YouTube Documentary

Great YouTube documentary on youth homelessness.

Sometimes Life Just Sits Up and Bites You

When I first started volunteering a year and a half ago "Bob" was a regular at the shelter. An attractive guy who reminded me of someone I used to work with, he had it together, always with a smile and a helping hand. Soon after I started he disappeared.

In January he was back. He didn't really remember me and he was more reserved than before but he opened up as we worked together in the kitchen.

Last night he was there again but this time "together" would be one of the last words I would use to describe him. He was plastered. I'm used to seeing drunk people at the shelter, it's a wet shelter so pretty much everyone there is high on some sort of substance. But seeing Bob that way broke my heart. Substance use is no joke, it's a lifelong struggle.

From Paperback to Film

Two novels on homelessness are currently being adapted to film:
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City novel-film
The Soloist novel-film

I haven't read The Soloist but I have read Another Bullshit Night. It wasn't an easy book to get through but it's worth a look. Very unique writing style, and google is hosting it for free so why not check it out?

Because Social Workers are in it for the Money

Ending Homelessness, A Tough but Well Paying Job
New Times, 2/18/2009

Ending homelessness in SLO County will be neither easy nor cheap. In fact, it will cost $100,000 just to hire someone whose job will entail finding funding.

It’s part of the county’s so-called 10-year plan to end homelessness, although those writing the plan pitch it as more a step in the right direction than a decade-long cure-all to homelessness. Federal requirements actually mandate the plan title to include reference to ending homelessness in 10 years. It may not end homelessness, but having the plan helps qualify local homeless-services providers for more federal funding.

I don't know a single person in "this field" who is in it for the money. But that doesn't mean that I think that it's unreasonable to spend $100,000 on salary AND overhead (as the article later specifies) for someone with extensive fundraising skills. You need to spend money to make money and securing the right staff person for this job can maker or break an organization.

Didn't we just hear about the $1,000,000 bonuses that AIG staffers got? That's three more zeros, for just the bonus. It's really upsetting that the only reasons larger salaries are sometimes offered in the human services world is to "lure" people from the for profit sector. What makes them worth so much more?