Headlines: Homeless and Hedge Funds

I know Anthony Hall, the homeless man who was arrested at Riverfront Park at 5:30 this morning by Springfield police and charged with rape, assault and battery, aggravated rape, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery. Nice going, Springfield police!

I met Anthony in 2005 when he was "dating" the 14 year old daughter of a family I knew. He always creeped me out.

Later that year, he went on a bus trip with Arise to an anti-war rally in New York City, where hestole our video camera (the only one we've ever owned!) and probably sold it for crack. Of course he was banned from Arise after that. I was so furious that for several months, whenever I was driving around and saw him with a group of people, I'd yell, "Thief!" out the window at him. Didn't do much good, but it made me feel better.

No, I personally and other members of Arise don't think every homeless person is automatically a victim or a saint..
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Yesterday, wanted fugitive and hedge funds manager Samuel Israel III, who faked (not very successfully) his suicide last month just before he was supposed to turn himself to federal authorities to serve a 20 year sentence, turned himself into Southwick police. The NYT has an article here.

Southwick? Southwick? Well, it could have been Granville, population under 1,600, but when Mr. Israel went to turn himself in, the police department, only open part-time, was closed! So he moved on to Southwick. Apparently Mr. Israel had been staying at the Prospect Mountain Campground RV Park in an RV with his girlfriend.

What an idiot! I can think of several different lives that Mr. Israel could have lived as a fugitive, but my guess is that life without money was so inconceivable that, in the end, prison felt like the only logical choice. too bad, also, thjat federal judges are locked in to meting out a particular kind of punishment. I'd have preferred to see Mr. Israel sentenced to cleaning the toilets of the investors he ripped off.

Winter shelters close, homeless encampments grow

"The Amherst, MA Survival Center is starting to get more calls as emergency shelters are closing. People need tents," the email began. "Do you have one hanging around that a homeless person can use until they get on their feet? Please... we only have 2 left and the phone is ringing off the hook!!!"

Thus begins the annual ritual of closing winter-only shelters, not only in Massachusetts but around the country. For the most part, homeless people won't be moving from the shelters to housing, although Springfield, MA's homeless coordinator says 7 of the 12 people in the overflow shelter do have housing waiting for them. Elsewhere in the state, Northampton's Cot Shelter will close on April 30. There are already 50 to 90 people sleeping out on the Cape, according to Cape Cod Today, in 40 or so small encampments.

In Plano, TX, many of the homeless people that had to be turned away by the Samaritan in this winter have been sleeping in their cars in the parking lot of the local library-- at least up until now. The City Council passed an ordinance on April 14 forbidding any parking in the lot between 11 am. and 5 pm. See if you buy this one: "Joyce Baumbach, the director of libraries, said the ordinance isn't just targeting homeless people. "Some of the neighbors do use the lot for extra parking or if they have company overnight," Baumbach said. "They will also not be allowed to park overnight anymore." NBC5 Dallas/Fort Worth.

Pinellas Hope shelter in St. Petersburg, FL has raised enough money to stay open through the summer, although on a greatly reduced basis-- 75 guests a night rather than the 250 it's housed over the last five months. Turlock, California's winter shelter closed at the end of March, but not quietly:: 150 homeless people and allies protested on the steps of City Hall. Earlier in March, "Vice Mayor Kurt Vander Weide, Councilmen Ted Howze and Kurt Spycher voted against extending the B Street shelter in downtown by 30 days, citing reasons of political ideology and the weather." (!!) Modesto Bee. When Springfield, Illinois closed its SOS shelter, also at the end of March, one option the homeless there used to have is now denied to them: camping on the library grounds. The city made it clear it's not going to be allowed this year.

Sleeping out isn't always very safe. Two homeless men burned to death in Olympia, WA when a canopy strung between two trees caught fire and fell on the men during the night.

Half of Madison, WI's homeless population of 3,400 is unsheltered and walking the streets, but they're not feeling very welcome these days. Two unsolved murders in two months.has put the community on edge and a lot of suspicion is focused on homeless people. Chicago Tribune.

As cities and towns and the people who live in them struggle economically, seems like there's not much left for the people who have theleast.