In hard times, tent cities multiply
RENO, Nev. – A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.
Then others appeared – people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.
Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless.
Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a “tent city” – an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.
Full story:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.tentcity28sep28,0,7143626.story
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Hard times and long lines for Southern Californians
Some sought a cart of groceries the week before Thanksgiving, others sought a way to keep from losing their homes in the new year. By the thousands, a diverse group of Southern Californians converged on two events Saturday aimed at helping families in hard economic times.
The problems, and the aid offered, were vastly different. But both reflected the worries and needs of many.
In Montebello, nearly 5,000 turned out for a food giveaway, a number that stunned organizers who had tried to keep it a low-key event, targeting publicity to several churches and schools. But word of mouth proved stronger than a few fliers, and crowds inundated Montebello Park. A diverse mix of people stood in a six-hour-long line — families from middle- and working-class communities, including Pico Rivera, Montebello, Norwalk and Whittier. No one left empty-handed, though.
Full story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-foodbank23-2008nov23,0,6575632.story
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Forty thousand glean fields in Platteville
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// –>That tens of thousands of people came to a Weld County farm on Saturday to collect free potatoes, carrots and leeks could be one of the most palpable signs of a depressed economy.
The Miller family, which owns 600 acres of farmland outside Platteville, decided to hold a free food day because they had tens of thousands of pounds of extra produce at the end of their fall festival. Any day now, a deep freeze would ruin it, so the family let people come to the farm today to collect what they could haul.
They expected between 5,000 and 10,000 — but instead found themselves inundated with cars and people with buckets and wagons and barrels ready to harvest whatever was available. They estimated the crowd at more than 40,000 people.
“Overwhelmed is putting it mildly,” said farm owner Chris Miller. “People obviously need food.”
Cars snaked around the cornfields starting at 8:30 a.m., and at one point, Miller said, she had 30 acres of farmland turned into a parking lot. Traffic was backed up to Interstate 25 and police officials ticketed people who had abandoned their cars along highways 66 and 119 for the food frenzy.
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August 19, 2009 at 4:35 am
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