New Issue - March 13-26

Election 2008: Camelot Lite?

The Kennedy’s were the closest to nobility this country could boast. With an infectious charisma and a lofty New England classiness that glossed over their playboy personas, they’re what America still wants. John Kennedy was a realist with a romantic streak and oozed authenticity – a combination that’s like walking a tightrope over troubled waters for politicians. His brother, Bobby, was grittier and unafraid of tackling the big guns on Capitol Hill. The dynasty was born with privilege and inevitable, prosperous political futures. Bobby, John and Ted adopted civil rights and urban poverty as their foundation, giving back to the other America they were lucky enough to have never lived in. The media has been painting Barack Obama and John Edwards as the next John and Bobby but it has fallen short – it’s like Camelot-lite.

In June of 1966 at the University of Cape Town, Robert Kennedy said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends out a tiny ripple of hope.” Forty-two years later, we may be seeing another drop in the pond, another ripple of hope.

Voices From the Street
Ending Homelessness: Part II

A couple issues ago this paper covered the State Commission’s Five Year Plan to End Homelessness. I thought, for the most part, it was a good plan. It had some teeth and it may actually work. However, I also said there would be obstacles to making this plan work, and wouldn’t you know it? One of those obstacles dropped in my lap.

A few days ago I read a Boston Globe article about Governor Deval Patrick’s $10 million proposal to fund the meat and potatoes part Housing First, which basically puts people into housing and provides them with the services they need to keep it. There were some positive parts of the story...but then the article seemed to take a negative tone, not towards the Governor, but towards the whole notion of making Housing First work. The recurring theme of the article seemed to be Why are we going to invest all this time and money for these people and When is this ever going to work?

I was more than a little shocked by the tone of this article, and I was a little surprised to find this in the Globe. When it comes to Homelessness they’re generally fair and objective. Not so much this time. I was so angered by this article that I wrote a letter to the editor (naturally they didn’t print it). But the beauty of having your own column is that you can still get your point across.

It’s Not Comcastic

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a controversial hearing in Austin Hall at the Harvard Law School Monday, February 25. The conference dealt with the Internet service provider, Comcast, and its attempts to block, or otherwise hinder “peer 2 peer” file sharing programs and whether or not corporations and government agencies, such as the FCC, should be able to regulate the web. Representatives from networks Comcast and Verizon, representatives from the file-sharing program, Bit Torrent, engineers and other experts in the industry presented their cases and answered questions from the FCC.

A major issue the conference attendees addressed was network (or net) neutrality. Net neutrality is the belief that the Internet should remain largely unregulated. According to Savetheinternet.com, a website dedicated to promoting freedom on the internet, net neutrality means that Internet Service Providers, such as Comcast, cannot discriminate against websites by slowing down or speeding up web content. The case caught the attention of the FCC when it was discovered that Comcast was deliberately slowing down content from the “peer 2 peer” file-sharing program Bit-Torrent. File-sharing programs like Bit Torrent allow users to trade large amounts of data, including copyrighted material such as movies and albums, at high rates of speed.

