Cleveland Power Summit

Advocates Gather at St. Ignatius

We are going to start migrating to our new blog which is actually part of our new website.  So, this site will remain active as an archive, but will only have a summary of the issues for new entries.  We are in the process of migrating to the new site this week, so don't bookmark the new site yet.  The names of the pages are not set yet, and will likely change this week.

The advocacy world of Cleveland will gather at St. Ignatius High School this Saturday March 24, 2012 for the Cleveland Power Summit from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. To register and for more details go to the Organize!Ohio website. 

For more information go to our new blog on the NEOCH website.
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

CWRU Socks: Social Justice Question #2

CWRU: Working While Homeless

The students of CWRU are doing a project in which all the incoming freshmen are reading the same book. The Common reading program is centered around Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel. As part of this project they are collecting donations and socks to distribute to homeless people in Cleveland. NEOCH is assisting with this project by putting together a section of our website that provides additional information and resources in the community. One aspect of this project is to prompt the students to begin to talk about social justice issues. We have put together a series of social justice questions around housing and homelessness. We hope to solicit discussion here on the blog and in the local community with comments and debate. Here is the link to the first social justice question posted over the weekend.

Question: Is it just that men utilizing the main shelter in Cleveland work every work day for long hours at temporary labor companies, but at the end of the day they do not have enough money to pay rent even in a motel room?

Working long hours every day and not being able to afford even a motel room at the end of the day is a blatant injustice. Measures have been set up in this country supposedly to prevent this kind of injustice, namely minimum wage laws. But a 2009 study confirms the flurry of complaints that advocacy organizations and the Department of Labor have gotten about temporary labor companies using illegal practices to effectively pay their workers below the minimum wage. Paying minimum wages to begin with, these companies charge their workers with various “fees” that drops their wage substantially below the legal minimum, in addition to offenses such as not paying proper overtime.

Companies are able to do this because as “temporary laborers,” their workers are very disorganized and lack any collective bargaining power. But obviously just because these companies can get away with what their doing doesn’t mean that they should do it. The problem, is that this issue is so pervasive that companies view themselves as being “put at a competitive disadvantage” by not engaging in such illegal wage violations. Clearly something needs to be done to stop these practices once and for all. But without the help of unions on their side, these workers must rely on the government to step in for them.

These wage violations are a huge problem for homeless people because they often find it incredibly difficult to earn enough money to be able to support themselves and their family even if they are earning minimum wage. The fact that they can work all day and still not be able to afford to put a roof over their head is incredibly disheartening. As is the fact that these companies are blatantly taking advantage of these vulnerable workers while fully realizing the desperate housing situation of many of them.

by Sam the Intern
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

CWRU Socks: Social Justice Question #1

Photo by Cheryl Jones from the Grapevine Photo Project

CWRU: Is the Mortgage Interest Deduction Fair?

The students of CWRU are doing a project in which all the incoming freshmen are reading the same book. The Common reading program is centered around Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel. As part of this project they are collecting donations and socks to distribute to homeless people in Cleveland. NEOCH is assisting with this project by putting together a section of our website that provides additional information and resources in the community. One aspect of this project is to prompt the students to begin to talk about social justice issues. We have put together a series of social justice questions around housing and homelessness. We hope to solicit discussion here on the blog and in the local community with comments and debate.

Question: Is it just that the U.S. Government gives a huge mortgage interest deduction of $110 billion per year to home owners while only $4.79 billion is spent on targeted homeless programs in the United States?

Sometime during what historians call the Progressive Era in this country, the government determined that homeownership should be a part of the American dream, and they decided to try to make that dream attainable for everyone. Since then, the government has instituted a plethora of policies in the name of “increasing homeownership.” What most people either forget or choose to ignore, however, is that while the middle-class has consistently expanded over the last century, those left behind, those stuck in the trap of poverty and homelessness, have had precious few bones thrown their way. If the government truly wants to help those most in need with the dream of owning their own house, it should reexamine how it currently spends much of its discretionary money.

