Pictured on this page is one of the smartest and most beloved Texans who ever shared thoughts with the world. His bio says,

National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and New York Times best-selling author, Jim Hightower has spent four decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be — consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.

A ferocious caller-out of corporate misbehavior and governmental malfeasance, he runs The Hightower Lowdown, a website whose motto is “Everybody does better when everybody does better.” Hightower is what we now call an influencer or a thought leader; in other words, someone whose endorsement is worth being proud of.

He says this about Looking Up at the Bottom Line:

Finally, someone with some common sense! Troxell lays out a plan that will end homelessness for over 1,000,000 wage workers — without costing tax payers a dime. Plus, this is a great read — a compelling activist’s tale.

Looking Up at the Bottom Line is of course the book written by House the Homeless President Richard R. Troxell. The autobiographical volume tells how, after serving as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, Richard returned disoriented, emotionally damaged, and without a place in American society, i.e., homeless. He tried some college, but it didn’t work out. When his father died, he says, “I went over the proverbial edge… I rejected people and began living in the woods.”

With only a backpack, Richard traveled to North Carolina, Louisiana, and New Mexico, sheltering in a truck and even a cave. He worked for the Forest Service, restoring trails, and in a bar, and as a volunteer firefighter. Canada seemed like a good idea, but somehow he ended up in Philadelphia instead, and that is where things changed. Living in an abandoned house, he met a fellow named Max Weiner, who set him on the road to political activism.

Deep in the heart of Texas

We’ll skip ahead to Richard’s eventual arrival in Austin, where he set out to challenge unfair housing regulations. This led to a course of working with (and when necessary, against) the city council, various political operatives, business interests, and the local authorities. In 1989 he co-founded the non-profit organization House the Homeless.

The struggle is on behalf of all the displaced and unhoused, but Richard could not and cannot help having a special place in his heart for ex-military people. He wrote,

We have veterans who have served our country well in Vietnam, Desert Storm, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan, killing in the name of God and Country, returning to their home only to find they have none. Others were so traumatized, like myself, that they vomited it all up and wandered the country aimlessly for years confused, in pain, and abandoned.

Harking back to his own Southeast Asia experience and its aftermath, he says,

It was a senseless war in which soldiers, myself included, were left unsupported at every turn in Vietnam and again when we returned home. The ones that it did not maim or kill, it made crazy and homeless for many years. Some are still that way. Most of these young men and women were too emotionally destabilized to work even if they could find it. Many were suffering from the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.

He adds a poignant detail from that historical era, of which few Americans are aware:

Veterans of World War II scorned Vietnam veterans. Even though there was a Department of Veterans Affairs, it was comprised of WWII veterans and there was no outreach and no welcome mat for Korean and Vietnam veterans. World War II veterans had fought in a “real war.”

That was when increasing homelessness in the Homeland became glaringly apparent, with the national disgrace of placeless veterans living in alleys, sheds, wooded areas, tunnels beneath cities and even, with any luck at all, in shelters. It would not be surprising to learn that, over the years, VA hospitals have contained individuals who did not really need to be in medical facilities, but who would otherwise be homeless. A doctor’s compassion can stretch to finding reasons to delay a patient’s discharge.

With or without government aid, many vets have been able to reintegrate into society. But since Vietnam, the country has been in a constant state of war, so there is no shortage of newly discharged vets to take the place of those who have managed to achieve a stable lifestyle. Even today, the statisticians who keep track of these matters estimate that around one-third of people experiencing homelessness in the United States are veterans.

This explains why Austin’s Homeless Memorial Sunrise Service is always held within a week of Veterans Day. Richard’s story is similar to that of the fictional character John, one of the figures in the sculpture that will soon become part of the local landscape, and readers are enjoined to watch this spot for further news of The Home Coming.

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Photo credit: Center for American Progress on Visualhunt/CC BY-ND

People who have lost everything, and who sometimes are made to feel like they are nothing, need to be reminded that they are not stupid or helpless. People need to know they still have something to bring to the table, and the world is just a little bit better because they are in it. When advocating for people experiencing homelessness, an unquestionable best practice is to always elicit and promote the clientele’s involvement.

One person might address the crowd at the annual House the Homeless Memorial, and discover a talent for public speaking that opens a whole new life path. Another might have a skill set that makes the annual HUGGS event run smoother than it ever has before. Several band members are formerly homeless, including band leader PJ Liles, who co-chairs the House the Homeless (HtH) Board of Directors. Members of Austin’s homeless community contribute to the winter gear distribution party as greeters, hall guides, room monitors, custodial workers, and kitchen helpers.

If you want to know about homelessness in Austin, ask the experts. The HUGGS guests contribute to the general sum of useful knowledge by filling out a survey. Each year a crucial topic is explored — health; work; sleep; traumatic brain injury; interactions with the police. HtH President and co-founder Richard R. Troxell says:

From my interaction with people experiencing homelessness, we craft the annual survey theme and questions. Every time one of our participants completes a survey, they are charting the path that we then collectively take to prevent and end their homelessness — for example the Universal Living Wage.