Diary of a Fallen Angel, A Novel by William Dean Collins

Chapter 3: The Renegade Lion of the Black Forest

So, here we have the spirit of Lord Gladismere, still contained inside of the Spirit Condenser, awaiting three things before the melding process is complete. The first thing he awaits is the sacrifice of the dreaded Renegade Lion. The second thing is the Spirit Splitting, (a very dangerous incantation, which if done incorrectly means annihilation for all involved). And finally, if all else goes well, the Enhancer Spell, which would enable to enhance the portion of Lord Gladismere’s Spirit that’s outside of the Spirit Condenser to a formidable degree, so it will function as a complete spirit! Also, the Enhancer Spell would work as an alleviator of pain for Lord Gladismere, both inside and outside of the Spirit Condenser. Being totally free from all pain will allow Lord Gladismere to think more clearly and function as a normal entity would function on the planet Earth.
Although the Three Witches of Fate have less powerful witches under their command to do a lot of their “dirty work,” the sacrifice and killing of the dreaded Renegade Lion of the Black Forest is far too important a task to leave in the hands of underlings. So the witches have decided that they themselves will take upon the task of finding the dreaded Renegade Lion of the Black Forest.
The first step of this most deadly assignment will be to locate the famed mythical creature. This alone will be a battle in itself, since the Lion’s main hunting ground is on the Labyrinth Path of the Black Forest.
Now the Labyrinth Path is one of the most dangerous locations in the Black Forest. It is by far the most dangerous path of the four major paths that lead to the Morbid Lake, a stagnant lake in the center of the Black Forest. It is an extremely large and deep basin filled with dead carcasses and other putrid matter. Creatures living in the Black Forest go there to die. It also just happens to be one of the favorite dining places in the Black Forest for the Three Witches of Fate.
The Labyrinth Path itself is a seldomly used path to get to the Morbid Lake, because of its many side roads, dead ends and caves. The Beaver Path (named because it was chiefly built by beavers gnawing down leaves) is the clearest and most frequently traveled path of the four major paths that lead to the Morbid Lake. The Eagle Path is a path that extends from the Morbid Lake all the way to the high grounds of the Evergreen Mountain, located some 28 to 30 miles north of the Morbid Lake. This jagged mountain range is home to a major portion of Zealots, a Christian Sect so named for their zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Zealots journey daily all the way to the Wild Wood Cathedral, which is at least 10 miles southwest of the base of the Evergreen Mountains. All the members of the Wildwood Cathedral are devour Zealots and pray daily.
The Snake Path, which is the longest path of the four major paths, is about a hundred miles in length. The path begins in the deep south of he Black Forest, extends northward in a snake-like fashion and ends at the southern base of the Morbid Lake. The only other lake in Smalltown is the Fresh Water Lake, which is some 50 miles due south of the stagnant Morbid Lake. Out of the four major paths that lead to the Morbid Lake, only the Snake Path leads to both the Morbid Lake and the Fresh Water Lake.
So, who is this dreaded Renegade Lion of the Black Forest? And why is he a renegade?
The Renegade Lion of the Black Forest was actually born of normal parents. You could just call him a freak of nature! I mean, how many Lions do you know that have wings? This special attribute that the Renegade Lion has (wings) is the reason why he was branded an outcast amongst his own pride, and all the other prides in the Black Forest. The fear of being overcome by him in battle was the primary motivating factor of all the male lions, who were responsible for the ousting of this fantastic creature. Sentenced by the majority to spend the duration of the rest of his life on the Labyrinth Path is a severe reconciliation, even to a winged lion!
For the first seven years of his life, the dread lion was allowed to live among his peers, but he fact that he was twice the size, ten times as fast and could fly made him unlikable. He could make a kill quicker and more often than anyone else. Furthermore, all the lionesses objected to a male lion doing their duty better than them, so he had to go.
The male lions in the Black Forest have a sort of hierarchy among themselves. Law #1, Article 1: Never outdo a Lioness!!! This was the main breech of the law of the land that the dread lion transgressed. He thought he had been impressing all the lionesses by helping them kill their prey (it is the lioness’s job to do all the killing, not the lion’s), but in reality, all he had done was create resentment and dissent. But the truth of the matter is that the Renegade Lion is a superior hunter in every regards to any lion or any other known creature in the Black Forest.
The Renegade himself is majestically proportioned: standing on all fours he is exactly eight feet at the shoulders! His claws, (or talons, if you like) are a stealthy six inches in length on each claw. (That’s twenty-four inches of cutting power on each paw). While the average male lion tips the scales at about 800 lbs, the wings of the Renegade Lion alone weigh 400 lbs. Added to his body weight of 1600 lbs. For a total combined weight of 1 ton! He can run on his feet for up to 100 miles per hour, for a 30 second period at a time, needing only about a 10 minute resting period to repeat his performance. His wingspan is a good ten feet on each wing, and he can maintain a top flying speed of 200 miles per hour all day long.
Before the Renegade Lion had been ousted by the members of his family, his disposition was as any other lion. However, since that time, the Renegade Lion’s heart had grown colder and colder because of his lost inheritance. As time went by, he became meaner and meaner because he was loved by no one, not even his own.