The $110 billion that is spent (or more accurately, not collected) per year in mortgage interest deductions is consistently advertised as helping those in the lower-income brackets afford to own a home by allowing them to deduct mortgage interest payments from their income taxes. However, if this is truly the government’s aim, helping lower-income homeowners, they are largely wasting their money. This is because the vast bulk of mortgage interest deductions come from those with the highest incomes. According to the Tax Foundation, those earning in excess of $75,000 per year account for 53.8% of mortgage interest deductions claimed, while accounting for just 16% of all tax returns filed. In contrast, those earning less than $30,000 per year account for just 9.3% of mortgage interest deductions claimed while accounting for 51.9% of all tax returns filed.

There are several reasons why mortgage interest deductions disproportionately benefit the wealthy, the biggest being that in order to receive a mortgage interest deduction, one must itemize their tax return, which many lower-income taxpayers do not do because the incentive for doing so is much less for them than for those in higher income brackets. The bottom line is that if this is a way for the government to “help out” lower-income homeowners, it isn’t really working. In fact, all it is doing is accounting for lost revenue from wealthier Americans, those who can afford to own a house without benefiting from such deductions. Now consider the $4.79 billion that is spent annually on targeted homeless programs. This is such a small number compared to the government’s overall budget that it is laughable. And yet, compared to tax breaks that benefit the wealthy, it has been proven over and over that such direct spending on lower-income, poverty stricken populations is much more effective in helping the overall strength of the economy. This means that the government can expect to get more back for its money.

So why is it that the government spends so little money on homeless services? It’s not really surprising when you consider that compared to middle-class Americans, homeless people have so little political clout, and thus are often ignored by politicians. That means that from a government purporting to do everything in its power to help those in need, homeless people aren’t receiving their fair share of the pie. So no, it isn’t just that while homeowners receive $110 billion per year in mortgage-related tax breaks, homeless services agencies are left scuffling with their meager $4.79 billion. The reasons listed above are largely economic, but it also goes against every moral and ethical obligation that we as a society should feel to completely ignore those of us in the unfortunate situation of not being able to afford a home.

by Sam the Intern
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Community Shares Social Justice Award

Promoting Social Justice in Cleveland

Greater Cleveland Community Shares needs your help! We want to ensure that individuals accomplishing extraordinary social justice feats are applauded for their work. Check out our website at www.communityshares.org and nominate individuals and organizations making a difference.

Awards will be presented at Shares’ Annual Power Lunch on June 18th. Anyone can nominate a candidate, so feel free to go to the Shares website for more info. The deadline for nominations, March 19, is quickly approaching! Get the word out and ensure that those spearheading the most vital social justice transformation in Cleveland get to go home honored for their work!

Brian Davis

PS: NEOCH is a member of Community Shares, and you can make a contribution from your workplace to NEOCH through Shares. This would allow you to make a small donation out of your paycheck to support social justice in the area of housing and homelessness on a regular basis throughout the year.

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

A New Day of Hope?

How the Social Justice Groups Spent the Day

The last 12 years have been rough on homeless people. We have had flat funding for most programs for years. We have had one group pitted against others. We have tried to solve homelessness for some groups, while we watched other populations grow in numbers. We have seen family homelessness grow, and more and more kids find themselves the innocent victim in this struggle. Housing has declined in its affordability and in the supply. More people do not have health insurance, and the standard of living has declined. So, homeless people are looking for a brighter day with this new administration.

To celebrate the new president of the United States of America all of the social justice groups in our building got together to listen to this historic change of leadership. After all, for social justice groups this was the first president in along time to talk about progressive ideas. This is the first president who even said the word "homeless" in decades. No matter what party you follow, this is a great moment in American history. We gathered in our conference room to watch the inauguration on the big screen. Staff from Community Shares, Policy Matters, NEOCH, Cleveland Tenants, Housing Research, and even a few others on their lunch break came down to watch the peaceful exchange of power from a man hostile to civil rights to one who defended civil rights in court and the classroom. We had about 40 some people attend the celebration. We had some homeless people, one elected official, some executive directors, and the people who do the real work in forwarding social justice in Cleveland all watching a change in the nation. The internet failed us, and so we had to watch it on a small television.

