National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

This week is National Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week. For suggestions on five actions you can take in five minutes, click here.

For five things you should know about homelessness, click here.

For a guide on how to get involved, click here. From their site:

Why is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week so important? Participating in National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week not only brings greater awareness to your community, but also helps to promote the national endeavor to end hunger and homelessness. The plight of those without a home can be both lonely and difficult. Addressing their struggles by organizing and participating in this week may bring greater solidarity and understanding, as well as promote future involvement. Events, such as "One Night Without a Home," help people realize the difficulties that homeless persons daily face. Talk about these issues with your coordinators and discuss what impact such an event might have on your community. It is imperative to dispel myths that label homelessness as someone else's problem or claim that an end to homelessness is impossible.

VIa YouTube:
"This is a slide show we did using a song Tyler wrote called Sister of Mercy.We hope it will help raise awareness of the homeless problem in our country and disspell the many misconceptions about homeless people.
According to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, (www.endhomelessness.org) 50 percent of the homeless population are families. Sources estimate that between 23 and 40 percent of homeless adults are veterans.
An overwhelming majority (80 percent) of single adult shelter users enter the homeless system only once or twice, stay just over a month, and do not return. Approximately 9 percent enter nearly five times a year and stay nearly two months each time.
This group utilizes 18 percent of the system's resources.The remaining 10 percent enter the system just over twice a year and spend an average of 280 days per stay—virtually living in the system and utilizing nearly half its resources. Many of these individuals are defined as chronically homeless.They often cycle between homelessness, hospitals, jails, and other institutional care and often have a complex medical problem, a serious mental illness like schizophrenia, and/or alcohol or drug addiction.Chronically homeless people use up more than 50 percent of the services.
It may surprise some people to find that there are more shelters available for animals than there are for people. Due to the bad economy and funding cuts,most homeless shelters are constantly full. And those shelters are in constant need of supplies and donations."
To find out more about the homeless problem and what we can do to help, go to:
http://www.endhomelessness.org

See also Summary of HEARTH Act, passed by the US House of Representatives October 2008