Mar 19

You Will Be Tiny. You Will Be Happy.

Welcome To The New World Order.  You Are Now A Tiny Human.

by Gypsy Cool

As we predicted, “homeless” has now become the latest big industry for all the greasy Los Angeles political class and their wealthy developer donors.  The new buzz words are “Tiny Homes”.  Understanding this psychological warfare against a hapless segment of the population is important.

Your Happiness Will Be Big

First, the government creates a problem, a big one.  It started many years ago.  There were always small sections of big cities where poor folks lived in “skid row” substandard housing.  The industrial revolution shoved people off the farms and into the big cities.  Then came the 1929 crash and the depression.  People were living in urban areas and could not farm and feed themselves.

After World War 2, the political class in Washington, led by Lyndon Johnson, decided to create The Great Society.  Urban “Renewal” was pushed out and huge parts of inner cities, the poor areas, were gutted.  The plan was to build new housing, which they did, but if you look at the statistics, only around 50% of the units torn down were replaced.  This pushed thousands of people out on the streets.

Living in an old substandard hotel was still better than sleeping on a piece of  cardboard on the street. Nevertheless, the homeless crises was being created.  Immigration increased, bringing millions of homeless into the U.S.  Poor people from other countries poured in looking for jobs.  The major cities began their own “redevelopment” projects, a nifty scam to grab land cheap and let the developers build huge projects that would puff up the property tax revenues.  The losers were the small property owners who were forced to sell their property to the redevelopment agencies, the displaced merchants, and millions more newly minted homeless who were kicked out of the cheap run down hotels onto the pavement.

After the housing crash in 2008, thousands more got the boot from the mortgage scandals.  Cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles had thousands sleeping on the streets.  It has gotten so bad in Hollywood that it is hard to find folks who want to go there to shop or work in the fancy office buildings built by the “redevelopment” process.

So the politicians decided to take advantage of it.  The started pushing bond issues, enriching the banks and pension funds who buy the bonds, and shoveling billions to developers to build housing for the homeless.  This became an immediate failure because when 300,000 homeless are pouring across the unguarded borders every month, even China couldn’t build houses fast enough.  The cost of homeless housing soared to about a half a million dollars each, and the lag time to get the land and build the housing was not working.  It was obvious, even to a few Judges.

So the latest PR effort is to build “Tiny Houses”.  Little villages to house the little unwashed leprechauns, the lazy druged up lilliputians of the inner cities. Since the majority of the homeless population has no real political power, they are now pushed into Tiny Villages, into those cute colorful little houses, where they will be happy living under some type of goofy martial law.  Welcome to the New World Order.  You will own nothing.  You Will Be Happy. You will not be a 100 % citizen.  You will not even be 3/5th of a person.  You Will Be Tiny.  Because if you dare to crawl out of your tiny house we will step on you.  We feed you.  We give you medical injections. We give you clothes.  You are Tiny. You are nothing.

This psychological brain-washing, degrading the un-housed humans is now in vogue.  In the donkey states the Marxist Mayors like L.A.’s Bass has abandoned her old failed communist theories and become a mouthpiece for the new 5% Big People who rule the roost. The tragic irony of this is that the cost of building and maintaining tiny homes is so high that it really equals as much as just giving somebody a $2600 a month housing allowance. But then they wouldn’t be Tiny.  And the developers wouldn’t make all that money.  And the politicians wouldn’t have all that power.

The politicians now have huge bureaus with big budgets, the developers are making big bucks and the homeless population gets larger every month fed by a collapsing economy and endless thousands of homeless pouring into the cities every month.  It’s a treadmill roaring faster and faster every year, sucking up billions of dollars of inflationary printing press money.  And you all know where that is going to end.  Eventually, if not sooner.

Check out the detailed report on Tiny Housing.  Interesting that the secretive politicians are even hiding the real costs of their Tiny World.

Click Here To View Report

Dec 15

State of California CalRecycle Hits CVS With $3.6 Million Enforcement Action

CVS Refuses To Refund Bottle Deposits to Consumers Triggering Massive Fine

Snared by State Regulations

As we have seen, the collapse of California’s Recycling program has caused problems and huge losses in many sectors.  The closing of Recycling giant RePlanet and many other recycling centers like the huge Santa Monica Recycling Center was the end result of gross mismanagement by various City and State Bureaucrats.  The head of CalRecycle is said to be resigning at the end of the year.  Meanwhile, consumers struggle to find places to redeem their bottles and cans.  Stores and chains that refuse to pay back the deposits/or send a $100 per day extortion fee to the State are being fined, like the recent CVS $3.6 million.

