How to Streamline the Safety Net?

by Shannon Moriarty

categories: case management, Government, innovation, new media, nonprofit, service providers, Trends

Published November 17, 2009 @ 12:52PM PT

We hear it all the time: the social service safety net is convoluted, confusing, and tough to navigate. It's hard to know where to go to find services. Government applications, housing applications, and program requirements are enough to make a person's head spin. But can good marketing - making information more readily available to those who need it - ease the journey through social services?

David Henderson of InforUm wrote a thoughtful post today that raised this very question: what good are social services if nobody knows about them? He writes, "Part of program effectiveness is marketing our services to those who need them most, and making it as easy for people to receive social services as it is to buy books on Amazon.com."

He raises a good point point. Many homeless service providers would appear to be stuck in the dark ages of marketing; a shelter will often pat itself on the back for developing a tri-fold flyer. And who can blame them? Often short-staffed and under-funded, many service providers must carefully maintain a "we've got it together" image while still appearing needy enough to solicit donations. It's a fine line to walk. Besides, service providers aren't a business; there's a limit to the number of clients that can be served, and these days, this number is often maxed out.

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Calling All Winter Coats!

by Shannon Moriarty

categories: Action, new media, People doing good things

Published November 17, 2009 @ 12:52PM PT

It's getting chilly out there! For some people, a drop in the mercury means simply turning up the thermostat. But for many others, cold weather is a matter of life and death. Before the temperature really drops this winter, you can help spread the warmth to those who need it by participating in the national winter coat drive.

The project is sponsored by Lands End. Although it's based out of Beantown - hence the name Boston's Big Warm-Up - collections are taking place in locations across the United States. Coats donated in each locale will directly benefit people in that community.

But this isn't just any coat drive... this is a coat drive in the digital age. And what fun is a coat drive in the digital age without a cool, interactive online promotional component? The Big Boston Warm-up website is chock full of information and ways for you to spread the word. Learn the facts, customize a video, spread the word with the Facebook effect, and even track your donated coat. Nonstop excitement, it is.

What are you waiting for? Tell your friends. Donate a coat. After all, that old pea coat can do a heck of lot more good on someone's shoulders than hanging forgotten in the trenches of your closet.

Image: Paul Mayne

15% Hungry in America

by Noah Jennings

categories: Health, Human Rights, News, recession, Trends, USA

Published November 17, 2009 @ 07:10AM PT

If your stomach was too weak for Friday's foreclosure numbers, turn away: Monday revealed that nearly 15 percent of Americans went hungry last year.

The recession may be over for big business, but the problems of real people continue as the Department of Agriculture announced that the number hungry in this country rose to a staggering 50 million. As is often the case, the effects of hunger disproportionately affect the most vulnerable. This report revealed that 1 in 4 children lack reliable access to adequate nutrition. Poverty advocates insist that the problem will likely worsen. A national food bank network, Feeding America, said of the numbers in a New York Times piece, "Socioeconomic indicators, including the escalating unemployment rate and the number of working poor, lead us to believe that the number of people facing hunger will continue to rise significantly over the coming year." Peachy.

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Navigating the Social Service Safety Net

by Mark Horvath

categories: foreclosure, nonprofit, Stories from the Streets

Published November 16, 2009 @ 02:28PM PT

Jay's story might sound familiar to you. His unfortunate situation is not uncommon these days. He lost his job, then his home to foreclosure, and ended up homeless on the streets of Cleveland, Ohio.

Jay talks about his frustration trying to get help from homeless service providers. Since services have become specialized, he must travel to multiple agencies to get all of the help he needs. But without reliable transportation, he has trouble getting around. Although there are many good things to be said about the Continuum of Care model, it is not perfect. It does not, for example, fill in all of the communication gaps or take into consideration the lack of access to reliable and easily accessible transportation.

Imagine for a moment that you are homeless without income. You panhandle for bus fare, then travel to the agency you believe is most likely to help. You fill out the paperwork and sit in the lobby all day. After hours of waiting you are told you don't qualify, or the program is full and your name will go on a waiting list. If you're lucky, you'll get a bus pass to get home. Either way, at the end of the day, you're still homeless without housing or food. And you have to repeat this process - over and over - until you find the help you need.

Of course, this is a worse case scenario. It's important to remember the many instances when the safety net works, when it saves people from the streets.

Still, in some cases - like Jay's - people just give up. Perhaps his story will help you understand why.

Jay from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

by Shannon Moriarty

categories: Advocacy, criminalization, Local Policy, People doing good things

Published November 16, 2009 @ 07:42AM PT

A simple question, answered in pictures. This is the premise of a new photo book released by an organization in Portland, Oregon. It shouldn't be surprising, to see the places where those without a home have spent the night. But the images provide a powerful and deeply disturbing narrative about the reality of homelessness in America.

