Saturday, December 8, 2012

Info & Experimentation in Homelessness ~ Part 3

For those of you following along, this week I've been following a conversational path of homelessness as I have been following the 10-day path of voluntary true homelessness of Dean Wright.  Dean is the Executive Director of the Freeport Area Church Cooperative (FACC) in Freeport Illinois.  (You can go back and follow that conversational path at Part 1 & Part 2 to catch up.)

From November 26 to December 6, Dean lived the homeless life.  Here is his final video blog installment, entitled "The End or the Beginning," an eye opening view from him on his 10 day experience.  In it he includes some really key ways you can help the homelessness in your community, in both big and small ways.

[To watch the entire video blog series of Dean's experience, check out his FACC YouTube page.]

In thinking about homelessness these past 2 weeks--seeing it through Dean's eyes, it led me down this path of searching for more statistics.  Here are a few of the other resources I found, which are equally eye opening.  May it start a trek for you this holiday season, to do the right thing, and help out so many that need your help.  Thank you Dean for helping to open my eyes, and so many others!

⌂ Homelessness Mapped in the United States:  This 2009 map (the most recent I could easily locate) shows homeless estimates by state.  At the website, there is quite a bit of additional date and statistics on why people find themselves in this unfortunate situation.


⌂ The Living Wage Calculator:  Dean limited himself to a $6.50 daily food allotment.  By doing a little math, you can figure out what that would allot you for the year.  At the Living Wage Calculator, you can see what it costs in yours community, or any other in any of the other states.  This calculator indicates typical expenses for reaching the bottom level standards of living.  It also stretches it out based on your family's parameters (numbers of parents, number of kids).  Scary, how expensive it can be, and how easy it can be to tip low-wage job employees into economically-tight situations.

⌂ Homelessness & Hunger Infographic:  Freeport, Illinois is approximately 2 hours (or 120 miles) away from Chicago.  This infographic (below) depicts the "real picture" for Chicago.  Odds are high that it is similar for most major metropolitan areas.
homelessness_infographic

Video from http://youtu.be/nbPTzUHKt3o, Map from
http://homefreeorg.blogspot.com/2009/06/homelessness-mapped-in-united-states.html, Homelessness & Hunger infographic from http://www.lacasanorte.org/what-we-do/current-realities/

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