How Are the Homeless Stimulus Funds?

Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing

Ruth Gillett of the Office of Homeless Services attended the last Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting last week. Media are not allowed to quote anything from that meeting, but I can pass along the stats from the presentation. Cleveland received $14 million (including money from the State of Ohio) in 2009 to be spent over 30 months. According to the OHS stats, we have spent $3.17 million in Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Assistance as of 12/3/2010 which translates to 2,658 households helped. For some reason they did not have a breakdown by agency as of 12/3/2010. The three largest providers of services (Cleveland Mediation, MHS, and Eden) are all spending above the average amount necessary per month to assure that all the money out by July 2012. But they did get a late start in spending money and did not really start spending until the first quarter of 2010.

All of these stats need to be taken in context. The assistance can be something as small as identification fee or can be one year of rental assistance. It can be moving expenses to relocate to better housing or paying off back rent. The funds support the Housing database in Cleveland, housing search specialists, and housing case workers. There are an average of 12,000 evictions just in Cleveland and 22,000 evictions in Cuyahoga County, and recent estimates are that 45,000 are in need of subsidized housing locally. Housing instability is increasing locally with the foreclosure crisis spreading out to outer ring suburbs, and the lack of development of new affordable housing options to match the units that are taken off line. One example of the serious need locally is the fact that the Parma Housing Authority opened the waiting list for the 400 vouchers that they have available and over 20,000 people applied for these vouchers. On another note, the agency running HPRP in Dayton, the Dayton Urban League, closed up shop two weeks ago which puts a hardship on those facing eviction in Montgomery County.

The County released statistics for the month of October 2010 which showed:
74 people got an intake at the shelter doors, and 20 were "diverted" to some other housing option and 7 were given "fast track housing." The rest (47) went into shelter or disappeared. On the prevention side, 81 intake referrals were done and 99 households were served for an average of $1,182 per individual household. I have no idea how more households were served than intakes done, but those are the stats we got.

The big change over the last three months were that a Ruth Gillett and a couple of the service providers decided that there would be some changes in the program. These changes were not approved by any oversight body in the community or homeless people or the broader homeless social service providers were not given the opportunity to comment on the changes before they were implemented. As of October, only those individuals currently living in subsidized housing can get eviction diversion/prevention funding. That is right, only those who already are assisted by the federal government every month now can get access to eviction help. These individuals would not need as much support since the federal government pays some of their rent. The most expensive and difficult population to serve, families with children, who enter the shelters will not be eligible for rental assistance unless they were living in public housing, had a voucher or were in a HUD funded building.

The NEOCH staff and board frustration with the system is the lack of transparency by the County in making these decisions. We also have concerns that the social service providers are keeping this program quiet to prevent a flood of people trying to access these funds. There is not a standard referral system to get these funds. We keep asking for the best process for referral of potential clients, and no one will give a definitive answer. There is no process even for people in subsidized housing written down anywhere that says go to this location or call this number in order to get help. In Cincinnati, there is one telephone number to call to get an interview. The rental assistance distributed from July 2009 to July 2010 by CEOGC locally also had a telephone system set up to schedule an appointment. For this program there is no set way to access the dollars mostly out of the fear about a riot as the City of Detroit experienced.

Our final frustration is the fact that the intake for diversion and rapid rehousing is done at the two entry shelters. This is the first time in our history that rental assistance was linked to shelter. Our fear is that more people will show up for a shelter bed just to get the rapid rehousing dollars. Since every shelter is already full every day, we do not need anything to attract additional people to the shelters. Maybe the Cuyahoga county reform will provide some transparency to the federal stimulus dollars being implemented by the County. We can only hope.

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

**Blog Update As of 12/20/2010** In an effort to have full disclosure, Dan Joyce of Cleveland Mediation Center called today objecting to this blog entry. He refused to engage in "back and forth" about these issues, but wanted to make sure that we were aware that some of the things in this blog are not correct. Dan said that it was not true that they only give assistance to those in subsidized housing. He also said that some are approved for assistance, but don't receive it until the next month, and that is how the numbers can be more than the number requesting assistance.

