What is Up With the Grapevine?

The Death of the Street Newspaper


NEOCH has not published the local street paper since last August/September 2009. We haven't said much about it for the last year. NEOCH has struggled to stay alive in the worst economy in the last 40 years. It is a rough time for most non-profits, and we had to significantly downsize. We just have not been able to afford to publish the paper for the last year.

While the newspaper in Cincinnati and Columbus are doing well, we just could not keep our paper going and the worst is that we were first in the state. Cleveland just does not have the pedestrian population that it once had to buy papers on a regular basis. We could not attract enough quality vendors who would stick with the program. We could not convince groups like Downtown Cleveland Development to help out the paper to outfit vendors as alternatives to panhandlers. Imagine uniformed vendors on the same corner as a panhandler. How long is a panhandler begging for money going to be able to compete against a nicely dressed vendor with a product? We could not find support to pay for the staff of the paper. The street newspaper was an idea outside the traditional funding box, and no one seemed to get the empowerment possibilities of this micro-enterprise project.

Finally, we were not willing to end our commitment to not censoring the population or changing content to be filled with happy news. I always described the paper as 15 pages of depression for $1.25. We could have done feel good stories and profiles, but that would not be honest to the population. Homelessness is tough and hard and full of depression, anger and resentment. There is very little happiness except after a family has found housing. Many other papers supplement their content with non-homeless information to keep people from dying of depression while reading. As a homeless organization, we stuck to our mission and the content was hard to digest. We also allowed the homeless writers to say anything that they wanted even if it was critical of the shelters, government, or even NEOCH.

Anyway, a group of poets--Ben, Stephen, and others are working on raising enough money to pay for one issue for the holidays. We will probably have to change the name of the paper, and start fresh. After the paper stopped publishing some people started using old copies to panhandle. The paper's name has been sullied. We need another $1,200 to get a paper together for the holidays. We do have plans to try to link the paper to a local training programs for the future after the economy stabilizes.

Brian
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Hate Crimes Against Homeless People

Ohio Identified as the Third Most Dangerous State for Homeless People

Over the past eleven years (1999-2009), advocates and shelter workers around the country have received news reports of homeless men, women and even children being harassed, kicked, set on fire, beaten to death, and decapitated. A new report released by the National Coalition for the Homeless documents a rise in hate crimes against homeless people. In Ohio, the number of hate crimes directed towards the homeless population rose to 13 in 2009 making Ohio the third most dangerous state in the union. Currently, the federal government does not recognize the homeless population as a protected group, vulnerable to hate crimes. The report, Hate Crimes Against the Homeless: America’s Growing Tide of Violence, documents all the attacks (just under 120) with 43 incidents resulting in death in 2009.

The FBI classifies a hate crime as “A criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias.” In 2008, there were seven hate crimes in the United States against protected classes that lead to death according to FBI statistics while there were 27 hate crimes against homeless people that lead to deaths according to the NCH research.

The hate crimes report was released in August 2010, and classifies the most dangerous states for hate crimes against the homeless as those with fifteen or more acts of violence carried out against the homeless population in a year. In 2009, Ohio officials reported a serial killer targeting vulnerable homeless women and a number of attacks on campsites in Cincinnati. Ohio was identified as the third most dangerous state in the United States, and fourth most dangerous state in the last 11 years.

Perhaps the most widely publicized case in Ohio was that of Anthony Sowell, the alleged serial rapist and killer. According to police and prosecutors, Sowell targeted homeless women in the Cleveland area, and is currently waiting trial on these charges. Sowell is innocent until proven guilty, but police investigations allege that he would lure these women to his home with the promise of drugs or shelter. By the time Sowell was discovered, he had allegedly killed 11 homeless women, six victims in 2009 alone, and their bodies were found inside and around property in which Sowell was living. After his arrest, two survivors came forward stating they had been raped by Sowell.

Homeless persons often live a transient lifestyle, with inconsistent contact with family or friends, making the population an appealing target for criminals to exploit. It is known that many of the victims’ in this case where not reported missing for long periods of time; also, many victims are unwilling to report hate crimes to the police.

While cases like Sowell’s receive a great deal of media attention, many of the violent attacks of the homeless receive minimal exposure. In the past ten years, hate crimes against the homeless have occurred in ten of Ohio’s cities. Those attacks consisted of 43 non lethal attacks and 17 fatal attacks.

In 2009, Cincinnati police reported that two separate hate crimes were committed against two homeless gentlemen. One man was physically and verbally assaulted for being homeless. When police questioned the attacker, he responded with indifference saying, “He was just a bum, who cares?” The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless cited this incident as a clear example of a hate crime. “The use of ‘bum’ clearly denotes a sense of inferiority,” said Josh Springs, executive director of the Cincinnati Coalition.

The second hate crime in Cincinnati in 2009 was even more violent. A homeless man, George Smock, was walking in front of the County Court House when four teenagers tried to kill him. Smock was doused in lighter fluid and set on fire by the teens. He neither knew, nor provoked his attackers. Onlookers extinguished the flames and saved Smock from severe injury or death. Although his attackers tried to take his life, Smock did not file a report immediately following the attack. When asked why, Smock replied, “I didn’t fill out a police report that night, which I should have done, but I’ve got to live out here.”

Interestingly, negative portrayals of the homeless receive a great deal of media attention and only stand to make the public more apathetic to the population. Movies like “Bumfights” can easily be viewed on You Tube. The “bum” is commonly used in film and television. The word “bum” degrades the population and implies that their struggles stem from laziness, not a complex web of societal barriers and holes in the social safety net. In addition, there is a correlation between the number of municipal laws directed at homeless people and the number of hate crimes directed at those experiencing homelessness.

Nationally, states are beginning to recognize the need for homeless people to be added as a protected class because of their vulnerability and fragility. The Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act of 2009 is pending federal legislation currently before Congress. It was announced last week that there will be a Congressional Hearing in the US Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the rise in hate crimes on September 29. This act would make the homeless population a protected group and raise the penalty for those attacking homeless individuals. This Act is sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio. The City of Cleveland passed an ordinance in 2008, making repercussions for “intimidation” and harassment more severe if these crimes are perpetrated against an individual because of his/her homeless status. The Ohio legislature has re-introduced a bill (HB 509) to classify intimidation as an offense against homeless people in order to provide some additional protections.

