Tune: Addams Family Theme By Anitra Freeman Everybody's hurtin' The future still uncertain Mounting debt a burden It's time to cancel the rent Cancel the rent (snap snap) Cancel the rent (snap snap) Cancel the rent Cancel the rent Cancel the rent (snap snap) People in the street Are living without heat And not enough to eat We need housing for all Housing for all … Comp'ny profits soared Homebound consumers gored And homebound students bored It's time to tax the rich Tax the rich… Any kind of trouble Rent just seems to double It's time to pop the bubble We need rent control now Rent control now...
Category Archives: Homelessness
Gaggle for Low Income Housing
- tune: Side by Side
- by Cynthia Linet
Oh, we're a gaggle of grannies
Urging you off a your fannies
We don't think it's neat
To live on the street
Homes for all!
With so many homes in our city
So few for the poor , it's a pity
It's time for a change
We must arrange
Homes for all!
We are each other's keepers
To help out everyone.
How can we be content when
There's so much to be done?
So heed this call from your grannies
Don't just protect your own fannies.
Homes for us all.
We must hear the call:
Homes for all!
We really mean it: HOMES FOR ALL!
We mean precisely: HOMES FOR ALL!
We will say it very nicely: HOMES FOR ALL!
READ OUR LIPS: (silently) HOMES FOR ALL!
The Poor People’s Campaign: A Moral Revival
By: Vicki Ryder
Tune: Acres of Clams
There’s something that’s troubling the Grannies,
So we toss and we turn late at night,
Wond’rin’ why there are so many hungry
In a land that’s so rich, that ain’t right!
Chorus:
It’s time for a moral revival so
We’ve joined the Poor People’s Campaign
To end poverty in our nation
We’ve joined the Poor People’s Campaign.
The government spends all our taxes
For fighting in lands far away,
Killing women and kids without reason;
It’s no wonder our hair’s turning gray.
They’re drilling and fracking and dumping
To fatten their wallets, you see,
They don’t really care if we live or die
It’s enough to make Mother Earth weep.
Equality for all the people
They say is the law of the land;
But our system is blatantly racist
So together for justice we’ll stand.
Chorus
Cranes, Humongous Cranes
By Linda Jansen
To the tune of “Food, Glorious Food”
Cranes, humongous cranes
All over the city.
They’re not building for us
That’s really a pity.
Hey, City Council please play fair (pause)
You work for us all (spoken: right?).
Build public housing for all. It’s up to you.
Answer our call!
They knock down our homes
And put up new towers
Can’t afford that place
Even working 40 hours
Hey, City Council please play fair (pause)
You work for us all (spoken: right?).
Build public housing for all. It’s up to you.
Answer our call!
Stop the Sweeps
By Linda Jansen
To the tune of Chim Chim Cheree
There’s money in banks that will never get used
And people who need it for housing & shoes
What wicked system has such a result?
Must have been built by some mean greedy cult!
CHORUS:
Chim chiminey, chim chiminey Chim chim cheree!
The cops must be stopped from their sweep jamborees
Chim chiminey, chim chiminey Chim chim cheroo!
If you don’t try to stop ‘em, might happen to you!
The cops don’t sweep chimneys. That’s not what they do.
They harshly enforce the rich city’s rules.
So we must stop them, a lot is at stake
Don’t want the wealthy to steal the whole cake.
CHORUS
If you have a chimney, you must have a stove
And a room where you sit and never get cold
If you think that is something that we all need,
Join your neighbors who’re out there to stop this bad deed.
CHORUS
City Council says housing’s an obvious need.
Housing for all–they say that’s their creed?
They can’t dilly-dally, must get off of their duffs.
And build public housing, or their jobs they can stuff.
And build public housing, or their jobs they can stuff!
New Year’s Vision
- tune: Deck the Halls
Tax the rich; don’t starve the poor, Fa la la la la la la la la
Let’s end homelessness for sure, Fa la la…etc
Raise the wages, increase welfare, Fa la la etc….
Share the wealth and cut the warfare, Fa la la etc….
Let’s pass healthcare legislation, Fa la la la la la la la la
That will cover all the nation, Fa la la, etc…
Clean up all the air and water, Fa la la etc…
Let’s take no more steers to slaughter, Fa la la etc….
Join the grannies, fight by golly, Fa la la la la la la la la
End all this nuclear folly, Fa la la, etc..
Build a world where children thrive, Fa la la etc..
Do it while you’re still alive, Fa la la etc…
Welfare Clock
- by Kay Thode
- Rap
The clock is tickin’ day by day,
Thanks to “reform” welfare’s going away.
Who cares if you’re hungry
Or can’t pay the rent?
Jobs are the answer
Said the President…Clinton, that is.
Now five years are up
On the welfare clock.
There’ll be more homeless
Sleeping on the block.
It’s time to pay moms
Who take care of their kids.
Raise the grants!
Lift the lid!
There’s a Rental in This Town
- tune: There’s a Tavern in the Town
There’s a rental in this town, in this town,
And there my fam’ly settled down, settled do-o-own.
We ate and slept and played there every day,
And paid our rent so we could stay.
- Chorus:
Fare thee well for we must leave thee.
Do not let this parting grieve thee.
Our rent jumped sky high believe me,
And so we must part.
Adieu, adieu kind friends, adieu, yes, adieu.
We can no longer be with you, be with you, ou, ou, ou.
We’ll hang our clothes on a weeping willow tree,
And sleep in Nickelsville for free.
Peace, Peace
Peace, peace, peace, peace.
Wars must end and wars must cease.
We must learn to live together.
Peace, peace, peace.
Peace, peace, peace, peace.
Make homelessness and hunger cease.
We can learn to live together.
Peace, peace, peace.
Peace, peace, peace, peace.
Police brutality must cease.
We must learn to live together.
Peace, peace, peace.
Peace, peace, peace.
Housing Song
- tune: Sweet Betsy from Pike
- by Kay Thode
There are millions who’re sle-eping out in the street.
Clutching their bundles they all have no heat,
No place to call home or bed for their head—
They’re lucky if some of them even get fed.
In this rich prosperous country wouldn’t you think
We could house all the homeless as quick as a wink,
If we weren’t spending billions on weapons of war.
Let’s use diplomacy! Make war no more.
When wages are too low to pay the high rent,
And cities refuse to even put up a tent,
It’s time for a change—on that we agree.
More bucks for housing is what we need!
spoken:
More bucks for housing is what we need!
Back of the Bus
If you miss me at the back of the bus
You can’t find me nowhere.
Come on up to the front of the bus
I’ll be riding up there.
I’ll be riding up there,
I’ll be riding up there.
Come on up to the front of the bus,
I’ll be riding up there
If you’re looking for shelter
You can’t find it nowhere.
Come on up to the greenbelt,
Folks are camping up there…
If you miss me in the greenbelt
You can’t find me nowhere
Come on over to Nickelsville,
Folks are building up there…
If you miss me at Nickelsville
You can’t find me nowhere
Come on down to the jailhouse,
We’ll be bunking down there…
If you miss me at the jailhouse
You can’t find me nowhere
That’s cause we all stood together
And we’re still building up here!…