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Men who are heavy drinkers and homeless for long periods of time have 400 times the number of head injuries as the general population, according to a new study by researchers who said they were shocked by their findings. These men have 170 times as many severe head injuries as the general population and 300 times as many injuries that cause bleeding in the brain. The study by Dr. Tomislav Svoboda, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, appears online in Emergency Medicine Journal. The study also looked at head injuries in the general homeless population and among people...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Homeless people would be allowed to sit, sleep and panhandle in public under a bill that passed a legislative committee on Tuesday, even as some lawmakers cited concerns about its potential effect on local governments. The measure from state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, says every person has a right to use public spaces, regardless of housing status. The bill is partly a reaction to ordinances passed in recent years by several cities concerned about the number of people on the streets. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and Palo Alto are among the municipalities that...

Homeless people in California would have the right to rest in public spaces, including sidewalks, without the threat of arrest, and local governments would have to provide access to bathrooms and showers, under a bill that passed its first major test Tuesday. The bill, called the Homeless Person's Bill of Rights and Fairness Act, could supersede local laws - including in San Francisco - that bar people from sitting or lying on sidewalks unless those localities meet certain requirements. It was introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, and passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 7-2 party-line vote, with...

US police have arrested a beggar who allegedly set a man on fire outside a convenience store because he didn’t give him money. The 37-year-old beggar reportedly approached his victim as he got out of his car at a California 7-Eleven store and asked him for money, US network ABC reported yesterday. The 63-year-old man refused to give him money and walked into the shop. When the man left the store and got into his car the beggar doused him and the inside of the vehicle with a flammable substance and lit it on fire. "With the door open you...

Did you know that there are thousands upon thousands of homeless people that are living underground beneath the streets of major U.S. cities? It is happening in Las Vegas, it is happening in New York City and it is even happening in Kansas City. As the economy crumbles, poverty in the United States is absolutely exploding and so is homelessness. In addition to the thousands of "tunnel people" living under the streets of America, there are also thousands that are living in tent cities, there are tens of thousands that are living in their vehicles and there are more than...

Madonna's brother Anthony Ciccone stoked a family feud, saying that his famous sister didn't care 'if I'm dead or alive.' Pop queen Madonna has legions of fans. But her estranged brother, Anthony Ciccone, isn't one of them. Ciccone, 56, is a homeless alcoholic who has lived on the freezing streets of Traverse City, Mich. For almost three years. And he's stoking the family feud between him and his famous sister.

SIERRA VISTA — Nearly 20 former members of America’s armed forces will be laid to rest Wednesday at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery as part of the Missing in America Project. The project is designed to honor homeless and indigent veterans to ensure they receive a military funeral, which in this case will be the placement of their cremains in the state-operated veterans’ cemetery columbaria, as has been done in the past. The service for the solders, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsman will be held at 1 p.m. However before that time, the cremains will travel from the...

Scouring for his next meal in a dumpster downtown, a homeless man is ticketed by Houston Police. Now, opponents point to the citation as validation of arguments against the city’s homeless feeding ordinance.

The Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission was ordered to destroy 1,600 pounds of venison by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. It’s not that there was anything wrong with the meat. It had been processed in accord with regulations put out by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. It’s just that the Mission hadn’t gone through the appropriate channels to get venison on the approved foods list. “Just because an organization is trying to feed the hungry doesn’t mean they can serve whatever food they want,” Secretary Bruce Greenstein explained. “That the food may be wholesome and nutritious is not...

The Dept. of Health and Hospitals ordered the staff at the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission to throw 1,600 pounds of donated venison in garbage bins – and then ordered then to douse the meat with Clorox – so other animals would not eat the meat. “Deer meat is not permitted to be served in a shelter, restaurant or any other public eating establishment in Louisiana,” said a Health Dept. official in an email to Fox News. “While we applaud the good intentions of the hunters who donated this meat, we must protect the people who eat at the Rescue Mission, and...

SHREVEPORT, La. (CBS Houston) — Louisiana’s State Health Department forced a homeless shelter to destroy $8,000 worth of deer meat because it was donated from a hunter organization. KTBS-TV reports that the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission lost 1,600 pounds of venison because the state’s Health Department doesn’t recognize Hunters for the Hungry, an organization that allows hunters to donate any extra game to charity. “We didn’t find anything wrong with it,” Rev. Henry Martin told KTBS. “It was processed correctly, it was packaged correctly.” The trouble began last month after the Department of Health and Hospitals received a complaint that deer...

