no comment

This President has promised much including work and jobs. Make sure that they are doing what they promised or face being voted out, replaced!!

Boston, NY and other large cities have restaurants and other places of business that have decided to shut down for the day and others for an entire week in protest of this nation's unlawful treatment of immigrants; especially children --- this type of civil disobedience makes me proud that many businesses today are putting people before monetary increase.

Power to the People; Power to all the People. This is how the vietnam war was ended----

People need and want to work; they need to be valued and regardless of age or race or any other issue individuals in so-called power have against the working class; We Shall OverCome and We Are Stronger In Numbers-----Bravo

The following is a response to Tom Orr's insightful "Poor in Indiana: Part III." The marked link below will lead the reader to Mr. Orr's discussion of the "cliff effect."

Supporting those who have fallen into poverty makes humanitarian sense. Failure, however, to provide an effective transition from poverty to independence turns that support into a trap. The grants social service agencies fight over frequently add bells and whistles to that trap, not a way out. That's both disrespectful and condescending.

Effective transitional support would encourage decisions that lead to independence. That makes economic and humanitarian sense. It also treats people with respect.

So let me see: dependence or independence? Perhaps what we have chosen to pay for is precisely what we are getting. So let's be honest. Rather than blaming irrational policies for thoroughly predictable results, we elect to blame the poor for remaining dependent.

That's amazing, but I suppose it's easier than changing how we allocate grant money. Of course, it's not defensible morally or intellectually; it's just easier. Consequently, the poor are not the only ones who make "bad" financial decisions. They are, however, more likely to endure sanctions--even when their decisions are good ones

Tom Orr's Series Entries:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/poor-indiana-part-i-thomas-orr https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/poor-indiana-part-ii-thomas-orr The Cliff Effect: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/poor-indiana-part-iii-thomas-orr

A Tiny Solution to a Really Big Problem February 9, 2017 (Indianapolis, IN) Homelessness is a problem throughout Indiana and the nation, but its face has changed. People once thought of the typical homeless person as a single male–perhaps with a substance abuse problem–who visits each local homeless mission on a circuit.

Of course, one can still find people who fit that stereotype. But it’s not the face of today’s homelessness. Instead, it’s a homeless family–a single parent with children. The parent may even work; most of the homeless do. But he or she doesn’t’ earn enough to care for the children and pay for rent. Sometimes, it’s a two-parent family living out of a van or finding refuge at a homeless shelter. Today’s homeless are much like the families living next door to you, except they don’t have a door.

Some homeless advocates now think that a solution to this national problem might be the “tiny home,” the home-type made famous by Tiny House Nation, a popular series on cable TV’s the A&E Network. Last month, Leon Longyard, a community advocate, presented the “tiny home” strategy to a group that represented local organizations committed to combating poverty and homelessness.

Longard said that tiny homes could provide “adequate and sustainable shelter” for homeless Indianapolis families at a very reasonable cost—about $10,000 per home. The recent federal funding of $5 million to fight homelessness in Marion County could subsidize enough of these homes to provide the city with a useful tool to care for its homeless residents. In fact, the executive director of the Coalition of Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, Alan Witchey, showed support for such a project. He said that the best way to determine if this strategy would work for Indianapolis would be “by actually doing it.”

Though the Indianapolis homeless community is the largest in the state (4800-8000 individuals), other Indiana cities lead the way in employing this strategy to meet the needs of the homeless. Last July, Muncie’s Bridges Community Services, a non-profit community outreach, took delivery of six Amish-built tiny homes, each costing about $2600 (like the house pictured above). That delivery of tiny homes is part of the Bridges’ PennyLane project, a micro-village concept offering coordinated social services. The project is especially designed to meet the needs of homeless individuals who have proved difficult to serve in the past.

Anyone who has served the homeless community will follow with interest the Muncie project as it unfolds. Longard says, however, that it might take a long time before this idea becomes reality in Indianapolis. I hope that he’s wrong. Tiny home micro-villages with coordinated social services is an exciting idea. It deserves a careful trial. Indianapolis should catch up to Muncie.

David Richardson

I don’t know if this is inappropriate, but how can I work and get gov benefits? I feel like I’m just getting on my feet, since I just got a receptionist job where I work two days a week… but now I’m worried that since I got some sort of job I will stop getting disability benefits which I really still need because I will barely get any money from working 15 hours a week….. I don’t want to do anything illegal though, but I’m really concerned about this

I think that a lot of us are in the same position. It is how bad the job market

Where i live has seen a lot of places close there doors and move away making it harder to find work

Okay, honest question. How many of you have ACTUALLY had your job stolen by an immigrant? It's in the news constantly, but I don't know if I believe millions of jobs are being stolen. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know...

Last weekend my friends and I had a great meal at a local Italian Restaurant. Guess what...none of the cooks looked Italian. I live and work in one of these "Sanctuary" cities with a thriving restaurant industry so I would hate to see what the long term impact of a strong arm policy to enforce more local police vigilance and deportations would be on our restaurant industry. Pursuing criminal offenders is one thing but law abiding American Dream seekers deserve another criteria.

http://www.eater.com/2017/1/25/14389046/sanctuary-cities-restaurant-industry