Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — KCBS has learned that Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the principal church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has installed a watering system to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral’s doorways. The cathedral, at Geary and Gough, is the home church of the Archbishop. There are four tall side doors, with sheltered alcoves, that attract homeless people at night. “They actually have signs in there that say, ‘No Trespassing,’” said a homeless man named Robert. But there are no signs warning the homeless about what happens in these doorways, at various times, all through the night....

t could soon get easier to live on the streets in the Golden State. As controversy swirled around the police shooting of a homeless and mentally ill man on Skid Row in Los Angeles, legislators in California considered a new set of regulations activists said would “decriminalize” homelessness by providing a so-called “right to rest” in public.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL– A video uploaded to YouTube on Sunday shows Fort Lauderdale police officer Victor Ramirez harassing and assaulting an elderly gentleman at the Broward Bus Terminal in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The man is not being aggressive or threatening in any way when he is shoved to the ground and slapped by the officer. The man was reportedly trying to use the bus terminal’s restroom. “The guy didn’t raise his hand to the officer at all,” a witness told Local 10 News. “The officer just knocked him down with his hands. The guy was defenseless.”

Houston arson investigators have made an arrest in the early morning fire Friday at an Islamic center on the city's southeast side, fire department officials said late Monday. Darryl Ferguson, 55, of Houston, has been charged with felony first degree arson for the fire, according to HFD investigators. The arrest was announced at a 6 p.m. news conference at HFD's arson headquarters. Investigators say the suspect "rolled up on his bicycle" to speak to them about the fire during an on-scene investigation Monday.

The lawsuit filed by the Venice Stakeholders Association claims authorities are failing to enforce “no camping” laws, which has created ” a public nuisance and dangerous conditions” in one of L.A.’s most popular tourist stops. Mark Ryavec, the president of the Venice Stakeholders Association, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO that the lack of enforcement has spurred more physical attacks by drug-addicted and mentally ill homeless people. ... Ryavec believes officials have a double standard when it comes to public safety in Venice compared with other beach cities. “It is only at the Venice Beach Recreation Area and on adjoining streets that...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sarah Palin, 2016 – is there any possibility? The former VP candidate and ex-Alaska governor hinted on Thursday that she might, just maybe, give electoral politics another try. ABC’s Neal Karlinksy caught up with Ms. Palin while she was serving wild boar chili to the homeless in Las Vegas (we’re not making that up). Mr. Karlinsky asked her if she ever mulled over a White House bid. “Yeah, I mean, of course, when you have a servant’s heart, when you know that there is opportunity to do all you can to put yourself forward in the name of offering service,...

A week ago, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat, called homelessness in his city and the rest of King County a "full-blown crisis." Based on the numbers presented in coverage of the area's situation, we can certainly add the Emerald City to the list of areas where homelessness has been on the rise. Odds are that many readers here didn't know that, because the national press hardly ever pays attention to homelessness when a Democrat occupies the White House. Now imagine the firestorm which would erupt if a Republican or conservative proposed the "solution," however allegedly temporary, Murray is advancing...

A historic number of America's youth – 2.5 million children – are homeless according to a report recently released by the National Center on Family Homelessness. These children, the report shows, are victims of a number of variables that contribute to homelessness including single motherhood, racial disparities and low household incomes. The report, based on data compiled from the U.S. Department of Education and the Census Bureau, reveals that many of the nation's homeless children are on the verge of losing their housing, don't have a fixed residence, are living in places not designated for human beings, or are living...

December 2nd, 2014, 6:44 AM A 51-year-old homeless man stole an unattended ambulance from a Pontiac hospital and told police he was headed to a topless bar, the Oakland Press reports. The keys were in the ignition. The man, who has mental health issues, is expected to be arraigned Tuesday on car theft charges, the paper reported. Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7dd_1417820886#IigS0m5ioYoiGcE7.99

Police and city crews on Thursday began dismantling the nation's largest homeless encampment, notoriously named "The Jungle," in a controversial move that aims to move hundreds of transients from the center of San Jose and find them affordable housing. Police and city crews on Thursday began dismantling the nation's largest homeless encampment, notoriously named "The Jungle," in a controversial move that aims to move hundreds of transients from the center of San Jose and find them affordable housing. Streams of homeless people wheeled their lives out of the encampment on Story Road, their shopping carts full of their belongings. Some...

