The Akron Assault on Free Speech

Most Restrictive Law on Panhandling

The City of Akron has announced their intention to attempt to eliminate panhandling within the Akron city limits. We always think of Akron as a progressive leader with a fair and even handed Mayor until now. This law is the most offensive attempt to make it illegal to ask for help in Ohio. As chair of the National Coalition for the Homeless Civil Rights Committee, I am able to see many of the laws directed at homeless people in the U.S. The Akron anti-panhandling law is one of the most severe that I have ever seen. They restrict where speech is free and then they require a license to exercise constitutionally protected speech. The most ridiculous aspect of this law is that those with a criminal background will be denied a license.

A few quick thoughts about this offensive law:
1. Since it should be a high hurdle to restrict speech (fire in a crowded movie theatre), then what is the public purpose for restricting speech around financial institutions and certain downtown landmarks? If I wore a shirt around Akron that said "financial institution" would that force panhandlers to stay 20 feet away?

2. Did anyone see the irony in preventing people from asking for money 20 feet from the places where money is kept?

3. Most of the homeless providers in Akron are supporting this legislation including the Salvation Army and the Alcohol and Drug Board. How much of a sell out do you have to be to throw your own clients under the bus in order to remain at peace with your city government? I mean these guys have a job because there are desperate people in Akron who need money, and then they are supporting making these guys criminals. It is sickening. At least the Cleveland service providers said nothing last year when Cleveland City Council was passing the panhandling ordinance last year.

4. Are the police just hanging out and looking for work? How do they have time to do background checks on potential panhandlers and then checking those licenses on the streets?

5. This legislation is modeled after the one in Cincinnati. What city in the United States models itself after the notoriously racist city of Cincinnati?

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

This Changes Everything

State Representatives Must Answer to GOD!!!

I attended the local swearing in of State Representative Mike Foley. The Coalition shares some space with the Tenants Organization so it was natural for our two staffs to work collaboratively over the last few years. It was nice to see a friend move into a dream job. I am so glad that I attended first to see Bill Callahan, the grandfather of local blogs; then there were the elected friends of CTO present: Mayor Jackson, Phyllis Cleveland, Judge Corrigan and now Foley, which moves CTO up on the list of powerful non-profits in the City of Cleveland. The second reason was to hear the oath Mike and the other State Reps pledge before taking office.

"I (name of state representative) do solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio, and faithfully to discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives according to the best of my ability and understanding; and do this as I shall answer to God."

Mike did add "and to the people" at the end, but this was just his gesture to populism and not contained in the official oath. I have worked at the Coalition for 11 years, and I had no idea that these guys swear to be answerable exclusively to GOD!!!! This changes everything regarding our advocacy tactics. Things are going to be a lot different now that I know these guys are directly responsible to God and not the people. I have always approached my job from the social justice perspective and the negative effects of homelessness on the health and welfare of their citizens. It turns out that the State Representatives take their oath seriously and so our "protecting the less fortunate" was a very bad strategy. It seems so naive and pollyanish now that I realize the power of the oath.

The Coalition will now reform our tactics. We will now reference God in everything that we do. "Would Jesus want you to ignore predatory sharks ripping off seniors and poor people for 10 years?" I will start carrying around a copy of the Beatitudes to distribute. I will adopt a "Fire and Brimstone" approach to my advocacy. "Jesus has said that how you, Mr. Speaker, treat the least among us is how you treat him. I know that cutting access to dental care for poor people will damn you to eternal torment and torture in HELL!!" It is no wonder why faux preachers like Rod Parsley have so much success in the hallowed halls of the State House.

I feel like I found the Holy Grail, by stumbling on the oath of office. Also, that I wasted the last 10 years. Look for a whole new direction for the old Coalition for the Homeless and new Congregation for the Homeless.

Brian

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

25 Years of AIDS

How Many Greats Were Lost in the Last 25 Years?

I finished watching that excellent series from Frontline marking 25 years of AIDS. The recurring theme was that politics always trumped science and medicine throughout the world. Even the two areas highlighted as having reasonable success in the battle against AIDS had dynamic leaders who made that possible. In Cleveland, AIDS does cause homelessness often by bankrupting the individual. Eleven years ago when I began working with homeless people it was a waiting game, and I saw many desperate people who were at war with their own bodies. Today, it is a financial hardship without the level of suffering of the past. In reflecting on the Frontline special and the over 30 million who have died because of AIDS, I have to wonder how many amazing songs, works of art, novels, scientific discoveries did we deprive ourselves because politics got in the way of the fight?

