What is Happening With County Homelesness?

Jan Eaton (Community Women's Shelter), Ruth Gillett and Sheri West (OHS) and Cathy Alexander (Mental Health Services) (sitting) at the June County Council hearing on Shelter Standards. Photo by Pleasure Simmons.

Cuyahoga County Homelessness 2011
The County Office of Homeless Services (OHS) "Advisory" board only meets every other month.  The last meeting was in November 2011, and we haven't written much about the County for the past few months.  At their last meeting they worked to clarify the definition of homelessness to include transitional programs, which was causing confusion for the Mental Health/Alcohol and Drug Boards and their staff.   This will all have to be updated again as the newly passed HUD rules are implemented locally which dramatically redefines homelessness.  This new definition will only confuse the entire community (Thanks Congress).  The Board also expanded to include a representative of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District--a very good idea.

The Housing First group (overseers of permanent supportive housing programs) has decided to expand to include families and young adults as the HUD rules change to allow for a small portion of federal dollars to go to these populations.  With the huge increase in family homelessness in America over the last three years (including Cleveland), this makes sense if not a little late.  Progressive cities such as Minneapolis and Denver expanded to include families years ago using state and local resources since HUD dollars were not available.  These communities have done a much better job in addressing the problem of homelessness, because they have not chased the federal gravy train, but instead set about solving homelessness and found the dollars to implement their strategies.  We did learn from the Housing First group that there is not really a solid source of funding for the supportive services associated with these properties.  This is concerning in that if HUD moves on to a new trend will these severely disabled people be left in apartments without case managers? Also, will we see the same problem we saw with Public Housing when they got rid of their social workers repeated with Permanent Supportive Housing?

We regularly criticize the Office for having the most talented and knowledgeable people sitting around the table, but wasting those opportunities never doing anything of substance.  From the surveys conducted by a consultant to OHS, it seems like one quarter of the board is similarly dissatisfied.  A lot of this frustration came up in the discussion as the "advisory" made plans for the next three years.  They attempted to put in writing some goals for the Office of Homeless Services, and I heard concern from many of the members that the Board should be working more on solving community problems and bringing more resources to address homelessness.  There is also some confusion if the "advisory" really advises anyone and are staff, elected officials or county bureaucrats really listening to the advise?

One of the best things that the OHS accomplished this year was to remain committed to universal access to shelter in Cuyahoga County by negotiating overflow beds for this winter.  With the disabled men's shelter gone and the building being used for offices and the VOA using their facility for other purposes, we were worried that we would not have a place for overflow mats.  Gillett assured us repeatedly that there would be overflow, and in the end she negotiated over 100 spaces for overflow of the men's shelter in Cleveland.  This is always difficult but important for Cleveland to keep the population inside and safe.  OHS staff, Ruth Gillett, attended the November Homeless Congress meeting, and heard from the men that they wanted the County to host a meeting of all the shelters to clarify the rules for staying open during an extreme weather situation.  Last year, on an especially snowy day in January a few of the shelters closed while others stayed open.  There did not seem to be clear guidance to all the shelters about the Cuyahoga County snow emergency policy.  This meeting has yet to be called.

Ruth Gillett did attend the November CAHA meeting about homelessness in Cleveland.  She presented some interesting statistics for the group:

• The Office was established in 1993 and federal allocation of dollars to Cuyahoga County has grown dramatically from $1.4 million in 1989 to over $34 million in 2010.  
• There are 1,122 shelter beds and 868 Transitional Shelter beds in Cuyahoga County.
• 22% of the funds go to emergency shelter, 12% goes to transitional housing, 49% goes to permanent housing and 5% goes to supportive services, and 12% goes to prevention services.  (0.0% goes to public policy/advocacy/dispelling myths--FYI).
• Using the deeply flawed management system, Gillett claimed there were 5,208 un-duplicated individuals using the shelter system in 2010.  So, using those numbers (which are probably way off) we spent $6,528.41 per person to get those individuals into housing.  (An apartment at fair market rent is around $7,236 for a one bedroom unit in Cleveland.)
• Gillett tracked only 471 families using the shelters in 2010 with 645 kids using her deeply flawed management system. (the schools served over 2,000 school aged children in the same time with an broader definition of homelessness that the Department of Education uses.)
• Using more credible statistics, Gillett claimed that 50% of the population stay less than 30 days in a shelter, but 20% stay more than a year.
• Ruth Gillett presented statistics on the one day count of homelessness.  These are of no use to the community since so many people are missed on this one day count compared to other cities. 
• Currently, there are 470 permanent supportive housing units open with a goal of 1,000

Gillett also identified a few problems with the current system in her presentation.  Those included:

• Homeless people cycle through the shelters
• There are minimal prevention services.
• There is a mismatch of need and access to resources.
• The homeless system is inefficient. 
• The current shelter system is not very effective. 

The OHS staff are proposing a "NEW Approach" to address homelessness.  This includes:

• Close the front door to homelessness by putting more resources into prevention activities and diversion activities.  (We have discussed diversion activities in this space earlier this year.) Better discharge planning and the creation of a real central intake where everyone gets a unified screening with a clear path outlined to get out of homelessness.)
• Open the back door which means using HUD funding to develop permanent housing and affordable housing options for those experiencing homelessness.  There should be more short term rental assistance funding available and housing subsidies.  Finally, Gillett's plan includes more permanent supportive housing to serve those who have been homeless for a long time.  
• Need to focus on shortening the length of time people are homeless.  Gillett suggests that this can be accomplished by helping people rapidly exit from shelter (Are there a lot of people hanging out at the shelter for longer than necessary because it is so fun to live without privacy or keeping your stuff safe from theft?)  Ruth Gillett suggests moving toward home based case management for those leaving homelessness.  She is proposing re-thinking assessment of household needs to focus on housing stability.  Finally she is suggesting that we connect people with mainstream resources for ongoing assistance. 

Brian Davis
Director of Community Organizing
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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.

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NY Times Story on Cleveland Suburbs

Not News But National Recognition

The New York Times today posted a story about the huge increase in suburban poverty.  This is not news for readers of this blog or those familiar with homelessness in Cleveland.  We have reported that 24% of the people utilizing the shelters in Cleveland had their last address outside of the City borders.  A large number of those with a last address outside of Cleveland are not from Cuyahoga County.  There are very few services available to those struggling with poverty in Lake, Medina, Geauga, and Portage Counties.  What does a person do if they lose their housing in these surrounding communities?  They have to figure out a way to Lorain, Summitt or Cuyahoga Counties to find help.  A single male without a job has very few options in most of the counties surrounding Cuyahoga or even the cities surrounding Cleveland.