Everybody wants their protest signs seen and their voices heard. Of course, people gather on Bridge Day and Tax Day to help get the message across. Richard says of House the Homeless,

Sixty percent of our Board of Directors has always been homeless or formerly homeless… So all of our efforts/projects are based on self empowerment of folks directly affected by homelessness. The struggle to end homelessness is led by homeless and formerly homeless people.

He says this with authority because he’s talking about himself, and Dear Reader. If you haven’t read his book yet, well, what are you waiting for? That’s Looking Up at the Bottom Line by Richard R. Troxell.

Besides being President and co-founder of House the Homeless Richard is also Director of Legal Aid for the Homeless, where he works closely with people who are disabled. He says, “Homeless folks helped us devise our fix for the SSI allotment program among many other programs through the years.” (The book can also be found here.)

Best practices

A procedure shown by experience to be correct is a “best practice.” Now, a bunch of questions and caveats can sprout from this. Once the decision is made, we have to forge ahead with a creative kind of cognitive dissonance. First, we must have 100 percent confidence in this move, because to do otherwise can doom it from the start. We have to believe it’s the best practice, or else what possible justification or motivation could there be for doing it?

And also, once the practice is established, and no matter how effective it turns out to be, it is vital to have a simultaneous mental reservation — to never forget that there might be an even better way to do the thing. To accept something as correct, and stop there, is to invite mental ossification, and eventual revolt. So to really stay on top of the moment, we need to believe two mutually exclusive things at the same time. That is what existential stress is all about.

For any situation there is an old saying, and one that fits here is, “There’s a first time for everything.” A methodology cannot become a best practice without having a trial run (or a hundred). How can anyone empirically know what is the most effective way to do a thing, if it has never been tried that way before? They can’t, which is why research data alone is sometimes enough to be deemed a best practice until something better comes along.

Vision

Leadership is an optimal combination of two mindsets: This Is Great, and This Could Be Better. Leadership includes the ability to administer an organization according to the rules and the best interests of the people it is meant to serve. It also encompasses the ability to think on one’s feet, look for the cracks in the opposition’s armor, and improvise, on the fly, what one hopes are best practices.

One of Richard’s fond memories is of the Kids for Kids’ Sake project. Children made drawings to express their feelings about the holidays. They were processed into packets of 12 holiday cards, and sold to raise $1,500, which was then contributed to the Salvation Army to create a play-scape for the children to be in, while their parents looked for work.

The Statues are Coming!

Watch this space for news.

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Image by House the Homeless

House the Homeless talks a lot about American military veterans, because they are said to make up one-third of the national population of people experiencing homelessness. A case could be made that no one, of any political persuasion whatsoever, is pleased.

No matter what angle it is viewed from, something is wrong with that picture. A veteran is one of the figures in the sculpture grouping that will soon find its place in Austin, TX. It’s called The Home Coming.

What happens during this moment frozen in time? John and his daughter Colleen encounter a fire barrel, and as they enjoy its warmth, an elderly “bag lady” approaches. The little girl motions to her, the man says “Join us,” and after a moment’s hesitation, she does.

Backstory

Where was John before? Up until recently, he was overseas in a combat zone. Like so many others, he did not really grasp who our forces were fighting for, or why. They might have heard the phrase “military industrial complex,” but they didn’t recognize its intimate association with the apparent need to protect the American way.

Joining up felt like the right thing to do, but returning to face indifference and even hostility didn’t feel so great. He sometimes thought of the Phil Ochs song that went, “Poisoned players of a grizzly game, one is guilty and the other gets to point the blame.”

And another lyric by the same artist: “I must have killed a million men, and now they want me back again, but I ain’t marchin’ any more.”

Meta-backstory

A lot of returning veterans sustained physical disabilities during their tours of duty, and came back to find that the government departments charged with meeting their medical needs were in disarray. Many had mental and emotional issues. It was all too much to cope with. Having lost valuables both concrete and intangible, a lot of them gave up.

Things have not changed much since then. While working as a mental health professional at Men’s Life Skills Center in Los Angeles, Nick Holt went to remote areas in search of society’s dropouts. He wrote,

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his/her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America, for an amount of up to and including their life. My daily work is typically working with veterans who are ineligible for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs services.

Many of the veterans I work with do not see an issue with the manner they are living their lives. They have no interest in mental health; let alone think of themselves as someone with a mental health issue.

Holt also passed on to readers the four lessons he learned from homeless veterans, quoted and/or paraphrased here. First, the human connections enjoyed by many homeless vets range from minimal to nonexistent. They have been there, done that, and concluded that having no relationship is better than having a negative one. But it’s not necessarily a permanent condition.

The second lesson is beautifully phrased:

They have faced enormous challenges, but demonstrate resilience, bravery and hopefulness in their determination to try again.