How did we get to this point?  Certainly the Federal Government bears some responsibility.  The China trade war resulted in China stopping and/or slowing its massive buying of recycled products from the U.S.  “We don’t want your trash” they said.  Part of that problem would be the big exporters dumping too much contaminants into the loads.  Part is retaliation for U.S. trade sanctions.  A big slow-down of China purchases of scrap caused the prices to fall, putting pressure on our recycling industry.  The big losers in all this are not just RePlanet type shops, but the cunsumers have been really screwed.

The State of California, meanwhile, continues to rake in the bucks.  They make money either way.  Now that hundreds of recycling centers have closed, payouts for redeeming bottles and cans go down, but income from charging consumers 5 and 10 cents per container continues to pour in to State coffers by the millions.  A bigger profit for the greedy State.  Plus they now can collect millions more by fining the stores for not complying with the rules.  The chains and convenience stores did not see this coming, and they didn’t want to have to take back cans and bottles, it’s at times a logistical nightmare for them.

Plus, the State makes even more money by telling consumers to dump their recycled cans and bottles into the “Blue Bins” run by the cities, more money for their partners in this scam, the local cities.  This big mess calls the whole program into question.  Why should the State be involved at all?  Why not let consumers not pay ANY deposit, and just run campaigns to push them to recycle at scrap yards for market prices?  The retailers, stores and chains would be very happy with this.  The consumers would be happy not to pay the deposit.  The thieves who smuggle in millions of bottles to California scrap yards from other states would be out of business.  More scrap yards will open up to process the bottles and cans.  Low income and homeless could once again make a few bucks and get some exercise hunting for scrap.

California should shut down this program.  They can do better by just being cheerleaders for recycling and helping and encouraging the recycling industry to make advancements.  The bottle deposit scam should end now.

Aug 07

Secret List of Locations To Get Your Deposts Back (CRV)

Use This List To Find Stores In California That Have Signed Forms With the State of California Obligating Them to Return Deposits

Don’t Look at this list – It’s a Secret List.

Check the list.  “Option A” stores and markets MUST give you your money back.  “Option B” stores do not have to because they pay the State $100 per day to opt out.  Print out this list and keep it with you.

List of redemption locations

Aug 07

Recycling Collapses in California – Huge Crises

rePlanet Closes All Recycling Centers – 800 Employees Laid Off – Consumers Have Nowhere To Go To Get Deposit Money Back.

Conspiracy Theories Deepen as CalRecycle knew that rePlanet was running at a loss for years and refused to help.

The giant recycling Company rePlanet has closed down.  It was running at a loss for quite some time, and it was up to the State of California’s CalRecycle to help them out.  Because the big grocery chains and the gas station stores and the 7-11 stores lobbied so they would not have to bear an unreasonable cost and hassle to take care of the recycling bottles and cans and returning deposits, companies like rePlanet took up the challenge.  The problem was rising costs, rising wages, and now facing a 25% tariff tax on all recyclables going to China, they needed financial help from the State.  Not enough was offered, so down they went, and now almost 1,500 recycling outlets have closed down in the last few years.

The State, however, is laughing all the way to the bank.  They get all the money from the CRV deposits and make even more money because they don’t have to pay it back to the consumer.  They make some $200,000,000 per year on this.  This is now a serious fraud on the California consumer, who pays a deposit and now can’t find a place to get their money back.

And then there are the cities, many of whom have closed down their recycling yards.  They now get all their bottles and cans FREE in the blue recycle bins, and SELL them to the State of Callifornia, thereby making millions of dollars.

Read our other posts on this, and also go to www.SouthlandNewsBureau for more..

Also check out www.container-Recycling.org for more information

Jun 21

Documents Prove Bottle Deposit Conspiracy Against Consumers

Official Documents From Santa Monica Prove Conspiracy With State Politicians To Cheat Consumers Out of Millions of Dollars

Official Document Directs Consumers To Use City Blue Containers Instead of getting back CRV Deposit

Official Documents from the City of Santa Monica proves the despicable conspiracy with the State politicians to cheat consumers, homeless, and low-income folks out of millions of dollars.  Document #1 (above) gives notice that the BuyBack Center, located at 2411 Delaware Ave., Santa Monica, would permanently close on June 15th.  Note lower down the page where we have placed a red arrow, the City directs consumers to put their bottles and cans in the city (blue) recycle bins for free, not collecting back their CRV deposit.