The New York Times story focused on cities such as Warrensville Hts, Parma Hts., and Wickliffe.  The study cited shows that 55% of the nation's poor now live outside Metropolitan areas.  The story quotes our good friend, Steve Wertheim of First Call for Help about the sharp increase in suburban poverty.  NEOCH along with ESOP will be releasing a survey of the suburban communities response to homelessness and foreclosures over the next two months. The results will show that suburban communities are not prepared for the influx of people struggling.  They have a very good infrastructure for seniors and certainly seniors struggling, but very few are prepared to respond to other populations. There is still not one homeless shelter outside of the City of Cleveland, and if you need any kind of help beside food, you must make your way down to Cleveland.  It is eyeopening and disturbing the large increase in poverty over the last few years in the suburbs. I don't remember a similar story in the Plain Dealer.

Brian
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Derelict Paradise Book Released

A History of Homelessness in Cleveland

Author and Cleveland activist Daniel Kerr is out with his book on the history of homelessness in Cleveland.

From the University of Massachusetts press release:
"Seeking answers to the question, “Who benefits from homelessness?” this book takes the reader on a sweeping tour of Cleveland’s history from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first. Daniel Kerr shows that homelessness has deep roots in the shifting ground of urban labor markets, social policy, downtown development, the criminal justice system, and corporate power. Rather than being attributable to the illnesses and inadequacies of the unhoused themselves, it is a product of both structural and political dynamics shaping the city. Kerr locates the origins of today’s shelter system in the era that followed the massive railroad rebellions of 1877. From that period through the Great Depression, business and political leaders sought to transform downtown Cleveland their own advantage. As they focused on bringing business travelers and tourists to the city and beckoned upper-income residents to return to its center, they demolished two downtown working-class neighborhoods and institutionalized a shelter system to contain and control the unhoused and unemployed. The precedents from this period informed the strategies of the post–World War II urban renewal era as the “new urbanism” of the late twentieth century. The efforts of the city’s elites have not gone uncontested. Kerr documents a rich history of opposition by people at the margins whose organized resistance and everyday survival strategies have undermined the grand plans crafted by the powerful and transformed the institutions designed to constrain the lives of the homeless."

Kerr is a founder of the temporary labor company in Cleveland as well as Food Not Bombs. Kerr did a ton of work organizing day laborers in Cleveland, and trying to protect them from exploitation. He was extremely helpful in the protests of the late 1990s to overturn the anti-homeless laws enacted by Mayor Michael White. Kerr spent years looking at homelessness in Cleveland and especially the tension between public and private sector forces to harness the displaced workers in our community. We will have more details on the book on this site and in the next Street Newspaper.

TO ORDER: Please use our toll-free number when placing or inquiring about orders: 1-800-537-5487. This number is available for customers in the U.S. and Canada only. Call Monday through Friday, 8:30–5:00 Eastern time. You may also order by:
going to the University of Massachusetts WEBSITE. ISBN 978-1-55849-849-5.

Brian
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Advocate Explains the State Budget

Bill Faith Reports to CAHA

Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio attended the April Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance to give advocates and housing developers an update on the thinking down around housing and poverty issues in Columbus. Faith is the leading lobbyist for housing programs and maintaining state support for anti-poverty programs in Ohio.

Faith talked a great deal about the change in tone and atmosphere since November and the election of John Kasich as governor. He talked about the strange day two days after the election when the Governor elect gathered 150 lobbyists and told them that they needed to get on the bus or be run over by it. Kasich told those gathered that two presidents (Clinton and Obama) and millions of dollars could not stop him so what makes these lobbyist feel that they could stop him? It seemed as though the new Governor is unwilling to tolerate dissension or differing opinions.

Faith described in detail many of the decisions that were made down in Columbus to generate the new budget. Kasich could have closed $3.7 billion in tax loopholes to close the budget deficit, but decided against this path. Faith specifically mentioned the corporate jet tax break that could have been closed, but was left intact. There were sales tax loopholes that would have closed $4.8 billion, but that was left in place. The promises made to communities when business taxes were changed in 2005 are no longer relevant, which hurts local government. There are many structural problems within the budget that push a huge burden onto the local communities. The new Governor was opposed to any change on the revenue side of the balance sheet, and focused entirely on the expense side.

Faith mentioned the three biggest losers in the upcoming budget:

1. Local and County governments including libraries.
2. K-12 education throughout the state are big losers.
3. And Higher education takes a big hit.

Others that would be hurt by passage of the Kasich budget include the community health centers, the Consumer’s Council, and nursing homes. One of the surprising aspects of Faith’s presentation is that other health and human services programs are not harmed as badly as was anticipated in the budget. Kasich made a commitment not harm the most vulnerable, and so homeless, mentally ill, developmentally disabled are not harmed in the budget anymore than the cuts taken by every organization across the board. How young children and the huge cut to public education are not considered a vulnerable population was not explained.

There was a lot of discussion about the privatizing of the Department of Development. It looks at this point that the economic development activities will be pulled out of the department and transferred to the private JobsOhio agency. The existing agency will then be changed to the Department of Community Development and will continue to administer block grant funds, heating assistance, weatherization, the community action funding, the housing trust fund, and the shelter grant. Faith discussed the threats to the State Housing Trust fund including the unwillingness by some County recorders to send the tax dollars collected onto the state to distribute.

Faith touched briefly on the upcoming HUD budget. Since the 2011 budget had not been finalized and the House had not introduced a budget framework for 2012, there was very little information available. One positive coming out of the federal government was the new funding and attention being paid to housing within the health care community. Faith talked about waivers being sought with the Medicare program to pay for housing. It is increasingly clear that a person’s health care suffers if they do not have a stable place to live, and communities around the country are beginning to factor housing into health care plans.

Brian
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Local Reports from Around the US

National Coalition for the Homeless March 2011
Local Reports

Minnesota still has General Assistance and they may reform it.

