Columbia South Carolina Passes Crazy Law

Columbia South Carolina passed a shocking ordinance to limit the number of homeless people within their borders by a unanimous vote of the City Council.  It is easy to laugh this off as another crazy law from backward legislators, but this law is especially disturbing.  Urban homelessness disproportionately impacts African Americans in the United States.  In Cuyahoga County 80% of the homeless population are black while according to the US Census the overall county statistics show that only 30% of the total population are African American.  The Columbia South Carolina Mayor is black and four out of the seven City Council members are black yet they all voted to make it illegal to be homeless in the city.

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CAHA Meeting for 9/9/13 Looks at Land Trusts

The next Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting is moved to September 9, 2013 because of Labor Day. This meeting we will look at the changes that are taking place with HUD locally and how this will impact Cleveland tenants living in HUD backed apartments, current landlords and even the CAHA meetings in the future.  We will also get a good overview of the Land Trust program (not the Land Bank program). 

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City of Miami Working to Overturn Deal with Homeless People

Before Cleveland homeless individuals settled with the City in 2000, Miami lawyers struck an agreement to step back from the effort to make it illegal to be homeless.  Word came out that the current city government is working on ways to get out from under this 1998 settlement.  The National Coalition for the Homeless wrote a letter condemning these attempts to scrap the Pottinger settlement.   

The National Coalition for the Homeless is very concerned that the City of Miami is working to cancel its agreement with those experiencing homelessness in the Pottinger settlement of 1998.

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Cato Institue Publishes Flawed Report

The Cato Institute updated a report from 1995 and published what can only be characterized as the dumbest research projects ever published.  The report titled "The Work vs. Welfare Trade Off: 2013" might be the most absurd collection of disjointed statistics that has ever been put down on paper.  This report has no redeeming value in any policy debate that I could think of except maybe in showing that the minimum wage is too low in many states.  Cato "researchers" have lumped together entitlements such as food stamps with housing assistance limited by a significant lack of supply to Medicare limited to a small number of people to make the case that "welfare" may pay better than work pays.

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Veterans Homelessness in the Community

There are many in the community who do not like homeless people.  Much of this has to do with myths and misconceptions about those struggling with housing.  There are two populations which get near universal support: kids and vets.  Homeless children are innocent and did not ask to be without housing.  They are often the victim of their parents bad decisions or problems revolving around the inability for the parent to find a job or maintain housing.  Veterans are viewed by most as the "deserving poor" because they served their country, and often have problems associated with the trauma or personal demons from combat.

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Panhandling Ruled Constitutional by Appeals Court

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Ohio and Michigan) upheld a lower court decision that found the Grand Rapids Police gave a ticket to two homeless people for asking for money.  The court ruled the statute that made it a crime to beg for money illegal.  The court found that this was an infringement on the free speech protections of the First Amendment.  The court found that the Supreme Court has never specifically ruled that an individual asking for money is engaged in expression, they did find that organizations were protected for soliciting charitable funds.  The court found that Michigan had the right to regulate soliciting funds.  It could not prohibit begging for money by criminal law.

The Detroit News has a nice summary of the ruling here.  The two individuals, James Speet and Ernest Sims, sued in federal court to dismiss the ticket.  Speet was holding a sign that said, "Cold and Hungry, God Bless." He pled guilty when the police issued his ticket, and was unable to pay the $198 fine.  

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Advocates Support ABA Homeless Resolution

This will not likely make much national news, but it should be mentioned.  On August 12, the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates passed a resolution calling on the U.S. government at all levels to promote and implement the human right to housing.
 
In the resolution, the ABA "urges governments to promote the human right to adequate housing for all through increased funding, development and implementation of affordable housing strategies and to prevent infringement of that right."
 
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Housing 101 Workshop for September

The Housing101 workshop is an opportunity to learn more about housing and sign up to use the HousingCleveland.org website.  It is directed at staff working with very low income and homeless people including social workers, case worker, and advocates.  One goal is to get more case workers signed up to use the Special Needs functions of Housing Cleveland.org.  The other goal is to teach case workers about how to access fair housing, central intake and permanent supportive housing.  Finally, the goal is to teach participants about the basic landlord tenant law. 

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Cuts to the Shelter Dollars Announced

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the allocation for new projects in the United States.  Cleveland/Cuyahoga County asked for $25.59 million, but received only $24.28 million.   Local officials are happy and "grateful" that they only received a 5% cut.  There was a new Permanent Supportive Housing Project and more Shelter Plus Care vouchers.   The million dollars lost would have helped disabled homeless people pay rent to exit the shelters.

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Rights of LGBT Community and Homelessness

The last Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting this week featured Kris Keniray of the Housing Research and Advocacy Center gave a presentation on a change in the fair housing law being implemented by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  In 2012, HUD published the rule which regulates all programs funded by federal housing dollars provides for equal access to housing regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity (contained in the Federal Register Feb. 3, 2012 Vol. 77 No. 23).  The new rules went into effect on March 5, 2012, and governs Public Housing, the Voucher program, Block Grant funding, HOME dollars, FHA mortgages, and even Emergency Shelter grants.


