Alfred Stevens (1823-1906) “What is Called Vagrancy” (1854) Oil on canvas Realism Located in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris France
Thispainting is representative of the early part of Stevens’ career when he was keen on representing the squalor of the time.
Emperor Napoleon III thought the contents so shocking (a woman giving a beggar money to prevent her being locked up with her children by the police, which was the fate of vagrants without income) that he asked to have it removed.
The 1810 Penal Code considered begging a crime and vagrancy likewise. While beggars were not clearly defined, vagrants were clearly identified as “unscrupulous people [i.e.] those who have no certain place of residence or means of subsistence and who do not exercise any trade or profession.”
During the Second Rep1ublic, the electoral law of May 31, 1850 further alienated beggars and vagabonds, separating the homeless from the rest of society by prolonging the period of residence required in order to be able to vote in a particular commune or canton, from six months (law of March 15, 1849) to three years.
“Robin Hood Lane” in East London: Ironically one of the most deprived social housing estates I’ve seen so far. And all that right facing the glitter of Canary Wharf’s high rise apartments & offices
How close is your family to being on the street? Nearly ½ of US families live check to check & an unforeseen crisis could mean homelessness. Families now account for 41% of the homeless. Obama has vowed to end homelessness by 2020. But with funding cuts forcing shelters to close, limited affordable housing & laws penalizing the homeless is it just talk? Has the helping hand turned into a fist? We discuss at 7:30pmET.
I am grateful for SNAP and TANF. I am grateful for people who are willing to stand in lines, for a turkey from a food bank or for a toy someone is expecting from Santa. I’m grateful for the people brave enough to boycott Black Friday (and Black Thanksgiving, thanks to some companies), and I am grateful for those who know Black Friday is their only opportunity to make the holidays happen for their families. I’m grateful for workers who stand up for a better standard of living, and I’m also grateful for workers who are too afraid of jeopardizing their families’ well-being to stand up.
I’m grateful for those who, even in the most vitriolic debates, take the time to respect their opponents as people. I’m grateful for the kindness of strangers, and for the politicians who genuinely believe in helping people. I am grateful for the parents who work hard to make their kids think they’re not poor. I’m grateful for the kids who survive poverty, and all the problems it creates.
Finally, I’m grateful for all of you, the people who believe the world can be a better place, and that life shouldn’t be so hard for so many. I’m grateful we can all come together and try to understand the complex details of such a complex problem. I’m grateful for a platform upon which we can all educate each other and learn from one another.
Larry Bossom, 41, who lost his job a few month ago, leaves the St. Ignatius food pantry with bags of items on Nov. 1 in Chicago. Bossom is relying on food stamps and the food bank to help him until he finds work again.
The number of poor people in America is 3 million higher than the official count, encompassing 1 in 6 residents due to out-of-pocket medical costs and work-related expenses.
This chart, from this Census Bureau report, explains the different criteria established by the Official Poverty Measure (currently in use) and Supplemental Poverty Measures (not in use). Under the Supplemental Poverty Measure, one on six Americans is considered poor. As explained in this article, these new criteria are not presently used in an official capacity. This means that even though the government has identified more Americans at risk for hunger, foreclosure, and other poverty-related dangers, they cannot use this data to help until the new standards are accepted by Congress.
A temporary stimulus boost to SNAP or food stamp benefits from 2009 expires on November 1, which means $5 billion in funding cuts to a program that provides much-needed support for low-income families and individuals across the nation. An estimated 47 million people currently rely on SNAP benefits, nearly 49 percent of which are children, a number that has increased during the current economic recession. The total cuts will amount to about a five percent reduction for families who already struggle to make ends meet, and some states already began making cuts. Talks around the contentious farm bill resume this week, which could add an additional $40 billion in cuts if the Senate approves a House bill proposed earlier this year.
Since opening last month, America’s first nonprofit grocery store is bringing fresh and affordable fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy to Chester, Pa., a community that has struggled to find healthy food options since the city’s last supermarket closed in 2001.
Chester, home to 35,000 people, has been designated a food desert, a low-income area lacking easy access to healthy food, by the US government. For the residents of Chester the Fare & Square grocery store — seven years in the making — is a welcome relief: “It’s a beautiful supermarket,” said employee Geraldine Carter.
The store is the brainchild of Bill Clark, the executive director of Philabundance, a nonprofit hunger relief organization. Chester has a 36 percent poverty rate and unemployment is 13 percent. Clark said at one time Chester had five grocery stores, but they all closed when the city fell on hard times after manufacturing virtually disappeared.
Sorry it’s long and hard to see, but it’s a pretty good refutation of arguments against SNAP. Click through to see the whole thing and read the accompanying article.
I had purchased a discounted train ticket from New York to New Orleans a few weeks before the scheduled end of my employment. At the time, I was about 18-years-old and had been living in a cheap hostel, 12 people to a room, out in Brooklyn while I worked my exciting, albeit less-than-minimum-wage, job.
As what sometimes happened with my employment, the end date changed and it was now two weeks prior to the departure date listed on my train ticket; leaving me two weeks without pay in New York. Not a big deal, I tried to scramble around and find some pickup work as a waitress during those two weeks but no luck. I had to move out of the hostel 3 days before my train left because I could not afford to rent it any further. I had a total of 4 dollars and some change left in my name.
I decided my safest bet was to sleep at Penn Station. They didn’t allow you into the boarding area more than 24hrs before your scheduled departure, but they had no choice but to let you hang around the station since you could show them your purchased ticket, therefore making you a ‘customer’. No doubt I was ‘checked on’ by security somewhat frequently during those few days to see if I had a ticket.
