you're barely alive

Hi! I'm Breanna and this is MonaGray, a blog about my wildly varying and expansive personal interests like photography, style, politics and news.

You can read more about me here.
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All photographs are Copyright Breanna Jay unless otherwise stated. In the event images are provided from other sources, source and link will be noted.

Questions/Comments can be sent to breanna(dot)jay@gmail(dot)com

March
22

Homeless, jobless flock to libraries

By Julia Scott, Marketplace

Step into pretty much any city library in America, and you’ll find all kinds of people in the stacks — students, retirees, and the poor and homeless. Libraries aren’t just for books or movies anymore. Increasingly, they’re a place to turn for job skills, shelter — and now, some social services for people who have nowhere else to go.
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- public radio
- social work
- homelessness
- libraries
- marketplace
- julie scott
- 3 Notes

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March
13

Man charged in paintball attacks against homeless

Twelve years ago the charged man’s brother was murdered (and sexually mutilated) by a guy who was homeless at the time.

He …told officers that “his brother was killed by a homeless person 10 years ago and he hates how they beg for change and harass him,” the report said.

I don’t want to make light of anyone being murdered, especially a child. But had he been murdered by someone who was not homeless, but housed, this would have turned out so much differently. By that I mean his brother, the man charged, wouldn’t have become enraged at all housed people because that isn’t logical and neither is this.

I’ve been on rounds (with takes up about 3.5 hours a week) and have seen, first hand, violence toward those who are homeless. Sometimes I wonder how much must go on, if that is what I see in such a short window.

Maybe, at least, I should be grateful his violence has an explanation, even if its extremely poor and illogical. It seems a lot of the time that folks exhibit violence toward the homeless because they’re so vulnerable and just present an easy opportunity toward the race toward the bottom of humanity.
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- homelessness
- pittsburgh
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- post-gazette
- violence
- 1 Notes

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January
25

A Permanent Home That Allows Drinking Helps Homeless Drink Less

“The participants in our study are human beings who are capable of positive behavior change,” she says. “They’re able to do that when given a home.”

also: A 2009 study in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggested this type of housing saved Seattle taxpayers more than $4 million in costs from publicly funded services.
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- Tags:
- social work
- housing
- homelessness
- seattle
- substance use
- housing first
- npr
- 12 Notes

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January
6

Apartments open for the homeless

So glad these are open and that OSN is taking a for-real housing-first approach. I think that because so many of their staff has had honest interactions with the folks on the street they have a much more practical understanding of challenges, etc… than some other housing programs who only meet the person post-street homelessness
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- operation safety net
- pittsburgh
- homelessness
- 5 Notes

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January
3

I really wanted to paste a quote from an individual complaining about the homeless here in Pittsburgh onto my blog but my boss (wisely) suggested that it would probably not be the best idea. Sometimes folks who call are concerned about the safety and health of those who are homeless and sometimes they just don’t want to see the homeless for their own mental benefit. 99% sure this caller was one of the latter.

I feel like I should also add that most folks (callers or just people I talk to) ask/say things like “they should just go to a shelter”/”why don’t they just go to a shelter?”

Steve: Man, that’s genius! Why didn’t anyone think of providing them somewhere to live before now? There really are no hard problems.

Me: Boom, America, you are fixed

Don’t get me wrong, I know some people care—but I am also a teensy bit frustrated by the lack of understanding/disinterest in learning about social issues exhibited by my peers and fellow Americans.

Also, in case it needs to be said, these opinions are my own and not of my employer.
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- homeless
- homelessness
- mybossbeingsmart
- pittsburgh
- work
- personalopinion
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December
19

Homeless At 60: 'A Bullet I Didn't See Coming'

The StoryCorps story from last Friday. Worth a listen.
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- poverty
- homelessness
- npr
- storycorps
- socialwork
- audio
- 5 Notes

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November
28

poverty & housing, in the news

These two articles were in two Pittsburgh publications within the last two days and I thought both were good and presented some of the issues that folks face when in a crisis. They aren’t terribly long and worth a read.

Low-Income Housing Market Shrinking by Diana Nelson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

and

Poverty has taken root in suburbs by Rachel Weaver and Jill King Greenwood, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

A board member for a local agency says that the “face of poverty is changing” but I don’t think that is the case. It’s evolving or expanding—changing doesn’t properly describe it because a lot of folks that were poor three years ago are still poor and their faces are the same, too. (that said I know NHCO does great work, so I don’t want to rag on their board member)
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- Pittsburgh
- Post-Gazette
- Tribune-Review
- homelessness
- housing
- news
- poverty
- socialwork
- work
- social work
- 0 Notes

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November
15

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
npr:

Occupy L.A. is camped out on the front lawn of City Hall in Los Angeles. A large number of homeless people are also camped there, causing the group to divide into sections on the lawn. The homeless are in an area referred to as Skid Row. The part-time protesters are in an area called Westwood, after a nice part of town.

— From today’s broadcast of Morning Edition.

Reblogging without comment.
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- npr
- homelessness
- LosAngeles
- 334 Notes

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