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Movement Headlines

2022-05-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

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Live Stream

2022-05-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

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http://ku.audioport.org/homeless_128.m3u

This is live streaming video from the Homelessness Marathon. Or, click on one of the sound links above to just listen to the broadcast

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Poverty: Is anyone listening?

2010-03-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

From Freep.Com, the website of the Detroit Free Press.

BY JEREMY ALDERSON

Jeremy Alderson conducts the
2007 Homelessness Marathon
in Fresno, Calif.

I remember an episode of the old TV show "Father Knows Best" in which the son brought home a shortwave radio, and the whole family gathered round to listen. Of course, this being television, the situation quickly turned dramatic, and sitting in their suburban living room, the TV family became the only ones to hear the distress signals from a sinking motorboat miles away. They wound up calling the Coast Guard, and the episode ended with a grateful skipper saying something like, "Thank you out there, whoever you are."

I'm thinking about this because I opened my own little window on the world and heard a distress call much like on TV, except that what I'm hearing anyone can hear, and there isn't likely to be a rescue.

What happened was that I started a new feature called "Movement Headlines," on the Web site of my organization, "The Homelessness Marathon" (a national radio broadcast, not a race). For thirteen years we've been going from city to city airing the voices of desperately poor and homeless people, because we know that no one can speak better about the problems of the poor than the poor themselves (at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, we'll begin a broadcast from Detroit). It seemed like a natural extension of our work to also post news about the broader anti-poverty movement, but I ran into an unexpected problem.

Though it is quickly gaining strength, the American anti-poverty movement is presently so weak that most people don't even know it exists. It's weak for a lot of reasons -- including a left more involved with race than class, corporate media with no interest in the poor, and the remaining adequacy of the bread and circuses we Americans enjoy -- so there's sometimes not enough movement activity to warrant reporting.

Instead of chronicling a demonstration here and a hunger strike there, I often find myself posting headlines about all the misery around the world from simple want. I'll be the first to say that what I wind up publishing (or "aggregating") is the most depressing collection of stories this side of a torture chamber. Even so, I often stop and wonder why these news items aren't common knowledge. Let me give you an example.

There have been stories for months now about the growing threat of famine in the Horn of Africa. Malnutrition is already severe around the region, millions of people are only being kept alive by food aid, and there is fear among cash-deprived aid agencies that they won't be able to keep up.

Now why isn't this life-and-death struggle, which involves millions of people, common knowledge in the United States? Before you answer, bear in mind that this isn't just about the Horn of Africa. There's also an estimated 140 million Arabs living below the poverty line; 56% of the French people say they fear becoming homeless; the poverty rate has doubled in Finland; the situation of India's children has been called "a total failure of Democracy"; scurvy has reemerged in Britain; one third of Egypt's children are malnourished; homelessness is rising among young Japanese professionals; at least 30% of Kenya's children between 12 and 18 earn money from sex; the UN says that, for the first time, over one billion people around the world are going hungry, and the price of food, like an inexorable tsunami, is rising pretty much everywhere.

I might add that things aren't so great here, either. In Detroit, for example, want of funds forces Alternatives for Girls to turn away 500 - 800 otherwise qualified 15- to 20-year-old candidates for shelter every year, and what does anyone think happens to 500 - 800 destitute young women left on the streets?

These are the messages I'm seeing, and as I said, they're there for anyone to see, which brings me back to the question as to why the awareness of widespread poverty is a fringe form of knowledge, while the possibility that there's a small number of Al Qaida in Yemen or somebody new in Brittany Spears' bed is front and center in our minds.

When it comes to other people's poverty, just understanding it can open many doors. If we knew more, we might be able to help more. We might also find cases where we bear responsibility. The question has been raised, for example, if our pollution caused Africa's drought or, for that matter, if our economic policies drove Haitians into Port Au Prince shantytowns. It seems unlikely that we're to blame for all the poverty in the world, but where we're blameless, it is still a case of when the canary dies in the coal mine, it's not a veterinary problem. What is making other people poor -- or whatever part of it we're not already experiencing -- may be coming after us. Forewarned is forearmed.

Those are some substantial reasons to pay attention to poverty, but there are some insubstantial ones too. No one can measure the value of the smallest things. If homeless people are wounded by the cold stares of passersby (and they are), how much better will they feel if given a warm smile instead? Perhaps we underestimate the difference we can make.

Perhaps we are too much like that fictional motorboat skipper who thought no one was listening in. Whether one conceives of it as simple cause and effect, with the universe providing the equal reaction to our every action, or one conceives of it as being observed by an all-knowing, all-judging Almighty, maybe, in some sense, we really are being heard. Maybe it really does make a difference what we do.

Jeremy Alderson of Hector, N.Y., is a radio broadcaster who founded the Homelessness Marathon in 1998.

The Disaster After the Disaster

2009-09-09T00:55:00.000-07:00

By Jeremy Weir Alderson aka Nobody

This year I had the unsettling experience of finding out that I didn't actually know much about something I thought I knew a lot about. I was in rural Mississippi, talking to survivors of Katrina, right near the Ground Zero where the hurricane came ashore. I thought I knew a lot about their plight, because Katrina was surely one of the most covered stories of the last century. What I discovered was that those iconic scenes of hungry, thirsty survivors right after the storm just marked the beginning of the malign neglect that marred the recovery process. One survivor warned me that what happened to them was like a "premonition" of what could happen to the rest of the country if a disaster strikes.

Yes, government on all levels did respond to Katrina, but the response was woefully deficient. Here, for example, are three things that should have been done right away that were never done at all:

First, there was no assistance with IDs. Except for at the local soup kitchen and similar ad hoc efforts, you couldn't get aid without an ID. That's perfectly reasonable in terms of preventing fraud, but unfortunately, losing everything, means losing everything, including your ID. One survivor told me he was required to get four documents, including his birth certificate and social security card, before he would be issued a new photo ID. To get the process rolling, he was supposed to go to places he'd done business with to see if they had an old bill or something that had his name and now non-existent address on it, but of course, many of the places where he might have gone weren't there anymore. There should have been ID help desks set up immediately after the storm. Instead, desperate survivors were sent on a paper chase that took some of them months to complete.

Second, no one set up a temporary transportation system. Survivors, who might have applied for a job, volunteered or sought aid, often had no way to get from point A to point B. Think what it would be like to get around L.A. or Chicago or New York if there was no public transportation, the cars had all been destroyed and most of the streets were choked with rubble. That's what it was like in Mississippi, with the added problem that the street signs and landmarks had been washed away.

Third, no extra money was allocated to local governments for the paperwork involved with the recovery process. In the best of times, the Gulf Coast mostly consists of small towns and municipalities that have to gear up just to file the forms for a new highway bypass. After Katrina, they found themselves having to file papers for everything, but with no help to do it.

On top of these examples of government doing nothing, there is one example of government doing something so ugly that it must not be overlooked. After Katrina, thousands of people were put in the now infamous FEMA trailers, and those warnings about deadly formaldehyde fumes weren't the only ones FEMA ignored.

FEMA had every reason to know that, even though the trailers were supposed to be temporary, some people were never going to be able to move out without help. These included elderly and disabled people living on Social Security. In the good old days, when they had places to live, their meager incomes were enough to survive on, but once their homes were destroyed, there was simply no way they could ever afford to rebuild or move into the new, pricier, rental housing that was slowly being built.

The Bush Administration arbitrarily set March 1st of this year as a deadline for everybody to be out of the FEMA trailers (and FEMA-funded motel rooms too). They said that everyone had had long enough to make other plans, which was true, actually, but only if for some people the "other plans" involved living in a refrigerator box.

The Obama Administration extended the deadline by two months, and FEMA promised that whatever happened after that wouldn't involve evictions. I, personally, had a conference call with several FEMA officials who told me the agency didn't even have an eviction procedure, but they must have found one in a closet, because when the sixty days were up, eviction notices started going out.

After an outcry, FEMA reversed itself and said it wouldn't evict any more people until they had already been helped to find an alternative place to go, but that doesn't change the fact that the Obama Administration was prepared to throw impoverished elderly and disabled Katrina survivors out onto the streets.

Mississippi is no longer the pariah state it was during the years of the Civil Rights Movement. Its people, along with the storm-ravaged residents of Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, need help from all of us, and all of us should learn from what they went through: If disaster strikes, in way too many ways, we'll be on our own.

Resources

2008-10-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

The National Coalition for the Homeless directories of homeless service and advocacy organizations: http://nationalhomeless.org/directories/index.html

Dignity Village's "Tent City Toolkit"
http://www.tentcitiestoolkit.org/

National Law Center Wiki for Homeless activists
http://wiki.nlchp.org/display/Manual/Homelessness+Advocacy+Manual

The International Homeless Forum
http://forums.homeless.org.au/

The Story of the Sisters of the Road Cafe
http://www.sistersoftheroad.org/images/sisters/Sisters_25th_Book.pdf
(For information on how to found a Sisters of the Road Cafe in your city, write to Marisa Espinoza - marisa@sistersoftheroad.org)

2008-09-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Pass Christian, Mississippi, after Katrina hit

Thank you to everyone who participated in or listened to the 12th Annual Homelessness Marathon, which originated from Pass Christian, MS, on the night of Feb. 23-24, 2009.

Acclaim

2008-09-21T02:23:00.000-07:00

A FEW WORDS ABOUT PAST HOMELESSNESS MARATHONS

2^nd Annual (1999) | 3^rd Annual (2000) | 4^th Annual (2001) 5^th Annual (2002) | 6^th Annual (2003) | 7^th Annual (2004) | 8^th Annual (2005) | 9^th Annual (2006) | 10^th Annual (2007) | 11^th Annual (2008)| 12^th Annual (2009)

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 12TH (2009) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

“I was asked the other day if I thought the Homelessness Marathon had an impact - and my response was that it most definitely opened up the dialogue in a manner the locals had never seen before. I had a long conversation with the reporter from the Sun Herald the night of the Marathon, and I do believe she took a message back to her office. Additionally, the MDA [Mississippi Development Authority] has given $2.3M for a homeless workforce shelter for men to be built over in Harrison County.

“You have started a critical dialogue and allowed the locals to look inward and start working on a facet of the Gulf Coast they previously turned their back on. You are an inspiration to everything that is great about this world of ours. I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for the residents of the Gulf. This is a clear new start here.” Kathleen Johnson, director, Katrina Relief.

“I wanted to thank you for your show, and I’ve listened for several years now, and I think you’re right on the ball, and it really makes me think good of people that you’re right there in the middle of it every year.” Paul from Bodfish, CA

“Several people have brought you up in different meetings. A new awareness has emerged in our community about homelessness.” Roberta Avilla, director Mississippi Interfaith Disaster Task Force.

“Thanks for providing a voice for the people down here.” Reilly Morse, Senior Attorney, Mississippi Center for Justice.

“The Homelessness Marathon made certain that the Katrina Victims who live in Alabama are not forgotten. This long hard struggle is not over yet.” Zack Carter, Organizer, Alabama Arise

“I was honored to have the opportunity to be a part of this national effort to raise the public’s and public policy makers' awareness of the subject of homeless people. Especially noteworthy, was the fact that the broadcast was conducted outdoors, in cold weather mirroring the conditions so many individuals and families are now finding themselves in. The Marathon did more than "talk the talk"...it "walked the walk" in their quest to make the issue real to all concerned. I hope their voices will continue to be raised as the homeless have no voice to speak with...without a home...you quickly become nothing in our society. Terry Latham, Director Hope Haven Children's Services Hancock County Ms.

"The Homelessness Marathon is the perfect outreach to our most vulnerable and left-out communities. It is a great way to give people a voice to express their needs and at the same time allow them to advocate for themselves.” -Penny Burbank, Coalition Organizer, Steps Coalition

“Thank you for giving me this chance to speak.” Ray, (lives in a car that doesn’t run).

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 11TH HOMELESSNESS MARATHON (2008)

“It’s a great project that we’re delighted to air.”-- Greg Hooker, GM, WGDR, Plainfield, VT

“It was clear how much folks enjoyed it and were empowered by having the mic and being heard.” -- Danilo Pelletiere, research director, National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“The Marathon was better than ever this year. We were proud to be a part of it! -- Chad Carrothers, news director, WFHB, Bloomington, IN

“We were able to broadcast the entire Marathon live this year! It sounded great. I enjoyed hearing from the variety of perspectives that made it to the airwaves, and I thought a great job was done facilitating callers and live speakers. Great work!” -- Ben Michael, GM, WESU, Middletown, CT.

“Homelessness is a national crisis that manifests itself only locally, eliciting responses that are sometimes more guttural than thoughtful. The Homelessness Radio Marathon provided a unique occasion for exploring in depth aspects of the problem that do not immediately come to mind. The intelligent response of public radio listeners to our discussion of the connections between homelessness and ill health was provocative and helpful, and advanced important solutions.” -- John Lozier, executive director, National Health Care for the Homeless

“I thought that the time was well spent and I hope it helped people to understand what homeless people go through on a daily basis. I hope they realize that homeless people have feelings and they want to better their lives and get off the street and that they have rights.” Joe Barton, formerly homeless participant.

“I think that it’s a great thing because it gets all the issues out there before the people. There are so many more issues than most people realize. I thk the Marathon makes us human to them. It makes them realize that we have had past lives where we have had very responsible jobs and have been very responsible people, we’re not just bums.” -- Kay Rowe, formerly homeless participant.

“The Marathon was very eye opening.” -- Rachel Hester, executive director, Campus for Human Development.