The first day wasn’t so bad, I was thirsty and tired more than I was hungry. At least water fountains and sinks are free. But by the third day I felt so hungry and sitting on the floor across from an Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Shop and the numerous tourists walking around with pizza and other delicious food stuffs did not help that hunger. I kept trying to nap hoping the feeling would go away, but when security feels the need to wake you up every 2 hours or so and ask to see your ticket, that doesn’t help much either.
I told myself just a little bit longer and I would be in New Orleans, working a new job and would be able to buy some more food. I didn’t want to part with the few dollars I did have in case some other emergency popped up.
New York to New Orleans is about a 30hour train ride. It is slow and steady and there isn’t a lot to see. The family in front of me was eating a huge order of hot wings that smelled amazing. I tried to face out the window, hoping to fall asleep so New Orleans would happen faster. I did fall asleep, and when I woke up the family was gone but there was a paper tray filled with chicken bones, one or two with most of the meat still intact, laying under their seat.
I stared at it and thought about all of the possible germs. I also thought about what would happen if the family was still on the train and caught me eating their wings, how mortified I would be. I also thought about how hungry I was.
I ate them.
I think about that sometimes, how incredibly lucky I am now, but how scared I was then, ducking behind the woolen seats, to clean off someone else’s discarded food.
That was probably the most depressing meal I have ever eaten.
“Researchers gave 50 recently homeless people a lump sum of 7,500 Canadian dollars (nearly $5,700). They followed the cash recipients’ life over 12-18 months and compared their outcomes to that of a control group who didn’t receive the payment. The preliminary findings, which will be peer-reviewed next year, show that those who received cash were able to find stable housing faster, on average. By comparison, those who didn’t receive cash lagged about 12 months behind in securing more permanent housing.
People who received cash were able to access the food they needed to live faster. Nearly 70% did after one month, and maintained greater food security throughout the year. The recipients spent more on food, clothing and rent, while there was a 39% decrease in spending on goods like alcohol, cigarettes or drugs.“
It’s almost like people self medicate to survive intense stress like, idk, not having the cash to live anywhere but outdoors. People who are extremely poor do not want to be poor, we WANT to be safe and have autonomy in our lives but capitalism makes that impossible for some people.
And drug/alcohol abuse, even when prioritized over eating and other necessities, isn’t some kind of alien mindset, it’s very often a matter of not having the resources to actually be safe and fully meet your actual needs so you have to cope somehow with the suffering that deprivation causes.
This is a perfect example of the kind of important study that shouldn’t NEED to be done, but does need to be done so we can once and for all implement policies that actually help people.
i think it’s important that it was a lump sum all at once, instead of little amounts intermittently. If you’re homeless and, say, addicted to alcohol or meth or whatever, and someone gives you $20 a day, for 12 months, what are you gonna do with that? $20 isn’t enough to pay for a place to sleep that night. You can get some food, but you can’t stock up on anything because you have nowhere to put it. You can’t buy a new pair of shoes. You can’t pay for medication. You can’t really save it up because what are you gonna do, walk around with $5000 worth of twenties in your pocket? until they get lost or stolen and you never got anything out of that money? But you can go and get $20 worth of alcohol and maybe the rest of your day will suck a little less.
But if you get that $5000 all at once and then nothing for the rest of the year, that’s enough to get an apartment for a month, and your meds, and food, and clothes, and then well hey you can look for a job (and you have a mailing address, wow!).
if you’re in a shit situation getting dribs and drabs of money can keep you alive but it won’t help you really change your circumstances, but a large lump sum can do that.
I have brought this study up to multiple people who despite the research, still cannot break their stereotypical image of people who are homeless.
In Ontario, disability (ODSP) payments are so far below the poverty line that people on disability are seeking out medical assistance in death (MAID). The only thing our premier has to say about it is that disabled people should just work if they wanna get out of poverty so bad.
Ewald’s payments total $1,169 per month to cover rent, food, and other essentials. He tells CityNews he will apply for MAID if his situation gets worse and knows several others who are doing the same.
“I’m not suicidal. Sometimes it’s a choice between burning to death and jumping out of a high-rise building. I’d like to have that choice. I’ve suffered. I really don’t want to suffer past a certain point,” said Ewald. “I wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t so stuck in this situation with ODSP.”
[…] He tells CityNews he survives, as many do, by learning the “ODSP diet.” For some, it’s not much more than a potato a day, while others drink coffee because caffeine is an appetite suppressant.
[…] “For the people who are unable to work, for any reason, be it physically, mentally, I will always be there to support them,” said Ford. “But the people who can work in any capacity at all, there’s endless jobs in every sector and the best way to help someone who can work is to get them a job.”
[…] The Ontario NDP and The Green Party of Ontario have promised to raise rates if elected this June, while the Liberals have yet to make an announcement on the issue.
Aside from being callous ableist bullshit, Ford’s response ignores that:
- getting approved for ODSP is a NOTORIOUSLY gruelling and difficult process - there are far too many people with serious and documented disabilities that STILL can’t get ODSP, so this alleged “issue” of “people who could work but are on ODSP instead” is extra-ridiculous
- if he’s implying that people should be working while receiving ODSP - YOUR SUPPORT IS REDUCED IF YOU MAKE TOO MUCH MONEY! Even if you are able to work a LITTLE (although if you got approved you probably aren’t, see previous point), anything over a very low threshold (around $200 per month as per the link below) is going to reduce your ODSP payments. The extra amount you could earn is absolutely not enough to lift ODSP recipients out of poverty.