How many Miles Davis's or Charlie Parker's were born and never got to perfect their talent because they died of AIDS related diseases prematurely through needle sharing?

How many young Janis Joplin's died because they were too free with their love and never got to rock the world with a "Piece of their Heart?"

How many Merce Cunningham's or John Cage's did not revolutionize classical music and the dance industry, because they had died too early after being infected with HIV?

How many South African Desmond Tutu's died before they could stand firm against injustice, because they had a bad blood transfusion in the last 25 years?

How many Youssou N'Dour died before putting their country's music on the world map because of complications from HIV infection?

How many revolutionary musicians like Dee Dee Ramone did not get to do travel their "Road to Ruin" because they had died as a result of drug use?

How many Rock Hudson's died before making Giant or A Farewell to Arms because they were infected as a child? How many Meryl Streeps or Dustin Hoffman's or Gene Hackman's or Halle Berry's were lost over the last 25 years because their private life destroyed their careers?

How many David Ho's did not go to medical school and could not discover the protease inhibitors because their Mom had passed AIDS to them while giving birth?

How many Emily Dickerson's or Edgar Allen Poe's or Henry Thoreau's died before they were able to publish a poem in the United States or in Africa?

How many George Low's, Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program in the 1960s, were lost because both parent died from AIDS and so they never had a chance to go to school or college?

How many people would be alive if Ronald Reagan or Thabo Mbeki had not been presidents of their respective countries? How many of the world's religions and religious leaders got in the way of saving people's lives?

It is certainly difficult to set world records or carry a team to the NBA Finals, while battling AIDS. How many Michael Jordan's, Wayne Gretzgy's, Joe Montana's, or Roberto Clemente's did not climb to the height of their sports? How many Brandi Chastains, Picabo Streets or Lisa Leslie's did we lose over the last 25 years?

It is staggering that we have faced this epidemic for 25 years, and we have allowed politics, religion, prejudice, and myths to get in the way of addressing AIDS. We the people have suffered because the science of condoms, needle exchange, and universal health care/universal access to medicine were ignored.

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

Remember the Homeless Vets This Week

The Day After Memorial Day

Yesterday was a day to reflect on soldiers that have died in service to the United States. It is altogether fitting and proper to do this no matter your opinion of the current military policies. How about on the day after Memorial Day or sometime this week we all think about the number of veterans who return to the United States and become homeless? Please take a few minutes to think about those honorably discharged who return to their home soil and lose their housing. In the United States and in Cleveland about one-third of the men who are homeless are veterans. This translates to around 5,000 people in Cuyahoga County who are homeless veterans every year. Studies show that 85% of the homeless veterans living in shelters are honorably discharged. I am not so sure how honorable it is to be discharged to a shelter, but that is for others to decide.

Here are a few things that you could do to demonstrate your respect for veterans who become homeless:
1. Sign up to volunteer at one of the shelters that serve veterans. They need help year round not just around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I might suggest Volunteers of America or 2100 Lakeside Shelter.

2. Write a letter to your local city government asking what they are doing to make sure that no veterans become homeless. Send copies of those to NEOCH and any response you get.

3. Support the advocacy work of the Coalition for the Homeless by signing up as a member or sending a donation to NEOCH--put Veteran's Service Initiative in the memo section.

4. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper asking the question for our elected leaders: "Why are we creating more homeless veterans everyday when we never did take care of the Vietnam era vets?" Again, please send a copy to NEOCH.

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

Coalition Vice President Improves

Bufford Makes Steady Progress

On May 11, Marcia Bufford, NEOCH Board Vice President and Advocate of the Year, was shot and remained in critical condition for two weeks. On May 24, she regained consciousness and could sit up. She understood speech and began recognizing people this week. All the well wishers were very helpful in making this possible. The first few days things looked bleak. We understand that it will be a long slow recovery, but it is so great to see Marcia's eyes open and ready again to take on the world.

Marcia still has a bullet lodged in her neck. It looks as though that will never be able to be removed. She still seems paralyzed on one side of her body. They did have to wire her mouth shut to allow the bones in her jaw to heal. I am sure that it is very difficult for Marcia to not talk, and it is probably very confusing. The family is limiting the number of guests to keep her blood pressure at a safe level, and Metro Hospital critical care unit were overwhelmed. We all look forward to Marcia returning to the Board of Trustees.

