Government
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Homeless Held Hostage by Catholic Church in D.C. Fight for Gay Marriage
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How to Streamline the Safety Net?
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The Plight of Homeless Sex Offenders
Wikipedia Founder Creates Site for Homeless
Published November 21, 2009 @ 01:51PM PT
The Wikipedia model isn't just for pop culture research anymore. Wikis for homeless services information are popping up from coast to coast, proving that when web innovators apply their theories and skills to ease the delivery of social services, everybody wins.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was recently in Tampa Bay to launch TampaBayHomeless.wikia.com, a site that aims to serve as online "hub" for homeless services in the city. The city isn't the first to have such a site, similar wikis are already being used in larger cities, like New York and LA.
The site - Tampa Bay Homeless - is rooted in the Wikipedia theory of collaboration. The design is user-friendly and easy to navigate, making it easy to find needed information. Information is organized by needs - such as shelter, legal services, food, veterans, etc. - and allows anyone to log-in and edit information. The collaborative model allows shelters to easily update ever-changing information about their shelters, allowing those in need of services to rest assured that the information they need is current.
Part of the reason the idea of a Homeless Wiki is so exciting is it will allow for user feedback. I can envision shelter reviews, personal testimonies that expose snags in the system, information from the streets to aid outreach workers. The concept of service providers and recipients collaborating online is exciting, because it has the potential to ultimately improve the delivery of services.
Collaboration can be tough to accomplish in homeless services. But perhaps wikis are just the thing to provide streamlined services and information to those who need them. It's encouraging to see trailblazing web innovators like Wales applying their concepts to the delivery of social services. Anything to make the "user experience" more streamlined and information more accessible is a win-win for everyone.
The Audacity of Home
Published November 20, 2009 @ 09:12AM PT
If there were ever a time for the Obama Administration to fulfill its promise of restoring Hope for America, re-prioritizing the promise of "a Home for all" is the ideal start. The sum of our devastating housing and economic crisis, combined with the recent findings from the international human rights community, prove that there is no better time to move housing to the top of the federal policy agenda.
Today, I'm taking a step back. Away from the details in the news, away from the constant flow of comments, the banter. Today I want to talk about something so simple, so basic that most of us take it for granted.
Home.
A Home is a basic necessity. Something so basic that it's easy to forget. We see homeless people, we hear about programs designed to serve them, we read the news of the worsening crisis. Yet we're desensitized to the severe psychological implications of not having a home. We're numb.
A Home helps to ensure safety, health, and well-being. It is our base, a place we can always return to. We identify with our Home - with the structure we live in, the town and state it's in, the schools it's near. A Home is safety, it is opportunity. For many people, it is even identity. It is not far-fetched to say that our ability to hope is directly related to having a Home.
Tent Cities: The Huntsville Solution
Published November 18, 2009 @ 07:55AM PT
While volunteering for the 3rd annual Huntsville Alabama Operation Stand Down, I did some street outreach to spread the word to veterans about the three day event. In the course of that outreach, I visited one of Huntsville's Tent Cities and was surprised to learn that the camp was run by a local agency, thanks to an agreement they had worked out with local police, who had also worked out an agreement with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ADOT).
The camp sits under viaduct on the north end of the city and in order to stay individuals must first register with a nearby homeless services provider. The agency requires ID and provides the funds in necessary to procure one. A tent, if one is available, is provided to the individual and that person is then directed to the camp. A police officer is assigned to patrol the camp and does so on a regular basis, checking with the residents to make sure the area remains relatively trouble free. Every Tuesday, additional local service providers pass through the camp, offering resources and referrals while also monitoring the conditions of the camp and the residents within.
Nearly Half of Homeless U.S. Veterans are Black
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
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
Vice President Biden Responds to 19% Jump in Foreclosures by Serving Fish Sticks to Homeless
Published November 14, 2009 @ 07:25AM PT
The Detroit News reported Friday that house foreclosures are up 19% over the previous month, a gut kick aided in part by rising unemployment and an inadequate federal response to the continued crisis. If you're like me and tend to yawn a bit when you hear percentages, I strained a bit and did the numbers: this is now 8 consecutive months of 300,000 foreclosures per, so let's see now-- 8 times 300,000-ish is about, oh, nearly 2.5 million homes lost. There are now over 2 million people who watched representatives of government bailout bank take away their homes.
