News
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Does Panhandling Make Homelessness Worse?
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97 Years Old and Homeless
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Vancouver Planning Olympic Homeless Evictions
Golden Girl Includes Homeless GLBT Youth in her Will
Published October 28, 2009 @ 11:55AM PT
She's the Golden Girl with the golden heart. Bea Aurther, the late actress of Golden Girl fame, left a $300,000 gift in her will to a New York City organization that serves gay and lesbian youth.
The Ali Fornay Center is one of just a handful of organizations that exclusively shelters GLBT youth in New York City, serving roughly 1,000 youth annually. "We are overwhelmed with gratitude that Bea saw that LGBT youth deserve as much love and support as any other young person," said Executive Director Carl Sicilliano. The organization said today that they plan to name a building for Bea in light of her posthumous generosity.
Prior to her death several months ago, Bea was a lifelong advocate of GLBT rights. Her generous legacy gift illustrates that she made the connection between intolerance and the rising prevalence of GLBT homeless youth.
As I've written in the past, GLBT youth are disproportionately represented among homeless youth. Roughly 20 percent of homeless youth self-identify as LGBTQ, and that's a conservative estimate. This population is much more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse than their heterosexual peers. To make matters worse, the social service safety net to catch these troubled teens is, in many communities, nonexistent.
This is precisely why organizations like the Ali Fornay Center are so important. They provide a safe, non-threatening haven that will accept them when their families do not.
Why can't we all just be like Bea?
Image: SheWire
Barbara Poppe Goes to Washington
Published October 20, 2009 @ 07:31PM PT
U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has named a new Executive Director. Barbara Poppe spent the last 14 years as the Director of the Community Shelter Board in Columbus, Ohio. Now, she will head to Washington, D.C. to coordinate the federal response to homelessness at a time when the need is greater than ever.
Poppe spent the past 14 years leading a nationally recognized nonprofit organization recognized for its innovation. The organization's permanent housing program has served as a model for cities across the country.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness was quick to the react to the news. Executive Director Nan Roman said in a statement, "Barbara Poppe has been a leader in the movement to end homelessness both in Columbus and nationally. Because of her brilliant and innovative work, thousands of people who were homeless now have a place to call home."
Poppe has her work cut out for her in Washington. Cities across the country are frantically working to use stimulus funds to meet the increasing need for homelessness assistance. At the same time, homeless services are experiencing a paradigm shift from providing shelter to a focus on prevention and permanent housing.
A hearty congratulations and best wishes to Barbara Poppe in her new post. We'll be watching, commenting, and rooting for you.
97 Year Old Homeless Woman Receives Housing
Published October 20, 2009 @ 09:40AM PT
The 97 year old homeless woman from LA is no longer sleeping on the streets. Her story, published Friday in the LA Times, garnered national disbelief and prompted service providers to act quickly to move her into housing.
Bessie Mae Berger was 97 years old and living in a beat up 1973 Chevy Suburban with her two sons. The LA Times exposed their plight on Friday, detailing how the trio sleeps, moves from parking lot to parking lot, and occasionally panhandles for food. Their plight caught national attention, prompting LA and California authorities to take immediate action.
Today, the three are safely housed - together, as they wished - in the California Retirement Villa. It's a temporary situation, currently slated to last three months. But the organization says they are committed to helping this family obtain long-term benefits.
Let's breathe a collective sigh of relief now that one especially fragile woman and her two elderly sons are off the streets. What whatever you do, don't get complacent. There are thousands of other elderly homeless individuals hidden in cars, alleys, tent cities, and shelters across the U.S.
Where is the outrage that will move them into housing?
Forget Cost-Benefit Studies, Housing is a Human Right!
Published October 13, 2009 @ 01:57PM PT
A new study out of Los Angeles today has found that housing a homeless person is cheaper than leaving them to fend for themselves on the streets. It's an argument has been reinforced for years by cost-benefit analysis after cost-benefit analysis in cities across the country.
The emphasis on these types studies is incredibly frustrating. Why do cost studies trump historically significant declarations that proclaim housing to be a basic human right, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the National Housing Goal in the 1949 Housing Act?
I think it's time that we, as advocates, get our priorities and our messaging straight.
The report released today was conducted by the United Way of Greater LA. It profiled four individuals and tallied the costs of their homelessness - including shelter stays, emergency room visits, etc. - for two years. Not surprisingly, the study concluded that the total cost to provide services on the streets was more than $80,000 greater than it would be with permanent housing with support services. That's a "43 percent savings for taxpayers," according to LA's NBC affiliate.
But seriously - how many cost-benefit analysis studies should it take to change a system?
Clearly, the dollars and cents research has proven effective in certain cities for vamping up support of newer approaches, such as housing first. And this is not to undermine the importance of these types of studies in cities desperately needing additional political/financial backing for homeless services. But will this piecemeal, incremental approach generate the vast support needed to truly overhaul a system that grossly under-values safe, decent, affordable housing?
