Homeless numbers on the rise...

[dabrockster]

In NY they counted a over 16,000 homeless individuals recently.. This does not include those who are living under bridges or in camps in the city..


I have a feeling we are going to see a substantial increase this year on this. With people losing their homes and jobs we will see more families as well living in shelters or their car..


Here in Columbus I will be going out and doing our "Point in Time" count in January. We usually begin at 2 AM in the morning and work in groups of four. We go to the bridges and the camps in the outskirts to gather our numbers. Last year we had a a pretty good snow storm during the count. Hopefully this year that won't be the same..


I HIGHLY recommend if you are looking for any additional activities for your kids that this might be a good option. I think you have to be at least 16 years old and be accompanied by an parent. But it can be a good learning experience for your kids...

Link:
http://wcbstv.com/local/nyc.homeless...2.1245853.html

[Uncle Ted]

A former network engineer earns certificates that he can convert to food by earning bitcoins on the internet...

Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

Jesse Angle is homeless, living on the streets of Pensacola, Florida. Sometimes he spends the night at a local church. Other nights, he sleeps behind a building in the heart of the city, underneath a carport that protects him from the rain.


Each morning, he wakes up, grabs some food, and makes his way to Martin Luther King Plaza, a downtown park built where the trolley tracks used to run. He likes this park because his friends hang out there too, and it’s a good place to pick up some spending money. But he doesn’t panhandle. He uses the internet.


The park offers free wireless access, and with his laptop, Angle watches YouTube videos in exchange for bitcoins, the world’s most popular digital currency.
[...]

Angle, 42, is on food stamps, but that never quite gets him through the month. The internet provides the extra money he needs to buy a meal each and every day. Since setting up a bitcoin wallet about three or four months ago, he has earned somewhere between four or five bitcoins — about $500 to $630 today — through YouTube videos, Bitcoin Tapper, and the occasional donation. And when he does odd jobs for people around Pensacola — here in the physical world — he still gets paid in bitcoin, just because it’s easier and safer. He doesn’t have to worry as much about getting robbed.
[...]

“Bitcoin beats the shit out of regular money,” says Jason King, the founder of Sean’s Outpost. “We’ve resonated so well with people because it’s direct action. There’s no chaff between donation and helping people.” That could change, as regulators in the U.S. put the clamps on the use of bitcoin. But for now, in the world of the homeless, it reduces chaff in more ways than one.

esse Angle says bitcoins are harder to come by than spare change shared by people walking down the streets. But there are other reasons for him to go digital.


“It’s a lot less embarrassing,” he says. “You don’t have to put yourself out there.” And unlike panhandling in Pensacola, using an app like Bitcoin Tapper won’t put him on the wrong side of the law. This past May, Pensacola — where Angle has lived since April — passed an ordinance that bans not only panhandling but camping on city property.
[...]

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise...-homeless/all/

[Donuthole]

Utah "housing first" plan for the homeless is out of money; Utah now battling quickly rising homeless rates.

Homelessness is on the rise in the United States for the second year in a row according to a December report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The increase has been particularly noticeable in Utah, which had reduced chronic homelessness by 91 percent over the decade up to 2015, according to the state's annual homelessness report.
Experts attributed the drop to a "Housing First" policy, adopted by the state in 2005, which focused on getting people into housing, regardless of mental illness or substance abuse problems that could be treated after accommodation was secured.

[All-American]

Utah "housing first" plan for the homeless is out of money; Utah now battling quickly rising homeless rates.

Cover picture unsurprising.

[BigFatMeanie]

I thought the article was fairly even-handed. This quote stood out to me though:

Bailey, of the Crossroads Urban Center, likened housing for the poor to other forms of municipal infrastructure that require upkeep.

"As long as people drink water, you're going to have to figure out a way to supply it. As long as our economic system creates homelessness, we're going to have to figure out a way to respond," he said.

Is it really our economic system that "creates" homelessness? If so, is there some other kind of economic system on the planet that truly has no homelessness?

[frank ryan]

I thought the article was fairly even-handed. This quote stood out to me though:



Is it really our economic system that "creates" homelessness? If so, is there some other kind of economic system on the planet that truly has no homelessness?

The Sentinelese people might have it figured out.

[BigFatMeanie]

The Sentinelese people might have it figured out.

LOL - that cracked me up.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Cover picture unsurprising.

Yep. No surprise that a generous Ute Fan is donating clothes to help the poor and homeless.