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Showing posts with label Poverty / Homeless / Hunger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poverty / Homeless / Hunger. Show all posts
Utah's Chronic Homeless Rate Drops 91% When It Gives the Needy Housing2:30
By the end of 2015, the chronically homeless population of Utah may be virtually gone. And the secret is quite simple:
Give homes to the homeless.
"We call it housing first, employment second," said Lloyd Pendleton, director of Utah's Homeless Task Force.
Even Pendleton used to think trying to eradicate homelessness using such an approach was a foolish idea.
"I said: 'You guys must be smoking something. This is totally unrealistic,'" Pendleton said.
But the results are hard to dispute.
In 2005, Utah was home to 1,932 chronically homeless. By April 2015, there were only 178 — a 91 percent drop statewide.
"It's
a philosophical shift in how we go about it," Pendleton said. "You put
them in housing first ... and then help them begin to deal with the
issues that caused them to be homeless."
Chronically homeless
persons — those living on the streets for more than a year, or for four
times in three years, and have a debilitating condition — make up 10
percent of Utah's homeless population but take up more than 50 percent
of the state's resources for the homeless.
We
just learned America’s rental affordability crisis is as bad as it’s
ever been. Unfortunately, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.
The American Community Survey for 2014,
released a few weeks ago, found that the number of renters paying 30
percent or more of their income on housing – the standard benchmark for
what’s considered affordable – reached a new record high of 20.7 million
households, up nearly a half-million from the year before. Despite the
improving economy, the increase was nearly five times bigger than last
year’s gain.
That means about half of all renters live in housing
considered unaffordable. And the latest increase comes on top of
substantial growth since 2000 that has seen this number climb by roughly
six million households over the period, an increase of about 41
percent.
The
French animal rights group, Cause Animal Nord, has come under fire
after a video emerged of the activists taking away a puppy from a crying
homeless man in central Paris.
The
video shows the man fighting for his dog, but eventually losing out as
three members of the group, including the organization’s president,
seized the puppy and ran away. The homeless man was left in tears.
The
cruel act has been condemned by the media and internet users. A number
took to social networks to express their disgust, while others left
highly critical messages on the organization’s Facebook page.
The American Dream Is Becoming A Nightmare And Life As We Know It Is About To Change
By Michael Snyder, on September 24th, 2015
One
of the biggest steps toward a one world government that we have ever
seen is happening this week, and yet barely anyone is even talking about
it. In fact, it is even being called a “new universal Agenda” for
humanity. Those are not my words – those are the words that the United
Nations is using. If you don’t believe this, just go look at the official document
for this new UN agenda. You won’t have to read very far. The phrase
“new universal Agenda” is right near the end of the preamble.
Officially, the name of this ambitious new program is “the 2030 Agenda“,
and it is being hyped as a way to get the whole world to work together
to make life better for all of us. And a lot of the goals of this new
agenda are very admirable. For example, who wouldn’t want to end global
poverty? But as you look deeper into what the UN is trying to do, you
find some very disturbing things.
If you didn’t like Agenda 21,
then you really are not going to like the 2030 Agenda, because the 2030
Agenda takes things to an entirely new level. Agenda 21 was primarily
focused on climate change and the environment, but the 2030 Agenda goes
far beyond that. As I have noted previously,
the 2030 Agenda addresses economics, agriculture, education, gender
equality, healthcare and a whole host of other issues. It has been
argued that there are very few forms of human activity that do not fall
under the goals of the 2030 Agenda in one way or another.
The UN
says that this new Agenda is “voluntary”, and yet virtually every single
nation on the entire planet is willingly signing up for it. In the
official document that all of these nations are agreeing to, there are
17 sustainable development goals and 169 very specific sustainable
development targets. You can read them for yourself right here.
The Gaza Strip one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Around 1.8 million people call this coastal strip of just 360 square
kilometres, home. And eight years of blockades and wars have crippled
its economy. 43 percent of Gazans are unemployed, and 39 percent live in
poverty. They’re still rebuilding after last year’s war with Israel and
depend on international aid to survive. Much has been pledged, but
Israel only allows a portion of the essentials to pass through.
TUNNELS OF LIFE
Tunnels that run beneath the Egyptian border provide a vital lifeline
for many struggling families in Gaza. Smugglers often risk their lives
to use the tunnels - as Egypt has restricted access to the Rafah
crossing since its military deposed former president Mohamed Morsi in
July 2013. So far this year, the crossing’s only been open for 15 days.
Egypt also begun to demolish the tunnels in Sinai - over 1,400 of them
since the beginning of 2014. And now, it seeks to flush out the
smugglers once and for all by flooding the tunnels.
