buddy gray remembered 15 years later

buddy gray a man ahead of his time

November 15, marked the 15th anniversary of the death of buddy gray (he preferred his name not be capitalized) in Cincinnati.  He took over buildings and established the Drop Inn Shelter in the Over the Rhine neighborhood.  There was a memorial held by activists down in Cincinnati, and a nice remembrance in the Enquirer on Sunday. 

The Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Cincinnati movement has its roots in the advocacy of buddy gray from 35 years ago. He took over spaces in the Over the Rhine when the parents of most of the current Occupy protestor’s were still in high school.  Buddy was offering sanctuary and unconditional love to those forgotten by society in the 1980s.  He gave Cincinnati a heart. Buddy battled the City to bring to light the problem of homelessness and stopped elected officials from trying to sweep the problem under the bridges.  The social justice movement in Cincinnati grew up on the strong shoulders of buddy gray.

He acted with compassion to those forgotten, ignored or neglected by society.  Buddy was a friend to the addicted, the folks re-entering from jail, and those with a mental illness.  He helped build housing, maintain a shelter for those in need, and he transformed the Over the Rhine neighborhood.  His guiding principle was to fight against discrimination and poverty by any means necessary.  This meant that he embraced civil disobedience, he demanded action from community leaders, and he was not satisfied with social services managing the problems associated with poverty.   Buddy was an inspiration to case workers, other advocates, and volunteers who were infected by his charisma and passion for the issue of ending homelessness.

While buddy fundamentally changed Cincinnati, he had a profound impact on the national movement to reduce deaths attributed to homelessness.  Buddy helped to create the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio by assisting with the merger of the state housing and homeless organizations, and sitting on the board for years.  COHHIO successfully lobbied to make housing a right contained in the Ohio Constitution, and pushed for the creation of a dedicated fund to build affordable housing.   Buddy’s legacy at the state level is that, unlike many states, there is a statewide network in place to push legislators to focus some energy on working to improve the lives of those without housing. 

Buddy was also a strong guiding force in the development of the National Coalition for the Homeless NCH and the Housing Now march in DC.  As a current member of the National Coalition for the Homeless board of directors, we still talk about the days that buddy was on the board. He brought a clear loud voice to the movement, and stood his ground against the other strong advocates from around county who met to push for social change.  Ohio has had a representative on the NCH Board since the beginning of organization.  Buddy and other advocates pushed for an emergency relief act, which became the McKinney Vento Continuum of Care funds.  He stamped the organization with a strong commitment to protecting the civil rights of homeless people, and that has endured for 30 years.  The National Coalition has a national reputation for respecting, listening and amplifying the voice of those struggling with their housing, which we learned from buddy.  NCH has always had those experiencing homelessness in leadership positions and a sizable number of our board are currently or formerly homeless individuals. 

We miss buddy gray, and we know that he would have been a leader in the Occupy Wall Street movement if he were still with us.  He would have been a national voice in protecting the rights of homeless people against these new restrictions on voting sweeping the country.  I believe he would have led a freedom march down to Florida to oppose the restrictions on the distribution of food by religious organizations.  Buddy would have figured out a way to stop the various attacks on social service providers serving homeless people taking place today throughout Cincinnati.  We lost a non-violent general in the War on Poverty.   I am sure that we would be much further along in correcting the imbalances and injustices that exist in the United States if buddy’s voice had not been silenced.  

by Brian Davis

Vice President of the National Coalition for the Homeless

Community Organizer in Cleveland, Ohio.

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Appreciation for Pat Clifford

Gentrification Forces Winning

It is not often that you get to show appreciation for someone who has not died, but Pat Clifford was fired from the Drop Inn Center in Cincinnati which I guess is similar to dying. The Coalition is having an evening of appreciation for Pat's work. For the new readers, Pat was the Cincy Coalition director and then he stepped in to running the shelter after buddy gray was killed. The Cincy Drop Inn is constantly under pressure to stay in business against the corporate/gentrification forces in Cincinnati. Those business folks finally got enough power on the Drop Inn board and terminated Pat right after he returned from vacation this summer. If you have the ability and want to support social justice, feel free to attend this event.

