Homelessness, Hunger On Rise In US Cities: Report

Reuters:

Homelessness and demand for emergency food are rising in the United States as the economy founders, a report said on Friday, and homeless advocates cautioned many cities were not equipped for the increase.

A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors showed that 19 of 25 cities saw an increase in homelessness in the 12 months to October, while four reported a drop and two cities lacked enough data for conclusive results.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[Amennyc]

Christians would rather give their money to develop a weapon than give it to another person.

[Amennyc]

God sure has a sense of humor.

[Pat15]

We can complain all we want ..but this is the result of Republicans devastating policies for the rich & shafting the middle class & poor... We deserve it as we elected Bush twice ...the so called compassionate conservative ...& the sheep must be delighted that so many of their citizens are homeless & cant fend for themselves ...May be they should open their bibles & read what it says... These bible thumping hypocrites have sympathy for no one ...They are led by equally corrupt & hypocrite leaders Pat roberston, Ted haggard & the Dostons who live the lives of super rich ....
We deserve this fate as we elected Bush twice ...It took us 8 long years to realise the misery republicans have heaped on our nation...M­ay be we learned something I doubt it ..Just wait a few years ...They will be back ...Amen

[tiradintim]

I well remember the huge increase of homeless people as a result of the "Reaganomics" of the 1980s. Homeless people were hanging out in the train station of the prosperous suburban town I live in....natu­rally some of the local Republican officials were making noises about the necessity of evicting these "undesirable" people. There was no compassion or public outcry to help them

[Harmony1812]

The movie "Happyness" with Will Smith is required viewing. Puts thing in perspective about homelessness.

[duze]

The only thing that puts things in perspective about homelessness is a HOME.

[Harmony1812]

Just think for a moment what it would mean if for some reason you lost your home. What if you your ffamily and pets couldn't move in with friends or had no family that could support you? Even if you did - how would you feel? The shame would be unbearable. How would you REALLY feel?
What would happen to your kids? your wife? your pets? your stuff? Could you keep your car? What if it broke down? How would you feel going to work the next day? What if you lost your job, too? What clothes would you wear? How would you shower? Where would you eat? How would you tell your kids? What if you got sick? What if it rains? or got cold?

[duze]

That's what I said, a HOME is perspective. Because you'll never be able to quantify not having one.

[Amennyc]

Bush will take care of me. He professes a love for every life and human.

[Harmony1812]

I think the CEOs that are living high on bailout money should be required to spend a month on the streets with these folks. They need an awakening about the realitiy of life for real people.

[duze]

After they do some REAL JAIL TIME. Then six months on the street. Enough time to really feel the pain they were willing to heap on the many families who have nothing. They won't learn that in a month. After all they have something to go back to. The people who were innocent in this outrage don't. have that option.

[harriscrl3]

I was on the subway in NYC the other day and of all the people I'v eseen begging I never saw one like this. She was a woman in her 40's she sounded so embarassed to be doing this it break my heart how she said she has been trying fo find a job fo rmonths she dropped off her application but there would be no response. I dont think she has ever done anything like this. Its sad how people have to swallow their pride and just do things that they never thought they would do. One guy was walking around with a poster strapped to his body begging for a job.

It makes you grateful for what little you have but it also make you angry that the leaders that you entrust with our economy have failed miserably at their task.

Carol

[duze]

Dear Carol, it's wonderful to hear the compassion you have for those less fortunate and how insightful you were into her situation. The area I live in has been affected equally and people, who already have nothing continue to share. For example, there is a woman in our area who has seemingly always had more than anyone else in our neighborhood. She's always kept to herself, but was nice to everyone. When three families on our block lost their homes, the entire neighborhood was devastated. However, they acknowledged what had happened and prepared to move on. Consequently this woman invited the entire neighborhood into her home (which was beautiful by the way) and organized the everyone into what I would call a commune living organization. None of us have much and I'm sure most of the expense of this has fallen on her. Yet, we all have a place to live our children can continue to go to the same school, we eat each night and have one another to lean on. This idea isn't original but it worked for our neighborhood. The difference is that those who had something reached out in a major way to those who didn't. Were all doing fine now and don't ever plan to leave our much bigger happy family. By the way Carol our family consists of 42 people.

