Bellefaire Youth Initiative on the Streets

Who Intervenes When Kids Hit the Streets

We invited staff from Bellefaire JCB's Youth Outreach Program to our outreach leaders meeting.  We have all the agencies that serve homeless people resistant to shelter in Cleveland.  We try to update the workers about new projects or new opportunities in Cleveland to better serve the population.  At the February meeting, Karen from the Youth Street Outreach team presented.  In the same week the Cleveland Jewish News featured a story about the project, and will mostly likely appear on the Channel 3 News (WKYC) on Monday or Tuesday. .

The team attempts to build trusting relationships with those who are estranged from their family or are having issues in the foster care system.  Bellefaire has started a drop in for young people at St. Paul's church on the near West Side of Cleveland on Thursday evenings and Saturday from Noon to 4 p.m.  St. Paul's Church is at 4427 Franklin Blvd.  The outreach staff are out at night on Thursdays in the winter at libraries, coffee shops, and other teen friendly spots.   If you are having issues or you know a teen struggling with their housing, you can call 216/570-8010 for help or go to their website at www.bjcb.org/homeless-youth-program. They have come to the understanding that young people need safe places and activities with other youth or they will find things to do that may not be safe or legal.

The other access point for the project is the RTA buses and Rapids.  Each of them have a "Safe Spot" logo that means that a teen can ask for help from the driver.  The RTA drivers and police have been trained to respond if a young person presents themselves and needs help. The staff are trained to deal with teens who are kicked out after coming out of the closet or struggling with being a victim of bullying in their school.   The problem of displaced youth is complicated because there are a number of criminals who prey on vulnerable young people.  These young men and women can be recruited into criminal enterprises or may be forced into sex trafficking rings.  Bellefaire, the Salvation Army and local and federal law enforcement partner to break up these evil enterprises that deal in the sex trade.

This is a difficult situation for the rest of the outreach workers to deal with.  There is always a question about reporting young people to Children and Family Services, and the rights of the guardians in these cases.  It is nice to have an agency that can navigate its way through these minefields.

Brian
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Death in the Homeless Community

Two Rough Stories for the Homeless Population

This weekend we heard two stories which only strengthen our resolve to continue our work to end homelessness in America as soon as possible. The first is the death within the shelter at 2100 Lakeside. A man we will call "Bobbie" had a seizure during dinner and never regained consciousness. He was transported to the hospital, but emergency staff could not revive him. This is nothing to do with the care he received in the shelter or a result of negligence, but it is none the less sad that a guy took his last breath in the crowded loneliness of a shelter. LMM's 2100 Lakeside shelter in fact has better access to health care professionals than most any other facility in the city with Care Alliance and the Cleveland Clinic operating medical clinics nearly every day at the shelter. Bobbie had long standing health complications and passed away at the facility without family or loved ones around him.

The other story was the bizarre tale of the Joseph Kopp being found buried in a backyard in Seven Hills. Kopp had been homeless and estranged from his family for five years. Kopp seemed to be living in a garage in Seven Hills, and many media outlets have said that the owner of the house wanted Kopp to move out and an argument broke out. Kopp's body was found near the house where he was allegedly residing. Police have arrested Frank Dienes and have stated that they are still investigating Charlya Dienes. It is dangerous being homeless. Sleeping in a large building with 300 people or sleeping outside without the safety of a locked door can have an negative effect on a person's health. A homeless person is constantly on edge and sleeping with "one eye open." There is sleep deprivation problems and the fear of being attacked. This is only going to put a new element of fear into the lives of homeless people. Will people be more likely to be fearful of accepting help from Good Samaritans? There are so many people sleeping at the shelter who are picked up by suburbanites from the shelters or downtown to do casual yard work or painting or other light work around houses. After this story, how many of the homeless population will be weary or will refuse to get in a strange car for work or an offer of housing?

Brian
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Sleeping Outside in Cleveland 2010

Award winning photo by Pleasure Simmons of Downtown Cleveland from the 2008 NEOCH Photo project.

Outdoor Count

Every year since 2000, volunteers have gone outside to count the number of people who sleep downtown. This was in response to the lawsuits in the 1990s challenging the City of Cleveland repeated arrests of homeless people for sleeping outside. We eventually settled with the City and then every November, we go out to make sure that homeless people are not being harassed. This year we saw a decline to only 14 people staying in the downtown. This is really good news for the Downtown Cleveland Alliance and the folks at Block by Block who act as ambassadors to keep people visiting downtown. This is the first serious decline in five years. With the horrible economy and the lack of jobs, I thought for sure that we would see an increase. This is also good news for the City and County that have done all they can over the last few years to keep the shelter doors open. Finally, we have to recognize the most important reason that we have such a small number: the fantastic outreach teams in Cleveland.

