Very good sugestions. I'm a dual diagnosed veteran. I've seen the homeless problem from both sides, and don't think I would have gotten out of it without help. Now I try to help those who are still homeless.

WHAT NO ONE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT HOMELESSNESS: There's next to NO real help for most people that are homeless... that AREN'T either alcoholics, drug addicts, ex-cons, mental patients, etc., etc. Especially in terms of helping someone OUT of being homeless. The overwhelming majority of "homeless services" are geared to addressing the above "issues" and/or helping perpetuate homeless, if more comfortably. How do I know this? I was forced into homelessness earlier this year. At first, as I saw the possibility and began to try to "prepare" I was almost comforted by the number of organizations and agencies that appeared or outright claimed to help the homeless. And I began to contact them. More and more of them. Imagine my surprise when I found that one after another refused me any help to avoid homelessness and then, once I was homeless, STILL could do nothing for me. Some don't even respond to contacts, ignoring calls and emails. Think twice before 'donating' to any outfit claiming to "help the homeless" -- apparently their main "clients" are themselves and the paycheck they collect which keeps THEM housed and comfy, not anyone else. http://homeword-unbound.blogspot.com/

Slum Jack, you are closest to the truth here. The other fluff is just hugs and balony sandwiches used to sustain the problem.
 There is also a great deal of truth in the concept of pay me to help them and let me add that if it isn't tax deductable people wouldn't even think of 'donating'.

Enough about what's wrong with this place and let's consider the only proposal that's worth considering that will actually cure poverty for folks like you and the people considering suicide and those millions of people that will be homeless in the next year or two.

What I am about to tell you is free. You, nor anybody else has to pay me or owe me or buy something from me. I call it 'open source philanthropy' so anyone that complains about the plight of the homeless can now shut up and go cure the problem. I think most of these people just like to hear themselves talk anyway. Y'know, like politicians.

Here in America we demolish 300,000 houses a year. If you want one of them just place an ad in the local classifieds or on Craigslist and write it this way.

FREE Demolition call Slum Jack at,.... or go to the library and use a computer and  have them email you.

Buy the salvage rights and take almost the whole thing. There, you have a house. Now where are you going to put it? Go to any tax office, preferably out in a bit more rural county, and ask for the lawyer who handles the foreclosures. Go to his office and ask his assistant if they have any land you can buy for back taxes. They do. If not go to the next county. Today I can buy 6,  1 acre lots in Pelham County NC for under $3k each. Clean and clear title.

Now ask your friends and family to help you or go back to Craigslist and ask for volunteers to help you.

Now do carpentry. Gut the house. Throw away the roof shingles and plaster and keep everything else that's worth keeping. Dismantle the house into wall and floor sections, lay them on a trailer behind a pick up truck, it will take several trips, and pull it to the new place.

Let's say you have no money and need to raise some to buy beer, pizza, the land and have the foundation, well and septic put in. Auction the houses people call you about on EBay. It costs about $100 each to do this. Then take that money you got from the auction and use it to buy land or put in your mechanicals. Make sure you put "Must be moved" in the house description.

What you have just read is real live cure for poverty, a giveaway of $60 Billion a year in houses that anyone can go get if you are willing to do blue collar work.

Right now in Cincinnati Ohio the government there is going to spend $6 Million Dollars to demolish tens of thousands of houses. Wouldn't it make more sense if the authors and contributors of Change.org and people that wanted to do something about the less fortunate of us got together and lobbied the folks in local Government nationwide and Sen. Obama and the rest of our white collar welfare recipients, otherwise known as the U.S. Congress To put a ban on demolition of houses until we all had one?

It saves tax money, helps the environment, creates jobs, cuts down on crime to include murders and suicides and countless robberies when a people of a country have no other hope is what they end up turning to.


Maybe it's starting to dawn on you folks, America is a con job. A confidence job. If we can keep you in front of your tv's and keep you quiet and on occassion baffle you with BS then I (the rich, the politically connected and powerful) never have to answer to you and can pretty much do what I want, which we are doing now. Maybe it has already dawned on you that the American flag is no longer a symbol of freedom, it is a distraction similar to what a magician uses a pretty girl for, it is only a corporate logo.
If you are fed up and really want to change things then challenge our candidates to answer my/our challenge to them. Not afraid of them are you? They don't intimidate you do they?

