Hasta La Gadget!

November is Homelessness Awareness month. This time of year always reminds me of a powerful story, an unexpected seasonal lesson about homelessness, that I learned when I worked at the Corporation for Supportive Housing, which invests in housing for homeless people.

We interviewed a young man we will call “John” who described his Thanksgiving — intense loneliness sitting on a Manhattan rooftop trying to avoid the snow falling outside, listening to the voices in the apartments celebrating. It wasn’t his hunger or longing for a warm bed that he focused on, but his loneliness.

While we know that homeless people need shelter and food, we don’t often think about the high toll of loneliness. Avoiding contact is part of a complex set of strategies people use to survive. But long-term, isolation breeds hopelessness, leading to a downward spiral that makes it hard to take action, to find housing, work, and reconnect.

Perhaps because the holiday season is rich with hope for most of us, it’s hard to want to think too much about homelessness because it makes us feel helpless and hopeless.

Yet people are homeless in large numbers because we as citizens tolerate it. If we in the U.S. – you and I — decided that homelessness was unacceptable, we would no longer have widespread homelessness.

Although we had rates of poverty in the early to mid-1960’s for example from 14 to 22 percent, compared to 13 to 15 percent in the 1980s, in the earlier period we did not see nearly the same numbers of people living in our streets that we do today. What changed?

1. Housing prices increased faster than inflation, and we tore down a lot of cheap housing as we undertook ‘urban renewal.’ Federal housing expenditures overall tilt toward higher income homeowners through the mortgage interest deduction, with significant gaps between the need for subsidies that can make rental housing affordable to people with low incomes, and the level of subsidies available.

2. While the move toward deinstitutionalizing people with mental illness in the 1970’s was a positive one, unfortunately states did not invest sufficient resources in developing alternative community based resources, and as the availability of mental health services decreased in relation to the need, increasing numbers became homeless.

3. Veterans who were discharged at the end of the Vietnam War hit a wall after coming home to inadequate programs that could help with post-war health, mental health and addiction issues, including connections to housing and civilian jobs.

4. AIDS hit the U.S. like a bombshell, with formerly middle class men in the initial wave becoming very ill very quickly, causing them to lose their jobs and become homeless.

5. The crack cocaine epidemic exploded. As a result of addiction people lost jobs or entered a revolving door of incarceration and homelessness.

Now, decades later, just under 600,000 men, women, youth, children are homeless daily – well over a million each year. And with new veterans coming home from the war, and the housing market heating up, the levels of homelessness remain high.

What is to be done? In the early 2000’s the federal government, prodded by the National Alliance to End Homelessness among other advocates called for communities to develop plans not just to manage, but to end homelessness. Many local governments heeded the call. Data from many studies showed that supportive housing (low cost permanent housing with built in support services) cost little more than leaving people bouncing through shelters, jails, and emergency rooms. As a result, our country set an audacious goal to create more than 100,000 apartments for chronically homeless people, which we achieved – and the number of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness has declined by 25% since 2007. More recently we have set and are starting to achieve goals to decrease veterans’ homelessness. Places where we might not expect significant progress – like Utah – are getting the job done by focusing on solutions.

One approach to addressing this problem is ‘rapid re-housing’ — getting people rehoused as fast as possible after they become homeless. And holding other systems accountable so that they don’t discharge people into homelessness — notably healthcare and incarceration.

Work also plays a huge role. John, who sat lonely on a rooftop, eventually got into supportive housing, then got a job managing an apartment building. By chance we had a photo of John in the streets when he was homeless – big beard, unkempt clothes. But when we did our interview, he was housed and working, in a suit and tie, happy, healthy, and motivated.

Organizations like Community Housing Partnership, Chrysalis and Weingart Center for the Homeless – run social enterprise businesses, which provide first-step employment to people exiting homelessness. The employees can get the experience and training they need to move on, and regain hope so that they can reconnect to society.

Awareness is the first step, but we also need action. It is time to stop tolerating widespread homelessness.

Duty. Honor. Country. To any American who has served in the military, these aren’t just words. They are at our core.

In their excellent new book, For Love of Country, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz and Washington Post journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran make the point that our country has the duty to honor our veterans. They don’t mean with charity but with respect, by taking the time to understand what they can teach us about their experiences.

They note that less than one percent of the U.S. population have served our military abroad since September 11, 2001, and that their experiences are disconnected from what the other 99 percent of Americans do in their daily lives. They correctly see this as a tragic loss for America. They write that it’s not enough to applaud our fellow countrymen and women in stadiums and arenas. We should learn from them, hire them and care for them.

Schultz and Chandrasekaran couldn’t be more on point, especially as the holidays approach.

Too many veterans are un- or underemployed. Too many veterans are homeless. Schultz is acting by pledging Starbucks will hire 10,000 veterans and active duty spouses over five years. In Jersey City, we will make sure no veteran is homeless by the end of 2015. We’ve signed on to Michelle Obama’s Mayor’s Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness.

