Homeless and Homeless

Florida push to help the Homeless

2012-01-24T15:42:00.002-05:00

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A Florida bill would make sports teams pay millions of dollars for not complying with a law requiring them to house homeless people when they have no events.

The bill, which a state Senate committee passed unanimously Monday, is based on a 23-year-old law requiring sports facilities built with the aid of state funds to house the homeless on nights when no official events are scheduled, The Miami Herald reported.

Stadium and arena owners that failed to meet the requirement would have to return a total of more than $270 million.

"We have spent over $300 million supporting teams that can afford to pay a guy $7 [million], $8 [million], $10 million a year to throw a baseball 90 feet. I think they can pay for their own stadium," said Sen. Michael Bennett, R-Bradenton, who introduced the Senate bill.

Under the bill, owners of sports facilities such as Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, and American Airlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat, would have to return the public funds and begin operating as homeless shelters. Major teams receive monthly subsidies of $166,000 each and would continue to be fined that amount for any month in which they don't meet the requirement for housing homeless people.

Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, introduced a companion in the Florida House of Representatives.

"I cannot believe that we're going to cut money out of Medicaid and take it away from homeless and take it away from the poor and impoverished, and we're continuing to support people who are billionaires," Artiles said.

The Herald said it remained unclear whether any of the state's major sports facilities house homeless people.

2012-01-17T16:54:00.001-05:00

Homeless whiz kid gets ticket to State of the Union address.

Samantha Garvey, the science whiz kid who has been living in a Long Island homeless shelter, will go to the State of the Union address, says her congressman, Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). He invited the high school student to attend the president’s speech, offering her his own ticket.

Garvey, an aspiring marine biologist, is one of 300 national semifinalists in the Intel national science competition. She recently captured the nation’s attention for winning that distinction even though she and her family have been living in a homeless shelter on Long Island in suburban New York.

“The congressman thought it was really an inspirational story and a wonderful accomplishment,” congressional spokesman Jack Pratt said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “With all of the powerful people who come down for the State of the Union, it is nice to bring somebody who has been through tough circumstances and persevered.”

Israel is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and has been a member of Congress since 2001. He offered Garvey his sole gallery ticket over the weekend, Pratt said. On Monday, Israel mentioned the offer at a public event attended by a journalist from Newsday, which first reported the story.

According to Pratt, Garvey will sit in the gallery for the Jan. 24 speech by President Obama, who will lay out his agenda for the rest of the presidential election year. Garvey’s parents will likely watch from the congressman’s office.

In this election year, when the tough economy and its effect on everyone’s life will be key political issue, the Garveys have emerged as the face of a family damaged by forces beyond their control, yet fighting to come back. The family became homeless at the beginning of the year when it fell behind on rent after a severe car accident left both parents too injured to work.

Last week, Samantha Garvey was named as one of the finalists of the science contest, and the family’s luck began to change.

The family dog was moved from an animal shelter to a private kennel, thanks to the help of a anonymous donor. And family members have been told they can move into a rent-controlled home.

Click on Link for full story. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/homeless-long-island-whiz-kid-gets-ticket-to-obamas-state-of-the-union.html

　

Is Life One Big Goodbye

2011-11-09T10:30:00.000-05:00

I recently wrote the book: Is Life One Big Goodbye: One Homeless Woman's Survival Story.

Description:

I blend into the walls, like other women: faceless, no expression—a dead look. I’ve lost my identity, my individuality. I no longer know myself. The other women are young, Black, Hispanic, few White, like me. Most have been abused by fathers, mothers, husbands or children. None of which I am. Children who don’t want to care for mothers sign them in after they have been released from psychiatric facilities. Twenty-year olds are put here by mothers or fathers after they come from drug or alcohol centers. Children don’t want to care for mothers, and mothers don’t want to care for children—their own flesh and blood. If there’s a ‘me’ underneath this faceless disguise that has attached itself to my body, I want it to leave, now!

After having been married with two children, a nice home, belonging to golf country clubs, divorce, Alzheimer's Caregiver, at age 68, after surgery and medical bills, I moved into a Homeless Shelter.

Life has had many adventures, but this one I did 'not' want to face. I wanted the plate passed from me.

