Free Republic

Could the new Marlins ballpark or the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field serve as a homeless shelter for the 270 or so nights a year that they're not used for baseball? If two Florida lawmakers have their way, they might. As reported by the Miami Herald, state legislators have unearthed an obscure law that has not been enforced since it was adopted in 1988. It states that any ballpark or stadium that receives taxpayer money shall serve as a homeless shelter on the dates that it is not in use.

Here's an audit Florida's professional sports franchises may not have expected -- records of housing the homeless at their facilities over the years... and if the Florida Panthers haven't been housing the homeless, the team's on the hook for more than $30.8 million in tax breaks it's gotten since 1996. A recently released legislative analysis of State Sen. Mike Bennett's Senate Bill 816 notes that a law from the '80s requires sports franchises in Florida to house the homeless in its facility on off-nights, and in exchange, the teams get $166,667 from the state every month.

Get ready for the next big financial bubble—the growth of America’s homeless population. The biggest boon for the homeless was President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, that appropriated $1.5 billion to the Homeless Prevention and Rapid-Re-Housing Program that temporarily aided homeless and near-homeless households. According to a report issued Wednesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the program has helped more than one million impoverished individuals find housing, but it is set to end this fall. “The resources provided by [the program] have run out in many communities … and the debt and deficit at the federal level have already...

A 23-year-old former Marine who some say was distraught after combat service in Iraq has been named a suspect in the serial killings of four homeless men in Orange County. Itzcoatl Ocampo of Yorba Linda was chased by bystanders Friday after the most recent stabbing death behind a fast-food restaurant in an Anaheim shopping center parking lot. Ocampo remained in police custody without bail Saturday and is expected in court on Tuesday. "We are extremely confident that we have the man who is responsible for the murders of all four homeless men in Orange County," Anaheim Police Chief John Welter...

Samantha Garvey is one teenage girl who would rather read something called The Journal of Shellfish Research than Glamour magazine. "What I'm doing is the American dream," she says. The 17-year-old high school senior maintains a 3.9 grade point average at her Brentwood, N.Y., high school, studies Italian and plays the violin. She also has an unusual interest that has recently caught some attention: On Wednesday she was named one of 61 Long Island semifinalists in the national Intel Science Talent Search because of her work studying the effects of predators on ribbed mussels. "I get so excited to tell...

SARASOTA— Authorities say a 53-year-old homeless man was decapitated by another homeless man during what they believe started as a fight over food.

Kevin Christopher Fitzgerald's life ended Saturday night on the cold asphalt of Highway 101 in Santa Rosa when the 57-year-old homeless man walked into the path of a southbound pickup truck. The driver, traveling at 65 mph, swerved and tried to brake, but had no chance to miss Fitzgerald, the CHP said. The man had lived on the streets and been to local hospitals so often in the last 25 years that paramedics immediately recognized him. Fitzgerald, the fifth homeless pedestrian killed by a vehicle this year in Santa Rosa, carried a secret that stunned most people who'd known the...

(CBS/AP) WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A New Jersey 20-year-old and his teen friend are charged with aggravated assault after a video of them allegedly beating, taunting and stealing from a homeless man surfaced on YouTube. The video - embedded below - purportedly shows Taylor Giresi, 20, punching and kicking a homeless man on what appear to be two separate occasions, as he and the 17-year-old cameraman laugh. The attackers later steal the man's bicycle. "About to go beat up this bum," says a man on the video before the assault, according to the Associated Press. "Just dive on him! Dive...

Reporting from New York— Slips of paper are pasted to the broken door of the corner row house, violations for the garbage piled near the front steps. The stench of trash wafts up the dark interior stairway, where an ashtray filled with cigarette butts sits like an abandoned potted plant on the second-floor landing. Nobody lives here, at least not officially. But as you climb the narrow stairs to the top floor, a door opens into an airy apartment that is home to Tasha Glasgow, who is part of a largely invisible population of squatters occupying vacant homes across America....

Link only - Occupy Denver disrupts vigil to honor homeless who have died, refuse to allow mayor to speak

A young man strides purposefully into the woods as a cameraman asks what he's about to do. "About to go beat up this bum," the man in the video says. And that's exactly what he does, punching and kicking a homeless man in the face, bloodying his nose, before wishing him a Merry Christmas. The videotaped assault has led to criminal charges against a 20-year-old New Jersey man and a 17-year-old boy accused of filming the assault while egging the attacker on. "Just dive on him! Dive on him!" the cameraman says on the video as the assailant approaches a...

