and so on. At first the idea didn’t attract many of Dortmund’s homeless, because, as some of them told her to her face, they didn’t ‘feel an educated middle-class woman could relate to their situation’. Continue reading →

Why Is It Illegal To Feed The Homeless?

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“While I do understand that large groups of homeless people can impact the look and feel of any city, the realities of how many of these people end up on the streets is no mystery.  However, it seems that Fort Lauderdale would rather punish the poor and the people trying to help them rather than attempt to help solve some of the problems that leads people into the streets.” – L E Rafferty

Did you know that somewhere in America, it is illegal to feed the homeless in public?  It can’t be true can it?  It is true in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after the recent passage of an ordinance by the city council.  The real scary part of that news is that Fort Lauderdale is not alone in taking this anti-compassionate stance!

“Over 30 cities across the nation have outlawed or are considering criminalizing the provision of food to homeless people. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, over 20 cities have devised laws against giving food to homeless people since January 2013.” Nation of Change

While I can understand this stance if these cities are adding health guidelines to make such feeding attempts safer, I am shocked that over 30 cities have outlawed it or are considering outlawing the practice of giving food to the hungry and homeless.  Are public picnics next on the hit list?

Why would any city want to stop the feeding of the homeless in public?   Just who are these brigands who are trying to destroy the city of Fort Lauderdale by having the audacity to feed the hungry?

“In an act of compassion and civil disobedience, a 90-year-old man and two pastors in Fort Lauderdale openly defied a new city ordinance barring anyone from feeding homeless people in public. After police intervened and charged them with a crime, 90-year-old Arnold Abbott and Pastor Dwayne Black returned several days later to break the draconian law again. Although Abbott received another citation, police decided not to place him in custody. Continue reading →

Jeff Roberts ~ Over 100,000 Homeless People Have Been Moved Into Homes & It Isn’t Stopping There!

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“As of right now, in just under 4 years, the communities participating in this movement have housed [105,580] of our most vulnerable neighbours, many of whom were at an extremely high risk of dying on our streets, and are now safe in homes of their own.” – Becky Kanis Margiotta, Director, 100,000 Homes Campaign.

HomelessManWhether you live in a major metropolis or a small town, chances are you’ve seen homeless people sleeping or wandering the streets at some point. On those cold and ruthless winter nights I can’t help but feel compassion and misery for anyone who doesn’t have warm food, clothing, or a bed to help ease the sub-zero temperatures.

In Canada alone it is estimated that at least 200,000 experience homelessness in a year. This number is substantiated by an even larger number of homeless people in the United States, coming in at an unsettling 1.7 million. One can’t help but ask ourselves the daunting question, “what can I do to help?”

A Backwards Solution

Enter 100k Homes. Sparked by the belief that conventional homelessness interventions were not working efficiently enough, 100k Homes is bringing a backwards-considered approach to solving the homelessness crisis. Continue reading →