Drew Carey Entertains City Council

Next Week Carrot Top Unveils a Device that Will Revolutionize Cleveland...

I like Drew Carey, I really do, but to give him a couple of hours before City Council is an insult. It makes us look like we live in a Cow Town. I have a long history with stand up comedy, and Drew Carey was one of the best. I mean, his routine about Cleveland's unofficial motto being "At least it's not Snowing" is hilarious. He also has did a great routine about driving a Yugo among many others. He is no doubt a great comedian, but he is a lousy community leader. In a time in which 29 miners died in West Virginia, 11 oil workers died in the Gulf, and banks destroyed neighborhoods in Cleveland and around the country, how does a person who believes in less government have any credibility?

I watched all the Nick Gillespie/Reason Magazine videos, which contained only a dash of Drew Carey, and felt cheated. Advertising these as Drew Carey videos is like calling Ken Burn's Civil War series the Studs Terkel videos. He was a minor part of the presentation, and these videos had very little value in forwarding civic discussion. I just don't understand how anyone watched them and said, "We need to get this guy to testify before City Council."

They kept bringing up the state of Cleveland sports, and somehow making the connection with the decline of Cleveland. The Browns were perennial contenders in the 1980s, the Indians in the late 1990s, and now the Cavs are regular participants in the playoffs. If this was a valid point all of our teams would be cellar dwellers since the river caught fire. Complaining about high taxes, privatizing schools, and restrictive land use policies are not a solution for anything. They are conservative talking points that have not worked in practice. Our own state has flirted with charter schools and that has resulted in high failure rates among these schools, and for profits making money off of providing education to the next generation. We have had nearly two decades of cutting taxes, and where has that gotten us--two unpaid wars, trillions in debt, and many angry people who are not willing to pay their fair share for living in a democracy. The first combination strip club/pawn shop/payday lender that goes into Gates Mills, Bratenahl, or Avon Lake would be the end of less restrictive land use policies.

I really wanted to hear some good ideas for how to turn around population decline, job losses, and a collapse in the housing market, but was disappointed. There were two good points made during the videos: We wasted millions on playgrounds for the rich with the two stadiums and the arena, and that we need to figure out a way to reduce red tape within government. That being said it is a giant leap to say end the MedMart deal, sell the West Side Market and allow a Walmart to go up where ever they want. We are all-in on the MedMart deal. No matter what we think, we have invested far too much public money to stop this train now. A year after we sell the West Side Market, it will close. It will go the way of every other farmer's market and a Walmart will open in its place. I loved how Gillespie mentioned transparency when talking about how a corporation could run the West Side Market better. I have never thought of WalMart, BP, Exxon, Halliburton, Blackwater, or AIG as especially transparent in their business dealings. This was the most laughable part of the videos. Government can at least be forced to be transparent, but corporations guard their privacy above all else.

I think Michael Symon could offer more help to Cleveland as a local business man than Drew Carey. Libertarian views are great for the classroom discussion at CWRU, but they are impractical and silly in practice. The private sector cannot solve homelessness, poverty, massive job losses, and population declines that currently face the City of Cleveland.

Brian
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Portraits of Homeless Residents will be in City Hall next week

Staff at 2100 Lakeside will display the portraits show at the City Hall Rotunda next week. The presentation of the show will be Monday April 19 from 5-7 p.m. with a short overview and talk by staff and residents of the shelter.

I went to the show when it was hung at CSU Levin College, and I urge everyone to go see it. The interesting part of this show that separates from other shows is there is a narrative that Lydia Bailey prepared with each of the images. You get the opportunity to read the story behind the image, and get to know the subjects. Catch the opening and stick around for the City Council meeting at 7 p.m. What a great night--poverty, art, and democracy for free.

Brian
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Reply to Shelter Standards Request

Guidelines vs. Regulations

The Homeless Congress has secured the endorsement of 20 City Council candidates to pass some kind of regulations of the shelters. The list of council members is regularly updated on the NEOCH website with a link to the proposed legislation as written by the Congress.

One interesting note came by fax on October 5, 2009 from current City Councilman Anthony Brancatelli and candidate for Ward 2. While he checked the box in support of the proposal to regulate the shelters, he altered the the form to say that he would work to pass "or support" the regulations. Then at the end he added that he supports the concepts, and Brancatelli added "and understand that the state may provide such regulations." Some Council members have been deceived into thinking that the guidelines published by the State Department of Development are an adequate substitute to local regulations.