Dan has never published exactly what the qualifications are for homeless prevention and where a person goes to get these funds, so it is no wonder there is confusion in the community. Also, in full disclosure, Dan was not at the Ruth Gillett presentation at CAHA, so I do not understand how he has the ability to clarify the information given out. It seems strange that a person not at a meeting would call to clarify my perception of the information given out. That is how things work in the community with some of the non-profits. It can be frustrating especially if you are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless and you depend on agency staff to be open with the information. All of these are federal tax dollars, but it is sometimes like pulling teeth to get real information about how to access help in the community. Dan did not address all the other concerns that I expressed in the blog, and I am not holding my breath that he will in the future.

Homeless Congress this Thursday

County Council Member Connally to Meet with Homeless Individuals on Thursday

PRESS RELEASE: The Homeless Congress will meet on December 9, 2010 at 1 p.m. at the Bishop Cosgrove Center with C. Ellen Connally before she takes her position on the new County Council. The meeting takes place on the second floor of the Cosgrove Center in the gymnasium, and we typically have representatives living at various shelters in the community. We have invited all of the new County Council members to attend and to begin a dialogue with homeless people, and Judge Connally has agreed to discuss our issues.

The Homeless Congress has secured endorsements from 4 candidates including Judge Connally that they would support potential legislation to regulate the shelters. “Many homeless people are concerned about the conditions within the shelters, and we want a local law that will regulate the publicly funded emergency housing facilities,” said Brian Davis of NEOCH. The Congress, the Coalition, and homeless people are asking for local regulations that will be enforced by some office within the County with an ability for homeless people to file a grievance if the shelter is not performing. “We are willing to negotiate on exactly what the legislation looks like, but we want a place that will have the authority to oversee the shelters. We want to avoid another situation in which 100 women slept in a shelter for the summer with only one working shower as happened this summer,” said Davis.

Homeless people hope to have regular interactions with the County Council and County Executive as they restructure County government.

Brian
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Another Incident at a Shelter

Shelter Safety??

We have talked about the increase in metal detectors at the shelters back in May. Just last week, the shelters met to talk about suggestions for improving the safety within the shelter. I guess a number of the homeless population did not get the safety forum powerpoint, because a homeless guy stabbed another guy at St. Herman's Shelter in Cleveland. As I mentioned back in May, we need a broader discussion about shelter safety and not just a discussion focusing on bag checks, metal detectors and law enforcement.

A can of soup wrapped in a sock can be a weapon (Even Campbell's Pepper Pot soup?). Focusing only on keeping weapons out of the shelter is similar to invading another country to fight a war on terror. In a free society it is impossible to keep everyone safe all the time no matter how many bag checks, metal detectors and rules the shelter develops. We need to turn our attention to all of the tasks that keep residents and staff safe, and not just looking for weapons. There are so many other issues involved in the death of a shelter director, this latest stabbing at St. Hermans, and the gun incident at one of the local shelters. The biggest issue is mental illnesses within the shelters, and the inability for some to find help. There is an issue over the lack of proper training on de-escalation techniques for shelter staff. There is the problem over an inability to teach conflict resolution to both residents and staff. There is the basic injustice of living in a shelter and having no where to turn if there is a problem. There are a lot of anger issues among the homeless population. We see issues of people being treated as a number (Bed 23) and not a human being. There is the sadness over the break up of a family or the loss of housing. It goes on and on, and so far our only response is for the homeless population to "assume the position" like a criminal when they enter the shelter.

We never had a community wide discussion to address all the issues around safety. We never reassured volunteers that the shelter staff realized that there is a problem with a perception of unsafe conditions, and are working on a response. If people keep hearing about these incidents within the shelters are they going to give money? Are they going to volunteer? People are being harmed on a regular basis. People have already died. What is it going to take for the City and County to admit that there is a problem and begin to address it?

Brian

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Cleveland: A Nice Place to Live

Photo by Pleasure Simmons, which was one of the images selected by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance Photo competition.

What Makes Cleveland Great???

The City of Cleveland feels scorned by the loss of LeBron James, and we all feel like electing Dan Gilbert as the County Executive for what he wrote and said. Cleveland is not all about sports, and no matter if the Indians, Cavs and Browns stink we have a great deal going for this city that often goes unrecognized. In the area of housing and homelessness, there are a number of things that make us among the top cities in America.