If you read "Is Life One Big Goodbye" I hope it touches your heart, and you will pass it on.
Thank you.

Homeless and Happy

2011-03-22T10:19:00.000-04:00

Nelson, 71, is homeless. He's missing several teeth and usually tucks his long hair beneath a baseball cap. A mattress in the back of a 1994 Dodge van that he parks in the Walmart parking lot on south Arizona Avenue is his sleeping quarters.

"I'm homeless by choice," Nelson said, pulling the van key from his pocket. "I used to have 10 keys; now there's just one . . . it's a good feeling."

In the four years he has lived this way, Nelson has befriended a decorated World War II veteran who works as a Walmart greeter. A library employee recently gave Nelson the name of a good auto mechanic because he needs some work done on "my unit," as he calls the van with peeling paint. Nelson showers at a west Chandler truck stop.

His daily routine begins around 6 a.m., when he wakes up on a mattress in the van. A walk across the Walmart parking lot brings him into the store where he buys a tomato, a banana and a newspaper. Then, Nelson then heads for an adjoining McDonald's for "one plain white biscuit, two grape jellies, a plastic knife and fork, a coffee and two creams."

After breakfast, Nelson drives a couple miles north to the library, where he passes the hours until lunchtime at Murphy's Law downtown, his most expensive meal of the day. "I have a BLT and a bowl of chili. It's $7.63 with tax, but it's worth it."

Murphy's Law employee Chelle Francisco said Nelson always sits at the end of the bar. "He is a really pleasant, happy guy who is fun to be around and tells cool stories. We all know what he wants for lunch."

For dinner, Nelson heads to Red White and Brew on south Gilbert Road "for the soup of the day and a cup of hot water, which is $3.82 with tax."

Before he chose homelessness, Nelson said he moved around the West, held plenty of low-paying jobs and fell out with a series of roommates. Carpet, dust and household chemicals aggravated his allergies, which he said are much better now. The advantages of living in a vehicle came to him in 1997, when he arrived, unemployed, in Bishop, Calif. There were maintenance jobs at a motel, but he continued to sleep in his car, using recently vacated motel rooms to wash up. It's quieter than living in an apartment, he said, and tinted windows afford him enough privacy "so people can't peer in at me."

When he started living in parking lots, Nelson said he decided he would visit every major city in Texas and as many museums as he could. He has done that. "I even saw Janis Joplin's car."

He feels comfortable at his two favorite Chandler spots but is less relaxed on the road because he knows a fender bender or encounter with law enforcement could cost him his living quarters and he doesn't always know the local rules about overnight parking. Some police officers and security guards have asked him to leave public-parking lots at night.

Nelson describes his routine when he sees a badge. He puts both hands on the dashboard and tells officers he has no weapons. "I always drive below the speed limit, I never drink and drive," Nelson said. A citation or arrest warrant would be costly and could send his van to an impound lot.

Chandler police spokesman Joe Favazzo said the department doesn't routinely confront homeless individuals but will respond to "suspicious-persons" calls from the public. Walmart spokeswoman Delia Garcia said the company allows overnight stays in store parking lots as long as that doesn't conflict with city regulations.

A few other homeless people hang out in the library and Nelson recognizes them. Assistant Library Manager Kris Sherman said libraries are meant to enhance lives and everyone is welcome as long as their behavior is not disruptive to other patrons. The staff gets to know the "regulars" like Nelson, she said, and there have been no problems.

Nelson talks at length about most parts of his current life but skips over his early years and relationships. He said his 48-year-old daughter is a university professor in Pennsylvania and 46-year-old son is a ceramic artist in Hawaii. He and their mother divorced 38 years ago, and he is estranged from his ex-wife and daughter. Nelson and his son, Robert Nelson Vogland, reconnected a few years ago, talk often and try to get together when they can. Pictures of the son's artwork decorate the van's windows.

Vogland creates tile murals for hotels and resorts around the world and said his father inspired his love of art. "When I was 5, I watched him doing his artwork. I saw him paint a building, photograph circuses," said Vogland, who was contacted by phone in Kaneohe, Hawaii. "Then, as an 8-year-old I saw his whole world fall apart. He lost his family."

