Seeing so many Occupiers getting evicted made me think of
this short 1988 documentary by Nancy Kalow on homeless squatter punk teens in the Bay Area (
warning:cringe-inducing rapping in the opening scene). From their stories, it seems as if they had free reign of the abandoned Berkeley Polytech building for a while. Readers of
Cometbus who aren't from the Bay Area can see a bit of the scene he made sound so attractive. 1993 sequel,
The Losers Club.
posted by shushufindi
on Dec 2, 2011 -
5 comments
Vancouver aims to "end homelessness by 2015". Officials have been working over the years to reduce the city’s homelessness, and in July passed an ambitious plan that targets eliminating street homelessness by 2015 and creating nearly 40,000 new units of social, rental, and condo housing by 2021.
The plan is aimed at building multiple types of housing to address shortages, but the first three years focus mainly on supportive and social housing. It calls for 3,650 units of such housing, 1,700 of which are already funded and in either the planning or construction phase. According to city councilor Kerry Jang, the need for this type of supportive housing has skyrocketed in recent years.
posted by modernnomad
on Oct 24, 2011 -
96 comments
Transient Man. "Transient is a
black comedy about a homeless man who's visions lead him to believe he is an inter-dimensional savior of humanity, on a mission to save the universe. Is he indeed the 'one', chosen by mystical divine forces to embark on a crusade against ultimate evil, or a hopeless lunatic, aimlessly wandering the streets of San Francisco? Transient is a spoof on the hero's journey that's part Men in Black, part Raising Arizona, flavored with liberal portions of Ghostbusters and John Steinbeck. It is a ballad to the city by the bay, and a heartfelt tale of the sacrifices one man will take for his love for his family, his friends, and all of humankind."
[Via]
posted by homunculus
on Sep 3, 2011 -
20 comments
Safe Ground is an organization of Sacramento's homeless population to claim a secure location in order to live decently. While resistance to tent cities (
previously,
2,
3) has largely been due to political expediency (criminalizing homelessness is easier than ending it),
a spot on Oprah brought media attention to the plight of the homeless and made it more difficult for police to bully them from place to place with the threat of jail. In response to this,
Costa Mantis(of
He Knows You're Alone fame [uncredited on the wiki]) started filming the personal stories of the homeless along the American River in Sacramento. This led to
Searching for Safe Ground, a miniseries concerning the struggle of Sacramento's homeless for a place to exist.
Incidentally, a federal jury ruled tonight that the city of Sacramento has been violating homeless people's constitutional rights by moving them from public property and confiscating their property.
Stay tuned.
posted by Wyatt
on May 24, 2011 -
15 comments
SPENT is a flash game (or an
immersive online experience depending on who you ask) that challenges players to survive poverty and see first-hand that homelessness is just a shortfall away. Created in partnership with
Urban Ministries of Durham and containing scenarios
commonly faced (pdf) by the working poor, it may not tell people anything they don't already know, but is a creative use of gaming and social media to raise awareness and bring in donors.
posted by ND¢
on Feb 15, 2011 -
47 comments
An ABC Investigative Unit team hit the streets of western Sydney, where young people are struggling to break a vicious cycle of unemployment and family breakdown, to find out what's being done to stop them from falling through the cracks.
In a great article by ABC reporters Eleanor Bell and Ed Giles, they found that the lack of resources, infrastructure and support for families in these communities is getting worse, not better but that despite this, many locals are still proud of their community.
posted by Effigy2000
on Sep 8, 2010 -
18 comments
As forclosures rise, so do tent cities filled with Americans. Across the country, tent cities are rising everywhere. From
California, where foreclosures are taking over 60,000 homes per month, to
Vegas, where hungry children sleep in the glittered dust of the wealthy, to St. Petersburg, Florida where
the cops are destroying the tents of the homeless to make them leave the city, to the
suburbs,
homelessness, hunger, and
poverty are on the rise. The government's response?
Change how "homeless" is defined, so that the numbers appear to be decreasing at the same time that tents are springing up all over the country.
[more inside]
posted by dejah420
on Nov 7, 2008 -
135 comments
Disclosing victim status could mean being denied that housing is even available. Women strong enough to flee their homes and their abusive situations were more likely to be denied housing outright, something that did not happen to people not disclosing.
posted by jacobw
on Apr 24, 2008 -
29 comments
A State Street Family Album - State Street in Madison, Wisconsin is a half mile link between the Capitol dome and the campus of the University of Wisconsin. Tree lined, traffic restricted, shops of all manner, State Street represents an almost picture postcard ideal. It is also home to the Family. In the 30's they might have
ridden the rails, now they are hanging out in the Peace Park. Glenn Austin has documented their community.
posted by caddis
on Aug 13, 2007 -
72 comments
A new
study indicates that giving homeless alcoholics controlled access to one drink and hour may reduce their alcohol consumption and cut down on emergency hospital visits. This harm reduction approach, and the related
housing-first model, although
controversial and
in need of further study, appears to be one of the more
hopeful developments in homelessness policy of the past few years.
posted by footnote
on Jan 10, 2006 -
35 comments
"The artist would perch himself on a bench in the town square, sketchbook and pencil in hand.
