Hunger and Homelessness Increase in U.S.

[GrGr]

Hunger and Homelessness Increase in U.S.
Thu Dec 18,10:52 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Hunger and homelessness increased in many of America's largest cities this year, with growing demand for emergency food supplies for families with children, the elderly and even people with jobs, a survey by U.S. mayors finds.

The report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, released Thursday, found that requests for emergency food assistance rose 17 percent overall from last year in the survey of 25 large cities. Requests for emergency shelter assistance increased by 13 percent, the report showed.

Most of the cities expected that requests for emergency food assistance and shelter would rise again over the coming year, the study said.

Food needs for the poor grew in nearly nine out of 10 of the surveyed cities.

Denver suffered the greatest spike in demand for emergency food, with requests rising 48 percent this year. Food needs rose 40 percent in Louisville, Ky., 27 percent in Providence (news - web sites), R.I., and 25 percent in Charleston, S.C. Seattle reported a decrease in emergency food requests of 8 percent.

Unemployment, low paying jobs, high housing costs, substance abuse and high energy and utility costs are contributing to the hunger problem, the report said.

"This survey underscores the impact the economy has had on everyday Americans," said James A. Garner, Conference of Mayors president.

The study said as need increased, more than half of the cities had to turn hungry people away, with more than 14 percent of requests for emergency food assistance going unmet.

Requests for food assistance by families with children increased by 18 percent and requests by elderly persons increased by 13 percent during the past year. Overall, nearly three out of four cities reported an increase in food assistance requests.

"The report is full of bad news, but solutions are there," said Michael Lennon, chief executive officer of Home Aid America, a group that helps homeless people get jobs and housing.

"The economy is on the rebound, they're doing well in the building industry, but as the economy is going up, prices go up, and housing costs go up," he said. "It's good for people who own homes, but hard on people who are renters."

Governments need to respond by providing more transitional housing so people have a roof over their heads while they build job skills and save up for rent, Lennon added.

The study also found:

_Fifty-nine percent of the people requesting emergency food assistance were members of families.

_Thirty-nine percent of the adults requesting emergency food assistance were employed.

_Requests for shelter by homeless families alone increased by 15 percent.

_People remain homeless an average of five months ? longer than before, in most cities.

_Single men comprise 41 percent of the homeless population, families with children 40 percent, single women 14 percent and unaccompanied youth 5 percent.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors surveyed 25 major cities whose mayors were members of its task force on hunger and homelessness.

Yahoo news

 

[markuskidd]

Food needs for the poor grew in nearly nine out of 10 of the surveyed cities.

what's *nearly* nine cities? eight? seven? just made me laugh

 

[heartsurgeon]

Bill Clinton who is a born again Southern Baptist can take solace in the fact that Southern Baptist Evangelist Billy Graham is also a liar and knows how to conveniently forget things.

linky

Not so often has the White House openly deceived Americans as it did in saying Bush was in one place when he was someplace else.

linky

a strictly non-bias writer for the AP

 

[GrGr]

"America is a country that now sits atop the precarious latticework of myth. It is the myth that work provides rewards, that working people can support their families. It?s a myth that has become so divorced from reality that it might as well begin with the words ?Once upon a time.? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1.6 million New Yorkers, or the equivalent of the population of Philadelphia, suffer from ?food insecurity,? which is a fancy way of saying they don?t have enough to eat. Some are the people who come in at night and clean those skyscrapers that glitter along the river. Some pour coffee and take care of the aged parents of the people who live in those buildings. The American Dream for the well-to-do grows from the bowed backs of the working poor, who too often have to choose between groceries and rent."

Newsweek - A New Kind of Poverty

 

[Chris A]

Kind of related to this post.

BEIJING - The World Food Program will likely be forced to cut off food aid to 3 million North Koreans in coming weeks, because it hasn't gotten enough foreign donations, the U.N. agency's director said Saturday.

"In January, we'll probably stop feeding about 3 million people," Morris said. He said WFP programs that have greatly eased malnutrition among North Korean children would likely be hurt.



The United States gave 40,000 tons of food this year, down from 155,000 tons in earlier years, Morris said. Japan, once the North's biggest donor, has given nothing for the past two years because of disputes with the North over its nuclear program and abductions of Japanese citizens years ago.


full story

 

[IGBT]

Yeah..well..all your jobs are NAFTA'ed and WorldTrade'ed out of the country...Cannon Textiles and IBM are the latest to leave..just those two companies add up to 10k jobs lost...so who signed all those trade agreements??

