Questionable Solicitors at the West Side Market
Speaking of where to donate your charitable dollars...I am all for second chances, but should a guy convicted multiple times for theft be the representative to ask for money for St. Jude's Hospital? The Grapevine vendors are complaining about a guy standing behind the West Side Market asking for donations for St. Jude's Hospital. He did this last year, and this year was given a license by the City of Cleveland Parks Department. His name is Steve, and he has a long history of questionable activities with charities including NEOCH, the Salvation Army, St. Augustine with multiple arrests and convictions for theft, grand theft, receiving stolen property, passing bad checks, unauthorized use of a credit card, and more between 1990 and 2000.
I am a big supporter of the Second Chance Act, and reintegrating those coming out of incarceration back into society, but there are some jobs that may not be appropriate. I mean, it takes a great deal of trust to put cash into a person's hand and expect it to get to the charity. Just as I would not hire Jim Bakker or Winona Ryder as cashiers, Steve may not be the best person to ask for cash for St. Jude's Hospital. St. Jude's feels bad that they sent all the material to Steve, and we now know that the City does not do a background check on the people requesting a permit for soliciting charitable dollars. Steve told St. Jude's that he was raising dollars by conducting a craft fair, but instead is asking for money while standing behind the West Side Market. Last year, he gave the charity $800 and also stood behind the Market asking for money during the holidays. Now, I am sure that the Salvation Army can raise more than $800 a day behind the West Side Market, but certainly they could do it in two days. Otherwise, it would not be worth paying those guys $7 per hour to ring the bell all day in the cold. Steve pulled a permit for an entire week.
Shoppers beware of who you give your money to. This includes panhandlers, bell ringers, charity solicitors, and Grapevine vendors. The badged vendors of the Grapevine are a good bet. Make sure that you get a paper or call us at NEOCH. If they are rude or inappropriate in any way, let us know and we can yank their badge. The red kettle of the Salvation Army is a good bet. Those guys have a code of conduct, a permit, and their is local oversight. You might want to avoid Steve, the convicted felon, "raising" money for St. Jude's Hospital. Your choice-you decide.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
No, We Do Not Support the Anti-Panhandling Campaign
Plain Dealer Gets It Wrong
The article in Wednesday's Plain Dealer about the panhandling campaign and the $100 donated to the "Homeless Fund" stated that NEOCH supported the Downtown Alliance's campaign. This is incorrect. The Homeless Grapevine and the vendors of the paper support the campaign, because the they do not like panhandlers. The Coalition has never taken a position on the campaign, but we certainly would not support a battle against our own constituents. Sure, panhandlers are a tiny proportion of the homeless population, but we still have to respect our constituents.
We are not actively opposing the campaign. I believe that people Downtown are smart enough to realize what they are doing when they give to a panhandler. It is almost like pulling the lever on a slot machine--rarely do you win, but we always hold out hope. We know that most of the donation is wasted, but there is always that hope that your act of kindness will turn things around for the person. A great many feel that no matter what happens to their donation, it is a small token of kindness that they do not get from donating to a charity. So, while the Coalition is not big fans of panhandling, because of the degrading nature of begging for money, we would not campaign against something that has a longer history than democracy on this planet.
I went over this repeatedly with the Plain Dealer reporter, but he just did not seem to get it. I tried to explain that the vendors are allowed to express a contrary opinion to that of the Coalition. I told him that I was most disappointed that religious groups would sign onto the campaign because of the conflict over their messages: "Go out and give to the poor, but just not downtown when someone asks." I feel bad that the three major churches downtown are listed as co-sponsors. I do not understand why the reporter would list us as a supporter, but I hope the Plain Dealer prints a correction. Far be it for us to tell you what to do with your charitable dollars, but the signs downtown seem mean-spirited.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
The article in Wednesday's Plain Dealer about the panhandling campaign and the $100 donated to the "Homeless Fund" stated that NEOCH supported the Downtown Alliance's campaign. This is incorrect. The Homeless Grapevine and the vendors of the paper support the campaign, because the they do not like panhandlers. The Coalition has never taken a position on the campaign, but we certainly would not support a battle against our own constituents. Sure, panhandlers are a tiny proportion of the homeless population, but we still have to respect our constituents.
We are not actively opposing the campaign. I believe that people Downtown are smart enough to realize what they are doing when they give to a panhandler. It is almost like pulling the lever on a slot machine--rarely do you win, but we always hold out hope. We know that most of the donation is wasted, but there is always that hope that your act of kindness will turn things around for the person. A great many feel that no matter what happens to their donation, it is a small token of kindness that they do not get from donating to a charity. So, while the Coalition is not big fans of panhandling, because of the degrading nature of begging for money, we would not campaign against something that has a longer history than democracy on this planet.
I went over this repeatedly with the Plain Dealer reporter, but he just did not seem to get it. I tried to explain that the vendors are allowed to express a contrary opinion to that of the Coalition. I told him that I was most disappointed that religious groups would sign onto the campaign because of the conflict over their messages: "Go out and give to the poor, but just not downtown when someone asks." I feel bad that the three major churches downtown are listed as co-sponsors. I do not understand why the reporter would list us as a supporter, but I hope the Plain Dealer prints a correction. Far be it for us to tell you what to do with your charitable dollars, but the signs downtown seem mean-spirited.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Failures of Government 3
Your Government In Action--OHS II
It is so easy to pick on the Office of Homeless Services when you realize that government created the office in 1992-3 when there were 9,500 homeless people in Cleveland in order to have one group who could focus on the problem and reduce the number of people who find themselves homeless. Fourteen years later, there are 20,000 homeless people and no end in sight. It is no wonder that government gets a bad name with a track record like OHS. This group's primary purpose is to bring in government funds to the county, but they have a book club that meets every other month to talk about the problems over coffee. This group is improperly called the OHS Advisory Board since they advise no one, but it is always nice to talk about homelessness for two hours every eight weeks.
Anyway, they canceled the book club this week instead asking the homeless experts to crowd into a small room to listen to some "experts" from around the country talk about how to better serve families who become homeless as part of the Enterprise national conference. In our weekly effort to demonstrate how your government fails you, I give you the OHS family homeless forum. This invitation only meeting was an attempt to get some handle on this growing population that is overwhelming the shelters. NEOCH raised concerns about the growing problem of homeless families in a forum we held in March 2007. We had actual homeless families give a snapshot of the horrible (soon to be on our website under solutions/public policy) conditions women and children face when they become homeless in Cleveland. It is one of the fastest growing sub population in our community, and it is a near certainty that a Mom and Dad will have to break up in order to get into a shelter. For the OHS forum, we were all pushed into a little room at the Renaissance Hotel (my least favorite place in Cleveland) to hear how other communities are doing so much better than Cleveland. In the ultimate humiliation, we had to listen to the woman from the National Alliance to End Homelessness tell us that Columbus, Ohio is solving family homelessness, and Cleveland is way behind our neighbors to the south.
There was so much wrong with this three hour workshop that I could write a book, but I will just give you the top 10 failings of this conference workshop. I have to tell you that I am not a big fan of conferences. In this day of the internet, just put your powerpoint on the internet and let me go look at the information. In addition, what the hell do people from New York, Washington or Portland know about Cleveland or what will work locally? My feeling is that unless you can tell us how to decrease homelessness by half with a detailed funding plan and without causing others to take their place in the shelter line than you might as well be coming to talk about the proper color scheme for painting the living rooms of shelters. Your tax dollars and government resources in staff time went into this conference designed to give us ideas for how to reduce family homelessness. What went wrong with this forum:
1. The national groups have no credibility with regard to family homelessness. Enterprise-- national, National Alliance to End Homelessness, and the Center for Urban Community Services along with the research they base their work on are all part of the problem. They have pushed a funding mechanism serving long term single adult homeless people stealing resources from women with children who find themselves homeless.
2. All of these groups continue to use the offensive term "chronically" homeless, which makes it seem as though homelessness is some kind of medical condition.
3. The statistics used are bogus. How do you measure decreases in the shelter population when only a few cities in the United States have guaranteed access to shelter? All the other cities see decreases in shelter populations by closing shelters or limiting access.
4. They kept referring to "Housing First" successes, but all of us in the business know that housing first programs are directed at single adults. HUD is giving preferences to programs in funding housing first programs that serve single adults, and so why did the presenters keep mentioning a program that does not serve families?
5. These programs that the presenters talked about may be cool, but there is no money to fund them in one of the poorest cities in America. They do not understand how bad off we are locally, and they never tell us where we are supposed to get the money for these programs. We don't need anymore ideas; we need bundles of cash.
6. They always talk about these incredibly expensive programs to serve only 67 people. We have thousands of families who need help in Cleveland (probably 50,000 households). We need more Yugos or even Scooters, but they keep showing us Cadillac programs. How many times would you go back to the car dealership, if every time you asked to see an old Ford Festiva they would bring out a new Hummer?
7. It is fiction to think that the County Child Welfare, Hospitals, or Jails will give up their money to homeless or housing programs even if we can demonstrate that we will take a few homeless people out of their systems. There are so many thousands who use these public systems, none of them would even realize that a couple of families got into housing. As I have said many times, we need to build 5,000 units of affordable housing a year before any of these systems, including the shelters, would see any decrease in their clients.
8. Why do these national groups keep talking about getting homeless people to rely on "mainstream resources" instead of homeless programs? Everyone who knows anything realizes that the mainstream resources are too difficult to access or have incredible waiting lists. We know disability assistance, public housing, and subsidized housing all have three year waits, and cash assistance, child care help, and food stamps all have huge limitations that make them difficult to access. Many view the Ohio Lottery as a more likely social service program than most of the "mainstream" government resources.
9. The Portland/Seattle program that was highlighted is only 2 years old and only served 67 people. How does this help us? It was so new and served so few people it does not meet our needs. No one ever asks how do we balance the needs of keeping the thousands of homeless people alive with the intensive and expensive needs of some of the population?
10. The report that was just completed on preventing homelessness and preserving affordable housing in our community, Heading Home, was never even mentioned. This was a report in which OHS and other government entities helped write and contained a series of seven or eight recommended solutions for our community that was not even referenced or available at the forum. What a missed opportunity.
Those are three hours I will never get back. It just goes to prove that our current society measures success based on the ability to place your thoughts on a power point slide over actual accomplishments.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
It is so easy to pick on the Office of Homeless Services when you realize that government created the office in 1992-3 when there were 9,500 homeless people in Cleveland in order to have one group who could focus on the problem and reduce the number of people who find themselves homeless. Fourteen years later, there are 20,000 homeless people and no end in sight. It is no wonder that government gets a bad name with a track record like OHS. This group's primary purpose is to bring in government funds to the county, but they have a book club that meets every other month to talk about the problems over coffee. This group is improperly called the OHS Advisory Board since they advise no one, but it is always nice to talk about homelessness for two hours every eight weeks.