This cynical conspiracy first started by closing 1,000 recycling centers, including the huge Santa Monica buyback center where thousands of consumers, homeless, and low income folks came to get their deposit money for CRV bottles and cans.  Then the City directs consumers to give them all their CRV bottles and Cans for free.  The State of California collects untold millions of dollars for deposits on cans and bottles, so by choking off the process of returning the CRV deposits that they in effect are holding “in trust” from the consumer, they stand to gain huge amounts of cash for a slush fund for greedy Sacramento politicians.

According to Consumer Watchdog, the State has already amassed hundreds of millions of dollars with the CRV program, simply because most consumers are too lazy or busy to bother with keeping track and returning bottles and cans to get their deposit back.  Over the years, the State has made it increasingly difficult for consumers to return the bottles and cans.  First they allowed markets, liquor stores, gas stations, and other outlets to SELL bottles and cans of water and beverages, but stopped forcing these same locations to ACCEPT the cans back and redeem their deposits.  Then the State contracted with some private company to put in a few machines here and there where consumers could drop in their cans and bottles and get a receipt that would be cashed (redeemed) by a local business or market.  The bad news for consumers is that the machines are not correctly programmed and so do not accept many qualified bottles and cans.  We proved that in 2010 by video taping bottles from Ralph’s Market that would not be accepted by the machines (see video link in previous article).  Ralph’s also refused to redeem the CRV bottles.  This was only one example out of many, many mistakes the machines would reject.

The machines also jam up frequently, and the company removed the custodians who they originally had to empty the machines.  Anyone watching this process for an hour or so will see that the machines can fill up in 30 minutes and then they are jammed for the rest of the day.  Consumers soon tire of haulig around their bottles and cans only to be met with defective, out of order machines.  Many of even these defective and sloppy operations have now been closed down.

By now closing down the big buyback centers, consumers, homeless and low-income folks now have nowhere to go in many areas.  On the West Side of L.A., with Santa Monica closed, there is nowhere to go west of the 405 freeway.  Which brings us to the final insult in Document #2, below:

The first red arrow shows just where your bottles and cans go, you know, the ones you are now GIVING the City FOR FREE.  They are collected by the City and given to a private “Recycling” company who then sells the bottles and cans back to industry.  It is not clear if this company is sorting out the CRV to sell back to the State of California. It should be noted that the CRV deposit is often more that the “per pound” price of plastic and aluminum.

The second red arrow points consumers to the “nearest” redemption centers, one in Cheviot Hills and one in Culver City.  Does anyone in their right mind think for one minute that consumers are going to drive all the way to Cheviot Hills to MAYBE get their CRV deposit back?  Can you envision some poor homeless bloke riding a bike with bags of bottles and cans all the way to Culver City?  This shameless plot against consumers highlights the class war that is going on.  The political elite and their fellow conspirators in Santa Monica City Council have just pulled off a huge heist of millions of dollars from an unknowing, hapless public.  The next question:  IS THERE AN HONEST DISTRICT ATTORNEY WHO WILL BREAK UP THIS CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY.?

The Santa Monica Buyback Center is now CLOSED.

The once bustlling yard is now silent. All employees will lose their jobs.

Jun 18

California State Massive Fraud Against Consumers

Hundreds of Millions Stolen in Bottle Redemption Scam as Recycling Centers Are Closed

Homeless and Low Income Folks Shut Out of Recycling

With the closing this week of the Santa Monica Recycling Center, there is now no place to redeem your bottles and cans west of the 405 Freeway.  Not only has the State failed to return the money collected from consumers to help the local recycling centers, but a criminal conspiracy between the State of California, some of the large grocers, and certain trash waste haulers have put hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

Another side-effect is that many thousands of homeless folks, low income folks, and other citizens who make all or part of their meager living by picking up trash and bottles for recycling are finding it hard to keep doing it because over 40% of the recycling centers have closed down, meaning that in many areas there is nowhere to go to turn in your bottles and cans.  Collecting and redeeming bottles and cans brings in a small amount of coin for the poverty class.  Cheating the public in such a blatant way is one more example of the class war that is being conducted by the political elite in Sacramento and many other states..

