This morning, Scott Morrow sent this e-mail to supporters of Nickelsville, the homeless encampment that has been living around the Seattle area since last September. Nickelsville has been staying at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 107 Park in West Seattle since July 23, and celebrated its first anniversary on September 26. The e-mail announced that, according to Port officials, the camp would be “swept” today around 1 PM. Nickelsville residents (“Nickelodeons”) have been expecting and preparing for the eviction for some time, while trying to negotiate with the Port to extend their stay.
A press conference was underway at Nickelsville around 1 PM, but it was largely inaudible except to those located directly next to those speaking. Some supporters held signs with slogans such as “It’s time for a pragmatic and compassionate response” and “Our Lord said, whatever you did for the least of our brothers (and sisters) you did for me – Matthew 25:40.” Some residents were packing up bags and leaving camp during the press conference.
Following the press conference, Port police made several loudspeaker announcements, spaced about 10 minutes apart, informing those remaining in the camp that they would be arrested and charged with second degree criminal trespass. After the second announcement, most Nickelsville residents and supporters left the camp in a group. Many gathered behind the police line with media and other supporters to watch the arrests; others went to the nearby city Herring’s House Park. The fourth loudspeaker announcement was made at about 2 PM; shortly thereafter, 30-40 officers moved into the camp. They conducted a full search of the camp before beginning arrests.
Police tagged each tent with a number; media were told afterward that this was to facilitate the later collection of belongings by Nickelodeons. Port spokeswoman Charla Skaggs said it was unclear whether belongings would be held for pickup on Port property or at the central Seattle police warehouse.
Arrestees were led in ones and twos out of the camp accompanied by two or three police officers. Kevin Dockery, a Nickelsville resident, was sitting on a milk crate in a central location of camp, visible to all spectators. Several officers encircled him. An officer took his cane and laid it down next to him. Dockery and the officers talked for several minutes. Eventually he stood and was led out of camp by a few officers, unhandcuffed, using his cane. A couple of other arrested Nickelodeons were also allowed to leave camp without being cuffed.
Another arrestee was supporter Dorli Rainey, who is 82 years old.
The assembled supporters and media, as well as the police, were very quiet during the camp search and observing the arrests, except to cheer each arrested person as they left camp.
After the last of the 12 arrestees were led away, Skaggs asked all of the assembled media to move to the park’s parking lot, per police order. There, police officer Tuttle said that no one arrested at Nickelsville would be taken to jail unless they had an existing warrant. Skaggs said arrestees would be taken somewhere else for processing (location unspecified) and released – with local transportation being provided. Tuttle also told media that police had not been sure how many people they would arrest – a rumor had been that activists might have come up from Portland.
At 2:40 PM, the entrance to the park was cordoned off by police tape. Anyone wishing to observe the takedown of the camp would have a difficult time getting an adequate view from outside the park. The park has been closed “indefinitely for maintenance” since before Nickelsville settled there.
A commentary on the Nickelsville arrests will be added on this site in the next couple of days.
Some people camped out overnight outside the home of Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess, in the Queen Anne neighborhood.
The Associated Press
SEATTLE —
Some people camped out overnight outside the home of Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess, in the Queen Anne neighborhood.
The Tuesday night campers are members of the group SHARE who also camped out Monday night outside Mayor Greg Nickels’ home, demanding more free bus fares from the city.
A homeless camp on Port of Seattle property is facing eviction at noon Wednesday, and a spokeswoman for the camp called Nickelsville says it will stand up to police.