Anyway, they canceled the book club this week instead asking the homeless experts to crowd into a small room to listen to some "experts" from around the country talk about how to better serve families who become homeless as part of the Enterprise national conference. In our weekly effort to demonstrate how your government fails you, I give you the OHS family homeless forum. This invitation only meeting was an attempt to get some handle on this growing population that is overwhelming the shelters. NEOCH raised concerns about the growing problem of homeless families in a forum we held in March 2007. We had actual homeless families give a snapshot of the horrible (soon to be on our website under solutions/public policy) conditions women and children face when they become homeless in Cleveland. It is one of the fastest growing sub population in our community, and it is a near certainty that a Mom and Dad will have to break up in order to get into a shelter. For the OHS forum, we were all pushed into a little room at the Renaissance Hotel (my least favorite place in Cleveland) to hear how other communities are doing so much better than Cleveland. In the ultimate humiliation, we had to listen to the woman from the National Alliance to End Homelessness tell us that Columbus, Ohio is solving family homelessness, and Cleveland is way behind our neighbors to the south.
There was so much wrong with this three hour workshop that I could write a book, but I will just give you the top 10 failings of this conference workshop. I have to tell you that I am not a big fan of conferences. In this day of the internet, just put your powerpoint on the internet and let me go look at the information. In addition, what the hell do people from New York, Washington or Portland know about Cleveland or what will work locally? My feeling is that unless you can tell us how to decrease homelessness by half with a detailed funding plan and without causing others to take their place in the shelter line than you might as well be coming to talk about the proper color scheme for painting the living rooms of shelters. Your tax dollars and government resources in staff time went into this conference designed to give us ideas for how to reduce family homelessness. What went wrong with this forum:
1. The national groups have no credibility with regard to family homelessness. Enterprise-- national, National Alliance to End Homelessness, and the Center for Urban Community Services along with the research they base their work on are all part of the problem. They have pushed a funding mechanism serving long term single adult homeless people stealing resources from women with children who find themselves homeless.
2. All of these groups continue to use the offensive term "chronically" homeless, which makes it seem as though homelessness is some kind of medical condition.
3. The statistics used are bogus. How do you measure decreases in the shelter population when only a few cities in the United States have guaranteed access to shelter? All the other cities see decreases in shelter populations by closing shelters or limiting access.
4. They kept referring to "Housing First" successes, but all of us in the business know that housing first programs are directed at single adults. HUD is giving preferences to programs in funding housing first programs that serve single adults, and so why did the presenters keep mentioning a program that does not serve families?
5. These programs that the presenters talked about may be cool, but there is no money to fund them in one of the poorest cities in America. They do not understand how bad off we are locally, and they never tell us where we are supposed to get the money for these programs. We don't need anymore ideas; we need bundles of cash.
6. They always talk about these incredibly expensive programs to serve only 67 people. We have thousands of families who need help in Cleveland (probably 50,000 households). We need more Yugos or even Scooters, but they keep showing us Cadillac programs. How many times would you go back to the car dealership, if every time you asked to see an old Ford Festiva they would bring out a new Hummer?
7. It is fiction to think that the County Child Welfare, Hospitals, or Jails will give up their money to homeless or housing programs even if we can demonstrate that we will take a few homeless people out of their systems. There are so many thousands who use these public systems, none of them would even realize that a couple of families got into housing. As I have said many times, we need to build 5,000 units of affordable housing a year before any of these systems, including the shelters, would see any decrease in their clients.
8. Why do these national groups keep talking about getting homeless people to rely on "mainstream resources" instead of homeless programs? Everyone who knows anything realizes that the mainstream resources are too difficult to access or have incredible waiting lists. We know disability assistance, public housing, and subsidized housing all have three year waits, and cash assistance, child care help, and food stamps all have huge limitations that make them difficult to access. Many view the Ohio Lottery as a more likely social service program than most of the "mainstream" government resources.
9. The Portland/Seattle program that was highlighted is only 2 years old and only served 67 people. How does this help us? It was so new and served so few people it does not meet our needs. No one ever asks how do we balance the needs of keeping the thousands of homeless people alive with the intensive and expensive needs of some of the population?
10. The report that was just completed on preventing homelessness and preserving affordable housing in our community, Heading Home, was never even mentioned. This was a report in which OHS and other government entities helped write and contained a series of seven or eight recommended solutions for our community that was not even referenced or available at the forum. What a missed opportunity.
Those are three hours I will never get back. It just goes to prove that our current society measures success based on the ability to place your thoughts on a power point slide over actual accomplishments.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Reflections on Veterans Day
Why Don't We Provide More to our Veterans??
It would seem at a time of war, we would take care of our veterans, but in looking at the current state of care to Veterans we are failing as a nation. This is an all volunteer force who go to a region in which 90% of the population holds Americans in the lowest regard. They view us as a big bully, and yet our brave men and women with the Stars and Stripes on their sleeve live in one of the most dangerous places on earth. They act as the police force in one of the most hostile environments ever created. We, in America, can only imagine how stressful it is to drive out of the "green zone" in most of Iraq. This is Fort Apache squared or Rwanda with sophisticated killing technology where any turn on any street can set off a car bomb. These guys have to be alert and ready every second that they are out of the "green zone."
Then they get back and find that the GI benefits are worth a fraction of what their father's and grandfather's GI benefits were worth. They struggle with the bureaucracy of the VA health care system. They have a high percentage of their fellow veterans becoming homeless. If they are injured they are often charged for the damage to their equipment or their signing bonus is reduced because they could not complete their term. Instead of getting tender loving care at home they get a bill from the military. They stand next to the mercenary army of private contractors who are risking their lives for hundreds of thousands of dollars more then the U.S. soldier is taking home in order to bring freedom to these two countries.
The government proclaims one holiday that most of the employers who are actually hiring workers today don't even provide as a vacation day. None of their fellow citizens are suffering or understand what we are demanding from our military. We still worry about the driving skills of Ms. Lohan or Britney Spear's custody battle while many of our veterans are worried about how they will pay the bills when they lost a leg and the federal government determined that they were only 60% disabled. This rating means that they will only get 60% of their disability check. How do they go back to their job as a a roofer or laborer if they struggle with walking? They went into the Army or Marines with both legs, but came back with one and the federal government has the nerve to determine their percentage of disability. These guys deserve the best health care and guaranteed access to housing and a job for life. Those seriously injured serving in the military deserve a middle class lifestyle for life. This is the price of going to war. Doesn't it make it harder to commit troops to a war if there are substantial domestic costs for years into the future with wounded troops? Or will the elected men and women who send our young citizens off to war be long retired when the bills come due for these foreign excursions into hostile countries?
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
It would seem at a time of war, we would take care of our veterans, but in looking at the current state of care to Veterans we are failing as a nation. This is an all volunteer force who go to a region in which 90% of the population holds Americans in the lowest regard. They view us as a big bully, and yet our brave men and women with the Stars and Stripes on their sleeve live in one of the most dangerous places on earth. They act as the police force in one of the most hostile environments ever created. We, in America, can only imagine how stressful it is to drive out of the "green zone" in most of Iraq. This is Fort Apache squared or Rwanda with sophisticated killing technology where any turn on any street can set off a car bomb. These guys have to be alert and ready every second that they are out of the "green zone."
Then they get back and find that the GI benefits are worth a fraction of what their father's and grandfather's GI benefits were worth. They struggle with the bureaucracy of the VA health care system. They have a high percentage of their fellow veterans becoming homeless. If they are injured they are often charged for the damage to their equipment or their signing bonus is reduced because they could not complete their term. Instead of getting tender loving care at home they get a bill from the military. They stand next to the mercenary army of private contractors who are risking their lives for hundreds of thousands of dollars more then the U.S. soldier is taking home in order to bring freedom to these two countries.
The government proclaims one holiday that most of the employers who are actually hiring workers today don't even provide as a vacation day. None of their fellow citizens are suffering or understand what we are demanding from our military. We still worry about the driving skills of Ms. Lohan or Britney Spear's custody battle while many of our veterans are worried about how they will pay the bills when they lost a leg and the federal government determined that they were only 60% disabled. This rating means that they will only get 60% of their disability check. How do they go back to their job as a a roofer or laborer if they struggle with walking? They went into the Army or Marines with both legs, but came back with one and the federal government has the nerve to determine their percentage of disability. These guys deserve the best health care and guaranteed access to housing and a job for life. Those seriously injured serving in the military deserve a middle class lifestyle for life. This is the price of going to war. Doesn't it make it harder to commit troops to a war if there are substantial domestic costs for years into the future with wounded troops? Or will the elected men and women who send our young citizens off to war be long retired when the bills come due for these foreign excursions into hostile countries?
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
The Battle of the Statistics
Veterans Make Up One Fourth of the Population
The National Alliance to End Homelessness released a study earlier this week measuring the extent of the problem among veterans and they found the problem was growing. The headlines were that military veterans make up one quarter of the homeless population, and we are beginning to see people entering the shelters who recently served in Afghanistan or Iraq. In the same week, the Department of HUD released a questionable study that showed a decrease in long term homelessness. The right wing latched onto the second study proclaiming not just the limited success of the study, but declaring victory in reducing the number of homeless people in the United States. It defies logic that when we walk down any street in any city in America we see the same number or more homeless people but we are told that Washington DC policy has worked in decreasing homelessness.
NEOCH absolutely agrees with the peer reviewed study released by the National Alliance. These are the same statistics we see locally. We do not see the large number of recent veterans that they are seeing on the coasts that is mentioned in the report. The Coalition has responded by making sure that every one of our programs is responsive to the veterans programs. We have a developed a veterans initiative to assure that every veteran has access to legal assistance, housing, voice mail, advocacy, and the Stand Down. The other alarming trend that we are seeing is a larger number of women veterans who are becoming homeless and seeking shelter.
Government in Action--HUD
In order to justify the spending of your taxes, every city now has to count the number of homeless people. While this is a nearly impossible task, it also is costly. The City of Los Angeles recently spent $800,000 to count 88,000 homeless people in their city. That is a little over $9 per person counted or 67 people who could have been given one years worth of rent in order to not be homeless at the fair market level in the expensive city of LA. We waste all this time and energy counting homeless people and we come up with bogus numbers that somehow get spun into a decrease in long term homelessness.