[concernvoter]

This is a sad case. One minute you are on your feet and the next minute you are homeless and hungry. I was just reading the newspaper three weeks ago and it stated that this 70 years old woman was asked to be out of her home by the end of the month. As I went on to read, it stated that the lady only owed $1400.00 dollars more before her mortgage would be paid out. Thank God, last week a Social Worker and friends stepped in and paid the final payment on her home. They also found out that the lady gas was turned off. This little lady stated that she stayed in prayer, because she did not have anywhere else to go. Her husband died this year and she stated that her income was only $700.00 dollars a month. God is good all the time and all the time God is good. POST Partners’, please stay in prayer for all the homeless, hungry, jobless and sick people.

[FairTalk]

More meaningful stories need to be done on this topic. But neither the Dems nor the Repubs are really interested in solving this problem.

One reason might be the sick relationship between the housing industry, development and finance and campaign finance. One thing for sure is that no government has any busness in driving up the price of housing, nor in proping up those hige values. Housing has been overpriced since the 1970s, and, in the end, marked forces will have their way.

Any housing policy that "permitts" 80% of housing to be built for 15% of the population who can afford it, and 10% built for the 50% that can afford it, will soon be shown to be unsustainable. You do not need a degree in Economics to understand this concept. Duh!

[Marlyn]

"marked forces" ???

[Jazzcomedian]

Why does America, the self-proclaimed "greatest country in the world" with it's laissez faire capitalist system have so many more homeless people than the countries in the world that practice Democratic Socialism if our system is supposedly so superior?

Check out this article on the policies put forth by the Danish right of center party to address loss of jobs and income, and compare it with the attitudes of our Republicans:

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/best-elements-of-left-and-right-make-danes-great-20081013-4zxc.html?page=-1

[tiradintim]

In many ways this country is still frozen in the 18th century. Americans tend to be self-satisfied, complacent and blithely ignorant about the rest of the world. This provincialism and "exceptionalism" is about to be tested as never before as we enter the Second Great Depression­....the only thing good about this economic meltdown is that it might actually force Americans to grow up a little

[GrainOSand]

HuffPost's Pick

Great lessons come at great expense. Big loss -- big gain. Small loss -- complacency. All that is left to conjecture and history is whether a given loss is small or large. Surely the losses of the Civil War were large but at the time, it must not have seemed that way. America went on for another hundred years before it started to get some semblance of an idea, that maybe real change was necessary, required, important; an even then kicking and screaming. These times may claim many and yet the annals of history may find that number negligible in the face of not the next big thing -- but the next defining moment that reverberates well out into the future and overshadows past and present in the asking and telling. How many have already died needlessly?

Defining moments may force us to grapple with age old problems with new age minds. God or a bad, it is all up to our collective sense of loss. If millions of autoworker jobs are negligible and Wall Street is not, then our defining moment of history will be written as when we chose massive wealth for some, over massive loss of quality of life, and potentially or eventually, massive loss of life for others.

The most disheartening radical theory says, that is the plan -- massive die off. The most hopeful theory says that even if that is the plan, good will emerge no matter that done to suppress it.

[judesedit]

With all of the billionaires in this world, there should NOT be one starving child. Or homeless adult for that matter. Even the charities are going bankrupt, because these greedy sob's give nothing to anyone unless it involves a big time tax write-off, and then, only when absolutely necessary. How they sleep at night is beyond me. They are absolutely repulsive individuals on the scale of humanity. I hope they get to the point that they won't leave their opulent castles, because they will have to drive past seas of sick, hungry, homeless people and it will give them indigestion. Or, maybe they will decide to reside on their yachts in the middle of the ocean, so they can ignore it altogether. Woe to the person that has the opportunity and means to help, but doesn't.