This wasn't supposed to happen. The day after President Obama signed into law the Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February, he gave a speech at a high school in Arizona in which he outlined his ambitious plan that promised to significantly reduce foreclosures. His promise for this plan was that it would "give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild. It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy." What we now know is that the financial sector was cushioned from the worst of the crisis while everyday homeowners, soon to be over 3 million this year alone, continue to suffer.
If you're worried about all this, don't be. Vice President Biden has a solution: boutique catering. On the day these dismal foreclosure numbers were released, Biden took time from his hectic itinerary in order to "don gloves and an apron to serve fish sticks," writes the Huffington Post. We're saved! Biden apparently, "wanted to serve [delicious, crispy, hand-held fillets] to remind himself of the grim reality that many D.C. residents face." It apparently took the Vice President's posse approximately 5 minutes to weather the hairy commute back to the White House. Glad he made the effort.
Is it unfair to mock the Vice President for this empty grandstanding in a city of 18,000 homeless? After all, he's done his share of advocating for the poor, not least of which is his part in supporting the public option in health care reform. And yet. This was beyond stupid. If the Obama Administration made homelessness and the housing crisis a meaningful priority, the recent numbers are a good excuse to make a stand. Opportunity lost.
The upside? I hear the fish was delicious.
Image: AP
What Happens and What's Forgotten When Number Crunchers Get Tough
Published November 13, 2009 @ 10:25AM PT
The only thing less sexy than learning about homelessness is statistics. Let's be honest. An intense interest in either makes you a very odd duck indeed. But to love the more challenging of the two takes a collection of unique propensities, including the talent of not being sickened or terrified by the sight of Roman numerals in sequence. Which entirely excludes me.
But maybe you love statistics. You trust them. If that's the case, you might find a lot in common with Michael Arnold, Executive Director for Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. A couple weeks ago he released the shocking and, frankly, implausible conclusion that homelessness in Los Angeles County has decreased by a whopping, recession-beating 38% in a report on the subject. Cue double-take. I know what you're thinking: if politicians wanted to cook the numbers, they might have been a little more conservative.
L.A.'s homeless service providers are just as suspicious. Advocates like David Snow at Santa Monica's Upward Bound House and Andy Bales at Union Rescue Mission point out that their agencies have seen a marked increase in service requests, particularly in the case of families. "There's no way that anybody who works with families would agree with [the conclusions of this report]," Bales said. While it's reasonable to consider how threatening the perception of decreased need might be for service providers, it's equally impossible to ignore national trends that support their experiences. For evidence of this, check out Shannon's post on family homelessness.
Despite all this, Arnold stands by his numbers. In Thursday's Los Angeles Times, he says of some of the study's most vocal critics, "Really, it's a very small number of agencies who have raised a cry, and most of them are family providers...I think a lot of their hue and cry is anecdotally based, not data based. They are spreading disinformation." Strong words. To a limited extent, he's right. The numbers are probably sound. Service providers are objecting mostly by using their personal experiences. That plus his impressive expertise makes it extraordinarily difficult to challenge the approach.
Except that I'm not someone convinced by numbers alone. Very few people are. What's incorrect about this study on the homeless and others like it isn't that they go astray in their methods or intentions (For more on this, consider David Henderson's post on the subject at the Inforum blog). It's more that they miss the forest for the trees.
For a bigger picture, you have to step back a bit, look at it from the perspective of, say, United Nations special rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik. This human rights investigator toured the United States recently to assess the current housing crisis. She wrapped up her visit in L.A. Thursday and was quoted by the London Guardian as saying, "I was shocked when I realised that the US, and countries in Europe - England - as well, had a solid housing policy for many years that worked pretty well. That was dismantled and the situation became worse...but I didn't expect to see what I have seen [here]. In some ways the situation is worse than I expected."
Bickering about 38% is laughable next to this observation.
Image courtesy of http://www.purple.com.
