
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.
'The more we learn about the balance sheets of Americans, it becomes quite alarming.'
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Our outdated infrastructure will fall apart if we don't invest in repairing it — that's just physics.
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Set aside for a moment concerns about political gridlock on Capitol Hill. Think about the actual gridlock that could await…
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Of all the FY 2017 proposed budgets, the Congressional Progressive Caucus People's Budget is by far the best on Social…
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The Peoples’ Budget of the Congressional Progressive Congress (CPC) does not make the deeper cuts in the Pentagon budget advocated…
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Billions in corporate welfare. Runaway income inequality and a tax code that favors the super-rich. A military more expensive than…
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Everyone deserves equal access to affordable housing, a quality education, and gainful employment.
Read MoreThe Obama administration’s budget proposal for 2017 would jack up military spending higher than it’s been since World War II. …
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The presidential primaries have revealed the public thirst for big, bold ideas to address stagnant wages and hopes, whether it’s…
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The water crisis in Flint, Michigan is the perfect case for why our country needs more funding for infrastructure, not less.
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ACLU Blueprints Offer Vision to Cut US Incarceration Rate in Half by Prioritizing 'People Over Prisons' Read More
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How about some good news? Kansas Democratic Representative advances bill for Native Peoples. Read More
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In an interview with Reuters conducted a month after he took office, Donald Trump asserted that the U.S. had “fallen… Read More
Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the sweeping criminal charging policy of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and directed… Read More