A homeless man in Kansas City, Missouri is facing a windfall of more than $100,000 for his kindness after he returned a diamond engagement ring to its rightful owner, which she had accidentally dropped into his donation cup. Billy Ray Harris, who is homeless and often sleeps under a bridge, was shocked to find that a diamond ring had been dropped in his collection cup while begging last Friday. ‘The ring was so big I knew if it was real it had to be expensive,’ he told KCTV. Rather than pawn it, Harris had a hunch that the owner would...

Honolulu (HawaiiNewsNow) - Accorrding to the 2012 Point-in-Time Count, there are nearly 6,300 homeless across the state. A proposed house bill would establish a program that helps those not from Hawaii return to their home state and reconnect with their family. State Representative Rida Cabanilla is proposing House Bill 533, which establishes the 'Return-to-Home' program and is seeking $100,000 in appropriations to fund the endeavor. "It's (the program) only for select individuals that can really benefit from the program, meaning they have support services, they want to go home, but they can't go home," Cabanilla said. "That sort of stuff."...

Killeen's homeless have nowhere to go, and that means dozens, possibly hundreds of our veterans are stuck out in the cold. More than 62 thousand American veterans are living on the streets. Nickie, a 58-yr old Vietnam Marine veteran, is one of them, but the Fort Hood area doesn't have any homeless shelters, turning cold nights into life or death battles that leave Nickie wondering. "Am I going to make it until tomorrow? Am I going to make it, straight up," said Nickie with tears in his eyes. A few warming centers open, but only when temperatures dip below freezing,...

The Bread of Life Mission, which has served the homeless community in Pioneer Square for more than 70 years, said the city has directed them to stop feeding the hungry in downtown parks. On the third Saturday of every month for the past three years, volunteers for the mission have handed out meals at places such as City Hall Park. The offering was in addition to the three meals a day they serve inside their building at 97 South Main Street. "It was a service we were offering free of charge to be a blessing to the homeless," said Executive...

Are you ready for a wild 2013? It should be a very interesting year. When the calendar flips over each January, lots of people make lots of lists. They make lists of “resolutions”, but most people never follow through on them. They make lists of “predictions”, but most of those predictions always seem to end up failing. Well, I have decided to put out my own list of predictions for 2013. I openly admit that I won’t get all of these predictions right, and that is okay. Hopefully I will at least be more accurate than most of the other...

The city streets are teeming with thousands of mentally ill homeless people capable of psychotic acts of random violence if left untreated, experts warned yesterday. As many as 11,000 of the city’s 33,000 homeless adults have some form of mental illness, said D.J. Jaffe, executive director of the Mental Illness Policy Organization. Of that number, about 3,300 are potentially violent, Jaffe said. “When untreated, they’re capable of horrific acts,” said Jaffe. “The danger is that they’re so sick that they don’t know they’re sick, and their brain is incapable of regulating their own behavior.” He urged New Yorkers to be...

SEATTLE — Duane Taylor was studying the humanities in community college and living in his own place when he lost his job in a round of layoffs. Then he found, and lost, a second job. And a third. Now, with what he calls “lowered standards” and a tenuous new position at a Jack in the Box restaurant, Mr. Taylor, 24, does not make enough to rent an apartment or share one. He sleeps on a mat in a homeless shelter, except when his sister lets him crash on her couch. “At any time I could lose my job, my security,”...

Attorneys for sex offenders who claim they’re too poor to register have filed a separate case against the city of Chicago on behalf of homeless sex offenders who say they can’t register because they don’t have permanent addresses. Douglas M. Montgomery, a plaintiff in the new case filed Thursday, says in the lawsuit he’s been in the Cook County Jail since July 2011 when he was arrested for urinating in public. He’s awaiting trial on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender. Montgomery, 57, said he was living under a bridge in January 2011 and police refused...

Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) says he will introduce legislation aimed at establishing what he termed “a homeless bill of rights.” “As it stands right now, a homeless person can be prosecuted for breaking into and occupying a vacant house,” Ammiano complained. “This places the property rights of an absentee home owner ahead of the human rights of the poor and impoverished. That's not fair.” While the details of the bill are still sketchy, the gist of the proposed legislation would exempt the deprived from being punished for helping themselves to any unused and inadequately secured private property. In...

