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
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.
Showing posts with label tent city. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tent city. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Tent City Back in the News
Sacramento Herding Homeless People
NPR revisited the story of the tent city in Sacramento yesterday. Here is good quote from the story:
Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.
NPR revisited the story of the tent city in Sacramento yesterday. Here is good quote from the story:
"When we moved out, we moved over to a private area two fields over. They wanted us off of there too. Just like shuttling cattle, that's all it is," said Grice, a carpenter by trade, who wears a T-shirt that reads, "Where am I supposed to live?" "We're supposed to be the eyesore, but actually we're citizens and we're human beings. We're supposed to have rights like everybody else; it don't matter what we have in our pockets."We warned the governator back in March of the problems associated with dismantling a tent city, but no one listened. Now, they were kicked out of their temporary location, and are rallying for a new campground. The Bee covered the story here, and their focus was that no one has any idea what to do. It seems that the Mayor, some service providers, and the police favor a legal campground, but neighbors and the City Manager do not like the idea. There is no one strategy that is going to work for all 250-400 people, but having a "Safe ground" in one location where help can be offered is attractive. My vote is to use the state capital as the safe ground. Since there is not much legislation or leadership coming out of that massive building, they could at least provide some useful service to the people of California.
Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sacramento Tent City Update
The Terminator Goes to the Fair
This week Governor Schwarzenegger announced that they would move the tent city that sprung up on private property to the State fairgrounds for three months while other solutions are developed. The New York Times has a story about the rising number of Bushville camps springing up across America. We know something about overflow in Cleveland, so I thought I would send some advice to my favorite Commando Governor who single handedly destroyed Man's colony on Mars then went back in time to nearly destroy mankind on Earth.
Dear Mr. Governator:
We in Cleveland know something about operation of an overflow shelter, and so we wanted to pass along some pointers to you as you venture into sanctioning the fair grounds as the new home to the Sacramento Tent City. We opened an old high school as a temporary overflow that did not close for 3 years. Every night for three years we paid for the transportation and operation of a "temporary" overflow shelter. The NPR story mentioned about the move of the tent city stated that many of the residents do not want to move because they would be locked into the fairgrounds at night. I think I heard something about that in a movie coming out May 21. It was Judgment day and Skynet moves people into a locked facility. Anyway, operating an overflow shelter is a difficult issue, and we have some advice for you:
1. Once the door is open to overflow and tent cities it is difficult to close it. Once there is a city sanctioned place for tents it is hard to shut it down. Our overflow lasted three years.
2. You will never be able to close it in three months unless there is immediate plans to build or renovate a large number of apartments for these individuals.
3. There are three to five times as many people in need as there are spaces. Depending on the level of poverty in the city there are many more people barely holding on waiting for something better to come along. They are sleeping on floors or couches or garages while they try to find housing. If you open up something better they will find their way to those doors. While the problem will start at 300 tents, it will grow to around 1,000 people if a better option is made available to the residents of the tent city.
4. Overflow is attractive to those who just want to be left alone. These places usually do not feature social services, and some people just give up here. They mire in depression and start to hate people and society. This is not what happens to everyone, but some use an overflow space or a tent city as a place with no pressure and no responsibility to vegetate.
5. Many who use tent cities/overflow because they do not want to accept charity. They are hard workers but have made mistakes. They would do well earning their housing through sweat equity. They probably have some skills and want to work. Many probably go to work now, but return to the tent or mat in a warehouse everyday.
6. Most do not want to go to shelter if they are sleeping in a tent city or overflow shelter. They do not like the rules and the institutional aspects of shelter. No matter how nice they are, many will not go to shelter. If you force people into shelter, they will just go underground.
7. Overflow and tent cities may seem cheap to operate, but they are actually very expensive for society. The health care costs and the long term impact on the individuals especially to children is a lot to address. There is an element of PTSD that people will have to work through after finding housing.
8. The only way to solve these issues by the time it gets to overflow/tent cities is individual assessment and help. Send those human service workers out to help. Since we ended welfare, what are they doing anyway? Make them get do some real work and leave the comfort of their offices to go talk to actual homeless people. It will do them good. Figure out what each of the residents need and then go back and get it. There is no solution that will solve all of their problems.
