Is there any relief for the poor and homeless here in the US in sight?

When thinking up a title for this article the first phrase I threw out was the war on poverty.
Every time you turn around there is a new war.
War on drugs, War on crime, War on terror, War on poverty.
The second phrase was State of
Follow me past the fold as we take alook at how our poor and homeless are doing today.

Has the attitude of indifference been rising?
Has our Government in its policies helped or hurt the poor?

Reading thru the news today this caption struck me
Attacks on homeless up, activists say
Every year I hear the same thing, attacks on homeless are up.
Could it just be that the amount of homeless is up and the amount of attacks would just be rising in relation to the amount of the overall population?
That brings up the question how many homeless are there.
A quick search I found 1 number that isnt substantiated
As many as 3.5 million
According to another it says over 3 million
The National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty reports that over 3 million men, women, and children were homeless over the past year
One item of interest on that page also breaks down what the U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates is the breakdown of who are homeless
20% work. 22% are mentally disabled.
11% are veterans. 34% are drug or alcohol dependent.
In a previous DKOS post the other day
I estimated that the total of disabled homeless was not more than 20% which lumped mentally and physically disabled together. Here they didnt even mention the physically disabled.
Between these 2 pages we get 2 estimates of how many of the homeless work 20% to 42%
I wonder how many of those are in jobs because of the welfare to work program.
When that program first started, Churches everywhere saw a massive increase of the need for food at the pantries.
The amount of pantries and kitchens has been increasing by almost double in the past 15 years.
From Vermont's figures in 2002
Highlights of Vermonts survey
Vermont has 127 food shelves and 26 community kitchens, compared to 70 shelves and 14
kitchens active when OEO began its survey in 1990. Today, Vermont has twenty food shelves
helping more than 100 different households a month, compared to only three in 1990.
Pantries running out of food is also on the rise.
70 bags on monday out by tuesday
Helping the poor is shifting from Government assistance
to private assistance and its clear that it is failing them.
Lofty goals with catchy titles for political propaganda
HUD's Commitment to Ending Chronic Homelessness in Ten Years
Get undercut by other goals such as Tax cuts for the rich
Bush Budget Leaves No Millionaire Behind as He Proposes Massive Cuts
 To Programs for Homeless and Low-Income People

These links just scratch the surface of the situation.
The old saying Out of sight out of mind holds true.
Many of these people don't want a hand out they just want a better life.
How can we help?
Job creation needs to be a priorty for this government.
Preventing jobs from fleeing the country in search of higher profits is another.
A living wage not just a miniumum wage increase.
Living Wage
Reverse the insanity of cutting funding to the poor
There are many programs out there just underfunded.
The trickle down economics theory does not work, its time to bring a honest approach to governing the economy.
But most of all this country needs to be more compassionate
of its fellow man.