Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Our Good Government....Federal Fumbles Report Exposes Wasteful...

Federal Fumbles Report Exposes Wasteful (Okay Stupid) Federal Programs

by Jeff Dunetz | Nov 28, 2016 | U.S. News

Some of the worst programs (or best depending on your perspective) include:

#1 $180,000 grant for the development of a method to count and tag the sea duck population in America.
#2 $495,000 to fund a temporary exhibit for sights, sounds, tastes and yes, even smells of the Medieval period.
#3 $2 million, multi-year study about kids’ eating emotions, and how they don’t like to eat food that’s been sneezed on.
#4 $1 million contract for a photograph of a Yosemite waterfall to be cut up in six pieces and displayed on different floors.
#5 $200,000 to study “fish bone and ceramic fragments from a selection of households representing diverse levels of social standing to understand how the consumption of food “
#6 $250,000 to Sunsweet, a privately owned cooperative which has revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, to help them to market a new prune supplement.
#7 DOJ gave over 300 million in grants to sanctuary cities to help them fight crime. Of course one way to fight the crime would be not grant sanctuary to illegal immigrants, er.. criminally trespassing aliens.
#8 Obama’s $1.7 Billion in “ransom” payments to Iran.

Monday, November 28, 2016

In the agony of childbirth, a homeless woman finds help

In the agony of childbirth, a homeless woman finds help


We can agree that a sidewalk in San Diego is no place to give birth. Yet amid the city’s lost tribe of homeless people, a woman’s body had other plans.
“I hear a woman screaming in a tent, and it sounds like something awful,” said Phillip Denton, who was working as a security guard for downtown’s Clean and Safe, a quasi-government agency that scrubs pavement and patrols the neighborhood.
Denton was making his usual rounds on the afternoon of Sept. 10, a Saturday, when a dispatcher directed him to check on the welfare of a homeless woman camped in the East Village, near the corner of 14th and G streets.

Clean and Safe rules prohibit its “ambassadors” from delivering first aid or even touching the homeless. So Denton and his supervisor gently persuaded the soon-to-be mother to submit to a rudimentary exam, conducted by a homeless woman who lived nearby.
“The tent was dirty; blankets, roaches and probably mice,” Denton said.
The prognosis was obvious: Ready or not, a baby was coming soon.
This reality changed the mind that mattered most. Within minutes, the woman consented to be scooped up by paramedics and transported to Scripps Mercy Hospital.
Here the story trails off. Citing privacy regulations, no hospital, fire department or nonprofit official will disclose what happened next. On the bright side, county records show no deceased homeless infants that day.
I picked up clues that a mother and newborn baby survived, and landed a day or two later in a shelter for homeless women and their children. Here again, strict privacy rules prevent me from confirmation. And I’m not naming the shelter, which also hides victims from violent domestic abusers.
But that was more than two months ago. At least once a week I’ve walked a grid in the East Village area where the security guard may have saved a life, or two. Nobody claims to know the pregnant woman, street name “Lady,” who went into labor on the sidewalk.
Are they OK or back on the street? Getting decent food and clothing? What about checkups for that baby?
Forget about answers for a second. Even such questions can bring me to tears.
We can suppose that this mother was disabled by mental illness, at least temporarily. After all, experts estimate such illness afflicts 80 percent of the chronically homeless people living outdoors.
Yet we don’t need experts for this one. Rational people don’t refuse medical attention while enduring the agony of childbirth inside a filthy tent.
Perhaps her moment of clarity will persist. Studies suggest that about four-fifths of homeless people are unhoused only temporarily, and soon muster the resources to return to traditional society. About 10 percent skip off the bottom, while the remaining 10 percent never recover.
CONTINUED TO READ THE FULL STORY:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/dan-mcswain/sd-fi-mcswain-homeless-baby-20161123-htmlstory.html

Homeless deaths have doubled over two years

Homeless deaths have doubled over two years

According to data from the San Diego County medical examiner, the number of people who died while homeless doubled here over two years. There were 117 such deaths in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, compared to 93 last year and 54 over the same period in 2014.

Date of deathDecember 27, 2015
NameXXXXXX XXXXX
Age63
GenderMale
Location of deathFound, sidewalk (bus stop)
Death ZIP code92020
Manner of deathNatural
Death summaryHypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Notes: Pulmonary emphysema; Chronic alcohol abuse.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Helping The Homeless: LA Voters Approve Measure to Spend $1.2 Billion to House The Homeless.



http://www.latimes.com/.../la-me-ln-homeless-20161108...

