Local Policy
-
The Audacity of "Home"
-
Does Panhandling Make Homelessness Worse?
-
Vancouver Planning Olympic Homeless Evictions
Should Shelters Ban Sex Offenders?
Published November 18, 2009 @ 06:03PM PT
Everybody, including sex offenders, needs a place to live. If proposed legislation in Massachusetts passes, registered sex offenders would be barred from staying in homeless shelters, begging the question: where are they supposed to go?
There are few questions that get people as riled up as those regarding registered sex offenders, particularly homeless sex offenders. Serving this population can be difficult, costly work for homeless service providers. Residential restrictions make housing almost impossible to find. Stepping up security in homeless shelters can be expensive, and other shelter guests may not feel comfortable knowing that a level 3 sex offender is sleeping on the adjacent cot.
But according to proponents of the legislation, the real problem lies with the requirement to report an address. Since residential bans can make it all but impossible to find affordable housing that is not near schools, playgrounds, or daycare centers, many sex offenders will bypass this requirement by simply listing a homeless shelter address, which allows them to live wherever they please. According to the Boston Globe, 74 percent of Boston's level 3 sex offenders had a homeless shelter listed as their address.
Sure, this loophole presents public safety concerns. If we don't know that a level 3 sex offender lives nearby, how can we protect ourselves?
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.
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
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.
Phoenix Church Ordered to Stop Feeding the Homeless
Published November 12, 2009 @ 11:15AM PT
A church in Phoenix has lost a court battle to run a charity dining hall for the city's homeless. The problem is, the court's ruling sets a precedent for all churches zoned in residential areas of Phoenix. While the ruling raises larger issues about the concentration of the homeless in cities, the immediate concern is the challenges the city's homeless may face finding a meal in the coming weeks.
The controversy surrounding the Crossroads United Methodist Church's weekly pancake breakfast began last spring when neighbors complained about an increase in the number of homeless people in the neighborhood. With the increase in homeless individuals in the area came an uptick in their undesirable behaviors, including "panhandling, burglary, public intoxication and vandalism, among other things," according to AZ Family.
The judge's ruling is harsh at first glance, but it's important to consider the perspective of the church's neighbors. Just as any homeless person should have a right to safe, decent, and affordable housing, the neighbors of Crossroads United Methodist Church have a right to feel safe in their home. Still, this ruling seems to be a strategic interpretation of residential zoning laws designed to control the homeless population. Restricting services from residential areas will keep "unsightly" homeless people out of certain parts of the city and concentrate them in others. And you know what they say: out of sight, out of mind.
Crossroads United Methodist Church has not decided if they will continue to fight the judge's ruling. At the very least, if they decide not to fight, I hope they and all of the other churches impacted by this decision choose to relocate their weekly meal rather than cancel it completely. While taking a stand against the concentration of the homeless and the poor is a fight worth waging, the immediate needs of those who are hurting cannot be ignored.
Image: La Jace
Court-Ordered Compassion
Published October 23, 2009 @ 09:42AM PT
Have our nation's embedded fears and misconceptions of poor and homeless people gotten out of hand? A shelter provider recently went to court for clearance to continue serving homeless people in a central Pennsylvania rural community. This unsettling case left me asking one question: have we evolved to a place where compassion must be court-ordered?
The First Apostle's Doctrine Church in Brookville, PA has been housing homeless people from the town of less than 5,000 in its Just for Jesus shelter. Town officials tried to shut down the shelter last November, citing zoning code violations that prohibit group homes. In order to keep its doors open to the area's homeless, the church sued the town for civil-liberties violation. Yesterday, the court ruled in the church's favor, allowing the shelter to keep its doors open.
Things sure can get ugly when judgments, stigmas, and stereotypes trump compassion.
Sure, there may be more going on beneath the surface in this story (like a sour relationship between church and local government officials). But sadly, this type of situation is not uncommon. Some government officials wrongly believe that providing services - like a shelter or soup kitchen - will have a bees-to-honey effect, attracting homeless people from other communities. This belief is misguided, short-sighted, and outright mean.
Clearly, if the shelter beds were being used, the town of Brookville has a need for shelter. Rather than attacking the safety net, why not look at local government-initiated strategies for combating the root causes of homelessness? Create affordable housing, develop the local economy, work in conjunction with the church to see that no basic human needs are being unmet.
