Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Good Story in the PD Today

Homeless Report Featured in the PD/WKYC

The Plain Dealer did an article about the money for federal stimulus bill and the possible uses for the prevention dollars today. WKYC also did a story on their website about our report on Tuesday. Both stories used our report on the State of Homelessness in Cleveland in their news coverage. Regarding the stimulus prevention dollars, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope that the City can put this money to good use. If you ever have the occasion to read the comments in the PD, don't do it. The people who submit comments are some of the most dense people in our city. I have never understood the anger and hatred toward homeless people. I can see that people want lazy and those who have made bad mistakes to pay, but why doom those people to the shelters, hospitals, and jails? Taxpayers pay for all these services, and so we are just sucking money out of our own wallets by pushing people into homelessness. There is no bigger drain on taxpayer money than homelessness. Put people in housing with a little bit of subsidy and the County saves thousands of dollars. With the foreclosure crisis, the bank bailouts, and the wall street issues, people are out for blood. They want to put some people in the stockades for causing all this grief in our financial markets. But homeless people seem to be the victims and not the cause of these problems in America.

Just one update for today...
The state agency distributing the foreclosure assistance money informed us today that we they will not fund our pilot project to move homeless people into foreclosed buildings. They said that they received $75 million in requests for dollars and they only had $4 million to distribute. We will keep trying, but this is a tough proposal to fund.

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

3 comments:

CynDe said...

I read the negative comments following the PD article too. I look at it this way...these people probably wrote letters and protested the Browns' move to Baltimore and are still POd about it after 14 years, they TiVO Jerry Springer and think pro-wrestling is real.

They rant, rant rant about what is wrong in Cleveland and I sincerely doubt they are volunteering, are members of any fraternal groups or even vote.

Now-a-days you can't have an "it can't possibly happen to me" attitude.

S(tuff)t happens. So does homelessness.

Greg Calhoun said...

I'm a Jesuit Volunteer working at the West Side Catholic Center and I want to thank you for the excellent study on homelessness that was cited in the Plain Dealer. I will be using it to present to students in Eastlake about the Center next week. Thanks and keep up the good work!

BBC said...

Did you see this video on MNBC?
Foreclosure Court Offers Middle Way [Obama's Judiciary: Judges As Brokers?]
MSNBC.com ^ | February 28, 2009

Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2009 10:31:23 PM by Steelfish

Foreclosure court offers middle way

Video: In Philadelphia, a judge helps to solve two problems: Families forced from homes and banks left with property they can't maintain.
http://tinyurl.com/avo5df