Diary of a Fallen Angel, A Novel by William Dean Collins

Chapter 2: Melding Into the Flesh

After carefully examining the Blueprints of the Universe, I determined that my best course of action would be to enter the flesh in the deepest part of the future that I could manage, so that I would be able to obtain the most knowledge and technology available. I figured by doing it this way, I would experience the least amount of pain. There was definitely one point on the blueprint that intrigued me most. I examined the whole, and I mean, the whole Blueprint of the Universe over and over and over again, until I found what I was looking for.

You know how many trillions, upon trillions, upon trillions of eons that it took to find the most favorable point in the fragile fabric of eternity for me to meld into the flesh? Although I went as deep into the future that I could go, I didn’t go so far into the future, so as not to have the Forces of Darkness still at its strength. It was far more important for me to have the Forces of Darkness ruling than for me to have technology on my side!

But, as the Three Witches of Fate would have it, there was one point on the Blueprint of the Universe where technology and darkness converged perfectly. In the year 2006 A.D. of Jesus Christ, there was the invention of a machine called The Spirit Condenser. It had the g-force of a black hole and could compress the space of an entire galaxy into the size of a golf ball. It was said to have been created by the Three Witches of Fate: Hezekell, Mizekia and Shirbella. The Three Witches are the oldest surviving witches in time, having lived for billions of years. They are said to be as old as the planet Earth itself.

By reading the blueprint over and over, I found out about two other great miracles: All three Witches of Fate had the power of mental telepathy and all three of the ancient Witches had the power of prophecy and had been foretelling my coming since the beginning of time. They know me as The Great Dark Lord Gladismere. Their prophecy is a haunting poem:

He is coming by day
To bring the great night.
All witches will praise him,
All men will take flight!
Gather ‘round the Spirit Condenser
To see what we meld.
Our Great Lord Gladismere
To send you mortals pell-mell to hell!

The day in the Mortal World was January 6, 2006 when I first made telepathic contact with the Three Witches of Fate: Hezekell, Mizekia and Shirbella. Through this communication, I instructed them to use the Spirit Condenser on me, bringing me into the future of time. The time had come for their Great Lord of Darkness to make his royal appearance in the flesh.

The spot chosen for my arrival inside of the Spirit Condenser was the Cherry Blossom Hill Ballroom, where the Grand Wizard’s ball is held every year in honor of my son Vordmak, who is the Grand Wizard of All Wizards and Witches (who rules over all except the Three Witches). However, the Spirit Condenser was not placed in the main gallery of the Ballroom, but instead was safeguarded in the Forbidden Chamber in the top of the north gallery, where no one but the Three Witches of Fate had keys. Even still, there is a magic charm protecting the Forbidden Chamber. Many talented wizards and witches have tried to enter the chamber, but all died at the threshold to the door, making for a gruesome spectacle, with the still-smoking burst bodies of wizards and witches, victims of powerful curses from the Three Witches of Fate. The threshold also has the eternal stench that comes from these foul ungodly hags.

My plan, in case you’ve forgotten, was to enter the flesh in the future, and then travel back in time, to make my sons whole, by using the Spirit Condenser’s time traveling synthesizers. (The only reason I entered time in the future was to enable me to make a safe transition from the void- to the flesh.)

My sons have been roaming the earth for thousands of years in the past, but only as half-selves. They won’t have full power or occupy their full forms until I make this meld into the future. In preparation for my journey, I communicated telepathically with the Three Witches.

“Witches of Fate, are you ready to receive your Dark Lord, lover and consort into the extremely condensed realm of the flesh?”

