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.

PD Needs New Columnists

Recycling Plastic: Good; Recycling Newspaper Columns: Bad

How many times does Dick Feagler have to tell us that homeless people were way better 40 years ago back when he was 60? Most of the PD columnists need to join Clifton on the beach at this point. I don't read Feagler often, but I always get that knot in my stomach like attending a family reunion when I do read him. You know the one where you try to eat in an uncomfortable and unnatural position while listening to that elderly uncle who talks about his bathroom antics or the reason our government should spy on his gay neighbors because of their "un-American" activities or both of those topics combined together in one story. All the relatives just sit quietly rolling their eyes wondering what act of God could stop the pain of having to listen to these stories. At least at the family reunion you don't have to pay money for the Feagler-type story and there are usually deviled eggs.

Feagler again used the derogatory word for panhandler and did a rehash about how great homeless people were when he was not as old as he is now. He exaggerated a few stories about his encounters with panhandlers, and recounted a distorted history of homelessness in Cleveland. Sound familiar? Yes, this was nearly the same story that he told when the panhandling law was debated in City Council last year. He really needs new material. In fact, the readers need some new columnists that we would actually want to read every Sunday. I would go to the Forum section first if George from Brewed Fresh Daily had a weekly column or Bill Callahan or Yellow Dog Sammy were published in the Sunday PD.

I will just give you a few bullet points on how wrong Feagler is:

• Panhandlers are not all homeless (which I believe the Plain Dealer wrote about in their editorial in the same paper.)
  
• There are no beds sitting empty in any of our homeless shelters.
• The protest that Feagler speaks of is either the one in the early 1990s that opened up facilities year round instead of only in the winter or the one to close the deplorable Project Heat shelters at the end of the decade. Within two weeks of 2100 Lakeside opening after the Project Heat protests every bed was full and people were sleeping on mats in the cafeteria.
  
• I have never heard a panhandler request an odd amount of money, but a quarter does not cut it anymore. Even cheap alcohol, rent, food, and bus tickets are expensive today, Dick.
  
• When is he going to write about how disability checks today barely pay the rent?
• Addiction is a health problem, and we need to deal with it like we do cancer. The "go cure yourself and come talk to us when you are sober" just does not cut it.
  
• People are not trash and do not need to be recycled, but it seems that newspaper articles keep getting recycled. Does he get the same pay for a recycled column as Phillip Morris gets for his new ways to insult Clevelanders appearing every week in the PD?
  

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

Update on Public Housing

CMHA Updates from CAHA

Every month advocates, government, researchers, and social service providers meet to discuss the state of affordable housing in Cleveland. The meetings are open to the public and take place the first Monday of the month (unless there is a federal holiday) at the HUD building/U.S. Bank Building at 1350 Euclid Ave. at 1:30 p.m.. The goal is to prevent any further losses in housing in our community. We hope by meeting we can find out about troubled property well in advance and then work to save those properties. We have guests from all over the community who have some expertise in housing, and can provide the group an update on local housing issues. The meetings provide us a wealth of information so that we are all on the same page with regard to the state of affordable housing. Advocates can use that information in the community to push for more housing or attempt to prevent the loss of affordable units. In March of 2008, CAHA will celebrate the tenth anniversary of meetings. We have had Mayors, State agencies and Suburban Community Development officers in the past 10 years. In October, we hope to have Lt. Governor Lee Fischer attend our meeting to talk about state efforts to expand affordable housing.

Anyway, CMHA regularly attends the meeting and provides information about their program on a quarterly basis. We don't always agree with the decisions made at CMHA--like why take in more applications when there are already 7,000 waiting for housing in a program that only has 9,500 total units in their inventory. Overall, they try to do a good job in the face of criticism and back breaking government bureaucracy. In the last six years, HUD in Washington has tried everything in their power to destroy Public Housing from messing with their budget to eliminating capital repair programs to eliminating the drug eradication programs and the PHAs have survived. It is really remarkable to see how CMHA has been able to make it despite being repeatedly strangled by the bureaucrats in Washington. Most of us realize that we need these Public Housing and voucher programs or homelessness would be so much worse. Most of the enlightened Mayors (Akron and Cleveland among others) realize this and push back against federal cuts. The year to year fight for survival for the PHAs just wears us all down. Every year, the Washington bureaucrats think of another creative way to destroy the PHAs like CMHA, and the advocates have to suit up for a new battle.

So, here are a few numbers from CMHA about what they are doing:

• There are 9,500 units available in public housing and less then 2% are vacant. This vacancy rate is better then in the housing market in general.
  
• 8,700 are occupied with 700 undergoing modification or rehabilitation.
• There are 7,122 people on the waiting list for Public Housing.
• 61% are waiting for a one bedroom and 22% are looking for a 2 bedroom.
• 83% of the waiting list are extremely low income.
• 43% of the waiting list are members of a family and 16% of the waiting list are disabled.
• The average annual income of the tenants are $7,148 per year.
• 89% of the Public Housing tenants are extremely low income (while 79% of the voucher tenants are extremely low income.)
  
• 20% of the Public Housing tenants are employed while 20 years ago only 12% were employed.
  
• 22% of the tenants have no income while 10 years ago only 10% had no incomes.
• Only 4% of the tenants in Public Housing are receiving cash assistance from TANF, while 10 years ago 30% were receiving public assistance.
  
• CMHA only received 85% of the funding that they needed from the Federal government, and have had to cut staff and excess property to keep their budget balanced.
• They are currently working on an agency Annual Plan which is available for public comment until September 21, 2007.
  
• Despite federal attempts to eliminate the funds to modernize some of their housing, Congress has thrown some spare change at this program. CMHA is working on finishing the renovations of Riverview, Lakeview and Valleyview (now called Tremont Pointe).
  
• CMHA is struggling with federal cuts, and no one in the community is very happy with the State allocation of tax credits to build affordable housing.
  

They are not perfect, but they have made huge strides to make up for the insulated and corrupt days of the 1990s. They get a bad reputation in the community, but things are a lot better then we ever get to hear about in the media.

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

Hide Homeless People and Bring out the Porn

Curfew Closes Down Public Square After 10 p.m.

In a summer session without a public hearing, the City Council passed a curfew on Public Square to hide homeless people while introducing a Strip Club district to the Flats. I am sure that this curfew will target homeless people, but it has an impact on everyone. If you decide to go to the House of Blues and then you choose to walk over to the Warehouse District after the show don't stop on the Square unless you had previously secured a permit. This does not match the Mayor's State of the City Address to create a 24 hour city Downtown.