Come celebrate and honor Pat Clifford’s 20-plus years of service to the Drop Inn Center and the Over-the-Rhine community! Pat believes that it is the responsibility of all of us to end homelessness. Show your support for this ideal by coming together with others to honor Pat’s continuing presence in our community and his work with us moving forward.

Date and time: October 19^th, 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Location: Coffee Emporium, 110 East Central Parkway, Over-the-Rhine

Appreciation Program at 7:00 PM

Food and drink provided. Open and free to the public

Sponsored by friends of Pat Clifford. Pat requests that any donations be shared with the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and InkTank.

If you can’t attend, please consider sending us a written statement or photo of Pat to be displayed at the event. Send to Catherine Stehlin at the Cincinnati Coalition before Friday, October 15^th.

Send to: Josh Spring LSW

Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

117 E. 12th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Office: 513-421-7803

www.cincihomeless.org

Brian

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Cincinnati Police Allowed to Run Over People

Another Reason to Boycott Cincinnati

There are so many reasons to stay away from the city of Cincinnati, and today the Cincinnati prosecutor's office announced one more reason. Prosecutor Joe Deters held a press conference to inform the community that Hamilton County would not pursue felony charges against police officer Marty Polk for running over and killing Joann Burton as she slept under a blanket in Washington Park in the Over the Rhine neighborhood. In Ohio, the County acts on behalf of the state to pursue felony (serious) charges, and the cities oversee misdemeanor cases. This is an unbelievable decision, and hard to make any other conclusion except that if this woman had not been homeless or had not been an African American or not been either this police officer would be waiting for a manslaughter trial to start.

Are homeless people so disposable in Cincinnati that police are free to kill them without criminal charges? Or is racism still alive and well within the Cincinnati judicial system? The prosecutor claimed the definition of a vehicular felony involved "heedless indifference to consequences and perversely disregarding known risks." This seems to be exactly what happened here. The police officer went up over the curb, and then drove off the path and then decided to drive over the blankets in the park in the daytime. How is that not a "disregard of known risks?" How is running over a person not considered ignoring the consequences of driving up on the grass? I just cannot imagine if a white baby were killed sleeping under a blanket by a police car while the parents were playing volleyball in the park, the the officer would have been immediately fired and charged with vehicular homicide. Besides not being homeless, what could Ms. Burton done to prevent her own death if this were an accident. She was asleep, and not bothering anyone. Should she have set up cones or flashing lights? Is the city going to provide traffic cones to indicate that a homeless person is sleeping to avoid these "accidents" in the future?

I don't understand how Cincinnati is so hostile to low income, homeless, and African American people. Elected officials have tried to close down the Drop In Center shelter for over 20 years. They have undercharged vicious crimes against homeless people on a regular basis according to the National Coalition for the Homeless hate crimes report. Officials never really healed the wounds from the 2001 riot in the Over the Rhine neighborhood. City Council has repeatedly passed laws directed at homeless people. The Cincinnati police have long been under the scrutiny of the Justice Department and community groups because of alleged racist behavior and an unusual number of deaths with young African Americans taken into custody. This decision this week to let Officer Polk off without criminal charges is just another in the long line of poor leadership within the City of Cincinnati, and another reason to steer clear of the City.

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

The People Who Make Things Work 3

Pat Clifford during happier times as the Drop Inn Center Marked 30 Years of service in 2008.

Pat Clifford Cincinnati Homeless Advocate
Unlike Earl Pike who seems to have parted amicably with the AIDS Task Force, we know that Pat Clifford was unceremoniously dumped by the Drop Inn Center in Cincinnati. This is the shelter that buddy gray started by taking over a building after years of fighting with the City to do something about the rising number of homeless people. Clifford was again another of the deep thinkers in our society who make our government work. As we have demonstrated many times in this blog, Cincinnati is one of the most messed up cities when it comes to homeless policies. They never have ended the war between public officials and homeless people. They are still fighting over space, viability, and NIMBY issues going on 40 years now. These problems date back to the founding of the shelter and the protests that buddy raised. I talked to officials from the Cincinnati Coalition and they see this as a new attempt to sweep out "the old guard" and finally get the shelter to relocate.

buddy's shelter is one of the few large shelters in the United States that serves both men and women at night. They have struggled with all the problems that all of America's homeless facilities have to face. Just a month ago a woman overdosed in the bathroom at the shelter. They fought with the City over the winter to be able to house a homeless man who was dying of pneumonia, but was a sexually based offender and could not find housing anywhere in the city. Also, last month in Cincinnati a police officer recklessly drove off the path in a public park and killed a homeless woman sleeping under her blankets by driving over her while she was sleeping during the day. The only reason to drive over someone's belongings is to show homeless people that the police are in charge of the park. This typifies the on-going battle taking place in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood between developers/police and low income people and their advocates.