“I really was grateful to the broadcast and excited about the whole entire endeavor. Being that we were one of the sponsors and part of the process of sharing nationally, I like to think that it was beneficial not only for the homeless on the streets but also to bring more awareness of the various types of conditions our brothers and sisters are faced with every day. Hopefully there was a seed planted that will in the future help us to give more hope and support to the homeless community. -- John Zirker, President Nashville Homeless Power Project

Home
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A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 10TH HOMELESSNESS MARATHON (2007)

“The Homelessness Marathon put a national spotlight on the barbaric way the homeless were treated in this community. As a result, positive changes have taken place. Homeless advocates and representatives from the city have begun a dialog that have resulted in improving the living conditions for the homeless.

“The Homelessness Marathon gave the homeless an opportunity to speak directly to this communities decision makers. This was the first time our mayor and other elected city officials have ever attended a town hall meeting where they were held accountable for their actions by the homeless. This experience empowered the homeless and made a big impression on the elected officials.

“Having the Homelessness Marathon in Fresno brought together, for the first time, the homeless advocates in this community. The project empowered the homeless, unified the advocates, and put the fear of God in the hearts of the architects of this city’s failed policy on homelessness.

“The Homelessness Marathon, in combination with the legal strategy (a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Fresno’s homeless), has forever changed the lives of countless homeless people in this community. Thank you for bringing the Homelessness Marathon to Fresno!” -- Mike Rhodes, editor Community Alliance newspaper

“I was one of the homeless speakers on the Radio Marathon. I enjoyed being able to share my story with others and letting people know that becoming homeless can happen to anybody and at any time. People need to be aware that not all homeless people are drug addicts or thieves. We are people who need housing, jobs, or training so we can become productive citizens.” -- Joanna Garcia

“Thank you for the great Marathon! WSCA-LP augmented your broadcast with our own local coverage. We all learned more about the complexity of the problem and also about the solutions. It had a great impact on our listeners, and we look forward to Homelessness Marathon ’08!” -- Rich Dirck, development director, WSCA, Portsmouth, NH.

“This is as real as anything I’ve ever been a part of…This is a great thing. This has brought focus.” -- Fresno Mayor Alan Autry

“It was good. People listened to it. What it did was bring a lot of people together.” Big Sue, homeless participant.

“Thank you for your hard work and tremendous effort in giving the homeless a voice. I think the Marathon gives people a sense of worth, letting people know that they are not alone.” -- Tina Baskin, Fresno Food Not Bombs

“Maybe. Let me figure out how crazy I am.” -- KFCF president Rych Withers, when asked if he would like to be the Marathon’s head engineer again next year.

Home
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A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 9TH HOMELESSNESS MARATHON (2006)

"Appearing on the Homelessness Marathon was a true learning experience for me. People walked up to the mic and explained in plain language why they were homeless, and most of it had to do with losing a job and being unable to pay the rent, which can happen to any of us. The Marathon put a human face on something that too many turn their backs on as an aberration." - Laughlin McDonald, Director ACLU Voting Rights Project

"As a legislator, I struggle to bring issues of poverty before my colleagues and the public, so that we as a society can address the needs of our least fortunate citizens. The Homelessness Marathon is an immense help in this effort, because it airs not only the issues, but the very voices of the poor. Those of us who care about changing America's priorities are outmanned and outspent by powerful interests whose sole goal is wealth formation. The Homelessness Marathon does its part to level the playing field by speaking directly to the heart of America.” - Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort

“You’ve done a great job. Thanks!” - Jim Grimes, GM, WQNA, Springfield, IL

"The homeless and those who act on their behalf need to have their voices heard more often discussing important issues that impact the well-being of these citizens. The Homelessness Marathon is an effective radio program that deserves a broader listening audience. I look forward to listening to this broadcast every time it is on the air. It really needs to be aired more than once a year". - Sandra Robertson, Executive Director, Georgia Citizens' Coalition on Hunger

“I am honored to have appeared on this very important Radio broadcast. The work that is done around the Homeless needs to be heard throughout our nation. The issues are cutting edge and solution driven. Keep up the great work for the people!” - Georgia State Representative, “Able Mabel” Thomas

“I was very pleased that this was here.” - Brian, homeless participant

Home

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 8th ANNUAL HOMELESSNESS MARATHON (2005)

"You guys do a great service, and we were glad to take part. Please keep us in mind for next year!" - Tristan Clum, Production Director, KUNM, Albuquerque, NM

"The Homelessness Marathon forms a vital part of the effort to bring more awareness to the tragedy of homelessness. We are proud to have participated in the Marathon, but we look forward to the day when it is no longer needed." - Brad Paul, director, National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH)

"This was a pretty incredible experience for us at Columbus house, staff and guests alike. I believe that the folks who were on the air with you stretched beyond their immediate experience of the shelter to speak on the larger issues, which was profound for them. and for me. You all have such a commitment to this project and to the people for whom/with whom it is aired. I hope I/we can be a part of it again next year." - Alison Cunningham, director, Columbus House

"There is nothing more important than low-income and poor people finding their voice. The Marathon is an annual exercise in providing people the opportunity to speak out." - Jim Greene, acting director, Boston Emergency Shelter Commission

"KPOO was honored to be a part of the Homelessness Marathon for the 2nd year. Of the 14 hours, I listened to about 12. You are doing an excellent service. - Terry Collins, General manager, KPOO, San Francisco

"Listening to the Marathon brought together for me the uniqueness of the broadcast. The audience member cannot use the visual 'picture' of homelessness to stereotype the homeless person. You don't 'see' a dirty person or an alcoholic, the unshaven or unbathed, so the audience must use just the voice of the person, and that gives the voice validity and truth that impacts the audience greatly. How can you not be affected? - Steve Houston, advocate, Preble Street Consumer Advocacy Project, Portland, Maine

"I've been using a clip from the Homelessness Marathon to teach my students what this kind of Community Radio sounds like. The reason I use the clip is we don’t have community radio here in India. However, since the government is issuing licenses to a few campus and community stations and since we are trying to push them to allow a lot more, it’s important that the students understand what it sounds like." - Jean Parker, Symbiosis Institute For Mass Communications, Pune, India

It is critically important for the public to understand what is and is not happening and how we need to redouble our efforts to reduce homelessness and provide people with a roof over their heads. The Homelessness Marathon helps keep this issue before us. And anyone who does this, I think, deserves a round of applause. - Rev. Bonita Grubbs, ex. dir., Christian Community Action, New Haven, Connecticut

Home

"Thank you for your efforts in bringing greater awareness to the general public regarding homelessness issues. This is the first I have ever heard of the Marathon, and I was BLOWN AWAY to hear it on the radio. You have no idea... to really hear myself represented in such an honest way was like a re-birth of some kind. I felt validated as a human being, and that's something that occurs very seldom among the homeless. Again, THANK YOU.

"You repeated several times that one of the goals of the Marathon was to open up a dialogue about homeless issues. I guess I felt like it was more of a conversation, and I was wanting to participate in it in more of an ongoing fashion, so I called several times. Thank you for not silencing me, even as a repeat caller. Each guest you presented brought a unique perspective to the issues, and I could identify with every one of them. Not only did my cloak of invisibility drop for a time, but I felt a part of something... a movement, a step in the right direction.

" No one is going to solve the problem in one night, but you gave us a voice. And that's an important thing. Keep the fire burning. I'll be listening for you next year."
Carrie (in California)

"I thought it was great - it provided an opportunity for homeless and formerly homeless people to discuss the experience and as important, for housed people to hear and better understand this phenomenon -- ultimately building awareness and political will to deal with the shortage of affordable housing and the imperative to meet the housing needs of all people."
Ruth Gillett, Program Manager Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services

"The Marathon generated more interest and conversation than I would ever have imagined. I think that it got folks thinking about the issue in renewed ways. Locally it helped to put a face on the generic" homelessness." There was also a great deal of spark from hearing from other parts of the country. Blessings on your work."
Sister Donna Hawk, director Transitional Housing, Inc., Cleveland, OH

______________________

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 6^th ANNUAL (2003) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON
broadcast from Portland, Oregon

"We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from our listeners about this marathon. It was our second year airing it, and we plan to continue airing it as long as you provide us with the opportunity. Some listeners called up during certain music shows (that were pre-empted by the Homeless Marathon broadcast), and although they missed the music they were accustomed to hearing each week on that program, they also thanked us for caring about issues such as homelessness. It really makes our executive staff feel as though we are doing our part in "giving back" to the local community."
Melissa Rae Giglio, General Manager, WRUW, Cleveland

"The Marathon gave us a chance to share for just one night what it means to survive without the basic things that so many in our society take for granted, things that too many of us must go without. Best of all, the Marathon gives us all a voice, shining a bright light on what is all too often swept aside, a voice that confronts one of the most blatant violations of human rights that is homelessness in America."
Jesse Leah Vear, Co-Coordinator, Portland Organizing to Win Economic Rights

"We have used the Homelessness Marathon as part of our programming for a few years now and we've always gotten a good response. As a matter of fact, this year, WRFG would like to increase our participation, and we're looking forward to beginning to work on it."
Ebon Dooley, General manager, WRFG, Atlanta

"When I was listening to the show from other states, I was reminded that there's safety in numbers, and that working together we can help each other get back on our feet. I thought the Marathon was great!"
Jeff Roderick, resident of Seattle's Tent City

"The 2003 Homelessness Marathon was the first nation-wide project that I became involved with as the station manager for WZRD. I approached the project with a highlighted sense of duty, not only because I feel that it's WZRD's responsibility to inform and educate our listeners as best as possible, but because the subject matter was eerily familiar -- I had been homeless myself once.
"As fortunate as those of us are who have a home, we're all that much more fortunate to have you in our corner, speaking and doing, not only on behalf of the many homeless, but on behalf of us all.
"If the Homelessness Marathon helps just one listener to better understand this horrible plight each time it's aired, and convinces that one to get involved in eradicating it from our society, you've done well. I know though, for a fact, that many more are ready to get involved, due to the response from our listeners, many of whom listened to the entire broadcast. -- God bless you!"
Bob Goode, general manager, WZRD, Chicago

______________________ A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 5^th ANNUAL (2002) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON
broadcast from Portland, Oregon

"This was the first year that KZYX participated in the Marathon and, being a new experience, I wasn't sure what to expect. Both station personnel and listeners were fascinated hearing the voices and stories of the people who were brought on. I think it really helps to dispel the stereotypes we have of the people who are homeless. And "Nobody" was incredible at keeping the pace of the show moving, helping people to get to the point and very tactful and compassionate in dealing with the difficult ones during open mic call-in. In fact, I've thought about excerpting some of the marathon to highlight his techniques for our programmers who take live call-ins."
Mary Aigner, Program Director, KZYX, Philo, CA (Mendocino Public Broadcasting)

"Homelessness is a big concern in KUSP's listening area, so we've been glad to air the Homelessness Marathon the past couple years. The national broadcast of the program gives light to the fact that homelessness happens everywhere, and provides an opportunity to focus some of our local programming on what's happening specifically in our area. I look forward to watching the Marathon grow in the coming years."
Bonnie Jean Primbsch, Public Affairs Producer, KUSP-FM, Santa Cruz, CA ("Your NPR member station for the central coast")

"Nice work and thanks for providing such a great public service!"
Doug Nadvornick, News and Public Affairs Director, KSFC (Spokane Public Radio)

"I very much enjoyed the program, it was amazingly fast paced in spite of the length, it could have gone longer! I got several calls the next day from listeners, one gentleman in particular told me he ended up staying up all night to listen! I also appreciated hearing from the Native American couple, and loved the poetry. Also got a lot out of the rural segment in the morning. We followed the marathon on Wednesday morning with some local interviews regarding homelessness. All in all, I would call it a success, I only received positive comments, and again, it was well done, not boring, an emotional ride, one that at times made me laugh, and at times made me cry."
Nicky Kellar, Program Director, WOJB, Hayward, WI (Woodland Community Public Radio)

"The Homelessness Marathon provides our community the opportunity to focus on homelessness from a national and local perspective. By speaking with local service providers and homeless people, we become better informed about what is being done and what individuals can do to help those in need in our area. The national dialogue unites us as a human family. We can measure our own situation by hearing about the concerns of people in other cities."
Halimah Collingwood, host, Ethnic Excursions, KHSU-FM, Arcata, CA (Public Radio in Humbolt County)

______________________ A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 4^th ANNUAL (2001) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON
broadcast from Cambridge, Mass

"I'm thrilled that we broadcast the entire program for the first time. It was
amazing. On behalf of the entire WERU community, thank you."
Matt Murphy, General Manager, WERU

"WMPG in Portland has aired the Homelessness Marathon for the past two years. We've been inspired by the event. Inspired because the marathon presents not only the facts, it also takes us inside the world of homelessness. Our station is committed to airing quality, meaningful programs like the Homelessness Marathon. We are so inspired that we are planning to broadcast the marathon from an outdoor studio set-up here in Maine next year."
Jessica Lockhart, Program Director, WMPG

"I thought the show was excellent, and addressed homelessness on many fronts and helped fight the stereotype that all homeless people are alcoholics/drug users or bums. Interestingly enough we only got three phone calls complaining or asking about us preempting our regular programming. Usually when we pre-empt the Grateful Dead Show, we find the phones ringing off the hook, so I suspect that most of our listeners understood the importance of what was being aired, and I'm glad that KFCF could participate this year and that putting the feed up on the KU made it available to a wider audience."
Rych Withers, President KFCF/Fresno Free College Foundation

"Thank you so much for choosing Cambridge as the site of the fourth Homelessness Marathon. It was a pleasure to work with "Nobody," and an inspiration to those of us who work "on the front lines." In a nation where the poor and the homeless are often depicted as something despicable, it is wonderful to have the opportunity to tell our stories and, hopefully, to get the message out that the homeless are people like everyone else, but don't happen to have a place to live."
Fran Czajkowski, Executive Director, Homeless Empowerment Project, Inc. Publisher of "Spare Change News," the homeless paper of Cambridge, Mass