HUD uses these counts to proclaim victory in their fight to reduce long term homelessness, and I am sure that the next step is to use these numbers to justify a decrease in funding. Since the public does not understand the difference between long term or "chronic" homeless and just regular homeless people, the headlines proclaimed general victory in reducing the number of people facing homelessness in America. This is an incorrect use of the stats, besides being wrong. A few cities (my guess is two) have made progress on long term homelessness, but certainly not Cleveland. No way that Washington, San Francisco, Columbus, or Atlanta have seen any noticeable decrease in the homeless population after ignoring the problem for 15 years. Long term homelessness as defined by HUD are those who have been homeless for a year or 4 episodes over two years, and make up between 10-20% of the total population. If family homelessness (40% of the total population) increases by 2% and we allow HUD their 2% decrease in long term homeless there are still more homeless people for a community to deal with.
The problem is that all of this spin is false. I have seen how cities manipulate these counts. They either reduce the number of beds or services so that they do not have to count as many people or they just cannot figure out a way to count people who refuse to enter shelter. This magically results in a decrease in the homeless count in a city and HUD proclaims a success. Don't Believe the Hype.
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness released a study earlier this week measuring the extent of the problem among veterans and they found the problem was growing. The headlines were that military veterans make up one quarter of the homeless population, and we are beginning to see people entering the shelters who recently served in Afghanistan or Iraq. In the same week, the Department of HUD released a questionable study that showed a decrease in long term homelessness. The right wing latched onto the second study proclaiming not just the limited success of the study, but declaring victory in reducing the number of homeless people in the United States. It defies logic that when we walk down any street in any city in America we see the same number or more homeless people but we are told that Washington DC policy has worked in decreasing homelessness.
NEOCH absolutely agrees with the peer reviewed study released by the National Alliance. These are the same statistics we see locally. We do not see the large number of recent veterans that they are seeing on the coasts that is mentioned in the report. The Coalition has responded by making sure that every one of our programs is responsive to the veterans programs. We have a developed a veterans initiative to assure that every veteran has access to legal assistance, housing, voice mail, advocacy, and the Stand Down. The other alarming trend that we are seeing is a larger number of women veterans who are becoming homeless and seeking shelter.
Government in Action--HUD
In order to justify the spending of your taxes, every city now has to count the number of homeless people. While this is a nearly impossible task, it also is costly. The City of Los Angeles recently spent $800,000 to count 88,000 homeless people in their city. That is a little over $9 per person counted or 67 people who could have been given one years worth of rent in order to not be homeless at the fair market level in the expensive city of LA. We waste all this time and energy counting homeless people and we come up with bogus numbers that somehow get spun into a decrease in long term homelessness.
HUD uses these counts to proclaim victory in their fight to reduce long term homelessness, and I am sure that the next step is to use these numbers to justify a decrease in funding. Since the public does not understand the difference between long term or "chronic" homeless and just regular homeless people, the headlines proclaimed general victory in reducing the number of people facing homelessness in America. This is an incorrect use of the stats, besides being wrong. A few cities (my guess is two) have made progress on long term homelessness, but certainly not Cleveland. No way that Washington, San Francisco, Columbus, or Atlanta have seen any noticeable decrease in the homeless population after ignoring the problem for 15 years. Long term homelessness as defined by HUD are those who have been homeless for a year or 4 episodes over two years, and make up between 10-20% of the total population. If family homelessness (40% of the total population) increases by 2% and we allow HUD their 2% decrease in long term homeless there are still more homeless people for a community to deal with.
The problem is that all of this spin is false. I have seen how cities manipulate these counts. They either reduce the number of beds or services so that they do not have to count as many people or they just cannot figure out a way to count people who refuse to enter shelter. This magically results in a decrease in the homeless count in a city and HUD proclaims a success. Don't Believe the Hype.
"Throughout American history many of our social gains and much of our progress toward democracy were made possible by the active intervention of the federal government. " Harold WashingtonBrian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
We Need Inspiration
Forum on Homelessness...Not Much News
Last week, the City Club young leaders put together a forum on homelessness with Councilman Joe Cimperman, City of Cleveland Administration Natoya Walker, and Mike Sering from Lutheran Metro Ministry. If you read this blog with any frequency, you could have skipped the forum. There was nothing new announced. The Aviation Shelter will be open through January 2008, and North Point Transitional shelter will open before Aviation closes. I guess that I was looking for inspiration; for someone to step forward and say we are going to solve this problem. Natoya tried with some poetry at the end of her presentation, but it was too late. No one said the words, "I will take on this problem, and will solve it. We will no longer manage this problem. We are going to put time, money and community resources into solving homelessness."
Mike was there to give the real picture of what is happening in Cleveland as part of the 2100 Lakeside Shelter staff. Joe was there because his ward has the largest number of homeless people and the largest number of shelter beds. Natoya brought the position of the City, but she also brings the baggage of the last 20 years of bad public policy. Joe talked about panhandling and the curfew. Both Natoya and Joe mentioned the Mayor saying that he would serve the least of us, and all of the panelists talked about the incredibly expensive supportive housing projects being developed in our community.
Often, you can get a good sense about what is going on in the community from the questions that came up at the forum. There were questions about NIMBYism, the impact of welfare reform, the disdain for poor people by Ohio City Near West Development Corp., are there opportunities now that so many houses are foreclosed on?, there was a follow up question regarding the PD nursing home story, and a question about panhandling. The final two questions were about transportation issues for homeless people and the sad state homeless families find themselves. I wanted to ask a question about supportive housing. I wanted to ask, "With the history of the federal government withdrawing funds from Public Housing, Mental Health facilities, and transitional shelters, have we thought how we are going to fund all these supportive housing projects long-term after the federal government withdraws their funding?
Not much new from the answers, and we even received some confusion. Peggy Cella asked about family homelessness and the answer was about supportive housing which actually does not involve children. Only single adults are eligible for the 220 units of supportive housing that have been developed, and federal rules bar families from participating. As we have said many times, families are suffering more then any other population with the current funding environment from Washington DC. Joe talked about how he preferred the St. Clair Superior Coalition over what was happening on the near west side of Cleveland. This was news to me, because I have not heard any elected official take on the gentrification issues going on in Ohio City before.
We need to cultivate some leaders who will take on these overwhelming issues plaguing our city, and will work for solutions. We don't hear anyone lifting us up with a vision of a time in the near future without homelessness. We are now living with a younger generation that only knows going downtown and seeing homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks. We don't hear big ideas about solutions because we have come to view homelessness as part of the landscape. No one hearkens back to a time without the large number of visibly homeless people. I want a religious figure or elected leader or media personality to take on the problems of poverty with a goal of ending homelessness. Am I asking for too much?
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Last week, the City Club young leaders put together a forum on homelessness with Councilman Joe Cimperman, City of Cleveland Administration Natoya Walker, and Mike Sering from Lutheran Metro Ministry. If you read this blog with any frequency, you could have skipped the forum. There was nothing new announced. The Aviation Shelter will be open through January 2008, and North Point Transitional shelter will open before Aviation closes. I guess that I was looking for inspiration; for someone to step forward and say we are going to solve this problem. Natoya tried with some poetry at the end of her presentation, but it was too late. No one said the words, "I will take on this problem, and will solve it. We will no longer manage this problem. We are going to put time, money and community resources into solving homelessness."
Mike was there to give the real picture of what is happening in Cleveland as part of the 2100 Lakeside Shelter staff. Joe was there because his ward has the largest number of homeless people and the largest number of shelter beds. Natoya brought the position of the City, but she also brings the baggage of the last 20 years of bad public policy. Joe talked about panhandling and the curfew. Both Natoya and Joe mentioned the Mayor saying that he would serve the least of us, and all of the panelists talked about the incredibly expensive supportive housing projects being developed in our community.
Often, you can get a good sense about what is going on in the community from the questions that came up at the forum. There were questions about NIMBYism, the impact of welfare reform, the disdain for poor people by Ohio City Near West Development Corp., are there opportunities now that so many houses are foreclosed on?, there was a follow up question regarding the PD nursing home story, and a question about panhandling. The final two questions were about transportation issues for homeless people and the sad state homeless families find themselves. I wanted to ask a question about supportive housing. I wanted to ask, "With the history of the federal government withdrawing funds from Public Housing, Mental Health facilities, and transitional shelters, have we thought how we are going to fund all these supportive housing projects long-term after the federal government withdraws their funding?
Not much new from the answers, and we even received some confusion. Peggy Cella asked about family homelessness and the answer was about supportive housing which actually does not involve children. Only single adults are eligible for the 220 units of supportive housing that have been developed, and federal rules bar families from participating. As we have said many times, families are suffering more then any other population with the current funding environment from Washington DC. Joe talked about how he preferred the St. Clair Superior Coalition over what was happening on the near west side of Cleveland. This was news to me, because I have not heard any elected official take on the gentrification issues going on in Ohio City before.
We need to cultivate some leaders who will take on these overwhelming issues plaguing our city, and will work for solutions. We don't hear anyone lifting us up with a vision of a time in the near future without homelessness. We are now living with a younger generation that only knows going downtown and seeing homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks. We don't hear big ideas about solutions because we have come to view homelessness as part of the landscape. No one hearkens back to a time without the large number of visibly homeless people. I want a religious figure or elected leader or media personality to take on the problems of poverty with a goal of ending homelessness. Am I asking for too much?
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Failures of Government
Your Government in Action--OHS
"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." --Abraham Lincoln
I am a big fan of government, and government employees are the most honorable profession in America. I think government is usually the best answer to problems. I have faith in our fire and police protection, in our road crews, and our teachers over a private contractor doing this work. Government overseen by concerned citizens does housing, job creation, and developing a social service safety network best. I have regular contact with government officials, employees, and politicians, and so I see the best and worst of people paid by tax dollars. I want to mention on a weekly basis in this blog when government fails us. These are your tax dollars, and you should be aware when your public employees drop the ball.
This is not to suggest that privatization is the solution. In fact, I wish all the shelters were under the direct control of government with all the shelter staff employed by some public entity. Services would be much improved and the employees would have all the rights and benefits associated with government service. They would be paid better and the standards for employment would be a lot higher. But in saying all that, there are people currently employed on your dime who do not serve the best interest of the public or make bad decisions with your tax dollars. I want to pass along those bad decisions or bad acts of government every week in a new feature we are calling: "Your Government in Action."
