Category: Homelessness
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Mutual Aid: A Service by Any Other Name
“Mutual aid is a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit.” – Wikipedia “Mutual aid… is [to embrace] the idea that we can cooperatively reason with one another, and thereby instantiate our common inclination to build a society that benefits all without instituting any sort of hierarchy that functions to enforce such…
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Poverty, Homelessness, and the American Love of Automobiles
Other nations didn’t make the same decisions regarding city design and transportation as the US, and there’s evidence that the US model contributes significantly to poverty and homelessness. Yes, there is less poverty and homelessness in European cities. An article by Walter Jaegerhaus in Common Edge explores the question of what went wrong with American…
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Columbia Warming Centers
Last night was a victory for Columbia as advocates for our homeless community members convinced the city council to change the threshold for opening the city’s only emergency overnight warming center from 9 degrees Fahrenheit to 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The emergency warming center’s purpose is simply to keep people alive who might otherwise perish during…
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Fragile Beings in Winter
In our work with the homeless, we see people daily who carry their entire worldly belongings in backpacks and plastic bags. There are perils during the warmer months for sure–infection, injury, overdose, and accidents by traffic or even by drowning; but the dangers of living rough are brought into fine focus in winter, when the…
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MidMO JBGC’s Year in Review
“Where have you guys been?” people ask us these days. Well, the Mid-MO John Brown Gun Club is still here and still active… it’s just that the temporary fade of authoritarianism that happened after the January 6th sacking of the Capitol – about which we warned, at least in a general sense – has resulted…
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Homeless Person’s Remembrance Day 2021
Homeless Person’s Remembrance Day is a national event held on or near December 21st – this Tuesday – the longest night of the year. Recent initiatives for a permanent year-round full-capacity homeless shelter in our city of Columbia show promise, but on this occasion we would like to draw attention to our unsheltered homeless campers…