The book, Where I Slept - a project of the Transition Projects - marks the 40th anniversary of the organization's efforts to combat homelessness in Portland. According to the organization, "In the spring of 2007, we asked the residents of Transition Projects shelters to show us the places they slept while living on the streets. Equipped with just disposable cameras and the willingness to show us their truth, they delivered the photographs in this book in a matter of days."

The images were only intended to be a temporary exhibit. But the response from the community was so powerful it was decided the message had to reach a wider audience. Hence the book, now available for $20 at Transition Projects' website.

Great idea by a great organization. It's always great to see innovative approaches to telling the stories of day-to-day struggles of homeless individuals. I think Ted Wheeler,* the chair of Transition Projects, said it best: "The most basic thing we can do to help the homeless is to reach out to them and acknowledge them as fellow human beings. The worst thing we can do is pretend that they don't exist."

*Correction: Ted Wheeler is the Chair of Multnomah County, not Transition Projects. According to the Transition Projects website, Doreen Binder is the Executive Director.

Nearly Half of Homeless U.S. Veterans are Black

by Shannon Moriarty

categories: data, foreclosure, Government, NAEH, News, Obama Administration, panhandling, Race, Research, road trip, sex offenders, violence

Published November 15, 2009 @ 06:05PM PT

Veterans experience homelessness at a greater rate than non-vets in the United States. But a new study finds that minority veterans - particularly African-Americans - are disproportionately represented among the homeless veteran population. Today, a whopping 45 percent of the homeless veteran population is African American, proving that race is still relevant to any discussion about poverty and homelessness in America.

These findings were revealed in a study by the Homelessness Research Institute at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The study was released shortly after President Obama rolled out his bold-but-necessary plan of ending veteran homelessness in five years.

M. William Sermons, Director of the Homelessness Research Institute, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that the factors driving disproportionate homelessness rates among minority veterans are the same as those causing disproportionate rates of homelessness of minorities in the general homeless population. "Some of the risk factors affecting African-American men are high unemployment rates (almost double that of whites) and highly disproportionate rates of discharge from prisons and the foster care system."

In a perfect world, race would no longer be a factor when discussing issues of socio-economic equity. But clearly, this is not the case. This new data exposes the complex and continued link between poverty and race in America, even among those who have worn the uniform. To address poverty, to end homelessness, we must confront these challenging issues directly.

Image: scanned

How the Vancouver Olympics Violate Civil Rights

by Shannon Moriarty

categories: criminalization, Government, Hiding the Homeless, Housing, Human Rights, International, olympics

Published November 14, 2009 @ 03:38PM PT

Over 1,000 low income homes destroyed. Tenants evicted. Plans to forcibly remove homeless individuals from the streets.

If this sounds like the workings of a repressive government regime, you're partially right, only this is the ugly reality of the workings of the Olympic industry. These heavy handed tactics are being used today to prepare Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, exposing the ugly side of an otherwise awe-inspiring event.

Olympic-driven housing destruction and tenant displacement is not a new phenomenon, according to an In These Times article by Gaus. Indeed, some 30,000 residents were displaced due to construction prior to the 1996 Atlanta Games and a whopping 300,000 housing units in Beijing were demolished - displacing over 1,500,000 people - for the 2008 games.

Today, this trend is continuing in Vancouver. "Since Vancouver was awarded the Games in 2003, over 1,100 units of low income housing have been lost in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside," Laura Track, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society (a BC public interest advocacy group), told Bev Yaworski of Suite101. "The legacy of affordable housing promised in the Olympic bid is nowhere to be found: social housing at Athlete's Village was slashed and is looking ever less likely; evictions continue apace, and 14 City-owned sites on which the provincial government has promised to build social housing sit empty and idle."

These recent developments have prompted watchdog groups to file human rights complaints with the United Nations against the Olympic organizing committee and the governments of B.C. and Canada.

But even in situations when low-income housing is not intentionally demolished, the speculation associated with Olympic host-cities will often have the same effect, according to In These Times. "What mass-produced arrest citations and bulldozers don't accomplish the market's invisible hand usually does. Real-estate speculation and ballooning rents push out vulnerable populations with inescapable regularity."

This is an unfortunate twist on what is otherwise an inspiring world event. Perhaps the Games would lose their allure if the ugly truth about the preparations for the games were exposed.

Update: The Homeless Forums is keeping a close eye on developments in Vancouver as they unravel, tracking the news and comments from homeless people on the streets. Check out the thread here.

Image: cheukiecfu