In creating a relationship with a skittish person, one of the professional secrets is to assume the best. Take it for granted that the person is not weak, but strong. Assume that clients are adults with rights and dignity and a capacity for bouncing back. At the very least, the outreach worker can be trained to present a neutral, nonjudgmental persona.

Also, homelessness and trauma are a vicious cycle, creating a sinister spiral that can be stopped. Get somebody under a roof, and you’ll be amazed at their ability to thrive. Third:

The odds are stacked against them, but they remain humorous, playful and creative.

In other words, just the kind of folks who could turn into great neighbors and employees, if given the chance.

The fourth lesson Holt came away with is that maybe the rest of society should listen and pay attention:

Homeless veterans know what they want and what they do not want, and they are happy to share their views with you. Unfortunately, their expressiveness and assertiveness can be perceived as aggressiveness (and sometimes is).

One way or another, voices will be heard. Here is where mental health professionals shine. They can help a person learn to channel aggressiveness into its socially acceptable version, assertiveness, and get things done. Housed people with the NIMBY mindset, and businesses with a vested interest in the perpetuation of zoning ordinances, are responsible for a tremendous waste of humanity.

In many cases, you’re looking at people who have been trained by the U.S. government to be dropped in a hostile environment with few resources, and survive. Compared to that, figuring out how to survive in America is a piece of cake. Throw in some opportunity, and who knows what such resilient people could accomplish.

Such a person might, for instance, devote decades to helping others, and write a book like Looking Up at the Bottom Line.

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Source: “4 Lessons Homeless Veterans Have Taught Me,” The Huffington Post, 05/07/14
Image by Timothy Shamalz

Apple Computer Inc. announced its plan to build a new billion-dollar facility in Austin, TX, which will practically triple the number of its employees in the city. When that is achieved, Apple will be Austin’s largest private employer. (The rewards and incentives promised to Apple are explained here by business reporter Daniel Salazar.)

Without unions or corporate income tax, Texas is attractive to corporations. The state sends 36 members to the House of Representatives in Washington, so it’s a great place to wheel and deal, and wield influence on national policy.

The new employees will make a lot less than their Apple counterparts in the Bay Area or New York, but still more than the people currently experiencing homelessness in Austin. Incidentally, journalist Jeremy Bogaisky mentions that,

Apple also said it planned to establish new offices in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, California, that would house 1,000 workers each.

Wait, what? That language is shady. Offices do not house workers. Housing houses workers, and Austin already doesn’t have enough housing. The influx of well-paid tech people can’t help but displace even more of the poor who are holding on by their fingernails.

Austin’s pool of technical talent is still relatively small, a site-selection consultant told the press, but Apple is “confident that the economic factors and hipness quotient […] will help the company bring in talent from elsewhere.”

But why?

A metropolis like San Francisco or Seattle — or Austin — is bossy. Zoning ordinances are carved in stone, and new construction of affordable, multi-family units is regarded with horror more appropriate to the bubonic plague. The laborers needed for new construction can’t even afford to live locally. This brings to mind a favorite idea of House the Homeless co-founder Richard R. Troxell, who advocates for the revival of workers’ hotels, like the old YMCA. Richard says,

You pay your $10. Stash your gear in your private SRO unit, get a good night’s sleep, wake in the morning, go down the hall to the community shower, then grab your tool bag and your hard hat and head out to work at a living wage job. You have just saved taxpayer a third of the dollars they are willing to spend on “the Homeless.”

Exclusionary municipal zealots have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, like procuring historical landmark status for an old gas station, to block construction of an apartment building. If somebody else got there first, nothing can be built tall enough to block their view. There won’t be enough room for cars to park, they whine. The “character” of the neighborhood will be marred.

Is bigger really better?

Rather than ride the coattails of an already thriving city, shouldn’t a corporation help a struggling city to become great? Ordinary people, communicating via social media, express the same sentiments. Why not pick a place with a depressed economy, like Detroit or Cleveland? Many cities, despite falling on hard times, still have amenities like museums, airports, and sports teams.

Build a huge facility in a second-tier city, and hipness will show up. Comedy clubs and fancy underwear boutiques will open branches. Touring bands will add the place to their itineraries. The things that make a city attractive will arrive, to serve the new population of well-paid professionals. Denominations will line up to plant new churches. Bicycle trails will be constructed. Coffeehouses will show up, and patisseries, and a shop that sells nothing but olive oil.

Somebody will get the bright idea to build housing — maybe even the kind that’s affordable to the firefighters and teachers who make the city worth living in, as well as for the working-class support staff who keep the techxperts comfortable.

Journalist Matthew Yglesias spoke with two housing economists:

[Janna] Matlack and [Jacob] Vigdor find that in housing markets that are “slack” — where there is either plenty of existing housing or it is easy to build new homes so that sale prices approximately equal construction costs — there are spillover benefits. In a slack market, the new rich people don’t impact rents very much but their presence creates new working-class job opportunities.

