Be Careful What You Wish For...

Atlanta Shelter Gets Sacked by Judge

The powers that be in Atlanta received a favorable ruling from a Fulton County Judge, now they have to figure out what to do with 400 to 800 people who show up seeking shelter every night.  The local United Way, the Downtown Business Improvement District and the local foundation community have pushed around the Peachtree Pine shelter for years.  This week they succeeded in getting a favorable decision by a local judge that could result in the closing of the shelter by August 2012.  We have had short discussions about the Atlanta situation here and here and here on this blog.  The business elite in Atlanta got their wish, the shelter director is being evicted, and the shelter will be forced to close as summer winds down.  They cut off funding for the facility, and yet it stayed open.  They foreclosed on the building, and it remained.  A new owner purchased the property and worked to remove the existing shelter staff, but the Beaty's who run the shelter held on.   

In an especially harsh verdict against the Metro Atlanta Task Force, the director, Anita Beaty, was told by the Judge that she must leave the facility by February 15, 2012 at noon.  The United Way will take over the facility and have until August 31, 2012 to relocate all the residents to other shelters or into housing. It is likely that the Task Force's lawyers will appeal this decision, and this will likely push these deadlines.  But no city in the United States has ever relocated thousands of long term homeless people in a short period of time.  If it were not for the fact that these are peoples lives that the court is gambling with, it would be interesting to see if a social service collaboration can put together enough funds to relocate such a large number of fragile people.

The judge was very angry that the Occupy Atlanta advocates were allowed to move into the shelter.  Judge Craig Schwall in issuing his verdict on Friday had harsh words for Anita Beaty, the director of the Task Force.  The Atlanta Progressive News article quoted the judge as saying, "I'm not convinced they ( Jim and Anita Beaty) have the best interests of the homeless in this city.  If they did, they wouldn't be in contested litigation and move Occupy Atlanta in, which is a political statement.  And they would've let United Way in.  If they can't do that, its about power and control and revenge."  It is sad that the judge felt the need to condemn and question a person who has put 30 years of service to those struggling with their housing in his public comments. 

There will be many around the country watching this experiment in homeless crisis management. Cities typically do a poor job of assisting populations without media consultants or lobbyists with expensive suits in a time of emergency.  In context, the city of Atlanta already cut $18 million out of their 2012 budget and the next budget does not look good. The United Way of Atlanta reported a 10% decline in funds for 2011 to 2012.  Where is the money going to come from to serve a couple thousand people?

The Atlanta Journal article quoted Protip Biswas (I know, looks like a text message mishap) from United Way as being able to find space for 25 people in transitional beds.  He said, "We know we can small manageable numbers of 20 to 25, but if there are more that it will have to be a drastic solution of throwing mats on the floor." How many mats will fit on the floor of the Georgia Dome?   Based on those numbers and the reality that half the population turns over every 30 days, the United Way will start with 550 people and add around 275 new people per month.  At the rate of finding housing for 20 to 25 people per month and with the hope that Homelessness in America ends to coincide with the August 31st, 2012 deadline, Atlanta would be able to relocate those who show up at the Peachtree Pine Shelter over the next six months by April 2020.  We have plenty of experience with overflow shelter in Cleveland, and what judges, media, elected officials, and bureaucrats often do not understand--homelessness does not stop to allow us to solve a community problem.  When we shut down our overflow facility one winter in Cleveland, the discussion was always where are we going to put the 120 people who were living in the overflow shelter every night.  But the real discussion should have been about the over 900 people who used the facility during the course of the winter.

What typically happens when shelter is curtailed is that more people will live outside or they will ride the transportation system all day.  They will squeeze into the libraries or the hospital waiting rooms.  Transportation officials will become frustrated that more people will be holding signs at the freeway exit ramps.  There will be more people panhandling and sleeping on sidewalks.  Tensions will rise at the Atlanta City Council meetings urging relief from people trying to squeegee cars downtown or selling anything and everything to get enough money to find housing or find transportation to some other place.  Out of fear and a misunderstanding of the problem, the public and media will demand action.  Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression will win the day.  The elected officers will be forced to react with policies that transform the police into guards of orderly conduct.  Atlanta will overturn common sense, and will become colder, meaner and poorer.  The cradle of the Civil Rights movement will be transformed into the Capital of the Intolerance Movement.

Should we demand the MLK Freedom Center be relocated to a more appropriate city where there is not this intolerance of the impoverished? I understand that the judge was tired of this long complicated acrimonious court case.  I understand he was angry with the shelter throwing this hail mary, but why shut down the facility in six months?  How about ordering the City or the United Way to offer space to everyone in need within the city limits?  Under a court order to provide housing, shelter or a safe place to everyone who shows up at the door of City Hall that would force a compromise by both parties who were appearing before him.  There is no way that the shelter would close if the bottom line for the court was concern for those who need a place out of the sun or out of the rain in Atlanta. 

