A New Plan
Solving Homelessness One Story at a Time
We have had 20 years of failing to solve homelessness, so I am suggesting a new course of action. As you may have seen Jack Hanrahan became homeless in Cleveland after living it up in Hollywood. Last week the Plain Dealer reported on former writer, Jack Hanrahan's story of rags to riches. A day later there were offers of help from all over the city. The story was picked up far and wide in blogs and in newspapers across the United States. Just by writing a story, The Plain Dealer staff were able to solve someone's homelessness. If they could do one story a day on a different homeless person, they could solve 365 people's homelessness in one year. They may have to make up some stories about doing make up for Chuck Norris or a local homeless woman starring in one of the Ed Wood classics, because the public seems to be more sympathetic to the plight of homeless people who were once famous. This is not to say that the Hanrahan story was not true, I am sure that the Hanrahan story was true, but there are about 1,000 similar stories everyday on the streets of Cleveland. This demonstrates the power of the media.
If you read the latest Homeless Grapevine you will see that the average homeless social service providers is only able to find around 25 people housing per year in Cleveland. In fact, only one or two programs in Cleveland found over 100 people housing locally in a one year period. If the Plain Dealer accepted my strategy, they would be the first or second best housing placement agency in the community. C'mon, Larkin do something for the good of the community--become a housing placement agency by turning O'Malley out to do one feature story a day and significantly reduce homelessness.
Brian
We have had 20 years of failing to solve homelessness, so I am suggesting a new course of action. As you may have seen Jack Hanrahan became homeless in Cleveland after living it up in Hollywood. Last week the Plain Dealer reported on former writer, Jack Hanrahan's story of rags to riches. A day later there were offers of help from all over the city. The story was picked up far and wide in blogs and in newspapers across the United States. Just by writing a story, The Plain Dealer staff were able to solve someone's homelessness. If they could do one story a day on a different homeless person, they could solve 365 people's homelessness in one year. They may have to make up some stories about doing make up for Chuck Norris or a local homeless woman starring in one of the Ed Wood classics, because the public seems to be more sympathetic to the plight of homeless people who were once famous. This is not to say that the Hanrahan story was not true, I am sure that the Hanrahan story was true, but there are about 1,000 similar stories everyday on the streets of Cleveland. This demonstrates the power of the media.
If you read the latest Homeless Grapevine you will see that the average homeless social service providers is only able to find around 25 people housing per year in Cleveland. In fact, only one or two programs in Cleveland found over 100 people housing locally in a one year period. If the Plain Dealer accepted my strategy, they would be the first or second best housing placement agency in the community. C'mon, Larkin do something for the good of the community--become a housing placement agency by turning O'Malley out to do one feature story a day and significantly reduce homelessness.
Brian
Labels: Hanrahan, Plain Dealer, solutions
posted by Homeless Grapevine at 10:06 PM
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