Some claim that the price is too high to continue to support the occupation of Washington-Jefferson Park in Eugene — yet 70 percent of that $100,000 cost to the city of Eugene was for police overtime at marches and rallies. That cost will not be reduced if the city fails to renew the Occupy Eugene permit to stay overnight. More to the point, what is the price of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition for redress of grievances? Dark forces of destruction attack not just our middle class jobs, but also the survival prospects of...

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Friday afternoon said Occupy NOLA protestors who have camped out in Duncan Plaza across from City Hall for the last two months must immediately begin to clear the park. "I am asking them to leave right now," Landrieu said. "Any time after this may see enforcement."While acknowledging the protestors' rights to freedom of speech, Landrieu said it is against the law to be in the park between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. and to have tents, kitchen equipment and electrical utilities in the park. "I am giving notice on behalf of the city of...

I've been compelled to do an article about the Kelly Thomas beating. I mentioned this off and on on YouTube and a few other places and it turns out that although as I have stated it proves that liberalism is the same as fascism that didn't stop some liberal from smearing me and my website. It turns out this beast broke into my twitter account and has been posting on twitter and various websites, myself posting the following abhorrent comment: Kelly Thomas was nothing but a psychotic Criminal bum and parasite who leeched off taxpayers and was a nuisance. If...

Occupy Boston has been encouraging protesters to take showers, hot meals and shelter meant for the homeless, prompting a St. Francis House manager to ask the downtown campers to remove directions from their Internet newspaper. The online publication that calls itself “Occupy Boston Globe” posts meal times and shower hours at St. Francis House on Boylston Street, which runs on private donations and state and federal funding.

Another good one from Lee Stranahan, Brandon Darby, and Big Government, starring the same well-spoken protester from last night’s clip. We already knew that New York Communities for Change, a.k.a. the artists formerly known as ACORN, were hiring the homeless as ringers to pad the size of the protests. Fox News reported on that a few weeks ago and further alleged that some of the new hires were being sent out to fundraise under false pretenses. What’s curious about this clip is that “Channing� thinks some of the ringers being shipped in by NYCC are creating problems at the park,...

A man thought to be a protester was found dead Monday inside a tent at Kerr Park, police said. The man's name has not been released by police, but he was thought to be in his 20s, Oklahoma City police Capt. Dexter Nelson said. The man is part of Occupy OKC, a group of protesters who have been camping since Oct. 10 in Kerr Park near Robinson and Broadway avenues. Organizers refer to the man as “Street Poet,” a homeless man provided with food, clothing and shelter by others involved in Occupy OKC, according to a news release written by...

Occupy Atlanta moves protest to homeless shelterThe Associated Press Updated: Sunday, October 30, 2011 - 11:59pm ATLANTA -- After being evicted from a city park last week, Occupy Atlanta says it's found a new home for its protest -- at a shelter for the homeless. Occupy Atlanta spokeswoman Sara Amis said Sunday several dozen protesters spent Saturday night on the fourth floor of a building used by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. She says it's possible more could join them.

Instruments of Salvation By Ari Bussel Did you notice how at every point of time we are given a choice: turn right or left, continue or abort, pay attention or ignore. Our progress in life is just the sum total of numerous small decisions, most seemingly inconsequential. But they all are, shaping our path and defining who we are. Also, this is how we can be grouped into clusters. There are many reasons for doing what we do, some rational, others mysterious. At times we think, hesitate and hardly reach a conclusive decision. Other times we do not spend a...

The protest on Wall Street is chafing under an unwanted “infiltration from below.” It seems that while the focus of the protest has been aimed at transferring wealth from the 1% above to the “deserving” 99% below, uninvited lower echelons of the 99%–namely the homeless vagrants that infest many American cities are showing up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sharla Tane, one of the Occupy Wall Street cooking staff, complained that “our hard work is being filched by spongers looking for a free meal.” The problem isn’t prejudice, Tane insisted. “I mean, we’re not against government helping the poor. In...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- When Occupy Wall Street protesters took over two parks in Portland's soggy downtown, they pitched 300 tents and offered free food, medical care and shelter to anyone. They weren't just building, like so many of their brethren across the nation, a community to protest what they see as corporate greed. They also created an ideal place for the homeless. Some were already living in the parks, while others were drawn from elsewhere to the encampment's open doors. Now, protesters from Portland to Los Angeles to Atlanta are trying to distinguish between homeless people who are joining their...