In between doodles of his beloved wife and 'Miss Kitty', the pet cat, he'd fill page after page with the other subjects that consumed him: The panhandlers who sat under elm trees hungering for pocket change as lovers strolled to dinner and children played on the grass ...
Sometimes, the vagrants he studied would notice the pencil and book and hesitantly approach. He'd share his drawing. They'd talk. Sooner or later, the artist would brave the question:
Would you happen to know my son?"
posted by mr_crash_davis
on Nov 24, 2005 -
15 comments
"I haven't been in a concert hall in 4 billion years". Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, 54, had been excited about an invitation to see the
Los Angeles Philharmonic in action at
Disney Hall. "The anticipation is horrible". He'd started showering daily at a shelter, to gussy himself up as much as possible. Nathaniel was a music student more than 30 years ago at the
Juilliard School when he suffered a breakdown. Today, as he continues to battle the schizophrenia that landed him on skid row, he plays violin and cello for hours each day in downtown Los Angeles, lifting his instruments out of an orange shopping cart on which he has written: "Little Walt Disney Concert Hall — Beethoven." After the Philharmonic's rehearsal, Ayers has played Disney Hall -- the real one, this time. Without the bow at first, picking the strings with his right hand, Bach's Cello Suite No. 1: Prelude. Several Philharmonic staffers heard the music and wandered over, peering in to see a man of the streets, tattered and elegant, close his eyes and drift into ecstasy.
posted by PenguinBukkake
on Oct 9, 2005 -
14 comments
The
National Coalition for
Homeless Veterans says soldiers returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan are
beginning
to request help from service providers.
Stars
& Stripes: "Advocates for the homeless already are seeing
veterans from the war on terror living on the street, and say the
government must do more to ease their transition from military to
civilian life. Boone said the reasons behind the veterans' housing
problems are varied: Some have emotional and mental issues from their
combat experience, some have trouble finding work after leaving the
military, some have health care bills which result in financial
distress."
Philly.com has more (Reg Req, or view
here) on a recently homeless vet from Philadelphia.
posted by jenleigh
on Jun 6, 2005 -
110 comments
How Kids (Like Yours) Get Trapped on the Streets Bob Parsons gives a chilling summary of how the vortex of homelessness can suck young people into a world of drugs and prostitution even faster than you might realize. (Makes you wonder how many MeFi users might be in this exact situation.)
posted by oissubke
on Feb 15, 2005 -
43 comments
The sixth annual National Homelessness Marathon takes place on February 5-6. The 14-hour public-radio broadcast, which will originate this year from Portland, Maine, takes place overnight, outside, in the freezing cold. This year it will be joined by the first annual
Canadian National Homelessness Marathon. The event is meant to raise awareness, not money, though the
recent decision in Key West to ban panhandling in the downtown district for the good of tourism, and fine panhanders $500 for their crime, indicates that there's still a long way to go in raising awareness about this issue. Particularly troubling are comments like the one made by Key West Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt, who explains, "We have to send the message that we don't want these people to come to our city and control our streets.
We control our streets."
posted by damn yankee
on Jan 23, 2003 -
22 comments
A flood of homeless at city shelters. '"I think that there must be a greater segment of our population that has
tenuous connections to family and friends, and therefore has fewer resources to fall back on when something very bad happens like when they lose their job," he said.' How can there be so many people, who have no one to count on? Are we getting some serious payback from the nuclear family society?
posted by mmarcos
on Dec 18, 2001 -
32 comments
San Francisco is spending about $22,000 every hour on homeless people. "Leave politics out of it. Leave all the issues of needy folks out of it. We're talking about hygiene here," he said. "It's where people walk and take their kids. It's dirty and nasty and not healthy."
"New York City, credited with cleaning its streets of the chronically homeless, offers shelter to every person needing it - 27,000 a night. San Francisco instead focuses on long-term housing solutions featuring full services for those lucky enough to get in." (via
obscurestore)
posted by owillis
on Nov 6, 2001 -
39 comments
I'm not really sure if I feel for these
people or not. A lean job market is no picnic, but c'mon, there are
other jobs out there. Maybe it is some sort of divine retribution for these shelter denizens after spending months cutting people off while yapping on the cell-phone behind the wheel of the leased
Porsche. Yes, that was a run-on sentence.
posted by donkeysuck
on Jun 15, 2001 -
20 comments