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

Voice Mail Website Updated

Cleveland Community Voice Mail Expands Website

Cleveland Community Voice Mail now has a new website with dozens of zany features. Ever have a problem with CVM, but been unable to get a hold of a CVM staff person? Now you can find a solution with CVM website under Common Errors for both case workers and clients as part of the main website. Did you lose your copy of the "Message Retrieval for Clients" sheet or are you trying to decipher instructions on an overly notated and doodled out-of-date "Quick Guide for Case Managers"? Now you can download these and any other completely updated form found in (or those missing from) your CVM binder. Best of all, you can fill out the Intake/Outcome form online from the convenient location of your computer desktop. How do you get there? Just click on the Community Voice Mail link on the front page of the NEOCH website or click on any of the links provided. Check it out and feel free to give us your kudos and criticisms through comments to this post or from the feedback on our website.

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

A Tough Week at the Coalition

NEOCH Vice President Still in Critical Condition

Last week, Marcia Bufford was shot. She was the apparent victim of a domestic violence attack. She still sits in a hospital bed at MetroHealth unconscious and on a breathing machine. Marcia has touched so many in Cleveland as is apparent by the large number of visitors stopping at the hospital. It is so difficult for everyone to see her lying in the ICU just six days after being honored as the advocate of the year at the NEOCH Annual Meeting. She turned a one minute acceptance into a seven minute retrospective of her life. To some this might be annoying, but to those who know her this is her way. She and all of her friends are so proud of her accomplishments and how far she has come in the last 10 years. We had a board meeting last week and no business was conducted as we were all shocked over the events of the last week. Truth be told very little work was done at the Coalition this week as we worried, wondered, struggled and mourned.

When Marcia came to NEOCH she was working in a retail job. She started volunteering and then became a VISTA for the Coalition. From there she has always worked in human services. The staff of the Coalition are so thankful to both the Mobile Crisis Team and the Domestic Violence Center for their help in talking about some of these issues. They were extremely helpful in answering questions, talking about the anger, confusion and pain of this situation. The Witness/Victim Group for Cuyahoga County are also very useful in explaining the process and they can help track possible domestic abuse in the court system.

Marcia is hanging on, and the Board and staff are hanging on to hope that she may pull through.

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

Shelter Storm and Voice Mail Updates

Homeless Concert and Other Updates

On Friday, the Shelter Storm blew into Y-Haven. Promptly following their resident meeting, I got up to play for the residents. Due to the show being held during the day, this session of the Revue Tour was attended by only myself. The rest of the standard storm chasers were missed, but Y-Haven was kept jumping and bumping none the less.

Although my performance was well received, as they were singing along and doing what I have heard at least one musicological historian refer to as “hollering,” the stars of the show were the residents themselves who took the time to step on stage and share their talents.

The first resident to show off was Sean Sanford, 2^nd place winner of the NEOCH poetry contest. He read his poem, “Tears of an Addict.” I must now apologize, for I did not make any good notes on the names of the rest of the people that sounded off. However, their anonymity does not in any way diminish what they shared. We were joined by a soul singer, a resident choir, and even a staff member who can do some mean splits.

So, to sum up, Y-Haven is now one of my favorite places to play. I was not able to fill the majority of the requests they called for. This is nothing new. I know many songs, but no one ever requests the ones I know. Despite that, we all had a wonderful time. IÂ’m glad I was able to represent the Revue Tour there and hope the next time I can drag some poor hapless artist along with me.

In other news, I forgot to offer my congratulations to Denise Uter of the East Side Catholic Center for signing up the most clients to voice mail on Voice Mail Day. Congratulations, Denise. Congratulations are also due to Sonya Ruff of VOA, who placed second in the Voice Mail Day contest. We plan on holding similar contests throughout the summer, so stay tuned. Thanks to everyone who participated and to all the agencies and case workers who continue to use and support voice mail.

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

Marcia Bufford Shot Today

NEOCH Thinking About our Advocate of the Year

Marcia Bufford was honored on Friday night at the NEOCH Annual Meeting as the 2005 Advocate of the Year and was voted the new Vice President of the Coalition. Today, we hear that Marcia was shot and is in critical condition. Both the Board and staff are thinking about our friend and colleague during these difficult days. We are all struggling to focus on our work with Marcia lying unconscious in the hospital.

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

National Review Publishes Police Hate Commentary

LAPD: To Protect and Serve Some People

The National Review Online published a story by a current Los Angeles Police Department attacking the U.S. Appeals Court decision striking down the Los Angeles attempt to make it a crime to be homeless. We posted a summary of the decision that prevents the Police from arresting people for purely innocent behavior of sitting, sleeping or standing when every shelter is full in Los Angeles. Josh Kanary has his own comments about the LAPD.