It was special to be together with all those social justice activists, some of whom have marched against wars for 30 years. We were able to gather together and try to see the picture on a small 19 inch television as activists did in the 1960s to watch the Voting Rights Act being signed. We broke bread and donuts with those who protect tenants from unscrupulous landlords and those who give voice to statistics and graphs to provide guidance and direction to lawmakers or the media. We got to hear the beautiful voice of Aretha Franklin blending the concepts of liberty and freedom into My Country Tis of Thee all together in the windowless room of a converted warehouse. It was a good day for the United States, for progressive ideas, and for urban centers throughout the country.

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

Incarceration Nation

United States: Out of Control Prison Population

The greatest threat to our democracy is the increasing incarceration rates in the United States. A report released by the Pew Center last week shows that 1 in 100 Americans are now behind bars. A few facts from the study:

• 1.6 million adults are now in prison with another 700,000 in local jails.
  
• The imprisoned population has tripled in the last 30 years.
• One in 15 African American males are behind bars
• The U.S. imprisons more people than any other country in the world (both by percentage and sheer number).
• The United States imprisons more people than China (1.5 million), a much more populous (and autocratic) country.
• States now spend $44 billion on corrections (a 127% increase since 1987).

Who cares? Everyone needs to care for the economics, justice, and long term impact on our society. The incarceration economy is bankrupting our society. We cannot afford to take over other countries, educate our public, keep them housed and incarcerate 1 in 100. A bankrupt democracy is a government in its last days. A bankrupt society is easily manipulated by a demagogue. There is no justice with such a sizable population lacking freedom. Some states remove access to democracy for life from those convicted of a felony. Why are there so many behind bars compared to other societies? Why is a free society incarcerating so many, even compared to totalitarian dictatorships? Why are we treating addiction as a criminal offense?

This does have to do with homelessness in Cleveland. Our shelters are swamped with people (both men and women) returning from prison. I was thinking about this after listening to Fresh Air on Tuesday on WCPN featuring a meth addict and his dad. David Sheff and his son Nic each wrote books about their experiences. I understand "tough love" and all that, but it does not seem to work. Addictive personalities must hit bottom and lose everything in order to get help. Why can't we find a better away to address this problem in our society? Are the sky rocketing incarceration rates related to the lack of universal health care? If health care was paid by the government would they be willing to pay for treatment upon demand over jail? Would treatment be readily available to the addicted? Would we be able to shut down the private prisons that make millions off our incarceration nation if we had a better health care system?

What is the tipping point? How long can we sustain this level of incarceration? How long until those imprisoned rise up? 1 in 100 of "we the people" have their freedom stripped and are jailed. They work for pennies a day, and are subject to violence and repeated violations while in prison. We strip people of their liberty and then we cannot even keep them safe while we jail them. How long can we have our African American population tolerate one in fifteen of those between the age of 20 and 34 behind bars? How long do we condemn this group to a life of menial jobs, unstable housing, and sporadic health care? How long do we put mentally ill people behind bars instead of offering counseling to young people who exhibit dangerous behavior? How long can we make these men and women pay for their crimes, before they decide that the government is the enemy? How smart is it to confine a group together to foment anger and dissension against the government for a good part of their life? There are consequences for constructing an incarcerated nation, and they effect all of us.

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

Correction and Ione Biggs

Teach In and Biggs Award

The next Teach In is actually set for Thursday February 28, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. This is a 3 hour tour of homelessness in Cleveland and a chance to hear from people who have moved out of homelessness in Cleveland. The focus will be on those who are resistant to shelter. There is full description of the Stand Down at http://www.neoch.org/teachin.htm on our website. We had mistakenly listed it as next week.

Also, the Coalition is announcing today submissions for the Ione Biggs Social Justice Award. The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless would like to recognize the amazing work of Ione Biggs and keep her legacy alive in Greater Cleveland. We have partnered with representatives from Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice, the Empowerment Center of Greater Cleveland, the Cleveland Tenants Organization, Women’s Re-Entry Network, and the Church of the Covenant to select a representative to receive the Ione Biggs Award for outstanding contribution to advancing social justice in 2007 and to encourage others to follow in her footsteps. We intend to announce the winner of the award at the NEOCH Annual event “Help us End Homelessness” on May 2, 2008. This application is due to NEOCH by March 17, 2008. You may also submit your entry online through the NEOCH website.

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