"It was a special event, almost a party, but people showed great respect for each other. There was a lot of talk amongst the guests about issues of homelessness. It was a wonderful environment with participation from people all over the country: the young, old, disabled, also people active in the Department of Mental Health, even college professors and a rabbi from Florida. I have a section 8 voucher and will now try harder to get out of the shelter and into housing. This night has given me more perspective on my situation. I fell down the stairs tonight -- I still have a problem -- but I feel more empowered because of tonight. Because of the solidarity and issues addressed, I saw that we were all in the same boat."
Charles Swenson, homeless "Spare Change" vendor with multiple sclerosis, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

______________________

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 3^rd ANNUAL (2000) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

"It was an amazing feat. I was impressed with the show and really glad that we aired the 11 hours that we did. I had some good listener feedback -- one woman who is a longtime listener and supporter called me at 6am just as I came in and turned from the marathon back to our morning news, saying "I'm so proud of WJFF for airing this!" Two other listeners told me that their children were riveted to the program, giving them each a great opportunity to have a discussion on homelessness. Two of our volunteers came in and built a shelter outside in the middle of a storm and slept there for the night, coming in to do station ID's. We'd definitely be open to carrying it again!
Christine Ahern, General Manager, WJFF, Jeffersonville, NY

"It's what community radio can do best, when communities of all sizes, shapes, colors and perspectives put themselves out on the streets to hear what happens. In a society that wants to look the other way most of the time, the Homelessness Marathon stares straight at the situation. Overall the comments were positive and the Program Committee was impressed. I particularly found much of it evocative, perhaps because some of the callers, who've gone much of their lives being spit on by society, found advocates and kinship with the co-hosts and listeners. "In no way is this a perfect radio program, but then, being homeless is far from the perfect situation in a society that develops amnesia when it comes to the homeless. Still, our listeners were engaged, enraged, and enlightened -- when we repeated some of the overnight stuff in prime time two days later, they called and wanted to be part of it, though the show was over."
Steve Baker, Program Director, KVMR, Nevada City, California

"The Homelessness Marathon is an impressive effort and includes a wide range of topics and viewpoints. We heard perspectives from homeless people, social service professionals, elected officials, listener call-ins from all over the country...many voices. In the hour before we joined the national broadcast, our station did a program focused on homelessness in our area. It was an easy and effective local tie-in to the marathon."I went home later, got into my warm bed and listened well into the night. I didn't sleep very well."
Sam Fuqua, News Director, KGNU, Boulder, Colorado

______________________

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 2^nd (1999) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

"The voices of homeless people on this marathon gives the public a real education, and that's the only way things will ever change."
Paul Boden, executive director, San Francisco Coalition for the Homeless

"A superb idea and a great project."
media critic, Norman Solomon

"We think this is a very valuable program. It created a lot of interest with our listeners when we ran it. One of the "local" tv stations came and did a story about it, and that's not easy. They had to come from sixty miles away."
Simon Frech, general manager, KMUD, Redway, CA

"Talk radio at its finest."
Burnside Cadillac (now Street Roots), the homeless paper of Portland, OR

"The show went great. Loved your guests and the call-ins were very successful...It was a great event, and we thank you for the opportunity and pleasure to participate. Count on us next year if you do it again."
Joe Bernard, RFPI (Radio For Peace International), Costa Rica

"The marathon is one of the best methods of making people aware of the real deal. The marathon participants tell it like it 'tis."
Indio, editor of Street News, the homeless paper of NYC

"It's critical that a broader segment of our society understand the suffering homelessness imposes and the denial of its systemic causes that we perpetuate as a nation. The insight that the marathon provides plants the seeds of an America that finally commits itself to trying to bring everybody home again."
Mary Ann Gleason, executive director, National Coalition for the Homeless

"It was great, and it helped us invigorate our connection to homeless issues in Portland."
Kathleen Stephenson, Morning News and Public Affairs Director, KBOO, Portland, OR

______________________

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

I am the Editor and Publisher of a Street Newspaper in Los Angeles, that is co-operatively run by homeless and formerly homeless people which publishes articles, poetry and artwork by homeless people about homelessness and poverty. This newspaper is distributed by homeless people to educate the housed public about poverty issues from homeless people's perspective.

I would like to implore you to consider supporting the Homeless Marathon spearheaded by Jeremy Alderson. It is important that homelessness in America get the attention it desperately deserves. I, and a number of homeless people in our area have participated in past Homeless Marathons speaking to America about our collective experience. It is the only forum we've had to answer the questions America has about our situation, and to talk about the ways we feel we should be helped. It showcases homeless talent, dramatizes our experiences and gives us hope that someone hears us. Homeless people have little financial means to garner such publicity about our plight.

Please support Mr. Alderson and his efforts to make the Homeless Marathon accessible to the American public. We are depending on professionals in the media to help us end homelessness and poverty through education provided by radio broadcast stations.

In service of homeless people,
Jennafer Waggoner, Editor, "Making Change," Los Angeles, CA

______________________

Additionally

The Homelessness Marathons have been recognized as historic broadcasts by libraries around the country. Tapes of the marathons have been archived by libraries at Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, UCLA, Berkeley, the University of Chicago, NYU and many other institutions of higher learning.

Unequal Justice - The Tragic Case of Pam Kincaid

2008-09-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

Pam Kincaid spoke out for justice. Kincaid is seen here speaking on the Homelessness Marathon in 2007, a few months before her death. This year’s Homelessness Marathon, which gives the homeless a voice, will be heard on over 100 stations on February 23.
By Mike Rhodes

Imagine that the mayor in your city is beaten almost to death on a downtown street. She is rushed to a hospital emergency room where the police interview her about the incident. Under ordinary circumstances, the police would be under intense pressure to bring the perpetrator of the crime to justice and the hospital would be expected to do everything necessary to provide the mayor with the best medical care available.

But, what if the police refused to investigate the crime and the care the mayor received at the hospital resulted in her suspicious and wrongful death? Would the corporate media report the story? Would the community be outraged? Would the mayor’s family file a lawsuit against the hospital to compensate them for their loss?

Pamela Kincaid was not the mayor of Fresno. She was a homeless woman and the lead named plaintiff in a lawsuit against the City of Fresno that successfully argued that the city was taking and destroying homeless people’s property. The lawsuit was settled after Kincaid’s death for $2.3 million, the largest settlement of its kind in the United States. The settlement money went to over 300 class action members - all homeless people in Fresno.

In mid-July 2007 Kincaid was savagely beaten, the only known witness claimed that the Fresno Police Department (FPD) was involved. When she arrived at the emergency room of Community Medical Center the FPD was called and officers wrote a report but did not follow up on the beating, even after being told of an eyewitness. They ignored repeated requests to open an investigation.

On August 1, 2007, Kincaid was recovering at Community Hospital. Her memory of the incident was improving, her health was getting better, and she was looking forward to being released. She was talking to her attorneys, numerous friends, and medical personnel, none of whom indicated that she was suicidal. Inexplicably, in the middle of the night, Kincaid passed a nurses station, went through what the hospital insists were locked doors attached to a loud alarm system and ended up on the 4th floor balcony. The final report from the hospital says Kincaid somehow got onto the balcony without anyone noticing and went over or under the 8 foot wall to her death.

Because of Kincaid’s social and economic status there was nobody to hold the hospital accountable. Kincaid’s daughter Kayla had been taken away years earlier and adopted to another family. Her husband is in California State Prison at Avenal and because of his incarceration could not claim that he suffered an economic loss due to his wife’s death. There was nobody who could legally claim a loss based on Kincaid’s death, therefore Community Hospital was not held accountable for their failure to protect the health of their patient.

Justice for the homeless, particularly for the homeless who dare to stand up for their rights, is not blind. It may be through understanding the life experiences of the poor and homeless, in their struggle with the judicial and legal system, that the class nature of this society is most clearly exposed.

Podcasts

2008-09-14T08:57:00.001-07:00

February 4, 2010 rant by talk host Ray Appleton on radio station KMJ, commenting on the "victory" that the Fresno City council, citing safety concerns, voted to criminalize begging on median strips if done by homeless people while keeping it legal for registered charities. In his commentary, Appleton says the sight of homeless people is "no different than... garbage."

Dr. Ralph Nunez of the Institute for Children and Poverty interviewed by Doug Miles of WSLR, Sarasota, FL, a Homelessness Marathon affiliate.

Sprouts: Poverty-Better Times Ahead

Summary:
Stories relating the real-life struggles and solutions of poor people; including statistics about poverty, evictions courts in San Francisco, dumpster-diving, Detroit's homeless shelters, and poverty in post Katrina Mississippi.

Featured speakers/guests:
Voices of poor and homeless across the USA. Jessica Lockhart - host. reports filed by Michael Alderson, Anna Sussman, Zak Rosen and “Nobody” as well as a special segment featuring observations by Terry Lathan.

The mp3 file of this podcast can be downloaded by clicking here: Sprouts: Poverty-Better Times Ahead

For more information on this broadcast, visit the Sprouts website by clicking here.

"Willin' To Git Up," the second installment of excerpts from the 12th Annual Homelessness Marathon.

The mp3 file of this podcast can be downloaded by clicking here: Willin' To Git Up

"Long From Being Over", the first installment of excerpts from the 12th Annual Homelessness Marathon.

The mp3 file of this podcast can be downloaded by clicking here: Long from being over

Acknowledgements

2008-09-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 11th (2008) ANNUAL HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

“It’s a great project that we’re delighted to air.”
-- Greg Hooker, GM, WGDR, Plainfield, VT

“It was clear how much folks enjoyed it and were empowered by having the mic and being heard.”
-- Danilo Pelletiere, research director, National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“The Marathon was better than ever this year. We were proud to be a part of it!
-- Chad Carrothers, news director, WFHB, Bloomington, IN

“We were able to broadcast the entire Marathon live this year! It sounded great. I enjoyed hearing from the variety of perspectives that made it to the airwaves, and I thought a great job was done facilitating callers and live speakers. Great work!”
-- Ben Michael, GM, WESU, Middletown, CT.

“Homelessness is a national crisis that manifests itself only locally, eliciting responses that are sometimes more guttural than thoughtful. The Homelessness Radio Marathon provided a unique occasion for exploring in depth aspects of the problem that do not immediately come to mind. The intelligent response of public radio listeners to our discussion of the connections between homelessness and ill health was provocative and helpful, and advanced important solutions.”
-- John Lozier, executive director, National Health Care for the Homeless

“I thought that the time was well spent and I hope it helped people to understand what homeless people go through on a daily basis. I hope they realize that homeless people have feelings and they want to better their lives and get off the street and that they have rights.”
-- Joe Barton, formerly homeless participant.

“I think that it’s a great thing because it gets all the issues out there before the people. There are so many more issues than most people realize. I thk the Marathon makes us human to them. It makes them realize that we have had past lives where we have had very responsible jobs and have been very responsible people, we’re not just bums.”
-- Kay Rowe, formerly homeless participant.

“The Marathon was very eye opening.”
-- Rachel Hester, executive director, Campus for Human Development.

“I really was grateful to the broadcast and excited about the whole entire endeavor. Being that we were one of the sponsors and part of the process of sharing nationally, I like to think that it was beneficial not only for the homeless on the streets but also to bring more awareness of the various types of conditions our brothers and sisters are faced with every day. Hopefully there was a seed planted that will in the future help us to give more hope and support to the homeless community.
-- John Zirker, President Nashville Homeless Power Project

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 10TH (2007) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

“The Homelessness Marathon put a national spotlight on the barbaric way the homeless were treated in this community. As a result, positive changes have taken place. Homeless advocates and representatives from the city have begun a dialog that have resulted in improving the living conditions for the homeless.

“The Homelessness Marathon gave the homeless an opportunity to speak directly to this communities decision makers. This was the first time our mayor and other elected city officials have ever attended a town hall meeting where they were held accountable for their actions by the homeless. This experience empowered the homeless and made a big impression on the elected officials.

“Having the Homelessness Marathon in Fresno brought together, for the first time, the homeless advocates in this community. The project empowered the homeless, unified the advocates, and put the fear of God in the hearts of the architects of this city’s failed policy on homelessness.

“The Homelessness Marathon, in combination with the legal strategy (a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Fresno’s homeless), has forever changed the lives of countless homeless people in this community. Thank you for bringing the Homelessness Marathon to Fresno!”
-- Mike Rhodes, editor Community Alliance newspaper

“I was one of the homeless speakers on the Radio Marathon. I enjoyed being able to share my story with others and letting people know that becoming homeless can happen to anybody and at any time. People need to be aware that not all homeless people are drug addicts or thieves. We are people who need housing, jobs, or training so we can become productive citizens.”
-- Joanna Garcia

“Thank you for the great Marathon! WSCA-LP augmented your broadcast with our own local coverage. We all learned more about the complexity of the problem and also about the solutions. It had a great impact on our listeners, and we look forward to Homelessness Marathon ’08!”
-- Rich Dirck, development director, WSCA, Portsmouth, NH.

“This is as real as anything I’ve ever been a part of…This is a great thing. This has brought focus.”
-- Fresno Mayor Alan Autry

“It was good. People listened to it. What it did was bring a lot of people together.”
-- Big Sue, homeless participant.