Jack Dunphy, columnist for the National Review Online and LAPD Officer, does not have a good grasp of the law as shown in his article The Constitutional Right to Be a Bum. The article refers to the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that a Los Angeles ordinance making it a misdemeanor to "sit, lie or sleep upon any street, sidewalk, or other public way" is unconstitutional. Opinions on the item of legislation aside, Dunphy'’s rationale is most unlearned for one who claims to be an officer of the law. The article shows that the officer is not smart and has nothing of worth to add to the heated debate over anti-homeless legislation.

Dunphy describes the scene of a group of homeless people sleeping on the streets as, "men (and a few women)...drinking, smoking crack, shooting heroin, fighting with (and occasionally murdering) each other." When describing what the police can do about "those besotted bums down the street," he says, "There's not much we can do...They are enjoying the blessings of freedom guaranteed them by the Constitution, as interpreted by the ACLU and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit."

Although, it is true, the police can no longer arrest homeless people for just being out on the streets, there is something the police can do about people engaged in what he describes as a "frothing maelstrom of depravity." Laws are in place to outlaw the smoking of crack, shooting of heroin, and the fighting (and occasionally murdering) of each other. All the police would need to do is arrest them for the crimes they are seeing them commit. To see the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as the immunization of homeless persons is at the least a poor understanding of the interpretation.

The above occurs in the first three paragraphs of a three page article and contains all the arguments LAPD Officer Jack Dunphy offers against the court decision. He spends the rest of his article questioning the credibility of the plaintiffs and of the judges of the majority opinion, offering little but hearsay, rumor, and good old-fashioned instinct to substantiate his perspective.

Dunphy quotes Judge Kim Wardlaw as saying plaintiff Robert Lee Purrie "“has lived in the Skid Row area for four decades."” This rare fact in his rant worthy of a poorly Xeroxed 'zine is quickly followed by his statement, "The inescapable conclusion is that he lives there...because he likes it." Conclusions such as mental illness, physical disability, racism, and classism show that the conclusion "because he likes it" is, in fact, very escapable.

Jack Dunphy concludes his article about the Ninth Circuit Court of AppealsÂ’ decision with random facts and assumptions about Judge Wardlaw'’s life, such as, "The Wardlaws were among the Clintons'’ guests who enjoyed a stay in the White House'’s Lincoln Bedroom,”" and, "I'm confident there are two commas in the price tag of her home."” Although these facts may have their place elsewhere, they make for a disjointed conclusion to an article about a court's decision.

The fact of the matter is, given only this article as a window into his life, Jack Dunphy is a stupid man who is both ill-informed and wrong. Taken together, those adjectives add up to one frightening police officer. Further explorations of Officer Dunphy'’s lack of intelligence can be made in the poor grammatical structure of his online article, beginning with his sentence, "How, then, to explain the life of, to cite one example, plaintiff Robert Lee Purrie, who, according to Wardlaw's opinion, 'has lived in the Skid Row area for four decades.'"

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

Lying is Better Than Contract Steering???

HUD Policy is Another Fad that Will Lead Nowhere

A few weeks back, I published a letter in the Plain Dealer about the Department of Housing and Urban Development's offensive and stupid policy of focusing all their attention on long term homeless people to the detriment of all other homeless populations. There is so much to discuss with this policy, but in the interim a lot has happened at the Coalition and with HUD. We will postpone this discussion for now. The most amazing thing happened at HUD in the last few days. The HUD Secretary said at a conference that he cancelled a contract because the contractor said something negative about President Bush. Aside from the fact that this is illegal, it is dramatic expansion in the new policy of intolerance of any dissension. First, the entire Executive Branch was silenced with the threat of polygraphs and prosecutions. The media were criticized for questioning power in a time of war. Now, contractors cannot even speak freely.

When newspapers started raising concerns about the legality of this story, the Department said it was just a story that did not actually happen. What if Nixon had thought of this strategy--cop to a lie in order to cover-up the crime? His presidency might have survived by just admitting to a lie to divert attention from the break in and the hijacking of the government. I hope that this posting and statement does not get our small HUD contract pulled.

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

What could you buy with $70 Billion?

Congress is close to a Deal to Cut Taxes by $70 Billion

The Shopping Spree of a Lifetime. What could we buy for $70 billion?

• We could end homelessness in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Portland, Louisville, and Atlanta. Just think with the money from the tax cut, we would no longer have homelessness in 16 of the larger American cities.
  
