People Seem to Be Sheltering in Place

Homeless people seem to be sheltering in place and not going outside.  Everything including some of the healthcare clinic sites and drop in centers are closed today, but most people are inside.  The brave and hearty outreach teams have gone around to campsites over the last 24 hours to make sure people were safe.  We have about 8 people who the local outreach teams are checking on regularly.   The students from John Carroll, St. Ignatius, and CWRU Labre projects are still going out to check on the people they have built a relationship with over the years.  The Frontline Services staff are covering the community and helping those with mental health issues or disabilities find safe places to live.  Jim Schlecht, Tim Walters, Carl Cook and the other staff from Metanoia are keeping their drop in center open in this extreme cold.  We are giving out handwarmers, thermal sleeping bags and thousands of blankets to keep people safe. 

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Added a Few Statistics to the Website

We have posted the 2013 statistics from the shelters.  These statistics show 8,300 people used the shelters in 2013 (Oct. 2012 to September 2013).   There were 6,000 single adults and 646 families who used the shelters in Cuyahoga County.   The average stay in an emergency shelter for a single adult is 18 days and for a family nearly 60 days.   69% of the shelter population leave the emergency shelter with some income (including non-cash income).   While only 15% of the single adults leaving the shelter have earned income.   Single individuals leave the shelter with 67% of the population go to a permanent destination. It is interesting that about 45% of the sheltered homeless have not experienced homelessness in the past.

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Don't Get Sick in Texas if you are Poor

The second most populous state in the union is not a good place to get sick if you are poor.  Texas has 17.9% of their population living below poverty and the state leaders have decided not to extend health coverage to poor people. That is 4.5 million people who do not have an ability to afford health care coverage.  They are too poor to afford health care through the Affordable Health Care Act, and will not have the ability to have 100% of their coverage paid by the federal government.  Some of those living in poverty are children or elderly and so already have health coverage.  Some are disabled or have health care coverage at a job that pays below the poverty rate, but none of the 4.5 million will be able to obtain Medicaid.

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Cold Weather Plans

The Metanoia Project plans to be open tonight, tomorrow and Thursday in addition to our regular week end hours.  We will open tonight and tomorrow in our regular space at St. Malach's at 2459 washington starting at 7pm staying open to about 7am.  Thursday we will open at St. Malachi Center moving over to our regular space later that evening as there are other activities from 7 to 9pm,  We will provide a light meal (at best) and our guests are encouraged to take advantage of regular meal sites for their evening meal.  I am sure that if you want to drop off hot food over the next couple of nights they would love the help.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a True Revolutionary

I spent part of the day today reading a 1967 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. regarding his opposition to the conflict in Vietnam.   It is an amazing lengthy discussion of the merits of this war and the waste of blood and treasure on this conflict in Southeast Asia.  I was struck by how long and powerfully relevant this speech was for the time.  I cannot think of a venue today in which a non-politician would have opportunity to speak in such detail about a major issue of our time.  We have many 24 hour news channels that we did not have in 1967, and yet we never hear these long discussions of current events.  I would have loved to hear a similar speech by a community leader in 2007 about the War in Iraq or Afghanistan.  King was able to walk through the history of the conflict and the choices we were making in a "society gone mad on war." 

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Good News and Bad News for the Shelters

The budget compromise worked out in Congress over the last two weeks will allow funds going to homeless programs to increase by 9% for 2014.  The problem is that getting to that point will mean some tough choices, and those programs cannot be made whole in 2014.  This year and last we had to cut programs and reduce administrative costs.  Last year, every group took a 5% cut in funds.  Nationally, this is a $80 million above the pre Sequester level of $2.03 billion in 2013. This will mean an additional $2.16 million locally in 2014 for homeless and housing programs.  In the last month, the County decided to cut a number of programs and submit four projects that may or may not get funding. The rules do not allow going back and restoring the funds cut over the last few years, and a couple of projects will most likely have closed down over the last few years.

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Upcoming Events in Cleveland

IRTF's 14th Annual Social Justice Teach In
On Sunday February 9, 2014 the InterReligious Task Force on Central America will host their annual Social Justice Teach In from 11:30 am to 4 p.m. at the CWRU Thwing Center 11111 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Ohio on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.  $10 for the public and free to College and High School Students.  For more information call 961-0003 or go to www.irtfcleveland.org.

