- Chuck Currie
Chuck Currie is a United Church of Christ minister in Portland, Oregon who is regarded as one of Oregon's leading advocates for the homeless. He served on the board of the National Coalition for the Homeless and as the executive director of the Goose Hollow Family Shelter in Portland. Currie is a graduate of Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri, currently works as the interim minister at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in northeast Portland, … - Chris Gardner
Christopher Paul Gardner (born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and philanthropist who, during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son, Christopher. Gardner's book of memoirs was published in May 2006 by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. As of 2006, he is CEO of his own stockbrokerage firm, Gardner Rich, based in Chicago, … - John Hickenlooper
John Wright Hickenlooper (born February 7, 1952) is Mayor of the City and County of Denver, Colorado. He was born in Narberth, Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Wesleyan University. Before becoming mayor in June 2003 he was a geologist turned entrepreneur: in addition to being very successful with real estate, he is also the owner of several popular restaurants, including Denver's first brewpub, the Wynkoop Brewing Company. - Cathy Crowe
Cathy Crowe, RN (born ca. 1951) is a Canadian nurse and social activist, specializing in advocacy for the homeless in Canada. Raised in Kingston, Ontario, she has won fame as a "street nurse" working with homeless and poor populations in downtown Toronto, Ontario, and as an activist for housing, public health and social justice. In 1998, she co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. Crowe was the subject of "Street Nurse", a documentary film (ca. - Ken Loach
Kenneth Loach (born June 17, 1936), known as Ken Loach, is an English television and film director. He is known for his naturalistic, social realism directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues as homelessness (e.g., "Cathy Come Home") and poverty (e.g., "Riff-Raff"). - Mitch Snyder
Mitch Snyder (1946 - July 3 or 4, 1990) was an American advocate for the homeless. He was the subject of a 1986 biopic "Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story". Snyder worked in advertising on Madison Avenue in New York City in the early 1960s. At some point he left his wife and children and started hitchhiking west. Police found him in a stolen vehicle, and he was arrested and convicted of grand theft auto. Snyder served two years in federal prison, 1970-1972, … - John Bird
John Bird is the founder of "The Big Issue", a British magazine that is edited by professional journalists and sold by street vendors affected by homelessness. Bird was born in Notting Hill, London in 1946. As a child he experienced homelessness and spent several years in an orphanage. By his twenties he had served several prison sentences for theft. In September 1991 he launched "The Big Issue". - Ted Hayes
Theodore "Ted" Hayes, Jr. is an American advocate for the homeless and an activist for the Republican Party. Hayes' activism began in January 1985, when Justiceville, a community of homeless people in Los Angeles, was founded. It survived for five months, until authorities moved to shut down the shantytown. When they did, Hayes entered 35-day fast in protest. - Mike Farrell
Mike Farrell (born February 6, 1939) is an American actor, best known for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the popular television series "M*A*S*H" (1975-83). More recently, Farrell has starred on television series "Providence" and "Desperate Housewives". - Abbé Pierre
L'Abbé Pierre was a French Catholic priest, member of the Resistance during the World War II, and deputy of the Popular Republican Movement (MRP). He founded in 1949 the Emmaus movement, which has the goal of helping poor and homeless people and refugees. "Abbé" means abbot in French, and is also used as a courtesy title given to Catholic priests. He was one of the most popular figures in France, but had his name removed from such polls after some time. - Eric McDavid
Eric "D" McDavid, 28 as of 2005, is a transient environmental activist charged with conspiring to use fire or explosives to damage property in acts of eco-terrorism for the Earth Liberation Front. - Ed Fallon
Ed Fallon is an American politician from the U.S. state of Iowa. A Democrat, he was a candidate for Governor of Iowa and served as a member of the Iowa General Assembly from 1993 to 2007. The son of a member of the U.S. military, Fallon was born in Santa Monica, California in 1958, but spent the majority of his formative years living in Massachusetts. After dropping out of Marlboro College in Vermont, he spent several years traveling around Europe. - Janice Erlbaum
Janice D. Erlbaum is a a novelist, poet, comic, and columnist for "Bust" magazine from New York, New York. Her first book, "Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir" (ISBN 1-4000-6422-8), was published by Villard, an imprint of Random House. A paperback edition was released in early spring of 2007. Erlbaum writes primarily about her own experiences as a wayward youth in turn-of-the-’80s New York City. More recent work, including her in-progress second book, … - Krzysztof Wodiczko
Krzysztof Wodiczko is an artist currently living in Boston and teaching at MIT. The son of Polish conductor Bohdan Wodiczko, he was born in 1943 in Warsaw, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw in 1968 with a degree in industrial design, and taught at the Warsaw Polytechnic until 1977. He emigrated that year to Canada to teach at the University of Guelph in Ontario. - Jack Tafari
