Blog, I

I know in other cities it’s not uncommon for people experiencing homelessness to double up when they get funds from day labor and get a hotel room.  I’ve heard the same said of places like Chicago in lower priced areas, nothing compared to what comes to mind when you think of las vegas hotels.

But recently over the last few months I’ve seen an increase of newer faces using this form of temporary shelter. More incoming residents transplanting from up North due to seasonal changes, as well as mothers with kids crammed into one room.

Years ago it was more so an issue of people sleeping in cars, less now due to the cost of fuel…it simply can’t be done as easily, so those with vehicles are having to resort to shelters for survival in bitter cold temperatures.

One thing local groups can do for volunteering is to contact local shelters that place families in hotels prior to available beds and room coming open. Many shelters over the last few years nationwide have resorted to not permitting floor space, and in some cases local governments will provide limited funding to get families with children ‘out of site’.

Maybe $50.00 will get a family off the streets for 24 hours in a rattrap room. The more agencies that do this in metropolitan cities, the more nights available getting families out of harms way until a bed or room becomes available.

Just think about it, if only for a minute. While most cities provide shelters for men, single women, and maybe mothers with kids…how many of them keep families with two parents together?

Genesis: Man On The Corner, Abacab

“Who’s the lonely man there on the corner,
What he’s waiting for, I don’t know.
But he’s there every day now.
And he’s just waiting for something to show – oh.”

While a young soldier in training, I had free time to listen to cassettes and dwelt on this song. What little I’d come to know of homelessness of others created graphic images that would stay in my mind for years, to compare with things to come I knew not of.

This wasn’t about in depth problems. I’d asked John; the man in the video above; if I could take a picture of his shoes in exchange for a cigarette.

Strange as it sounds, it’s never failed to get a shot when used.

The quality of the above movie is also reason for the recent monetizing my regular readers have been seeing lately on the blog, in hopes of purchasing an actual handcam with better resolution.

Homeless man found dead in Springfield; is this just the beginning? While it’s not Springfield in Jacksonville, Florida, this can come to be a view and a feeling that we ourselves here could go through by going down a similar path one day.

Christian Aid spokesman John Davison: “We believe that forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor people in the developing world”. Click here for the source.

Ruthie In The Sky’s been running for as long as I’ve been blogging. Here, there, hither and yon, it’s a decent read of points and times of someone trying to find something. Reactions she gets in all kinds of situations and places while just trying to get a place to sleep sometimes.

Doing my usual Googlesearch on blogs, I picked up on Bubble Jam Delite’s entry Wherever I Lay My Hat:
Japanese Homeless Sheltering In Net Cafes & MacDonald by Simon Magus. It led me to do searches through a number of engines where I found the term being used regularly.

It’s interesting to me since McDonald’s is the same company that was using potatoes from ‘Tater Farms’ to supply some of it’s plants with produce, before the farm was busted for swindling workers through sales of drugs and alcohol and higher prices than worth…course it was illegal, course it was wrong, but it’s an example of how homeless people were used.

American based business…using homeless americans for profit…providing Japanese homeless shelter…IF they buy something to stay and sip…all night long. Just ironic and kind of funny.

Good YouTube vid of a family experiencing homelessness. Shows another example of people doing what they can, but still having barriers keeping them in the system.