Some cool business at home images:
Congress Agonizes (2013) ... FSU teams up to fight homelessness -- “I hope this works,” said Ray. (Apr. 24, 2013) ...item 2.. Tens of thousands still homeless six months after Hurricane Sandy -- Oct. 29, 2012 (27 April 2013) ...
Image by marsmet532
“Homelessness is increasing rapidly in Tallahassee; potential venues for assistance are diminishing due to diverging curves,” said Kearney. “There’s less government dollars being spent on housing and mental health and charities are reducing their services, sometimes having to shut down because people can’t afford to make donations.”
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.....item 1)... FSU teams up to fight homelessness ...
... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...
11:28 PM, Apr. 24, 2013 |
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img code photo ... Rendering shows The Renaissance Center
cmsimg.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CD&D...
Rendering shows The Renaissance Center, a housing initiative that aims to help alleviate homelessness in Tallahassee. / Photos courtesy of Kim Garner
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Written by
Jasmine Spitler
Staff Writer
FILED UNDER
FSU News
FSU News Campus
www.fsunews.com/article/20130425/FSVIEW1/130424027/FSU-te...|newswell|text|frontpage|s
Collaborative efforts by Rick Kearney, CEO and president of Mainline Information Systems, and the Colleges of Business and Social Work are producing new measures to combat homelessness in Tallahassee.
These efforts are a part of a comprehensive, holistic approach to transitioning people from their current living situations to becoming independent through innovative employment opportunities.
Kearney explained that this is an important venture to make, “not only because it’s charitable, but because it’s ‘necessary.’”
“Homelessness is increasing rapidly in Tallahassee; potential venues for assistance are diminishing due to diverging curves,” said Kearney. “There’s less government dollars being spent on housing and mental health and charities are reducing their services, sometimes having to shut down because people can’t afford to make donations.”
These initiatives include building the Renaissance Center as an addition to the homeless shelters already provided in the city. It’s a one-stop center for people in a hub of 28 agencies.
Westgate Community, another housing initiative, is also geared toward employing the homeless. Individuals who live at Westgate build fences and learn practical job skills along the way.
Gus Ray, senior director of the FSU Foundation, said that expansion of the already in-motion enterprises is currently undergoing foundation processes at this time.
“Another idea we have is ‘etsy.com,’ ” Ray said. “It’s an Ebay site for people who make crafts, where homeless people can contribute to a business venture by means of art. Another future idea in conjunction with FSU is in setting up a restaurant that the homeless can learn culinary skills and staff themselves for the community.”
Students also play an integral role in the process, through promotion of their individual entrepreneurial ideas for the ongoing project. Ray worked closely with everyone involved. Ray says he supports the unique approach taken in the venture.
“This started out as a meeting with Rick Kearney, one of the biggest supporters in helping the homeless in Tallahassee,” said Ray. “He was telling me about the Renaissance Center, and how he wanted to employ the homeless. He also wanted to figure out a way for FSU to partner with Mainland. The students working with us are entrepreneurs coming from the College of Business. They’re young, ambitious students who contributed their own ideas into the mix. Rick and I just stayed out of it and we watched these great ideas flow.”
Tomi Gomory, associate professor in the College of Social Work, is also an essential figure in this project. Kearney said he was very instrumental in developing the plans that could be geared towards fixing the problem and utilizing his past research.
Together, Gomory and Ray tag-teamed with Kearney to alleviate the continuously growing issue of homelessness in Tallahassee.
“Gomory has been an active participant in social work and has been involved since the very beginning,” said Kearney. “He’s very fascinated by this model and thinks it’s very unique in methodology. We originally talked to Gus in order to find partners at FSU there so we could sync and simultaneously increase the synergies with the community and FSU.”
Ray explained the start-up of the original ‘Fab-Five’—the College of Business students who pioneered these highly innovative proposals.