Installment #1: Office of Homeless Services
The new Ohio InterAgency Council on Homelessness with all the state departments (education, jobs and family services, development, etc.) and a few advocates not employed by government all together trying to get a handle on homelessness. After interviews with homeless people, it was discovered that families are suffering in this state, and do not do well in the shelters. We have written extensively on this and under solutions on our website there is an entire family homelessness report. Anyway, they put together a demonstration grant that will serve 120 families in danger of becoming homeless in 5 communities in Ohio. This is just a two-year project to see what will work, and then move forward with a broader program for Ohio. The program requires case management intervention before the family with children is forced into a shelter.
Cuyahoga County has 19,000 to 20,000 evictions a year which is by far the largest in Ohio. Many social service providers came forward interested in this program or interested in a new revenue source. The local County Office of Homeless Services instead of asking each provider to submit an outline for a plan for how to use these dollars, Ruth Gillett, Director of OHS, sat all these groups in the same room to work out a collaborative application with every other group supporting the results. It is hard to criticize one non-profit when sitting in the same room, and certainly it is not a venue for the development of innovative ideas. The one group that has contact with thousands of people facing eviction, the Cleveland Tenants Organization would be the natural key partner in this new project. As often is the case in this community, friendships trump best practices. So, in the end one provider with close ties to the Office won the right to go forward and compete for the 5 grants given in this state. CTO will have to refer families to this project if the state provides funds for Cuyahoga a demonstration grant, but will get no money. The case management organizational partner does not have a history in working with homeless Moms and is not part of the current homeless continuum of care. Both are good groups, but I am not sure we got the best ideas with the best possible outcomes. We hope that the state looks favorably on the Cuyahoga County grant, but the process for putting on paper our best and most innovative ideas was inept.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." --Abraham Lincoln
I am a big fan of government, and government employees are the most honorable profession in America. I think government is usually the best answer to problems. I have faith in our fire and police protection, in our road crews, and our teachers over a private contractor doing this work. Government overseen by concerned citizens does housing, job creation, and developing a social service safety network best. I have regular contact with government officials, employees, and politicians, and so I see the best and worst of people paid by tax dollars. I want to mention on a weekly basis in this blog when government fails us. These are your tax dollars, and you should be aware when your public employees drop the ball.
This is not to suggest that privatization is the solution. In fact, I wish all the shelters were under the direct control of government with all the shelter staff employed by some public entity. Services would be much improved and the employees would have all the rights and benefits associated with government service. They would be paid better and the standards for employment would be a lot higher. But in saying all that, there are people currently employed on your dime who do not serve the best interest of the public or make bad decisions with your tax dollars. I want to pass along those bad decisions or bad acts of government every week in a new feature we are calling: "Your Government in Action."
Installment #1: Office of Homeless Services
The new Ohio InterAgency Council on Homelessness with all the state departments (education, jobs and family services, development, etc.) and a few advocates not employed by government all together trying to get a handle on homelessness. After interviews with homeless people, it was discovered that families are suffering in this state, and do not do well in the shelters. We have written extensively on this and under solutions on our website there is an entire family homelessness report. Anyway, they put together a demonstration grant that will serve 120 families in danger of becoming homeless in 5 communities in Ohio. This is just a two-year project to see what will work, and then move forward with a broader program for Ohio. The program requires case management intervention before the family with children is forced into a shelter.
Cuyahoga County has 19,000 to 20,000 evictions a year which is by far the largest in Ohio. Many social service providers came forward interested in this program or interested in a new revenue source. The local County Office of Homeless Services instead of asking each provider to submit an outline for a plan for how to use these dollars, Ruth Gillett, Director of OHS, sat all these groups in the same room to work out a collaborative application with every other group supporting the results. It is hard to criticize one non-profit when sitting in the same room, and certainly it is not a venue for the development of innovative ideas. The one group that has contact with thousands of people facing eviction, the Cleveland Tenants Organization would be the natural key partner in this new project. As often is the case in this community, friendships trump best practices. So, in the end one provider with close ties to the Office won the right to go forward and compete for the 5 grants given in this state. CTO will have to refer families to this project if the state provides funds for Cuyahoga a demonstration grant, but will get no money. The case management organizational partner does not have a history in working with homeless Moms and is not part of the current homeless continuum of care. Both are good groups, but I am not sure we got the best ideas with the best possible outcomes. We hope that the state looks favorably on the Cuyahoga County grant, but the process for putting on paper our best and most innovative ideas was inept.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Aviation to Remain Open
Feds Give Overflow Permission to Stay Open Unit January
As you may know, the Federal Aviation Administration has informed the City of Cleveland that the overflow shelter currently at Aviation High School must close. The FAA claims that it is a safety concern to have 200 unknown people sleeping right next to Burke Lakefront Airport because of some bizarre homeland security rules. Even though the City and County have been aware of this deadline for over 20 months, they could not come up with an alternate site in all that time. The County spent about 8 months trying to free up space in the current system to avoid having to fund an overflow shelter at all. While this was a worthy effort, County officials should have looked for alternate locations at the same time.
North Point Inn motel was purchased in the summer 2007, but the 160 bed facility will not be ready by the Halloween 2007 deadline set by the FAA. The motel needs a sprinkler system before the Fire Marshall will allow the building to re-open as a shelter. The City begged for more time and the FAA has given the community until January 2008 to get North Point ready. It seems that the FAA feels that the terrorists hiding among the homeless population take the holidays off, and so the news choppers at Burke are safe for now. For that reason, they gave the shelter an extra three months to remain open. We will call that the holiday homeless security exception to the homeland security rules.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
As you may know, the Federal Aviation Administration has informed the City of Cleveland that the overflow shelter currently at Aviation High School must close. The FAA claims that it is a safety concern to have 200 unknown people sleeping right next to Burke Lakefront Airport because of some bizarre homeland security rules. Even though the City and County have been aware of this deadline for over 20 months, they could not come up with an alternate site in all that time. The County spent about 8 months trying to free up space in the current system to avoid having to fund an overflow shelter at all. While this was a worthy effort, County officials should have looked for alternate locations at the same time.
North Point Inn motel was purchased in the summer 2007, but the 160 bed facility will not be ready by the Halloween 2007 deadline set by the FAA. The motel needs a sprinkler system before the Fire Marshall will allow the building to re-open as a shelter. The City begged for more time and the FAA has given the community until January 2008 to get North Point ready. It seems that the FAA feels that the terrorists hiding among the homeless population take the holidays off, and so the news choppers at Burke are safe for now. For that reason, they gave the shelter an extra three months to remain open. We will call that the holiday homeless security exception to the homeland security rules.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Speaking of the Health Care Crisis...
Hagan Asks UH and Clinic to Help Serve More Poor People
In today's paper, the Plain Dealer did a story about indigent care and the response by our local health care empires. We have talked about these problems for years in the pages of the Grapevine. The shelters see these issues every day with people improperly discharged from the hospitals. We also just posted a discussion about the nursing home problem today on this blog. Our health care system for poor people is broken and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. NEOCH and others are trying to get some facts from the shelters on the number of people in need of some nursing care every day right now living in shelter.
I can tell you that there are now more than one ambulance trip per night from LMM 2100 Lakeside shelter to the hospitals. The "emergency" rooms have become the primary care doctors for most homeless people. The wait in the "emergency" room is now typically6-8 hours, but on busy nights can be double that wait. There are just so many people at the "emergency" room waiting for non-emergency care or prescriptions that the system is at a breaking point. Many homeless people shop emergency rooms based on previous debt. For example, they do not want to be hassled about a $10,000 bill at Lutheran so they will walk down to MetroHealth. Why the hospital would present a $10,000 bill to a person who has not earned that amount of money in the last five years combined is a mystery to me? We now have a public health system in which a person starts off at the business office discussing their ability to pay before they ever see a health care professional.
A big first step for these quasi-not-for-profit hospitals would be to pour huge resources into the neighborhood health centers and the Free Clinic. Having more doctors available in Hough NEON Health Center, or Care Alliance or McCafferty Health Center or any of the other facilities would make some difference in reducing the problems at the Emergency room. Commissioner Hagan, a great champion of MetroHealth, needs to continue to push UH and the Clinic, but he cannot forget the neighborhood based health care system that has a proven track record and could alleviate some of the problems at the "emergency" rooms.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
In today's paper, the Plain Dealer did a story about indigent care and the response by our local health care empires. We have talked about these problems for years in the pages of the Grapevine. The shelters see these issues every day with people improperly discharged from the hospitals. We also just posted a discussion about the nursing home problem today on this blog. Our health care system for poor people is broken and needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. NEOCH and others are trying to get some facts from the shelters on the number of people in need of some nursing care every day right now living in shelter.
I can tell you that there are now more than one ambulance trip per night from LMM 2100 Lakeside shelter to the hospitals. The "emergency" rooms have become the primary care doctors for most homeless people. The wait in the "emergency" room is now typically6-8 hours, but on busy nights can be double that wait. There are just so many people at the "emergency" room waiting for non-emergency care or prescriptions that the system is at a breaking point. Many homeless people shop emergency rooms based on previous debt. For example, they do not want to be hassled about a $10,000 bill at Lutheran so they will walk down to MetroHealth. Why the hospital would present a $10,000 bill to a person who has not earned that amount of money in the last five years combined is a mystery to me? We now have a public health system in which a person starts off at the business office discussing their ability to pay before they ever see a health care professional.
A big first step for these quasi-not-for-profit hospitals would be to pour huge resources into the neighborhood health centers and the Free Clinic. Having more doctors available in Hough NEON Health Center, or Care Alliance or McCafferty Health Center or any of the other facilities would make some difference in reducing the problems at the Emergency room. Commissioner Hagan, a great champion of MetroHealth, needs to continue to push UH and the Clinic, but he cannot forget the neighborhood based health care system that has a proven track record and could alleviate some of the problems at the "emergency" rooms.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Plain Dealer Creates Homeless?
Shocking News: Nursing Homes Fill Beds With Homeless People!!
On Sunday, the Plain Dealer did a three page story about the out of control nursing home industry. There is no doubt that the nursing homes are under-regulated. There is no doubt that state government is at their mercy, and will do anything that the nursing home industry wants. The nursing home lobby is one of the most powerful in the state, and will figure out a legislative "fix" to the problems raised by the PD. The nursing home owners will probably be richer after this story, and the "fix" by their representatives in Columbus. The problem is that homeless people will suffer as a result of this story. It seemed as though the St. Vincent doctor and homeless people were exploiting the system and the article made it seem that nursing homes were unsafe because they allowed homeless and mentally ill to over stay their welcome.
