Denver: Illegal to Be Homeless

Denver Council Passing Anti-Camping Ordinance

It all sounds so nice and innocent until you actually begin to think of the implications.  The City of Denver is going down the path of making it illegal to be homeless downtown.  The Denver Post is supporting the plan while the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is opposing the ordinance.  They had battling editorials/commentaries this past week.  These are awful laws that do nothing for the city, and have failed nearly everywhere.

To read more go here.
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ACLU Brown Bag Lunch

Join NEOCH at the ACLU Lunch in Two Weeks

2010 American Civil Liberties Union Brown Bag Lecture Series
You bring your lunch. We’ll bring the experts.

Homeless, Not Hopeless:
The homeless community’s fight for fair treatment
July 7, 2010 on Wednesday | Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Max Wohl Civil Liberties Center
4506 Chester Ave., Cleveland 44103

Far too often municipalities enact unconstitutional ordinances that criminalize homeless people and greatly restrict their access to public space.

Join us for a discussion of the homeless community’s fight for equality with Brian Davis, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and advocate for the estimated 26,000 homeless in the Cleveland area.

This program is part of the Brown Bag Lecture Series. Lectures will be held throughout the summer on Wednesdays from noon – 1 pm at the Max Wohl Civil Liberties Center, 4506 Chester Ave., Cleveland.

This event is free and open to the public. Free parking is available. Drinks and desserts will be provided. To RSVP, call (216) 472-2200 or click the RSVP button.

Save the date for our statewide membership conference!
July 30 - 31, Columbus.
Get more information at www.acluohio.org/conference2010

Join the ACLU and help strengthen our freedoms. Already a member? Click here to find out what else you can do to restore our rights.

Stand up! Get active! Make some noise! Our new website has all the tools you need to restore lost liberty.

From an e-announcement from the ACLU

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Meanest Cities List Released
Florida and California top lists

Photo by Cheryl Jones--2008 graduate of the NEOCH Photo Project

The National Coalition for the Homeless (full disclosure--I am Vice President of NCH) and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty published their latest report on how cities in the United States are treating homeless people. I co-chair the Civil Rights committee, and we hear from cities around the United States about new laws cities are trying to pass laws that hide homeless people. The report "Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities" was published on Monday July 13. The big news in the report, which was featured on NPR's website and Huffington Post, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle among others, is always the top 10 meanest cities in the United States:

1. Los Angeles , CA
2. St. Petersburg . FL
3. Orlando , FL
4. Atlanta , GA
5. Gainesville , FL
6. Kalamazoo, MI
   
7. San Francisco, CA
   
8. Honolulu, HI
   
9. Bradenton, FL
   
10. Berkeley, CA
    

I always like to see the reaction from City officials. They never focus on the issue of criminalizing homeless people or disputing the number of arrests, but they try the misdirect. Basically, they say, "Don't look over there at our no feeding ordinances, but look how much money we spend on shelters." They never say, "Can you believe that we receive millions of dollars from the federal government, and yet we have the nerve to send the police out to arrest the same people that we are receiving funds to serve?" I especially liked the response from the City of San Francisco, California number 7 on the list as reported in the USA Today:

"It also criticizes Mayor Gavin Newsom's idea last year to install homeless meters to encourage people to give spare change to social services rather than directly to panhandlers. The proposal has stalled after being roundly mocked, so maybe we're only, like, eighth meanest."

Those are the headlines, but there is a ton of information inside the report including a two year look at cities throughout the United States. The report looks at the trend toward donation meters (coming to Cleveland in the next few months). They focus on the costs associated with criminalization, and effective alternatives. This features our work on trying to come to a compromise on the distribution of food downtown in 2007-2008. The main body of the report is the overview of nearly every big city in the United States, and various attempts to control the homeless population through law enforcement in lieu of social services. Here is a piece of the Cleveland report:

"In July of 2007, during the City Council’s summer session the City passed a 10 p.m.
curfew on Public Square, a popular location for homeless people to sleep. The Council
declared Public Square a park and thus was subject to the 10 p.m. curfew for everyone including homeless people. Activists protested, but homeless people just moved to other locations just off of the Square."