As the national media continues to promote the idea that these absurd "Occupy" protests demonstrate some groundswell of popular opinion, reports continue to emerge from localized media showing how ugly these encampments are becoming. A report out of Cleveland that  police are investigating a rape claim made by a 19-year-old woman last weekend has received little attention. Do you suppose if a rape claim was made against a tea partier that it would receive more attention?It's gotten so bad in Baltimore that organizers are discouraging alleged victims from going to the police (maybe they should go to Sheriff Biden).Meanwhile,...

A video about the occupy wall street bums. CAUTION! SCARY PHOTOS w/Nudity and violence! Viewer discretion advised!

Protesters or homeless or both? What's happening to the Occupy Seattle gathering at Seattle's Westlake Park has some wondering, but those you ask have an answer to why they are there. More and more homeless people are joining protesters occupying Seattle’s Westlake Park. The Occupy Wall Street movement has a special attraction for people who sleep on the streets. When you walk through Westlake Park, in the heart of downtown Seattle’s shopping district, you notice the donated tarps and sleeping bags on hand to keep people warm. And there's a big tent where you can get a cheese sandwich or...

FRANKFORT — The Executive Branch Ethics Commission has decided to take no action on a complaint filed by Bill Johnson, Republican candidate for secretary of state, over voter registration of homeless people. Johnson said Tuesday that John Steffen, executive director of the ethics commission, told him that the panel lacks jurisdiction to consider his complaint against Secretary of State Elaine Walker and the State Board of Elections. After the commission's regular meeting Monday, Steffen declined to comment on the case, saying the panel can comment on a case only when it acts on it. Johnson contended in his complaint, filed...

In an example of how government at every level wastes tax dollars, one U.S. county is spending around $4 million in combined federal and local funds to house a dozen homeless people in an affluent community.That translates into more than $330,000 per person, which means that Uncle Sam might as well buy them each their own, fully furnished house. After all, the median single-family home in the U.S. costs around $172,000 so the government could also throw in a few years worth of utility bills and even groceries.Instead officials in Bethesda Maryland will spend the money to operate a three-story...

A group of 477 individuals costs The City more than $20 million in emergency medical services in one year — 10 of whom racked up ambulance, emergency, detox and crisis psychiatric services to the tune of $2.3 million.  Those figures have been compiled as part of a new Department of Public Health initiative to get a better handle on San Francisco’s most hardcore homeless population — individuals dubbed “high users of multiple systems” who in many cases suffer from debilitating psychiatric or medical diseases, and typically have severe dependence on alcohol or drugs.The information about this population was unavailable until...

It's not every day a vagrant gets to shack up in a $2.9 million townhouse on Manhattan's Upper West Side. But one such domicile, owned by "Today" show co-host Ann Curry, has in fact been housing a homeless man.

The rocky economic recovery and stagnant unemployment rate have led to a surge in the homeless seeking shelter in shanties and tents nationwide, experts say. There's no official estimate on how many tent cities exist but, experts say, nearly every state has one and the presence of such communities is soaring. "In just about every major city, there are tent cities," said Michael Stoop, a community organizer for the National Coalition for the Homeless. "Unfortunately, we're in a growth industry and the numbers are going to continue." Stoop and his organization began formally tracking tent cities in 2010 but the...

Fullerton's acting police chief acknowledged Thursday that the department had allowed police officers involved in a deadly encounter with a homeless man to watch a video that captures the incident before writing their reports about it. Acting Chief Kevin Hamilton said supervisors allowed the review so that the officers would have a chance to refresh their memory and write an accurate account of the incident involving Kelly Thomas. But the practice is at odds with the way many other police departments deal with serious use-of-force cases. The LAPD's former inspector general, Jeffrey Eglash, said that allowing police to look at...

