Comfortable Ranch Home Today. Homeless Shelter Mat Tomorrow - 30,000 New Home-less In Iowa

This is a message for the individuals who look down upon or think they are superior to 'our nation's homeless residents'. Or even those individuals ignore, neglect, hate or refuse to help another home-less human being in their own home towns. Who Are Today's Home-Less In America ? Home-less in San Francisco ? Our 'home-less' communities everywhere are made up of all kinds of people. They actually mirror our 'non-homeless' communities, more often than not. [ NOTE: General estimates provided below are general percentages based on a variety of sources which cannot agree on exact numbers. Some sources are like US Census numbers, City homeless counts, community advocacy groups, veterans groups, et al.) ] Some 24% are War Veterans. About 20% are elderly with no place to go because living expenses (artificially high rents, mortgages and lack of rent control) overtook their fixed income and medical costs (also artificially jacked up). Another 30% are drug addicts or alcoholics who finally hit rock bottom, lost their jobs and homes. Another 25%-50% are under age minors who are not at fault to what may have caused their family to become home-less. Another high percentage are women, disabled and victims of crimes who had to 'flee' their homes to save their lives and the lives of their children. A much smaller but growing segment of our nation's home-less are people like The Katrina Victims, who were scattered all over the country after losing their homes where some had lived for all or most of their lives. Now, we can unfortunately add another 30,000+ innocent people who were forced out of their 'stable homes' due to the natural disaster of flooding in the state of Iowa. Thousands more are becoming home-less as we all suffer more natural disasters and the faults of our government who have NOT done a great job of timely planning and financing to replace thousands of aging dams, dikes, levees and other structures around the country. ANY ONE OF US CAN BECOME HOME-LESS AT ANY TIME. SO, IF YOU ARE NOT HOME-LESS - ARE YOU SUPERIOR TO US ? OR ARE YOU JUST PLAIN LUCKY, FOR NOW.

Do what you can to help your community now, with understanding and kindness because any day now, YOU may be the next guest of a local homeless shelter or soup kitchen or local park, IF YOUR CITY FAILS TO BUILD ENOUGH SAFE SHELTERS & HOUSING PROGRAMS FOR YOU - AND YOUR FAMILY IN YOUR TIME OF NEED FOR COMMUNITY SUPPORT. SAN FRANCISCO EASILY HAS BETWEEN 10,000 AND 25,000 PEOPLE HOME-LESS AT ANY TIME. City Officials and Federal Officials and even the mainstream media use what we call 'fake definitions' of who are 'the home-less', but we, the people who are home-less use a much more realistic and accurate definition. After all, who can better define what an artist is than an artist themselves. Same thing for those of us who are home-less. Our own self-definition is much more valid than that 'fake label' affixed to us by people who have never been home-less. [ We consider the 30,000 residents living in our City's 500 SRO's (Single Room Occupant Units) to be 'home-less' because many are required to waive their rights to Tenancy, which means they can be tossed out into the streets again, because they have no rights as the people who are Not Home-Less. A budget cut or staffing cut could cause them to become instantly home-less because they have no control or say-so abou the place where they are being 'housed'. Being housed in a place you have no control or rights to true residency means you are still home-less.] OUR SHELTER CAPACITY WAS ABOUT 1,200 BEDS AND FLOOR MATS LAST YEAR BUT IS CONSTANTLY AND METHODICALLY BEING REDUCED BY OUR CITY OFFICIALS - PLACING MORE AND MORE SAN FRANCISCANS AT RISK, EVERY DAY. THIS PRACTICE IS COSTING US ABOUT FIVE TO TEN TIMES AS MUCH MONEY IN PREDICTABLE AND PREVENTABLE EMERGENCY RESPONSE, CARE AND CRISIS INTERVENTION THAT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED IF WE BROUGHT ALL OF OUR SHELTER, DROP IN CENTER AND HOUSING STOCK UP TO MEET A CAPACITY LEVEL THAT CAN MEET REAL CURRENT AND FUTURE NEEDS. RAISING STOCK OF SAFE PLACES SAVES LIVES AND SAVES US ALL LOTS OF TAX PAYER MONEY. EVERYTIME WE LIFT UP OUR OWN HOME-LESS, MANY OF THEM BECOME PRODUCTIVE, GET JOBS, PAY SALARY TAXES AND CONTRIBUTE BACK TO OUR OWN COMMUNITY. IT MAKES SENSE TO PREVENT HARM AND ITS CHEAPER THAN WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW. ASK OUR HERO MAYOR AUTRY OF FRESNO WHAT HE THINKS. HE'LL TELL YOU THEY WERE DOING IT ALL WRONG FOR SOME 20 TO 40 YEARS. AND THEY NOW APPEAR TO BE TAKING THE LEAD ON 'DOING RIGHT' BY THEIR HOME-LESS. YOUR OWN CITY NEEDS TO CONSIDER FOLLOWING THEIR COURAGEOUS AND MONEY SAVING-LIFE SAVING LEAD BEFORE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY BECOME HOME-LESS.

clipped from www.latimes.com

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Midwest flood woes head south

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Iowa has shed much of the water that plagued it. Now the misery moves down the Mississippi River, threatening new towns.

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By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer -- June 18, 2008

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IOWA CITY, IOWA -- With floodwaters receding in much of Iowa, the destruction moved downstream Tuesday as emergency crews and residents raced to bolster the levees that protect dozens of Mississippi River towns.

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The storms have hit Iowa especially hard. Gov. Chet Culver has declared 83 of the state's 99 counties disaster areas. An estimated 38,000 people are homeless.

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State officials gauge the damage to Iowa's corn crop alone at more than $2.7 billion, with the cost of repairing and rebuilding Cedar Rapids -- the state's second-largest city -- expected to be at least $1 billion.

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p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com

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Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times

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