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I was just contacted by Jack Ballo who is a filmmaker working on a documentary on homeless people, tent cities, and potential tiny house villages for those in need and I wanted to share it with you.
There’s a lot we don’t see that goes on unnoticed and I believe this film gives us all a glance at why affordable housing is so important. And why tiny housing for the homeless is so important. And why standing up to laws that are unjust like building codes is so important.
In this particular case, we see a community of homeless people taking care of themselves without the help of government funding. And sadly, they end up arrested and mistreated by the authorities. Not only that, but they also have destroyed their homes.
Destiny’s Bridge Film: A Home for the Homeless
Images © UltraVision Films
About the Film
“A homeless minister stands up to a New Jersey town that is evicting him, along with 80 other people living in the woods. Police raids and arrests are met by charges of harassment in this explosive documentary that questions the human rights of the poor while exploring new ideas for housing the homeless. With the town closing in and eviction on their doorstep, the homeless set out to create their own self-sustained shelter called Destiny’s Bridge, that provides community, ownership and rehabilitation.”
Source: http://www.destinysbridge.com/
Watch the Trailer
New Jersey Pastor Standing Up for Homeless
Destiny’s Bridge: A Home for the Homeless
Video: Wrecking Ball (The Wrecking of Tent City)
Video: Man Watches City Destroy his Tent City Home
Video: Bulldozers at Tent City :'(
Video: Final Chapel Service at Tent City: Destiny’s Bridge
Images © UltraVision Films
“A homeless minister stands up to a New Jersey town that is evicting him, along with 80 other people living in the woods. Police raids and arrests are met by charges of harassment in this explosive documentary that questions the human rights of the poor while exploring new ideas for housing the homeless. With the town closing in and eviction on their doorstep, the homeless set out to create their own self-sustained shelter called Destiny’s Bridge, that provides community, ownership and rehabilitation.”
Source: http://www.destinysbridge.com/
Help raise money for this film on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/destiny-s-bridge-a-home-for-the-homeless/x/7493336
“Like” this film on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DestinysBridge
You can help fund this documentary and help it reach more people by contributing to the film on Indiegogo (ends 9/14/14): https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/destiny-s-bridge-a-home-for-the-homeless/x/7493336
If you enjoyed this story and documentary preview please help us spread the word by re-sharing it using the buttons below and join our free daily tiny house newsletter with even more! Thank you.
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Alex
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This country, the USA, has made poverty a crime, punishable by civil and criminal penalties. Poverty is a political talking point by BS artist politicians and zealous do-gooders. The reality is that you can’t live in anything in a any place that’s not officially sanctioned, blessed and financed by the guberment and the banksters. This is the so-called land of the free we live in.
I’ve been hassled for sleeping in my campervan by local cops who had nothing better to do I suppose. It’s “illegal” they say, or the more easily digestable “unlawful” tag.
#poor = #unlawful
Let’s see if this hits Twitter anytime soon.
The problem is the bankssteres and their compatriots in guberment have destoryed the average man’s ability to support himself and his family. Now he’s sick and tired of seeing your poor ass walk past his multi-million dollar McMansion. But even that’s not enough. He’s not willing to leave you alone even if you try diligently to escape his view and reach by camping out in the woods — your last resort. Mr. Rich and his power to invoke “law,” thereby emporing “law enforcement” to kick you out of the last place a man can be free.
What’s left? Where does someone go after he’s kicked out of the wilderness when he has no money or resources left? I guess the answer is GO TO JAIL, GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL, DO NOT PASS GO…..
The galactically stupid still brand every homeless poor person as a addict, drunk, criminal evildoor. They have no idea that 60% of Americans are just one more financial crisis away from losing it all and living in the woods. I say their time will come. But for now, this evil eviction of responsible, yet poor, people must stop. Guberment has no solution except to kick the can down the road. But, in this case the cans are human beings with souls and spirits and hearts that don’t deserve the treatment they are receiving.
Tiny homes won’t fix the underlying evil in a system that demands that you live in something that fits the guberments definition of lawful housing. It’s a shame that in 50 years of Johnson’s declaration of War on Poverty that this is the front lines of the battle. This is a national disgrace and shameful to every American who can pull his or her head out of the sand long enough to look around and realize what’s going on.
Arm the homeless as rage against the machine once said.
You give every homeless man and woman and yes even child in a nation that allows the right to bear arms.
All of this non sense of bothering some one simply for not having a home to call there own, would change merely over night.
