For Immediate Release:
HEAR US Implores Congressman Ryan to Consider Homeless Families/Youth
in Budget Decisions; Will Deliver Stacks of Petitions and Compelling Testimony to
Janesville Office Friday.
[Naperville, IL, 8/26/13] The faces and voices of homeless children and youth not seen
or heard in the Beltway will be quite visible in the Janesville district office
of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Friday, August 30 as Diane Nilan, a national
advocate for this invisible population, delivers hundreds of petitions and provides compelling testimony from homeless parents and kids nationwide.
Nilan and her motorhome |
Nilan, under the banner of HEAR US Inc., her national nonprofit created to give voice and visibility to homeless children and youth, has chronicled homeless families and youth for the past 8 years. She travels in, works from, and lives in a small motorhome, dubbed Tillie the Turtle, and has amassed over 167,000 miles since she first set out in 2005. Following 15 years running homeless shelters and 2 years working with Chicago area school districts to ensure homeless students’ access to school, she’s taken to the highways to raise this largely invisible issue to a more visible level.
“Maybe Congressman Ryan does not know that at least 3,000 students in his district have no place to call home,” Nilan pointed
out. “Wisconsin has a huge homelessness and poverty crisis, and I want to urge
him to address it.” Her concern, however, is the Congressman is poised to slash
programs that provide survival level services for the most vulnerable.
Since Friday, Nilan has asked her widespread network to
petition Mr. Ryan’s office, urging him to at least meet with her, if not take a
ride to witness poverty and homelessness in his district. Participation in her
petition drive indicates she’ll have hundreds to deliver. She’ll speak with WI
families, and film stories of their homelessness prior to her Friday meeting.
“Sadly, homeless families and youth in Wisconsin reflect what I’ve seen
everywhere I’ve been,” she lamented. “The most tragic part of this is how
Congress, both parties, has seen fit to inflict more pain instead of addressing
the causes of this skyrocketing crisis.”
This determined woman points to national statistics that
support her claim. The U.S. Department of Education reported over 1 million homeless students identified in 2011-12, a steadily increasing number,
especially during the nation’s economic meltdown. Foreclosures, medically related
bankruptcies and unemployment statistics add fuel to her fire. “I’ve seen more
shuttered businesses, for sale signs, and desperate people in my 8 years than I
would have ever imagined possible,” she stated. “For Congress to continue to
ignore hundreds of millions of Americans, including millions of people without
homes, in lieu of tax cuts for the richest households is unconscionable.”
In addition to the pile of petitions and heartbreaking stories
from across the land, she’s counting on the faces of children that accompany
her, both on her motorhome and as life-sized cardboard cutouts. This respected advocate will do everything in her power to bring those faces and voices to the
decision makers who hold the power to make things better, or worse. “I will
‘afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted’ as much as possible,” she
promised. And on Friday, she will deliver.
# # #
Contact Diane Nilan, 630.267.5424
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