Senate Needs to Confrim Mel Watt This Week

Take Action Today!!!

The National Low Income Housing Coalition is asking volunteers to call Senator Portman and urge that he support the nomination of former US Representative of North Carolina Mel Watt for director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.  His nomination was voted out of the Banking Committee in July and he has waited for a vote by the full Senate. The current director of FHFA has been hostile to the National Housing Trust fund and advocates advocacy to reduce the impact of the foreclosure crisis.

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Updates from Around Ohio on Homelessness

As part of the National Coalition for the Homeless Board meeting, we go around the table and give a presentation about housing, homelessness, and civil rights issues from the field.  I, as a board member, gather information from around Ohio to try to present to the NCH Board.  Pictured here is fellow board member, Donald Whitehead who now resides in Florida.  Donald is a great ally for people experiencing homelessness in Ohio as the former Director of NCH and former director of the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

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Flowers Make the Event

Six local florists donated to the Hand Up Gala, and they really transform the event.  We had some amazing collection of florists who contributed to this year's event.  Berghaus Flowers went above and beyond donating a large number of the centerpieces for this event.  They have helped us out for years on this event and we appreciate their assistance.  A new participant this year was Segelin's Florists over on Carnegie in the new Doubletree Hotel in University Circle.  They provided a number of wonderful arrangements with Asiatic lilies that a number of participants commented were striking.  We also must thank Monica's Flowers in Garfield Hts. for helping again this year as well as Lyndhurst Florist.

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Elected Officials Helped to Serve Homeless People

It was nice to see two elected officials showed up to serve the homeless and hungry at the Hand Up Gala. County Councilman Dale Miller attended and helped to serve.  Also, Ohio House member Marlene Anielski rolled up her sleeves and put on the mandatory hair nets to serve the population.   The purpose of this event is to turn on its head the traditional silent auction conducted by most non-profits.  Instead of having our members dress up and go to a nice dinner to hear a speaker and eat rubbery chicken, we flipped the fundraiser around.  We have a nice meal for 200 of our constituents and served by the politicians who would have normally been speaking at a similar event. 

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New Street Newspaper Available on the Streets

The brand new paper is out on the streets this week.  It features a few quality news stories in the paper including an article about what happens when your family cannot afford to bury you.  There is a new article about the attempt by homeless people to pass legislation to oversee the shelters.   Check it out now by purchasing a paper. We do not post the articles on our website until the vendors have a chance to make money from the sale of the paper.  There is always a vendor at the West Side Market with papers and usually you can find someone downtown.

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Hand Up Gala is a Successful

The fourth annual Hand Up Gala was a tremendous event.  Only WKSU reported from the event unfortunately.  We will have a photo gallery up on our website over the weekend.  We have a special facebook page which has a few photos on it, and we will post a gallery on our regular facebook page.   Below are a few pictures from today's event.  We did serve over 200 people and the guests were very impressed with the food especially the dessert.  Chef Sharon Delk was wonderful in her quiet and reserved manner.   We will have more details over the next week. 

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Hand Up Gala Dinner was 10/18

 Today is the big day for the Hand Up Gala and one of the most unique events in the homeless community.  The tables are set and the Cosgrove has just completed a nice renovation.  This will be the unveiling of the renovation.  It is beautiful over in one of the most important day centers in the community.  People can still donate to the event and participate in the auction up until October 30, 2013.  This event is both a fundraiser for the Bishop Cosgrove Center and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.  It is also a special occasion for homeless people to enjoy a once in a lifetime dinner with music and fine dining place settings.


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Governor Goes to Contolling Board to Expand Medicaid

The Governor has decided to seek approval from the Controlling Board to expand Medicaid.  On its face this is very good news.  If Ohio does not expand Medicaid, hundreds of thousands will not be eligible for health insurance and the State will see billions of dollars of support from the federal government.   This is prudent in that for three years, 100% of the cost will be absorbed by the federal government.  Where is the risk here?   Why not take billions from the State of Ohio? It would seem that the politically savvy Governor would have lined up the votes or twisted arms to make sure that he gets his way, but it seems that he has left this all up to divine intervention to assure the votes according to a speech he gave today at the Cleveland Clinic.