Over 1,000 Redemption Centers closed in California

According to Susan Collins of  the Container Recycling Institute, over 1000 Redemption Centers have been recently closed.  All of us are forced to pay the CRV (recycling) fee when you buy water or beverages.  You pay 5 cents for small bottles and 10 cents for large containers.  You are entitled by law to get your  money back, but the State of California has found a way to cheat you by making it almost impossible to return the bottles.  When this program started years ago the merchant who sold you the beverage had to take the container back.  Then all the merchants were exempted due to lobbying by the big market chains because it was a bother for them..  The greedy crooks in California didn’t want to cut the markets in for their trouble in collecting the fees and then collecting the bottles back, so they then contracted out to some companies to install machines in some (not all) market locations.These machines were not programmed correctly, here’s a video we shot back in 2010 proving that Ralph’s market collected the CRV and then Rejected the bottle for a return credit.

Consumer Watchdog Accuses California of Breaking the Social Contract 

Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog, has accused the State of California of breaking the social contract with it’s citizens.  The Cal Recycle Agency is sitting on $360 Million Dollars, money they have collected from consumers they have cheated from getting their deposits back.  God knows how many more millions have been siphoned off or stolen.  For instance, who audits the tens of thousands of gas stations, small markets, large markets and other outlets who COLLECT the deposit money.  How much of that cash is actually just EMBEZZLED and never given to the State?  In addition, some independent recycling centers have been caught trucking in plastic bottles from Arizona and selling them to the State for CRV deposit.  The “per pound” price paid for plastic bottles can often be less than the California CRV, another way the consumer is cheated by this system.  The State also was cheated when recycling centers bought plastic bottles from out of state by the pound and sold them to California for the higher CRV.

Santa Monica Closes the Last Redemption Center on the Westside

Santa Monica, choked off from funds even though the gluttonous Governor and his cronies are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of consumer paid in money, is closing the last Recycling Center on the Westside of Los Angeles.  The West L.A. area consumers pay around 6 million dollars a year for CRV deposits,  Now, there is nowhere close to go to get your money back.  Here’s a video of the closing, with Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog and Susan Collins of Container Recycling Institute:

Outrage over Santa Monica City Council Action Closing Center

With the Recycling Center now closed, thousands of homeless and low-income folks have nowhere to take bottles collected off streets.  Consumers have nowhere to get their deposits back.  The City, meanwhile pays trash haulers huge amounts to fill landfills.  The bottles and cans in trash trucks go mostly to landfills because they are contaminated inside the trucks.  The bottles and cans collected by the Recycling centers are generally clean and can be made into new bottles and cans.

The United States Attorney Must Investigate This Corruption in the State of Caifornia

The U.S. Attorney should launch a serious investigation into this multi-million dollar fraud.  Here’s some of the main points.

  1.  The State of California has committed massive fraud on it’s citizens and broken the law by cheating and scamming consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars through devious means.
  2.  Investigate the large markets, the gas station stores and all stores selling beverages for signs of embezzling the cash from CRV deposits.
  3. Investigate the donations, cash and possible bribes from the trash hauling industry to politicians in Sacramento.
  4. Demand that all outlets that sell beverages must also redeem the CRV.
  5. Re-open enough recycling centers to handle the job.  It should not have to be a half a days trek to return a few bottles.
  6. .Investigate the Cal Recycle bureaucrats for misuse of funds, fraud on consumers, and provoking class war on homeless folks and low income folks who survive on doing society a big favor for very little money.
Mar 13

Sleeping A Crime in Virginia

Sleeping in Your Car on Your Own Property Now A Crime in Virginia

 
Sleeping is Now a Crime
By Eric Peters
Eric Peters Autos
March 9, 2019

It’s become one of those self-evident truths Massa Tom once wrote about to state that government has become overtly punitive – as opposed to keeping the peace, its sole legitimate function.
There are many examples. Here is the latest.
Virginia’s Roanoke County has hurled a fatwa (news story here) making it a crime to sleep in your own car – even if that car is parked on your own property.
Which nicely delineates the true ownership of “your” property.
“Violators” are subject to arrest – and a $250 fine. Also a possible Hut! Hut! Hutting! – since the fatwa endows armed government workers with the legal power to come onto private property, rap their knuckles or flashlights on private property (the vehicle, its windows) and demand ID and so on from someone not harming anyone.