1. Guaranteed Access to Shelter: There are still some issues to work out on release of information, intake, and disciplinary procedures, but we still maintain the appearance of allowing everyone who comes to the door into the shelters. If a person is willing to abide by the rules they will have access to one of the publicly funded shelters. This is expensive and causes overcrowding, but it is a life saver for many. The City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County officials should be thanked for all their work to protect homeless people.

2. Peace with the Police: The City of Cleveland signed a consent decree in 2000 that settled 10 years of lawsuits. The Coalition repeatedly sued the City over their policy of arresting and threatening arrest of anyone who decided not to sleep inside. We finally settled the lawsuits, and the City agreed not to arrest or threaten arrest of those who are sitting, sleeping, standing, or eating on the sidewalk. This agreement has held for the last 10 years. In that time, the population of those living outside has decreased.

3. Project ACT: The homeless children and youth program at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is over 20 years old and a model in the United States. They try to serve every child that becomes homeless in our City. They make sure that the child's school is not disrupted if the family becomes homeless during the school year. They serve thousands of children every year.

4. EDEN Inc./Shelter Plus Care: Cleveland is unlike most of other cities in that a private non-profit distributes the vouchers to the disabled. We have over 1,000 vouchers currently on the streets providing housing to homeless people with a disability. This is a great resource that the County has continued to put more funding every year into this program, and is a great supplement to the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

5. Coordinated Outreach: In both Columbus and Cincinnati, they have one or two teams out on the streets, and in both cities one of the outreach teams is a for-profit social worker employed by the downtown business district. Cleveland has five or six teams that go out on the streets to try to build a trusting relationship with homeless individuals. These teams have mapped out the entire city, and regularly meet with people as they struggle to stay alive. They have saved countless lives and moved hundreds into the shelters or housing.

There is plenty more, but this is a good list for now.

Brian
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Condolences to the VOA Family

Other Homeless Service Providers Saddened

This message came to NEOCH yesterday:

Dear friends and members in Cleveland:

I was saddened to learn of the murder of the VOA shelter director today, and of the death of her apparent killer at the hands of the police.


Please know that our thoughts are with you at this unsettling moment, together with our appreciation for the difficult and sometimes dangerous work that you do every day.

Wishing you Peace,

John

John N. Lozier, MSSW
Executive Director
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
www.nhchc.org


Health Care and Housing are Human Rights. Learn more about our work or donate at www.nhchc.org.

NEOCH had a regularly scheduled meeting yesterday afternoon with many of the shelters and social service providers including staff from the Veterans Administration. All were still in shock over the loss of one of our colleagues. We know that the VA and Mental Health Services sent grief/trauma specialists to the shelter yesterday. NEOCH has offered to host a memorial to begin the process of healing for the homeless community. We have heard that the family wants some privacy, and we will respect that. Some of the other service providers in the community have expressed a desire to have a time or place to grieve after the initial shock wears off.

Brian Davis
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NEOCH Mourns Loss at VOA Veterans Center

Veteran's Center Director Dies At Shelter Today

There are no words to express our sadness regarding the incident this morning at the Veteran's Resource Center on East 152nd in Cleveland. The Cleveland media will cover the story, and there will be time to talk about the larger issues in the future. Now is not the time. Instead we need to focus on comforting the family, the other residents, and the agency. We hope that everyone involved can get help for the trauma that they witnessed this morning. We are stunned by the loss of Rita Ciofani who dedicated her life to serving others. The NEOCH staff and Board extend our heartfelt sorrow to the Volunteers of America family, over the loss of the director of this shelter.

Here is the press release from the VOA site about Ms. Ciofani who only took the job eleven months ago.

New Cleveland Veterans Resource Center Director - Friday, March 20, 2009

Rita Ciofani has been hired as the director for the Veterans Resource Center, responsible for running all program operations including transitional housing and employment services for veterans. Previously, Ciofani was the executive director of Lake County Committee on Family Violence, Inc. for 17 years. Ciofani is certified by the Ohio Supreme Court as a mediator and is the past-chair for the Coalition on Housing and Support Services of Lake County. Ciofani earned a law degree from Cleveland Marshall College of Law and her bachelor’s in education from Lake Erie College.

We are all stunned and shocked over this tragedy.

Brian Davis
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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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Wall Street Journal Brings Bad News

Have We Given Up on Solving Homelessness?

