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
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Derelict Paradise Book Released

A History of Homelessness in Cleveland

Author and Cleveland activist Daniel Kerr is out with his book on the history of homelessness in Cleveland.

From the University of Massachusetts press release:
"Seeking answers to the question, “Who benefits from homelessness?” this book takes the reader on a sweeping tour of Cleveland’s history from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first. Daniel Kerr shows that homelessness has deep roots in the shifting ground of urban labor markets, social policy, downtown development, the criminal justice system, and corporate power. Rather than being attributable to the illnesses and inadequacies of the unhoused themselves, it is a product of both structural and political dynamics shaping the city. Kerr locates the origins of today’s shelter system in the era that followed the massive railroad rebellions of 1877. From that period through the Great Depression, business and political leaders sought to transform downtown Cleveland their own advantage. As they focused on bringing business travelers and tourists to the city and beckoned upper-income residents to return to its center, they demolished two downtown working-class neighborhoods and institutionalized a shelter system to contain and control the unhoused and unemployed. The precedents from this period informed the strategies of the post–World War II urban renewal era as the “new urbanism” of the late twentieth century. The efforts of the city’s elites have not gone uncontested. Kerr documents a rich history of opposition by people at the margins whose organized resistance and everyday survival strategies have undermined the grand plans crafted by the powerful and transformed the institutions designed to constrain the lives of the homeless."

Kerr is a founder of the temporary labor company in Cleveland as well as Food Not Bombs. Kerr did a ton of work organizing day laborers in Cleveland, and trying to protect them from exploitation. He was extremely helpful in the protests of the late 1990s to overturn the anti-homeless laws enacted by Mayor Michael White. Kerr spent years looking at homelessness in Cleveland and especially the tension between public and private sector forces to harness the displaced workers in our community. We will have more details on the book on this site and in the next Street Newspaper.

TO ORDER: Please use our toll-free number when placing or inquiring about orders: 1-800-537-5487. This number is available for customers in the U.S. and Canada only. Call Monday through Friday, 8:30–5:00 Eastern time. You may also order by:
going to the University of Massachusetts WEBSITE. ISBN 978-1-55849-849-5.

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

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
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.