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 Public Square with a washing and inspection. The Department of Health found 24 rats nests, and ordered an immediate response to this health crisis. They ordered massive extermination efforts, and in doing so do not want any groups to give out food on Public Square. The Health Department is going to start enforcing their permitting requirements to serve food. At this point, no group has a permit. The city does not want the food distribution groups to use the other parks for fear that it will just transfer the problem. The City has suggested the lot on Davenport as an alternative site for now. Davenport is north of Lakeside around East 18th. It is far from the Square, and it is a parking lot with no places to sit down. I am sure that the churches are going to be angry about this situation after all the meetings this summer. This all came down on Wednesday October 3 at around noon when the Chief of Police and the entire command staff stopped a group from unloading their food on the Square. Then they tried to move to another park and that did not work because law enforcement stopped them. The group was told that if they unload that they would be arrested.

All of this came down less then a week after our great meeting with all the groups that are caring for homeless people on the Square. The timing is unfortunate, and could put a rift between the City and the food groups. NEOCH sent the following letter to the City.

Ms. Natoya Walker:

After a sleepless night, I would like to ask that you reexamine the Public Square decision. I feel that NEOCH is partially responsible for the actions taken yesterday, and we request that you talk to the Mayor about a better interim solution then the Davenport site. NEOCH was the one that brought the outreach workers to the discussion, and they reported the rats. We were so close to some compromise, and this decision will only alienate all the people that we have tried to work with over this last summer. We have broken the trust built up with the religious congregations, Food Not Bombs, and we have harmed our own clients. I am sure that it was not the intention of any of the outreach workers to close off Public Square, when they brought the problem of rats to the attention of the City. It will make them leery of talking to the City about issues if they are afraid that the City will take action to further alienate the homeless population.

Everyone that I talked to felt the meeting last week was great, but this action puts into question everything that we have done. We need some bold and creative ideas right now. What has happened because of this decision is that everything these groups feared when sitting down to talk about this problem of feeding outside is now taking place. We have moved homeless people out of sight behind a building far from Public Square. Christian groups have provided the loaves and fishes to groups for over 2,000 years, and we cannot just end the practice in one day. We were so close to reaching a solution, but I fear that this latest action will force these groups to respond in the judicial system.

I would ask that the best and brightest minds within the administration get together and come up with an interim step between Public Square and an indoor location. Might I suggest putting a dumpster out of sight near one of the following parks as the Square is cleaned up:

• Jesse Owens Park across from the Justice Center.
• Malls A, B, or C
• Chester Commons
• Or ask the County for use of that green space in between the County Administration building and the road with two hour meters next to Mall B.

All of these places have benches or a place to sit down, and are close to the Square. We could even accept if you set a time limit of Thanksgiving for use of these spaces to have an indoor location ready. The Davenport site is just not going to work. I am sure that the groups will volunteer to clean up the park and stay around until the last person is gone. I would hate to see the City get into a confrontational relationship with groups that feel it is part of their mission and their faith to minister to the stomachs, hearts and minds of those living outside. Please talk to the Mayor and reconsider this ban on the use of public parks for food.

Sincerely,

Brian Davis

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

Unusual Use of the Blog

Answer to Your Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

"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."

A couple of things about this sad affair:

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.

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.

2. Lt. Governor and Director of the Ohio Department of Development, Lee Fisher, will speak to the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance on Monday October 1 at 1:30 p.m. at the lower level of the HUD/US Bank Building. Free and open to the public this forum will focus on state efforts to preserve and expand affordable housing in Ohio. Fisher will touch on the foreclosure crisis and the impact of the State Housing Trust fund, and will take time to answer questions. The forum in at 1350 Euclid Ave. in the Playhouse Square section of Cleveland.

3. The 2008 Stand Down health fair is set for February 1, 2008. In an effort to raise supplies and funds for the anticipated 1,000 homeless people who attend the Stand Down, NEOCH is partnering with InterAct Cleveland to kick off the Homeless Stand Down season on October 27, 2007 at 1 p.m. at Calvary Presbyterian Church at East 79^th near Euclid Ave. We will begin collecting winter coats, hats, and gloves as well as other supplies for the Stand Down. For more information call InterAct 216/241-0230.

4. The NEOCH website was recently updated please check it out and give us your feedback www.neoch.org. There is a common design and theme, some great pictures, statistics, and solutions to homelessness. We have a few job openings listed on the website and a calendar of events. We also have links to our partners and to our two blogs. You can also donate directly on our website through Network for Good. Please give us some feedback on the site and let us know what you think.

5. A few other upcoming events to put on your calendar:

December 1, 2007 is the Annual Woodchoppers Ball in Kent.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mental Illness on the Streets

Curfew Not the Issue After Protest

While staging a peaceful protest at Public Square, a fight broke out when a man who appeared to be mentally ill got aggressive with another man who wound up stabbing the mentally ill man in self defense, as reported by the Plain Dealer here. Megan Wilson of the Catholic Worker was there with the dozens of other protesters and they thankfully intervened before the assault escalated into murder. In response to claims that this sort of violence is the reason there should be a curfew on Public Square, the Plain Dealer recorded Wilson as saying:

"That's not the kind of violence that's affected by a curfew ordinance," she said. "If they hadn't been allowed on Public Square, they would have just fought somewhere less public where someone would have been less likely to see them and intervene and we would have had one more murder on the books in Cleveland."

