Academic

Poverty decreases in Florida

Posted on August 26, 2008
Florida is one of 12 states where the poverty rate declined from 2006 to 2007, according to new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.The state's poverty rate was 12.1% in 2007, according to the American Community Survey. That compares to 12.6% in 2006...

Hospitals charged with using homeless to defraud Medicare

Posted on August 06, 2008
Three Southern California hospitals are accused of paying recruiters thousands of dollars a month to find homeless people on Skid Row, give them fake diagnoses and send them to the hospital. The hospitals then allegedly billed Medicare or Medi-Cal (California?s version of Medicaid) for treatment of the patients? nonexistent conditions...

Homeless man convicted of trespassing ? at Naples shelter

Posted on August 05, 2008
St. Matthew?s House has been full for the past three years, so Juan Trejo stretched out on the floor of the Naples shelter?s old soup kitchen. He had no place else to sleep.Then he spend the next 97 days in the Collier County Jail, charged with trespassing...

Florida will get almost $300 million that could fund affordable housing

Posted on August 03, 2008
Florida stands to get $288.8 million in federal funds to purchase, manage and resell foreclosed and abandoned properties from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, H.R. 3221, which Congress passed last week.There's a lot more to the bill than preventing foreclosures on owner-occupied homes, but that's the part you've heard about...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Cover Florida is unlikely to reduce the ranks of uninsured

Posted on August 02, 2008
Cover Florida, the health-insurance policy touted by Gov. Charlie Crist as a way to reduce the state's 3.7 million uninsured, is unlikely to work.The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-profit policy-research group in Washington, D.C., came to that conclusion after analyzing Florida's law which allows insurance companies to offer low-cost plans with limited benefits...

Florida leaves health-care money on the table

Posted on July 22, 2008
Federal health officials are divvying up $49 million among states that provide subsidized health insurance to people who can't buy it because they have medical problems. None of that money will be coming to Florida. That's because Florida closed its high-risk pool for the medically uninsurable in 1992 and has not accepted any applicants since...

So how did he get up there?

Posted on July 19, 2008
Nobody could figure out how the person who lived there was able to ascend to his "home" suspended from an overpass.The fire department had to send a ladder truck so city workers could remove more than a dozen garbage bags of personal belongings -- mostly clothing and bedding -- from a nestlike living space in the supports on an overpass...

Ignorance costs Sanford chance to help homeless

Posted on July 18, 2008
Orlando Sentinel columnist George Diaz weighs in on the City of Sanford's uninformed perceptions of homeless people.Read his column here.

So I guess there are no homeless people in Sanford

Posted on July 14, 2008
Project Homeless Connect has been moved from downtown Sanford to a Longwood church after several people complained the program should not be held at the city?s civic center.Northland, A Church Distributed, agreed to host the July 30 event.Last year, more than 350 people attended the Sanford event...

Cops bait the homeless with cigarettes, beer and Boston Baked Beans -- but why?

Posted on July 12, 2008
A pack of Kool cigarettes, a can of Budweiser and a box of Boston Baked Beans sat on the dashboard of an unlocked car with the windows rolled down. Somewhere nearby two New Orleans police officers watched and waited for someone to reach into the bait car and snatch the items...

Bush may veto homeless veterans housing bill

Posted on July 11, 2008
The ?Homes for Heroes Act? has been passed by the House of Representatives, but is facing a presidential veto if it makes it through the Senate.HR 3329, which would provide shelter for homeless veterans and their families as well as lending assistance to help low-income veteran families from falling into homelessness, won House approval 412-9...

Don't they know how this looks?

Posted on July 09, 2008
President Bush and other world leaders sat down to an 18-course gastronomic extravaganza at a G8 summit which is focusing on how to solve the global food crisis. The dinner, and a six-course lunch, at the summit of leading industrialized nations on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, included delicacies such as caviar, milk-fed lamb, sea urchin and tuna, with champagne and wines flown in from Europe and the U...

Church serving homeless files lawsuit against town that blocked day center

Posted on July 08, 2008
A church focused on serving the homeless is suing the town of Elkton, Maryland, because its leaders say the town is hindering the church's expression of faith.Carl Mazza, pastor of the Meeting Ground, says Elkton has blocked attempts by the church to open a day center which would meet a wide range of religious and social needs of the homeless, including Bible study, prayer and worship services, computer access, showers, food, and job training...

Once a person becomes homeless, it's difficult to live a secure life ever again

Posted on July 07, 2008
Expensive housing, debt and unexpected financial problems are key factors behind homelessness, a new report shows."Contrary to popular perception, while alcohol and drugs can keep people on the streets, they are not the main pathway to homelessness," said Rev...

An opportunity to help

Posted on July 06, 2008
Sometimes getting a person's paperwork in order so they can get an ID is easy. Other times, we have to put our heads together to figure out a solution to a more complex problem. (Yes, that's me leaning on the table.)IDignity provides Florida ID Cards, birth certificates and Social Security Cards to homeless and poor people in Orlando...