Jack Tafari (born October 31, 1946 in Gravesend, Kent, United Kingdom), is a Rastafarian and an activist who has worked to improve the conditions of the homeless in the developed world. Tafari has devised and applied a system that harnesses Internet technologies, activism and traditional public relations techniques to advance the interests of the homeless. He has successfully used this approach to promote "sanctioned tent cities" as transitional housing for homeless people. - Cheri Dinovo
The Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo, is a Canadian social democratic politician. She is an United Church of Canada minister and previously headed the Emmanuel-Howard Park congregation in Toronto, Ontario. As the New Democratic Party of Ontario (NDP) candidate in Parkdale–High Park, she was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in a by-election on September 14, 2006. A progressive, social justice-oriented minister who favours inclusion of marginalized groups, … - Ryan Larkin
Ryan Larkin (b. July 31 1943, Montreal, Quebec - d. February 14 2007, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec) was a Canadian animator who rose to fame with the psychedelic 1969 Oscar-nominated short "Walking" and the acclaimed "Street Musique" (1972). - Ed Picco
Edward (Ed) Walter Picco (born September 21, 1961 in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, Newfoundland and Labrador) is a Canadian Nunavut politician first elected in the 1995 Northwest Territories election. He was re-elected in the 1999 Nunavut election and in the 2004 Nunavut election. Picco holds the distinction of being one of the few Canadian politicians elected to two different Legislative Assemblies, … - Alice Callaghan
Alice Callaghan (born in 1947? in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is an American Episcopalian priest and former Catholic nun who is an aggressive advocate of the homeless and impoverished people of downtown Los Angeles. She is the founder of the SRO Housing Trust and the manager of Las Familias Del Pueblo, a skid-row community center. She is known to all as "Alice," and her desire to have skid row look like "a gentrified area for poor people" has made her as many foes as friends. - Kenneth Leech
Kenneth Leech (b. 1939) is an Anglican priest and Christian socialist in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. He graduated with a BA degree in 1961 from London University and then went to Trinity College, Oxford. After theological studies at St Stephen's House, Oxford he was ordained to the priesthood in 1965. He served in urban London parishes afflicted by poverty and confronted issues of racism and drug abuse. - David McWilliams
David McWilliams (July 4, 1945 in Belfast - January 8, 2002) was an Northern Irish singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Perhaps most popular was his 1967 song "Days of Pearly Spencer". The lyrics were inspired by the fate of a homeless friend of his. Although David never had a 'hit' in England, he was very popular on continental Europe (Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands) and Japan. A 1992 cover version by Marc Almond became a British No. 4 hit. - Wayne Teasdale
Wayne Robert Teasdale (1945 - 20 October 2004), a.k.a. Brother Wayne Teasdale, was an American author, teacher and advocate for causes from environmental responsibility to the homelessness crisis, who espoused what he termed "interspirituality", a belief that all world religions have a commonality that can be experienced through mysticism. Teasdale received a Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham University in 1986 and taught at DePaul University, … - Leslie Cochran
Leslie Alicia Cochran (born as Al Leslie Cochran on June 24, 1951) is a vagrant cross-dresser and arguably the most locally famous street person in Austin, Texas. He is an outspoken critic of police treatment of the homeless in the downtown Austin area. Many consider him to be the epitome of the "Keep Austin Weird" campaign. Leslie hangs out around 6th Street, usually around 6th and Congress during business hours. - Moms Mabley
Jackie "Moms" Mabley (born 19 March 1894, Brevard, North Carolina died 23 May 1975, White Plains, New York) was an African American comedian. Born Loretta Mary Aiken, Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the black vaudeville stage ("Chitlin' Circuit"), earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater at the height of her career. In the 1960s, she become known to a wider white audience, playing Carnegie Hall in 1962, … - Hadden Clark
Hadden Clark (b. April 1951) is an American serial killer and cannibal. Clark's family was affluent but dysfunctional; his parents were both alcoholics who physically and emotionally abused their four children, and his two brothers were both arrested as adults for murder and domestic violence, respectively. Clark's mother would dress him in girl's clothes when she was drunk, and as a result he grew to identify himself as a woman and would often wear women's clothes. - Juan Vargas
Juan Vargas (born March 7, 1961) is a Democrat and former member of the California State Assembly. Juan Vargas was born in National City, California, where he grew up. He is the third of ten children of Tomas and Celina Vargas, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the late 1940s and raised their children on a chicken ranch. Vargas graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA from University of San Diego and earned a MA in Humanities from Fordham University in New York. - Joanna Hayes
Joanna Dove Hayes (born December 23, 1976) is an American runner, who won the gold medal in the Women's 100m Hurdles at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens. Currently coaches Track and Field and Cross-Country Running at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, California. Hayes is the daughter of Los Angeles homeless advocate Ted Hayes - Gregory Biggs