Most homeless people do not want to be in a nursing home, because they feel like it is almost like a pre-release corrections facility. Also, most homeless do not need round the clock care. The shelters have the opposite issue with almost no care because there are just too many people. We have one facility, Joseph's Home, that can house 9-10 men and can offer care by nurses, but it is not a nursing home. That is all we have in a county of 1.3 million people for people who become homeless. There are 10 beds that offer care between a nursing home and just a bed in a shelter. I am not saying nursing homes are the answer, but until there is something else why rock the boat? All this will mean is that nursing homes will kick people out after 30 days and there will be larger numbers in shelters.
I knew a guy who had no legs and was in a wheel chair. He stayed on Euclid Ave. for years and would panhandle every so often. He could not take care of himself and spent some time with the guys at Camelot. There was no way he could live in an apartment. Finally, he got into a nursing home over in Euclid, Ohio. It was not the best for him, and he was always threatening to leave, but what other choice did we have? He would have died if he had stayed on the streets for one more winter. He had huge health complications that were only exacerbated by the rain, snow, and heat of the streets of Cleveland. I don't have all the answers on this, but I know that the massive number of homeless people in nursing homes are going to suffer this winter because of the Plain Dealer story.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
On Sunday, the Plain Dealer did a three page story about the out of control nursing home industry. There is no doubt that the nursing homes are under-regulated. There is no doubt that state government is at their mercy, and will do anything that the nursing home industry wants. The nursing home lobby is one of the most powerful in the state, and will figure out a legislative "fix" to the problems raised by the PD. The nursing home owners will probably be richer after this story, and the "fix" by their representatives in Columbus. The problem is that homeless people will suffer as a result of this story. It seemed as though the St. Vincent doctor and homeless people were exploiting the system and the article made it seem that nursing homes were unsafe because they allowed homeless and mentally ill to over stay their welcome.
Most homeless people do not want to be in a nursing home, because they feel like it is almost like a pre-release corrections facility. Also, most homeless do not need round the clock care. The shelters have the opposite issue with almost no care because there are just too many people. We have one facility, Joseph's Home, that can house 9-10 men and can offer care by nurses, but it is not a nursing home. That is all we have in a county of 1.3 million people for people who become homeless. There are 10 beds that offer care between a nursing home and just a bed in a shelter. I am not saying nursing homes are the answer, but until there is something else why rock the boat? All this will mean is that nursing homes will kick people out after 30 days and there will be larger numbers in shelters.
I knew a guy who had no legs and was in a wheel chair. He stayed on Euclid Ave. for years and would panhandle every so often. He could not take care of himself and spent some time with the guys at Camelot. There was no way he could live in an apartment. Finally, he got into a nursing home over in Euclid, Ohio. It was not the best for him, and he was always threatening to leave, but what other choice did we have? He would have died if he had stayed on the streets for one more winter. He had huge health complications that were only exacerbated by the rain, snow, and heat of the streets of Cleveland. I don't have all the answers on this, but I know that the massive number of homeless people in nursing homes are going to suffer this winter because of the Plain Dealer story.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Sorry for the Delay...
NEOCH Has Been Busy
Sorry, that we have not posted for two weeks...we have been working on the plan for the future of NEOCH. It is nearly done, but still needs some finishing touches. We are working on transferring two of our programs to another non-profit agency in Cleveland. We have made good progress in assuring the continued existence of Bridging the Gap housing program and Cleveland Community Voice Mail program. We will post the plan on our website as soon as it is done.
NEOCH has been working on a ton of other issues as well. On Wednesday, I spent the entire day down in Columbus trying to finally settle the homeless voting ID lawsuit. We hope that everything is settled by the end of the year in the NEOCH vs. Brunner (formerly Blackwell) lawsuit.
We believe that we have made a break through in this food problem on Public Square. We believe that we have reached a compromise with the City on a good alternate location. We just need to work out the agreement before Monday and we hope to get agreement with all the groups. Unfortunately, our e-mail system at NEOCH has been down for two days. It is extremely difficult to get work done in this day and age without an e-mail system. If you have sent us an e-mail recently, it most likely came back. We should have it repaired by Monday. Sorry for any inconveniences.
Finally, we are working on some other community planning activities in Cleveland including the implementation plan for Heading Home--a housing/homeless prevention strategic plan. In addition to all the other things we do including Teach Ins, Stand Down, Resident Councils, and Homeless Congress meetings, it is a busy time.
One last thing...RealNEO has another great post about the campaign to educate the public about panhandling. It may be a sign of the apocalypse, but we are the last city in Ohio to roll out this plan. The same company, Block by Block, is doing "clean up" of the Downtowns in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo along with a bunch of other cities in the Midwest. Cleveland is late to game of educating the public that some people are dishonest when asking for money. Remember that dishonest behavior is not confined to panhandlers. It is my experience that politicians, telemarketers, salesmen, professional fund raisers, corporate spokespeople, and lawyers who represent big business interests, have been know to shade the truth when asking for your hard earned money. But you probably wouldn't know that because no one is "educating" you about that with a poster and a washboard.
For those of us downtown everyday, this advertising campaign is part of the landscape, and just blends into the Cityscape. I am just thankful that the City is not passing another law directed at homeless people and instead spending time on this "education" campaign.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Sorry, that we have not posted for two weeks...we have been working on the plan for the future of NEOCH. It is nearly done, but still needs some finishing touches. We are working on transferring two of our programs to another non-profit agency in Cleveland. We have made good progress in assuring the continued existence of Bridging the Gap housing program and Cleveland Community Voice Mail program. We will post the plan on our website as soon as it is done.
NEOCH has been working on a ton of other issues as well. On Wednesday, I spent the entire day down in Columbus trying to finally settle the homeless voting ID lawsuit. We hope that everything is settled by the end of the year in the NEOCH vs. Brunner (formerly Blackwell) lawsuit.
We believe that we have made a break through in this food problem on Public Square. We believe that we have reached a compromise with the City on a good alternate location. We just need to work out the agreement before Monday and we hope to get agreement with all the groups. Unfortunately, our e-mail system at NEOCH has been down for two days. It is extremely difficult to get work done in this day and age without an e-mail system. If you have sent us an e-mail recently, it most likely came back. We should have it repaired by Monday. Sorry for any inconveniences.
Finally, we are working on some other community planning activities in Cleveland including the implementation plan for Heading Home--a housing/homeless prevention strategic plan. In addition to all the other things we do including Teach Ins, Stand Down, Resident Councils, and Homeless Congress meetings, it is a busy time.
One last thing...RealNEO has another great post about the campaign to educate the public about panhandling. It may be a sign of the apocalypse, but we are the last city in Ohio to roll out this plan. The same company, Block by Block, is doing "clean up" of the Downtowns in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo along with a bunch of other cities in the Midwest. Cleveland is late to game of educating the public that some people are dishonest when asking for money. Remember that dishonest behavior is not confined to panhandlers. It is my experience that politicians, telemarketers, salesmen, professional fund raisers, corporate spokespeople, and lawyers who represent big business interests, have been know to shade the truth when asking for your hard earned money. But you probably wouldn't know that because no one is "educating" you about that with a poster and a washboard.
For those of us downtown everyday, this advertising campaign is part of the landscape, and just blends into the Cityscape. I am just thankful that the City is not passing another law directed at homeless people and instead spending time on this "education" campaign.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Public Square "Cleaned"
Feeding Groups Have No Where to Minister
October 2 was the beginning of the enforcement of the curfew and (2) tickets were issued for sleeping on Public Square after 10 p.m.. NEOCH has worked this entire summer on getting all the churches, synagogues and Food Not Bombs to coordinate services (while struggling to stay in business). We eventually want all the groups to move inside so that homeless people can enjoy a meal in the same manner as the rest of us in a clean safe environment without rain or wind to contend with. We need a place with a bathroom and running water, and plenty of trash receptacles. After three months, we were real close to a breakthrough. We had a great meeting last week and all the groups were working on the same page to find an indoor location.
As part of the curfew, there was a clean up of
- Malls A, B, or C
- Chester Commons
- Or ask the County for use of that green space in between the
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Unusual Use of the Blog
Answer to Your Questions
Since blogging is relatively new form of communication and many of the rules or protocols have not been constructed, we got a comment that deserves wider distribution. The Coalition is an advocacy organization and we hear from 4 or 5 people a day looking for help. This is not our primary role in the community, but there are so many people looking for help with housing that many spend the entire day on the phone trying to find help. So here is the comment:
My main message would be that it is not hopeless. Please do not give up. So many people just give up and never get the benefits that they have a right to as tax payers in this County. Persistence is the key. Just keep calling, and keep showing up, and keep demanding an answer. Eventually, the system will respond usually in your favor just to get rid of you. PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP!!!
Finally, make sure that you vote and you tell your elected officials how disappointed you are in the social safety net. The County Commissioners administrative staff will take down messages or you can ask to talk at the end of the Commissioner meetings on Thursdays. We have a lousy economy locally so thousands are in the same place as your niece, but that is no excuse for the inability to find help. Good luck and keep on fighting.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Since blogging is relatively new form of communication and many of the rules or protocols have not been constructed, we got a comment that deserves wider distribution. The Coalition is an advocacy organization and we hear from 4 or 5 people a day looking for help. This is not our primary role in the community, but there are so many people looking for help with housing that many spend the entire day on the phone trying to find help. So here is the comment:
"I am online looking for help for my niece. She has two kids and is going to be on the street. I was hoping for some information from anyone who has been in this situation. Her case worker never calls back and if you do here from someone they say she can not get help without having a job. She can not get a job because she has no one to watch the kids. It is hopeless. What should she do?"Answer: The first thing to do is use the First Call for Help database which is available online at www.211cleveland.org. This is a comprehensive database of all social services in the County. It is a wonderful resource that is regularly updated. First Call for Help is such an important resource in our community with their 24 hour telephone helpline, but also the on-line information. The second thing to do is go up the chain of command at the welfare (Jobs and Family Services) until someone responds. I hear this complaint a lot about case workers not responding. It never makes any sense to me how they have kicked off thousands and thousands of people from the welfare roles, and yet the case workers on County payroll will not respond. What are they doing? The County is getting the same amount of money from the Feds/State for a much smaller case load today. If your case manager will not respond to get your niece child care go to his or her boss. If the supervisor will not respond keep going up the chain until you get to Joe Ganntner the Director.
My main message would be that it is not hopeless. Please do not give up. So many people just give up and never get the benefits that they have a right to as tax payers in this County. Persistence is the key. Just keep calling, and keep showing up, and keep demanding an answer. Eventually, the system will respond usually in your favor just to get rid of you. PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP!!!
