Homeless advocate Gerardo Gomez and host Janice Markham discuss the current state of homelessness in the United States. Topics covered include fair housing, homeless civil rights, policy issues and homeless veterans.
Gerardo Gomez, counselor and homeless advocate, has been an outspoken human rights activist for over a decade. He helped organize a homeless memorial in 2006 in downtown Los Angeles for the men and women who have died on the streets of the nation's second-largest city. He also held a homeless memorial in 2004 in Chile. At the young age of twenty Gomez became a board member of the National Coalition for Homelessness based in Washington D.C.
In March of 2007, Gomez held a "People's Assembly" to begin searching for ways to end the city's homelessness. This gathering included activists, educators, politicians, and concerned citizens as well many homeless individuals.
The federal government earlier this year estimated that there were 754,000 homeless people in 2005, including those living in shelters, transitional housing and on the street.
June 20, 2007 AP