I am one of the biggest homeless Civil Rights guys in the country, but this news out of Nashville seems like a sign of surrender. The Wall Street Journal brings news that the some cities are allowing tent cities to grow. I don't want law enforcement to crack down on homeless people, but I certainly don't want Mayors to tolerate the development of substandard living conditions. This is what I see happened with shelters in Cleveland. We started putting shelters in temporary locations with the thought that they would close when the crisis was over. Then in the late 1990s and into the beginning of this decade, we made the large shelters into permanent structures. It was a sign that the City had accepted that we will never end homelessness.

Now, we are accepting tents as an alternative to shelter. So, we given up the thought that everyone living in the richest country on the planet should have a roof. We have even given up the ghost that we can provide a shelter bed to everyone in need. It should be the highest priority of every city government to draw a line in the sand that we do not cross. It should be a sign of failure of local government to tolerate tent cities. Tents are cheap, and they can keep people alive, but should we create a neighborhood of tents? How about we tolerate a tent city only if the Mayor, the police chief, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, and the CEO of health insurance company were all forced to live there. I am sure if we forced elected and business leaders to see what it is like to live in a tent for an extended period of time, all of these individuals would have some kind of housing quickly.

Brian
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40 Years After Stonewall

Being Gay and Homeless

We should not let the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising pass without a mention of the difficulty of being gay and homeless in America. It is especially rough losing a place to live and a place to maintain some level of privacy. In Cleveland, no matter if you are hetero or homosexual, there is no place for sex in the shelters. Most taxpayers would say, "Good, that is the way it should be," but as shelter stays get longer and longer this reality is difficult to defend. We have no shelters for couples and the entry shelters require a married family to often split up. Even the transitional shelters are same sex only facilities in most cases. Imagine going into a facility in which you are expected to stay for one or two years away from your significant other. Shelter residents do get weekend passes, but if both adults are homeless they have very few options.

Most of the shelters for men in Cleveland host heavily African American populations who are not always the most tolerant group. NPR cited surveys on Wednesday which show that African Americans are the most conservative on gay rights. While progress has been made, there is still a high level of intolerance in the shelters for homeless gay men. More surprisingly to me is the hostility toward lesbians in the shelters especially by staff. The fastest way out of a shelter for women is to show some affection for another woman. I don't know if it is because there are usually children in the shelters for women or lesbians are not as prevalent and so are not tolerated. In a few cities, there are shelters that serve gays and lesbians, but not Cleveland.

Transexuals are part of the shelter population--mostly men who appear as women and want to be treated as a women. In the past, we were able to provide hotel vouchers to avoid any potential hate crimes. Plus, the shelter operators were religious-based institutions that were not the most tolerant of gays or lesbians let alone transexuals or the transgendered. We no longer have the funds for the vouchers and the main shelters are more secular than before. But transexuals who appear outwardly as women are excluded from the shelters for women. I knew a guy who lived in the shelter as a woman for 3 months, but was eventually caught and banned from the facility. She never hurt anyone or caused any harm, but was kicked out because she had the option of two different ways to relieve herself, I guess. The state or federal government gives us very little guidance in the local community for how to serve the transgendered. At this point, there is a small community within the men's entry shelter of transexuals. They seem to look out for eachother, and I have not heard of many problems except that they are stuck without many options for movement to somewhere more stable.

Brian
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Quick Takes

A Few Random Thoughts

Rough times....imagine waking up in the morning and the guy in the tent next to yours is dead. Then you find out that the guy was waiting for sentencing for an insurance scam in Indiana. Could you stay in that area after finding a guy who died? We have noticed an increase in the number of people sleeping outside since September, but we did not know that there were people hiding out from the law in these camps. I hope that this does not paint the impression that homeless people are a bunch of people hiding out for the law.

Web Stats from 2008... The NEOCH website had 40,210 unique users in 2008. Our best month was Feb. 2008 with 4,700 unique users. The largest day of the week is Monday, and there are more people who visit in the beginning of the month. People visit 3.27 pages per visit, and this blog is the top website linking to the main NEOCH website. We are going to continue to add content and new stuff to the website, so keep checking back.