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

. . . yeah but we got Saddam . . . and WalMart is hiring.

 

[zephyrprime]

what's *nearly* nine cities? eight? seven? just made me laugh

They surveyed 25 cities not 10 so it's valid for them to say something like they did without violating math. Seems like it would be 22/25 cities for 8.8 out of 10 cities.

 

[Moonbeam]

Hunger and Homelessness Increase in U.S.
-----------------

It would see the obvious conclusion is that people have eaten their houses.

 

[xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx]

Laziness is also increasing proportionately with government subsidies/social transfers.

 

[gaga38]

Originally posted by: xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx
Laziness is also increasing proportionately with government subsidies/social transfers.

true
these lazy ppl working 8 hours a day cleaning the buildings for 500$/mo
they should take another job

 

[xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx]

Originally posted by: gaga38

Originally posted by: xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx
Laziness is also increasing proportionately with government subsidies/social transfers.

true
these lazy ppl working 8 hours a day cleaning the buildings for 500$/mo
they should take another job

Or, perhaps they should try to obtain more marketable skills needed in today's workforce?

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Laziness is also increasing proportionately with government subsidies/social transfers.

Hey, Bechtel, Halliburton, Boeing, and MCI are definitely fat/happy.

 

[xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc

Laziness is also increasing proportionately with government subsidies/social transfers.

Hey, Bechtel, Halliburton, Boeing, and MCI are definitely fat/happy.

Maybe we would be better served having the homeless provide the services the aforementioned companies provide, then....

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Halliburton (and to some extent Bechtel) are essentially serving as filters for US cash in Iraq. They collect their cut and then find someone to do the work . . . eventually. Airbus is eating Boeing's lunch so the US government has decided to provide a buffet. MCI may be the most corrupt telecom company ever . . . doomed to failure due to depravity and poor management . . . they are subsequently awarded a contract to provide telecom services in Iraq?!

I bet if you put the homeless and jobless in Iraq to work . . . you might find the "hearts and minds" campaign gains some traction.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Originally posted by: xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx

Originally posted by: gaga38

Originally posted by: xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx
Laziness is also increasing proportionately with government subsidies/social transfers.

true
these lazy ppl working 8 hours a day cleaning the buildings for 500$/mo
they should take another job

Or, perhaps they should try to obtain more marketable skills needed in today's workforce?

That's rather hard to do when you are in fact working 8 hours a day cleaning buildings for $500 a month. I'm not saying there is nothing they can do, but once someone gets stuck in that rut it's damn hard to break out of it. I despize the thought of government just giving money to people while requiring little or no effort on their part to better themselves, but people like this do need government assistance if they are have a chance to better themselves. The cold reality is we need people to do menial jobs for miniscule pay, but I don't think the anyone should be stuck doing it for their entire life.

 

[xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx]

Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian


That's rather hard to do when you are in fact working 8 hours a day cleaning buildings for $500 a month. I'm not saying there is nothing they can do, but once someone gets stuck in that rut it's damn hard to break out of it

Maybe I am a bit unsympathetic, as I ran up huge debt going to school full-time while working full-time in the military...night classes every night of the need (to include weekends); then, I left the military and went back to school (GI Bill did help, but not nearly enough to cover 1/5 of my expenses) to pick up some more pieces of paper to hang on my walls. Sure, I didn?t ?clean floors for 8 hours a day,? but I was in formation @ 5:30 every morning, worked out for an hour and a half, worked until the job was done each day (allowed to leave at 6-6:30 to attend classes), and still made education my priority in life?different ideologies, I guess.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx

Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian


That's rather hard to do when you are in fact working 8 hours a day cleaning buildings for $500 a month. I'm not saying there is nothing they can do, but once someone gets stuck in that rut it's damn hard to break out of it

Maybe I am a bit unsympathetic, as I ran up huge debt going to school full-time while working full-time in the military...night classes every night of the need (to include weekends); then, I left the military and went back to school (GI Bill did help, but not nearly enough to cover 1/5 of my expenses) to pick up some more pieces of paper to hang on my walls. Sure, I didn?t ?clean floors for 8 hours a day,? but I was in formation @ 5:30 every morning, worked out for an hour and a half, worked until the job was done each day (allowed to leave at 6-6:30 to attend classes), and still made education my priority in life?different ideologies, I guess.