“I stay close to entrepreneurs and the College of Business because it’s near and dear to my heart,” said Ray. “So, I went to a couple that I knew really well and asked if they were interested. It happened organically—they self-selected each other based on who’d be interested and what they thought was the right thing to do.”
Ray also wants to recruit women into the program in order to reach their goals.
“We want to employ the current number—there’s about 1,000 homeless people here now,” said Ray. “I’m also trying to recruit women onto our team along with the Fab Five.”
Despite many of the obstacles that may step in the way of reaching this 1,000 goal, Ray is optimistic and believes that through these transitional jobs, the individuals currently in need can eventually achieve success.
“I hope this works,” said Ray. “I believe everyone wants to work, and if we could provide these transitional jobs, it provides a first step so that they can feel like they’re contributing to society and get back up on their feet at the same time. We want to help anyone who wants to get a job. There are a lot of stigmas to overcome, but given this opportunity, these people have the chance to integrate back into society, and I believe that they will be successful.”
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.....item 2).... Tens of thousands still homeless six months after Hurricane Sandy as some areas will take years to fully recover ...
... Mail Online - Daily Mail ... www.dailymail.co.uk/news ...
By ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 16:31 EST, 27 April 2013 | UPDATED: 16:31 EST, 27 April 2013
The 9-year-old girl who got New Jersey's tough-guy governor to shed a tear as he comforted her after her home was destroyed is bummed because she now lives far from her best friend and has nowhere to hang her One Direction posters.
A New Jersey woman whose home was overtaken by mold still cries when she drives through the area. A New York City man whose home burned can't wait to build a new one.
Six months after Superstorm Sandy devastated the Jersey shore and New York City and pounded coastal areas of New England, the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating, yet often hopeful, recovery. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless. Housing, business, tourism and coastal protection all remain major issues with the summer vacation — and hurricane — seasons almost here again.
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img code photo ... Hurricane Sandy leaving many homeless
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-1981934C0000...
About sixty houses and apartments in this restricted area burned in a fire started by Hurricane Sandy leaving many homeless
EPA
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img code photo ... Tony Yaeger of OBPM Construction Company
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-198192920000...
Tony Yaeger of OBPM Construction Company throws away debris as a home destroyed in Hurricane Sandy is demolished
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img code photo .... New Jersey - Hurricane Sandy, October 2012
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-1982D41C0000...
An oceanfront home is raised to protect from flooding in New Jersey
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'Some families and some lives have come back together quickly and well, and some people are up and running almost as if nothing ever happened, and for them it's been fine,' New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference Thursday. 'Some people are still very much in the midst of recovery. You still have people in hotel rooms, you still have people doubled up, you still have people fighting with insurance companies, and for them it's been terrible and horrendous.'
Lynda Fricchione's flood-damaged home in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, N.J., is gutted; the roof was fixed just last week.
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The family is still largely living out of cardboard boxes in an apartment. But waiting for a final decision from federal and state authorities over new flood maps that govern the price of flood insurance is tormenting her and many others.
'The largest problem is, nobody really knows how high we're going to have to elevate the house,' she said. 'At town hall they told us 5 feet, but then they said it might go down to 3 feet in the summer. Most of us are waiting until the final maps come out. It's wait-and-see.'
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img code photo ... Seaside Heights
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-19818FEE0000...
Constructions crews work to rebuild a boardwalk destroyed in the storm in Seaside Heights
EPA
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img code photo ... the new boardwalk
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-198190220000...
Once complete, the new boardwalk will be one mile long requiring three thousand wooden piles be driven into the sand
Photo credit: none listted
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img code photo ... Tens of thousands of people remain homeless
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-1982DF230000...
Tens of thousands of people remain homeless and hurricane season has almost returned again
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But more than anything, Fricchione is optimistic, buoyed by a recent trip to New Orleans with her daughter during which they met a resident of the Lower Ninth Ward who was one of the first to move back in after Hurricane Katrina inundated the neighborhood that has become a symbol of flood damage — and resilience.
