Free Republic

Petaluma police Monday were investigating the death of a man whose body was found near the railroad tracks and a homeless center, the third apparent transient found dead since August. The man’s name hadn’t been determined. It appeared he was in his late 50s, Lt. Tim Lyons said. There was no apparent trauma to the body. Several people reported the discovery of the man’s body at about 2:15 p.m. Sunday near Caulfield Lane and Hopper Street. The location is just yards away from Committee on the Shelterless, the nonprofit homeless services center and shelter. Police detectives conducted an extensive search...

At a time when Wall Street is absolutely swimming in wealth, New York City is experiencing an epidemic of homelessness. According to the New York Times, the last time there was this many homeless children in New York City was during the days of the Great Depression. And the number of homeless children in the United States overall recently set a new all-time record. Americans like to think of themselves as "the wealthiest nation on the planet", and yet the number of young kids that don't even have a roof over their heads at night just keeps skyrocketing. There truly...

At a time when Wall Street is absolutely swimming in wealth, New York City is experiencing an epidemic of homelessness. According to the New York Times, the last time there was this many homeless children in New York City was during the days of the Great Depression. And the number of homeless children in the United States overall recently set a new all-time record. As I mentioned yesterday, there are now 1.2 million public school kids in America that are homeless, and that number has gone up by about 72 percent since the start of the last recession. As Americans,...

From the video, "Lesson in Compassion".

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah - Members of a Mormon congregation in a Salt Lake City suburb encountered someone they thought was a homeless man at church on Sunday. What they did not know was the man was a bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

If you’re looking for a racist holiday to protest (and who isn’t?), I can’t think of one that fits the bill better than Thanksgiving. So given it’s roots in the  “mass murder, forced relocation, theft of land and other injustices” to Native Americans, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that the holiday, with very little notice has seamlessly transformed itself into “Gray Thursday” before sliding headfirst into “Black Friday.” Accordingly, the doors of commerce were flung wide open a day earlier this year to welcome the manic shoppers who wished to get a jump on the next secular holiday, formerly...

Hawaii is a place so completely run by Democrats that they can sometimes forget “the cameras are on.” Because death or actual incarnation are the only ways a Democrat in Hawaii can lose his/her seat, they can afford to be their true phony selves without fear of Election Day problems. All their talk about protecting the weak and downtrodden in society – the kind only aimed at Republicans on the mainland – is dispensed with when they are truly alone as they are in the Aloha State. A recent report reminds us of this. Secure in the electoral safety of...

Arsene Wenger may have been left seething by Arsenal’s loss at Old Trafford on Sunday, but the result was a whole lot more damaging for one reckless supporter in Uganda.Gunners mad Henry Dhabasani has been left homeless after betting his house on the result of the game with Manchester United fan Rashid Yiga. In return Yiga staked his new car, and his wife, that David Moyes’ men would triumph. However, it was Dhabasani who came out on the short end of the result after Robin Van Persie’s first-half header settled the match in United’s favour. Arsenal fan left homeless after...

James Brady, the formerly homeless man who earned national praise for turning in $850 he found on the street in Hackensack, learned the hard way this week that no good deed goes unpunished. Brady was denied General Assistance and Medicaid benefits by the Hackensack Human Services Department through Dec. 31 because he failed to report new income he received. The income, according to the agency, was the cash he found on Main Street last spring and that police returned to him in October after no one claimed it. The good deed turned Brady, who was homeless at the time he...

An Englewood women's shelter is without heat this week due to a long overdue bill. Some of the women and children who live in a 13-unit building called Clara's Place are using extra blankets or keeping boiled water on their stoves to keep warm this week, during which temperatures have dropped overnight to around freezing, said Darlene Morman, 53, who said she moved to her two-bedroom unit that she shares with her 8-year-old niece and a roommate four months ago. The founder and director of the shelter, Clara Kirk, who oversees two shelters that take in and provide meals for...

Technical difficulties are still plaguing the federal website for health insurance sign up, but that hasn't stopped dozens of Charleston's homeless residents from signing up for health insurance over the last two weeks. The non-profit agency has a drop-in center for homeless people, some of whom live outside or in shelters. As trained community assisters, Herlihy and other Covenant House staffers were supposed to connect their clients to other helpers that were to actually lead people through the application process. But directing their clients, many of whom have mental illnesses, to other agencies would have been more difficult than leading...

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.