When Lobbyists are really CEOs

According to the Orlando Sentinel, October 1st will bring in a new law making attacks on homeless people legally a hate crime.

Uh...did we 'really' need a law for this?

Why not just make a law that makes any violent hate crime committed carry a mandatory sentence?

Is a hate crime towards one demographic any different than another?

Of course I think people committing crimes of hate against homeless SHOULD be charged and sentenced harshly, but no different than any other person held accountable...or victimized.

If our State representatives had seen this through with thoughtfullness, they could have saved millions of hours if not dollars by ruling on hate crimes...rather than individually each type...as it's used as spin by people wanting attention.

Face it: it was this week's sound bite, it was this month's opportunity for a Director or CEO to get in the limelight, and it will all be used for one thing: not protecting homeless, but touted as what someone else did for them...and why you should give THAT person a pay raise.

Child safety from shelter to homes with tots

Yesterday I had some exchanges in email as well as a phone call to someone I'd lost contact with, the conversation touched on family life with me relating my experiences as an observer as often happens.

One of my mentors in the Medical Home for Homeless Children's Project is a visiting nurse that frequents many of the shelter halls freely, educating and providing appointments for parents with minor children residing in these facilities. Living in a sheltered environment has many of the same pitfalls and traps young parents experience regarding baby proofing needs.

Child Safety Locks (CSLs) are often overlooked, usually due to the implied lack of privacy or interference to access some staff may misperceive as an issue. My own family resided in a room in one known shelter whose doorway was in immediate access to the top of a second story stairway landing. While we had no toddlers, the prior family did...four actually...and the parents were in constant fits having to monitor the door regularly. In this case a well placed CSL wouldn't have only lowered the safety risk, it would have allowed the parents more opportunity to rest.

The most common factor parents living within a shelter face is alienation from peers. Within the shelters, while they may 'band' and 'bond' with peer parents, these relationships for the most part are short term only for the duration until one party departs the premises. Whether sheltered or homed, parents need access to as many resources and child safety tips they can get their hands on, to both educate the aspiring parent as well as promote advocacy and camaraderie for those seeking help.

Sometimes it's not how much one can do for someone...it's what they can do for themselves when offered the chance.

Oil Spill, Homeless Tent Cities, and Alligators

With two months of hazy weather and multiple oil boomers giving their own versions of reality, Florida and other Gulf states are trying to keep things 'light', when over a million gallons of crude oil hit the water weekly.

In a year I project the first homeless tent city to establish itself formally somewhere on the Gulf, between the existing homeless and the amount of people losing their livelihood from recent events. While it's possible with decent planning to get things looking like the lines of tents in Parisian streets, we won't get Minka Aire fans or lights to read by at night or to cool from the heat.

It's got to do with infrastructure. With the destructive actions on the parts of St. Petersburg officials and police over the last three years, NIMBY will be replace by NIMG, Not In My Gulf. Water property holders will still try to cling to their dreams, moving vents from the oil to the homeless that are more easily to blame.

People will resort to barricading themselves in beachfront properties with guns, turning psychotic in their bitterness...shooting anything coming close that can be attributed to their loss. Decades ago Mel Gibson portrayed a man whose world was at a loss for crude. Kevin Costner's was one he swam through. Will ours be one that he'd choked trying to swim through?

Scarey Monsters

I know it's early, but a little preplanning for events and holidays is something anyone on the street can appreciate...like remembering to get Halloween invitations...if not for others, 'for' themselves!

This year I'm thinking something novel for the neighborhood. Putting together a push cart complete with signage: "will treat for tricks". Get some publicity for the event going, do something viral online on Facebook...typical bad boy guerilla blogging tactics I used to pull.

People just aren't as thoughtful when it comes to being 'prolific'. Then again, it's not easy when you're having to schedule your life's survival based on the needs of businesses.

This year don't place your home in a position of being egged or back yard used as a toilet. Consider and talk to your council members about establishing safe tent city zones.

...if not, don't cry when NIMBY is ignored as a chant next time.

Street Visions revolve but remain

The other day I caught a regular site of a hard sleeper pushing a grocery cart. Unlike most, it was only half filled with the effects being more in line with survival than hoarding, and it made me think of law enforcement officer's perceptions.

Do they tend to leave one stereotype of homeless person alone as opposed to another? When seeing a hoarder, do they really feel they've justifiable cause to search for things such as jewelery, contraband or Ferrari parts?

Fact is most people on the street would be happy with three hots and a cot before going in front of a judge, but unless they're hiding from bench warrants chances are they'll be back through the same cycle...in the same areas...under the same scrutiny.

How does this look of our beat cops dealing with them the way they do?

Things get better over time

I was doing some surfing last regarding the tent cities in Sacremento, one in particular looked to be the size of the classic shantytown of decades gone by. Not sure how long ago the story was printed, but I was coming up on a lot of news tags regarding homeless funding cuts across the nation I hadn't heard of.