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

Good News for the Shelters

Mild Winter and Low Numbers Welcomed by Homeless

This warm weather has been a big help for those trying to help homeless people, and we have not had to spend huge dollars on overflow in Cuyahoga County.  Cleveland is one of the last cities in the United States that will find a place for everyone who shows up at the door requesting help.  This has been policy for 20 years, and has kept the number of people who pass away down to a minimum.  We do not have large numbers of people freezing to death that is seen in other cities.  When things are horribly cold more people choose to go inside.  We have spoken about the confusion that some have regarding diversion, but overall the system is built to provide shelter to everyone in need.

The nice weather has translated to fewer days this winter of overflow for the men.  The County has not had to pay for as many days of overflow as they did last year.  So far through January, we were told that the Shelter has only needed 7 to 10 days worth of overflow for the whole winter.  This is great news.    The way the shelter system for men works is that they go to Lakeside, and then after dinner the staff figure out if there are enough beds inside the building to serve all those who showed up.  They have a mat room that can serve as the primary overflow.  They also fill empty beds within the shelter of people who have a pass for the evening.  These are people who may be visiting family or have an early interview on the far west side so they stay on a couch for the night or they may be in the hospital.  They get a pass so they do not lose their bed, but those empty beds must be used if needed.  Then once the beds are all full and all the mats are full, the bus is pulled out and transportation starts to other facilities.  They have at least three other groups in the community who are willing to help out including Volunteers of America and City Mission and a religious group.  It is a pretty elaborate system worked out between the County and the Lutheran Metro Ministry.  Thankfully, with the warm weather we have not had to implement it as much as last year. 

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

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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Report from NCH

From Chester Commons (which is now under renovation). Unknown artist

National Homeless Report on Winter Shelters

The National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington DC released a report on the state of winter shelters in the United States. Cincinnati and Columbus are the two cities featured in the report from Ohio. The report goes into a great deal of detail about hypothermia and the importance of staying inside during extreme weather conditions. There are warnings for those who are resistant to shelter to stay dry, and the report urges politicians to work for a regional approach to solving the winter shelter problem.

Cleveland was not featured, because we do not have a winter-only system for shelter. This is one thing that puts Cuyahoga County ahead of the rest of the country. We have had a 20 year commitment to providing shelter to everyone in need. We do not turn people away from the two entry shelters in Cleveland. The County Commissioners, the Mayor and the staff of the Office of Homeless Services have always found the funding to make sure that no one is turned away. This is expensive and a tremendous undertaking for a community. We have had old schools opened, church basements, and government buildings to keep people from freezing to death on our streets. This has resulted in significantly fewer deaths of people who have experienced homelessness compared to other cities. We need to thank our elected officials for remaining steadfast in protecting those without housing through multiple administrations.

Check out the report from the National Coalition for the Homeless.

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

Overflow in Cleveland

Community Women's Shelter in Cleveland Ohio

Sheltering People in Cleveland During the Winter

Will the winter of 2010 be the first year that Cleveland has to turn people away? One of the best things about Cleveland for homeless people is that we are one of the last cities in America that still has guaranteed access to shelter. If a family or an individual shows up looking for a bed, they will be given a space inside and will not be denied access. This means we will not have many babies born in mangers, but it is expensive and it often means that Mothers and Fathers have to split up. This twenty year old commitment that has survived three Mayors and many County Commissioners is something that all tax payers can point to as a wonderful use of public dollars. This has saved the lives of many individuals and clarified the role of government in serving those without housing. We do not have the number of people sleeping outside, riding the buses all night, or dying of hypothermia that other cities have because of this guaranteed access to shelter policy.

The way it works in Cleveland is that we have two shelters that act as the entry point for those without housing. We have formalize that this year by placing the central intake case workers at these two shelters. Men go to 2100 Lakeside after 3 p.m., and are given a bed for the night. Women and women with children go to 2219 Payne Ave. anytime during the day. They are given an extensive assessment to see if they have other alternatives or to figure out what their path off the street is going to be fastest for them. After receiving a bed and the assessment, it is hoped that they quickly move into a less crowded facility or a shelter that can dedicate staff to finding permanent stable housing.

If the two entry shelters are full, they pull out mats on the floor or people take beds that are empty from people out on leave or working all night. If all the beds and mats are full, the individuals are transported to other shelters that may have vacant beds. For the past two summers, we have not needed a men's overflow shelter during the summer months. But usually beginning in November, every men's shelter bed in the community is used and the County has to pay for additional spaces first in the basement of the VOA then at the City Mission and then at a local church. The transportation costs and the overnight costs and the logistics are difficult for the City, County and the shelter providers, but they have made it work for all these years.

We are worried that this might be the last year for a number of reasons.

1. In summer 2009, the women's entry shelter had almost two times the capacity of the facility and the men's entry shelter was completely full by 5 p.m. every day. This is unusual.
2. We just started offering "rapid rehousing" assistance to people who go through central intake at the entry shelters. This is the first time with the new stimulus programs that shelters are giving out rental assistance right from the shelter. We are afraid that this will attract more people, and the entry shelters will be overwhelmed.
   
3. The economic downturn and the subsequent cuts to government programs are pushing more and more people to the point that they cannot sustain their housing.
   
4. The women's shelter is having heating issues and in the near future they are planning a major renovation. We still do not have a plan for where all these families will stay during the renovation.
   