Councilman Joe Cimperman, who needs no introduction, retorted with the view that this kind of violence is the reason the curfew is necessary, stating to the Plain Dealer:

"There's a reason why every single public space in Cleveland has a curfew," Cimperman said. "That's a really illogical statement. I am grateful that they were there, but for them to say that this is going to happen somewhere else is upside down logic. "For that matter, why don't we keep all the public parks open all night long and maybe the homicide rate in the city of Cleveland will go down – that just doesn't make sense."

First and foremost, this is a terrible thing that happened and an issue that definitely needs to be addressed. Whether or not our Councilman can understand the logic, the curfew does not address the issue at hand. The logic behind that statement is that the curfew was in effect at the time of the violence and the violence still occurred unabated. However, it is important to remember that the violence would not have been affected by the lack of a curfew, either. This is simply an incident that happened to occur alongside a protest of the recently enacted curfew.

But, it does speak volumes for the tired argument that we need to take better care of our mentally ill. There's nothing I can say about why or how that hasn't been said better. I've been working this job for a year and a half and I have seen way too many people with clear debilitating mental illnesses out on the street. I have been told things like, "I was once a servant to the King of England," and, "My name is God and yes, to thee, I fly," by people on the street. These people are real human beings who have lived lives longer than I have that are reduced to the status of a medieval "village idiot" because of obvious mental disorders we know how to treat. They're sick and in need of help and we leave them to wander the sidewalks and to sleep on the ground in the snow and the rain. We provide them out of the way alleys instead of public restrooms. Maybe a couple times a month we let them wash up in a sink at the library.

I hope this incident has the positive effect of drawing attention to the terrible mess we've made for people with mental illness so real change can be made, but I fear it will only make the public terrified of anyone who looks like they might be "crazy." This incident gives the fear-mongers a new scapegoat to toss to the lions. Most of all, I just wish this happened in some other context. This story is too easily warped for individual agendas. I hope that while being treated for his injuries they can treat him for the mental illness as well, but I understand that with no insurance a health care worker's hands tend to be tied pretty tightly.

Joshua Kanary

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

Slim Media Attention to Poverty Walk

Poverty Demonstration/March Well Attended

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two Big Events Coming Up

Martin Luther King March and Lt. Governor at CAHA

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

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

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

Governor's Wife Meets With Homeless Families

Ohio's First Lady Sits Down to Listen and Learn

Frances Strickland, Ohio's First Lady, was in Cleveland on Monday 8/20 to meet with a group of homeless women and children. Trinity Cathedral hosted 7 women and their children, and one recent graduate of the Cleveland Public Schools who struggled with homelessness. We met in the comfortable surroundings of the Charter Room with couches and comfortable chairs. So comfortable, in fact, two of the children fell asleep while their Mom's held them. This was an attempt by the Governor's wife to stay in touch with homeless people, and she wanted to hear from the students about their experiences in managing school during their period of housing instability. Ms. Strickland was soft spoken, but a good listener. She went back over the points that the women made to make sure that she understood. The families came from Miracle Village, West Side Catholic, New Life Community and Cleveland Public Schools Project Act, and most left with a positive impression of the First Lady.

The one recurring issue that came up from the women were the difficulty in finding stable housing without some financial help. A number of women talked about how they found help for themselves and their children from the Department of Human Services, but once they started earning money it all fell apart. The shelter usually only allow a family to stay for three months, and the women find a job, secure their benefits, and then eventually find housing. Once a woman starts earning income, their food stamps are reduced and their child care assistance is reduced. They just barely make it with a job and the County assistance, and then the county begins to withdraw that help and one unexpected expense can cause a return to the shelters. This is a big issue that the State can address. If as a society we are not going to demand living wages from all our employers, then we have to subsidize childcare, transportation, housing and food--sometimes for life.

Other issues that came up during the discussion:

• The shelters turn developmentally disabled individuals out when they turn 18 even if they are still in high school under the care of a parent or guardian. One disabled young man was taken advantage of and raped because he was separated from his mom when he turned 18. The state needs to revise its rules for the shelters.
• Suburban schools have an unfair advantage over Cleveland schools in the tests. Too many kids start behind their neighbors in the suburbs, and the Cleveland kids are always playing catch up.
  
• Our community has no idea what is happening with homeless kids who leave their parents or guardians before they are 18 because we don't have a place for these kids to go.
  
• No matter what the County says publicly, they often take custody of children just because the Mom becomes homeless.
• The Housing Authority is not doing a good job with inspections of potential apartments for those using the voucher program.
• Suburban school districts do not always follow the rules with regard to allowing a child to return to their school of origin when a family becomes homeless. Lakewood specifically came up in the discussion.
  