I would agree, very unsympathetic, but if your self reflection is intended seriously there's always hope. In the first place you had an ideology and the preparation to take it someplace. We are all who we are by chance and where our seed fell. The difference between somebody like yourself and say maybe George Soros, is that he has had more time and a different level of soil fertility not to think so much of himself. It's a wonderful thing to make something of yourself, but it's completely spoiled by egotism, the need to preen at the achievement because of past residual feelings of inferiority. So many achieve because they need to gloat, to ridicule where they came from by looking down. "In life there are a million paths and they all lead nowhere. Choose a path that has a heart."

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx

Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian


That's rather hard to do when you are in fact working 8 hours a day cleaning buildings for $500 a month. I'm not saying there is nothing they can do, but once someone gets stuck in that rut it's damn hard to break out of it

Maybe I am a bit unsympathetic, as I ran up huge debt going to school full-time while working full-time in the military...night classes every night of the need (to include weekends); then, I left the military and went back to school (GI Bill did help, but not nearly enough to cover 1/5 of my expenses) to pick up some more pieces of paper to hang on my walls. Sure, I didn?t ?clean floors for 8 hours a day,? but I was in formation @ 5:30 every morning, worked out for an hour and a half, worked until the job was done each day (allowed to leave at 6-6:30 to attend classes), and still made education my priority in life?different ideologies, I guess.

Yes, it's ideological issue, because liberal people don't work hard to graduate from college.
We just sit around and wait for the government to give us our magna-cum-laude electrical engineering degrees at the end of the month to hang on our walls

 

[Wolfdog]

There is a BIG difference between someone that wants to work and someone that wont. The people that want to work should be given every opportunity available to them. How about the state employment actually finding people jobs. What a concept! It is hard to get a job when you have no place of residence, no phone, no way of getting to a job. Although it has been very hard in some places around the US to actually find a job period. Your "marketable skills" might not mean crap when the economy shifts. No jobs is no jobs. Is this why the unemployment rate is going down? When you have people loosing thier homes and who can't feed thier families that is a real problem. What really *#@$#$ me off is that people just don't understand. The same ones that have been working and paying taxes thier entire lives to loose everything since the job market still sucks. The same people that fought for our contry during Korea and Vietnam are piddled away from the government. Theres grattitude for you! Until there is a major head pullout in washington there will continue to be a loss of work in all sectors to all sorts of other markets. It won't matter one bit having a degree in anything when there are 1000 people for every one job fighting for it. It is a blatently huge waste of talent to have physicists, chemists, engineers, unable to procure any work that they are qualified for.(Actually go to job fairs and see for yourself, instead of bantering. You actually might learn something.) Then who really wants to hire them? Certainly NOT walfart, fast food, service jobs that are in demand right now. What about the people that can't afford to pay for college anymore? So we basically are back to where we were 100 years ago. With the leeches on society being the highest paid, although they have the smallest worth. I'm talking about the lawyers and doctors, politicians, presidents, and government for that matter. They produce nothing and ride on the backs of every american. We should send more money overseas to feed other countries, while we starve our own.

 

[Jhhnn]

Just that good ol' compassionate conservatism and trickle down economics at work, folks. Nothing to see here, move along... If these folks wanted to live in a country with an effective social safety net, they should have moved to Canada, or Europe. Our priorities are a lot different around here. free Iraq! get your redhot taxcuts! Orange alert!

 

[xxxxxJohnGaltxxxxx]

Originally posted by: Wolfdog

It won't matter one bit having a degree in anything when there are 1000 people for every one job fighting for it.

That makes a lot of sense...they draw straws?

With the leeches on society being the highest paid, although they have the smallest worth.

That's funny, but not as funny as your next rant:

I'm talking about the lawyers and doctors, politicians, presidents, and government for that matter. They produce nothing and ride on the backs of every american.

Jesse Jackson, is that you?