The Coalition has for five years had positive and respectful relationship with the Cleveland Police. (Again, we miss you Commander Gonzalez.) We helped to assure that only two were arrested from the Convention Center and Airport, because of the safety concerns of City officials. We probably lost some credibility with a few of our constituents, but the City made a good case. NEOCH found we had no legal leg to stand on, and so we helped to try to prevent arrests. We built a relationship over the last five years to avoid deaths and arrests at the same time. Then, without talking to us about this issue they pass a law that seems to target our constituents. This has broken that trusting relationship we have developed.

So, remember before going to a show Downtown or a game stop by the Convention Center to get a permit to sit down on the bench in the center of downtown formerly known as Public Square.

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

You Want Service?

More Hurdles to Get Help

This is one of those commentaries that will get us in trouble. It is one of those times when our critics will say, "Don't complain about a free service." The problem is that I don't believe that we should race to provide the minimum service, but we should strive to provide overwhelming help in hopes that some of it actually takes hold. I think that we have an obligation to provide the best care to those who are facing their greatest challenge to stability. Homeless people have no place to store their stuff, very little contact with the world, and they usually have a hard time getting transportation.

The folks at St. Vincent DePaul began running a furniture bank in Cleveland a few years ago. They grabbed the name Cleveland Furniture Bank, but would not agree to transparency in their operations. A big concern of the homeless service providers was with the disposition of well maintained furniture and the link with the St. Vincent DePaul store. The question that came up was: would only the crappy furniture be given to the newly housed and all the good stuff be sold in the store? Because the furniture bank would not agree to clear and transparent guidelines, all the service providers were wary.

Now the program has been underway for a little over a year, and they are making changes. The latest change is that clients have to bring a caseworker with them in order to get furniture. This is an unnecessary burden on homeless people and the social service providers. We don't have time to go all the way out to Biddulph and spend a couple of hours babysitting an adult ready to move into housing. How do homeless people who figure out their own way off the streets access the furniture bank if they have to bring an already overwhelmed caseworker? St. Vincent DePaul claims that 40% of the people do not make their appointments, and so this is the reason for the change in policy. If they have figured out the statistics can't they overbook to make sure that they have enough clients. All of us overbook having realized that we cannot count on 100% participation with an appointment based system. We do not put barriers in the way for homeless people to have to navigate in order to get assistance.

This is an example of the problem with some groups never sitting down and talking to homeless people or having only token representation of a formerly homeless person from 1977 as a point of reference. No current or recently homeless person would think that this was a good idea. In fact, those experiencing homelessness and service providers don't always agree, but this is one area in which the service providers would probably agree that this is a bad idea. I hope that it does not take an entire year of very small numbers getting help before they realize this policy change is harmful to the community. I hope that they realize that the County case workers, shelter staff, and mental health agencies are drowning in requests for help in one of the poorest cities in America. They do not have time to send a case worker out to sit with a client while they are screened for eligibility with the Furniture Bank. The whole system would grind to a halt with mile long lines if all the agencies started requiring a case manager to babysit at every appointment. Just because this is easier for furniture bank staff does not mean that it is a good idea.

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

Message Received?

Will Minnesota Go Through with Groundbreaking?

I have not seen much about the irony of a bridge collapsing on the day Minnesota was going to spend public money on a new stadium for the Twins. Someone or something was sending a powerful message that the United States needs to focus money on infrastructure and not on more playgrounds for the rich anymore. I think that it was those gods of transportation that are depicted guarding the Lorain Carnegie Bridge telling us that we have neglected roads, dams, bridges and power plants at our own peril. There was a stadium groundbreaking set for a few hours after the bridge over the Mississippi collapsed. Will Minnesota go forward with spending all these dollars on a new baseball stadium after witnessing the results of neglecting their infrastructure?

The other piece of information that did not get much attention: will the city be able to host the 2008 Republican National Convention? The City of St. Paul is the host city next year, but will they be able to accommodate all the delegates with a major highway artery destroyed one year before the convention?

Can we expect more messages delivered in such dramatic and ironic fashion? Will we listen? If this is how those Lorain Carnegie transportation gods are going to show their displeasure with funding decisions, we have many difficult years ahead? Al Gore tells us that the earth is currently at war with us because of global warming at the same time our infrastructure is failing. The defense department has always prepared for a war in two theaters of operation at the same time. Is this what they were thinking about? How do we protect against flooding due to global warming when our damns and levy systems are at risk? I have to say that on the day of the Cleveland Convention Center groundbreaking I will be taking the day off and spending it in a cabin far away from the downtown.

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

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.

The Value of Blogging

Not a Level Playing Field but Moving Forward

We have had our own media outlet for 13 years (Homeless Grapevine), but it was a sporadically published and not intended to be timely. The Blog is another form of media that allows us to respond immediately to issues in the community. For decades only a few people had access to the public at large through the airwaves and the daily newspaper. They really had a padlock on shaping public opinion, and all of the rest of us had to sit on the sidelines with banners and bumper stickers when we had an issue. In addition, if our agency was condemned in the media, we were offered the birdcage liner pages to respond with a limit on words and content. We could send out a "press release" complaining, but I am fairly certain they compress all those into urinal cakes for the bathrooms of all the news rooms. If your agency was attacked by a television station you were out of luck. Their 17 minutes of news everyday were too valuable to allow time for amateurs to complain.

I spent some time this week communicating by e-mail with Mike McIntyre of the Plain Dealer about our blog entry for Tuesday. He felt that his story was fair and balanced, and I disagreed. As a journalist (not here but with the Grapevine), I would have never allowed the McIntyre piece, even by a homeless person, to be published in the Grapevine without a great deal more information provided. We disagree, and I did not convince him nor did he convince me of his fairness.

The point is that before this exchange would have never occurred between journalist and injured party. Basically, 10 years ago they would have told the reader to go suck and egg or they would have said, "I condemn you to the letter's page." Even if just four people visit this corner of the internet, it is still out their in the public domain. There is an opportunity for a quick reply to a problem seen in the mainstream media. You can make your case on a blog and a simple Google search will lead readers to your site when they are looking into the issue. The point is that the other side of the issue is presented and available to the general public. I have had this same experience before with a few other journalists who did not like the way we characterized their writing or reporting skills in this blog or the Grapevine blog. Now to figure out a way for the media to be forced to link to our blog when they attack us. If people get sent here, they do not have to tell us how old you are or what zip code you reside before being able to read our content.