Good luck, and remember that they all have some talents if just given the opportunity. Don't make them into criminals or stereotype them. They are just trying to survive, give them a hand up.
Brian Davis
This week Governor Schwarzenegger announced that they would move the tent city that sprung up on private property to the State fairgrounds for three months while other solutions are developed. The New York Times has a story about the rising number of Bushville camps springing up across America. We know something about overflow in Cleveland, so I thought I would send some advice to my favorite Commando Governor who single handedly destroyed Man's colony on Mars then went back in time to nearly destroy mankind on Earth.
Dear Mr. Governator:
We in Cleveland know something about operation of an overflow shelter, and so we wanted to pass along some pointers to you as you venture into sanctioning the fair grounds as the new home to the Sacramento Tent City. We opened an old high school as a temporary overflow that did not close for 3 years. Every night for three years we paid for the transportation and operation of a "temporary" overflow shelter. The NPR story mentioned about the move of the tent city stated that many of the residents do not want to move because they would be locked into the fairgrounds at night. I think I heard something about that in a movie coming out May 21. It was Judgment day and Skynet moves people into a locked facility. Anyway, operating an overflow shelter is a difficult issue, and we have some advice for you:
1. Once the door is open to overflow and tent cities it is difficult to close it. Once there is a city sanctioned place for tents it is hard to shut it down. Our overflow lasted three years.
2. You will never be able to close it in three months unless there is immediate plans to build or renovate a large number of apartments for these individuals.
3. There are three to five times as many people in need as there are spaces. Depending on the level of poverty in the city there are many more people barely holding on waiting for something better to come along. They are sleeping on floors or couches or garages while they try to find housing. If you open up something better they will find their way to those doors. While the problem will start at 300 tents, it will grow to around 1,000 people if a better option is made available to the residents of the tent city.
4. Overflow is attractive to those who just want to be left alone. These places usually do not feature social services, and some people just give up here. They mire in depression and start to hate people and society. This is not what happens to everyone, but some use an overflow space or a tent city as a place with no pressure and no responsibility to vegetate.
5. Many who use tent cities/overflow because they do not want to accept charity. They are hard workers but have made mistakes. They would do well earning their housing through sweat equity. They probably have some skills and want to work. Many probably go to work now, but return to the tent or mat in a warehouse everyday.
6. Most do not want to go to shelter if they are sleeping in a tent city or overflow shelter. They do not like the rules and the institutional aspects of shelter. No matter how nice they are, many will not go to shelter. If you force people into shelter, they will just go underground.
7. Overflow and tent cities may seem cheap to operate, but they are actually very expensive for society. The health care costs and the long term impact on the individuals especially to children is a lot to address. There is an element of PTSD that people will have to work through after finding housing.
8. The only way to solve these issues by the time it gets to overflow/tent cities is individual assessment and help. Send those human service workers out to help. Since we ended welfare, what are they doing anyway? Make them get do some real work and leave the comfort of their offices to go talk to actual homeless people. It will do them good. Figure out what each of the residents need and then go back and get it. There is no solution that will solve all of their problems.
Good luck, and remember that they all have some talents if just given the opportunity. Don't make them into criminals or stereotype them. They are just trying to survive, give them a hand up.
Brian Davis
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Interesting Articles
Airport Homeless and Tent Cities
The Associated Press did a feature on homeless people living in the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. They have trained officers to identify homeless people and coax them to shelter. In the last year they have transported 400 homeless people to shelter, and the United Way outreach visit monthly. I suspect that the 400 involve many duplicates, but it is still a large amount of law enforcement time taken for social services. The article mentions that the City is working to eliminate long term or the offensively labeled "chronically" homeless over 10 years, but does not mention that the City has almost totally destroyed the shelters within the city limits. We are so fortunate in Cleveland to have a strong network of outreach workers to respond to these issues.