• We could pay the cost of every voucher for every individual on the waiting list of every housing authority in America. In Cleveland, there are over 1,300 on the Housing Choice Voucher Program waiting list. There would also be money left over for improvements in Public Housing.
  
• We could expand our current effort to address homelessness in the United States by 50 times with the money from the tax cut.
• We could bankroll our state housing trust fund for over 1,000 years, which provides housing assistance and the construction of new housing in Ohio.
• We could serve 70 times as many people as we currently do with mental health assistance in the state of Ohio. This would allow us to finally do what our government promised when they closed all the asylums in our community.
  
• We could increase our state resources directed at the local foodbanks by 13,000 times what they currently support.
• We could fund the Cleveland Homeless Coalition for 200,000 years or give a direct subsidy of $1,555 to every person without healthcare in the United States.
  

There is so much that we could do with $70 billion, but wouldn't it be much better in the hands of those making above $200,000. They will take this money and put immigrants to work or open health clinics in the Congo or cure AIDS. This $70 billion is best used in the hands of the well off because they are smarter than we the people.

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

What's Goin' On?...

Homelessness Throughout the United States

Here are some things that I learned while in Washington.
Indiania passed a more restrictive ID law then Ohio's. I have no idea how it is not a Poll Tax like the one that was struck down in Georgia. They did start a Housing Trust Fund using the Real Estate Tax.

Puerto Rico has an involuntary commitment bill pending that would allow the police to pick up homeless people with a suspected mental illness and confine them in a mental institution against their will. There is a competing law that makes it hard to pass laws that criminality homelessness. A judge did determine that Puerto Rico could restrict the speech of panhandlers.
Philly has three competing plans to end homelessness in 10 years. Does that mean that it will end in 3.5 years? Philadelphia is ground zero for the research on long term homelessness, which is being shoved down all of our throats by HUD.

New York has $1 billion in TANF surplus just sitting around the halls of Albany. At the same time there were massive cuts to many programs including human services.

In D.C., many of the programs have not received money for nearly a year. This has caused major chaos in the nation's largest shelter: Mitch Snyder's old CCNV. They have had a series of directors and are having problems keeping staff. They have around 1,300 people there every night.

The great state of Minnesota seems to be one of the only states actually making significant progress. They have this cool X committee of homeless people who are making decisions about how to spend money and what programs would should be funded. One of the programs that they are working on is a storage facility for homeless people (which homeless people in Cleveland has said is a high priority, but few listen). The state is running a rental assistance program.

Colorado developed a 10 year plan that does a lot of work on Housing First, and some work on presumptive eligibility for those who are homeless. Colorado also used their Tobacco Tax to dramatically expand medical services to homeless people.

The Cities that were on the Meanest Cities List were not very happy. Sarasota (the first meanest city) held a big hearing on the matter. Puerto Rico also was very upset by the matter and invited a Bush official down to show what a great job they do. The Las Vegas Mayor said that he was going to beat up the Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless if he was ever in Washington D.C. Las Vegas was listed in the top five meanest cities. Lawrence Kansas, also in the top five, also very upset.

South Carolina has $45 million in unspent HOME dollars, which provides federal funds for housing. They had an issue with Clemson athletes using Section 8 vouchers to pay for their housing. There is a growing issue with some legislators trying to force non-profit developers to pay property taxes for their housing of formerly homeless people. This would bankrupt many of these developers.

Finally, Los Angeles has a new Bring LA Home plan with a goal of $150 million for permanent supportive housing and $100 million for a County Trust Fund. There is also a need for $300 million for Mental Health expansion services with a total cost of $11-$12 Billion to end homelessness in Los Angeles. There is a proposal for a $1 Billion County Housing Trust Fund. There was a big controversy about private hospitals dropping patients in Skid Row. The biggest offender was the Kaiser Hospital, which are trying to correct the problems. There is an effort to expand the homeless children and youth program in the schools. Finally, the City is trying to pass restrictive laws to expand sentencing requirements for certain areas of town like a 2 mile radius around Skid Row.

Things are bad, but at least there is an organization working on these issues with the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Brian

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

Sorry for the Long Absence...

NEOCH was Busy, Pardon our Delay in Posting

I was in Washington lobbying Congress on a few items, which we will discuss later. All staff have worked on the Annual Meeting on Friday night, and so have been busy. The meeting was great and their is a good description of the event on the Homeless Grapevine blog. Massimo da Milano is a great venue for the meeting--close to downtown, parking, and convenient.