Pat was a protege of buddy. He was the director of the Cincinnati Coalition when buddy was shot and killed in the shelter in 1996. Clifford studied homelessness and the best way to house those struggling with poverty. He looked at shelter models throughout the country. He tried to make the housing of last resort the best it could be for everyone coming to their doors at night. Clifford was the Obama of the Cincinnati homeless population. He worked closely with homeless people for years and was their advocate and then was thrust into the job of director of the largest social service provider serving homeless people. He had to make nice with the City, the United Way, funders, and sometimes he had to hold his tongue when he saw how the city policies that harmed homeless people. Clifford, as director or landlord to homeless people, was criticized by some advocates for what was perceived as harsh policies toward homeless people in much the same way as Obama is criticized by the liberals for compromising. Clifford never compromised when it came to attacks on the shelter; acting as caretaker to the buddy gray legacy. He balked at teaching homeless people about the dangers of the legal activity of panhandling as part of the yearly shelter allocation of funds. He was unwilling to relocate the facility to some far away hidden location without new money on the table in order to please the powers in Cincinnati who have rediscovered the 40 year neglected Over The Rhine neighborhood.

It is rough running a shelter, and it is difficult to keep the idealism that inspires young people to want to solve the problem of homelessness when working in a shelter. There are some homeless people who, in order to feel safe, want to strip searches of everyone that walks in the door--civil liberties be damned. There are some homeless people who because of their mental condition make life impossible for everyone around them, and the shelter director has to figure out a way to love everyone looking for help. There are some who are unwilling to take advice from anyone, and give up good housing options to live in the shelters. The majority of homeless people just want to leave as fast as possible, but they are often lost because of the sheer numbers looking for help each with their own crisis or multiple layers of problems that caused them to lose their housing.

On the first day of working in a shelter it is often the case that you are the leading advocate for privacy rights, decriminalization of quality of life ordinances, and a strong belief in government. Most get into the job because they want to provide a hand up to those who struggling in our society, and they can see that they are making a difference for people. Every single day of seeing people destroying themselves with drugs and alcohol and making horrible decisions for themselves a shelter worker must check themselves and recommit to core beliefs or they get lost. It is so easy to become bitter and angry with the population, and disgusted with government to the point that you become part of the problem. I met with Pat in March, and he did not seem burnt out or frustrated with his constituency. In my opinion, Clifford was able to walk this tight rope of providing a home to people struggling without becoming the Mayor of a homeless ghetto or the warden of a homeless prison.

I was told that Clifford went on vacation and then when he came back the board fired him. The Drop Inn Center has a relatively small board, and so it is easy to get a few development minded people to convince the others that it is time for a change. Josh Springs of the Cincinnati Coalition has been all over the news complaining that the local development company that wants to renovate the park and move the shelter was behind Clifford's firing...And the war goes on in Cincinnati with homeless people caught in the crossfire. I am sure that Clifford will land on his feet. I just hope that he is not so disgusted with the politics of homelessness that he decides to move to some other human service or civil rights project.

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

Cincinnati Coalition Files Suit

They Do Some Crazy Stuff in Cincy

We have been trying to convince the City of Cleveland to pass a law that would regulate the shelters. I guess sometimes you have to watch what you wish for, because you may get it. The City of Cincinnati passed an updated shelter standards bill and placed a bunch of Easter eggs in the legislation. They included in the bill a requirement that every shelter receiving public money must discourage panhandling among their clients. So, the shelters are expected to dissuade their residents from engaging in a perfectly legal activity. They must report to the City every year how they "discouraged panhandling." All of the other issues in the world that the shelters should be counseling their clients against like drugs, prostitution, and even state sponsored gambling, and the City picks out the legal practice of panhandling for special scrutiny.

