Social Policy Commons^™

Homelessness In Boston: The Media Wake Up, Ian Menzies

New England Journal of Public Policy

Why did it take the media so long to "discover" and report on the dramatically rising rates of hunger and homelessness throughout the nation? Did that failure make it easier for presidential counselor Edwin Meese to declare in December 1983 that allegations of hunger in America were "purely political" and that people who go to soup kitchens do so because the food is free, statements matched a short time later by President Ronald Reagan's claim that people who sleep on grates do so "by choice." In this article, Menzies tells the unfolding story of how hunger and homelessness finally became …

Winds Curse, Robert Pavel

New England Journal of Public Policy

Robert Pavel is a member of the Portland (Maine) Coalition for the Psychiatrically Disabled. His poem first appeared in Pile of Papers; Stack of Karma, a collection of poetry published by the Portland Coalition Press. Reprinted with permission.

Streets Are For Nobody: Judy Silva, Melissa Shook

New England Journal of Public Policy

From an interview by Melissa Shook, April 24, 1990, Chelsea. Reprinted, with permission, from "Streets Are for Nobody: Homeless Women Speak," Boston Center for the Arts, 1991.

Counting The New York Homeless: An Ethnographic Perspective, Kim Hopper

New England Journal of Public Policy

Significant ambiguities inhere in the operational definitions of "site" and "selected components of the homeless population" used in the 1990 S-Night Count. Ethnographic methods offer a useful corrective. This article, covering research that was part of a larger project evaluating the S-Night count, describes a brief ethnographic inquiry into the ecology of public spaces occupied by the homeless poor in New York City. Problems in implementation, surprising ease of access, patterns of mobility and prevailing norms from site to site, and the tenuous character of the street sites are reviewed, as are implications for future enumeration efforts.

Ending Homelessness Among Mentally Disabled People, Steven A. Hitov

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article examines some of the many shortcomings of the mental health system operated by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) and explores the impact of that system on single homeless individuals who suffer from some form of serious or long-term mental disability. To afford that discussion context, however, the article first briefly examines those forces which have, and have not, significantly contributed to the large number of mentally disabled homeless persons. It suggests certain changes, including a shift in departmental focus from hospitals to community services and the creation of a housing subsidy system exclusively for DMH clients, …

Build Homes Not Bombs: Get A Better Economy To Boot!, Richard Krushnic

New England Journal of Public Policy

Our nation has a rare opportunity to shift resources from military to civilian activities for the next few years. A budget pact is supposed to prevent transfers of funds from the military to domestic programs during fiscal years 1992 and 1993, but the pact is cracking in light of the sudden collapse of the Soviet military and the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. While jobs are lost when funds are shifted out of the military, the funds don't disappear - they are used for alternative federal expenditures, paying federal debt, or tax reduction. Many alternative expenditure patterns are available to …

The Last Thing We Need Is Another Shelter, Jessica Segré

New England Journal of Public Policy

Segre suggests that family homelessness is merely the latest and most devastating example of America's lack of commitment to children and families. The history of human services for children is presented to show that, both at the community and at the policy levels, this population and its needs have been neglected, subjected to fragmentation, and consistently downgraded on our lists of priorities. The societal values that have led to this situation are discussed and revealed as still reflecting an individualistic, frontier outlook, which is, however, becoming an anachronism. The need for a child/family policy is stressed, as is the urgency …

The Kindred Bonds Of Mentally Ill Homeless Persons, Richard C. Tessler, Gail M. Gamache, Peter H. Rossi, Anthony F. Lehman, Howard H. Goldman

New England Journal of Public Policy

While the unraveling of the kinship bond has long been suspected to play a role in the epidemiology of homelessness, the connection between kinship and homelessness has been little studied. Based on a normative analysis of the role of family structure in response to adversity, this article explores the impact of the amount and quality of kinship ties on episodes of homelessness experienced by discharged psychiatric patients in Ohio. Survey data derived from personal interviews with both former patients and their kin indicate more strain in relations with kin of the homeless than the nonhomeless. The strain in the kinship …

Housing, Community Support, And Homelessness: Emerging Policy In Mental Health Systems, Paul J. Carling