(Photo by Kevin McClintic, taken during the “Nickelsville” open house on Saturday) ORIGINAL 1:24 PM REPORT: We have a call out to a Port of Seattle spokesperson to try to confirm the reported park closure as well as the estimated time of police arrival, but in the meantime, we’ve just received this news release from a spokesperson for the encampment:
PARK CLOSES TODAY – NICKELSVILLE DETERMINED TO STAY – POLICE ARRIVE TOMORROW, 9/30/09, AT 12 NOON
* T-107 Port Park closes today at noon
* Nickelsville will stand through arrival of Port of Seattle and Valley Police tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon
* Candidates for Seattle City Council, David Bloom and Sally Bagshaw, will stand with Nickelsville tomorrow
* Nickelodeons who plan to stay and peacefully stand-up to removal by police will ultimately risk arrest
Chief of Police Colleen Wilson says “We’re going to take back our port.” However, Nickelsville plans to stay as they at the current portion of the park where they reside, as they have no other place to go. Residents, friends, citywide Nickelsville supporters and more will stand with Nickelsville when Port and Valley police (i.e. Renton) arrive to remove the encampment. City Council candidates David Bloom and Sally Bagshaw will be present to stand with Nickelsville.
The only City of Seattle Police used tomorrow will be animal control officers to collect unaccompanied pets.
T-107 Park, located at 4700 W Marginal Way SW (map), closes today at Noon. Cars will be impounded 24 hrs later. Nickelsville will stand as a community until it is forceably removed by police.
1:35 PM UPDATE: Just spoke with Charla Skaggs from the port, who tells us that the park is indeed closed – to everyone – they had to do this to give 24 hours’ notice that vehicles would be towed and that anyone in the park would be trespassing. She also says that the park is likely to stay closed a while AFTER the encampment is gone because “we will have to do some repair and maintenance.” She says that Port officials including the police chief met with encampment reps last night to tell them about the closure and reiterate the deadline as well as explaining what would happen to their property and their pets if the camp was swept, and to stress again that they hoped that “they will leave voluntarily.” Says Skaggs, “We don’t want this to become an arrest situation but they’ve been given a deadline – they will have been on our property for 69 days.” She says the port believes there are area churches who are willing to host the encampment but its organizers “have to reach out to them.” She would not confirm that noon is the expected arrival for police but did mention the noon closure today was something of a 24-hour warning.
SANTA ANA, California. – A 77-year-old man has been arrested for shooting to death an innocent homeless man whose only fault was that he was leaning on a fence at a home owned by the accused.
Mike Montez Villa, of Santa Ana, is charged with one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 50 years to life in state prison. The defendant is being held on $1 million bail and the arraignment date and time are to be determined.
At approximately 8:00 p.m. on May 1, 2009, 47-year-old homeless man Manuel Lopez was standing in an alley behind the defendant’s home.
Villa is accused of shooting and murdering the victim who was standing at a fence that runs along the backside of defendant’s home using his .22 caliber rifle.
Delta 2
Úřední funět začal před více než HARM. Čtvrtích nyní upozorněn. Zvýšil o soukromé bezpečnostní hlídky. Pschologist říká Kevin OK.
Oliver North říká ahoj. Zničí dokumenty s výjimkou proud na C.C. , C.M. Společnosti HP. Pokračovat ve sledování policajti. D12, 13, 15 jsou nyní na ROD. Kerridge je nečisté. Zůstaň dole, zůstat ostré.
Rotný
A legal battle over a renegade homeless camp in downtown Sacramento became a hot potato in Sacramento County Superior Court this morning, with one judge recusing himself from the case because of his personal feelings and a second putting off the matter until next week. In today’s case, one of several legal battles on the issue, a lawyer for an elderly man whose home is adjacent to the “Safe Ground” encampment at 13 and C streets requested a restraining order that would force homeless people from the property. The lawyer, Aldon Bolanos, argued that the camp is hurting the lives of Pedro Hernandez and his family.
Mark Merin, an attorney who has championed homeless rights, owns the property and opened it to homeless campers last month. Police have repeatedly rousted 15 to 30 campers from the site, only to see them return in a push to establish a legal “Safe Ground” with basic services. Homeless advocates have rallied around the campers, but some neighborhood residents have protested.