Tent City in Sacramento
We talked about Oprah doing a feature on the Sacramento Tent City, and this story then drew national attention on MSNBC, the NBC Nightly News, and the New York Times. The Terminator Governor visited the site, and the news went international with stories in the Times of London, Al Jazeera, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Former NBA star and new Mayor, Kevin Johnson, created a task force and wants the tent city closed by the end of March. Johnson was quoted as saying, "I don't like having a third world country inside the city." The City announced that they will begin to move the tents from this private property.
Another example of why Cleveland has set up a better emergency infrastructure compared to other cities. The article states that they will layout a plan in Sacramento on Tuesday to move 150 people to another location even though the estimates are that there are more than 300 people in the camp. Again, we have the outreach in the city who would be regularly talking to the men and women staying outside, and would be better prepared to meet the situation facing Sacramento. City officials are talking about endorsing a plan to establish a tent city in the model of Seattle, Ontario or Portland. Very few of the articles talk about how this got to be so bad? Why didn't anyone respond when 12 tents were gathered together? Has the safety net become so totally tattered that no one notices a group of homeless people living in a tent? How could these refugees of Capitalism be more obvious? They constructed brightly colored temporary structures in the capital of the largest state in the union. I guess the citizens of Sacramento were distracted over the last few years with the games going on within the state capital of California that they did not notice third world conditions invading Sacramento.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
The Associated Press did a feature on homeless people living in the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. They have trained officers to identify homeless people and coax them to shelter. In the last year they have transported 400 homeless people to shelter, and the United Way outreach visit monthly. I suspect that the 400 involve many duplicates, but it is still a large amount of law enforcement time taken for social services. The article mentions that the City is working to eliminate long term or the offensively labeled "chronically" homeless over 10 years, but does not mention that the City has almost totally destroyed the shelters within the city limits. We are so fortunate in Cleveland to have a strong network of outreach workers to respond to these issues.
The article goes on to describe this effort as too expensive in Atlanta, because the groups are "stretched thin" with their other efforts. City officials always complain about these homeless issues, but they are rarely willing to put funds into solving problems. Law enforcement should never be drafted into becoming social workers.At Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the city and homeless advocates sent outreach teams into the airport almost every night for two months in 2006 after police found dozens of homeless sleeping in sensitive parts of the airport, such as in doorways to secured areas, said Brian Davis, head of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.
The effort cleared all but the most stubborn handful of men and women, and most of them have stayed away. It took city funds and five outreach teams available for near nightly sweeps to make it happen though, almost unheard of resources even in the best of times.
Tent City in Sacramento
We talked about Oprah doing a feature on the Sacramento Tent City, and this story then drew national attention on MSNBC, the NBC Nightly News, and the New York Times. The Terminator Governor visited the site, and the news went international with stories in the Times of London, Al Jazeera, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Former NBA star and new Mayor, Kevin Johnson, created a task force and wants the tent city closed by the end of March. Johnson was quoted as saying, "I don't like having a third world country inside the city." The City announced that they will begin to move the tents from this private property.
Another example of why Cleveland has set up a better emergency infrastructure compared to other cities. The article states that they will layout a plan in Sacramento on Tuesday to move 150 people to another location even though the estimates are that there are more than 300 people in the camp. Again, we have the outreach in the city who would be regularly talking to the men and women staying outside, and would be better prepared to meet the situation facing Sacramento. City officials are talking about endorsing a plan to establish a tent city in the model of Seattle, Ontario or Portland. Very few of the articles talk about how this got to be so bad? Why didn't anyone respond when 12 tents were gathered together? Has the safety net become so totally tattered that no one notices a group of homeless people living in a tent? How could these refugees of Capitalism be more obvious? They constructed brightly colored temporary structures in the capital of the largest state in the union. I guess the citizens of Sacramento were distracted over the last few years with the games going on within the state capital of California that they did not notice third world conditions invading Sacramento.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
What Can We Do?
We Cannot Respond If They Don't Want Our Help
We had a few calls asking us to respond to those lowlife scum of the earth morning radio show jocks who got the tent city removed. It seems on Monday they talked all about how bad homeless people were and how they were going to go down to stay with the guys in the tent city. They forced the City into intervening, and the guys had to leave by 11:30 a.m. today or face arrest.