5. Will it get to the point that it is just too expensive to provide shelter to all those in need and willing to live in a shelter? Some cities do a lottery every night for the limited shelter beds others just close the doors when they get full.
   

We will continue to advocate for universal access to shelter as the least we can do to help people who find themselves without housing.

Brian
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Sacramento Tent City Update

The Terminator Goes to the Fair

This week Governor Schwarzenegger announced that they would move the tent city that sprung up on private property to the State fairgrounds for three months while other solutions are developed. The New York Times has a story about the rising number of Bushville camps springing up across America. We know something about overflow in Cleveland, so I thought I would send some advice to my favorite Commando Governor who single handedly destroyed Man's colony on Mars then went back in time to nearly destroy mankind on Earth.

Dear Mr. Governator:

We in Cleveland know something about operation of an overflow shelter, and so we wanted to pass along some pointers to you as you venture into sanctioning the fair grounds as the new home to the Sacramento Tent City. We opened an old high school as a temporary overflow that did not close for 3 years. Every night for three years we paid for the transportation and operation of a "temporary" overflow shelter. The NPR story mentioned about the move of the tent city stated that many of the residents do not want to move because they would be locked into the fairgrounds at night. I think I heard something about that in a movie coming out May 21. It was Judgment day and Skynet moves people into a locked facility. Anyway, operating an overflow shelter is a difficult issue, and we have some advice for you:

1. Once the door is open to overflow and tent cities it is difficult to close it. Once there is a city sanctioned place for tents it is hard to shut it down. Our overflow lasted three years.

2. You will never be able to close it in three months unless there is immediate plans to build or renovate a large number of apartments for these individuals.

3. There are three to five times as many people in need as there are spaces. Depending on the level of poverty in the city there are many more people barely holding on waiting for something better to come along. They are sleeping on floors or couches or garages while they try to find housing. If you open up something better they will find their way to those doors. While the problem will start at 300 tents, it will grow to around 1,000 people if a better option is made available to the residents of the tent city.

4. Overflow is attractive to those who just want to be left alone. These places usually do not feature social services, and some people just give up here. They mire in depression and start to hate people and society. This is not what happens to everyone, but some use an overflow space or a tent city as a place with no pressure and no responsibility to vegetate.

5. Many who use tent cities/overflow because they do not want to accept charity. They are hard workers but have made mistakes. They would do well earning their housing through sweat equity. They probably have some skills and want to work. Many probably go to work now, but return to the tent or mat in a warehouse everyday.

6. Most do not want to go to shelter if they are sleeping in a tent city or overflow shelter. They do not like the rules and the institutional aspects of shelter. No matter how nice they are, many will not go to shelter. If you force people into shelter, they will just go underground.

7. Overflow and tent cities may seem cheap to operate, but they are actually very expensive for society. The health care costs and the long term impact on the individuals especially to children is a lot to address. There is an element of PTSD that people will have to work through after finding housing.

8. The only way to solve these issues by the time it gets to overflow/tent cities is individual assessment and help. Send those human service workers out to help. Since we ended welfare, what are they doing anyway? Make them get do some real work and leave the comfort of their offices to go talk to actual homeless people. It will do them good. Figure out what each of the residents need and then go back and get it. There is no solution that will solve all of their problems.

Good luck, and remember that they all have some talents if just given the opportunity. Don't make them into criminals or stereotype them. They are just trying to survive, give them a hand up.

Brian Davis

Local News

A Few Updates from the Homeless Community

Here are a few updates that did not fit in the last Homeless Grapevine #86, which is currently on the streets of Cleveland.

North Point Transitional

North Point has moved to its second class of residents. This transitional shelter opened at the beginning of 2008, and featured a six month time limit to encourage individuals to find jobs, housing and move out quickly. The facility started out without a kitchen and place to serve a hot meal. The kitchen is in place and North Point is full as of mid November. As of October 1, 163 people were placed in a job or training program with an average wage of $9.00 per hour and 67% of the original residents securing a new job. Fifty to eighty found permanent housing with between 23 and 35 having returned to the entry shelter, 2100 Lakeside.

Overflow Needed

One of the hopes with the opening of North Point would be a decrease in the need for an overflow shelter in the community. The entry shelter, 2100 Lakeside, has struggled to keep down the numbers and shuffle beds throughout the night, but has remained full. The County was forced to open the basement of Volunteers of America again on November 17, 2008 with 35 people traveling across the river to sleep at the overflow shelter. On the Sunday before overflow opened there were 35 men sleeping in the hallways at Lakeside Shelter. Experts predict that without a huge infusion of jobs for Cuyahoga County, the overflow needs will only increase. The women’s shelter has also seen high numbers resulting in women sleeping on mats.

County Budget Cuts

As the major media outlets have documented, the County will face a huge budget deficit in 2009. This will have an impact on the homeless shelters in Cuyahoga County. The Disabled Men’s Shelter, 2100 Lakeside, and the Community Women’s Shelter will have to take a 5.5% cut next year. This could result in reduced staff or a reduction in the time the facilities are open. In addition, the transitional and permanent housing programs that serve homeless people will reach a milestone in 2009: they will use every dollar allocated by the federal government just to renew their budgets for one year. There will be no more room for new programs or any additional housing vouchers to serve homeless people with a disability. North Point will not have to face a budget cut until September 2009, and it is hoped that the economy will have improved by that time.