The truth is, the importance of housing is well-established in history. It has been established, internationally and domestically, as a basic human right. Read the following. Refer to them often when you find yourself having to - for some reason - make an argument in favor of providing housing the homeless.
Start with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads, "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."(article 25(1))
If that doesn't work, refer to the 1949 Housing Act, in which Congress declares a National Housing Goal of "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family."
Cost-benefit analysis are devaluing the historic emphasis on housing, something we seem to have forgotten over the years. It is up to us, as advocates, to remind the world that housing has been established as a basic human right. Perhaps framing the issue as a basic human right rather than a cost-benefit analysis will drum up the outrage necessary to make real progress.
Image from Farm4's public Flickr photo 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.
Home Runs for the Homeless
Published October 07, 2009 @ 08:53AM PT
Tonight's first playoff game between the Rockies and Phillies promises to be a good one. The mayors of Denver and Philly have both put money on tonight's faceoff between the Colorado Rockies and Philadelphia Phillies. But instead of pocketing the $2,000 in winnings, the victorious city will donate the cash to a local homeless shelter.
Ah, a good game indeed.
Although, in the world of baseball, $2,000 isn't much. According to the Denver Post, $2,000 bucks is about a third of what Rockies pitcher Tedd Helton made per toss this season. But I don't think that's the point here.
The real value of this gesture is largely symbolic, using a media-magnet playoff bet between cities into an opportunity to do some good. Who knows, perhaps this good deed will multiply, with players and baseball execs matching the $2,000 gifts to their local shelters -- win or lose. Perhaps this trend will catch on in other cities participating in post-season bets. Hey, a girl can dream.
Either way, with the holiday season and cold weather just around the corner and demand already exceeding supply, Denver and Philadelphia service providers will take all the help they can get.
Image from TheGoodPhight.com
On Stealing Cereal and Second Chances
Published October 06, 2009 @ 12:46PM PT
Yesterday, a Florida homeless man with 50 prior convictions was sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing a box of cereal and jug of milk. At the same time, another man in St. Paul, Minnesota - formerly in prison and on the streets himself - is learning television production skills through a job training program. The moral of the story? Helping the homeless isn't just a moral obligation, it's a smart financial move.
As if the moral obligation to help those without a home isn't enough, today we're reminded of another important reason we all have an interest in helping the homeless thanks to two seemingly unrelated stories.
First, a homeless man with a history of alcoholism was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday for stealing a box of Lucky Charms and a jug of milk. Mark Anthony Griffin received this hefty sentence because of his status as a "prison release reoffender." He had over 50 prior convictions - mostly misdemeanor charges ranging from public intoxication to trespassing. Griffin's brother, an elementary school principal, asked the court to help his brother treat his long-term alcoholism rather than sending him to prison, according to The Leger. "He needs help," said Joseph Griffin, an elementary school principal. "If he gets the help, he won't be in court."
The reaction to this story has resoundingly been disbelief ("15 years for stealing cereal!?") and anger over the criminal justice system costs this man has accumulated over the years. Well, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but assuming Mr. Griffin is your average chronically homeless person, then the costs of his criminal justice run-ins are not even the beginning of it.
We can assume that Mr. Griffin stayed in a homeless shelter from time to time ($). We can assume that, now and then, he checked into the emergency room for medical treatment ($$). We can assume he had a case manager ($), received free meals ($), and had other interactions with law enforcement where he was not arrested ($).
Suffice to say, we can assume that Mr. Griffin's homelessness has cost his community a great deal financially over the years. Many studies from across the country have documented the average costs a chronically homeless person racks up annually (Portland, Oregon, for example, found that each of their 35 chronically homeless individuals was costing the city $42K each in public resources each year... yikes!).
Yes, treatment would be a better option than jail at this point. But providing housing combined with supportive services (including alcohol treatment) the moment he hit the streets would have been an even better option.
Now, let's jump north to St. Paul, Minnesota. Today, CNN featured the story of a prisoner who was discharged into homelessness. Rather than succumbing to life on the streets, he was given the chance to work and learn a new marketable skill thanks to a local cable news program. In addition to reporting about homelessness issues, it teaches formerly homeless folks about the world of TV production.
Ron Kennebrew, the man featured in the CNN article, summed it up best when he said homelessness can be one of two things: "a place in despair or ... a slingshot to opportunity." This is true for both the individuals who experience homelessness, and the communities who must choose how to treat its homeless population.
Two men, two stories that began very similarly, two totally different endings. Is your community treating your homeless population like serial criminals? Or are you harnessing their potential - while simultaneously meeting basic needs - for the mutual benefit of all?
Image from The Ledger.