Finally, make sure that you vote and you tell your elected officials how disappointed you are in the social safety net. The County Commissioners administrative staff will take down messages or you can ask to talk at the end of the Commissioner meetings on Thursdays. We have a lousy economy locally so thousands are in the same place as your niece, but that is no excuse for the inability to find help. Good luck and keep on fighting.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Food on Public Square
Collaboration Works Over Law Enforcement
We have convened a group over the last three months to talk about the feeding of homeless people outside. We are blessed in this community with an outpouring of spiritual fervor for getting nourishment to homeless people. There are so many church meals served to those without money, we could fill 4 legal size pieces of paper front and back of meals in Cuyahoga County. There is a problem that the City has been talking about for years and that is the distribution of meals on Public Square. The debate is which came first the homeless people who live there or the meals? Las Vegas, St. Petes, and Orlando have all decided the distribution of food was first and have outlawed it.
Some City Council members have also decided the best way to approach this problem is to make new laws (curfews and panhandling). We have decided the better way is to sit down and talk together to lay out a plan to work this out. So, on Thursday many of the church groups and Food Not Bombs along with the City, professional outreach teams, homeless people, and the Coalition met to continue this discussion. The outreach workers made the case that sometimes the congregations coming downtown with food is not helping and may times it actually harms people. Those with diabetes, obesity, and other health issues are becoming sicker with all this food. The waste of food is attracting rats, which are also difficult for homeless people. On Sundays, there are six meals served on Public Square each and every Sunday. The members of the Homeless Congress talked about their support for finding an indoor location. All were appreciative of the tremendous work of the religious congregations and activists to help, but all in the room wanted to work together to improve the condition of those without housing.
We are making a push to find an indoor location that any church could use to provide food and ministry to homeless people with a coordinated schedule. The problem is the amount of trash generated, the construction on the Square, the lack of bathrooms on the Square, and the health problems that come with living outside are all major concerns of the professional outreach. The religious groups have developed a friendship with these men and woman, and have brought nourishment of the stomach and heart. If the two work together, all of these people can change the face of homelessness in Cleveland, and they are now speaking honestly to each other. We shall see how the power of prayer and communicating face to face will be able to move people inside in the next couple of weeks.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
We have convened a group over the last three months to talk about the feeding of homeless people outside. We are blessed in this community with an outpouring of spiritual fervor for getting nourishment to homeless people. There are so many church meals served to those without money, we could fill 4 legal size pieces of paper front and back of meals in Cuyahoga County. There is a problem that the City has been talking about for years and that is the distribution of meals on Public Square. The debate is which came first the homeless people who live there or the meals? Las Vegas, St. Petes, and Orlando have all decided the distribution of food was first and have outlawed it.
Some City Council members have also decided the best way to approach this problem is to make new laws (curfews and panhandling). We have decided the better way is to sit down and talk together to lay out a plan to work this out. So, on Thursday many of the church groups and Food Not Bombs along with the City, professional outreach teams, homeless people, and the Coalition met to continue this discussion. The outreach workers made the case that sometimes the congregations coming downtown with food is not helping and may times it actually harms people. Those with diabetes, obesity, and other health issues are becoming sicker with all this food. The waste of food is attracting rats, which are also difficult for homeless people. On Sundays, there are six meals served on Public Square each and every Sunday. The members of the Homeless Congress talked about their support for finding an indoor location. All were appreciative of the tremendous work of the religious congregations and activists to help, but all in the room wanted to work together to improve the condition of those without housing.
We are making a push to find an indoor location that any church could use to provide food and ministry to homeless people with a coordinated schedule. The problem is the amount of trash generated, the construction on the Square, the lack of bathrooms on the Square, and the health problems that come with living outside are all major concerns of the professional outreach. The religious groups have developed a friendship with these men and woman, and have brought nourishment of the stomach and heart. If the two work together, all of these people can change the face of homelessness in Cleveland, and they are now speaking honestly to each other. We shall see how the power of prayer and communicating face to face will be able to move people inside in the next couple of weeks.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Interesting Post on Public Urination
$100 Fine for Improper Urination
Jeff from RealNEO has a wonderful description of the court hearing today for the Cleveland Brown's player. The media were all present to see the opening salvo in the trial for disgraceful behavior exhibited by a community role model. Jeff was there but found a much better story in the trial of Mr. Baskin who was "caught" urinating in public at 2:30 a.m. and appeared after the Cleveland Brown's Leigh Bodden's hearing.
I have to say that RealNEO is one of the best blogs in the region. I love the amazing photos combined with the rare collection of readable text. I wish I had the time and talent to add good pics to this blog. Too many of the blogs are just poorly written or photos with no context or both.
Anyway, Jeff dedicates a great deal of space to go through this waste of taxpayer money in this public urination trial. He describes the one hundred dollars fine, and the judge questioning the homeless individual about jobs and housing. Mr. Baskin told the judge that he was leaving the City. Here is how Jeff ends the post.
The City of Cleveland Police realized five years ago that there is a lack of public restrooms, and attempted to solve the problem. They found an acceptable location. They found the money and they got agreement from homeless people who would clean up the port-o-johns. They took the plan (which we supported and lobbied for) to the Campbell administration. The Parks Department rejected the idea because of the liability issues raised by some lawyers. Who would pay if the port-o-john tipped over and the user sued? The plan died, and we still don't have a place to go to the bathroom downtown.
This was never a problem in the past because there was always construction sites that had Port-o-Johns to use. Since we have not built anything downtown in years it is impossible to find a place to pee after 9 p.m. downtown.
There are so many people who do not want to go into the shelters in our city. From my experience there are more people sleeping outside or in abandoned buildings then there are living in the shelters (2,000 people in shelter every night). There are so many reasons why people do not go into shelter and they have to deal with where do they find a bathroom. From theft, and disrespect by staff to fear of crowds and pride are just a few of the reasons why people choose not to use the shelters. Imagine, they are willing to deal with the rain, wind, and snow instead of going into a local shelter.
There are a few day shift officers who have become the liaisons to the homeless community. Night shift is a different story. Why these officers would take someone in for using a tree when there are no bathrooms open is beyond me? Don't they have something else that the officer could be working on at 2:30 a.m? What a waste of tax payer money to have this officer go to court and try to extract blood from a turnip.
I am not as down on Cleveland as Jeff is with all this public urination stuff, because I have seen other cities. There is a war going on in most cities in America between homeless people and the municipal government. In Atlanta, they have a team of lawyers working on ways to make it illegal to be poor. In Las Vegas and a few cities in Florida, they have decided that feeding people only makes more people poor and so they outlawed the distribution of food on the streets. Cincinnati, Austin, and Los Angeles are all developing ways to make it difficult to exist if you do not have a home. I would not be surprised if all these cities were meeting on a regular basis to compare notes on the best strategy to make their homeless population disappear through law enforcement. Cleveland has issues, but they don't compare to some of the other cities in the United States.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Jeff from RealNEO has a wonderful description of the court hearing today for the Cleveland Brown's player. The media were all present to see the opening salvo in the trial for disgraceful behavior exhibited by a community role model. Jeff was there but found a much better story in the trial of Mr. Baskin who was "caught" urinating in public at 2:30 a.m. and appeared after the Cleveland Brown's Leigh Bodden's hearing.
I have to say that RealNEO is one of the best blogs in the region. I love the amazing photos combined with the rare collection of readable text. I wish I had the time and talent to add good pics to this blog. Too many of the blogs are just poorly written or photos with no context or both.
Anyway, Jeff dedicates a great deal of space to go through this waste of taxpayer money in this public urination trial. He describes the one hundred dollars fine, and the judge questioning the homeless individual about jobs and housing. Mr. Baskin told the judge that he was leaving the City. Here is how Jeff ends the post.
A couple of things about this sad affair:"Mr. Baskin’s story is much more important, and much more poignant, than Leigh’s - because Mr. Baskin’s story is the story of why Cleveland is continuing to fail. Mr. Baskin’s story is the story of why the Cleveland Police Department is purportedly “understaffed”. Mr. Baskin’s story is the reason the dockets in the Cleveland Courts are so cluttered. Mr. Baskin’s story is the story behind why the Jails are overcrowded. Mr. Baskin’s story is the story behind why our taxes are not producing effective services for the citizenry.
I would have liked to have interviewed Mr. Baskin but I didn’t have time. I had to take my dog out on the treelawn to pee."
The City of Cleveland Police realized five years ago that there is a lack of public restrooms, and attempted to solve the problem. They found an acceptable location. They found the money and they got agreement from homeless people who would clean up the port-o-johns. They took the plan (which we supported and lobbied for) to the Campbell administration. The Parks Department rejected the idea because of the liability issues raised by some lawyers. Who would pay if the port-o-john tipped over and the user sued? The plan died, and we still don't have a place to go to the bathroom downtown.
This was never a problem in the past because there was always construction sites that had Port-o-Johns to use. Since we have not built anything downtown in years it is impossible to find a place to pee after 9 p.m. downtown.
There are so many people who do not want to go into the shelters in our city. From my experience there are more people sleeping outside or in abandoned buildings then there are living in the shelters (2,000 people in shelter every night). There are so many reasons why people do not go into shelter and they have to deal with where do they find a bathroom. From theft, and disrespect by staff to fear of crowds and pride are just a few of the reasons why people choose not to use the shelters. Imagine, they are willing to deal with the rain, wind, and snow instead of going into a local shelter.
There are a few day shift officers who have become the liaisons to the homeless community. Night shift is a different story. Why these officers would take someone in for using a tree when there are no bathrooms open is beyond me? Don't they have something else that the officer could be working on at 2:30 a.m? What a waste of tax payer money to have this officer go to court and try to extract blood from a turnip.
I am not as down on Cleveland as Jeff is with all this public urination stuff, because I have seen other cities. There is a war going on in most cities in America between homeless people and the municipal government. In Atlanta, they have a team of lawyers working on ways to make it illegal to be poor. In Las Vegas and a few cities in Florida, they have decided that feeding people only makes more people poor and so they outlawed the distribution of food on the streets. Cincinnati, Austin, and Los Angeles are all developing ways to make it difficult to exist if you do not have a home. I would not be surprised if all these cities were meeting on a regular basis to compare notes on the best strategy to make their homeless population disappear through law enforcement. Cleveland has issues, but they don't compare to some of the other cities in the United States.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Upcoming Coalition Events
Events of the Homeless Coalition
1. Please join us on Thursday night September 25 at 5:30 p.m. to begin the planning on our Annual fund raiser for 2008. If you like planning special events or want to help NEOCH get the word out about the organization. We need your help. If you can offer time to help with the NEOCH fundraiser call Teri’ at 216/432-0540 ext. 101.