 LA:  Election Results: L.A. Voters Approve Measure to Spend $1.2 Billion to House the Homeless
POSTED 12:43 PM, NOVEMBER 9, 2016, BY LOS ANGELES TIMES AND COURTNEY FRIEL, UPDATED AT 07:15PM, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

http://ktla.com/.../election-results-l-a-voters-approve.../
City officials on Wednesday said the overwhelming voter approval for a $1.2-billion bond measure to build supportive housing for homeless people will provide a long-term solution to the region’s intractable street homelessness problem.

“Within the next three to six months, with all the work we’ve done, we will see an improvement,” said City Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents skid row, the biggest concentration of homeless people in the nation. “And in two years … we’ll see a significant reduction in people living in the streets.”

With all precincts reporting, Measure HHH had secured 76% of the vote, well above the 66.66% threshold needed to pass.

After years of ineffective efforts to stem tent encampments that now are spread across the city, the bond measure is an ambitious approach to achieve a lasting solution.

Click here to read the full story on LATimes.com.
http://www.latimes.com/.../la-me-ln-homeless-20161108...

Helping The Homeless. Riverside County.


NEWS

Riverside seeks solutions to homeless problem

By ALICIA ROBINSON / STAFF WRITER

 People line up outside the Riverside Community Shelter run by Path of Life Ministries in December. City officials will discuss public concerns with homelessness and possible solutions on Tuesday, Oct. 11.
Riverside officials will consider an ambitious list of initiatives to reduce homelessness in the city, such as asking churches to offer temporary shelter, creating a job training and employment program and encouraging developers to build affordable housing.
The ideas aim to address what city leaders say is the No. 1 complaint they hear from the community. They’ll be discussed at a day-long workshop Tuesday, Oct. 11, with more than 30 speakers representing business, nonprofit groups and law enforcement
Officials on Tuesday, Oct.11, will tackle ideas such as more help from churches and a jobs program.
http://www.pe.com/articles/city-815312-people-homeless.html

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Hollywood and The Homeless: DownTrodden Continued...

Even the LA Times posted this article:

Column 

'It's almost like a death watch': Severely ill homeless people are at risk of dying on the streets of Hollywood




Rachel "Raquel" Phillips, left, talks with Anthony Ruffin of Housing Works. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)


Raquel was the one who got to me.
Not that it was easy to forget all the other people I saw while touring Hollywood in the pre-dawn hours Friday.


Rachel "Raquel" Phillips sleeps at Highland and Franklin, one of the busiest intersections in Hollywood. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Fifteen years??? The pavement is permanently discolored because Raquel has been there, in that same spot, for 15 years.
 Fifteen years!
Photographer Francine Orr and I were traveling with Anthony Ruffin and Rudy Salinas of Housing Works, a nonprofit that steers homeless people into housing and services. Ruffin and Salinas were hoping to use the forecast of rain to talk people into shelter, or into hospitals, depending on the need.
Housing Works is one of the many supporters of Measure HHH on the Nov. 6 ballot in Los Angeles. It would raise $1.2 billion for housing, with the county expected to provide needed services for residents. Salinas said the current critical housing shortage is a killer. Even when Housing Works manages to persuade sick, resistant homeless people to move inside, there’s nowhere to put them.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE AT LA TIMES: 

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-1030-lopez-hollywood-homeless-20161028-story.html

Friday, October 28, 2016

Dow Jones & The Downtrodden !!!

Dow Jones!!
WOW 







WAIT! 
THE DOW BENEFITTED FEW RICHES BUT..
WHAT ABOUT 

THE 

DOWNTRODDEN!!! 

NOT!!

The hidden, forgotten and downtrodden 

 Are still living in misery and are not getting

the drift of the dow...






Anywhere USA.


Kansas City, USA.


PUBLISHED:  | UPDATED: 


Photo courtesy of Steve Holmes
This homeless encampment was near a bicycle trail north of Auzerais Avenue near Los Gatos Creek in San Jose. According to South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition founder Steve Holmes, state game wardens no longer patrol the area, leaving city park rangers to do so.

This is one of the richest areas in the US. 


One of the homeless camps of Baltimore.


By sonyblockbuster - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21289321


Homeless woman with dogs, Haight Street, San Francisco, CA
 By http://www.flickr.com/photos/livenature/ - http://www.flickr.com/photos/livenature/256934977/sizes/o/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8628782





https://youtu.be/I0P8RLSW3Eo 

https://youtu.be/2_TqB1uzRdM



BILLIONAIRES BACK BID TO BAN SF HOMELESS CAMPS

dsc_6361
The sidewalks of San Francisco will become a battleground for billionaires this election season as a proposition on the ballot, Proposition Q, seeks to tackle the issue of homeless encampments. The measure is sponsored by Supervisor Mark Farrell and supported largely by venture capitalists William Oberndorf, Michael Moritz and Ron Conway according to campaign finance records obtained from the SF Ethics Commission.
Donations to Proposition Q
screen-shot-2016-10-17-at-1-31-08-pm
Oberndorf, a Mill Valley-based investor, spent more than $1.5 million this election cycle in support of Jeb Bush’s race to win the Republican nomination for president.
Moritz, a venture capitalist, drew public attention for his support for and $250,000 donation supporting a 2010 measure that sought to increase city employees’ payments into their generous pension funds……………..