Bill to expand legal rights of homeless is vetoedPublished: Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011 - 12:00 am Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday vetoed a bill that would have afforded additional legal rights to homeless people who suffer violence or intimidation. Assembly Bill 312 by Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, would have included homeless people or those perceived to be homeless under provisions of the state's Civil Rights Act. The law allows additional civil court remedies for people who suffer violence based on a variety of factors, including race, religion, national origin or gender. In his veto message, the Democratic governor said...

Six police officers in California were placed on leave Wednesday after surveillance video surfaced showing witnesses describe how cops fatally beat a mentally ill homeless man. Kelly Thomas, 37, died July 10, five days after a confrontation with Fullerton police investigating reports of an attempted car burglary. Surveillance video taken on an Orange County Transportation Authority bus showed passengers describing the alleged assault. "They beat him up, and then all the cops came and they hogtied him, and he was like, 'Please God, Please Dad!'" said one witness. Another video, taken by a bystander on his cell phone, shows the...

WASHINGTON - A man has been detained by the Secret Service after jumping a fence at the White House Tuesday. James Dirk Crudup, 41, scaled the fence on the north side of the White House between 7:30 and 8 p.m. Crudup was quickly taken into custody after scaling the fence. A backpack Crudup was carrying was confiscated by Secret Service. The contents of the backpack were investigated by Secret Service and D.C. Fire & EMS. Nothing hazardous was found. According to the Secret Service, Crudup is homeless. He has been charged with unlawful entry and contempt of court for violating...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A homeless man was in custody Tuesday night after climbing over the White House fence, the Secret Service said. The man was immediately captured by uniformed Secret Service agents, who guard the complex around the clock, said agency spokesman Ed Donovan. He had a backpack that Donovan said was being examined for possible explosive material. The suspect, identified as James Dirk Crudup, 41, was being transferred to District of Columbia police for processing. He faces charges of unlawful entry and contempt of court for violating an order to stay away from the White House, Donovan said. A...

Thousands of middle-class U.S. families are being forced to sleep on floors in public buildings because so many have lost their homes and jobs in the economic crisis. These shelters were once the preserve of drug addicts and alcoholics but now normal Americans are having to bed down in halls and corridors as they have no other place to go. An investigation has also found many from the Midwest are spending their benefits to stay in motels for up to ten days a month to avoid having every night on mattresses surrounded by dozens of strangers.  Experts say that these...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Police say an Oakland man who was shot while he and his family were giving food to the homeless has died. Twenty-nine-year-old Paris Powell was hospitalized in grave condition after being shot in the head shortly after midnight Wednesday.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced today that HUD will provide $46.2 million to public housing agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to supply permanent housing and case management for 6,790 homeless Veterans in America. This funding, from HUD’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH), is a coordinated effort by HUD, VA, and local housing agencies to provide permanent housing for homeless Veterans. Read a complete local breakdown of the rental vouchers announced today. “Over the past three years, HUD helped...

The absence of a plan to deal with Waikiki's entrenched homeless population for November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference has lawmakers and residents worried about the possibility of a law enforcement "sweep" they say will symbolize Hawaii's failure to solve the ongoing problem. The state's homeless coordinator told the Star-Advertiser there is no plan to address the homeless problem in Waikiki specifically for APEC, when Waikiki will be center stage before the leaders of 21 APEC nations and 2,500 international journalists. Gov. Neil Abercrombie's 90-day homeless plan that was launched in May is intended to address overall, long-term solutions, Marc Alexander...

Outcasts: Tonight Tens Of Thousands Of Formerly Middle Class Americans Will Be Sleeping In Their Cars, In Tent Cities Or On The Streets... Economic despair is beginning to spread rapidly in America. As you read this, there are millions of American families that are just barely hanging on by their fingernails. For a growing number of Americans, it has become an all-out battle just to be able to afford to sleep under a roof and put a little bit of food on the table. Sadly, there are more people than ever that are losing that battle. Tonight, tens of thousands...

City Transportation Services Director Wayne Yoshi­oka says the city is not setting a precedent by moving a Kapiolani bus stop because of complaints about a homeless woman who had taken up residence at the shelter near Keeaumoku Street. The city received complaints from bus riders who didn't like having to wait for the bus near the homeless woman, who has hygiene issues. Tessie Cadelina, 66, who catches the bus daily to and from work, said Thursday, "I no like sit down if the lady stay there. The smell."

