Basically the State Department for Children and Families in Springfield economic services are leaving people homeless in the cold even pregnant women and not helping anyone when they are supposed to help everyone especially in this kind of weather.
www.rallylist.com
Video: Living under a bridge doesn't stop this homeless woman from staying positive.
In other news, gainfully employed, tax paying, drug free, responsible drinking Vermonters will be holding a rally for a reduction in the price of beer. Come join us on the square Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM. Adjuring at noon to the Moose Club for refreshments and beer pong.
ReplyDeleteTranslation: Drunken rednecks protesting their crappy jobs by blowing their paychecks on booze. Blaming the government, then bashing people who have nothing will follow.
DeleteI'm all for helping the homeless, I am so thankful that my family is well, and would help anyone needing help, if they are trying to help themselves. Since this is being held on a Monday during office hours, maybe move it to the employment office, I know many places in town hiring and can not find people.
ReplyDeleteRoger, there are ample jobs at all skill levels for anyone wanting to work. Vermont's current unemployment rate is only 2.9%. One of the lowest in the country. For those unable to work or just faking it, there are redundant safety nets. Anyone out on the street is there due to mental illness or booted from housing for dealing drugs.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 11:29, I think that was my point, tired of these protest this protest that, if the rally were at the employment office, maybe they could find a job and not become homeless... help yourselves by getting a job and caring for yourselves. But being clear here, we need safe guards for those who try and are not successful... but with those programs we need time limits and programs and steps to get them on their feet.
ReplyDeleteThat all sounds fine, but many of these jobs don't pay enough to keep one off the streets without some type of government subsidizing. Also, I recommend that all those who think it's easy to find a job without an address to put on the application should try it. I was once in between homes, (living in a hotel) BOTH of which I paid cash for. NO ONE would hire me, and I wasn't really homeless, I just didn't have a permanent address!
DeleteUtah has found out that the most effective way of dealing with the homeless is to give them a home.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense: Anybody who's had to go without washing for a couple of weeks, who doesn't have enough clothes to be able to use a laundromat (unless they hide naked in the bathroom during the wash and dry cycles), who cannot get their sleeping bag dry between uses and whose diet is almost homicidal because they can't cook anything is likely to be very grateful to find that at least they have a place that is dry, allows them to air out their clothing and sleeping bag, lets them in and out as they need. They will be sure to take very good care of it while they make other attempts to improve their life.
Chuck, Vermont is so generous with housing assistance and EBT cards, only those electing homelessness by their actions are. Certain you are aware there is a element of the population that rejects ALL responsibility. It's a free country and I'm not about challenge them over their value system because it offends me. For those complaining low wages cramp their lifestyle, getting a second job and enrolling in job training are both very effective solutions. You are paid exactly what your labor is worth.
DeleteSo let's see. Work 16 hours a day, spend two more in school, maybe two more hours in transit, two hours or so for food and personal hygiene, that adds up to 22 hours per day. I guess they can sleep when they're dead, right? And no, you are only paid what your boss THINKS you're worth, which is as little as they can get away with. If you are unlucky enough to work for a Dominionist Conservative Evangelical or an Ayn Rand follower, your paycheck is viewed as a gift; workers are ALL considered unworthy of compensation by them! This is why conservatives hate social welfare programs; they prevent you from treating us like slaves! God Bless America!
DeleteChuck it is a vicious cycle I understand that, when I was 17 years old I figured out how to get out of my moms house and on my feet alone, and we we're living off of food stamps etc, pull up the boot straps and make it happen with a little help from the government.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're seventeen and reasonably physically fit, not only can you spend a couple of years living in a car and finding the job you like by quitting the ones you don't, but you are viewed by employers as somebody who's likely to adapt quickly to new routines.
ReplyDeleteBut when you're 55 and laid off because Carrier took your job to Mexico, and now you're losing your house because you can't afford the last three years of payments, and you no longer have the stamina or health of 28 years ago, and you know what the prospective employer is really saying when he says, "Of course, this is at-will employment," and when you see the 17-year-olds who are applying for the same job you are, and when you know that this job will be paying one-third of what you used to make-- why, then it looks like maybe you've lost your bootstraps as well as your house and your livable wage...