Building off of Rhode Island’s community effort, a coalition of West Coast organizations is working with Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) to introduce a Homeless Persons’ Bill of Rights and Fairness Act today. The bill’s author, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, said, “We need to stop criminalizing the behavior of people who have nowhere else to turn. People who are in need of mental health services or who have lost their jobs and their homes are being told, ‘Move along or go to jail.’ The Homeless Persons’ Bill of Rights begins to give us a framework for appropriate approaches to protecting our...

he barefoot man helped by a kind cop in New York City is not actually homeless. Last week, we told you about the heartwarming story of an NYPD officer giving a homeless and barefoot man a pair of winter boots. The story seemed almost too good to be true. And, according to one report, that is in fact the case. The New York Daily News reported on Monday that the barefoot man in question, Jeffrey Hillman, is not actually homeless. Instead, he has an apartment in the Bronx thanks to disability benefits and vouchers. The article also notes that Jeffrey...

<p>BOSTON (AP) — They say no man is an island, but Michael Richard Smith has been creating his own floating homes in Boston Harbor.</p> <p>The Coast Guard and Boston police are keeping an eye on the unconventional camper who has been tying his canoe to small offshore docks in the city's inner harbor and pitching his tent to sleep at night.</p>

The barefoot homeless man who was given a pair of shoes by a kind-hearted beat cop is wandering the streets shoeless again. Jeffrey Hillman, 54, was spotted panhandling on the upper West Side Sunday without the $100 boots NYPD Officer Lawrence DePrimo bought for him on a frigid November night in Times Square. “Those shoes are hidden,” Hillman told The New York Times after he was spotted walking around with no shoes on Broadway near W. 79th St. “They are worth a lot of money. I could lose my life.” A tourist from Arizona snapped a cell phone photo of...

Just yesterday I was leaving the food store with my 83 year old mother in my car when we encountered an old woman holding a piece of cardboard that said "homeless" (quotes were included). This old woman made eye contact with me and her scraggly gray hair, her worn clothing, and her pathetic help me expression really stirred up my sympathy. When I stopped at the stop sign near where the begging woman was standing I said to my mother, "Let's give her some something, it's Christmas". We came up with a five dollar bill and my mother waved it...

One tourist's photograph, among the countless snapped every day in the Big Apple, has gone viral. The moment captured is one of generosity, and since it was posted on Tuesday, it has circled the globe and brought a lot of attention to one young New York City cop. Had it not been for a tourist from Arizona who snapped the photo with her cell phone, Officer Lawrence DePrimo's act of kindness, giving boots to a homeless man, may have gone unnoticed. Tourist Jennifer Foster emailed the photo to the NYPD and they posted it to their Facebook page. Tens of...

A photo of a New York City police officer kneeling down to give a barefoot homeless man in Times Square a pair of boots on a cold November night is melting even the iciest New Yorkers' hearts online.

Should homelessness be a protected trait — like sex, race, age and many others — in the city of Madison? The city’s advisory Equal Opportunities Commission is beginning to look into adding homelessness to the list of characteristics which may not be considered in housing, employment and public accommodation under Madison’s Equal Opportunities Ordinance. Interest in exploring whether homeless people should be designated a protected class to ensure their civil rights goes back to a controversy early this year about efforts to dissuade the homeless from hanging out in the lobby of the City-County Building, committee Chairman Brian Benford told...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has issued a directive blocking persons from donating food to the homeless in his city. “It's not that we question the generous intent of these donations,” Bloomberg reassured. “It's just that we have no way of guaranteeing the quality of the donated food. The risk is that donor ignorance could result in excessive amounts of salt and fat in the diets of these unfortunates.” If those operating homeless shelters or the homeless themselves do not turn away food donations, NYC police are authorized to seize food items before they can be consumed. While there...

Obama team may regret what they thought was an opportunity with Hurricane Sandy. As the linked story mentions Media talking about people eating out of dumpsters, no electricity, gas shortages. Those photo ops will be forgotten quickly and these stories are going to be going on through election day.

It was just before sunrise when Bernie Kern wheeled himself to an outdoor plaza at Laguna Honda Hospital for his usual morning cigarette. He'd been living in the hospital for five years, but four decades of homelessness before that had left him with an enduring affection for the early morning chill and quiet. The cigarette was done in a few minutes. It was his last. Kern was found peacefully slumped in his wheelchair just outside the elevator, his heart given out from the long years on the streets. That was Oct. 9. He was 90. Having long outlived every relative...

