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