THE STATE OF HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA 2016

The State of Homelessness in America 2016

On a single night in January 2015, 564,708 people were experiencing homelessness — meaning they were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.
  • In total, 33 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) reported decreases in overall homelessness, while 16 states reported increases. The states with decreases in homelessness were concentrated in the South and Midwest.
  • Despite a national decrease in unsheltered homelessness, only 18 states reported decreases in the number of people living in unsheltered locations, including the street, cars, and abandoned buildings. The national decrease in unsheltered homelessness was driven in large part by decreases in unsheltered homelessness in Florida, Texas, and Georgia.
  • The national rate of homelessness in 2015 fell to 17.7 homeless people per 10,000 people in the general population from 18.3 in 2014. The rates in individual states ranged from 111 in D.C. to 7 in Mississippi.
  • The rate of veteran homelessness continued its descent of the past several years to 24.8 homeless veterans per 10,000 veterans in the general population. The rates in individual states ranged from 145 in D.C. to 9 in Virginia.
  • The majority of states had decreases in every major subpopulation: family homelessness (33 states and D.C.), chronically homeless individuals (31 states and D.C.), and veteran homelessness (33 states).
The map in the link below shows the percent change in the total homeless population and various subpopulations by state from January 2014 to January 2015.
http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/SOH2016
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overlooked in the elections, Portland’s homeless are organising their own camps on their own terms, but fear evictions.

FAST FACTS: HOMELESSNESS IN PORTLAND

  • There are at least 4.000 homeless people sleeping on the streets of Portland on any given night
  • But the true number could be much higher as the city only records the homeless on one night of the year
  • Between 2014 and 2015, Oregon witnessed an 8.7 percent growth in homelessness
  • This came after a 20.5% rent rise

Sources: Portland Housing Bureau, National Association of Realtors Found, Database Zillow

Chaos, trash and tears: Inside Seattle’s flawed homeless sweeps

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/chaos-trash-and-tears-inside-seattles-flawed-homeless-sweeps/

----------------------------------------------------Hidden Lives in Homeless Camps in Mobile
They live in camps across Mobile from the woods behind restaurants and shopping centers to spaces beneath bridges.

8182016homeless_takeoverseattle

----------------------------------------------------

Baltimore’s people of the woods: Inside the hidden homeless camps made of milk crates, wooden doors and tarps on the outskirts of town



  • Photographer Ben Marcin’s series ‘The Camps’ captures makeshift settlements near railway lines, gas stations, Walmarts and bridges
  • He said many of Baltimore’s homeless feel safer in the woods than in shelters
  • While most homes are made from tarps, some more elaborate constructions use milk crates and wooden doors
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2564858/Baltimores-people-woods-Inside-hidden-homeless-camps-milk-crates-wooden-doors-tarps-outskirts-town.html



McKinleyville Area Homeless Camps



Why the Wealthiest Benefit Most From Dow 14,000 - CNBC.com

www.cnbc.com/id/100427095

CNBC
Feb 1, 2013 - And roughly half of Americans own some stocks through mutual funds and ... The higher Dow and the "wealth effect" will no doubt lead to greater ... But only about a third of all Americans hold more than $10,000 in stock, ...

Some 95% of 2009-2012 Income Gains Went to Wealthiest 1% - Real ...

blogs.wsj.com/.../some-95-of-2009-2012-income-gains-went-t...

The Wall Street Journal
Sep 10, 2013 - DOW JONES, A NEWS CORP COMPANY ..... Some 95% of 2009-2012 Income Gains Went to Wealthiest 1% ... –Last year, the richest 10% received more than half of all income — 50.5%, or the largest share ... /opinions/income-growth-has-been-negligible-but-surprise-inequality-has-narrowed-since-2007/.

Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power - UCSC.edu

www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/.../wealth.html

University of California, Santa Cruz
(But it's important to note that for the rich, most of that income does not come from ... In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. .... 2022) for the benefit of the heirs of the mere 0.6% of Americans whose death would ..... and that CEOs at the Dow-Jones companies make 550 times as much.

Stock ownership: Who benefits? - Salon.com

www.salon.com/2013/09/19/stock_ownership_who_benefits_partner/

Salon
Sep 19, 2013 - The market is at an all time high, but stock ownership is wildly unequal. ... More than 35% of all Americans own at least some stock, including that in ... As of 2010, the richest 5% of U.S. households owned about two-thirds of all ... rosiest of circumstances, directly benefit less than half of the U.S. population.