The NCH report has extensive references of all the crimes that are documented across the nation against those experiencing homelessness. NCH has prepared a list of recommendations for states and local advocates of what they can do to protect homeless people from future attacks. Finally, the NCH Hate Crimes report provides model legislation for states and municipal governments to adopt in order to increase the punishments against those who are violent against those sleeping outside to try to begin to reduce hate crimes.

Brian
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Gourmet Meal for Homeless People

NEOCH Teams Up With Cosgrove Center

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and Catholic Charities Cosgrove Center introduce a unique charity event for Cuyahoga County. This is the first year to try this cool idea of providing a fantastic meal to homeless, hungry and generally lower income individuals. We are staging this event at the familiar setting of the Bishop Cosgrove Center, which serves hundreds everyday while also serving the neighborhood with pantry. Executive Sous Chef John Aldewereld of Sans Souci Restaurant on Public Square is chef who is donating his time and talents to prepare a wonderful lunch for homeless people on November 9, 2010. We need your help to support this event!! We are asking the public to donate $40 to support one homeless person to enjoy this meal. We hope to serve 220 people at the Bishop Cosgrove Center with your help.

The Hand Up Gala will feature music, linen on the tables, nice dishes and centerpieces to set an atmosphere that matches the meal that will be prepared. To encourage ticket sales for this once in a lifetime event, we are holding an auction in which the name of everyone that donates will be entered into a drawing for items from the Cleveland Browns, the Cleveland Playhouse and the Doubletree Hotel along with many other items. For full details on the auction go here. You can buy tickets to this event directly from our website by clicking on the "Donate Now" buttons. Help us provide a once in a life time meal to homeless people this fall.

Brian
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County Council Election

State Senator Mike Foley speaks at the 2007 Homeless Memorial

Homeless Congress Asks Candidates to Support Regulating the Shelters

The Homeless Congress last week voted to ask every candidate running for the new County Council and County Executive to make a pledge that if elected they will support the regulation of the shelters. At this point, there is no law that sets a minimum standard for shelter in Cuyahoga County. We spend $30 million on homeless services, and have no ability to enforce regulations on the shelters. This has allowed 100 women to sleep in a shelter with only one shower. This lack of a policy has allowed women and men to be kicked out of the shelter at 10 p.m. forcing them to sleep in a bus shelter or on the streets. This lack of oversight has made it nearly impossible to get the government to review a complaint that a client may have with regard to a publicly funded shelter. The members of the Congress are willing to negotiate exactly how the regulations are structured, but they want something in law that will protect homeless people from being dumped out onto the streets without warning.

At this point, three candidates have endorsed the regulation of the shelters, and the full list can be found here. Thanks Phyllis Crespo of District 7, Laverne Jones Gore of District 9 and Dale Miller of District 2 for endorsing the regulations. A special thanks to Ms. Crespo who attended the Congress meeting last week to listen to homeless people. There is one more Homeless Congress meeting before the election, and we have invited District 3 and District 7 candidates to meet with representatives of the Homeless Congress.

Brian
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County Does a Good Job on Funding Request

County Scores in the Top of the United States on Federal Homeless Application

In a time when the County is kicked around for the corruption and the inability to police itself, we have some good news. Cuyahoga County and especially Ruth Gillett director of the Office of Homeless Services scored in the highest percentile in the United States for applications for federal dollars. In the past, cities received a bonus for high scores, but this year they just got a pat on the back. Anyway, Gillett and the Cuyahoga County application scored a 90.25 out of 100. The high score in the United States was 91.25. Those cities that scored below 71.25 did not get their full funding. None of the cities in Ohio fell below the 71.25 funding thresh hold. Cuyahoga County had the high score in Ohio. Cincinnati had an 88.5; Dayton received a 86.25 with the State of Ohio which is completed by COHHIO received a 85.25. Akron and Canton both received an 80 with Youngstown at 80.75 and Toledo finishing with 81.25. Columbus drew up the rear for the state with a 79.25. Columbus previously had a score below the minimum funding level, which meant that only existing programs were funded for one year and the rest of their allocation went to other cities. So, congratulations to Ruth Gillett and Cuyahoga County.

No one in this community can deny that Ruth does a great job on the applications for resources especially from other governments. I have never understood why the Office of Homeless Services did not concentrate only on raising funds and applying for dollars, and leave all the rest to some other entity (planning, research, coordination, training, oversight, and enforcement). If we could figure out a way for homeless people, advocates and the service providers to have some say in how decisions are made locally for the allocation of resources and who has access to assistance, we could move things forward in actually reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness.

Brian
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Congressional Homeless Civil Rights Hearing

Judiciary Committee to Host Hearing on Hate Crimes

It was announced today the the Senate Judiciary Committee, for the first time ever, will host a hearing to talk about hate crimes directed at people experiencing homelessness. Get your TiVos set for C-Span 3, I would imagine around Midnight after Book TV on the 29th. There is a bill pending that would at least direct the Justice Department to study the issue of attacks on homeless people. NCH will testify along with a family member of a victim and an expert from California who studies this issue.

NOTICE OF SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, has scheduled a hearing entitled “Crimes Against America’s Homeless: Is the Violence Growing?” for Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The hearing is being called by Senator Cardin to chair.

Brian Davis

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Volunteer Opportunities in Cleveland

How Can I Help Homeless People?

Pictured: Kytara of Baldwin Wallace, Larry Davis, NEOCH Volunteer Coordinator, and Joe of Case Western Reserve from the summer 2010. Joe and Kytara both gave up their summer to serve homeless people in Cleveland. Kytara cleaned up our volunteer programs and Joe put together our family street card.

We have posted an updated list of volunteer activities for individuals or groups in Cuyahoga County to use if they want to volunteer to assist homeless people. Holly and Kytara contacted all of the homeless services to gather projects that may interest volunteers. We have posted the list of direct service opportunities in our community including the contact for each of the projects. There are everyday projects such as serving a lunch or clerical to special projects that may take a couple of months or may involve some specialty skills. While NEOCH can always use your help, we encourage you to spend some time directly serving those in need.

Brian
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New School Children Resource Available

What to Do If You Are In Danger of Becoming Homeless While in School?

The state and federal government have clear and unequivocal rules for protecting a child's education. The goal is to get a child situated within 24 hours after becoming homeless with a preference for maintaining their school life unbroken. So, whenever possible, advocates try to keep the child in the school they were attending before their guardian became homeless. The State of Ohio Department of Education enforces these rules, and will make sure that school districts don't try to enforce an arbitrary residency rule on homeless children.

