Happy Holidays from NEOCH

Happy Holidays from NEOCH!

As we finish the year, we at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless want to thank you for all your support in 2010. We advocated for the 20,000 who found themselves without housing by marketing the affordable housing website that allows individuals to find a home. We also work to assure that public resources are available to those in need of a hand up. NEOCH works every day to assure that anyone in need of shelter has a quality decent place to spend the night.

For those who avoid shelter, we coordinate the diverse agencies providing outreach services. Our goal is to provide access to well informed professionals, public assistance, blankets, resources, or food in order to build a trusting relationship with those living outside. We work to educate media, young adults and communities of faith about homelessness and the solutions to homelessness with 36 presentations in 2010. We work to teach organizing skills to people experiencing homelessness so that those individuals will have the tools to work on finally solving the problem associated with a lack of affordable housing.

We have worked with local universities and the federal government to host interns and support staff who work to solve problems, such as creating the Family Street Card, maintaining our website, and assisting with all of our research projects. In light of the huge anticipated changes taking place after the last election and the passage of the HEARTH Act that will fundamentally change homeless services in the United States, the NEOCH director has taken a leadership role with the National Coalition for the Homeless Board. He meets regularly with federal officials to assure that the needs of those living in Ohio are heard in Washington DC.

We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with your support. We could not have done it without you! Pictured here are three of our five staff paid through federal grants. Proving once again that NEOCH has the ability to stretch a dollar and that your federal tax dollars are reinvested in the local community. 2011 will be just as challenging with the changes in state and county government.

We hope that you can make a tax deductible donation to NEOCH over the holiday season so that we can continue our work to bring housing justice to Greater Cleveland. You can support NEOCH by going to our website and clicking on "donate now" or just following this link here. Your support is needed now more than ever.

With Appreciation,
NEOCH Board and Staff
Wishing you a joyful holiday season and a healthy New Year.

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Holidays Are Rough

2007 Vigil and Today Show Toy Drive

The 21st Homeless Memorial Day was a sombre occasion with special guest County Commissioner Peter Jones. Mayor Frank Jackson also stopped in to honor those who had passed. I was asked at least 8 times that I should invite the Mayor to talk. For the record, I asked him twice and he was not interested in talking. He is not the ribbon cutting Mayor that we have all come to expect. Representative Foley attended the memorial and announced the introduction of the homeless hate crimes bill in Ohio. The legislation was introduced and already received a bill number HR 419. To date only Rep. Mike Skindell, Rep. Jennifer Brady and Mike Foley have signed on as co-sponsors from the Cleveland area. We will work on this in the new year. We read the names of 39 people who passed away and then six additional people were added by members of the audience. We will add those names to our list on our website.

The volunteers from Franklin Circle Church were great, and provided an excellent meal for our friends and our members. We had representatives of 2100 Lakeside, Care Alliance, Catholic Worker, County Office of Homeless Services, the Veterans Administration, and the Coalition in attendance to honor those who had passed. This year we asked a number of other organizations to co-sponsor the event, because we wanted to also honor a person who had probably saved more lives than anyone else in our community: homeless nurse Patricia Tomcho. Peter L. Jones presented a County resolution recognizing all her 25 years of service to the community. The Coalition and the other partners presented her a Lifetime achievement award to thank her for all her years of service. Tomcho is retiring next year, and without her our reading of the names of those who passed would be a lot longer every year.

The vigil is always a beautiful service, but certainly depressing to realize that our society is letting all these people slip quietly into the night. To raise our spirits, NEOCH gets to be part of the NBC Today Show annual toy drive. Toy manufacturers from around the country send out toys to various cities to be distributed to homeless children. NEOCH is the central distributor of these toys in Cleveland. We usually take the whole lot over to the family shelters in the boxes and then the staff distributes them. This year, I decided to have the family box and wrap the presents and then take them over on Christmas eve to distribute. So we spent Christmas eve wrapping new presents for a few hundred and then taking them over to the shelters for distribution. It is a nice way to balance out the first day of winter when we remember those who died by giving some comfort to the future County Commissioners and doctors who happen to find themselves living in a homeless shelter this year.

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