Comedy Show Feature on Homelessness

HUD Secretary on the Daily Show

What does it say about the major media that a good solid discussion about homelessness is done on the Daily Show?   Last night, Shaun Donovan appeared on Jon Stewart's Daily Show, and for 10 minutes we got to hear about homelessness and poverty on national television.  For clarification, this is a comedy show, and there was a real discussion about the huge increase in family homelessness and the number of children that find themselves homeless.   Now there are a few things that need clarified with regard to the interview that were just spin and not based in reality, but the bottom line it was nice to hear the discussion. 

• Everyone who watches the show knows Jon Stewart is a New York Mets' fan.  Psst, Shaun, watch the show for a couple of weeks before appearing on it so you seem hip and with it. Never ask a Mets' fan if they are New York Yankee's fan.
• We did not just figure out that housing was better than shelter even for the mentally ill.  We started closing down affordable housing back in the 1980s so what were we supposed to do?  Congregate living is cheaper than offering an apartment, medical care, food and case managers for every single person in need.  65,000 people declared themselves in need of housing when the Section 8 voucher list was opened.  We do not have the money or ability to serve that number of people, and so shelters are the best option when so many people are in need. If we had a national housing strategy, we would not need shelters in the United States. If we supported our voucher programs, our public housing and HUD housing with the the same zeal that we fund the Defense Department there would be no homelessness in America.  Unfortunately, we do not and so we have opened shelters to prevent people from dying on the streets.  The only way that it is cheaper to offer housing instead of shelter, is if the resident can contribute to the rent.  So, if you can return the person to the workforce quickly and they start paying rent then housing is cheaper than shelter.  Otherwise a bed in a shelter is way cheaper than an apartment.  
• The 20% decrease in veterans homelessness is BOGUS!!!  Just read the report that HUD published and see all the qualifiers at the beginning of the report.  They are using estimates of estimates.   They are using a one night count that is done well in some places, but barely done in other places.  It is like asking store clerks at Walmart and the local Shell stations to do a one night count to come up with the US population in the Census.  These numbers are not real for veterans.  If we cannot even figure out how many veterans are homeless how are we supposed to solve the problem by 2015?
• "We are going to raise the amount we spend on homelessness by 15%" according to Donovan.  This is only if Congress agrees to the President's budget, and that does not take into account the decrease in funding for other services that homeless people rely on.  It does not make sense to increase funding on homelessness at the same time as you decrease money for vouchers or eliminate homeless prevention spending.  If housing is no longer affordable and poverty increases, where do these people go except to the shelters?  There are massive cuts to housing and the end of the stimulus while at the same time increasing homeless funding by a small amount.  There is no comparison between the two--rental assistance is being cut by the billions while homeless funding is going up in the millions. Donovan's statement only tells a small part of the story.
• People are not chronic.  People may have a chronic disease, but homelessness is not contagious.  
• The stimulus no doubt helped millions avoid shelter, and the administration should be praised for pushing for these funds.  But what was not mentioned was that these funds are ending this summer.  With the housing system still a mess, what are we going to do going forward?  There are going to be more and more families struggling who can't keep up their payments and will turn to the shelters.  We are not going to have eviction money available to these families. 
• The settlement money discussion:  Why didn't our leading newsman in America, Jon Stewart, ask why they have not solved this foreclosure crisis in the last three years?  This voluntary program has not worked, and when is the administration going to go after these banks to write down these loans to stabilize the housing market?  $26 billion is chump change for the instability in the housing sector.  This was fraud that took place and we need a settlement of $2.6 trillion to clear out the abandoned houses in America and make a down payment on rebuilding our cities.  

There was a second part of the interview that was not broadcast, but placed on the Daily Show website.  A couple of comments from the bonus material.

• A legitimate question about the total number of homeless people was avoided by Donovan with an answer dealing with the Complete Count on one day.  As we have said before, counting on one day the number of people living without homes is like trying to count the number of Skittles falling in the rainbow while watching the commercial.  It is so flawed that it is a meaningless number.  It does not give us a window into homelessness or even give an assessment of the funds used by Congress to address homelessness.  It is a giant waste of time. 
• Yes, there are a lot of children who are becoming homeless, and why doesn't HUD consider the child sleeping on a sofa at a friends house to be homeless? They have this complicated list of questions to determine homelessness and there are millions in America who do not qualify by HUD as being homeless.  It was nice to hear that Donovan and the President are focused on the poverty figure, which is more accurate than the figure regarding homelessness.  
• Having a national discussion about the causes of solutions of poverty is always good, but why does it have to happen on a comedy show?
• "Get sober and we will find a place for you."  The Housing First strategy is great, but if you have 8,000 people using the shelters in Cleveland and you build 100 units of housing a year, how many years will it take to solve this problem at that rate? 

Thanks to the Daily Show for featuring this debate, but sometimes you need a translator to cut through some of the spin from government officials.