If the person questions, is the least bit recalcitrant . . . Hut! Hut! Hut! Bash the window in and drag the victim out.
Keep in mind: The law not only permit but specifically empowers the AGWs to perform these operations . . . even on private property.
I am test driving the 2020 Mercedes GLE450 this week (review will be posted soon). It comes with massaging seats, which I happen to not have inside my house. And so I have been spending time in the Benz – which is parked on my driveway. The one I am forced to pay taxes on, for the privilege of being allowed to use – and the fiction that I own.
Doubled-down on by this fatwa.
Armed government thugs – what else are they? – who notice me snoozing in the Benz, parked on my driveway, in front of my garage – now have the power to trespass onto my property (I did not invite them, do not want them) and physically accost me.
If I “resist” – i.e., tell them to fuck off and get off my property – it’s time for the Hut! Hut! Hut! routine.
It is obscene.
Even more obscene, the bullies responsible for this outrage have been trying to gaslight their victims. When a local news affiliate questioned the Board of Supervisors, it received the following:
“The purpose of the ordinance is to enable our staff to intervene in serious cases where people are using their automobiles for an extended period of time as sleeping quarters, in place of a residence, hotel or other accommodations. Most importantly, our concern is for the health and safety of the person living in this type of situation, particularly during the cold winter months. Enforcement of the ordinance will be complaint-driven, and individuals in need will be provided with information regarding resources to aid them in their situation. The ordinance does not prohibit short-term napping in vehicles.”
Italics added.
The “health and safety” of the person… who is now to be Hut! Hut! Hutted!
And they will be subject to the Hut! Hut! Hutting! because  . . . it is “healthier” and “safer”to sleep exposed to the cold and rain and whatever else is outside than to shelter inside a warm car.
And the caveat about the ordinance not “…prohibit(ing) short-term napping in vehicles”?
Who will decide what constitutes “short term” and “nap”? Why, the armed government worker on scene; it will be at his discretion.
What was it The Church Lady used t say? Isn’t that special!

Even assuming an AGW who isn’t looking for a reason to hassle someone, the plain fact is the law empowers him to hassle anyone he likes.
The person napping – or sleeping – can no longer tell the AGW to go away. Well, no longer has any legal power to demand the AGW go away.
In his own car – even if parked on his property. Or – and this is just as important – property owned by someone else, who is not complaining about it.
This ugly business is, however, to be expected – and expanded. In many states, it has been illegal for years to sleep it off in your car. The once-upon-a-time responsible  thing to do after having one too many has become the legal equivalent of the irresponsiblething; the “violator” may be charged with drunk driving  . . . even though no driving has taken place.
Thus encouraging drunks to drive.
Why not, after all? At least you’ll be a moving target – and you’ll probably make it home without killing anyone (as opposed to certainlynot killing anyone if you were left in peace to sleep it off).
Both sleeping it off – and just sleeping (or even just napping) have in common the thing which used to be relevant insofar as the law was concerned but no longer is:
No harm done.
Because the law now concerns itself with being the cause of harm. It began a long time ago, with little things – seatbelt laws, for instance – that set the precedent for more (and bigger) things.
I’ve tried, for many years, to get across the point that precedent become practice. That if X is permitted, Y will follow – if the two are based on the same general principle.
Thus:
If a person who has long ago paid the bank in full for his home is forced to continue paying the government what amounts to rent in order to be allowed to live in “his” home, then why not also pass a law making it illegal for him to nap – or sleep – in “his” car, even if it is parked on “his” driveway – and in front of “his” home?
Precisely.

May 08

The Pavement – London Magazine for Homeless

Magazine in London Helps Homeless With Articles on Where to Get Food and Services

Pavement magazine, 5 year anniversary film from nick aldridge on Vimeo.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE PAVEMENT MAGAZINE (LONDON)

SERVICE PROVIDERS

“We are always happy to get a call from The Pavement – it’s one way of telling that something we are doing is having a real impact on the lives of homeless people. Plus we rely on The Pavement to help us get news and information about services and issues out to the people most affected.” Alison Gelder, CEO, Housing Justice.

“I have seen The Pavement a couple of times now and am really impressed with the content of it. It contains helpful information for our clients regarding what services are available in the city.” Programme Coordinator, The Salvation Army

READERS

“I think The Pavement is brilliant. To people that don’t know it, I’d describe it as like a mix of Private Eye and the Yellow Pages for homeless people. It’s certainly something that I relied on many times.