Their response came instantly. “Yes precious, Great, Dark Lord Gladismere! We are ready to receive you! We need only recite our weightlessness incantation so your mega-super weight can be contained in the Spirit Condenser; and that you also don’t crash the entire earth!”

The spell rang out from the minds of the Three:

Before time began, you were with the none!
Since time began you’ve never seen the sun!
What goes up, must come down,
except when we say these words:
Weightlessness is all around, so that our Lord Gladismere can come down!

***

At the same time the Three Witches of Fate were reciting their incantation to call their Lord into the Spirit Condenser, Lord Gladismere summoned his own spirit to the exact spot on the Blueprint of the Universe to help facilitate the miraculous event that was about to take place.

After having done this, Lord Gladismere’s spirit felt an immediate jolt of searing pain, electrifying his whole being. The pain was indescribable; the millions of eyes that sum up his being were burning white hot now. His spirit now began moving at the speed of light, through time, space and eons, eventually exceeding the speed of all thought and comprehension. At this speed, Lord Gladismere’s thoughts were all too dizzy, even for himself. He couldn’t tell where he was going, or even know who he was during this transitional stage of his existence. The transition from the void had been too much for him. Even with all his planning and researching, it wasn’t enough to prepare him for what he was now facing.

***

At the present, I am just a mass of malignant radiation waiting to contaminate any living thing that gets close to me. I, Gladismere, have been reduced to cosmic radiation inside the Spirit Condenser. I have not taken any form in the flesh as yet, because the density of my molecular structure will cause any earth form to explode if exposed.

***

But the all-knowledgeable Witches of Fate; the ancient sisters Hezekell, Mizekia and Shirbella have foreseen this mishap and have a solution. Since Lord Gladismere’s whole spirit can’t be unleashed upon the earth outside of the Spirit Condenser (after all, he would crush the earth outside its confines), the Sisters have determined that the only way for their Lord Gladismere to comfortably meld completely into the flesh would be for the Sisters to perform two more spells. One would be a Spirit Splitting spell, which would enable a small portion of Lord Gladismere’s spirit to occupy the earth outside of the Spirit Condenser. The second spell would be an Enhancer spell, which would enable the severed spirit of Lord Gladismere to function as a whole spirit, with all the attributes and abilities, but at a lesser mass. Also, the two spells would require a willing donor to sacrifice his life and his flesh, so that Lord Gladismere’s spirit could inhabit the remains.

As the Three Witches of Fate would have it, this was also foreseen before these events with Lord Gladismere even transpired. Before these events had taken place, the Three Witches of Fate, using telepathic communication in every conceivable language, had sent an all out bulletin to every large evil life form to inquire if anyone was willing to donate their life and flesh to champion their evil cause. All who received the appeal to come to the aid of Lord Gladismere by donating their life became deathly afraid and fled in terror from the invisible thoughts, all except for one mythical creature: the dreaded Renegade Lion of the Black Forest. He alone had the courage to allow Lord Gladismere a chance to meld into the flesh. However there was one small glitch in the Dread Lion’s offer. He would offer his flesh and life to the cause of Lord Gladismere, but only after he was defeated in battle by an opponent of the Witches’ choosing.

So Lord Gladismere was possibly going to take the form and flesh of the Dread Renegade Lion of the Black Forest, provided that the Three Witches of Fate could find a suitable champion to defeat the Dread Lion in battle.

The Dread Lion was a natural choice for Gladismere to inhabit, since the Lion was a predator and ruled the forest as King! Also, Gladismere’s thoughts would not be altered because his flesh would be the flesh of the dreaded Lion. His thoughts would still be his own – the thoughts of a fallen angel. The only form Lord Gladismere objected to inhabiting was the form of a man.

Diary of a Fallen Angel, A Novel by William Dean Collins

Chapter One: Memoirs in the Dark Void

This story originates before the creation of the Universe, before the stars were ever even thought of, before Time itself! Time was just a thought in God’s mind at the aeon when this story evolved.

