A Simple Thread

The police officer set her newly-trained German Shepherd to attack a homeless man who had not committed a crime and was complying with the demands of the officers, simply because the officer wanted the dog to get a taste of flesh and bone. She asked her sergeant for permission, saying, "Hey Sarge, we got a new dog. Mind if it gets a bite?" Her defense was that the homeless man wasn't badly hurt and needed "only ten stitches." The officer had a record of brutality. She was tried and convicted over this incident. Trump just pardoned the officer. Homeless people, especially those who are undocumented, are not really people in the minds of too many. Read the story.

Opinion | Trump’s worst pardon is one you haven’t heard about Trump’s pardon of Stephanie Mohr sends a reckless message to law enforcement and emboldens bad officers.

100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. That's what I handed out to homeless Houstonians today. I went by myself and it was a perfect distribution. A Simple Thread will usually go to places where we know there will be a lot of homeless neighbors. Today I went to a lot of other places where there were only 10 or 15 people. I stopped, handed out cookies, and talked to people. People talked to me about their sisters and daughters who sold Girl Scout cookies.Most of the stories involved parents having to pay for cookies because the siblings of the Girl Scout broke into the stash of irresistible boxes. I talked to three women who sold cookies themselves. One remembered when they were a dollar a box. I talked to a man who said that he had been in a home for troubled youth from 1979 and 1982, and all the boys were in Boy Scouts. He had some good stories, but said that he was always jealous of his sister who was in Girl Scouts for only one year, but got to sell cookies. It was so much fun to give them a choice of various kinds of cookies. Occasionally, someone would say that they would take whatever I gave them. But most people had a definite preference and talked about how they loved that particular cookie forever. One man asked if he could donate two dollars to help cover the cost of the box I gave him. I saw so many smiles of gratitude today and I haven't stopped smiling just thinking about them all day. A delightful day.

Thanks for sending this, Troy Chandler.

How to unharden our hearts toward homeless people It's funny how off first impressions can be.

Father and son duo determined to help the homeless one meal at a time

This article offers so much insight into homelessness. It made me cry, but in a good way. Also, if you can take the time to read it, it made me think that A Simple Thread should look into getting 100 Little Caesar's pizza and taking them to that tent city bridge.

Coffee makers. Showers. Air conditioning. After years on the streets, Houston's homeless relearn life indoors. Some people experiencing homelessness encounter something called “mental permanence.” A person in a highly stressful is forced to focus on survival rather than getting out of that situation. Habits formed trying to survive while homeless are hard to just turn off once inside a home.

Many thanks to Christin Chandler for sponsoring this distribution of 77 warm jackets, 50 knit caps, and 50 pairs of gloves to some very grateful homeless Houstonians. Thanks, as always, to our volunteersIt was a memorable afternoon.

My favorite story from tonight's jacket distribution. This man in the red shirt on the left side of the photo below came up to me after he got his jacket and he said, "This jacket is so great and I'll put it to good use. Every morning, I have to get up at 4:30 so that I can catch the Red Line Rail to get to work by 6:00. And sometimes it's just so hard, when it's really cold, to make myself get out of that warm sleeping bag. But having this coat will make it easier." I told him I was glad to hear that. He said, "I think you're the ones who gave me that sleeping bag back before Christmas!" He was right.

Some good news.

Supreme Court lets stand ruling that protects homeless people who sleep on sidewalk Supreme Court lets stand a ruling that says homeless people have a right to sleep on the streets if a city doesn't have enough shelters to house them.

Thanks to Troy Chandler with Chandler McNulty, and the many people who donated sleeping bags for this distribution, we handed out 213 warm, new sleeping bags (and candy) to grateful homeless Houstonians this afternoon. Thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers.

Robert Marbut has been appointed by the Trump Administration to head the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Marbut is a consultant who has urged cities to put unsheltered adults into 24/7 programing and to stop feeding the homeless. He has criticized the "housing first" approach (which prioritizes providing permanent housing first) with condescending, victim-blaming rhetoric. He is a tragic choice for this Council on Homelessness.