Brian 
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PBS NewsHour Highlights Cleveland

Photo by Cheryl Jones of the Grapevine Photo Project

Foreclosures and Clearing Land Focus of NewsHour Report

Last night was an excellent piece on the effort by the Land Bank and the City of Cleveland to clear some of the degrading housing stock as a result of the foreclosure tsunami. The usual suspects were featured including Gus Frangos of the Land Bank, Frank Ford of NPI, Councilman Tony Brancatelli, and Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka. It was a nice touch to talk to Manfield Frazier about his vineyard in Hough. The piece was centered at Ground Zero of the foreclosure crisis in Slavic Village. They showed houses coming down as part of the thousands that we have destroyed over the last five years. Frank Ford did a good job describing the economics of this crisis with the reality that it costs$7,500 to take down a property while it can cost $100,000 to renovate that property with new electrical, new plumbing and new furnace.

There was a interesting discussion about the flipping of these homes using the internet, and the nasty practices of some of the banks (we are talking to you Deutsche Bank). They sold a property for $500 that was an eyesore, and then the new owner tried flipping it on the internet with a profit of $1,000 to an out of state buyer (sucker) with no intention of doing anything to the property. They are just hoping that the land value will turn around and they can make a profit. These vultures are just trying to earn money off of the misery of hard hit neighborhoods. It was a good piece. Check it out.

Brian
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Peace Advocates Look at Budget Priorities

Forum at Trinity Cathedral April 16, 2011

Peace Action and the IRTF are holding a forum on budget priorities over the next year at Trinity Cathedral on April 16, 2011. Here is a link to sign up for the event. The group is looking at the cost of war, incarceration while the country is facing a serious crisis in housing. Here is a statement from the committee organizing the event:

“We call people from all walks of life to come together in “a process to align and strengthen our communities, weaving ourselves into a movement that transcends oppression and opposition, increasing our collective power and resilience” (from the US Social Forum held in Detroit, June 2010).We recognize that all people are leaders. Progress and peace require inclusion of all people. We want to make special effort to hear the voices of those who are often ignored. We want to create a safe space for dialogue where everyone’s voice is heard—a dialogue that continues beyond this forum. We strive to embrace our commonalities and not focus on our differences. We invite each other to transcend our group affiliations and mindsets to make connections with everyone. We want to engage in a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect to build rapport and trust with one another.”

Keynote speaker is Bill Fletcher
Bill Fletcher is currently an editorial board member and columnist for BlackCommentator.com and a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. He was the former Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the AFL-CIO, and also served as Assistant to the President of that organization. In addition, Mr. Fletcher is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and a founder of the Black Radical Congress.

We hope that you can make it. Please pre-register for the event using the Peace Action website or the IRTF site.

Brian
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Coalition Updates

Photo by Sabrina Otis

County Council and Hand Up Gala and Updates

Thanks to Channel 5 WEWS for attending this last Thursday Homeless Congress meeting. We also want to thank Phyllis Crespo candidate for District 7 County Council for showing up at the September meeting and Jeff Kipp for attending the October meeting. Crespo indicated written support for the standards, Kipp expressed support but did not provide support in writing. We have posted the update County Council supporters on our website. At this time, we have two County Executive candidates out of the six who support the legislation. We have at least one candidate from every district except District 6,8,10. We have Republicans, Democrats, Green party members and Independents who support the potential legislation. Also, thanks to WTAM for doing a story on the shelter standards.

The Hand Up Gala is coming together nicely with musicians on board, some local celebrities will be serving and hosting the event. The meal is planned, and we are gathering menu items. We have sent out the invitations and are preparing the guest list. If you want to donate to this event it is easiest to go here or directly here.

Quick Takes:

• Minneapolis/St. Paul requires their shelters to provide a change of address for everyone that enters the shelter. This is great for voting participation rates. Cuyahoga County requires all publicly funded shelters to do the same, but no one actually verifies this so I am not sure it happens like it did in the past.
  
• Without the eviction assistance that we had available because of the stimulus last year, the shelters in Cleveland better be prepared for large numbers of overflow. Last winter, we had nearly $2 million available to families struggling with their housing. This year, basically only those in a subsidized housing or living in Lakewood will have access to rental assistance.
  
• I attended the ESOP gala last night, and got to hang out with some of the best housing people in the City. Judge Pianka, Dennis Kucinich, Jim Rokakis, and of course the staff of ESOP, CTO, and NEOCH were all present. If the people in that room could take control of the mortgage/foreclosure problem in our community, we would have this problem solved by December.
  
• One more thing about the ESOP Gala...There were so many bankers represented I was surprised that one did not get on stage and say, "Since there are so many homeowners/ former homeowners in the audience, if anyone comes across the origination documents for millions of mortgages could they pass them forward or drop them in the lost and found in the lobby of the hotel. "
  

Brian Davis
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Easily Offended??

Zero Eviction Day Angers City Leaders

On Monday, advocates gathered at an abandoned house owned by a mortgage company which has other eyesores on their books. The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, NEOCH and the Homeless Congress were asking City/County leaders to take bold action to turn some of these buildings over to all the people sleeping in shelters. This seemed low key and entirely sensible. It seemed like a common sense request that no one would oppose--similar to the clean water act or the clean air act. How does anyone oppose "clean air" or "zero evictions?" Turns out that linking the City of Cleveland or any government with the foreclosure crisis or the assertion that the City may be allowing property to deteriorate is a mortal sin. Don't do it or face the wrath of city leaders.