The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is suing the city over this ridiculous policy. The City has also taken the oversight of the shelters away from the Coalition and given it to the group that distributes the federal funds locally. The City claims that it is premature to file suit since it is not sure that the policy will become law.

"City Solicitor John Curp said the lawsuit is premature because council's approval of the rules does not mean they will be implemented by city administrators. He said his office must review council's recommendations to determine whether they are constitutional." according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

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

Update on Cincinnati Hate Crimes

Madness Captured, Hate Crimes Legislation Needed

The Cincinnati Coalition is keeping us up to date on the situation with regard to the attack on Robert Meehan. On the first posting, we had a strange comment submitted from a self proclaimed witness to the event. It has to be said that the comment from "the witness" does not match the security videotape. In addition, the Cincinnati police were clear that no crime justifies the beating that Meehan suffered.

The alleged attacker, Michael K. Taylor, a.k.a. Madness was captured late last week. Lieutenant Mike John of the Cincinnati Police department reported that Taylor was captured in Las Vegas, late Friday night (02/05/2010). Taylor will be extradited to local officials on Monday. Michael K. Taylor is charged with felonious assault. Witnesses say that he severely beat Robert Meehan on January 24th, near Bootsy’s Restaurant on Walnut Street in Cincinnati. Mr. Meehan was known to be a homeless man in the neighborhood.

The surveillance tape and witness reports explain that Mr. Meehan was picked up and body slammed to the sidewalk, he was punched several times in the face and struck with a beer bottle. Lt. John reported that this was the worst beating he has ever seen in which the victim did not die from the injuries inflicted. Further, there was not enough intact bone structure in Mr. Meehan’s face to do surgery. Robert Meehan was placed into a chemically-induced coma.

Mr. Meehan came out of his coma on Friday the 5th. He is coherent enough to know that he is in a Cincinnati hospital. Lt. John says the struggle is not over. It is essential for Cincinnati to show support for Robert Meehan in the courtroom and through the court procedure. Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) is part of a larger group from around the state and country that are pushing for legislation to be passed at both (State & Federal) levels, in order to prevent these types of hate crimes. Homeless individuals are a very vulnerable part of our society, therefore GCCH along with all the other Coalitions for the Homeless would like to see legislation passed on behalf of all homeless individuals, so that regulation will be enforced and the homeless will not be assaulted and taken advantage off.

The surveillance tape supports what every witness reports; that Robert Meehan was not aggressive, threatening or of a harmful nature towards Michael K. Taylor or the three women around him. Robert Meehan is the victim of a heinous hate crime that had the potential of killing him.

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

Dayton Job Center

Massive One Stop Center for Jobs....

Dayton features the largest one-stop employment center in the United States called the Job Center. It is a huge--renovated old warehouse that was updated to be roomy, well lit, and easily accessible social service headquarters. It is basically, the Virgil Brown Building in Cleveland, part of Tri-C- and many social service providers housed together in an 8.5 acre campus. There are colorful floor panels so that people do not get lost. They have a huge cafeteria, and now some of the homeless providers are moving into the facility. There are charter schools and colleges have satellite offices in the building. Many government entities have offices in the building, and it is on the bus line. The big health care provider is right down the street and the Thrift Store is right next to this building.

We gathered for a meeting of all the Homeless Coalition's in Ohio. It was an awesome building, and made us all envious that we did not have a similar facility in our home cities. The Job Corps, Job Bank, Dress for Success type programs, GED classes, job training classes, Social Security, and youth services were all available at the Center.

The One Stop Center opened in 1997 and was funded by federal and local resources. WEA was first funding to help people get back to work. It eliminates duplication and reduces travel time to get help. It is in an old Federated (Lazarus/May/Macy's) Department Store warehouse that is now operated by County Government but the funding went to St. Vincent De Paul to open it quickly. Just the job bank with computer terminals for looking for jobs serves 3000 individuals per day. It is the biggest in county (8.5 acres). It was a risk to set this up, because it was unknown if other providers would want to set up shop in the facility.

• 18 conference rooms for meetings.
• It facilitates collaboration among agencies with quarterly meetings of all the directors.
  
• All the partners are briefed when big layoffs are coming.
• Development folks are now visiting and advertising the place as a community attraction to set up shop in the Dayton area. They champion that it will be easy to recruit labor through the Job Center.
  
