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Today's
Stories
September 20 / 21, 2008
Michael Hudson
America's Own Kleptocracy
Pam Martens
The Wall Street Model: Unintelligent Design
Lila Rajiva
Putting Lipstick on an AIG
Richard Rhames
A Bailout to Nowhere
Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Making of Recent U.S. Middle East Policies: a New Study of Neocon Influence
Robert Fantina
Republicans and Subpoenas: Never the Twain Shall Meet
Heidi Walters
Hung Up on Route 36: an 18-Wheeler and a Nuclear Cask
Anthony Papa
Imprisoned Voters and the Elections
Dave Zirin
Leave Josh Howard Alone
September 19, 2008
Steven T. Banko
McCain's Passion Play
Mike Whitney
The Point of No Return
Michael Hudson
The Dow Jones' Wonderfully Cheesy Addition
William Kaufman
Shattering the Glass-Steagall Act: the Bi-Partisan Origins of the Financial Crisis
Brenda Norrell
The Fall of Lehman Bros.:
Blowback for Black Mesa?
Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor
The New Rhetoric of Racism: Why Won't Obama Call It Out?
Clifton Ross
Bolivia: Cleaning Up the Bull Ring
Dave Lindorff
Hang On to Your Wallets: the Government's About to Rescue Us!
Cynthia McKinney
Seize the Time!
Susan Hurlich
Storm Survivors: a Dispatch from Cuba
Michael Donnelly
Let's Hand It All Over to the Democrats (They Helped Create This Mess)
Website of the Day
The Crisis Explained
September 18, 2008
Benjamin Dangl
The Machine Gun and the Meeting Table
Harvey Wasserman
The Senate's Drill, Drill, Drill Scam
Susan Abulhawa
The Lobby Has Spoken:
Biden and Israel
Robert Weissman
After the Fall:
the Financial Re-Regulatory Agenda
Anne-Marie McManus
McCain's Cinderella: the Fetishization of Sarah Palin
Corey D. B. Walker
The Poverty of 21st Century Progressivism
William S. Lind
Senator O'Bush: Why Obama is Wrong on Iran and Afghanistan
Ron Jacobs
Washington's False Logic of Torture
Dave Lindorff
American and China: Joined at the Hip
Binoy Kampmark
How Damien Hirst Got Away With It
Website of the Day
An Invisible Army
September 17, 2008
Stephen Conn
Palin and the Politics of Big Oil
Forrest Hylton
Reactionary Rampage in Bolivia
Patrick Cockburn
Petraeus Leaves Iraq
Gregory Elich
Inside North Korea
Ralph Nader
How the U.S. Auto Industry Wrecked Itself
Franklin Lamb
The Palestinians of Shabra-Shatila
Pam Martens
The Gang's All Here: Bush, McCain and the Old Iran/Contra Team
Dave Lindorff
The End of the Blue Chip Economy
Peter Morici
The Damage Deepens
Stanley Heller
The Killing of Count Folke Bernadotte
Douglas Valentine
Rambling David Foster Wallace
Website of the Day
Free Cindy McCain!
September 16, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling from Direct Hits
Tiphaine Dickson
Citizen Palin: Why Sarah Palin Quoted Westbrook Pegler
Stan Goff
America is Now Rome: an Open Letter to Christian Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
Uri Avnery
Tzipi's Choice
Michael Winship
Lipstick on Polar Bears
Jeff Halper
Warehousing Palestinians
Patrick Irelan
Bolivia Versus the Empire
Oscar Gonzalez
Who's Dumber? Ike's Refugees or Wall Street's?
Binoy Kampmark
Cheney and His Records
Fatemeh Keshavarz
Muslims are at Peace with You
Sen. Russ Feingold
Restoring the Rule of Law
Website of the Day
The Next Great Rock Band?
September 15, 2008
Mike Whitney
The Tumbrils Roll at Dawn
Peter Morici
Toxic Lehman
Patrick Cockburn
Take Another Look at the Surge
Charles R. Larson
The Maverick Has No Clothes
Jonathan Cook
The Expulsion of Palestinians from Jaffa
Nikolas Kozloff
Racist Rhetoric in Bolivia
Roger Burbach
Morales Confronts the Insurrection: Bolivia and the Echoes of Allende
Helen Redmond
Where's the Health Care Bailout?
David Michael Green
The Democrats Do Poland
David Macaray
The Boeing Strike
Ralph Nader
Remembering Peter Camejo
Website of the Day
The Ballad of Sarah Palin
September 13 / 14, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Panic!
