How to Get 1000 Homeless People
in Off the Streets of Portland Oregon
Right Now for Cheap!
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/12/396325.shtml
author: Pearl E Moon
e-mail: queen@activist.com
The Portland Scrooge commission must read this, it only takes one signature or maybe several, to get possibly hundreds or even potentially 1000+ homeless people in off the streets right now this week. Read the article to find out how simple, quick, and do-able this could be.
A Portland Victorian Industrial Revolution Christmas Carol....
IT'S SO SIMPLE. one way to get hundreds or thousands of homeless/ near homeless men, women and youth housed right now, with the stroke of a pen:
REVISE the Housing Authority of Portland regulations so that anyone on Section 8 or Public Housing can allow their immediate family to come and stay/ live with them if the homeless person is currently below poverty level, etc. Use a reasonable criteria that includes those factors (person to be added is closely related, homeless/ at risk for homelessness, at or below poverty level, etc).
Close relatives such as parents, grandparents, greatgrandparents: children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren; brother, sister.
If you are afraid of "abuses", then for God's sake establish some parameters, instead of shutting down this much needed housing completely!
Currently it appears that a very scroogey change was made that will not allow this. So a 60 year old disabled Mom can't allow her 40 year old unemployable daughter to come live with her in many instances, even if the daughter is homeless and she is direct family. Only under certain circumstances could she come in out of the cold mean streets and NOT create a violation for her Mom. (She would have had to be on the Mom's benefits when Mom first applied for them 5 years ago, in order to be allowed to come live with her mom when needed later).
This fairly recent rule also makes the Mom, for instance, endangered if she allows her adult child to come stay with her to keep her off the streets. Why? because she currently could lose her Housing and end up on the street herself if she lets her daughter stay with her. Talk about emotional abuse. Tear a Mom's heart right out with such a choice. SCROOGES!
BUT WITH THE STROKE OF A PEN, the Housing Authority could restore the lost right of a family member to allow their adult child or other homeless close relative, to live with them in their Housing unit. Doesn't this only seem reasonable and normal? Anything short of it is just plain, senseless and inhumane.
ok Scrooges, Christmas Day is almost here! believe me, Hell will be colder than the streets of Portland for you, if you don't sign such a revision. Because there is a God, He cares a lot about the Least of These, and He is watching. He's meaner than Santa when you're bad. You won't just get a lump of coal. You'll get raked over the hot burning coals, no doubt in public.
I really hope we'll hear you singing a different Christmas Carol, before the winter progresses and the Ghost of Christmas Future gets you; the current one is way too Dickensian. Fitting for Victorian Industrial London, but NOT modern Portland.
God Bless us, every one.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/12/396325.shtml
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Homeless Vets and Veterans Village
THE WAR COMES HOME
Iraq war veterans feel they are
being cast aside. Three vets explain in their own words.
http://www.veteransvillage.org/Homeless.html
- - - - - -
700,000 Homeless Veterans
STRIPES: Helping vets resume civilian lives
March 23, 2008
By Rena Fulka, Staff writer
Former airman Michael White considers himself a success story.
"I was in the Air Force for almost 21 years, and when I retired, I couldn't find a job," said White, who spent most of his military career stationed in Europe.
"I felt disassociated from civilian life, and I had trouble fitting in. I was depressed, and I wanted to talk, but I had no network. After 20 years, when you have to put the Mr. back in
your name, it's not as easy as you thought it would be."
With help from the Rev. Al Garcia at New Life Oak Forest Church, White made a successful transition back to private citizen.
"Al kept me uplifted, got me through the hard times, and I got a job," said the medical administrator from Oak Forest.
Now, White wants to do the same for other returning soldiers through STRIPES, a community forum designed to help able-bodied veterans acclimate to civilian life.
"An able-bodied vet can be just as disabled as anyone who got shot, but he hides it better. He looks fine and smiles, but he's a mess," White said.
National statistics show 700,000 veterans are homeless, unemployed or a combination of both, White said.
"And the homeless ratio is growing and being filled with vets coming out of the service."
White and the Rev. Rob Schoon, of Orland Park, are laying the groundwork for the new Oak Forest ministry, which is an acronym for "Surviving trauma, receiving inner peace,
enjoying salvation."
Schoon is a Marine veteran who now serves as a chaplain with the Marine Corps League. He visits veterans organizations and hospitals on a regular basis.
