Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America

[Sapphire Blue]

Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America
by Lisa (Tiny) Gray-Garcia


Lisa Gray-Garcia (at left) and Laure McElroy demonstrate for affordable housing at the S.F. Federal Building, during the release of the WRAP report, Without Housing.


(excerpt)

It is illegal to be homeless in America. Poverty is an act of violence. Like thousands of unheard, unseen, very low-income and no-income children, families and individuals living in poverty in America, I have been incarcerated for those crimes. I am a criminal of poverty.

I have authored a book, Criminal of Poverty, that tells my story, my mother's story and my grandmother's story -- three generations of poor women in America. It focuses on the criminalization of poor families, poor women, mothers and children through the telling of one family's struggle with poverty and homelessness.

My story also illuminates the root causes of poverty through the story of three generations: my grandmother, an Irish immigrant, teenage mother and battered woman in pre-New Deal patriarchal America; my mother, a mixed-race child surrendered to foster care and survivor of abuse who tried for many years to escape her childhood torture until one day the struggle became too great; and finally me, a daughter raised by a poor single mother who lived "one paycheck away from homelessness" until finally there was no longer a paycheck to keep us housed.

(snip)

The clearest example of this process was the "clean-up" of New York's Times Square under the mayoral administration of Rudolph Giuliani. In the 1990s, while HUD was reducing its overall budget by 90 percent, and simultaneously demolishing housing projects and exchanging housing for mostly useless and unredeemable Section 8 vouchers, Mayor Giuliani launched his Clean-Up New York campaign.

He began with a proclamation: "Panhandlers, peddlers, and prostitutes must be cleaned out." Giuliani made a public link between sex-workers, unlicensed vendors, street artists and panhandlers. He presided over a racist, classist effort to purge New York City of any visible trace of its vast number of poor and low-income inhabitants in a push to create a Disneyfied, tourist-friendly city.

Giuliani's "clean-up campaign" was so successful in achieving that goal that it became the model for cities across America as they strove for more tourist dollars, redevelopment money and real estate increases.


Please read this entire article @ http://www.thestreetspirit.org/Dec2006/criminal.htm

[Sequoia]

1. Thank you for letting us know about this. I'm ordering the book.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. You're welcome, Sequoia.

[Sequoia]

9. Hey, guess what?

I just came back from a meeting and I had a email from the publisher about this book!

[Jcrowley]

2. K&R

[Sapphire Blue]

5. Thank you, Jcrowley!

:hi:

[mntleo2]

3. Thanks For The link Sapphire

...I give my life to people in poverty, especially welfare moms, and I can tell you from direct experience, what this young woman I talks about is true in more then SF. I am on the board of Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition, http://www.wroc.org ). I just wrote to the American Friends there to let them know we are interested in helping or working with them, if we can. Thanks for the info!

Love
Cat In Seattle

[Sapphire Blue]

6. You are very welcome, mntleo2! Thank you so much for what you are doing!!!

:hi: :hug: :loveya: And thank you for contacting American Friends!

:headbang: :yourock: :headbang:

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[hashibabba]

7. Thanks Sapphire! People really need to hear more about the

poverty in this country. You do a good job helping keep us informed.

[Sapphire Blue]

8. You're welcome, hashibabba.

:hi: :hug: Thank you for caring!

[bobbolink]

10. As soon as she comes in, I'm giving this to my fave librarian, and asking

her to order this book!!

It will get more attention from people who ordinarily wouldn't see this book in a library!

ooops, there she is! :hi:

[Sapphire Blue]

19. Was she able to order it?

[bobbolink]

11. Let's get this to the greatest page! Please give it a few more "R's"

Thanks!

:toast:

[EFerrari]

12. What an OUTSTANDING idea! LOL!

K&R

[bobbolink]

14. thanks for helping to get it to the greatest, and thanks for posting the cover!