“Thank you for your hard work and tremendous effort in giving the homeless a voice. I think the Marathon gives people a sense of worth, letting people know that they are not alone.”
-- Tina Baskin, Fresno Food Not Bombs

“Maybe. Let me figure out how crazy I am.”
-- KFCF president Rych Withers, when asked if he would like to be the Marathon’s head engineer again next year.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 9TH HOMELESSNESS MARATHON (2006)

"Appearing on the Homelessness Marathon was a true learning experience for me. People walked up to the mic and explained in plain language why they were homeless, and most of it had to do with losing a job and being unable to pay the rent, which can happen to any of us. The Marathon put a human face on something that too many turn their backs on as an aberration."
-- Laughlin McDonald, Director ACLU Voting Rights Project

"As a legislator, I struggle to bring issues of poverty before my colleagues and the public, so that we as a society can address the needs of our least fortunate citizens. The Homelessness Marathon is an immense help in this effort, because it airs not only the issues, but the very voices of the poor. Those of us who care about changing America's priorities are outmanned and outspent by powerful interests whose sole goal is wealth formation. The Homelessness Marathon does its part to level the playing field by speaking directly to the heart of America.”
-- Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort

“You’ve done a great job. Thanks!”
-- Jim Grimes, GM, WQNA, Springfield, IL

"The homeless and those who act on their behalf need to have their voices heard more often discussing important issues that impact the well-being of these citizens. The Homelessness Marathon is an effective radio program that deserves a broader listening audience. I look forward to listening to this broadcast every time it is on the air. It really needs to be aired more than once a year."
-- Sandra Robertson, Executive Director, Georgia Citizens' Coalition on Hunger

“I am honored to have appeared on this very important Radio broadcast. The work that is done around the Homeless needs to be heard throughout our nation. The issues are cutting edge and solution driven. Keep up the great work for the people!”
-- Georgia State Representative, “Able Mabel” Thomas

“I was very pleased that this was here.”
-- Brian, homeless participant

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 8th ANNUAL HOMELESSNESS MARATHON (2005)

"You guys do a great service, and we were glad to take part. Please keep us in mind for next year!"
-- Tristan Clum, Production Director, KUNM, Albuquerque, NM

"The Homelessness Marathon forms a vital part of the effort to bring more awareness to the tragedy of homelessness. We are proud to have participated in the Marathon, but we look forward to the day when it is no longer needed."
-- Brad Paul, director, National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH)

"This was a pretty incredible experience for us at Columbus house, staff and guests alike. I believe that the folks who were on the air with you stretched beyond their immediate experience of the shelter to speak on the larger issues, which was profound for them. and for me. You all have such a commitment to this project and to the people for whom/with whom it is aired. I hope I/we can be a part of it again next year."
-- Alison Cunningham, director, Columbus House

"There is nothing more important than low-income and poor people finding their voice. The Marathon is an annual exercise in providing people the opportunity to speak out."
-- Jim Greene, acting director, Boston Emergency Shelter Commission

"KPOO was honored to be a part of the Homelessness Marathon for the 2nd year. Of the 14 hours, I listened to about 12. You are doing an excellent service.
-- Terry Collins, General manager, KPOO, San Francisco

"Listening to the Marathon brought together for me the uniqueness of the broadcast. The audience member cannot use the visual 'picture' of homelessness to stereotype the homeless person. You don't 'see' a dirty person or an alcoholic, the unshaven or unbathed, so the audience must use just the voice of the person, and that gives the voice validity and truth that impacts the audience greatly. How can you not be affected?
-- Steve Houston, advocate, Preble Street Consumer Advocacy Project, Portland, Maine

"I've been using a clip from the Homelessness Marathon to teach my students what this kind of Community Radio sounds like. The reason I use the clip is we don’t have community radio here in India. However, since the government is issuing licenses to a few campus and community stations and since we are trying to push them to allow a lot more, it’s important that the students understand what it sounds like." - Jean Parker, Symbiosis Institute For Mass Communications, Pune, India

It is critically important for the public to understand what is and is not happening and how we need to redouble our efforts to reduce homelessness and provide people with a roof over their heads. The Homelessness Marathon helps keep this issue before us. And anyone who does this, I think, deserves a round of applause.
-- Rev. Bonita Grubbs, ex. dir., Christian Community Action, New Haven, Connecticut

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 7th ANNUAL (2004) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON
broadcast from Cleveland, Ohio

"I really enjoyed your marathon. It kept me awake all through the night, not because I was afraid the sound would cut off and I'd have dead air but because you had so much great information and interviews set-up on this issue of homelessness. I wondered how you were going to fill 14 hours but it turned out there are so many connections to other things you could have probably gone another 14. What you put together is greatly appreciated and so important.
-- Marianne Knorzer, GM, KRBS, Oroville, CA

"Thank you for your efforts in bringing greater awareness to the general public regarding homelessness issues. This is the first I have ever heard of the Marathon, and I was BLOWN AWAY to hear it on the radio. You have no idea... to really hear myself represented in such an honest way was like a re-birth of some kind. I felt validated as a human being, and that's something that occurs very seldom among the homeless. Again, THANK YOU.

"You repeated several times that one of the goals of the Marathon was to open up a dialog about homeless issues. I guess I felt like it was more of a conversation, and I was wanting to participate in it in more of an ongoing fashion, so I called several times. Thank you for not silencing me, even as a repeat caller. Each guest you presented brought a unique perspective to the issues, and I could identify with every one of them. Not only did my cloak of invisibility drop for a time, but I felt a part of something... a movement, a step in the right direction.

" No one is going to solve the problem in one night, but you gave us a voice. And that's an important thing. Keep the fire burning. I'll be listening for you next year."
-- Carrie (in California)

"I thought it was great - it provided an opportunity for homeless and formerly homeless people to discuss the experience and as important, for housed people to hear and better understand this phenomenon -- ultimately building awareness and political will to deal with the shortage of affordable housing and the imperative to meet the housing needs of all people."
-- Ruth Gillett, Program Manager Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services

"The Marathon generated more interest and conversation than I would ever have imagined. I think that it got folks thinking about the issue in renewed ways. Locally it helped to put a face on the generic" homelessness." There was also a great deal of spark from hearing from other parts of the country. Blessings on your work."
-- Sister Donna Hawk, director Transitional Housing, Inc., Cleveland, OH

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 6th ANNUAL (2003) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON
broadcast from Portland, Oregon

"We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from our listeners about this marathon. It was our second year airing it, and we plan to continue airing it as long as you provide us with the opportunity. Some listeners called up during certain music shows (that were pre-empted by the Homeless Marathon broadcast), and although they missed the music they were accustomed to hearing each week on that program, they also thanked us for caring about issues such as homelessness. It really makes our executive staff feel as though we are doing our part in "giving back" to the local community."
-- Melissa Rae Giglio, General Manager, WRUW, Cleveland

"The Marathon gave us a chance to share for just one night what it means to survive without the basic things that so many in our society take for granted, things that too many of us must go without. Best of all, the Marathon gives us all a voice, shining a bright light on what is all too often swept aside, a voice that confronts one of the most blatant violations of human rights that is homelessness in America."
-- Jesse Leah Vear, Co-Coordinator, Portland Organizing to Win Economic Rights

"We have used the Homelessness Marathon as part of our programming for a few years now and we've always gotten a good response. As a matter of fact, this year, WRFG would like to increase our participation, and we're looking forward to beginning to work on it."
-- Ebon Dooley, General manager, WRFG, Atlanta

"When I was listening to the show from other states, I was reminded that there's safety in numbers, and that working together we can help each other get back on our feet. I thought the Marathon was great!"
-- Jeff Roderick, resident of Seattle's Tent City

"The 2003 Homelessness Marathon was the first nation-wide project that I became involved with as the station manager for WZRD. I approached the project with a highlighted sense of duty, not only because I feel that it's WZRD's responsibility to inform and educate our listeners as best as possible, but because the subject matter was eerily familiar -- I had been homeless myself once.

"As fortunate as those of us are who have a home, we're all that much more fortunate to have you in our corner, speaking and doing, not only on behalf of the many homeless, but on behalf of us all.

"If the Homelessness Marathon helps just one listener to better understand this horrible plight each time it's aired, and convinces that one to get involved in eradicating it from our society, you've done well. I know though, for a fact, that many more are ready to get involved, due to the response from our listeners, many of whom listened to the entire broadcast. -- God bless you!"
-- Bob Goode, general manager, WZRD, Chicago

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 5th ANNUAL (2001) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON
broadcast from Portland, Oregon

"This was the first year that KZYX participated in the Marathon and, being a new experience, I wasn't sure what to expect. Both station personnel and listeners were fascinated hearing the voices and stories of the people who were brought on. I think it really helps to dispel the stereotypes we have of the people who are homeless. And "Nobody" was incredible at keeping the pace of the show moving, helping people to get to the point and very tactful and compassionate in dealing with the difficult ones during open mic call-in. In fact, I've thought about excerpting some of the marathon to highlight his techniques for our programmers who take live call-ins."
-- Mary Aigner, Program Director, KZYX, Philo, CA (Mendocino Public Broadcasting)

"Homelessness is a big concern in KUSP's listening area, so we've been glad to air the Homelessness Marathon the past couple years. The national broadcast of the program gives light to the fact that homelessness happens everywhere, and provides an opportunity to focus some of our local programming on what's happening specifically in our area. I look forward to watching the Marathon grow in the coming years."
-- Bonnie Jean Primbsch, Public Affairs Producer, KUSP-FM, Santa Cruz, CA ("Your NPR member station for the central coast")

"Nice work and thanks for providing such a great public service!"
-- Doug Nadvornick, News and Public Affairs Director, KSFC (Spokane Public Radio)

"I very much enjoyed the program, it was amazingly fast paced in spite of the length, it could have gone longer! I got several calls the next day from listeners, one gentleman in particular told me he ended up staying up all night to listen! I also appreciated hearing from the Native American couple, and loved the poetry. Also got a lot out of the rural segment in the morning. We followed the marathon on Wednesday morning with some local interviews regarding homelessness. All in all, I would call it a success, I only received positive comments, and again, it was well done, not boring, an emotional ride, one that at times made me laugh, and at times made me cry."
-- Nicky Kellar, Program Director, WOJB, Hayward, WI (Woodland Community Public Radio)

"The Homelessness Marathon provides our community the opportunity to focus on homelessness from a national and local perspective. By speaking with local service providers and homeless people, we become better informed about what is being done and what individuals can do to help those in need in our area. The national dialogue unites us as a human family. We can measure our own situation by hearing about the concerns of people in other cities."
--Halimah Collingwood, host, Ethnic Excursions, KHSU-FM, Arcata, CA (Public Radio in Humbolt County)

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 4th ANNUAL (2001) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON
broadcast from Cambridge, Mass

"I'm thrilled that we broadcast the entire program for the first time. It was
amazing. On behalf of the entire WERU community, thank you."
-- Matt Murphy, General Manager, WERU

"WMPG in Portland has aired the Homelessness Marathon for the past two years. We've been inspired by the event. Inspired because the marathon presents not only the facts, it also takes us inside the world of homelessness. Our station is committed to airing quality, meaningful programs like the Homelessness Marathon. We are so inspired that we are planning to broadcast the marathon from an outdoor studio set-up here in Maine next year."
-- Jessica Lockhart, Program Director, WMPG

"I thought the show was excellent, and addressed homelessness on many fronts and helped fight the stereotype that all homeless people are alcoholics/drug users or bums. Interestingly enough we only got three phone calls complaining or asking about us preempting our regular programming. Usually when we pre-empt the Grateful Dead Show, we find the phones ringing off the hook, so I suspect that most of our listeners understood the importance of what was being aired, and I'm glad that KFCF could participate this year and that putting the feed up on the KU made it available to a wider audience."
-- Rych Withers, President KFCF/Fresno Free College Foundation

"Thank you so much for choosing Cambridge as the site of the fourth Homelessness Marathon. It was a pleasure to work with "Nobody," and an inspiration to those of us who work "on the front lines." In a nation where the poor and the homeless are often depicted as something despicable, it is wonderful to have the opportunity to tell our stories and, hopefully, to get the message out that the homeless are people like everyone else, but don't happen to have a place to live."
-- Fran Czajkowski, Executive Director, Homeless Empowerment Project, Inc. Publisher of "Spare Change News," the homeless paper of Cambridge, Mass

"It was a special event, almost a party, but people showed great respect for each other. There was a lot of talk amongst the guests about issues of homelessness. It was a wonderful environment with participation from people all over the country: the young, old, disabled, also people active in the Department of Mental Health, even college professors and a rabbi from Florida. I have a section 8 voucher and will now try harder to get out of the shelter and into housing. This night has given me more perspective on my situation. I fell down the stairs tonight -- I still have a problem -- but I feel more empowered because of tonight. Because of the solidarity and issues addressed, I saw that we were all in the same boat."
-- Charles Swenson, homeless "Spare Change" vendor with multiple sclerosis, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 3rd ANNUAL (2000) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

"It was an amazing feat. I was impressed with the show and really glad that we aired the 11 hours that we did. I had some good listener feedback -- one woman who is a longtime listener and supporter called me at 6am just as I came in and turned from the marathon back to our morning news, saying "I'm so proud of WJFF for airing this!" Two other listeners told me that their children were riveted to the program, giving them each a great opportunity to have a discussion on homelessness. Two of our volunteers came in and built a shelter outside in the middle of a storm and slept there for the night, coming in to do station ID's. We'd definitely be open to carrying it again!
-- Christine Ahern, General Manager, WJFF, Jeffersonville, NY

"It's what community radio can do best, when communities of all sizes, shapes, colors and perspectives put themselves out on the streets to hear what happens. In a society that wants to look the other way most of the time, the Homelessness Marathon stares straight at the situation. Overall the comments were positive and the Program Committee was impressed. I particularly found much of it evocative, perhaps because some of the callers, who've gone much of their lives being spit on by society, found advocates and kinship with the co-hosts and listeners. "In no way is this a perfect radio program, but then, being homeless is far from the perfect situation in a society that develops amnesia when it comes to the homeless. Still, our listeners were engaged, enraged, and enlightened -- when we repeated some of the overnight stuff in prime time two days later, they called and wanted to be part of it, though the show was over."
-- Steve Baker, Program Director, KVMR, Nevada City, California