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

Its A Hard Knock Life

Bad Day for NEOCH

Monday was a rough day for NEOCH in the media. The PD took a swipe at us with their Snarky column by Mike McIntyre. In case you missed it, the highlights of the column in the last two weeks were the revelation that a Kennedy crack was uttered in Cleveland to an "alleged Kennedy" and the movement of a test for cab drivers. It is basically news of who is coming and going in the world of politics and then some "witty" observations. This week he took a swipe at NEOCH with the "revelation" that a check to the winner of the poetry contest got lost. We definitely messed up, and should take better care of our clients. In our defense, we have been fighting to stay open for the last two months, so we were distracted. I just can't believe that a lost poet's check, a Kennedy joke, and the movement of a test for cab drivers are really deserving of the limited ink/space in the Plain Dealer.

I gave McIntyre all the information, and told him that we had the bookkeeper write a replacement check last week that we had already sent. I sent all the information to the agency in which the client formerly resided, but that organization still decided to kick us while we were down. We deserved our wrist slapped for not providing the best care to our clients, but this seemed excessive. I just wish that McIntyre had told us that Cimperman was trying to one up us. See, the Councilman is not very happy with the Coalition at this time. If McIntyre would have told me that Cimperman put in $200 in for the prize to double our prize, I might have put in more of my own money and got the pot up for our homeless poet. We could have started a bidding war with our homeless poet as the winner. I might have been able to force Joe into the position of giving the poet an additional $200 in order to make us look bad. He got off cheap with only having to contribute $200 in the attempt to publicize his dislike for NEOCH.

The second piece was Channel 19 on Monday night. I know, I know they are not real news, so no one pays attention. But this was actually not a hit from our own tabloid yellow journalists, but the comments from the tent city folks. They have set up a donation basket on the off ramp from I-90 to Broadway Ave. We have tried to work with these guys, but they are impossible. They will not accept any of our advise, and have decided to make a stand on a piece of property that is indefensible. I am no attorney, but I cannot see any legal case to make here. They are a safety hazard on state property and they are in clear violation of a number of laws. Anthony, the self proclaimed leader, has watched too many "Law and Order" episodes and wants to get in a court room to tell his case Sam Waterston style to a jury. He thinks that he will win a huge financial judgment for all the tent dwellers. I have no idea where this came from. On the news, Anthony had the nerve to say that "NEOCH was only trying to fund raise."

I have a long history with Anthony, but he has a lot of nerve saying we are only interested in fund raising. I mean, how is there any money in helping a tent city? Imagine the position that NEOCH now find itself--a social justice group fighting for the rights to live inappropriately in the rain and snow in the richest country in the world. It is a huge step down from fighting to preserve housing and provide livable wages to arguing over where a tent should be placed in a city that spends millions on stadiums, museums, and pubic buildings. When we were first drawn in it was a clear social justice problem. The Brown's Stadium guys did not want a fight or money and were not bothering anyone. Now, they are not making a political statement, or trying to live in peace, or create a community. They are just doing this out of vanity or some delusion of financial windfall. We had to wash our hands of this situation before things get bad. But, Anthony, we would never try to raise funds based on our defense of the placement of a tent.

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

Curfew on Public Square?

Battle for Public Square

Things have been exceedingly busy and time consuming here at the coalition, but I wanted to take a moment to address a statement since I haven't posted to this blog in so long:

As some of you may or may not be aware of, the City has proposed a curfew on Public Square. This curfew would make it illegal to be on Public Square between 10 PM and 6 AM (except for ordinary foot traffic). According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Councilman Joe Cimperman, who represents downtown, said the law is intended to improve safety by banning homeless people from sleeping on the square."

As much as I want to discuss the inherent safety hazard an unconscious person (homeless or otherwise) poses to the public, first I would much rather discuss a direct quote from the Leader of Downtown as reported by Channel 5: "'What we realized was that when people were hanging out all night, harassing people, panhandling people, scaring young men and women, you know making people feel uncomfortable that they were actually allowed to stay there all night because we didn't have anything on the books,' said City Councilman Joe Cimperman."

I did a little bit of research and found that you do have codes on the books to address specifically what you are referencing:

• "hanging out all night" - 605.09 Unlawful Congregation
• "harassing people" - 605.03 Disorderly Conduct and 605.09 Unlawful Congregation or - 605.10 Unnecessary Noise or - 621.06 Aggravated Menacing 621.07 Menacing
• "panhandling people"- 605.031 Aggressive Solicitation
• "scaring young men and women" - 605.03 Disorderly Conduct or - 605.06 Inducing Panic or - 621.06 Aggravated Menacing or - 621.07 Menacing
• "you know making people feel uncomfortable" - 605.03 Disorderly Conduct

If violations like those above are occurring and nothing is being done, your problem is with the enforcement of the law and not with the lack of a proper law. I understand why this curfew law was proposed, but frankly, everything it is attempting to combat is already made illegal in the Cleveland City Code.

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

Future of the Coalition

NEOCH is Not Closing, but May Become Smaller

Dear Friend/Member/Advocate:

The Board of Trustees of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) would like to thank all of those who stepped forward to help in our time of need. We were overwhelmed with the response from elected officials, formerly homeless people, members, and the foundation community. The response to our call for help has allowed us a few months to reorganize in order to become a smaller organization. We have addressed our immediate needs, and we are committed to never finding ourselves in this position again.

We need to thank the many individual donors who stepped forward to help as well as the Gund Foundation and the City of Cleveland. Never in our history has NEOCH had a contract with the City of Cleveland, but on Wednesday July 11, the City of Cleveland approved a $50,000 contract with the Homeless Coalition. We also must thank Ohio Representative Michael Foley, attorney Subodh Chandra, First Call for Help and Treasurer Jim Rokakis for their creative thinking in helping work through some of our financial issues. Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s office and specifically Laurie Rokakis did a great deal of work to move the federal Housing Department to release funds that we have waited for since March 2007. Finally, all of the major foundations in the community were helpful in focusing on our priorities and reinforcing the importance of the Coalition to the Cleveland community.

We realize that the only way to assure that we never are faced with the possibility of closing our doors until every homeless person has their own door to close we must streamline our operation. To this end, the NEOCH Board of Trustees will be working over the next two months on a plan for increasing support for our core operations while attempting to find consistent and viable funding for all of our programs. This may result in changing our relationship with programs like Bridging the Gap, Cleveland Community Voice Mail, Homeless Legal Assistance or the Homeless Grapevine or even moving those to the umbrella of another non-profit. The NEOCH Board strongly believes in the value of each of the programs and the thousands of the people that they help. At the same time, we also realize that we need to move back to be an incubator of new programs that are then adopted by the larger community.