Vogland, who took his mother's maiden name, said after his parents divorced, he saw little of his father for decades but yearned to reconnect. Also a musician, Vogland wrote a song about his dad called "Lost Man"; "I sang it hoping he'd come back into my life. I wanted to give him a chance and I wanted to be with him for the rest of his life."

Their connection restarted with calls once or twice a year. "I told him it would be nice to hear from him more often, that he could call me every day, and he started calling me every day," Vogland said. The son has brought his father to Hawaii for visits and is planning another one in the coming months. "He's definitely a lone wolf, and he chooses to be homeless. But my dad's a well-read person who knows what's right and wrong."

In a few weeks, Nelson will leave Chandler and head to Montana for the summer as he's done for the past four years. He lives off his $900 monthly Social Security checks. A dishwasher's job at a Montana resort brings in extra cash for necessities like car repairs, gas and food.

"I really don't have a lot of money. But I have a great life and I never get bored."

The Human Family

2011-02-28T10:25:00.000-05:00

The things of this world cannot give peace; it must come from our ability to rise above material things and reach a point where we don’t crave them. Even God’s people must realize that each people is chosen by God to fill a different role in the destiny of the human race, and only by accepting other peoples as equal partners in God’s plan can they hope to find acceptance by the rest of the human family.

Homeless in America 2011

2011-01-26T11:00:00.000-05:00

January 25, 2011

State of Homelessness in America 2011

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has updated its census of the homeless population. The headline is that nationally this group increased in size by 20,000 between 2008 and 2009, a 3 percent rise. Thirty-one of 50 states saw increases with Louisiana leading the way with 100 percent growth. California grew 3.4 percent -- 128,785 to 133,129 -- during that period.

Broken out by sub-populations, the data shows the largest percentage growth among family households (4 percent).

In 2009 most homeless people lived in some type of shelter, but "nearly 4 in 10 were living on the street, in a car, or in another place not intended for human habitation."

Homelessness affects people of all ages, races, ethnicity and geography, say NAEH researchers, but some groups are at high risk: "people living in doubled up situations, people discharged from prison, young adults aged out of foster care, and uninsured people." California, Florida and Nevada are three states with high multiple risk factors, especially foreclosure and unemployment.

Taking a closer look at poverty

2010-11-05T09:58:00.000-04:00

Taking a closer look at poverty

Mandy Mulder will travel to the poorest areas of the continental United States.

Mandy Mulder isn’t like most people. She doesn’t just want to help people. She wants to personally experience their plight.

Mulder’s passion for helping people will lead her on a three-month odyssey across America next spring. But Mulder won’t see any tourist sights. She will spend her time on the road caring for the poor, hungry and destitute.

The 22-year-old Rosemount woman plans to document the whole thing on video and then share her findings with the world. The idea of the trip and subsequent documentary is to bring awareness to poverty in the United States. She’s dubbed the project Mission America 2011.

“I think what I’m going to find is going to shock people,” said Mulder.

Mulder plans to start her trek sometime in the spring. She hopes to leave in March. She will start in Maine and eventually end up in California.

Along the way she wants to stop in the poorest areas of all 48 contiguous states. She will connect with people by visiting shelters, food shelves, emergency sleeping rooms and churches.

“I’m going to submerge my life in poverty. I want to experience and see what it is truly like to be an American living in poverty. I want to be completely out of my comfort zone,” said Mulder.

Mulder will travel the country in her 2003 yellow Dodge Neon with the clothes on her back.

At every stop Mulder will do an act of service such as serving a meal at a shelter or donating money. Currently Mulder is raising money so she can make a difference throughout the country.

“I want to make a positive impact on poverty through this experience,” said Mulder.

The idea to do the trip came from a simple desire to do a road trip, but being a passionate activist Mulder decided she needed to do more than just see some sights.

“I want to see the unseen stuff. There are people in our backyard that don’t have anything,” said Mulder.

Mulder, who said she’s been blessed throughout her life, hopes her documentary will show the pain and struggles that many American are facing. According to her web site, last year 43.6 million Americans lived under the poverty line.

“In reality we are all one bad event from homelessness,” said Mulder.

Mulder wants the project to have a universal message and hopes it will influence others to act. She especially wants to inspire young people.

