If you have HBO you may be able to catch it today or tonight VOD. At least Comcast shows it available through today that way. I think it should be offered on HBO's YouTube channel like they did their four part obesity series. Everyone in the US should see this. It is about 8 families dealing with homelessness in Portland, Oregon and what brought them there. It is about the efforts of a community run agency to help these people. What got me applauding was how the leaders of these efforts nailed what happened to our economy to put people there. You will recognize many of the same reasons I often post here.
It is not the fault of these people they are homeless and that is something when I come across someone depressed because of unemployment or losing their home I emphasize. I like to flip that depression to anger and activism. Why anger? Because wimpy activism doesn't work. The culprits need some fear for any change to happen if it can at all (what do you do with 250 trillion dollars in bad paper and the rich insisting on getting their money). My only fault with this film is that it might have helped to find some folks who had incomes of $100K or more a year finding themselves homeless or unemployed. That's even more astounding especially with people who have loads of experience. And it happens more to people at that level than with blue collar jobs. Things are a bit upside down. Most all these people were willing to work but not finding jobs. There is a case of degreed medical worker who though she found work was only being paid minimum wage. The minimum wage when we were younger were for the light unskilled jobs you might take for a while. And employers even expected you to leave if you found something better and they had no problem replacing you. Back then one could afford to buy a car, rent a house, eat well and even have money left over with a minimum wage job. So the problem might not be wages but too high a cost of living mainly inflated by hedge fund speculators who should be in prison. If you have a chance, please see this documentary: http://www.americanwinterfilm.com/
