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There seems to be an international day for this or that all the time. Sometimes even an entire week or month is devoted to focusing our attention on an issue or group of people in need.
But there hasn't been an international day focusing on homelessness ... until now.
World Homeless Day, a worldwide collaborative effort that has just been announced, will henceforth be held on the 10th day of October every year. This year it happens to fall on the date 10/10/10 which is a nice little hook for the media.
So what should or could be done on this day? Seriously, I'm asking you, as the day is there for you to use as you see fit to affect change and make a difference in the lives of homeless people.
To answer questions that might be springing to mind, the idea emerged during discussions amongst members of the World Homeless Forum, where I am an admin. And don't worry that it won't catch on -- already, groups in more than 50 countries are making plans for the day, barely a month after the idea was unveiled.
We all know these international days of something or other come and go, but I've learned after talking to some of the organizers of other recognized days that, for groups that take advantage, the days can be very powerful in terms of fund-raising, awareness-raising and garnering significant political power.
There is no prescriptive call to action like everyone light a candle and hold hands or some rubbish like that. World Homeless Day is a gift to the homeless sector and everyone in it to use in any way they want locally, providing the opportunity to point to something larger internationally and draw strength from that.
If you are part of a charity, considering taking advantage of this concept to gain connections with members of the community that you don't have already. For example, World Homeless Day is the perfect excuse to contact a local school, church or service club like Rotary. Contact them, offer guest speaking opportunities and suggest partnering to raise money. Politicians can be encouraged to release new funds or proposals on the day or to acknowledge the good work already being done by people and organizations in their city or state.
In some countries, 10/10 is already being planned as a benchmark day each year to note progress. It should be noted that, to date, current and formerly homeless people have done more than anyone else housed or working in the sector to promote World Homeless Day and encourage charities to become involved.
World Homeless Day could be ... [insert your idea] ... if you make it happen.
What you can do today to prepare for 10/10/10:
This week, March 14th to March 20th, 2010, is National Safe Place week, which serves to raise awareness of the dangers of youth homelessness and has been supported by the U.S. Senate for the last 12 years. National Safe Place (NSP), headquartered in Louisville, KY, facilitates a national network that provides immediate resources, services, shelter and safety to teens in an effort to prevent street homelessness, shield teens in crisis from the dangers of living on the street, where they are 18 times more likely to use crack cocaine, 16 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV, and two to three times more likely to be raped or assaulted than other teens. Watch this short but compelling video to learn more about the harrowing statistics of teen homelessness.
NSP creates public-private partnerships with businesses and community agencies, like convenience stores, restaurants, libraries and fire houses, where teens can seek refuge should they experience family violence, neglect or any other crisis that would lead them to the street. There are more than 17,000 Safe Place locations around the country. Last year, more than 7,000 teens received face-to-face assistance in a Safe Place location and more than 6,000 contacted an NSP partner for help. Teens tend to learn about the program through their schools, communities or word of mouth. In the fall of 2009, NSP made it even easier for teens to connect to Safe Places through its "Txt 4 Help" program. So far, NSP has received more than 1,700 Txts 4 Help. It's heartening to think that thousands of our teens know they have a place to turn to for immediate help and have done so, but it's heartbreaking to know that so much help is needed.
To use the Txt 4 Help program, teens should text the word SAFE, along with their current location, to 69866. They will receive an immediate text response with contact information to the nearest Safe Place and/or shelter. Should neither be available in their area, they will receive the phone number to a national-hotline, like 1-800-RUNAWAY.
Along with the thousands of youth who have received help from NSP, there are thousands who haven't. Please consider starting Safe Places in your community and spread the word to teens in your community about the ones that already exist. Youth homelessness often takes a back seat in homeless policy, but by signing this petition you can tell your representatives that you care about our homeless youth and want to see an end to youth homelessness.
Photo credit: greaterfalls
Statistics, when accurate, are both telling and powerful. We cannot help a population of people whose needs and crises we do not understand. However, statistics are open to manipulation. For example, the federal unemployment rate is not an enumeration of all people who are out of work. Instead, the unemployment rate only counts people who actively sought work in the last four weeks. People who are not looking for work because they have become discouraged due to multiple failed attempts at employment are simply considered "out of the labor force," and not included in unemployment statistics.
I recently wrote about the Housing and Urban Development's duplicitous definition of homelessness that does not include people living in motels and with friends and families due to economic hardship. While these people are clearly homeless by any reasonable understanding of the word, their exclusion from HUD's definition and the precarious trend of misleading statistics that underrepresent the true extent of deprivation in the United States, such as our misguided poverty measures, undermines our ability to make significant progress on social issues.
Statistics construct our understanding of truth, both when accurate or otherwise, especially when those statistics come from the federal government. While chronic street homelessness is a serious issue, and the aspect that springs to most people's minds at the mention of the word "homeless," it is a subset of the homeless population. The mainstream understanding of homelessness excludes the millions of adults, and especially children, who are left out of HUD's definition. While you can argue that the federal government offers a reasonable, more inclusive definition of homelessness through the McKinney-Vento Act, the predominant understanding of homelessness, as evidenced by media portrayals thereof, is HUD's limited definition of the word.