A recent analysis of housing prices showing that they have fallen by 33% since 2006—a bigger decline than the 31% decrease that was experienced during the 1930s Great Depression—was downplayed by Obama Administration officials. “In the 1930s they weren’t prepared,” said Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. “People had to build their own shanties or live on the streets. Today we have government funded homeless shelters to take care of those who’ve lost their houses.” Shaun cited statistics indicating that the number of people using government shelters surged by 57% between 2007 and 2010 in support of...

New York City plans to send geese captured around its airports to a Pennsylvania slaughterhouse and then distribute them to food banks there.

As the recession gripped America, thousands more people in rural and suburban areas turned to homeless shelters for help. The number of people using shelters or transitional housing in suburban and rural areas increased 57 percent from 2007 to 2010, with more than 500,000 people from smaller communities seeking help in 2010, according to a report by the Housing and Urban Development Department. During the same time there was a decrease in the use of shelters in urban areas. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters that about 40 percent of those who served in...

Whatever Ronald Reagan had in mind for the shining city on the hill, it could not have been Washington. His lasting legacy to the capital city has been to make permanent an encampment of homeless people. There always have been poor here, living in sharp contrast to the well-to-do political world of the city. But the homeless, during DC's recent history, appeared with Reagan's inauguration in 1981. They are testament to the first wave of conservative cuts in social welfare programmes, which, among other things, resulted in Reagan's famed "welfare queens'', along with the supposed malingerers who turned out to...

MESA, Ariz. - Police say a homeless woman entered a Dairy Queen restaurant and threatened employees with a grenade. When 30-year-old Renee Deshaies attempted to leave the scene near Olive and Main Street, she still had the grenade in her hand. The victims believed the grenade was real and feared for their safety. Police say the grenade was not real and was only used for training purposes. When Deshaies was interviewed, she believed it was real. She was arrested less than a mile away from the scene near Hobson and 1st Street. Deshaies faces disorderly conduct and misconduct with a...

It’s hard to believe, but it seems that the clueless owners of the commercial buildings in downtown Berkeley and on Telegraph are pressing on with their campaign to ban sitting down. It appears that their proposal is still on the fast track for passage in mid-summer, in that convenient sweet spot when most students and many other residents are out of town and the Berkeley City Council can do its dirtiest deeds relatively unnoticed. Since there are already many well-organized opponents, passing an ordinance like this would be a guaranteed recipe for disruption: certainly demonstrations, possibly calls for boycotting businesses...

And now, for the first time ever, LGBT youth are specifically mentioned in a Senate bill to combat overall youth homelessness. Yesterday Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) introduced Reconnecting Youth to Prevent Homelessness Act—a bill designed to help homeless youth rejoin their families and escape life on the streets. Section 106 of the bill calls for a “demonstration project for improving family relationships and reducing homelessness for LGBT youth.” It calls on the secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a demonstration project that develops programs that improve family relationships and reduce homelessness for LGBT youth. A growing body of...

Homeless men and women – weathered by the elements and carrying bags and backpacks – are getting a chance to tell their side of the story in federal court about how the city of Sacramento treats them. In a highly unusual case that focuses on their nightly searches for places to sleep, the city's down and out are pitted against city police who are charged with enforcing a local ordinance prohibiting camping in undesignated areas for more than 24 hours at a time. The civil class action, brought on behalf of all homeless people in Sacramento who have lost tents,...

Larry Bogan knows precisely how much it costs for a bus ticket from Atlantic City back home to Pompano Beach, Fla.: $126. Unfortunately, that's $126 more than he has... And so instead of cooking in a restaurant or driving a tractor trailer for someone like he used to do, Bogan eats at a soup kitchen and sleeps on park benches or in a train or bus station each night. He's one of about 500 homeless people living in the nation's second-largest gambling market. Reducing Atlantic City's homeless population is a key element of a new effort to help the struggling...

Education activists are rallying around a homeless woman who may face jail time for enrolling her son in kindergarten under a friend's address. Supporters say the woman's story is yet another dismaying example of inequality in the U.S. education system. Tanya McDowell, a homeless single mother from Bridgeport, is charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for signing up her 5-year-old son to attend nearby Norwalk schools under the address of a friend. (Her son went to the school for four months. Her friend has been evicted from public housing for letting McDowell use her address.) McDowell...