Voices of US poor and homeless unlikely to be heard in polls

[Rose Siding]

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - America's growing army of homeless and poor faces a desperate plight, but most are unlikely to make their voices heard in the US presidential election campaign as they struggle just to survive, advocates said.
........
"We haven't been following the elections," said homeless former waiter George Holling Jr. as he lay in a dingy alley behind an office building in fashionable Hollywood.

"Why should we? They (the candidates) are not going to provide shelter for the homeless. The elections are only going to benefit the rich and the Republicans," the 31-year-old said.

Holling's mentally-disabled wife, Tamiko, 30, was equally skeptical that politicians, whatever their party, care about their fate.

"Whoever wins, it doesn't matter to us. It's is not going to change how the police treat us, how we have to fight for our benefits, how we have to fight off rapists and attackers in the streets. No election has ever helped me," she said, her tone angry but defeated.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1506&ncid=696&e=5&u=/afp/20041020/ts_alt_afp/us_vote_homeless

[oscar111]

1. $4 Billion to end homelessness: taxcuts, 340 Billion

Bush's three taxcuts

100
100
140 billion, all approximate

are far more than needed to restore section eight vouchers and end all homelessness.
{12 billion would end all hunger... 300 billion would end poverty by supplying 10 000 to each poor family}.

http://www.nathannewman.org/nbs

I think is url for easy twiddling with up or down, parts of the national budget simulation.

National wealth is 105 trillion.
They.. homeless.. die at three times the normal rate. Death by exposure to the elements was a routine sentence in ancient Rome. And today's USA.

We are barbarians.

On any one night, a million homeless.. because of some rising and some falling in finances, three million are involved/yr.

Reagan began this savagery.

Bush's next Budget plans to throw another 250 000 out to live on a piece of sidewalk, and cut Food Stamps by $300 million.
Compassionate born-again christian? Hardly.

[saigon68]

3. Reagan is busting up coal to feed Beezelbub's Fires.

Its amazing how it works.

[Terran]

2. It would be soooo easy for Kerry to improve this situation

I work on and with homelessness programs federally and in my state, and they are all so underfunded it's pathetic. The programs themselves are great, and do much good, but they simply don't have enough money. We're talking a paltry few million per year for my state, more for the bigger states but still not enough. If we took that $87 billion and funded efforts against homelessness with it, you better believe there'd a LOT fewer homeless people.

Also, I'm aware of efforts that were made here in Missouri, in KC I think, to get homeless people registered to vote. I'm not sure how much good it did, but it's not hard to sympathize with their outlook; why even think about elections when they have such a struggle to survive?

[oscar111]

6. Dirk, 87 billion would END ALL homelessness.

Just put it in the stock market, where average yearly returns would pump out eight billion/yr... twice what is needed to restore all cut section eight vouchers.

even bank interest...
hmmm eightseventy 870 million is one percent, so six percent is ...hmmmm about five point two billion /yr

5.2 billion /yr from safe bank interest, and only need four billion to end homelessness.

So dirk, raise your sights from "a lot" helped, to ALL taken into apartments. ALL.

[Terran]

14. Well, it's more complicated than just getting people into housing...

There's not enough housing as it is, anyway. Many homeless people need full-time supportive services too, and then there's the issue of living wages. I still think $87 billion would just be a very good start, not a complete solution. BUT, when ordinary people saw what a huge difference was being made in the problem, they would support similar funding on an ongoing basis.

Homelessness is kind of like 'terror'--you can't just wipe it out in one fell swoop. There are thorny systemic problems causing homelessness that need to be addressed too, and that takes more than $$, it take political will also.

[bluestateguy]

4. Mandatory voting must be implemented

Yes, that's what I said. Force 'em to the polls and fine 'em for not voting. Sometimes government just flat out has to tell people what to do. Make election day a national holiday, close everything down (except emergency services) and have publicly funded transportation to the polls, but in the end citizens have a duty to vote.

It will be difficult for me to have much sympathy for these folks' plight if they stay home on November 2 and Bush wins. Sorry, but I'm feeling a case of compassion fatigue for the American people if they don't replace this jackass.

[Laughing Mirror]

7. A fine on millions of homeless not voting

Surely that's the solution.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Australia has mandatory voting

They just had an election there a few weeks ago:

John Howard wins Australian elections

By Mike Corder

The Associated Press


SYDNEY, Australia - Prime Minister John Howard scored a convincing victory in Australia's federal election Saturday, winning a historic fourth term in a vote that will ensure the staunch U.S. ally will keep its troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future.

With more than 60 percent of votes tallied, Labor Party leader Mark Latham conceded defeat in a speech to supporters in western Sydney, saying he'd called Howard to congratulate him.

"Tonight was not our night," Latham told the crowd.

The election was widely seen abroad as the first referendum for the three leaders who launched the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, with U.S. President George W. Bush facing a ballot next month and Britain's Tony Blair probably facing voters next year.

more: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/world/9878376.htm

[AngryOldDem]

15. Why not jail 'em, too?

>>>Force 'em to the polls and fine 'em for not voting.>>>

As important as voting is, for some finding a warm meal and a place to stay for that night might take priority. Then there are the families who have to see to getting their kids to school and then picked up safely at the end of the day. Plus, if you are mentally ill and you're not sure just what reality is, that may make things kind of difficult as well. Plus, if government offices are shut down that day, that is one less day they have to try to get help, benefits, whatever.