Everyone understands that the City did all the could in suing the mortgage companies, passing a law to protect home owners, and yelling about this issue in Columbus and to the national media. The concern of almost every homeless person in Cleveland is, "Why there are so many vacant houses and at the same time the shelters are full?" They long for a bold Mayor like Kucinich or Stokes who will create an urban homesteading program to turn these eyesores over to homeless people. They just want to hear from City leadership that they recognize this paradox and are trying to do something about it. They want an FDR or Teddy Roosevelt to move mountains to create a program to close down the shelters while moving people into the millions of houses that sit vacant. The men sitting on their bunks at 2100 Lakeside want the City and County to use the new County Land Bank to take over property and turn it over to able bodied skilled workers who can take off the boards and cut the grass and bushes on these houses. City leaders did not see this demonstration as a cry in the wilderness for bold ideas. They took it as a criticism of the cities response to the foreclosure crisis.

We got spanked for even hinting that the City was not doing all they could. We were taken to task for not recognizing all that the City has done to help homeless people and stem the tide of foreclosures. And they shook their finger at us for our "astonishingly ignorant" message. It would seem that government would want people out in the streets angry about what the banks did to this city. I have found that people and especially elected officials are today hyper sensitive to any criticism. They hear a whiff of anger or second guessing their decisions, and they shut down. It is difficult to be a social justice advocate when city leaders bristle and run away from an issue.

So, for all the city leaders out there: "We respect all that you have done to make sure shelters do not turn people away at night, but that does not mean you could not put in writing a plan to close all the shelters and get all those people into housing in the next four years. We appreciate the leap of faith in your vote of confidence in the Permanent Supportive Housing projects, but we will not let you off the hook for preserving and expanding other housing opportunities in the community. We love and thank you everyday for the rich diversity of non-profits that you fund, but that does not mean we will not push you to force these groups to deliver a minimum level of care and work together on a coordinated plan to eliminate duplication of services. We expect the ethical stewardship of public money, but will praise you for any attempt to provide health care, housing, income, and civil rights to fragile populations. We acknowledge all that you did to stop the foreclosures, but you need to do more to help those who were forced out of their housing to get them quickly back into some kind of housing.

by Brian Davis
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Zero Eviction Day

Time to Reclaim The Housing??

To commemorate Zero Evictions Day as designated by the International and US/Canadian Alliance of Inhabitants ( a grassroots coalition working for the rights to housing) Northeast Ohio Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign along with the United Clevelanders Against Poverty, Northeast Coalition for the Homeless, the Homeless Congress and others will be holding a protest calling for upon the government and banks to turn over vacant foreclosed home for housing for persons without homes. This comes at a time when there are substantially more foreclosed properties in Cleveland and the United States than there are people who experience homelessness.

It will be happening this Monday at 1791-1793 East 31^st Street , Cleveland (between Paine and Superior ). We chose this property in part because it is an example of a vacant property that has been abandoned by the bank that now owns it. We will be meeting at 1:00 pm at the property. The event will be over by 2:00 pm.

We hope that many of you will be able to participate.

Brian

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Homelessness Around the United States

Local Reports April 2010

National Coalition for the Homeless Met in DC this last Week

Minnesota

Significant growth in homelessness within the State. They are working on a Tenant Bill of Rights in Minnesota— it would cap late fees, require receipts provided by landlord, and guidelines for screening tenants. Applications for an apartment would have to be provided an apartment in the order they were received. Denied for a subjective reason, the tenant would get any fee back. The state is facing massive cuts in emergency assistance.

Miami Florida

Sex offenders going into hotels after the encampment under a freeway overpass was fenced off. Miami held as a model city in the Continuum of Care, but there are issues with budget cuts and expanding populations. Florida house passed the homeless hate crimes legislation. Looks good for passage in the Florida Senate.

Ft. Lauderdale

HPRP not doing well, and much is going to moderate incomes. State has cut homeless funding. Broward cut 50% of their services due to the downturn. Several large shelters have closed. Transitional shelters have had to close. Cut beds, services and hours to deal with budget cuts. Proposal to continue to criminalize homelessness in Ft. Lauderdale and Oakland Park will fine people who give food and money to homeless people. Increasing number of homeless and decreasing number of beds. No programs for the long term homeless. Alternatives to incarceration coalition established to try to reduce prison stays and long term punishments and mandatory minimums. Florida has a huge problem with one of the worst rates of incarceration in the United States.

Indiana

Continued budget cuts and HPRP has supplanted local dollars, and so there are more shelters and services closing locally. The state is defunding shelters, and more attempts to make it illegal to be homeless. Poor use of the HPRP funds for smaller groups especially in the rural communities.