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Stand Down Coming Soon Here

January 25, 2014 at 9 a.m. at Public Hall--Everyone is welcome.
Stand Down Flyer was posted on the NEOCH Website here...
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Awful News Out of Orange County California

In 2011, two Fullerton California police officers beat to death a mentally ill homeless man named Kelly Thomas, 37.  The two officers were acquitted of all charges on Monday January 13 in an Orange County court room.  Thomas's mother was quoted in the Huffington Post as saying, "Part of me died that night...They got away with it."  Kelly's father, Ron, was a retired police officer who was devestated by his son's death especially with the release of the security videotape from a nearby building of the encounter with the police on that July evening.  (It is on the internet, but we will not provide a link. It is too gruesome to watch).

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Quick Takes

Everyday I drive by the former Ward Bakery construction site at East 47th and Chester and view the building going on to develop a new headquarters for the Third District Police and wonder will the new building be haunted by the ghosts of Edwardo and Chief.   If people don't remember we have a number of stories in our Grapevine archive about the property called "Camelot" by a group of homeless people who lived there in peace for a couple of years.  

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Sticking up for the Johnson's Poverty Effort

We had a nice story today in the Plain Dealer about activists wanting a new emphasis on poverty in the Plain Dealer.  Thanks to Larry at Organize!Ohio for putting together this event.   We also read about a press conference in Washington DC from Senator Marco Rubio bashing the "War on Poverty" and previewing the conservative response to the high poverty rates in the United States.  I would like to mark the 50th anniversary of the Lyndon Johnson announcement of the "War on Poverty" in January of 1964 as a big step forward for the United States. 

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Tough Day in Cleveland

We had a great plan.  We had so many people working to protect the poorest of our citizens in Cleveland.  We had safety forces, government, and social services all working together to help.  Yet we still lost someone due to the cold. Monday and Tuesday night and Tuesday during the day, we had many teams of workers and volunteers out working to protect people living on the streets.   We offered thermal sleeping gear, blankets, tents, handwarmers, shelter spaces and even nights in a hotel.  There were about a dozen people who refused to come inside no matter what we did.

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More Plans for the Extreme Weather

 The City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County convened a conference call today with social service providers and the Red Cross to make sure that we are ready to serve people living in unstable housing conditions locally.   Here are some of the things we learned:
1. The Metanoia Project at St. Malachi, 2100 Lakeside Shelter and the Community Women's shelter are the points of contact for City and County safety forces.  The RTA, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, St. Paul's and Care Alliance can offer transportation help to get people to these locations. The RTA was offering bus passes to get the person back to their "home" after the crisis is over.
2.  The police and other Public Safety forces can offer a ride if the individual needs help to get out to the cold.

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Extreme Weather Plans Ready for Cleveland

Many are worried about homeless people during this extreme weather.  Most of the shelters and social service providers are on the job today working to keep people safe.  The shelters stay open when it is this cold.  They do not turn people away and they do not make them leave during the day.  There are overnight warming places available (St. Malachi and Seasons of Hope for Women) that serve those who do not go to shelter. The City is also opening the Recreation Centers as warming centers.  The Plain Dealer's Tom Feran has done a series of articles on the cold here, here, and here.

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Handson NEO Collecting Items for Stand Down

The 23rd Homeless Stand Down will take place Saturday, January 25 at Cleveland Public Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.  This event provides members of the homeless community and those facing financial and housing uncertainty with medical and social services to assess and assist those in critical need.  Breakfast and lunch, warm winter clothing, coats, boots, personal hygiene items, and compassion are available to attendees as donations permit. 

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We are Still Collecting Blankets

The NEOCH Blanket and donation drive is November 15 to March 15, 2014.  With the weather expected to get down to dangerous lows over the weekend and then next week, we are ready.  We have had scores of people dropping items off this week.  The shelters are ready to keep people inside if necessary. Typically shelter residents leave in the morning and return in the evening, but if it is too cold the County declares an emergency and people stay inside all day.  We will open the overflow shelters so that we do not turn anyone away.  We will most likely open the Metanoia Program on Monday or Tuesday if the temperature continues to decline as is forecast.  All the shelters will do whatever it takes to keep people safe. 

