News
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?
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
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.
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
This Veterans Day, Hope for Homeless Vets
Published November 11, 2009 @ 09:00PM PT
This year, Veterans Day is more hopeful than last year. Even though some atrocities have not changed - veterans are still twice as likely to be homeless than non-vets and over 130,000 veterans are homeless tonight - this year is different. This year, the Obama Administration has made it a priority to fulfill the promise of "supporting our troops" by ending veteran homelessness in five years.
There's no denying the enormous sacrifices made by those who put on the uniform. And there's no denying that we should support these individuals even - especially - when their time in uniform is over. But somehow, somewhere along the way, we as a nation forgot to do this. We allowed the issues affecting veterans spiral out of control.
Today, veterans experience higher rates of suicide, homelessness, and substance abuse than non-vets. The disability claims backlog numbers over 400,000, leaving many vulnerable vets waiting for months - sometimes years - for the federal assistance they need. Today, one in three homeless adult men is a veteran, many of whom fought in Vietnam. But perhaps most disturbing is the newest trend: veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are slowly beginning to wind up on the streets. In other words, history is starting to repeat itself.
The only way to definitely end such a systemically-embedded atrocity is with bold, decisive action. And this is precisely what VA Secretary Shinseki delivered on November 3rd at the national summit on veterans homelessness. The VA's plan includes efforts to increase the housing stock for those vets who are already on the streets as well as a strong focus on homelessness prevention. Several bills currently in Congress aim to support the VA's goal, and Obama recently signed an executive order that will encourage federal hiring of former service members.
Ending veteran homelessness in five years is no small task, but it is critically important. There is no better way to properly honor our service men and women than with the promise that their sacrifices will not be forgotten when their time in uniform is over.
Image: Leo Reynolds
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
