Counting The Homeless.......

[HARDCORE]

Mr. President:

I have enclosed an article (below) from the San Diego Union Tribune for your enlightenment and edification! I would have sent this out to you via "Change.gov", but no one, save for the Almighty Himself, could have expressed his feelings on this in but 500 characters, or less!

I find it amazing, rather make that appalling, that elements of our government (talking heads, one and all) are again resorting to counting numbers, rather than utilizing that bail-out money (million$ perhaps), for positive and meaningful action and change! Merely counting the dead, or nearly dead, the forgotten, and the cast-offs of "OUR" suffering society, creates but vestigial jobs for those bonvivants who occupy their time, and our money, playing with themselves!! Very few such studies have ever resulted in affirmative action! Help these suffering people directly, and not by attempting to re-supply the affluent cupboards of the connected with prime rib and bubbly!

My wife (Brenda) and I have been told on several occasions, while acting as unpaid volunteer consultants, that, and I quote, "YOU GET THE JOB DONE!" All that these (so-called) experts and bean-counters do is run in circles and pay for their high-life! In plain cursive - "This is pure bull-crap, no if ands or buts about it!"

Again I implore you to utilize these massive funds in an effective manner! I am not against spending tax dollars effectively, but hiring fools (my opinion) to play the part of a paid clown is ridiculous! In short, your intentions are good, but your means of getting there leave much to be desired! "College educated and street dumb went out with Hoover!!"

VERITAS (Truth)


http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori.../?zIndex=45537

Teams fan out across county to count the homeless
By Ronald W. Powell

Union-Tribune Staff Writer
11:46 a.m. January 30, 2009

Two homeless men in downtown San Diego, Jack Hillyer (right), and a man who only gave his name as "Bob" didn't know if they had been counted or not. (John Gibbins / Union-Tribune)
SAN DIEGO — Jack Hillyer and his buddy “Bob from Kentucky” spent Thursday night sleeping on a sidewalk near Sixth Avenue and Market Street. Neither remembered seeing any of the 330 people who roamed the county Friday morning for the annual count of the homeless.

“If somebody came by, I was sleeping,” said Hillyer, shortly after 6 a.m.

The count is a stealth operation, intended to provide numbers that will help local homeless services providers qualify for money from the federal government and other funding sources.

Much of the funding is targeted to people who are chronically homeless – people like Hillyer and Bob, who said they have been on the streets for years.

Hillyer said he doesn't need the help.

“I don't need nothin',” he said. “I like what I do.”

Those doing the tally are undeterred by the hardcore homeless people who spurn assistance. They say homeless organizations throughout the county received more than $13 million this fiscal year from the federal government based on last year's count – a one-night snapshot that tallied about 7,600 people, not counting an estimated 1,000 farmworkers and day laborers.

This year's count won't be tabulated for a few weeks.

Aid money is vital to providing homeless services, enabling some to reclaim their lives, said Walt Sandford, executive director of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

This was the fourth year the task force has coordinated the count, and Sandford took the to streets and the bushes shortly after 4 a.m.

Like others conducting the tally, his implements were few: a flashlight, a pen and a map of where people were found last year in his search area. Each counter would mark new finds on the map as benchmarks for next year's tally.

Sandford worked the Linda Vista area, traipsing behind industrial businesses, the canyon near the University of San Diego, and the corners of empty shopping centers. He then swung down to Mission Valley, padding along makeshift trails near the San Diego River in the sometimes dense vegetation of the Mission Valley Preserve.

He was joined for part of his journey by girlfriend Mia Vaughnes, a financial planner.

“I thought I'd come out because I think it's good work,” Vaughnes said.

The first leg took Sandford down a berm past darkened warehouses to a spot near the San Diego Humane Society. In a small grassy area stood a lonely grocery cart, filled with someone's possessions.

Sandford hiked up a small hill, shining his flashlight in front of him. Suddenly, he trained the beam to his left, spotting someone in a sleeping bag at the base of a palm tree.

He retreated, saying nothing, and marked the find on the map.

He found a second homeless man near a doughnut shop off Linda Vista Road.

While walking in lighted areas, he was on the lookout for people sleeping in their car.

“We count them too, but shining a light in somebody's car can be dangerous,” he said.

About 5 a.m., he headed to a target-rich area, at least according to last year's count. The map was heavily-dotted along the unlit San Diego River, where homeless people are known to camp, hidden among tall reeds and thick brush.

In he went.

Some of the well-worn paths off Friars Road were clear and straight. Some snaked through rugged, hilly places where fallen trees caused stumbles and sharp branches stung the face.

There were signs in several places that humans had been there – discarded bottles, cans and plastic cups. One section of reeds had been hollowed out, resembling an igloo that had served as an encampment. The trash left behind confirmed it.

He continued on, shining his flashlight beneath the trolley tracks with their graffiti-marred supports. He visited sandy shorelines and paused to watch the river rush by.

But there were no homeless people.

Like some ancient civilization that abandoned dwellings later celebrated as ruins, the homeless people have left that stretch river because of a combination of human action and nature.

Police swept the area in recent months, shooing people from encampments. Those who remained left when the river, swollen by rains, swept away their possessions.

Finally, Sandford gave up.

“I thought I'd find a lot more folks, especially given the good weather,” he said. “It will be interesting to know what the count is like downtown. I'm sure there will be more people there.”

In fact, the sidewalks of downtown's East Village were lined with small tents and people sleeping on bedrolls. Someone else had counted them as they lay out in the open, many under the soft glow of street lamps.

The counters will begin tabulating numbers later today, with a report completed in the coming weeks.

The numbers will be submitted to the U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development by early summer.

[darrels joy]

This is going to be hard for them.

Homeless people were discovered when Bush became President. See OpinionJournal columns for the last 8 years.

Now with Obama in charge, all is better.

The problem now is all the funding that these people working with/for the homeless will dry up if there are less of them.

Joy

[1CAVCCO15MED]

There are economic homeless, the singer Jewell and Jim Carrey come to mind. Interesting list of famous people were homeless at least for a while.: http://homelesstales.com/2008/07/fam...been-homeless/ There are mentaly ill homeless. Then there are bums, addicts and drunks.