Veiled by the yellow willows and brush along a forgotten creek bed in San Jose, hundreds of people jerry-built a treehouse and constructed underground bunkers and ramshackle lean-tos to form one of the nation's largest homeless encampments. The 68-acre shantytown is just minutes away from downtown and the high-tech giants that made Silicon Valley one of the world's most opulent locations. For years, the city turned a blind eye to "the Jungle." But the camp along the muddy bank of Coyote Creek has become more crowded in recent years and is awash in rotting trash, rats and human waste —...

The NYPD has identified a homeless man, Kevin Darden, 35, as the suspect in a deadly subway incident that took the life of Wai Kuen Kwok, 61, of the Bronx. Darden has a long history of violence "with more than 30 arrests"—for crimes including "robbery, assault, and narcotics."

The number of homeless children in the U.S. has surged in recent years to an all-time high, amounting to one child in every 30, according to a comprehensive state-by-state report that blames the nation’s high poverty rate, the lack of affordable housing and the impacts of pervasive domestic violence. Titled “America’s Youngest Outcasts,” the report being issued Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. The number is based on the Department of Education’s latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by...

In Harlem River Park in Manhattan, homeless men can be seen sleeping on benches around the basketball courts and sprawled out on a soccer field by day, then hunkering under an overpass at night. In Brooklyn, dog owners in Fort Greene Park have had ugly confrontations with homeless people after their dogs woke them up in the early morning when they are allowed off-leash. And in the Bronx, there are so many homeless people in one small park, Devanney Triangle, that the community board and parks department are discussing the removal of all benches. After a decade in which the...

Do-good fine. Police in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., again cited a 90-year-old man for feeding the homeless in a public park, in violation of a city ordinance. Arnold Abbott, who runs a ministry called Love Thy Neighbor Inc., was first cited on Sunday along with two pastors working with him. They face up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler said the ordinance is not designed to punish the homeless or those who serve them but to balance the needs of all the city’s residents. Abbott, who has been working with the homeless for...

A senior citizen and a couple of clergymen in Florida face up to two months in jail for feeding the homeless. A group of volunteers with the non-profit charity Love Thy Neighbor in Broward County face up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail because they were feeding the homeless last Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, the New Times reports. World War II veteran Arnold Abbott, founder of the interfaith organization, and members of a local church were confronted by Fort Lauderdale police officers because they had reportedly been in violation of the new laws against food sharing —...

A few weeks ago, I was in New York City to meet someone for drinks, and got on the subway at 34th and 7th to head downtown. I dislike the New York subway for many reasons. It is the only such system in a major Western city to look as if it had been swapped with the metro of a third-world backwater. Pick any otherwise dodgy country on Earth, and chances are the subway of its capital city is a gleaming tube with smooth rolling stock and palatial stations. Not New York. The trains lurch between filthy platforms like...

Police have arrested a man they believe robbed a Holiday convenience store on Wednesday. Police said Todd Mielke, 40, was arrested Thursday around 3 p.m. at a makeshift homeless camp near the HyVee South supermarket. Capt. John Sherwin said it all started when a man walked into the Holiday convenience store at 1520 2nd St. SW just before 1:15 a.m. and implied that he had a weapon. Sherwin said the man was wearing a camouflage mask and demanded money from a 20-year-old clerk. The masked man fled the Holiday southbound on 14th Avenue Southwest. The vehicle he was driving was...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Legal marijuana is luring pot tourists and business entrepreneurs to Colorado, and it’s also attracting another demographic: the homeless, some of whom trek to the state in hopes of landing a job in the industry. “There’s an enormous migration, even a homeless movement, so to speak,” David Spencer, a homeless man from Tennessee, said. “I figured this would be a good place to start over.” While shelters across the metro area are willing to open their doors, they’re quickly running out of room. “We were averaging 190 (homeless) last year. We’re now averaging 345 a night,” Murray Flagg of the...

The city of Pasadena is letting homeless people keep the change. The Los Angeles suburb is turning 14 parking meters into repositories for donations made to nonprofits that serve the homeless, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. Pasadena’s housing director, Bill Huang, says the hope is that people who might be reluctant to hand spare change to a panhandler will be more open to putting it in a meter. […] Some homeless advocates complain the meters aren’t a serious enough effort to help the homeless. They also say that in some cities meters have been used to push panhandlers out...