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There is a quacks and goofballs – Florida Keys school system and voters post today at goodmorningfloridakeys.com. Meanwhile …
Received this the other day from Father Stephen Braddock (photo), CEO of Florida Keys Outreach Coaltion, based in Key West
Subject: Homeless Isn’t Hopeless now offered as FREE E-book!
From: frbraddock@cs.com
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:36:34 -0500
Dear Friends:
I am pleased to share the news that William Laney’s wonderful book “Homeless isn’t Homeless” is now being made available as an E-book FREE of CHARGE thanks to the author and a generous sponsor! Click williamlaney.net to download your copy and to make an optional donation to the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition and/or Volunteers of America. Please forward to your family, friends and colleagues.
“Homeless Isn’t Hopeless is great! It is well written,
factual, right on the mark, and it tells great stories.”
— Dr. Michael Stoops, Executive Director,
National Coalition for the Homeless
“An amazingly readable foray into the unthinkable…
a must read book!”
— Alyson Matley-Crean,
Key West Bureau Chief of the Florida Keys Keynoter
“Homelessness is a devastating experience
that disrupts every aspect of one’s life.
Laney demonstrates that one’s will and
positive attitude are our greatest resource
when facing any of life’s challenges.”
— Rev. Stephen E. Braddock, Ph.D., President & CEO,
Florida Keys Outreach Coalition for the Homeless
“Reveals the thread of our common humanity.”
— JT Thompson, Founder, One Human Family Foundation
I bought and read Bill Laney’s book a few years ago. As I recall the timing, he lived on Greyhound buses for several years, before he connected with Florida Keys Outreach Coalition.
I wrote back:
Hi, Steve – can you provide an update on how Laney is doing? Where he lives, works, general state of being, as you understand it. Thanks. Sloan
Steve replied, with a copy to Bill Laney:
Hi Sloan:
Bill is doing great. He writes regularly for the Huffington Post. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.
www.huffingtonpost.com/william-laney/
williamlaney.blogspot.com
I replied to Bill, with a copy to Steve:
Hi, Bill. Steve sent me the link to your ebook, you can read what I wrote back. Can you write a little story about what you are doing now, job, housing, life, feelings, etc.? People might like to know that, in conjunction with your book. Thanks. Sloan
William Laney
Bill replied:
Hi, Sloan,
Hope this finds you healthy and happy and still able to kick up a ruckus now and then. Thanks for asking about me. I’m doing relatively well at present and I’m still able to raise a little hell myself–on rare occasions.
Since finishing the book at FKCC library that hallelujah Saturday, March 29, 2008, much has happened–some good, some bad, but all interesting. Thanks to an angel named Melissa Parks, whose earthly purpose at the time I met her was her work with Volunteers of America, I found comfortable, affordable housing three years ago in Gainesville.
Before that there were a couple years after the book’s release with a roller coaster life of ups and downs. A few weeks after the book came out in September, 2008 I was diagnosed with colon cancer and had two surgeries. Also had eye surgery (congenital problem), heart surgery (re pacemaker, and hospitalization twice a/c leg wound. All the medical stuff kept me riding the bus longer than I planned.
But the additional time with Greyhound was educational, and enjoyable until sitting too long caused problems. And the bus pass helped me do some speaking, including gigs as keynote speaker for Episcopal Charities fundraisers in Boca and Key Biscayne.
Since last April I’ve been doing some writing for The Huffington Post –www.huffingtonpost/.com/william-laney — with a few about homelessness/social issues a couple on sports, and then mostly for the Politics section those months leading up to the election.
That’s the condensed version of what’s been going on Overall, Sloan, the glass is still half full–and life is good.
Best always, Bill
I replied:
Hi, Bill -
Wow! Sounds like you went through a woodchipper, so to speak. Different in some ways from the woodchipper I was sent though, still am enjoying in other formations.
Can you send me a copy of, or a link to, your last Huffington Post piece? Might be nice to share a later piece of your writings with my readers.
Am not clear, you are on your own now, earning enough to pay rent, buy groceries, get around? I still haven’t figured out how to “earn my keep” in that way, and make folks who call homeless people bums and worse happy.
Rich man, you, if you are happy. I ain’t figured that part out yet, either. But sometimes I have happy moments, mostly sometimes each day, on the roller coaster.
Thanks,
Sloan
Bill replied:
Hi Sloan,
If you Google william laney huffington post the screen that comes up will show a brief bio followed by listing and links to my HP columns in reverse chronological order–most recent column first. I don’t think you are, but should your political persuasion be the far right, be warned. Most of the political stuff will give you heartburn.
I am on social security and my rent is subsidized by HUD. I also benefit in some ways cost-wise by the fact that the property is managed by Volunteers of America. Still, years of self-employ have me on the low end of the SS totem pole. Bottom line, I get by fairly comfortable if I forego things like eating out, etc.
Overall I benefit from the fact that not being too smart means you never know when you should be unhappy.
Best, Bill
——————————————————
Often have I written in posts that it’s one thing to get a chronically homeless person into a shelter or recovery program, but it’s something else entirely to get a chronically homeless person back to independent living. This is what Robert Marbut of San Antonio does not tell when he snows city and county officials during his pitches for them to pay him to get homeless people off their local streets. However, I got Marbut to admit to me in Old City Hall, in Key West, that he was moving homeless people into shelters, and they eventually were moved from there into other subsidized living quarters, but not many of them actually returned to independent living where they were making enough money for rent, groceries, etc. The actual cost of getting homeless people off the street, into shelters, and into subsidized living probably cannot be calculated, but it has to be huge.
This is what Key West’s Mayor Craig Cates does not seem to have grasped. This is what Southern Homeless Assistance League did not grasp. This is what most people I know have not grasped. However, Steve Braddock understands it. There is no way not to understand it, if you are the CEO of Florida Keys Outreach Coalition, providing shelter and a chance to start over to down and out people. Yet, there is a high recidivism rate in homeless rehab programs. And, there is a high recidivism rate in addiction recovery programs. For such programs to have a chance to work, abstinence is required, and to insure abstinence, random and frequent urine tests much be administered, and residents who flunk urine tests are made to leave the program, for you cannot have users in the same program with non-users.
There might be some success stories scattered about. However, there is no big pot of gold at the end of that rainbow, but a great deal of gold is being spent, will be spent, trying to prove that big pot of gold exists. Steve Braddock runs as good a homeless recovery program as there is, in my opinion. Mayor Cates does not listen to Steve or to me, who knows homelessness from living on the street, and in shelters, and other places Mayor Cates cannot begin to imagine. Steve’s and my views on homelessness are based in reality, and reality is not a friend of any political system known to me.
Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com