Former addict helps 'invisible people' break the cycle of homelessness

[David_42]

I'm in a good mood today, thought I'd share some stories such as this one.
Former addict helps break homeless cycle - CNN.com

San Bernardino, California (CNN)Kim Carter never had a chance to be a child.

At a very young age, she was exposed to heavy drugs, violence and criminal activity.

"People shooting heroin -- we'd be playing as kids, and there would be needles on the ground," Carter said. "It was rough."

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It wasn't long before the life Carter witnessed became her own. At 5 years old, she had her first drink. At 17, her first hit of crack cocaine.

"I didn't know then when I took that first hit that I was going to lose the next 12 years of my life," she said.

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Carter cycled in and out of prison, prostitution and homelessness. Then one day she had a revelation: It was time to change.

While in prison in 1993, she was accepted into a rehabilitation program that started her on a path to overhaul her life and get clean.

"I had a lot of sleepless nights -- I felt like God was telling me: 'I didn't bring you through all of this for nothing,' " she said.

Today, Carter and her nonprofit, the Time for Change Foundation, help homeless women reclaim their lives. The group provides housing, counseling and job training, as well as services to help women reunite with their children.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/27/us/cnn-heroes-carter/index.html#

 

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LA City Council pledges $100 million to work against homelessness...

LA City Council committee declares state of emergency on homelessness
Sept. 22, 2015 -- A City Council committee in Los Angeles declared Tuesday a state of emergency on homelessness and pledged to commit $100 million to work against it.

The plan will complement Mayor Eric Garcetti's plan to combat homelessness, but the source of the funds has yet to be disclosed. Garcetti had publicized Monday a plan to devote a smaller amount of $13 million worth of leftover funds towards short-term housing efforts.

If the council's plan goes through, the Los Angeles City Council's Housing Committee would be granted the money and the responsibility of figuring it how to spend it. Projects would include long-term housing and bigger shelters for a large chunk of the 26,000 homeless people in Los Angeles that live on the streets.

The homeless situation in Los Angeles was declared to be in a "state of emergency" by a city council committee on Sept. 22, 2015. The greater part of 26,000 homeless people in the city live on the streets. This is a photo of a homeless man under the Hollywood Freeway

Councilman Gilbert Cedillo told the LA Times that the problem of homeless people must be fixed in order for the city to be "great," host the Olympics and otherwise show "itself off to the world." Fredy Ceja, a spokesman for Cedillo, also added that the state of emergency declaration would allow city leaders to expedite proposed projects.

Cedillo said the source for the funds would be determined by the city's policy analysts. However, the announcement Tuesday follows City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana's April report on homelessness in the city, which said that Los Angeles spends more than $100 million a year on the problem already.

LA City Council committee declares state of emergency on homelessness

 

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Cisco donates $59M to fight California homelessness...

Cisco Systems Gives $50M to Combat California Homelessness
March 26, 2018 — Internet gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. announced Monday that it will donate $50 million over five years to address the growing problem of homelessness in California's Santa Clara County and is encouraging other Silicon Valley companies to make similar efforts.

In a blog post, Chief Executive Chuck Robbins said people in the San Francisco Bay Area know homelessness has reached a crisis level, costing the county where many tech companies are based $520 million per year. "Though homelessness seems intractable, I believe that it is a solvable issue," Robbins wrote. "I also feel very strongly that we have an opportunity — and a responsibility — to do something about it." Northern California's booming economy has been fueled by the tech sector. But the influx of workers coupled with decades of under-building has led to a historic shortage of affordable housing throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Homelessness is now pervasive throughout Silicon Valley.

Tents are set up along a pathway in the Jungle, a homeless encampment in San Jose, California​

The median rent in the San Jose metro area is $3,500 a month, but the median wage is $12 an hour in food service and $19 an hour in health care support, an amount that won't even cover housing costs. The minimum annual salary needed to live comfortably in San Jose is $87,000, according to a study by personal finance website GoBankingRates. Cisco's donation will go to Destination: Home, a public-private partnership that focuses on getting housing for the homeless as the first step in addressing other problems related to health, addiction, family estrangement and joblessness. In addition to financing housing, the funding will also help improve data collection about homelessness services so money is spent more efficiently.

A man who goes by the name of D cooks lunch from a makeshift tent where he lives in the Jungle, a homeless encampment in San Jose, California​

Ray Bramson, chief impact officer for Destination: Home, said the leadership shown by Cisco and its CEO is what the community needs to see from the major technology companies that call Silicon Valley home. "We've always known that tech could be a good partner," Bramson said. "We're hoping that by Cisco really stepping up and giving us this support we're going to see other great organizations in our valley step up. ... No one agency, no one organization can really do it alone."

A group of homeless people, including Ellen Tara James-Penney (wearing blue) left, a lecturer at San Jose State University, receive a meal at Grace Baptist Church in San Jose, California​

Cisco's donation is believed to be among the largest of its kind in the region. The tech company last year pledged $10 million to Housing Trust Silicon Valley's TECH fund, on the condition that it would be matched by others. LinkedIn matched $10 million.

Cisco Systems Gives $50M to Combat California Homelessness