"The Homelessness Marathon is an impressive effort and includes a wide range of topics and viewpoints. We heard perspectives from homeless people, social service professionals, elected officials, listener call-ins from all over the country...many voices. In the hour before we joined the national broadcast, our station did a program focused on homelessness in our area. It was an easy and effective local tie-in to the marathon."I went home later, got into my warm bed and listened well into the night. I didn't sleep very well."
-- Sam Fuqua, News Director, KGNU, Boulder, Colorado

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE 2nd (1999) HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

"The voices of homeless people on this marathon gives the public a real education, and that's the only way things will ever change."
-- Paul Boden, executive director, San Francisco Coalition for the Homeless

"A superb idea and a great project."
-- media critic, Norman Solomon

"We think this is a very valuable program. It created a lot of interest with our listeners when we ran it. One of the "local" tv stations came and did a story about it, and that's not easy. They had to come from sixty miles away."
-- Simon Frech, general manager, KMUD, Redway, CA

"Talk radio at its finest."
-- Burnside Cadillac (now Street Roots), the homeless paper of Portland, OR

"The show went great. Loved your guests and the call-ins were very successful...It was a great event, and we thank you for the opportunity and pleasure to participate. Count on us next year if you do it again."
-- Joe Bernard, RFPI (Radio For Peace International), Costa Rica

"The marathon is one of the best methods of making people aware of the real deal. The marathon participants tell it like it 'tis."
-- Indio, editor of Street News, the homeless paper of NYC

"It's critical that a broader segment of our society understand the suffering homelessness imposes and the denial of its systemic causes that we perpetuate as a nation. The insight that the marathon provides plants the seeds of an America that finally commits itself to trying to bring everybody home again."
-- Mary Ann Gleason, executive director, National Coalition for the Homeless

"It was great, and it helped us invigorate our connection to homeless issues in Portland."
-- Kathleen Stephenson, Morning News and Public Affairs Director, KBOO, Portland, OR

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

I am the Editor and Publisher of a Street Newspaper in Los Angeles, that is co-operatively run by homeless and formerly homeless people which publishes articles, poetry and artwork by homeless people about homelessness and poverty. This newspaper is distributed by homeless people to educate the housed public about poverty issues from homeless people's perspective.

I would like to implore you to consider supporting the Homeless Marathon spearheaded by Jeremy Alderson. It is important that homelessness in America get the attention it desperately deserves. I, and a number of homeless people in our area have participated in past Homeless Marathons speaking to America about our collective experience. It is the only forum we've had to answer the questions America has about our situation, and to talk about the ways we feel we should be helped. It showcases homeless talent, dramatizes our experiences and gives us hope that someone hears us. Homeless people have little financial means to garner such publicity about our plight.

Please support Mr. Alderson and his efforts to make the Homeless Marathon accessible to the American public. We are depending on professionals in the media to help us end homelessness and poverty through education provided by radio broadcast stations.

In service of homeless people,
Jennafer Waggoner, Editor, "Making Change," Los Angeles, CA

Additionally

The Homelessness Marathons have been recognized as historic broadcasts by libraries around the country. Tapes of the marathons have been archived by libraries at Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, UCLA, Berkeley, the University of Chicago, NYU and many other institutions of higher learning.

Video

2008-09-13T05:16:00.001-07:00

Watch 1st 4 Hours of 2009 Homelessness Marathon:

Excerpts from the 7th Annual Homeless Marathon:

The 11th Annual Homeless Marathon, Part I.

The 11th Annual Homeless Marathon, Part II.

In Memorium, Roland Lee Paige

2008-09-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

Roland Lee Paige was one of the homeless people who came to the broadcast site of this year's Homelessness Marathon. I don't know a lot about him. He came alone. He was 48 years old. And he died during the night.

Roland Lee Paige, doubled over and dying from what, apparently, was a methadone overdose. The people around him, including the photographer who snapped this picture, thought he was just falling asleep.

I tried and tried to write a memorial message that said something moving about how Roland's death teaches us all about how dangerous it is to be homeless. But I could never finish one of those messages, because, I can't really say for certain to what extent Roland's death even was related to homelessness.

The truth is that the biggest impact Roland's death had on me, personally, was that it scared me. The whole fifth marathon was scary, because so many of the homeless people who spoke out were angry. Maybe that was because another year had passed without any hint of a solution. Or maybe it was because Portland, Oregon is a city where homeless people feel they're treated badly. Roland's death just completed a very chilling picture.

I didn't need Roland's death to give me sympathy for homeless people. I already had that. What Roland really gave me was sympathy for all the people in houses who don't want to know, because knowing hurts. I guess it's kind of a backwards gift, but I can only hope we gave him anything as valuable in the brief time he was with us.

Jeremy Weir Alderson
Director Homelessness Marathon

Two brothers have died

Two days ago, Rolland Lee Page died under the wings of the T-Horse.

I didn't know Rolland - indeed, nobody there seemed to know him. We'd set up the T-Horse for an overnight event on Tuesday around 4:00pm. Rolland appeared shortly thereafter; I didn't even see him walk up. At some point I turned around and there was a man in a red jacket sitting cross-legged on the carpet near the rear of the truck, bent over with his head down on his ankles.

After an hour or so, people began to wonder if he was ok. It seemed like he was breathing, perhaps just sleeping or passed out. Someone who knelt down to check on him said he smelled of alcohol. Someone said it was probably best just to let him sleep it off.

Time went by. At one point, while walking around to the truck kitchen I accidentally tripped over his knee, forgetting he was there. I touched his shoulder briefly and mumbled, "oh! I'm sorry..."

After about six hours a few people asked if he was really breathing. Others, who'd been keeping an eye on him, said they were pretty sure he was, and he was probably just still sleeping - best to just let him be, it wasn't all that uncommon. Someone touched his back and said he was warm. Someone else said she thought he might be dead, it's been so long. Someone answered, half-seriously, well, if he is there's not much we can do about it, and we'll find out eventually.

Time kept going by; you don't really notice the hours at an event like this. I had in my mind that he'd been there for a long time, but it didn't occur to me just how long it had been - nearly 12 hours. Someone decided to try to wake him up. He knelt down next to Rolland and rocked him a bit. He lifted him up a little and shined a small flashlight. I could see a small pool of blood and a yellowish substance on his jeans where his face had been resting. His hair was very ragged, his face was pale and his hands were curled up.

The man opened Rolland's eyes and shined the light into them. He told a friend to call 911. When the paramedics arrived, one walked over, lifted up his arm, looked at his face and said simply, "He's dead."

Sounds heartless, doesn't it? I mean, probably over forty people had come and gone at the T-Horse in all that time. How is it that nobody thought to check up on this poor brother who'd been sitting there, motionless, for so long?

I didn't mention that Rolland was homeless; that this T-Horse was at the national Homelessness Marathon radio broadcast (www.homelessnessmarathon.org) outside, in the cold, in the street, in front of KBOO Community Radio; that the vast majority of people there at the event were homeless, some with varying degrees of mental illness, many with nowhere else warmer or safer to go than SE 8th Avenue at Burnside in the middle of the night.

Does it change the story that Rolland was homeless, and sat motionless and died unnoticed at a gathering of homeless people?
Unfortunately, for many of us, I think it does. I didn't mention that when someone remarked on the odd position in which he was sleeping, someone replied it wasn't all that uncommon for _homeless_ people to sleep that way. 'Oh, it's a _homeless_ person. Well, I guess that's just how it goes.'
We're so used to seeing men and women curled up and motionless on the street -- if they look homeless. We think about them for a minute or so while walking away, and soon forget about them. The homeless are said to be the invisible people. The host for the Homelessness Marathon goes by the name, "Nobody". Some homeless guy, some nobody, died on the street.

---
About two weeks ago, B. died in his apartment here in Portland. He took his own life.

A lot of people in our community knew B. He worked at the People's Farmers Market sometimes, and I'd often see him in the Co-op. Always friendly, always interested in having a conversation, connecting with other people. B. suffered from clinical depression, and, like many clinically depressed people, struggled with feeling dependent on anti-depression medication.

When someone you know - even someone you didn't know very closely - commits suicide, you wonder if there was anything you could have done that would have saved him or her. What if you had just taken an extra 30 seconds last time, asked how s/he was doing? Was there something you didn't do, or say, and should have?

One of the Great Lies of our society is the myth of the individual - the cowboy, the high-powered single career mom, the young American adult fresh out of school living alone in the big city and building a life for her/himself. Contrast this with what a Danish friend once said to me about poverty and homelessness: "Well, in Scandinavia we think of each other as a sort of extended family. Everyone's your sister or brother, in a way - and you wouldn't let your sister or brother go hungry, or be homeless on the street." When I spent some time later in The Netherlands, which is more ethnically diverse, I realized it isn't just common heritage that keeps poverty and homelessness minimal in Europe -- it is, even more so, mutual respect for each other's dignity and humanity. Treating each other as the extended family that we are.

I kept telling myself on Wednesday that we did what we could -- we sort of kept an eye on the guy, we acted from experience. I told myself after B.'s suicide that I didn't really know him anyway, I couldn't really have made a difference.

That's wrong, I know now. If I've learned anything from my years with City Repair and the T-Horse, it's that small interactions between people can be incredibly powerful. Think about a stranger's comment that once colored your whole day. Think about a chance interaction that influenced how you think, or perhaps even changed the course of your life. If I had treated Rolland or B. like I would have treated my brother -- paid a little more attention a bit sooner, spent a little more time to talk with him -- maybe things would be different.

The "myth of the individual" IS a lie. In reality we are not independent of each other. Unless you are living in uncharted wilderness somewhere - far away from supermarkets, zoning codes and email - you are part of a community that, quite literally, keeps you alive. We are "each others' keepers", as is implied in Genesis.

I've learned two things from the deaths of these brothers, one of whom I hardly knew, the other who's face I didn't even see until he was dead:

We need to look out for each other.* Compassion and love - the greatest virtues - demand this. Demand it! Need a reason to love strangers in our selfish, individualist society? How about this: We are all reflections of each other. Or, as some friends say, I am another You. This isn't metaphysical coffee talk. At a basic level, it's the recognition that I could be in your shoes, or her shoes, and vice versa. When Dignity Village came before the Portland City Council last year, Commissioner Francesconi upheld individual empowerment as a better solution when he said, "I'll never be homeless... I've got money." The thousands upon thousands of homeless people who never thought _they'd_ be homeless know that's an illusion.
So take care of each other, look out for each other, as individuals. Be a community, and that includes the people you don't know.
We live in a sick society.* More so "sick" as in 'unwell' or 'ill', but also "sick" as in 'abhorrent' or 'disturbing'.
I call our society 'ill' because there are limits to our collective compassion. Individually we may each give money to charity, give a blanket to a homeless person, buy a hungry person a meal... But collectively we have basically decided that we are not ultimately "our brothers' (and sisters') keepers". How healthy can our society be if we still let others live and die in the gutters?

And I call our society 'disturbing' because people are dying in the street, PEOPLE ARE DYING IN THE STREET ! in front of us, every day... and we, as a society, focus our attention instead on maintaining national economic growth, or spreading our military and economic influence to every corner of the Earth, or quibbling over the domestic political issue of the day. We do next to nothing about it, we practically deny it.

So do what you can to create a society of justice. Vote. Demand affordable housing and universal health care. Demand that the richest society on earth take responsibility for the people it breaks and throws away - and demand that it reform. If we can spend $400+ billion to make the deadliest military arsenal in the world even deadlier, we can eradicate poverty and homelessness.

---

Rolland was drawn to the community and warmth of the T-Horse when he sat down for the last time. As individuals, we were all concerned for him. But as a community, we failed him on that night. As a society, we failed him months, perhaps years ago.

Shortly afterwards, a friend remarked that Rolland might be looking down and thinking, "what a beautiful place to die, surrounded by warmth and people." How horrible - how insane - is it that Rolland is actually one of the lucky ones? To die at a community event - and not behind a bush, or in a snowy doorway, or in a subway tunnel.

What could I have done? What can you do next time?

Let the Bums Have a Flop

2008-09-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

by Nobody, the founder of the Homelessness Marathon

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The reason nothing gets fixed in this country is because the problems are more profitable than the solutions. And it's usually not hard to figure out where the profit lies. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that many industries find it's cheaper to pollute than to clean up. And you don't have to be an industrial polluter to see that scientists make more money building rockets than working for peace.

But it's a little harder sometimes to see the profit in homelessness. After all, who makes money off the homeless besides drug dealers and distilleries? Isn't that the cause of the problem, that they all drink and drug too much and, oh yeah, some of them are crazy? No, that's not the cause of the problem, but this myth certainly keeps us from looking at what the causes really are.

Let's start with the bums. Yeah, that's right, let's not call them homeless, let's just call them bums like we did when we were kinder to them. Back in the old days, there used to be flop houses. I grew up in Manhattan, so I know first hand that in the early 60's it used to cost 25 cents for a flop except in the more upscale "Lyons House" where it was fifty cents. I know this because they had their prices displayed right outside.

Today, Manhattan's flop houses are gone, and I have it on the reliable testimony of a former New York City junkie that the cheapest hotel rooms in the city cost about $35 a night. Even if a couple of people split the room, that still means the price of a bed for a drunk has gone up 70 times in 40 years. That's like a $200-a-month apartment becoming a $14,000-a-month apartment. If sober people had faced hikes like that, even more of them would be on the streets too.

Where did the flop houses go? In city after city they were victims of urban renewal, as were the SRO's (single room occupancy buildings, where you could get a cheap room on a monthly or yearly basis). Why did the flop houses go? Because in city after city the powers that be decided more revenue would be returned to the tax base (i.e. they'd make more money), if the cheap housing was torn down and replaced by office buildings, stadiums and convention centers. Me, I'd have said, "Let the bums have a flop," just like people said for generations, but that's not the way it is in America anymore. The cities like to talk about the millions they spend solving homelessness, but not the tens of millions they made creating it.