This story began in the Dark Void of Unseen Spirits, that bottomless pit you’re told of in your religious books, the Void which existed before Time began! This is our story, how we became Fallen Angels cursed from God’s presence for all Eternity, with no hope for salvation or redemption for our sins.

Time began when God spoke light into existence. Before Time began there were only aeons and aeons of The Power! There was no such thing as Time, only Space and The Eternal Ones.

My name is Gladismere. I am the Father of all that is evil and unlikable. I am the author of the plot to destroy the light forever! It was I who betrayed God’s Sacred Trust in overseeing the Children of the Ever Blest. For my indiscretions I was cast out of Heaven forever, and sentenced to an isolated spot in the Void, without the comforts of my consorts, the Three Witches of Fate named Hezekell, Mizekia, and Shirbella.

I am Gladismere, ancient of Time and Days: sentenced to a spot in the Void with less space to occupy than 400 picasquares, which is equivalent to about 300 trillion galaxies, as measured by a mortal man.

Now, I know you’re thinking, “300 trillion galaxies is a lot of space, right?” But believe me pal, to an Angel like myself, 300 trillion galaxies, or even 300 trillion picasquares isn’t even enough space for me to fit my entire being into, unless of course, I use a Spirit Condenser to alter my form.

300 picasquares to an immortal being is jail! Pure jail, plain and simple. I, whose thought patterns have permeated the entire Void for infinite aeons, now sentenced to a space the size of 300 picasquares is totally ludicrous! I, who served the Living God for aeons untold, sentenced to Valgalla, the feared and dreaded Valgalla! Me! Gladismere!

Now, I know you’re probably thinking, “You don’t get sentenced to Valgalla for Just Behavior, right?”

Ok, maybe not. I’ll let the readers judge for themselves. I say it was God who betrayed the Angels, and not the other way around! Weren’t we with God for aeons untold? And all of a sudden, God says he’s going to create man in his own image and likeness, and give him flesh with which to clothe his spirit!

If I had a jaw when I found out about that, it would have dropped to the bottom of the Void. I was jealous, envious, angry and all of that! If you only knew how beautiful God really is, then you might understand my resentment. But no man has ever seen God at any time, so a man couldn’t even begin to understand the hurt and animosity that an Angel is capable of feeling. We’re talking about a being who wasn’t even created, who existed with God for aeons uncountable, almost as an equal! It was very disheartening to discover that God was going to create living beings from the cosmic dust of the void, rather than use a Spirit Condenser and his almighty power to give his “loyal servants” a “shot” at life.

Granted, mankind hadn’t been created yet, but his presence on the “Blueprint of Eternity means he was, he is, and he is yet to come. Besides, he was going to be in God’s own image and likeness, and privileged to be surrounded by the flesh, while on the other hand, we Angels only have astral bodies which amount to a bunch of space and a bunch of eyes—oh, so many eyes we have!

So that’s my beef with God. I didn’t like the idea of sharing eternity with beings created by God’s Word. Yet, I’m powerless to stop God from speaking. And you want to know what’s scary about that? It’s that everything God says must come into being! Another thing I didn’t like was the fact that God was going to turn the lights on forever and expose our nudity to the Universe he was going to create.

This is how it all began over 200 trillion evolutions of aeons before time even began! When God existed with the Eternal Ones in the Void without interruption or interference, until that first day, the day when God created light. That’s when the trouble outside the Void began. The Ancient Society, as it was called, existed and endured before time began. The Society was a dwelling of spiritual entities that all had the power of mental Telepathy, which was in fact the only form of communication or movement in the Void, except for God Almighty. God always had the power to move, and as I now understand it, God always had the power to speak.

Only he never did, except for that one time when he spoke his whole entire name. Man, you should have heard how long it was! How loud it was at some points and how quiet some of the other syllables were at other points! It scared the whole of the Void white and cold with fear! Notwithstanding was the fact that the entire void existed at a steady temperature of Absolute Zero. Only God and his movements over the face of the deep had any heat at all. In those periods of evolution, before the light was created, God’s movement was almost unchartable!