We really have an exceptional group from Mental Health Services, Care Alliance, Volunteers of America, Helena from Downtown Cleveland Alliance and the Veterans Administration who are on the streets every day. We have support from 2100 Lakeside, St. Pauls outreach, the Salvation Army, as well as the John Carroll, Case Western Reserve and St. Ignatius Labre Projects to serve the population. All of these men and women who go out in the cold and rain to assist those resistant to shelter deserve a ton of credit. They are working to build a relationship with the men and women living outside to try to move them back to stable housing. They are out on the street protecting people from freezing temperatures and from the health effects of the elements.

The Thanksgiving week is typically the low point for the winter, because many family take their loved ones in for the weekend. So, this is the smallest number who will be outside for the entire winter, but it is a good number. We have a graph on the blog measuring the last 10 years to give some idea of the history of downtown homeless. We had over 60 people sleeping in the immediate downtown in the late 1990s and today we are down to 14. That is pretty impressive.

There are many that complain about panhandling and homelessness, but compared to nearly every other American city, we really don't have a big problem. There are not people sleeping on every corner like in Washington DC. There are not people trying to wash your windshield at every traffic light like San Francisco. There are not massive encampments of homeless people like in Columbus. There are not the hundreds turned away from shelter every night like in Cincinnati. We have a lot to be proud of in Cleveland with regard to keeping the number of people sleeping outside down to a small number.

Brian
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Sleeping Outside in Cleveland

How Has The Economic Crisis Affected Homeless Living Outdoors?

Over the Thanksgiving weekend holiday, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless recorded the number of people sleeping outside; an annual project that NEOCH has conducted for the last 12 years. NEOCH attempts to count and talk to everyone (if they are not sleeping) in the area between West 6th St. & East 20th St., then between the Lake & Carnegie Ave. “We believe that this is a good baseline for the lowest number of people sleeping outside for the year in Cleveland since, during the holidays, families take their relatives inside and so fewer people are homeless. This count does not define the number of people sleeping outside, but it is a good indicator of the trends,” said Brian Davis, executive director of NEOCH. This year’s extensive search tallied a number very similar to that in the counts of 2007 and 2008.

Here are the thoughts of the Director of the Coalition, Brian Davis, on the reasons for this trend:

• The sustained high rate of foreclosure has continued to make available a number of vacant properties in neighborhoods. Often these properties are abandoned, some still have furniture, and some even have heat. Many homeless people sleeping outdoors see this as an opportunity to find a good alternative to sleeping outside in the cold exposed to the elements and possible attack.
• The blue-and-yellow Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s clean up crews are patrolling the downtown for the fifth year. Their presence has made it very uncomfortable for homeless people who want to be left alone but, for their own safety, do not want to be invisible. The Downtown ambassadors do make the downtown look nicer, but for some this rigid attention to the sweeping of the sidewalks makes it uncomfortable to live on the streets. There is a noticeable improvement in the how things look Downtown. Without the construction of the Euclid Corridor and with the admirable efforts to keep the streets clean, the City is sparkling and ready for a turnaround. It really looks nice and inviting if not a bit lonely early in the morning.
• For the last two years, the Coalition has hosted monthly meetings to get all professional outreach teams on the same page. By keeping their maps of the city’s homeless updated, teams have been able to continue talking to the men and women who are resistant to shelter. The teams have worked out a schedule to talk to everyone outside in order to convince those resistant to shelter to come inside. Their coordinated efforts have helped stabilize the outdoor count over the past few years, even in the wake of economic downturn.

However, NEOCH staff do not believe that there has actually been an increase in the total number of homeless people. In fact, both major men’s and women’s shelters over this past summer were full or at overflow. Also, the number of homeless schoolchildren has risen steadily in Cleveland, a shocking epidemic that has just begun receiving nationwide attention.

If our goal in the community is to get homeless people off the streets, we have done a good job. We have unfortunately done that at the expense of the thousands of former home owners who have had to endure this foreclosure nightmare. If the goal is to get men and women into stable, decent, affordable places to live, then we still have a long way to go in Cleveland.

Brian Davis
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