“I really want to hit young people and show them how powerful they can be,” said Mulder.

In preparation for her journey Mulder is researching where she will stop. She is trying to drum up support and has done presentations at several churches and high schools, including her alma mater, District 196’s School for Environmental Studies. She also is looking for a video production company to produce her film.

To learn more or to donate to Mission America visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-America-2011/105508202848858?ref=mf

Good or Bad idea for Homeless?

2010-10-23T20:06:00.000-04:00

After Daniel Carnegie's bypass surgery, he expected to return to his tent out in the woods.

Carnegie, 50, who is homeless, was able to find shelter, however, in one of the newly built wooden sheds at Pinellas Hope. The 6- by 8-foot shed is undecorated, but comfortable and provides enough room for a cot and space to hang his clothes.

If Sheila Lopez, director of Pinellas Hope, gets her way, she'll add 100 or more of these sheds to her camp shelter in the next year. It all depends on the funding. Each of the dwellings costs about $1,000 to construct, with residents building the sheds to help defray costs.

Pinellas Hope is a camp shelter for the homeless. Originally started as a five-month experiment, the shelter has thrived since opening in December 2007. Erecting the sheds represents the advent of a more permanent structure for the shelter.

For now, access to the 10 sheds will be limited to residents with special medical needs and those who are exemplary members of the camp. Although small, the sheds allow residents to sleep above the ground and are a bit sturdier against the elements. They are ventilated as well. "If it wasn't for this place, I'd be dead," said Carnegie, who is recovering and will transition into a tent at the shelter next week.

Read more here:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article972991.ece?comments=legacy

Homeless and Dementia more common than we think.

2010-08-10T08:14:00.000-04:00

Dementia and Homeless, More common than we think.

A stack of tasteful grey pamphlets titled "Ageing Gracefully and with Dignity" sits on a table in the reception of the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged on Victoria Street.

Directly opposite the smart green and white NOSPC building, lying on the edge of a grass verge and clutching a filthy shopping bag, is a 76-year-old man doing anything but that.

Marshall — not his real name — lives rough on the streets of Hamilton and is believed to have done so for well over a decade. He isn't the only senior in Bermuda without a roof over his head.

No official statistics exist on the number of homeless elderly people but charity workers estimate there are as many as ten in the capital alone and plenty more scattered around the Island.

These individuals fall under the radar when it comes to getting even the most basic help from the authorities — after all, who ought be assisting someone who doesn't 'officially' exist?

"You are not going to find figures," Claudette Fleming, executive director of Age Concern, tells The Royal Gazette. "They are like the invisible people."

On a scorching hot day in July, Marshall does indeed seem to be invisible to most people who walk past him.

The odd city worker on their way to grab lunch glances down at him, but the majority appear oblivious to the white-bearded figure lying back on the grass.

If you do stop — perhaps to offer Marshall some loose change or a kind word — the first thing that will probably strike you is the stale stench of urine surrounding him.

The second is his sandal-clad feet — his thick, overgrown toenails are black, yellow and green and the skin around them looks parched and flaky.

His scant possessions are next to him: the shopping bag and a black trash sack containing an umbrella, a half-drunk bottle of vitamin water and a couple of styrofoam cups.

It's possible to find out a little about him in conversation: he was once married and then divorced, he has a daughter and a son who "don't come around me", he was a long-standing Belco employee and Bermuda Industrial Union member who got fired from his job.

He'll tell you that he'll be 77 in October, that he's been on the streets for 17 years and that he wants to be there.

"There's only one [other] place left: the hospital. I don't want to be there," he says. Asked what he wants most, he replies: "A safe place, with no gangsters, to rest."

Piecing together how he came to be sleeping rough in his twilight years proves impossible. He can't or won't explain why he no longer lives in his home "down in the country, down in Devonshire". But it is known that he has abused alcohol.

While he doesn't appear to grasp every question, Marshall nods vigorously when asked if he'd like a coffee and a pastry from across the street. On being handed them, his face lights up as he says: "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Last month, Marshall was diagnosed with dementia after a charity volunteer got him to visit a GP in town.

http://www.royalgazette.com/rg/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7da84b730030001§ionId=60

Homelessness, Is this the cure?