Homeless Death in Akron

The Akron Beacon Journal is reporting on the death of Wayne Anthony Tyler who was found hanging from a tree near the Ohio Erie Canal. His hands were bound, and his body was badly decomposed. He was tied to the tree by a noose. Tyler had struggled with a mental illness and homelessness. Police are investigating according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Self Help Law Center Closes

The Cleveland Homeless Legal Assistance Program has had a pro se clinic at the May Dugan Center for the past year. The center allowed people to go in and print out legal proceedings and do legal research. The Center will close in December 2008, because only a few used the facility every week. The Legal Assistance program will maintain a weekly clinic at the May Dugan Center on Wednesday mornings to offer legal advice to homeless people and those in danger of homelessness along with nine other clinics in the community. The main Coalition office on Perkins will have computers available for use, and there is a hope that a new self help center will open closer to the courts next year.

Brian

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

A Sheriff With A Heart?

Hamilton Ohio Sheriff Puts Up Barriers to Foreclosure

I believe that Sheriff Jones was the Butler County law enforcement officer who wants a huge federal crack down on those huddled masses seeking to breath free in the United States, but he seems to have a heart with regard to foreclosures. This story of his effort to stem the tide of foreclosures was picked up across Ohio. If Sheriff McFaul gave a similar order in Cuyahoga County, we would see this massive migration to the shelters. See, unlike in most other communities, we still have guaranteed access to a shelter bed. There would be a large number who would be forced to show up at the Community Women's Shelter or 2100 Lakeside in order to save their home. The staff would have no choice, but to turn all these new people away. We can figure out what to do with 30-60 extra people showing up on one night, but this would result in 400-600 people showing up at the shelters. The former home owner would then go back to the Deputy Sheriff to report that they had no where else to stay. The two entry shelters have been full for the last month, and even though we do not typically get those home owners facing foreclosure at the shelters, they would be forced to go to shelter. Usually home owners have some funds and stay with family and friends or rent an apartment before they fall into the shelters. If the rule was that the only way to stay in your home, you had to go to see if the shelters are full there would be this huge line formed at the two shelters. We also might see large number sleeping in cars, which is not a huge problem locally at this time.

HAMILTON, Ohio -- An area sheriff has ordered deputies to ignore eviction orders when people have nowhere else to live. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said evictions in winter weather and during an economic recession are heartless and those cases should be sent back to the courts and resolved some other way. Jones on Tuesday ordered deputies to ensure that people have shelter before they're forced out of their homes. “It doesn’t cost much for me to be compassionate, and I’m not going to cause somebody to die because I wasn’t compassionate,” Jones said. He also sent a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland asking him to issue a state order to stop forced evictions for at least the winter months. “There has to be some attention drawn to somebody that’s going to be thrown out of their houses that doesn’t have anywhere else to go,” Jones said. The sheriff could face court action if a bank or landlord challenges his refusal to honor a court-ordered eviction. Jones said he would face any consequences of his order.

It may not be the best solution, but at least it is the government trying to do something to help keep people from being homeless.

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

Homeless Book Club Meets

How is Your Government Handling Homelessness: TALK!

The poorly named "advisory" board of the Office of Homeless Services met this last week. This group has all the right people at the table, but they advise no one. They talk a great deal about homelessness, but rarely act. It is a good chance to get together every other month and talk about homelessness similar to homeless book club. Can you believe that your government convenes a meeting only every 60 days to address homelessness? If it is any comfort to you they do meet for two hours every 60 days.

Again, nothing was decided, but we did get to hear a few updates. They are moving closer to having all the big shelters in the database so that those numbers will actually make sense. Right now the numbers are useless, but that does not stop the Federal government from publishing the results and using those numbers to tell us that they are "solving" homelessness. We heard a misguided presentation by the State Disability advocates and their "Home For Good" campaign to find service dollars for the permanent supportive housing programs. We have discussed how supportive housing is oversold and a Hummer of a program when the community needs many Ford Festivas instead. It took real courage for the group to accept the recommendation to renew the funding for all the existing programs currently funded by the federal government.

There was some discussion of working on a Central Intake point, but this is a concept we can expect to see in 2018 since the County is in charge. We heard about the plans around hospital discharge--no mention of the horrible Channel 3 story. The most interesting part of the meeting was the update on North Point Transitional Shelter. Remember this was the facility opened January 15, 2008 because Aviation was closing. The experiment is now five months old with only one month left for the 160 residents who opened the place. Here are the numbers:

The demographics of the North Point population:

• Only one-third of the men had one year of homelessness or more.
• 66% were addicted
• 55% had recent experience with the criminal justice system.
• 25% had un-addressed child support issues.
• Only 14% are veterans
  

Currently here are the statistics:

• 71% are now working.
• 14 are determined not to be able to work, and the shelter is looking to transfer them.
• 5 have moved into housing
• 16 were discharged mostly for violating rules.
• 19 left on their own.
• 15 have not been able to find a job.
• Average income at this time is $8.75 (below the housing wage and the living wage).
• They guess that 20-25 went back to Lakeside Shelter

What does this all mean? It is hard to find affordable housing even with a job. There are a number of people who were screened out of the program and they were kicked out or left on their own. This might have been because they had to select so many people in such a short period of time. The men are not finding jobs that will make it easy to find housing, and a lot of people will have to leave in June or ask for an extension. The one good piece of news is that the County agreed to give the men a year grace period in collecting child support payments while they get back on their feet.