• Why does ODJFS (Welfare Department) want us to provide ID every six months in order to get benefits? All that information is on file when you apply, why do we keep having to bring our ID and birth certificates with us? They do not change.
  
• Child support orders do not always transfer very smoothly between Counties. This is a big problem for those fleeing because of domestic violence.
  
• Poor people fall through the cracks in health care, and the hospitals try as hard as they can not to serve you especially with dental care. Follow up care is especially difficult.
• There is too much paperwork to get a few food stamps.
  
• Things start crushing down on the women at the shelters and there is not enough counseling help. Shelters need more workers who can help, and those shelters need a highly professional staff like West Side Catholic.
  
• Shelters need more budgeting classes. Some of the shelters have nothing (no classes) and no one can help with anything, while others have everything.
  
• There is a lot of racism in finding a job or housing in this community.
• One woman mentioned having lost everything and started over in the shelters. Then she got her life back together and the County cut all her help because she started earning $8 an hour, which was not enough to pay the rent/food/childcare.
  
• The income that one woman found did not pay her expenses, and so she has no idea how to pay for childcare services.
• Most of the housing has this incredible waiting list of three to five years.
• The oversight of most of the subsidized housing (vouchers, Public Housing, and HUD housing) is not very good and needs improved. Too much bureaucracy and not enough scrutiny.
  
• There is way too much abandoned housing in our community. Many women mentioned the need to fix it up and get homeless people moved in to those units.
  
• One of the women was going to school at CSU, but also had to have a full time job. Tuition is too expensive and grants are not available.
  
• Cleveland Public Schools said that they were starting out the year with 700 homeless children registered.
• One woman mentioned that she was homeless as a child, and was terrified that she would be homeless again. She constantly has that on her mind that she does not want to go through the trauma of homelessness again.
  
• Shelter Plus Care is a very good program.
  
• They need more programs to help women do things for themselves.
  
• New Life Shelter complained about the time limits put on treatment and job training. This has harmed their program and the women in the program.
• Apartment owners are not taking care of their property, and again inspections are not working.
  
• A few said that they were very grateful for the programs and the services available. Some of the shelters are not providing the same level of service as others, and women have to go to the schools or churches or other places for help.
• When a family starts making a little money is the time that they start taking away your day care or transportation. No one could make it on $7 an hour and the small amount of help that the County give you.
• Why would one of the shelters force you to leave once you get a job? This seems like the opposite message that the shelters should be giving to homeless women. It is like they want people to be dependent if they are discouraging employment.
  

It was a good event, and I always learn a lot when homeless people are given the opportunity to talk about the system with someone they believe can help. Governor Strickland has re-convened the InterAgency Task Force on Homelessness of all the heads of agencies that interact with homeless people like Human Services, Mental Health, Drug Board, etc. They are supposed to try to reduce the bureaucracy between government agencies in an attempt to get assistance to those struggling with housing with the utmost speed. This InterAgency Council needs to convene similar listening projects around the state to get this kind of input.

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

PD Needs New Columnists

Recycling Plastic: Good; Recycling Newspaper Columns: Bad

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

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

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

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

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

Update on Public Housing

CMHA Updates from CAHA

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hide Homeless People and Bring out the Porn

Curfew Closes Down Public Square After 10 p.m.

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

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

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

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

You Want Service?

More Hurdles to Get Help

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

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

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

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

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

Message Received?

Will Minnesota Go Through with Groundbreaking?

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

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

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

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

What Can We Do?

We Cannot Respond If They Don't Want Our Help

We had a few calls asking us to respond to those lowlife scum of the earth morning radio show jocks who got the tent city removed. It seems on Monday they talked all about how bad homeless people were and how they were going to go down to stay with the guys in the tent city. They forced the City into intervening, and the guys had to leave by 11:30 a.m. today or face arrest.

Anthony and his crew did leave, and vowed not to tell the media where they were going. He made an appeal for an attorney to help, but they reluctantly left the underpass. We really cannot intervene since the tent city guys did not request that we intervene. They do not trust us and have made it clear they do not like us. We cannot force ourselves on a group of homeless people. We could not agree with these guys on a strategy or the possible results of any court proceedings. These types of cases are difficult to fight because of the questionable legal standing, and then to add a hostile group of clients to the mix makes it impossible to get a compromise. Unfortunately, we are looking at an outcome that is good for the entire homeless community, and these guys are wisely only looking for their interests.

I know that there is very little that NEOCH could do to help the tent city dwellers, but we can go after the morning show. We can urge people not to listen to 92.3 in the mornings or ever. We also could tell people that we will publish the list of irresponsible advertisers who support this kind of hate in the morning. Send us a list of their advertisers and we will publish them on our blog under the headline: "Businesses to Avoid Because they Support Hate Speech." Send us the list and we will publish them.

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

The Value of Blogging

Not a Level Playing Field but Moving Forward

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

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

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

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