2010-07-04T13:04:00.000-04:00

A man who worked here at the shelter where I live lost his job this past week, due to this. Now he's about to be homeless. Senators get off your, you know what.

Unemployment Extension-- Americans Hungry, Homeless

While unemployed Americans sit and wait for the Senate to return from their holiday recess, these unemployed Americans frustrations will only continue to grow.

The House’s relatively quick passage of a standalone unemployment extension bill shocked many of U.S. Chronicle’s readers. They only wish, however, that the Senate would move at the same pace.

A reader from Nevada wrote, “I think the unemployment extension should be passed.” The reader wrote that he was unable to make his recent car payment as he stopped receiving unemployment benefits stopped two weeks ago. The man, “…[depends] on it to pay off my car, credit car debt, buy food, and diapers for my daughter.”

A reader from Pennsylvania who will be turning 60 this month wrote, “I have never asked for any help from anyone. I never thought I would ever be in this position.” Disgusted with the politicians, the reader continued to write, “I am at the point, of not being able to pay my rent, electric, car insurance, buy food, no gas in the car. Need I say anything more? “

Another reader from Nevada wrote, “My [unemployment] benefits [will] run out next month and if there is no [unemployment] extension, I, too, will be homeless and will lose my car. She continued to write that she was down to 91 pounds because she did not have money for food.
Frustrated, upset, homeless and hungry, many of these unemployed Americans are waiting on standby mode for the Senate to return from their scheduled recess.

Insider say that the Senate does not plan to discuss the unemployment extension measure until mid-July.

The new disease, Homelessness

2010-06-26T12:05:00.000-04:00

What do we need to do to stop homelessness in the US? I live in a Homeless Shelter and I'm not a happy camper. We need a Jerry Lewis's telethon, something big, for people to take notice. No more are the homeless some drunks living on the streets, looking for a dime for a cup of coffee, as it were in my growing up years. Now, I see young women, mothers with children, and seniors, come in off the streets, or from another facility looking for food, a bed, a shower. What has happened to America? Is this the new America I now know? If America can send millions to Haiti and other countries in trouble, why can't we help our OWN? Why can't we stop this new disease, Homelessness? We are supposedly the greatest nation in the world and we can’t stop people from sleeping on streets, or living in shelters, lost. When will it stop??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMmLvTXozTA

Less Homeless people, more Homeless Families

2010-06-20T18:50:00.000-04:00

I ran across this article and had to share it with you. I'm in a homeless shelter in Florida, and live with 80 plus other women. Who do we believe now? Read Hud's article and make up your own mind.

http://washingtonindependent.com/87179/hud-report-fewer-homeless-people-more-homeless-families

Country club to Shelter living

2010-06-15T20:54:00.000-04:00

Country club to Shelter living

Homeless Shelter, scary words for me.
　
I came to the Women’s Shelter a little over four weeks ago. I came not wanting to, but had no other choice. After neck surgery, I put $10,000 on credit cards, paying doctors and hospital bills. I knew the $600 a month I got from Social Security would not allow me to pay bills, pay rent, and eat. I pictured myself in a card board box, living on the streets. After weeks of phone calls, and Internet searching, I found WRCC. With life turned upside down, I signed into the shelter, Scared.

Awful, is a mild word for the way I felt the first week. I blended into the walls, and didn‘t exist. Letting myself down, my individuality and pride were gone. I became a body in a herd of other women. Depressed, I cried most of the time, not in the open where others could see, but in the bathroom, or in the corner I had found on an outside wall. I didn’t recognize the face that looked back at me in the mirror. I saw that same look on other faces: no expression, no smile, lifeless, and dead.

The second week I learned rules, what one was allowed to do, and not allowed to do. I learned that chores had to be done everyday. Everyone had a specific chore, like a family taking care of itself. Some women washed mirrors, some washed windows, others counters or floors, took garbage out, and other jobs. I noticed the women were happier when they had something to do, and worked together.

My chore began working in the kitchen, making 20 to 60 sandwiches a day, bagging them, and stuffing sweets and salt treats inside. Chef Dee, and Mary helped me, showing me, a slice of meat, a slice of cheese between two slices of bread. I’d choose a variety of breads: white, whole wheat, rye and multi grain. Making sure women and children, away or in for the day, had something to eat. Me included.

