Here’s what happens when you slash public services

You mostly end up targeting the people who can least afford it. That’s social services, but also infrastructure such as bus lines and the link. Read this from The Atlantic Monthly’s CityLab.

Here how we can fix the safety net, just a little

(And have a big impact). From the wonderful Talk Poverty, we need: More flexible funding for parents who face multiple barriers to economic success Better coordination among programs meant to aid the disenfranchised More accessible services that meet families where they are And thanks, Alison, for letting me steal this from you on Twitter.

In which Jesus is crucified

Yesterday, listeners to WNPR’s “Where We Live” heard Sara Salomons, Journey Home development consultant and a great friend of mine, talk about recent efforts in Connecticut to end chronic homelessness. They also heard about Sal Pinna, a man I met in a class I taught some  years back. He’s been homeless for 20 years, since …

Read this. And weep.

The New York Times carries this story about Ryan Hoffman, a former University of North Carolina lineman who is now living on the streets in Florida. The story makes much of the fact that football may have injured Hoffman, and set him on the road to homelessness, and that’s a damn shame. But I took …