We had another record number of visits to the website in April--8,164 for the month or 272 average visitors every day.

Community Voice Mail Day was a success with nearly 100 people signed up and East Side Catholic Shelter and Volunteers of America winning the gift certificates for signing up the largest number of users. Also, Council woman Phyllis Cleveland sponsored a resolution proclaiming April 26 as Cleveland Community Voice Mail Day.

Speaking of Voice Mail, they are doing a complete redesign of their website. Look for it to go live this next week.

I was in the nation's capital last week for the National Coalition for the Homeless meeting and some lobbying activities. Washington DC is always very depressing with all those men in suits who could easily solve homelessness driving and walking past the thousands of homeless people every day who reside on the streets. We had a very good meeting and added a few new board members. The National Coalition is beginning to stabilize after a rough patch.

Since we had two weeks without posting, we will try to post everyday for the next few weeks.

Brian

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

Mental Health System Broken in America

Supreme Court to Decide on Arizona's Ability to Exact Vengeance

The system in need of the most reform is certainly the treatment of mentally ill people in the United States. The Washington Post had a very good editorial about the problems facing mentally ill people. We do not provide parity with other health issues, so that if diagnosed with a mental illness there is a limit to the treatment that one can receive paid by a health care insurer. A broken leg is covered usually with a small deductible until the point at which it is healed, but a brain injury is covered with a deductible for a few months. Then those who cannot work because of a mental illness are forced to spend years trying to prove to the state that they are in fact not healthy enough to work. At the end of this long journey is poverty for life.

No where in the United States does disability assistance raise your standard of living above even the pathetically low federal poverty level. If you receive gifts--your allowance is lowered. If you keep too much money in your bank account--your allowance is lowered. If your parents die and leave you money--your allowance is lowered. In some communities, if you stay in shelters--your allowance is lowered. It is one thing to lower a wealthy individual's government assistance, but we are punishing poor people for having a small amount of money. This is criminal and obscene for a society of our wealth.

In most states, those who are poor receive no help for their mental illness unless they are a threat to themselves or others. This was the situation facing the family in Flagstaff. Their son, Eric Michael Clark, had not demonstrated any threat to himself or others, but he was seeing a city full of aliens. I happen to agree with the young Clark that the very conservative retirement communities in Arizona are in fact full of aliens from a planet without compassion, but I am not sure if violence is the answer. He then killed a police officer after his family begged the authorities to have him committed. The State of Arizona, who did not want to provide assistance to Mr. Clark, because he had never demonstrated that he was a threat to others now wants to kill him after he did show he was a threat to others.

This level of intolerance toward those with a legitimate health problems is disturbing and actually a frightening mirror on society. Are we so afraid that mental illness will afflict us that we condemn those among us to a life of poverty, force a struggle with a mammoth bureaucracy, constant running away from the stigmatization, and then we kill those with the most severe mental illness? My, how the pendulum has swung from the time we were fighting over equal rights to a time when we are fighting over killing the mentally ill, walling off our southern border, and should we torture people as a country?

Brian

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

Don't Be a Domestic Violence Victim in Cuyahoga County

Dramatic Reduction in Shelter Beds for Domestic Violence Victims in Cleveland Area

Just five years ago there were two organizations serving the needs of homeless women fleeing an abuser with the Center for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Templum House in operation. Neither was overly healthy, but how many independent non-profits were during the beginning of this six year nightmare recession in Cuyahoga County? They merged and now we have gone from four separate shelters to one. We have changed the definition of domestic violence so that we serve only those immediately fleeing an abuser. While studies show between 70-80% of the women in the emergency shelters have some abuse in their past, Cuyahoga County has tightened the definition to reduce, on paper, the numbers. This is not to condemn the one agency left serving Domestic Violence victims. The Domestic Violence Center staff do amazing work on a shoestring budget. They put in long hours and do everything in their power to keep the women of Cuyahoga County safe. They have tried to redesign their program to serve the population, but there are plenty of women who have no where to turn for help.

We made a mistake letting the two organizations merge into one. Supporters will argue that we have two other shelters (West Side Catholic and East Side Catholic) who have stepped up to serve this population. They both try to fill this void, but it is not the same. The DV shelters have all of their staff trained to provide support. They all understand the pressure that the women face to return to their abuser. They all understand the difficulty in standing firm against abuse when "The Dad is so good with the children." We have a network of DV shelters in the state for a reason. The women who show up on their doors have very specific needs and a very specific process for healing. The Coalition was never asked to comment on this merger, but we must take some of the blame that we did not speak up and realize how negative this could be for the women.

