Freezing to death in a parking garage

Karen Batts (that’s her on the right of the photo), 52, of Portland, Ore., was evicted from subsidized housing for not paying her rent (she owed $338). She moved into a parking garage, where she froze to death on Saturday, becoming Portland’s fourth person who is homeless to die on the streets just this year. Ms. Batts …

I saw Jesus under a bridge

So yesterday, I went out with the Hartford homeless outreach team, which included my old friend Dave “Big Dave Vega” Duverger, and my new 82nd Airborne Ranger friend, Carlos Martinez, who served in Vietnam about the same time as did my father. Things were unusually busy, but in addition to climbing beneath bridges, we were …

How two men who are homeless saved America

Well, they didn’t necessarily save America, but they did find a suspicious book bag and alert authorities in Elizabeth, N.J., on Saturday. The bag was found to contain five bombs, one of which exploded when an anti-bomb robot accidentally triggered it. From The New Republic: The fact that the two men were homeless is an important detail …

Australia’s prime minister dropped a bill in a poor man’s cup…

…and all hell broke loose. Last week, a photo was circulated of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull placed the U.S. equivalent of $3.80 into the cup of a man who is homeless in Melbourne. Was he being stingy? Should he not have given that money? Was it just a simple, humane gesture? Some of the commentary …

Baby Jesus is crying, Rev. Lotz

Evoking Big Angry God, the Rev. Anne Graham Lotz (Billy’s daughter) said in a recent interview that terrorist attacks and weird weather patterns are a result of God’s wrath because we are slackers and sinners and people get to pick their own bathrooms, and because of that, America is imploding. Lotz said in the interview …

When food theft isn’t a crime

Italy’s highest appeals court has ruled that if you’re hungry and homeless, stealing food isn’t a crime. One court watcher said the decision to dismiss the case of a man who took some sausage and cheese from a grocery store seemed to rest on… an Italian legal doctrine: “Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur.” The term is …

Homelessness is not a crime

Read this wonderful essay from Vijay Das, which includes: Over the last few years, there has been a 60% increase in laws criminalizing public sleeping and a 119% increase in laws prohibiting living in one’s vehicle nationwide. More than one-third of cities prohibit loitering. California cities are particularly harsh. Since 2010, California cities enacted 55 …

This is our blizzard from space

On Sunday morning, astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted this photo of the aftermath of Jonas, which is a really hard name to take seriously for a violent winter storm, but there you are. Jonas stomped up the eastern seacoast this weekend, and left some towns measuring the snowfall in feet, not inches. (Central Park got nearly two feet, if that …

Thank you, everyone.

So this story was posted yesterday around noon, and immediately, the emails and texts came in. Two lawyers called. Three real estate agents called.  Various and sundry people called with household goods. Someone called to arrange a play date. So again, I come away amazed at how much people want to help, provided they know …

RIP, Aldene Burton

We don’t know all the details yet, but graceful writer and gentle soul Aldene Burton died Monday after he was hit by a bus in Wethersfield, Conn. Aldene had been homeless for years, though he’d recently been housed. He was an advocate. He was a warrior. And we will miss him.