Aw, KT, I thought you'd go "outside" with her.

Of the homeless people I've talked to, I'd say many of them are homeless because of at least some degree of mental illness. They may have lived a more-or-less "normal" life "inside" for many years, but oftentimes their existence was pretty marginal, right on the brink of losing home and job and family. Then something happened that collapsed their delicate network of support, and they could no longer cope. Many function quite well, but I'm not sure I'd want to hire many of them. There are a few that are just temporarily out on their luck and temporarily homeless, but most of the long-term homeless people have deeper issues.

I really admire our Loaves and Fishes homeless dining room in Sacramento - it seems like almost half their staff members are homeless people. And the pride of employment makes a quick change in people. Loaves and Fishes has a militant, "in your face" attitude (that I sometimes disagree with), and they've been working for a year on their "safe ground" project, finding an open field every night for people who were evicted from a tent city in Sacramento. My friend Sister Libby Fernandez is director of Loaves and Fishes. She's the speaker on the first part of this video, describing how she slept outside with homeless people as part of the Safe Ground protest. I have to say that Libby is tough as nails, and she does a lot of things I wouldn't do.

-Joe-