Just for comparison lets look at the Counties that touch Cuyahoga County. What follows is the Counties listed in order of number of shelter beds for Domestic Violence victims per resident (based on 2005 Census figures).

Geauga County 16 beds 95,218 people or 1 bed for every 5,951 people.
Summit County 90 beds 546,604 people or 1 bed for every 6,073 people.
Erie County 10 beds 78,665 people or 1 bed for every 7,867 people.
Lake County 27 beds 232,466 people or 1 bed for every 8,610 people.
Medina County 18 beds 167,010 people or 1 bed for every 9,278 people
Lorain County 22 beds 296,307 people or 1 bed for every 13,469 people.
Portage County 5 beds with 155,631 people or 1 bed for every 31,126 people.
Cuyahoga County 34 beds with 1,335,317 people or 1 bed for every 39,274 people.

(Who knew Portage County had so many people--I checked it twice.)

Where are all the corporations? The beer companies? The Women's Rights organizations? How did we let it get so bad that we only have 34 beds for women fleeing a domestic violence situation in Cuyahoga County? The state Attorney General's 2004 report has startling figures on the incidents of violence against a spouse/roommate/date in Ohio. The state reports shows that just in 2004, 1 in 100 women were abused and yet we have only 34 dedicated beds in Cuyahoga County. We have an Office of Homeless Services, but they did not sound the alarm that there were problems with sustaining these programs or raise awareness about problems within the system. There is a domestic violence funding organization that divides up the scarce resources, and yet we never heard from this group.

The Coalition is never a big fan of shelter because it is really just a band aid for a larger problems in society. But Domestic Violence is different. Women need a safe place that an abuser cannot easily find to get their bank accounts secure, their children relocated, and work with law enforcement to assure their safety. We all took our eye off the ball, and the power players in the community (City, United Way, County, Foundations, and Religious leaders) should hold a summit on violence to get us back on track.

My two cents on Domestic Violence is that each City within the County should have their own strategy to address violence within their community. Each of the cities would set their own goals for moving to zero incidents of violence. In the spirit of regionalism a few cities could join to set up DV emergency shelters to meet the need and share resources to fund these facilities. The Domestic Violence Center in Cleveland could oversee training and coordinate advocacy for all these facilities. For too long we have relied on a shrinking number of community leaders to worry about this problem and we have made little progress. National studies show that 1 in 4 women will experience violence in their lifetime, and with leadership we could make Cuyahoga County a lot safer for women.

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

Los Angeles Cannot harass Skid Row Residents

Ninth Appeals Court Rules Against LA Effort to Criminalize Homelessness

The City of Los Angeles, one of the 20 meanest cities toward homeless people in the United States, was found to be violating the rights of its homeless community with a law that prevented sitting, sleeping or lying on the sidewalk. The court found the law an "unavoidable consequence of being human and homeless without shelter" violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Police, as they do in many U.S. cities were permitted to go out and threaten arrest to anyone using the sidewalk for shelter. If the individual did not move, the police would arrest the individual. The court even acknowledged in a 2-1 decision that the LA ordinance "made it a crime to be homeless."

The notoriously bad LA police will no longer be able to engage in this activity. The City only in the last month issued a "Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness," but did not acknowledge their criminalization efforts. LA has reputedly the largest homeless population in the United States (80,000-90,000 people a year), which we certainly believe has something to do with the efforts to make it a crime to be homeless.

As a reminder, Cleveland is one of the few cities in the United States that has a signed agreement with the homeless population that police will not arrest or threaten arrest for purely innocent behavior of sitting, sleeping, standing, eating on the sidewalks in Cleveland. We have had this in place since 2000, and have found better ways to serve the population. Cuyahoga County has around 25,000 homeless in a year.

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

Safety Ambassadors Coming To Cleveland

Louisville Company To "Clean Up" Downtown

Downtown business owners are taxing themselves in order to deal with panhandlers and dirty streets. This must mean that the offensive panhandling law passed last year is not working out because how often do business people vote to tax themselves? So, Downtown business created an improvement district from the warehouse district to East 18th St. to Carnegie to the Lake in order to impose on tax on themselves. For this year they will raise $3 million, and have hired a group called Block by Block to oversee this project.

The group already does safety programming in Columbus, Dayton, Louisville, Toledo, Cincinnati, and many other cities in the Midwest. They will begin in Cleveland in May to clean the streets and employ "Street Ambassadors" to keep the streets safe. These happy uniformed (golf shirt and khaki pants) people without diplomatic immunity travel the streets spreading good thoughts and good directions. They give out directions to the lost, act as a neighborhood watch, and discourage pedestrians from giving to panhandlers.

