We've all seen ads on TV about tiny houses, people living simply, choosing that in order to travel...but, I'm talking about a different type of tiny houses. Several articles have indicted perhaps the first village for tiny houses to house the homeless was in Oregon, a place called Dignity Village. Portland City fathers were continually raiding, moving and breaking up various tent cities in the the downtown area; but in a matter of days a new tent city would take it place. Homelessness was on the rise and shelters simply couldn't keep up. A solution came about when city fathers and homeless people started working together (2001). Private donations,and volunteers without government financing built a village of tiny houses to house 65 residence on donated land. Mark Lakeman was the Architect. The theory was multi-layered. House the homeless, lessen environmental strains on the community. Statistics indicated that houses were becoming larger and larger, and people were spread farther apart; therefore not knowing or caring about neighbors. From 1950--2012 the average square footage of a family rose from from 983 to 2500. This village has been successfully run by self government of the residence who live there without oversite. There are other similar communities around the country, some modeled after this village...some with local backing and or some governmental funds. I'm not aware of any such villages in my area. In my google research for this post, it seems many of these little villages of tiny homes dot the map in Oregon, Washington, California, and Colorado. I plan to do some follow up about the possibility of one in Akron, Ohio; so stayed tuned. **A good deal of the info above was gleaned from an article titled, "Solution to Homelessness" by Georgia Perry. Credit for the above picture goes to her as well. Please turn on your sound and watch this video for additional information about tiny houses.
**The counts on our progress bars are current.
All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.
Blogging in alphabetical order brings us to the letter S today. Doing a google search for words that start with the letter S and have a connection to homelessness produced a rather large list. Here are some that stood out to me: Safety Scorn Scrounge Secret Shame Smell Sleeping Squalor Stench Survival Suspicion No doubt as you read through that list of words, you have thoughts perhaps even pictures pop in your heads, or maybe experiences where those words were used. The sad thing is, those aren't happy words...they aren't words when put in the context of being homeless make you smile, or feel comfortable. Safety is truly a concern. For multiple reasons. Sometimes homeless have reason to fear for their safety from Police, sometimes from other homeless, sometimes from ordinary citizens. Many homeless feel scorn from passers by. Or when they try to order something to eat at a fast food restaurant and are asked to leave, or see looks of scorn from other patrons. Many homeless scrounge for food, water, clothing, money, a safe place to sleep. Many homeless are secretive about where they sleep, some for safety reasons. Most homeless do smell because they live in the elements, they can't bath or launder their cloths...certainly not with any regularity. When it's been really long, the smell because more of a stench because they may be living in squalor. Shame...yes many feel shame, because they're in that situation in the first place. Maybe they feel shame because they lost their job and can't support themselves or their families. Many homeless live daily with others being suspicious of them. If there's a crime committed nearby, it's often the homeless that are suspected as having committed said crime. Sometimes all the homeless are trying to do is survive. Survive the hunger, survive the extreme heat, survive the freezing cold, survive being sleep deprived. Most of us take sleep for granite ...even if we sleep badly. But, to be safe, and to be above suspicion it's not uncommon for homeless to have to move constantly...often in the middle of the night, therefore are often sleep deprived. Even when there is a safe indoor space where they're permitted to sleep, those hours are restricted and they therefore have to be on the move, no matter how sleep deprived they may be.
But, you all who support Bridge and Beyond with your knitting, your crocheting, your looming, your collecting personal care items, your visits and comments to this blog.............you all are SuperWomen and SuperMen. You help elevate some of those sad words above that start with the letter S. You all help warm the homeless both physically and emotionally with your kind crafts and big hearts. PLEASE keep up the good work. **The counts on our progress bars are current.
All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.
Look at this pretty blue and pastel yellow lapghan our friend, Karen S crocheted. Isn't it pretty! Please click so you can see the texture created with the stitches she's chosen. The lapghan will work for a young child as an afghan, or as a lapghan for a lucky lady to snuggle under.