These guidelines have no enforcement mechanism, and there is no place within the State to go to complain about violations of these guidelines. All the shelter director has to do is sign once a year that they follow these guidelines and they get their money. No shelter has ever had their funding removed, because they are not following the guidelines. These rules have no provision for even enforcing violations of the suggested guidelines. So, even if a homeless person walked all the way down to Columbus and found the Department of Development they have no way of filing a complaint. There is not even an inspector general who can ever audit the shelters to see if they are in fact abiding by the state recommendations.

What homeless people are asking for is some local oversight of the shelters. They want someone to complain to when their stuff is inappropriately thrown away. They want someone impartial who will listen if they think that they were wronged. They want someone watching the millions of dollars that go to the shelters in our community. It is a simple request, but it seems like some bureacrats don't want to have to take sides and so are forwarding the myth that the shelters are already regulated. We are not accepting support for guidelines as a substitute for support for regulations.

Brian
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Update on the Shelter Regulations

New Support After Scene Article

The Homeless Congress had three candidates return their form over the last day after the Scene Magazine put a story on their blog yesterday. We now have 17 of the 57 candidates including 8 who were in office in 2009 have endorsed the regulation of the shelters. The primary election for Cleveland City Council is in two weeks, and then there will be 60 days before the regular election. The primary will narrow the field to two candidates who will run in November. Homeless Congress members will continue to solicit support from the candidates right up to the November election.

Brian
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City Council Candidates Sign On to Regulations

Homeless Congress Ask Candidates for Help

The members of the Homeless Congress have sent letters to all 57 candidates running for City Council asking for support of legislation that would regulate the shelters. After two weeks, nine candidates have signed on in support including three incumbents. We hope to get a response to the mailing this week. You can check out the website to see the list of candidates who support some kind of regulation of the local homeless shelters. The big issue for homeless people is that they need one place within government to go to complain about conditions. The members of the Homeless Congress have pushed this legislation for the last two years, and hope to see some progress in the fall.

Brian
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Social Justice Celebrated

Shares Awards/Annual Meeting today

I used this somewhat outdated photo because it is a great image of City Hall. If I had this captured this photo, I would use it in all my materials. But anyway...Community Shares held their annual meeting today at the definitively non-Social Justice type venue of Windows in the Flats, but still it was a nice event. I have to say that I love Community Shares, and believe that it is one of the 100 coolest things about Cleveland that does not get enough attention. In an ever expanding number of awards in the area of social justice, Community Shares recognized the following individuals and groups:

1. The Eleanor Gerson leadership award went to Cleveland Councilman Anthony Brancatelli of Ward 12 for his efforts to save his neighborhood in the face of the hurricane of foreclosures.
2. Mike Brickner of the ACLU was volunteer of the year--one of NEOCH's volunteers as well.
3. Reverend George Hrbek of LMM was the named Distinguished Activist one of the activist who helped nurture NEOCH through our infancy in the 1980s.
4. Policy Matters of Ohio was selected as Member Organization of the Year. They do fantastic reports for elected officials to use in support of social justice.
5. Dan Harkins of Cleveland Scene Magazine was given an award for social justice reporting. A good reporter who does not get enough credit in Cleveland.
6. Finally, a new award for 2009 called the "Power of Participation: Making History" to the LGBT Community Center and the NAACP for their work to create the Domestic Partner Registry.

The most interesting part of the lunch was the speech by George Forbes, the long time chair of the NAACP Board. As everyone knows there were many African American preachers in Cleveland who were opposed to the Domestic Registry for same sex couples. It was interesting hearing Forbes talk about his movement on this social justice issue. He said that he had never had any opinion about the rights of lesbians and gay members of our society until Councilman Cimperman approached the NAACP about this issue. Forbes said that he was confused why Cleveland even needed this law, and the LGBT community said that they just had no standing within the law so they could not even sue to protect their right to marry in Ohio. Forbes said that this struck him as fundamentally unfair, and he recognized this as a civil rights issue. It was a good speech for a strange champion of the rights of gays and lesbians in George Forbes.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Homeless Congress Meeting

Councilmembers Attend Congress Meeting

Every month, NEOCH organizes a meeting called the Homeless Congress at the Bishop Cosgrove Center in Cleveland. This meeting features two homeless residents from each of the shelters in Cleveland and six from the big men's shelter at Lakeside, and three women who represent the Community Women's Shelter. They have worked on a response to the foreclosure crisis, they raised concern in November 2008 about the conditions at the Community Women's Shelter. The Congress has recently commented on the Central Intake, and they have helped with a number of research projects about the state of homelessness in Cleveland. This last week, both Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman and Matt Zone attended the meeting to talk to representatives of the various shelters.