Today’s case, observed by more than two dozen homeless people, among others, originally was to be heard by Judge Loren McMaster, but he was away so it was bounced to Judge Rudolph Loncke. Loncke called attorneys into his chambers and told them, according to the lawyers, that he is sympathetic to Merin’s cause and as a result could not be impartial in the case. It was then sent to Judge Shelleyanne Chang, who told Bolanos that McMaster should consider his request for a temporary restraining order, along with a similar one filed by the city, next week.
Bolanos warned the judge that Hernandez has serious medical issues, and stress associated with the encampment have made them worse. “Has the court considered that it might have blood on its hands” if it failed to address the issue immediately?, Bolanos asked Chang.
Merin’s lawyer, Jay-Allen Eisen, countered that no evidence exists that the situation “is making anyone sick” and said the claims of opponents appear to be “wild exaggerations, if not outright falsehoods.” Chang continued the matter until Tuesday.
American Indians are a diverse ethnic group. Their languages, customs, social systems varied greatly. One common characteristic found in many Indian nations was an affinity to the spiritual side of life. Out of this came man prophecies.
One of the most fascinating set of prophecies comes out of the Hopi nation located in the Southwestern United States. Many prophecies foretold by the Hopi appear to have come true. Some of these are:
“The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
“This is the First Sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs. And men who struck their enemies with thunder.
“This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes — the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.”
“This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes — the coming of the white men’s cattle.”
“This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.”
“This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.”
“This is the Sixth sign: The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.”
“This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.”
“This is the Eight Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
“And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
“These are the Signs that great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands — with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.
Overall, the theme of Hopi prophecy is that the Earth is going to soon go through a great purification and that humanity can make the decision as to how extreme this purification will be. Their belief is that the world goes through a period of destruction and renewal and that we are about to enter into a new age, the 5th world (or 6th depending upon the source).
Other Native American Prophecies
Mohawk Prophecy of the Seventh Generation
According to the prophecy of the Seventh Generation, seven generations after contact with the Europeans the Onkwehonwe would see the day when the elm trees would die. The prophecy said that strange animals would be born deformed and without the proper limbs. Huge stone monsters would tear open the face of the earth. The rivers would burn. The air would burn the eyes of man. According to the prophecy of the Seventh Generation the Onkwehonwe would see the time when the birds would fall from the sky. The fish would die in the water. And man would grow ashamed of the way that he had treated his Mother and Provider, the Earth.
Finally, according to this prophecy, after seven generations of living in close contact with the Europeans, the Onkwehonwe would rise up and demand that their rights and stewardship over the Earth be respected and restored.
According to the wisdom of this prophecy, men and women would one day turn to the Onkwehonwe for both guidance and direction. It is up to the present generation of youth of the Kanienkehaka to provide leadership and example to all who have failed. The children of the Kanienkehaka are the seventh generation.
Deganawidah: The Two Serpents
American Prophecies by Scott Peterson
When Deganawidah was leaving the Indians in the Bay of Quinte in Ontario, he told the Indian people that they would face a time of great suffering. They would distrust their leaders and the principles of peace of the League, and a great white serpent was to come upon the Iroquois, and that for a time it would intermingle with the Indian serpent as a friend.
This serpent would in time become so powerful that it would attempt to destroy the Indian, and the serpent is described as choking the life’s blood out of the Indian people. Deganawidah told the Indians that they would be in such a terrible state at this point that all hope would seem to be lost, and he told them that when things looked their darkest a red serpent would come from the north and approach the white serpent, which would be terrified, and upon seeing the red serpent he would release the Indian, who would fall to the ground almost like a helpless child, and the white serpent would turn all its attention to the red serpent. The bewilderment would cause the white serpent to accept the red one momentarily.
The white serpent would be stunned and take part of the red serpent and accept him. Then there is a heated argument and a fight. And then the Indian revives and crawls toward the land of the hilly country, and then he would assemble his people together, and they would renew their faith and the principles of peace that Deganawidah had established.
There would at the same time exist among the Indians a great love and forgiveness for his brother, and in this gathering would come streams from all over — not only the Iroquois but from all over — and they would gather in this hilly country, and they would renew their friendship.
