homeless sneakers

homeless sneakers

restless thoughts
toss and turn,
without end
deep within
mind, body and soul
whether day or night,
about once again
becoming homeless

knowing the only
place to then call
home 24/7, will be
one pair of badly
worn out sneakers,
long overdue
for replacement

truth be told
however, those foul
footwear are in much
better shape, than the person
who will be barely
surviving inside them

whose remedy
will not be found
just by a new pair,
but within an abode
of their own,
one providing a permanent
roof and shelter,
under which to live
more restfully instead.


by Morgan W. Brown
Montpelier, Vermont
Sunday, June 18, 2006

Homelessness is having no place to hang your hat

An old My Turn of mine published in the Burlington Free Press years ago (which I had also previously blogged to the North American Homeless News Network blog, here as well as Green Mountain Daily blog, here):

North American Homeless News Network (NAHNN) is Back!

[cross-posted from Norsehorse's Home Turf, here]

The North American Homeless News Network (NAHNN) is back!: nahnn.blogspot.com

The North American Homeless News Network (NAHNN) is an effort to provide notice of news items, columns and other information available online concerning homelessness and related matters in a central location.

Featured on NAHNN as well will be a selection of original articles, columns, essays and poetry written by people who are homeless or formerly homeless.

NAHNN has no paid staff.

While I cannot promise how frequently I will be able to post to this particular blog, after a rather lengthy hiatus of three and a half (3 1/2) years or so, I figured it was time to bring NAHNN back again.


[above earth/globe graphic via Not In Our Name Earth/Globe Graphics page, here]

*Must-Read* Analysis by Naomi Spencer

Homeless in the US: Underfunded and brutalized
[via World Socialist Web Site]

Down But Not Out

Read a lengthy, detailed report concerning certain aspects of some of the lives and experiences of those who face living unhoused (aka homeless) in Burlington, Vermont, here [via Vermont Cynic - weekly student newspaper for the University of Vermont (Tuesday, February 20, 2007)].

fyi: Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS)

"Homeless, not hopeless"

Article published with the Thursday (February 15, 2006) edition of the Burlington Free Press (Burlington, Vermont), here [online edition of article includes photo].

fyi: Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS)

'Homeless Man Crusades Against Condo Conversions in Burlington' [Vermont]

Must-read article: A House Divided, here [via Seven Days; alternative weekly newspaper; Burlington, Vermont].

[cross-posted at Norsehorse's Home Turf]

'Homelessness Counts'

Study: Vermont nightly homeless figure estimated at nearly 1,000 (here):

A new national study released today put Vermont's daily homeless population at 927 in January 2005, a figure the Douglas administration says it is aggressively working to reduce.

The study, by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, determined that 744,313 people nationwide were homeless at the same time in early 2005, and that 44 percent of them were living in unsheltered situations. In Vermont, 24 percent were not living in shelters, the study found.

[...]

Read the article in full, here [via Burlington Free Press; 1/10/2007].

fyi: Homelessness Counts Report, January 10, 2007 [via National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH)].


[cross-posted from Norsehorse's Home Turf, here]

An old column from 2001

Lethal Cakeology
by Nobody

When I was a boy, I saw ads referring to products developed at "The Betty Crocker Institute." I imagined an ivy-covered campus around which professors strolled while discussing the finer points of cakeology. It took a while before I caught on that this "Institute" had all the substance of a mail-order PhD, but even so, I think it has more credibility than the "Manhattan Institute." At least what Betty Crocker put out you could swallow.

[read more, here; via Annual Homelessness Marathon Website]