How am I going to make this your challenge? If you can corner one of these slippery eels into actually answering this question.

 What is your answer to The Benefactor Projects proposal?

Maybe, for once, they might answer and for once be useful and keep their word and do something that would make it worth a persons vote then if you will do that, I will give you a paying job and a free house.

Sen. Obama has hundreds of Millions of dollars to spend on commercials is he a good enough man to use just one of them to create jobs and save a families life? You ask him.

Call every talk show. Get in their face. Make them do something for us for a Change. Copy and paste this message all over the web.

What could you do with your life if you didn't have a house payment? How many companies could you start? How many jobs could you create? How many people would you give hope to?

My name is,
Tom Canavan
and I authored this message.
The Benefactor Project.com

Uh... "Buy the salvage rights and take almost the whole thing"
And just how do you figure a homeless person who can't even afford the cheapest rent is going to "buy the salvage rights'?

Purpose: To help others, help themselves, so they might help others in need.

Freedom is responsibility and love is understanding; therefore individual freedom is individual responsibility and understanding that is self-actualization...and what is community?

A group of self-actualized individuals working FROM a common purpose (stated above).

The service networks and affiliates must understand the concept that the purpose of providing services is to diminish or even eliminate the program by resolving the issue...putting ones self out of business out of lack of necessity. Without this being firmly grasped, the paradigm and modalities of solution are bound to fail for one cannot depend on the situation for monitary support; thus why participation in recovery must be actualized by all parties and self-sustain.

For those who do understand the inductive approach, i give you kudos and hope to help serve where i may. peace

Beautiful sculptured housing is available, the shell costs less than 1/3 of an emergency Red Cross tent, per unit of area.

When the techniques are well known and material costs are a minor component given reality by extensive labor, it is entirely reasonable to propose a rapid increase in architecturally beautiful and functional shelter for the poor. Techniques for this type of structure are similar to smearing mud on sticks, known as mud and wattle, here-in, as space-age mud and wattle. Materials are organic fibers used to reinforce concrete mixed with acrylic. Concrete is most often used in large masses and is thus known as an environmentally unfriendly building material. In this case, the concrete is as thin as skin and replaces wood which has been harvested at an unsustainable rate. Structures made from, for example, bamboo, muslin, cement and acrylic are completely impermeable to water, do not decompose in sunlight, are not subject to rot or insect infestation, and are as easily repaired as fiberglass.

learn more about the material and technology at ferrocement.com (free public service)

Just an update for you. The listing for area resources in Iowa, lists the John Lewis Coffee House in Davenport, Iowa. Unfortunately the John Lewis Coffee House got shut down for misappropriation of funds or something simular to that charge. Just thought I'd share the information, so that any in our area would know it no longer exists.
However Kings' Harvest in Davenport serves food to area homeless as does St. Anthony's Church at Main and 4th Streets.

God Bless,
Danny

I worked for a homeless agency that also helped the mentally ill.  It was devastating to me to get close to people to find that they didn't mean the "criteria" for us to help.  (They had to have a severe mental illness).  It was basically "sorry we cant help you, here are some numbers of people who may be able to help", knowing darn well they couldn't because they were understaffed and overwhelmed.  Last night I watched a show on people who are released from prison after being exonerated of their crimes.  They get what they walked in with and most end up homeless.  What the CRAP?!  They have years of their lives taken away and the "we're sorry" they get?!  
Everyone deserves to be warm and fed.  EVERYONE.  Mental illness or not.  Something is seriously wrong with this country.  Its what keeps me up at night. 

Hello! I would like to offer my design services to anything that might assit in helping people get out of any situation that would leave them homeless. A person doesn't need much. Food, clothing & shelter. So if anyone needs a shirt design or flyers created...etc. Please contact me via facebook (Jeremy Steele) and I will gladly discuss any ideas you may have. Thanks!