Thanks to our new VISTA, Holly, we have updated the list of contacts from each school district in Cuyahoga County. As the new school year begins, we have posted the 2010-2011 list of homeless liaisons within each school district in Cuyahoga County. With the passage of No Child
Left Behind each district in the United States had to appoint one school official who could help children who may be experiencing homelessness. These liaisons can help identify resources within the community for homeless children, and will help set up transportation back to their school of origin. So, lets say a child's family becomes homeless in October while the child was attending Maple Hts. elementary school, they could search our list and find the district's contact. This district official would help the child pay for transportation from the Harbor Light shelter in Cleveland back to Maple Hts. school every day. They could help with tutoring assistance or printing a family street card from our website to help the household stay together during their stay in the shelters.

Brian
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How is the Stimulus Working for Homeless People?

Homeless Prevention Dollars in Cuyahoga County

In 2009, in the wake of the housing collapse, the federal government provided millions to cities to help prevent homelessness. The feds pumped money into existing programs so that they did not have to put a bunch of dollars into creating new infrastructure. In Cuyahoga County, we received $14 million that had to spent by 2012. The money was to be used to prevent homelessness, and to quickly move people back into housing if they became homeless. The City received $9.8 million, and gave it all over to the County. This may seem counter-intuitive since the FBI has set up camp around the Ontario Ave. County headquarters, but the City Council members had to go on summer break. The City of Lakewood took their $900,000 out of the pool, and they are using those funds for eviction prevention with the assistance of Lakewood Christian Services. Cleveland Heights decided to pool their money again with the County and so gave their $750,000 to the County Office of Homeless Services for distribution.

The County came up with their own plan for how to distribute the $13 million, and sub contracted with EDEN development corporation to distribute rent money, Mental Health Services to provide case management and administer the central intake to determine eligibility. Legal Aid, CTO, CMHA, Famicos, Catholic Charities, and the Department of Aging all received funds to help people prevent evictions. The Cleveland Mediation Center handles the payments to landlords in order to prevent evictions. We were told originally that only one third of the dollars would go to staffing and 2/3 would go to direct assistance to clients. This has proven to be difficult, and additional staff are being hired to keep up with the incredible demand for help during these difficult economic times. Money was set aside to pay for Housing Cleveland website and to purchase birth certificates and identification for homeless people as well.

Officials have had to engage in a "course correction" because things are not going as planned. Too many people are eligible for the funds and thus flocked to get help for their eviction. This has only increased over the last two months since the other pool of eviction diversion funds has dried up. CEOGC received a separate allocation and blew through their money in one year helping hundreds of families from becoming homeless. Through June the County was distributing twice as much for eviction help compared to those being placed in housing to get them out of homelessness. The Cleveland Mediation Center is overseeing the money to prevent evictions way faster than expected. They were so overwhelmed that they were setting up appointments after the hearing at eviction court. This usually meant that the individual would have to relocate to a new apartment, which is certainly not ideal. Now it looks like there was so much demand that they are going to limit rental assistance to only those in subsidized housing. Some in the community are angry that these decisions are made without any community input or oversight, but that is how things go in the County.

The other piece of the program is rapid rehousing, which is currently operated out of the two main shelters in Cleveland. With eviction diversion or homeless prevention, the County can provide rent to keep a person in housing. The other side of the HPRP stimulus dollars is the rapid rehousing and the agencies administering the rehousing program help find housing and then do follow up services to make sure the person will stay in housing. Many out in the field still wonder about the wisdom of giving away money at a shelter that are already overcrowded, but that is the plan. County and steering committee members defend both sides of the program saying that it is a new experiment and never before tried on this scale. The problem is that it is also time limited and we only have 19 months left to get it right.

Cleveland Hts seems to have backed the wrong horse here. They were one of two suburbs to get their own allocation. Lakewood officials pulled their money to use within the city limits, and have been giving money out at a rapid clip to prevent evictions. In fact in 2009, they were giving more money out than the entire rest of the County. But Cleveland Hts pooled their money with Cuyahoga County and were only able to serve 32 people through June 2010. The County wide average is that those receiving help average $825 per household as part of homeless prevention/eviction diversion. This means that Lakewood has served around 350 households since October of 2009 when the program began. Cleveland Hts has served 32 households or they have used around $26,000 of their $750,000 that the federal government provided as part of the stimulus.

So, here are the numbers from October 2009 to June 30, 2010:

Total prevention dollars spent: $906,996 or 1,190 households
Total Rapid Rehousing dollars spent: $412,602 or 1,548 households served
The total number of households re-housed is 232 from the Rapid Rehousing side.

We haven't had enough time to see if people are becoming homeless again, and since there is no central access point for all shelter it might never be possible to access these numbers. We still have to see if those facing eviction in non-subsidized housing will turn to the shelters in greater numbers because there is not rental assistance money available to prevent evictions as part of the course correction. We do know that thousands have been helped, and without these dollars the shelters would be overwhelmed. But the shelters are still completely full almost every day of the last year, and we still cannot provide a bed to everyone in need. It is unfortunate that we never get to discuss, as a community, strategies to use $14 million in the best manner possible instead of decisions being made based on the abilities of staff or agencies or course corrections made at the whim of the providers.

Brian
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Bernadette Janes Passes

A Good Friend of the Coalition

Bernadette Janes, a diminutive grandmotherly type who spoke loudly with her pen, has passed away. Janes was a longtime friend of the Coalition, and wrote a number of stories in the Homeless Grapevine newspaper here and here and here. She was great at profiles of people like Sabrina and Arthur, and had a history of supporting social justice organizations in Cleveland. Every so often she published letters in the Plain Dealer. Janes supported the rights of women, opposed the attacks on poor people by government and marched against wars. She was a veteran and was a great volunteer for NEOCH. In fact, at the 2007 Annual Meeting, Bernadette was awarded Volunteer of the Year for 2006 for NEOCH. She would take the Community Response Transit bus every week or every other week depending on her health to NEOCH to volunteer. Bernadette had no problem with stuffing envelopes or entering data or doing a profile for the Grapevine. She realized that all of it contributed to improving the Coalition. Every mundane task freed up time for the director to issue an advocacy alert or the development director to send out a grant. She was happy just helping, and loved interacting with the staff.

Janes talked to us about homelessness and tried to understand how things had gotten so out of control in our society that families were the fastest growing population of homeless people. She wanted to learn from the people that she interviewed. Bernadette wanted to understand the health issues that led to Arthur becoming homeless, and then she was able to boil down those complicated ideas into a story for the Grapevine. She wrote advocacy journalism to educate the public about the holes in the US safety net. She tried to listen to Sabrina's story about family homelessness and capture that pain, anger and harm that this caused to put it all down on paper.

