Are You Warm Tonight? Baltimore's Homeless Forced Onto The Streets

[theHandpuppet]

From The Baltimore Sun

City's homeless get frozen out
Shelter closings force people onto streets

By Lynn Anderson | Sun reporter
December 6, 2007

Ruth Williams, 66, leads a visitor to the tarp shanty she calls home and says, "Mine is the third castle."

Cane in hand, Williams hobbles across a JFX off-ramp to reach her flimsy shelter. Cars zip by as she plops down in a wheelchair. Nearby, a man who also lives under a tarpaulin uses cast-off construction materials and a lighter to start a small blaze in a metal barrel.

Last night as the temperature dropped and a thin layer of snow lay on the ground, roughly 3,000 homeless people were on Baltimore's streets and in its shelters, according to city health officials. Winter's sting coincided with the recent closures of four large shelters that caused tarp cities - congregations of men, women and couples - to sprout up under freeways and bridges and behind office buildings.

MORE at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.md.ci.homeless06dec06,0,3279424.story

[Breeze54]

1. Yes; I am warm and the closing of shelter's is BS!!!

:grr:

Is Baltimore that fucking poor??

I think not and that is disgraceful!! :grr:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. America the "Beautiful"?

Can we remedy this nightmare? 381 Billionaires -- care to lend a hand?

[rusty quoin]

3. It sucks to be a liberal. How much easier it is to read what you posted,

and say, so what, it's their fault, and stay warm...those poor people.

[Cha]

9. It sucks to have a

heart, yeah.

[Hippo_Tron]

14. Hey now, right wingers don't have it that easy...

They have to get outraged over the Golden Compass movie, y'know.

[juajen]

4. This breaks my heart.

Nobody should have to fend for themselves alone in the world. Our humanity is sadly lacking, but, I swear I do not have any idea what to do to remedy this situation. It is to trite to say "elect a democratic predident." Can we please ask them what they will do about the homeless, among them the physically and mentally ill, veterans that have been cast aside and people who have been injured on the job and can no longer work or pay bills. Of course, there are many who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, and they desperately need help also. We are only as strong as our weakest link.

[silverojo]

8. This is so true

That's why I support John Edwards for President. At least he makes a pretense of caring about the poor.

[robinlynne]

11. Especially in the richest country in the world. There is no excuse for homelessness in America.

[Baby Snooks]

5. Send 'em to San Francisco...

Madame Speaker can arrange for them to have a nice warm jail cell.

This is to be found in every American city. One of many reasons why the Republicans should hang their heads in shame. But all of us should. Most of us really "look the other way." Out of sight, out of mind. As we sit in front of a fire on a cold winter night in our nice, safe living rooms. There are a growing number of homeless people who are employed but still homeless. They simply do not earn enough to rent anything.

The rich get richer. The rest of us are headed for the underpasses.

[EFerrari]

16. . . . .

:cry:

[datasuspect]

6. hoovervilles?

[NMMNG]

7. Someone give each of them a dime-bag

They'll have free room and board in no time. :sarcasm:

[sjdnb]

10. Call Mitt and the other Christians

from lds.org: The Lord has always commanded His people to care for the poor and the needy.

from the Christian Bible: God is despised when the poor are mistreated, Showing ill will toward the needy is a sin, (and especially comical during the sub-prime crisis) Do not charge interest to the needy, Sodom's main sin was being "arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." That is why they were destroyed.

[theHandpuppet]

23. Chapter and verse

I was hungry and you gave me meat
I was thirsty and you gave me drink
I was a stranger and you took me in
Naked and you clothed me
I was sick and you visited me
In prison and you came unto me In as much as you did
this unto the least of these my bretheren
YOU HAVE DONE UNTO ME. Matt 25:40

[shireen]

12. i don't know what it takes anymore, I feel helpless

Last year, while driving home, around dusk, from a medical appointment in Baltimore city, I passed by a Catholic church and noticed a bunch of homeless people congregated in front of the church, getting settled for the night. It broke my heart. When I got home, I called that church to find out if there was anything I could do for them. The lady who answered the phone told me that the church let them use the grounds at night because the city did not allow them to spend the night on the streets or other public areas. She directed me to St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore (mentioned in the article), and I've been making regular contributions ever since.

But it's never enough. I don't understand how our society could be so callous towards these people. We should, at the very least, be helping them with basic human needs like food, shelter, and medical care. That should be the definition of "society", of "community", to support each other.

[Elidor]

13. 3 million people

That's the estimated homeless population of America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States#Statistics_and_demographics

[EFerrari]

15. K&R

[donheld]

17. We're proud americans

Our tired our poor our huddled masses are sleeping out in the cold but by god we're proud.

[unhappycamper]

18. Statistically speaking, 750 of those 3,000 are

veterans!

[tom_paine]

19. Bushvilles - it could be any of us in the future.

As our economy continues to contract, in trems of jobs vs. population growth, which has lagged even with Buhsie Lying Fake Numbers, it has lagged grotesquely.

Naturally, this has never been mentioned in the MSM in seven years, though it is an easily understandable antidote to all the Bushie Jobs Propaganda of all the "many" jobs (yeah, low paying benefitless jobs) they have created, even those McJobs still lag far below the 200,000/month that are needed just to offset population growth.

This is a tragedy and a horror, but one which I imgaine is reenacted weekly or morer in a nation that has embraced evil and gone insane.

And the process is nowhere near completion. It will likely get much worse for all of us, and doubly so for the weakest and most vulnerable, before it gets better.

[annabanana]

20. Who among us won't understand

when the starving, homeless steal our bread, and break into our garages for shelter?

[theHandpuppet]

21. On a related note, food pantries are in crisis

No food, no medicine, no shelter -- God Bless Amurika!

From my journal...
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/theHandpuppet/87

[countryjake]

25. Here's another one...things are really bad all over...

Food Banks, in a Squeeze, Tighten Belts
By KATIE ZEZIMA - The New York Times
Published: November 30, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/us/30food.html?ref=todayspaper

~snip~

MANCHESTER, N.H., Nov. 26 — Food banks around the country are reporting critical shortages that have forced them to ration supplies, distribute staples usually reserved for disaster relief and in some instances close.

“It’s one of the most demanding years I’ve seen in my 30 years” in the field, said Catherine D’Amato, president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Food Bank, comparing the situation to the recession of the late 1970s.

[Cobalt Violet]

22. This is the saddest, saddest thing I've read here today.

I don't recognize this country anymore.

[countryjake]

24. Jeez, that one shelter closed the day after Thanksgiving...how heartwarming!

It shames me as an American when I see how the disadvantaged among us are treated, everywhere.

[SoCalDem]

26. get the turkey photo op in the paper..and then shove 'em out the back door

The sad thing is that way too many people have started to believe the republican mantra that's been proffered over 3 decades..

If you are homeless and poor, it's because of something you either did or did not do..

of course the people who "believe" this, are not above using nepotism, fabricated resumes, shifty business practices or even law-breaking to get to or maintain their own status, and when they fall from grace, it's somehow, always someone else's fault..

It's against the law to be poor. It's just that simple..If you cannot afford to pay rent, you are just basically screwed. You need a place to actually LIVE, in order to HAVE a job, and the living arrangements have to come first..

[Sugar Smack]

27. You are awesome, SoCalDem.

Awesome. And I'm LOVING your sigline as well. Your post was absolutely on-target. :applause: