UN Investigator Accuses US of Shameful Neglect of Homeless
whoever
UN Investigator Accuses US of Shameful Neglect of Homeless
UN special rapporteur says wealthy US ignoring deepening homeless
crisis while pumping billions into bank rescues
by Chris McGreal in Los Angeles
A United Nations special investigator who was blocked from visiting
the US by the Bush administration has accused the American government
of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business
while treating as "invisible" a deepening homeless crisis.
Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate
housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour of America, said it
was shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more
money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard,
overcrowded housing.
"The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US," she said. "I
learned through this visit that real affordable housing and poverty is
something that hasn't been dealt with as an issue. Even if we talk
about the financial crisis and government stepping in in order to
promote economic recovery, there is no such help for the homeless."
She added: "I think those who are suffering the most in this whole
situation are the very poor, the low-income population. The burden is
disproportionately on them and it's of course disproportionately on
African-Americans, on Latinos and immigrant communities, and on Native
Americans."
Rolnik toured Chicago, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and
Wilkes-Barre, a Pennsylvania town where this year the first four
sheriff sales � public auctions of seized property � in the county
included 598 foreclosed properties. She also visited a Native American
reservation.
The US government does not tally the numbers but interested
organisations say that more than 3 million people were homeless at
some point over the past year. The fastest growing segment of the
homeless population is families with children, often single parents.
On any given night in Los Angeles, about 17,000 parents and children
are homeless. Most will be found a place in a shelter but many single
men and women are forced to sleep on the streets.
Los Angeles, which is described as the homeless capital of America,
has endured an 18-fold increase in housing foreclosures. Evictions
from owned and rented homes have risen about tenfold, with 62,400
people forced out last year in Los Angeles county.
Welfare payments are not enough to meet the rent, let alone food and
other necessities. A single person on welfare living in Los Angeles
receives $221 (�133) a month � an amount that hasn't changed in a
decade. The rent for one room is typically nearly double that.
Rolnik said that while she saw difficult conditions in all the places
she visited, the worst was on the Native American reservation of Pine
Ridge in South Dakota.
"You see total hopelessness, despair, very bad conditions. Nothing I
have seen in other cities compared to the physical condition of the
housing at Pine Ridge. Nothing compared to the overcrowding. They're
not visible, they're isolated, they're far away. They're just lost,"
she said.
Rolnik says that one of the greatest matters of shame is that the US
has the resources to provide decent housing for everyone.
"In the US, it's feasible to provide adequate housing for all. You
have a lot of money, a lot of dollars available. You have a lot of
expertise. This is a perfect setting to really embrace housing as a
human right," she said.
Rolnik has given a verbal report to the US state department, which has
a month to respond to her observations. She will submit a final
written report to the UN human rights council early next year.
� Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Six String Stu
"whoever" <who...@whatever.com> wrote in message
news:cdauf5tedeabm8ugj...@4ax.com...
> included 598 foreclosed properties. She also visited a Native American
> reservation.
>
> The US government does not tally the numbers but interested
> organisations say that more than 3 million people were homeless at
> some point over the past year. The fastest growing segment of the
> homeless population is families with children, often single parents.
> On any given night in Los Angeles, about 17,000 parents and children
> are homeless. Most will be found a place in a shelter but many single
> men and women are forced to sleep on the streets.
>
> Los Angeles, which is described as the homeless capital of America,
> has endured an 18-fold increase in housing foreclosures. Evictions
> from owned and rented homes have risen about tenfold, with 62,400
> people forced out last year in Los Angeles county.
>
> Welfare payments are not enough to meet the rent, let alone food and
> other necessities. A single person on welfare living in Los Angeles
> decade. The rent for one room is typically nearly double that.
>
> Rolnik said that while she saw difficult conditions in all the places
> she visited, the worst was on the Native American reservation of Pine
> Ridge in South Dakota.
>
> "You see total hopelessness, despair, very bad conditions. Nothing I
> have seen in other cities compared to the physical condition of the
> housing at Pine Ridge. Nothing compared to the overcrowding. They're
> not visible, they're isolated, they're far away. They're just lost,"
> she said.
>
> Rolnik says that one of the greatest matters of shame is that the US
> has the resources to provide decent housing for everyone.
>
> "In the US, it's feasible to provide adequate housing for all. You
> have a lot of money, a lot of dollars available. You have a lot of
> expertise. This is a perfect setting to really embrace housing as a
> human right," she said.
>
> Rolnik has given a verbal report to the US state department, which has
> a month to respond to her observations. She will submit a final
> written report to the UN human rights council early next year.
> � Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
>is not the best.
Give us your opinion, would you rather that we become a socialist nation,
like many whom we have been measured against?