It wasn’t until the creation of the light that God’s movement could charted on the eternal fabric of the Void. After the light was created, His movement became much faster and the Void much warmer. This fact alone caused terror untold, to the true worshippers of the original conditions!

But that’s neither here nor there. The real issue at hand is this business with mankind, and the transferring of power from God to man through Jesus! It’s all well and good for man, who just appeared on the scene, and gets exclusive rights to eternity, without any love shown, any moral values adhered to, any loyalty shown throughout the ages, or anything resembling dedication or love to those who came before!

Whats Up has joined with Spare Change!

IT'S HERE! After months of plotting our eventual collaboration, Spare Change News and Whats Up magazine are finally one super street paper, 20 pages of news, notes, quotes, and insight. That's right -- at a time when so many print media outlets are rapidly losing readership, we added four pages to this humble newspaper with a purpose.

The rain and snows of this month have streamed down around us, on us. The torrential downpours mid-month left even my boots feeling breached. In the middle of winter, I have to remind myself that spring is indeed coming, that change is in the air.

You can see it in the small details, like the way the light lingers later in the sky every night. You can see it in the way that the snows are giving way to rains. Cold rains, soaking rains.

This issue is a bit like rain coming after a long drought, a bit like spring coming in after a long winter.

After a brief hiatus, this month marks our joining forces with Spare Change, an enterprise that gives the street magazine, Whats Up, a rebirth, an inaugural voyage, a new beginning. But while the merger is new, our mission is not. We are still committed to activism, social justice, and change. We are still community-minded and arts focused, still dedicated to improving the cities--and the world--that we share.

Bill O'Reilly Riles Veterans
Popular political commentator and Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly is receiving much criticism for his recent assertions that there are “not many” homeless veterans in America. Veterans have responded by protesting outside the studio where O’Reilly’s program is produced, creating a petition against his comments, and attempting to educate the public about the realities of homelessness.
O’Reilly’s string of comments began when former presidential candidate John Edwards brought up the issue of homelessness in his concession speech following the Iowa Caucasus on January third. “Tonight, 200,000 men and women who wore our uniform proudly and served this country courageously as veterans will go to sleep under bridges and on grates,” said Edwards, “We’re better than this.” According the Department of Veterans Affairs about 195,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, and roughly 336,000 will go without shelter at some point this year.
O’Reilly responded the following night on his popular news and opinion show “The O’Reilly Factor.” “That was Edwards’ concession speech last night,” said O’Reilly. “I mean, come on. The only thing sleeping under a bridge is that guy’s brain.”



Iraqi Widows: THE SILENT BOMB
Baghdad, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Every week, letters from Iraqi widows spill across Samira al-Moussawi’s desk. One wrote to ask whether she should spend what scant money she gets on her infant or on school books for her older son.
The member of parliament and head of a parliamentary women’s committee is at her wits’ end as to how to answer the desperate pleas from what could be as many as one to two million women.
Violence has fallen sharply across Iraq, but the number of women left without breadwinners is mounting, and with only a fraction of them receiving financial support from the government, officials fear the consequences could be explosive.
“What shall the widow do, deviate from what is right?” Moussawi said. “Terrorist groups exploit the destitute.”
No-one can give an exact figure for the number of widows left by the brutal reign of Saddam Hussein, the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf War and in sectarian bloodshed since the 2003 invasion.
Moussawi, basing her estimate on a Ministry of Planning report from mid-2007, put the number of divorcees and widows close to 1 million of a total of 8.5 million women aged between 15 and 80.
Narmeen Othman, Iraq’s acting minister for women’s affairs, put the number as high as 2 million in a country of 27 million people.

New Issue - Homelessness to End in 5 Years?