'Talking to that man was wonderful!' Fricchione said. 'He said it takes time and you just have to have hope and know it will all work out eventually.'
By many measures, the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which struck Oct. 29, has been slow. From Maryland to New Hampshire, the National Hurricane Center attributes 72 deaths directly to Sandy and 87 others indirectly from causes such as hypothermia due to power outages, carbon monoxide poisoning and accidents during cleanup efforts, for a total of 159.
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img code photo ... billion in damage
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-19818FE60000...
The hurricane rocked the entire eastern seaboard, causing more than billion in damage
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img code photo ... Ryan Shtainhorn and Bradley Draifinger shovel sand
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-0-198192070000...
Ryan Shtainhorn and Bradley Draifinger shovel sand from the family room of Ryan's home while searching for possessions that may have survived
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img code photo ... The Jet Star roller coaster rests in the ocean in Seaside Heights
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982E3...
The Jet Star roller coaster rests in the ocean in Seaside Heights near the rebuilding of the boardwalk as demolition plans are finally moving forward
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The roller coaster that plunged off a pier in Seaside Heights, N.J., is still in the ocean, although demolition plans are finally moving forward. Scores of homes that were destroyed in nearby Mantoloking still look as they did the day after the storm — piles of rubble and kindling, with the occasional bathroom fixture or personal possession visible among the detritus.
Throughout the region, many businesses are still shuttered, and an already-tight rental market has become even more so because of the destruction of thousands of units and the crush of displaced storm victims looking to rent the ones that survived.
Homeowners are tortured by uncertainty over ever-changing rules on how high they'll need to rebuild their homes to protect against the next storm; insurance companies have not paid out all that many homeowners expected; and municipalities are borrowing tens of millions of dollars to keep the lights on, the fire trucks running and the police stations staffed, waiting for reimbursement from the federal government for storm expenditures they had to fund out of pocket.
And yet, by other measures, remarkable progress has been made. Boardwalks, the tourism lifeblood of the region, are springing back to life. A handful of homes are going up, and the whine of power saws and the thwack of hammers is everywhere in hard-hit beach towns as contractors fix what can be saved and bulldozers knock down what can't.
Volunteers in Highlands, N.J., are rebuilding the home of Bromlyn Link, the single mother of a 17-year-old boy, both of whom are members of the town's first aid squad and who spent 12 to 14 hours a day helping friends and neighbors forced to live in shelters for weeks after the storm.
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img code photo ... Homes severely damaged last October
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982E2...
Homes severely damaged last October still sit crippled along the beach
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img code photo ... A realty sign stands in Mantoloking, N.J.,
Childers - Sotheby's International Realty 732.295.2008
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982DE...
A realty sign stands in Mantoloking, N.J., on a lot where the home was destroyed last October
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img code photo ... near the Mantoloking Bridge
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982D5...
A home rests next to a pier in Barnegat Bay near the Mantoloking Bridge
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Mantoloking, which was cut in half by the storm and saw all 521 of its homes damaged or destroyed, is creeping back to life. The post office recently, reopened, and the first of 50 demolitions will start next week, which is also when Mayor George Nebel will join the 40 other residents who have been able to move back home.
Beaches that were washed away are coming back, due both to nature and bulldozers, and real estate agents say demand for this strangest of upcoming summers appears good, particularly in the large portions of the Jersey shore that were relatively unscathed by Sandy. Beach badges, required for access to most of New Jersey's shoreline, are selling at a near-record pace in Belmar, N.J.
And while towns fortify beaches and dunes and put up sea walls, rock barriers or even sand-filled fabric tubes to guard against future storms, state governments are readying hundreds of millions of dollars to buy out homeowners in flood-prone areas who want to leave.
'We've made a lot of progress in six months; I know we still have a long way to go,' New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at a recent town hall meeting. 'By Memorial Day, every boardwalk that was destroyed at the Jersey shore will be rebuilt. Businesses are reopening. Rentals are picking up again, roads are back open.'