Austin, Texas
The House the Homeless group could not get the city to agree to do away with the prohibition on sitting and lying on the public sidewalk, so instead they convinced City Council to provide an exemption for disabled homeless people. White Noise was introduced at the shelter to try to reduce noise and help people sleep.

New York City
All time record shelter population—40,000 people including 16,000 children—the agencies are struggling with recession and government policy changes that also has impacted services. 113,000 spent time in the shelters in 2010 in New York City. This does not include specialized populations (people with AIDS, Domestic Violence victims, etc. or those sleeping on the streets. There are some rough budget battles ahead in New York with historic levels of need. So far, there is not any proposed cuts to supportive housing because of budget shortfalls. The time limited rent subsidy program that advocates were not big supporters of is being cut because it is a revolving door back to homelessness, but the problem is that there is nothing to replace the program proposed. The rent regulations that put a cap on the local rental market is up for expiration in June 2011. 1 million apartment units fall under this law, which translates to 2.2 million people who could see a large rent increase this year.

Puerto Rico
Hate crimes legislation passed in December to include homeless people. HUD is trying to clean up the use of federal funds by the City of San Juan including problems with CDGB. Housing task force created but did not include homeless advocates. There is a great deal of fighting by many organizations over which group will oversee supportive housing projects.

Massachusetts
The Anti-Defamation League sponsored a forum on hate crimes for homeless people—five different police forces attended to learn more about the issue. Boston healthcare providers are trying to work on the issue of housing. They have selected the top 35 homeless users of the emergency room at Boston General, and they are working with other partners in the community to house those individuals. There is going to eventually be a showdown between the criminal justice system with the proximity housing limitations for sexually based offenders and the shelter community who are forced to housed people for long periods of time.

Indiana
Homeless Management Information System problems with the state demanding social security number as a requirement for getting a bed. HUD stepped in to stop this practice. HUD is going to visit Jeffersonville next week to look at a number of issues regarding homelessness, funding, and planning activities in rural communities. Criminalization efforts on the rise throughout the state of Indiana.

Atlanta, GA
8,000 people attended a rally at the capital around the anti-immigration bill that is making its way through the legislature. Lawsuits expanded to include Emory and United Way about the effort to shut down all services downtown to homeless people. Also, there is a pending HUD complaint that alleges that there is a pattern and practice of discrimination in Atlanta. HPRP is not working and anyone who comes back into the shelters are labeled “not compliant” and are denied any services.

Arkansas
Stimulus money was spent and did a lot of good. Housing Trust created but put no money in it. There is a law making its way through the legislature to demand identification in order to vote.

US. Congress
There is a budget proposal being proposed which will have a cap on welfare programs—including the student loan pell grants, Earned income tax credits, Medicaid, and others. The only thing that progressives are doing is playing defense, and trying to protect programs for the poor. Probably one more continuing resolution and there will be big cuts. Big cuts expected for 2012 budget. Emergency food cut for 2011 and VASH was cuts.

South Carolina
An attempt to cut to Medicare/Medicaid within the state to eliminate all non-essential services. Asked their federal representatives to not cut CDBG because it was so important to local communities, and they got almost the same letter back from both Senator and federal representatives. They basically said, that the deficit is such a threat to America it is worse than a terrorist attack. So brace for massive human services cuts—asking business community/religious community to pick up the slack. Businesses and religious groups are already tapped out and have no more money to help out poor people. The state is also proposing an voting ID provision.

Maryland
Eviction prevention dollars were cut, but advocates got it restored but were only able to get back 50% of the funding. There was an introduction of legislation to ban discrimination based on source of income/SSI/Section 8. There is also a movement to “Ban the box” provision to prevent employers from asking about criminal background and credit checks in order to get a job. Bill to propose zoning of shelters within Baltimore for any shelter with over 20 people (use regulations). There is a 10 year plan in Baltimore and the city is trying to increase the amount of money for services in order to accomplish these goals.

Sacramento
State hate crimes bill proposed again. $9 billion dollar cut to human services expected because of budget deficit. Eliminated community re-development agency, which was a $1 billion dollar cut. Agencies are trying to scramble to figure out what to do. Safe Ground (Sacramento tent city) is still going strong. Second Chance Act to help those coming out of jail has been used to provide additional housing/services in Sacremento. Trying to create a re-entry center. 95% of the HPRP referrals are to unsubsidized housing. 111 SRO units are sitting empty. Lots of communication among the three big tents cities in the Northwest.

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Governor is cutting everything in Florida. ID is a growing problem. Problems with people storing their items without funding. HPRP is not working because the agency does not have any familiarity with working with homeless people. Lots of tension among advocates, and competition among the social service providers.

South Dakota
Government moved significantly to the right. There are budget woes at the state level with debt issues. Expected 10% cut across the board human services cut. There are big cuts to education including cuts at the local level. ID is a problem within the state. Pushing for a housing trust fund and the banks are supporting it and pushing for it to be created statewide ($10 million total, but only expected to get $1 to $2 million). Local groups are trying to creating community awareness about homelessness.

Montana
Legislature also move to the extreme right. They have proposed a nullification law that would allow the state to withdraw from federal programs like Medicaid and health care system. They are expected to have massive medicaid cuts, education cuts, senior cuts.

Colorado
Hate crimes bill passed the house. There is a $1 billion dollar state budget shortfall. Got $3 million restored to the budget for Healthcare for the Homeless in 2010 through federal funding. Colorado Coalition is opening a 98 unit development and a 102 unit apartment is in development (both are supportive housing project). Kreske Foundation has helped fund a Renaissance work program as part of the supportive works program. They will have a Pizza fusion program that employs formerly homeless people. HPRP only measures status after leave the program and not six months down the line, which is a problem with the program. Prevention requests overwhelming the system may not make a difference may only forestall homelessness for a couple of months.

Mississippi
HPRP is working well in the state and they are using it effectively for the mostly rural state.

Washington
Massive state budget cuts coming. In order to fund Homeless and Prevention at the same level they need a fee recordation fee increase. Landlords are supporting it the increase because it can help people stay in their apartments. Housing Trust fund unlikely to be funded—50% cut to the program because of the budget deficit. $100 million last year—typically only help other tax credits funded. Hate crimes measure introduced, but unlikely to get out of a committee. State is now helping out with funding the tent city in Seattle.