 

Not everyone wants to live in a megalopolis. Half the people in Los Angeles hate living there, but it’s where the entertainment industry is. Not all tech workers want to exist in science-fictional environments. Plenty of people don’t want a two-hour commute, no matter how much opportunity it presents to enjoy audio books. Lots of people, even some with the highest of high-tech careers, actually want to steer their lives onto a more organic path.

Density is better than sprawl, for a number of legitimate reasons. Wouldn’t it be fun to purposely shape a city by building infill homes — yes, even multi-family units, and plenty of them — instead of suburbs? It has been said that Austin will attract tech workers because of the “cool factor.” Why not go somewhere smaller and more boring, and create the cool?

Reactions?

Source: “For Apple, The Price Is Right In Austin For A Big New Campus,” Forbes.com, 12/13/18
Source: “Big Tech Isn’t the Problem with Homelessness. It’s All of Us,” Wired.com, 06/21/18
Source: “The tragedy of Amazon’s HQ2 selections, explained,” Vox.com, 11/09/18
Photo credit: Bex Walton on Visualhunt/CC BY

The beginning of the year is a wonderful time to ponder the question, “What can I do?” Here are some inspirational stories of things that real people have done, can do, and are doing — specifically, about hunger.

As the federal government subtracts from the funding that feeds Americans, individuals find ways to help. One of the more spectacular stories is that of Angelo Sarkees of Lewiston, NY, who told a reporter,

Maybe people will think about what they can do to help out their food pantries and help out the less fortunate, this time of year especially. Send a check, volunteer. Instead of throwing it in the garbage, think about how you can help the food pantries in your area.

Sarkees, who has now entered his 70s, retired from his state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, so a certain mindset about controlling waste was already in place. Combining this with the intention to feed people, he decided to raise money through recycling. He started by picking up after a jazz festival, then branched out to other big public events, which supply a bountiful harvest of recyclable drink containers.

Sarkees recruited many local restaurants and other businesses, as well as office complexes, to synch up their recycling efforts with his Deposits 4 Food project. He would let people drop off empty cans and other debris at his house, or even pick up items from their homes.

A company called Porter Empty Return gives him 10% over what other recyclers receive, and owner Doug Adamson told the press,

We give him extra on his empties, but we also give him all the scrap metal from the cans and bottles that aren’t returnable. And we also give him metal from the computers we break down and he turns that in.

Sarkees figures that most days, he devotes two hours a day to the work. Three years ago, he told WIBV,

My ultimate goal is $100,000. Whether I make that or not, I’m sure I’ll get to $50,000.

An update this December confirmed that, at the five-year mark, he has surpassed the smaller goal, having raised $65,000 so far for three local food pantries. This amounts to about 600,000 cans and bottles, and 100 tons of scrap metal.

A plethora of possibilities

One never knows when an opportunity will materialize. In Little Rock, AR, there was an under-bridge location where hungry people could meet up with church groups and other organizations who brought food. Then, the area was closed for highway construction. This was a problem for a while, until attorney Gary Holt volunteered the parking lot of his downtown office.

He also set up the communication system for the people with food to organize their schedule. Local media obtained this quotation from Holt:

Helping people whose life is in chaos is what I do for a living, and boy if there’s anybody whose life is in chaos, it’s the homeless. So, it was a no brainer.

On a normal day, the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle serves 1,000 meals. Two years back, an anonymous donor gave 3,500 pounds of rib-eye beef steaks for Christmas dinners for people experiencing homelessness.

In Fort Lauderdale, FL, Gloria Lewis and Anthony Vargas bring home $700 worth of groceries every week to their two-stove, four-refrigerator kitchen. With the help of their son Ivin, they prepare 225 dinners and 180 breakfasts in individual serving boxes.

When they started six years ago with 20 meals per week, they bought the food themselves, but then local businessman Bob Byers stepped in with substantial cash donations that have enabled the increase. Ms. Lewis says,

I have always worked in low-income jobs and I could see just how easy it is to become homeless… The worst thing about homelessness is that even when you get off the street, it’s so easy to end up back there… There’s such a stigma about homeless people but they are a group of people that are so helpful to one another and so supportive… The stereotypes that surround the homeless are so far from the truth. I see myself every day in these people and I think it could be me so easily, so I go and feed them…

Since 2015, the Fargo, ND, franchise pizza shop owned by Jenny and Mike Stevens has given away close to 150,000 slices of pizza (approximately $70,000 worth) to three homeless shelters and anybody who drops into the store and asks. This is partly financed by paying customers who drop dollars and loose chance into a donation box.

The family also recently started crowdfunding their efforts online. A sign in the window says,

To the person going through our trash for their next meal, You’re a human being and worth more than a meal from a dumpster. Please come in during operating hours for a couple of slices of hot pizza and a cup of water at no charge. No questions asked.