Made me think when we had entered into it ourselves. Back then I was using really old equipment, nothing like a laptop you'd get nowadays, back then I had to settle for an eBay second hand one, which lasted two years but was really slow.

For about less than twice the cost you can get an iPad or a netbook.

But in the end we all have to deal with the same thing...moisture and batteries that go dead quicker than necessary.

If you're out there today, stay cool and out of the heat.

What can you afford

For the majority, people don't 'just' become homeless. It can't be blamed on recent financial, housing, or other economic issues of the country. When a person aged 25 or above goes from being homed to homeless, there 'are' reasons.

Whether they should have quit smoking or been more selective in choosing more cheap home insurance...these are all merely the arguments of armchair quarterbacks, or a system that thrives and is supported by supporting people as long as they're homeless.

Homelessness is about choice in it's simplest root. One bad choice, for whatever reason, gives way to additional further bad choices. In time a domino effect develops, due to the choices becoming acceptable when unchecked.

But as long as we live in a society that promotes the existing model requiring people to work to live in a home, we will continue to have homelessness in our society. Just remember, this country is one of the youngest in the world given it's standard of living...a standard promoted by the demands of businesses advertising and brainwashing it's people into submission.

Hope Floats

The other day my coworker sent me a link to a YouTube video called Random Lunacy, an hour long documentary of Poppa Neutrino. The first ten minutes provided a large amount of information to take in, some call his lifestyle madness while others look at him as the prime example of true artist and free thinker.

Travelling by self patched sea faring ship at one point of the story to his trek into the wild in search of answers, his take on life is refreshing. His use of discarded modern furniture along with other items of waste gave creation to a push style mobile home he propelled by leaning on it in urban streets.

But ultimately what impresses me the most are his raft projects. Numerous ones, and the concept when considered...more permanent a possibility than tent cities.

You can check out more about Neutrino and his pursuits at http://www.floatingneutrinos.com

Beaches, Tourism, and Oil

Hard sleeping on the beaches may sound romantic, but it's not as easy as it sounds throughout Florida. During my first year in Florida, I'd tried my hand at sleeping one night on it's shoreline.

I'll never do it again. Sand fleas, lack of protection, it was a night that left me exhausted into the rising sun...add on a really bad case of sunburn within hours of sunrise.

Trust me, save your money and go your hand at some Outer banks foreclosures if at all possible.

This morning while the sun was coming up I caught some PBS broadcasts regarding the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While hard questions 'are' being asked in our capitol by politicians facing BP representatives, some getting 'PR' time through interviews come across as trying to downplay the dilemma. Later it was admitted Florida is aggressively attempting to do the same tactic that was seen decades ago in 'Jaws'...inviting people down, putting up 'swim at own risk' signs, and advising people to use dish detergent and water to wash off oil.

One interviewed vacationer gave an account of her getting some on her foot, seems the press are wanting to interview people treating this no different than jellyfish.

Another report admitted that there is a potential that Florida water could be contaminated, up to and including Florida's East Coast. One mention was made of a period of or about a week, at the same time sounding like it was more 'forward thinking'.

At the time of the report, comments were made of the scent of oil being caught by individuals on Florida's coastline. Images of birds encased in slime aren't being found, and what 'is' mentioned of oil are 'tar-balls' and 'sheen'. Another term being used is 'tar paddy'.

If you're homeless, you don't need either the health risk posed by the oil or the safety risk of being targeted by people already mad at the beach.

Where does it go?

Somebody sent a comment that was received amongst the tons of spam comments, I just had a chance to go through some of them.

Really amazes me sometimes the amount of hate the blog gets, usually the same mentality as many of the local armchair quarterbackers have. I thought a long time a few years ago about 'taking down' the site, went through the "I'll keep it up as inspiration"...blah blah blah.

Comes down to two things: the blog's mine and if you don't like the fact of what's on it...why are you stuck on it?

For the people that've followed since it started, I'm doing well. Preparing my paperwork for returning to college, became a single parent (should be finalized in a few months), and am now a FLorida Certified Recovery Peer Specialist. All that and I didn't get a chance to do a match up for any of the best online degrees, but there's still hope!

Jacksonville's had an interesting three years regarding homelessness. Money got tighter, some programs improved, some innovative things started up. On the other hand, I see homeless people being used as excuses STILL for people stuck in dead end jobs they've been in for the last six years. While some have 'moved' on and developed into good managers, many are still...doing what they do when they do what they do.

How or what I'm going to do with the blog/site, I still don't know. I often get requests still do reviews for products or services as well as other monetizing. With moving into psycho-social medicine, the more I look at homelessness issues...the more I feel less I have to say. The chronically homeless cycling for decades isn't the subsection/culture I came through during my own homelessness. How and what I relate aren't the same perspective as those shuffling through still that I see today as I saw six years ago.

Out of the multiple families I've come to know through those years, only one do I have sporadic contact with...a son of a fellow Veteran who died and left his four children behind two years ago. The rest either don't want it disclosed what they went through or in some cases returned to the same cycle.

The only thing I can do sometimes is meditate or pray.

Peace