Brian Davis
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Hunger and Homelessness on the Rise in Ohio

The National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week Highlights Recent Increase in Demand for Services

PRESS RELEASE: The National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (Nov. 14-21) highlights the challenges faced by millions of Americans who lack access to basic necessities. The campaign, coordinated by The National Coalition for the Homeless, occurs each year the week before Thanksgiving, and also showcases effective programs in Ohio, such as Cuyahoga County’s Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH).

“Northeast Ohio never recovered from the 2001 downturn, and we are struggling every day find space in church basements to provide a warm space to everyone looking for shelter,” said Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Brian Davis.

Focusing attention on hunger and homelessness issues is especially important in Ohio as legislators begin conversations on how to balance a gaping hole in the state budget that’s estimated at $8 billion. The USDA’s recent report on household food security indicated that more than one in seven Ohioans faced a daily risk of hunger. Ohio ranks 9th highest of all states on the measure of food insecurity.

Homelessness is considered a lagging indicator of a troubled economy, meaning that people exhaust all other options before accessing shelters for help, says Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO). “Across the state, the numbers tell the story of increasing hardship among those who’ve lost their jobs, are in foreclosure, or have unexpected medical bills,” says Faith.

In Franklin County, the Community Shelter Board will spend 3000 percent more this year than last on overflow costs for family shelters. In the Miami Valley, the two primary family and single adult shelters saw a 35 percent and 27 percent respective increase in occupancy in the first two months of November 2010, compared to the same period last year. And in Cuyahoga County in September alone, 275 men who had no previous experience with homelessness, entered the county’s largest shelter.

The Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week coincides with the launch of the 20th anniversary of the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, a flexible funding source that responds to growing homeless numbers as well as to the critical housing needs of Ohio’s military veterans, senior citizens, people with disabilities and working families.

“The priority of the OHTF has always been to direct dedicated funds to those most in need,” noted Faith. “This is a unique funding source that becomes even more important when social service safety net programs are cut to the bone.”

The OHTF began in 1990 when voters approved a constitutional amendment making housing a public purpose. Following years of advocacy from COHHIO and member groups, the Ohio legislature approved in 2004-2005 an increase in the recordation fees to create a permanent dedicated funding stream for the Ohio Housing Trust Fund.

Since then the OHTF has distributed more than $369 million to a diverse universe of projects, including adult and youth shelters, affordable housing development projects, home repair, rehab and energy savings projects, Habitat for Humanity of Ohio, funds to enable home ownership, support services to help those in need stay in their homes, and service coordination for seniors, among other projects. “These funds have been the safety net needed for more than a million people in every county in our state, with half or more going to projects in rural counties,” said Faith.

COHHIO/NEOCH Press Release issued November 16
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Homelessness in the County Election

Very Little Discussion of Homelessness

As a non-profit organization, we do not get involved in electoral politics, but with the lack of much discussion on homelessness in the County Executive election we really did not have much of a chance to get involved. There was one question asked about homelessness in the debates between County executive candidates from September. This was a horrible question that linked homeless people to a lack of security. Now, I love WCPN and recognize it as the best news radio station in Ohio, but Eric's question was offensive. I like Mr. Wellman normally, and I know that he was getting the questions from the audience but this question should have been discarded. If someone from the audience had asked a racist question or a sexist question, it would not have been used.

But here is the only question that we could find about homelessness during the County election debate. Most of the candidates pointed out the false comparison between safety and people who were downtown and experiencing homelessness. Also, these are people and so they do not like being referred to as "the homeless." They are not homogeneous and share very little common characteristics except their housing status.

Cuyahoga County Executive Debate
September 28, 2010 on the CSU campus
Candidates for County Executive
hosted by Eric Wellman of WCPN

Candidates: Matt Dolan, David Ellison, Ed Fitzgerald, Ken Lanci, Tim McCormack, Don Scipione.

Eric Wellman Asks Question: Stay in Downtown Cleveland [and] Making the streets safer; making the streets of downtown Cleveland pedestrian friendly and safer connects directly to stimulating downtown business safety is a necessity to add it to encourage foot traffic and family friendly activity downtown. The needs of the homeless population in downtown Cleveland need to be addressed to make steps for this goal. As County leaders, how will the Council apply a formal statement of engagement with the homeless population in downtown Cleveland?

Tim McCormack: Is this about safe streets or the homeless?

Eric: I think it's about both. The question pertains to the homeless.

Tim McCormack: When I was present of the county Commissioners, we had two homeless shelters, one for women and children that was horrific. I walked in and inspected one late night and ordered that we get those people out, and within months we built a new shelter for women and children as well as many mental health persons within that population. 2100 Lakeside was built in about three months. 1,000 plus men are there every night [Editor's Note: Lakeside can only serve 400 people with a maximum of 550 with overflow--not 1,000 people]. Many of who are veterans, now all of you think some times the worst were pathetic in many as in where there lives have gone. So I was very active in building that must important to close off. Service wrap around drum addition, mental health and housing services are all their now on site in order to move them to viability.

Don Scipione: I don't see the relationship between homelessness and safety. First of all, I agree with Tim's clarification of the question. There are two separate issues. Now, are talking about the homeless situation. This is what County government does it part of there responsibility deal with people who can not help themselves, we get to create a more variant society that will lend it self to more people working at job and prosperity that's a long term solution, but let's not get confused. San Francisco... has anyone ever been to San Francisco and seen a homeless person? They are all over the place that's not stopping tourist coming to the city.

Matt Dolan: Here is an example of the co-operation level we talked about; we can be involved in public safety. We are the administrative arms of law enforcement and the city has a jail and the county has a jail that is an example. You work with the city and let the administrative arms of the county run the jails that allows the city to be what they are responsible for public safety and law enforcement. More people, more officers on the street so that the people feel save to come downtown to work downtown and create the thriving atmosphere that I talked about in my opening. The County has to change, as Tim McCormack says, its delivery of services wrapped around those who run...administrate and operate 2100 Lakeside; continue those relationships with the non-profit sector so that we are administrating those county services as effectively as we can to get people back to work and in good health.

