USuncutMN says: Tax the corporations! Tax the rich! Stop the cuts, fight for social justice for all. Standing in solidarity with http://www.usuncut.org/ and other Uncutters worldwide. FIGHT for a Foreclosure Moratorium! Foreclosure = homelessness. Resist the American Legislative Exchange Council, Grover Norquist and Citizen's United. #Austerity for the wheeler dealers, NOT the people.



We Are The 99% event

USuncutMN supports #occupyWallStreet, #occupyDC, the XL Pipeline resistance Yes, We, the People, are going to put democracy in all its forms up front and center. Open mic, diversity, nonviolent tactics .. Social media, economic democracy, repeal Citizen's United, single-payer healthcare, State Bank, Operation Feed the Homeless, anti-racism, homophobia, sexISM, war budgetting, lack of transparency, et al. Once we identify who we are and what we've lost, We can move forward.



Please sign and SHARE

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Occupational hazard: Living with the homeless

Occupational hazard: Living with the homeless

Does the economic justice movement include the chronically poor? How can it not? VIDEO

Protesters who gave their names as Trev H., left, and Philippe D'Orlando, right, both homeless, talk outside a tent in a Burnside Park where Occupy Providence protesters are camping in downtown Providence, R.I.
Two protesters who identify themselves as homeless, at Occupy Providence in downtown Providence, R.I.  (Credit: Stew Milne/AP)
Tevin Bell is 18 but looks twice his age. Kicked out of his grandmother’s home last year after getting into a fight with his younger sister, Bell has been living on the streets of Detroit, “going from shelter to shelter.” On a brisk October afternoon he is relaxing in a folding chair, snug under a heavy jacket, watching flames lick the lip of a rusted barrel stuffed with burning scrap wood.
He is one of dozens of apparently homeless people clustered around Grand Circus Park, site of Occupy Detroit, which began on Oct. 14. Bell arrived two weeks later and has just spent his first night camping. He says, “I got a tent and a blanket. They said I can stay, ‘but you can’t just camp, you gotta help out.’”
Bell pitched in by joining the night watch, but the routine is not what one might expect. Most Occupy movements have posted signs warning that use of alcohol and illicit drugs in the encampment is grounds for eviction. Bell says, “I’m not going to lie to you. I was drinking last night and smoking [pot]. They don’t ask us to stop but they will ask you to leave if you’re flipping out.”

No comments:

Post a Comment