Picture the Homeless, a New York based activist organization, are fighting a campaign to demand that the transit authority make a bus that travels to a homeless shelter on Ward's Island, free for homeless passengers. An estimated 90% of the riders are homeless men living in the shelter on the island. They are also protesting the NYPD's practice of using that bus as an easy spot to make arrests and meet their quotas. Read more in an article in the New York Times, "On a Bus for the Homeless, a Push to Forgive the Fare."

Picture the Homeless have also recently put New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, on trial in Homeless People's Court. The mayor launched a large affordable housing program called the Five Year Plan. To mark the four year anniversary, Picture the Homeless put the mayor on trial and found him guilty. Read more and view video of the trial on the Picture the Homeless blog.

Watch a BBC news story, "Subprime -The 'new' homeless in the US" (Video), about tent cities that have sprung up outside Los Angeles as people lose their homes in the subprime mortgage crisis.

According to research presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "poverty in early childhood poisons the brain." According to the research, children growing up in very poor families experience an unhealthy level of stress hormones that impair neural development. Read more in a article in the New York Times, "Poverty is Poison."

More and more anti-poverty organizations and coalitions are using the web to broadcast videos of their work. Housing not War, a campaign to demand the federal government spend money on housing instead of war and militarism organized by anti-war organizations and anti-poverty organizations in Toronto, has a short video on YouTube, "Housing not Bombs," of their most recent demonstration. The Kensington Welfare Rights Union, a multiracial organization of, by and for poor and homeless people, has a video on YouTube, "Homeless Hero," about homeless people organizing in the USA.

Between the Lines is a weekly public affairs show broadcast from Connecticut that provides a platform for individuals and progressive organizations that are generally ignorned or marginalized by the mainstream media. Between the Lines hosts an audio archive as well as a blog. A recent program interviewed Michael Stoops, the acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Listen to the radio show, "Report Finds Homelessness Rising Across the US" (Audio).

In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg declared that he would reduce homelessness in New York City by two-thirds, but according to an article in the New York Times, "Homelessness: Tackled, Not Beaten, by a Mayor With Formidable Goals," that despite some new initiatives and a reduction of people using shelters, the number of homeless families has reached an all time high. This should be alarming to Canadians because cities in Canada are looking to the New York example to solve our own problems with homelessness. In Vancouver, the police are advocating the New York solution to solving Vancouver's "street disorder problem." Politicians in Toronto have also looked to New York, read more on the Wellesly Institute Blog and to see how New York homeless activists are fighting homelessness in their city see: Coalition for the Homeless and Picture the Homeless.

The American National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released a report about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender homeless youth. Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless American youth, between 20 and 40 percent identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). Why do LGBT youth become homeless? In one study, 26 percent of gay teens who came out to their parents/guardians were told they must leave home; LGBT youth also leave home due to physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Homeless LGBT youth are more likely to: use drugs, participate in sex work, and attempt suicide. Also, LGBT youth report they are threatened, belittled and abused at shelters by staff as well as other residents.

The Center for Pan-African Development in South Florida, have created the Take Back the Land project and have set up the Umajo Village shantytown in protest of the lack of affordable housing. You can watch two videos of the shantytown and the struggle for affordable housing in the US on YouTube - Umoja Village (Video) and Umoja Village 11.20.06 (Video).

Interventions providing coordinated treatment and support for homeless adults usually results in greater health improvements than does the prevailing sporadic and substandard care, according to a new review of studies. "We found evidence that a substantial number of different types of programs and interventions are effective in improving the health of homeless adults, especially those with mental illness and homelessness," says lead investigator Stephen Hwang, M.D., of the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. More information can be found in the Centre for the Advancement of Health's press release or the 9 page study of homelessness in the United States (in PDF).

The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) has launched a Youth Poverty Initiative that seeks to engage youth in doing research, telling their stories through theatre, video and interactive web site, developing popular education and campaign resources and taking action on youth poverty.

The American agency, the National Coalition for the Homeless' four page fact sheet (in PDF) gives statistics and examples of crimes perpetrated against homeless people.

The Coalition for the Homeless is the oldest advocacy and direct service organization in the USA helping homeless men, women, and children. The organization is dedicated to the principle that decent shelter, sufficient food, affordable housing, and the chance to work for a living wage are fundamental rights in a civilized society.

Blogs are an online diary of sorts. TheHomelessGuy.net attempts "to relate to you the realities of homelessness. But there is certainly more to a homeless person than being homeless, and this may be the best thing this blog could accomplish - a greater awareness about the whole-ness of homeless people."