What I'm faced with in trying to find funding sources is that there is a huge burden on the private sector to give money to groups. This creates polarization between service providers and destroys the ability to really work together because in the end we are competing for the same money and have to prove that "we" deserve it more than "them". I think the federal government should provide money to the states for services based on need, the states should push that money into the municipalities, and then the cities or counties should decide from there what groups to fund. This is basically the way it happens now, but there are so many hands dipping into the same little pot that there just isn't enough to go around.

I do agree that we at B&R do a better job of serving people than government agencies could, mostly, I think, because we don't think of people as numbers, we think of people as people. As a full time staff person at B&R I get room and board at our staff house and a $200/month stipend. We put roughly 90% of our total money into the services that we provide. We'd like to have more for our staff, such as medical and dental, or larger stipends, but we aren't willing to scale our services back in order to do it. Our primary focus is on getting people housed, and we do well at it. The problem with relying on private donations is that it is hard to plan for the future. Private donations are not reliable. Grants are. When Katrina hit we had hard times because people were donating money to the relief efforts instead of giving money to us. I don't blame people for giving money to Katrina victims, it's a noble cause. My point is that right now the reliable funding sources are through government grants. Most private grants are one time only, and never cover operational costs. The government grant that we have through HUD is what pays our rent and keeps our advocacy center alive. Likewise, citizens who donate don't like to donate money for office supplies or rent, they want their money to go to direct services. So it's a challenge to juggle all of our expenses when we don't have a reliable funding source.

I do not agree that all those needs can be filled by private organizations currently. Most of those private organizations listed will help people sign up for government social services that they are eligible for, because that is what is consistently available.

I don't think this type of corruption in government and society has always been so widespread as it is now.

There were certainly simpler times when human society was more solid. Maybe there are too many of us, we are a nation of people spread over too large an area to recognize or achieve any degree of real solidarity.

Unless there is a revolution, or revelation of obeyance to a system of higher ethical standards, to a higher moral code. We need to spend more on the welfare of our collective humanity...