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.
Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BROADCAST TO ORIGINATE FROM “CENTER OF AMERICA’S MELTDOWN”
-- will interview losers in the global economy and ask why Detroit doesn’t care for its own.
The 13th Annual Homelessness Marathon will originate from Detroit, MI, starting at 7pm, ET, on Tues., Feb. 23rd and running overnight until 9am, Weds., Feb. 24, 2010.
At any given moment, there are at least 13,000 to 14,000 homeless people in Detroit, of whom 60% are families with children. Shelters there cannot keep up (in 2002, well before the current economic crisis, the shortfall was already estimated at 7500 beds per night), and the situation is completely out of control. For example, Alternatives For Girls, a Detroit non-profit that tries to keep homeless young women between the ages of 15 and 20 from a life on the streets, reports that last year it had to turn away 800 otherwise qualified candidates for shelter because no beds were available.
Worse yet, the framers of Detroit’s “10 Year Plan To End Homelessness,” acknowledge that their plan will not accomplish its stated purpose. The plan’s “Expected Ten Year Outcomes” include, “Increased funding dedicated to long-term solutions,” and “Increased numbers… moving…into permanent housing,” but there is no expectation that homelessness in Detroit will actually come to an end. In other words, Detroit’s plan to end homelessness is actually a plan to leave thousands of people on the streets!
“We chose Detroit,” explains the Homelessness Marathon’s founder, Jeremy Weir Alderson, “because it is the center of America’s meltdown. American jobs were shipped abroad with nothing in place for the American workers who were losing them. Surely the American people ought to look at what created this social disaster and ask if the nation might not be better served on a different course.”
The broadcast will originate from 12025 Woodrow Wilson St. in Detroit, a building in the Cass Community Social Services complex. Homeless people will be gathered there so that they can speak directly to the nation. The broadcast will also feature the voices of diverse experts, callers from around the country and, if possible, politicians.
WHFR, 89.3 FM in Dearborn, Michigan, the radio station of Henry Ford Community College, will be the on-air host of the broadcast. Other participating Detroit area radio stations will include WHPR, 88.1 FM, in Highland Park, Michigan, and CJAM, 91.5 FM in Windsor, Ontario.
The Homelessness Marathon will also air on around 100 American radio stations and will be simulcast, in part, over the 45 or so Canadian radio stations carrying a parallel Canadian Homelessness Marathon, now entering its eighth year. The broadcast will be made available to stations free of charge over the Public Radio Satellite System, the Pacifica satellite Ku-band and through a webcast.
More information about the Homelessness Marathon, including schedules and sound clips from previous broadcasts, can be found at: http://www.
Acclaim for the Homelessness Marathon can be found at: http://homelessnessmarathon.
BROADCAST TO ORIGINATE FROM “CENTER OF AMERICA’S MELTDOWN”
-- will interview losers in the global economy and ask why Detroit doesn’t care for its own.
The 13th Annual Homelessness Marathon will originate from Detroit, MI, starting at 7pm, ET, on Tues., Feb. 23rd and running overnight until 9am, Weds., Feb. 24, 2010.
At any given moment, there are at least 13,000 to 14,000 homeless people in Detroit, of whom 60% are families with children. Shelters there cannot keep up (in 2002, well before the current economic crisis, the shortfall was already estimated at 7500 beds per night), and the situation is completely out of control. For example, Alternatives For Girls, a Detroit non-profit that tries to keep homeless young women between the ages of 15 and 20 from a life on the streets, reports that last year it had to turn away 800 otherwise qualified candidates for shelter because no beds were available.
Worse yet, the framers of Detroit’s “10 Year Plan To End Homelessness,” acknowledge that their plan will not accomplish its stated purpose. The plan’s “Expected Ten Year Outcomes” include, “Increased funding dedicated to long-term solutions,” and “Increased numbers… moving…into permanent housing,” but there is no expectation that homelessness in Detroit will actually come to an end. In other words, Detroit’s plan to end homelessness is actually a plan to leave thousands of people on the streets!
“We chose Detroit,” explains the Homelessness Marathon’s founder, Jeremy Weir Alderson, “because it is the center of America’s meltdown. American jobs were shipped abroad with nothing in place for the American workers who were losing them. Surely the American people ought to look at what created this social disaster and ask if the nation might not be better served on a different course.”
The broadcast will originate from 12025 Woodrow Wilson St. in Detroit, a building in the Cass Community Social Services complex. Homeless people will be gathered there so that they can speak directly to the nation. The broadcast will also feature the voices of diverse experts, callers from around the country and, if possible, politicians.
WHFR, 89.3 FM in Dearborn, Michigan, the radio station of Henry Ford Community College, will be the on-air host of the broadcast. Other participating Detroit area radio stations will include WHPR, 88.1 FM, in Highland Park, Michigan, and CJAM, 91.5 FM in Windsor, Ontario.
The Homelessness Marathon will also air on around 100 American radio stations and will be simulcast, in part, over the 45 or so Canadian radio stations carrying a parallel Canadian Homelessness Marathon, now entering its eighth year. The broadcast will be made available to stations free of charge over the Public Radio Satellite System, the Pacifica satellite Ku-band and through a webcast.
More information about the Homelessness Marathon, including schedules and sound clips from previous broadcasts, can be found at: http://www.
Acclaim for the Homelessness Marathon can be found at: http://homelessnessmarathon.