“I remember the last time I was homeless, I went to a Day Centre and said it’d been a while since I’d slept rough in the city and needed some information about soup runs. They gave me a copy of The Pavement and that sorted me out.

“I knew where I could go to get food, where I could find day centres and get the help I needed. With a copy of The Pavement in your hand, you can survive.

“Homeless people need The Pavement. It gives us a voice and we don’t have a voice. You don’t hear these stories in the mainstream media. They tell you about Katie Price’s wedding but not about the homeless guy who was stabbed in Blackfriars last night. That’s what The Pavement is for.” Christopher Ubsdell, former rough sleeper

OUR MISSION AND AIMS

The Pavement is committed to publishing independent advice as well as hard-hitting and entertaining reportage, tailored to a homeless readership within the UK via our regional magazines and UK-wide website. We aim to provide and publicise appropriate information that is objective, timely and relevant on a range of advisory and practical services available to homeless people, as well as news on the issues impacting the homeless and dispossessed from across the UK. Our ultimate goal is to help reduce short-term hardship amongst our readers and longer term to provide them with information to enable them to guide their own futures.

The Pavement exists because there was nothing like it, but it fulfils a need.

The Pavement is a small charity, founded in the spring of 2005. We distribute The Pavement in London, Scotland and the West Midlands, and we plan to launch in other regions. In London alone, we deliver 4,000+ copies of The Pavement to over 70 hostels, day centres, homeless surgeries, soup-runs and libraries. By using volunteer journalists and homelessness sector professionals, as well as work from the country’s best cartoonists (many of them Private Eye contributors), we’ve achieved a balance of news, features, humour and service listings unlike other publications.

Our journalists cover the news from the streets or news affecting the streets, and we often deal with topics ignored by the mainstream press. Alongside this, other professionals provide features on health, foot care, legal advice and life in hostels, with the back pages given over to The List, a regularly updated directory of homeless services.

As always, we welcome comment, so do get in contact.

RECENT AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS

WORD ON THE STREET

The Pavement’s Word on the Street project aimed to empower homeless volunteers to contribute as fully as possible to the magazine. For three months, volunteers with direct experience of homelessness attended workshops, run by media professionals, to help them develop skills in reporting and photojournalism. They were given training in everything from interviewing to computer skills. The team pulled together a very special November 2014 issue of The Pavement, which featured a brand new cartoon strip (1, 2), Heartbreak Hotel, based on their experiences in hostels, as well as a host of first personal pieces. The group will continue to contribute to the magazine, drawing on a growing bank of ideas for articles, and creating podcasts for the website. A short film about the project is in development.

1 Forget Dennis the Menace and the Bash Street Kids… Beano artist’s new cartoon strip stars a homeless Scot (Sunday Herald, 2 November 2014)

2 Karin Goodwin talks about Heartbreak Hotel (STV, 14 November 2014)

THE UK COMMON RIGHTS PROJECT

The UK Common Rights Project allowed homeless people to speak about the lack of those common rights – water, sanitation, food and shelter – the rest of us take for granted. We worked with Housing Justice and Open Cinema to create a hard-hitting report and website, which were launched at the House of Commons. One of the project films won the Best Short Documentary category at the 2014 Moondance International Film Festival in the US. The project was a follow-up to 2010’s Rights Guide for Rough Sleepers, which we worked on with Housing Justice and Liberty.

WHO BENEFITS?

Over 100 charities, big and small, are members of the high-profile campaign that aims to show the reality of the help that benefits provide, why they need it and the difference it makes. Almost a third of homeless people on Jobseekers Allowance have had their benefits sanctioned (cut off), for instance, compared to just three per cent of housed claimants, leading to destitution and desperation among some of the country’s most vulnerable people.

JUST FAIR CONSORTIUM

The Just Fair Consortium monitors the fundamental human rights to food, housing, social security, education, equality, employment and health. Members, who include Oxfam, the Trussell Trust, the Trade Union Congress and Unicef UK, endorsed a common statement of recommendations from the Going Hungry? The Human Right to Food in the UK report. In 2015, the United Nations will review the UK’s human rights record, and the consortium will be part of the reporting process.

American readers can go online to www.thePavement.org.uk to read the current and past issues for free. Be sure to check out their comic strip.  Below are some photos from some of their issues.