That cover really gets to me.... there are so many people living in those conditions and worse, yet..... :cry:

I gotta tell ya.. the expose' of the Walter Reed mess is horrible, and makes me cringe when I see it on Keith! Makes me wanna kick someone in the teeth!

Yet, so many poor people in this country LIVE EVERYDAY, DAY AFTER DAY, in conditions like that, and it's ignored. I won't ever get that kind of attention.

It hurts.

It really hurts.

:cry:

[EFerrari]

24. . . .

:hug:

[hashibabba]

30. This country should be ashamed of itself.

I hope Congress will focus on this in the near future. If we can keep the majority in the House, and a bigger majority in the Senate in the future, and elect a Democratic president, we may see things change soon!

[Sapphire Blue]

31. WE need to hold Congress' feet to the fire! If you'd like to help, please contact...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=263922&mesg_id=264780

[hashibabba]

34. I frequently write my congressman and I already have a

letter out to my Senators and Rep. regarding this subject. If I lose my housing, I'll be out on the street. I asked them what they were going to do about this problem.

I had to wait three years to get the assistance and now they're making changes every year to cut the numbers down. They even cut people off if their houses are too messy, or if they don't have their electric turned on. Well, if you don't have enough money for your electric and then they kick you out in the street, what are you to do?

The housing program here has been closed since mid-2005. Can you imagine all the homeless just from Bush's budget cuts? And now he wants to cut more Housing Assistance with his 2008 budget.

[Sapphire Blue]

37. I'm so thankful to you for doing what you're doing!

If you haven't already done so, would you also consider requesting a 'face to face' meeting next time any of them are in your local district, or going to a 'Town Hall' meeting? And bring friends? They need to see the people whose lives they are affecting!

During the budget debate last year, the Democrats in Congress advocated for a 'moral' budget & condemned the repubs for their budget cuts; they talked the talk. This year we need to hold their feet to the fire & insist that they walk the walk by fully funding Federal housing programs & other human needs programs.

[bobbolink]

40. Would you please consider writing a thread about this???

I have done all I know to bring this kind of thing to the attention of DUers, and with few exceptions, most people aren't interested. :cry:

Would you be willing to start a thread with this very story of yours, so we can see if we can FINALLY get people to call and write about this?!

As you know, I just got an apartment a bit over a month ago, after being homeless for 1 and a quarter years. Now, I see this building up, and I see how FEW "liberals" give a rip, and I get scared. I can just see me being out again!!

Really, what is it going to take for people to pay attention? Yes, we're not all soldiers, yes, we're not Abu Ghraib prisoners. But, can't we be cared about, also????

Thanks for sharing your story! Living in this kind of fear takes a toll on us, and we badly need to know that we are cared about, and there is concern for us!!

Thanks so much!

:hug: :loveya: :hug:

[hashibabba]

43. Yes, I'd consider starting a thread on this. And Sappphire Blue

mentioned face-to-face meetings. I'll think about both those things. I think if I faced them, I'd need to stop downtown and bring some homeless people with me. Dems need to face this terrible situation and act on it.

Bobbolink, I didn't know you were homeless and I'm sorry for that. I'm so fortunate compared to most people. I do worry about the bottom dropping out of my life though, just with a word from Bush, who says he doesn't need Congress in order to enact his 2008 budget.

I'm glad you found a place to live, that's a good start.

[Sapphire Blue]

44. If you schedule a face-to-face meeting, DEFINITELY bring some friends!!!

:thumbsup: hashibabba, I really hope you'll do this! Yes, the Dems do need to face this situation, and they need to act on it! (Edited to add: I think some DUers need to face this situation, too, and demand that Congress act on it! Too many many times I have seen the "But poverty isn't a winning issue" BS.)

[The Flaming Red Head]

41. And if the electric gets turned off

they take the children. I know about mad scramble that went on recently with some people as they hid their children from child protection until the they could get their lights back on. They made it through this time.

[bobbolink]

42. That is soooo ugly! Can you please tell me why DEMS aren't all over this??

WHY, OH WHY are DEMS ignoring all this, and not making a big issue of it??