NEOCH Board members are committed to the core mission of the organization of advocacy and public education. We will continue to push solutions forward to end homelessness, and to work for the prevention of homelessness for every individual or family struggling with housing stability. We believe that reducing the number of programs that we oversee will strengthen our core mission by continuing to advocate against policies that target homeless people. The NEOCH Board and staff are committed to working with homeless people on creating housing and programs that lead to a reduction in homelessness.

The Board is working on moving a few of the programs, but not damaging the mission and the operations of those programs. We do not want to see the dedicated staff serving homeless people lost or the programs to be forced to change, and there is no talk of termination of any of the programs. The NEOCH Board is looking for homes for the programs, which will benefit homeless people and we hope will lead to an expansion of services or opportunities.

NEOCH is still sponsoring an Open House on July 19 at 7 p.m. to discuss areas of support for the future. We are looking for ways in which the public can assist the local Homeless Coalition in fund development and expansion of our membership.

The NEOCH Board of Trustees

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

Last Days of the U.S. Social Forum

Saturday: Last Day of the Workshops in Hotlanta.

I could not find the Housing workshop that I wanted to go to, and the health care workshop did not have a presenter show up, so I stumbled into two workshops that were very interesting. I listened to the Jobs with Justice people talk about organizing techniques in various cities. I listened to the presenters in another workshop talk about the immigration raids taking place around the country including the unlikely city of Painsville, Ohio.

The second set of workshops there were two workshops right next to each other that were probably the best of the week. The first was Globalization at the Crossroads by the Environmental Health Coalition which looked at the Maquiladora Plants in Tijuana, Mexico. They showed the impact and environmental costs over 30 years in this border town. They had a great slide show that was somewhat dated with 2002 stats and pictures. The tariff free manufacturing plants have just taken over, but done nothing to improve the city. They still have a lack of sewers or roads. They have these horrible labor standards, and all the promises of NAFTA have turned out to be lies. The heart of NAFTA was that it would stem immigration. We attract more people across the border then we ever had in our history. They steal salaries from the workers and force them to work in the worst conditions possible. The slide show focused on the movement of all our television makers from the United States to Tijuana or China. I left after the speaker went into the Spanish presentation. They had translation available, but I had a hard time following the translation.

The workshop next door featured the Venezuelan Consulate member, Jesus Rodriguez, stationed in Chicago talking about the problems with representative democracy. The workshop was entitled “A Democracy movement for the USA” and was organized by the group Liberty Tree. This was an excellent panel discussion with Rodriguez from Venezuela, John Nichols of the Nation Magazine, and George Martin, the national organizer from United for Peace and Justice. Martin had come to Cleveland during the 2004 election and tried to have speakers at CSU including Joan Baez, but was stopped by the conservative board of the University. How did I never hear about this, and I live here? Finally, the university relented at the last minute, but would not allow them to advertise and only 60 people showed up. Nichols was great talking about all the problems with our current elections system and he talked about the mainstream media ignoring all of these issues. How was it that the U.S. Social Forum was right next to the headquarters for CNN, and they never mentioned the forum that brought 10,000 people from around the country to Atlanta?

Finally, Rodriguez from Venezuela said that he was not allowed to criticize the United States, but would talk about the changes in his government since the rewriting of the constitution in 1998. He talked about the principles of participatory democracy that allow better access to the ballot box for minor parties, and allow citizens to control where money and resources are used within the country. They have 5 branches of government including a branch that oversees elections. There is an independent section of the government that acts as ombudsman headed by the Attorney General. Venezuela does not have these high hurdles for getting a candidate on the ballot like we do in the United States. There is an ability for groups to form political parties and become viable voices for segments of the population. He admitted that there were problems that they are working on, but it does sound better than our system. I am convinced that we are long overdue for another Constitutional Convention to fix some of these structural problems in our system.

They opened up for questions, and once again people do not know how to ask questions. There should be a workshop on how to ask a simple direct question from the participants and not try to hijack the discussion. Some guy tried to become a part of the workshop by championing his idea to produce cable access shows. That is when I was out of there. When the zealots grab the microphone and try to sell us on the next revolutionary idea from the audience is the time I leave.

One unexpected but interesting controversy at the Forum was a series of forums by the CARA/Sista II Sista group called “Organizing Community Accountability in Communities of Color.” They hung up a sign that said “For People of Color Only.” This generated a lot of attention by those walking by the workshop at the Marriott, and many put comments on the sign. It turned out that the sign really meant no white males. A white woman went in and came out crying because she was made to feel so bad for being white. It seemed that they wanted her to apologize for all the sins of all white people in the past. For such an advanced group of progressives, this workshop seemed to be the opposite of the theme of the forum, “Another World is Possible*Another U.S. is Necessary.” I don’t know why most progressives object to the right wingers who want to eliminate affirmative action and try to crush alternative voices in the media, but have no problem excluding white people from their discussion. I don’t know why the organizers would allow this, but if you can’t even talk to progressive whites at the US Social Forum your organization has little hope for long-term success.

The two forums in the evening were on gender and sexuality and workers rights. After the experience with the gender group excluding whites, I was not much interested in the gender plenary session. They were not as inspiring as the previous plenary sessions from the previous days.

Sunday was the closing ceremonies. We were too exhausted and too depressed to make it all the way downtown for the closing remarks. There was a presentation of all the resolutions that came up during the forum and then the summary speeches. I went to see the botanical gardens instead. A very impressive center, but a little pricey.

REGARDING NEOCH: Rep. Mike Foley called and said that he was working on ways to save the Coalition. He said that the City of Cleveland wanted to meet with me to discuss options. This is very good news.

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

Friday at the U.S. Social Forum

Another Hot, Depressing Day in Atlanta

Things were a little quieter at NEOCH heading into a pre-holiday weekend. I got a call from the Mayor's office that they want to meet to talk. Laurie Rokakis at Dennis Kucinich's office put a fire under HUD to get us the Continuum of Care contract. More and more people called wanting to come to the meeting with the foundations. We have asked for letters instead. Friday was the first day that we began to see people sending in funds to help. The staff of NEOCH are optimistic and the Board have scheduled a series of meetings to work through this crisis.

I finally got to see the main shelter in Atlanta. This is a huge facility at least twice as big as 2100 Lakeside shelter in Cleveland. Anita Beaty, a friend from the Civil Rights struggles and a fellow NCH Board member, showed me around the Metro Atlanta Task Force building. They have an emergency shelter, transitional facility, offices, a drop in center, a 24 hour help line, national service offices, and an art gallery all in the same building. They have big plans for the building with huge renovations and very little support from the power structure in Atlanta. Emory, the City, Coca Cola, and SunTrust are not big supporters of homeless people, and this makes Anita's job all the more difficult. There are these offensive signs on the streets around the shelter basically saying "Don't even think about talking to anyone or you will be fined" as part of the anti-panhandling ordinance that was passed. They regularly ticket homeless people for jaywalking around the shelter, and have tried to move the shelters outside the City limits.

