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End Homelessness
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Will Shelter Supply Meet Demand This Winter?
Published November 13, 2008 @ 05:31AM PST
Shelter directors and food pantry coordinators from New Jersey to LA are worried. Just as they are seeing a spike in earlier-than-usual requests, the tanking economy has donors scaling back on charitable donations.
It's the perfect storm... more people are in need of services than ever before just as the well is drying up.
Glenda Kirkland, the founder of Isaiah House, a family homeless shelter in East Orange, New Jersey, is concerned. Her organization is already turning away ten families a day in need of assistance... and it's not even cold yet. She told New Jersey Magazine:
"The malaise in Wall Street is very much evident at our level," said Kirkland. People are staying in shelters longer because they cannot find jobs, meaning others wait longer to get in. And while she says there will undoubtedly be a need for more accommodation, she doesn't think that's the answer. More subsidies to keep people in their homes -- extended unemployment benefits, a few extra hundred dollars a month -- can make the difference.
Shelters are expecting to see even higher numbers early next year because people who have lost their jobs will run through unemployment benefits and savings to avoid homelessness, said Elizabeth Hall, president of Homeless Solutions, Inc. in Morristown. Those that have been evicted will stay with family and friends as long as possible, Hall said. Eventually, they wear out their welcome.
Watch more from Isaiah House:
Comments
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Author
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Shannon Moriarty
- Boston, MA
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Shannon traces her passion for the issue of homelessness back to the summer she worked in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, which has the highest concentration of homelessness in the Bay Area. Since then, has worked in shelters in the Triangle region of North Carolina and now in the greater Boston area.
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I work in human services and we are already hearing of family assistance programs that are out of money and very low on food. This is in North Carolina, not even one of the hardest hit states. I think this bailout needs to be though through with the results of the people as the focus.
Posted by Kate Burton on 11/13/2008 @ 01:59PM PST
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if there anything i can do let me known we have a small org that would love to help in newark nj
Posted by betty hooker on 12/04/2008 @ 05:27AM PST
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Shelter is one of the basic needs of the people in order to survive. If you have the availability of options, such as payday loans in finance, or the choice of either beef or chicken for dinner - be thankful. Over a billion people across the globe don't have those kinds of choices. World hunger is fast becoming a pandemic, and some of it is in our own backyard – such as the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. Citizens of Haiti have resorted to literally eating dirt – making cookie sized clumps of dirt and eating them, which exposes them to an untold number of bacteria and possible infections. This last month, there was a resolution that went before the floor at the United Nations, and it was whether or not food was a fundamental human right, and it passed by a margin of 180 to 1. There were no abstentions, or nations that didn't have an opinion, and only 7 countries were absent. The sole opposition to the resolution was the United States of America. The reason must have been sound – it had to do with opposition to the wording of the resolution – but that doesn't change the fact that it happened. Be thankful that you have the option to go to either Safeway or Albertson's, and that you can get payday loans if you need to. For more about the UN and world news, read this article at the <a title="Some can't get enough to eat this Christmas; be thankful if you have food and access to payday loans" rev="vote-for" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/23/some-cant-get-enough-to-eat-this-christmas-be-thankful-if-you-have-food-and-access-to-payday-loans/">payday loans</a> blog.
Posted by Malik T on 01/03/2009 @ 02:15AM PST
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