French homeless forced to wear 'yellow triangles'

The Local

Arnaud, a homeless man, wears the controversial symbol adorning the "carte de secours" during a demonstration in front of the City Hall of Marseille, southern France. Photo: AFP/Anne-Christine Poujoul

Authorities in France’s second-largest city have come under fire for issuing its homeless with ID cards that detail their health issues.

Human rights groups and government ministers have slammed the “yellow triangle cards”, comparing them to the Nazi-era Star of David that was sewn onto Jewish people’s clothes during the Holocaust.

“This is scandalous, it’s stigmatizing,” Christophe Louis, president of the homeless charity Collectif Morts de la Rue, told The Local.

“Wearing something that shows the whole world what illnesses you have is not only discriminating but it also breaches all medical confidentiality,” he said, adding that the symbolism in the design of the card is outrageous.

“Being identified by either a star or a triangle is horrific,” he said.

French human rights group La Ligue des droits de l’Homme said it was troubled by the resemblance “of this card and the yellow star that the Jews had to wear during World War II.” President François Hollande’s government in Paris has also reacted sharply to the initiative.

“I’m shocked. Forcing homeless people to carry a yellow triangle indicating the illnesses they might have is outrageous. You don’t point the finger at the poorest,” Social Affairs Minister Marisol told French daily Le Parisien in an interview published Thursday.

“You don’t write their illnesses on their clothes. Medical confidentiality, in particular, is a fundamental right. I want this local initiative to be stopped,” she said.

The card, an initiative Marseille's Town Hall and social services, identifies the person with his or her photo, name and date of birth.

It also specifies whether the person has any illnesses or allergies. The front of the card is adorned with a yellow triangle.

In their defence authorities say the purpose is to help health workers quickly come to the aid of a homeless person who has fallen ill or is in need of aid.

Over 100 of the identifications have been distributed already.

On Wednesday, about 100 activists and homeless people protested against the initiative outside the city’s town hall.

For its part Marseille Town Hall has been outraged by the criticism it has endured by issuing “the card that saves lives”.

In a statement given to The Local, one of Marseille’s deputy mayors Xavier Mery said: “I’m appalled by the absurd controversy surrounding this help card distributed by the SAMU (social medical emergency services).

"[The reaction] not only questions the necessity of a scheme for homeless people but also the commitment of the city, the SAMU and volunteers to come to the aid of those who need it the most”.

Mery rejected the idea that the cards need to be worn visibly and say they "allow above all firefighters and care workers to get access to essential information in order to identify, give efficient help and often to save the lives of people lacking a social safety net.”

Crece el número de mendigos en Cuba

Diario de Cuba

Un mendigo en un portal. (HR, Santa Clara)

Héctor Reyes

Llámeseles mendigos, vagabundos, "sin techo"…, personas cuyo fin en la vida no es otro que subsistir, sin planes ni objetivos, robarle a la muerte cada minuto.

Gente así existe en todo el mundo, en Cuba, en Santa Clara. Mendigos que piden "un pesito" para un cigarro, un café o un trago. Que piden dada la paupérrima situación económica que padecen. Aunque algunos crean lo contrario.

La ciudad de los muchos nombres deja de ser hoy la ciudad del Che, de Marta Abreu o del Papa; deja incluso de ser la ciudad gay, la trovadicta, la del rock, o la casa del mejor equipo beisbolero del país, para convertirse en la ciudad de los mendigos.

"Deambulantes", les llama el Gobierno para ocultar la imagen —nada socialista— de que en Cuba exista la mendicidad, así como existen otras artimañas, triquiñuelas y corrupciones nada revolucionarias. Les llaman "deambulantes" y con ello resuelven el problema.

"La prensa oficial —comenta una periodista— trata poco o nada el tema. Y cuando lo hace culpa a las familias, pero olvida las causas económicas. No menciona los bajos retiros que reciben los jubilados, por ejemplo, ni los bajos salarios de las familias".

Los mendigos cubanos tienen acceso a comedores, cuya comida no será la mejor, pero es comida. Y la salud pública, la poca que queda, sigue siendo gratis. Pero un mendigo cubano carece de verdadero apoyo gubernamental.

Algunos tienen casas. Otros se acomodan en portales, céspedes, ruinas, en busca de un sueño nada reparador que les permita continuar su desgraciada existencia. Algunos tienen familias. Otros, a nadie más que aquellos funcionarios que debieran ocuparse de ellos.

Al menos 15 "deambulantes" contó este reportero en una sola jornada tras "deambular" por el centro de la ciudad. Van con sus sacos, sus bolsas, sus arapos. Cargan su pobreza, y de paso, piden "un pesito" para "echar algo en el alma".