Jeffrey St. Clair
Inside Dirk Kempthorne's Closet
Wajahat Ali
Playing with the Constitution
Robert Fantina
Cheney Scales New Heights of Hypocrisy
Marcus Rediker
Notes on a Visit to the Favelas of Medellín, Colombia
Richard Neville
The Baby Killers
Ed Gaffney
Breaking the Siege of Gaza
Carla Blank
Neglecting a Grand Old Lady
P. Sainath
The Almighty and the U.S. Elections
Lee Sustar
Working Harder; Falling Further Behind
Joshua Frank
Liberalism and Its Bounds
M. Junaid Levesque-Alam
The Guantanamoized Age
Dennis Loo
Shock and Awe Comes Home to Roost
Zach Zill
Squeezed Out in New York City
Omar Barghouti
So You Think You Can Dance? Israeli Profiling of African-American Dancers
Bill Quigley
Social Justice Quiz, 2008
Andy Worthington
Bush's Bitter Legacy
Stephen Dunifer
Free Radio: Liberating the Commons
Seth Sandronsky
Bailing Out Big Auto
David Yearsley
Portabella's Bach: Grim, Trite and Incredibly Boring
Patrick B. Barr
Obama's Punchless Campaign
Rannie Amiri
Tasting Ramadan
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Flight Not Taken
Richard Rhames
What, Me Reason?
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The Large Hadron Collider Powers Up
Poets' Basement
Deer Cloud and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Wasilla Valley PTA?
September 12, 2008
Nikolas Kozloff
The Next Cuban Missile Crisis?
Michael Hudson
More Dangerous Than the A-Bomb?
The Chicago School's Record of Infamy
Lloyd Miller
Palin and Alaskan Native and Tribal Rights: a Dismal Record
Steve Breyman
Georgia in NATO?
Maria Rivera
Cuba After Gustav and Ike: an Eyewitness Account
Jonathan Cook
Israel and the Dark Arts
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
U.S. Designs on Pakistan
M. Shahid Alam
The Mendacity of Missed Opportunities
Robert Weissman
Executive Pay and the "Market Economy"
Tanya Golash-Boza / David Brunsma
Immigration Raids Must Be Stopped
Website of the Day
Know Your Rights
September 11, 2008
Noam Chomsky
Towards a Second Cold War?
Sharon Smith
Afghanistan: You Call This a Good War?
Ron Jacobs
Palinomics:
She Ain't No Working Class Hero
Marjorie Cohn
God, Guns and Oil: A Palin Theocracy?
Mike Whitney
Cheney in the Caucasus
Jeffery R. Webber
Bolivia: a Coup in the Making?
Paul Cantor
The Other 9/11
Peter Morici
The Surging Trade Deficit
Ray McGovern
Iran's Road Less Traveled to Nukes
Linn Washington, Jr.
Screening Mumia:
The Suppression of Dissent in America
Website of the Day
Palin (Michael) for President!
September 10, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
A Temporary Respite from Permanent Decline
Conn Hallinan
The Return of U.S. Death Squads
Ralph Nader
Who Needs Regulations When You've Got a Golden Parachute?
Peter Morici
Can the Bailout Work?
Joanne Mariner
The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui
Laura Tate Kagel /
Jen Marlowe
The Pending Execution of Troy Davis: a Case for Clemency
Chuck Spinney
Incestuous Amplification and the Madness of King George
Dave Lindorff
Lazy Thinking and Prejudice
Scott Campbell
Where Now for Oaxaca's Social Movement?
Paul Farmer
Haiti and the Hurricanes
Anne Kilkenny
Letters from Wasilla: the Sarah Palin I Know
Website of the Day
Democrats and Zombies
September 9, 2008
Michael Colby
The Obama Poll Drop
Chellis Glendinning
Retorno a 1968: From Berkeley to Mexico City
Vijay Prashad
Losing Game
Jeffery R. Webber/
George Ciccariello-Maher
Venezuela From Below
David Michael Green
Country Last
Brian J. Foley
The New Face of Republican Power
John Ross
Mexican Flag Wrap
Pierre M. Sprey /
Winslow T. Wheeler
Joint Strike Fighter:
Another Defense Acquisition Disaster
Nicole Colson
Sami Al-Arian's Long Road to Freedom
Marc Gardner
California's Anti-Homosexual Laws are Alive and Unwell
William S. Lind
The Baltic States and Russia: Toy Armies or Accomodation?
