Attention: People living in tents

[BacktoBasics]

Look at these numbers to qualify. Well below poverty level for multiple persons.

● Your income must be below these income levels for this property*.

Income Qualification Table
1 Person $16,850

2 Persons $19,300

3 Persons $21,700

4 Persons $24,100

5 Persons $26,050

6 Persons $27,950

[CuckingFunt]

TIFBS



Should have used that money for a bus to a town with a shelter.

P.S. There is assistance for people locating shelters too.

If "what little savings they had left" bought them a tent, getting on a bus wasn't an option.

I appreciate the point you're trying to make, and understand the source of your frustration. I genuinely do. But it simply isn't as easy as you seem to think to get yourself out of such a situation. It just doesn't work that way.

The very real fact of the matter is that our system of welfare and assistance is so completely ed, from top to bottom, than when you reach a certain level of poverty and disadvantage (which, incidentally, can happen a of a lot faster than people would assume), it becomes increasingly difficult to take advantage of the programs and services that are intended to help you. To assume that walking up to city hall with your hand out is enough to get something is naive to the point of ignorant. To assume that compounding an already bad situation by jumping on a bus and moving to a strange city in which you have absolutely zero support network is a viable option for anyone (I certainly wouldn't do it, especially since most of the services I would hope to take advantage of require established local history) is even more so.

[CuckingFunt]

The people that are truly disconnected from the real world are the people that think these tent city people and others like them aren't given the resources and opportunity to obtain a better lifestyle. A week a month whatever.....I can understand that an initial blow could put someone on the street. As a lifestyle. NO ING WAY.

Very few people should be forced to live like this with no hope in site and those people probably shouldn't be out in the general public.

The longer you're jobless and homeless, the further removed you are from legally established address/employment history, the harder it becomes to get out of that situation. That's just a ing fact.

[CuckingFunt]

Free takes time I agree. When I met my wife her brother was living in income controlled housing. He had a two bedroom two bathroom for about 450. They do single bedroom single bath apartments all the way down to 125 a month at the time. There were vacancies and to be honest I didn't even know they were income controlled. It was a nice complex. Corpus has six complexes like that and we're a small city. Fill out an application and move in right away just like a normal complex. No waiting periods. Just produce whatever paycheck stub you have. Little to no deposit required.

I agree it takes work but between the food stamps and the shelter along with the available free training I'm certain they can find a way out in a 4-6 month time period and probably less than that.

The majority of these people aren't seeking help. Too busy feeling sorry for themselves.

As of two years ago (a little less, actually) when I was working in property management in San Joaquin County (directly south of Sacramento County), the waiting list for the Section 8 program was over two years. The waiting list for emergency Section 8 housing was about two months.

Furthermore, many of the applicants we had who were in the Section 8 program, emergency or no, had to be rejected because they didn't come close to meeting our application standards. Establishing residency, and I know this for a fact from having done this for a living for ten years, is EXTREMELY difficult when you are lacking either current employment or current residency. Especially when, as I suspect is the case now given the number of people who are downsizing and moving out of their homes, property managers likely have no shortage of applications from people who do have more extensive proof of income and rental references and are, therefore, more qualified applicants. Renting an apartment when you're homeless and jobless requires that you find someone who has a property available and ready to move in, is willing to take a chance on an unqualified applicant, and is patient enough to get in touch with someone who likely doesn't have a phone of their own to arrange showings and a rental agreement signing.

[exstatic]

then get a job so you can afford one

Chicken, egg. You need the PO Box to get the job.

[Blake]

Chicken, egg. You need the PO Box to get the job.

so get a job to get the p.o. box, so that you CAN get a job.

not sure what's so hard to grasp about that

[JoeChalupa]

If "what little savings they had left" bought them a tent, getting on a bus wasn't an option.

I appreciate the point you're trying to make, and understand the source of your frustration. I genuinely do. But it simply isn't as easy as you seem to think to get yourself out of such a situation. It just doesn't work that way.

The very real fact of the matter is that our system of welfare and assistance is so completely ed, from top to bottom, than when you reach a certain level of poverty and disadvantage (which, incidentally, can happen a of a lot faster than people would assume), it becomes increasingly difficult to take advantage of the programs and services that are intended to help you. To assume that walking up to city hall with your hand out is enough to get something is naive to the point of ignorant. To assume that compounding an already bad situation by jumping on a bus and moving to a strange city in which you have absolutely zero support network is a viable option for anyone (I certainly wouldn't do it, especially since most of the services I would hope to take advantage of require established local history) is even more so.

Well said.

[peewee's lovechild]

http://www.news10.net/news/local/sto...=56550&catid=2

Cal Expo Seen as Temporary Answer to Tent City

SACRAMENTO, CA - Sacramento's "tent city" along the American River will be gone in a few weeks, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced Thursday afternoon.

That doesn't mean the estimated 150 people who've set up camp there will be without a place to stay. The temporary solution reached by a taskforce created by the mayor is to allow the residents to stay at Cal Expo's seasonal shelter.

Johnson said extra beds have been found, daily shelter hours will be extended and the facility will now stay open to the end of June. An area for some tents to set up temporarily at Cal Expo will be part of the transition.

"They are people out there and we have to do what we need to do to make sure they have the respect and dignity they deserve," Johnson said. "And it's a very complicated issue. We all understand this."

The tent city captured the national spotlight recently when Oprah Winfrey profiled it on her daily show.

The taskforce is made up of several residents of the encampment, homeless advocates, property owners and city officials.

The taskforce is slated to make its recommendations to the Sacramento City Council next Tuesday.


News10/KXTV
Copyright 2009 / All Rights Reserved

[BacktoBasics]

but but but I thought they were going to be alienated for life.

[Taco]

They need an EDAR

http://www.takepart.com/blog/tag/edar/