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Early Voting Has Begun

For homeless people the easiest way to vote is in person at the Board of Elections for early voting. NEOCH encourages homeless people to vote in person at the Board of Elections early.   To request an early voting ballot by mail click here.  It is much easier because just like voting by mail you do not have to show identification.  The hours for early voting are:

• 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday, October 7, 2013, through Friday, November 1, 2013;
• 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Saturday, November 2, 2013;
• 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sunday, November 3, 2013;
• 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday, November 4, 2013.
 
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More Impacts of Government Shutdown on the Local Housing Programs

Yesterday at the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance Meeting we learned a little more about the impact of the Federal Government shutdown on housing and homeless programs.   The FHA is still in business doing verification of home loans, unfortunately, the IRS is not in business to verify income.  This will grind the home sales market to a standstill eventually.   No one is working at HUD to sign off on projects currently under construction.  It makes it difficult to pay construction and tradesmen working on subsidized housing projects locally. Contrary to popular belief there are affordable housing projects being developed locally.   There are permanent supportive housing projects that are supposed to open this winter, but there is no one at HUD to sign off on the work. 

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Library Looking at Homeless Patrons

The largest drop in shelter in the community is the Public Library system.  Many homeless are dismissed from the shelters in the morning and then are not allowed to claim a bed until the late afternoon.  Those who do not work or are not following up on medical appointments hang out at the library.   They are reading the paper, using the computer to look for jobs or just utilizing the people's university by reading.  The shelters have for years operated on a strategy that homeless people need to be out during the day looking for jobs and housing.  Over the last few years, the county has pushed to reduce services in the shelters, and asking instead that the staff work on housing issues.   They want services to be delivered when the person gets into housing and not when they are in an emergency situation.

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Strategic Plan Posted on the NEOCH Website

This summer the Board and staff of the Coalition put together a plan for the next four years.  They gathered surveys from homeless people, advocates and members of the Coalition to develop priorities.  It was decided not to change the mission of the Coalition, and we set out some values for the Coalition to guide our planning.  Finally and most importantly, we set down five strategic objectives.  All of these are published on our website here.  Internally, now staff will use these broad concepts to come up with specific goals for the agency.  We will figure out a way to accomplish these five strategic objectives.

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Impact of Government Shut Down on Homeless

The National Low Income Housing Coalition has done a good job of summarizing the impact of the shutdown on homeless and housing programs.   Locally, the HUD office is shut down and no staff will be attending the next CAHA meeting if the shutdown continues.  The next Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting is Monday October 7 in the lower level of the US Bank Building with Lou Tisler of Neighborhood Housing Services and Bill Whitney of the Cuyahoga County Land Bank.  Here are the comments from the National Low Income Housing Coalition:

On Monday September 30, Congress failed to provide FY14 funding for the federal government to operate, which caused the government to shut down beginning at midnight on October 1. The House refused to pass a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) and the Senate refused to pass a CR that made funding contingent on modifying the Affordable Care Act, leaving the two chambers at an impasse.

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Unpublished letter to the editor resonse to hateful commentary

This letter that I penned was never published in the Plain Dealer, but the original letter should be corrected with facts and in my opinion should have never been published because it is hate speech.  There is a link to the original letter, but I would avoid reading it if you have high blood pressure.
Dear Plain Dealer Editor:

I was surprised to read the letter from Carmen Melillo Sr. in the Plain Dealer on September 6, because I was unaware that editorial policy had changed to allow grossly inaccurate and stereotypical information to be published without any clarification.  I have never understood why a paper allows anonymous hateful and incorrect comments on their electronic platform, but did not realize that the paper had decided to allow blatantly false claims in the letter’s section.

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60 Minutes Piece on Mentally Ill and Jails

There was an eye-opening piece on 60 Minutes on Sunday regarding the treatment of the mentally ill in America.   This is what Congress should be debating today instead of a four year old health care passed law. They focused on the Cook County jail labelling it the largest insane asylum in America.  I think that the Los Angeles jail could make a legitimate claim on that title, but I am not sure it is a fight that either city would want to engage in.  The reality is that mentally ill people run into problems with the law often because they have a hard time finding help.  The Justice Center downtown has a significant number of mentally ill people.   This was a good hard look at the failing mental health system, and the relationship with the mass shootings in Aurora, Navy Yard, Tucson, Newtown, and Virginia Tech.   We have seen this play out locally in East Cleveland and on Imperial Ave.

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