Free Republic

After surviving two long, cold Wisconsin winters on the streets, Betty Ybarra traded freezing park benches and tents for a tiny house made of recycled wood she helped build herself. Her 99-square-foot home, which boasts flower window boxes, was built by volunteers of the Occupy Madison group, as part of about a half dozen similar projects around the United States, including in New York and Texas, to shelter the homeless. -SNIP- "The village will bring dignity. We will have a fence and we will have community," organizer Trina Clemente said. For Ybarra a tiny house means much-needed normalcy after many...

ORLANDO -- Right now investigators are looking for the person responsible for a deadly triple shooting in Orlando’s Pine Hills Neighborhood. It happened in the 2700 block of Hiawassee Road earlier tonight, around 7:15 p.m. Officers responded to a homeless camp behind the Bravo Supermarket in Pine Hills. Upon arriving, officers found three men in their 40’s all suffering gunshot wounds. All three of them were taken to the hospital where one has died and the other two in stable condition. So far investigators believe this began as some sort of robbery and that’s when the shots were fired. A...

A new religious statue in the town of Davidson, N.C., is unlike anything you might see in church. The statue depicts Jesus as a vagrant sleeping on a park bench. St. Alban's Episcopal Church installed the homeless Jesus statue on its property in the middle of an upscale neighborhood filled with well-kept townhomes. Jesus is huddled under a blanket with his face and hands obscured; only the crucifixion wounds on his uncovered feet give him away. The reaction was immediate. Some loved it; some didn't. "One woman from the neighborhood actually called police the first time she drove by," says...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Dayton police have located a homeless man who was allegedly beaten by three area teens who recorded the attack characterized as "The Knockout Game." In the video, a 17-year-old is seen following Ronald Baird, 57, of Dayton as he was collecting cans in an alley near the Stivers School for the Arts on East Fifth Street in Dayton. The 17-year-old and a 15-year-old who recorded the video are students at Stivers. In the video obtained exclusively by WHIO and the Dayton Daily News, the teen is seen hitting the man, knocking him to the ground and following him when...

San Francisco spends $165 million a year on services for homeless people, but all that money hasn't made a dent in the homeless population in at least nine years. And in fact, the city's homeless tally may have long been underestimated. In addition to the 6,436 homeless adults counted during one night last year, a separate daytime count specifically of homeless youth found 914 children and young adults living in San Francisco without parents or guardians and without a roof over their heads. These findings are part of a new report by Harvey Rose, the budget and legislative analyst for...

A homeless man was given a lottery ticket by a stranger. But it wasn’t this kindness that’s especially touching, it’s what the homeless man tried to do with some of the money after he won. In the age of video blogging, we’ve seen a lot of people film their heartwarming efforts to help those less fortunate in their community. This film on the YouTube channel Magic of Rahat sets itself apart. The channel host said he has seen a homeless man near a local shopping center in the last few weeks. “And from what people have told me, he’s a nice and...

... Those on the My Brother's Keeper team searching for answers about how to help the most "at risk" young minority men would do well to stop by the Doe Fund in New York City, where, for more than 25 years, the organization run by George and Harriet McDonald has helped homeless men. The program they run is based on a clear contract between the shelter managers and the homeless men. "You get up every day and go to work and stay drug free—and we will pay you and house you and feed you. It's as simple as that," Mr....

While tiny houses have been attractive for those wanting to downsize or simplify their lives for financial or environmental reasons, there's another population benefiting from the small-dwelling movement: the homeless. There's a growing effort across the nation from advocates and religious groups to build these compact buildings because they are cheaper than a traditional large-scale shelter, help the recipients socially because they are built in communal settings and are environmentally friendly due to their size. "You're out of the elements, you've got your own bed, you've got your own place to call your own," said Harold "Hap" Morgan, who is...

Facing a growing homeless population, San Jose is ready to try a new strategy to get people off the streets: pay to put some of them up in local hotels and motels, potentially for years. ...housing prices continue to climb and landlords become pickier about renters...100 homeless people roaming San Jose streets have publicly funded vouchers for subsidized housing but cannot find a place that will accept them. "It's just a tough place to live because of how expensive it is," said Leslye Corsiglia, the city's housing director, who called it an opportunity for homeless people "to get themselves settled...

