Beats me why "the law" is so hard on the homeless. There is a reason why the the people that have no roof over their heads, or, in some cases live in their vehicles, parked somewhere out of reach of the authorities. Even if they work, they still don't have the means to pay for shelter, and when there are abandoned buildings, they are told it is tresspassing although the some of the people that own the property have long gone, and "nobody owns" them--might as well let them stay there at least.

Granted, the economy cannot offer them jobs as much what with all the outsourcing, but there are solutions, as the "small houses" that can be built with a minimum cost, and , say a public works program that offers some kind income, however mininal to cover the utilities and living expenses. Needless to say, that also can create situations where the authorities might supress them, as well.

The real solution is as the other commenters have mentioned. Love with some sensible way of providing shelter for people that have economic serious difficutlties that prevent them from obtaining any kind of shelter. It would seem that Reagan"s mantra of "Greed" is still around.

Giving housing to homeless people also makes sense because it's near impossible to get a job otherwise when you have to take a day off to get a shower or show up for the interview with a sleeping bag slung over your shoulder with "the soft reek of slept in [and rumpled] clothes" and so on.
What people don't realize is that when you make the lives of the homeless harder, to indulge some self righteousness or other, you only make it harder for them to get out of homelessness and those same homeless individuals will be stuck there literally for years.

Change occurs at the social tipping point; "the moment of critical mass", "the threshold", "the boiling point". Gladwell's seeks to explain or describe the "mysterious social changes" which have been witnessed in every day life by the masses. Gladwell's contention is; ideas, products, concepts, messages and behavior spread like viruses. Evidence can be observed by seeing a YouTube video go "viral". Thus influencing a movment like "Black Lives Matter". This social engagement is what economist call "the Law Of The Few". It's referred to as the "80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the 'work' will be done by 20 percent of the participants". Malcolm Gladwell states, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts". These people are known as connectors. They are the social equivilant to a computer network "HUB". Connectors are "social introducers". They usually know people across an array of social, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different circles. They are people who "link us up with the world...people with a special gift for bringing the world together" If you want to make a change in society, "Connectors" are the first people you must identify, approach and win over to the creation of a moment. They will add momentum by induction like minded people, "20%", "the workers". If you want to start a movement consider other successful models; "Mahatma Ghandi", "Dr. King", ... What comes first is constructing "the campaign" platform, then getting individuals to begin donating money for marketing/advertising and then selecting the initial "Connectors". In brief, this is how you change gun laws in this country. Also remember, people gravitate towards pleasure and avoid pain. "The carrot vs stick". People who freely give up their semi-automac weapons, donationing them to the movement will get rewarded and publicly praised. Those who purchase or own semi-auto weapons who aren't willing to give up those weapons, are to be shunned by all "movment members" in the community,.. including their friends. ie; I'm your my best friend. We golf together! Then, I will no longer chose to be those things to you, if you don't give up your semi-auto weapons. If Mahatma Gandhi can bring down the British Empire, with "his movement" than WE can change our gun laws. LET US JUST BEGIN!..

While I agree with this article about credit scores and racism , this credit reporting practice also affects the former upper middle class white america as well. More former white middle class Americans who have fallen from credit grace have been affected as well. With so many job hunters HR departments have become overwhelmed and they rely on this scam as just another screen to diqualify applicants. There is little of what can be considered local employment in our communities since almost everything is corporate controlled and their corporate offcies and their policies are generally outside the states they practice in. I question wether states can affect corporate policy. One would assume this practice to be unconstitutional and there fore a crime against citizens of all states with corporations being held accoutable. In regard to predatory lending, its hard to separate the banks from the pay day loan shops based on interest rates. This whole mess is just an example of how corporations completely trumped freedom and democracy and turned an entire nation into a fnancial dictaotrship.

I am disgusted with California, my state of origin. Those laws restricting how many possessions a homeless person may have, making it illegal for homeless people to eat, to use blankets or tents, to sleep anywhere outdoors, etc. are yet another example of what fascism looks like. I always thought California (particularly the S.F. Bay Area where I'm from) was among the more enlightened places in this country. It actually was, forty years ago. Now it's a fascist police state. Makes me sick.

I'm delighted that a few homeless people have started fighting back. They should. This is ABUSE, pure and simple. Like Thom says, no one "chooses" to be homeless. Our cancer-stage, crony capitalist system creates homelessness. What many people don't seem to realize is that some of the homeless are actually employed, paid too little to afford the most basic necessities such as housing. It is an outrage.

Nothing short of radical change in this country is going to fix problems like this. With all my heart I pray for Bernie Sanders to get elected and for a much more progressive Congress. Anything less than that transpiring and I guarantee, these problems will only get worse. MUCH worse.