If you're interested in this stuff ...

Posted on July 05, 2008
Two recent posts at the Florida Social Justice Network are worth a click:? On The Margins For Breakfast? Independence Day - When Will Freedom Ring? Check out the Florida Social Justice Network

A thought for July 4

Posted on July 04, 2008
Photo taken by Margaret Bourke-White in 1951"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!?Just wanted to remind everyone that Statue of Liberty -- which represents liberty and escape from oppression -- welcomes the homeless, too.

Where I've been ...

Posted on July 01, 2008
Most of last month was taken up with the federal court trial on Orlando's controversial rules on feeding the homeless.Preparing witnesses, compiling evidence, writing what I hope was a persuasive opening statement ... all that, and more, kept me from much of anything else for the past few weeks...

Homeless win $2.3 million settlement

Posted on June 13, 2008
The homeless and their advocates celebrate in front of the courthouse. They are holding a photo of Pamela Kincaid, the lead plaintiff who died in August 2007.Photo by Mike RhodesThe City of Fresno has agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed after the city raided homeless encampments, destroying personal property...

Florida Legislature raises the price of justice

Posted on June 11, 2008
A bill raising fees for many court functions hits particularly hard against low-income Floridians, says the Daytona Beach News-Journal in an editorial.Some provisions -- particularly a $265 charge for asserting a counter-claim -- might be open to legal challenge...

15 arrested in homeless protest

Posted on June 10, 2008
Police arrest a protester who refused to clear the street north of Seattle City Hall. Fifteen people were taken into custody.Photo by the Seattle TimesFifteen people protesting the sweeps of homeless encampments in Seattle parks were arrested after they blocked a street near city hall by pitching a tent in the street and standing in the road...

Could your tax dollars be better spent?

Posted on June 09, 2008
Taxpayers in Orange County will pay $2 billion (yup, that's with a "B") for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, we could have provided 14,498 units of affordable housing.The data comes from the National Priorities Project and its trade-offs tool, which shows you how much the Iraq War is costing your community and what else could have been done with the money...

"My life is forever changed by this experience"

Posted on June 07, 2008
Nice piece by David Miller in the Orlando Sentinel's Other Views New Voices: A Forum for Readers under 30. It's about his experiences in sharing food with homeless people in Orlando. Read it here.

Just another day in paradise

Posted on June 04, 2008
A day that called for a stop on the way home for a bottle of wine:9:30 a.m. A call from a client I haven?t talked to in several months. He was riding his bicycle the other day and got hit by an AT&T van. He wants help with a claim for -- at least -- a new bike...

Panhandling -- or something -- is banned in Miami

Posted on June 01, 2008
Panhandling has been banned in downtown Miami and current hotspot Mary Brickell Village.But the new law doesn't define what panhandling is. A definition was left out after commissioners, concerned that they might be prohibiting fundraising efforts like Salvation Army Santas, were assured by an assistant city attorney that the meaning of "panhandling" has become part of the vernacular...

Wrong-way walking stops by police stir racial profiling concerns

Posted on May 27, 2008
Civil rights leaders are pressuring the Bradenton Police Department to end the practice of stopping walkers at night in one part of the city for not using sidewalks and for walking on the wrong side of the road.Several recent cases have generated criticism and spurred dialogue about little-known pedestrian violations that are enforced primarily in a poor section of Bradenton...

Will banning cheap booze sales reduce panhandling?

Posted on May 25, 2008
Here's a unique idea for combatting panhandling: ban the sale of cheap booze.City officials in Madison, Wisconsin, are considering a prohibition on the sale of cheap liquor, such as 24-ounce cans of beer and four-packs of malt liquor.But liquor store owners don't think a ban won't stop problem drinkers...

Friday morning in collections court

Posted on May 24, 2008
It?s usually standing room only in collections court, but this morning the courtroom is only half full.Collections court is where they send you when you don?t have the money to pay your fines and court costs. That?s a minimum of $210 for court costs, plus $40 if you use a public defender...

Homeless rounded up in Atlanta (and we learn how to steal coins from parking meters)

Posted on May 23, 2008
Several dozen police officers descended on a downtown Atlanta homeless camp before dawn, rousting and arresting people living along the tracks."We're looking for fugitives, and we're looking for stolen property," said David Wardell, vice president of operations and public safety for the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, the agency coordinating the raid...

Why is an ID so hard to get?

Posted on May 22, 2008
At first, the judge was looking at me like I was speaking Swedish. But as I told the story of G.J., a63-year-old man who has never had an official photo ID, understanding dawned.Having a photo ID is second nature to most of us. I?ve had a Florida driver?s license since my 16th birthday and, even when I lost it, I just went and got a replacement card...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.