News & Public Affairs

More than a hundred turn out to support homeless on Human Rights Day listen

12/13/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: homelessness, St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Bruce Wright, Bill Foster, poverty

December 10 is known internationally as Human Rights Day. In St. Petersburg Friday, more than 100 people rallied in front of City Hall to urge those inside to rethink the way they treat the city’s homeless. Homeless advocates say it’s a matter of basic human rights.

"What do we want? Housing! When do we want it? Now!"

At around 4 on a frigid Friday afternoon, the crowd, diverse in age and background, assembles at 4th Avenue and 14th Street North. They walk nine blocks east and regroup ...

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March for housing, jobs, and human rights in St. Petersburg listen

12/10/10 Seán Kinane & Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: poverty, homelessness, St. Petersburg, Bruce Wright

Today in celebration of International Human Rights Day there is a march for housing, jobs, and human rights in St. Petersburg.

We spoke with WMNF’s Kate Bradshaw, during the march late this afternoon.

"I am on 5th Ave North [approaching] City Hall and there must be about 100 people here marching. They started at 4th Avenue North and 14th Street and this is part of International Human Rights Day. Reverend Bruce Wright is leading the march and he's doing so primarily because he objects t...

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Class Warfare evident in & outside UN climate talks listen

12/03/10 Kelly Benjamin
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Tags: climate change, class war, COP16, cancun, poverty

The United Nations climate change talks in Cancun are taking place in a high security fortress called Moon Palace in an exclusive beachfront resort area but as WMNF's Kelly Benjamin reports, there are 2 sides of Cancun in and outside the UN talks.

Cancun, Mexico is famous as a sun and fun vacation destination for US tourists. Sparkling luxury hotels and elite resorts with fine dining restaurants and multiple swimming pools blanket the coastline where the picturesque Caribbean waves hit the...

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Local charity experiencing high volume of need, not donations, ahead of holidays listen

11/24/10 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Metropolitan Ministries, homelessness, unemployment, Tampa, holiday charity, poverty, food

Food pantries across the Tampa Bay area are experiencing shortages just ahead of the holiday weekend. One Tampa nonprofit is experiencing a swell of people in need this year, including former donors and volunteers.

The rows of donated non-perishables are set up like grocery store aisles. Here, those who’ve signed up with Metropolitan Ministries’ holiday food program weave their shopping carts throughout rows of cereal, pasta, and canned goods. Katherine from Tampa is poring over boxed grai...

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Hillsborough Homeless Coalition honors Homeless Heroes listen

11/15/10 Kelly Benjamin
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Tags: Betty Reed, Jim Joyce, Homeless, Homeless Coalition, homelessness, poverty

Last Friday, the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County presented their 2010 "Homeless Heroes" awards at their annual meeting in Westshore.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, The US's economy's ongoing recession has left more than an estimated 1.5 million Americans without a roof over their heads. Floridians in particular have been among the hardest hit with job losses, foreclosures, and people seeking government assistance in the state among the highest in the nati...

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Poor People's March hits Detroit listen

06/22/10 Kelly Benjamin
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Tags: poverty, US Social Forum

Over the past two weeks, WMNF has been documenting the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaigns March to Fulfill the Dream, a 12-week, 24-city march and caravan from the Mississippi Delta to the US Social Forum in Detroit which began today.

A dozen homeless people from the Tampa Bay area are with the march helping to organize a broad-based social movement against poverty led by the poor. WMNF's Kelly Benjamin has been embedded with the march and brings us this report as the campaign e...

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Poor Peoples Campaign fights racism and Whirlpool in Michigan listen

06/17/10 Kelly Benjamin
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Tags: Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, racism, poverty

As WMNF reported last week, The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is in the midst of a 12-week, 24-city march. The march begins in the Mississippi Delta and ends in Detroit, where the US Social Forum begins next week. A contingent of homeless from the Tampa Bay area is with the march, which is now making its way across Michigan. WMNF's Kelly Benjamin is travelling with the group and brings us this report from Benton Harbor.

The town of Benton Harbor in South East Michigan has se...

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Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign in Cleveland listen

06/07/10 Kelly Benjamin
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Tags: Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, poverty, US Social Forum, Bruce Wright

The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is in the midst of a march across the United States culminating at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit later this month. WMNF's Kelly Benjamin is embedded with the march and brings us this report from Cleveland, Ohio.

Poverty has got to go! Hey, hey! Ho, ho!

This weekend, Rev. Bruce Wright crammed two cars full ...

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Report says 37% of Tampa Bay's hungry are children listen

02/05/10 Seán Kinane
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Tags: hunger, poverty

A new report, called Hunger in America 2010 has just been released and it has some astonishing findings about who has to go without food. Marc Sutherland is Resource Development Director for America's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay.

[Hunger in America 2010](http://feedingamerica.issuelab.org/research/listing/hunger_in_america_2010_local_report_prepared_f...

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Hundreds of thousands of Floridians living on no income except food stamps listen

01/04/10 Seán Kinane
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Tags: poverty, food stamps, Department of Children and Families

More than 400,000 Floridians have no income besides food stamps. That’s according to a new analysis by the New York Times.

About 12 percent of all Americans receive food stamps and about a quarter of all children. The Times found that about six million Americans who receive food stamps have no other cash income including welfare, unemployment insurance, pensions, child support or disability pay.

Florida is on...

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