A sheet of plastic laid over a clothesline. A mini-fortress of milk crates stacked under a tree. A thin mattress on a flimsy crate lying in a dark tunnel. On the edge of Baltimore's woodlands, dozens of the city's transients live in makeshift homes which they consider safer than homeless shelters. Photographer Ben Marcin has captured some of the shanties in his thought-provoking photo essay, 'The Camps', documenting the struggle, loneliness and ingenuity of Maryland's people of the woods.

The road most traveled: Most of the settlements Marcin photographed were by waterways, railway tracks, Walmarts, gas stations and liquor stores. (Daily Mail) As America suffers through its worse recovery on record, a homeless camp has cropped up on the outskirts of Baltimore. Daily Mail reported: A sheet of plastic laid over a clothesline. A mini-fortress of milk crates stacked under a tree. A thin mattress on a flimsy crate lying in a dark tunnel. On the edge of Baltimore’s woodlands, dozens of the city’s transients live in makeshift homes which they consider safer than homeless shelters. Photographer Ben...

QUEENS — The NYPD and the MTA plan to clear homeless men and women out of the subway system after a skyrocketing number of people have sought shelter there from the brutally cold winter, police officials said.

George Zimmerman says his problems continue. He told a Spanish language television station he is now homeless, battling post-traumatic stress disorder, more than $2 million in debt and lives in fear for his life. Zimmerman opened up on the Univision television show "Aquí y Ahora" (Here and Now) that will air Sunday on the Spanish language station at 7 p.m. Zimmerman also discussed his well-known struggle with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an African-American teen who was walking in Zimmerman's neighborhood in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012. After he called the cops, the two got into a fight that ended with...

Link only - Angry Residents Wave Pitchforks, Torches In Protest Of Mayor's Crackdown On Homelessness

A woman has been arrested after a toddler she was caring for was found inside a filthy storage unit with no water and little food. Collier County Sheriff's deputies arrested the 44-year-old woman on Wednesday. She faces a felony child neglect charge.

New York man’s home seized after he comes up $936 short on $10,813 tax tab A Syracuse man had his home seized after he paid back $9,877 in city taxes over a six-month period -- but came up $936 short. "I tried so hard. I tried so hard to make these payments," Calvin James, who found out he lost the home when he walked into City Hall on Dec. 6 with a $1,500 check, told The Syracuse Post-Standard. The property had been seized Dec. 4. The paper reported that the city launched an aggressive foreclosure campaign in 2012. The program...

Man gives change to homeless person, is handcuffed and held by police for an hour Greg Snider was in a Houston, Texas parking lot, on the phone making a business call. While in the lot, a homeless man approached his car and asked forchange. Snider gave him 75 cents and then drove off. KPRC Local 2 News reported on the shocking thing that happened next. When Snider pulled onto a nearby freeway, a police car pulled him to the side. Greg was surprised by how aggressive the officer was, telling KPRC, “He's screaming. He's yelling. He's telling me to get...

What advice would you give to a retired Air Force Colonel that has three graduate degrees and that cannot even find work as a janitor? 59-year-old Robert Freniere once served as a special assistant to General Stanley McChrystal, and he has spent extensive time in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But now this man who once had an office in the heart of the Pentagon cannot find anyone who will hire him. In addition to his story, in this article you will also hear about several other middle-aged professionals that cannot find work in this economy either. Despite what the...

**SNIP** Just hours after being sworn in as the city’s public advocate, Letitia James went on TV to claim that she played a key role in helping expose “the face of poverty in the City of New York” on the ‘front page of The New York Times. **SNIP** But the Times refuted James’ account, saying she had nothing to do with its articles. “Andrea Elliott [the Times reporter] met Dasani in the course of interviewing residents outside the Auburn shelter, and exposed conditions there by following the family. Andrea never talked to Ms. James, nor was she source for the...

Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men. He isn't a social worker. He's a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan's nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head. "This is how labor recruiters like me come in every day," Sasa says, as he strides past men sleeping on cardboard and clutching at their coats against the early winter cold. It's also how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the...