Marta llega pidiendo "un pesito, para ayudar a mi hijo". Entre lágrimas de vergüenza cuenta como, tras 21 años de secretaria y telefonista en una industria local, su director la despidió por intereses personales, y con esto se le negó la jubilación.

"Mocho é escoba" está rotundamente loco y afirma ser hijo de Fidel Castro. Mocho é escoba, quien no tiene una camisa ni zapatos sanos, se queja de que el Gobierno lo ha olvidado a él, "un revolucionario acérrimo".

"El Chacha", por su parte, era un mendigo cuya obsesión era limpiar la ciudad. No pedía si no le daban, y entonces, cual versión mulata del Caballero de París, agradecía con un inconexo discurso lleno de los peces y mariposas que surcaban su mente.

Marta, Mocho é escoba y el Chacha son "deambulantes" para el Gobierno, mendigos para "la gente de bien", y parte de "la fauna", para la ciudad. Marta, Mocho é escoba y el Chacha solo piden algo más que "un pesito". Apoyo, comprensión, respeto.

Según un artículo publicado por el periódico oficialista Vanguardia, "en la provincia de Villa Clara —que ostenta los mayores índices de envejecimiento a nivel nacional— los 'deambulantes' de la tercera edad conforman la mayor parte de este 'sindicato'".

Tal artículo esgrime que "el Estado cubano no puede ocupar el puesto de nodriza […] por los excesivos gastos en instituciones presupuestadas y la carencia de capacidades". Cabe preguntarse entonces por los excesivos gastos en otras instituciones presupuestadas.

Policías, inspectores y "gente de bien" que abusa de unos casi "compañeros" de los "deambulantes": los viejitos que venden cosas bolsas plásticas, lapiceros, tabacos y chucherías para sobrevivir.

Los mendigos de Santa Clara, cada vez más numerosos, seguirán siendo mendigos aunque las autoridades se empeñen en llamarles "deambulantes". Seguirán pidiendo "un pesito" para "echar algo en el alma".

Tiny Houses: A Big Idea to End Homelessness

NBC News.com

Advocates tackling the nation's homeless problem are thinking small.

In Austin, Texas, a village of 200 tiny houses is being built for the homeless. In upstate New York, Rochester Greenovation has designed a prototype for small-scale individualized shelters. “Homeless No More Survival Pods” have been built in Utah, micro-pods in Florida, miniature homes in Wisconsin and mini mobile houses in California.

The “Tiny House Movement,” once an architectural component to a downsized life, is now becoming something much bigger: an escape from chronic homelessness.

“This is a plan that could revolutionize the housing movement in the United States,” declares Alan Graham, 58, a Texas activist who says his self-founded organization, Community First, has already lifted 100 homeless people off the streets.

“The city of Austin loves us,” he says. “They think we’re on the verge of breaking the code.”

 

Brian J Reynolds

A woman is seen in a shelter built by California artist Gregory Kloen in Oakland.

Occupy Madison, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement based in Madison, Wis., finished building its first fully functional tiny house last month. The 98-square-foot structure, complete with a bed, toilet and tiny kitchen, will serve as a template for 40 homes to follow, says Brenda Konkel, an Occupy Madison board member. It is hoped that the project, which depends on volunteer labor and community donations, eventually will end homelessness in their city.

“I think this is a solution for now,” says Konkel. “Our first house cost $5,000 to make, and we did it without asking for government help.”

But California artist Gregory Kloen, 43, says there’s an even cheaper and faster way. For the past several years, Kloen has singlehandedly built small, portable homes using salvaged materials he finds on the street. His cost? Less than $100 each.

“Stuff people just throw away on the street can give someone a viable home,” says Kloen, whose environmentally friendly structures are made of everything from wooden pallets to refrigerator parts. Kloen’s unique, whimsical designs are both artistic (“I make them cute and funny”) and practical (“I want them to work well, be strong and watertight.”)

“Now, I can roll my house down the street. Now the police don’t give me a hard time. I keep my house clean and I have no problems.”

Most importantly, each Kloen design is a thoughtful response to the problems faced daily by the homeless people in his community. For example, Oakland’s public safety laws require municipal workers to periodically sweep up and destroy the belongings of people living on the streets, something Kloen hopes to circumvent with his mobile home designs.

“I was sleeping outside on the freeway for two or three years,” recalls Oakland resident Cathryn Estelle Copeland, 39. “I was using cardboard for a cover. The police come there sometimes. If you don’t move fast enough they just take your stuff away.”

Copeland says having a tiny house changed her life.

“Now, I can roll my house down the street. Now the police don’t give me a hard time. I keep my house clean and I have no problems.”