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article summarizes the dramatic changes in public policy through which public mental health systems are attempting to meet the housing and community support needs of persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses, including those who are homeless. It traces the historical approach to meeting these needs through defining people principally as patients and providing some combination of psychotropic medications, outpatient therapy, and structured, supervised quasi-institutional settings such as group homes, shelters, and segregated single-room-occupancy, or board-and-care facilities. A transition phase in public policy has emphasized defining these individuals essentially as service recipients who need greater or lesser amounts of …

The Mckinney Act: New England Responses To Federal Support For State And Local Assistance To The Homeless And Mentally Ill, Danna Mauch, Virginia Mulkern

New England Journal of Public Policy

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 builds on the work of state mental health authorities and the National Institute of Mental Health in the early 1980s. The act and its subsequent amendments are designed to organize, coordinate, and enhance federal support to the states in financing the development of shelter, health, housing, employment, and support services to homeless persons. There is a special focus in the act on assisting homeless persons with handicaps. In the main, the New England states have met the requirements of the act to provide mandated essential services, which include outreach; community mental …

My Life, Thomas Newman

New England Journal of Public Policy

A personal story by Thomas Newman, a resident of Fifty Washington Square, Newport, Rhode Island. His work has appeared in In the Heart of the City, a literary magazine produced by the residents of Fifty Washington Square. He hopes to be a photographer.

Ddasaccident291, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is believed that the victim was using artery forceps to extract a detonator when he inadvertently prodded into it. The detonators are “stab-sensitive”. The mine activated and he was killed instantly. No details of his injuries were made available.

Ddasaccident287, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was reported to have been engaged in making ashtrays with two others. One man removed the fuzes. One man removed the propellant. The victim detonated the percussion caps holding the device in a vice or between his feet. The man removing propellant went away. The man detonating percussion caps let one off with propellant still inside the cartridge. The blast removed his head. The other member of the team present was also injured but no details were made available.

Ddasaccident290, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The record states that the victim was “clearing mines” and stepped on a Type 72 anti-personnel blast mine and lost his foot. It is assumed that he was using his detector at the time.

It'll Take More Than A Miracle: Income In Single-Mother Families In Massachusetts, 1979-1987, Chris Tilly, Randy Albelda

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

Through the 1980s, the Massachusetts economy grew rapidly. Most Massachusetts families benefited from this economic boom, and saw their incomes rise much more rapidly than the U.S. average. But Massachusetts single mothers and their children, who started out with lower incomes than other families, experienced only minimal income growth, and fell further behind other families in the Bay State. In this paper, we analyze income differences among family types in Massachusetts. We pay special attention to the problems of single mothers, and offer a set of policy recommendations to address these problems.

In order to undertake this analysis, we classify …

Ddasaccident289, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The driver of a recovery truck was sent to recover broken-down plant equipment in a minefield. Lack of supervision and appropriate instructions meant he walked into a known mined area to check the vehicle. He stood on an anti-personnel blast mine; either a PMN, Type 58 Chinese copy, or Iraqi PMN copy (black), or a Type 72 AP and suffered a lower leg amputation.

Ddasaccident286, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

A Ghurkha deminer was working with a Schiebel AN/19 in an area of high salt contamination (Subkha – salt marsh) when he failed to detect a Type 72 anti-personnel mine and activated it with his foot. He suffered a traumatic amputation of his lower leg.

Ddasaccident285, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

An ex-pat deminer was checking the edge of “iron bomb of 16 inch Naval shell crater” in a minefield when he trod on a Type 72 anti-personnel mine. The mine has a minimum metal content and he suffered a traumatic amputation of his lower leg. It is presumed that he had his detector in his hand at the time of the accident.

Ddasaccident285, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

An ex-pat deminer was checking the edge of “iron bomb of 16 inch Naval shell crater” in a minefield when he trod on a Type 72 anti-personnel mine. The mine has a minimum metal content and he suffered a traumatic amputation of his lower leg. It is presumed that he had his detector in his hand at the time of the accident.

Ddasaccident369, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

When the Victim ignored the Supervisor, the Supervisor sent him ahead 50 meters to work, telling him that he should not endanger others if he wanted to take risks. The Victim initiated a TM-57 anti-tank mine with his pickaxe.

