Counting your blessings dept.

Further from Donna's visit to the homelessness conference in Oakland:

Alameda County (Calif.) Supervisor Scott Haggerty knows how to put things in perspective.

He reported that the temperature in his house is set at a cool 56 degrees. Still, he said, there are some people living outside where the temperature is even chillier.

Haggerty, who spoke at the National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness in Oakland, Calif., said the median home price in his district is $700,000. At the other extreme, the homeless population in his area, he said, consists mostly of families.

“I don’t have a lot to whine about,” he said.

In further reminders of American hardship... a study finds "New Orleans could lose as much as 80 percent of its black population," the Washington Post measures the burden of unfinished hurricane recovery work, and David Smith looks at Los Angeles homelessness, which he sensibly blames in part on the demise of the rooming house.