David Ellison: The homeless are not necessarily criminals and they don't... I have a problem with the question just like the others do. The County, the majority of County, its work is to provide health and human services and its primary obligation until this new charter was passed. The reality is that it's not working very well right now and in the time of greater economic stress, it's going to work even more poorly. We have to find a way to engage the people who don't have homes that are homeless and at the same time address the problems of criminal behavior and punishment and that kind of thing. If people don't have options and opportunities except to commit crime or to be out on the street, our system is working and we should be looking to solve problems.

Ed Fitzgerald: When I was Mayor in my city, we made sure we preserved human services so that those who do find themselves to be homeless have options. We have a very aggressive program when it comes to trying to provide housing, especially transitional housing. We have had some success with. My city, as we sit here today, is 27% smaller in terms of personnel, which allowed us to make a lot of physical progress, but we used some of these savings, and put them into our Police Department, which is now 10% larger. We integrated those Police officers into them up and down our commercial area- we have what is called neighborhood police officers. It has worked. Our crime rate overall is down 18%, and robberies in my city are down by 20% - our overall crimes are down by more than 40%. The county can play a roll in this. Over 10% of county employees are Sherriff Department employees. They have a downtown patrol that would be a good first step. There is more they can do to support local law enforcements and direct services.

Ken Lanci: I had the opportunity to spend several hours at the homeless shelter. I went in the afternoon to handle the intake. There were 330 people that day. We served meals and after that, I sat down with several of the homeless to try to understand how they got there. I think we have put more emphasis on prevention. (When the horse is out of the barn, it is really hard to go get him.) What I came back with is the feeling that our Judges, in a lot of cases, are over sentencing people for non-violent crimes. Crimes, which one would think, you would have to think about them in the perspective of who is going, what there record and do they deserve this? Because when you sentence someone to prison, you have ruined their opportunity to get a job. So therefore, they end up, if they have a family, with family or relatives or they end up in a homeless shelter. My focus is going to be on prevention working to be able to help them before they get there.

Brian
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Volunteer Opportunities in Cleveland

How Can I Help Homeless People?

Pictured: Kytara of Baldwin Wallace, Larry Davis, NEOCH Volunteer Coordinator, and Joe of Case Western Reserve from the summer 2010. Joe and Kytara both gave up their summer to serve homeless people in Cleveland. Kytara cleaned up our volunteer programs and Joe put together our family street card.

We have posted an updated list of volunteer activities for individuals or groups in Cuyahoga County to use if they want to volunteer to assist homeless people. Holly and Kytara contacted all of the homeless services to gather projects that may interest volunteers. We have posted the list of direct service opportunities in our community including the contact for each of the projects. There are everyday projects such as serving a lunch or clerical to special projects that may take a couple of months or may involve some specialty skills. While NEOCH can always use your help, we encourage you to spend some time directly serving those in need.

Brian
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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
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High Poverty Areas and HUD Funding

Local Cleveland Shelters Ask HUD for Additional Help

A diverse group of advocates and Cleveland area service providers are proposing that communities with a history of acute poverty have access to additional funding in accordance with the implementation of the HEARTH law. Advocates and social service providers have a concern that traditionally high poverty areas will be harmed by the new regulations, and will not be able to access the high performing community designation and any funds that accompany this designation. We have expressed our concerns with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and have included that letter.

As set forth in the law, communities must meet certain performance guidelines in order to qualify for additional or bonus funding from HUD. Over the last ten years, the City of Cleveland/Cuyahoga County has been the recipient of these additional funds to strategically assist the continuum in better serving those experiencing homelessness. The additional funding has enabled us to increase housing capacity and maintain a high quality of service to a growing homeless population, while also establishing one or two new strategic housing programs per year.

As you know, the soon-to-be-implemented HEARTH Law will mandate that additional bonus HUD dollars may be allocated to those communities that attain “High Performing Community” status. In order to qualify for this designation the community must: decrease the length of homelessness by 10%, reduce recidivism to 5% a year, implement the use of HMIS in every program, reduce the number who become homeless, and include programs that serve youth and families. We are asking that a similar fund be established for High Poverty Communities of equal value to assist those communities experiencing the highest rates of distress in the United States.

We maintain that severely impoverished communities nationwide, like Cleveland, could have substantial difficulty in decreasing the length of homelessness, reducing recidivism, and/or reducing the number of individuals and families who become homeless. In Cleveland, again as with many communities, there are mitigating factors that will significantly compromise endeavors to attain the “High Performing Community” status as set forth by the HEARTH Law.

While we will make every effort to be a High Performing Community, in the event we are not able to achieve those goals, we believe that the poorest cities in the United States need additional support from HUD to continue to address the issue of homelessness caused by the loss of jobs and a reduction in the ability to secure housing. Communities, such as Cleveland, need additional resources to continue to provide quality care to homeless people in an already stressed system. We believe that in a time of long waiting lists for mental health and alcohol and drug services as well as overcrowded shelters, quality programs specifically designed to serve and reduce the homeless population will be forced to close because of the huge demand and significant competition for limited resources.

We propose that if a community meets four (4) of the ten (10) factors that demonstrate a history of acute poverty, and is chosen by the HUD Secretary through a similar selection process as outlined in the HEARTH legislation for a “High Performing Community,” they have access to a pool of resources to reduce homelessness. The ten (10) factors are as follows:

1. The community experiences a natural disaster of national significance as declared by FEMA (flooding, earthquake, etc) in the previous year.
2. If according to the American Community Survey/US Census, the community is consistently listed among the top 20 poorest big cities in the nation.
3. In any of the last three years, the community experienced a decrease of 20% or more in State mental health funding.
4. In any of the last three years, the community experienced a decrease of 20% or more in State alcohol/drug addiction funding.
5. The community’s annual unemployment rate increases by more than 10% from one year to the next.
6. The community experiences a 10% increase in the number of evictions from one year to the next.
7. The community experiences a 10% increase in the number of households delinquent on their mortgage or there is a 20% increase in the number of foreclosure filings in any of the last five years.
8. The community experiences a 10% increase in the number of individuals receiving food stamps from one year to the next measured over the last three years.
9. The community experiences a 5% increase in the number of indigent care cases at local hospitals within the Continuum from one year to the next in any of the previous five years.
10. The community experiences a 5% increase in the number of offenders returning from the prison system from one year to the next any time over the last five years.

