Homeless Vets — Does It Matter How Many?

Of the total number of men experiencing homelessness in the United States, one out of three is a veteran. Ericka Walmsley of the Texas Veterans Commission gave this often-repeated statistic to a reporter in early December, and a controversy began....

Formerly Homeless Actor Michael Pitt

Okay, granted, with movie star biographies you can never really be certain of the facts. Some of those Hollywood people will just say anything, you know? Still, there is no reason to doubt Michael Pitt’s biography, including a phase in which he was a person...

The Homeless Ex-Offender, Part 2

Forensic psychologist Karen Franklin says that the majority of sex offenses are committed by men without criminal records, so no matter how stringently those with records are controlled, these crimes will continue. And most convicted sex offenders are never arrested...

Remembering Susan Bright

I first met Susan in 1989 when she helped me as I created our local homeless publication; Notes from the Blues Box which later evolved into the Austin Homeless Advocate and finally into the Austin Advocate. Then, in 2009 after five (5) years of fruitless searching for...

The Homeless Ex-Offender, Part 1

Registered sex offenders have a very rough time, since they’re forbidden to live near anything except a toxic waste dump. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. And some might say, why remind the audience of their least favorite variety of people...

The New NIMBY: Now In My Backyard

Venice, California, has been a city of Beats, hippies, and progressives of many stripes, and thanks to the beachfront culture and the ghetto-ish Oakwood area, it has always been a very “street” kind of place. Also, there are neighborhoods where people have lived for...