There were 10 different shelters represented at the meeting, and we had a full agenda planned with a discussion about this $12 million that was coming to Cleveland to prevent homelessness. We never got around to most of the agenda, because we spent about an hour of the meeting on the state of the shelters in Cleveland. We were able to get a few updates on previous issues that we have focused on, but the individuals wanted to talk about the sorry state of the shelters in Cleveland. Before people jump to negative stereotypes about the "ungrateful homeless who have the nerve to comment on a charity that they pay nothing for," we have to say that the shelters are way better than they were in the 1990s when the bulk of the shelters were just a matt on the floor of a garage. We have to also say that homeless people pay a higher percentage of their income on taxes than the typical home owner in our community. They often do not qualify for Earned Income Tax credit because of debt, and certainly not all the tax credits for owning a home or heading up a household. So, they pay a great deal in sales tax and pay employment taxes without much opportunity for taxes returned to them from an income tax return every year. Bottom line is that they pay into the system at a high level, and do not get much back (no free health care, no guaranteed safe place to live, or even a solid minimum wage job). So, at least they could expect the overcrowded shelters would provide a safe, decent, warm environment to find stable housing.

There were a lot of charges that came up at the meeting especially around conditions at the Community Women's Shelter in Cleveland. To be fair, the shelter has a new director who started only two and a half weeks ago, and is trying to clean up the facility while at the same time staying in operation. Afterall, a new director cannot fire everyone to get the staff back under control. The shelter is a vital service and must remain open 24 hours a day 365 days a year. It is difficult to steer a shelter that has gone far off course. The women heard about this meeting in February and met to develop a presentation for the Councilmembers. They wrote down dates and times and issues that happened at the facility. Some of the incidents that came up included the serving of expired food, one woman was jailed by the police/security on site. They arrested her for raising her voice to a staff person putting her hands on the resident. Staff disrespect was a common theme for many of the shelter residents. There was a call for better training across the board especially mediation training. The other issue that came up repeatedly was where do homeless people go to complain about these issues? What government entity would respond to these concerns. Other concerns expressed by residents include:

• Staff do not know CPR or other basic health issues.
• We need better oversight of the resources donated to the shelters
• Questions about who makes sure that the shelter dollars are going to those in need?
• We need a place to send those actively using drugs or alcohol (not the streets as happens now.)
• We need more nurses in the shelter.
• There were allegations of some illegal activity at the shelters including sexual harrassment and theft by staff as well as charges that some staff would come to work drunk.
  
• All the shelters need to be more like West Side Catholic shelter.
• There are not a lot of service offered to teach people how to live independently.
  
• The current standards are only verified once a year, and no one make sure that the Ohio Basic Shelter Standards are monitored on a daily basis.
  
• Most do not get basic items like hygiene kits or clean linens or even to talk to a housing professional.
  

The Councilmen and Bill Resseger from the City of Cleveland could not make a commitment that the proposed Shelter Standard's Bill that the Congress developed would be passed into law. (It has to go through the administration and committees and a hearing, etc.). Bill Resseger did assure the Congress that he would work with NEOCH and the social service provider in charge of the Community Women's Shelter to get that shelter back under control. Councilman Zone wanted to assure everyone that all three of the people representing the City at this meeting care about this issue and want to help homeless people cut through the bureacracy to improve the system. Joe Cimperman mentioned that he would advocate for a meeting with the shelter executive directors to see what could be accomplished without having to change the law. Cimperman also asked about his 1998-1999 law change which required the agencies to have one homeless person on the board of every non-profit receiving City of Cleveland money. I responded that it was a worthy effort, but has not solved the problems for a number of reasons, which I will talk about in a future post. Both Councilman were concerned that the City would over-regulate the shelters or would cost too much money to implement some of the ideas contained in the document. Finally, there was a concern that some of the regulations may put a few of the shelters out of business, and the city would be stuck with even fewer shelter beds.

There were a few members of the Congress who urged passage of the proposed Shelter Standards Bill. I have to mention Richard, who recently got into housing and represents the Bishop Cosgrove Center at the meeting, passionately argued that the only way that the shelters will be cleaned up is if the City passes a law to protect homeless people. It is an election year in 2009 for City Council members. There was a great deal of anger and passion at this meeting by people who sleep in the shelters. We will help homeless people make this an issue with the City Council election. Afterall, 80% of the budgets for the shelters comes from public sources. There is extensive scrutiny of most other public funds, but the shelters seem to be outside public oversight except the once per year review. If a taxpayer is sleeping in a landlord's building they can go to court to seek relief from invasions of privacy or harassment, but a taxpayer living in a shelter is at the mercy of the staff and have no where to complain.

