Do I understand that your solutions are either me housing people or using "other people's money" to solve homelessness?Quote:
Originally Posted by dmc
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Do I understand that your solutions are either me housing people or using "other people's money" to solve homelessness?Quote:
Originally Posted by dmc
I have taken a few people in for short times. All but one got on their feet, one didn't want to be helped, just wanted to be a leech.
I'm asking what are you doing about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by redfox
Briefly, as I am off to the doctor shortly:Quote:
Originally Posted by dmc
I worked in the shelter system for 16 years, as a domestic violence expert, helping women & children break the cycle of violence in their lives that left them homeless. I did this in MO & WA, in rural communities & in Seattle.
I was on the founding board of an affordable housing organization that has built scores of homes for marginalized people.
I've testified several times in both our State Lege and City Council about housing and the needs for affordability.
I was the development director of an urban housing org, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure housing for marginalized people.
I started a Community Kitchen which feeds between 60- 100 people, who also do all the cooking, in my neighborhood. The all volunteer org is eight months old, and going strong.
My DH & I have housed three people in the midst of divorce who were faced with losing their housing (at separate times), until they were able stabilize their lives. This included the two children of the father we housed.
I've been active since 1976, both in paid and volunteer roles, to support individuals to get stable, as well as to create systems that counteract the root causes of homelessness.
I earned my MA in community development, with an emphasis on housing and asset based approaches to community development. I'm highly knowledgeable about this topic.
redfox, I don't think you need to justify your position.
But this video does an unbelievable job at doing it for you! I just happened to watch it today, and if you guys have an hour to spare, please watch it: it's a documentary, I AM by Tom Shadyak, who directed a bunch of comedies like Liar, Liar and Ace Ventura, but who has gone through an amazing shift after a bike accident and long bout of post-concussion syndrome. Honestly, it is great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Vdk6mGevOqI
Good for you, but why aren't you housing anyone now?
Two reasons:Quote:
Originally Posted by dmc
I am rebuilding my health after a cancer diagnosis & treatment last year. Second, we provide shelter to people we are aquainted with or are in our circle of friends. No one currently is in need that we're aware of. Gven my health recovery process, though, it's unlikely we'll be offering space till I am 100%.
i'm interested in your experiences housing folks. I'd love to hear your stories! I'm waiting to be seen in the ER right now, so I may be offline.
+1Quote:
I think it is vastly more complex than that - more so, I admit, than I understand. At this point, I think the damage to the planet caused by pollution and extractive industries cause the biggest impact on peoples whose lives do not involve such a large degree of consumption. As Alan pointed out, a family can grow up without much money and still have a much higher return of love and happiness than a vastly wealthy person, but when the landscape you depend on falls apart, or your community begins to suffer birth defects because your relative wealth makes it easier for your community to be a corporate chemical dumping ground, then your lives are negatively impacted by the wealthy of the world who give no thought to such things. I like to support working toward a lesser degree of consumption not because I think my extravagance takes food directly out of the mouths of the poor, but because I do not feel the planet can support the degree of consumption we have grown accustomed to. Do I think it is unfair that I can afford an iPod while a poor third world person might not? No, not really. I'm not going to be embarrassed by the accident of where I was born. But I'm going to think twice before I replace something that doesn't need to be replaced when I think of the people in poor countries exposed to toxic fumes as they try to burn the precious metals out of all the e-waste that is shipped to them.
I only took in a few that I knew somehow, and only to give them a place to stay while they got a job and back on their feet. I did take a kid in one time, he was hanging around the house a lot and I was having to run him off at night. He was 17 and my kids were 15 at the time. My boys then told me his parents had kicked him out. His parents lived about a block away, both Doctors, but they wanted nothing to do with him. He was smoking pot and he was fighting with his mom. I really didn't want him around my kids either. The police wouldn't do anything because he was close to being 18. I contacted a local church and they found a place for him to stay and a job. He took off about a hour after I dropped him off. My sons said he just started bouncing from one place to the next for a while. Don't know what happened to him.Quote:
Originally Posted by redfox
I don't come into contact with anyone in need, and don't go looking for them. The last time I saw a homeless guy was at Key West. He looked to me like he was where he chose to be. I don't worry about it much anymore.
What a solid you did for that teen. My parents took in a friend from high school under similar circumstances. It made a big difference in his life, but the influence didn't show up till some years later. He credited his time in our basement as critical to his getting on a road that was much more productive. I hope that was also true for the teen you housed.Quote:
Originally Posted by dmc
Regarding the homeless dude in Key West, I wonder how one would assess what choice meant for him?