MetaFilter posts tagged with Homelessness

Domestic Violence Discrimination in Housing

jacobw — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:06:08 -0800

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.

Coming Home

hadjiboy — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:57:28 -0800

Homeless people are just too lazy to work, aren't they? Besides, they panhandle to get by, so what's the big deal? What does it mean to be homeless [previously] anyway? How do people find themselves in these sorts of situations, and why can't they get out of them? How do they feel about it? And are there any alternatives that we can supply them with?

Contemporary Hooverville

MythMaker — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:02:27 -0800

Tent cities spring up in L.A. With foreclosures rates still rising, shantytowns have started springing up in Los Angeles.

On Skid Row

sleepy pete — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:21:43 -0800

On Skid Row is a five part video series about Skid Row in Los Angeles from GOOD Magazine. Introduction, Kids, Drugs, God, Afterword via y2karl's earlier via

Cities of God

hadjiboy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:22:37 -0800

Slum (youtube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Dwellers (mp3): how the other billion lives.

Rule 1 of Burrito Project: You do not talk about Burrito Project.

basicchannel — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:15:21 -0800

Burrito Project is an organization which helps feed the hungry and homeless in cities around the world. The organization encourages people "to get together with friends and build burritos to take to the streets". Anyone can start a Burrito Project and the organization encourages everyone to help feed the hungry in their local communities. Haven't heard of the Burrito Project? There's probably a good, albeit very strange, reason why. [via]

Downtown Eastside Seeks Foreign Aid

KokuRyu — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:24:47 -0800

Vancouver group asks UN (rather than local government) to help homeless Canadians The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) met with United Nations representative Miloon Kothari this week and appealed to the UN to intervene on behalf of homeless people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. via Homelessness in Vancouver was estimated in 2007 to be at the level of approximately 1,500-2,000 people sleeping outside at night and hundreds more in shelters and couch surfing. It is expected to reach 3,000 by the year 2010, the year Vancouver will host the Winter Olympics. There are no funding constraints. The suggested 3,200 units of social housing would cost $640 million. The provincial government is running a budgetary surplus this year of $4.1 billion. The federal government had a surplus of $6.4 billion in the first quarter of 2007. Previously

It takes a village

caddis — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:27:12 -0800

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.

Ziggy The Bagman

Effigy2000 — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:21:42 -0800

Ziggy the Bagman (real name Zbygnew Marian Willzek) is a 46 year old man who has long lived on the streets of Brisbane, gaining notoriety for the large collection of bags he carries with him at all times (unless they're being seized by the authorities). He's resisted all attempts to get him a home, preferring to sleep rough due to (as this interview with Ziggy relates) a desire to practice self-control of body and mind mixed with religious reasons. This is in spite of several attacks on him, every one of which he says he remembers very clearly. Although many have written of him, and created MySpace pages in his honor (though one wonder how honored Ziggy would actually be if he knew about it), he remains arguably the most well known face of Australia's growing homelessness crisis (PDF file).

It is probably quite difficult for many to imagine what it would actually be like to be homeless, although for your edification here is an excellent site detailing a day in the life of six other homeless people in six cities around the world from Australia's public broadcaster, the ABC. I'm sure Ziggy would have appeared in the movie too, but no doubt the $10 fee he would have asked for would have been too steep for the ABC.

Hope for the homeless

footnote — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:08:26 -0800

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.