Again, in keeping with these ten (10) mitigating factors, we propose that if a community is quantifiably assessed to present with at least four (4) of the above-mentioned items, it receive access to a similar level of funding as those communities designated as a “High Performing Community.”. We are proposing that a community be measured over the last five years, and if at least four (4) extenuating factors are found in any of those five years, HUD designate the community as a “High Poverty Area,” and offer access to additional funding. The community should be allowed to maintain dispensation from “High Performing Community” status for a period of no less than three (3) years into the future while they work through their poverty issues. Additionally, the community should be re-evaluated every year, as part of the application process, to determine progress toward reducing poverty and meeting HUD guidelines.

We are sending this ahead of the introduction of the HEARTH guidelines in hopes that these concepts are included in the draft. As those serving on the “front lines” to effectively meet the needs of the homeless population, we thank you for your time and consideration of this correspondence.

This letter sent to Congressman Dennis Kucinich and and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Assistant Secretary of Community Development. It was signed and written by the directors of the Salvation Army Harbor Light Complex, Y-Haven transitional shelter, LMM 2100 Lakeside shelter, Joseph's Home transitional shelter, New Life Community, and Transitional Housing Inc. along with NEOCH.

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State of Homelessness 2009

Worst Economy in Over 50 Years; Only Slight Increase in Homelessness

NEOCH Publishes Report on the 2009 State of Homelessness in Cleveland

In 2009, local unemployment rose to its highest point in a quarter century, hunger increased, and the housing market continued to deteriorate, during that time homelessness rose only by a small amount. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District reported a 17% increase in homeless children as compared to 2008. Foreclosures have remained steady while homelessness in the suburbs increased, which put additional economic pressures on the shelters. There was an increase in calls to the domestic violence hotline, but a decrease in the number of men using the shelter system.

This is just a small sample of the information available in the report recently published by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless: State of Homelessness 2009. The report includes: statistics on Ohio poverty and homelessness, the demographics of Cleveland shelter residents (72% African American), homeless children within the Cleveland school district (17% increase), the level of shelter funding (a 5% decline), and the calls requesting shelter help to 211 (6% increase). We include usage information for HousingCleveland.org and local eviction numbers (remains steady in 2009); data on single men in Cuyahoga County (a slight decrease) and the resulting impact on area homelessness. The report looks at two new projects in Cuyahoga County: the Central Intake project and the new Homeless Prevention program, which both provide a wealth of data. The report shows in detail the short period of time that most people spend homeless (23% spend a day or less and 75% are homeless for less than a month). We feature, for the first time, data on the population of homeless people who are “doubled up” from MSASS report. The State of Homelessness Report 2009 provides a narrative on the positive trends that improved the state of homelessness in 2009.

The City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have put in place a rich network of prevention services and emergency services that kept the homeless population at a reasonable level despite this horrible economy. One big improvement that assisted the community last year was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding that went to rental assistance in 2009. Locally, the Council of Economic Opportunities of Greater Cleveland began distributing rental assistance funds in August, and have since helped nearly 700 households prevent evictions. The community saves thousands per household by keeping people out of shelter and instead providing them services while still housed.

The report discusses the “lost women” in our community who were targeted by a serial killer in 2009, and the need to improve services to those struggling with addictions. Also detailed are a number of “dangerous trends” affecting homelessness in our area that need to be addressed by community leaders. Finally, the report concludes with a list of proposed solutions to reduce homelessness in 2010 and beyond. The report is illustrated with photographs taken by graduates of NEOCH’s photo project, a two-month photography training internship for homeless persons with physical or mental disabilities.

This is the third year that NEOCH has published its State of Homelessness report. NEOCH, an advocacy organization, presents this information as the basis for discussion of the problems facing our community. The report was funded by the St. Luke’s Foundation and the City of Cleveland. The complete report can be found at NEOCH’s website.

Brian

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Homeless Female Veterans

Interesting Story on ABC News

In case you missed it over the weekend, ABC News did a feature on female veterans who become homeless. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Journal of Public Health looked at the extent of homelessness among female veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. They found that women are four times as likely to find themselves homeless as their male counterparts. ABC News interviewed a number of women veterans returning to the states and struggling with childcare, housing and trying to find jobs.

In Cleveland, we have a few outreach workers and Department of Veterans Affairs staff dedicated to serving the needs of female veterans. We also have a few shelter beds in the community purchased by the VA to house women returning from oversees. We have a few family facilities in the community that can offer help. One of the best resources that were developed over the last few years are the Veteran's Housing Vouchers. These are invaluable services to the families of veterans struggling with their housing. We are only limited by the resources to help those veterans who are homeless. The VA has the other pieces in place of job assistance, treatment, outreach, shelter and health care. The missing piece is we do not have enough affordable housing available to these veterans.

Brian
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InterAgency Council Seeks Comments

Only One Week Left to Comment on Federal Plan

Picture by Cheryl Jones of the Grapevine Photo project 2007.

There is only one week left to make suggestions for the InterAgency Council on Homelessness Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. The Plan was mandated by Congress by May 2010, and very little was done during the Bush Administration. So, now there is a push to get public comment on a plan by March 15, 2010. Here is the link to go to in order to comment in six different program areas. So, all you experts out there it is time to comment. All those who keep saying that there is a better way, you need to add your voice to the national debate. The InterAgency Council has held a series of town halls throughout the country, and they have gathered information from their website. You have one week to submit your thoughts and your ideas and your crazy plans. They will take all this information and run it by the various cabinet offices and come up with a roadmap for the various departments to use. It is hoped that Commerce, Labor, Justice, HHS, HUD and Education will use the information to shape future funding and future program design.

It can't hurt, and at least they are asking. We the people should get to shape the future of our struggle to end homelessness in America. NEOCH will be submitting comments and most of the national groups have submitted. We encourage you to do the same.

Brian
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New Homeless Czar for Federal Government

Ohioan Named Director of InterAgency Council on Homelessness

The office of InterAgency Council on Homelessness within the federal government has not produced much except some press releases and newsletters about how great the US government has done in solving homelessness. This in the face of ever increases in homelessness in the United States. The world's last superpower that can put a man on the moon, build a movable staircase and a way to turn the desert Southwest into a giant suburb with the invention of air conditioning but we cannot find housing for everyone living in America. Very few in the public have heard of this office, and any drive in the downtown of any city in America would lead to the conclusion that this office has failed miserably. It is supposed to get all the cabinet members together to work across bureaucracies to reduce homelessness. All the usual department heads are represented (HUD, HHS, VA, and Education), but also at the table is the head of social security, the department of labor, homeland security, transpiration, and energy. All these powerful people or their representatives at the table and all we have to show for it is a good newsletter?

