Los Angeles Accused of Criminalizing Homelessness

LOS ANGELES  - Two major advocacy groups for the homeless on Tuesday ranked Los Angeles as the "meanest" city in the United States, citing a Skid Row police crackdown they say has criminalized poverty and homelessness there.

L.A.'s so-called Safer City Initiative was singled out in the groups' report as the most egregious example of policies and practices nationwide that essentially punish people for failing to have a roof over their heads.

Economic Casualties Pile Into Tent Cities

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. - Jim Marshall recalls everything about that beautiful fall day.

The temperature was about 70 degrees on Nov. 19, the sky was "totally blue," and the laughter from a martini bar drifted into the St. Petersburg park where Marshall, 39, sat contemplating his first day of homelessness.

"I was thinking, 'That was me at one point,' " he says of the revelers. "Now I'm thinking, 'Where am I going to sleep tonight? Where do I eat? Where do I shower?' "

Lack of Housing, Funding, Support Dooms Many Mentally Ill Residents to a Life on the Streets

Richard Antwine's last home was the county jail.

The 47-year-old ended up there, again, after another round of homeless shelters, boarding homes and psychiatric hospitals. This time, it was because he failed to report to his parole officer. He said he missed the appointment because he was hospitalized. He has severe depression and was hearing voices telling him to hurt himself. His court-appointed lawyer said he doesn't belong in jail. "Somebody dropped the ball somewhere," she said.

Ranks of Homeless Swell as Middle Class Teeters

Just last year, Paul Conroy was riding high as a sound and stage technician. He lived in tony Marin County and had steady work either rigging shows at San Francisco's Orpheum or Curran theaters or setting up movie shoots for Francis Ford Coppola, Robin Williams and more, all over the Bay Area.

Now the only technical work he does is at the San Rafael library, where Conroy goes each day to check on a half-dozen job-listing Web sites. His Burberry suit and tie are in the trunk of his Honda Accord, alongside his John Riley golf clubs.

Admiral Says War Veterans Will Suffer for Years

NEW YORK - Homelessness, family strains and psychological problems among returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will persist in the U.S. for generations to come, the top U.S. military officer said Thursday.

"This is not a 10-year problem. It is a 50- or 60- or 70-year problem," Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a lunchtime audience at the Hudson Union Society, a group that promotes nonpartisan debate.

Mullen said he was particularly disturbed by the emergence of homelessness as a problem among war veterans.

Hidden Homeless Emerge as US Economy Worsens

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Emergency shelters brimming with homeless people in California's capital are quietly turning away more than 200 women and children a night in a sign of the deteriorating U.S. economy.

The displaced individuals on waiting lists at St. John's Shelter and other facilities often turn instead to relatives or friends for temporary living quarters, perhaps moving into a spare room, garage or trailer. The less fortunate might sleep in their cars or a vacant storage unit.