Author: Mary McLaughlin
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Vulnerable homeless targets highlight pervasive issues
A letter to the Orange County, California, District Attorney regarding the recent arrest of the alleged “serial killer” of four homeless men in Orange County, former Marine Itzcoatl Ocampo. District Attorney Rackauckas: I am a rehabilitation psychologist. My areas of specialty are psychiatric disabilities and brain injuries. I interned on the Psychology Service at the…
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Expanding Supportive Housing in NYC
Common Ground is a renowned, non¬profit organization located in New York City that is celebrated both nationally and internationally for its success in the provision of permanent housing coupled with supportive social services to home¬less and low-income people. Founded in 1990, it has developed and managed thousands of apartments and other resi¬dences for disenfranchised individuals.…
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PATH CEO Joel John Roberts: A Life Dedicated to Fighting Homelessness
Joel John Roberts, CEO of PATH (People Assisting the Homeless), is a nationally renowned leader in the provision of services to homeless people. He is also an unrelenting activist in initiatives to end homelessness. PATH is a family of nonprofit organizations providing support services, shelter and housing to approximately 12,000 disenfranchised people every year. The…
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Conversation with Street Logic Author Steve Sundberg
Steve Sundberg is the author of the reality based novel Street Logic, the highly acclaimed and riveting portrayal of people facing the daily trauma and cruel circumstances of homelessness. Street Logic has been praised as “The most closely observed, emotionally charged account of American homelessness I know” by Harvard University Professor of Social Policy Christopher…
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Street Logic: an outreach worker’s fictionalized account of street homelessness in Boston
Street Logic, by Steve Sundberg, is a reality based novel. It is a fictionalized account of the author’s own experiences as an outreach worker to homeless men and women who somehow survive, for a while at least, on the streets of Boston. While we’ve all heard that wonderful song about leaving your heart in San…
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Ringing in the New Year: new opportunities for new beginnings
All of the refreshing possibilities inherent in exciting new beginnings apply to relocating to a new community. Relocation is rarely a seamless and easy adjustment to make; and frequently it isn’t initiated by choice. Job losses or reassignments, health status changes, widowhood, divorce and other life-altering events may prod us into making major lifestyle revisions…
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Holiday Bliss, Not Holiday Stress
Most of us take the holiday season w-a-a-a-a-y too seriously. Watching people as they go about the business of observing this necessary tradition, putting up that particular tree, sending out politically correct cards and selecting the perfect gift, all while staying on a budget, observing ship-by dates and trying to remain holiday cheerful, often seems…
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New York Homebase Program: 7 Questions Which Need to be Addressed
Social research programs have been conducted for centuries. Basic data collection procedures such as taking the census were reported in religious documents like The New Testament over two thousand years ago. By the nineteenth century, research questions had became so subtle and detailed that increasingly complex analysis strategies were developed to process the data. John…
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Getting online: Website Aims To Make Homeless Visible
Mark Horvath is a nationally renowned housing advocate who has been highlighting the stories of homeless people across the United States using short interviews which he records and posts online at invisiblepeople.tv. Horvath’s concern in initiating his interview project was a conviction that homeless people had been “invisible” for much too long. His goal was…