I have seen these guys in action down in Columbus decked out in Red, White and Blue shirts. They put themselves in between the panhandler and the potential customer. These Street Ambassadors will call the police or security guard for an aggressive panhandler or a panhandler in the prohibited zone. The others asking for money are harassed by the ambassadors. It is so successful in Columbus that the City Council passed a stricter panhandling and littering law in 2005. In Cincinnati, the program has worked so well that they now force the panhandlers to register with the City before asking for money. How do they measure success? I say they should be measured on a reduction of 21% office vacancy rate downtown and more than 8 people on the sidewalk on a Tuesday night.

We are going to spend $2.25 million on cleaning the streets and harassing panhandlers. Evidently, parking and panhandling are still the two biggest complaints of the business owners. When will they listen? Panhandlers have existed in cities for over two centuries, and respond to only two things capitalism and better jobs. Give a panhandler a decent job that they do not have to stand outside in the rain or sun, but do not have to punch a clock, they will stop panhandling. If they face competition, they will move somewhere else. Harassment and laws do not work. For more information on panhandling go to our website under Statistics and Strategies.

Two interesting notes: one of the cities in the Northwest tried a similar program, but uniformed their crew with dark Brown shirts. This was quickly changed when some snobby academic recognized that Brown Shirts walking around harassing poor people might present a problem with a historical backlash. The other issue is that for some reason in Ohio Patriot Act, "safety ambassodors" must be licensed by the Department of Homeland Security. This prevents anyone with a felony background taking one of these jobs. Many of the people with the best relationship with panhandlers who know the city best are not eligible for these jobs. In Ohio, true patriotism means never giving anyone a second chance.

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

Shelter Storm Music Tour Updates

Shelter Storm Revue Continue to Roll

Tuesday night was yet another success for the SSRT (Shelter Storm Revue Tour). I opened the show with some homespun ballads promptly at 8:30 PM. Progeny was kind enough to set up early and allow the use of their equipment (thank you). The VOA Shelter proved to be an intimate and acoustically vibrant environment. The crowd welcomed me warmly before I passed the stage onto newcomers to the Revue Tour, Mark Liderbach and Brian Misch. The wonderfully talented Liderbach and Misch stunned the crowd with their electric blues rhythms. Their stay was short, but their presence was felt. Following their act was a poetess who needed no microphone in this sound wave friendly room, Shelter Storm regular Meagen Hueslenbeck. She lit a fire in the hearts of the audience as she interspersed her preachings with personal poems that ruminated on the ecclesiastic thoughts of a pizza delivery girl. Gary Nelson was next, and he narrated from his guitar like a journalist reports from his articles. His musings wandered from the greed of a ruthless boss named Diamond Joe to the longing of a wanderer weary of never finding a familiar face in his travels. The final performers were the fan favorites, Progeny. They lept to the stage like prophets on a mission. They swayed and sang and brought smiles to the faces of everyone who sat before them. As the echoes of the final note joined the shadows of the night, the residents thanked us many times over, shaking hands and smiling brightly.

I am still looking for performers for the Y-Haven show on May 12th at 10 AM. If there are any musicians, poets, or other performance artists looking to join in on this show, please give me a call at our NEOCH offices at 216-432-0540 ext. 404.
Josh

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

Coalition Updates

Homeless Coalition Updates

March 2006 was again a new record for web traffic to our website with an average of 249 people per day and 7,738 visits to the site. If we can add a few people a day, maybe we can dispel the myth that all homeless people are panhandlers.

The Bad News..Legal Assistance saw a record number of people in 2005.
Cleveland Homeless Legal Assistance saw a record 621 people in 2005. The program hosts clinics in shelters and drop in centers. In 2005, we did expand the program so that we have a weekly clinic on both the East and West side of town. The clinics are staffed by volunteer attorneys from the area. To see a copy of the schedule go to http://www.neoch.org/chlap_intake_sched06.htm. We will honor a few of those attorneys at the 2005 Annual meeting on May 5, 2006 at Massimo da Millano.

Speaking of the Annual Meeting....
You can reserve a space at the annual meeting right from our website. Here is the link to the overview of the event: http://www.neoch.org/annual_event_06.htm. May 5, 2006 a very nice dinner and camaraderie with other social justice advocates in the community. Tickets are very reasonable. Please join us at our Fifth Annual Dinner and Annual meeting.

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