5. A few other upcoming events to put on your calendar:
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
1. Please join us on Thursday night September 25 at 5:30 p.m. to begin the planning on our Annual fund raiser for 2008. If you like planning special events or want to help NEOCH get the word out about the organization. We need your help. If you can offer time to help with the NEOCH fundraiser call Teri’ at 216/432-0540 ext. 101.
5. A few other upcoming events to put on your calendar:
December 1, 2007 is the Annual Woodchoppers Ball in
December 10, 2007 is the Philanthropia luncheon at Landerhaven
December 21, 2007 is the annual Homeless Memorial Day
As always if you have any questions or concerns feel free to call NEOCH at 216/432-0540.
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Associated Estates Fire Sale
From the Files of "Things Must Really Be Bad..."
Cleveland is in the midst of record breaking foreclosures that are expected to only grow in the next year, the housing bubble is popping with real estate declining in value, and now today Associated Estates announced that they are divesting of every one of their affordable rental units in the United States. You may remember Associated Estates from such east side disasters as Longwood Estates in Cleveland that had become so bad the U.S. government demanded the property be torn down. Associated stepped aside after a long series of articles in the Plain Dealer, and the property was rebuilt as Arbor Park. Associated Estates was at one time one of HUD's biggest landlords in the United States.
I do not know what this says about the U.S. economy that this corporation is rejecting the federally backed money of subsidized housing. Is it an isolated incident with a long troubled company? Is it too much government oversight that corporations find it hard now that they are expected to keep their property up to housing quality standards? Is it that fair market values are falling in many communities so that corporations are not seeing a high enough return on their investment? It is a solid source of money with the government paying up to 100% of a household's rent in some of these buildings. How bad must the future be for housing if companies are abandoning the subsidized market? These private corporations providing housing subsidized by the government go back to the Nixon/Ford administrations. You remember the olden days...when the U.S. government actually felt it important to have a plan to house its citizens, and before large scale family shelters were part of the American landscape.
From the Cleveland Tenants Organization here are the local properties operated by Associated Estates:
Cleveland:
Abington Arms 152 units
Alexia Manor 50 units
Euclid Beach Club 252 units
Euclid Beach Villa 559 units
Lakeshore Village 108 units
Lourexis 70 units
Owl's Nest 260 units
Riverpark 100 units
The Triangle 142 units
East Cleveland
Forrest Hills Terrace 420 units
Shaker Hts
Ohio Shaker Club 4 units
The Statesman 47 units
Mayfield Hts.
Gates Mills Villa 191 units
University Hts.
Cedar Center 47 units
Warrensville Hts.
Shaker Park Gardens 151 units
Westlake
West Chester Townhomes 143 units
Euclid
Euclid Hill Villa 505 units
1,693 units in Cleveland and 3,201 units in the area.
I hope that there are enough buyers in the system who can handle all these properties. It would be a disaster for these units to disappear, and it is hard to be a landlord.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Cleveland is in the midst of record breaking foreclosures that are expected to only grow in the next year, the housing bubble is popping with real estate declining in value, and now today Associated Estates announced that they are divesting of every one of their affordable rental units in the United States. You may remember Associated Estates from such east side disasters as Longwood Estates in Cleveland that had become so bad the U.S. government demanded the property be torn down. Associated stepped aside after a long series of articles in the Plain Dealer, and the property was rebuilt as Arbor Park. Associated Estates was at one time one of HUD's biggest landlords in the United States.
I do not know what this says about the U.S. economy that this corporation is rejecting the federally backed money of subsidized housing. Is it an isolated incident with a long troubled company? Is it too much government oversight that corporations find it hard now that they are expected to keep their property up to housing quality standards? Is it that fair market values are falling in many communities so that corporations are not seeing a high enough return on their investment? It is a solid source of money with the government paying up to 100% of a household's rent in some of these buildings. How bad must the future be for housing if companies are abandoning the subsidized market? These private corporations providing housing subsidized by the government go back to the Nixon/Ford administrations. You remember the olden days...when the U.S. government actually felt it important to have a plan to house its citizens, and before large scale family shelters were part of the American landscape.
From the Cleveland Tenants Organization here are the local properties operated by Associated Estates:
Cleveland:
Abington Arms 152 units
Alexia Manor 50 units
Euclid Beach Club 252 units
Euclid Beach Villa 559 units
Lakeshore Village 108 units
Lourexis 70 units
Owl's Nest 260 units
Riverpark 100 units
The Triangle 142 units
East Cleveland
Forrest Hills Terrace 420 units
Shaker Hts
Ohio Shaker Club 4 units
The Statesman 47 units
Mayfield Hts.
Gates Mills Villa 191 units
University Hts.
Cedar Center 47 units
Warrensville Hts.
Shaker Park Gardens 151 units
Westlake
West Chester Townhomes 143 units
Euclid
Euclid Hill Villa 505 units
1,693 units in Cleveland and 3,201 units in the area.
I hope that there are enough buyers in the system who can handle all these properties. It would be a disaster for these units to disappear, and it is hard to be a landlord.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
A Week At NEOCH
What is Happening at the Homeless Coalition?
We have been busy trying to put together a plan for the NEOCH Board on the future of the Coalition over this last week. The Board must decide this week on what the Coalition will look like in 2008. They will decide on which programs will be part of the Coalition family and which will we try to relocate to other programs. The Coalition will be smaller, but in the end we will do more around advocacy and public education. We will be stronger and will work toward a solution to homelessness in Cuyahoga County.
Monday
A few of us got to hear the depressing report on the state of foreclosure and Fair Housing in Cuyahoga County at the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting. Jeff Dillman from Housing Research talked about the state of affordable housing report and the large number of disability related complaints that their group receives every year (around 36% of all complaints). Disability complaints have now surpassed racial complaints (34% of the total complaints). Mark Siefert of ESOP talked about the huge volume of foreclosures coming in the near future. He said that it is bad now, but it will get worse when the volume of Adjustable Rate Mortgages reset beginning in October and lasting through next year. Siefert was critical of state and local government for allowing this situation to get so out of control, and ESOP is trying to get workout agreements with banks and mortgage companies for the homeowners facing foreclosure. Next CAHA meeting: October 1, 2007 is Lt. Governor Lee Fisher at 1:30 p.m. at 1350 Euclid Ave.
Tuesday
NEOCH staff had meetings with potential sponsors of some of our programs and met with the NEOCH Board executive committee to talk about the future. I talked to the police about the impending enforcement of the curfew on Public Square, and the relocation of the tent city. Yes, after being humiliated by a few media outlets and tormented by drivers getting on the freeway, the tent city guys decided to move. They will be a lot better off where they relocated.
Wednesday
The Office of Homeless Services "Advisory" Board met this morning. This is one of the greatest missed opportunities in our community. All the right people are at the table (public housing, shelters, service providers, foundations, city, county, and researchers), but the group has never done much to solve homelessness. NEOCH helped create this group back in the early 1990s with the thought that it would take the lead in eliminating homelessness locally. It has done very little over the last fifteen years, and has never flexed its political muscle in the community to demand changes. It is a good discussion group for those who like talking about homelessness, but not so good for forwarding solutions to homelessness. We did find out that the strip club inside of North Point may not close when they open the transitional shelter in the motel. This potentially could be the only shelter in the United States with an attached strip club. Only in Cleveland...
Thursday
Met with Captain Sadie about problems in the third district and Public Square. He is a nice guy who has a lot of sympathy for homeless people from his work at Jacobs Field. The Captain is getting a lot of heat from his superiors and the business community over the behavior of homeless people and panhandlers downtown. I firmly believe that law enforcement should never be involved in distribution of services to those who are resistant to shelter, and my meeting with the Captain only reinforces this belief. The police are also concerned with the number of religious groups downtown distributing food with Public Square torn up and with only two quadrants left. I also talked to one of the guys living outside who said that there were about dozen people still sleeping on the Square. All are aware of the impending deadline for enforcement of the curfew (October 1), and a number of them need help with mental health issues.
Friday
Met with the NEOCH staff again to talk about the plans for the next year, and sent the plan out to the full board. While we are working on the future of NEOCH, we still had to answer e-mails, telephone calls, and calls of inquiry. At least once a week someone will call or e-mail asking how to open a shelter. We strongly recommend not opening a shelter since two local shelters have already gone out of business in Cleveland and three are teetering on the edge. Unless a person has a great deal of wealth and can fund a shelter strictly from individual donations, they should not think about opening a shelter. Government and foundations do not have the money for shelters anymore.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
We have been busy trying to put together a plan for the NEOCH Board on the future of the Coalition over this last week. The Board must decide this week on what the Coalition will look like in 2008. They will decide on which programs will be part of the Coalition family and which will we try to relocate to other programs. The Coalition will be smaller, but in the end we will do more around advocacy and public education. We will be stronger and will work toward a solution to homelessness in Cuyahoga County.
Monday
A few of us got to hear the depressing report on the state of foreclosure and Fair Housing in Cuyahoga County at the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting. Jeff Dillman from Housing Research talked about the state of affordable housing report and the large number of disability related complaints that their group receives every year (around 36% of all complaints). Disability complaints have now surpassed racial complaints (34% of the total complaints). Mark Siefert of ESOP talked about the huge volume of foreclosures coming in the near future. He said that it is bad now, but it will get worse when the volume of Adjustable Rate Mortgages reset beginning in October and lasting through next year. Siefert was critical of state and local government for allowing this situation to get so out of control, and ESOP is trying to get workout agreements with banks and mortgage companies for the homeowners facing foreclosure. Next CAHA meeting: October 1, 2007 is Lt. Governor Lee Fisher at 1:30 p.m. at 1350 Euclid Ave.
Tuesday
NEOCH staff had meetings with potential sponsors of some of our programs and met with the NEOCH Board executive committee to talk about the future. I talked to the police about the impending enforcement of the curfew on Public Square, and the relocation of the tent city. Yes, after being humiliated by a few media outlets and tormented by drivers getting on the freeway, the tent city guys decided to move. They will be a lot better off where they relocated.
Wednesday
The Office of Homeless Services "Advisory" Board met this morning. This is one of the greatest missed opportunities in our community. All the right people are at the table (public housing, shelters, service providers, foundations, city, county, and researchers), but the group has never done much to solve homelessness. NEOCH helped create this group back in the early 1990s with the thought that it would take the lead in eliminating homelessness locally. It has done very little over the last fifteen years, and has never flexed its political muscle in the community to demand changes. It is a good discussion group for those who like talking about homelessness, but not so good for forwarding solutions to homelessness. We did find out that the strip club inside of North Point may not close when they open the transitional shelter in the motel. This potentially could be the only shelter in the United States with an attached strip club. Only in Cleveland...