More specifically, we are working to ensure that no veteran is forced to sleep on the street, and has access to adequate, permanent housing. If a veteran becomes homeless or is at risk of homelessness, we will have the resources to return them to housing stability. When those things are accomplished, the goal of ending veteran homelessness in Jersey City is reached.

Our efforts here in Jersey City are part of a larger national movement to end veteran homelessness. Soon, Jersey City, in partnership with community-based organizations and our corporate residents, will be building supportive housing for our homeless veterans. We will apply for HUD funding to pay the operating expenses of the building and partner with the VA for case management and healthcare services.

We are gathering data on housing, on the needs of homeless veterans generally, and on the population of homeless vets in Jersey City. Thus far, we’ve learned a good deal about the homeless veterans in Jersey City. This data will give us a general range for the homeless veterans in and around Jersey City, but won’t be a comprehensive measurement of all families and individuals who experience homelessness throughout the year. We have a great deal still to learn about this population, and are developing other methods, including a more robust outreach program.

Giving these veterans homes will just be the start of what I believe our country owes them for their service. We will be in touch with Starbucks and others about employment opportunities and also will provide forums so we can learn from their experiences.

For Love and Country is important reading and we need to take to heart the book’s subtitle: “What Our Veterans Can Teach Us about Citizenship, Heroism and Sacrifice.” Let’s get started.

Steven Fulop is Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who enlisted after 9/11 and served in Iran.

Relationships are never picture-perfect. They can be a messy bag of frustration, passion, joy, and disappointment. There are probably one or two things that drive you crazy about your partner. He doesn’t take out the trash, or she checks her phone too much at the dinner table, or he doesn’t seem to listen when you vent about your bad day. But of all the things you think need improvement (which, don’t get me wrong, could be perfectly valid), how about focusing on what you’re getting?

Just as it’s a choice to criticize or blame our partners for what we think we’re not getting in a relationship, it’s also a choice to be grateful for what you have and for where you are in this moment. Gratitude can not only improve your attitude; it can help improve your love life, as well. Let’s look at how.

How you act is what you attract. Kindness attracts kindness. Thoughtfulness attracts thoughtfulness. Love attracts love. One thoughtful act can be monumental in someone’s day. And guess what? It can make your relationship stronger.

Bottom line: kindness trumps criticism, every time.

My fiancé taught me much about gratitude and the incredible ripple effect it can have on creating and maintaining a great relationship. He’s one of the most loving, giving men I’ve ever met. He leaves notes on my pillow as thanks for something I’ve done for him (like taking him to Palm Springs for his birthday), as acknowledgement after I’ve accomplished something monumental (like writing a book), or when I’ve had a tough week to give me a boost. Sometimes… just because.

So, whether it’s a note, a gesture, or by simply saying, “I appreciate you,” your relationship will get a feel-good boost. Keep it up, and you’ll go from complaining to compassion, arguing to appreciation, or blaming to a better understanding of your partner or the situation. By saying, “Thank you” to your partner for something they’ve done, like helping with the dishes, running an errand for you, or picking up your favorite coffee, it’ll encourage them to do more, as well!

So take this opportunity to be grateful for the great things you have and for where you are right now, because what you focus on, you get more of. By expressing gratitude, you’ll improve your connection, ease the little annoyances, deal with problems better, have better discussions, and find better solutions. And by acknowledging the best in someone else, you bring out the best in yourself, too.

This goes for any relationship in your life. So how about saying a big, “Thank you” to someone for what they’ve done for you, what they’ve inspired in you, or maybe even just for being a great friend, roommate, or coworker. Or say thanks to that driver who let you in (give him or her a wave, please) or the waiter who gave you a big smile when you were having a rough day, or the Starbucks cashier who treated you kindly when you ordered your triple, venti, soy, no foam, no whip, pumpkin latte.

A little “thank you” goes a long way.

And BTW, “Thank you” for reading this.

Tribbles are sort of cute little furry characters that can cause all sorts of trouble. The little beasties multiply faster than rabbits and gum up the works leading to all sorts of problems. If you were overrun by tribbles, perhaps you could turn to using their pelts for something like this coin purse.

Whatever the futuristic version of PETA is might have issue with the skinning of tribbles though. The upside is that this tribble coin purse is made from faux fur, so you can relax. The fur is 100% nylon, so no tribble was killed in its making.

For a coin purse, it’s rather large and fluffy at 4.5″(w) x 3.5″(h) and it screams geek like few other things. Pick up your own tribble coin purse for $12.99 at ThinkGeek.

This morning the 4G LTE Verizon version of the Motorola Moto X from 2014 has an update rolling out across the United States. This update is for the system software, bringing this unit’s OS up to Android 5.0 Lollipop. Users have seen this update appearing as early as noon here in the midwest – if you don’t have it yet, … Continue reading