The average number at Lakeside shelter was only 370 in April, down from 401 in March. The County hopes that a large number will be moving out of North Point in the next month so that there is no need for overflow at Lakeside. We shall see.

Brian
Update: East Side Catholic closed in December, and the Catholics turned off the heat, but not the water. So the pipes burst and the building is no longer usable. There are a few providers looking at filling the hole left by the East Side Catholic shelter serving 30 families, and now they will have to find a new building.

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

Homeless Congress Talk to Councilman Zone

Homeless Congress Talks About Shelters, Vacant Buildings and Overflow

We had a small crowd for the Homeless Congress meeting last week because of the ballgame going on at the same time. Approximately, two hundred or more homeless people work the game through clean up crews or the parking lot attendants at nearly every home Indians game. Despite the new name of the ballpark, indentured servants wait in the wings to clean up the beer and trash as the cheers fade away in the not-so-progressive field. We had about 15 homeless individuals, a couple of agencies, staff from Dennis Kucinich’s office, a representative from the County Office of Homeless Services advisory (the Homeless Book Club), and Councilman Matt Zone.

Councilman Zone was invited to the meeting (along with his 20 colleagues) to hear the concerns of homeless people over the conditions in the shelters and urge passage of the shelter standards bill in Cleveland. He heard an earful:

• One woman said that she was told by the shelter staff to put her baby in the foster care system while she looks for housing. She did and now that she found housing, she was told that her babies were up adoption. Bad advice.
• The men at Lakeside shelter are upset that when they visit family, go to the hospital or have to do a third shift job and they come back to find someone has taken their bed. This sounds reasonable to the world because we are not running a hotel here, but to the men the new person is unknown and coming into the community straight from the street. He could be drunk; he could be stealing items; he could be bring bedbugs. There is concern that the only way that 2100 Lakeside works with 400 guys is to divide the facility into six smaller shelters and force people to work and make milestones to move into the better communities. Sticking a guy who may have a prison mentality right into one of the higher communities even for a night, is a recipe for disaster. They want a reversal of this policy by creating sufficient overflow to address make this not necessary.
• There were concerns about shelters throwing away a person’s identification.
• There was concern about the training of staff who work at shelters and screening them for drugs and relapse issues among the staff.
• One of the shelters has a massive bedbugs outbreak, and the men were concerned about the ability to sleep in a facility with bedbugs.
• One other shelter primarily serves fragile populations of disabled and elderly men and does not have a defibrillator for heart attacks or the proper emergency equipment.
• Finally, the women expressed concern about the hot water tank repeatedly breaking in the Community Women’s Shelter.

Councilman Zone listened to all the concerns and agreed to take the concerns back to Councilman Cimperman and the city administration to activate this committee and begin discussing the Shelter Standards in Cleveland.

Other issues that we discussed included a proposal by the Congress to look at the abandoned property in Cleveland, and look into how those buildings may be turned over to homeless people in a modern urban homesteading initiative. We are going to invite community development folks to the next meeting to talk about the issues.

The County staff could not attend so they sent current North Point director Ed Gamerchek as a representative of the poorly named Office of Homeless Services “Advisory” Board. I say, poorly named because they really do not advise anyone. He received the Homeless Congress concerns about time limits along with the similar concerns expressed by the Coalition. He came to assure the group that no time limits were being talked about, but there was a concern about the amount of time spent in the shelters by some individuals. It should be noted that this is an extremely small number (single digit percentage of the total) who spend more than one year in the men’s shelter. There was also concern that some people were rejecting available spaces in transitional shelters thus there are vacancies in the transitional facilities and overcrowded conditions in the emergency shelters. The men said that the problem was that the County needs to step up and demand the transitional shelters make it easier to get in, and there must be a safety net so that if you fail out of the transitional facilities you do not have to start over at the beginning of the emergency shelter without a locker or fixed bed. It takes a lot of time and patience to move through the system, but there are set backs in a person’s recovery and the guys do not want to have to go all the way back to the unsafe and disruptive entry system.

We thank Councilman Zone for coming and listening, and we hope that he and other Council members will continue to join us. Thanks to Ed for attending, and the other community members for their help. We should recognize Laurie Rokakis and Congressman Kucinich for bringing two gift baskets to the meeting in March that we raffled off during the meeting.

