Chicago official: Homeless should take cabs to get to shelter

hvactec

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It could be a long winter for the homeless in the Windy City following the layoffs of 24 bus drivers who took street people to emergency shelters during overnight hours.

But a city bureaucrat’s offer of a possible alternative was perhaps colder than the bitter nights that lie ahead for the city’s homeless.

“Public transportation, cabs,” Evelyn Diaz, head of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, told a reporter who asked about possible fallback options, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

When the reporter pointed out that homeless people generally can’t splurge for taxi rides, Diaz ignored the scribe, the paper reported.

The layoffs went into effect this summer. The paper reported that the moves followed a $2.4 million cut in state funding to the city that forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel to cut expenses.

Read more: Chicago official: Homeless should take cabs to get to shelter  - NY Daily News

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Economy leaves too many children without a home...
:(
Homeless children at record high in US. Can the trend be reversed?
December 13, 2011 : One out of every 45 children – some 1.6 million – is homeless, according to a report released Tuesday. That number surpasses the one set after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
More children than ever before in America are going to sleep at night without a home to call their own. One out of every 45 children – some 1.6 million – in the United States is homeless, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness. The majority of the children are under age 7. The number of homeless children in 2010 exceeded even the total in 2006, when thousands of families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced a historic spike in homelessness. Last year, at least 60,000 more children were homeless. Homelessness among America’s youths can have far-reaching consequences. “If you believe that children are the future of our country, then you should be concerned because these homeless children have gradually become a prominent part of a third world that is emerging in our own backyards,” says Ellen Bassuk, president of the National Center on Family Homelessness in Needham, Mass.

The factors that can lead to child homelessness, such as extreme poverty and worst-case housing needs, have worsened with the economic recession – even though total housing capacity for families increased by more than 15,000 units in the past four years. “The recession has been a man-made disaster for vulnerable children,” Ms. Bassuk says. The National Center’s findings were released in its “America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010” report, which documents the number of homeless children in each state and their well-being. It also evaluates the risk for child homelessness and state-level planning and policy activities. “Despite their growing numbers, homeless children are invisible to most of us; they have no voice and no constituency,” the report says. “Without a bed to call their own, these children have lost safety, privacy, and the comforts of home, as well as their friends, possessions, pets, reassuring routines and communities.”

Children experiencing homelessness also tend to struggle with hunger, poor health, and missed educational opportunities. A majority of homeless children have limited proficiency in math and reading, according to the report. Compared with their housed counterparts, homeless children, in general, exhibit twice as many illnesses, such as respiratory infections, per month, according to a report by Ellen Hart-Shegos for the Family Housing Fund in Minneapolis. Furthermore, Bassuk says, homelessness affects the emotional health of children. “When you talk to adolescents and younger school-aged kids, they’re universally incredibly embarrassed about being homeless,” she says. “It’s a stigmatized situation for a kid who wants to be accepted by their peers, and when they’re ashamed, they will do anything to make sure their friends don’t find out.”

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It could be a long winter for the homeless in the Windy City following the layoffs of 24 bus drivers who took street people to emergency shelters during overnight hours.

But a city bureaucrat’s offer of a possible alternative was perhaps colder than the bitter nights that lie ahead for the city’s homeless.

“Public transportation, cabs,” Evelyn Diaz, head of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, told a reporter who asked about possible fallback options, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

When the reporter pointed out that homeless people generally can’t splurge for taxi rides, Diaz ignored the scribe, the paper reported.

The layoffs went into effect this summer. The paper reported that the moves followed a $2.4 million cut in state funding to the city that forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel to cut expenses.

Read more: Chicago official: Homeless should take cabs to get to shelter* - NY Daily News

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Maybe they could hitchhike?
 
My parents suffered through the Great Depression and barely avoided becoming homeless. They told stories about bread lines, soup kitchens and the Bellvue Hospital (New York City) morgue wagon that picked up frozen corpses from doorways and alleys on winter mornings. So these cab stories seem like imminent deja vu to those of us old enough to have links to parents who lived through it and talked about it.

One thing my father talked about was the sharp contrast in economic status. It seemed that half the population was flat broke and hurting while the other half was doing just fine and appeared oblivious to the plight of the impoverished. Based on things I've read, heard and seen (e.g., a local tent city) that situation exists today but the awareness factor is more prevalent today because American society is far more alienated today than it was in the thirties, mainly because of television and increasing social isolation. Back then people had more contact with others because of the relative lack of electronic diversions and the effects of class consciousness and obsessively competitive consumerism.

There is no doubt in my mind that were it not for Social Security and Medicare there would be many more homeless, sick and helpless seniors living on the streets today.
 

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