Puerto Rico:

They do a poor job in receiving funding from the United States federal government. Worst managed HOME program in the United States, which has opened the door to greater scrutiny. Feeling threatened over HEARTH act, and attempts by local planning groups that could block grant of all those federal dollars. Have not been able to open an affordable housing project because of local bureaucracies, and while the buildings are done they have not been able to move in and now have become targets for vandalism. New protocol on how homeless people are served in the courts. There is a law that gives the rights to people who find themselves homeless, but it is ignored in the local community. Census told the population that they had to have an address to work for the Census.

Atlanta, GA

Shelter facing foreclosure is in court, and proving that you can operate without funding. Residents of the shelter do a lot more to operate the facility. 99.9% of staff are still hanging around without funds. Local grassroots organizations excluded from Neighborhood Stabilization and HPRP. There is some danger of losing the Foreclosure money (Neighborhood stabilization), which would go back to the Federal government. Massive demolition of public housing, 50% cut to public transportation, and privatization of the last public hospital..

DC

Catholic Church not going to close the shelter over the DC gay marriage issue. Big cuts that resulted in decrease in the number of shelter beds. They have closed the winter shelters for the spring/summer/fall. Family homelessness is increasing. Incidents at the shelters have increased including a death where an individual was turned away and died of exposure on a bench outside of the shelter. They have seen an increase in the incidents between shelters and staff because of the budget cuts.

Little Rock, Arkansas

Coalition is still on life support. Talked to the Mayor of Little Rock, because of city being named one of the meanest cities. Paid homeless coordinator in Little Rock to help. Another Little Rock About 1% of the population is homeless in the state of Arkansas. shelter closed because of a lack of funds.

South Carolina

State does not have any state dollars for homelessness—all dollars are pass through from the federal government. State initiative to require homeless veteran’s a preference over all other populations for a shelter bed and first for services. This did not pass. Defeated an initiative to be able to evict tenants within 15 days without going to court. Magistrate could appear without the tenant and get rid of the tenant. Four police officers arrested for Civil Rights violations in Greenville They have pled out after an investigation by the FBI. State HPRP is not being spent. At the local level it is being allocated at a good pace. Homeless awareness is increasing because of the NCH VISTA program educating the community. One City Administrator in Greenville has indicated a willingness to talk about ending homelessness. This is unusual for a public official in South Carolina. over the beating of a homeless person.

Montana

No more Montana Council for the Homeless by the Governor, and they may switch to become a private non-profit. Statewide HPRP going to the usual suspects. It is given out, but difficult to find in some communities. Information has spread and made a run on many of the programs.

Baltimore, MD

Mayoral transition difficult after the Mayor was forced to resign. She was very good for homeless people despite the scandal. The United Way initiative to end homelessness and continue the 10 year plan is still on track. All HPRP went through the United Way to administer the funds. Money is going out in large numbers.

South Dakota

Major issues in trying to distribute HPRP and lots of complaints with state for changing guidelines periodically. No state money going into local homeless services. Safe home program --32 long term homeless units is the cornerstone of the City’s project and they have now walked away from the program. No local dollars in Souix Falls from City. The City has established a zero tolerance for kids in the shelter to try to get them back into housing quickly. Indian reservations are the hardest hit.

Sacramento, California.

Massive deficit and massive proposed cuts. Hate crimes legislation introduced. Massive cuts to human services at the local level, and huge Continuum of Care cuts. Advocates want a safe ground to organize themselves with temporary structures while they search for housing. They won the lawsuit—got $250,000 to buy back tents and stuff after the police came in and destroyed their camps. Advocates have also registered hundreds of people and did a candidate forum focused on housing and homelessness. Training in May over HEARTH planning for the future. State HPRP is not going out very quickly. Better at the local level and trying to link the employment programs. Religious community organizations are trying to match HPRP funds in Sacramento. Director of Hunger and Homeless Program now including re-entry stuff into their work.

Denver

Sustained a huge budget cut for Health Care for the Homeless fund in order to fill gaps in the state budget. Cut the general assistance funds to single adults. After protests state government had to reverse the GA cuts and they never went into effect. Also advocates convinced them to reinstate the $2 million of the $3 million cuts to Health care for the Homeless. HPRP is given to the state Coalition and there is a match from TANF families. Some agencies are getting the funds out, but others are struggling. No ability to do training. Started construction on a 98 units of affordable housing that will include a work component in which they get homeless people to do the labor on the project then get first preference. Took over the HMIS system, and assure that privacy protections are in place. Colorado Springs has the homeless computer system is contracted to the local sheriff to manage. The State Coalition has told them to stop this or they will no longer have access to the management system or the funds that goes with it. Down the road the health care reform bill that just passed Congress will help our constituents including the leveraging of Medicare resources.

Taken from notes at the National Coalition for the Homeless Board meeting this past weekend April 2010 by Brian Davis

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No Foreclosure Help for Youngstown

Mahoning Valley Application was Rejected by HUD?

