Goodonya, Janie!! We are more than willing to pay more, too, in order for others to have basic needs met. I think you would be very interested in listening to yesterday's edition of "Colorado Matters" on our NPR station. It is available online: CLick Here and scroll down to Wednesday, Feb 1, Homelessness I and II. I haven't heard the second part, but the first one dealt with a lot of what is being talked about here, including health care, housing, childcare, job training, etc. Both programs feature women who are at the head of ending homelessness in Denver and Philadelphia through direct actions and compassion.

I just got an alert on how poor people are also being thwarted by the IRS. One may find more by doing a search on google, but here is the gist, from Jan. 10th:

"The Internal Revenue Service freezes tens of thousands of tax refunds it deems questionable without telling people that they're suspected of fraud, the nation's taxpayer advocate said Tuesday."

75% of those people effected by this are at poverty level according to the study.