Of course, there are plenty of homeless people who aren't bums, by which I mean, they're clearly not doing everything they can to stay in the same miserable situation. Think of it this way. More than 750,000 people are homeless at any given moment, which represents as many as 3.5 million people cycling on and off the streets every year, which represents at least 20 million people homeless since the early '80s when the crisis began. Just do the math.

750,000 represents less than four percent of 20 million, which means that more than 96 percent of all the people who have ever been homeless have gotten out of homelessness (as will most of the people on the streets today). That's a statistic you won't hear from Bill O'Reily who regularly portrays homeless people as unable to get their lives together. Maybe because once you've heard it, you have to wonder how come this obviously motivated more-than-96% wound up on the streets in the first place.

Does anyone remember the name Sam Pierce? He was Reagan's HUD secretary, and two things happened under his aegis. First HUD got out of the business of building housing, which is why there's a critical shortage of affordable housing today. In the peak years of the 1970s, we were spending over $60 billion a year on all the Federal housing programs. But under Reagan and Pierce, that figure plummeted to the point where we're spending less than $30 billion today. If we'd stayed at the pre-Reagan/Pierce levels, an aggregate of well over $500 billion more would have been spent on housing. Can anyone doubt that we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in if it weren't for those cuts? Well, someone else got the $500 billion, so we know exactly what this policy change was worth to them.

The other thing that happened under Pierce was that there was a mammoth scandal about HUD funds being misappropriated to finance pet projects for the clients of highly-placed Republican consultants. Pierce didn't go to jail, himself, but some of his associates did, indeed, wind up living in government housing aka the pokey. And just which money do you think it was that they misappropriated? It was some of the surviving funds (about $10 billion worth) for low-income housing. So let us not be too polite to remember that the homelessness crisis was created, in part, by people who weren't too proud to rob the poor box.

And let's also not forget that when we're talking about low-income housing, we're talking about housing for people who do, in fact, have an income. Why do these people make so little money that they need low-income housing to begin with? O'Reily notwithstanding, the answer has much less to do with choices they made than with choices they didn't make.

For example, the Social Security Administration says that in 2001, there were 2,649,523 people getting SSI and no other form of Federal benefit except maybe food stamps. These people were, by the requirements of the program, blind, disabled, or over 65 years old but for some reason not eligible for regular social security. These were surely among the people Ronald Reagan called the "truly needy," the ones he said would not be allowed to slip through the social safety net.

But these SSI recipients couldn't decide for themselves how much money they would get. That decision was made for them in Washington, and in Washington they decided that the average monthly payment (as of Dec. 2003) would be $435.38. Some of the states kick in another $200 or so, but this is why every year on the Homelessness Marathon I find myself talking to disabled people who don't get a check from the government big enough to let them afford housing.

Let's do some more math. Let's just suppose we gave the otherwise destitute aged, disabled and blind an extra $500 a month, which might be enough to give most of them a little fiscal dignity. That would be an additional $6000 per year for 2.65 million people or, approximately, $16 billion a year. In other words, leaving some of our neediest citizens to rot, frees up $16 billion a year for people who couldn't possibly need the money as much, if at all.

On the other hand, there are plenty of people with low incomes who actually do work, but they just don't make much money at their jobs. The original idea of the minimum wage was to keep these lowest-paid workers from sinking into poverty, but the real-dollar value of the minimum wage has fallen to the point where it doesn't do that anymore. And as the wage floor has fallen, it has taken with it the real-dollar value of the wages pegged to be a little above the minimum or a little above that. Whose fault do we think this is?

Do we think it was the minimum-wage workers, themselves, who lobbied Washington and insisted that they be paid too little? Or do we think the process is a tad more influenced by the wealthy employers? Well what was it worth to the employers?

According to the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13,677,000 people are working for $7.14 an hour or less. If we gave them all an extra dollar, the ones at the very top would be getting about the purchasing power of the minimum wage in 1968. And the ones at the bottom still wouldn't be making enough, but at least they'd be better off. That one dollar would cost employers $13.6 million dollars an hour. That's $544 million a week (for a 40 hour week) or more than $28 billion dollars a year.

In other words, every dollar that low-wage workers lose represents a $28 billion subsidy for business -- annually. And, of course, when the lowest wages are depressed, the wages in the middle are too, freeing up the globs of cash that today's titans of industry use to reward themselves with historic largesse. But even this is not enough.

You just can't make an American job cheap enough to keep someone with expensive tastes from shipping it overseas. And what is it worth to American corporations to have the remaining American workers so scared that they'll accept give-backs and cuts and be afraid to unionize much less strike? The bosses don't have to hire Pinkertons when they can hire Congress to strip away labor's protections and threaten workers with becoming homeless if they raise a peep.

Add to this the billions of dollars that are made by the for-profit health-care industry which has no compunctions about bankrupting people, driving them into the streets and then denying them proper care when they get there. This mega-industry's profits would be lost if we had national health care like almost every other industrialized nation.

And of course, unless something changes, the enormous Federal budget deficit will be paid for in no small measure by reductions in aid for the poorest Americans. That's how Shwarzenegger is fixing California's deficit. Has anyone heard of a different plan for the national debt? And how was that debt created? With massive tax breaks for the rich. So how greedy is that? They've even stolen from tomorrow's poor. Couldn't they at least have had the decency to leave some poor for future generations to rob?

No wonder we're supposed to think homelessness is just a matter of personal responsibility. It's a money gusher for the people who really create it, and they're the ones who never take responsibility at all.

Lethal Cakeology

2008-09-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

by Nobody

When I was a boy, I saw ads referring to products developed at "The Betty Crocker Institute." I imagined an ivy-covered campus around which professors strolled while discussing the finer points of cakeology. It took a while before I caught on that this "Institute" had all the substance of a mail-order PhD, but even so, I think it has more credibility than the "Manhattan Institute." At least what Betty Crocker put out you could swallow.

New York City activist, Robert Lederman, is fond of pointing out that the Manhattan Institute, credited with being the inspiration for such giants of western thought as Rudy Guiliani and President BeelzeBush, was founded by former CIA director William Casey and funded by fortunes accumulated through friendly trading with Nazi Germany. As the spawning ground for resuscitated theories of eugenics and that pernicious piece of racist claptrap, "The Bell Curve," The Manhattan Institute, Lederman warns, represents nothing more nor less than fascism come to America. Still, I don't think I fully grasped what he was saying till I got my hands on a copy of "The Burden of Bad Ideas," a collection of essays by Manhattan Institute fellow Heather MacDonald.

In one chapter, MacDonald propounds the thesis that homelessness is caused by the refusal of homeless people to accept housing. "Clearly," she writes, "most vagrants prefer the streets to the responsibilities of housed existence." She is quick to point out, though, that that's not actually what keeps people on the streets. People live on the streets because "advocates need them to be there," ostensibly because without them, there'd be nothing to complain about.

And how do these evil homeless advocates keep homeless people on the streets? Why, of course, by seeing to it that homeless folks are just treated too darn well. "The charity our society showers upon people living on the street," MacDonald complains, "makes possible [their] hardy resistance to seeking help." MacDonald is so brazen that she repeatedly accuses Maria Foscarinis, director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, of lying, for saying outrageous things like homeless people "have no place left to go."

Without left-wing meddling, MacDonald assures us, the whole problem of homelessness could be solved. How? Homeless people would be "removed" to what she calls "safer abodes."

Of course, this thesis is beyond absurd. We'll probably get into a numbers game when the new census figures come out, but however many homeless people there may be on any given night, everyone agrees that this static count represent three or four times as many people cycling in and out of housing. So if we have a homeless population of, say, 750,000, we must have had two to three million people who have had episodes of homelessness during the year. In other words, a million or two million people find their way OUT of homelessness every year, so how could anyone possibly conclude that homeless people don't want homes?

The answer is simple. MacDonald looked at practically no evidence and misrepresented the little bit that she found.

MacDonald's sweeping conclusions are based entirely on work largely funded, at first, by the Times Square BID (Business Improvement District) which developed an interest in homelessness because getting homeless people out of the area was better for business. The BID didn't just use the stick, but offered a carrot, in the form of outreach workers associated with Project Renewal, an organization with various services to offer, including use of a Respite Center and assistance in obtaining subsidized housing.

According to MacDonald, the BID's report on this project, "To Reach The Homeless," proves "beyond a shadow of a doubt that the homeless are not on the street because they can't find housing." This is because "over the year, the outreach workers had made 1511 'contacts' with 206 individuals... [and] only 37 of the contacted individuals agreed even to visit the BID's respite center, while a mere 15 condescended to stay overnight. The homeless, it appeared, did not really want housing, housing, housing."

According to MacDonald, "the payoff was meager: some two hundred long-term homeless, according to program estimates, remained on the streets around Times Square... One year and $700,000 later, only two people had accepted housing."

The actual report which MacDonald cites, however, tells a different story. Yes, there were 1511 contacts, but Project Renewal had actually asked the state Office of Mental Health to free them from having to define their work on the basis of "contacts," which might mean as little as "a brief 'How're ya doin'?' on the street." When the Republican Pataki administration came in, the report notes, hope of coming up with more realistic evaluative standards "no longer flew."

"To Reach the Homeless" listed only sixty-five individuals who were even seen three or more times. So the 37 who visited the Respite Center represented more than half of this group -- not nearly so hopeless a statistic as MacDonald makes out. It's true that the BID's report says that only two individuals were housed in the first year, but the same report also contains an addendum which states that, in the next two months, four more people were placed, which tended to confirm the idea that the effect of outreach efforts was "cumulative." Indeed, a follow-up report issued later notes that after that first year when only two people were housed, twelve more homeless people were housed after just eight months.

And as for those two hundred long-term homeless left on the streets, the report notes that there weren't two hundred long-term homeless in the Times Square area to begin with. "While [outreach workers] had seen about 200 homeless individuals 'passing through' the Times Square area, they found only about a dozen individuals who could conceivably be described as the 'hard-core' and permanent..." The report adds that when "workers were sent out in the early morning, rather than late morning hours, they uncovered as many as 12 additional homeless people."

The report concludes, "If the success of the [outreach effort] could be measured by comparing the number of resident homeless in the Times Square area before the project went into operation in the late summer of 1995 and a year afterward, the experiment would qualify as a resounding success... according to those dealing with the problem, the number's are way, way down." So far down, in fact, that the BID won't attribute the change to Project Renewal's efforts but assumes it was caused by "the general development and clean-up of the area." Whatever the cause, MacDonald's description of the homeless situation in Times Square after the intervention is directly opposite from the one in the very report she cites for evidence. What kind of journalism is that?

Though MacDonald tars all homeless people with the outreach program's "failure," Project Renewal's actual success is all the more remarkable because they were working with what they defined as "service resistant," "tough" cases. True, "To Reach The Homeless" does give brief vignettes of homeless people running or hiding to avoid the outreach workers but, reading between the lines, one might get an idea of why.

First of all, the BID's interest is in business not humanity, and while it does offer the carrot, it also employs the stick. "To Reach The Homeless" gives a lot of credit for the reduced number of homeless people in Times Square to the fact that "The combined forces of the NYPD and the BID security people have fairly blanketed the area with officers on patrol, not rousting the homeless, but not exactly appearing to extend a welcome hand either." As someone who's talked with numerous homeless people in New York City, I don't believe there was ever a "not rousting" policy, but in any case, the BID is seen as a police power. Could that be a reason why some homeless people avoid outreach workers associated with the BID?

One might think that the BID's security officers and Project Renewal's outreach workers have entirely different priorities, but that's not necessarily the case. Though MacDonald cannonizes the outreach workers as "gentle, well-meaning professionals" who "try ever so delicately to persuade the homeless to visit the BID's renovated 'respite center,'" in "To Reach The Homeless" one of these gentle souls sees some homeless people in a parking garage and laments the fact that the landlord "can't keep a security guard there all the time. That would help us a great deal if they could. As long as these guys have a place to stay warm, they're not going to come into the Respite Center."

Leaving aside the obvious point that homeless people are less likely to trust "gentle" service providers who wish more force could be used to coerce them, what, in the end, does the Respite Center have to offer? According to MacDonald, it's a place where homeless people "could get overnight shelter, showers, healthy meals, clothing and medical attention -- with no strings attached," but that's not actually the way it's described in "To Reach The Homeless," MacDonald's sole source for her account.

Let's take the little matter of a shower. If someone offered you a "no strings attached" shower, what do you think that would that mean? If someone offered that to me, I'd assume it meant they'd lead me to a shower, point at it, and let me enjoy myself. No such luck with Project Renewal.

When homeless people seek to take a shower at the Respite Center, the first thing that happens is that they're separated from all their earthly belongings. Roseann Viglione, the project's director, explains that this requires "a lot of negotiation." Then the homeless person's clothes are taken away too -- for cleaning -- which might make them feel like virtual prisoners, since they can't go out naked. Oh, and of course, the homeless clients are also watched in the shower or, as Roseann ever so euphemistically puts it, they're "managed in the shower by a case aide." This is because "sometimes they come in drunk and we don't want them falling," but one might suspect it's to protect Project Renewal from liability. The homeless clients, after all, have been taking their chances under dangerous conditions for a long time.

The fun doesn't stop there. No, homeless showerees also have to apply Lindane anti-lice medication, something they balk at. "It's not that it stings, they just don't want to do it," says the ever-so-sensitive Roseann. I guess this is more proof that homeless people don't know what's good for them, but I used Lindane long ago, and I seem to remember it stinging. I imagine it would sting a lot more if one had an open sore or cut as a homeless person might. But this barely scratches the surface of what's wrong with Lindane.

