Homelessness Marathon bannerWhat is the Homelessness Marathon?
The Homelessness Marathon is an annual 14-hour radio broadcast featuring the voices and stories of homeless people from around the United States The Homelessness Marathon features live call-ins all night long via a national toll-free number. The Homelessness Marathon is available for free to all non-commercial radio stations.
Our view
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLESAt the Homelessness Marathon, we believe that the elimination of poverty is a moral duty for society. We believe that fulfilling this duty makes for a better society. And we believe that there are many ways to fulfill this duty, but that all of them should be guided by these principles... [read more]
POVERTY: IS ANYONE LISTENING?
I remember an episode of the old TV show "Father Knows Best" in which the son brought home a shortwave radio, and the whole family gathered round to listen. Of course, this being television, the situation quickly turned dramatic, and sitting in their suburban living room, the TV family became the only ones to hear the distress signals from a sinking motorboat miles away. They wound up calling the Coast Guard, and the episode ended with a grateful skipper saying something like, "Thank you out there, whoever you are." [read more]
THE DISASTER AFTER THE DISASTER
This year I had the unsettling experience of finding out that I didn't actually know much about something I thought I knew a lot about. I was in rural Mississippi, talking to survivors of Katrina, right near the Ground Zero where the hurricane came ashore. I thought I knew a lot about their plight, because Katrina was surely one of the most covered stories of the last century. What I discovered was that those iconic scenes of hungry, thirsty survivors right after the storm just marked the beginning of the malign neglect that marred the recovery process. One survivor warned me that what happened to them was like a "premonition" of what could happen to the rest of the country if a disaster strikes... [read more]
AS WE HELP THE NEW HOMELESS WE MUST HELP THE OLD HOMELESS TOO
A Statement On Katrina from The Homelessness Marathon
WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?
Top Executive Pay At Selected Organizations Helping Hungry and Homeless People
HAS THE AMERICAN LEFT TAKEN AN HISTORIC WRONG TURN?
There was a time when the struggle for social justice in America was inseparable from the fight against poverty. Is that still the case today? [read more]
LETHAL CAKEOLOGY
When I was a boy, I saw ads referring to products developed at "The Betty Crocker Institute." I imagined an ivy-covered campus around which professors strolled while discussing the finer points of cakeology. It took a while before I caught on that this "Institute" had all the substance of a mail-order PhD, but even so, I think it has more credibility than the "Manhattan Institute." At least what Betty Crocker put out you could swallow. [read more]
LET THE BUMS HAVE A FLOP
"Nobody," the founder of the Homelessness Marathon, gives some of his views on what keeps people on the streets. [read more]
IN MEMORIAM, ROLAND LEE PAIGE
UNEQUAL JUSTICE by Mike Rhodes, Homelessness Marathon Board Member
Imagine that the mayor in your city is beaten almost to death on a downtown street. She is rushed to a hospital emergency room where the police interview her about the incident. Under ordinary circumstances, the police would be under intense pressure to bring the perpetrator of the crime to justice and the hospital would be expected to do everything necessary to provide the mayor with the best medical care available. [read more]