• - They do have remote center for people subject to mass layoffs with specific case management. For example , the set up next to GM plant closing.
• The Vet Center is right down the street as well.
• Re Entry Program starting Feb. 16 starting Specialized Employment Center – training, screening, skills assessment supportive partnership Job Club will help Social Services partner with other agencies. (110 individual per year) Will try to help find a Job mostly soft services.
  

Other items from the meeting:

• Appalachia –The shelter served 164 People in 2009. They had to turn away 36 while 84 were turned away in 2008.
  
• They are working on funding and revising their structure to try to get help to shelters in the rural communities.
  
• Fundraiser was very successful in January with 521 people showed up and did a simulation about homelessness.
• - Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing is going well and getting out to the right people.

Cincinnati –
Talked a great deal about the Hate Crimes Forum that they organized after two recent events.

Columbus

The local groups are still trying to replace Barb Poppe who headed the Community Shelter Board and now is the new Homeless Czar in DC. The Columbus Coalition is working on workforce development. Their October conference went well in combining the religious and secular services.

Helping to employ people and try to work out all the details. They are proceeding forward on hiring a full time director. Their VISTAs are looking at a home deconstruction project in Dayton to look at replicating that in Columbus. They have 541 vendors for their street newspaper in Columbus, and 40 regular vendors. They have conducted a writing workshop with 3 volunteers who help.

Dayton

They have a new Mayor, and are waiting to see what the new priorities are locally. They are working on a community organizing project, which will look at the 10 year plan within the County. They have hired a national assessor to see how people are served within the homeless community especially to the Permanent Supportive Housing. There has been a good deal of media attention over a group of homeless people who were moved out of the woods and then into a neighborhood. Dayton Daily News did a story about a group that wanted have these guys removed from their neighborhood. The neighbors are really angry. The community groups are relocating some of the men to other places to keep them safe. With the move to the Job Center, they have space to help with a furniture donation program. A new site was opened with plenty of land that there is a thought to open up a Social Enterprise or Farm as part of the project where the residents can make money while residing in the housing.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Another Hate Crime in Cincinnati

Man Beaten Within An Inch of His Life

A man was “beaten within an inch of his life” says Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Mike John after a January 24 incident outside of a local bar/restaurant. Sunday morning at approximately 3:48am Robert Meehan was severely beaten just outside of Bootsy’s Restaurant at 631 Walnut Street. Just moments before he was beat, Meehan was recorded by a surveillance camera walking with a black man who is approximately 30-35 years old, 6'02"-6'03" in height and 225 lbs. He was wearing dark blue/black jeans, orange dress shirt, black jacket and black knit type hat. Three white women were also walking with the man in question along side of Meehan.

Meehan a 56-year old white man, is known to be a local writer, recently working to submit an article for Street Vibes. He gains much of his information from spending time at places such as bars where people socialize. Patrons and employees in the area of Walnut report regularly seeing Meehan. Patrons and neighbors report that Meehan is never disrespectful, never violent and has a calm disposition.

Lieutenant John says that this attack was “brutal and unprovoked.” Surveillance video shows Meehan and the other four people involved in a civil walk and conversation with no altercation. It seems that the attacker, without any cause, suddenly attacked Meehan. Lieutenant John says that really there never is a cause for such violence. The attacker picked up Robert Meehan, body-slammed him to the ground, punched him, beat him and reportedly hit him with a beer bottle. Lieutenant John says that this is “the worst beating [he has] ever seen, in which the victim did not die.” Currently, Meehan is in the ICU at University Hospital of Cincinnati in a medically induced coma. The beating was so bad that there is not enough bone structure left in his face to do surgery.

Meehan spends time staying with friends or spends time on the streets. Meehan is known by those who frequent the area surrounding Bootsy’s Restaurant and other local entertainment venues near Walnut and also Fountain Square. "It is difficult to understand why an individual would commit such a heinous crime against another person, especially a person who did nothing to provoke violence," said Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless director Josh Springs.

