homeless in America
All posts tagged homeless in America
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see You
I want to see YouTo see You high and lifted up
Shinin’ in the light of Your glory
Pour out Your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy
Tuesday Afternoon Philly Outreach gives out food & clothing every Tuesday afternoon 2:30 PM at 18th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City Philadelphia (in front of the Free Library) as long as supplies last. Donations are greatly needed and can be made through credit card or PayPal at https://tuesdayafternoonphillyoutreach.org/donations/ You can donate there as well to the UESF Homeless Vet Project.
Gloria In Excelsis Deo
Kind of says it all.
photo: Blue Street Journal
Debbie and Chico Jimenez, who run Spreading the Word Without Saying a Word Ministry to help people in poverty.
“… that’s why we ask Good Samaritans to coordinate with our social service agencies, because they know who needs to be served.” – Police Chief Mike Chitwood
Really? Are they God? Love All Feed All Serve All” – means ALL – we don’t get to pick and choose. They tried to stop us in Philly from feeding the homeless, the people were outraged and did it anyway. The ordinance was overturned. Thank you Deb & Chico. They are Wednesdays, we are Tuesdays. Let’s all help them out and support these angels. Spread it. – Nancy Bragin
Florida couple who retired from their management jobs to care for the poor vowed Monday to wage a tenacious legal fight days after being fined more than $300 each for violating a local law.
Debbie and Chico Jimenez openly admit committing the act that earned them two citations apiece: feeding more than 100 people who are homeless in Daytona Beach.
Police in Daytona Beach also threatened them with arrest and incarceration, if they offer any more of their home-cooked meals at Manatee Island Park, a gathering the Jimenezes say they’ve hosted every Wednesday for the past year.
“The worst thing is, these are people we have grown to love, they’ve become like family to us, and now we’re not allowed to go down and do that anymore. It’s just heartbreaking. I have cried and cried and cried,” said Debbie Jimenez, 52, a retired auto parts store manager. She and her husband, 60, a retired construction manager, operate New Smyrna Beach-based ministry called “Spreading the Word Without Saying a Word.”
“One of our (homeless) friends said that Wednesday is just not going to be Wednesday anymore,” Debbie Jimenez added. “We were given 10 days to either pay the fine or tell them we’re going to court. We’re going to court. The police don’t like it. But how can we turn our backs on the hungry? We can’t.”
Debbie and Chico Jimenez, who run a ministry to help people in poverty, were were ticketed last week $373 a piece (along with four other people) for feeding about 100 homeless people at a Daytona Beach Park.
In all, police officers ticketed six people, including four volunteers who helped the Jimenezes on Wednesday – one of them, a man in a wheelchair who recently escaped homelessness and participated “to pay it forward,” Debbie Jimenez said. The fines levied by authorities total $2,238.
But Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said the Jimenezes had been warned one week earlier to stop their weekly feeding sessions after local residents complained that some homeless people gathering in the park were defecating and urinating on the grounds, and that some were showing up drunk at dawn.
“We as a city have spent millions of dollars to turn that park into a place for families, kids and dog lovers,” Chitwood said. “We have an ordinance that says when people want to perform acts of kindness or charity that they must coordinate with our local social service agencies.
“They were told (the previous Wednesday) that if they come back there, they would be cited and they could risk going to jail,” Chitwood said. “There is a segment of the homeless population that is homeless by choice. I don’t want to impugn them all. But some are homeless because they are sex offenders, substance abusers and bank robbers. That’s why we ask (Good Samaritans) to coordinate with our social service agencies, because they know who needs to be served.”
“We as a city have spent millions of dollars to turn that park into a place for families, kids and dog lovers.
The big-buck investments made by Daytona Beach to rebuild Manatee Island Park include boat docks, kayak-
launching sites and spots to view families of manatees – plus playgrounds, picnic areas and a dog area.” – Chitwood
The Jimenezes contend they never were warned to stay away.
“We’ve been down there a year, and the police have been around and not one of them has ever said one word,” Chico Jimenez said. “This time, the police said we are creating more homeless people by feeding them in the park, that we are enabling them by giving them one meal in a week. Does that make sense to you? It’s so crazy.”
