OFFICIAL RULES:
- Poems must be a minimum 10 lines / maximum 30 lines
- Poems must relate to the Homeless
- Poems must include any of the below KEY TERMS
- Poems must be submitted via email to: writerscornerstone@gmail.com
- Deadline is June 1st (6/1/11)
- Poems will be judged by The Homeless Voice organization
- The winning poem will be announced on Writer's Cornerstone and published in The Homeless Voice newspaper! Additional prizes to be announced...
THE PURPOSE:
- To raise awareness for the Homeless; families, men, women and children who are less fortunate.
- Consider the difficulties and challenges that the Homeless face.
- Consider the following charity organizations:
- http://homelessvoice.org/
- http://www.cphi.org/
- http://www.standupforkids.org/Miami/local-contacts.aspx?loc=15
KEY TERMS:
- The Homeless Voice
- Community Partnership
- Stand up for Kids
- Homeless
- Shelter
- Love
WHO ARE THE HOMELESS?
- Men, Women and Children
- Victims of domestic violence or abuse
- Unemployed families evicted from their homes
- Men and women in need of rehabilitation and detox
- Mentally handicap men and woman
- Men and women in need of eduction and work opportunities
- Disabled veterans
HOMELESS CONTRIBUTING CAUSES:
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)
- Unavailability of employment opportunities.
- Poverty, caused by many factors including unemployment and underemployment.
- Lack of accessible healthcare. People who have some kind of chronic and weakening disease but cannot get healthcare either because they don't have money to afford it or because the government will not give it to them are simply too weak to go and work every day so they remain poor and homeless.
- Abuse by government or by other people with power.
- War or armed conflict.
- Mental disorder, where mental health services are unavailable or difficult to access or as a result of deinstitutionalization. A United States Federal survey done in 2005 indicated that at least one-third of homeless men and women have serious psychiatric disorders or problems.
- Disability, especially where disability services are non-existent or poor performing.
- Social exclusion, including because of sexual orientation and gender identity
- Substance abuse
- Lack of affordable housing. An article in the November 2007 issue of Atlantic Monthly reported on a study of the cost of obtaining the "right to build" (i.e. a building permit, red tape, bureaucracy, etc.) in different U.S. cities. The "right to build" cost does not include the cost of the land or the cost of constructing the house. The study was conducted by Harvard economists Edward Glaeser and Kristina Tobio. According to the chart accompanying the article, the cost of obtaining the "right to build" adds approximately $600,000 to the cost of each new house that is built in San Francisco.
- Domestic violence.
- Relationship breakdown, particularly in relation to young people and their parents.
- Prison release and re-entry into society.
- Disasters, including but not limited to earthquakes and hurricanes.
- Forced eviction – In many countries, people lose their homes by government order to make way for newer upscale high rise buildings, roadways, and other governmental needs.The compensation may be minimal, in which case the former occupants cannot find appropriate new housing and become homeless.
- Mortgage foreclosures where mortgage holders see the best solution to a loan default is to take and sell the house to pay off the debt. The popular press made an issue of this in 2008; the real magnitude of the problem is undocumented.
- Foreclosures on landlords often lead to eviction of their tenants. "The Sarasota, Florida, Herald Tribune noted that,by some estimates, more than 311,000 tenants nationwide have been evicted from homes this year after lenders took over the properties."
- Criminality-- Some homeless may have committed crimes and are therefore hiding from the authorities.
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