Lincoln puts $1.4 million toward battling homelessness

As Homeless and Hunger Awareness Month drew to a close, Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler announced $1.4 million in funding to help create a new program for Lincoln’s homeless and near-homeless.

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Shinseki promises help for homeless veterans

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Tuesday unveiled a plan to end veterans’ homelessness in five years, saying that without action the improvements of recent years could be lost because of the bad economy.

Shinseki said the VA will spend $3.2 billion next year to reduce homelessness among veterans and is working to strengthen partnerships with other government agencies and service organizations. He said he recognizes that a goal of zero homeless veterans is ambitious but that he wants a high target so that everyone puts in their best efforts.

link: Army Times article
source: By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press

BrokenRoots Sunday: Art & HPRP & Homeless in America

US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama last winter signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, appropriating $1.5 billion for a Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP). These monies are being distributed via a formula used for the Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG).

HUD's $1.5 billion funding for the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) is divvied up into grants to assist communities most devastated by the current financial disaster to provide "short- and medium-term rental assistance and services to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless or to quickly re-house those who are experiencing homelessness."

link to article

A Home for Hope: Oregon's 10-year plan to end homelessness

The Ending Homelessness Advisory Council's efforts reached an important milestone in June: the release of the state's 10-year plan.

EHAC's goals and strategies support local planning efforts and identify key areas where state government must take the lead in eliminating barriers and improving systems.

The plan sets goals and describes strategies in three areas: prevention and intervention, permanent housing with supportive services and system improvements.

link to full plan

IHN Music Benefit

A concert to benefit the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Athens will be held 6 p.m. Saturday at Mount Olive Seventh Day Adventist Church, 465 Nellie B Ave.

Thinking Small...

There are small-house blogs, websites and organizations such as the Small House Society. There are books like Little House on a Small Planet (Lyons Press) by carpenter and designer Shay Salomon and The Not So Big House (Taunton) by architect Sarah Susanka, and a growing number of mainstream resources teaching people they can live in less space and have more time to enjoy it.

entire article from EMagazine.com

America's poor are its most generous givers

"The lowest-income fifth (of the population) always give at more than their capacity," said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. "The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give."

Indeed, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest survey of consumer expenditure found that the poorest fifth of America's households contributed an average of 4.3 percent of their incomes to charitable organizations in 2007. The richest fifth gave at less than half that rate, 2.1 percent.

from McClatchy