Government Could Solve Homelessness

If Government Stopped Creating Homeless People...

I spent last weekend in DC, and was thinking about how small the homeless population would be if government and government funded organizations would stop assisting people to become homeless. For example, all the laws that make it illegal to be poor only make it more likely that a person will become homeless. The heavily subsidized hospitals and medical industry send a lot of people into the shelters in our community. Health insurance companies depend on government to stay in business, but work to figure out ways not to cover people or send bills that can quickly bankrupt a person. The public mental health system and the alcohol treatment programs use the shelter system as a housing option for their clients. The alcohol system actually uses the shelters as a punishment for those who are unwilling or unable to stick with a program.

The disability programs keep people poor for the rest of their lives and do not provide even enough money to afford housing. In fact, the rules for remaining on the program do not even allow any additional income for an individual receiving a disability check. Any gift or income is actually taken immediately out of their check. They get a monthly living allowance that actually does not allow them to live anywhere in the United States, and any additional income is taken out of their check to make sure that they stay poor. If we could just take care of those on Social Security Disability and keep people out of the shelters, the homeless population would decrease dramatically.

The re-entry system is actually no re-entry at all. Incarceration leads to homelessness in many cases. The first thing cut in times of budget troubles are the social work staff. We punish more people with jail than any other industrialized country in the world, and then we do a horrible job reintegrating people into society. The government also needs to figure out what to do about sexually based offenders in our community. In the name of public safety, we have actually set up a system in which it is almost impossible to reintegrate for those having completed a sentence for a sexually based offense. Ironically, this is making our communities less safe since these men are sleeping, largely unsupervised, on the streets of every major city in America.

Our welfare system does not provide enough health care or child care that will allow a family to survive. There is still massive disparities in lending to minority populations by government regulated mortgage institutions. There is an ungodly wait for re-determination on their child support payments when they lose their job or become homeless.

If government were just willing to work to prevent homelessness, we could reduce the population by 80-90%. We appreciate the new prevention program, but until all branches of government and every government employee makes this a priority, we are never going to make any changes.

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

A New Plan to End Homelessness in America

How Can I Get to An Obama Rally?

President Obama introduced a new plan to end homelessness in America on Tuesday: Get to a rally with the President in attendance and figure out how to ask the President a question about your own homelessness. If Obama could host three meetings a day, and take 20 questions from each audience with Sundays off, he could solve homelessness for 6,260 people in one year. That is some progress that may inspire Governors and Mayors to follow suit. There may be a few riots on the way to this progress with everyone trying to get to the microphone to ask a question, but those are details that can be worked out later. It would be rough at the New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and District of Columbia rally, but we could have additional security employed for these rallies. Ms. Hughes in Florida waited until she could ask the President for help. She mentioned the long wait for public housing, and that she was sleeping in a car. I talked to a Florida advocate on Tuesday who said there were hundreds of families waiting to get into shelter in her city. They stay on the streets or in cars with their children just to get a shelter bed. It has come to the point that the safety net is so broken that our only hope is asking the President of the United States for help.

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

Melville Charitable Trust

Every Night I Hear Melville is Looking for Solutions?

So, does anyone else wonder how many more years the Melville Charitable Trust will be looking for a solution to Homelessness? Every night I hear on NPR that it is funding "All Things Considered" and working on finding solutions to homelessness? So, how is it going for them on this quest for the Holy Grail? Have they found a solution yet? Homelessness has increased every year for the past 20 in Cleveland, so the solutions have not made it to the Midwest. I went to their website and here is what I found:

What We've Learned

After working with more than a hundred grantee partners for over a dozen years we are now convinced of the following:

1. Homelessness is a solvable problem.
2. Decent, safe, accessible and affordable housing is indispensable to solving the problem of homelessness.
3. Providing housing with support services to those who have enduring disabilities is the smart, humane, cost-effective solution to long-term homelessness.
4. Our society has more than adequate economic capacity to invest in the housing and provide the services that can eliminate homelessness anywhere in America.
5. Government agencies and officials, as well as our elected representatives on the local, state, national levels must be in the forefront of efforts to end homelessness, investing significant resources in housing and service programs that lead to individual and family independence.
6. All that is needed to eliminate homelessness in America is the political will to do so.