"Veterans are people who had such productive lives before the service," Schoon said. "They served their country honorably and did what they were supposed to do. Now, they're
back, they're hurting, and someone has to help them. And most people in the civilian world don't understand the problem these guys and girls are having."
go here for the rest >>http://www.southtownstar.com/lifestyles/852080,032308VETSTRIPES.article
When we get figures from the government, we need to think twice if we believe them or not. 700,000 comes from a more realistic rate because some veterans are homeless at
some point during the year. This is not a new trend but it is a higher one. There are chronically homeless veterans who never find a place to live and there are some who find a
place with family or friends. Their luck usually runs out if they happen to have other issues like PTSD and are not getting help. While the government would want us to believe
they have suddenly reduced the number of homeless veterans below 200,000, we still have not seen the data on where the other homeless veterans w
- - - - - - -
Words are another way. Below are the stories of three veterans of this war, told in their voices, edited for flow and efficiency but otherwise
unchanged. They bear out the statistics and suggest that even those who are not diagnosably impaired return burdened by experiences they can
neither forget nor integrate into their postwar lives. They speak of the inadequacy of what the military calls reintegration counseling, of the
immediacy of their worst memories, of their helplessness in battle, of the struggle to rejoin a society that seems unwilling or unable to
comprehend the price of their service. Strangers to one another and to me, they nevertheless tried, sometimes through tears, to communicate
what the intensity of an ambiguous war has done to them. One veteran, Sue Randolph, put it this way: “People walk up to me and say, ‘Thank you
for your service.’ And I know they mean well, but I want to ask, ‘Do you know what you’re thanking me for?’” She, Rocky, and Michael Goss offer
their stories here in the hope that citizens will begin to know.
Iraq war veterans feel they are
being cast aside. Three vets explain in their own words.
http://www.veteransvillage.org/Homeless.html
- - - - - -
700,000 Homeless Veterans
STRIPES: Helping vets resume civilian lives
March 23, 2008
By Rena Fulka, Staff writer
Former airman Michael White considers himself a success story.
"I was in the Air Force for almost 21 years, and when I retired, I couldn't find a job," said White, who spent most of his military career stationed in Europe.
"I felt disassociated from civilian life, and I had trouble fitting in. I was depressed, and I wanted to talk, but I had no network. After 20 years, when you have to put the Mr. back in
your name, it's not as easy as you thought it would be."
With help from the Rev. Al Garcia at New Life Oak Forest Church, White made a successful transition back to private citizen.
"Al kept me uplifted, got me through the hard times, and I got a job," said the medical administrator from Oak Forest.
Now, White wants to do the same for other returning soldiers through STRIPES, a community forum designed to help able-bodied veterans acclimate to civilian life.
"An able-bodied vet can be just as disabled as anyone who got shot, but he hides it better. He looks fine and smiles, but he's a mess," White said.
National statistics show 700,000 veterans are homeless, unemployed or a combination of both, White said.
"And the homeless ratio is growing and being filled with vets coming out of the service."
White and the Rev. Rob Schoon, of Orland Park, are laying the groundwork for the new Oak Forest ministry, which is an acronym for "Surviving trauma, receiving inner peace,
enjoying salvation."
Schoon is a Marine veteran who now serves as a chaplain with the Marine Corps League. He visits veterans organizations and hospitals on a regular basis.
"Veterans are people who had such productive lives before the service," Schoon said. "They served their country honorably and did what they were supposed to do. Now, they're
back, they're hurting, and someone has to help them. And most people in the civilian world don't understand the problem these guys and girls are having."
go here for the rest >>http://www.southtownstar.com/lifestyles/852080,032308VETSTRIPES.article
When we get figures from the government, we need to think twice if we believe them or not. 700,000 comes from a more realistic rate because some veterans are homeless at
some point during the year. This is not a new trend but it is a higher one. There are chronically homeless veterans who never find a place to live and there are some who find a
place with family or friends. Their luck usually runs out if they happen to have other issues like PTSD and are not getting help. While the government would want us to believe
they have suddenly reduced the number of homeless veterans below 200,000, we still have not seen the data on where the other homeless veterans w
- - - - - - -
Words are another way. Below are the stories of three veterans of this war, told in their voices, edited for flow and efficiency but otherwise
unchanged. They bear out the statistics and suggest that even those who are not diagnosably impaired return burdened by experiences they can
neither forget nor integrate into their postwar lives. They speak of the inadequacy of what the military calls reintegration counseling, of the
immediacy of their worst memories, of their helplessness in battle, of the struggle to rejoin a society that seems unwilling or unable to
comprehend the price of their service. Strangers to one another and to me, they nevertheless tried, sometimes through tears, to communicate
what the intensity of an ambiguous war has done to them. One veteran, Sue Randolph, put it this way: “People walk up to me and say, ‘Thank you
for your service.’ And I know they mean well, but I want to ask, ‘Do you know what you’re thanking me for?’” She, Rocky, and Michael Goss offer
their stories here in the hope that citizens will begin to know.