Akron's horrible panhandling law was not featured (probably because it passed over two years ago), but they certainly deserve some additional scrutiny for making panhandling a job with identification. The report also features all the cases in the United States that involved homeless people including the Cincy panhandling case, the NEOCH sweeps case, and the new legal efforts to restict access to food on the streets. The most shameful aspect of the report is the huge "Prohibited Conduct Chart," which indicate 7-12% increase in laws prohibiting panhandling, loitering or sitting in public spaces over the last two years. This is a disgrace in the United States to have all of these cities spending time, resources and jail space to make it illegal to be homeless.

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

Illegal to Be Homeless

Myrtle Beach Restricts Access to Food

Why are most cities so horrible in dealing with poor people? Is it that they do not understand how those with a low-income live or is it just a single-minded focus on pandering to those with political connections? I can at least understand this desire on behalf of business and government to target homeless people with laws in order to hide such a visible sign of failed leadership. I do not understand when cities restrict access to food served by highly devout religious congregations. Myrtle Beach recently passed a law against feeding homeless people without a license. These groups are only allowed to apply for four licenses to feed per year. These laws are a useless waste of money. Churches will come together and fight the cities over these feeding bans. As happened in Orlando, they will sue, and the city, typically, will lose. Any questions? Ask San Francisco, Las Vegas or anyone of the many cities in Florida that tried this strategy, but failed.

NEOCH in Cleveland worked to try to come to some compromise on these feeding issues. Not until listening to all of these various interests, did I realize how deep seated the religious organizations feel about bringing food downtown. Some of these churches were far away from Cleveland, but felt that it was a part of their very existence to distribute food. After all, in this modern world that often is detached from the words contained in the 2000 year old writings in the Bible, feeding poor people is a clear directive lifted straight out of the Bible.

"Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day."--Isaiah 58:10

It is clear in the Bible (Matthew and Romans) that the Christian God commands the devout to go out and feed the hungry. There is no chance for misinterpretation or confusion. How can a city government mess with this expression of Christian faith? I was surprised how strong this faith was in the delivery of food to homeless people in Cleveland. No matter that the outreach workers were concerned about the lack of nutrition or coordination. No matter that the Public Square was nearly completely shut down with the Euclid Corridor construction project. The religious groups pressed on bringing warm soup, pasta, and their ministry to the streets in snow, rain, and opposition by downtown businesses. We were able to strike a compromise with a few of the churches to relocate the largest meals to a neutral site, but it took many months and wading through some anger. The City of Cleveland did not want to give out tickets or pass a law, but they could no longer tolerate the mess, the clean up costs, and the lack of coordination taking place on the streets.

I was quoted in one of the editorials from The Sun News by the paper, which expressed some skepticism about this decision by the Myrtle Beach City Council. Most of these fundamentalist churches who minister to people on the streets do not like each other. They come from different faiths, and are suspicious of other Christians or Jews, but when facing legal restrictions will join together to fight City hall. They will compromise, but limiting their faith to four feeding times per year is unacceptable. So, instead of working on why people are hungry or living in a park in Myrtle Beach, their City Council will spend the next year fighting to preserve this law. They will continue to get federal funds to support homeless and hunger programs, while trying to make it illegal for the faith community to help. It is always amazing how short sighted city leadership is in dealing with poor people.

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

Anti-Panhandling Campaign a Step Forward

Parking Meters Collecting Funds to Help Homeless People

As announced in the Associated Press and the Plain Dealer, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance has installed parking meters downtown to collect donations for homeless people. I liked some of the comments in the PD/Cleveland.com site announcing this new strategy: "Why are we donating to the United Way? Aren't they supposed to be addressing homelessness?" Was it an attempt to answer these complaints today when the Cleveland.com site had an advertisement for the United Way this morning on their front page about homelessness? This was one of those annoying tabs that take over the page if you happen to scroll over them. I hate those advertisements that hijack my computer screen, and to make it worse the United Way also was using outdated and incorrect statistics about homelessness locally. The reality is that United Way funds a few of the band aid programs serving homeless people, but they have not been at the forefront of funding solutions to homelessness as they are in other American cities.

Some activists around the country hate these parking meters. I view this as a step forward from the previous campaign of lecturing people not to give money to those viewed as "unworthy" or more accurately "those beyond help." These meters, in combination with the new Downtown Bus that acts as a huge billboard for this campaign, it is certainly a step forward. More resources for homeless people can never be a bad thing. I am sure that it will not raise much money and may not even pay for the gas for the Downtown Bus, but I can't see much harm in the whole campaign. Transportation is one huge problem for homeless people and having this free "Change" bus traveling between the shelters and the VA hospital is a big step forward.