Another guardian of social justice lost in Cleveland. We miss Bernadette, and wish her family strength in this time of sorrow.

Updated 9/7/10: Text from the announcement at Busch Funeral Home. "Janes passed away on September 3, 2010. Memorials may be forwarded to Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH), [Address slightly incorrect, but corrected here] 3631 Perkins Ave., #3A-3, Cleveland, OH 44114. Memorial services will be at the funeral home at 12:00 noon on October 9th. For those attending, in honor of Bernadette's life, colorful attire is encouraged, and please bring a non perishable food item for donation to the Hunger Center. Friends may call from 11:00 - Noon at the BUSCH FUNERAL HOME, 21369 CENTER RIDGE RD, FAIRVIEW PARK. Cremation by Busch Crematory."

Brian
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Cincinnati Police Allowed to Run Over People

Another Reason to Boycott Cincinnati

There are so many reasons to stay away from the city of Cincinnati, and today the Cincinnati prosecutor's office announced one more reason. Prosecutor Joe Deters held a press conference to inform the community that Hamilton County would not pursue felony charges against police officer Marty Polk for running over and killing Joann Burton as she slept under a blanket in Washington Park in the Over the Rhine neighborhood. In Ohio, the County acts on behalf of the state to pursue felony (serious) charges, and the cities oversee misdemeanor cases. This is an unbelievable decision, and hard to make any other conclusion except that if this woman had not been homeless or had not been an African American or not been either this police officer would be waiting for a manslaughter trial to start.

Are homeless people so disposable in Cincinnati that police are free to kill them without criminal charges? Or is racism still alive and well within the Cincinnati judicial system? The prosecutor claimed the definition of a vehicular felony involved "heedless indifference to consequences and perversely disregarding known risks." This seems to be exactly what happened here. The police officer went up over the curb, and then drove off the path and then decided to drive over the blankets in the park in the daytime. How is that not a "disregard of known risks?" How is running over a person not considered ignoring the consequences of driving up on the grass? I just cannot imagine if a white baby were killed sleeping under a blanket by a police car while the parents were playing volleyball in the park, the the officer would have been immediately fired and charged with vehicular homicide. Besides not being homeless, what could Ms. Burton done to prevent her own death if this were an accident. She was asleep, and not bothering anyone. Should she have set up cones or flashing lights? Is the city going to provide traffic cones to indicate that a homeless person is sleeping to avoid these "accidents" in the future?

I don't understand how Cincinnati is so hostile to low income, homeless, and African American people. Elected officials have tried to close down the Drop In Center shelter for over 20 years. They have undercharged vicious crimes against homeless people on a regular basis according to the National Coalition for the Homeless hate crimes report. Officials never really healed the wounds from the 2001 riot in the Over the Rhine neighborhood. City Council has repeatedly passed laws directed at homeless people. The Cincinnati police have long been under the scrutiny of the Justice Department and community groups because of alleged racist behavior and an unusual number of deaths with young African Americans taken into custody. This decision this week to let Officer Polk off without criminal charges is just another in the long line of poor leadership within the City of Cincinnati, and another reason to steer clear of the City.

Brian
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More Reasons to Support the ACLU

Homelessness Discussion Available On-Line

Earlier this year, we promoted an event at the American Civil Liberties Union on homelessness. I was privileged to be invited to speak to a surprising large crowd for the middle of the day about homelessness and the 20 years of legal work that we have undertaken to protect the rights of homeless people. It was another good event by one of the premier civil rights groups in the United States. Because of the work of Chris Link, Ray Vasvari, Kevin O'Neill, Gary Daniels, Joan Englund, Gino Scarselli, James Levin, Jason Jaffery, and Carrie Davis (no relation), the ACLU has always been a tremendous partner to protect the rights of very low income and homeless people in Cleveland and Ohio. They have posted the video from the talk on their website here.

There were a number of very good questions from the crowd, and I talked about the long history of working to protect the civil rights of homeless people. Because of NEOCH and the ACLU working together, things are better for homeless people compared to other areas of the country. For example, Cleveland is one of the few communities in the United States with a signed agreement between the police/city and the Coalition that prevents the police from arresting or threatening arrest for purely innocent behavior of sitting, sleeping or standing on the sidewalk. This reduces the number of homeless people who end up in jail for being poor, and reduces conflict between homeless people and city officials. If you want more information go watch the video. Also, make sure you support the ACLU because some group in our community should have the job of protecting and preserving the Bill of Rights and not just paying lip service to "protecting the Constitution."

Brian
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Street Cards Published

All Street Cards Updated and Posted

Thanks to MetroHealth Hospital for printing the 2010 version of the Street Card. It is out now, and available on the NEOCH website. We are working to distribute them throughout the system. This is the eighteenth year of updating the Street Card in Cleveland. Every year one of the hospital systems agrees to printing the card. We distribute 10,000 to schools, libraries, police stations and social service providers. Many print the Street Card directly from our website. This is the most popular page of our website by far, and people are free to download the Street Card and make copies and distribute themselves. For those who are not aware the Street Card is a free resource guide for those in need of help. It lists all the services available in the community that a person can access directly from the streets (no referral necessary). It lists only weekly food sites. New this year is some help with obtaining identification. I saw a section on ID on one of the street cards from another city in the United States and decided that we need something similar. If you are visiting a store with some fraudulent women holding a street card asking for a donation, don't be fooled. They are scammers. Don't give them money.

A few months back, NEOCH announced that we were creating a special Street Card to serve families. Thanks to the internship of CWRU student, Joe Baum, we were able to publish this Street Card last week. We were seeking donations to help with this project, and about 20 people responded. Thanks also to the Dominion Foundation who saw this project and stepped forward to get it done. They are helping with the printing and the distribution of this Family Street Card. It is available on our website here. The Family Street Card is tailored more to homeless children and their parents. It lists childcare options, foreclosure assistance, and contacts at local school districts for families struggling with housing. We will begin to distribute the Family Street Card throughout the community this fall.

In addition, both the Veterans Street Card and the East Cleveland Street Card were updated and are available on our website. For case workers who work with these individuals, these are invaluable resources. Please feel free to download any or all of these Street Cards and distribute them to people in need.