I think that they could have stopped at #2, but what do I know? So, they have funded the National Alliance, and are big supporters of the Bush 10 year plan strategy. Some of those 10 year plans will expire next year, and I doubt that any city in America will declare victory. So, where are we? In most of America, homelessness is worse than it was 10 years ago. We have built a whole bunch of permanent supportive housing, but have no plans to fund those services long term. We have decimated public and the voucher program in America, and very few are successfully lobbying on their behalf. We have more poor people. We have more populations who find themselves homeless for longer periods of time. We have more families, more individuals from suburban and rural communities, more seniors and more young people becoming homeless. These populations are increasing, and we have seen a steady population of single men. We have fewer jobs that pay a decent wage, more people without health care, more civil rights violations against homeless people, and less housing for poor people.

I cannot think of many areas in the life of homeless people that are better. There are fewer benefits available to homeless people. There are fewer lawyers. It is harder for a homeless person to vote in America. So, the state of homelessness is worse, and yet Melville keeps pumping money into NPR and looking for solutions? What is NPR doing to reduce homelessness by the way? I have to wonder that all the money spent on staff, advertising, shelters, permanent supportive housing projects, National Alliance, and NPR would have helped more people by just providing a family a housing voucher for one year. They could have paid for an entire year of housing for 1,000 people in Cuyahoga County over the 10 years if they had just given away $6.5 million dollars to us. That would have doubled our Shelter Plus Care program and increased our Voucher program by over 7% with $6.5 million.

I hope that all national groups will re-evaluate the decisions (funders, government, and service providers) that have been made over the last 10 years. I hope that activists will look for solutions that do not take a decade or more to come to fruition. We need to have a massive investment in housing. We cannot lose anymore housing. We have to have put people to work and provide those on disability with more money to survive. Or at least we could provide a housing voucher along with their disability check. It is time for a change, and maybe a new statement on All Things Considered for Melville.

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

Jackson Request for Federal Help

Mayor Wants a National Urban Initiative

I really like the request that the Mayor made to the Presidential candidates in exchange for his endorsement. This is exactly what every elected official should demand. For too long the feds have turned away from American cities. We need a major infusion of dollars to reclaim the 20 years of neglect. I saw Sicko and 60 Minutes tonight about how much better they have it in Europe. They have accepted that paying more in taxes so that everyone has a better standard of living. With a better standard of living, crime goes down. People are safer, and have more time for family and living in Europe. When are we going to change?

NEOCH is pushing for a National Housing Policy like we had back in the 1960s and 1970s. We are going to push the new President to adopt a National Housing Policy in the first 100 days of 2009. We need the federal government to care that millions in the United States cannot afford a place to live. We need the funds that only the Federal government can provide to solve homelessness. Is it greed? Is it guns over butter? Is it selfishness? This path can only lead to continued unrest and eventual collapse.

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

We Need Inspiration

Forum on Homelessness...Not Much News

Last week, the City Club young leaders put together a forum on homelessness with Councilman Joe Cimperman, City of Cleveland Administration Natoya Walker, and Mike Sering from Lutheran Metro Ministry. If you read this blog with any frequency, you could have skipped the forum. There was nothing new announced. The Aviation Shelter will be open through January 2008, and North Point Transitional shelter will open before Aviation closes. I guess that I was looking for inspiration; for someone to step forward and say we are going to solve this problem. Natoya tried with some poetry at the end of her presentation, but it was too late. No one said the words, "I will take on this problem, and will solve it. We will no longer manage this problem. We are going to put time, money and community resources into solving homelessness."

Mike was there to give the real picture of what is happening in Cleveland as part of the 2100 Lakeside Shelter staff. Joe was there because his ward has the largest number of homeless people and the largest number of shelter beds. Natoya brought the position of the City, but she also brings the baggage of the last 20 years of bad public policy. Joe talked about panhandling and the curfew. Both Natoya and Joe mentioned the Mayor saying that he would serve the least of us, and all of the panelists talked about the incredibly expensive supportive housing projects being developed in our community.

Often, you can get a good sense about what is going on in the community from the questions that came up at the forum. There were questions about NIMBYism, the impact of welfare reform, the disdain for poor people by Ohio City Near West Development Corp., are there opportunities now that so many houses are foreclosed on?, there was a follow up question regarding the PD nursing home story, and a question about panhandling. The final two questions were about transportation issues for homeless people and the sad state homeless families find themselves. I wanted to ask a question about supportive housing. I wanted to ask, "With the history of the federal government withdrawing funds from Public Housing, Mental Health facilities, and transitional shelters, have we thought how we are going to fund all these supportive housing projects long-term after the federal government withdraws their funding?

Not much new from the answers, and we even received some confusion. Peggy Cella asked about family homelessness and the answer was about supportive housing which actually does not involve children. Only single adults are eligible for the 220 units of supportive housing that have been developed, and federal rules bar families from participating. As we have said many times, families are suffering more then any other population with the current funding environment from Washington DC. Joe talked about how he preferred the St. Clair Superior Coalition over what was happening on the near west side of Cleveland. This was news to me, because I have not heard any elected official take on the gentrification issues going on in Ohio City before.

