A view into the lives of those many people ignore

California’s Homeless Find a Quiet Place

In 2010 the federal government set forth an ambitious goal to end chronic homelessness by 2015. Numbers have declined, but according to a 2014 HUD report, more than 570,000 people are still without homes in America—and 20 percent of those are in California. Urban libraries fill the void, sheltering the homeless by day.

Cities have responded to homelessness with new codes of public conduct and trespassing ordinances enforced on persons deemed to be disorderly, unkempt, or of foul smell. The San Francisco Public Library has directly addressed the situation—it was the first in the country to add a full-time social worker to its staff. Leah Esguerra reaches out to homeless patrons in the main branch of the library. “Libraries are the last bastion of democracy,” she says.

These are interesting

But I think a better one for us would have been Waverly Hills Sanatorium, an abandoned and supposedly haunted old tuberculosis sanitorium in Louisville, although since its undergoing tours in the hopes of restoration, maybe it's no longer considered 'abandoned'.

Abandoned America: 50 States, 50 Deserted Places

Interesting photo essay

Where Children Sleep

Recently, the charitable organization Save the Children asked documentary photographer James Mollison to come up with an idea to get people thinking about the rights of children around the world. What he came up with was an unusual, but powerful project: a photo essay of more than 200 children and their bedrooms, called "Where Children Sleep."

"I found myself thinking about my bedroom: how significant it was during my childhood, and how it reflected what I had and who I was," Mollison, who was born in Kenya, writes. "It occurred to me that a way to address some of the complex situations and social issues affecting children would be to look at the bedrooms of children in all kinds of different circumstances." The book has sold out since its initial printing last year, and Mollison says his publisher intends to reprint it later this year.

The link above shows a small sampling, including one girl from Harlan County, Kentucky. But to see more, go to the author's site. There are actually two from Kentucky. The second one, a boy's room, frightens me more than any other child's room in the essay, mainly due to the decorative use of guns and camouflage, although the room of the little girl from Japan whose mother spends $1000 on her wardrobe comes a close second.

Thanks to Sarah Glenn for the link.