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We Won Our Extension of our Voter ID Agreement

Federal District Court Judge Algenon Marbley released his decision this morning to extend our agreement with the State of Ohio through the next Presidential Election at the end of 2016.   We had asked for an agreement through 2024 (so three presidential elections) and we got one.   This only means we need to work for a clarification of the law in the next four years or seek additional time on the agreement if there is still a need based on the issues that come up in 2014 or 2016.  It is likely that the State of Ohio attorneys who advocated on behalf of Secretary of State Jon Husted that the agreement should end will appeal this decision.

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Affordable Housing Stories in the News

There are a bunch of stories in the media over the last few weeks about affordable housing. The first and most important was the Plain Dealer support for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program that the Cleveland Housing Network called our attention to in their newsletter.  In an article by one of the reporters separated from the Plain Dealer wrote about the concern by advocates over the loss of the Tax Credit program.  The tax credit program is not the best way to develop affordable housing because the housing is not really affordable to the lowest income people in our community, but it is still an important program.  Typically, the rents are reduced but they are not reduced to the point of the housing voucher program or Public Housing.  

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Congress Holds Hearing on Poverty without Anyone Living in Poverty

Congressman and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan hosted a hearing on poverty in America and failed to include anyone currently living in poverty.  NEOCH is in business to provide a voice to those often forgotten by society, and we could have provided any number of individuals to help illustrate the point.  We could have sent a number of our Street Voices speakers such as Don to talk about long term health issues that keep him living in poverty.   The long waits for the state to determine if a person is in fact disabled and deserves government support to keep them in poverty for the rest of their lives is another reason for poverty in America. 

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New Homeless Chronicle is on the Streets

The new issue of the Street Chronicle is now on the streets.  All the vendors have picked up their paper and are on the streets selling the paper.  A number of interns provided much of the content, which is exceptional for this paper.  We have a story about the new Veterans Center on Euclid Ave. and one about the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland. Many of the vendors added stories to this issue including one from Diana who was going blind while living in the shelters.  Delores reflected on her friend Linda, and Buzzy wrote about his new apartment.   An especially revealing article was from Jennifer who talked about the relationship between domestic violence and the child custody issues locally.

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New Staff at Critical Social Service Agencies

Diane Gatto was appointed as the Director of First Call for Help/211 in Cleveland.  This is a United Way critical program for the community that is often forgotten because it works so effectively.   They offer essential referral help to those looking for food, shelter, health care, job training or legal assistance. They regularly update treatment services available and they can provide for all the hotlines numbers (domestic violence, rape crisis, suicide prevention, and veteran's services) anytime.   211 operates 24 hours and they have a fantastic website that is regularly updated.  All the information that they provide is verified on a regular basis.  Diane has been with the organization for years and knows everything about running a telephone referral system.

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Update on Legal Assistance for Poor People

If you want to see one of the  biggest casualties of the 2008 financial downturn visit the lobby of the Legal Aid Society on Tuesday mornings.  You will see long lines, many turned away, and the harm inflicted on legal assistance programs for the poor in the United States with the cut in the interest paid in trust accounts and a decrease in public assistance.  Just when millions were in need of a lawyer to help them weed through the foreclosure crisis and battling the big banks and mortgage companies, the legal aid societies across America reduced staff.  In Cleveland, they had to layoff 8 staff last year and had to limit their services.

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Sewer District to Present at CAHA

We have all seen the fee added to our Sewer District bills to improve the storm sewer overflow system in Northeast Ohio, but how will these new fees impact the preservation and development of affordable housing in Cleveland?   At the August 5, 2013, Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting we will have staff from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District present to talk about the fees and what commercial entities can do to reduce costs.  Businesses are being assessed for every square foot of concrete and the water that comes off buildings going into the sewer. 

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Josh Memorial Featured Thunderstorm

There are no words to express my inability to understand what happened with Josh.  I found this nice picture of Josh in our archive from 2006 or 2007 from a happier time.  I was able to attend a respectful memorial last week in Cleveland for Josh, and everyone who spoke talked about his dedication and commitment to social justice.  It was a hot and steamy evening in Cleveland on Friday July 19, 2013, and at the close of the ceremony the sky opened up for a short thunderstorm. 

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Grapevine Vendor, Linda, Passes Away

We lost Linda, a Grapevine vendor this last week.  Her service was July 18, 2013 at Carey's Funeral Home on Lorain Ave.   You may remember her at the West Side Market selling the papers.  She also wrote for the paper.  She was an environmentalist who loved cats.  She had a great deal of trouble keeping stable housing throughout her life, and she was overtaken by cancer this last year.  Linda had a rough life and struggled with behavioral health issues.  I remember that she met a lot of politicians at the West Side Market when she was selling the paper, and she always offered her opinions on the state of the nation.

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How Do We Respond To the Extreme Heat and Homelessness?

This has been a rough week in Cleveland for those who are homeless and do not want to go into shelter.  Five days of heat advisories have been tough on the population.  On Monday evening, a man died outside of the main shelter, and we are waiting for the Medical Examiner to make a decision on the cause of death of this 70 year old homeless individual.  The men’s shelter has opened earlier in the day all this week, and is trying to keep the lines down and has offered water to everyone around the facility.  The Volunteers of America outreach are handing out gallons of water this week as they conduct their outreach on the streets.

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