Breaking the cycle

While billions of taxpayer dollars are allocated each year to support shelters and social service initiatives, homelessness remains a persistent problem in the U.S. In 2013, an estimated 610,000 people slept without shelter every night, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Advocates contend that not enough effort is made to break the cycle of homelessness, while too much money is spent on punishing behavior related to it. A 2011 report published by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty says local governments routinely criminalize activities that go hand-in-hand with living on the street, such as sleeping in public spaces and loitering. Incarceration costs taxpayers $34,480 per inmate per year, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“Homeless people spend excessive time in jail or prison, often for petty offenses such as loitering,” stated a 2011 Utah government report. “The penal system frequently serves as emergency shelter for the chronically homeless, at far greater cost than other more appropriate options.”

 

Brian J Reynolds

California artist Gregory Kloen, who builds small portable homes using salvaged materials, says an inexpensive structure is a way to keep someone safe and out of jail.

An inexpensive structure like a micro-pod – with insulation, a small bed and a place to store belongings – is a good, temporary solution to keep a person warm, safe and out of jail, says Kloen.

“Does it have merit as a solution to homelessness? As far as giving people a shelter, yeah, definitely. Is it a solution to homelessness? It’s an answer. An attempt.”

Historically, measures that offer temporary respite from homelessness have often failed, because the problems that cause it – poverty, addiction, mental and/or physical illness – are often chronic. But recent evidence shows that access to social services combined with the safety and security of a permanent home can be effective in breaking the cycle of chronic homelessness.

For instance, Utah’s “Housing First” program, which gives free, permanent “no strings attached” apartments to the chronically homeless, claims to be on track to eradicate the problem. The 8-year pilot program, which costs $11,000 per apartment annually, has a reported 74 percent success rate.

While some people believe individual micro-houses could provide the same benefit, others say turning the fantasy into a reality isn’t easy.

“There were concerns about safety and property values and noise and trash. I reminded them that these people were already living in our community.”

“Our city government [thought] the homes might be a magnet to crime, or make the city look bad,” admits Jay Rowe, executive director of Rochester Greenovation in upstate New York. Rowe says the organization’s project, Tiny Homes for the Homeless, was stalled by red tape and “a whole bunch of maybes.”

But Tiny Home proponents say they won’t give up.

“There were concerns about safety and property values and noise and trash,” recalls Occupy Madison’s Konkel. “I reminded them that these people were already living in our community.”

Estimating that 100-400 people sleep on the streets of Madison nightly, Konkel describes her police force as “very understanding and appreciative” of the Tiny Homes project. She hopes that having the comfort and protection of a real house will help Madison’s homeless rebuild their lives.

“Where there’s stability and a home base, safety and normalcy, the mental health issues some people have are alleviated,” she says. “It’s not cured but it’s easier to manage.”

Graham agrees. He says his Community First village is all about healing people who have experienced profound rejection from society, by welcoming them back into the community.

“People think if you build a bunch of houses you’ve ‘solved’ homelessness,” he says. “I don’t buy into the word ‘solution.’ It’s less an issue of ‘curative’ than ‘palliative.’ By virtue of relieving their suffering, we hope to make a positive impact. These are God’s beautiful, broken children.”

Cuba: Arquímedes, 28 años durmiendo en las calles

PalenqueVision

Potential heir to $300 million Clark copper fortune found dead, homeless under bridge

By Bill Dedman
Investigative Reporter, NBC News

Huguette Clark

A long-lost relative of the reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, who could have inherited $19 million of her $300 million fortune, has been found dead under a Union Pacific Railroad overpass in Wyoming.

Children sledding found the body of Timothy Henry Gray, 60, Thursday afternoon in Evanston, a small mining town in southwestern Wyoming near the Utah border. The coroner said it appeared he died of hypothermia. The low temperature that day was 10 degrees, and had hit zero in the previous week. Lt. Bill Jeffers of the Evanston Police Department said there was no evidence of foul play, and Gray was wearing a light jacket. Gray's siblings said they hadn't heard from him since their mother's funeral in 1990, when he disappeared without a word.  It wasn't clear whether Gray was living under the overpass, where transients have been known to camp.

More >>

Shipping containers transformed into affordable homes

GlobalToronto

Recycled shipping containers are being turned into affordable homes for homeless women in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside. Robin Gill reports.

Civil Indigent - Documentary

DocChannel

Real Talent. Homeless singer

Uploaded by ruff5050 on Dec 4, 2010

This homeless man can sing! why doesnt he have a record deal? He's a better singer than 90% of the signed singers out there, but he's homeless and soon will be forgotten.

This show's us that its not about talent anymore in the record industry,its about how much money and promotion a company can throw at an artist.