The smart set to the homeless

	THE ISSUE ITSELF
	Homelessness is said to be 'the condition and societal category of people who lack housing and food, usually because they cannot afford a regular, safe, and adequate shelter'. "Wow!" said Kirk "Wow indeed" agreed Spock. AND the rest. I clicked a few links - skipped past some old 'live spreadsheets with nineteen year old info on them. It's always as well to check sources and dates. An estimated 200 million people worldwide are homeless. Figures for London are obscure in official comments. It has been estimated from scant knowledge and those who draw benefits. 2000-3000 are estimated rough sleepers overspilling the 315,000 in temporary accommodation awaiting housing in London. source http://www.crisis.org.uk/page.builder/how-many-rough-sleepers.html London is an affluent city. I read the following cold assessment of places for our citizens to sleep with a shudder. It's the sort of information the terminator ran on. Refuges for the homeless. There are many places where a homeless person might seek refuge. Outdoors: 1 • On the ground or in a sleeping bag, tent, or improvised shelter, such as a large cardboard box, in a park or vacant lot. 2 • Hobo jungles/Shantytowns: Ad hoc campsites of improvised shelters and shacks, usually near rail yards, interstates and high transportation veins. 3 • Derelict structures: abandoned or condemned houses or buildings, abandoned cars, and beached boats, generally referred to as squatting. 4 • Vehicles: cars or trucks are used as a temporary or sometimes long-term living refuge, for example by those recently evicted from a home. Some people live in vans, sport utility vehicles, covered pick-up trucks, station wagons, sedans, or hatchbacks. 5 • Public places: parks, bus or train stations, airports, public transportation vehicles (by continual riding where unlimited passes are available), 6 • Hospital lobbies or waiting areas, college campuses, and 24-hour businesses such as coffee shops. Many public places use security guards or police to prevent people from loitering or sleeping at these locations for a variety of reasons, including image, safety, and comfort. 7 • Homelessness or emergency shelters such as Najidah and Raphael House it goes on - ending with 12 • Temporarily sleeping in dwellings of friends or family members (”couch surfing”). Couch surfers may be harder to recognize than street homeless people.		So I reiterate - it seems out of place to allow this kind of hardship to go unobserved. Nothing to do to in challenging the situation. It's more satisfying to join in a project to end homessness. That is people who are homeless now shall have shelter and a hand up to getting their own yard. The Big issue is one of many distribution schemes - however there's a family feel to it that is starting to develop and we know little of the overseas bezdomovec, hjemløs, zwerver, dakloze, sans domicile fixe, sans-abri, obdachlos, Be-Ghar or sintecho of other countries. They all translate to mean rough sleepers The Thirteenth Step Later we are going to ask John Bird for his backing to go the one step further. In some context we could call this the thirteenth step. It is the needed actions to build. buy or rent a good dwelling. It's the final step - of shelter we like appropriate to the standards of London health and safety regs and other stuff like that. We are starting with a 8 bedroom, three bathroom, two kitchen, 7 living and 5 acres with outhouses,or thereabouts. We have developed a plan to make everyone who comes to stay or camp better. Better than what? Trained in skills and practices towards getting a job Treated for dental care and run down immune system Self sufficiency cooking tending to animals that provide dairy, eggs and meat. Gardening vegetables grain and puses Beekeeping setting up alternative current, grey and rainwater Here again the list goes on. Meetings every day over dinner - filmed. We can't go on or into any detail - We shall be collaborating with existing agencies and making JVs and projects with gritty visionaries like John Bird - We have talked to nobody about this project as I write. Read more.... Editor