Thursday
Met with Captain Sadie about problems in the third district and Public Square. He is a nice guy who has a lot of sympathy for homeless people from his work at Jacobs Field. The Captain is getting a lot of heat from his superiors and the business community over the behavior of homeless people and panhandlers downtown. I firmly believe that law enforcement should never be involved in distribution of services to those who are resistant to shelter, and my meeting with the Captain only reinforces this belief. The police are also concerned with the number of religious groups downtown distributing food with Public Square torn up and with only two quadrants left. I also talked to one of the guys living outside who said that there were about dozen people still sleeping on the Square. All are aware of the impending deadline for enforcement of the curfew (October 1), and a number of them need help with mental health issues.
Friday
Met with the NEOCH staff again to talk about the plans for the next year, and sent the plan out to the full board. While we are working on the future of NEOCH, we still had to answer e-mails, telephone calls, and calls of inquiry. At least once a week someone will call or e-mail asking how to open a shelter. We strongly recommend not opening a shelter since two local shelters have already gone out of business in Cleveland and three are teetering on the edge. Unless a person has a great deal of wealth and can fund a shelter strictly from individual donations, they should not think about opening a shelter. Government and foundations do not have the money for shelters anymore.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Forgot to Mention the Nice Commentary from Schultz
PD Columnists Confuses Panhandlers and Homeless
We took Feagler to task for his recycled commentary about panhandlers, but forgot to comment on Connie Schultz's piece in the August 24th PD. First of all, Schultz does a good job of weaving together a story with a current event, and this piece is a thoughtful and well crafted piece of commentary. Why is she confined to the living section? I have never understood this section. Are you not allowed to talk about death in this entire section? Anyway, it was a good commentary, but she still makes the common mistake that homeless and panhandlers are synonymous. She slams the Downtown Alliance strategy of "Don't give to panhandlers" campaign saying that it will magically make these individuals disappear.
I really don't have a problem with the campaign, because it is not government passing a law. As long as government does not say that it is illegal to give or that it is illegal to ask, I am fine. It is an education campaign along the lines of: "the Surgeon General warns that smoking can be harmful to your health." We all know this, but some of us still give. We want to cut out the middle man of the agencies helping these guys. Hell, if agencies were so good at what they do then there would not be panhandlers on the street. How many "agencies" actually do outreach to panhandlers or those resistant to shelter or those who cannot follow the rules or those who voice concern about bizarre religious doctrines that get in the way of help? Actually, there are about 7 in our city. By the way, I am one of those who does not give, but I understand and have respect for those who do give.
Connie Schultz does a good job throwing water on this campaign and calls it what it actually is: a campaign to ignore poverty. I just wish she would not mix homeless people with panhandlers. It was nice that she talked to the National Coalition for the Homeless. People always trust groups and "experts" from outside the area. If only there were a Coalition for Panhandlers, so they could effectively advocate for themselves. Since a small number of homeless people do beg for money, it is up to the Homeless groups to go to bat for the panhandlers. My experience is that people who are in competition with each other have a hard time doing anything together and thus the reason for no Coalition for Panhandlers.
Ms. Schultz sums it all up with the "there but the grace of God go I" story of the woman who gives because her dad made plenty of mistakes and ended up destitute. "Most of us don't really spend much time thinking about how to help the homeless. What we really want is permission not to think of them at all," said Schultz. I hope that those posters hanging around downtown do not give people permission to forget about homeless people.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
We took Feagler to task for his recycled commentary about panhandlers, but forgot to comment on Connie Schultz's piece in the August 24th PD. First of all, Schultz does a good job of weaving together a story with a current event, and this piece is a thoughtful and well crafted piece of commentary. Why is she confined to the living section? I have never understood this section. Are you not allowed to talk about death in this entire section? Anyway, it was a good commentary, but she still makes the common mistake that homeless and panhandlers are synonymous. She slams the Downtown Alliance strategy of "Don't give to panhandlers" campaign saying that it will magically make these individuals disappear.
I really don't have a problem with the campaign, because it is not government passing a law. As long as government does not say that it is illegal to give or that it is illegal to ask, I am fine. It is an education campaign along the lines of: "the Surgeon General warns that smoking can be harmful to your health." We all know this, but some of us still give. We want to cut out the middle man of the agencies helping these guys. Hell, if agencies were so good at what they do then there would not be panhandlers on the street. How many "agencies" actually do outreach to panhandlers or those resistant to shelter or those who cannot follow the rules or those who voice concern about bizarre religious doctrines that get in the way of help? Actually, there are about 7 in our city. By the way, I am one of those who does not give, but I understand and have respect for those who do give.
Connie Schultz does a good job throwing water on this campaign and calls it what it actually is: a campaign to ignore poverty. I just wish she would not mix homeless people with panhandlers. It was nice that she talked to the National Coalition for the Homeless. People always trust groups and "experts" from outside the area. If only there were a Coalition for Panhandlers, so they could effectively advocate for themselves. Since a small number of homeless people do beg for money, it is up to the Homeless groups to go to bat for the panhandlers. My experience is that people who are in competition with each other have a hard time doing anything together and thus the reason for no Coalition for Panhandlers.
Ms. Schultz sums it all up with the "there but the grace of God go I" story of the woman who gives because her dad made plenty of mistakes and ended up destitute. "Most of us don't really spend much time thinking about how to help the homeless. What we really want is permission not to think of them at all," said Schultz. I hope that those posters hanging around downtown do not give people permission to forget about homeless people.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
Monday, September 03, 2007
Why Does the PD Print Hate?
Letters Paint Homeless With Hate-filled Brush
In the Sunday PD, there were three letters about homeless people and one about panhandlers. Two were very well-reasoned arguments against the curfew. Check them out. There was one from a woman from Brecksville who urges the pedestrians to give to agencies instead of giving money to "beggars." The final letter should never have been printed, because it is factually inaccurate and dripping with hatred. The individual paints all homeless people who decide against using the shelters with the same tired stereotypes. He urges Connie Shultz to "concentrate on the fact that this their choice: to avoid responsibility and mooch change to sustain their filthy, disgusting existence." Then he sums it up with a jailing of all those who sleep outside and forcing them into a work camp or concentration camp. Why is it acceptable for a reader to ask that those who choose not to use a shelter be labeled disgusting, filthy and thrown in a work camp? The editors would never publish a similar letter about members of the Jewish or Muslim faith or targeting African American or Latino members of our community with this type of language.
Yes, a few homeless people use the outdoors for their bathrooms. Yes, there are also a bunch of people who come downtown to party and use the outside as their bathroom. In fact, the front page story in the Plain Dealer highlighted a few neighborhoods where people used the street and yards to puke and relieve themselves, and they were not homeless. How about building a public restroom downtown, and I guarantee that you would take care of 80% of the problem with homeless people using the outdoors to relieve themselves. Get rid of all the bars downtown and you would take care of the non-homeless using the downtown streets as a restroom. I would argue that only a small number make it bad for the majority of people who just want to be left alone. I do not understand why the Plain Dealer allows such stereotyping and characterizing a broad and diverse group of people as disgusting.
There are couples who do not want to split up and so stay together outside or in abandoned buildings. There are no shelters for couples in our community. There are those who stay with their pets. There are those who do not want to accept charity. Then we find many who feel the shelters are unsafe. There are homeless people who do not like all the rules and want to be independent. These individuals obey all the rules and laws, but decide to live outside. There are many cleaning up the stadium at night, and are familiar with a hard day's work. In fact, many homeless work harder than anyone else in our community in some of the most backbreaking jobs known to man, like cleaning out waste management trucks or lifting car parts on to the assembly line to be painted.
I am just trying to imagine the kind of heat that the editorial page would get if this letter was directed at any other ethnic or racial group. Any letter based on unfounded stereotypes about a lazy, disgusting or filthy minority or religious group who should be jailed for their behavior would be viewed as hate mail and thrown in the garbage. This is the reason that there are so many hate crimes directed at homeless people. The Plain Dealer publishing these types of letters makes it seem as though homeless people are less than human, and available for attack. I would write a letter, but the daily has a new one letter per month rule.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless Staff and Board.
In the Sunday PD, there were three letters about homeless people and one about panhandlers. Two were very well-reasoned arguments against the curfew. Check them out. There was one from a woman from Brecksville who urges the pedestrians to give to agencies instead of giving money to "beggars." The final letter should never have been printed, because it is factually inaccurate and dripping with hatred. The individual paints all homeless people who decide against using the shelters with the same tired stereotypes. He urges Connie Shultz to "concentrate on the fact that this their choice: to avoid responsibility and mooch change to sustain their filthy, disgusting existence." Then he sums it up with a jailing of all those who sleep outside and forcing them into a work camp or concentration camp. Why is it acceptable for a reader to ask that those who choose not to use a shelter be labeled disgusting, filthy and thrown in a work camp? The editors would never publish a similar letter about members of the Jewish or Muslim faith or targeting African American or Latino members of our community with this type of language.
Yes, a few homeless people use the outdoors for their bathrooms. Yes, there are also a bunch of people who come downtown to party and use the outside as their bathroom. In fact, the front page story in the Plain Dealer highlighted a few neighborhoods where people used the street and yards to puke and relieve themselves, and they were not homeless. How about building a public restroom downtown, and I guarantee that you would take care of 80% of the problem with homeless people using the outdoors to relieve themselves. Get rid of all the bars downtown and you would take care of the non-homeless using the downtown streets as a restroom. I would argue that only a small number make it bad for the majority of people who just want to be left alone. I do not understand why the Plain Dealer allows such stereotyping and characterizing a broad and diverse group of people as disgusting.
There are couples who do not want to split up and so stay together outside or in abandoned buildings. There are no shelters for couples in our community. There are those who stay with their pets. There are those who do not want to accept charity. Then we find many who feel the shelters are unsafe. There are homeless people who do not like all the rules and want to be independent. These individuals obey all the rules and laws, but decide to live outside. There are many cleaning up the stadium at night, and are familiar with a hard day's work. In fact, many homeless work harder than anyone else in our community in some of the most backbreaking jobs known to man, like cleaning out waste management trucks or lifting car parts on to the assembly line to be painted.
I am just trying to imagine the kind of heat that the editorial page would get if this letter was directed at any other ethnic or racial group. Any letter based on unfounded stereotypes about a lazy, disgusting or filthy minority or religious group who should be jailed for their behavior would be viewed as hate mail and thrown in the garbage. This is the reason that there are so many hate crimes directed at homeless people. The Plain Dealer publishing these types of letters makes it seem as though homeless people are less than human, and available for attack. I would write a letter, but the daily has a new one letter per month rule.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless Staff and Board.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)