EGYPTIAN FISH FARMS
Egypt says it wants to use its 14-kilometre border with Gaza for a
different purpose - to build fish farms. And Egypt’s military has
already begun to dig along border to set up 18 fisheries. But Gazans
fear the project is just a ploy to reinforce the blockade. Hamas
official Mushir al Masri said it was to tighten the siege on Gaza. Egypt
previously cleared homes along the border to expand a buffer zone and
its military regime has accused Hamas of supporting militant groups in
the Sinai peninsula. But Hamas, which is an offshoot of the Muslim
Brotherhood now outlawed by Egypt, has denied the claims.
STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE
But because of the fisheries, prices of supplies smuggled into Gaza have skyrocketed.
Smugglers are now installing water pumps into tunnels to ease the
flooding. Currently, it’s believed that only 20 tunnels are still
actively being used. The mayor of Rafah, Subhi Radwan, has warned that
the flooding of the tunnels could cause homes on the Gazan side of the
border to collapse. He also said that filling them with sea water could
contaminate Gaza’s drinking water. But for now, Gazans have little
choice but to watch on from behind the borders.
People
rarely came this far, she told us, and it seemed to her that very few
of those that did, cared enough to ask how they were doing.
"Not well at all," she said needing little prodding. "Not well at all."
Mansura was clearly exhausted from having stayed up the night before.
Fearful
for her family, she sat outside her makeshift house just a few hundred
metres from the border between Gaza and Egypt, on guard until dawn.
"We're used to the guns and the rockets and the explosions," she said. "But now - water?"
Witness: The Gaza tunnels
Her voice trembled, and tears began to pool in her eyes.
"This is our life," she said hopelessly.
"We are so, so tired."
Mansura lives in Rafah, the town divided between Gaza and Egypt by international
Marga Ortigas covers the Asia-Pacific region for Al Jazeera English.
Seventy-three year old Mansura Abu Shaar was more than happy to talk to strangers.
People
rarely came this far, she told us, and it seemed to her that very few
of those that did, cared enough to ask how they were doing.
"Not well at all," she said needing little prodding. "Not well at all."
Mansura was clearly exhausted from having stayed up the night before.
Fearful
for her family, she sat outside her makeshift house just a few hundred
metres from the border between Gaza and Egypt, on guard until dawn.
"We're
used to the guns and the rockets and the explosions," she said. "But
now - water?" Her voice trembled, and tears began to pool in her eyes.
"This is our life," she said hopelessly.
"We are so, so tired."
Mansura lives in Rafah, the town divided between Gaza and Egypt by international political agreements in the 1980s.
With Israel the only other way in or out, Gazans saw the border with fellow-Arab Egypt as the "friendly" alternative.
It was a pressure valve when all else around them seemed to be closing in.
But the "friendly border" closed when Hamas took control of the government in Gaza in 2007.
At least in theory.
Egyptian authorities have ordered residents living along the border with Gaza to evacuate their homes [Al Jazeera]
Rafah, Gaza
- Ahmed al-Afifi cannot focus on studying as midterm exams approach.
For the past two weeks, the constant sounds of explosions have echoed
from across the border.
"We are not psychologically ready for
this," said al-Afifi, 22, a Gaza-based university student who lives in
the Palestinian side of Rafah, which shares a border with Egypt's
restive Sinai peninsula. His home is about 400m from the border, and the
explosions are part of an Egyptian military operation to initially
create a 500m-deep buffer zone.
But on Tuesday November 18, Egyptian authorities said they were to expand the buffer zone to one km.
The
army is clearing the area by using dynamite and bulldozers, a
systematic campaign also aimed at destroying smuggling tunnels into
Gaza. The operation followed the killing of 33 Egyptian soldiers in an
attack in North Sinai in October. Egyptian authorities have ordered
residents living along the country's eastern border with Gaza to
evacuate their homes, which are targeted for demolition.
On Monday
November 17, Rober Turner, head of UNRAWA operations in Gaza, said that
the buffer zone set up by Egyptian authorities will make things more
difficult . He described the siege as 'unjust'.
Published: 18:49 EST, 19 September 2015 | Updated: 20:49 EST, 19 September 2015
Egyptian
forces flooded smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border in Rafah
on Friday in a reported attempt to stamp out terror activity.
Authorities
feared the tunnels, which lead from Sinai to the Gaza Strip, would
allow for smuggling by Islamist militants between the blockaded
Palestinian enclave, according to a report by DPA.
The
military pumped water from the Mediterranean Sea into the pipes of the
underground cross-border tunnels in an effort to curb the use of the
passages in their entirety.
A
Palestinian youth shows how to abseil into one of the tunnels on the
Gaza side after Egyptian forces flooded smuggling tunnels beneath the
border to the Gaza strip, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip
By Michael Snyder, on September 24th, 2015
![Egyptian authorities have ordered residents living along the border with Gaza to evacuate their homes [Al Jazeera]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/images/2014/11/11//2014111161216908580_20.jpg "'Rafah has turned into a ghost town'")
Egyptian authorities have ordered residents living along the border with Gaza to evacuate their homes [Al Jazeera]