And Deganawidah said they would remain neutral in this fight between the white and red serpents.
At the time they were watching the two serpents licked in this battle, a great message would come to them, which would make them ever so humble, and when they become that humble, they will be waiting for a young leader, an Indian boy, possibly in his teens, who would be a choice seer. Nobody knows who he is or where he comes from, but he will be given great power, and would be heard by thousands, and he would give them the guidance and the hope to refrain from going back to their land and he would be the accepted leader.
And Deganawidah said that they will gather in the land of the hilly country, beneath the branches of an elm tree, and they should burn tobacco and call upon Deganawidah by name when facing the darkest hours, and he will return. Deganawidah said that as the choice seer speaks to the Indians that number as the blades of grass, and he would be heard by all at the same time, and as the Indians are gathered watching the fight, they notice from the south a black serpent coming from the sea, and he is described as dripping with salt water, and as he stands there, he rests for a spell to get his breath, all the time watching to the north to the land where the white and red serpents are fighting.
Deganawidah said that the battle between the white and the red serpents opened very slowly but would then become so violent that the mountains would crack and the rivers would boil and the fish would turn up on their bellies. He said that there would be no leaves on the trees in that area. There would be no grass, and that strange bugs and beetles would crawl from the ground and attack both serpents, and he said that a great heat would cause the stench of death to sicken both serpents. And then, as the boy seer is watching this fight, the red serpent reaches around the back of the white serpent and pulls from him a hair which is carried toward the south by a great wind into the waiting hands of the black serpent, and as the black serpent studies this hair, it suddenly turns into a woman, a white woman who tells him things that he knows to be true but he wants to hear them again.
When this white woman finishes telling these things, he takes her and gently places her on a rock with great love and respect, and then he becomes infuriated at what he has heard, so he makes a beeline for the north, and he enters the battle between the red and white serpents with such speed and anger that he defeats the two serpents, who have already been battle weary.
When he finishes, he stand on the chest of the white serpent, and he boasts and puts his chest out like he¹s the conqueror, and he looks for another serpent to conquer. He looks to the land of the hilly country and then sees the Indian standing with his arms folded and looking ever so noble that he knows that this Indian is not the one to fight. The next direction that he will face will be eastward and at that time he will be momentarily blinded by a light that is many times brighter than the sun.
The light will be coming from the east to the west over the water, and when the black serpent regains his sight, he becomes terrified and makes a beeline for the sea.
He dips into the sea and swims away in a southerly direction, and shall never again be seen by the Indians.
The white serpent revives, and he too sees the light, and he makes a feeble attempt to gather himself and go toward that light.
A portion of the white serpent refuses to remain but instead makes its way toward the land of the hilly country, and there he will join the Indian People with a great love like that of a lost brother.
The rest of the white serpent would go to the sea and dip into the sea and would be lost out of sight for a spell. Then suddenly the white serpent would appear again on the top of the water and he would be slowly swimming toward the light. Deganawidah said that the white serpent would never again be troublesome to the Indian People.
The red serpent would revive and he would shiver with great fear when he sees that light. He would crawl to the north and leave a bloody, shaky trail northward, and he would never be seen again by the Indians. Deganawidah said as this light approaches that he would be that light, and he would return to his Indian People, and when he returns, the Indian People would be a greater nation than they had ever been before.
Iroquois Prophecy
It’s prophesied in our Instructions that the end of the world will be near when the trees start dying from the tops down. That’s what the maples are doing today. Our Instructions say the time will come when there will be no corn, when nothing will grow in the garden, when water will be filthy and unfit to drink.
Then a great monster will rise up from the water and destroy mankind. One of the names of that monster is “the sickness that eats you up inside” like diabetes or cancer or AIDS. Maybe AIDS is the monster. It’s coming. It’s already here.
