Court orders Florida
to suspend drug-testing law
A federal court has ordered the state to temporarily suspend a law that requires welfare applicants to pass a drug test before collecting cash assistance.
Read the ruling
here.
See previous posts
here and
here.
Slum Jack is homeless no more!
After more than three years of homelessness,
Slum Jack has a place of his own.
He says this was a direct result of some friends helping him with stunning generosities. "My major benefactors have been persons that became friends with me
while I was homeless, too," he said. "That seriously surprised me."
Read his post
here.
Occupy Cincinnati claims trouble with homeless
Hours before
police arrested several of them, Occupy Cincinnati protesters said homeless people were taking over their space in Piatt Park.
Some protesters said there have been some thefts and in some cases violence, and they're worried that their message will also be stolen.
"We're not just a homeless camp," said Michael Davis, one of the original Occupy Cincinnati protesters.
He said things are getting out of control. "The homeless have overran us," Davis said. "They're taking stuff that is donated to us. They've been caught trying to sell it a few blocks away. We're running out of supplies. We really need what the homeless are taking."
Davis said sometimes in their meetings, the occupiers are outnumbered by homeless people. He said some have contributed to and even joined the occupation, but others aren't so helpful.
Read the WLWT report (with video)
here.
Denver may pursue law cracking down
on people sleeping downtown
Some Denver City Council members want to make it illegal for people to sleep overnight in the main business sector.
"We have to stand up for our businesses downtown and our women and children who are afraid to go downtown," said Councilman Charlie Brown. "Are we supposed to just give in?"
Denver in 2005 passed laws to curtail panhandling, including one that prohibits beggars from sitting or lying down on sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. No city ordinance prohibits sleeping overnight on sidewalks or in other public places that are not in city parks.
The number of homeless people crowding onto the 16th Street Mall is growing, say city officials, business owners and advocates for the homeless. Many homeless people stay there overnight because they can't find beds in shelters and the mall feels safe because it is lighted and populated, said Councilman Albus Brooks, whose district includes the mall.
"This is a nightmare," Brooks said. "Denver is very sympathetic to the homeless issue, especially during this fiscal time. But that's not the issue. We have predators, sex offenders, folks selling drugs and taking advantage of people and vagrants all pretending to be these homeless folks."
Brooks recently went to the mall at midnight to see the issue up close. He found about 180 people setting up to sleep overnight.
John Parvensky, president of the
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, called the effort to beef up laws "a real step backward" for the city, which has been working to end homelessness through its
Road Home program.
"This is a direct result of the recession, of shelters being closed and lack of mental-health and treatment services that are needed for part of the population. It's not solving homelessness; it's just criminalizing it," Parvensky said. "If the business community is worried about making downtown a better environment for visitors, they ought to use a fraction of their money to build real solutions for the homeless."
Read the
Denver Post report
here.
Occupy Portland asks city to suspend enforcement
of ordinances criminalizing homelessness
The General Assembly of
Occupy Portland has sent an open letter affirming its solidarity with the homeless people in the city. The letter asks that city ordinances currently used to criminalize homeless people be suspended until new solutions are found.
Read the whole letter in the street newspaper
Street Roots here.
Tony died today
Tony Clemens, who gained a following of readers over the last five years through the popular blog
Homeless Man Speaks, was found dead in his black camping chair in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighborhood. He was 63.
“He was able to remain genuinely cheerful … despite the worst of circumstances, and he infused other people with that cheerfulness,” said Philip Stern, the business consultant who befriended Clemens and created the blog nearly five years ago.
Read Philip's
post here. And check out the wonderful story in the
Toronto Star here.
Cop's son gets probation
for punching homeless man
A Sanford police lieutenant's son who was captured on video sucker-punching a homeless man outside a bar, knocking him out, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was placed on a year of probation.
Justin Collison, 22, of Sanford, had been charged with felony battery and disorderly conduct, but his family paid an undisclosed sum to the homeless man, Sherman Ware, and Ware asked prosecutors to drop the case.
They didn't. When court started Monday morning, Assistant State Attorney Russ Bausch insisted that Collison spend 30 days in jail in addition to a year on probation. Collison said no.
The two sides left that to Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who came up with her own solution: She sentenced him to 30 days in jail then suspended that, saying he'd only be locked up if he fails to follow through on the conditions of probation.
Collison said little at the hearing but turned beet red when prosecutors played the video in open court.
Read the
Orlando Sentinel report
here. And see previous posts
here (with video),
here and
here.
