Blessings Darlings!
Tis the Season ... to discuss hunger, homelessness, and related issues.
I live kinda rural, so homelessness is relatively hidden in my area. You don't walk by folks sleeping on grates here, unlike when I hung out in DC. Which is NOT NOT NOT to say that homelessness is not a problem here. Many an overgrown, vine covered 'abandoned' house is being lived in here, it's just hard to know. A roughly put together shelter of scrounged plywood, out in the woods, is going to be pretty invisible.
And certainly even when folks do have homes, many have no utilities. You might never realized that your neighbor has had their electricity cut off a year or more ago.
Even among my coworkers, being without running water isn't unusual. Whether they live in a house that just never has had running water, or their well has gone dry, or the well has been contaminated (welcome to West Virginia, where mining waste is EVERYWHERE), or it has been cut off, it's reality. Perhaps this is the most 'visible' thing in the area ... if you look for it. The old people in line in front of you at the dollar store, getting all those paper plates and cups? They don't have water, they can't wash 'regular' stuff (they don't have garbage pick up, either, and will burn these after use). The folks you see carrying jugs of water from the tap outside the Post Office? Yes, them, too.
Keep your eyes open.
Frondly, Fern
Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Homelessness & Occupy Camps
Blessings Darlings!
It's just a few hours since I did that last blog post. But I've been challenged about what I'd do about homeless folks at OccupyDC that aren't participating in the Occupy movement OTHER than having the police evict the homeless (who had been using the park/plaza first). For the record, I worked for ages with homeless people in various parts of Illinois.
Since I'm in West Virginia without a car, I've only been to OccupyDC once. I don't know all the committees - is there one aimed at Resident involvement? If so, that committee could look at things like ....
Dudes, you have rules. Add a bit to them. It doesn't take many changes. Enforced rules work in shelters that aren't just 'sheets and eats' shelters. If things like this aren't covered then maybe add things like minimum work or volunteering requirements for residents, and/or required AA/NA/whatever meeting attendance for recovering addicts and/or everyone up and attending sleeper meeting in morning for those without jobs, and/or everyone attends GA, all residents have to be on at least one committee, etc, etc, etc. I'm sure that there are more things that could be considered.
Would the rules need to be enforced? Sure. Would that take people to do? Yes. How would they be enforced? I'd suggest ... nagging. Or a 'buddy' assigned to .... as others have termed them .... 'unfriendlies' to walk 'em to GAs, their chosen committees, etc.
Given how many folks who do not choose to participate in the program at shelters with strong case management and instead choose to, simply leave, changing from sheets-and-eats format to managed format seems likely to .... cause walk outs of those not participating in OccupyDC.
Is it guaranteed? No. Is it fast? No. Is it easy? No. It is building a new world and that, as you already know, is slow and hard work.
But my fear is that the other 'solution' offered is to turn in those non-participating to the police for eviction for 'not being part of the vigil' is just, again, throwing the homeless under the bus.
Frondly, Fern
It's just a few hours since I did that last blog post. But I've been challenged about what I'd do about homeless folks at OccupyDC that aren't participating in the Occupy movement OTHER than having the police evict the homeless (who had been using the park/plaza first). For the record, I worked for ages with homeless people in various parts of Illinois.
Since I'm in West Virginia without a car, I've only been to OccupyDC once. I don't know all the committees - is there one aimed at Resident involvement? If so, that committee could look at things like ....
Dudes, you have rules. Add a bit to them. It doesn't take many changes. Enforced rules work in shelters that aren't just 'sheets and eats' shelters. If things like this aren't covered then maybe add things like minimum work or volunteering requirements for residents, and/or required AA/NA/whatever meeting attendance for recovering addicts and/or everyone up and attending sleeper meeting in morning for those without jobs, and/or everyone attends GA, all residents have to be on at least one committee, etc, etc, etc. I'm sure that there are more things that could be considered.
Would the rules need to be enforced? Sure. Would that take people to do? Yes. How would they be enforced? I'd suggest ... nagging. Or a 'buddy' assigned to .... as others have termed them .... 'unfriendlies' to walk 'em to GAs, their chosen committees, etc.
Given how many folks who do not choose to participate in the program at shelters with strong case management and instead choose to, simply leave, changing from sheets-and-eats format to managed format seems likely to .... cause walk outs of those not participating in OccupyDC.
Is it guaranteed? No. Is it fast? No. Is it easy? No. It is building a new world and that, as you already know, is slow and hard work.
But my fear is that the other 'solution' offered is to turn in those non-participating to the police for eviction for 'not being part of the vigil' is just, again, throwing the homeless under the bus.
Frondly, Fern
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