We have a special meeting in two weeks to talk about the prevention dollars, and we will take up the shelter standards bill at our April 9 meeting. We have to thank both Councilman Cimperman and Councilman Zone for attending the meeting and listening to the concerns of this constituency.

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

Foreclosure Mediation Hearings

Tuesday Hearing on Housing Crisis

Photo by Cheryl Jones of the Grapevine photo project. For information on prints contact NEOCH at 216/432-0540 or check out the Homeless Grapevine on the streets next week.

On Tuesday July 22, 2008, Councilman Jay Westbrook held a Cleveland City Council hearing featuring the County Court of Common Pleas and their new mediation program. Judge Eileen Gallagher attended along with the Court's mediation staff. With 14,000 foreclosures in 2007 and a similar number expected in 2008, this one staff person seems inadequate to meet the demand, but it is a good first step. The most stunning news was from one of the Court staff who said that he expects 2 or 3 more years of this crisis. Knowing that government employees always underestimate everything, this is a startling revelation. The City of Cleveland cannot take another three years of foreclosures at the current level. We will die and cease to function as a city with three more years of 14,000 foreclosures each year.

This is why the advocates' panel which came up second were so critical to this discussion. We heard from Frank Ford of Neighborhood Progress, Bill Callahan--community advocate, Mike Piepsny of the Cleveland Tenants Organization, and Andrea Price of the Legal Aid Society brought forth a strategy for a moratorium on foreclosures. The Plain Dealer supports this idea in an editorial later in the week. The House and Senate passed a foreclosure/Save Fannie and Freddie bill that will bring $26 million to the County. RealtyTrac published a report that shows Cleveland Statistical Metro Area had the sixth highest number of foreclosures in 2007. All these together make all the proposals tame in the face of three or more years of this tsunami of foreclosures. We need a moratorium; we need renter protections as outlined by CTO; we need a massive legal settlement by the cheating mortgage brokers; we need a massive infusion of dollars from the feds who looked the other way for eight years; we need the State landbank proposal; and we need a new homesteading act that turns over abandoned properties to the masses. The current owners of the land have run it into the ground where it is infecting all of our neighborhoods. It is time to strip them of their property rights and turn it over to anyone willing to rebuild and save our city.

I was on the JV team and testified after most councilmen had left and had to compete with the angry lady who demanded to testify even though she had nothing to say about foreclosures. One side note, it was refreshing to see 11 council members attend a summer hearing. I guess that the PD article really got these guys to show up, before they are downsized by the Charter Review process. Anyway, my contribution to the proceedings were that there are 2,000 homeless people sleeping in a temporary bed every night or 19,000 over the course of the year who are ready, willing and able to help. They want to have some of the properties turned over to them to preserve and protect. They want to be allowed to live in these properties as the owner is leaving, but before the property is stripped clean. There are many with good credit, but a low income job that want to be renters in these places. There are others with skills like drywalling, plumbing and electrical--some are amazing craftmen and craftswomen, who could put these houses back together to save these neighborhoods. We need to think big and come up with large scale change that can end this crisis and re-build Cleveland this year.

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

Council Challenged to Sleep in Shelter

Homeless Congress Asks Council for Help

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless on behalf of the Homeless Congress is challenging the City of Cleveland Council members to either spend a night in a homeless shelter or introduce a shelter standards bill. The Homeless Congress is a representative body of homeless people which meets every month, and feel that improving the protections within the shelters is a priority. This group of homeless people spent four months to prepare a potential piece of legislation for City Council to pass, but no Council member has taken up the challenge to even introduce this bill. At the January meeting of the Homeless Congress, the members voted to request Council members attend the next meeting to set a date for the introduction of the bill or schedule a time to sleep in the shelters.

NEOCH has asked Council members to pass a law to set a minimum standard for the shelters in exchange for their public funding. The challenge was issued after NEOCH and Congress members repeatedly requested movement on the bill to council members about the proposal and received little response.

Currently, there are no existing standards in law, instead there is a list of recommendations by the state of Ohio and there is no penalty for compliance. Between 2006 and 2007, the Homeless Congress drafted a proposal of Shelter Standards in an effort to ensure all publicly funded shelters are required to provide a basic level of care. The big issue that has repeatedly come up from homeless people is that there is no public agency that will receive complaints about the conditions or treatment that homeless people receive within the shelters.

The next Homeless Congress meeting is February 7 at 1 p.m. at the Bishop Cosgrove Center. Anyone is welcome to attend and Council members are invited to the Homeless Congress meetings. The center is located at 1736 Superior Avenue in Cleveland. Please enter through the back into the cafeteria and go upstairs to the gymnasium.

For more information please contact Brian Davis at (216) 432-0540.
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.