But Not for the Usual Scapegoats — Hardships and homelessness go hand-in-hand, often gradually, and not as most think. The popular “mental health, addiction” misnomer lets lots of people off the hook, pointing fingers at hapless, helpless hobo stereotypes while overlooking greedy property owners. In these post-pandemic times, the economic fallout has ravaged the bottom edge of…

Motel Fire Leaves Parents and Kids Too Homeless to Qualify for Help — In an unexpected switcheroo, the Red Cross surprised me. They apparently have denied assistance to families burnt out of their humble abodes in a Ft. Lauderdale, FL motel. It seems the desperate families are too homeless. I’ve long been railing about families “not homeless enough,” as shown in my film…

Homelessness continues unabated unless we change our ways. — Maybe because they’re little. Despite the obvious enlightened effort in the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) proposed research agenda for informing policies, programs and practices to prevent and end homelessness, they are missing a major piece — babies and toddlers. As irrelevant as research agendas may seem in…

20 years ago I divested myself of most of my belongings to move into a small RV to pursue a crazy idea of chronicling family/youth homelessness (www.hearus.us). I had never been inside an RV, but I knew I couldn't have stuff other than bare essentials. After 19 years full-time on…

Compassion Isn’t the Cause of Homelessness — Now as a Watauga County, NC resident, I’m paying attention to issues important to me. Homelessness. When I read this article about a meeting with Boone, NC town council, the police chief and the local shelter, I couldn’t help but respond. I was surprised/pleased that the Watauga Democrat ran my…

Homeless Kids Need Help, Not Barriers — While I often can’t remember what I did a couple hours earlier, my memory of 30 years ago this August is etched in my head, heart and life. To my dismay, I’ve learned that what we accomplished — passage of hallmark legislation to strengthen and protect the educational rights of…

School Districts Routinely Fail Homeless Students — If school is so important, why do schools nationwide fail to do what is required to enroll and educate countless* students experiencing homelessness? While school supply distributions and backpack drives aim to equip our nation’s impoverished students to head back to school, little attention is directed at millions of invisible…

Americana Meditation Shows the Best, Worst and In-Between — We don’t like long — stories, videos, or anything that takes us away from the nano-second scrolling we’ve succumbed to. When I concocted this project — Americana Meditation — I accepted that I couldn’t make it short. For good reason. I made it anyhow. Set aside 17 minutes for a…

"Because many with BPD have histories of extensive early trauma, including abuse and neglect, some did emotionally and developmentally fall behind others who did not experience trauma." I'm constantly dismazed* at how we as a society seem to ignore the impact of abuse and neglect. Then we're surprised that people…