Sign of the Times

Hard Times

Photo by Cheryl Jones. For prints contact NEOCH.

Times are tough!!

To demonstrate how bad things are here are two pieces of bad news from the homeless community. St. Paul's Shrine at Euclid and E. 40th served their last Sunday meal today. They have served every Sunday for years from 1:30 to 3 p.m. with a nice hot lunch. All that came to an end today, when we need it most.

The other news was that the Ohio Welfare Conference was canceled for this year. Agencies and individuals just did not have the money to travel. In a time when the welfare safety net is needed most, the organizers have canceled the annual get together. Ohio going back 40 years was always the most enlightened in advocacy around welfare, but things are so bad the advocates can't even afford to get together to compare notes on improving services.

Those 2.5 million jobs Obama announced on his weekly video need to be concentrated exclusively in Ohio and Michigan and we still would not be out of the woods. NEOCH will release our state of homelessness in January 2009. It is going to be depressing.

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.