[chaos4700]

Unfortunately, greed has become the defining virtue in American culture. Talk to a wide group of people and I guarantee you that nine out of ten Americans, when it gets right down to it, don't want to "punish rich people for being rich." It's because we're taught to think that rich people deserve what they get, and so do poor people. That somehow it is socially acceptable to have a massive strata of socially disadvantaged people laboring to support the whims and vices of the upper crust. We're taught to /want/ to be the rich person and therefore not to concern ourselves with the poor.

You know how bad it's gotten? We've got Republican senators who shot down the bailout, basically saying that the middle class makes too much money... and no small number of the middle class actually /agree/ with them! I think that's ridiculous. Middle class America made this country what it is today -- what it was thirty years ago at its peak. Destroying the middle class will mean destroying the United States as it exists in any meaningful capacity, and I'm worried there aren't enough people who will see that until it's too late.

[Marlyn]

"we're taught to think that rich people deserve what they get, and so do poor people." ???

By "we" I assume you mean we Republicans, because they are the only ones who spout this ideology.

[vietveter]

A "middle-class" republican
is a guy that has worked his ass off to make a home for his family

THAT HASN'T BEEN LAID OFF......Y­ET

[Huffyfan]

America is not the only one greedy . You should see how greed has blinded so many MUSLIMS in the middle east especially saudi , kuwait , UAE . now to make even more money saudi Princes are funding Porn channels (yep that s right ) as long as they do it via Dubai that s ok . they eat , drink and breathe Stock exchange and the people of Gaza can drown in their sewage and go hungry , they dont have time for them . Prince tallal has bough another Personal Jumbo jet (ultimate luxury ) and he nows wants to Build the tallest Skyscrapper in the world (as if to prove anything ) Greedy has taken their compassion . and Greed is A grave sin in Islam . we are suppose to have the minimum basics and share the rest . Never mind . karma one day will catch up with them sooner or later . (im a muslim by the way )

[vietveter]

I wish that we would all key in on the cause of this trouble.
The cause is the pressure by energy companies on our economy.

From Enron to Exxon the pressure is there and getting harder and harder to deal with.

Bail out Detroit? WHY? The Hummers and giant SUV products pushed by the used to be big 3
are part of the problem, never part of the solution.
The Japanese are not our friends but they are smarter than any of the US auto mfg's.

High use = high price. Pressure on the oil pricing hurts everyone except those that
pump and process our national obsession.

Do I know the solution? HELL NO - I am not smart enough to solve that puzzle.
Do I recognize what the problem is?

I believe I do.

The crooks on Wall St are reacting to the problem in their greedyass way,
but they are not the cause.

Want to fix America - BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE THAT DO THE WORK, not reap the rewards.

[Ivann]

I suppose most of you will have viewed the video clip of a (obviously) working man being evicted from his home, the locks being replaced etc. The look on that mans face was one of utter helplessness. There were no other family members and no pets. Imagine if he had a wife & kids, & a dog & a cat. What do such people do when they are literally put on the street? What does the father tell his young children? Its easy to discuss this type of thing in the abstract but the reality of it is heartrending.

I hope Richard Shelby down in Alabama sleeps well at night after spouting his bs in Congress this week. No doubt he will be first in line at church on christmas morning. I hope he & his kind ultimately r ot in their imaginary h*e*l*l.

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

Old joke from the last depression­...Man walks up to his friend and says, "hey Joe, who was that lady I saw you with last night in that sidewalk cafe. Joe says 'That was no woman, that was my wife, that was no sidewalk cafe, that was our furniture.­"

[Harmony1812]

Homelessness isn't just for adults. The kids are included. They still have to go to school after sleeping in a car.

[GrainOSand]

We may need to rethink, redeploy, rehabilitate, rejuvenate, and reenergize.