Our prophet Handsome Lake told of it in the 1700s. He saw Four Beings, like four angels, coming from the Four Directions. They told him what would happen, how there would be diseases we’d never heard of before. You will see many tears in this country. Then a great wind will come, a wind that will make a hurricane seem like a whisper. It will cleanse the earth and return it to its original state. That will be the punishment for what we’ve done to the Creation.
Attack a HARM house in SAC and Deltas will excite a gang warstarting with delivery of black roses. Something we want the City of Sacramento to think about.
In response to the recent arrests of activist of Safe Ground, 170 homes in posh neighborhoods of Sacramento, owned by HU are now being operated by the North American Resistance Movement, will offer those homes for $1 dollar a month. HARM is an acronym for HOMELESS ASSAULT REDUCTION MEASURES, which was established in 2006 in Seattle, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Santa Clarita, San Jose, Oakland. 139,000 homes were purchased between 2005 and 2008 in California and Washington. 11.9 million are owned in the U.S.
The great French diplomatist Talleyrand put it best: “That’s worse than a crime, it’s a mistake.”
By accepting the Iranian proposal for negotiations, the Obama Administration has just made the most important foreign policy decision of its term so far. And it is a very bad mistake, a very bad one indeed.
True, the idea of engagement was a U.S. idea. The Iranian regime ignored it for months. And then at the very last moment, the Tehran government sent a five-page letter calling for talks. The letter, which was rather insulting to the United States, didn’t even mention the nuclear program as a topic. ber of observers have labelled it insulting Shouldn’t that be enough to reject it as insufficient?
Everyone should understand the timing of this letter. On one hand, it came after the most extreme government in two decades took over that country; after a stolen election; after the repression of peaceful demonstrations; after the show trials of reform-minded oppositionists, and after the appointment of a wanted terrorist as minister of defense.
Never have prospects for negotiations resolving U.S.-Iran differences, including the nuclear program, seemed poorer.
At the same time, the United States was finally on the verge of raising sanctions against Iran. True, the increase was insufficient and neither Russia nor China was on board. Yet this was going to be a major step.
Never have prospects for the Obama Administration making some real effort to confront Iran and press for ending the nuclear program seemed better.
Now this whole U.S. strategy has been swept away by no one other than the U.S. government itself.
Few people in the U.S. government think that the talks will lead anywhere. They will eat up months and months, as the Tehran regime consolidates control and surges forward in its nuclear program. The timing of sanctions will presumably be put off until “after” the talks are finished, meaning the Iranian regime will be able to string along America for as long as it wants.
Not to mention the fact that this is a repressive, extremist, anti-American, antisemitic, terrorist-sponsoring government which is going to remain so in every respect no matter how many sessions are held with U.S. delegates.
But it gets worse. After all, what does the Iranian offer, entitled “Cooperation, Peace and Justice,” say? Well, it calls for a reform of the UN to abolish the veto powers, a Middle East peace settlement without Israel’s existence, and universal nuclear disarmament, the last being another idea with which Obama saddled U.S. policy.
It isn’t hard to imagine what will be said in the talks: When the United States gives up all its nuclear arms than Iran will do so also. But if America has such weapons, Iran is perfectly entitled to them also. Tehran will play to the “non-aligned,” Third World, Muslim-majority states in the bleachers. U.S. policy is letting Iran play the role of Third World leader and champion against the hegemonist West.
The mind reels.
And since, still another Obama idea taken up by the Iranians, the talks are unconditional, Iran will just go on sponsoring terrorism (including attacks on U.S. military personnel in Iraq and some evidence indicates Afghanistan), sabotaging any hope of regional peace, and Lebanon’s independence.
In its inimitable way, the New York Times explains:
“The decision is bound to raise protests from conservatives who contend that unconditional talks are naïve, and from human rights groups that say the United States should not legitimize an Iranian government that appears to have manipulated its presidential election in June and crushed protests after the vote.”