Some of the most effective and innovative solutions for homelessness have been created locally.
Image: Diane M. Byrne
"Pesky Panhandlers" are People Who Need Homes
Published October 13, 2009 @ 09:44AM PT
As cities scramble to address the growing numbers of panhandlers in city centers, many cities are turning to ordinances, hefty fines, and jail time to control aggressive panhandlers. Forget these tactics - they simply don't work. The issue of aggressive panhandling must be redefined as an issue of people without homes. In other words, the best response is compassion.
It seems every city has a plan to vamp up their economic development and downtown tourism. Yet, in many cities, the issue of aggressive panhandling stands in the way towards any real progress. How will we get people to come spend money in our businesses, they ask themselves, if those pesky panhandlers keep badgering them for money?
Atlanta has been struggling with panhandling issues since Mayor Shirley Franken took office eight years ago. It all started with an ordinance banning panhandling after dark and in an area known as the "tourist triangle." The city also added teeth - on the third offense, panhandlers face a fine of up to $1,000 and 30 days in jail. To top things off, several "donation meters" were installed throughout downtown.
Yet, anecdotal evidence published in this week's Atlanta Journal indicates that these tactics have not been successful. If anything, they've been expensive to implement. Despite over 500 panhandling arrests in the past year and nearly 2,000 panhandling interventions, nearly half of those recently surveyed in Atlanta still feel that panhandling is a major problem.
So why haven't Atlanta's anti-panhandling efforts been successful? Because city officials are framing this issue completely wrong.
Panhandlers are not nuisances. They are not money-sucking leeches. First and foremost they are people who do not have a place to live. People who are not making ends meet.
Panhandling should not be a question of regulating and controlling people. The question should be, Why are these people on the streets? and How can we get them into housing?
That's one "aggressive panhandling" strategy that's certain not to fail.
Image from Moriza's public Flickr stream.
Nat'l Corporate Privatization BIDs for Local Anti-Homeless Cadres
Published October 10, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
In major city after city across the United States a trained corps of quasi-security agents are being hired and trained by business to function outside the official law enforcement aegis to drive homeless people away from "business districts."
The parent corporation, SMS Holdings, has subsidiary units in several different service sectors, including maintenance and security. The company has been wooing and partnering with groups of local businesses banded together as "Business Improvement Districts" (BIDs) to install private-sector, uniformed teams to patrol these city areas and, in part, seek to target homeless populations with efforts designed to control and even remove homeless citizens. These "services" include preventing "panhandling" and "loitering."
The language is often veiled and euphemized, in public relations and sales use, so that calling the police and trying to rid the area of homeless is even sometimes expressed as "helping" them. For instance, in cities with little by way of any actual "services" for the homeless, the premise is still to "direct them to services" and "help" them get off the streets. Or at least the streets that the SMS Holdings subsidiary BLOCKbyBLOCK garners contracts to patrol and control in these ways.
From the company's website promotion, under "Keep It Safe":
"Address 'Quality of Life' Violations to Include:
• Panhandling (non-aggressive & aggressive)
• Loud or intimidating Behavior
• Solicitation
The company currently claims contracts with 33 cities and is intently seeking more, with specializations in assisting the local BIDs to arrange for "matching fund" tapping of public monies, whether civic, state and/or federal.
Some cities, such as Berkeley, CA, with their teams of patrolling "Hosts", have installed their own programs of similar nature. But the authority and funding of such programs can get a bit complex. These programs are blending private businesses, corporate entities and civic, public agencies, powers and... funds, of course.
In Berkeley, it's most ironic to find even federal funds earmarked to "help the homeless" spent in this way, which includes being directed by the business "bosses" to call the police on the homeless since citizens weren't doing so enough, in their opinion, in order to help rid the area of these people. And the bulk of their $200,000+ budget goes to services that have nothing to do with helping homeless people, as such. Critics locally also complain that the Hosts spend too much time sitting in cafe's, "just hanging out", and other idle past-times -- even "loitering"?
While BLOCKbyBLOCK is proud of their brightly colored uniforms, Berkeley opted for plainer brown jackets. That's jackets -- but not quite brown shirts.
Image by the author.
