12 degree's was far too cold this morning when I woke up. I was already frozen despite being under blankets, surrounded by dogs and cats. I went outside with Rio and Gracie at dawn and watched the sun start to rise. The smell of smoke from the fireplaces still hung in the air, mixed with frozen mountain air. I couldn't stop sneezing or coughing and my feet were blocks of ice.Is summer anywhere close yet?
Follow @DeniseBundyToday has been a fabulous day, going into the upper 50's and so sunny. Rio and Gracie played outside while I finished up some washing. I didn't work very much today, but I did do a lot of breed lineage research, marketed some horses and managed to catch one of the Occupy protests being broadcast live on the computer.
The number of groups and organizations working to end homelessness has astounded me. I put them on my blog because they are incredibly good at focusing on the answers to a problem. A problem I never even knew existed... until I hired Robert Huckins, and became homeless myself.
Why is this such a problem?
Do we not recognize adequate housing as being a necessity not a luxury?
Do we really disregard the comfort and safety of others?
Doesn't that call into question our own humanity? Our own morals and character?
God has much to say about this.. and in better ways than I could ever say.
More Than A Roof Trailer from NESRI on Vimeo.
More Than A Roof
A powerful example of community journalism, More than A Roof tells the story of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing’s first official fact finding mission to the United States in 2009.
When Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, heeded a call to visit the United States during the heart of the housing crisis, it was the first time a UN expert on housing had formally investigated the United States. Knowing the story might never be told, a network of more than 70 grassroots organizations across the country coordinated her tour, mobilizing dozens of volunteer media makers, residents and organizers to document it.
Culled from this footage, More Than a Roof follows the Special Rapporteur’s historic cross-country journey to witness the human impacts of the crisis.
Through the film’s raw, honest footage, we see Americans crowded into mold-infested trailers on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, on the brink of losing homes to foreclosure in the old coal town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, camped out on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, and displaced by the massive destruction of public housing complexes in cities across the country.
The documentary was produced through a consensus-based post-production process that engaged a media collective with a national network of community-based organizations to create a film that offers a window into what Ms. Rolnik saw on the mission and the growing movement that has continued to blossom since her visit.
Part travelogue, part call to action, More Than a Roof is a model of grassroots media making and movement building, created by people living in crisis, who believe that something better is possible.
More Than a Roof is MORE THAN A FILM.
This trailer was screened at an event entitled “The Housing Rights Situation in the US” which took place at the UN Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 5, 2010. That same day the Special Rapporteur presented her report on the US mission to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
http://housingisahumanright.org/more-than-a-roof/
I had already been homeless for 2 years when the "More Than A Roof" project started. I am STILL homeless today. But Robert & Sylve Huckins have a comfortable home.
There has to be someone related to Robert &Sylve Huckins must have some means to reach them, if it be Michael Huckins, Dr.Kenneth Ogilvie ( Diana Huckins? Dominic Huckins? Malcolm Huckins? ) or Patricia Ogilvie-Huckins and get them to return ALL of the money they stole from us so that I can buy a home and get our lives back. I am begging anyone in this family for help.I don't believe I have EVER witnessed any none violent crime that can be as devastating as stealing someone's home. I am walking in Dorothy McKeevers footsteps, day by day, month by month, year by year.
Liam Griffin, I sat in your law office with two witnesses as you gave me your promise, your guarantee, that our money would be returned before harm came to us.
Patricia Ogilvie-Huckins you were present the day I signed contract with your son. You walked out of the kitchen with Sylve Huckins and your son introduced me to you. He told you that I was the British horse trainer he had told you about, the one he was going to build the home and barn for. Why didn't you say something? There may be a rational and reasonable explanation but I have spent over 3 years, homeless, not understanding it. I understand it even less knowing that though I was a total stranger, both Dorothy McKeever and Sally Canning you KNEW, and you knew what your son had done to them and others.
Dr. Kenneth Ogilvie, I contacted you and simply asked for a reference, not knowing that Robert Huckins was your cousin. Robert Huckins had just stolen over $30,000 from the domestic violence shelter, HEAL, yet everyone was trying to hide it. There was a history of stealing large amounts of money. $65,000 PLUS from Nancy Canning. $89,000 PLUS from Dorothy McKeever, $45,000 from Francis McKinney. The list just goes on and on and on.
Because of Robert Huckins I ended up paying $140,000 to be homeless.. sat in the cold, emotionally, physically and financially broke. In the middle of a recession, with no way to recover the stolen funds.
Today Robert Huckins has his own home...
He also has OUR home.....
He also has a lot of people's money...
And his freedom.
Women are not banks or loan institutions. Women should not be the source of a retirement fund for people who don't want to do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Holding women hostage while playing with the judicial system, a horrendous game of cat and mouse extending YEARS, with the victims whose very homes, families and stability are in jeopardy is cruelty, as cruel as a physical beating. It is financial and emotional RAPE. Homelessness is not justice. It is a slow, painful death.
Please, I beg with everything I have within me, please convince Robert Huckins to stop this torture and return the building fund he stole from us so we too, can have a home.
Relevant pages:
http://roberthuckinsvictim.
http://roberthuckinsvictim.
http://roberthuckinsvictim.blogspot.com/2011/12/white-nothing-but-white.html
In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.~Christina Rossetti 