As a biographer of Ronald Reagan, I’m constantly asked to compare today’s fiscal/economic situation to what Reagan faced in the 1980s. Today’s record debt/deficits remind of the 1980s, though today’s are far worse, with the deficit at least six times as high—and debt-to-GDP and deficit-to-GDP ratios two and three times (respectively) higher. The current economy is the worst since the early 1980s, with a prolonged non-recovering "recovery” older still. By 1984, the Reagan recovery was not just in bloom but exploding, with dramatically improved unemployment and economic growth six times higher than the current anemic rate, awarding Reagan millions of...

Consider it a modern take on the legendary tale of Johnny Appleseed. Vancouver, B.C., has announced plans to plant 150,000 fruit and nut trees on city streets, in parks, and on city-owned lands in the next eight years, reports the Vancouver Sun. At the moment, the city has about 600 fruit and nut trees on city streets, and another 425 can be found in the city's parks, community gardens, and pocket orchards. "Street trees play an important role in helping Vancouver adapt to climate change, manage stormwater run-off, support biodiversity, and even provide food," Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a...

On one hand it is easy to sympathize with the owners of motor homes who live on the city's streets. "I've got my life savings tied up in it," said Robin Tyree, a 59-year-old woman who parks her motor home near the San Francisco Design Center. "I'm just trying to survive." Unfortunately, RVs line the curb along Oak and Fell streets next to Golden Gate Park and along Great Highway, and in the Bayview a group has set up an outdoor couch, coffee table and TV viewing area. Finding a park for motor home owners might be a good idea...

A Sacramento man came home Tuesday morning to find a stranger at his front door, fresh from a shower in his house. “She had my son’s robe on and I assume nothing else, but I didn’t check to see,” Randy Kizer said. She made herself right at home. “She used this towel right here, and that’s where she took the shower,” Kizer said as he showed CBS13 the bathroom the woman used. “She even found soap.” “It was like I was intruding into her home — not the other way around,” said Randy. (VIDEO AT LINK) A bewildered Randy Kizer...

<p>A homeless man was sentenced today to 60 days in jail for choking a pelican to death because he was hungry.</p> <p>The District Attorney's Office said Sergio Alvarez, 30, caught the bird near the Malibu pier on Aug. 22.</p> <p>About 5:50 p.m. that day, a bystander flagged down a sheriff's deputy and said a man was choking a pelican.</p>

How LA deals with its homeless continues to evolve, and recognition of their property rights has compelled the city to modify its approach to cleaning and clearing the Skid Row sidewalks, a place many people reside and keep their belongings. "You get tired of carrying it around," said Ken Owens, 64, who finds himself homeless waiting for his pension to kick in after his next birthday. Last year, homeless advocates received a federal court order enforcing property rights, forbidding city cleanup crews from simply throwing away unattended items such as clothing or toiletries or ID. For want of a workaround,...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Christopher Boyd, a homeless Los Angeles man who handed out his resume alongside LA freeways, has been hired. The 44-year-old is working for Jack The Roofer in Simi Valley for a week and then will work full time for JB Wholesale, a Los Angeles roofing and building supply company who works with Jack The Roofer. Boyd was spotted along the freeways handing out flyers listing his skills ranging from marketing, property management, construction to professional driving. “I’ve been all over LA,” Boyd said last month. “I got tired of going to interviews, going places and not...

Agencies scramble to devise plan to house homeless during DNCby CLAIRE McNEILL & DAVID PERLMUTT WCNC.com Posted on August 14, 2012 at 6:41 AM CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A last-minute plan to house the homeless who might be displaced during the Democratic National Convention has many in the faith community scrambling for volunteers. **SNIP** Hanneman wrote that at least 150 beds – a “best guesstimate” – could be needed each night from Aug. 24 through Sept. 7, the day after the DNC ends. “These … include people who are homeless and sleeping in center city Charlotte, and families living in motels...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Mecklenburg County, the Wells Fargo Foundation and the Temple Beth El Religious School are among the contributors to a $20,000 fund to help keep low-income families from being displaced from motels by rising rates during the Democratic National Convention. The motel fund is part of a multi-tier approach homeless services agencies unveiled Monday in anticipation of as many as 100 families being displaced

Nathan Duszynski, a 13-year-old whose hot dog cart was shut down by city officials in Holland, Mich., is now homeless, along with his disabled parents. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy first reported the story. Nathan had saved up money for a hot dog cart to help his parents pay their bills. His mother suffers from epilepsy and his father suffers from multiple sclerosis, limiting their ability to work. The family survives on $1,300 a month in disability assistance, food stamps and medicaid, but has struggled to stay afloat. “Nate and I are now in a shelter,” Nathan’s mother Lynette...