Website of the Day
All Hope Rests with Piper Palin
September 8, 2008
Mike Whitney
An Interview with Michael Hudson on the Worsening Debt Crisis
Tariq Ali
The Godfather as President
Pam Martens
The Man Who Vetted Palin
Bill Quigley
The Weary Road Home: Displaced Poor Continue to Return to New Orleans
Malini Johar Schueller /
Ed White
Not About Me: Obamamania, Racial Porn-fest and Palinama
Robert Jensen
Pop Music and 9/11
Uri Avnery
Lonely Rider
Win McCormack
Palin Family Values
Howard Lisnoff
How Far From a Police State?
Maria C. Khoury
Taybeh Oktoberfest in Palestine
Website of the Day
Scaring Students from Voting in Virginia
September 6 / 7, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Sarah Palin and the Good Book
Jeffrey St. Clair
That Dam Senator: A River Ran Through Him
Linn Washington, Jr.
The GOP Excluded Black-Owned Businesses from Contracts at St. Paul Convention
Patrick Cockburn
Did Bush Spies Monitor Iraqi Allies?
Gary Leupp
The September 3 Attack on Pakistan: a Precursor to More War Crimes?
Nancy Kurshan
CHI-town Lowdown: Memories of 1968
William Blum
Has Obama Already Lost?
Michael Winship
The St. Paul Police vs. the Independent Media
Fred Gardner
Joe Biden, Drug Warrior
Nikolas Kozloff
Sarah Palin and the Wal-Mart Moms: the Cultural Packaging of VP Candidates
Wajahat Ali
The Cryptkeeper and His Pitbull: the Past and Future of the GOP
Robert Fantina
Change Agents?
Karyn Strickler
Palin by Comparison: Sarah and the Hillary Voters
David Yearsley
What Their Fanfares Told Us About the Candidates
Richard Rhames
Bad Campaign Moon Rising
James L. Secor
Bandwagon Politics
Missy Beattie
Missy for Vice POTUS
Eric Patton
Baseless in Obamaland
Ben Terrall
Haiti and the Washington Consensus
Thom Rutledge
Mr. Magoo and the Kind Stranger: a Serious Political Problem
Dan Bacher
Arnold and the Manufactured Drought
David Macaray
Is Union Democracy at Risk?
Jane Stillwater
The Admiral's Child: a Psychological Reason for McCain's Flip Flops
Grady Harper
Should Hunting Really be High on Our Priority List?
Poets' Basement
Wolff, Payne and Holt
Website of the Weekend
We'll See Your Sarah Palin and Raise You With Maria McKee
September 5, 2008
Elizabeth Walters
Old Fears, New Worries in Louisiana
Bill Quigley
Gustav's Path of Destruction
Alan Farago
Nothing Means Anything: The Fantasy of John and Sarah
Dave Lindorff
The Things They Left Behind (Including McCain's First Wife)
Ira Glunts
A Lesson Before Lying: How Republicans Solved Sarah Palin's Jewish Problem
Peter Morici
The Big Slump
Deepak Tripathi
Politics, Morality and the GOP: John McCain as John Major?
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The Energy of a Hurricane
Michael Donnelly
Change. God. POW.: a Summary of McCain's Big Speech
Martha Rosenberg
Free to Good Home, SUVs
Website of the Day
Sarah Palin's Air War: On Wolves and Bears
September 4, 2008
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Real McCain
Paul Craig Roberts
Who is Wrecking America?
Ron Jacobs
The Perishing Republicans, the RNC 9 and the Twin Cities Cops
M. Junaid Levesque-Alam
The Soft Surge
Andy Worthington
Rendered to Egypt for Torture
Osama Dawoud
How I Lost My Fulbright Scholarship
Stephen Lendman
Katrina Redux: the Militarization of New Orleans
Fidel Castro
Hurricane as Nuclear Strike
Website of the Day
Is McCain Palin's Bitch?
September 3, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
The Fake U.S. Victory in Iraq
Sen. Mike Gravel
Good Luck, Sarah!
Vijay Prashad
The Indian Left and the Indo-US Nuclear Deal
Nikolas Kozloff
Palin, Hunting and the American Psyche
Ralph Nader
Repeal Taft-Hartley
Howard Lisnoff
Forty Years in the Streets (And They're Still Beating Up Journalists)
Steve Early / Cal Winslow
Can SEIU Members Exorcize the Purple Shades of Jackie Presser?
