Sep
10
Five Things You Should Know
ByFrom this great article, “5 Things You Absolutely Must Know About Homelessness“.
1. Homelessness is not a recession-induced phenomenon.
2. To end homelessness, we need more affordable housing.
3. We need both sandwiches and solutions.
4. Stereotypes are wrong – most homeless people fly under the radar.
5. You can get involved by getting mad. Mad enough to do something.
3 Comments
September 10th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Good article about a homeless camp in Providence RI:
http://www.truthout.org/090909R?n
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September 11th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Often overlooked are the effects that homelessness has on children. A poignant article from Sunday’s New York Times — regrettably, it features kids here in Asheville.
MM
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September 13th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I take issue with point number 1– homelessness is not a recession induced phenomenon. For a lot of people, it absolutely is. The article last weekend in the NYT that MM cites above covers that well.
Especially in places like Asheville, where a high percentage of people are living pay-check to pay-check, people don’t have five or six months savings in the bank, so losing your job can very quickly lead to an eviction notice from your home. And if you have kids, this means that suddenly don’t have housing either.
This is in part why I am so glad we have the coalition that has formed in Asheville to support the “rapdid re-housing” strategy, which aims to provide quick support to families that are at risk of becoming homeless due to loss of jobs and other economic factors related to the current recession.
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