In Washington, D.C., restaurant owner (and Muslim immigrant from Pakistan) Kazi Mannan offers free meals to people experiencing homelessness. He told the press,

I want to say, “Hey listen, corporate people and people in politics! Listen to me!” I want to show them what love can do, and I want to spread a wave of love that touches the lives of millions.

Reactions?

Source: “Lewiston man collects $17,000 in cans for charity,” WIVB.com, 12/22/15
Source: “Lewiston man donates $65,000 to food pantries returning cans, bottles, scrap metal,”12/22/18
Source: “Attorney offers parking lot to feed homeless,” THV11.com, 09/12/15
Source: “Secret Seattle Santa donates 3500 pounds of steak for homeless dinners,” KOMONews.com, 12/26/16
Source: “Florida Grandmother Makes Over 75,000 Dinners for the Homeless: It’s ‘God’s Purpose’,” OutdoorCookingReport.com, 04/17/18
Source: “This tiny pizzeria has served over 142,000 slices to the homeless,” TODAY.com, 01/10/18
Source: “This Pakistani in DC is making people believe in humanity once again,” DailyPakistan.com, 11/29/18
Photo credit: Louis Tanner (zoominin) via Visualhunt/CC BY

These reports, both current and further back in time, are about the efforts made to collect and redistribute clothing, which is, after all, one of the top three essential human needs. For those who have no choice but to survive in public, constantly witnessed and judged, the ability to replace clothing is vitally important. They are always at risk of having their belongings stolen, either by people even more desperate, or by representatives of the law.

For a whole separate set of reasons, socks are very much needed. Know who could use a bunch of socks, right about now? House the Homeless. In Austin, on January 1 (New Year’s Day), the annual HUGSS (hats, underwear, gloves,  scarves, and socks) for the Homeless event will take place once again. It is not too late to sign up and do something to help 500 fellow Texans.

Also in Austin, the Clothes Closet for Homeless Men was established in 1999, with the rule, “If we wouldn’t wear it we don’t hand it out.” The facility didn’t even have a permanent space. On designated days, tables and racks would be moved from a storage area to the conference room of the Central Presbyterian Church.

The location offered not only clothes, but shoes, belts, hygiene items and Bibles. In April of 2015, there was a party with cake and other refreshments as the Closet served customer #20,000. Best of all, it’s still going today, open on Mondays for eligible folks who first sign up at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH).

Think something, do something

Stanley Tomchin made a pile of money in the gaming industry, and over the years his philanthropic attention has turned to several areas of human need. In 2014 he asked friends on the California coast, where he had one home, to donate their gently used clothing to people in Las Vegas, where he another of his residences was located. In explaining the need, he said,

Friends tell me they’ve never seen so many needy families in stressful situations in more than twenty years. Whole families “work” the parking lots at malls asking for $1 to feed their children.

In Iowa, a businessman decided to collect used coats, snow pants, gloves, hats, scarves and blankets, and then to dry-clean all the items (fortunately, dry-cleaning was his business) and donate them to the Dubuque Rescue Mission to either distribute, or offer in its thrift shop. (A dry-cleaner would have a head start on donating items, because inevitably in that line of work, some things are never picked up, no matter how hard the business owner tries to make contact. After a legally established period of abandonment, they are up for grabs.)

Mike Hagar did more than just receive, collect, or transport the donated cold weather gear. Adding an extra dollop of class to the operation, he also cleaned and pressed used business outfits, of which shelter residents got first pick, for job interviews. (This may sound unfair, but it illustrates one of the many nuances involved in serving these populations, where membership, however temporary, may not include a place to keep a good shirt. A shelter resident is likely to have at least a nail on the wall to hang things from.)

D.I.Y. activism

What is a rent-free, premises-free, pop-up clothing store? Just what it sounds like, otherwise known as the Street Store. Anyone can make this happen, and people have been doing so all over the world. Mark DeNicola muses on the mental blocks that stand between us and the extraordinary altruistic achievements of which we dream:

The most common hiccup holding us back from doing it, is an uncertainty towards how exactly we can do this — we often feel as though we lack the tools or skills necessary to be a part of what we are passionate about.

What’s great about The Street Store is that it has created the tools for you. Tools that are so easy to follow and use that over 40 groups have already put them into practice in major cities such as: Manchester, Vancouver, Oslo, New Jersey and Las Vegas.

Watch the video!

Reactions?

Source: “The Clothes Closet for Homeless Men Serves 20000,” RioTexas.org, 05/04/15
Source: “Stanley Tomchin Helps to Dress Homeless and Needy in Las Vegas,” MarketWired.com, 03/25/14
Source: “Dubuque dry cleaner collects and donates hundreds of items for homeless shelter,” TheGazette.com, 02/27/15
Source: “A Brilliant Idea That Is Making It Easy For Us To Help The Homeless,” Collective-Evolution.com, 01/21/15
Photo credit: Ewan Munro on Foter.com/CC BY-SA

Sure, we love to fill Christmas stockings with candy canes and trinkets. This year, try something different — FILL SOCKS WITH FEET!