It is ironic that the attack occurred in the same week that the Cincinnati Coalition was hosting a forum on Hate Crimes against people who are homeless, and two weeks after an attack near the stadium of a man who was set on fire. Crimes such as these take different forms, but often are the most heinous and vicious. Michael Stoops from the National Coalition for the Homeless attended the forum to call attention to this disturbing national trend and the yearly report produced by NCH. The report details the frivolous attitude of many if the violent young people caught attacking those experiencing homelessness. Many claim an attitude of, “He was just a bum, so he doesn’t matter.”

With this mindset attackers target hate toward those who are vulnerable and just minding their own business or quietly trying to survive from one day to the next. The Cincinnati Coalition will be working with activists from around Ohio to strengthen state laws to punish those who attack homeless people with additional punishments after these two attacks.

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

Cincinnati Activist Passes Away

Jimmy Heath, Photojournalist, Dies

After a long fight with a chronic health condition, Jimmy Heath has passed away. Jimmy was the editor of the Streetvibes in Cinncinnati and had a very nice website with all his photographs. I had regular contact with Jimmy as I helped to found the street newspaper in Cincinnati. He was a great guy with a passion for the rights of homeless people. He was a deep thinker about the interaction of street newspapers, especially photographers, with those experiencing homelessness who are featured in papers. He was previously a Congressional Hunger Fellow at the National Coalition for the Homeless. Jimmy loved bringing dignity to homeless people and loved the street newspaper movement.

He passed away quietly at Hospice Care on Thursday in Cincinnati. He edited the street newspaper in Cincinnati for seven years and was a member of the North American Street Newspaper Association. The Cincinnati Enquirer recently wrote a profile of him and his experiences finding his way off the Cincinnati streets. We will miss his voice in Ohio. There will be a public memorial in January.

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

The Meanest Guy in the State

Cincinnati Hates Homeless People

We don't get a lot of news from that geographically misplaced city of Cincinnati (should be located below the Mason Dixon), but here is a story that ran last week about a homeless sexually based offender trying to stay warm. Cincinnati politicians get elected by promising to get rid of poor people and the debates are between two candidates who attempt to be more hateful than the other guy. Here is an example:

Offender Sues for the Right to Shelter

A 57-year-old sex offender told a judge Friday that he might freeze to death because a state law bars him from a Cincinnati homeless shelter located near a school.

Larry Winslow, who has been homeless for five years, sued in U.S. District Court to block enforcement of the law so he can seek refuge at the Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine.

The law he is challenging forbids convicted sex offenders from living in homes, apartments or shelters within 1,000 feet of schools or day-care centers.

"Mr. Winslow is struggling just to survive in the cold this winter," Winslow's attorney, David Singleton, wrote in the lawsuit. "He fears that he will die in the cold weather if he cannot get shelter."

The lawsuit says Winslow recently was diagnosed with walking pneumonia.

The suit is the latest challenge to Ohio's restrictions on sex offenders and where they may live.

Several suits have been filed in Cincinnati and around the state, but so far judges have deemed the law valid.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who is named in Winslow's lawsuit, said the law is constitutional. "I feel bad for him," he said of Winslow. "I know it's cold outside, but we have to enforce the law.

"There is no constitutional right to warmth."

Last year, Deters' office notified the Drop Inn Center that the shelter no longer could allow sex offenders to live there because the building is located within 1,000 feet of a school.

Winslow's lawyers could not be reached Friday, but the lawsuit says he was convicted of sexual battery in 1994 and 1996 in cases involving adult female prostitutes.

The suit states that he spends most nights on the streets and occasionally seeks refuge at the downtown Greyhound bus station. Usually, though, he is told to leave or face arrest, the lawsuit says.

"There is no rational basis to prohibit sex offenders from sleeping, at night, at a homeless shelter that happens to be within 1,000 feet of a school," the lawsuit says. "No child protection interest is served."

The suit asks Judge Sandra Beckwith to declare the law unconstitutional and to issue an order that would allow Winslow to immediately seek shelter at the Drop Inn Center.

Joe Deters was hounded by scandal out of state office then elected by the good people of Cincinnati to be the lead advocate for interpreting laws that he had trouble following while in the State Executive Branch. He said, "There is no constitutional right to warmth," which in the civilized world would be the end of your political career, but in Cincinnati is a campaign slogan for re-election. In other words, "I feel bad for him, but we are not responsible when he dies on the streets." That is a rough city to be homeless, and certainly one of the meanest cities in the United States toward poor people.

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