This past July, a homeless Portland woman was charged with third-degree theft when she plugged her cellphone charger into an outlet on a sidewalk planter box in Old Town.
Cases in which people are charged with theft for plugging electronic devices into private outlets are uncommon, but defense attorneys say they’re another example of resources wasted for frivolous offenses.
Kenneth Ricks is homeless for the first time in his life. The 51-year-old has lived in New York since he was born, but after he lost his job, had his foot amputated following an accident and spent six months in hospital, he could no longer keep up the rental payments on his Flatbush, Brooklyn apartment.
On the heels of a damning new report, the Right to Rest campaign pushes for statewide legislation to stop discrimination against homeless people. Cities in the United States have a long history of criminalizing the public presence of people they consider undesirable. In the late 1800s, Southern cities established “sundown towns,” laws that restricted black people from being outside after sunset. Throughout the 19th century, cities ratified “ugly laws,” banning people who were diseased or deformed from being outside. During the Great Depression, California cities passed an “anti-Okie” law, making it illegal to assist poor people entering the state.
The federal government has agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing the Department of Veterans Affairs of misusing its sprawling West Los Angeles health campus while veterans with brain injuries and mental impairment slept in the streets, people familiar with the agreement said Tuesday.
Civil rights groups and anti-poverty advocates are raising serious concerns after the U.S. Supreme Court hear orals arguments in case challenging the federal Fair Housing Act on Wednesday. The ultimate ruling in the case could have profound implications for those who benefit from the landmark legislation signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, just days after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr..
Newcomers at Rosa's Fresh Pizza might think the store's owner has an odd obsession with sticky notes. But the plethora of pinks, blues and yellows spanning the restaurant's walls have nothing to do with interior aesthetics and everything to do with uniting a community in caring for its poorest residents.
The D.C. City Council has declared December 31st to be Eric Jonathan Sheptock Day, acknowledging his eight and a half years of homeless advocacy work to date, as well as his leadership in a group effort to address the future of the 1,350-bed Federal City Shelter.
With number of people without permament housing rising nationwide and services for them falling, near-zero temperatures put thousands at severe risk
They may have dorm rooms to sleep in during the school year, but many college students are technically homeless -- with no place to call home when classes aren't in session.
Sean McLean's first day of college at the University of Massachusetts Boston came on the heels of sobering news: The night before, he and his family were evicted from their home in Woburn, 9 miles north of Boston.
"I went to school knowing that later that day I would be packing up everything I owned and going to a shelter," said McLean, now 19.
Uniformed police shut down an effort to provide lunch to scores of homeless in Stranahan Park on Sunday, enforcing a law passed recently that puts new limits on outdoor feeding sites.
At least three people were cited for violating the new ordinance, including two members of the clergy and a 90-year-old advocate who has handed out food to the homeless for more than 20 years.
President Obama has created a number of initiatives to end homelessness among veterans in the United States. And while many of those programs have helped get thousands of veterans off the streets, others have fallen short.
November is Homelessness Awareness month. This time of year always reminds me of a powerful story, an unexpected seasonal lesson about homelessness, that I learned when I worked at the Corporation for Supportive Housing, which invests in housing for homeless people.
Out of the Occupy Madison protests a cool idea was hatched: Building 98-square-foot homes for those without. The homes have a bed, kitchen, bathroom, storage and propane heat. Future residents take part in building the homes.
ACLU Blueprints Offer Vision to Cut US Incarceration Rate in Half by Prioritizing 'People Over Prisons'
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