Shepherd Bliss
A Field Report From Slow Food Nation
Bill Quigley
Living in the Car After Gustav
Website of the Day
Growing Up Okie: an Interview with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
September 2, 2008
Marjorie Cohn
Raiding Democracy in St. Paul
Jonathan Cook
Palestinian Village Faces Army Reign of Terror
Robert Weitzel
Biden and Israel
Corey D. B. Walker
Where Do We Go From Here?
John Ross
The Kidnapping Boom in Mexico
Eric Walberg
Wag the Dog in Georgia
Judith Scherr
No Day in Court for Ronald Dauphin
Richard Morse
Haiti, 2008
B. R. Gowani
What If the Israel Lobby was the African-American Lobby?
Michael Greenberg
Loofah Day in Cleveland
Website of the Day
Thanks for the Memories!
September 1, 2008
Nikolas Kozloff
Making a Killing in Iraq: McCain and the Telecoms
C. G. Estabrook
The War Will Go On
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Will a Russo-American Nuclear War Happen (Soon)?
David Macaray
An Elegy for Labor Day
B. R. Gowani
The Lobby as Juggernaut
Saul Landau
Real Gold Winners
Charles Orloski
Going Down to Hell's Cul-de-Sac
Gloria La Riva
Profit and Disaster in New Orleans
Website of the Day
Springsteen: Factory
August 30 / 31, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Obama's Speech; McCain's Palinomy
Bill Quigley
Gustav is Coming
Jeffrey St. Clair
Valley Boy:
The Rise and Fall of Richard Pombo
Andy Worthington
Shining a Light on the Dark Prison
Deepak Tripathi
The Race for the White House: Notes From a European Observer
Stanley Howard
A Prisoner's Tale of Abuse
Dave Lindorff
Troopergate in Alaska
Wajahat Ali
Palin on the Prowl:
a Cougar for the PUMAs?
Robert Fantina
McCain and Palin
Josh Schlossberg
A Bias for Life: the Role of the Environmentalist
Benjamin Dangl
Beyond Voting
Missy Beattie
Stars, Stripes, War and Shame
Howard Lisnoff
Better Cuba Than Florida?
Suzan Mazur
Rethinking Evolution with Stuart Newman
Rev. Jim Rigby
What Would Jesus Ride to the Conventions?
David Yearsely
Katy Perry Meets Mozart
Serge Quadruppani
Italy's Years of Lead
B.R. Gowani
What If the Israeli Lobby Was the Islamic Lobby?
Richard Rhames
Empty Political Calories
Poets' Basement
Holt, Davies, Corsale and Landau
Website of the Day
Return of the Druids
August 29, 2008
Mike Whitney
How the Chicago Boys Wrecked the Economy
Brian Cloughley
Resurgent Russia
David Ker Thomson
Jacko and Me: Dispatches From Fifty
Joanne Mariner
A UK Window on CIA Abuses
Neve Gordon
The Ordeal of Sahar Vardi, Refusenik
Chris Genovali
Of Whales and Off-Shore Drilling
Ron Jacobs
What's a Godfearing Country to Do?
Michael Donnelly
Honest Abe in Denver?
August 28, 2008
Judy Gumbo Albert
The Battle of Chicago
Paul Cantor
Who Killed Victor Jara?
Saul Landau /
Farrah Hassen
Axis of Evil Defeats Neocons
Andy Worthington
Clearing Out Guantánamo
Ben Terrall
Return to Port-au-Prince
Leonard Peltier
Message to Obama: Symbolism Alone Will Not Bring Change
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Miasma of Bi-Partisanship
Donna J. Volatile
The Obama Construct
Website of the Day
Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker and Maya Angelou on the Meaning of Obama
August 27, 2008
Anthony DiMaggio
The Myths of Joe Biden
Jordan Flaherty
Three Years After Katrina
Ralph Nader
The Politics of Avoidance
Melissa Checker
Carbon Offsets, More Harm Than Good?
Bob Sommer
Blaming the Sixties
Cynthia McKinney
How the Democrats Helped Bush Hijack the Country
Ali Khan
Pakistan's Flawed Presidency
M. Junaid Levesque-Alam
The Only Good Muslim is the Anti-Muslim
Dave Lindorff
Strip-Search Nation
David Macaray
Labor's Hard Lessons
Website of the Day
Stagnant Income in an Eroding Economy
August 26, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
The Big Questions About Iraq
Michael D. Yates
Obama and the Working Class
Paul Craig Roberts
Is War With Russia on the Agenda?