Brian
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Limitations on Health Care

A Grand Experiment: Limiting Detox to Once Per Year

The newly united Alcohol and Drug Addictions Board and the Mental Health Board took a huge hit by the state in the last round of budget cuts. The ADAMHS Board decided that they would work on limiting costs by only paying for one stay in detoxification for narcotics and other drugs per calendar year. Even if you leave a day after beginning detox, you cannot return for 12 months. Beginning October 1, 2010, the Board will pay for detox services only once per 12 months unless the women in need is pregnant or the individual is in active or impending alcohol withdraw. They held a public meeting last week to talk about these issues and a few activists and practitioners attended. Sounds boring, I know. I have to say in listening to all the statistics and the rationale, this all seems like some big experiment without a lot of proof that this will work. I was not even sure what the goals were for this program after listening to the staff of the ADAMHS board.

The Board was not looking for comment or public scrutiny. They were just asking to explain why they were taking these actions. ADAMHS Board Director William Denihan could not make it, but Dr. Christina M. Delos Reyes was able to provide some passion to defending and explaining the policy. Charlotee Still Noble, ADAMHS Board chair was also in attendance, but she did not say much. It must be noted that the policy was introduced earlier this year, and was criticized by many so they went back and revised it to not include pregnant women and those attempting to rid themselves of alcohol. The main defense was that they are trying to better meet the needs in the community, because of the long waiting lists that exist now. They are trying to better integrate the treatment programs with the detox programs so that people leave detox and get priority within the treatment programs. Dr. Delos Reyes talked about the budget cuts, and specifically the disparity that exists in how the medical system deals with alcohol and drug issues compared to other health care issues. This was an important point that she championed and should be shouted in the halls of the state capital.

The statistics provided by the board were not very convincing, and said to me that the Board does not do a very good job of understanding the full landscape of alcohol and drug services. They presented only the numbers from detox services that were reimbursed by the board, which I do not believe is a fair reflection of the need in the community. There are plenty of other programs, hospitals, and places that do not get reimbursed but provide medical detox. How many "frequent fliers" go through multiple detox sessions, but only one was paid for by the County? We also do not know how long people are in fact waiting for detox. Are they finding a waiting list at one of the three programs that are reimbursed by the County ADAMHS Board, and so they go somewhere else (like the emergency room)?

Then when pressed by those attending the meeting, it was found that the board has no ability to gather these other statistics. This means we do not know how this new policy will impact our community. We do not know if this will increase the number of people using the emergency room. We do not know if this will increase alcohol related deaths or even if this will increase the amount of care that the other providers must pay for out of their own pockets. It seemed to me that this was a rationing of health care, based on a small amount of data without any attempt to figure out the impact that this will have on the community. They could have rallied the community against tax cuts, a change in state budget priorities, or a focus on public policy instead of just corruption scandals. Instead we were treated to anecdotes and platitudes like, "This is not about waiting lists; this is about make the services available."

Stella Maris detox program staff claimed that they spent $209,000 in uncompensated care in 2009 and $59,000 in uncompensated care in 2008. I have to believe that this new policy will only push more uncompensated care onto community organizations like Stella Maris or the Salvation Army because it is so difficult to turn people away from detox. This is the first step into the treatment program, and so groups understand that they do not want to turn people away from this first step out of fear that they will never see them again. I applaud Dr. Delos Reyes comments about treating these addiction issues as we treat every other health care problem with emergency care and a "do no harm mentality" as a guiding principle. Too often decisions within behavioral health are made based on economics and not what is in the best interest of the individual. Too often behavioral health problems are addressed with "consequences" for misbehavior by the addicted individual. I have never heard of discharging a patient being treated for diabetes/high sugar levels in the hospital because they had a friend bring in a milkshake. Relapse with a drink while in treatment and they will send you on your way without hesitation.

While some communities are passing special taxes on beer and wine distributors in order to pay for treatment on demand, we are going the opposite way in Cuyahoga County. The brave new world of rationing detox is upon us.

Brian

PS: I hate this photograph and the message contained on it, but it is a perfect example for why we need detox. This is why we doctored the photo to discourage people from copying it and using it as negative propaganda against homeless people. The composition of the photo by Cheryl Jones is very good, but the message is horrible. I mean begging for money is offensive, but then publicly admitting that you have a drinking problem is even worse. I have talked to Nate, the subject in the photo, about this but he thinks humor brings in the bucks. It just seems like to me a black guy doing a minstrel show for pedestrians downtown and asking for some dollars in exchange for making himself look like a fool. It is highly offensive, but the message delivered by the ADAMHS Board in rationing health care is just as troubling.

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People That Make Things Work 4

Linda Stamm--Identification Collaborative

It is such a routine and easy undertaking that most of us take for granted. It is something that we do every couple of years, and besides the long lines it is usually just an inconvenience to renew your driver's license. For a homeless person obtaining identification is difficult, and in a post 9/11 world it is often impossible. In Ohio, you cannot even exercise your fundamental right as a citizen to vote in person without identification. It all starts with the birth certificate as the primary document to get all the other pieces of identification. There are a hundred different ways to get a birth certificate, but some states make it impossible to order a birth certificate by mail. There is the thorny issue of what address to use if you have no fixed residence. In Cleveland, to get a birth certificate you have to go to City Hall, but that requires showing identification to get into the office of vital statistics to get the birth certificate. To prove who you were actually born, you have to enter this Monty Python type routine with the security guard at City Hall asking to see your identification; you respond that you are there to get identification, and there is this stand off at the front door.

Anyway, identification can cost between $15 and $120, but in many cases it is the ticket to housing or a job or treatment or release from parole. It is often the last thing that people secure when they first become homeless, and it is one of the first items stolen. For those born on a military base or in New York City or Indiana or Puerto Rico, it takes a very long time and it is a very difficult process to order your birth certificate by mail. This all has to do with stepped up security after the attacks on September 11, and local and state budget shortfalls that resulted in large scale increases in fees. In Cleveland, we developed a unique partnership with many of the homeless social service providers. Linda Stamm of the West Side Catholic Center has been a vital part of this for the last few years, and is moving on in the next few weeks.