The idea of a work-able person, discouraged by countless rejections from employers as being "out of the labor force" is absurd. Obviously, discouraged workers are unemployed persons. Equally ridiculous is not counting people as homeless who live in motels and in cramped double and triple-occupied apartments. That is no way to live, and such living arrangements are especially damaging to the future prospects of homeless youths.
Nevertheless, HUD, and consequently the general public, simply ignores this sizable portion of the homeless population. Tell HUD to get its definition of homelessness in line with reality.
Of course, perhaps HUD's definitional exile makes sense. Like those discouraged workers who are "out of the labor force," maybe those living in motels or with friends and families are simply unworthy of enumeration. Indeed, why don't we just call those people who are clearly homeless but uncounted by such an inanely inaccurate definition what they truly are, out of the "homeless force."
Photo credit: SpecialKRB
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness is taking public comment on what the federal government should do to improve homeless services. While I applaud the USICH's effort to get the public's input, in the past the federal government has ignored the complaints of homeless service agencies forced to implement a one-size fits all client management system called the Homeless Management Information Systems.
HMIS is an initiative of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to collect information on homeless persons receiving assistance from service organizations that receive HUD funding. HMIS is an important initiative, but it has been implemented poorly. In the current design, homeless service-providing agencies must not only submit client data to their regional HMIS databases, they must do so through an interface mandated by the regional HMIS technology vendor. Forcing service providers to use a particular client management interface chosen by a regional HMIS implementing agency presents complications that actually reduce the efficiency of providing homeless services.
Organizations will often provided services to homeless and non-homeless persons, but HMIS is strict about only collecting data on homeless persons. Therefore, if an agency wants to collect data on non-homeless clients it must enter this data in a separate database. Additionally, HMIS is rigid about the data points collected. If an agency wants to collect other data points relevant to its program and outcomes, it must do so in a separate system.
The problems inherent in the mandated use of proprietary case management systems is not reserved for just HMIS -- several funding agencies have their own collection tools into which grant recipients must enter data, leading to massive inefficiencies of inputting the same client's information into multiple systems. For a sector that is conscientious of not duplicating social services, our tremendous tolerance for duplicating client data entry is ironic.
The data collected under the Homeless Management Information Systems is vital, and I believe in hindsight will be seen as a powerful step on the path toward ending homelessness. However, HMIS needs to be scaled back to its original intent, to act as a clearing house for client data rather than a mandated client management system.
To get HMIS back on track, HUD should follow the lead of companies like Twitter that make it is easy for software developers to build applications that interact with its core database through an application programming interface. Taking this approach, homeless service providers would be able to use systems designed for their needs that also transmit data to and from a central HMIS database. A central HMIS database would reduce the inefficiency of maintaining duplicate systems, as service providers would have the freedom to choose a case management system that meets their particular needs, so long as that system interfaced with HMIS.
Until HMIS changes course, it will continue to be a headache to service providers and a source of inefficiency, rather than innovation, in the homeless services sector.
Photo credit: eurleif
Whether or not you believe that homeless can happen to anybody, it does occasionally strike someone who had previously been raking in six figures. The media loves this. A person may not be able to find a new job or keep his home, but he can become a minor celebrity.
The latest example is 46-year-old Jim Kennedy, who lives in Irvine, California (and its surroundings). He lost his job in the corporate world a year and a half ago, then lost his condo to foreclosure and now hops from hotel to hotel, using the massive collection of hotel reward points and frequent flier miles he acquiring during his career. In a storage unit, he keeps his golf clubs, his HDTV and his wine collection.
Kennedy started a Twitter account under the pseudonym HomelessThomOC and was featured on the local news and then Good Morning America, where he asked that they not show his face. But he allowed himself to be unmasked in the newspaper. (That's not him in the photo above, but he looks something like that.)
The article about Kennedy's day-to-day life in the Orange County Register was seemingly written to make him look unsympathetic. I wonder if he felt betrayed by writer Peggy Rowe when he read it. Rowe makes sure to mention his subscription to a golf magazine and his dry clean-only shirt from the Four Seasons. Aren't homeless people allowed creature comforts?
As much flak as the average homeless person gets ("it's her fault," "he's just going to go buy booze," you know -- the usual), I imagine that once-wealthy people are attacked even more, if that's possible. Why doesn't he just return that leased BMW?, someone could ask. Or sell his 375-bottle wine collection?
Who's to judge? People do what they have to to get by. I don't begrudge him for choosing to subsist on $5 a day meal money than sell the painstakingly-assembled wine collection. We should actually appreciate these formerly wealthy, now homeless individuals for busting wide open the stereotypes of the homeless and for getting the issue on TV networks that would rather go blank than show more stock footage of a soup kitchen.
Photo credit: Jo Jakeman
A homeless shelter is a person's home, and homeless citizens are entitled to the same privacy protection as those in our country who have housing, a Massachusetts court has ruled.
The case resulted from the prosecution of a 16-year-old boy based on evidence obtained by police during a search of the room he shared with his mother at the Roxbury Multi-Service Center Family House Shelter in March 2006. After the shelter director unlocked the door, the officers found a loaded Glock .40-caliber gun.
