More Tent Cities Popping Up Around the United States. This is a follow up (one of many) on the Sacramento Tent City. Luckily, this is not a huge issue anymore in Cleveland.
She mentions the history of University of Mississippi, Michael Oher, who was drafted on Saturday by the Baltimore Ravens, but spent his childhood homeless on a regular basis. The best part of this story is about the varied definitions of homelessness across the federal government. The Department of Education has a broad definition while HUD has a limited definition. NEOCH and the National Coalition for the Homeless support a broader definition. The new definition proposed in the reauthorization of the homeless funds in DC is the most complicated and convoluted definition I have ever seen. If this passes, it would take twice as long for the shelters to determine if a person is homeless or not. We hope that the Congress comes to their senses and revises the definition before passing this bill.
Shannon talks about the release of the National Low Income Housing Coalition report "Out of Reach," which provides details on the amount of money necessary in each community to afford housing. This did not get as much coverage as it has in the past. A couple of years ago, in many communities a person had to have 2 or more full time jobs in order to afford housing. With the slight increase in the minimum wage in Ohio and in the United States it is not as stark a figure. There is still no where in the United States that a minimum wage job will allow a person to afford the fair market housing, and no where does a disability payment allow a person to find housing affordable without a subsidy.
Shannon also recently commented on the Soloist and many other issues. I would advise bookmarking it, and checking it out on a regular basis.
Brian Davis
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