Daytona Beach is not alone among cities that formally and legally restrict non-governmental individuals who seek to share food with homeless people in public or private spaces.
According to a report co-released by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, during the past seven years Gainesville, Fla., began “enforcing a rule limiting the number of meals that soup kitchens may serve to 130 people in one day;” Phoenix, Ariz., “used zoning laws to stop a local church from serving breakfast to community members, including many homeless people, outside a local church;” and Myrtle Beach, S.C., “adopted an ordinance that restricts food sharing with homeless people in public parks.”
The Jimenezes videotaped their final feeding event, and their interactions with police officers. During one portion of the tape, Chico Jimenez pans the long line of people waiting for a plate of chicken patties topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onion, plus green beans with sausage, macaroni and cheese, pasta salad, chips, and sodas. He captures several of the volunteer food servers. And he shows police officers using a cruiser hood to write down the volunteers’ identifications.
One notable moment captures a Daytona Beach police officer telling Jimenez, “You’ve got to have permits,” as a woman plating food immediately widens her eyes.
“Each week, we celebrate somebody’s birthday. We have over 100 people every week – it’s always somebody’s birthday,” Chico Jimenez said. “On the tape, you can hear us singing ‘Happy Birthday’ as a group.”
On that videotape, the same police officer accuses the Jimenezes of staging “a permanent birthday party,” adding: “You can’t just call it a birthday party.”
First published May 12th 2014, 10:24 pm
BILL BRIGGS
“You know, the cops are out there sweeping out these camps, destroying the closest thing to a normal life that these people have managed to carve out in this crazy world,” Sponberg wrote. “Throwing everything they have into the garbage.”
A group of fired-up activists in Portland, Ore., who were tired of seeing homeless people being mistreated staged the kind of protest that will be difficult for the mayor to ignore.
An estimated 4,000 people sleep on the streets of Portland, Ore., on any given night and, since last summer, life has become increasingly difficult for them.
So, a group of protesters descended upon Portland City Hall on Tuesday night carrying pitchforks and torches to “shame the mayor into action,” organizer Jessie Sponberg told The Oregonian.
Portland appears to be gearing up to revive a bill that would allow police to rouse homeless people sitting on sidewalks, The Oregonian reported at the end of last year. In July, Mayor Charlie Hales launched an effort to clear out homeless campsites, according to the Portland Mercury.
Sweeping campsites often exacerbates the situation for people living on the streets because the police discard homeless people’s few possessions, which may include their only warm clothing and blankets, advocates noted in a Change.org petition.
But Hales told The Oregonian in August that he plans on balancing the crackdown on homeless camps with increasing funding for overnight shelters. But he didn’t commit to a spending figure.
“This is not about homelessness,” the mayor told the paper about the anti-camping law. “It’s about lawlessness.”
Hordes of advocates have continued to voice their concerns about the extensive measures, but Film the Police Portland — a grassroots advocacy group — took their protest beyond just handing out petitions.
The group of about 50 protesters set up shop at City Hall on Tuesday, waving pitchforks and torches. They turned the surrounding gardens into a cemetery scene to signify the number of homeless people who have frozen to death, Sponberg wrote on his Facebook page.
They said they hope their efforts will urge Mayor Hales to stop criminalizing homelessness.
“You know, the cops are out there sweeping out these camps. Destroying the closest thing to a normal life that these people have managed to carve out in this crazy world,” Sponberg wrote. “Throwing everything they have into the garbage. And it’s not that the cops are doing this because they are jerks. They may be jerks, but they get a pass on this one. In this case they are just doing their jobs, following city policy, as per established by Mayor Hales.”
h/t Al Jazeera America
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Philadelphia, PA May 3, 2014 — You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day – the sun was shining, cherry blossoms in bloom and the birds chirping as thousands made their way down Walnut Street enjoying unique craft items from local shops and great food and drinks from the best restaurants in town. Thanks to everyone who donated to Philabundance and the Tuesday Afternoon Homeless Project – Philly truly is all about Brotherly Love.
