Daniel Thompson Event and Fundraiser

Got this message from James regarding an upcoming Daniel Thompson event:  Hard to believe, but Daniel has been gone now for nearly ten years.  On May 6, 2014 @ 7:30 p.m., Ayman at Algebra Tea House has agreed to host Drumplay in a performance to honor Daniel's memory, and to raise funds for the Cleveland Street Chronicle - an empowerment project of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. 
Algebra Tea House was a favorite haunt of Daniel's; and we gather there again for a worthy cause.

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Candidate Night for Democratic Candidates for County Executive

I attended the Candidates’ Night on April 10 co-sponsored by community organizations that included the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and the Homeless Congress.  The six Democratic candidates running for the County Executive position were invited to participate, and five of the candidates came eagerly to tackle the issues that affect everyone in one way or another in Cuyahoga County.  The event was held at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Richard Sering Center.
The panel included; State Senator Shirley Smith, high school principal Thomas O’Grady, former sheriff Bob Reid, Democratic operative Tim Russo, and neighborhood activist Walter Allen Rogers Jr.  Len Calabrese who recently retired from the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland did a wonderful job as the moderator.

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Fair Housing Training Scheduled for May 15

One of the last pieces of Civil Rights legislation to pass was the Fair Housing Act.  It has been expanded and renewed since the 1970s and protects renters from discrimination.  We will have a one hour training on the Act on May 15, 2015 at 10 a.m. We are hoping to have thirty people searching for housing at the event.  Those 30 people will receive a bus pass to attend.   Staff of homeless service providers would also benefit from attending this training. The forum will last one hour and will start at 10 a.m. on May 15 at the Cosgrove Center in Cleveland. 

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Training for those who Minister to Those Outside

If you belong to a church that goes out to feed homeless people or a student group that goes to the streets of Cleveland to help those sleeping rough, we have a training opportunity for you.  We have a group of experienced outreach workers who will provide resource information and answer questions based on their years of service.  They will talk about ethical issues and the philosophy of serving those outside.  It is tough to build a trusting relationship with those who have nearly given up on society.  Many have faced tough times and have seen the system fail for them.  Others have made huge errors in judgement that they are not willing to admit. 

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Update on Ohio Housing Trust Fund

The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio has been leading the charge to lift the cap on the Ohio Housing Trust Fund.  At the March COHHIO conference, Bill Faith announced that they had made progress with an amendment to lift the cap on the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. The amendment had been included by Rep. Ryan Smith (R-Bidwell) in a piece of legislation known as the Mid-Biennium Review, HB 483. Previously, the money raised from the local Recorders fee when property transfers goes into the Ohio Housing Trust Fund to build and preserve affordable housing.   For years, Ohio has capped the revenue at $50 million with the rest going to the State's General Revenue account. 

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New Video of Simona on the Website

Thanks to Brent for putting together another video of one of our Street Voices speakers.  Simona recently found housing and is now stable.  She is available to talk to religious groups and civic organizations in the County. Here is a link to the Street Voices page of our website.  Call Ken at NEOCH to schedule a time for the Street Voices speaker to participate in a meeting or present to your group today (216) 432-0540.  Simona is a single mom who found herself homeless, but we have high school students, older males and retired single women who can speak to your group.

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Rally to Protest Benefit Cuts

There is a rally and March on Saturday April 12 at Noon at the Market Square Park on West 25th and Lorain Ave. across from the West Side Market.  The group will proceed down to St. Paul's Community Church on Franklin Blvd.  This is a grass roots efforts to call attention to the austerity measures taken by the federal government.  The Protest will ask the federal elected officials to:

• Extend unemployment insurance to the millions struggling to find jobs who lost benefits on January 1, 2014.
• Raise the minimum wage to meet the rising cost of food and shelter in the United States.
• Restore the cuts to the food stamps program made in August and then November 2013.

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Discrimination Report Issued by National Coalition

The National Coalition for the Homeless has issued a briefing paper this week in Washington DC on the opinions of homeless people in the nation's capital.  This was a summer project by students at George Washington University to interview homeless people about their treatment that they receive by law enforcement, private businesses, medical services and social services.
It is no surprise that law enforcement and private businesses were widely described as having discriminating against homeless people.

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Housing 101 Workshop Scheduled for June

NEOCH introduces another Housing 101 workshop for social service providers in the community.  This new workshop will be Friday June 13 at 10 a.m. at NEOCH.  We will only have space for 40 people to attend, so you will have to get your reservation in quickly.  We have a flyer and a webpage dedicated to the Housing 101 here.  The workshop will give housing case managers information about HousingCleveland.org, and the new process for getting shelter in Cuyahoga County.  There is a presentation about landlord tenant issues from the Cleveland Tenants Organization and one from staff from the Dept. of Veteran's Affairs regarding housing and homeless issues for those who served their country.

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Care Alliance Annual Meeting

Care Alliance is hosting their annual meeting in two weeks  April 23 at Noon.  They are giving an award to Brian Davis at NEOCH, and you are welcome to join them at this event.  Please contact them if you are interested in attending.  You must RSVP by calling Mary Kate Hannan at Care Alliance 216/781-6228.

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HUD Rejected Our Appeal Regarding Coordinated Intake

In April 2013, the County decided that anyone who does not go to the Coordinated Intake first would not be considered homeless and therefore not have access to the rest of the services in the community.  For men, you have to go to 2100 Lakeside shelter first before going to any other facility in the community for assistance with your homelessness.  Women and women with children must start their journey at the Norma Herr Center at 2227 Payne Ave.  If they go to one of the privately funded shelters in the community before going to Coordinated Intake, they lose their ability to access rental assistance, transitional housing or any other publicly funded homeless service.