Christie estimated 39,000 New Jersey families remain displaced, down from 161,000 the day after the storm. In New York, more than 250 families are still living in hotel rooms across New York paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, while others are still shacking up with relatives or living in temporary rentals.
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img code photo ... superstorm - Hurricane Sandy, October 2013
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982D4...
The home was swept into the bay by the superstorm
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img code photo ... 39,000 New Jersey families remain displaced - Hurricane Sandy, October 2012
Gov. Christie estimated 39,000 New Jersey families remain displaced
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img code photo ... Seaside Heights
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982D1...
The Jet Star roller coaster that plunged off a pier in Seaside Heights is still in the ocean
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Everyone simply wants to make their homes livable again, said Ray Marten, whose home in the Belle Harbor section of New York City's Queens borough burned down when a fire swept along his street during the storm, and whose family of six is renting a nearby house.
'If you go up my block now, all the houses have been demolished and removed,' Marten said. 'They're pretty much just holes in the ground. Sand pits.'
Separation is the new reality for the Gatti family, a clan of several generations that shared the same three-story home near the ocean on Staten Island until Sandy destroyed it.
The flood-soaked place was demolished months ago, and they're waiting for a government buyout. Now the family is scattered across New Jersey, New York and Texas.
'The whole family's separated,' said Marge Gatti, the matriarch. 'And it's terrible, you know?'
Her son, Anthony, recently drove a U-Haul packed with his meager belongings to Killeen, Texas, where he will start a new life as a car mechanic.
'Mentally, I'm not all that well in the head,' said Anthony Gatti, who slept in a tent in front of the ruined home for weeks after the storm. 'I know I've got to get some kind of help. I can't seem to shake it out of my life.'
Ginjer Doherty was 9 years old when Sandy bubbled up through the floor of her Middletown, N.J., home and ripped the front wall off it. She and her parents went to a firehouse a few days later to see Christie talk about what was being done to recover.
The governor comforted Ginjer, telling her she would be all right, that the grown-ups were on top of things and would take care of her. Ginjer recently had an essay published in Time magazine recalling the encounter and describing her life after Sandy.
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img code photo ... Real estate agents say demand for this strangest of upcoming summers appears good
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982D3...
Real estate agents say demand for this strangest of upcoming summers appears good, particularly in the large portions of the Jersey shore that were relatively unscathed by Sandy
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img code photo ... yet often hopeful
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982D2...
Recovery for many in the region has been slow and frustrating, yet often hopeful
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img code photo ... Every one of Mantoloking's 521 homes - Hurrican Sandy, October 2012
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/27/article-2315868-1982D1...
Every one of Mantoloking's 521 homes was damaged or destroyed
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'My house was all messed up, and people told us we couldn't stay there anymore,' she wrote. 'The governor told me not to worry — that my parents would take care of everything — and he looked very serious and sad, and he cried.
'Things are going O.K. for my family,' she wrote. 'We want to go back home, but rebuilding is going to take a long time. But we have a place to live for now. I even rescued a cat that was homeless after Sandy; I wanted him to be safe and loved like I feel.'
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ginjer, now 10, said she is sad that her home won't be ready until October; her mom says it has been gutted and needs to be elevated.
Of the delay, Ginjer said simply, 'It stinks.'
Sandy also damaged interior areas, particularly those along rivers in northern New Jersey. Cities including Hoboken and Jersey City were inundated, and officials continue try seek exemptions for skyscrapers and large apartments from federal rules requiring flood-prone buildings to be elevated.
George Stauble, whose Little Ferry house took in four feet of water, said FEMA payouts caused some rifts between neighbors.
'Everybody's house had pretty much the same amount of damage, but people are getting different amounts of money, and that's caused some problems,' he said, adding some homeowners received as little as ,000, while others received as much as ,000.
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