Anthony and his crew did leave, and vowed not to tell the media where they were going. He made an appeal for an attorney to help, but they reluctantly left the underpass. We really cannot intervene since the tent city guys did not request that we intervene. They do not trust us and have made it clear they do not like us. We cannot force ourselves on a group of homeless people. We could not agree with these guys on a strategy or the possible results of any court proceedings. These types of cases are difficult to fight because of the questionable legal standing, and then to add a hostile group of clients to the mix makes it impossible to get a compromise. Unfortunately, we are looking at an outcome that is good for the entire homeless community, and these guys are wisely only looking for their interests.
I know that there is very little that NEOCH could do to help the tent city dwellers, but we can go after the morning show. We can urge people not to listen to 92.3 in the mornings or ever. We also could tell people that we will publish the list of irresponsible advertisers who support this kind of hate in the morning. Send us a list of their advertisers and we will publish them on our blog under the headline: "Businesses to Avoid Because they Support Hate Speech." Send us the list and we will publish them.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
We had a few calls asking us to respond to those lowlife scum of the earth morning radio show jocks who got the tent city removed. It seems on Monday they talked all about how bad homeless people were and how they were going to go down to stay with the guys in the tent city. They forced the City into intervening, and the guys had to leave by 11:30 a.m. today or face arrest.
Anthony and his crew did leave, and vowed not to tell the media where they were going. He made an appeal for an attorney to help, but they reluctantly left the underpass. We really cannot intervene since the tent city guys did not request that we intervene. They do not trust us and have made it clear they do not like us. We cannot force ourselves on a group of homeless people. We could not agree with these guys on a strategy or the possible results of any court proceedings. These types of cases are difficult to fight because of the questionable legal standing, and then to add a hostile group of clients to the mix makes it impossible to get a compromise. Unfortunately, we are looking at an outcome that is good for the entire homeless community, and these guys are wisely only looking for their interests.
I know that there is very little that NEOCH could do to help the tent city dwellers, but we can go after the morning show. We can urge people not to listen to 92.3 in the mornings or ever. We also could tell people that we will publish the list of irresponsible advertisers who support this kind of hate in the morning. Send us a list of their advertisers and we will publish them on our blog under the headline: "Businesses to Avoid Because they Support Hate Speech." Send us the list and we will publish them.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Food Fights on Public Square
Where do we Feed Homeless People?
We had a meeting on Tuesday with the City of Cleveland to discuss the feeding of homeless people on Public Square. One interesting comment was that the two groups engaged in this activity include progressives like Food Not Bombs and Evangelicals don't agree on much except that they do not want government to tell them what to do. The problem is that there are so many people who want to deliver food to homeless people and most use Public Square as the staging area. The issue is that there is no coordination, not enough trash receptacles, and not enough bathrooms. Now, we have witnessed church groups fighting with each other over the space.
We need coordination of the feeding so that we have one or two churches per night. We need a place in doors to serve homeless people. This is why those residents of the tents were staying near the Square. They needed to be near the place where food is served. The City is concerned and has reopened discussions about food service downtown. This planning started under the previous administration, but went no where. We will see how this effort proceeds, but it started out well with the Mayor's Chief of Staff attending the meeting.
We really need a building in which homeless people can gather that has running water and bathrooms. We need a place that churches and others can come and serve food with a set schedule so that every night is covered. We need a place on the East Side that serves dinner for all those who choose not to use the shelters. Ralph Delaney would go Downtown to deliver food and water to homeless people in the 1990s before he was beaten to death. His dream was to see the creation of a 24 hour drop in center for homeless people. I would love to see a place for homeless people inside so that they can eat and rest with a measure of dignity.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
We had a meeting on Tuesday with the City of Cleveland to discuss the feeding of homeless people on Public Square. One interesting comment was that the two groups engaged in this activity include progressives like Food Not Bombs and Evangelicals don't agree on much except that they do not want government to tell them what to do. The problem is that there are so many people who want to deliver food to homeless people and most use Public Square as the staging area. The issue is that there is no coordination, not enough trash receptacles, and not enough bathrooms. Now, we have witnessed church groups fighting with each other over the space.
