Homelessness in Germany has reached alarming levels, with over half a million people lacking permanent accommodation as of early 2025. The crisis affects men and women of all ages, with families and young people increasingly at risk. As winter intensifies the dangers faced by those without shelter, we look at how residents in Germany can support some of the social welfare organisations working to alleviate homelessness.
One thing that has always fascinated me is how an innocent, dispassionate analysis can still reinforce biases and exacerbate societal problems. Looking at crime rates by district, for example, shows which area has the highest rate. Nothing wrong with that. The issue emerges when that data leads to reallocating police resources from the lowest-crime district to the highest or changing enforcement emphasis in the higher-crime district.
Only about 56% of people on council housing registers in boroughs like Islington and Lambeth are rehoused each year Councils are removing thousands from waiting lists due to having no realistic chance of being housed Council housing now overwhelmingly goes to those in the most severe need Only about five per cent of Londoners on the waiting list for a council home have any chance of being rehoused, a City Hall inquiry has been told.
From relative stability in an established community, to being repeatedly swept on the streets of Multnomah County, unhoused residents formerly living in the Sandy River Delta highlight a breakdown in the fight to address homelessness. A community of over 30 people was swept out of what's known as the Thousand Acres recreation zone on October 1, after a previous attempt in June included an incident of Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) contractors pepper spraying multiple people, including a bystander.
Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
London's status as one of the world's wealthiest capitals stands in stark contrast to the tent encampments that have emerged across its centre, a visible reminder of the capital's spiralling homeless crisis. Opposite Warren Street Station in Camden, around 20 tents are currently pitched, many elevated on wooden pallets to stay dry. Inside, some contain only sleeping bags and a few items of clothing, while others are more elaborate, featuring furniture, mattresses, and cooking equipment.
Flophouse America is the unnervingly intimate feature debut of Monica Strømdahl, an internationally award-winning photographer who spent 15 years documenting the impoverished communities that have sprung up in rundown motels throughout the US. Which is how she met Mikal, an energetic, 11-year old boy who's called home the hotel room he's shared with his parents since the day he was born.
Baby formula linked to a nationwide outbreak of infant botulism was distributed to programs serving homeless mothers and other struggling families in multiple states, but it's unclear what actions are being taken to alert those families to the recall. Formula maker ByHeart Inc., operates a formula donation program in partnership with Baby2Baby, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that counts high-profile celebrities among its supporters. ByHeart's Open Hearted Initiative has donated nearly 24,000 cans of formula to at-risk families since June 2022, according to ByHeart's website.
Maj. Daniel Freeman, Salvation Army's Silicon Valley coordinator, said this housing fills a needed gap for homeless people in recovery. "Recovery from addiction is never a nice linear process," Freeman told San José Spotlight. "The feeling that we get from the people that come to this program is they just feel a whole lot safer in a much more stable place, because there isn't all the behaviors associated with addictions."
He could have told her about the company that bought Conrad at Concord Mills, the Charlotte, North Carolina, apartment complex where he lived, in March 2022-the one that Kelly says installed a slew of "gadgets" he didn't need before raising his rent by nearly $400 a month. He could have told her about the eviction notices that the company kept filing against him-the ones that came, he says, with an onslaught of fees that virtually guaranteed he'd never fully get back on his feet.
Foothill Theatre Arts is tackling the topic of AI with the West Coast premiere of "Rossum's Universal Robots," running through Nov. 23 at the Lohman Theatre at Foothill College. Originally written in 1920 by Czech playwright Karel Čapek, the comedic play introduced the term "robot," taken from the Czech word "robata," meaning servitude. This adaptation by Bo List addresses one of today's most pressing questions: What can happen if AI goes rogue? The Lohman Theatre lobby opens one hour before each performance for preshow activities appropriate for ages 8 and up. These activities, presented by Foothill College's Robotics Club, Engineering Club, AI Club and the Emerging Technologies Institute include the chance to play chess with a robotic arm, watch a student-built self-driving go-kart in action, and engage with an AI avatar.
It was a cold November morning, and I had travelled with my family to our ancestral temple in a village in Tamil Nadu. My sister's 11-month-old baby was to be tonsured for the first time a religious head-shaving that in Hinduism is a way of discarding the evil eye and removing any negativity from past lives; a new start. My wife drove, but asked me to park the car while she went inside with our son and her parents.
Toronto will open 1,275 additional shelter spaces for unhoused people this winter, but advocates say the plan is not robust enough to get everybody without a home out of the cold. The city will provide more spaces in shelters, 24-hour respite sites and warming centres, open units in supportive and subsidized housing and make surge capacity spaces available, as part of its winter services plan for people experiencing homelessness, according to Gordon Tanner, manager of Toronto Shelter and Support Services.
The target with the fourth edition, built in 2025 with enhanced design and new features, is to deliver another 2,000 units across 25 cities in California and counting. The project that started from Tenderloin in San Francisco has, with feedback from unhoused people, reached a point where it's more than an ordinary backpack. It's a self-sustaining unit that is designed to provide connectivity, shelter, resources, and assistance to the homeless.
"What I feel deeply right now, and it's personal to me, is that the community here needs to have someone on City Council who really gets it and that gets the challenges that we're all facing right now,"
This isn't just a shining example for the South Bay, Freeman said. This is a shining example across the United States of what we can accomplish when we choose to work together. We see the value in changing lives. We see the suffering that's on the streets and now's the time to do something about it.
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