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CAHA Meeting Cancelled in January

We have written about the desire by Cuyahoga Suburban Development staff to learn the addresses of those who live in the suburbs and receive rental assistance from EDEN (mentally ill and other disabled clients).  We have developed a petition to respond to this invasion of privacy on the Change.org website.  We are still collecting signatures here...http://chn.ge/1f8RF6A to sign in support of getting the suburban government out of the business of monitoring the addresses of the disabled.  The staff at First Suburbs Consortium after reading the petition and hearing concerns asked to be put on the agenda for the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance Meeting.  There was not room on the December meeting agenda, but we made space for the Monday January 6, 2014 CAHA meeting for a fuller discussion.  Right before Christmas, staff of the First Suburbs Consortium dropped out of the meeting. 

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NEOCH Work in 2013

Here are some of the items NEOCH worked on in 2013:

• NEOCH staff worked with other groups to push an expansion of Medicaid in Ohio attending rallies, writing letters and writing editorials to assure that most of our constituents had access to health care.
• NEOCH was able to successfully settle our lawsuit over voter ID with the State of Ohio to extend it until after the 2016 Presidential election.
• Held 12 meetings of homeless people to talk about solutions to homelessness. This included meetings with the Cleveland City Council, County Council and State Representatives.  We also held a meeting with the Cleveland Police after the shooting death of two homeless people in East Cleveland in late 2012. We focused on shelter budget cuts and the impact of Sequestration locally on poor people.

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Names of Those Who Died Listed on the Website

Thanks to Jay Westbrook as one of his last acts of official business provided a few remarks for our Homeless Memorial Day 2013.  The event was at St. Malachi on December 21, 2013 at 7 p.m. as the Metanoia project was getting started for the night.  We had Rev. Dr George Jackson from Agape Renaissance Center and Fr. Tony Schuerger of St. Malachi both offering prayers for those who passed away.  Jim Schlecht of Metanoia Project read the names of those who passed away, and I gave a brief look at the current state of homelessness.  We have a video on the front of our website of the entire service.  We also have a posted the names on our Memorial Section of our website. 

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Homeless Memorial Day Video

NEOCH has posted a video highlight of the Homeless Memorial Day from December 21, 2013 at St. Malachi.  We remember those who we lost over the past year with a candlelight vigil.  This is to honor those who typically are overlooked by society.   This is the 27th Memorial Day for homeless people in Cleveland.  We have posted this on the front of our website as well.

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Medicaid Has Expanded But Just Barely

The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld Medicaid Expansion in Ohio, but by only a 4-3 margin.  Medicaid survives for another day.   It did not make it through the legislative process, but was resurrected at the obscure Controlling Board.  The process of signing up new people started on December 9 in Ohio by going to http://benefits.ohio.gov/ to apply for expanded Medicaid.  This now applies to nearly everyone living in poverty in Ohio no matter if they have children or if they have a disability.  After the information is verified by a staff person from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, the person will have health insurance.  They will have access to preventative health care, and will not have to rely on emergency room care. 

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Shelters Face Cuts in 2014

There was a vote today on the recommendations for shelter funds for 2014.  These are federal dollars from the 2013 allocation from HUD which involves a 5% cut because of Sequestration.   To fully fund all of our currently funded shelters, services, and housing programs for homeless people we need $24,608,600 and HUD is only giving us $23,995,100.  This means that a few of the shelters will face a large cut in funding and another group of services/shelters will not know if they are going to get funded at all until February 2014.  For five facilities in Cleveland, they are going to wait to see if HUD picks their project based on the amount of money unspent at the national level and competition from every other city in America.

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Received a Strange Call Today

I got a call from a pedestrian who bought a Street Chronicle newspaper today from one of our vendors and wanted a few questions answered.  He confirmed all the information that is on page 2 of the paper (Code of Conduct and newspaper operations).  How much do they pay for the paper--$.35?  Where does the money go when a pedestrian buys a paper--into the pocket of the vendor?  Then he asked, "Do you verify where this money is going to assure that it does not go to drugs or alcohol?"   This is an amazing question. 

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