For more information on the Tuesday Afternoon Homeless Project go to tuesdayafternoonhomeless.wordpress.com. Donations of t-shirts, sweatpants, underwear, socks and toiletries are greatly needed – contact them, they’ll even pick up. To donate cash via PayPal or credit card go to http://nancybragin.com/services. 100% of the proceeds benefit Philadelphia Homeless – because one homeless Philadelphian is too much.
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Tuesday Afternoon Homeless at Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival.
Nancy Bragin & Linda Elliott of Tuesday Afternoon collecting donations at Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival.
Same Mayor who tried to ban the people of Philly from feeding the homeless and put bars in the middle of park benches in front of the Art Museum so the tourists wouldn’t have to bear the horror of seeing the homeless. – Nancy Bragin
WELCOME TO Wonderland, home of Brotherly Love, Sisterly Affection and kowtowing to criminals – alleged, convicted, foreign and domestic.
We start with a rogues’ gallery of Philly cops who were videotaped with their hands in the cookie jars (or down women’s pants) who didn’t seem quite guilty enough for our D.A. to prosecute. (After an uproar, he is reviewing claims women were groped.)
Mayor Nutter signs an executive order ending “ICE holds” in Philadelphia. Behind him are (from left) Fernando Trevino of the mayor’s Office of Immigration; Managing Director Richard Negrin; Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez; and the mayor’s chief of staff, Everett Gillison. (Ed Hille/Staff)
That’s domestic. From abroad, we have “immigrants” (which is what language-abusing apologists call them, foreswearing the precedent “illegal”) who arrive undocumented, break our laws, jump our borders, overstay their visas and violate our sovereignty.
The cops have been a problem a long time, even before (and after) Frank Rizzo.
Immigration laws pull one family in many directions
Our illegalistas, a more recent problem, employ a long-term negotiating strategy: Scream bloody murder that their (fill in the blank) civil rights or human rights or constitutional rights or extraterrestrial rights are being violated. Scream at the mayor until he gives them half of what they want to STFU.They wait a year or two, return, start screaming about the same damn thing and he gives them another half. It’s the Shampoo Strategy: Complain, rinse, repeat.
August 2009 was the first local print mention of so-called immigration advocates (illegal immigrant apologists) demanding the city end participation in “Secure Communities,” a voluntary federal program by which local police check the immigration status of arrested persons and hold them (for 48 hours) as Immigration and Customs Enforcement researches them. The idea was to find, and deport, criminals. Mayor Nutter said he saw no reason to halt the program.
A clown posse led by Councilman James Kenney said the plan would make “immigrants” less likely to report a crime for fear of being deported. That was monumental fearmongering because those reporting crimes, or victims, were neither fingerprinted nor arrested.
Less than a year later, a brainwashed Nutter said he’d end cooperation with ICE and stop the feds (which are regarded by some as the Gestapo) from accessing the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System.
“Immigration advocates” claimed PARS led to deportation of those arrested for even “minor” crimes. ICE is trying to protect us from criminals, but the open borders crowd isn’t interested in Americans’ rights.
We can’t allow our sympathy for their desire for a better life to erase our right to ask, “Why didn’t you come here legally?” Their problems are self-inflicted, a result of their illegal actions.
Nutter said he wanted to shield undocumented-immigrant crime victims and witnesses from harm. In July 2010, he extended the agreement, but deleted the names of victims and witnesses. A fair compromise.
Done deal? Not quite.
A couple of weeks back, hounded by illegal immigrant enablers, Nutter extended cooperation with ICE but with an executive order studded with crippling loopholes. ICE will be notified only if the suspect has a previous conviction, but not just a conviction, it must be a felony. But not just a felony, it must be a first- or second-degree felony. But not just a first- or second-degree felony, it must also involve violence.
If ex-cons meet those stupefying criteria, Nutter will order them held in the Presidential Suite of the Four Seasons. (I made that last one up.)
In short, if you are here illegally, you can (nonviolently) steal cars, embezzle, deal drugs and burgle with no fear Philly will report you to ICE.
Within a few weeks, Nutter decriminalized foreign felons and criminalized smoking in parks.
Welcome to Wonderland.
Stu Bykofsky
Daily News ColumnistEmail: stubyko@phillynews.com
Tuesday Afternoon Philly Outreach 