Brian

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

The Worst Meeting Ever

No Time For Questions

It seems like the whole country is acting like George W. Bush where up is down and war is peace. I went to the Homeless Book Club meeting, otherwise known as the Office of Homeless Services Advisory, and the director presented an overview of the shelter situation since Aviation High School closed. By the way, this group does not advise anyone. "The surge is working," this last year and the 1999 quote: "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is," said George W. Bush. Ruth Gillett told us all that we are better off now without Aviation. She was comparing overflow shelter with permanent supportive housing and transitional shelter beds created. Beds that do not turn over for six months or six years cannot be compared to beds that are a short term answer to those without housing.

"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace," said George Bush in June of 2002. Gillett said that three new people come into 2100 Lakeside shelter every night, but did not realize that this meant we are witnessing an impending train wreck. I mean if we replace beds that had half the people leave every month with beds in which people do not leave for six months, we have serious problems coming down the line. It was a huge mistake to talk about overflow when talking about opening North Point transitional shelter. They have nothing to do with each other and the County is so focused on North Point that 2100 Lakeside is suffering.

"No President has ever done more for human rights than I have," said George W. Bush. I felt like I was sitting in the meeting with one goal: say something enough times people will actually start to believe it. Gillett said things were all right because in the last 10 days the 60 beds of overflow were sufficient, dismissing the fact that the City Mission was only committed through the end of the month, which would limit us to 30 beds of overflow. She did not address the reality that on one night 25 people waited in a chair for a bed. Gillett did not address the reality that we have always had a slight drop in the shelter census on the first 10 days of the month. Now I understand why no one in the White House Press Room challenges the President. There were so many things wrong with this presentation, it was impossible to pick out where to start. There is never enough time to address all the problems in the homeless community at the Homeless book club meetings.

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," said George W. Bush after the Katrina disaster in New Orleans. The most amazing part of this meeting was Gillett's solution to this problem was to put a Gatekeeper at the Lakeside shelter to divert people from coming into the shelter. This policy, which I am calling the "There is a couch in this community with your name on it" will put people through a long screening process to figure out if there is a better or more appropriate place in Cleveland for the men who show up. It is a good thought, but we still need to address the train wreck coming because we do not have overflow anymore.

We just need a place for those banned from the rest of the shelters to go. We need a place for the sexually based offenders to get out of the cold. We need a place for those recently released from prison to go, because there are no couches in the community for them. We need somewhere that second or third shift workers can sleep. We need a place for those who cannot stand rules to get a cup of coffee. We need a place for the drunk to sober up. Some of these people are not the most desirable or employable, but they are still our brothers and they still need a place to live.

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

Packing People in the Shelter

Lakeside Shelter is Overflowing

The FAA and Department of Homeland Security closed Aviation High School as the Overflow Shelter for homeless men in Cleveland on February 1, 2008. With the snow and the cold this week, how have homeless people faired since this decision was implemented? 2100 Lakeside shelter is bursting at the seams, and on Thursday February 21, 2008, 25 guys waited throughout the night for a bed to open. The plan put in place by the City and County as we prepared for the closing of Aviation High Overflow Shelter did not work. The sooner that they admit that their plans failed, the sooner homeless men will be able to sleep peacefully in a bed. It is bad enough carrying all your stuff around, sleeping in a shelter, and being homeless without having to sit up all night waiting for a bed in the land of plenty in the richest country on the planet.

A little history is in order here. 2100 Lakeside legally houses 385 people a night. As we have learned "if you build it they will come." The shelter was full the day it opened, and every time they put more beds into the facility the population increased. In 2003, while the shelter was under the direction of the Salvation Army, there were some nights that 600 people showed up seeking a bed. St. Ignatius and some of the other shelters offered hallway space to accommodate the overflow on a temporary basis. In 2004, Aviation High School opened as the overflow site housing between 135-220 people per night. The Crawford Aviation Museum talked about buying the building in 2005, but it remained a shelter.

In late 2005, the City was contacted from the federal authorities began putting pressure on the City to close the shelter out of terrorism concerns. The shelter bordered Burke Lakefront Airport, and there was concern for the safety of the airport with 150 unscreened people sleeping a few yards from the airport grounds. The City resisted federal concerns, and pushed back a series of deadlines for relocation. Why would a terrorist become homeless and sneak onto Burke Lakefront to steal the WKYC helicopter or the KeyBank Learjet? The final deadline imposed by the Federal government was January 31, 2008. After that date the City could not use the abandoned high school. The City and County had over one year to put in place a replacement plan for Aviation.

The County Office of Homeless Services took the lead, and did a lot of innovative things to replace the overflow. They forced the rest of the men's shelters to take people into their programs first from the Lakeside Shelter. They opened a series of permanent supportive housing, and provided additional housing vouchers. They opened North Point Transitional shelter in an old motel, which can house 160 people. North Point is a great idea that we should be proud of in our community, but it is not overflow. We opened beds at Oriana House, and tried to quickly move people out of Lakeside. All worthwhile efforts, but they do not address the problem of overflow. As I have always said, "if you build it they will come." If you improve the system (North Point) more people who were living on the margins of homelessness will show up.