Monday, December 07, 2009
Bonnie Tinker shelter named in her Honor on 12.5.09
Portland women's shelter renamed
for late activist Bonnie Tinker
(reposted)
By Allan Brettman, The Oregonian
December 05, 2009, 8:18PM
Allan Brettman/The Oregonian
http://sz0101.ev.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/Bonnie%20Tinker%20honored%20in%20PDX.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=42460&part=2
Mary Dzieweczynski (left) executive director of Bradley Angle, talks about the legacy of
Bonnie Tinker, the founding director of the emergency women's shelter.
The shelter was named for Tinker at a ceremony Saturday. The audience of about 100 people included
Adah Crandall (foreground in picture on original post /see link) who is holding the hand of her mother, Anne Crandall, who
is sitting next to Tinker's son, Alex Tinker.
Robin Kandel dashed down the sidewalk from her Southeast Portland
home, her two young daughters in tow, when the beatings became too
much.
The assaults were a regular part of a 10-year marriage. None was worse
than the time the stitches were torn following a Caesarean delivery a
week earlier.
But she did leave.
Kandel ran to a phone booth and called the Portland Women's Crisis Line,
which patched her through to the Bradley-Angle House for abused
women. The shelter immediately gave Kandel and her daughters a
temporary home.
"That was the first time I realized what I was going through wasn't
normal," Kandel said.
Where to go for help
The Portland area has several resources for battered women, including the
Bonnie Tinker House operated by Bradley Angle, an organization with
emergency, transition and community-based services:
www.bradleyangle.org
The Portland Women's Crisis Line, 503-235-5333 or 888-235-5333, with 24-
hour resources and support for survivors of domestic and sexual violence,
includes a comprehensive list of agencies at http://pwcl.org
Fifteen years later, she is the emergency services manager for the
women's shelter. And she shared her story of survival Saturday afternoon
at a gathering to honor the founding director of the Bradley-Angle House,
Bonnie Tinker.
Several friends and family also recounted their memories of Tinker, who
was honored in a ceremony that renamed the shelter the Bonnie Tinker
House, a part of Bradley Angle's domestic violence programs.
Tinker, 61, was killed July 2 in a crash with a truck while riding her
bicycle in Virginia, where she was attending a Quaker conference.
Almost immediately, friends of Tinker thought of naming the emergency
shelter after her. It would be an honor, they believed benefiting the
Portland activist who was a leader in the anti-war group Seriously P.O.'d
Grannies and director of Love Makes a Family, which supports
nontraditional families, including those led by same-sex parents.
They couldn't know that the date they chose to honor Tinker -- the
founding chairwoman of the National Coalition Against Domestic
Violence -- would land in the midst of continued horror for abused
women. Seven women in the region have been victims of violence in the
past 30 days by estranged ex-husbands, husbands or boyfriends.
Before remembering their friend, the 100 or so people gathered in
Southeast Portland observed a moment of silence to remember the slain
women. Then individual voices read each of the women's names and
those of their killer.
"It's really hard to understand, isn't it?" Tinker's partner, Sara Graham,
said before the ceremony began.
But Saturday's event, held at Tinker's spiritual home, the Multnomah
Friends Social Hall on Southeast Stark, was focused most on Tinker -- her
personality, her passions, her efforts to make the world a better place, no
matter who got ticked off in the process.
Betsy Kenworthy, a Social Hall employee, said, "She could be prickly."
The remark elicited laugher.
Kenworthy recounted a remark years ago from someone else at the
Religious Society of Friends, the Quaker group that the feisty Tinker
attended.
"Don't you think it's amazing that Bonnie Tinker comes here every
Sunday and sits here in silence for an hour?"
More laughter.
But nothing got more laughs than the comedy tag-team routine from two
of Tinker's sisters, Mary Beth Tinker of Washington, D.C., and Hope
Tinker of Fayette, Mo.
Each took turns reading from a 1978 "Intelligence Report" about Bonnie
Tinker and Mary Beth Tinker that Mary Beth said a friend of Bonnie's
retrieved from a Portland police file.
The two-page document casts suspicion on the two women promoting the
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "an organization of grass
roots, radical, women-controlled shelters, and hotlines."
The laughter grew loudest at the last line:
"The Tinker girls are true revolutionaries and they will use anything in
their power to aid the revolution."
Throughout Saturday's speeches, a plaque with Tinker's image sat on a
table, surrounding by burning candles. The plaque, which will hang on a
wall in the emergency shelter, features this quote:
"We understood very clearly from the beginning that starting a house was
help for the people who were going to come there to live, but it also had
to do with our own survival; we had to do something that had some
meaning to untangle this whole mess for all of us."