Ddasaccident284, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

At the anti-tank mine where the accident occurred, one anti-personnel mine was visible, one had detonated, but the mine at 12 o’clock was missing. The victim approached the anti-tank mine from behind, sweeping with his detector. As he advanced, he stepped on the Type 72 anti-personnel mine. He was using a Schiebel AN-19 detector.

Ddasaccident283, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Clearing old AFV and ammunition sites, a small group of TCNs (Third Country Nationals) were “de-bombing” a tank at the time of the accident. The ex-pat supervisor got inside the tank and de-bombed it himself, defuzing and passing the shells and fuzes out. While he was inside the tank he heard an explosion outside and came out to investigate.

Ddasaccident282, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

One casualty was a subcontractor of the British commercial company. This was a Palestinian who was an “owner/driver” and went back to try to get his truck out. The ex-pats trying to organise an orderly withdrawal saw him and his truck “vaporised”. Two KMOD soldiers and another individual were also reported to have been killed. (Only the driver is recorded in this database because he was an indirect employee of the British demining company: the status of the others is unknown.)

Genocide In Our Time : An Annotated Bibliography With Analytical Introductions, Michael N. Dobkowski, Isidor Wallimann, Alison Palmer, Alan Rosenberg, Evelyn Silverman, Sidney M. Bolkosky, Agi Rubin, Rouben Adalian, Lyman H. Legters, Eric Markusen, Israel W. Charny

Books

Genocide is a modern term whereby groups of people are killed on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity, or nationality. This book suggest that modernity and the tremendous social differentiation that is a part of our modern world may, in part, be to blame. The authors examine textbook 20^th century horrors: from the massacre of the Armenians, to the planned famine in the Ukraine, to the Holocaust, and links of modern warfare to genocide. By studying cases of genocide, the authors hope to inform and connect to all other efforts to understand and to prevent the mass destruction …

Residential Mobility And Revitalization In Portland Between 1970 And 1980: A Study Of The Urban Structural Impacts On Neighborhood Revitalization, Sheka Gassimou Kamara

Dissertations and Theses

Evidence of physical decline due in part to the rapid encroachment of commercial and industrial activity into some of Portland's residential areas in the mid-1960s and efforts to combat the forces of time and change through neighborhood revitalization provide the basis for this study. Additionally, some of the characteristics often employed in explaining the phenomenon in cities are manifested in the city of Portland. For example, Portland is endowed with a distinctive and well established downtown area that provides opportunities for the establishment of businesses as well as white-collar job opportunities. By the standards of the U.S. Bureau of the …

List: Planned Parenthood Of Northeast Florida, Inc. 1992 Board Of Directors

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

A list of the 1992 board of directors and officers.

Ddasaccident281, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

An experienced ex-pat deminer was working on manual clearance of PTMIBA-III AT mines. The mines were surface laid and in a regular pattern. He had disarmed several that morning and had changed with his No2. He returned after a rest break and approached the next mine in the row. He was witnessed approaching the mine, bending down and it is believed he had a tool in his hand. He reached the mine and his partner reported that he was brushing the sand from the top of the mine when it detonated.

Ddasaccident280, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The victim was coming to the end of his shift when he discovered a V-69 and began to expose it for demolition. His partner reported that the victim was racing against the tide to get the job finished, when suddenly the sand gave way and he slid into the hole he was excavating. This may have been because of his heavy weight and the sand getting wetter (softer) as the tide advanced. The mine functioned, bounded and detonated. It is not clear whether it detonated against his lower body or at a distance from it.

Ddasaccident279, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The “informal SOP” at the time allowed operators not to drive the machine out of the mined area at changeover times. In this case, the victim tried to change from one track to the other as his replacement operator and his Team Leader approached. As he changed tracks, he stood on the ground between the tracks and trod on a VS50 AP mine. The VS50 is over-pressure protected (a sustained pressure is needed) and so “resistant” to detonation by flails.

Evaluation Of The Mine Clearance Programme In Afghanistan, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

This report, prepared by two independent experts at the request of the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, contains the experts' conclusions. They reviewed all aspects of the mine action programme in Afghanistan and showed particular interest to the impact and cost effectiveness of the programme. The experts also examined whether the programme was technically appropriate.