Unusual Use of the Blog

Answer to Your Questions

Since blogging is relatively new form of communication and many of the rules or protocols have not been constructed, we got a comment that deserves wider distribution. The Coalition is an advocacy organization and we hear from 4 or 5 people a day looking for help. This is not our primary role in the community, but there are so many people looking for help with housing that many spend the entire day on the phone trying to find help. So here is the comment:

"I am online looking for help for my niece. She has two kids and is going to be on the street. I was hoping for some information from anyone who has been in this situation. Her case worker never calls back and if you do here from someone they say she can not get help without having a job. She can not get a job because she has no one to watch the kids. It is hopeless. What should she do?"

Answer: The first thing to do is use the First Call for Help database which is available online at www.211cleveland.org. This is a comprehensive database of all social services in the County. It is a wonderful resource that is regularly updated. First Call for Help is such an important resource in our community with their 24 hour telephone helpline, but also the on-line information. The second thing to do is go up the chain of command at the welfare (Jobs and Family Services) until someone responds. I hear this complaint a lot about case workers not responding. It never makes any sense to me how they have kicked off thousands and thousands of people from the welfare roles, and yet the case workers on County payroll will not respond. What are they doing? The County is getting the same amount of money from the Feds/State for a much smaller case load today. If your case manager will not respond to get your niece child care go to his or her boss. If the supervisor will not respond keep going up the chain until you get to Joe Ganntner the Director.

My main message would be that it is not hopeless. Please do not give up. So many people just give up and never get the benefits that they have a right to as tax payers in this County. Persistence is the key. Just keep calling, and keep showing up, and keep demanding an answer. Eventually, the system will respond usually in your favor just to get rid of you. PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP!!!

Finally, make sure that you vote and you tell your elected officials how disappointed you are in the social safety net. The County Commissioners administrative staff will take down messages or you can ask to talk at the end of the Commissioner meetings on Thursdays. We have a lousy economy locally so thousands are in the same place as your niece, but that is no excuse for the inability to find help. Good luck and keep on fighting.

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

Slim Media Attention to Poverty Walk

Poverty Demonstration/March Well Attended

Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor's demonstration on Thursday had about 35 activists in attendence including NEOCH, Jobs with Justice, Empowerment Center, United Clevelanders for Peace and Against Poverty, Poor People's Economic Forum, Organize Ohio, and George Zeller from the Center for Community Solutions all attended the walk. It was global warming hot for the couple of dozen people who met outside of the Welfare Building. This was the third annual commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. poverty walk from the 1960s and to remember the 11th Anniversary of the federal welfare reform and 10 years since the state passed their version of the law. Unfortunately, only the Plain Dealer (no story yet) and the Homeless Grapevine showed up to cover the event. The group needs to practice their chants to generate more attention or bring in some theater groups.

Here is what we learned or questions that were raised at the walk:

• What is happening to the $300 million surplus held in the welfare rainy day account down in Columbus?
• Jobs with Justice raised the issue of the need for a County Living Wage.
• A woman from the Public Housing asked that day care be expanded to assist more low income working families.
• Tim from May Dugan said that we need to meet on a more regular basis to keep all the groups working on a common agenda.
• One member raised the issue of how much the United States has spent on a war in Iraq, and all that could have been addressed the housing, health care, and education problems in our country.
  
• This march is 40 years after the MLK march, and things are much worse for poor people at this time.
  
• There was a reference to the insecurity in families as well as the insecurity in our own infrastructure including the loss of one of our American cities in New Orleans.
• George Zeller made the point that real incomes had decreased across Cuyahoga county. This recession has effected everyone of us and every suburb. We keep losing jobs and real income is decreasing in every city but Chagrin Falls. George is always good for showing how bad the economy is in Northeast Ohio.
  

I had the opportunity to talk and pointed out the dramatic decrease in support for poor people over the last 10 years. We have more homeless, evictions, foreclosures, and people without health care. I raised the question of what is going on with the Department of Human Services? Why are they not helping to forward solutions to poverty and growing insecurity especially after Cleveland was named poorest city in the United States twice? They have eliminated so many people from the welfare roles, and we have to wonder what are all those employees doing now who previously gave out money? We need their help, ideas, leadership, and their funding. Finally, I talked about the meeting with the Governor's wife on Monday, and how I was struck by the recurring theme of never being able to pay all the bills. The formerly homeless families said just when they were reaching some level of stability with a job the human services department cuts off their childcare or Medicare, or cash assistance. This often plunges them back into the shelters or eviction court.

This was a well attended demonstration for the middle of the weekday on a hot day. We have to thank Valerie and Stewart Robinson for staging this demonstration every year. On Tuesday, the Census numbers come out again. While these figures are far from accurate in comparing very different cities, they do give a basis for comparing how we are doing in addressing poverty locally. I hear that if they are at all accurate, Cleveland will be poorer then they were last year.

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

Two Big Events Coming Up

Martin Luther King March and Lt. Governor at CAHA

On Thursday August 23 at Noon on the Payne Ave. side of the Welfare Building at East 17th and Payne Ave. will feature a MLK Jr. March and Speak Out. In August of 1963, King led a march for Jobs and Freedom, and Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor will mark this anniversary by hosting a demonstration. August marks the anniversary of welfare reform in Ohio and the United States, and activists will call attention to the deplorable job being done to lift Cleveland out of the poorest designation. The march will ask for a strong safety net, jobs. and living wages. After the speak out the group will march over the Cosgrove Center on East 18th for some planning activities.

On October 1, 2007 Lt. Governor Lee Fisher will present the state of affordable housing in Ohio and goals for the Department of Development to the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance. The meeting is open to the public at 1:30 p.m. at 1350 Euclid Ave. U.S. Bank Building in the lower level. Fisher is also the Director of the Department of Development, and will answer questions from the audience as part of the discussion. More details to follow.

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.