We need to cultivate some leaders who will take on these overwhelming issues plaguing our city, and will work for solutions. We don't hear anyone lifting us up with a vision of a time in the near future without homelessness. We are now living with a younger generation that only knows going downtown and seeing homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks. We don't hear big ideas about solutions because we have come to view homelessness as part of the landscape. No one hearkens back to a time without the large number of visibly homeless people. I want a religious figure or elected leader or media personality to take on the problems of poverty with a goal of ending homelessness. Am I asking for too much?

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

Governor's Wife Meets With Homeless Families

Ohio's First Lady Sits Down to Listen and Learn

Frances Strickland, Ohio's First Lady, was in Cleveland on Monday 8/20 to meet with a group of homeless women and children. Trinity Cathedral hosted 7 women and their children, and one recent graduate of the Cleveland Public Schools who struggled with homelessness. We met in the comfortable surroundings of the Charter Room with couches and comfortable chairs. So comfortable, in fact, two of the children fell asleep while their Mom's held them. This was an attempt by the Governor's wife to stay in touch with homeless people, and she wanted to hear from the students about their experiences in managing school during their period of housing instability. Ms. Strickland was soft spoken, but a good listener. She went back over the points that the women made to make sure that she understood. The families came from Miracle Village, West Side Catholic, New Life Community and Cleveland Public Schools Project Act, and most left with a positive impression of the First Lady.

The one recurring issue that came up from the women were the difficulty in finding stable housing without some financial help. A number of women talked about how they found help for themselves and their children from the Department of Human Services, but once they started earning money it all fell apart. The shelter usually only allow a family to stay for three months, and the women find a job, secure their benefits, and then eventually find housing. Once a woman starts earning income, their food stamps are reduced and their child care assistance is reduced. They just barely make it with a job and the County assistance, and then the county begins to withdraw that help and one unexpected expense can cause a return to the shelters. This is a big issue that the State can address. If as a society we are not going to demand living wages from all our employers, then we have to subsidize childcare, transportation, housing and food--sometimes for life.

Other issues that came up during the discussion:

• The shelters turn developmentally disabled individuals out when they turn 18 even if they are still in high school under the care of a parent or guardian. One disabled young man was taken advantage of and raped because he was separated from his mom when he turned 18. The state needs to revise its rules for the shelters.
• Suburban schools have an unfair advantage over Cleveland schools in the tests. Too many kids start behind their neighbors in the suburbs, and the Cleveland kids are always playing catch up.
  
• Our community has no idea what is happening with homeless kids who leave their parents or guardians before they are 18 because we don't have a place for these kids to go.
  
• No matter what the County says publicly, they often take custody of children just because the Mom becomes homeless.
• The Housing Authority is not doing a good job with inspections of potential apartments for those using the voucher program.
• Suburban school districts do not always follow the rules with regard to allowing a child to return to their school of origin when a family becomes homeless. Lakewood specifically came up in the discussion.
  
• Why does ODJFS (Welfare Department) want us to provide ID every six months in order to get benefits? All that information is on file when you apply, why do we keep having to bring our ID and birth certificates with us? They do not change.
  
• Child support orders do not always transfer very smoothly between Counties. This is a big problem for those fleeing because of domestic violence.
  
• Poor people fall through the cracks in health care, and the hospitals try as hard as they can not to serve you especially with dental care. Follow up care is especially difficult.
• There is too much paperwork to get a few food stamps.
  
• Things start crushing down on the women at the shelters and there is not enough counseling help. Shelters need more workers who can help, and those shelters need a highly professional staff like West Side Catholic.
  
• Shelters need more budgeting classes. Some of the shelters have nothing (no classes) and no one can help with anything, while others have everything.
  
• There is a lot of racism in finding a job or housing in this community.
• One woman mentioned having lost everything and started over in the shelters. Then she got her life back together and the County cut all her help because she started earning $8 an hour, which was not enough to pay the rent/food/childcare.
  
• The income that one woman found did not pay her expenses, and so she has no idea how to pay for childcare services.
• Most of the housing has this incredible waiting list of three to five years.
• The oversight of most of the subsidized housing (vouchers, Public Housing, and HUD housing) is not very good and needs improved. Too much bureaucracy and not enough scrutiny.
  
• There is way too much abandoned housing in our community. Many women mentioned the need to fix it up and get homeless people moved in to those units.
  