Thanksgiving in Denver, CO, looked a bit different this year thanks to the nonprofit organization Impact Locally. Usually, it is a store that sells nothing, but gives away clothing to people who need it.

This November, CEO Travis Smith had the clothing racks moved elsewhere for the day and turned the premises into a free restaurant with fancy accoutrements like tables and menus, allowing the guests to do something they don’t often have a chance to do — sit down and choose what they wanted to eat, and eat it while listening to music. (The page referenced here even includes a nice video from photojournalist Josh Whitston.)

Bellingham, WA (90 miles from Seattle), has the reputation of an elite enclave often named one of the best places to live in the United States. It has also been named one of the worst places, in terms of affordability, with a house costing typically $300,000.

Bellingham has splendid outdoor recreation opportunities, a great bookstore, and a lot of bars. Almost 20% of its residents admit to binge drinking, which may include the tech ninjas and successful writers, and/or the 21% of Bellingham’s population who live in poverty (which is well above the national average).

The county’s homeless population has increased by 10% in just the last year, and the housed people of Bellingham, to their credit, currently see homelessness as the city’s top challenge. The Lighthouse Mission has a daytime drop-in center, but sometimes it reaches capacity. This winter, a meeting room in the basement of the Public Library will be used in extreme weather as a daytime refuge. If things really get rough, City Hall also has emergency daytime shelter space.

The Lighthouse Mission also vets female candidates for nighttime space at Fountain Community Church. Over the three harshest winter months, the church hosts between 45 and 50 women each night, but they must vacate the premises by 7 a.m., a not particularly hospitable time to emerge into icy wind and snow.

Last year, the church’s sleeping quarters were administered by a total of 130 volunteers. Journalist Kie Relyea reported,

The shelter is a partnership among several churches… It will cost about $35,000 to operate, with money coming from church congregations, the city and private donors, [Pastor Rick] Qualls said. About $5,000 is set aside so that single moms and their children can stay in a hotel room, which also gives them a place to stay during the daylight hours…

The reverse Advent calendar is an idea for any year, anywhere. Joshua Barrie wrote about this charming custom, recommended by a group from across the ocean, called the UK Money Bloggers. Traditionally, an Advent calendar dispenses a little treat or gift to a child, each day of the weeks leading up to Christmas. With the reverse Advent calendar, a household sets aside a box or a bag and puts something it each day, to eventually be donated to the local food bank.

Actually, this concept works better by not strictly following the calendar. Mid-November to mid-December is a good time to do it. The local food bank will tell people the best time to make donations so families can access them before Christmas.

Food banks and community pantries are familiar with an increase in requests in holiday seasons, when people who never have much have even less. They find themselves asking questions like, “Do we heat, or do we eat?” By the way, please consult this excellent article about things that food banks need and don’t get enough of. One of them is socks!

Sock it to me…

There are excellent reasons why people experiencing homelessness need a lot of socks. Wearing two pairs at once can improve badly fitting shoes, or provide extra insulation against cold. They tend to be worn 24 hours a day, and to wear out fast. Regrettably, they pretty much need to be treated as disposable, for good reason.

Laundry opportunities are rare, and if a backpack is your only home, there is a certain reluctance to give houseroom to a bunch of dirty socks. Fast-food restaurant customers and library patrons are displeased when someone washes their socks in the establishment’s restroom. Even if socks can be washed, there is nowhere to dry them, especially in cold weather. So, new socks are highly prized.

Veteran Robert Graves wrote about England in the aftermath of World War I in Goodbye to All That, which was published in 1929:

Ex-service men were continually coming to the door selling boot-laces and asking for cast-off shirts and socks.

Boston’s Dr. Ernesto Gonzalez spoke to an interviewer about issues stemming from exposure to wetness, and the lack of hygiene opportunities:

Athlete’s foot is a very common disease among people who are unable to change their socks or their shoes, or who cannot take showers frequently. So it’s very frequent for them to have fungal diseases.

An anonymous former homeless person wrote,

Socks mean the world to you. They keep you warm, make you feel like you have something new, and just comfort you.

People experiencing homelessness need more socks, and they need to not have their socks and other belongings stolen and destroyed by cops and city or transit workers. They need places to keep their stuff. They need places to keep themselves. But let’s start with the socks.

In and around Austin, TX — or anywhere!

Please learn more about how to donate cold-weather necessities, through House the Homeless.

Reactions?