Because we aren't soldiers?

Because we aren't in Abu Ghraib?

Why don't we count with Dems?

Do you have any idea???

[bobbolink]

39. Thanks! However, I don't think we can just hope... we MUST PUSH

our Reps, and keep pushing!

It's not the top of their agenda by any means, and just having bigger numbers won't get the change we desire.

I don't know what it will take to get people involved enough to start pushing this as an issue.

:(

Thanks for your caring and concern... it means a lot!

:hug:

[calimary]

46. Yeah, basically that's what we can do first and foremost. PUSH.

We HAVE to. I really believe this: If they think you don't care, THEY WON'T, EITHER!!!

It took four years and two election cycles before we got Congress's attention about the war. Unfortunately, it's taken a lot longer to move the meter, even a little bit, about the war, degradation, and deprivation HERE AND NOW ON OUR OWN SHORES.

I remember when reagan cut the funding for mental hospitals. Yeah, great. Save a coupla bucks so those poor upper-crust taxpayers won't have such a big bite taken out of them. But that left SO MANY wide, yawning cracks for the poor to fall through. Especially those with mental illness. They frickin' had NO PLACE TO GO. Suddenly, we noticed in our own community how many more sad, anonymous piles of huddled people began to materialize on city sidewalks and parks and on bus benches.

I think it was some Guy in a beard (Who was hardly a man of means, Himself), who talked about helping "the least of My brethren." We've got so much here, and yet the needy fall farther and farther behind, some straight into the abyss. But everybody loved reagan because he cut their taxes. Penny-wise, pound-FOOLISH!!!

What really gets me is how most of these "have's" are undoubtedly intensely concerned with investment for the future (well, THEIR future, at least). I'm sure they ride the stock market quotations, the business section of the paper, the Wall Street Journal, maybe they do some of their own brokerage online. I'll bet they understand ALL ABOUT making an investment now for future benefit and gain. I wish we could show them how THIS is an investment, too. An investment in America, and Americans. So what if it's just some little old grey guy in a heap in some doorway, or a woman huddled under a ratty blanket that she got from a shelter - in which there's no bedspace on this evening when she needs it? SO WHAT? Shouldn't we be investing in THEM??? Isn't it a good idea to do something meaningful with even just a fraction of one's investment money - that cleans up the streets by underwriting some decent housing for the homeless people left outside all night to fend for themselves? Those who'd be the first to complain about all those "icky" people in the way, ought to be first to offer to help fund realistic solutions. There's cleaning up the city and then there's cleaning up the city. giuliani's idea was ruthless and, yeah, it got the homeless off the streets. But where did it put them? What happened to them? What was there for them, in the end (besides the back of rudy's hand)?

It is SO shortsighted (especially by these folks who would presume to take such a long view about their own investment strategies) to sweep these people under the rug. WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO GO? Out of sight may be out of mind, but it does not sweep away or disguise the desperate need of those who would be banished.

When the '84 Olympics came to L.A., there was a big effort here to get the homeless out of the way so our city would look "nice" for the tourists and the athletes et al. The problem is, the homeless are part of our city, too. They're HUMAN BEINGS, not to be avoided, ignored, folded, spindled, or mutilated.

Sigh...

Well, I still say this: I know where we can get 100-thousand bucks A MINUTE: STOP THE WAR and BRING EVERYBODY HOME. And start spending that money on something REALLY important and beneficial - HERE AT HOME where it's needed. Think of the houses and apartment buildings we could underwrite with even a tiny fraction of that money...

Hey, this, too, is Homeland Security.

We HAVE to keep pushing. We HAVE to keep calling (using those handy TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard numbers if that'll make it easier). We HAVE to keep nagging. We HAVE to keep reminding. Insisting. Demanding. I'm now making sure that there's a mention of homelessness and poverty in every column I write.

