According to a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch article, "The problem is homelessness. The problem is education. The problem is too few programs for ex-offenders. The problem is there are no community-based lending institutions. There's not enough money, and not enough awareness of the social services that are available. There is no transportation for the working poor to get to better-paying jobs."

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/POVE19_20090718-222406/280857/

What do you think?

I think it is good to have someone to hear our message, however I wish I had known because I would have loved to be involved with the discussion myself! Honestly, I feel the true issue here is our way of thinking when in it comes to our own way of life. In other words, young parents, young adults and parents in the ages up to 45 were not necessarily taught some of the needed ways of survival and importance. Our society has shifted so strongly toward everyone doing their own thing that we have lost track with the realities of what we need to do. I agree with a lot of the statements in the article... "abandoned housing in need of rehabilitation"... and have been complaining about that for years! We need to retrain our communities way of thinking, reset our minds back to family and less on getting above the "joneses!" That is how we got into this economic crisis to begin with. One thing I will say as well is that I feel rapid re-entry for homeless individuals will not fix theproblem! They need to be reminded that they are able to do what everyone else can do and then some... we need to show them their own strengths and help them through their weaknesses- there is something inside everyone that can be touched in a way that would encourage them to do better and once that light bulb goes off, we need to have opened up employment opportunities and help them to become stable, not just put them in a place and say "here you go ... for now" That changes nothing! Our services need a restructure and our communities need to be revitalized, but through the people, and then out to the buildings!