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Wolfdog
There is a BIG difference between someone that wants to work and someone that wont. The people that want to work should be given every opportunity available to them. How about the state employment actually finding people jobs. What a concept! It is hard to get a job when you have no place of residence, no phone, no way of getting to a job. Although it has been very hard in some places around the US to actually find a job period. Your "marketable skills" might not mean crap when the economy shifts. No jobs is no jobs. Is this why the unemployment rate is going down? When you have people loosing thier homes and who can't feed thier families that is a real problem. What really *#@$#$ me off is that people just don't understand. The same ones that have been working and paying taxes thier entire lives to loose everything since the job market still sucks. The same people that fought for our contry during Korea and Vietnam are piddled away from the government. Theres grattitude for you! Until there is a major head pullout in washington there will continue to be a loss of work in all sectors to all sorts of other markets. It won't matter one bit having a degree in anything when there are 1000 people for every one job fighting for it. It is a blatently huge waste of talent to have physicists, chemists, engineers, unable to procure any work that they are qualified for.(Actually go to job fairs and see for yourself, instead of bantering. You actually might learn something.) Then who really wants to hire them? Certainly NOT walfart, fast food, service jobs that are in demand right now. What about the people that can't afford to pay for college anymore? So we basically are back to where we were 100 years ago. With the leeches on society being the highest paid, although they have the smallest worth. I'm talking about the lawyers and doctors, politicians, presidents, and government for that matter. They produce nothing and ride on the backs of every american. We should send more money overseas to feed other countries, while we starve our own.

Poor Wolfie, you have it all wrong. The AT experts in here say it is only LOW paying worthless jobs being lost and sent overseas. They say that there is more jobs being created here at home and the wages are going UP even at all the Walfart jobs that at the same time say that Monkees can do the job. This is the the new America they are so proud of. You heard them and see their posts, why are you so wrong and don't see it?

I've been to the job fairs here with lines out the door of thousands of people trying for only a couple of positions but that's all a figment of my imagination, the AT experts told me so.

Everything is fine they say, the Economy is booming, soaring and more jobs are being created than lost, the AT experts say so.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Wolfdog
There is a BIG difference between someone that wants to work and someone that wont. The people that want to work should be given every opportunity available to them. How about the state employment actually finding people jobs. What a concept! It is hard to get a job when you have no place of residence, no phone, no way of getting to a job. Although it has been very hard in some places around the US to actually find a job period. Your "marketable skills" might not mean crap when the economy shifts. No jobs is no jobs. Is this why the unemployment rate is going down? When you have people loosing thier homes and who can't feed thier families that is a real problem. What really *#@$#$ me off is that people just don't understand. The same ones that have been working and paying taxes thier entire lives to loose everything since the job market still sucks. The same people that fought for our contry during Korea and Vietnam are piddled away from the government. Theres grattitude for you! Until there is a major head pullout in washington there will continue to be a loss of work in all sectors to all sorts of other markets. It won't matter one bit having a degree in anything when there are 1000 people for every one job fighting for it. It is a blatently huge waste of talent to have physicists, chemists, engineers, unable to procure any work that they are qualified for.(Actually go to job fairs and see for yourself, instead of bantering. You actually might learn something.) Then who really wants to hire them? Certainly NOT walfart, fast food, service jobs that are in demand right now. What about the people that can't afford to pay for college anymore? So we basically are back to where we were 100 years ago. With the leeches on society being the highest paid, although they have the smallest worth. I'm talking about the lawyers and doctors, politicians, presidents, and government for that matter. They produce nothing and ride on the backs of every american. We should send more money overseas to feed other countries, while we starve our own.

Poor Wolfie, you have it all wrong. The AT experts in here say it is only LOW paying worthless jobs being lost and sent overseas. They say that there is more jobs being created here at home and the wages are going UP even at all the Walfart jobs that at the same time say that Monkees can do the job. This is the the new America they are so proud of. You heard them and see their posts, why are you so wrong and don't see it?

I've been to the job fairs here with lines out the door of thousands of people trying for only a couple of positions but that's all a figment of my imagination, the AT experts told me so.

Everything is fine they say, the Economy is booming, soaring and more jobs are being created than lost, the AT experts say so.

You really need to get out of Atlanta, there is still a sky out here in the rest of the world.

CkG

 

[Crazee]

Poor Wolfie, you have it all wrong. The AT experts in here say it is only LOW paying worthless jobs being lost and sent overseas. They say that there is more jobs being created here at home and the wages are going UP even at all the Walfart jobs that at the same time say that Monkees can do the job. This is the the new America they are so proud of. You heard them and see their posts, why are you so wrong and don't see it?

I've been to the job fairs here with lines out the door of thousands of people trying for only a couple of positions but that's all a figment of my imagination, the AT experts told me so.

Everything is fine they say, the Economy is booming, soaring and more jobs are being created than lost, the AT experts say so.

Dave you forgot they also told us to ignore that half a trillion dollar deficit. It really isn't that important