Source: “From free clothing store for the homeless, to free Thanksgiving restaurant for the homeless,” TheDenverChannel.com, 11/22/18
Source: “It’s cold outside, so Bellingham church makes a difference by sheltering these women,” BellinghamHerald.com, 12/08/18
Source: “Why the ‘reverse advent calendar’ is the best thing you can do this December,” Mirror.co.uk, 11/02/17
Source: “10 Things Food Banks Need But Won’t Ask For,” 1027KORD.com, 12/23/13
Source: “Boston Doctor Who Quietly Treats The Homeless Is Honored,” WBUR.org, 04/25/11
Photo credit (middle; top and bottom): Fair Use; Ryan Tyler Smithright (inov8d) on Foter.com/CC BY

Astonishingly, there is still more to say about how Seattle has fared under the auspices of Amazon, in a situation that is rife with object lessons for other American cities tempted to court the favor of giant corporations.

For instance, journalist April Glaser wrote about a particularly awkward situation in which the people and institutions of Seattle might appear to be ungrateful for the largesse from on high. Amazon owned a former motel, which in 2016 it allowed to be used as a temporary shelter. When construction started there, the shelter was moved to another former motel, where it currently has temporary quarters. (A new 200-bed facility is supposed to be available in a new Amazon building starting in 2020, which is of course still two years away.)

In both the temporary shelters so far, there have been reports of residents, including families, being locked out “sometimes overnight and for extended periods of time.” It was not intentional, but apparently a problem with the doors, and there was confusion over who is supposed to fix the doors. As the old saying goes, the Devil is in the details. Not to put too fine a point on it, it does seem reasonable to expect that the gift of a place to stay ought to be paired with a capability to enter the premises.

The temporary shelter is run by Mary’s Place, to which Amazon also donates a large amount of free food that is left over every day from its downtown store. The people served by the charity have of course benefited greatly, but Mary’s Place has also “tolerated major logistical nuisances to the detriment of its staff and clients.” With inadequate resources and incomplete information, they are expected to manage the redistribution of extra food to other area shelters.

Food comes with an expiration date, and the staff has to sort through it all and dispose of what was already outdated — a task that requires considerable time, space, and human labor. Then, the food that has been deemed safe has to be stored appropriately. And the garbage has to go — which means it needs dumpsters to be stored in until pickup, and a paid service to take it away.

Looking back

In June, things transpired that to some eyes looked very much like skulduggery. Seattle wanted to do the right thing and make some moves toward reducing the level of homelessness and building more affordable housing. The solution was to impose a tax for each employee of businesses making more than $20 million per year, which would impact Amazon too heavily (in Amazon’s eyes, anyway.)

In response, the mega-corp threatened to cancel a major office construction project, and mounted a “vicious” campaign that sought to not only repeal the tax but, in the words of journalist Alana Semuels, “to flush progressives from office.” So a couple of weeks later, the City Council saved Amazon the trouble by repealing the tax on its own.

In a complicated, drawn-out standoff filled with quid-pro-quo offers made and rejected, Amazon and the other biggest companies are described as “holding the city hostage” over the housing issue. No doubt plenty of discussions have been held in the fabled “smoke-filled room” atmosphere, even if the actual smoking has been relinquished. It gives the impression that other businesses are fed up with paying for the brunt of the damage that Amazon’s presence has done to the city. They seem to be saying, “It’s not us, it’s THEM.”

On the contrary, other huge local businesses (and smaller ones too) have shown goodwill. In August the members of the legendary group Pearl Jam stepped up to perform two home shows, with millions in profits going to organizations that deal with housing and homelessness.

Joanna Prisco wrote,

The band, along with other members of the community, committed to matching donations (up to $960,000) to a new fundraising campaign called the Home Fund. Meanwhile, it also lured local companies, including Starbucks, Nordstrom, and the Seattle Mariners, to contribute to the effort…

Perhaps in effort to redeem himself, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos announced that he would donate $2 billion (tax-deductible, for him) to alleviate hunger and homelessness on the West Coast. But some people are not impressed by all the words. Some say that the richest man on earth should put his money where his mouth is, and just simply pay all his employees enough to live on without their having to apply for government aid.

Some critics accuse him of “crimes against humanity” — and they do not forgive easily. A Guardian columnist Marina Hyde points out that Bezos already had a chance to show off his world-building skills, with Seattle, and unequivocally blew it. She calls him a sociopath in her opinion piece in The Guardian and goes on to say of him and his all-too-numerous ilk,

The rule you learn on Day One of being a billionaire philanthropist is that you don’t give money via pay packets to the poor people who literally already work for you. They’d only spend it poorly. However, if they want to humbly queue up and apply for it via some thinly disguised hardship grant that you take the applause for, that’s a different matter. Dignity is something you hand out, not something that others get to earn.

Journalist Paul Blumenthal wrote:

Seattle, meet your feudal lord.

Reactions?

