This article was first written almost two years ago and it received international attention and
literally thousands of comments-many by homeless, ex-homeless and social workers. Many
homeless and ex-homeless thanked me, and asked for an expansion of one of my 40 original
points or just an addition of a new point. The majority of social workers denounced me
or made accusations about my motivations. A few fervently agreed with me; many of them
also had additions. I have since revised and expanded the original article in light of those
comments. I have chosen to republish it at this time due to the current desperate needs of
those who have been affected by the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster and the consequent
devastation of much of the Gulf of Mexico and the need for examination of plans and actions
taken. But readers should be forewarned that this should be considered a work in progress.
The winter holidays sometimes seem more like a time of greed for many charity and social programs than a
time to redouble efforts to aid the poor. The poverty
pimps put their hand out and look like every good and
helpful program out there. And there ARE good, decent
programs out there-it’s just hard to
distinguish them in the expanse of
programs that are well disguised
schemes to make exceedingly high
livings off the poor. So how can
you tell whom to support? And if
you work or volunteer in a program
how do you know if it or some the
people in it deserve your support?