• One of the women was going to school at CSU, but also had to have a full time job. Tuition is too expensive and grants are not available.
  
• Cleveland Public Schools said that they were starting out the year with 700 homeless children registered.
• One woman mentioned that she was homeless as a child, and was terrified that she would be homeless again. She constantly has that on her mind that she does not want to go through the trauma of homelessness again.
  
• Shelter Plus Care is a very good program.
  
• They need more programs to help women do things for themselves.
  
• New Life Shelter complained about the time limits put on treatment and job training. This has harmed their program and the women in the program.
• Apartment owners are not taking care of their property, and again inspections are not working.
  
• A few said that they were very grateful for the programs and the services available. Some of the shelters are not providing the same level of service as others, and women have to go to the schools or churches or other places for help.
• When a family starts making a little money is the time that they start taking away your day care or transportation. No one could make it on $7 an hour and the small amount of help that the County give you.
• Why would one of the shelters force you to leave once you get a job? This seems like the opposite message that the shelters should be giving to homeless women. It is like they want people to be dependent if they are discouraging employment.
  

It was a good event, and I always learn a lot when homeless people are given the opportunity to talk about the system with someone they believe can help. Governor Strickland has re-convened the InterAgency Task Force on Homelessness of all the heads of agencies that interact with homeless people like Human Services, Mental Health, Drug Board, etc. They are supposed to try to reduce the bureaucracy between government agencies in an attempt to get assistance to those struggling with housing with the utmost speed. This InterAgency Council needs to convene similar listening projects around the state to get this kind of input.

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

National Homeless Picture

Things are Bad All Around

I attended the National Coalition for the Homeless Board meeting this last weekend. They do this segment of the Board meeting in which each city, state or national organization gets the opportunity to say a few words about how their city is addressing homelessness. Cleveland and Ohio certainly have problems, but nothing compared to some of the cities in the United States.

Atlanta is at all out war against homeless people. They have closed most of the shelters and are trying to make it as difficult as possible for homeless people to survive in the city. They have one of the most restrictive laws regarding identification and voting that has faced repeated challenge in court. Currently, the City of Atlanta is trying to kill all affordable housing in the community. There is a plan to close 5,000 units of public housing by early next year. They are illegally providing housing vouchers for people and telling them that they can only use those vouchers outside the City.

The Washington DC Mayor has turned out to be a disappointment after having run on a friendly homeless platform. In the transition, Adrian Fenty, appointed a commission to look at homelessness in the District, and seemed to be very interested in the issues of affordable housing. Instead, Mayor Fenty has continued to try to close shelters and has not provided adequate resources to the existing shelters.

Los Angeles is also a city that the new Mayor had promised change with the introduction of a huge plan to “end” homelessness. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has also disappointed advocates with criminalization efforts and doing little to address the problem locally. We have discussed in this space the dumping of disabled homeless in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, but the City has seen huge reductions in resources for services as well as housing.

Baltimore is unveiling its plan to end homeless in June. Let’s hope that they do not bring the Bush Administration official, Phil Mangano to town to kick this effort off. It is hypocritical to have the Bush Administration on the one hand cut affordable housing resources then claim to want to end long term homelessness in 10 years. It is almost like claiming to want a quick end to a war while sending more troops to a foreign land to occupy another sovereign country. Wait...never mind.

Texas is trying to get a homeless hate crimes bill passed to have stepped up sentences if a homeless person is attacked and targeted because of his or her homeless status. The City of Austin has exhausted every possible anti-homeless ordinance they can think of including anti-panhandling, anti-sleeping, and loitering ordinances. One new dangerous trend that cities in Florida and the West Coast are passing is “No Feeding Ordinances.” These make it illegal for churches to go into the Downtown and provide food to hungry and homeless people or they will set tight restrictions like only one time a year and no more than 25 people fed at a time. These are crazy, mean spirited and violate the separation of church and state, but the cities have exhausted every other way to make it illegal to be homeless and yet there still are homeless people.

Denver is still having huge battles over identification. Homeless people are caught in the middle of a right wing agenda to restrict immigrants from getting services or any help with a policy to limiting access to identification. Philadelphia and a few other cities are fighting over the creative use of statistics that "show" we are making progress in solving homelessness. Solving homelessness on paper seems to be the new trend by local and federal government agencies. This way they get to send out a press release congratulating themselves for figuring out how to spin data to show progress.

I will post the Cleveland report in the near future in addition to a report from the State housing and homelessness conference this week in Columbus. The COHHIO Conference heard from all the top elected officials in Ohio including Governor Strickland.

Brian

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