I got notice of a petition drive in Youngstown to protest the rejection of the Mahoning Valley Application for Neighborhood Stabilization 2 funding that was announced last week. The Youngstown paper has been aggressively reporting this story here and here. Evidently, Youngstown has one of the highest rates of foreclosure in the country, and was denied the joint proposal submitted by nine communities in the Mahoning Valley. The Youngstown Mayor and US Rep. Tim Ryan are crying foul and pledging to raise the issue with President Obama. In addition, the foreclosure funds given to the State of Ohio were distributed throughout the state and Mahoning and Trumbull counties received the smallest amount of all the large counties in Ohio. The Dayton area received the largest per capita amount of funding from Ohio even though they have a smaller 12.1% foreclosure rate in comparison to Youngstown and Cleveland with foreclosure rates at 14.7% and 12.7% respectively.

Brian
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Neighborhood Stabilization Announced Today

HUD Announces Funds for Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Crisis

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today that HUD is awarding $2 billion in Recovery Act funding to states, local governments and non-profit housing developers, under HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), to spur economic development in hard-hit communities and create jobs. Nearly 60 grantees are receiving awards.

HUD has released the list of states, local governments and nonprofits that have been awarded Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) grants. Unlike the original NSP program, NSP2 funds were awarded by competition to states, local governments, nonprofits, and consortia of nonprofits, which were permitted to submit proposals in partnership with for-profit entities. The states receiving the largest allocations of NSP2 funds include California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. Additionally, four national applicants received NSP2 awards.

Cuyahoga County will receive $40.84 million in NSP2 funds. The City of Cleveland, the Foreclosure Task Force, County Land Bank and CMHA will work to get these funds out onto the streets quickly. At least one quarter of the funds must serve low income individuals.

Brian
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State Foreclosure Call-In Day

From the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio

Good Afternoon Advocates!

Is a generation of foreclosures long enough?

2009 marks the 15th year of record foreclosure numbers – that’s an entire generation of wealth-stripping that we can to stop through sound legislation!

HB 3, the Foreclosure Prevention Act, has been sitting idle in the Senate for six months. During that time more than 45,000 homeowners have lost their homes. How many more homes do we have to lose before the Senate acts?

We need your help on Wednesday, December 9, when dozens of Ohio housing advocates will meet with their senators at the Statehouse.

Your calls will reinforce their visits. Ask your senator to push for public hearings on the bill before the end of the year. PLEASE MAKE TWO CALLS -- one to your senator, and one to Bill Harris, President of the Ohio Senate (614-466-8086)!

If you do not know your senator, click this link and enter the requested information under Find Your Senator.

After you make the calls on December 9, please let us know the response you received by calling NEOCH 216/432-0540 ext 100 or COHHIO at 614/280-1984 (Cathy Johnston).

Thanks for your support!


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Last Week

A Few Notes from Last Week

The Homeless Grapevine has been offline for three months. We finally went to press and will publish a new issue next week. 15 pages packed full of good stuff. I believe that it will be out on Wednesday at the West Side Market and Downtown. It has been a rough couple of months trying to scrape by with no money.

We finally got word why CynDe was not posting at her blog. Her partner, Gary, has been sick and she has been caring for him. Gary is a graduate of the photography program also. Please keep him in your thoughts. They have struggled in this economy like the rest of us.

There was an interesting Office of Homeless Services "Advisory Board" with the county staff presenting a Blueprint for how to use the homeless prevention money. This may seem strange since the applications for the use of those funds were due nearly two months ago, but we hope that all the partners come together in the best interest of the homeless people.

There was a public meeting with staff from Fannie Mae staff to answer questions about their new efforts to stem the tide of foreclosures in the United States. We talked about the new rules regarding foreclosures and especially with regard to renters. This law went into effect in May, and everyone is just learning what it means for homeowners and renters. We still could use a moratorium on foreclosures in the state of Ohio even with the new federal law.

Finally, on Thursday we had a good Homeless Congress meeting with representatives from six area shelters. The group decided to ask every candidate for City Council to support the regulations of the shelters in the next session of City Council. As soon as the letter is sent out and we start getting them back we will release the names of the candidates who support such legislation. The Congress also requested a moratorium on the co-pay fee that MetroHealth is charging until the flu pandemic passes.

Brian
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Linking Homlessness to Foreclosures

National Coalition for the Homeless Releases Report on Foreclosures

A partnership of national homeless organizations, including the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness; have release a joint report on the impact of the foreclosure and economic crises and the unprecedented growth in the number of individuals and families left without a home in the United States.

In a national survey of homeless service and advocacy agencies conducted by the these groups, 79 percent of respondents stated that at least some of their clients were homeless as a result of foreclosure, and about half estimated that more than ten percent of their clients were homeless because of foreclosure on a home they had been occupying.

During 2008, RealtyTrac reported 3,157,806 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, an 81 percent jump from 2007 and a 225 percent increase from 2006.

“We are one step away from foreclosure. More and more families and children are affected by job loss and the economy. ‘Getting back on your feet’ is next to impossible in today’s society. The public needs to be made aware of who is becoming homeless... and that they could be next - just like any average family,” an individual respondent to the national survey from North Carolina reported.