The shelter is very hot and of course overcrowded. It is amazing how they have made due with so many obstacles. People always say that I am too confrontational with people and institutions in Cleveland. I would love to change places with Anita or the people from San Francisco or New York or Los Angeles for a month, and then the power structure in Cleveland would see that I am one of the more easy going homeless advocates in the country. I think 2100 Lakeside is nicer than the Task Force shelter, but they are much older and they have a lot more room to grow than Lakeside.

On the third day of the US Social Forum, I went to a workshop by the Bush Crimes Against Humanity Commission, which met last year and found President George Bush guilty of violating the Geneva Convention and violating other mandates of the UN Charter. This was conducted by lawyers using the binding treaty that the US signed when they joined the United Nations. Treaty law is binding on the United States, but seems to be ignored today. Anyway, they investigated five areas of crimes:

1. Katrina/Gulf Coast Recovery
2. Iraq War and Reconstruction/Governance of Iraq
3. Torture/Detention/Extraordinary Rendition of prisoners to torture countries
4. Global Warming
5. Global AIDS

They took testimony and had a panel of left and far left judges who found Bush and the Administration guilty. The group was pushing a DVD that is available about the commission. They had very persuasive evidence on the first three, but anyone with any sense could see that Bush has overstepped his authority and has severed our relationship with the rest of the world. It is sad that the rule of law has broken down and the checks and balances that are the foundation of our government were toppled with the destruction of the World Trade Center. They did not talk about the last two crimes. I missed the political prisoner and homeless people organizing themselves discussion, because it was on the other side of town.

The next workshop was by a group in New England called the Freedom Center called "Who's Calling Who Crazy? Psychiatry and the Oppressed. This workshop was way overcrowded for such a small room. The presenters were very opposed to psychiatric medicine and the DSM IV. They used acupuncture, therapy, and yoga as an alternative. The presenters felt that most people have issues at one point in their life that could all fall in the Diagnosis and Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders IV. It does not help that homosexuality, PMS, and other common traits have all been listed as mental disorders in the past. One of the women had been diagnosed by the U.S. Military as mentally ill and discharged. She was given heavy psychotropic drugs that changed her personality and had bad side effects until she found the Freedom Center. This was a two hour attack on the NAMI and the American Psychiatric Association and the large number of people including kids who are on very strong brain altering medicine in America. I liked it, but it was just too crowded. I am sorry that I stepped on that woman's hand as I was leaving. Hope you feel better.

Finished up the day over at the Civic to hear Indigenous Voices Native Americans from the Cherokee Nation, the native Alaskans as well as Native Hawaiians. This group has fought water, oil and mineral rights all over America. The Hawaiians want a return of their independence and a reduction in the military presence in Hawaii. The Inuit and the other 200 some nations in Alaska do not want to be lumped together into only a handful of groups that receive recognition from the US government. They just want to be left alone to use the land and resources for their own survival. The Native American population has good reason not to trust any of the rest of the country. They have 500 years of broken treaties, theft of land and resources, and forced migration. There was some talk of genocide of the Native American population. We just did not have the heart to stay through the immigrant rights plenary with the raids in Northeast Ohio and all that has happened with the immigration debate our depression quota was full by 8 p.m.

I got to talk to Larry Bressler, Priscilla from STOP, and Steve Cagan again. I also got to see Nicole formerly of Merrick House, Annette from May Dugan, as well as Heather West from the Deaf and Deaf Blind group. It was an interesting day, but again little hope. Maybe I am just picking the wrong workshops or not doing enough networking, but I did not feel uplifted. I saw more corruption, exploitation, greed, and hostility. The people attending the forum were great, and are the best and the brightest visionaries we have to offer, but we have huge hurdles to overcome.

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

U.S. Social Forum 2007

First Day of Workshops

The U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta is spread out throughout the City. The way that the Forum is set up is to have opening remarks and a short talk in the morning then a 10:30 a.m. workshop lasting until 12:30 p.m. then a 1:00 p.m. workshop. After a short break from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. there is another two hour workshop. Then into the evening with two one and half hour plenary sessions at the main stage at the Civic Center. There are 109 different workshops happening all at the same time all over the City of Atlanta. They are held at hotels like the Marriott, Renaissance, and Westin, at libraries, churches, coffee shops, parks and at the Metro Atlanta Task Force.

The workshops were in the areas of:
**Agriculture/food/land **Community
**Culture/Media **Economy
**Education **Environmental Justice
**Globalization/International Trade **Health
**Immigration/Migration **Indigenous
**Labor/Workers Rights **Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered
**Militarization/War & Peace **Movement Building
**Politics/Democracy **Poverty
**Prisons/Police/Courts **Race & Class
**Religion/Spirituality **Human Rights
**Social and Public Service **Urban Issues
**Women/Gender Issues **Youth/Age/Families

So, there were plenty of choices in workshops to attend. It was very difficult to move from one side of town to the next in a half hour so that had an influence over which place to go. There were activities going on all day at the cultural tents. There were social justice films all day going on as well as cultural events throughout the day.

I decided to attend the workshop to start out the day with the survivors of Katrina and Rita. There were four people from Louisiana and Mississippi along with a moderator also from New Orleans. Two of the presenters had family members who died during the aftermath of the flooding. One of the women had her mother left behind because she could too sick to make it down the stairs. The national guard members said that they would go back--it never happened. Everyone who presented kept saying that national guard members would tell people they would be back and they never did come back. The other woman lost her brother-in-law. They saw babies dehydrated and dead outside the Convention Center. They saw police brutalizing the population forgetting to protect and serve. The first plenary of the night also featured survivors of Katrina/Rita who charged that race played a big role in the rescue and rebuilding effort. No one had good things to say about Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans.

From both the workshop and the plenary, we learned how bad the situation was in New Orleans. There is a great deal of anger toward the federal government, and a big movement demanding the right to return to their homeland. The survivors are asking for help under the U.N. guiding principles on Internally Displaced people, which mandates that people who were forced from their homes by man-made or natural disasters must be provided help in returning to those areas. The men and women of the Gulf Coast are angry over evacuation efforts, forcing people out of their homes, the refusal to re-open public housing after three years, the rent gouging and the gutting by 85% of the budget in 2004 to shore up the levee system. All of those who testified had to endure the worst conditions and the most pathetic response from government that they all deserve reparations. These angry former residents are holding a tribunal in New Orleans at the end of August. It would be great to have similar tribunals throughout the United States around the same time to document the stories from displaced citizens from all over the country.