NEOCH assigned a VISTA to this project about five years ago, and he was able to coordinate this service for the year he was here. Then West Side Catholic took over the project, and the Plain Dealer did a feature on the problems that homeless people had with identification. They showed how other cities had funded identification programs, and Cleveland was behind in providing this opportunity. We also have to give credit to Eileen from St. Colman's for getting everyone together in the beginning and pushing this forward. St. Colman's was the original fiscal agent for the project. The big step forward that Jerry Skoch provided at West Side Catholic was to not only fund a program that provides resources to those without identification to purchase a birth certificate or state id or both, but also providing a staff position to do advocacy around obtaining ID. Often the importance of advocacy in setting up these programs is forgotten. There are huge issues that Linda was able to help us work through. She raised flags to the community when the state was raising the price of identification. She tried to convince the state that they should help with the cost of obtaining identification for very low income people as other states do. Linda helped us with the voting lawsuit that we filed to allow the votes of homeless people to count when they voted and did not have ID. She helped with negotiations over the loss of licenses because of debt issues, the specific rules for people coming out of incarceration and obtaining id, and clarifying residency rules at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

This has been an excellent collaboration, and is the envy of other cities in Ohio. Just having a notebook on the rules for all 50 states for how to obtain a birth certificate is a wonderful resource. Linda put this together and updates it regularly. We have to applaud West Side Catholic for their willingness to assign staff/volunteers to this important collaboration. We have to thank the local foundations and City of Cleveland for funding this collaboration over the last few years. And we owe a debt of gratitude to Linda Stamm for organizing all of this. Good luck.

Brian
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The People Who Make Things Work 3

Pat Clifford during happier times as the Drop Inn Center Marked 30 Years of service in 2008.

Pat Clifford Cincinnati Homeless Advocate
Unlike Earl Pike who seems to have parted amicably with the AIDS Task Force, we know that Pat Clifford was unceremoniously dumped by the Drop Inn Center in Cincinnati. This is the shelter that buddy gray started by taking over a building after years of fighting with the City to do something about the rising number of homeless people. Clifford was again another of the deep thinkers in our society who make our government work. As we have demonstrated many times in this blog, Cincinnati is one of the most messed up cities when it comes to homeless policies. They never have ended the war between public officials and homeless people. They are still fighting over space, viability, and NIMBY issues going on 40 years now. These problems date back to the founding of the shelter and the protests that buddy raised. I talked to officials from the Cincinnati Coalition and they see this as a new attempt to sweep out "the old guard" and finally get the shelter to relocate.

buddy's shelter is one of the few large shelters in the United States that serves both men and women at night. They have struggled with all the problems that all of America's homeless facilities have to face. Just a month ago a woman overdosed in the bathroom at the shelter. They fought with the City over the winter to be able to house a homeless man who was dying of pneumonia, but was a sexually based offender and could not find housing anywhere in the city. Also, last month in Cincinnati a police officer recklessly drove off the path in a public park and killed a homeless woman sleeping under her blankets by driving over her while she was sleeping during the day. The only reason to drive over someone's belongings is to show homeless people that the police are in charge of the park. This typifies the on-going battle taking place in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood between developers/police and low income people and their advocates.

Pat was a protege of buddy. He was the director of the Cincinnati Coalition when buddy was shot and killed in the shelter in 1996. Clifford studied homelessness and the best way to house those struggling with poverty. He looked at shelter models throughout the country. He tried to make the housing of last resort the best it could be for everyone coming to their doors at night. Clifford was the Obama of the Cincinnati homeless population. He worked closely with homeless people for years and was their advocate and then was thrust into the job of director of the largest social service provider serving homeless people. He had to make nice with the City, the United Way, funders, and sometimes he had to hold his tongue when he saw how the city policies that harmed homeless people. Clifford, as director or landlord to homeless people, was criticized by some advocates for what was perceived as harsh policies toward homeless people in much the same way as Obama is criticized by the liberals for compromising. Clifford never compromised when it came to attacks on the shelter; acting as caretaker to the buddy gray legacy. He balked at teaching homeless people about the dangers of the legal activity of panhandling as part of the yearly shelter allocation of funds. He was unwilling to relocate the facility to some far away hidden location without new money on the table in order to please the powers in Cincinnati who have rediscovered the 40 year neglected Over The Rhine neighborhood.

It is rough running a shelter, and it is difficult to keep the idealism that inspires young people to want to solve the problem of homelessness when working in a shelter. There are some homeless people who, in order to feel safe, want to strip searches of everyone that walks in the door--civil liberties be damned. There are some homeless people who because of their mental condition make life impossible for everyone around them, and the shelter director has to figure out a way to love everyone looking for help. There are some who are unwilling to take advice from anyone, and give up good housing options to live in the shelters. The majority of homeless people just want to leave as fast as possible, but they are often lost because of the sheer numbers looking for help each with their own crisis or multiple layers of problems that caused them to lose their housing.

On the first day of working in a shelter it is often the case that you are the leading advocate for privacy rights, decriminalization of quality of life ordinances, and a strong belief in government. Most get into the job because they want to provide a hand up to those who struggling in our society, and they can see that they are making a difference for people. Every single day of seeing people destroying themselves with drugs and alcohol and making horrible decisions for themselves a shelter worker must check themselves and recommit to core beliefs or they get lost. It is so easy to become bitter and angry with the population, and disgusted with government to the point that you become part of the problem. I met with Pat in March, and he did not seem burnt out or frustrated with his constituency. In my opinion, Clifford was able to walk this tight rope of providing a home to people struggling without becoming the Mayor of a homeless ghetto or the warden of a homeless prison.

I was told that Clifford went on vacation and then when he came back the board fired him. The Drop Inn Center has a relatively small board, and so it is easy to get a few development minded people to convince the others that it is time for a change. Josh Springs of the Cincinnati Coalition has been all over the news complaining that the local development company that wants to renovate the park and move the shelter was behind Clifford's firing...And the war goes on in Cincinnati with homeless people caught in the crossfire. I am sure that Clifford will land on his feet. I just hope that he is not so disgusted with the politics of homelessness that he decides to move to some other human service or civil rights project.

Brian
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People Who Make Things Work 2

Earl Pike Photo by AIDS Task Force Staff Kathie McClure

Earl Pike of the AIDS Task Force

By now you have heard that Earl Pike is no longer the director of the AIDS Task Force. I received his Facebook posting explaining his decision to move on, and he said that had been thinking about a move for sometime. This may be true, but it seems to me that if this was a planned move by the agency the statement would be more like, "At the end of this month, Earl Pike will be leaving the AIDS Task Force, and Tracy Jones will take the position of interim executive director," or something like that. But it does not matter, those are the often strange inner-workings of non-profit organizations that we will probably never hear the real story.