Andy Worthington
The Guantánamo Suicide Report
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
Obama's Promised Land?
Huwaida Arraf
Sailing into Gaza
Joseph Grosso
Back to the Future: New York's Housing Crisis
Sheldon Richman
What About the Ossetians?
Binoy Kampmark
Impasse at Singur
Website of the Day
Taser Bait in Denver
August 25, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
US Out of Iraq by "2011"
Bill Quigley
Katrina, the Pain Index
Jonathan Cook
Israeli Outposts Seal Death of Palestinian State
James McEnteer
Death by Paranoia
Uri Avnery
The Devil's Hoof
Will Potter
The State Deparment's Green Scare Wing
Robert Jensen
Technological Fundamentalism
Stephen Lendman
Reinventing the Evil Empire
Wajahat Ali
Biden His Time
Carl Finamore
The Future of Trade Unions in China
Website of the Day
Don't Blow Up the Mountain, Boys
August 23 / 4, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
"Change," "Hope"...Why They Must be Talking About Joe Biden!
Jeffrey St. Clair
Killing Salmon with Paul O'Neill: Power, Profits and the Future of the Columbia River
Patty O'Grady
John McCain in a New Context: Why the Senator is No War Hero
Nicole Colson
Obama and Big Corn
Steve Conn
Obama and the Mining Cartel
Deepak Trapathi
Pakistan in Uncertain Times
Robert Fantina
Once Upon a Time in America: a McCain Administration
Jonathan M. Feldman
Obamanomics: Does the Left Have Anything to Say?
Joshua Frank
Targeting Pelosi (and the War Machine): an Interview with Cindy Sheehan
Osama Qashoo
Sailing to Gaza
Howard Lisnoff
The Long Silence: American Jews and the Palestinians
David Michael Green
Sen. McShame and the Wreckage:
John McCain Discovers America
Dave Lindorff
Why Not Let the Republicans Deal With This Mess?
Christopher Brauchli
A Banner Month for Passports
Alan Farago
Who Crippled the Government?
Michael Winship
Cash Register Conventions
Richard Rhames
Vlad the Derailer: Can Putin Save America From Itself?
David Rosen
The Culture Wars Are Over: But Culture Warriors Are Still Terrorizing America
Patrick B. Barr
Don't Try to Tame the Lightning Bolt
Jamie Newlin
Western Turf Wars: the Politics of Public Lands Ranching
Poets' Basement
Glendinning, McEnteer and Bonner
Website of the Weekend
Cafe Reconcile, New Orleans
August 22, 2008
Boris Kagarlitsky
Fallout from the Georgian War
Laura Carlsen
Obama and Latin America: Change or Continuity?
Bob Barr
No War for Georgia
Marwan Bishara
From Russia with Love: Putin Hits Georgia, Bloodies Bush
Peter Morici
Is the Fed Still a Central Bank?
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The Big Heat
Charles Mostoller
The Battle for the Amazon
Sumbul Ali-Karamali
Obama is Not a Muslim: But Would It Be So Terrible If He Were?
Keith Rosenthal
Standing Up to Union-Bashing
John F. Miglio
The Devolution of the Baby Boom Generation
Website of the Day
Fire Sale in the Markets!
August 21, 2008
Allan J. Lichtman
Is Georgia 2008 a Repeat of Hungary 1956?
Dave Lindorff Loserville: How Obama Blew It
Ralph Nader
The Problem with Problem Banks
Joanne Mariner
The Military Commissions, So Far
Wajahat Ali
Descent Into Chaos: an Interview with Ahmed Rashid on Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban
Ron Jacobs
Georgia and Historical Farce
Rostam Purzal
The Left and Iran
Anthony Papa
Unlocking the Power of Art to Counter Injustice
Website of the Day
Rocky Mountain Way
August 20, 2008
Michael Neumann
Russia and Georgia: Proportion and Distortion
Ray McGovern
Musharraf Out Like Nixon
Eric Walberg
Georgia's Ossetian Debacle
Fidaa Abed
Blocking a Gazan's Path to San Diego
Daniel Haack
The Pentagon's Most Prolific Pundit
Mike Whitney
Greenback Surges, Euro Shrivels
Website of the Day
Hands Off South Africa's Centre for Civil Society
August 19, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
Are You Ready for Nuclear War?
