Welcome back!
The Spring, 2019 version of the University of Redlands’ Hunger & Homelessness course has begun. Follow this space to see what our students are thinking and learning.
— JS
All posts by Jim S.
Class has begun!
The blog is now open for new posts by students taking the 2018 edition of this course. Others are welcome to comment on the postings. (Comments will be moderated before they appear.)
Blog will reopen in January, 2018
Our course will begin January 8th, 2018. The blog will open shortly thereafter. You are welcome to explore older posts but they are closed to comments.
— JS
L.A. city, county OK homeless plans, but where will the money come from?
The Los Angeles city and county governments have each approved a major plan to combat homelessness. (See the report in the Los Angeles Times, Feb 10, 2016.)
The county plan calls for setting aside $150 million dollars over the next two years to carry out the strategies that its task force outlined in January. This includes $26 million for quick turn-around rehousing, $11 million for short-term housing for people coming out of county jails and other institutions, and $8.7 million for subsidies to help disabled homeless people get into housing while waiting for federal Supplemental Security Income. It makes some efforts to increase the county’s stock of low-cost housing, but building the 15,000 needed additional units would cost far more than the county is promising in this plan. And the county has yet to figure out where the $150 million will come from.
The city plans to develop “a host of housing programs, create a citywide system of mobile showers and public restrooms, and allow overnight parking at designated sites for people who live in their vehicles.” These would be spread throughout the city rather than concentrated on L.A.’s ‘Skid Row’. Unfortunately, the housing programs alone will cost more than $185 billion over the next decade. Again, the City Council does not yet know where the money will come from.
Both plans were developed to deal with the root causes of homelessness. They are a response to the recent jump in the number of homeless people counted in all parts of Los Angeles County.
LA Times article on counting homeless youth
This morning’s Los Angeles Times carried an article on counting LA’s hidden homeless youth. http://lat.ms/1SJkQ3w .
The article covers the part of this week’s homeless count that targets kids who are on the streets but avoid shelters. Some of them fear exploitation; others don’t want to leave their neighborhoods and friends. In any case, they pass as street kids during the day and find places to sleep at night.
Many have aged-out of the foster care system. L.A. is trying to find ways to give them greater support.
Welcome to the 2016 Hunger & Homelessness Course Blog
The Spring, 2016 edition of this course blog is now open. Members of this spring’s class are registered to post notices. These can include:
- Things they find in the news.
- Reactions to what we’re learning in class.
- Cool ideas about how to help homeless people.
- Ideas about affordable housing, etc., etc.
Outrage at current social policies is also fine (where warranted).
The public is free to comment constructively on whatever students post here.
— Jim Spickard
University of Redlands
(Posts below this one are from Spring 2014 class members. Comments to those are now closed.)
Video by a former student about Poverty Action
Mallori Thompson just posted a short video on YouTube about Poverty Action — an organization that lobbies for better programs for poor people in Washington State. Mallori took this course about four years ago. She went on to social work school and is clearly dedicated to teaching others about issues of poverty and homelessness.
Poverty Action asks poor people to speak out about their experiences. Mallori’s video presents some of those voices, letting us see the humanity of people whom the mainstream often ignores. Click HERE to see the video (six minutes).
I’m tremendously proud of Mallori and am proud to have been her teacher.
— Jim
Homeless professor protests low adjunct pay
(From the New York Times, March 30th, 2014)
“In the classroom, Mary-Faith Cerasoli, 53, an adjunct professor of Romance languages, usually tries to get her message across in lyrical Italian or Spanish.
But on Wednesday, during spring break, she was using stencils and ink and abbreviated English to write her current message — “Homeless Prof.” — on a white ski vest she planned to wear on a solo trip to Albany two days later to protest working conditions for adjunct college professors.
Ms. Cerasoli, a former New York City schoolteacher, currently teaches two Italian classes at Mercy College, splitting time between its Westchester and Midtown Manhattan campuses. For her, the professorial lifestyle has meant spending some nights sleeping in her car, showering at college athletic centers and applying for food stamps and other government benefits.”
Musical protest against homeless evictions in Fresno
Reprinted from Teatro de la Tierra (http://teatrodelatierra.net):
Agustin Lira & Patricia Wells sing Lira’s song “Don’t Come to Fresno if You’re Homeless” with the students of their music project “Generaciones” at the November 16, 2012 Annual Fundraiser for the Community Alliance Newspaper and Pacifica Radio station KFCF @ the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno. This video is of the City of Fresno’s demolition of homeless encampments in August and September 2013 .The pictures are by Mike Rhodes and independent photographers/contributors to the newspaper.
Antelope Valley homeless population takes unexplained jump
An article in this morning’s Los Angeles Times reports a large jump in Lancaster, California’s homeless population. Reporter Gale Holland points out that Lancaster is the last stop on L.A.’s Metro Line, so it’s possible that L.A. authorities are giving the homeless a one-way ticket out of town. On the other hand, the jump from 1,412 Lancaster homeless in 2011 to 6,957 in 2013 may be just a more thorough biennial count. (Some counts don’t bother to look for people in cars, miss the ‘hidden homeless’, etc.)
Holland writes that local shelter operators see little evidence of dumping, and that most of Lancaster’s homeless population has local ties. That’s the pattern our University of Redlands team found a few years ago, when we conducted a homeless survey: most local homeless were either long-term residents or had relatives in the area.
Read Holland’s article HERE.