It is up to ALL OF US to be the voices for the homeless. Not all of them will be able to make it to the polls. That is just hard facts.

>>>Sorry, but I'm feeling a case of compassion fatigue for the American people if they don't replace this jackass.>>

Some people just have extenuating circumstances. At least they perhaps have a legitimate excuse for not voting. That's more than I can say for some able-bodied, gainfully employed people I know.

[cliss]

5. Sad. I'm sure that when your only thought

is making it through the day, you're not going to be concerned about who your candidate is.

And it's too bad, because I believe these people would be better served by electing Kerry for president. The way it's going now, the ranks of the poor (and the working poor) are growing exponentially because of Bush's policies.

They WANT people to be poor, because it keeps inflation under control. I've actually read that. Believe it or not.

[Zorra]

8. Yuh. Not voting sure seems to have helped these folks in the past.

If you are too drunk or stoned, too clueless, or too lazy to vote, don't be surprised if you end up poor and homeless, or rounded up by Bu$h brownshirts on euthanasia detail.

"We haven't been following the elections," said homeless former waiter George Holling Jr. as he lay in a dingy alley behind an office building in fashionable Hollywood.

"Why should we? They (the candidates) are not going to provide shelter for the homeless. The elections are only going to benefit the rich and the Republicans," the 31-year-old said.

Holling's mentally-disabled wife, Tamiko, 30, was equally skeptical that politicians, whatever their party, care about their fate.

"Whoever wins, it doesn't matter to us. It's is not going to change how the police treat us, how we have to fight for our benefits, how we have to fight off rapists and attackers in the streets. No election has ever helped me," she said, her tone angry but defeated.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1506&ncid=696&e=5&u=/afp/20041020/ts_alt_afp/us_vote_homeless

[oscar111]

9. zorra: 1/3 sick, 1/3 drugs, 1/3 semiretarded

zorra, two thirds are not in the image you have.

only one third are alcohol or other drug addicts.

a third are semiretarded, another third are sick, both mentally and physically. Our population ranks at an incredible 72nd in health, due to our privatized healthcare.
THE WORLD HEALTH REPORT from WHO of the UN, 2000.

SEMIRETARDED: With a job shortage of fourteen million, these folks logically are the ones not hired in spite of their best efforts. {"clueless" is genetic here}. So dont blame them. Blame the job shortage. We SHOULD revive the WPA. Those who have not revived it, deserve your scorn, not the victims.

"lazy" is a term often used by Limbaugh about the jobless. The Job Shortage proves that 14 million MUST be jobless, no matter how hard they look for jobs.
Proof: bls site, Project JOLT, news releases, table of contents, job openings LEVELS table.. not ratio.

Job Openings and Labor Turnover

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.toc.htm Table with LEVELS, ignore ratios.

[Zorra]

10. Developmentally disabled folks, naturally, get a pass on not voting.

But not voting simply because you are poor or homeless is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

If it weren't for republicans, some of these folks would quite possibly not be so poor and would probably not be homeless.

Poverty sucks, and it is a vicious cycle. But not voting against bloodsucking corporate leeches like Bu$h will insure that the cycle continues.

Here is what I said:

"If you are too drunk or stoned, too clueless, or too lazy to vote, don't be surprised if you end up poor and homeless, or rounded up by Bu$h brownshirts on euthanasia detail."

I said nothing about joblessness. You are completely reading something into my post that is not there.

[AngryOldDem]

16. There is a GOTV campaign among the homeless

At the shelter where I volunteer, there are wall-sized posters ALL over the place about voting. How many of the clients who will actually do this, I don't know. But an effort is being made.

[iam]

11. This is a statement on ideology

Liberalism distributes power, even at its own peril. conservatism attaches itself only to that which concentrates power. So, "Liberals" make speeches to the powerless, it ends there, no trip to the polls for them. A expose of the damned lie; the "Liberal Plantation", that Democrats keep the poor, poor so they can please them with handouts and receive their votes as compensation. Except for one small fact, the poor don't vote.
Conservatism is the dark black.

[goodhue]

13. Groups helping homeless register

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5027720.html

Last update: October 16, 2004 at 6:37 PM
Groups helping homeless register
Curt Brown, Star Tribune
October 12, 2004

Ed Shramek hasn't voted in a dozen years. When he had a decent job, he had little interest in politics. But since he lost his job on an assembly line six months ago and started living in a "cubbyhole" under a bridge, he lost his apathy as well.

"And as long as I was gainfully employed, it didn't really matter to me who was president," Shramek, 42, said Monday. "But now that I'm homeless, I think it's important to weigh in on all that's going on in the world."

With today being the Minnesota deadline to preregister to vote and avoid long lines and the potential hassles of registering on Election Day, Shramek was among more than two dozen homeless people who signed up to vote Monday at the Dorothy Day shelter in St. Paul.

Several community groups have launched a massive drive to boost the number of homeless voters. They hope the effort will make the electorate more reflective of society so politicians will become more responsive to and concerned about poor and working-class people.

* * *

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5027720.html