This is simply nasty:

“ALEC task force directors help craft model policy and work with legislators, think tanks, and the private sector and all the folks who might be stakeholders and are interested in a particular issue, whether it’s health care, energy or education policy,” Nelson explains. “Over the course of a year the task force has meetings, debates and dialogue from which the model policy is crafted. The beauty of our model policy process is that by the time it becomes a model, it has been vetted with think tanks, across the aisles, with stakeholders who have a business or policy interest and legislators who have perhaps tried something similar in their states and looked at different and innovative approaches to the way the policy should be crafted.”

In the coming year, ALEC will focus on the need to simplify state tax codes, cutting red tape that hampers entrepreneurship and hiring, ways states can force the federal government to be accountable for its budget, market-driven solutions to energy problems, ensuring that American students are prepared to take their places in the global economy, and “worker freedom,” or the right to refuse to join a union. As Nelson noted in her RedState blog, right-to-work states have an 8.6 percent economic growth rate, which is more than twice that of forced-union states. ALEC also supports making it easier for charter schools to be set up and function.

Reform of the criminal justice system is another item on ALEC’s agenda. The organization proposes that states re-examine mandatory minimum sentencing and take steps so that ordinary citizens will not inadvertently be turned into criminals by accidentally breaking a complicated regulation or rule that they either didn’t know was on the books or was so complex that they didn’t interpret it correctly. The state of Ohio has already enacted such a law.

- See more at: http://iwf.org/modern-feminist/2796644/ALEC-CEO-LISA-B.NELSON

Gloriapower, you're right and that plan has been implemented and with great success in Utah, in fact, Salt Lake City. It was first tried in New York - whose constitution states housing to be a basic right. It was being implemented here in Illinois until our aforementioned Governor Rauner cut it and came to hold the budget hostage.
It was found that simply giving the homeless apartments cost less than all the combined costs of the emergency room visits, jail time, social services and everything else.
When manufacturing left the cities it not only took away the many jobs for the uneducated and unskilled but it also took away the tax base for the cities. Manufacturing was replaced as a tax base for cities by property taxes which gentrified the cities and took away all the affordable housing.
Ronald Reagan cut the housing subsidies and deregulated the housing, real estate industries and made it easier for manufacturing to offshore but it started in the '70s before Reagan with the oil embargo of 1973 and the nationalization of the oil industries of Mideastern countries.
The price of oil was the final push for manufacturing to leave the cities in the '70s and then the country in the '80s and after. Before that we were an imperial economy and our carefree lifestyle up 'til the '70s, where we only had to think about getting high and getting laid and could just make pigs of ourselves, depended on colonial exploitation which the U.S. always effected not by outright conquest and subjugation but the installing and maintaining of puppet governments.

Why are letters getting cut off on my post, Nigel? The fifth line down from the top of my post has cut out the "f" in the word "of" at the end of the line. No tinkering in the "edit" box makes a damn bit of difference. Never seen THAT before.

Persoally, I think Mr. Hartman needs to understand that credit reporting is based on earning power. If the person is not employable in a high end job, or just making low wages in the job that they have, then their credit report should reflect this fact.

Obama persuaded Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to guarentee Millions for banks and other institutions to let poeple buy houses, who were not qualified to buy a trailer. So it is with deep regret that banks now have to charge interest based on the earning potential, and not what the government thinks the person is worth.

Not until people start voting.

The entire credit reporting industry needs to be better regulated; even now, when you request a copy of your credit report, they don't have to tell you EVERYTHING they report to other inquiries; they don't even have to tell you your credit score or how they calculate it. And you can only get one FREE report a year.

The credit reporting bureaus make money on YOUR credit history - you should be entitled to a piece of that money, even if it's only a few cents.

As a person who has been victimized by inaccurate credit reporting, I want the right to examine, in minute detail, everything in my credit report and WHO PUT IT THERE, and when. And the right to prosecute for false reporting.

Were Trump to win the presidency, what might happen? Possibilities: {Just guessing, that IF America is wretched in ways analogous to some other situations -} Fierce efforts might be made to depose Trump. Eg, maybe our “surveillance state” would be turned to protect Plutocrats. Eg, maybe elements of the Military would be pretending to re-instate “order” {pretending to seek the Military’s definition of “democracy”}. … The “fierceness” might be so’s to squelch Rightist public-sectors which maybe would resist with unprecedentedly anarchistic vigor {Lefties maybe in great danger on maybe-All fronts}. … The chaos maybe to be exploited by ____? and/or by ____? = = = In short, maybe “Third World”-type upheavals, although maybe with Very-different configurations because they’re in the contemporary-American context.