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Something positive to end the week....
G, M and their 3 kids who lived in a tent for 6 months, finally moved into a house in their little OR town, right before Thanksgiving and just in time to escape the brutal storms that pummelled the west coast (where I was blissfully camping for about a week right before the storms).
I had received an email from a woman, R, in the Chicago area who had lived in her car for a while, some of us call that HOMELESS. She does too. HUD, well that's another story....
She wanted to do something nice at the holiday time, not my favorite time, but I'll get over it. I connected her with J, the social worker who pushed to get the above-mentioned family into a real house (HUD considers their tent housing). J and R exchanged emails and VIOLA! The family is getting lots of good gifts from R, in addition to the scads of essentials and extras that J and her colleagues scouted up.
It was nice to stand back and let it happen. Glad to hear that people are still motivated to do good. Sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle of riches, greed, and bureaucratic insanity, like HUD's insistence that families in motels aren't homeless.
Seems to me that we forget that good overpowers the evil we see every time we turn around. It's good to remember the positive energy that keeps this world spinning in the right direction....
Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts
Friday, December 7, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Clueless In America
South Korea is quite a distance from Reno, NV. So, as I sat last night at dinner talking with the 3-person team of the South Korean MBC news crew, it was fascinating to explore homelessness in S Korea as they queried me about America's homeless adults and children.
The same is true in SK as in the USA--invisible homeless families and teens escape notice, much to their detriment.
They have domestic violence in SK, but women tend to stay with their abusive spouses. They have house fires and other disasters that displace families, forcing them to double-up with relatives or friends.
A few key differences--housing costs are more affordable and medical expenses are far less than this country.
But they talk about greed and extreme wealth there in similar ways that some of us see this pervasive condition in America.
We visited a local shelter program that helps families. They are only able to serve 3 families at a time, and folks can only come in at 6 and must leave in the early morning hours so the church can be used for its daily purpose. Generous volunteers make this stop-gap service possible.
The director said they have a waiting list of 40 families which doesn't include the number of families requesting help that just don't get on the list.
Reno has a new state-of-the-art mens' shelter, part of the federal government's much-heralded "Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness," better known as the clear out the visible homeless adults plan. The feds don't want to include families in their definition of homelessness fearing "opening the floodgates."
Seems to me that in a city of decadent gambling, entertainment and dining, the proverbial crumbs from the tables could be gathered to assist families who live in dreadful conditions, in all forms of homelessness. Instead we're growing a future crop of homeless adults by ignoring families today.
The same is true in SK as in the USA--invisible homeless families and teens escape notice, much to their detriment.
They have domestic violence in SK, but women tend to stay with their abusive spouses. They have house fires and other disasters that displace families, forcing them to double-up with relatives or friends.
A few key differences--housing costs are more affordable and medical expenses are far less than this country.
But they talk about greed and extreme wealth there in similar ways that some of us see this pervasive condition in America.
We visited a local shelter program that helps families. They are only able to serve 3 families at a time, and folks can only come in at 6 and must leave in the early morning hours so the church can be used for its daily purpose. Generous volunteers make this stop-gap service possible.
The director said they have a waiting list of 40 families which doesn't include the number of families requesting help that just don't get on the list.
Reno has a new state-of-the-art mens' shelter, part of the federal government's much-heralded "Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness," better known as the clear out the visible homeless adults plan. The feds don't want to include families in their definition of homelessness fearing "opening the floodgates."
Seems to me that in a city of decadent gambling, entertainment and dining, the proverbial crumbs from the tables could be gathered to assist families who live in dreadful conditions, in all forms of homelessness. Instead we're growing a future crop of homeless adults by ignoring families today.
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