This series of posts reflects on people in Ohio who make government work. These are the people who are doing jobs that government should be doing or individuals who make local or state government work properly. As Director of the AIDS Task Force, Earl Pike worked to serve those with HIV/AIDS for the last 25 years, basically, since the beginning of the crisis. He is one of the deep thinkers in our community, and we all felt confident that with Pike in charge we had a chance of solving the problem. Coming up with solutions to providing the best services to people with AIDS is not the same talent as fund raising, human resources, and completing government grants in order to run a non-profit organization. Implementing a solution to a crisis is also not the same as media relations, interaction with politicians, and schmoozing with donors as required when leading a non-profit organization. But Earl Pike is always thinking about the population that he served, and how to improve their quality of life.

There are tons of people who say that government should be cut, and that once government gets involved everything will cost more and all we typically get is WFA (waste, fraud, and abuse). When I heard that Earl Pike had left the AIDS Task Force, I thought about how much has changed with regard to people suffering with AIDS during the time he dedicated to this issue. It is a testament to the power our government has to impact people's lives. In 1985, Ronald Reagan starts his second term in office, blood begins being tested for those donating blood to prevent the spread of AIDS, Back to the Future is the king of the box office, and New Coke is introduced. People that receive word that they have HIV consider it a death sentence, and agencies are constructed to act as hospice care centers to the dying. Government put a disproportionate amount of money into the problem compared to other killer diseases of heart disease, cancer, or respiratory diseases. We the people poured money into this new disease and improved the quality of life for millions throughout the world. What is the price of 20 to 30 extra years of life for millions? I have to think that it was worth it, and I am proud that I paid my taxes. This was a disease like none other seen by modern man that was spread by the exchange of bodily fluids. We put lots of money toward this problem and our best minds with tremendous results. Next time someone criticizes the wasteful government spending just ask them about HIV/AIDS.

I worked with Pike on various health care related boards and some homeless assistance projects, and look forward to some other bigger projects in the future. The last time we collaborated was when a truck ran over a homeless man in front of the AIDS Task Force building. Earl offered his space for a memorial for the man since the family was not big on going into a church. It was a nice way to remember Symeon Hurt who was trying to get his life together.

So, Earl Pike is moving on to a new problem or a broader look at the issue of sexual health and disparity issues. We can only hope that he will have as much success in his new endeavors as he had with the AIDS problem. Please do not think that I am saying that the AIDS crisis is done or over or that we can rest on the success that advocates such as Earl Pike have fought to achieve. All I am saying that if America sets it mind to something (getting to the moon, keeping HIV positive people alive, and keeping the elderly from living in extreme poverty when they retire) we do a pretty good job. We need more people like Earl Pike to put their talents and life to working to solve problems and we could finally solve homelessness, obesity, mental illness that disrupts a person's life, and eventually poverty.

Brian
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The People Who Make Things Work 1

Photo of Gayle Channing Tenenbaum from the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority Website.

Gayle Channing Tanenbaum
Congratulations to Gayle Channing Tenenbaum who will be inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame at the end of the month. Tanenbaum is a huge advocate for children in Ohio, and is the one of the reasons that things work in our society. Her job is to make sure that any threat to the health and welfare of young people in Ohio is met with an appropriate response. That could be a legal remedy, lobbying, twisting of arms, publicity, and most importantly shining a light on the inner workings of government. She has exposed the hypocrisy of campaigning on a platform of life, but cutting all human services funds so that young Mom's can not survive or attempts to balance the state budget disproportionately with cuts to programs serving poor people. She has worked 40 years in serving the most fragile populations. Tanenbaum works on public policy, planning as well as media and public relations.

Tanenbaum is a Senior Policy Fellow with Voices for Ohio's Children, and CEO of Channing and Associates consulting firm. Simultaneously, she serves a number of children and human services organizations including her role as Legislative Director for the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. She worked in the Celeste administration, and cut her teeth in social services in Cuyahoga County.

She holds a master's degree in social work from the University of Cincinnati. She is an adjunct professor, teaching public policy, at the Ohio State University College of Social Work. There are many who feel that our government is dysfunctional or dishonest or corrupt, but without honorable women such as Tanenbaum, Ohio would be in big trouble. She strives everyday to improve the quality of life for families and proven successes in access to benefits, health care expansion to children, and housing. None of us have the time to watch every move made by state government; that is why is critical to have people like Gayle Channing Tanenbaum acting as our eyes and ears down in Columbus.

Brian
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No Fund Raiser This Friday

Guys Night Out Postponed!!!

The Cleveland Tower City Cinema's has announced that they have to postpone the "Guys Night Out" fundraiser for this Friday evening. This does not look good for the Jet Li, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis film. Ticket sales for the Expendables were not up to the level expected for a film with all these stars. We will give you more information in the near future.

Brian
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Latest Appeal To Mayor For Help

NEOCH Board Asks the City to Enforce Building and Housing Standards

Dear Mayor Frank Jackson:

For the past two months, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless has tried to improve conditions at the Community Women’s Shelter. Our goal is to get the same treatment for homeless women as would be extended to women living in an apartment. As you know, on May 3, 2010, residents of CWS were moved to their current and temporary facility at 1701 Payne Avenue due to renovations of the CWS building. The site contained no shower forcing women to go to nearby Cosgrove Center and North Point Men’s Transitional Shelter to shower. If this were an apartment building with 90 women and one shower, this would have been condemned the day that it opened.

NEOCH’s has worked for 10 years to improve the conditions within the shelters, and we feel that things are moving backward with this temporary location. We have spent countless hours over the last month to work on the problems at the Community Women’s Shelter. Our board member, Rosie Palfy has filed numerous complaints to city officials about the health and safety of the shelter. We filed complaints with the state, and with every department that will listen. NEOCH filed complaints with building and housing citing multiple building code violations in the first week of June. Please remember that homeless people typically spend less than 30 days in shelter, so for many this will be their only contact with City or County funded shelters.

Palfy called repeatedly and even drove downtown to check on the complaint in person, and no one answered or responded to her messages. After hearing no update on her complaint, she called Inspector Santora from the office of Building and Housing in late July. Mr. Santora had made a visual inspection of the facility and finally called Ms. Palfy on July 23, 2010, and remained adamant that the shelter is complying with all health and safety codes. Ms. Palfy cited many violations in the shelter such as the number of people per toilet and the lack of showers, the overcrowded conditions, the lack of the proper number of sinks, and the deteriorating conditions in the shelter. Inspector Santora remained unyielding in his defense of the shelter and insistence that the plumbing was adequate. However, it is our understanding that congregate living facilities must have at least one toilet and shower per 10 people. The shelter regularly has 80-100 people per night with four working toilets and only one shower. Mr. Santora was described as “rude” during their phone conversation by Ms. Palfy.