Yippee for more cotton washcloths. Always a hit regardless of where they get donated to. The shelters love them, as do the folks living in the elements. They're also used in welcome home packs provided by Homeless Families Foundation when a family makes the transition from shelter living to a permanent housing situation. Cotton cloths are used as personal washcloths, and dishcloths. Thank you Karen for your on going support of Bridge and Beyond and Ohio's Homeless. Please keep up the good work. **The counts on our progress bars are current.
All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.
Look at the Wonderful colors in this corner to corner crochet afghan. This beautiful afghan comes from the hook of our good friend and long time supporter, Sandra R from the Sunshine State of Florida. I love corner to corner ghans...haven't made one in awhile and this is pushing me to perhaps do another one soon. It's nice and warm, size well for people to stay warm. I know whomever receives this afghan will feel the love.
AND...look at the wonderful knitted hats, and mittens she's also been busy working on. You know how excited I get when we get mittens........super excited really! Please remember folks to click on the pictures to make them larger in order that you can see the details of each other's stitching. Look at the variety of hat styles Sandra has included in her donation for Ohio's Homeless. Very nice indeed, and in the middle of the picture is a scarf in wonderful shaded colors of gray, blue and purple. Thank for this thoughtful and generous donation Sandra, and please keep up the good work. **The counts on our progress bars are current.
All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.
LOVE this fun afghan. Look at all the colors...bits of this, bits of that, solids, and variegated colors. Truly a little of everything. So fun, so bright, and very cheery. Thank you AnnaMarie from New York for this delightful crocheted afghan. When I opened it, it really made me smile.
Keep scrolling folks, after making such a fun afghan, she's not done. 3 Wonderful scarves in this picture. I'm particularly fond of the green one in the middle. I love how the shading changes. Must be one of those new cakes of yarn that do that........very nice. Scarves are nice and big/long so folks can really wrap up to stay warm. She's also included 13 pairs of socks to help keep feet warm and dry. AND crocheted cotton washcloths. Everyone loves the cotton wash cloths. So many uses. Wait...scroll some more.
More crocheted cotton washcloths, more socks, another wonderful colored scarf, hats and fingerless gloves. She has been very busy with her crochet hook. Whew...rest up now AnnaMarie...Many thanks for this wonderful donation of crocheted goodies to help Ohio's Homeless through Bridge and Beyond. Please keep up the good work. **The counts on our progress bars are current.
All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.
Jeweled Lines is done...except I need to finish tucking in the ends, launder and block. I've been way laid doing that...
Some person care items I collected during out recent trip to Park City, Utah. I always collect jazz when we travel.
This is the afghan I'm currently working on. The bottom block has the blue from the recent donation of yarn from Gail B (scroll back to previous post if you missed it). This ghan will have lots of different colors, will not have a pattern to it, won't have equal amounts of color in each block, or even the same colors in each block. This afghan is called Cardiac Collage. I've been blogging about it on my person blog, Sandy's Space. It's titled Cardiac Collage as I grabbed 2 skeins of yarn or parts there off when hubby and I were off to the ER recently. He had a cardiac event. I spent time there in the ER and subsequent day in his hospital room just knitting, with really no great plan in place. The blog upper right with dark purple as a big part of the block, and 2 stripes of orange was the start and is the yarn I had with me at the time. Cardiac events are helter skelter...so, the afghan will be too. One block currently doesn't any yellow in it, one doesn't have any turqoise, 3 don't have orange but have peach, 3 with orange have o peach, 2 don't have lavendar, and currently only one has tan and blue. Plan to add blue and tan to a couple , but don't want it to always been close to the edge...so will start 3 more blocks where I put those perhaps more in the middle...and red only in 3 ..will add some red in the new blocks too. Using up odds and ends in part Was nice to have something portable to tote during the hospital stay. **The counts on our progress bars are current.
All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.
I'm trying to identify where everyone is from, partially for fun. Take a look at the map. Also, believe it will aid me in cases where we have several people with the same name. Please look at the lists of bloggers and non bloggers and see if I have the state you hail from. If not, please leave a comment and let me know.
Additionally, we've had help from Scotland, England, Germany Puerto Rico, Canada, and France! They don't appear on the map, but their help is still greatly appreciated.
Where The People Who Donate Come From, is your state represented?
