ChosenFast.com

When an employee chose to set up a scam to steal money from Greensboro Housing Authority, she also stole money from the poor — the intended recipients of the Section 8 voucher money she diverted to herself and her friends. Some of the folks who use those rental vouchers used to be homeless. Others might be homeless right now without the vouchers. Why would anyone steal money from them? I don’t get it.

Read more on Stealing from the Poor… (and from the taxpayers, too!)…

WFMY did a story on homeless folks staying at the Greensboro Urban Ministry Weaver House shelter who are hoping to strike it rich playing the new North Carolina Lottery. Shelter clients interviewed for the segment plan to spend as much as $40 per week on lottery tickets. One homeless lottery hopeful figures that he can afford that much because “I ain’t poor.”

Read more on Homeless Lottery Player: “I Ain’t Poor”…

The HPCGC Chair just emailed me a link to “Million Dollar Murray: Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage,” by Malcolm Gladwell (published in the March 2006 issue of the New Yorker.) Our local Ten Year Plan Task Force is reading it.

Read more on Gladwell: “Million Dollar Murray” & The Power-Law Theory of Homelessness…

This afternoon I drove my younger brother around downtown. He’s visiting from the big city (Seattle) and I wanted to show him all the changes we have going on. We talked about homelessness (of course), and I found out that our experiences and perspectives differ.

Read more on A “Big City” View on the Homeless…

Two dozen Guilford College students participated in a homelessness simulation yesterday. Cedric Essah was one of them.

“Essah ended up going four different places, all of them several times.”

“He got tired of running around, filling out sheet after sheet of paperwork and waiting in line. “

Read more on Students Discover Challenges of Local Homeless Assistance Process…

Colby Smith, a “fierce advocate” for the homeless in Greensboro, died last week. Smith was homeless for five years during the 90’s, and during that time he became a vocal advocate for the homeless, arguing for more efforts aimed at preventing homelessness. The News & Record did an article on him today, here. His obituary, which describes his “rich and varied life” is here.

Read more on Greensboro Homeless Advocate Dies…

An elderly woman in a hospital gown and slippers was found wandering Skid Row in L.A. after apparently being “dumped” by a hospital. Authorities investigating her case have discovered a pattern. Several hospitals have admitted discharging patients to the area and investigators are checking to see whether law enforcement agencies have done so, too. Horrifying? Yes. Think it couldn’t happen here? Think again.

Read more on Hospital “Dumps” Elderly Homeless Woman…

(Amanda, Sandy, Jonae and Ben)

The Anti Apathy Campaign
March 14-31, 2006

The OrangeBand Anti Apathy Campaign is an attempt to bring attention to one simple message: TALK = ACTION.

I met these students tonight at UNCG (during an event for Homelessness and Hunger Awareness) and they told me about the OrangeBand Campaign. The idea of the bands is to get people talking, in respectful conservations, about what’s important to them. All the students in the photo above are wearing a band for homelessness and hunger awareness, but they also wear bands for other issues, like genocide in Darfur.

Read more on “What’s YOUR OrangeBand?”…

Ron Londen from Journey Group came along on Night Watch recently and took photos. I think they’re going to be in used in national Salvation Army publications. But Ron graciously agreed to let me use some of the photos to make a new blog header. I haven’t shown photos of our homeless friends on my blog, because I respect their privacy. But the photos in my new header give you a little glimpse into what we do on Night Watch.

Read more on New Look For My Blog (With Night Watch Pictures!!)…

Wisdom does not require education, sophistication, eloquence or technology.

Wisdom will be found if we seek it, and often in the most unexpected places.

Wisdom knows when the emperor is naked.

Read more on Thought for the Day: Wisdom…

I’m reading “Rude Awakenings,” Richard W. White Jr.’s frank book about homelessness in America. In Chapter 1 he talks about “lying justice:” dramatizing or distorting human pain and suffering to elicit a response, because of a fear that our nation is incapable of acting until we perceive a situation has reached a crisis.

Read more on “Lying Justice”…

Beth at Greensboring.com wrote a letter in her blog to one of my homeless friends who panhandles at High Point and Holden. She’s “torn between logic and compassion” and wants to know more. She asks good questions. I responded, and we’ve been having a good discussion. I hope you’ll read it.

Read more on “Torn Between Logic And Compassion:” Homeless Panhandler Provokes A Response…