Deepak Tripathi
A New Age of Torture
Marwan Bishara
The Politics of Evil in the US Elections
Saul Landau
Baseball Diplomacy or Just Baseball?
William S. Lind
Leave Georgia Alone, George
Martha Rosenberg
Whole Foods and Other Food Offenders
James Brittain
The Road to Tyranny in Colombia
Pratyush Chandra
Krugman's Great Illusion
David Macaray
AFSCME's Strike Against the University of California
Website of the Day
McCain Plagiarizing Solzhenitsyn
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Weekend Edition
September 20 / 21, 2008
Momentary Spikes in Attention to a Deepening Crisis
When We Notice the Homeless
By HOWARD LISNOFF
As Hurricane Ike raced through the Gulf of Mexico and into Texas the issue of homelessness was given no attention in the mass media. Three years before, as Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, the national media could not escape paying at least passing attention to the issue, given the catastrophic damage to life and property that Katrina caused.
Following Ike’s passage, Pacifica Radio Network’s Free Speech Radio News interviewed two homeless men in Houston. Both men spent their time outdoors while Ike lashed the area with heavy rains and wind. One man stood on the leeward side of a major hotel, while the other, never having heard the forecast for the hurricane, weathered the storm much like he would have spent any other day that involved inclement weather.
Homelessness is not a topic that often makes the headlines of newspapers or the evening news on major television networks. It only catches the attention of the public when a disaster strikes or when a news item surfaces that happens to involve homeless people.
The causes of homelessness have been known for some time. The generally accepted reasons for people living without shelter at night are:
- The shift beginning in the 1950s from commitment of mentally ill people in institutions to community-based treatment.
- Gentrifications of cities.
- Lack of affordable housing.
- High unemployment and the lack of quality job training programs, particularly job programs that provided certified career training.
- Natural disasters.
- Stigma of having served time in prison.
It was under the presidency of Bill Clinton that the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was passed that placed a 5-year limit of welfare payments. This so-called welfare reform severed the federal government’s responsibility to help the poor. This is stark contrast to the current bailouts of financial giants like Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It depends on just who you know if you’re going to qualify for welfare from the federal government.
It is estimated that 70% of those removed from welfare roles were children. According to the Census Bureau 1 million people sank further into poverty as a result of “welfare reform.” Homelessness is a logical result of these policies.
In a 2005 article in USA Today, “Nation taking a new look at homelessness, solutions,” figures based on survey results from the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that 1 in 400 Americans was homeless, or about 727,304 people. Estimates of homeless people always miss the mark and are notoriously undependable since the homeless are not the type of people easily located or interested in completing surveys. Surveys usually grossly underestimate homelessness.
In the late 1980s a group of concerned folks in southern Rhode Island formed a homeless coalition. We were a motley group made up of antiwar and antinuclear activists and members from the religious community from several nearby communities. While we may have been an informal gathering we got results! The economy was beginning to feel the effects of globalization, and the loss of good manufacturing jobs in New England had long been an economic issue to be dealt with.
Our first attempt to shelter the homeless involved a “roving” shelter that was housed for two nights at a time at local churches, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall and the American Legion Hall. Setting up and moving the shelter was a real headache. Cots and food had to be lugged from site to site.
Our group received a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and we were on our way to finding a permanent address. Soon, I became the grant writer for the shelter and we were awarded several grants. I had already had some experience in sheltering operations, since a childhood neighbor, a priest, had successfully set up a shelter in the Providence area and I had volunteered at that shelter for some time.
Our group was able to purchase a site for our permanent shelter, and after extensive renovations—one of our board members was a builder—the shelter opened. The shelter was nearly always full and we hired an executive director to take care of day-to-day shelter operations. All kinds of people sought shelter. There were people at the margins of the work force and the newly unemployed, usually one paycheck away from the streets. There were mothers with children escaping bad marriages. There were people with drug abuse and alcohol abuse problems, and there were those with mental illnesses.
When I left the board of directors of the shelter I was interested in establishing a more permanent option for families living in the shelter who had greater long-term needs than the shelter could offer them. My old neighbor had already founded such a house in the Providence metropolitan area. Looking back at my years in serving on the board I don’t find it surprising when the issue of homelessness gets momentary attention in the media and then fades in the public mind. While the big players in the economy get sustained attention, the vulnerable folks, often children, aren’t given quite the same care.
Howard Lisnoff is an educator and freelance writer. He can be reached at howielisnoff@gmail.com.
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