We need coordination of the feeding so that we have one or two churches per night. We need a place in doors to serve homeless people. This is why those residents of the tents were staying near the Square. They needed to be near the place where food is served. The City is concerned and has reopened discussions about food service downtown. This planning started under the previous administration, but went no where. We will see how this effort proceeds, but it started out well with the Mayor's Chief of Staff attending the meeting.
We really need a building in which homeless people can gather that has running water and bathrooms. We need a place that churches and others can come and serve food with a set schedule so that every night is covered. We need a place on the East Side that serves dinner for all those who choose not to use the shelters. Ralph Delaney would go Downtown to deliver food and water to homeless people in the 1990s before he was beaten to death. His dream was to see the creation of a 24 hour drop in center for homeless people. I would love to see a place for homeless people inside so that they can eat and rest with a measure of dignity.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Tent Township Ends at Noon Friday
Police Deliver Deadline to Those Sleeping in the Tents
After stories in the Plain Dealer today and the Free Times yesterday, the Police finally delivered the message to those living near the Brown's stadium that they had to move. The Third District Police went to the walking bridge today and told everyone sleeping at the site that they had until noon on Friday to leave or face arrest. Again, I never understood why the City was not honest and just said that they need the space for an event. They gave notice. They own the property. They do not want to encourage people sleeping outside, and there is space in the overflow shelter. This dodge and weave about safety was not believable since these guys spent much of the winter outside.
We have learned for the future that we will have to have police or city officials go down and carry the message first before we intervene from now on. The guys who sleep in the tents viewed us as the bad guys these past few weeks. They were getting conflicting messages from some mystery person who said that they could stay. Then the deadline came and went on Monday and still no reply from the City. Finally, today four days after the deadline the police showed up to force a relocation of these guys. So, this made us look like we were making up stories. That is until today, when the police intervened. We miss Commander Gonzalez from the Third Police District. He was very skilled at keeping all of us on the same page in previous relocations. He was very good about setting deadlines and sticking to his word. He made sure that the social services were in place and that they helped relocate people. There were even two people who got into housing with the relocation at the airport. I am sure that he is doing good things at CMHA, but we needed someone from the City to get that huge bureaucracy of the various city departments all on the same page.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
After stories in the Plain Dealer today and the Free Times yesterday, the Police finally delivered the message to those living near the Brown's stadium that they had to move. The Third District Police went to the walking bridge today and told everyone sleeping at the site that they had until noon on Friday to leave or face arrest. Again, I never understood why the City was not honest and just said that they need the space for an event. They gave notice. They own the property. They do not want to encourage people sleeping outside, and there is space in the overflow shelter. This dodge and weave about safety was not believable since these guys spent much of the winter outside.
We have learned for the future that we will have to have police or city officials go down and carry the message first before we intervene from now on. The guys who sleep in the tents viewed us as the bad guys these past few weeks. They were getting conflicting messages from some mystery person who said that they could stay. Then the deadline came and went on Monday and still no reply from the City. Finally, today four days after the deadline the police showed up to force a relocation of these guys. So, this made us look like we were making up stories. That is until today, when the police intervened. We miss Commander Gonzalez from the Third Police District. He was very skilled at keeping all of us on the same page in previous relocations. He was very good about setting deadlines and sticking to his word. He made sure that the social services were in place and that they helped relocate people. There were even two people who got into housing with the relocation at the airport. I am sure that he is doing good things at CMHA, but we needed someone from the City to get that huge bureaucracy of the various city departments all on the same page.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Last Days of the Tent City
Drifters Must Move on Again...