So, the day after Aviation closed on Saturday Feb. 2, despite 160 people having moved over to North Point, Lakeside shelter was overflowing. The staff at the shelter had asked the City for 100 beds of overflow. The County granted them 30 spaces at the Volunteers of America, and told them to deal with it. Luckily, the City Mission stepped in and offered an additional 30 spaces. Even with 60 overflow spaces the shelter has had 10 days of people waiting for a bed to open in the hallway and cafeteria. As stated above there were 85 people over the legal limit on Thursday. Sixty were provided a cot or mat at Volunteers of America and the City Mission, as the two overflow sites. Twenty five people had to wait for people to get up in the middle of the night to go to work in order to get a bed. The plan is not working. City and County officials should have listened to the professionals working at the shelter or even the Homeless Congress and have provided 100 overflow beds. A County Commissioner or the Mayor needs to step in here and open a warehouse that we can put 100 cots at night as the overflow. We have plenty of vacant buildings. Put them to use! Sunday night is going to be rough for homeless men in Cleveland seeking shelter.

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

Bad Times in Cleveland

What if We Had a Recession and No One Noticed?

The Coalition, along with First Call for Help and the Cleveland Tenants Organization, presented to the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance on Monday. Three of the four horsemen of doom and gloom reported to local housing advocates on the state of poverty. (Dana from Hunger Network--the fourth horseman of doom was not part of the event, because that would be too depressing for one meeting.) As Steve Wertheim from First Call for Help said, this is the worst he has seen things in Cleveland in his 30 years of work. Mike Piepsny from Cleveland Tenants Organization talked about the evictions in the community and the large number of people who pay nearly 50% of their monthly income on rent in the community. I distributed and talked about the State of Homelessness report full of depression and stunning statistics.

After sitting through the meeting and hearing all the negative trends in the community, I had to wonder how much worse could it get? I kept wondering that we might miss this whole recession because we have fallen as far as we can fall. Our housing has collapsed; we lost a majority of our manufacturing jobs; and we have a higher than average number of uninsured. Do we have a blank canvas on which to build? One bad sign from this weekend...the main shelter needed overflow even with North Point Transitional opening with 160 new beds.

Aviation High School, which houses between 100 and 160 people a night, closed on Friday. It was the beginning of the month when many people have money to pay for a place to stay with friends, and traditionally the smallest number of people sleeping in the shelters for the month. It was not especially cold and North Point opened, offering space for 160 people. Everything pointed to at least a little breathing room for the shelter at 2100 Lakeside. But even with all these things working for the shelter, they still had to have people sleep on the mats and had to bus people over to the Volunteers of America and City Mission. This is going to be a rough few months if we need overflow on the first weekend without Aviation. I thought we would make it until the last week of February, but the lesson we have never learned in this community is that if you build it they will come. Every improvement to the shelter system has resulted in more people seeking help. We all hope that this does not push the County to end guaranteed access to shelter.

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

New Shelter Opens

The Grand Experiment Begins

North Point Transitional Shelter opened this week. This is a huge change in the shelter landscape and is a much different model. This facility is reserved for men who have some ability to earn income and therefore leave in 6 months. The shelter will not screen out those who are still battling alcohol or drug addictions. This is a noble experiment and treats the addiction as a health problem not a lifestyle choice to be "punished." The rough part will be the time limit for residents. Those with an addiction have markers on their path toward recovery and six months and one year are for some reason big milestones. Working on finding a job, putting your life back together, and dealing with a time limit may be an insurmountable obstacle. We shall see how this works.

There are big questions ahead for Greater Cleveland. Will we soon end the guaranteed access to shelter in our community? How soon will we need to open up another overflow? How long can the County/City afford this new transitional shelter? Will the men be willing to go into the facility? Will the women in the community demand a similar facility? Some of the guys that I have talked to are worried that they will go over and will not be able to find a job and will have to slink back to 2100 Lakeside and basically start over. The other tough part of making the move is that they are afraid that the temptation will be too much. The men have made some progress toward sobriety and are currently living in one of the sober communities at Lakeside. These communities do not allow addicted people to stay there. If a person falls off the wagon, they must go back to the entry community.

We shall see if all this works outs. They have hired some competent staff, and the County gave them plenty of resources to make this work. We need this kind of facility in the community. I hope that it works.

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

Aviation to Remain Open

Feds Give Overflow Permission to Stay Open Unit January

As you may know, the Federal Aviation Administration has informed the City of Cleveland that the overflow shelter currently at Aviation High School must close. The FAA claims that it is a safety concern to have 200 unknown people sleeping right next to Burke Lakefront Airport because of some bizarre homeland security rules. Even though the City and County have been aware of this deadline for over 20 months, they could not come up with an alternate site in all that time. The County spent about 8 months trying to free up space in the current system to avoid having to fund an overflow shelter at all. While this was a worthy effort, County officials should have looked for alternate locations at the same time.

North Point Inn motel was purchased in the summer 2007, but the 160 bed facility will not be ready by the Halloween 2007 deadline set by the FAA. The motel needs a sprinkler system before the Fire Marshall will allow the building to re-open as a shelter. The City begged for more time and the FAA has given the community until January 2008 to get North Point ready. It seems that the FAA feels that the terrorists hiding among the homeless population take the holidays off, and so the news choppers at Burke are safe for now. For that reason, they gave the shelter an extra three months to remain open. We will call that the holiday homeless security exception to the homeland security rules.