The elevator system in the Westin Hotel was a nightmare. So, from then on I decided to skip any workshops on the upper floors of the Westin--if I could not make it with the stairs I would not go. They lock the stairwell on the upper floors. I got to hear a little about the overthrow with the support of the U.S. of Aristide in Haiti. I also got to hear from the American Friends Service Network and the Black Panthers talk about the Criminal Justice System in the United States. There were three panthers including Fred Hampton's son, and then one Panther called in on the telephone. They talked about Attica and the segregation of black nationalists within the prison system. The prisons label people as "gang members" for any organizing and then place these individuals in solitary confinement or in supermax confinement which is 23 hours alone. There was also mention of the Lucasville 5 in Ohio who took the fall for the riots and are serving life sentences.

The last workshop of the day was by the National Coalition for the Homeless about criminalization efforts around the Country. As the co-chair of the NCH Committee, I gave my pitch about efforts in Ohio to make it illegal to be homeless. I did not learn much here since I help put together the national report, but helped further the presentation. I left after the first plenary session of the evening on Katrina--too much depression for one day. I missed a few cool sounding workshops on the disappearance of Native Americans and housing as a human right because of conflicts, but a full day none the less. The theme of "Another World is Possible*Another US is Necessary" did not really fit for the forum. So far, I have not learned much to hope for, but just a series of condemnations on the current system. They sure could have used a few plenary sessions on keeping hope alive and the good things that are going on in America. Maybe I was biased because of all the problems at NEOCH. Four or five workshops in a row could really put a fragile person over the edge.

Regarding NEOCH finances: Back in Cleveland, we started getting some response to our e-mails and the article that was in the Plain Dealer. Our Board secretary was interviewed by Channel 5 and WTAM. Supporters began calling and asking what they could do to help. Old friends that we have not heard for a while were shocked to hear of the problems. Letters started coming in asking the foundations to support the organization. All of the support certainly raised the spirits of the staff.

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

Gathering of Advocates in Atlanta

Official Start of U.S Social Forum

Day Two (Official Day One) Another hot day in Atlanta with the temperature around 90 some degrees. The parade kicked off in the afternoon at the State Capital. We headed over to Centennial Olympic Park past the monument to capitalism: World of Coke or Coca Cola World or whatever. An entire building designed to a stupid drink, and thousands of tourists pay to enter this shrine to corporate dominance. By the way, the entire city is dominated by Coke. They sponsor time in Atlanta and Diet Coke sponsors the temperature. They support nearly every art institution and they seem to own the transportation system. There are many workshops about how bad Coke is to India, workers, and water resources, and there is a protest scheduled after a Native American water ceremony.

We went over to the parade for the start of the United States Social Forum and found a few of the Cleveland group who came down. There were some great signs and great papier-mache masks. A lot of talk of impeachment and the state of America. If nothing else, progressives know how to throw a good parade. Drums circles, performance artists, and every possible progressive or radical political cause under the sun. It was the most diverse collection of people I have ever seen. All under the watchful eye of the Atlanta police in their motorcycles, helicopters, Segues, and those cool Atlanta police cars. There were 10,000 advocates for social justice in the streets of one of the meanest cities in the United States toward homeless people.

Their Civic Center is the center of the progressive universe for this week. There were tents for the indigenous peoples, Africa, Democracy, tent of the Americas, Immigrant rights, Youth, Native American, Solidarity Economy, and our friends from Philadelphia with the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Tent. I met up with the group that came down on a bus. There were 40 people from various progressive organizations like Jobs With Justice, Organize!Ohio, STOP, and May Dugan Center. There were hundreds of information tables with literature on every problem from the 9/11 conspiracy theorists to the Vegans and the Cuban 5 supporters.

Regarding NEOCH's financial situation: The Cleveland Tenants Organization is collecting letters of support. We have received calls from many of our friends asking what they can do to help. All of the outpouring of support has certainly raised the spirits of the Board and staff. I have stayed in contact with people back in Cleveland, and we are fighting for our future.

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

Away from Cleveland

US Social Forum in Atlanta

First Day: This is the worst time to be away from Cleveland with all that NEOCH is going through. I made plans to come to the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta months ago, before all these problems came to the surface. NEOCH has always struggled during the summer, because people don't think as much about homelessness, but this is the worst it has ever been. This is the first gathering within the United States of activists as part of the World Forum, and so I decided to go ahead. It is an especially difficult time for the United States with assaults on the Bill of Rights during the middle of an unpopular war and giant gaps in the social safety net. It is important for progressives to get together on a strategy to move forward. I have not had time to go to the computer after a long day of activities, but have been writing things down as I went along.

We got here a day early to see Atlanta. The City is very hot with unrelenting and oppressive heat. We did not see many native residents of Atlanta out on the streets except for homeless people. Atlanta is about the same size as Cleveland, but it seems like a bigger city with a subway system and more cars on the streets. We visited the King National Historic Site here, which is inspiring. The King Center has the tomb of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. sitting on smaller version of the DC Reflecting pool with a brick building featuring rooms dedicated to Rosa Parks, Gandhi, King's Family, and the movement. We saw the old and new Ebeneezer Baptist Church as well as the restored neighborhood that King would have seen as a child. All of these except the new Ebeneezer Baptist Church are run by the National Park Service.

We visited the Forum site to register for the Social Forum at the Civic Center. No MARTA (subway) passes available, but we did check in, and got the packet of available workshops. The conference is spread out throughout Atlanta, which makes it hard to get from one workshop to the next battling the heat. Also, there are hundreds of possible workshops in the areas of environmentalism, imperialism, immigration/indigenous people, freedom/democracy, rights of minority populations and women. The conference is overwhelming considering that many of the possible workshops were not accepted. There are thousands expected and it seems that each person has a talent to relate to others. There are artists, cultural events, movies, and public expressions. I met up with Steve Cagan who was hanging his photo exhibit from his images of Columbia. The US Social Forum proves that everyone is an expert in some area. More to follow...

Brian

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

Homeless Coalition Needs Help

Future Uncertain for NEOCH

Dear Friend/Member/Advocate:

The Board of Trustees of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) is asking for help from our friends and partners in our collective mission to end homelessness. We need the support of community leaders and our members now as never before.