Christian ministry leader Dawn Martinez was told she could no longer hold the twice-a-week Bible studies she has taught for homeless people for the last two years inside a McDonald's in Camden, N.J. A night manager at the fast food restaurant told her last week that a customer had filed a complaint. Martinez wonders if it could have been because of the topic briefly discussed at one point last Monday – the Muslim faith. The 33-year-old, who began the ministry to transients and drug addicts two years ago, describes the Bible study group's last meeting on Monday. "It was a...

A new program in San Francisco will pair carefully selected dogs from shelters with panhandlers in an effort to steer the latter away from asking for money on the streets and keep the animals from being euthanized. The temporary guardians (the words "pet" and "owner" are frowned upon in San Francisco) will receive weekly stipends of $50 to $75 and must agree to jettison their cardboard signs in the pilot project believed to be the first of its kind in the country. The program, scheduled to start in August, is called WOOF, short for Wonderful Opportunities for Occupants and Fidos....

Following on the heels of Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on certain sugary drinks in New York City restaurants, a wave of absurd regulations has seemingly begun emanating outwards. In neighboring New Jersey, drivers can be fined up to $1000 for driving with “unrestrained” animals in the car, and the Mayor of Berkeley, California is looking to ban sitting on sidewalks. According to CBS in Philadelphia, police and animal control officers will be authorized to ticket New Jersey drivers between $250 and $1,000 if they have “unrestrained” animals in the front seat of their car, on the driver’s lap, partially out the...

LA County Finds Health Code Violations in Skid Row LOS ANGELES (AP) — The city of Los Angeles is violating the county health code for hazardous conditions on Skid Row, including nearly 90 rats' nests, a dozen hypodermic needles and piles of human excrement and trash on sidewalks, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has found. The notice of violation stems from an extensive Health Department inspection last month of the 10-block area of downtown Los Angeles that houses the nation's densest population of homeless people, most of them mentally ill and substance abusers. Health officials ordered the...

A former child actor, who enjoyed fleeting fame on the 1980s comedy “Small Wonder,” is reportedly broke and homeless —and blames a stripper for his troubles. Down-on-his-luck actor Jerry Supiran, 39, also claimed a crooked money man contributed to his current situation, living under a bridge in central California, according to The National Enquirer. The former child actor played adorable preteen Jamie Lawson, who was the brother of his adopted sister, Vicki, a robot made by their dad. “When I was 18, I dated a stripper and she took what was left of my trust fund —then one of my...

ST. LOUIS • As the rumble of Bobcats and a massive front-end loader approached Hopeville on Friday, Antoinette Triplett, who heads the city's homeless services division, scuttled through the riverfront encampment in high-heeled shoes, looking for one last hold-out.

Merchants and nearby residents are hoping a new police foot patrol on Telegraph Avenue and at People's Park will reduce the numbers of transients and their aggressive dogs that drive other people away. The patrols started April 30. On day two, they arrested a South Carolina murder suspect who was doing push-ups in People's Park. Police said they initially questioned the man because of his shopping cart, which is illegal to possess. After running his name through a database, he was arrested on a no bail warrant. The patrols, two teams of two from UC Berkeley and the city of...

Having tried everything else, the managers of San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium are blasting the overnight homeless off their doorstep with the high-decibel sounds of chainsaws, motorcycles and jackhammers - topped off with an aircraft carrier alarm.The nocturnal bombast - which runs at a steady clip between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. - is broadcast through the Civic Center building's outside speakers. "I thought it was the building alarm going off," said building manager Robert Reiter.Concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment - which has been given exclusive rights to operate the auditorium - says it has no other choice. "I'm...

Muppets Revenge: Outraged Homeless Muppets to Converge on Goldman SachsPRWeb – 6 hrs ago At 11:00 a.m., April 23, 2012, artist Joey Skaggs will lead a band of outraged costumed muppets down to Goldman Sachs offices at 200 West Street in NYC. Skaggs will be peddling his Mobile Homeless Homes prototype -- a low cost alternative living space for the millions of upside-down, underwater or foreclosed homeowners who have lost their houses due to the banking crisis that caused the real estate collapse.