Shelter cuts...The three big shelters in Cleveland are facing a 5.5% cut in 2009, because of the County financial issues. This means that 2100 Lakeside shelter will have a harder time feeding everyone and staying open 24/7. The Community Women's Shelter will have to drop the cleaning and kitchen staff as well as cutting back on bus tickets in order to stay within their reduced budget. The Disabled Men's Shelter is going to have to close down for a one shift during the day weekdays in order to survive. It is expected that the new North Point Transitional shelter will face cuts in October 2009. The other shelters receive most of their money from the federal government. They will not face a cut in 2009, but they have not had a cost of living increase for 9 to 10 years. How they continue to make it on the same amount of money as they had in 2000 is amazing to me.

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

Good Article in the Washington Post

Sexually Based Offender Law Encourages Homelessness

When I started working 14 years ago, everyone who showed up at the door had the possibility of finding housing. Many were not very good candidates for housing because of debt or criminal background, but there was nothing that was an insurmountable barriers to housing homeless individuals. Now, with the ill-conceived sexually based offender laws, there are many people sleeping in our shelters or on the streets that we have no chance of housing. There was a nice article in the Washington Post about this new issue that effects every community in the country.

There are now a group of men and a few woman who have no possibility of getting into housing. Being labeled a "Sexual Predator" for life and all the hassles associated with that make these individuals un-houseable. We can work all day, but the reality is that they cannot work or live near a child care facility, which turns out to be most of the City and County. Then there are the majority of the landlords who do not want the community notification, and so they bar these individuals from renting a place. Almost all the subsidized properties in the community exclude sexually based offenders. So, these men serve their time, and then they are stuck when they get out. In most of the big cities in Ohio, they cannot even sleep in the shelters. We have one facility in Cleveland that still allows homeless people with a sexually based offense to sleep inside. But in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton there are no shelters for the sexually based offenders, and so the men sleep on the streets.

How stupid a system have we designed here? Men who violently attack women or children are released to sleep on the street. How safe is that for the community? It is one thing to punish people, but to force them to live on the streets seems like torture to me. The reality is that a large majority of the people who abuse children have a relationship with the children (family, friends or acquiantences) they abuse. It is rare that a total stranger kidnaps and abuses a child. These cases make the news and terrify parents, but it is not the norm. At this point, the law probably has the opposite affect in that it encourages the death of the child in order to reduce the number of witnesses. The lifetime punishment is so horrible that the offender might as well go all the way in order to avoid life as an outcast. For many death or life in prison is better than life living on the streets. Legislators throughout the United States need to rethink this community notification and bans on where sexually based offenders can live. If we want to go for a life time punishment then we need to set up some special housing for these individuals that they can be monitored. Forcing the shelters/outreach workers to be the lifetime babysitters for those designated as sexually predators is bad public policy.

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

Extreme Cold: Deadly for Homeless People

What Happens When it is So Cold?

We do not have a very good natural disaster program for homeless people, but most of the shelter directors realize the extreme danger of anyone being out in the cold for an extended period of time. While there is not typically an official designation of a cold weather emergency in Cleveland, most of the shelters react well to extreme weather conditions. It seems that the City and County rarely get involved in declaring a weather emergency out of fear that they will have to put more money out to take care of additional staffing during the often unpredictable weather of the region. Today, temperatures are in the single digits in Cleveland and so most of the shelters do not kick anyone out during the day or they implement extended hours. On a normal day, most people have to leave the emergency shelters (to go look for non-existent jobs and unaffordable housing) from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.

When it is this cold the shelters work together to keep their doors open so that no one has to stay outside. There are hundreds who sleep outside, and the social service outreach teams try as hard as they can to convince people to come inside on these rough weather nights. When a few hours outside can result in death, some of the outreach workers can probate an individual if they worry about the individual dying on the streets. Most of those who stay outside are protected from the elements. They either sleep under 10-12 layers or light a fire or they sleep on the heated sidewalks downtown. Some of the sidewalks can give a second degree burn because they are so warm, so the men have to be careful with this solution. There are others who stay in abandoned or vacant housing in the community. Having stayed in an abandoned house, it takes a large number of candles to provide any kind of heat. Also, starting a fire in an a building is extremely dangerous. Even those people who sleep in abandoned garages and start a fire on the concrete have to figure out a way to ventilate the building so that they do not suffocate.

