Falling into the river....

[bobbolink]

Sorry, I can't find the original story now, so you'll have to do with my less than stellar rendition..

There were two fishermen walking along the river, looking for the perfect spot to cast their lines, when their heard a call for help, then saw a person being carried down the river by the swift current. They jumped in and pulled out the hapless victim, and carried him to shore.

Soon, there was another person coming down the river in the same manner, and they pulled her out, got her dried off and built a fire for the two to warm up.

Two more people came tumbling down the river, and they got both of them out.

Then another person was seen heading their way down the middle of the river. The one fisherman waded out as before, but the other one headed upstream.

"Hey, where are you going? I need your help!"

"You keep pulling them out, but I'm going to go upriver to find out why people keep falling in."

This country has all sorts of programs to pull people out of the water, some not so effective.

What we can do that's different, is head upriver, and try to do our part to find out WHY, and do our best to marshal forces to try to stop people from falling in.

The reason I wrote my story about how I became homeless was not to get pity, (although I certainly appreciate the caring!), but to explain one reason why people are falling into homelessness, and to encourage us to set to work to figure out WHAT we can do about that one piece.

If we can find a way to stop the abuse in low-income housing, which is rampant!, we can not only improve peoples' lives in the here and now, but we can help to prevent more homelessness.

What are some ideas?

How can we intervene?

Who can we arouse to take up this cause?

[Plucketeer]

1. WOW!

that's a great parable for what we see in this state right now. We're building prisons as fast as we can - and that's the best of it. The "worser" part is that it cost's $100K or more to keep someone in one of those fortresses for one year! AND YET.... there's squabbling over every extra dime spent on K thru 12 schooling! And SO MANY of the incarcerated can't read above some early elementary grade level. Duuuuuuhhhhhh.... wonder why they're doin' time at our expense???
When I think about it, it's much like vectoring MORE wealth into the coffers of the rich with the blind notion that the crumbs they let drop will put the rest of the country right. :grr:

[Andrea]

2. Beautiful and Powerful Parable

Have you posted this in GD yet?

I think in order to plan some solutions, we need to start making a list of the reasons people end up homeless. Then we can group them together and explore solutions for each type of cause.

So, from Bobbolink's previous post, we have the reason of abusive conditions in public housing and the lack of public housing.

I've never been homeless myself, but have come close before. My situation was due to a combination of medical expenses and being too disabled to work (thankfully I am much better now). So, from that we have lack of universal health care and difficulties in obtaining emergency assistance for disabled people. I don't know if people realize it, but there is a six month wait, at minimum, to get approved for Social Security disability. How many can sustain through six months or more of no income? and, if you expect your disability to be temporary, I don't know of any resource unless you already have disability insurance. I now have disability insurance through my employer, but it only pays 60% of my salary and I can't get higher coverage at any cost. Also, even with insurance health care costs are extremely high and getting higher. Co-pays on prescriptions are extremely high. Plans vary, but in my case I have a couple drugs that are $80 a month - my share after insurance. Altogether, I pay almost $300 a month for prescriptions.

Let's brainstorm on the other causes and work on how to address them.

[Lugnut]

4. SSDI approval is in a horrible state.

My daughter-in-law has been suffering with fibromyalgia for two years. It took months of trial and error treatments and countless doctor's visits to even get a diagnosis. She has been trying to get SSDI for about a year or so. She and my son have now had to hire an attorney to assist in the process. She was employed by the IRS and she's also trying to get disability approval from them since she can't do her job because of her health issues. They have a different attorney working on that claim but she's stuck in the Federal government merry-go-round on all sides. Thankfully they have my son's income to live on but their health care coverage is at stake in the pending claim with her employer. She's uninsurable otherwise. It's reaching a point where her mental health will be a bigger issue than her physical health. This should never be happening in the United States.

[bobbolink]

8. Andrea, this isn't mine..... It was first posted by Sapphire Blue, but I looked through her journal

and couldn't find it, so I wrote it the best I could from my memory.

Sapphire Blue is the one who deserves the credit for finding it, and for posting it on DU. I wish I could find the original!

"Let's brainstorm on the other causes and work on how to address them."

Yes, Please! Thank you, Andrea, for "getting it" that this is what we are now tasked with--setting out on a new path, and doing what is crying to be done, but that nobody has yet taken up the mantle for. We are a unique group of people, and we are being called to take on unique actions!

Elsewhere you said that we could serve as a model for other Edwards groups, and I concur wholeheartedly!

We CAN do this, and it will be a struggle, but we are strong and very capable people!

I'm so appreciative of you, for taking the time tor really hear what I'm saying! :hug: :loveya: :hug:

[Andrea]

3. Kicking this to get more input

This is an "action item" - something we can take concrete steps on. Let's put our heads together.

[NastyRiffraff]

5. What a great story!!!

Yes, we do need to put our heads together...there are some great minds here. I'm too tired to think right now, but I'll definitely think about this.

Off the top of my head...a blog dedicated to poverty in general and homelessness to promote awareness?

[Silver Gaia]

6. Agreed. This is a very powerful parable that illustrates where

we are at in modern society. It is not enough to apply bandaids and build stopgap solutions. They help, but only for a time, and are not enough in the long run. We need solutions that attack the roots, the causes, of problems, not the symptoms.

[bobbolink]

7. They only help to weaken people, by just limping from crisis to crisis..

NOBODY can be strong and "productive" in that mode!

Plus, what's not illustrated in this story is the humiliation of each bandaid!

[Silver Gaia]

9. Agreed.