They were told to leave from the Convention Center, and now it is very difficult to stay on Public Square for a many reasons. So, this weekend the men and women gathered under the Shoreway are asked to leave another spot. First, I have to put a few things on the table. I have to say that this is not a Tent City. The Israelis know how to do a tent city, 15 tents is not a city. This is not a settlement, and I am not sure that this is even a Tent Township. It is, however, the largest number of tents that I have ever seen together in Cleveland. It does not compare to the nearly 100 tents in Seattle, Portland or Denver tent cities.
I know that a bunch of volunteers helped these couples with locating the tents. If you decide to construct a tent city in the future:
We did a series on tent cities in the Grapevine way back in the early part of 2000, and talked to people who sleep outside. At that time, we asked people about sleeping in a tent city, and many felt that they wanted to be left alone. They did not want to be near a bunch of people for their own safety (the same reason they were not in shelter.) There is a feeling of empowerment to construct a set of rules for clean up, and basically to construct a governing structure when a bunch of tents are in the same area. In other cities they have a strict code of conduct, and they have a law enforcement component built in to the tent city. For advocates, at the end of the day, these people still deserve a place inside to live. They will not go into shelter so the government (We the People) has/have an obligation to provide other alternatives. Right now in Cleveland, we have a choice between shelter and the streets. We have a wait of 3 to 5 years for non-disabled and non-senior housing. Advocates should not actively construct tent cities, but if one develops the City needs to have a better response then "Go to shelter!" In other words, if these tents annoy the City then provide these couples and these men with a house to live in.
The City did give about three weeks notice to this group to move, but has yet to propose a real solution. The issue is that so many people come downtown to feed people, and these guys need to be close to Public Square in order to have access to the food. We have a meeting with the City to talk about food distribution on Tuesday. I am sure that the tents will come up. We will see and report back.
Breaking News...
The Skittles analogy from the previous post got me a spot on one of the upcoming Ideas program on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm. replayed on Sunday at 11 a.m. on WVIZ/PBS talking about the Emerald Commons project and supportive housing.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
They were told to leave from the Convention Center, and now it is very difficult to stay on Public Square for a many reasons. So, this weekend the men and women gathered under the Shoreway are asked to leave another spot. First, I have to put a few things on the table. I have to say that this is not a Tent City. The Israelis know how to do a tent city, 15 tents is not a city. This is not a settlement, and I am not sure that this is even a Tent Township. It is, however, the largest number of tents that I have ever seen together in Cleveland. It does not compare to the nearly 100 tents in Seattle, Portland or Denver tent cities.
I know that a bunch of volunteers helped these couples with locating the tents. If you decide to construct a tent city in the future:
- Have plenty of lawyers on hand before starting.
- Do it on public land that does not have a purpose or private land that has been left to deteriorate. This current property is neither.
- If you don't want community attention don't gather more than 3 or 4 tents in the same area.
We did a series on tent cities in the Grapevine way back in the early part of 2000, and talked to people who sleep outside. At that time, we asked people about sleeping in a tent city, and many felt that they wanted to be left alone. They did not want to be near a bunch of people for their own safety (the same reason they were not in shelter.) There is a feeling of empowerment to construct a set of rules for clean up, and basically to construct a governing structure when a bunch of tents are in the same area. In other cities they have a strict code of conduct, and they have a law enforcement component built in to the tent city. For advocates, at the end of the day, these people still deserve a place inside to live. They will not go into shelter so the government (We the People) has/have an obligation to provide other alternatives. Right now in Cleveland, we have a choice between shelter and the streets. We have a wait of 3 to 5 years for non-disabled and non-senior housing. Advocates should not actively construct tent cities, but if one develops the City needs to have a better response then "Go to shelter!" In other words, if these tents annoy the City then provide these couples and these men with a house to live in.
The City did give about three weeks notice to this group to move, but has yet to propose a real solution. The issue is that so many people come downtown to feed people, and these guys need to be close to Public Square in order to have access to the food. We have a meeting with the City to talk about food distribution on Tuesday. I am sure that the tents will come up. We will see and report back.
Breaking News...
The Skittles analogy from the previous post got me a spot on one of the upcoming Ideas program on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm. replayed on Sunday at 11 a.m. on WVIZ/PBS talking about the Emerald Commons project and supportive housing.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
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