Gregory Biggs was a homeless Caucasian male killed by a drunk driver, Chante Jawan Mallard, on October 26, 2001. The incident, which occurred in Texas, received media coverage within the U.S. after it was determined that Biggs had survived the incident for several hours, despite the impact's force sending him through the windshield. Mallard left him to die in her garage. Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani testified (during Mallard's trial) that, … - Ben Hana
Ben Hana, who prefers to be called Brother but is more widely known as Blanket Man as headlined by the local media is an infamous character in Wellington, New Zealand. Wearing only a loincloth and blanket and sporting dreadlocks, Hana worships the Māori sun god Ra (not to be confused with the Egyptian sun god of the same name). - Chante Jawan Mallard
Chante Jawan Mallard is an African-American female from Texas who was convicted and sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment for her role in the death of a homeless male, Gregory Biggs. The incident occurred on October 26, 2001 when Mallard's car struck him; at the time Mallard was believed to have been driving while intoxicated. The force of the impact sent Biggs flying through the windshield, lodging him there. - Thomas van Orden
Thomas Van Orden is a U.S. lawyer who challenged the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments on public property. Orden, a native of Austin, Texas, graduated from Southern Methodist Law School, and was a practicing lawyer before his suspension in December of 1999. "Van Orden v. Perry" was presented before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 2, 2005. The contention was that a large granite monument carved with the commandments, … - Charles Crumb
Charles Crumb was the eldest brother in the Crumb family, a family of notable but troubled artists that included R. Crumb and Maxon Crumb. R. Crumb has written extensively about his miserable childhood, claiming that Charles bullied Robert and Maxon to create endless comic books all through their teen years, something which annoyed Robert at that time but which he now credits with developing his artistic skills. While Maxon and Robert Crumb eventually moved away, … - George Bogle
George Bogle (born April 25, 1934 in Flint, Michigan) is a minister and religious broadcaster in Detroit. Bogle is noteworthy for his broadcasting and social activism in Detroit. A longtime presence over the airwaves in Detroit, Pastor Bogle has had a daily television and radio shows in southeastern Michigan since 1967. Born during the Depression near Detroit to a religious family, … - Lindsay Whittle
Lindsay Whittle is a Welsh politician and member of Plaid Cymru standing for election in the National Assembly for Wales election, 2007 for the Caerphilly constituency. Lindsay Whittle was born in Caerphilly ("Caerffili") in 1953 and lives in Abertridwr. Lindsay Whittle has stood for Plaid in many elections and is "Group Leader of Plaid Cymru on Caerphilly County Borough Council". - William E. Dudley
William E. Dudley — started writing poetry during a self-imposed period of homelessness & went on to study writing with Jeannine Savard & Norman Dubie. He holds an MA in Information science from the University of Arizona. Dudley's poetry has been published in the "New York Quarterly", "Painted Bride Quarterly", "Grain", "CutBank", "Hayden's Ferry Review", and "Blackbird", … - Jane Winkelman
Jane Winkelman is a painter, and is considered to be an outsider artist. Her paintings are often signed "Jane 'in vain' Winkelman." She was born in 1949 in Long Island, New York. She lived for a time in Miami as well as San Francisco. While in San Francisco, she lived on the edge of homelessness in the Tenderloin district. She was introduced to painting at the Hospitality House, a free community arts center. - Sudi Devanesen
Sudarshan (Sudi) Devanesen, CM (born 1943), is an Indian-Canadian family physician and educator, public health activist, and member of the Order of Canada. Devanesen studied at Bishop Cotton Boy's School in Bangalore, Madras Christian College of the University of Madras, and the Christian Medical College in Vellore, all in India. Trained as a surgeon, began his medical practice in remote villages in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. In 1972, he immigrated to Canada. - Semyon Dimanstein
Semyon Dimanstein ((1886(uncertain)- August 1938) was a Soviet state activist, publisher, theorist of national issue in the USSR, one of the founders of the Soviet Oriental studies. He was considered to a representative of Soviet Jews. Dimanstein was born in Sebezh, Pskov oblast in a Jewish family of a trader. He studied in a Chabad yeshiva where eighteen-year Semyon ordained his rabbinate. He suffered of poverty and homelessness. - Maria Lacerda de Moura
Maria Lacerda de Moura was a Brazilian teacher, journalist, feminist, and anarchist. As a teacher in Barbacena she founded the League Against Illiteracy and worked with other women to help provide housing for the homeless. Her ideas regarding education were largely influenced by Francisco Ferrer. She later moved to São Paulo and became involved in journalism for the anarchist and labor press. There she also lectured on topics including education, women's rights, free love, … - Wendy Greuel
Wendy Greuel is President Pro Tempore of the Los Angeles City Council representing the 2nd District. Greuel was elected in 2002 to fill the remainder of the term of Councilman Joel Wachs. She was elected in her own right in 2003 and reelected in 2007. The 2nd District includes portions of the San Fernando Valley. She has recently announced her campaign for Los Angeles City Controller, a post currently held by Laura Chick.
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