There can be hope for the homeless

From 1929-1939, the Great Depression crashed down around people’s lives, leaving millions homeless and hopeless. Unemployment rose to 20 percent. President Franklin Roosevelt used executive order to create the WPA (Work Progress Administration) and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) work programs.

These programs put millions of desperate men and women to work. WPA was connected to public works programs; participants built schools, hospitals, highways, airfields, sewer systems. CCC was connected to natural resource programs; participants planted trees, fought forest fires, built campgrounds, re-seeded grazing lands, implemented soil erosion controls.

WPA and CCC helped solve the crisis of the Depression. With a job, Depression-era men and women were able to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, and hope.

In the United States, we spend more than half of our annual budget on the military. The remaining money is spent on about 11 other headings: education, health care, veteran’s benefits, housing, science, Social Security, farming are a few. Military spending takes more money than all 11 combined! Not one single heading receives more than 6 percent of our overall budget, except the military.

With homeless, hungry, people living in the woods behind your local Safeway or standing on a corner with a sign ”Anything helps, God bless.” how can we possibly feel great about America or ourselves?

One percent of our military budget is about $13 billion. Would you be willing to see that much money go toward hope for the homeless? Support revitalization of WPA and CCC type programs.