Blaze engulfs 5 who apparently took refuge from cold

[Warpy]

PHILADELPHIA - A fire engulfed an abandoned house in West Philadelphia early Sunday, killing four children and a woman who had apparently taken refuge there from the cold, authorities said.
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Officials were not immediately able to identify the victims or determine their ages. Ayers said they included a young woman who was apparently the children’s mother, a girl and three boys.

The children all appeared to be under age 10 and the youngest was in diapers, he said.
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“It was just in a shambles, no place where human beings should be trying to live,” he said. “It was just a family trying to live in this cold.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17099973/

Why did she run from her children's father? Why was there no shelter available to her? Why weren't there social services for her? Why is housing abandoned with so many people in need of shelter? Where were the churches? What happened to the safety net for people who have fallen into desperate circumstances?

Answer: Conservatives.

[democrank]

1. These stories break my heart.

How could this happen in our country? It`s inexcusable.

[hashibabba]

2. Don't worry--Bush wants to gut the housing assistance program,

according to his new budget plan. So more people don't have to go through this kind of tragedy.
:sarcasm:

[Sapphire Blue]

3. America's Poverty death toll rises by 5 more people. Why? And what are we going to do about it?

CORRELATION BETWEEN HISTORIC CUTS TO FEDERAL HOUSING PROGRAMS AND CONTEMPORARY MASS HOMELESSNESS: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sapphire%20Blue/118



The Nameless and Faceless Deaths in Our Midst

Will you make visible the war on the poor, will you put names and faces on people who have died homeless, will you break through our numbness and despair, will you reclaim our profound awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, will you declare housing as a human right, will you transform our rage and grief into action that produces housing for the lowest income people?

Please, if you have a printer, download, print & send this report ("Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failure": http://wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/Without_Housing_20061114.pdf) to your Senators & Representative. Ask them what they will do to restore funding to Federal Housing Programs; ask them what they will do to alleviate the epidemic of homelessness in America.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sapphire%20Blue/157


Thank you!

[il_lilac]

4. wish i didn't have to k&r this...

didn't know this forum was here- thanks sapphire for the heads up.

[raccoon]

5. Happy to be # 5. K&R. nt

[Dammit Ann]

6. Christ Almighty...

exactly, WHAT safety net? I'm nauseous...



What the hell kind of country are we living in??????

[In Truth We Trust]

7. K&R Where's the missing $12 BILLION dollars or better yet; this illegal war has cost Americans ove

r a $$$$half TRILLION dollars. Think perhaps this woman and her children, including the child in diapers, could have had a future. Fuck the greedy rich enablers.