NOW THAT'S NOT FUNNY

Homeless & Hungry in Las Vegas...etc...

Cities everywhere are reported to be struggling with the "homeless problem."

In Las Vegas...
City leaders don't have the understanding or personal experience that is really necessary to address the problem of homelessness. City leaders farm out the responsibility to handle the homeless problem to DO-GOOD Social Service organizations... who the homeless don't trust... and sometimes for good reason. Most of these DO-GOODER Social Service Agencies have do-gooder volunteers and employees who have no real understanding or personal experience with homeless people - and that folks is my point - first the homeless are people, real people who have had serious problems coping with serious problems.

You can't herd people like cattle, label them like tagging cows, and expect them to trust your offerings.

Homeless people... Homeless people... Homeless people...

I suggest an investigative reporter go undercover and live as a homeless person, live among the homeless for a while. The story needs to be about the services really provided by homeless shelters and soup kitchens. Compare the money the Social Service organizations collect to the services these organizations provide, and tell me where the disconnect is between the two. I know its there...

In the following story, Las Vegas spent over a million dollars on landscaping and other improvements to a park and don't want its beauty marred by multitudes of homeless people - “Families are scared to go to the park,” said Gary Reese, the mayor pro tem and a City Council member who represents the area around Huntridge Circle Park. The city, Mr. Reese added, had just spent $1.7 million in landscaping and other improvements there.

Las Vegas Makes It Illegal to Feed Homeless in Parks
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: July 28, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/us/28homeless.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=s...

Seems in Las Vegas trees and shrubs are more important than people... especially if you're homeless!

If you're reading this article... have you ever been to shelter for homeless people?

Have you ever applied for food stamps or any kind of public assistance? In my own personal experience, to receive these benefits it's necessary to have an address, and if you're staying with 'friends' it is necessary to provide financial information for all persons living at said address... I don't care how good you're friends are, the majority do not want to provide you or the Food Stamp people with their personal financial information... I totally understand!

Do you know where the shelters for the homeless people in your city are? Most only offer temporary, very temporary assistance, and require a person to leave daily... every day, nothing like a hotel where you can leave when your ready, and certainly not near as nice as any hotels I've ever stayed in, either.

Ah, but the homeless are just looking for a free ride, or free food, you think? Homeless people are just lasy, you think?

Even if a homeless person has a car, they are not allowed to live in that car anywhere... are they?

Are all homeless people criminals? Seems to me, the majority of people arrested for crimes have an address... not very often does the local "Police Beat", which is published in most newspapers I'm familar with, list "homeless" as an offenders address - sometimes but not very often. And yes, there is a criminal element in all segements of society.

Are all homeless people drug using junkies? Excuse me, but drugs cost money, so does alcohol... granted alcohol is cheaper. So is homelessness caused by drugs and alcohol... or in Las Vegas is homelessness caused by gambling?

Have you ever had a friend that was homeless, or became homeless?

Have you ever been homeless/houseless?

The National Alliance to End Homelessness
http://www.endhomelessness.org/


A Los Angeles Mission Report on What Americans Believe About Homeless People, Their Problems, and Possible Solutions - a Gallup Survey

http://www.agrm.org/statistics/homerpt1.html

In my experience, homelessness or houselessness is as much a state of mind as it is a state of being. But as I read the article concerning Las Vegas's problem with allowing people to feed homeless people in the park... IT MADE ME FURIOUS...

I lived homeless for three years... in the beginning the Salvation Army provided me with a stack of FROZEN Grilled Cheese sandwiches... a local charity group offered shelter for the first few nights in a very run down hotel (prostitutes knocked on the hotel room door all night long - a really healthy enviorment... yea, right)... I heated up the frozen grilled cheese sandwiches with an iron... and hung a note on the dirty, battered room door that simply said "NOT INTERESTED" hoping to get some sleep...

Every homeless or houseless persons story is different...

It took me three years to get back on my feet with very sporadic help from the Do Gooder Social Service Agencies... turned down by Medicaid for assistance with major health issues that required surgery... turned down by Church groups for food... somehow and for some reason I didn't die.

Finally got the surgery done at a Charity Hospital... but not before sucide was a real, and viable option...

The friend who let me come stay at his apartment when I was released from the hospital on a Friday... died in the grocery store parking lot on Saturday... his family booted me out the next day... Sunday, but still I survived...

And here I am today... many, many years later... I've earned two college degrees, am happily married to a wonderful, amazing man... and I can say that NOT one single social services agency or a single Charity is responsible for helping me out of my dire circumstances... If anything these wonderful Social Service people would have kept me homeless and destitute... and those Charities... Non-profit does not mean they don't make a profit... it just means Non-Profit Corporations don't pay taxes on their profit... go figure!

In my experience, Homelessness is a symptom to a much larger problem in a persons life.

Are we our brothers keeper?
In my case, it was individual people who befriended me during my homelessness that really helped me. Those same individuals applauded me as I walked across the stage to recieve my college diploma - twice!

I just never give up, but I sincerely understand how and why so many people do!

And to this very day, I still feel like I'm only just a heartbeat away from homelessness still again. Afterall, shit happens...

More on Homelessness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless