Commission Impossible

Looks like brussels sprouts on the cob to me.

Great piece on the homeless. There are people who make homelessness a career choice, and we should all do what we can to make that choice an unsatisfying one. But most of the middle class is just a couple of unexpected catastrophes away from becoming undomiciled, and the work of the Torres Shelter is essential in helping unfortunates determined to re-establish their households to do so.

Lon -

The matching program through the NVCF is not a one to one match. It is less than that. I forget the exact numbers, but it is something along the lines of this. . .

There is a $100,000 total pot of matching funds for this year (the program will go on for 5 years). There are about 30 charities in the Annie B's matching grant program. During the time of the program, all of the non-profits can get donations through the progam. At the end of the program, the $100,000 will be split among the charities in a proportional manner, so that the charity that got the most money donated gets the most of the $100,000. If more than $100,000 is raised by the 30 non-profits, the match will be less than one to one. In addition, no one non-profit can get more than $25,000 in matching funds. More information can be found at: http://www.nvcf.org/anniebs

So your $20 donation is not guaranteed to turn ito $40. However, it will be bigger than $20, it's just not a guaranteed amount. Still a good program, just not as straight forward as it might seem.

Dave

. . ."most of the middle class is just a couple of unexpected catastrophes away from becoming undomiciled" . . .

Sorry Alan, you can dress that one up with fancier words, but it's the same drivel that has been thrust upon us by "homeless advocates" since the Eighties. I'm guessing that you are middle class, so apply that logic to yourself. Does it really ring true? The old line was that we were all just "a couple of paychecks" from the street. Do you believe that?

You describe the clients of the shelter as "unfortunates". This indicates to me that you believe them to be the victims of a fatalistic society that has somehow dealt them a bad hand. Maybe some are, but I doubt there are many.

The sad truth is that most homeless on the street are either mentally ill or substance abusers. The "homeless" that fill the shelters are mostly the ones you describe as making a "career choice". Most have accepted a level of poverty that you and I could not imagine. But they are not victims.

Poverty is a culture, not an affliction.

If you're conscience needs for you to see them as victims, fine. Then acknowledge that they are the victims of the disfunctional sub-culture in which they were raised and not some ethereal entity that doles out fortune to some and misfortune to others.

Alan,

Not brussel sprouts but certainly looks like them.

Lon

Dave,

Thanks for the information. The letter I received was from a board member (still a form letter though) and said simply...

"All donations made between August 15th and October 11th, 2007 will be matched by NVCF, making your gift more valuable than ever!"

I'm not sure how other people would interpret that, but it looks as though I misinterpreted it. I wonder what the chances are that more than $100,000 will be raised for the various charities, and what the chances are that the Torres Shelter will raise more than $25,000?

Lon

Hops, then?

Having been homeless in the past, I can never be certain that I won't be again in the future. I've had financial abundance and financial upheaval, and in both cases it was due more to circumstance and dame fortune than my own doing.

I have but little sympathy for those who choose to live on the streets, out of indolence or dependence. But I know from personal experience that the rug can indeed be pulled out from under you.

We're heading into a wave of bankruptcies and foreclosures, due to an unholy conspiracy between lenders and borrowers. Some of those borrowers are going to end up without an address, and some of them are going to be families. Maybe they made some poor choices, but they didn't make a deliberate decision to chuck it all and live off the bounty of the county. Thankfully, the Torres Shelter and the Chico Community Shelter Partnership, although resource constrained, will be there to assist.

Someone writes: it's the same drivel that has been thrust upon us by "homeless advocates" since the Eighties

Brave talk from someone who won't even self-identify.
I'm afraid I can't give much credence to someone posting behind a cloak of anonymity.

Rainman,

You seem to have read a lot of meaning into Alan's rather brief comment. I don't see any supposition of a victim state that comes from calling the homeless unfortunate.

I agree that the chance of middle class families actually being impacted by two unexpected financial catastrophies and ending up homeless is statistically low. It's not the kind of thing people should live in fear of. If an addiction is involved then I would assume the chances would be greater.

Regardless of all that, the homeless people that want help should get it. And if it's not a government institution doing the actual helping, I would expect the finances to be better managed.

Lon

Alan,

Not hops either, but they do look like that as well.

Lon

Histamines?

"You seem to have read a lot of meaning into Alan's rather brief comment".

Perhaps. I tire of the repitition of mantras that are generated by those who seek to make us feel guilty for what we have, as if we have gained at the detriment of others. They want us to buy into the myth that the free market is some rigged and grossly unfair system that keeps poor people poor for the benefit of the rich. It's all class warrior BS.

I certainly don't think Alan meant to imply any of that and, from reading his last post, it seems his personal experiences have shaped his worldview. But to project that onto "most of the middle class" is a stretch. I suspect he's smarter than that.

Alan,

Yep, I choose to be anonymous. Since I work locally in social services, I'd rather not deal with the legions of "Thought Police" in my field. You may find that cowardly but it doesn't automatically invalidate my point of view.

Magnified histamines?

Alan,

no, and a magnified no.

Lon

Pods? Evil pods?

Lon -

Yeah, some of the promotional material for the Annie B's grants are a bit misleading. After seeing the initial advertisement, I also thought it was a one to one match, but then I did some further investigation and came to the understanding I gave above.

I am not sure how you would describe how it really works in a pithy line or two, but you and I are not the first people to be confused. Seeing as how you have a vast readership, I thought I would get the word out through your blog.

Dave

Anthony,

Nope, but I appreciate the reference to one of most frightening Saturday afternoon monster movies of my youth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers

The movie was remade starring Nicole Kidman and is in theatres now, and Donald Sutherland did a 1978 remake.

Lon

Dave,

They could do this...

"All donations made between August 15th and October 11th, 2007 will be matched* by NVCF, making your gift more valuable than ever!"

*see www.nvcf.org for more information on our matching program

But thanks to your post close to a half-dozen people now know that the matching program may not be 1:1. And at least one of those people is still going to send a small donation to the Torres Shelter. I think I might be bothered by the wording if I had sent a large donation with the expectation of a 1:1 match. But I wouldn't send a large donation unless I knew more about the shelter and the matching program.

Lon

Cabbages, a pile of cabbages.

Or, maybe, Soylent Green

Snathcher's may have relevance to some of today's politics. My understanding is that the 1956 original was a commentary on McCarthyism and communist paranoia during the era it was made. That could have some similarities to the screeches of "denier" that pop up from time to time regarding global warming. Or to the constant suggestions that everything bad is a result of global warming (the new red menace).

Tethering people who guestion the science behind determining the causes of warming trends to Nazi Germany "holocaust deniers" has lost the warming crowd a whole bunch of credibility. But at least we're not eating people yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

Lon

Ok if not cabbages, or Soylent Green...

How about those small round melons we see at the produce section from time to time?

I still think its pods though, and you just aren't telling us because that would expose the secret plan.

No pods, cabbage, Soylent Green (or blue), or small round melons that we see at the produce section from time-to-time.

I'm concerned that Gregg may have been body snatched, since he hasn't made a half-dozen guesses yet.

Lon

Ok how about some help?

Animal, mineral, or vegetable?

Help?...

Baton Rouge

Lon

Baton Rouge...ah ok

Well I wish I were in the land of cotton...
old times there are not forgotton, look away, look away, Dixeland.

Cotton bolls

Not cotton,

Baton Rouge is the capital of....
The state flower is the magnolia...

Lon

Wasabe Peas

sorghum?

Mint Juleps? Dried Peas? Green Peppers for hot sauce? Southern fried mystery pods?

I dunno, running out of ideas...it not Okra, because I'd recognize those long pods anywhere.

They are the cones from a bald cypress the Louisianna State tree.

http://www.50states.com/tree/louisiana.htm

Lon

i think the funniest homeless person downtown is scribbles. i used to work at sultans down there for a year n a half, and he would come in every morning and we'd give him coffee, and he'd sit and scribble on everything he could get his hands on. wierd guy, but funny.