I found this article intriguing concerning alternative approaches to living in a post carbon consumption world. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/14/AR2006111400979.html


The truth is, most do not matter. We are faceless numbers on a sheet of paper or an LCD panel to many of the people making decisions. Is it because we are so big as a nation that the only way to address the aggregate is to depersonalize the analysis. That’s called lying distortion where I come from (which oddly is Illinois) and that is exactly what has been going on for decades in America about our financial well-being, through Democratic and Republican administrations. http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/05/0082023

I tend not to delve into policy discussions. It is not because I cannot. It is because what is the f’ ing point? The problem with America is the problem that has always existed, manifested in all that we do. It is the problem of missing the mark in being, on what being is, thereby delivering a distortion upon the lives of the masses of people. This entire calamity that is now, could well be the culmination of many people’s (both in the government and the private sector) wet dream. That group of political players, backroom dealers, back alley shysters, corporate raiders, and robber barons, who saw not country first, but personal profit first.

[MagisterLudi]

I am sure it is different in other countries.­.. not. Have you actually lived anywhere else? I doubt it.
I've lived in communist, socialist, democrat and just plain capitalist countries.­Lived, not visited! It is the same all over. If not some party hacks, then it s big business honchos that rule us. The question is of degrees of control and opportunities for social mobility. Yes, US is controlled by big business. Yes, it's terrible. Yes, many of them should be jailed or worse. But on personal level-- US society allows for considerable degree of social mobility. Especially for immigrants, doubly so for well-educated immigrants. (Try to move up in France without le bac, especially w/o. 'le bac C'-- yeah, right ).
For those steeped in their my- race-the-victim narrative it's difficult to accept it. Easier to blame others. I wonder if you'd decline a position of CEO in a major corporation? Anyone? hmmm.....

[EuroHuffPoFan]

MagisterLudi . . .

It's realy not the same all over.

European Social-Democracies . . .
do not have this kind of poverty . . .
nor do they have so much injustice.

[GrainOSand]

"For those steeped in their my- race-the-victim narrative it's difficult to accept it."

Within this forum I have waged the good fight concerning race as an issue, a talking point, a bone of contention, and a stumbling block. How could I do otherwise and be me. Never confuse an appeal for doing the right thing and an indictment of the wrong thing as a victim mentality. I do not know you, yet I know you have nothing I do not already possess -- that is of importance. Victims have their hand out. Victims make excuses. None of these are me. These are symbolic of your lack of wisdom, your lack of concern, your lack of insight, and your just plain lacking nature concerning what it is I represent, and frankly, what it is you represent. I come here not to figure out other people, and to lord my infinite whatever over anyone. That is a petty pursuit of small minds, small plans, and small demands on ones' own potential.

Lastly, concerning your valued travel around the world, let me tell you how I see that. I have been offered trips abroad on several occasions (mostly business -- so it would have been free) and always declined. It is not of concern to me to travel and see the world. It is more of concern to me that within my heart and mind I can feel the world and bridge the gap between myself and any other. This is worthy.

[Marlyn]

"This entire calamity that is now, could well be the culmination of many people's (both in the government and the private sector) wet dream."

Yes. This is just another example of "Disaster Capitalism".
Read Naomi Klein's book, "The Shock Doctrine".

[GrainOSand]

I am aware of the book. Thank you. It invites a read.

[yappnmutt]

most of you have never worked through a real recession. it will not be easy. people who are smug enough to think it won't affect them should think again. this recession will be worse than the 70s recession when the rust belt rusted away because there is nothing on the horizon to replace most of the jobs being lost. this recession will be a several year event.

it will be necessary, critical, that everyone with the means come together to help those that will be helpless because it may be you on the receiving end of that help in due time.

[TheBlackCat]

We do need to come together.

I know things can be found for a fraction of the price online

But please buy locally this year, even if it means getting less gifts for your family.

Our communities need it now more than ever!!