I hope you remember this recent post: "Catherine Died Sleeping Outside Last Night". Sadly, when you work with homeless people, death on the streets is far too common. Catherine's death really messed me up because she was a friend, and because her death could have been avoided.

Last...

No homeless person ever said "Please place me in one room with a hundred other people. Please give me a cot or a mat for the floor to sleep on. Please only have one bathroom with two toilets and two shower stalls for all of us. Then please kick us...

I am mad! I AM REALLY MAD! I have a whole mix of emotions right now and I have gone from crying uncontrollably to punching walls since I heard the news! Besides losing a friend, what's got me so stinking mad is that this all could have been preventable!

Someday, when I meet Jack Dorsey for the first time, the very first words out of my mouth will be "thank you for saving my life and helping me to help others"! I then want to ask Jack if he ever imagined Twitter being used to...

On any given night, nearly 633,782 people in the United States experience homelessness -- over 60,000 of them veterans. This must-see video from @home is the very best video I have seen on the topic of veteran homelessness. This is an important conversation we must keep going. Please...

Many of you already know my friend Lanny. You followed along the last few years on social media, and you supported Lanny by helping to furnish his new apartment. It took close to four long years to get Lanny into housing. I always say, it's not a miracle...

These days I am spending more time on Skid Row. The morning of this interview, Skid Row was a little different. You could feel the added tension. About an hour before I arrived there was a shooting, and LAPD's added presence on the ground and in the air was easily...

I think we all agree that data is important. At this year's SXSW, I kept hearing the phrase "big data" over and over and over! Homeless services is starting to adapt the use and sharing of data. HUD has now even mandated all service providers use HMIS (Homeless Management Information...

Last year Street Treats, a new social enterprise helping homeless people, launched at SXSW. I was there, but most of the world didn't hear about it because the noise from Homeless Hotpots was maddening. Street Treats only ran one ice cream cart last year, but it...

I have been sitting here for some time trying to figure what to say about Skid Row. I do not know of any other area in the world that gets me as emotional as the fifty square blocks of downtown known to the world as Skid Row. As...

A few months back I interviewed Kerry Morrison, executive director of Hollywood Business Improvement District, on the Community Care Facilities Ordinance proposed by City of Los Angeles Councilmember Mitchell Englander. To be honest, the Community Care Facilities Ordinance is such a dumb idea, because anything that...

Like so many others the night Hurricane Sandy hit, I was glued to Twitter. I was worried about friends and family all up and down the East Coast, and I was especially concerned about our homeless friends. In the past, I have seen firsthand how homeless people...

Tory is one amazing mother. Fighting homelessness is bad enough, yet her 11-year-old son has brain cancer. I cannot imagine the strength it takes just to get through a day.

I met Tory and her three kids living in a hotel room in Phoenix, Arizona. Six people actually now live in this hotel room. They only thought they were going to be there for two weeks, and that was months ago.

The hotel cycle for homeless families is often never-ending. Tory's husband often walks four miles every day to get to work, but he does not make enough money for them to save up for first and last month's rent to get back into an apartment or house.

Tory says she is having a hard time finding support services. Either the service provider is out of funds or they are just placed on a waiting list. Tory is trying to stay in the same area so her kids can stay in the same school. There is some good news, I was with a school liaison who will start helping Tory's family the best to their ability.

Tory's son received an award for student of the month in September. That's amazing. Please watch to the end to hear his three...

It's interesting what you can learn just by asking a few questions. I have visited LA Family Housing several times over the last four years. Mostly, I was transporting new residents. On a few occasions I even went inside to help a family move their stuff. But...

When I walk in the front door of a new homeless services agency I never know what to expect. Most are very nice. Many are still holding on to traditional thinking. A few have a closed culture refusing to open up to anything new, especially social media and empowering our...

Like many Americans, I am sick and tired of always being broke and terrified about what's going to happen in 2013. Late in 2007, I found myself unemployed. I lived off my credit cards for nine months hoping things would get better. I eventually lost my house to...

Several years ago in Atlanta, Ga., I met a woman living under a bridge who completely changed my life and how I viewed homeless services. You didn't have to be a social service worker or medical professional to see that Angela was dying underneath that bridge. Meeting Angela...

For more than a year Tim Richter, incoming president & CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, has repeatedly told me I need to get over to the UK and connect with Jeremy Swain, chief executive of Thames Reach, one of the largest London-based charities...

I have huge respect for Nadia Gomos, who many know by her twitter name @HomelessGirl1. A few years back Nadia and her mother ended up sleeping rough and sofa surfing. But even through that horrible situation something amazing surfaced in Nadia -- and that was her...