So only evil conservatives or well-intentioned but naive human rights’ activists will be against this? How about protests from liberals, centrists, and experts, people who just care about U.S. national interests? What about the reaction of regional states, both Arab and Israeli, who are friends of the United States that are menaced by Iran?
What I never get is this: Who are these people and powers who oppose a tough U.S. stand now but will be convinced that sanctions should go up after they watch a few months of failed talks? Certainly not the Russian and Chinese governments, that’s for sure. Can anyone supporting administration policy answer that question? Will anyone in the mass media even ask that question?
In its engaging way of publishing opinion as fact, the Times explains it all to us:
“During [President George Bush's] first term, talks with unfriendly countries like North Korea and Iran were usually rejected out of hand in the hope of speeding their collapse. That loosened in Mr. Bush’s second term, but even then agreements to talk were usually under highly restricted conditions.
“The result was a stalemate — one that Mr. Obama argued during last year’s presidential campaign was a huge mistake, in part because Iran was producing nuclear material while the standoff dragged on.”
Aha! But there are things worse than stalemate: defeat, losing ground, being paralyzed, facilitating your enemy’s progress. And of course there is a third option, one which the Obama Administration seemed to be planning, called raising sanctions higher.
No! One doesn’t have to ask for that much. How about this basic concept: First, raise the sanctions and only then start the talks. Make it clear that the sanctions will continue as long as Iran doesn’t change its behavior but that the United States is happy to negotiate from a position of strength rather than from one of weakness.
Even if you want to be soft-line and conciliatory there is a right way and a wrong way to do that. The Obama Administration has chosen the wrong way.
In fact, does the Administration plan to play it smart by talking and raising sanctions at the same time? Maybe, but it seems the answer is “no.” There won’t be a tougher policy while talks are going on.
You don’t need a diplomacy scientist to understand this means a free ride for the Iranian regime.
In a sense, the Obama Administration seems to be practicing anti-diplomacy and anti-strategy. Consider this statement from U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice: The administration, she explained, would not impose “artificial deadlines” on Iran.
What does that mean? It means: Take as long as you want.
She added that if not much has happened so far that was because Iran’s “elections and their aftermath have added a layer of complexity to assessing the overtures and offers of diplomatic engagement.”
A “layer of complexity”? One can only gasp. All aspects of that layer have been clear indications that diplomatic engagement wouldn’t work.
And one final point. At first, the leaks were that both the United States and the Europeans rejected the letter. Yet within two days this was all reversed and they accepted it.
Why would such a thing happen?
Unless they received some secret Iranian assurances—which is possible but doubtful—it means that the State Department mid-level officials scoffed at the letter but as it went up the chain of command, to Obama itself, he chose to accept it. There’s no doubt that this decision was made at the very top and there are also indications that wiser heads who understand the situation better were against it.
For those waiting for the Administration to make some dreadful mistake, they now apparently have their case.
One close Washington observer of Iran policy stated in bewilderment, “This makes no sense.”
But it can be made sense of in several ways. One is that the Administration leadership has no idea of what it’s dealing with. Another is that it has fallen prey to wishful thinking. A third is that seeing the Russians and Chinese would not support sanctions, the Administration viewed acceptance as a face-saving way of avoiding admission that it did not have unanimous support for raising sanctions (though even then it should have gone ahead and shown some leadership).
All these points are true but the most important single answer might also involve something else: a government desperately seeking to avoid even a lower-level confrontation and passionately desiring to do nothing about the most dangerous issue it and the world faces.
Let’s put it this way: President Barack Obama is tall, handsome, a riveting speaker (at least with a teleprompter), and educated at Harvard University. He was elected in a fair and democratic election.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is short, clown-like, a demagogue, and without impressive educational credentials. He seized power after fixing an election, repressed peaceful demonstrations, and has put his peaceful opponents on show trials.
Guess who’s winning their competition? In fact, guess who’s the only one who even knows that a battle between their countries is going on?
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan).
In 2000, 11.3% of the US population, 31.3 million people, lived in poverty. Here’s the most current information on homelessin the US. For ways to help, scroll down.