The inspector could not explain why the certificate of occupancy indicates that the shelter can only have 50 beds, but now has 80 beds and as many as 100 women sleeping in the shelter. The inspector indicated that he toured the showers in the building around the corner to see where the women shower. Despite the fact that there is nothing in the building and housing code that allows residential facilities to have showers available for a few hours a day down the street. The inspector did not check on the fact that women were using the urinals because there are not enough toilets, and that the water pressure is so low it is often the case that they do not flush. The inspector’s response was, “Where do you think they would be going if they were [sleeping] outside?”

Santora believed that the women were not in any imminent danger and so was unwilling to take corrective action. We have done as much as we can to prevent harm, but are not receiving any help from the City. We have already seen a majority of the women not showering. We have already had women going to the hospital because of infections. Inspector Santora seemed to be treating the Coalition as the enemy here, and he seemed to indicate that it was our intention to shut down the facility and make the women homeless again. This is not our intention or our goal. We just want the women to live in humane conditions, and for the City and County to take this problem seriously. We ask that the bureaucrats who spent a year planning this move to admit that they made a mistake in not planning for the proper number of showers and the large number of women who needed shelter, and fix their mistake. NEOCH is asking for your help to stand up for the women in the shelter. Your intervention can help improve the conditions in the shelter. We are always willing to help, but we cannot tolerate the conditions that the women are living under.

Sincerely yours,

Marcia Bufford

Bufford also sent this to Building and Housing Director Rybka as a follow up to the early June complaint and members of Cleveland City Council.
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Fund Raiser to Benefit NEOCH

Guys Night Out at Tower City

(Women are Invited as well)!! Cleveland's Tower City Cinemas is hosting a benefit for the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless on August 13 at 6 p.m.

Tickets are available for $25 at the Cleveland Cinema's website. There will be an food, prizes, and tickets to see the Expendables with Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews, and Mickey Rourke for its opening night.

For more information call Tower City Cinemas at 440-526-0355.
POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!!!!

Brian
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Census Update 2010

Ben Holbert of the US Census gives an award to Luke Drotar VISTA for NEOCH for his work in making sure that homeless people were counted in 2010. Then some guy in a Hawaiian shirt crashed the photo shoot.

Done for Another 10 Years
NEOCH and especially Luke Drotar did a ton of work on making sure that the US Census did not miss homeless people during the count. We are pretty sure that every shelter in Cleveland was counted, but most of those who were outside or those who only surface at a meal program were largely missed. We hope that the Census releases the shelter count as they had done in the 2000 Census. NEOCH staff have prepared a list of recommendations for the 2020 Census if we still have not got it together as a country and solved homelessness.

1. We need one staff person from the Census to be designated as liaison to NEOCH and the County Office of Homeless Services that will cover the whole county. This time there were three different offices that covered different service areas, and each had one supervisor.

2. We need more field staff counting, and fewer staff advertising the Census. Also, there were not enough administrators coordinating or directing the field staff that we could communicate with in the office. Those directing the field staff were also out in the field and we had a hard time getting in touch with Census staff.

3. We need to have Census clearly define to us the definition of shelter that they intend to count as part of the homeless count. Where do the mental health and treatment programs fit into the count?

4. We need the privacy of the outdoor sites communicated to workers early in the process and this should be a United States policy and not just a regional policy.

5. One month before the count, outreach workers and homeless individuals should be hired and sworn in as Census employees to guide them to the outdoor locations on the day they count those resistant to shelter.

6. We need some guidelines for how they eliminate duplication with regard to the meal count since as many as 50-60% of the population are counted in other locations.

7. All the numbers should be released to the City and County after the count to compare to our February HUD count and to use for planning.

Brian

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Shelter Still Lacking in Showers

NEOCH Scolded For Asking for Decent Conditions

In an interview with Ohio News Network about the debacle surrounding the temporary location of the Community Women Shelter, Cleveland’s chief of Public Affairs, Natoya Walker Minor, claimed that NEOCH is “completely wrong on [our push for improved condition for the 80 women currently sleeping at the shelter].” She went on to say that the issue “has gained too much notoriety for a temporary situation.”

Much of the notoriety the issue has gained has been because of the Board of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless voicing concerns over the shelter, which is accommodating more people every night than that building can handle, and only has one shower. Because of these issues, NEOCH feels that this location is unacceptable for human habitation, regardless of whether it is a temporary situation. After all, half the women who enter the shelter today will not be there by the middle of August. So, there entire experience with homelessness will be at a facility without enough showers, beds, sinks or toilets.

Because the city and the county have largely dismissed the pleas and concerns of the NEOCH Board, they have filed complaints with the State, the fire department, and other government entities. NEOCH Board members, however, question the planning process that preceded the shelter’s relocation. Walker Minor and Cuyahoga County Director of Homeless Services Ruth Gillett said they spent between six months to a year planning the renovations and move of the shelter, but were unable to find a facility with showers.

"The question is why do city and county officials think that inhumane and intolerable living conditions are acceptable under any circumstances -- temporary or otherwise? That is the most disturbing part of all of this,” said board member Rosie Palfy. The NEOCH Board cannot understand how any plan involving a temporary shelter did not consider the shower needs of the women and the natural increases in homeless women every summer. The facility has had over 100 women on some nights with even pregnant women sleeping on the floor on a mat.

“I’ll be the first to admit, it is inconvenient,” Walker Minor told ONN. NEOCH maintains that this inconvenient solution is not an acceptable one, especially after a year of planning. If there was an apartment building with 90 residents and only one working shower, that building would quickly be condemned and the residents would be immediately moved into a facility that is in compliance with the law. “Why do homeless women and pregnant women have to suffer through this summer sleeping on the floor without adequate bathroom facilities because of poor planning and an unwillingness to seek help from the public to pay for a decent temporary shelter,” asked Marcia Bufford, NEOCH Board President?

These problems, accompanied by the sweltering heat Cleveland has encountered recently, combine to exacerbate the issues facing the women staying at the temporary shelter. The shelters need to maintain compliance with some minimum level of basic standards, and should not place women who have already experienced extreme hardship into a facility that is so overcrowded and does not provide a place for women to practice good hygiene as they prepare for job interviews or a meetings with potential landlords.

Press Release by Marcia Bufford and Rosie Palfy
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