First marketed more than fifty years ago (and therefore never given a pre-market investigation by the FDA), Lindane, once sold under the brand name "Kwell," is the last persistent organochlorine pesticide sold for direct use on human beings. It is a known carcinogen and neurotoxin that, among other things, can cause seizures and even death (for more information check out www.lindane.org).

The FDA first issued an alert to Lindane's potential dangers in 1975, more than 25 years ago. By 1989, the Armed Forces Pest Management Board had dropped Lindane from its formulary. It has been banned completely in 18 countries and a total ban in the state of California takes effect in 2002. In April of 1996, even our weak-kneed FDA advised that Lindane should be considered a treatment of last resort. This was just six months after Project Renewal's Times Square outreach program became fully operational and within the period covered by "To Reach the Homeless."

In the process of writing this column, I called Project Renewal and found that, at least up until my call, they were still using Lindane on new clients or clients they hadn't seen in a while. And they were using it as a matter of course, without even bothering to check first if the homeless person they were giving it to was actually infested with lice.

At least, if they're willing to put up with everything, the Respite Center does provide homeless people with a rare (on the streets) sensual delight -- doesn't it?" Well, sort of, but according to Roseann, "sometimes when they're in the shower they kind of get into being into the shower, and they're in there for a long time, 20 minutes, half an hour. And we have to say, 'Hey, you coming out?'"

So let's recap. In order to take a shower, homeless people have to hand over to outreach workers allied with their police harassers all of their earthly possessions, everything they depend on to survive including even their clothes. Then they're watched in the shower, forced to cover themselves with goo that might harm them, and told to get out when they start to enjoy themselves. Roseann says that for the outreach workers this process is "very draining," but for homeless people, MacDonald calls it a shower "with no strings attached."

MacDonald might have made better use of her time if, instead of focusing on the brief vignettes of homeless people who refused Project Renewal's services, she had concentrated on the much lengthier description of one of the program's successes.

Donald is a 62-year-old alcoholic who is receiving disability for "painful circulation problems in his left leg" with a "contributing diagnosis of alcohol abuse." After five-years on the streets, he is on the verge of securing subsidized housing. Audrey, an RN, reports that he is "cooperative on all levels since the day he came in, a sweetheart of a client" who's even "medication compliant," taking the anti-depressant pills they give him. Still there are problems, like how to "beef up his Social Security check of $399 a month."

This is a little detail MacDonald altogether ignores. Our government gives a disabled man only $399 a month on which to live. Could that have anything to do with why he couldn't find affordable housing in New York City?

Who knows, perhaps Donald wouldn't be having problems with his leg either, if we had national health care, but "Donald had tried several times, somewhat unsuccessfully, to get attention from city hospitals." Finally, doctors did operate, "bypassing a vein in Donald's leg so the blood would circulate," but a blockage in his foot was left untreated.

"By early May," the BID reports, "things were looking good indeed," but then "it happened." What happened was that Donald got a letter from Social Security asking him to come in for a "redetermination" of his benefits. "We kept telling him, 'Don't worry about this, it's nothing... They'll see,'" recalls Roseann, but Donald freaked out anyway. Maybe he knew that, contrary to Roseann's reassurances, thousands of people with legitimate disabilities are kicked off their benefits every year and have to fight for months to get them restored.

In any case, Donald went back to drinking and, according to Roseann, started "getting obstreperous, saying he had a disability, he should get the money anyway..." After six weeks of this, his foot got worse and, what with the resulting infection, his leg had to be amputated above the knee. "In the back of his mind," Roseann speculates, "he was going to show them a disability." Though, of course, it was still "not enough for [SSI] that his doctor told them his leg had been amputated." Donald had to go and show them the stump.

At least, in the end, Donald did get a subsidized apartment. But if this is what homeless people have to go through to get one, then the fact that Project Renewal has succeeded at all must be a testament to how badly homeless people want to get off the streets.

Heather MacDonald is a "journalist" spectacularly devoid of integrity who doesn't even get her facts right in the simplest ways. But it doesn't really matter to her well being. Though she derides homeless people as, essentially, a bunch of losers defined by their deficiencies, her own astonishing deficiency of honor and ability will cost her nothing. She's surely paid more at the Manhattan Institute than any three or four homeless activists put together. And certainly many times more than Project Renewal's non-professional staff, themselves "alumni of substance abuse programs run by Project Renewal," who found the inspirational pot of gold at the end of the rainbow -- pay of "$6 to $7 an hour" in America's most expensive city.

And MacDonald's various deficiencies also won't keep her from being socially accepted. On the dust jacket, George Will calls her work "indispensable." John Leo of U.S. News & World Report describes her as "a brilliant journalist of the first rank." And David Brooks, famous for his hatchet job on Anita Hill, declares, "If there were any justice in the world, MacDonald would be knee-deep in Pullitzer Prizes and National Magazine Awards for her pioneering work." This is, of course, a slightly different sense of "justice" than the one possessed by those who say the national wealth should be shared more equally, but never mind. This is how it's going to be. Homeless people are on the street because we're too good to them, and don't bother us with the truth.

What has all this got to do with fascism? Well, fascism isn't just one thing. It's not just nationalism, or xenophobia or militarism or a corporate economic system, or bunches of bonkers psychobabble like "triumph of the will." There's something else in the mix, a kind of sneering quality that to me is exemplified by a picture I saw at Yad Vashem, Israel's main holocaust museum. In the picture, a group of young Nazi soldiers is haughtily laughing as one of their number snips the beard off an orthodox Jewish man held helplessly as their captive.

Who was that man to them? He was no real person, just a flesh and blood backdrop for their cruel fantasies. And who, we might ask, are homeless people to Heather MacDonald?

HAS THE AMERICAN LEFT TAKEN AN HISTORIC WRONG TURN?

2008-09-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

There was a time when the struggle for social justice in America was inseparable from the fight against poverty. Is that still the case today?

The chart below was compiled by entering terms into the search engines of various media and then recording how many “hits” they generated. This provides an imprecise but nonetheless helpful measure of how much attention these media paid to various issues. The figures are all from searches performed on 1/9/07.

	The Nation	Democracy Now	Common-dreams.org	Truth-out.org	Mother Jones	NY Times	Time
Abortion	1010	245	2910	2770	1466	20,221	3649
AIDS	971	222	2980	1620	1529	33,459	20,371
Christian Coalition	636	97	1180	807	1831	26,864	1219
Cuba	440	433	2900	2300	312	16,383	4586
Gaza	345	662	2290	1640	217	8821	1711
Haiti	181	369	934	932	131	8796	1257
Hamas	192	360	1330	1420	205	3716	853
Health care	1010	411	9040	5790	9496	45,714	9986
Human rights	3700	1709	48,000	10,500	9777	40,905	13,263
Homelessness	72	18	325	212	319	3573	163
Racism	1720	222	1720	736	280	10474	1599
Sadr City	667	138	785	1380	2504	681	161
Wind power	247	39	1510	759	8364	46,485	3147
World Trade Organization	511	200	3610	987	11,273	67,163	2843

As anyone can see, there isn’t much difference between the left media and the mainstream media in terms of priorities. At The Nation, there were 13.5 hits on “AIDS” for every one on “Homelessness,” at Democracy Now there were 12.3, and at the New York Times, there were 9.4. At Commondreams.org there were 4.1 hits on “Hamas” for every one on “Homelessness,” while at Truthout.org there were 6.7 and at Time there were 5.2 (only Mother Jones had more hits for “Homelessness” than for “Hamas.”).

On the surface, at least, the millions of Americans who become homeless every year would seem to be just as unimportant to the left as they are to the powerful corporate oligarchs who control most of our nation’s media. But what kind of social justice movement doesn’t care about the poorest of the poor? At the Homelessness Marathon, we think that’s a question worth asking.

Top Executive Pay At Selected Organizations Helping Hungry and Homeless People

2008-09-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

(Unless otherwise noted, all figures are from 2003 IRS 990 Forms posted at Guidestar.org)

	Salary	Benefits
Marsha Evans, Pres. American National Red Cross, Wash., DC	450,008	18,591
Robert Forney. Pres. America’s Second Harvest, Chicago, IL	325,032	14,128
Marcia Stein, executive director, City Meals On Wheels, New York, NY*	235,000	?
Jonathan Reckford, Ex. Dir. Habitat for Humanity International, Americus, GA*	210,000	?
Ray Offenheiser, Pres. Oxfam America, Boston, MA*	201,000	?
John McCullough, CEO, Church World Service, Elkhart, IN*	180,000	?
Mary Brosnahan, Ex. Dir. Coalition for the Homeless, New York, NY	152,893	1,390
Lyndia Downel, Pres./Ex. Dir, Pine St. Inn, Boston, MA	127,225	13,279
William Bolling, Ex. Dir. Atlanta Community Food Bank, Atlanta, GA	123,513	13,097
John Parvensky, Ex. Dir. Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Denver, CO **	118,775	10,500
Nan Roman, Pres. National Alliance To End Homelessness, Wash., DC	113,272	7,929
Rev J Brian Hehir, Pres. Catholic Charities, Alexandria, VA (2002 990)	96,092	4,698
Sue Marsh, Ex. Dir. Rosie’s Place, Inc., Boston, MA	93,216	19,474
John Lozier, National Health Care for the Homeless, Nashville, TN	92,380	4,619
Donald Whitehead, Ex. Dir. National Coalition for the Homeless, Wash., DC	79,125	2,374
Richard Gerlach, Ex. Dir., So Others May Eat, Wash., DC	76,452	29, 125
Maria Foscarinis, Ex. Dir. Nat. Law Cent. On Homelessness + Poverty, Wash. DC (2004 990)	70,000	3,727
Mark Swann, Ex. Dir. Preble St. Resource Center, Portland, ME	64,998	12,153
William Newman, Ex. Dir. Uptown Day Shelter, Charlotte, NC	63,994	- 0 -
Laura Hansen, Ex. Dir. Broward Coalition for the Homeless, Ft.Lauderdale, FL	59,339	- 0 -
James & Anita Beaty, Ex. Dirs, Metro Atlanta Task Force For the Homeless, Atlanta, GA ***	52,000	- 0 -
Fran Czajkowski, Ex. Dir., Homeless Empowerment Project (2002 990)****	45,000	- 0 -
Father Larry Janezic, Ex. Dir., Franciscan Outreach Association, Chicago, IL*	20,000	?
Various chief engineers, The Homelessness Marathon*****	500	- 0 -

* Source, charitynavigator.org, information for fiscal year ending 2004
** Mr. Parvensky is paid out of two accounts. According to 2003 IRS 990 forms, he is paid $91,025 plus $10,500 expenses by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and $27,750 by the Renaissance Housing Development Corp., an affiliated organization headquartered at the same address.
*** The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless was the host organization for the 9th Annual Homelessness Marathon
**** The Homeless Empowerment Project is the fiscal sponsor of the Homelessness Marathon
***** The Homelessness Marathon is incorporated as a non-profit but does not yet have 501(c)3 status from the IRS and is not required to publish its financial records. The Homelessness Marathon will open its bank records to any journalist wishing to make an investigation.

AS WE HELP THE NEW HOMELESS WE MUST HELP THE OLD HOMELESS TOO

2008-09-11T16:30:00.001-07:00

This statement was released shortly after Katrina struck and was signed by our entire staff at that time.

We are broadcasters who, for the past eight years, have been trying to draw attention to the problem of homelessness in America, and unlike a lot of people, we are not surprised by the slow governmental response to the Katrina catastrophe. In fact, during our February broadcast, we included a segment entitled "Hurricanes and Homelessness." Our voices have been part of the small chorus that has been warning for a long time that this day might come. And we issued our particular warning based not on meteorological or coastal conditions, but on what we know of the government's negligence towards those in need. Based on what we've learned, we would like to make the following observations:

Thousands of poor black people were left to die in New Orleans. Instead of merely being warned to get out, they should have been offered help getting out. But the City of New Orleans locked down its busses and the Federal government did nothing. It was the lethal abandonment of poor black people that began the social breakdown, not the looting.

If racism is the elephant in the room, the war against the poor is the Tyrannosaurus. Over the past thirty years, we have gone from being a country with surplus low-income housing units to a country with millions of units too few. The housing infrastructure just isn't there anymore to take in the Katrina refugees. It isn't there because America stopped investing in public housing. And America stopped investing in public housing because of a radical political agenda to invest, instead, in the bank accounts of the wealthy. The dead and desperate of the Gulf Coast bear witness to the folly of letting rich people run our country.

The new homeless and the old homeless are the same. Part of the war on the poor has been the relentless demonization of homeless people as drunks and crazies. That was never an accurate image, but it's true that some people put themselves more in the way of homelessness by drinking just as some people put themselves more in the way of it by building beach houses in a hurricane zone. Either way, we are confronted with the same question: Do we wish to be the kind of society that lets people die in the streets -- as they are dying now -- or the kind where we help each other out, no matter what our foibles? We must choose to be a society that lends a hand, and to truly make that commitment, we must do away with the old divide-and-conquer distinctions between poor folks and "normal" people. AS WE HELP THE NEW HOMELESS WE MUST HELP THE OLD HOMELESS TOO.

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

2008-09-11T16:29:00.001-07:00

On the Homelessness Marathon, we talk to many different kinds of people who hold many different views about how to end homelessness. We're glad to present a wide diversity of opinion, but we also want people to know where we stand ourselves.

At the Homelessness Marathon, we believe that the elimination of poverty is a moral duty for society. We believe that fulfilling this duty makes for a better society. And we believe that there are many ways to fulfill this duty, but that all of them should be guided by these principles:

1) The most severe forms of poverty must be addressed on an emergency basis.

2) National efforts to eliminate poverty must be funded through the national budget and must focus on changes in the system not in the poor.

These changes should include:

a) A universal living wage and universal health care.

b) A full employment economy.

c) Investment in public housing and public transportation.

d) Benefits for the truly needy that truly keep them out of need.

e) Fair taxes on corporations and wealth.

f) Recognition of food, shelter, health care and education as the rights of citizens.

