Well c’mon, everybody take a trip with me! Down the Mississippi, Down to New Orleans!
For those of you who have suffered anonymously on the streets of America, some of you for more years then you thought was possible in a supposed democracy, a brilliant, tragic, terrible light has shown. (more…)
Actually, Food Stamps as they used to be known are gone-now it’s all done electronically by electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. Every year in San Francisco there is $61,000,000 worth of Food Stamps that go unclaimed. Only 46% of people who are eligible to receive Food Stamps actually get them. (more…)
In June, HUD announced to housing authorities that due to an unanticipated rise in utility costs, it would be unable to fund them at the amount previously committed. (more…)
…As I reach the base of City Hall’s Polk Street stairway, I look around and see the familiar face of that feisty feminist firebrand, Friedenbach in front of a phalanx of fighters formed to face the foe and further facilitate increased community inclusion, on the issue du jour. I have arrived at the same time as the delegation of advocates and concerned citizens organized and launched by the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco.
The Bay Area saw the killings of two homeless people in the first week of September. On September 4, a police officer in San Mateo shot and killed a 49-year-old homeless man who, according to the local press, assaulted the officer with a knife. Four days later, the body of another man was discovered in the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park; SFPD will not release cause of death, but San Francisco media indicate that he was either beaten or stabbed, apparently in his sleep.
The other day I’m sitting at a cafe reading the paper. At a table next to me are
three people: two young men and a girl. They start telling jokes to each other.
The Mexican-American man tells a joke about Jews. The white girl tells a joke
about blacks. Finally, the Asian man tells a joke about blondes. As the two men
laugh, the girl fixes them with an icey stare.
I am so mad at you right now!
The law has determined that homeless people have the same right to education,
from kindergarten to college, as any other demographic. To some, it would be
clear that the goal of financial aid should be to give the most aid to those
people most in need. However, most institutions refer to homeless as
“educationally unprepared,” or “not in-need” because of rate of educational
success, based upon income. (more…)
Qualifying the Needy: After ten years of apparently successful welfare reform,
there are still many unanswered questions and concerns
Welfare reform, once a hotly contested issue in U.S. politics, no longer burns
with the contentious fire it used to. Now, on the tenth year anniversary of one
of the most fundamental shifts in human service policy this country has ever
seen, advocates and policymakers are looking back at the first ten years of a
multi-billion dollar aid industry.