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

Congress Met Today

Homeless Meet with City/County Today

The Homeless Congress meeting today had a huge agenda, and was one of the best meetings we have ever had. Our good friend Cleveland Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland attended to hear about the Shelter Standards. She pledged to bring the issue to the rest of Council. We agreed to give the social service providers a month and a half to get comments back to the Congress. Homeless people who attend the June 21 meeting will review the comments and suggest changes to the standards. Ruth Gillett and Rick Werner of Cuyahoga County both attended, and Natoya Walker of the City of Cleveland also joined the Congress. Gillett had not seen the Shelter Standards document, but did say there were already minimum standards for shelters. She suggested that if homeless people had problems they should file a grievance with the shelter.

This is not a NEOCH meeting, so it would have been appropriate to stand up and scream at Ruth that her suggestions just do not work in the real world in the same style many homeless people face at night when they question shelter staff. The problem is that a grievance always stays within the shelter, and there is no impartial look at the problem. It is like suggesting to those families facing foreclosure because of a predatory loan that they file a grievance with the mortgage company that issued the unethical terms for the loan and expect that they will reform themselves. We have laws in place to protect tenants, homeowners, nursing home residents, but homeless people have no law to turn to for protections against being thrown out into the snow in the middle of the night.

The most interesting part of the meeting was the discussions about Aviation High School and the North Point Motel. As we have discussed Aviation will close on Halloween, but the scariest part of this is the unworkable plan that the City and County have developed to replace Aviation. Tonight there are 550 people using either 2100 Lakeside shelter and Aviation High School, which operates as an overflow. The City and County are pushing the other shelters to take up the slack and move more people into housing/transitional housing and treatment. They want to reduce the number to 375 this summer so that there is no need for an overflow shelter. Then they want to open North Point as a permanent housing facility. Based on the questions, the Homeless Congress members were very skeptical of this plan. It was amazing to me that the only people in the room that could do basic math were the homeless people. This plan had post-war Iraq planning written all over it.

We have 15 years of proof that we are not going to open a facility like North Point with two people in a private room and expect fewer people to utilize the homeless system. It is like these government people do not understand poverty and they work in the poorest city in America. There are so many people waiting for housing (Over 50,000 according to most studies), but many choose not to use the shelters. Most in the community feel shelters are degrading, dirty, unsafe, or have one of a thousand other reasons, but if the City makes a shelter available that has a private room more people will show up for help not fewer.

City and County officials made a commitment to continue to allow anyone who shows up at the door to sleep inside a shelter, which is unique to Cleveland. No one explained how all these people would fit inside 2100 Lakeside or how many would sleep in the halls and cafeteria after the loss of the Aviation overflow site.

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

Updates from the Coalition

The Latest Dispatch from the Homeless Coalition

Annual Meeting of the Coalition
We normally have a stuffy formal annual meeting, but this year the Board of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless has decided the annual fundraiser from the Annual Meeting. So the 2006 Annual Meeting will be March 15, 2007 at Franklin Circle Church at 6 p.m. NEOCH will give out awards to the Advocate of the Year and Volunteer of the Year. We look at 2006 and ahead to 2007. Finally, NEOCH will elect a new board and present the 2006 Annual Report. We would love to have you join us for the Annual Meeting. It is free and we hope homeless people will be able to join the meeting. We are going to award a Roadblock of the Year to the person or organization that prevented the solving of homelessness in Northeast Ohio.

Media Wave Causes Stir
The Plain Dealer story two weeks ago with the headline about $22 million coming to Cleveland for homelessness always creates waves. It makes our meetings with homeless people difficult, because homeless people read the paper. They see a whole bunch of money coming to Cleveland and wonder why they eat pasta every night or why they cannot get housing. So, we get blamed for wasting funds or being incompetent for not solving homelessness with "all that money." We also get calls asking how they can set up a shelter so that they can get in on this federal gravy train. After I tried to convince the woman that called this week that this was not money for shelters and that public officials are not going to fund shelters anymore, she said, "I am not going to be deterred by anything you say, because God has told me to do this and I saw the article about the $22 million." There is no way to argue with God or money. Columbus only got $6 million, and they claim nearly the same number of homeless people, and so their providers are ticked off.

By dividing $22 million among the 20,000 people who are homeless every year, the funds only cover $1,100 per person who is homeless in Cleveland. 90% of the $22 million are just to keep the doors of the transitional shelters and the permanent housing programs open. Many of these funds are for very specific populations while the economically homeless have to find their own ways.

Aviation High School Has a Deadline
The main shelter in Cleveland, 2100 Lakeside, operates on the principle that anyone who comes to the door must be offered a bed. This has forced the shelter to operate an overflow facility at Aviation High School. This was a temporary solution that is now three years old. The federal government is not really happy with this solution with ex-cons, sexually based offenders, and an unknown group of people basically sleeping on the grounds of an airport. They have laid down the law--the overflow must close by November and there will be no further argument. This would seem to be plenty of time, but the County and City cannot agree and no one is talking to homeless people. This is going to go down to the wire, and the results are not going to be pretty.

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