Life boils down to three things: finding warmth, finding food, and keeping safe when staying outside in Cleveland. Everything else is lost. Family, friends, relationships, resumes, bureaucratic red tape, and sports are all forgotten. In one of the most industrially advanced countries on the planet, it always amazes me that we waste the talents of some of our citizens by keeping housing out of reach for so many. During this festival of lights, please remember homeless people who use light as a part of their survival. They stay in candlelit abandoned properties and hunker down at night in the dark waiting for the light of a new day and the hope of a warm apartment, a job in a heated office, or a warm place to have a bowl of soup.

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

Baby Living in a Abandoned Apartment

The Bible Story Looks Different in America

The Coalition coordinates all outreach workers in the community, and so we ask community groups to call NEOCH about homeless people instead of calling law enforcement. The idea is that law enforcement have enough work, and social workers should address problems surrounding homelessness. We get about one call every week at the office, but we do not usually deal with problems of homeless babies. There is a protocol for taking babies into County custody if they are living in a car or in an abandoned property. This happens on a regular basis in Cleveland and we never hear about these cases. The child is quickly taken into custody if the homeless mom makes herself known in the community or if her power or heat is turned off. The reality is that Children and Family Services act first and ask questions later.

This week we heard from a suburban official about a Mom-lets call her Mary- her boyfriend- let's call him Joseph- and a five month old baby who were living in an abandoned building. It seems that officials from a Cleveland suburb were preparing to tear down an abandoned apartment, and doing a walk through when they stumbled upon this couple and their baby. An outreach worker went out immediately to try to connect the family with a shelter. Unfortunately, the Mom was already arrested for child endangering and her baby was in the custody of Cuyahoga County. We have no idea what happened to Joseph. The woman from the suburban development office who called us was not the only one who had encountered this family, and they did what most do: call the County to take the baby into the foster care system.

After the initial shock of trying to get this family in a better place as soon as possible, I started thinking about how different the Bible would be if it were set in Cleveland, Ohio in 2008. The basis for Christianity was based on a story with all the indoor beds full, and so the founder of a religion was born outside among the animals. In Cleveland, the Biblical Mary would have lost her child to Cuyahoga County, and would have had a one year time limit to get her act together or the child born among the animals would be adopted by another family. It seems unlikely that the Biblical Mary would have been able to remain an important part of her child's development or be a part of his young adulthood while he was challenging authority figures or even to be a witness to his execution in modern day America because she had endangered this child with the birth in the barn.

Our own modern day Mary tried the shelters, but could not believe that she had to leave every morning with her baby and could not live with the father of her child. She was arrested and charged with child endangering. She now is fighting the clock, a criminal record, and a case with the County to get her child back. I am not saying that children who cannot speak up for themselves should not be protected. I just have to wonder how these policies have changed our society? How many families have been destroyed because Moms cannot find a place to live? How many children will never reach their full potential because of their 18 year struggle to find a place in our society? How many families make bad decisions because the shelters cannot bend their rules? How many world events have been altered because we are quick to split up families?
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.

If I had a Law Firm...

Akron Man Finds Housing in Mall

The Rolling Acres is nearly abandoned, and one adventurous man, Brandon Shawhan, decided that the Mall would be the perfect place to live. If I had a big law firm, I would assign a few lawyers to represent Shawhan, and put capitalism on trial. There was most likely public subsidy that went into the building of the mall. Mr. Shawhan, for whatever reason, cannot find enough money to pay for housing in our society. He did whatever he could do to survive including borrowing space that was no longer in use. The basis of my case would be the question: does our society have an obligation to house every citizen? If we are all equal and our government has an obligation to protect us then do they have an obligation to provide a place inside to protect us from the elements? If government can sweep in and place us in an asylum for "observation" against our will, then why do we not have an obligation to provide a space inside for every citizen? It certainly would be attractive to the jury that he took up residence at the Diamond's Mens Store, and he was a man who wanted to look sharp.

Akron does not have an adequate supply of shelter, and regularly turns people away. They do not have a publicly funded shelter for men that does not push religion on the client. Akron was named by NEOCH as the Biggest Roadblock of the Year in 2006, because they do not take care of their homeless population. I am not saying Akron has an obligation to force people into shelter, but if the shelter is not even available then they should not be able to prosecute people for finding heated publicly funded spaces out of the weather. This would be a great trial that would generate a lot of media attention.

Brian

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