The study found that there are many interrelated consequences of the economic downturn that lead to both home foreclosure and to homelessness. There is an increased need for affordable housing, as well as targeted legal assistance, health care, living-wage jobs, income supports, access to education, civil rights protections and the various supports that will continue to be needed as a result of the recession.

John Parvensky, Board of Directors President for the National Coalition for the Homeless and Executive Director of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless states, "This report underscores the fact that we as a nation need to strengthen our efforts to prevent homelessness resulting from this economic crisis, while creating sufficient new affordable rental housing to ensure that no family in America has to experience the tragedy of homelessness."

The report is available online at www.nationalhomeless.org.

The best part of this report is that it features photos from the NEOCH Photo project from last year. Please check it out.

Brian
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I Worry About the Lack of Home Rule!

What Do We Do After "One Goal?"

I am worried about the city of Cleveland and our suburbs. How do you come back if you set "one goal" and then fail to accomplish that goal? If community leaders and advertisers only set one goal for the year and then you do not accomplish that goal, what is next? Will we be gun shy to make any other goals, after this failure? I could understand if a big giant city such as Los Angeles, New York or Chicago stood in our way, but our goal was extinguished by a fake city like Orlando. Maybe we need to take over a few neighboring cities to regain our confidence?

I am especially concerned for the future of Cleveland and the suburban communities over this Ohio Supreme Court decision last week with regard to home rule. An overwhelming majority of citizens support our tax dollars going to pay the salaries of our neighbors. The clear majority want our safety forces to live in the city that they patrol. We want them to have a stake in the future of the Akron, Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and Youngstown. I love Cleveland, but can't image the city without police, fireman, and city workers living within its borders. Sure many were skirting the law right now, but it was an important statement that employees receiving salary from the City care enough to own property within the Cleveland. This is going to be a killer for many cities. We already have 10,000 empty units in Cleveland. Where do we go from here? I am worried that any progress made in addressing poverty and homelessness will disappear because of the reduction in property taxes and city services.

We need to hold a town hall for all of us to weigh in on the future of the City. Where do we go now that home rule is as outdated as hats with buckles on them? What are we going to do in the next few years when a large number of our safety forces live outside the city? We need to set some realistic goals that are not entirely wrapped up in the fate of our sports' teams. With a state government on the brink of massive human service cuts, and the beginning of big migration at the local level, we need to do something that involves all the residents and tax payers in Cleveland. Since the safety forces always point to the sad state of the Cleveland schools, maybe we need to start over with the schools. We have tried everything including Mayoral control, and the state report card still gives us a D in the management of the school. Ask the city employees to hang in for two years, while we start over with the school system. We need some assurances that civic and government leadership recognize the problem and are working on a solution.

Brian
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Dream/Home at Dobama

Cleveland Hts. Playwright Captures Foreclosure Crisis

Dobama Theatre, currently residing at the Playhouse near the City of Cleveland Clinic, staged a wonderful play about the impact of foreclosures on Greater Cleveland. I am no expert on foreclosures, but my wife is, and she was impressed that the playwright captured all the ancillary problems. Sarah Morton wrote the play Dream/Home in an attempt to capture the hardships associated with losing a home in a neighborhood. I am sorry that I did not see this earlier so that I could have warned people to catch it before it ended. I was impressed that she used the stories about the 1933 riots over foreclosures into the play.

Morton had characters that included the head of a local bank, neighbors, elderly facing housing issues, teenagers facing displacement, a number of Mom's, and real estate agents. I thoroughly enjoyed the play even though it was depressing. I hope that Ms. Morton is able to sell this play to a national audience. It is a fantastic representation of the devastation in neighborhoods because of the foreclosure crisis. Morton did a great job demonstrating the concept of a home. She spent a great deal of time looking at this concept from the perspective of everyone with a stake in the neighborhood. A special recognition of Rodney Freeman who played the grandfather neighbor "George." I really enjoyed his performance. I had the privilege of speaking after the Friday show with Sarah Cruise of Interfaith Hospitality Network for a post play talk. It was amazing how many people stayed for the discussion, and most had great questions.

Since the crisis is not abating, and after seeing the play laid out in such stark colors, I had to wonder if it was time to start protecting our neighbors from any further foreclosures? Would the new County Sheriff go ahead with kicking a family to the street with young children if a large number of neighbors showed up to block access to a house? Shouldn't we protect children from displacement especially children in families that have a parent working and trying to save their home? Just because a family loses one income or they are only able to find part time employment, should we force them into a homeless shelter? These families may not have read their documents, and were persuaded into taking out a bigger loan then they could handle, but they do not have to shoulder all the blame for these exotic loans. They at least have to share responsibility with the banks that gave out these loans. These homeowners did not create this financial crisis caused by reckless business executives, and the homeowner never got a bailout. They did not want to lose their jobs and they did not plunge the country into a recession. No matter what, a point made by Ms. Cruise on Friday was an innocent child never deserves homelessness.

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

What Can I Do?

Photo by Pleasure Simmons--Photography Graduate from 2008. For ordering prints please contact the Coalition at 216/432-0540.