Source: “We’d Spend Hours Each Week Unpacking and Throwing the Food Away,” Slate.com, 05/22/18
Source: “How Amazon Helped Kill a Seattle Tax on Business,” TheAtlantic.com, 06/13/18
Source: “Pearl Jam Raises Millions for Seattle’s Homeless With Two Shows,” GlobalCitizen.org, 08/13/18
Source: “Can Jeff Bezos help the homeless? 4 essential reads,” TheConversation.com, 09/14/18
Source: “If Jeff Bezos wants to help low-income people why not just pay them better?,” TheGuardian.com, 09/14/18
Photo credit: Wonderlane on Visualhunt/CC BY

Innumerable factors go into causing homelessness, and when people get to the stage of actually experiencing homelessness, the same factors bedevil their lives even more. What happens when a city is taken over by a giant corporation whose activities touch every single aspect of life for its residents, whether housed or not?

We have been thinking about Seattle, where Amazon has been a significant presence for a decade. Why this, and why now? Because two new sub-headquarters are about to be established in New York City and the outskirts of Washington, D.C. They need to know what to watch out for.

There is something else. In the course of deciding where to build next, the giant corporation was handed a treasure trove of priceless information about conditions and plans in more than 200 other cities.

More saliently, the corporate overlords now know to the penny how much, in the form of incentives (aka bribes), each municipality would hand over in return for an Amazon facility of its own. Undoubtedly, other business giants are also quite interested in knowing these facts about cities.

Will Amazon sell them the massive collection of precious data that Amazon was handed for free? Undoubtedly! So it is probably a good idea for cities to keep a close eye on what actually happens when the 800-pound gorilla moves in… and compare the reality to the promises.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other

In Seattle, the reviews are mixed. Amazon has done some things that are applauded by some people, and is perfectly capable of publicizing its own good deeds. Meanwhile, the city came up with a phone app through which housed people, annoyed by the presence of unhoused people, could register complaints, more than 12,000 of them per year. The city also tried to pass a tax on the giant businesses to help out with affordable housing and services for people experiencing homelessness, but it was quickly squelched.

Then, in the Belltown area, the city carried out what is euphemistically called a sweep “in the shadow of the Space Needle” which is of course a local landmark. The people were given a week’s warning. A non-profit agency bought plane tickets (one-way, naturally) for a few, and a couple of people were relocated to a “tiny house” village. One person who was interviewed had been on a housing list for nine months.

Over the previous year, the number of vehicle dwellers in King County had increased by 46% or. In colloquial terms, it became half again as large. That’s a misdemeanor, and if a person is unable to pay the fines, the car is impounded, causing the person, as the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty phrased it, “to lose their shelter, transportation, and personal belongings in one fell swoop.” Who is supposed to be helped by these policies remains a mystery.

Eight miles from the city center, a cemetery suffered its second year of distress from the number of vans and RVs parked around it, generating an expensive and unacceptable trash problem. It’s bad for trees, too, which property owners tend to chop down when such places are encroached on by people with nowhere to live. As a solution, the city announced in August that the homeless camp removal squad or Navigation Team would be enlarged, bringing it to 30 members.

In theory, this would mean doing a better job. But resistance has stiffened. Vianna Davila reported for the Seattle Times,

Last year, on average, it took the team four interactions with residents before they accepted an offer to go inside; this year, St. Louis said, that’s increased to six interactions.

Enforcement was stepped up, with 46 camps obliterated in June and almost twice as many in July. Increasingly, the required 72-hour notice was being omitted, and about 40% of people were given no notice at all. Imagine going out (perhaps to look for work) and coming back to find your shelter and all your belongings had vanished.

In early August, the Seattle City Hall invited the Salvation Army to bring sleeping mats, earplugs and eye masks, so 80 people could sleep in the lobby. The basement has served as a shelter since 2006, and the need grows yearly. People can check in at 9:30 p.m. and sleep until 5:30 a.m., which is a brutal time to be turned out into the street, but still better than nothing.

Journalist Hallie Golden sought out some figures:

The largest portion of this year’s homeless response budget — 44 percent, or $34 million — is reserved for emergency services, including shelters, permitted villages, and transitional housing. Twenty-nine percent of the budget is for more permanent housing, and only 8 percent is dedicated to helping prevent homelessness.

Golden also spoke with the director of Seattle University’s Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, Sara Rankin, who said,

As long as we’re in emergency mode, it’s smoke and mirrors. It’s moving bodies around. It’s trying to deflect. It’s trying to create the impression that we’re addressing the underlying problems of homelessness, when emergency shelters simply don’t do it… Wanting to solve homelessness and researching, analyzing, and coming up with a coherent, effective plan to do so are two totally different things.

Reactions?

Source: “Homeless camp in shadow of Space Needle now cleared,” KOMONews.com, 07/03/18
Source: “America’s big cities are increasingly home to people living in their cars,” BoingBoing.net, 08/05/18
Source: “Seattle increasing removals of homeless encampments,” SeattleTimes.com, 08/21/18
Source: “Promising start for homeless shelter in lobby of Seattle City Hall,” KOMONews.com, 08/02/18
Source: “In a Growing Crisis, Seattle Uses City Hall as a Homeless Shelter,” CityLab.com, 08/23/18
Photo credit: Wonderlane on Visualhunt/CC BY