3) Within these guidelines, we support a wide variety of approaches to poverty, including those based on charity, personal uplift, supportive services and economic opportunity.

Our view

2008-09-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
At the Homelessness Marathon, we believe that the elimination of poverty is a moral duty for society. We believe that fulfilling this duty makes for a better society. And we believe that there are many ways to fulfill this duty, but that all of them should be guided by these principles... [read more]

POVERTY: IS ANYONE LISTENING?
I remember an episode of the old TV show "Father Knows Best" in which the son brought home a shortwave radio, and the whole family gathered round to listen. Of course, this being television, the situation quickly turned dramatic, and sitting in their suburban living room, the TV family became the only ones to hear the distress signals from a sinking motorboat miles away. They wound up calling the Coast Guard, and the episode ended with a grateful skipper saying something like, "Thank you out there, whoever you are." [read more]

THE DISASTER AFTER THE DISASTER
This year I had the unsettling experience of finding out that I didn't actually know much about something I thought I knew a lot about. I was in rural Mississippi, talking to survivors of Katrina, right near the Ground Zero where the hurricane came ashore. I thought I knew a lot about their plight, because Katrina was surely one of the most covered stories of the last century. What I discovered was that those iconic scenes of hungry, thirsty survivors right after the storm just marked the beginning of the malign neglect that marred the recovery process. One survivor warned me that what happened to them was like a "premonition" of what could happen to the rest of the country if a disaster strikes... [read more]

AS WE HELP THE NEW HOMELESS WE MUST HELP THE OLD HOMELESS TOO
A Statement On Katrina from The Homelessness Marathon

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?
Top Executive Pay At Selected Organizations Helping Hungry and Homeless People

HAS THE AMERICAN LEFT TAKEN AN HISTORIC WRONG TURN?
There was a time when the struggle for social justice in America was inseparable from the fight against poverty. Is that still the case today? [read more]

LETHAL CAKEOLOGY
When I was a boy, I saw ads referring to products developed at "The Betty Crocker Institute." I imagined an ivy-covered campus around which professors strolled while discussing the finer points of cakeology. It took a while before I caught on that this "Institute" had all the substance of a mail-order PhD, but even so, I think it has more credibility than the "Manhattan Institute." At least what Betty Crocker put out you could swallow. [read more]

LET THE BUMS HAVE A FLOP
"Nobody," the founder of the Homelessness Marathon, gives some of his views on what keeps people on the streets. [read more]

IN MEMORIAM, ROLAND LEE PAIGE

UNEQUAL JUSTICE by Mike Rhodes, Homelessness Marathon Board Member
Imagine that the mayor in your city is beaten almost to death on a downtown street. She is rushed to a hospital emergency room where the police interview her about the incident. Under ordinary circumstances, the police would be under intense pressure to bring the perpetrator of the crime to justice and the hospital would be expected to do everything necessary to provide the mayor with the best medical care available. [read more]

Press Releases

2008-09-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BROADCAST TO ORIGINATE FROM “CENTER OF AMERICA’S MELTDOWN”

-- will interview losers in the global economy and ask why Detroit doesn’t care for its own.

      The 13^th Annual Homelessness Marathon will originate from Detroit, MI, starting at 7pm, ET, on Tues., Feb. 23rd and running overnight until 9am, Weds., Feb. 24, 2010.

      At any given moment, there are at least 13,000 to 14,000 homeless people in Detroit, of whom 60% are families with children. Shelters there cannot keep up (in 2002, well before the current economic crisis, the shortfall was already estimated at 7500 beds per night), and the situation is completely out of control.   For example, Alternatives For Girls, a Detroit non-profit that tries to keep homeless young women between the ages of 15 and 20 from a life on the streets, reports that last year it had to turn away 800 otherwise qualified candidates for shelter because no beds were available.

      Worse yet, the framers of Detroit’s “10 Year Plan To End Homelessness,” acknowledge that their plan will not accomplish its stated purpose. The plan’s “Expected Ten Year Outcomes” include, “Increased funding dedicated to long-term solutions,” and “Increased numbers… moving…into permanent housing,” but there is no expectation that homelessness in Detroit will actually come to an end.   In other words, Detroit’s plan to end homelessness is actually a plan to leave thousands of people on the streets!

      “We chose Detroit,” explains the Homelessness Marathon’s founder, Jeremy Weir Alderson, “because it is the center of America’s meltdown. American jobs were shipped abroad with nothing in place for the American workers who were losing them. Surely the American people ought to look at what created this social disaster and ask if the nation might not be better served on a different course.”

      The broadcast will originate from 12025 Woodrow Wilson St. in Detroit, a building in the Cass Community Social Services complex. Homeless people will be gathered there so that they can speak directly to the nation. The broadcast will also feature the voices of diverse experts, callers from around the country and, if possible, politicians.

      WHFR, 89.3 FM in Dearborn, Michigan, the radio station of Henry Ford Community College, will be the on-air host of the broadcast. Other participating Detroit area radio stations will include WHPR, 88.1 FM, in Highland Park, Michigan, and CJAM, 91.5 FM in Windsor, Ontario.

      The Homelessness Marathon will also air on around 100 American radio stations and will be simulcast, in part, over the 45 or so Canadian radio stations carrying a parallel Canadian Homelessness Marathon, now entering its eighth year. The broadcast will be made available to stations free of charge over the Public Radio Satellite System, the Pacifica satellite Ku-band and through a webcast.

      More information about the Homelessness Marathon, including schedules and sound clips from previous broadcasts, can be found at: http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org

      Acclaim for the Homelessness Marathon can be found at: http://homelessnessmarathon.org/2008/09/thank-yous-acclaim.html

How to acquire the 13th Annual Homelessness Marathon's signal

2008-09-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Watch this page for technical updates.

PRSS

To subscribe to the Homelessness Marathon on Content Depot, enter the term "Homelessness" in the Content Depot search engine, and you will find the 13th Annual Homelessness Marathon's page.

The Homelessness Marathon will be transmitted in a single 14-hour transmission. Some longer Content Depot broadcasts must be subscribed to hour-by-hour, but the PRSS thought that making such divisions would be too cumbersome for a broadcast of this length (the Homelessness Marathon is the longest broadcast on the PRSS). Limitations on hours of signal acquisition must be set directly on your station's port.

STREAMING AUDIO

All stations wanting to hook up to our webstream can go to: http://ku.audioport.org:8000/kuright_128 (right channel)

If you are an individual listener, please DO NOT use this stream. The direct link to our broadcast for individual listeners is
http://ku.audioport.org/homeless_32.m3u and http://ku.audioport.org/homeless_128.m3u

PACIFICA KU-BAND

All 14 hours of the Marathon will be on the Pacifica right channel.

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

13th Annual Marathon 30-second promo: CLICK HERE
13th Annual Marathon 60-second promo: CLICK HERE
Music Bed: CLICK HERE
Poster: RIGHT CLICK HERE and save to your hard drive. Very large editable file.

CLOCK

The first hour of the Marathon comes in cleanly at the top of the 7 p.m., EST, hour, with no billboarding or pre-recorded segment. After that, the clock runs:

59:00 - 59:29 - end-of-hour announcements
59:30 - 59:59 - music bed for station IDs
00:00 - 00:59 - beginning-of-hour welcome, billboarding
01:00 - 05:59 - five-minute pre-recorded report
06:00 - 58:59 - live segment

Note: We haven't always hit these marks perfectly.

FAQ's ABOUT THE HOMELESSNESS MARATHON

Q: When is the next marathon?
A: The next Marathon will run from 7pm, EST, on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 to 9am, EST, on Wednesday, February 24, 2010."

Q: How can my station acquire the marathon's signal?
A: The marathon is distributed via two satellite channels (Ku-band and NPR C-band) and a state-of-the-art web cast. Coordinates and other details will be posted on the marathon's web site (www.homelessnessmarathon.org) and will also be circulated in technical bulletins sent to affiliates.

Q: Does my station have to broadcast all 14 hours of the marathon?
A: No. We're grateful for any time you can give us.

Q: Does the marathon raise funds for homeless people?
A: No, the marathon is a consciousness-raising, not a fund-raising
broadcast. There are no on-air solicitations. While we certainly
encourage "haves" to give generously to "have- nots," we believe that solving the problem of homelessness requires not just volunteerism but also fundamental changes in the way our nation's priorities are structured. The whole mission of the marathon is to ignite a national dialog about what these changes should be. We don't want to muddy our focus by pleading for funds. The marathon also does not carry any corporate underwriting.

Q: If our station wants to do more than just air the marathon, what can we do?
A: You can:

Contact local shelters, homeless papers, outreach organizations and activist groups to let them know about the broadcast and see if they want to set up "listening rooms," where homeless people can gather to participate in the broadcast. We also encourage listening-room sponsors to invite politicians and the press to hear the broadcast directly in the company of homeless people
Produce five-minute pre-recorded pieces on selected topics. We need 13 such pre-records to cover our breaks during the broadcast. If you're interested, contact us (at radio@lightlink.com), to discuss possible topics.
Send us a ten or fifteen minute live feed. We're planning to cut away to remote locations throughout the broadcast. A live feed can consist of a "speak-out" from a listening room, conversations with a local subgroup of the homeless population or coverage of a homelessness-related story that can be handled live.
Accompany the marathon with local programming. We encourage stations to build their own programming around the marathon, if possible. This can be done either before or after taking the national feed. Or, stations can cut away from the main broadcast while it's in progress. This can be done during the windows for the pre-recorded pieces and live-feeds, so that it is possible to enter and exit the national marathon cleanly at the beginning and ends of segments.

Contacts

2008-09-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

General Queries
questions[AT]homelessnessmarathon.org

STAFF:
Jeremy Weir Alderson, aka Nobody
Director
director[AT]homelessnessmarathon.org

Michael Alderson
First Volunteer
firstvolunteer[AT]homelessnessmarathon.org

Jessica Lockhart
Director of Affiliate Relations
affiliates[AT]homelessnessmarathon.org

Abbilyn Harmon
Producer
producer[AT]homelessnessmarathon.org

A brief history of the Homelessness Marathon

2008-09-06T04:13:00.000-07:00

I founded The Homelessness Marathon in 1998 as an offshoot of, "The Nobody Show," which I then broadcast weekly on WEOS, an NPR and Pacifica affiliate in Geneva, NY. That first year, I was thinking of it purely as a matter of conscience. I was born and raised in New York City. There was no problem with homelessness there when I was growing up, and I was heartsick to see what was happening. So I basically just wanted to get on the air and say, "This isn't right, and I want no part of it."

Of course, I did whatever I could to make it a good broadcast. I tried to bolster my argument with the opinions of experts and the voices of homeless people. And I got the idea to broadcast from outdoors in the dead of winter, because I thought it might be a way to dramatize the plight of people with nowhere to go in the cold. But it never occurred to me that this was something I'd ever do again. So I liken this to falling in love with a poor girl and then discovering that she's rich. I was really surprised by the reaction I got.

People brought me coffee throughout the night, without my even having asked for it. And when I got off the air, people dug into their pockets for crumpled up bills to help defray my expenses. I really don't think this was because the broadcast, itself, was so good (believe me, we've gotten a lot better since). But it was obvious that the concept had seized people's imaginations, and how often does that happen?

So I decided to put the Marathon up on the NPR satellite, and we've just grown every year since. More and more volunteers have come on board, and more and more radio stations too. The 7th Marathon (in 2004) was carried on 80 stations with another 30 in Canada carrying a parallel Canadian Homelessness Marathon.

As the Marathon has grown, its philosophy has evolved. When I started, I thought I had to scold people and tell them why they ought to care, but now I know that Americans really do care, and that no matter how grave the failings of our society may be, homeless people aren't on the streets because that's where we, as a people, want them to be. So I've backed off a lot. I now mostly look at the Marathon as giving people the reasons for what they already know in their hearts.

Jeremy Weir Alderson
aka "Nobody"
Director, Homelessness Marathon

CDs and Tapes of the Annual Homelessness Marathon

2008-09-06T04:02:00.001-07:00

Why buy CDs?

To support the marathon.
If you can not hear the broadcast in your area or just want the opportuinity to hear these stories again.
To make them available in your community.

The Homelessness Marathons have been recognized as historic broadcasts by libraries around the country. Tapes of the marathons have been archived by libraries at Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, UCLA, Berkeley, the University of Chicago, NYU, and many other institutions of higher learning. Ask your library to carry them.

Each year is archived in a boxed set.
$130 for CDs ($125 plus $5 S&H).
$80.00 for tapes ($75 plus $5 S&H).

Order online with your credit card.

Or send a check to:
The Homelessness Marathon
POB 237
Hector, NY 14841

If you are ordering by mail, click here to see which years are currently available.

For more information on obtaining tapes of the Homelessness Marathon, please email: questions@homelessnessmarathon.org

HomelessnessMarathon.Org -- home of the Homelessness Marathon

Movement Headlines

Live Stream

Poverty: Is anyone listening?

The Disaster After the Disaster

Resources

Acclaim

Unequal Justice - The Tragic Case of Pam Kincaid

Podcasts

Acknowledgements

Video

In Memorium, Roland Lee Paige

Two brothers have died

Let the Bums Have a Flop

Lethal Cakeology

HAS THE AMERICAN LEFT TAKEN AN HISTORIC WRONG TURN?

Top Executive Pay At Selected Organizations Helping Hungry and Homeless People

AS WE HELP THE NEW HOMELESS WE MUST HELP THE OLD HOMELESS TOO

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

Our view

Press Releases

How to acquire the 13th Annual Homelessness Marathon's signal

Contacts

A brief history of the Homelessness Marathon

CDs and Tapes of the Annual Homelessness Marathon

Archives