This parking meter strategy also makes it seem as though we are doing something to deal with the "problem" of panhandling. It is a step forward to work on this so-called problem, when in reality when compared to other cities panhandling is a minor issue in Cleveland. We really have a small problem with panhandling, but it is the cited as the second most annoying problem with coming downtown behind parking. Pedestrians and downtown workers hate coming across a panhandler because it symbolizes the despair and human suffering in our city. So the pedestrians push for laws like the time and place restrictions panhandling legislation and the anti-tourist Public Square curfew law passed over the past three years. Both of these laws are merely feel good legislation that serve absolutely no practical purpose. The panhandling meters at least have a purpose and homeless people and panhandlers will see some benefit. In fact, they have already seen a benefit with the Downtown Bus now on the streets and available to help homeless people move around downtown for free.

There is a solid majority of pedestrians who visit downtown and claim that they do not like panhandling. In reality, many of those who are experiencing homelessness also have issues with panhandlers. Homeless people feel it is a way to get an easy buck, but it is beneath the dignity of most. A majority of homeless people see panhandling as the last resort in tough times. While we have seen a steady decrease in panhandling over the last two years for a number of reasons, we do not expect that trend to continue over the next year. Expect more people asking for help during this national recession. Finally, it is not an easy buck. Begging for money in the hot or cold or rain, and being rejected thousands of time a day is rough on your ego (see Akron Beacon Journal article).

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

National Homeless Picture

Things are Bad All Around

I attended the National Coalition for the Homeless Board meeting this last weekend. They do this segment of the Board meeting in which each city, state or national organization gets the opportunity to say a few words about how their city is addressing homelessness. Cleveland and Ohio certainly have problems, but nothing compared to some of the cities in the United States.

Atlanta is at all out war against homeless people. They have closed most of the shelters and are trying to make it as difficult as possible for homeless people to survive in the city. They have one of the most restrictive laws regarding identification and voting that has faced repeated challenge in court. Currently, the City of Atlanta is trying to kill all affordable housing in the community. There is a plan to close 5,000 units of public housing by early next year. They are illegally providing housing vouchers for people and telling them that they can only use those vouchers outside the City.

The Washington DC Mayor has turned out to be a disappointment after having run on a friendly homeless platform. In the transition, Adrian Fenty, appointed a commission to look at homelessness in the District, and seemed to be very interested in the issues of affordable housing. Instead, Mayor Fenty has continued to try to close shelters and has not provided adequate resources to the existing shelters.

Los Angeles is also a city that the new Mayor had promised change with the introduction of a huge plan to “end” homelessness. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has also disappointed advocates with criminalization efforts and doing little to address the problem locally. We have discussed in this space the dumping of disabled homeless in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, but the City has seen huge reductions in resources for services as well as housing.

Baltimore is unveiling its plan to end homeless in June. Let’s hope that they do not bring the Bush Administration official, Phil Mangano to town to kick this effort off. It is hypocritical to have the Bush Administration on the one hand cut affordable housing resources then claim to want to end long term homelessness in 10 years. It is almost like claiming to want a quick end to a war while sending more troops to a foreign land to occupy another sovereign country. Wait...never mind.

Texas is trying to get a homeless hate crimes bill passed to have stepped up sentences if a homeless person is attacked and targeted because of his or her homeless status. The City of Austin has exhausted every possible anti-homeless ordinance they can think of including anti-panhandling, anti-sleeping, and loitering ordinances. One new dangerous trend that cities in Florida and the West Coast are passing is “No Feeding Ordinances.” These make it illegal for churches to go into the Downtown and provide food to hungry and homeless people or they will set tight restrictions like only one time a year and no more than 25 people fed at a time. These are crazy, mean spirited and violate the separation of church and state, but the cities have exhausted every other way to make it illegal to be homeless and yet there still are homeless people.

Denver is still having huge battles over identification. Homeless people are caught in the middle of a right wing agenda to restrict immigrants from getting services or any help with a policy to limiting access to identification. Philadelphia and a few other cities are fighting over the creative use of statistics that "show" we are making progress in solving homelessness. Solving homelessness on paper seems to be the new trend by local and federal government agencies. This way they get to send out a press release congratulating themselves for figuring out how to spin data to show progress.

I will post the Cleveland report in the near future in addition to a report from the State housing and homelessness conference this week in Columbus. The COHHIO Conference heard from all the top elected officials in Ohio including Governor Strickland.

Brian

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