-- Bonnie Tinker, 1979
-- Allan Brettman
http://sz0101.ev.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/Bonnie%20Tinker%20honored%20in%20PDX.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=42460&part=2
for late activist Bonnie Tinker
(reposted)
By Allan Brettman, The Oregonian
December 05, 2009, 8:18PM
Allan Brettman/The Oregonian
http://sz0101.ev.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/Bonnie%20Tinker%20honored%20in%20PDX.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=42460&part=2
Mary Dzieweczynski (left) executive director of Bradley Angle, talks about the legacy of
Bonnie Tinker, the founding director of the emergency women's shelter.
The shelter was named for Tinker at a ceremony Saturday. The audience of about 100 people included
Adah Crandall (foreground in picture on original post /see link) who is holding the hand of her mother, Anne Crandall, who
is sitting next to Tinker's son, Alex Tinker.
Robin Kandel dashed down the sidewalk from her Southeast Portland
home, her two young daughters in tow, when the beatings became too
much.
The assaults were a regular part of a 10-year marriage. None was worse
than the time the stitches were torn following a Caesarean delivery a
week earlier.
But she did leave.
Kandel ran to a phone booth and called the Portland Women's Crisis Line,
which patched her through to the Bradley-Angle House for abused
women. The shelter immediately gave Kandel and her daughters a
temporary home.
"That was the first time I realized what I was going through wasn't
normal," Kandel said.
Where to go for help
The Portland area has several resources for battered women, including the
Bonnie Tinker House operated by Bradley Angle, an organization with
emergency, transition and community-based services:
www.bradleyangle.org
The Portland Women's Crisis Line, 503-235-5333 or 888-235-5333, with 24-
hour resources and support for survivors of domestic and sexual violence,
includes a comprehensive list of agencies at http://pwcl.org
Fifteen years later, she is the emergency services manager for the
women's shelter. And she shared her story of survival Saturday afternoon
at a gathering to honor the founding director of the Bradley-Angle House,
Bonnie Tinker.
Several friends and family also recounted their memories of Tinker, who
was honored in a ceremony that renamed the shelter the Bonnie Tinker
House, a part of Bradley Angle's domestic violence programs.
Tinker, 61, was killed July 2 in a crash with a truck while riding her
bicycle in Virginia, where she was attending a Quaker conference.
Almost immediately, friends of Tinker thought of naming the emergency
shelter after her. It would be an honor, they believed benefiting the
Portland activist who was a leader in the anti-war group Seriously P.O.'d
Grannies and director of Love Makes a Family, which supports
nontraditional families, including those led by same-sex parents.
They couldn't know that the date they chose to honor Tinker -- the
founding chairwoman of the National Coalition Against Domestic
Violence -- would land in the midst of continued horror for abused
women. Seven women in the region have been victims of violence in the
past 30 days by estranged ex-husbands, husbands or boyfriends.
Before remembering their friend, the 100 or so people gathered in
Southeast Portland observed a moment of silence to remember the slain
women. Then individual voices read each of the women's names and
those of their killer.
"It's really hard to understand, isn't it?" Tinker's partner, Sara Graham,
said before the ceremony began.
But Saturday's event, held at Tinker's spiritual home, the Multnomah
Friends Social Hall on Southeast Stark, was focused most on Tinker -- her
personality, her passions, her efforts to make the world a better place, no
matter who got ticked off in the process.
Betsy Kenworthy, a Social Hall employee, said, "She could be prickly."
The remark elicited laugher.
Kenworthy recounted a remark years ago from someone else at the
Religious Society of Friends, the Quaker group that the feisty Tinker
attended.
"Don't you think it's amazing that Bonnie Tinker comes here every
Sunday and sits here in silence for an hour?"
More laughter.
But nothing got more laughs than the comedy tag-team routine from two
of Tinker's sisters, Mary Beth Tinker of Washington, D.C., and Hope
Tinker of Fayette, Mo.
Each took turns reading from a 1978 "Intelligence Report" about Bonnie
Tinker and Mary Beth Tinker that Mary Beth said a friend of Bonnie's
retrieved from a Portland police file.
The two-page document casts suspicion on the two women promoting the
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "an organization of grass
roots, radical, women-controlled shelters, and hotlines."
The laughter grew loudest at the last line:
"The Tinker girls are true revolutionaries and they will use anything in
their power to aid the revolution."
Throughout Saturday's speeches, a plaque with Tinker's image sat on a
table, surrounding by burning candles. The plaque, which will hang on a
wall in the emergency shelter, features this quote:
"We understood very clearly from the beginning that starting a house was
help for the people who were going to come there to live, but it also had
to do with our own survival; we had to do something that had some
meaning to untangle this whole mess for all of us."
-- Bonnie Tinker, 1979
-- Allan Brettman
http://sz0101.ev.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/Bonnie%20Tinker%20honored%20in%20PDX.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=42460&part=2
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