We have SSI and Medicaid. We have church and community outreach
organizations. Many of those that have fallen so far between and below the
cracks have contributed little, if none, to the system.
Yet, as a "Christian Nation" you have provided no solution or resolution.
What is your point to us, we who sit at the precipice of poverty already?
Common_Sense
news:4487d$4aff4b0d$45395f87$87...@ispn.net:
There is no solution or resolution. The point is that you reap the
inevitable consequences of your own STUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPIDITY. Both
common sense and reality say loud and clear that the time to take action
is before the inevitable occurs. If you are in a raft that is headed
toward the falls, the time to do something is upstream, not when you are
at the falls and it's too late. As Dr. Laura often says, there are some
situations that STUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPID people get themselves into,
that have no solution. Irresponsible, pathetic, mental retards like you
don't think ahead and get yourselves into bad situations and then expect
society to take care of you.
Relayer
> "Six String Stu" <hawkinn...@nccray.net> wrote innews:4487d$4aff4b0d$45395f87$87...@ispn.net:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > "whoever" <whoe...@whatever.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
LOL- How so you think ahead with something like ALS or lukemia or Type
I diabetes or whatever. You can't, just as you can with most mental
illness. I have PTSD which came on at age 48 (and NOT the reason for
my disability). Mine is physical but I have been diagnosed with it by
a licensed psychiatrist. Mine was caused by a medical procedure I went
through where I was for all intents and purposes cut in half. But NO
ONE prepares for an illness. Dr. Laura (whom I think is a knucklehead
and if you listen to her, you aren't working because she's on during
the day) but a mentally retarded individual dosen't prepare for it.
They are usually born that way. I didn't think ahead because there was
no reason for it. I was healthy as an ox 5 years ago and then I felt a
pain. Small at first, then larger, then beyond belief.
95% of people die from disease of one type or another. Very few die of
"natural causes" or "old age". One day, you will wake up, weird lump,
new pain in your back, numbness in your legs, less ability to see,
weird feeling in your mouth, a chest x-ray your doctor looks at twice
or orders c-scan, you begin to talk "horsely", your jaw hurts, your
hands are stiffening, your start getting winded easily, you become
weaker, your doctor orders a new blood test when you just had one, you
lose (or gain) weight for no apparent reason, you start slowly thing
people are looking/talking about you, your memory starts to go, you
can't get it up, it won't go down, uour hip starts
hurting...whatever....most people die of disease. Unexpectantly. No
one "plans" illness. Mine was rather ironic. I and my family were
visitng my mothers grave for the first Christian holiday after she
died. 4 hours earlier, we went to church and then had bruch at a
hotel. As we were standing there, quietly talking, I suddenly jad a
pain I had never had before. Within 30 seconds, I was on the ground,
holding my gut and basically screaming and my then wife helped me to
the car and we drove home and I ended up in the hospital for the first
of 28 times. Like I planned that.
Now, for a reason outside of this forum, and had to figure some
dollars and came that I had paid over $600K in FICA and Medicare
taxes. And they are taking care of me to the best of their ability.
But I paid that as a premium for an insurance policy I had to collect
in begining at only 46 years old, where as some people collect their
premium earlier and some later. But eventually, everyone does, which
makes this a wonderful country. I paid much more than some and much
less than others. But surely more than you. So shut yer yap and be
happy in the knowledge that when it comes to gut check time, you won't
totally be left to your own devices. You will somewhat, but in most
cases you aren't.
If they could cure me, I would be back to work. Probably telling you
why I am firing you. But that isn't going to happen now.
I take that back. If you were working, you wouldn't be on this forum,
one of thousands, so there is nothing to fire you from. But I would
still put a dollar in your cup.
Maybe 2, as you appear to need extra help.
Cheryl
"Six String Stu" <hawki...@nccray.net> wrote in message
news:4487d$4aff4b0d$45395f87$87...@ispn.net...
retirement would be working as work within their mental and physical
abilities would be assigned to them, or in the very weakest form of
socialism work would be made available/accessible. I'm not for socialism,
not in the least, but I do recognize the term has been warped to meet
whatever point people wish to make of it. In it's truest form, though,
Socialism isn't an issue of people contributing little, or none, as you
point out, because the number of people in such a position (hospitalized,
etc.) would probably be an extremely low number. The principal doesn't work
for many reasons. For one, people do not want to share their resources to
such a degree. For two, a doctor would always believe he is worth more
$$-wise than an apple picker even though both are important. For three, the
doctor might not feel it was worth the effort to become a doctor if he could
be an apple picker and share the resources just the same. For four, the list
is too long to get into.
CommonSense
news:e2ece8c8-237f-4678...@d21g2000yqn.googlegroups.com:
You are so far off track and so totally out of touch with reality that
the only thing that could possibly help you is a brain transplant.