After a spate of recent deaths, efforts to rehabilitate homeless chronic inebriates in Anchorage now include involuntary confinement. Other city-wide efforts include a mayoral decree that established homeless camps should be scattered. [more inside]
posted by stinker on Oct 25, 2009 - 52 comments

"I always had this picture in my head a homeless person is they're got torn dirty clothes, they're not shaven, they're, they're sort of sitting in the corner you know waiting for a handout and that was my and to think that - I'm not in that category - but I don't have a home for my family."
A report from Australia's Four Corners documentary TV show looking into homeless families in Western Sydney. Link has video and a transcript, plus background info.
posted by bystander on Sep 22, 2009 - 31 comments

Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed, has for the past two months been writing a series of opinion essays in the New York Times that discuss poverty, both new and entrenched. The pieces, so far, are "Too Poor to Make the News," "A Homespun Safety Net," and "Is It Now A Crime to Be Poor?" [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Aug 10, 2009 - 77 comments

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty has released a list of the 10 meanest cities in relation to criminalizing homeless. Full report (pdf) available here. [more inside]
posted by lunit on Jul 14, 2009 - 80 comments

"This is one of the greatest damn gifts you could ever give to anybody." The EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof) is a mobile sleeping shelter for the cold homeless in refrigerator boxes.
posted by four panels on Dec 10, 2008 - 58 comments

Sunday Morning Movie - A moving and fascinating documentary, Dark Days is on Google Video. Marc Singer lived in the tunnel, and started filming with the help of his fellow tunnel dwellers. Trivia here. Inevitable Wikipedia link here. [more inside]
posted by Fuzzy Skinner on Nov 9, 2008 - 19 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

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?
posted by hadjiboy on Mar 23, 2008 - 69 comments

Tent cities spring up in L.A. With foreclosures rates still rising, shantytowns have started springing up in Los Angeles.
posted by MythMaker on Mar 18, 2008 - 81 comments

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
posted by sleepy pete on Mar 16, 2008 - 9 comments

Slum (youtube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Dwellers (mp3): how the other billion lives.
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 28, 2008 - 60 comments

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]
posted by basicchannel on Jan 3, 2008 - 42 comments

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 [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu on Oct 18, 2007 - 43 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

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.
posted by Effigy2000 on Apr 20, 2007 - 38 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

Hooyah! "I imagine being a government contract killer who has taken an active role in an illegal and immoral invasion and occupation must be somewhat stressful. The poor - dears. My heart is struggling real hard to bleed here." Lots of folks agree with that apparently. [more inside]
posted by Smedleyman on Oct 23, 2005 - 52 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

Retirement Reality Check Lazy days for the current generation, mostly, but not for current working stiffs says Allstate. Since more and more states and cities are making homelessness illegal don't ever expect to get off the grind.
posted by billsaysthis on Nov 10, 2004 - 13 comments

"With the Identity Kit series shown here, I have attempted to portray the gross poverty of the dispossessed by inviting some of the homeless men on London's streets to display their belongings - those carried in their pockets, or in a bag."
[via nmazca.blog, who got it from ashleyb]
posted by me3dia on Oct 13, 2004 - 6 comments

Yesterday, Iraq. Today, homeless in the Bronx. Welcome back, soldier, and god bless America.
posted by PrinceValium on Apr 24, 2004 - 117 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

Blogging while "homeless" - two Seattle guys just spent a week pretending to be homeless. They claim this newspaper article heavily misquoted them, but they are getting various flak in their message forums. A worthwhile project or were they just jealous of the Seattle Star Wars fans?
posted by gluechunk on Jul 15, 2002 - 19 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