Unable to walk outside in the public world, due to the hard neck brace I wore. I found writing and working in the kitchen my outlet. Sometimes standing in the kitchen for an hour or two made my neck go into spasm, and I’d need to lay down afterward. I’d fall asleep with a good feeling, knowing I had given of myself. Even if it were just making sandwiches.
Soon, I found I had worth. I stopped complaining. Instead I said my prayers every night, sometimes all night when I couldn’t sleep, and also in the morning before breakfast. I became a stronger person, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It got me through the down times. I was learning God wanted me to go through this time in my life, to become a better human being.

Only through bad, hard times, does the good follow. In the process we learn what we are really made of. We learn of our Selves. I learned another side. The side that didn’t belong to country clubs, The side that didn’t play golf, or tennis, have lunch out four or five times a week. I got close to my inner being, and became proud, and growing, even though I was now homeless.

At first I blamed myself. How did I get in this mess? Why didn’t I save money to pay bills? Why didn’t I? Why didn’t I? Why didn’t I? Now it was about growth. How I could grow in a different environment. An environment I’d never seen, or came close to. My only regret is my country club friends have deserted me. They do not call, and I no longer call them. Embarrassed to tell them, I’ve fallen by the wayside. They are the people who donate to shelter’s like this, whether it be in churches or women’s groups. But do they really know what it’s like to live in a shelter? I doubt it.

I’m glad for this experience, this adventure. I’ve met wonderful, interesting women from different countries, and I’m thankful for the knowledge they’ve shared with me. Each woman is different, yet the same. We cry, we laugh, we pray. Sometimes alone, sometimes with another. We want our own place, or pay rent, or pay a mortgage, have a car to go to work, or school, or not. We are ONE, no different in important areas, like compassion, and helping another. Thank

God my eyes have been opened.
Rose Lamatt
copyright May 27, 2010

There's Homeless then Homeless

2010-04-12T09:23:00.000-04:00

From homeless to advocate for the homeless
Last June, J.D. Glass was wasting away from drinking and living in a tent in the woods, but he managed to clean up and get a second chance. Now he's putting it to use.
By Theresa VargasWashington Post Staff Writer Monday, April 12, 2010
Like most of what J.D. Glass owns, the battered olive-colored briefcase he held had belonged to someone else first. The initials on it were not his.
But it added an aura of importance, and that was enough for Glass, who filled the case with mostly blank paper and clutched it as he walked into Prince William County's government headquarters the other night. He clutched it as he signed up to speak before the Board of Supervisors, clutched it until the moment his name was called and he delivered a speech that he says his entire life has been leading toward.
"My name is Danny Glass. Everyone knows me as J.D. Congratulations on becoming the 14th wealthiest county in the United States, by the way. Donny would have been proud. But Donny is not here right now, because Donny is dead. Donny froze to death in his sleep on Christmas Day 1999. . . . I know because he died right in front of me."
To most people in the McCoart building that night, it was just another board meeting, the first public hearing on this year's budget. But for Glass, it was a chance to speak about a subject that few, if any, understand better. A man who less than a year ago was dying alone in a filth-caked tent has become an advocate for those who are still living out in the woods.
"I got a second chance, and I know what I'm going to do with it," Glass said before the meeting.
"I knew Donny for years, and you don't know how shocking it is -- just he's there, and then he's not. Let me tell you about myself. I've been living outside since 1972. I've been drinking heavily since 1972. All the way up until June of last year."
In June, Glass was living in the woods in Woodbridge, wasting away from a drinking habit that could be measured by the mountain of empty Thunderbird bottles nearby. Washington Post Photographer Michael Williamson and I found him there, half naked, too weak to walk. It was clear he was dying.
When Glass called a Woodbridge shelter for help a few weeks after that encounter, doctors estimated that he had 36 hours to live. But the 54-year-old, who grew up in a Texas orphanage, held on for days, then weeks, then months. He sobered up, reunited with relatives he hadn't seen for decades and vowed he wouldn't touch alcohol again.