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We Met with Cleveland Police About Hate Crimes

We had a meeting with many outreach workers and volunteers along with some of the victims of the fires down in the Flats and the Cleveland Police Department.  The new Commander of the Second District Thomas Stacho and Officer Petcak from the Downtown unit attended the meeting to hear our concerns that someone was targeting homeless people by burning down their campsites.  We heard of three active sites that were destroyed and a couple of abandoned camps.  This started the weekend of March 21 and continued last Friday March 28.   On Friday evening between 4 pm to 5 p.m.  there were a series of fires at the camps while they were away getting food.

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Candidate Night for County Executive Primary

Lutheran Metro Ministry and Organize!Ohio along with 30 social service and social justice groups are co-hosting a candidate night next week for those running in the primary for Cuyahoga County Executive.  The forum is Thursday April 10 at 6 p.m. at 4515 Superior Ave.  (parking is across the street or on the side streets).  The focus will be on health and human services, housing and other critical needs in the community.  We submitted a couple of questions for the forum.  Nearly all the candidates have confirmed for this event.

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Hate Crime Attack on Homeless Encampments

The Homeless Stroller Lady is famous in Cleveland.  You have probably seen her on a bus or walking around downtown, and some have even called the police worried that she has a baby in the stroller (she does not).   This weekend her campsite and two others were attacked in the Flats.  There were three or four tents set on fire over the weekend.  This is a terrifying prospect with all those flamable blankets lining the tents.  The Stroller Lady had gone to the president of a local construction company and received written permission to take scrap wood from the construction site for her campsite.

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New Street Video Posted on the Website

We posted a new video featuring Angelo Anderson on the front of our website and in our Street Voices section of the website.  Most people are aware of Angelo and his long affiliation with the NEOCH.  Angelo was one of the men who approached NEOCH about printing the street newspaper that they were calling the Homeless Grapevine 21 years ago.   Angelo has been a long term speaker for our Street Voices program.  He raised himself out of homelessness to join the NEOCH staff and then became staff at the Salvation Army/Lutheran Metro Ministry main men's shelter in Cleveland.  This is a short promo for the Street Voices project, but Angelo would love to come out and speak to your group.

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Award Winners at the NEOCH Annual Meeting

The Board of Directors of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless presented the Advocate of the Year award to Eileen Kelly at the Annual Meeting on March 19.  We also gave the David Westcott Volunteer of the Year award to Kimberly Fischer for her outstanding work last year.  Eileen Kelly invited a number of St. Colman friends with her to the annual meeting to help celebrate her social justice award.   Kelly helped start the Identification Collaborative in Cleveland nearly 10 years ago, and they have served thousands.   Last year, Kelly did a great deal of work trying to get the Social Security Administration and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in protecting access to identification for homeless people.  This year the hard work begins of trying to raise enough funds to keep the project going.

http://www.neoch.org/cleveland-homeless-blog/2014/3/20/award-winners-from-neoch.html
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Ione Biggs Award Winners

Jay Westbrook and Maria Smith were honored by the Homeless Coalition as the 2013 and 2012 Ione Biggs Social Justice Award winners respectfully.  We presented them with a plaque that they can display on their office wall.  We also have a recognition plaque in the office with the engraved names of the previous winners. We keep Ione Biggs name alive in Cleveland with this Social Justice award, and each of the winners knew Ms. Biggs and were fans of her advocacy and dignity. For those who do not know, Ione Biggs was one of the first female police officers in Ohio.  She had a long history of fighting for the rights of women especially women of color. 

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Annual Report Posted on our Website

We had a really nice Annual Meeting on Wednesday night with a full house of over 40 people.  We were proud to give lifetime achievements to Maria Smith and retired Councilman Jay Westbrook as the 2012 and 2013 Ione Biggs Social Justice Award winners. Both graciously tried to find others who deserved the award more than they did, but we finally convinced each to accept the award.  It was nice that both knew Ms. Biggs before she passed away.  We had some good food (thanks Jennifer) and around 40 people attended the Annual Meeting.

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Two Related Stories on the Criminal Justice System

There were a strange group of articles in the paper that point to the two different approaches to the criminal justice system in America.  The Justice Department announced a change in the sentencing recommendations for drug offenses then on the other end the Plain Dealer had a story that the Governor was asking for additional criminal justice money because they are running out of space in the jails.  Attorney General Eric Holder is asking for a reduction in the range of sentences for federal drug crimes.  At the same time, he is requesting that Federal Prosecutors not object to requests for sentencing reductions.  This will affect nearly 70% of the drug trafficking cases in the federal courts. Here is the NPR report on the issue. 

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At Least We Don't Live in Columbus

We have real problems with diversion as part of Central Intake mostly based on concerns of women at the shelter.   We do not believe that it is ever a good idea to return a woman to the place she was last night if there is a possibility that the women will experience domestic violence.   The County is following a trend in the United States to interview people and ask them where they slept last night, and then try to negotiate a place to stay with family, friends or landlord that is not in the shelters.  This is called Diversion and it is the latest trend out of Washington DC.  Over 20% of the people do not get a shelter bed and are relocated back to the community.   I am skeptical that a victim of domestic violence would tell a total stranger that she is being abused if she is embarrassed or ashamed that she has stayed with the abuser for an extended period of time.

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National News Updates

New York City
The new police chief of New York City, Bill Bratton, has tripled the number of arrests for panhandling as was done in the first two months of 2012.  This is a crackdown on those who sit by the subway asking for change which is annoying, but these guys need the help.  I have never understood giving people who are down on their luck a ticket for begging for money.  This seems like kicking a man when he is down.  Do they allow these guys to beg for the fine that they will be charged for asking for help?   Unless you provide an alternative for these poor people it will only perpetuate the problem.

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