Barbara Poppe from Columbus and the Community Shelter Board was just appointed Executive Director. I have a long relationship with Columbus as most of my family live in the capital city. I have known Barbara for years as the wife of the State Housing and Homeless director, Bill Faith, and as a competent leader of the Community Shelter Board. She kept down controversies in Columbus, and had an iron hand on the homeless social services that operate in Central Ohio. Poppe was the person politicians and the media turned to when they had problems with homeless people, and in exchange she controlled all the resources. She put in a plan to reduce homelessness among men, but never got around to address the issue of people with a sexually based offense who cannot find housing. She did a good job of putting Columbus on the map with regard to fighting to reduce homelessness, and she traveled the country teaching others. Poppe was the first in Ohio to recognize the need for supportive housing for long term single homeless people, and had to admit last year that family homelessness saw a steep rise in Columbus. Poppe had the confidence of the leadership of Columbus, but rarely interacted with people experiencing homelessness.

I have some experience with national homeless policies and with Ms. Poppe. I am in the perfect position to give Ms. Poppe some advice in her new role as the Director of the InterAgency Council on Homelessness. I met with her predecessor on four different occasions and walked out on two meetings with Mr. Mangano. I know what the spin that the Interagency Council has delivered over the last few years and the fact that there was just publicity coming out of the Interagency Council.

Dear Barb:
Congratulations on your appointment to the Interagency Council. We are honored that the administration recognized someone from Ohio as having made progress on homelessness. Since I have known you for years, I feel that I can pass along a few suggestions for your new job. Take them or leave them. As a 15 year observer on national policy I do have some expertise on the inter-workings of government. I met with Phil Mangano a number of times until I got tired of his same old song and dance routine. By 2006, we began arguing for a change in leadership at the IAC, and local activists pledged that they would protest any gathering that featured Mr. Mangano in Cleveland. Our objections were that he was not critical of all the cuts that hurt homeless people in housing subsidies and never said anything about the horrible federal response to Katrina. We felt that as the Homeless Czar he needed to raise concerns over federal policies that harmed those without housing.

My suggestions for the new office are:

1. Don't follow your predecessor's example. Don't fly around the country championing how great the federal government is doing when our problems are mounting in each of our communities. You do not have to the public relations arm of the administration.
   
2. We need you in DC pushing for change. We need help from the administration and the cabinet to make it easier for homeless people to find stability. We need each of these departments on the council to put forward objectives to reduce homelessness. An example is reducing the time it takes to approve disability assistance or increase enforcement of the exploitation of low income workers especially by temporary labor companies.
   
3. Please don't pit one population against another. Veterans vs. families or disabled vs. long term homeless or single adults vs. young people was the hallmark of the previous administration. It is going to take a much larger pie to solve these problems, and not just slicing the existing pie into smaller and smaller pieces for all these worthy sub-populations.
4. Please don't tell us to go use the mainstream programs. That is like telling us to go find the gold at the end of the rainbow. We all know that the mainstream programs (public housing, cash assistance, disability, etc.) are not accessible or have years long wait for help. It is an insult to keep bringing this up when there is nothing there, and we have all tried to find help with mainstream programs.
5. We need the other departments to start thinking of ways to serve homeless people. Why can't the Department of Health and Human Services take more of a role in solving homelessness? HUD is the leading funder of the shelters and services, but why can't some of the other departments help support the shelters? Why can't HHS set up a pool of funds to provide supportive services such as health care, voice mail, transportation, and mental health services at the shelters? Or why can't the Department of Labor provide employment training at the shelters?
6. We need real outcomes that lead to real reductions in homelessness. You did a very good job in Columbus requiring the shelters to prove their worth. We need something similar at the national level for all federal funding.
7. Don't forget about Civil Rights. Employment, housing, and health care are all important to ending homelessness, but civil rights issues are just as important. You never really addressed this in Columbus, but there were not huge threats in Columbus. In some cities this is the single biggest problem facing homeless people. If a person is regularly arrested because they cannot fit into the shelter, it will take them years to get off the streets. We all pay a huge bill for their incarceration, medical bills, and mental health services because we cannot help these troubled individuals off the streets. It is hypocritical for American cities to take money for shelters then turn around and make it illegal to be homeless or sleep outside or beg for money. This is an issue, Barb, that we need you to address.
8. We need you to ease the regulatory burden on the shelters and services. Please help us cut through the red tape in order to do good. Push for unified reporting forms for both public and private sector funding. We need you to help with oppressive regulatory guidelines and impossibles obstacles put in place to help people.
9. With the political will we can end homelessness. Not in five years or ten years or if something else happens, but we can end homelessness today if we wanted to. There is enough housing in this country. There are enough resources, but we are just not using those resources to put people into housing. We need you to convince Congress and the White House to fix health care, improve access to jobs and make housing a human right.
   

Brian Davis

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Veterans Affairs Conference Announced

VA Will Try to End Homelessness in Five Years

The Department of Veterans Affairs is pleased to announce the Department of Veterans Affairs Homeless Veteran Summit, “Ending Homelessness Among Veterans in Five Years”, being held November 2 - 5, 2009 at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park, located at 2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, DC 20009.

This summit will bring together specialists in homeless prevention and intervention services, from both the Department of Veterans Affairs and community agencies, to exchange information, innovative thinking, and create partnerships to promote advances in the field. There are opportunities to present, and non-governmental agencies are invited to participate.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has all the materials regarding the conference here:

http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2492/

We will have more information as the conference approaches.

Brian
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Grading the Administration 26

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: A-

Sometimes a great many small things get the job done. This week there was not one huge undertaking, but many small items that got the Administration into the A territory. So, for the week of July 20 to July 26, I have to give the administration an A- for the following reasons:

1. As we have seen the administration is making a full court press on changing the health care system. These included a trip to Shaker Hts to conduct a town hall. A speech by Peter Orszag on financing health care reform helped, and President Obama used the weekly address again to talk about health care reform and insurance companies.
2. There was the release of a school funding challenge called "Race for the Top," which seems to be a competition among the nation's schools for federal dollars. It may turn out to be a policy in which the rich get richer, but any change in direction is worth the risk after the 30 year decline in the state of education in America.
   