A Few Opportunities for Lobbying to End Homelessness

1. Cleveland Hearing on People's Budget Priorities
Epiphany Catholic Church at 11901 Oakfield Ave. will host a forum on Federal Budget priorities on Thursday night at 6 p.m.. Community groups and individuals can give testimony of up to three minutes. Testimony will be collected and given to Congressional and Senators from Ohio. This is sponsored by the Peoples Budget Priorities c/o Peace in the Hood. For more information call 216/283-4400 ext. 2266.

2. Lobby Day with COHHIO on Wednesday April 22 or Thursday April 23 with ABLE
The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio will host a their lobby day on April 22 in Columbus. The focus this year will be the two foreclosure bills pending in the Ohio House at this time. Cathy Johnson at COHHIO is the contact and she can be reached at 614/280-1984. If you cannot make it down to Columbus, but are talking to your local representative make sure you mention how much you support HR 9 because it protects tenants from facing surprise homelessness when their landlord is foreclosed on. This is a critical bill to begin to end this foreclosure crisis.

Thursday April 23, 2009 the Advocates for Budget Legislation Equality (ABLE) will be going down to Columbus to assist legislators understand the importance of state funding for health care, child care, elder care, housing and food programs. They wll be leaving from Merrick House early in the morning and traveling down to Columbus as a group. The ABLE group wants to call attention to some of the rough decisions that are going to have to be made with the upcoming budget, and try to put a face on these decisions. For information call Larry or Tim at 216/651-2606 for more information.

3. Support the Development of a Local Housing Trust Fund
After a couple of years of work, the County Housing Trust Fund Implementation Task Force will report on their work to the County Commissioners on Thursday April 30, 2009 at sometime between 11:30 to Noon. If you have time, please show your support for a fund that would be dedicated to preserving or building affordable housing locally. There is a fund for the arts, for stadiums, and for conventions, but not for housing. We need the Commissioners to accept this report, and then work with the state of Ohio to get authority to put a fund in place. We could use some people in the seats to show support for the creation of a Housing Trust Fund April 30, 2009 at the Cuyahoga County Commissioners meeting on the fourth floor of the County Administration buildin--1219 Ontario Ave. We hope that you can make it or when talking to County Commissioners let them know that you support this housing trust fund.

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

What Can I Do?

FOCUS Your Attention on Foreclosures

The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) is asking Ohioans to join them in Columbus on April 22 for a FOCUS on Foreclosures Lobby Day in support of Ohio House Bills 3 and 9. NEOCH supports the FOCUS group, and have written to support Rep. Mike Foley's HB 9. If you are interested in joining them, please contact cathy johnson at cohhio.org to become a part of their listserv and receive regular updates.

Ohio House Bill 3 is an important bill for homeowners facing foreclosure. Currently, it:

• declares a six month moratorium on foreclosures [even though some banks have stated they are imposing their own foreclosure moratoriums, Cuyahoga County alone is still seeing more than 1,000 foreclosures a month];
• gives courts the power to modify mortgage agreements, allowing not only for homeowners to remain in their homes, but also ensuring mortgage companies get their money;
• allows for a homeowner to remain on the property after foreclosure should the mortgage company not require the property for personal use. Every meeting with large gatherings of homeless people the topic always moves to how can there be so many vacant homes and so many
  
• establishes a Mortgage Services Registration Law which requires mortgage lenders to adhere to business standards (including responsibility to the borrower) and to provide homeowners with information regarding resources and rights before foreclosure; and
• sets up the Foreclosure Prevention Revolving Trust Fund, which provides money for grants for preventing and mitigating foreclosure issues.

Ohio House Bill 9, on the other hand, provides important rights for renters whose landlords are facing foreclosure, including:

• requiring landlords to inform tenants should the property face foreclosure [too many tenants don’t find out about the foreclosure until the sheriff shows up to evict them];
• requiring landlords to inform tenants of date, time, and place of sale at least 21 days before the sale of the property; and
• requiring any rental agreement on a foreclosed property to continue as a month-to-month agreement, thereby making the mortgage company the landlord, because there’s no reason a tenant who always pays rent on time should be punished when the landlord is foreclosed on.

If you have the time and the means, please contact COHHIO and join them on their lobby day. Speak with your representatives and let them know that these bills are vital in protecting Ohio’s citizens and keeping Ohio’s families in homes. Again, if you are interested, contact cathyjohnson at cohhio.org or call them at 614-280-1984.

Brian

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Good Story in the PD Today

Homeless Report Featured in the PD/WKYC

The Plain Dealer did an article about the money for federal stimulus bill and the possible uses for the prevention dollars today. WKYC also did a story on their website about our report on Tuesday. Both stories used our report on the State of Homelessness in Cleveland in their news coverage. Regarding the stimulus prevention dollars, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope that the City can put this money to good use. If you ever have the occasion to read the comments in the PD, don't do it. The people who submit comments are some of the most dense people in our city. I have never understood the anger and hatred toward homeless people. I can see that people want lazy and those who have made bad mistakes to pay, but why doom those people to the shelters, hospitals, and jails? Taxpayers pay for all these services, and so we are just sucking money out of our own wallets by pushing people into homelessness. There is no bigger drain on taxpayer money than homelessness. Put people in housing with a little bit of subsidy and the County saves thousands of dollars. With the foreclosure crisis, the bank bailouts, and the wall street issues, people are out for blood. They want to put some people in the stockades for causing all this grief in our financial markets. But homeless people seem to be the victims and not the cause of these problems in America.

