Posts by Shannon Moriarty
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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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Calling All Winter Coats!
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.
Act Now: Stop Hate Crimes Against the Homeless
Published November 19, 2009 @ 05:52PM PT
It's a cruel fact: when you live without a home, you are more vulnerable to violence on the streets. Next week, the Senate Judiciary is scheduled to vote on legislation that would add homeless people to the federal hate crimes statistics statue. Take action today to tell your elected lawmakers to support this important bill.
The legislation - called the Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act (S. 1765) - was introduced by Senator Cardin of Maryland and Senator Collins of Maine. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, the legislation has been placed on the Senate Judiciary Committee schedule and could be marked up as early as November 19, but more likely the week of the November 23.
This bill is timely; as homelessness has increased over the past decade, so has the number of brutal, violent attacks against the homeless. From 2002 to 2005, hate crimes against the homeless increased 300%. Fatal attacks rose by 67%. And the latest study by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that this number has increased even more - 65% - since 2005.
But it's important to remember that hate crimes cannot be measured solely in terms of physical injury, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless, they also "leave a special emotional and psychological mark on victims and their communities, leaving them feeling isolated, vulnerable, and unprotected by the law."
Unlike other categories protected by most hate crime laws - such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion - a person's "homeless" status is not permanent. In fact, it is preventable and can be ended with one thing: housing. Of course, until housing becomes regarded as a human right, we will have to settle for such incremental steps to protect the most vulnerable among us in the short term.
Tell your lawmakers to vote "yes" for this important piece of legislation!
Image: Matt From London
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?
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.
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
United Nations Says U.S. has "Shamefully Neglected" its Homeless
Published November 13, 2009 @ 05:40AM PT
The United States should be hanging its head in shame for violating the international human right to adequate housing, according to the initial findings of a special investigation by the United Nations. After a seven-city tour of the US, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing calls the failure of the U.S. to address the growing housing and homelessness crisis "shameful." But will a shaking finger and 'tsk tsk' from the UN finally force us to embrace housing as a human right?
There's no question that there is a shortage of decent, affordable housing in this country. And it has been well-documented that the homeless population has grown due to our economic troubles. The UN investigation was launched to determine if this perpetual housing shortage and growing numbers of homeless are bad enough to constitute a human rights violation.
Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, toured seven cities over two weeks time, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and several rural communities. Her initial reaction to the tour were delivered in a verbal report to the U.S. State Department. According to the Guardian, she concluded it was "shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing."
Indeed, Rolnik seemed to be most bothered by the whacked priorities of the US, the perpetual favoring of big banks and businesses over the basic needs of low-income individuals."In the US, it's feasible to provide adequate housing for all," she said. "You have a lot of money, a lot of dollars available. You have a lot of expertise. This is a perfect setting to really embrace housing as a human right."
Is it really the perfect setting if we lack the political will, the collective will to view housing as a human right rather than a commodity for building wealth, a commodity that must be earned by those who are most "deserving?"
The US state department has a month to respond to Rolnik's verbal report. She will issue a final written report to the UN human rights council early next year.
Image from the Guardian.