1. Since 2000, the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased.
2.According to the 2003 report from the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and Atlanta are the top five ‘meanest’ cities in the US for poor and homeless people to live in; California is the ‘meanest’ state, followed by Florida.
3.Examples?
‘In Milwaukee, a church has been declared a public nuisance for feeding homeless people and allowing them to sleep there.
In Gainesville, police threatened U. of Florida students with arrest if they did not stop serving meals to homeless people in a public park.
In Santa Barbara, it is illegal to lean against the front of a building or a store, and no one can park a motor home on the street in one place for more than two hours.’
4.Families with children are by far the fastest-growing sector of the homeless population.
Children alone compose about 39% of the homeless.
5.In the median state, a minimum-wage worker would have to work 89 hours a week to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at 30% of his or her income, which is the federal definition of affordable housing (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2001).
6.For the disabled, in 1998, on a national average, someone receiving SSI (Supplemental Security Income) had to spend 69% of their monthly income to rent a 1-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent.
7.Loss of single room occupancy housing (SRO) exacerbates the problem. From 1970-mid 80s, an estimated one million SRO units were demolish (Dolbeare, 1996).
New York City lost 87% of its $200 a month or less SRO. Chicago experienced total elimination of cubicle hotels. By 1985, Los Angeles lock more than half its downtown SRO. San Francisco lost 43%, Portland lost 59% and Denver lost 64%. [Data is here: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/causes.html]
8.Approximately 22% of the single adult homeless suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (US Conference of Mayors, 2001). 9.’The relationship between addiction and homelessness is complex and controversial,’ says the NCH.
Rates of alcohol and drug abuse are disproportionately high among the homeless but can’t account for the rise in numbers. However addiction does increase the risk of displacement ‘for the precariously housed.’ 10.What’s called ‘eroding work opportunities’ contributes.
According to the NCH, contributing factors to homeless are ‘a steep drop in the number and bargaining power of unionized workers; erosion in the value of the minimum wage; a decline in manufacturing jobs and the corresponding expansion of lower-paying service-sector employment; globalization; and increased nonstandard work, such as temporary and part-time (Mishel, Bernstein, and Schnitt, 1999)’.
Source: National Homeless Organization,HUD, National Coalition for the Homeless, and the Mayors’ Report.
After three years of intensive training, the North Amercan Resistance Movement (NARM) announced that they are ready for action. NARM consists of a 3,300 member core with a five member committee. Each member can receive up to $10,000 if arrested. They are now headed to two cities. Once there, they will relieve HU members as necessary.
Sacramento’s Central Library recently removed the benches along the library’s I Street sidewalk. Don Tucker, director of facilities for the Sacramento Public Library, has cited a 2007 survey that showed only 7 percent of the people using the benches were library customers.
The benches had been used frequently by homeless people.
The Sacramento Press requested and obtained the survey, which was administered by a Sacramento Police Department officer. The “Library Bench Project” survey created categories of “legitimate bench users” and “total bench users.” People who were reading or leaving the library were defined as “legitimate users.” Read the survey here.
The police officer monitored the benches from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on five different days. Three of 68 total users on July 19 were legitimate, the survey said. On July 26, six users out of a total of 76 were considered legitimate.
The survey noted that on Aug. 1, 2007, a total of 52 people used the benches, of which seven were legitimate users. On Aug. 8, 2007, a total of 63 people used the benches. Four of these people were legitimate users, according to the survey.
A total of 78 people used the benches on Aug. 15, 2007, according to the survey. Of that total, four people were legitimate users, the survey said.
Tucker also cited other reasons for removing the benches. The library was receiving feedback from disabled patrons and mothers with babies in strollers that the benches were blocking access to the library, he said earlier this month.
Loaves & Fishes Co-Director Garren Bratcher criticized the library’s decision to remove the benches, which homeless people had used. “It is my belief that they were removed because homeless people use them to rest,” Bratcher said.