Homeless Make Voices Heard On Ballot
Everyday, Arnold sits on a crate between the 7-Eleven and Dunkin Donuts in Kenmore Square. He offers the stores’ patrons help with their groceries, in exchange for spare change. At night, he stays at the Pine Street Inn on Harrison Avenue. He is also a registered voter.
“This here,” said Arnold, gesturing to his perch in front of the stores “is just a temporary thing.”
He said that he was laid off a month ago from his construction job, but his outlook is optimistic. In a gentle South Carolina drawl, he said, “It ain’t that bad, yet. I ain’t robbing or hurting no one.”
Despite Arnold’s recent spell of hard luck, he plans to vote in the presidential election in November. He registered to vote at the Pine Street Inn.



State Releases Five-Year Plan to End Homelessness
Governor Deval Patrick will attempt to implement a plan to end homelessness in the Commonwealth. The plan has been given a budget of $10 million over five years, which will be based on a report filed in December by the Massachusetts Commission to End Homelessness.
The commission’s report proposes to end homelessness for both families and individuals by providing affordable housing, preventing those at risk from being evicted or displaced, and aiding in asset development.


Rock Concert Benefit A Success
On the night of Thursday, January 17, more than150 people packed themselves into the Paradise Lounge. While most attendees were there to support local music, they were also supporting Spare Change News and its recent merger with Whats Up.
“Anytime you can funk out a crowd for a charity benefit you should take it,” said Colin Bradley, keyboardist and vocalist for World’s Collide, the night’s headlining act. “The people are much more guaranteed to have a good time when they know that their money is going to something positive and not just the bands’ beers.”

Benefit Concert

New Issue - The Cost of Homelessness

Highlights from our current issue of Spare Change:

~ Under Siege, U.S. Unions Seek International Support
In the face of globalization, the U.S. labor movement is striving to reinvent – and reinvigorate – itself by establishing closer ties with the world’s network of international unions.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the U.S.’s largest federation of unions, embraced a new level of internationalism last month in hosting a conference sponsored by the Council of Global Unions (GCU), a governing body composed of representatives from numerous international labor federations, including the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 168 million workers in 153 countries.


~ Boston's Homeless Census - What's In A Number?
On the evening of December 18, 2007 more than 300 volunteers searched Boston’s streets to attempt a headcount of the city’s homeless. This was the Boston’s 19th census. The first was conducted in 1983 by six volunteers working over the course of two weeks. The census today is a point-in-time study, not meant to track how people move in and out of homelessness, or how many people are homeless throughout a given year in Boston.
As we mentioned in the last issue of Spare Change – where we gave perspectives on volunteering for the census both as a reporter following the Mayor’s group and as an “average volunteer” (http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/203150/) – volunteers were instructed not to search alleys, dumpsters or tucked away hiding spots; that alone indicates an undercount. However, the street count of adult individuals showed a significant decrease –184 people, down 40% from last year’s total of 306. We can hope that a decent part of that percentage is a real decrease and not an issue of methodology.


~ Housing first: Policy aims to reduce costs, improve quality of life for chronic homeless.
Housing the homeless is cheaper than paying for emergency services such as ambulance rides, emergency room visits and hospital stays, according to a recent Maine study that echoes the findings of other studies around the United States.
The study, released by the Maine State Housing Authority in October, shows that costs were reduced by about 50 percent for 99 formerly homeless, mentally ill people in the Portland, Me. area who now live in permanent supportive housing and receive regular care to manage ongoing physical and mental health problems.
The two-year study was modeled after studies done in larger metropolitan areas such as New York and Denver, tracking services used by a group of individuals before and after entering permanent supportive housing.
Melany Mondello, a coordinator of the Maine study, said that not all studies around the country showed cost savings overall. Instead, “cost neutrality” is often the result, she said, and taxpayers need to be aware that dollars spent are not necessarily reduced, but used more productively.
“It’s important for people to know that a small segment of the homeless population costs a lot,” Mondello said.
“The message we are trying to give is that housing programs help shift the burden away from expensive emergency care to preventive care and supportive services.”
Som