We can't let up on this until we get somewhere substantial. Until we get concrete answers and real-life solutions. Squeaky wheels and all that. But it makes a difference. If we won't go away, maybe eventually the problem will.

[Sapphire Blue]

18. ..

:hi: Thank you for the K&R, sfexpat2000.

[EFerrari]

13. Get up there!

:kick:



http://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Poverty-Growing-Homeless-America/dp/1931404070/sr=1-1/qid=1172105196/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8375409-3039940?ie=UTF8&s=books

[calimary]

25. Indeed!

KICK!

[EFerrari]

26. And, kick. I have to have this book.

:kick:

[nam78_two]

15. K&R

:kick:

[bobbolink]

16. Thanks, nam78_two!

:hug: !!

[Sapphire Blue]

20. Thank you, nam78_two!

:hi:

[manic expression]

17. Crime is the product of social excess

The rich don't care about the poor people THEY CREATED. The only way to fix this corrupt and disgusting system is to overthrow capitalism completely.

[lonestarnot]

21. Julieboy sucks ass!

[Sapphire Blue]

22. Hah! Took me a minute to figure out what you meant! Yes, he does!

:hi:

[lonestarnot]

23. Glad you figured it out!

:hi: :rofl:

[fortyfeetunder]

27. Here's a lucky 13 R toward the Greatest page

Thanks for posting it. We need to keep this front and center.

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

28. Thanks, fortyfeetunder!

:hi:

[Sapphire Blue]

29. ^^^

:kick:

[AbbyR]

32. Thanks for the information

I'm going to have to have the book.
And by the way, I really appreciate your keeping us informed on poverty issues.

[Sapphire Blue]

33. You are very welcome, AbbyR!

:hi:

Please check out this thread, too: What's it like to walk in 'the other's' shoes? Take 2 minutes to 'Change Perspective'...: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x263922


... and please consider taking action as suggested in Post #11 in that thread: 11. If you'd like to help, please contact...: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=263922&mesg_id=264780

[Sequoia]

35. Do you know the author?

I see you have a quote by the man who was attacked in the elevator. You seem to be very involved in proverty issues. The publisher is sending me this book and I hope we can do something about it where I work...you know, get the word out.

Where I live we have a rather blead homeless problem with a woman's shelter about to close for lack of funds here in wine country where there's so much money for the haves but none for the have nots.

One day I was walking to the doughnut shop with a co-worker when a family with two strollers pulled up. One stroller had their stuff in it, the other the baby. The woman with me gives them a sneering look and said "If they can push a stroller, they can get a job pushing a lawnmower." I was shocked at her attitude and told her maybe they didn't have the money to move in (securtiy and first rent could cost over $2000 easily). Then she goes on to say how she saw a homeless man with a dog and how she went and got the dog a can of food but she wasn't about to give anything to the homeless man.

I was really saddened by her attitude because I thought she had more compassion then that and she certainly went down a lot of notches. I told her she'd better hope her karma doesn't make her homeless someday, and because I'm such a trouble maker I would always email her topic about the homeless and by gum I think I'll email her this book info.

[Sapphire Blue]

36. No, I don't know her.

The quote "Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately." is from Elie Wiesel's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech delivered in Oslo on December 10, 1986 (http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/ElieWiesel/speech.html). One need only open one's eyes, ears, and heart to know the truth of those words. I live those words.

We have had year after year after year of Federal budget cuts aimed at hurting poor people. The cuts to Federal housing progrems have created the epidemic homelessness, and every year it just gets worse. Lack of affordable housing, increasing rents, indcreasing cost of living, declining wages, outsourcing, job loss, disability, medical catastrophe, etc... welcome to the world of homelessness... there but for fortune go you or I... or your co-worker.

Sadly, there are far too many people who share your co-worker's attitude. You should send her the 'Change Perspective' links in that other thread; perhaps she might recognize herself?

[Sequoia]

38. Thanks.

[faithnotgreed]

45. keeping kicked