Just one update for today...
The state agency distributing the foreclosure assistance money informed us today that we they will not fund our pilot project to move homeless people into foreclosed buildings. They said that they received $75 million in requests for dollars and they only had $4 million to distribute. We will keep trying, but this is a tough proposal to fund.

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

Congrats and Upcoming show

New Blog and Oprah Show This Week

One of our good friends and graduate of the photo project, CynDe, has a new Blog available. This is one of those rare success stories that we all need in this time of terrible economic news. CynDe has photography and a good look at her life now that she put behind her those rough nights in the shelters in Cleveland on her blog. I encourage you to bookmark From Homelessness to Homeowner and check back frequently. CynDe is starting this blog as the beginning point of a book about her experiences as a casualty in the war against the impoverished.

WCPN is going to feature one hour on the foreclosure plan introduced by the Obama Administration last week on Tuesday February 24 at 10 a.m. I don't know who the guests are, but it should be interesting. Tune in and call in.

Also, I am pretty sure that the Oprah program, which is on sometime in the afternoon on some local channel near you, will feature a piece on tent cities as a result of the foreclosure crisis. I believe that it will be Wednesday February 25 on a television near you. I know that Sacremento and New Orleans, Portland, Seattle all have large collections of tents that have sprung up over the last few years. Imagine in the richest country in the world, we have people living every night in a tent. There are 300 to 400 families, veterans, and young people sleeping under a makeshift home in numbers we have not seen since the 1930s. These people are asking for help from their government and wondering why all these homes are sitting vacant in the hands of banks.

“If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution”

--Abraham Lincoln

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

Grading the Administration 5

Weekly Poverty Grades for the Obama Administration: B-

Another slight improvement over last week with regard to the struggle to reduce poverty. The Obama administration released their long awaited plan to end the foreclosure crisis. I would have preferred a national mandatory moratorium (and that may still be coming), but if Mark Siefert at ESOP says that it is a good start then I am on Board. I really liked Jim Rokakis' statement on WCPN that it is too late for Cleveland, but this is a step forward. I think that it is long overdue to allow bankruptcy judges to alter the mortgage terms in bankruptcy. This will help many people. In addition, HUD released the 2008 shelter dollars, which I did not expect for a month or so. This is about the same time that Bush released the 2007 funds last year. Despite the federal budget under a continuing resolution and the new HUD director only approved two weeks ago, they released the housing and shelter dollars from last year. This is helpful to the organizations like CTO who had their grant expire January 31, 2009. They now have to work out a contract with the federal government and should be able to start receiving reimbursements for their Bridging the Gap program in June or July.

There is still a ton of work to do, but hopefully we can finally stem the tide of foreclosures. In the 1990s we only had around 3,000 foreclosures in Cuyahoga County. We now have over 14,000 every year. This is insane and has left a deep scar on the community. The question for us can we recover from this wound largely inflicted by a lack of government oversight and greedy and criminal mortgage brokers or was this a terminal wound?

The Obama administration could have issued more sticks and fewer carrots and I would have given them an "A." As Mark said to the Plain Dealer it more than we thought that we could get. In reflecting on the Stimulus bill from the previous week, I have to hope that with such huge sums of money that my grandkids will be paying for, these funds will be used in the same way as the Marshall Plan, or the creation of the highway system, and the federal dollars in the 1960s to win the space race. I am glad to hear the administration is focusing on the creation of new jobs this week while comparing this to the last major allocation of federal dollars for war in Iraq that had little benefits for American or Iraqii citizens.

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

Foreclosures Up in 2008

File Under "How is This Possible?"

We are collecting our State of Homelessness 2008 report right now, and we were shocked to discover that foreclosures in Cuyahoga County are up between 2007 and 2008. All the attention directed at the crisis; all the arrests of criminal predatory lenders; and the moratoriums by various lending institutions have done little to help. How could we have an increase in foreclosures with all this government intervention? Then the icing on the cake is the huge increase in foreclosures in December. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Cleveland! Here are a boat load of foreclosures for you to suck on. To all the representatives from the financial sector, we would like to thank you for this Christmas gift. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County can use more foreclosures. What is your return gift policy?
Here are the 2007 estimated number of homeless in the big cities in Ohio. The Census poverty figures are always one year behind.
The first number is the Census population figure for 2007.
The second number is the percentage living in poverty from the Census American Community Survey released in the fall every year.
The third number would be the actual number living in poverty.
The final number is the estimated number of homeless people in that County. This is based on percentage in poverty. The higher number living in poverty the larger percentage who face homelessness. These percentages are based on research conducted by HUD.

The entire report will be released on January 22, 2009 as part of the press conference for the Homeless Stand Down.

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