For 18 years, NEOCH has struggled for social justice and worked to ensure the safety of those who experience homelessness. We have taken on the Herculean task of preserving housing, expanding access to health care and social services, creating living wage jobs, and preventing the criminalization of homelessness. NEOCH's programs have provided legal assistance, voicemail, and housing services, and have given the homeless a voice in the media and in the halls of government.

Because of the Coalition's work, only one individual has died on the streets of Cleveland in the past four years, and hundreds of affordable housing units have been preserved. NEOCH is the only organization that keeps the public and media informed about the issues and the problems associated with life without a home. We have witnessed 20 straight years of increases in homelessness. Last night alone, 4,000 people in greater Cleveland grappled with the effects of homelessness. The need for advocates for the homeless is greater than ever. Behind all the numbers, everyday the staff of the Coalition hears the words from homeless people, "Without you being open, I would not be here or I would not have been able to find housing."

Unfortunately, even as the ranks of the homeless have increased, it has become increasingly difficult to attract financial support for NEOCH's mission. We have seen significant reductions in support from government, and have had a series of setbacks from foundation support this year. Despite efforts by the Board and staff to develop new and diversified funding sources, financial support for NEOCH fell more than 35% between 2004 and 2006. We currently face an additional 23% decline in revenues for 2007.

NEOCH Board members are committed to finding a way to preserve the organization and to continue to provide essential services to homeless people. Without an increase in funding, however, NEOCH cannot continue to serve its vital function in the community. We need a commitment both to resolve this immediate problem and to provide consistent long-term support for our mission. The next few weeks are critical to the future of the Coalition and a time for the community to determine if they value our advocacy and programs. As we meet with elected officials, and corporate and foundation leaders, we ask members, partners, friends, and all who share our concern for those impacted by homelessness for their thoughtful consideration and assistance. There are so many ways to help, and to that end we are having an Open House on July 19 at 7 p.m. to discuss some of those options. As we enter the 2008 Presidential election season, and people begin to hold house parties, solicit their friends, tap alumni associations, we ask that you think about putting a similar effort into assisting the local Homeless Coalition to allow us the opportunity to continue to serve homeless people.

The NEOCH Board of Trustees
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.

Updates from Homeless Coalition

Ways to Get Involved...

1. Teach In set for this week

2. Please renew your membership if you have not done so

3. Volunteer Open House July 19

1. The AmeriCorps*VISTA members of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless will host a Homeless Teach In on Wednesday June 27, 2007 at 6 p.m. to focus on the homelessness and mental health issues. The Teach In is a 3 hour tour of homelessness in Cleveland with speakers from the homeless community and profiles of programs that serve homeless people with a mental illness. Please RSVP to Emily at 216/432-0540 to join us for this event. We will provide a light meal, and materials to provide a glimpse of homelessness in Cleveland.

2. Our membership renewal went out this week, so if you have forgotten to renew your membership for 2007 please do it this week. Celebrate freedom in America on this upcoming July 4th weekend by renewing your membership in the Homeless Coalition. You can do that online at our website at www.neoch.org or by returning the envelope that we sent to you.

3. NEOCH is hosting an open house on July 19 to provide information to potential volunteers. We will talk about all of the exciting opportunities for helping the Coalition. There are special events, planning parties, major donor efforts and increasing membership in the Coalition. We need your time and talent. If you are a good writer or have good people skills we need your help. Join us on Thursday July 19 at 7 p.m. and learn how your talents can be put to good use.

If you have any questions give us a call at 216/432-0540

Brian

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

Wild Boys of the Road

DC Trip Yields Big Movie Find

I was in DC last week for the National Coalition for the Homeless meeting and got to marvel at the extreme level of security, while so many in the city have no housing security. How can so many funds and resources be directed at protecting buildings while our "leaders" step over fellow citizens who are left vulnerable and unsafe? It will never cease to amaze me how government officials capable of ending homelessness drive by or walk over humans on their way to cast a vote that could end all this suffering.

NCH worked on policy issues and various bills that are winding their way around Washington that would change homelessness. We have a summary of the bills we are following in the June newsletter of NEOCH.

One great piece of history that I found when I was in DC was a movie called Wild Boys of the Road from 1933. I had to go to the Library of Congress to see the movie, but it was worth the hassle of trying to find the movie room. After walking down long halls that all look the same for 40 minutes, I found the correct room. It was a depression era film with great relevance for today especially in Cleveland. The folks at NCH actually found the movie and passed the information on to me. [*Spoiler Alert*] I am going to give away the ending of the movie because it is long out of print, and I doubt many will go to DC to schedule a movie screening from the Library of Congress.

Eddie, Tommy, and Grace were the Wild Boys who were around 16 years old and discovered that there families could not afford to keep them. They hopped a train to Chicago to look for work. There were these groups of well dressed men who would wait at the train station and round up the train stowaways for jail or a return to their city of origin. They hopped on the next train to Columbus, Ohio and got stopped 10 miles outside of town. This time Eddie led a rebellion against the nicely dressed thugs waiting to arrest the train stowaways. Tommy got his leg cut off while jumping from a train, and they ran into some really bad railroad employees who raped one of the female stowaways.

The group made it up to Cleveland next and lived in a tent city near the train station. The group lived in those giant sewer pipes waiting to be carried out on the trains. The tent city grew and soon hundreds were sleeping on the outskirts of Cleveland. They would go downtown in large gangs and cover every street corner with panhandlers. They would ask every business owner, every pedestrian for money as they moved down the street 50 strong. Much as today, this was too much for the Mayor who ordered a break up of the tents by sending police into order the boys to leave the City. The headlines screamed, "Sewer Pipe City Must Go" and "Police Seek to Control Vagrants." The police were very kind and spoke in the finest Queens English while asking the men to move on. One police officer was sad that he had his own children and that he saw in the faces of his children every time he looked at the kids sleeping in the sewer pipes . The police were sad that they had to evict these kids, but then they turned the hoses on these squatters.

The group made it to New York City and got mixed up with the wrong people. They got arrested and went before a judge. At first, the judge was going to throw the book at them because they would not give up their parents names or the city that they came from. Eddie and Tommy give a great speech about homelessness:

"Edward 'Eddie' Smith: [to judge] I knew all that stuff about you helping us was baloney. I'll tell you why we can't go home--because our folks are poor. They can't get jobs and there isn't enough to eat. What good will it do you to send us home to starve? You say you've got to send us to jail to keep us off the streets. Well, that's a lie. You're sending us to jail because you don't want to see us. You want to forget us. But you can't do it because I'm not the only one. There's thousands just like me, and there's more hitting the road every day.
Tommy Gordon: You read in the papers about giving people help. The banks get it. The soldiers get it. The breweries get it. And they're always yelling about giving it to the farmers. What about us? We're kids!