Last week, hours before the meeting, he went over his speech in a place no one would have imagined possible a few years ago: his own apartment. It's little more than a room in the basement of a Woodbridge house, but it is the first real roof Glass has had after living outside for 37 years.
"It ain't much, but it beats the hell out of a tent," he said. A twin bed takes up more than half the space. The rest is filled with a clutter of objects that were mostly given to him. "Don't look like much, but there's a story behind every one of them." The metal cane he keeps by his bed reminds him of when he was at his weakest, learning to walk again. A small toy car on a shelf represents the only thing he brought with him from the tent.
"It was the only thing I wanted," Glass said, looking at the gray-and-red roadster. "It represents the part of my life I always wanted to get back -- and that's freedom."
Life after near-death has not been entirely easy.

Americans find themselves Homeless.

2010-04-08T14:46:00.000-04:00

March 31, 2010
Many Americans find themselves just one paycheck removed from homelessness as the nation struggles to rebound from financial crisis.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that 1.6 million Americans were homeless and stayed in a shelter at least once in 2008, the last year that statistics are available.
But more notably, the nation's homeless population is changing, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan tells NPR's Michel Martin.
"What we're finding more and more is that the traditional image many people may have about homelessness — of a single person suffering with long-term substance abuse or even mental illness — is really not the model we're seeing emerging over the last few years in the economic crisis," Donovan says. "More and more it's families."
Sheltering The Homeless: Average Monthly Cost
HUD's study found that average costs for individuals staying in emergency shelters in the areas it examined were less than the cost for housing families.
Source: Department of Housing and Urban Development
Credit: Stephanie d'Otreppe / NPR
First-Time Homelessness
Over the past year, the agency reports a 56 percent increase in rural and suburban family homelessness. That nationwide increase places a heavy strain on agencies providing services to the homeless.
A newly released HUD study examines the cost of providing services for first-time homeless families and individuals in six areas across the nation.
According to the study, a month's stay in an emergency homeless shelter for a family in Washington, D.C. — one of the cities the study focuses on — can cost as much as $3,500. Family health care and child education needs can raise costs even more.
"It's one-third the cost of that for an apartment with supportive services that can help a family get back on their feet," says Donovan, who previously served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Prevention And Stabilization
HUD is investing $1.5 billion to prioritize homeless prevention and housing stabilization efforts for people who find themselves in need.
Providing supplemental quality of life services, such as substance abuse counseling or jobs training for those displaced, should be a secondary goal, Donovan says. Once stable shelter is secured, everything else falls into place, he says.
"If people do fall into emergency shelter, helping them move [on] as quickly as possible is very important,” he says.
Under his leadership, Donovan hopes his agency can drastically reduce the homeless population.
"The cheapest thing of all, and the best thing for those families that are at risk, is for them never to become homeless in the first place,” explains Donovan.

Homeless and Homeless

2010-04-06T12:38:00.000-04:00

Apparently, there’s a difference between ‘Homeless, and homeless’. One category of homeless are people down on their luck, expectations to high that have gone awry, or they can’t make it on their Social Security check, or their weekly income check. They can’t afford bills each month, food, utilities, maybe a movie out to be with people. They want to better themselves, have a job if they don’t, try harder, make life easier for their family or themselves.

Then there’s the other category, ‘homeless’. They are users of alcohol or drugs. They cannot hold down a job, and don’t want to. They want taxpayers to pay for their habits. They do not want responsibilities, yet they want a roof. They want free housing to do their drinking and drugs, and let the taxpayer pay. They ‘are’ sick, and need help to rid themselves of their habits.

Now if things were bad for you, which homeless person would you be? I, myself, am in the first category: willing to work, living off Social Security, and trying desperately to have a roof over my head. I do not use drugs, drink, or smoke. I eat cheaply; bread, potatoes, ground beef for meatloaf, hamburgers, or meatballs with spaghetti. I eat one egg a day for protein, but mostly starches to fill you up. I have noticed while food shopping, people are more in tune with what they are paying for food, and using coupons.

I guess what bothers me most, is how people can send money to charities for other countries, and not help their own in ‘this’ country. Oh sure, there are some charities that do, but not as there should be. We should be taking care of the Homeless, Both categories. Roofs for the elderly, on Social Security, and help for the abuser of drugs. But they should ‘not’ be placed in the same housing units.