Free Republic

Carol and Willie Fowler had a lavish wedding reception planned for their daughter, Tamara. Or, they did until the nuptials were called off earlier this month with a mere 40 days to spare. Instead of letting the four-course meal planned for September 15 at an upscale Atlanta restaurant go to waste, the Fowlers called a local charity and asked if they could donate the food to a local charity.

South Sudan Establishes Database On Homeless ChildrenBy Christian EdwardsJuba, South Sudan — September 19, 2013 (SSN) … Ms. Awut Deng, South Sudan Minister of Gender Child, Social welfare and Humanitarian Affairs, has engaged in a countrywide audit aimed at establishing the actual number of street children and orphans for the purpose of national planning. Minister Deng has travelled to the Eastern Equatoria state to assess the situation of the homeless children there. Her visit, she said was to collect views of various civil servants, experts, charity workers on how best the street children could be helped to lead a normal...

After shattering a $50,000 goal in donations to reward homeless Boston man Glen James for returning a lost backpack with more than $42,000 in it, a gofundme.com campaign has extended its goal to $250,000 to get the honest man a house. "Good morning everyone! Great coverage on the story so far! Thank you all so much. YOU are the reason this is happening. Now, let's get this man a house!!" wrote Ethan Whittington, organizer of the gofundme campaign seeking to get James a house. Some 2,451 people donated $63,724 in the first 24 hours since the campaign was launched by...

A humble homeless man who returned a backpack full of cash and traveler’s checks to police said he felt “very, very good” to do it and used a ceremony honoring him at police headquarters to thank all the people who have ever given him money on the street.

Kansas City's honest beggar is moving on up after returning the engagement ring a woman accidentally left in his cup. Billy Ray Harris was able to buy house and car after donors rewarded his act with more than $190,000 in online gifts. "When I think of the past, I think, 'Thank God it's over,'" he told the "Today" show. "I mean, I feel human now." Harris was living on the streets of Kansas City, Mo., in February when Sarah Darling dropped a few coins and her diamond and platinum ring in his cup. Neither noticed until later. Harris said a...

Silicon Valley has a serious homeless problem, despite the fact that the Valley is home to some of the richest zip codes in the nation. Over the past eight years the U.S. watched its homeless population decline by more than 130,000 people. That's a nearly 17 percent drop that flies in the face of Silicon valley's 8 percent increase in its homeless population over the last two years. Not including San Francisco — which has a serious homeless problem of its own — the Silicon Valley stretches through the Santa Clara Valley down from Redwood City, through Palo Alto, Mountain...

What would you do if a police officer threatened to arrest you for trying to share a sandwich with a desperately hungry homeless woman that really needed it? Such a notion sounds absolutely bizarre, but this is actually happening in major cities all over the United States. More than 50 large U.S. cities have adopted "anti-camping" or "anti-food sharing" laws in recent years, and in many of these cities the police are strictly enforcing these laws. Sometimes the goal appears to be to get the homeless people to go away. Apparently the heartless politicians that are passing these laws...

This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years. We provide, without cost or obligation, hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to anyone who wants one. We keep this promise to our community in cooperation with five different large suburban churches that help us with manpower and funding. Today officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested.

McConlogue approached Leo, a 36-year man who lives on the streets of lower Manhattan, on Thursday and gave him two options. The first was $100 in cash. The second option on the table was a laptop, three JavaScript books and two months of coding instruction from McConlogue. Soon, McConlogue will deliver him a Samsung Chromebook with 3G connectivity, three JavaScript books, a solar charger for the laptop and something to conceal the laptop in. He will spend an hour before work every morning teaching him the basics of software coding.

WEST MONROE, La. (CBS Houston) — A New York City hotel kicks out one of the stars of “Duck Dynasty” after an employee thought he was a homeless man. Appearing along with his family on “Live with Kelly and Michael” Wednesday morning, Jase Robertson described the incident. “The first thing that happened to me at the hotel was I got escorted out,” Robertson said, joking that it was a “facial-profiling deal.” Robertson said that the hotel employee simply didn’t know who he was. “I asked where the bathroom was and he said, ‘Right this way, sir.’ He was very nice,”...

The United Communities Against Poverty (UCAP), a Maryland-based charity, joined with the Prince George’s County Young Democrats and other groups to host the second annual “Help 4 Shepherd’s Cove” on July 27, a day of performances, support, and donations for the Shepherd’s Cove Homeless Shelter for Women and Children in Capitol Heights, Md. United Communities Against Poverty was established in 1964 and has become the leading advocate in Prince George’s County for communities of people facing deficiencies in education, affordable housing, economic stability, and adequate health care access. Their mission is to alleviate poverty, improve awareness of the needs of...

Hawaii is hoping to take the burden off its welfare system by saying aloha to its 17,000 homeless residents. The state will offer one-way tickets home to any eligible homeless person to anywhere in the continental United States. Hawaii has allotted $100,000 for a three year trial run of the so-called 'return-to-home' program, which could also even offer participants beds on cruise ships bound for their homes.

Hawaii is hoping to take the burden off its welfare system by saying aloha to its 17,000 homeless residents. The state will offer one-way tickets home to any eligible homeless person to anywhere in the continental United States. Hawaii has allotted $100,000 for a three year trial run of the so-called 'return-to-home' program, which could also even offer participants beds on cruise ships bound for their homes.

BENNINGTON, Vt. — An infestation of bedbugs has forced the temporary closure of a homeless shelter in Bennington, Vt. ... In the meantime, the women and children who would normally stay there are being placed in temporary locations, including motels

MALAGA, Spain, Jul 28 (IPS) - "You live there for free, don't you?" asked a woman as she passed by the Buenaventura "corrala", a community in a building in this southern Spanish city occupied since February by families evicted from their homes for falling behind in their mortgage payments due to unemployment. "We don't want any handouts. We want to pay, through a social rent scheme," replied 42-year-old Yuli Fajardo, who was living in a tent before she found shelter along with some 40 other people in one of the 13 spacious apartments in this four-storey block of flats in...

It's a basic human act, and it says a lot about society -- and the state of homelessness in Santa Cruz in the year 2013 -- that a discussion about keeping people from doing it in public places is even warranted. But here we are. The problem: An increasing amount of human waste is being found along the San Lorenzo River levee and in downtown-area open space. People relieving themselves in public spots is apparently a growing problem in the city, one that has residents who regularly walk the levee path and business owners along Front Street -- many of...

A “beggar” who claimed he was homeless and hungry for years was earning £50,000-plus ($76,690+) a year and living it up in a £300,000 ($460,140) flat, a court heard. Simon Wright, 37, sat outside a NatWest bank in his tatty clothes with his sleeping bag, his dog, and a handwritten sign telling of his plight. Generous passers-by took pity on him and regularly gave him £200 ($306.76) to £300 ($460.14) a day. After “work”, he went home to his smart council flat, in Fulham, west London. … The council’s community safety spokesman, Councillor Jonathan Cook, said: “Anyone who lives, works...

Our investigators visited the homes and offices of legislative sponsors of the California Homeless Bill of Rights to find they're not interested in practicing what they preach. Their investigative reward? Homeland Security threatening their fourth amendment rights. Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R_En28jaeM

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...