---

Edward 'Eddie' Smith: Go ahead! Put me in a cell. Lock me up! I'm sick of being hungry and cold. Sick of freight trains. Jail can't be any worse than the street. So give it to me!"

The judge relents and says "I am going to help you." I am going to assign someone to your case to help you with housing, jobs, and then rejoin your family. He said things will turn around and everything is going to be better. This was the best part of the movie, because it shows what we need today. Our system is so fractured today no one ever says, "I will help you with everything." They say go here to get this, then go here to get that and then get on this waiting list. Many people are looking for the kind of help in our community as this benevolent judge offered solid help with all the kids issues. This movie was cheesy with outdated language and a high entertainment value, but it had a good message that has resonance today. Where are the judges, social workers or case workers who solve people's problems? Two thumbs way up for Wild Boys of the Road, which shows us that government can work and can solve problems.

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

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.

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.

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:

1. Have plenty of lawyers on hand before starting.
2. 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.
   
3. 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.

I Am Sorry for the Death of Jason West

How to Protect the Mentally Ill?

I live in Cleveland Heights, and have been deeply saddened by the loss of Officer Jason West. I have read as much as I can, and listened to the Regina Brett Sound of Ideas on Friday show about the whole affair. It was amazing to hear from the mother of Timothy Halton Jr. call into the show to say that she was not given enough help for her child. I also understand that Mental Health Services revealed that Mr. Halton was recently homeless. I read Phillip Morris' column in the Plain Dealer, and his snap assessment of the whole affair. It was good that he talked to the mother, but I am not sure one law could have prevented this sad encounter on Altamont Ave. I have seen some of the crazy comments, the tremendous sadness, and the anger.

The one thing that I have not seen is an apology. No where on any of the local Mental Health Agencies websites did anyone say, "We are sorry that we messed up." The President of the Mental Health Board wrote a letter to the editor in todays paper, and yet there was no apology. This was a colossal failure of the system, and someone should apologize. The reason that people do not trust government or government institutions is because no one ever takes responsibility. No one ever admits that they messed up or that they let someone slip through the cracks. We are all so afraid of lawsuits that no one ever takes responsibility for anything.

NEOCH is the advocacy organization working to end homelessness. Mr. Halton Jr. was homeless, and we did not do our jobs before that fateful May 25th evening. I want to tell the family of Officer West that I am sorry for not doing enough to protect him from a serious mentally ill man. I am sorry to the other police officers in Cleveland Heights for making their job more complicated. I will dedicate myself to do more to make sure that people do not fall through the cracks. I will do all that I can to protect my constituents who are homeless from extreme responses to this tragedy while balancing public safety. I will work as hard as I can to make sure that there are no more deaths due to mental illness.

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

Emerald Commons Ribbon Cutting

Who is Paying for All this Supportive Housing?

In the Sunday Plain Dealer, Joe Frolik, did a nice overview of supportive housing and the new Emerald Commons Project. Then yesterday, WCPN, did one hour on the supportive housing fad that is sweeping the country. We have talked about these projects in the past, and disclosed the reservations that we have for supportive housing. Today, is the ribbon cutting for the Emerald Commons project.

Don't get me wrong...These are great projects and anyone would love to live in one of these buildings. In fact, every homeless person should have access to these kind of buildings. What never gets discussed is where is all this money coming from? Dan Malthroup tried to get to this discussion when he talked about the value of the $9 million that went into the Emerald Commons project on WCPN. Unfortunately, this he did not dig deep enough on this issue. The champions of these programs keep telling the public that supportive housing saves money, but they never answer the question, "Are those systems that are seeing savings, paying for these programs?" We heard over and over that these projects save health care costs, criminal justice costs and alcohol treatment costs, but are any of these systems paying for these buildings? No, the Cleveland Clinic did not contribute, nor did the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and the Alcohol and Drug Board is not giving money to these projects. So, if they are saving all this money why aren't they paying the costs for the building?

Who is paying for these services and the building's capital costs? Money directed at poor people and homeless people are the individuals paying for these projects. By their own admission, the long term homeless (the only people who have access to these buildings) make up 10-15% of the total homeless population, so why are we paying the majority of the budget for these projects? Why is 30% of the homeless dollars in our community going to these projects when these groups only make up 10-15% of the total homeless population? How many family vouchers (40% of the homeless population) would $9 million pay for? How many in-patient recovery beds for the addicted (60% of the homeless population) could we buy with this money? How many vouchers with case management could we buy for those with a mental illness (32% of the homeless population)? My concern is that no one is making strategic economic decisions with the homeless money we get, and no one is talking about how we are going to fund the supportive services for these buildings in the long run.

The other big issue that the champions try to put forward is that the long term homeless use 60-80% of the resources so if we can free up these resources then we have more money for families, mentally ill, and alcohol and drug treatment. First of all I don't believe these statistics are universal for every city. Secondly, the problem with this theory is that the only way this logic works is if you solve long term homelessness, but no one is planning on solving this problem. We heard that Columbus is doing 500 units over 7 years, and Cleveland is doing 1,000 units over 7-10 years. This is not going to solve the problem and during that time another 5,000 more long term homeless will ask for help along with all the other homeless people who knock on the front door of our shelters. So, you will not close one shelter bed and demand will still be the same as before one of these units opened. There will still be the same number or more of those experiencing homelessness who sleep outside and the same number or more in shelters after all these millions are spent on supportive housing locally. Also, while not solving the problem, we are actually creating other populations like families who will be long term homeless because all the resources are used for the disabled.

It is similar to a giant vat dropping Skittles at a rate of 10,000 per year or over 800 rainbow colored Skittles per month into your bedroom. You cannot use your bedroom while 800 Skittles keep dropping on you as you sleep, so you decide to pick up the Skittles that have been on your floor the longest. You spend 30% of your monthly income on a box to hold your Skittles that you clean up. You pick up 1,000 Skittles or 143 Skittles a month out of your bedroom over seven years during which time another 70,000 Skittles dropped from the inappropriately located vat in your bedroom. Would you notice a difference between the 70,000 rainbow colored Skittles if you did nothing or the 69,000 Skittles left after spending time and 30% of your income every month for seven years trying to clean up your bedroom? You would have one really nice box of Skittles on your desk, but not much else. It is a silly example, but so is supportive housing championed as a solution to homelessness. Either get rid of the vat that keeps dropping Skittles or clean up all the Skittles as they fall or your efforts will never be noticed by the community. At the end of the seven years and the millions spent, the public is going to be ticked off that there is no visible change in the landscape except these very expensive Skittle boxes.

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