We, as a nation, support millions all over the world who find themselves in refuge camps. Why in our own country do we treat our own (refuges due to poverty) like criminals? It makes no sense. It makes me very sad and angry at politicians who look for their own betterment rather than to the betterment of those disenfrachised within their own communities. It is shameful!
I feel ashamed of many ways this government has been acting. So many people with money or influence are creating a form of ‘living hell’ for anyone who does not see eye to eye with them. (Just plain difference of opinion.) Evil is rising and God’s love is needed and must be shown now more than ever. It is up to ‘we the people under the guidance of God’ to show that love and help our fellow man any way we can. Our homeland and family should come first.
You make so many strong valid points here.. I couldn’t have said it better myself…your right about where to go next .. except straight to jail.. And many jails today are becoming more and more privatized by share holders. not so much federally owned like they used to be.. So therefore profit is to be made by incarcerating these poor people.. This seems what America has now become.. sad but true..
From the photos here, it looks like this tent city is not in the “City”, but out in the woods somewhere. Since it will not lower the value of subdivisions or such, what is the problem? Far better than living in alleys in cardboard boxes! As stated already, our government is in a sad state of mind…. working only for the benefit of the rich. I’m a 73 yr. old woman who lives in a small subdivision and I keep my home and landscaping looking very nice. However, even tho’ I’m desperate for a garage at my age, I am not allowed that because of a neighbor who doesn’t want it, nor am I allowed to put up a nice looking pergola to park under. Oh, I can have a pergola of any size on my property, but I just can’t park under it! Now the local gov. can tell us how we can use our structures? However, I can put up a junky looking portable garage made out of pipes and tarp, which will no doubt collapse in the winter storms we get, but a nice looking pergola with vines and flowers growing over it, is out of the question. Go figure! Praise God for this Pastor who is truly living the Word…. to love others above ourselves! I hope everyone who can will get behind him and support this move of God with prayer if nothing else!
The problem is they can’t collect property taxes from them, so they have to say it’s illegal or every one would want to go there to get out from under the tax oppression. That or some other way of taking money from them. It always comes down to money.
Good point, Cris..
Well, the U.S. just isn’t what it used to be or near what it should be. We now appear to live in a Hippocratic state and becoming ever morso… Shame. I hold in high regard this pastor, I also feel this tent city was not a group of moaning homeless, rather a group of simply homed people making the best of what they had. Making do..these are people that with efforts you can clearly see to better themselves were supplied in basic needs. Now MANY others homeless and not-so haven’t the gumption these folks here had and may not be able to pull themselves down that recovery road. There are also people that don’t want to live any other way, it is classically un-American (and not our right to force people to live as we desire them to) and not live as they desire for themselves. Its also not every “mans” right to haul another’s behind through life…no I’m not cruel. just if you get yourself into a situation and exhaust the means, you need to get yourself out. That’s what these folks here were doing, Amen…and I’m sorry for their losses truly, it was ridiculous.
Thank you Alex, I have been following this story for a while now, glad to see Tiny House on board.
So, this society can afford to pay people & buy resources in order to destroy the meager lives of the people it’s already shunned?
Sad. And shameful.
it seems sad to everyone living inside a warm building, hut, tiny home etc. BUT just you wait AMERICA when this becomes your turn to HAVE to live like this it will suddenly become BIG NEWS around the U.S. then, maybe then, people will stand up and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ! I’M DONE throw out the government and lets live like the founding fathers wanted us to… good luck to us all. god help us all…………
What a nice community that they destroyed, at the end of the day, if the authorities have no authority over how people live, especially off the grid, they will force you on one, or move you along. Our governments have invested far too much in greed, to control what was there since the beginning of.time…our god given inheritance. How the hell did we let these clowns become so powerful? There’s more of us than them
when you destroy my shelter from the elements don’t be surprised when I use a bulldozer on your house or trailer. the last guy that vandalized my shelter is still sitting in jail and wondering what the heck happened. I have zero tolerance for your destruction of my shelter and feel it is my right to fight back the best way I know of.
In some states if somebody can prove they have lived in a certain location long enough they can claim it as their property. Legally it will become their property and the government must allow them to have it. I’m sure this works differently in each state.
I knew of a guy who in the 1950s created a giant multi-acre swath of property. He put rope around the whole area and later put fence posts with wire. After ten years or more he went to the government and claimed it as his own. He had proof that he lived there for the time period and he got the land.
Some states allow people to pay the back taxes of a property and claim it after just three years, even if there are buildings or other structures on it.
I feel for these people who try so hard to do for themselves only to have the Government come along and destroy all they’ve done. The government wants us to be homeless! Bull***t!!!