3. One help for privacy is that it was announced no federal website is allowed to put a "cookie" on a user's computer when visiting any executive branch website.
   
4. There were more "Recovery in Action" stories on the White House website including a story about a new workforce development program in Pennsylvania.
   
5. Vice President Biden wrote an opinion piece in the Sunday New York Times about the progress made in the rebuilding the economy. I suspect that this is to stem the slow decline in popularity for the Obama administration, but I think that it helps.
6. The HUD budget passed the House with much of what the administration wanted including increases in HOPE VI, CDBG, HOME, homeless assistance, and public houisng funding. All these will be helpful to shore up budgets that were slashed over the last few years.
   
7. The reform of Section 8 passed the House committee with the addition of 150,000 new vouchers. The only Democrat voting in the committee against this proposal was Rep. Driehaus from southern Ohio.
   
8. HUD announced $100 million for Native American housing.
9. HUD also announced a plan to supplement the Low Income Housing Tax program because there are so few taxes to credit businesses. The problem is that with the financial difficulties of major corporations, they are not paying taxes like they had in the past. Therefore they do not really need a tax credit, and so those credits were going unsold in many states. The federal government has stepped in to try to stabilize this program.
   
10. The Administration announced that they continue to support the National Housing Trust and want to see funding added to the Trust Fund this year.
    
11. A bill was introduced this week (HR 1675) to begin to build new housing for the disabled again.
    
12. A group of activists have begun talking to HUD about the timely release of REAC scores. These are the grades for the subsidized housing in the United States. HUD sends contractors out to review every single publicly subsidized housing in the United States, and we have tried to get these scores released on a regular basis. At this time, Congressman Kucinich's office has to request the scores every month in a Freedom of Information request. We pay for the scores and we pay for the housing; why can't we have the scores automatically posted?
    
13. The Administration is talking about fair housing. This forgotten issue is intended to push the goal of integrating neighborhoods and protecting the rights of the disabled, minority populations, and gays and lesbians from discrimination in housing. This law was dusted off from years of inactivity, and a $26 million dollar grant was announced by HUD. Also, the Department announced that they would begin discussions on how fair housing laws could be strengthened so that local jurisdictions would work to prevent discrimination instead of waiting for complaints to come in to address the problem.
14. The Department of Health and Human Services is not concentrating all their time on health care reform. They did some upgrade on their website to include information on the flu pandemic, and the community health initiatives.
    

All of these items together move the administration to the A territory. They have not seen an A for two months. Overall, a good week.

Brian
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Grading the Administration 21

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: C+

For the week of June 15-21, the administration received a C+. They are still hammering on health care, which they always get additional points for this work. There were a number of other items that the administration undertook this last week:

1. A new office of Consumer Protection was introduced that would help regulate credit, insurance, and lending in the United States.
2. A new fatherhood initiative was introduced by the President.
3. The First Lady kicked off the United We Serve initiative in DC. More volunteers will lead to more people realizing that there is a problem in the country. If people realize there is a problem that is one step closer to finding a solution.
4. More discussions of open government (again there were more hits to transparency last week.)
5. Budget Guru, Peter Orszag discussed the problems with our current health care system.
6. The Prez. went to visit the obstacles to progress in health care reform when he spoke to the American Medical Association in Chicago.
7. The US Interagency Council on Homelessness finally met and they elected the HUD Secretary. Not much happened here, but having all these cabinet secretaries sitting around talking about homelessness is important.
8. Congress hosted a hearing asking HUD to initiate a moratorium on demolition of public housing until a policy can be established.
9. Congress also scheduled a hearing to continue the discussion about the reform of Section 8.
10. Quietly, and without a lot of fanfare there were additional housing vouchers for areas recovering from the hurricanes put into the supplemental defense authorization bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Brian Davis
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Areas Needed to End Poverty

Photo by Cheryl Jones--one of the 2008 graduates of the Photo project in Cleveland.

Outstanding Issues for Administration Ending Poverty in America

The new Administration earned a B- for the first semester efforts to end poverty. This is not bad for a time of two wars, a housing bubble, and a financial collapse, but they could do better. Grades get tougher as we go through the administration, because expectations are raised. Here are the areas that they need to address over the next few months.

1. Katrina Housing: The administration has not ignored the problem, but we have yet to start building housing on a grand scale. We need a massive investment in a large number of affordable housing projects.
2. Jobs are starting to trickle in from the Stimulus, but Ohio, Michigan, and most of the South are still suffering and their needs to be more work on this issue. How about a WPA style jobs program?
3. The summer is a good time to work on an overhaul of the school system in America.
4. College needs to be made more affordable. The student loan program needs overhauled, and the proposed legislation needs passed.
5. The new homeless law needs to be implemented with protections for the privacy of homeless people, and the creation of a simple way to determine whether a person is homeless or not.
6. We need some actions on civil rights issues which keep people poor. There is no progress on hate crimes against homeless people, fair housing violations, or equal rights for women and homosexuals.
7. We still have not seen any progress on the problems facing the rural or urban poor.
8. There was a good start on debt issues with the credit card reform bill, but we still need bank, payday loan, and mortgage lender reform.
9. We need a moritorium on foreclosures as soon as possible, while we figure out what to do.
10. What are we going to do with the millions of housing units sitting empty in our cities?
11. We appreciate the transparency of the White House website, but we need the same from the departments.
12. There are still lower level staff vacancies at many of the Departments that are not filled at this point.
13. The White House site lists strengthening families as a goal. We have not seen much progress on strengthening families especially very low income households losing their housing.
14. There are impressive gains in the services to veterans especially homeless veterans, but there is more that we could do to provide mental health care to all veterans.
15. There is a lot of talk about health care reform, but we are waiting for a bill. Under health care issues that need more attention include the poverty level checks sent to those on disability, and more attention to the AIDS/HIV crisis.
16. We need more attention to Re-Entry issues, and what are we going to do with all the people returning to our city as casualties of the war on drugs.
17. It is time to look again at the entire entitlement system. From cash assistance, social security, child support and unemployment to repair the safety net across the country in a sensible and humane manner.

A tall order, but the current president ran on the platform of Hope and Change.

Brian
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