The boy was charged with delinquency, but a juvenile court judge threw out the evidence. Prosecutors appealed.
In finding that the search violated the rights of the shelter's occupants, the Supreme Judicial Court rejected the idea that residents of transitional housing have lesser rights to privacy.
"The room that the juvenile and his mother shared at the shelter was a transitional living space, but it was nonetheless their home," the court said, ruling against the prosecutors. Because they -- like any other Americans -- had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their home, it couldn't be searched without a warrant.
The Fourth Amendment provides that every person has the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures in his home. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that hotel patrons and boarding house tenants have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their rooms; even a guest who stays one night in a friend's home (with or without a key) has a legitimate expectation of privacy in his host's home.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Judith Cowin argued that shelter residents did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. "The shelter services a transient population. It makes available a temporary place to live off the streets. In return, and for obvious reasons, the shelter requires that its residents surrender a considerable degree of personal freedom," she wrote.
We can all agree that no teenage boys should have guns, but we should applaud the Massachusetts judges who recognized that approving this warrantless search would consign the homeless to second-class status. Our Constitution does not distinguish between rich and poor.
Photo credit: Mai Le
Police in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania seem to think that arresting a homeless man and then kidnapping his dog is the appropriate response to homelessness.
After arresting disabled veteran Timothy Thomas for public intoxication, they also incarcerated his dog and companion of 10 years, B.C. (short for "Blue Chip"), in the Harrisburg Humane Society. B.C.'s bail is set at over $1,000. What's funny is that the people at the Humane Society seem to think that by chatting with Timothy before returning B.C., they'll help ensure that this doesn't happen again, as if the arrest and kidnapping are the real issues.
I'd love to know what brand of fairy dust they will sprinkle over Timothy's head when they speak with him, so I can use it to whisk away all social injustice. First, how about the police stop arresting him for drinking and reading (yes, drinking and reading), and don't kidnap his dog again. In social work, stealing from clients isn't usually the best way to build relationships. Clearly, what would help avoid a similar situation in the future is a home for Timothy and B.C., who currently live out of Timothy's car or stay with friends.
I have mixed feelings, however, about pets and homelessness. On the one hand, I have seen my fair share of shelters and most of them have been barely safe for humans, let alone animals, which connects this to a larger issue of shelter safety. But on the other hand, being homeless doesn't mean that a person cannot take care of his pet. Timothy, for example, does not abuse B.C. and he's able to feed him. The unfortunate reality is that homeless shelters, except for a rare few, don't allow animals; thus many people have had to make a choice between a roof over their head and the street. Surrendering a pet to an animal shelter can also mean a death sentence, since about half of all shelter animals are euthanized.
Becoming homeless is a crisis and a series of potential traumas in the making. Which potential trauma would you choose? Sleeping on the street with your closest friend in the world, or sleeping in a shelter, knowing that you have had to say, perhaps, the hardest goodbye of your life and you are now alone. It takes a lot of integrity to choose the street, I think. It means putting love before material comfort. It's an injustice that people are forced to choose between a bed and a friend.
If you are interested in helping pets of the homeless, please support Feeding Pets of the Homeless, a national organization that provides free food and veterinary services to pets of the homeless. You can also find out how to start your own collection site. Plus, you can read the American Humane Pets and Women's Shelters (PAWS) Program startup guide. While it is geared toward shelters for survivors of domestic violence, it provides ideas for how to make a shelter pet-friendly. We would love to hear from you about your efforts.
As for Timothy and B.C., it seems that through the generosity of community members, he will be able to get his dog back. But here's to hoping someone helps them find a home as well.
Photo credit: Beverly & Pack
This past week Coalition for the Homeless released its State of the Homeless 2010 report and Rich attended the press conference. Coalition, for short, is an advocacy and direct service nonprofit serving homeless men, women and children in New York City. (Disclosure: Rich has worked at Coalition since 2004). Together with The Legal Aid Society, Coalition brought and won the class action lawsuits that guaranteed the right to shelter for homeless New Yorkers decades ago.
The thrust of this year's State of the Homeless report is saving funding for homeless services programs. Governor David Paterson, currently involved in numerous scandals and possibly on the verge of resigning, has proposed budget cuts of over $100 million in homeless services in an effort to close a statewide budget deficit. This would have a profound effect on the level of care that our most vulnerable New Yorkers receive.
This is in the midst of record homelessness! Not since the Great Depression have we seen this many people experiencing homelessness. According to New York City's statistics, on any given night there are over 39,000 homeless persons, including nearly 16,500 children. The report notes that "the Governor's budget plan, if enacted, would increase New York's homeless population, force cutbacks to emergency shelter and services, and could force thousands of homeless New Yorkers from shelters into the streets." Moreover, during fiscal year 2009, "an all-time record 120,381 different homeless men, women and children slept in the New York City municipal shelter system." These numbers do not include the thousands more who are surviving on the streets, residing in private shelters and doubled/tripled up temporarily with relatives.
It is unfathomable that in the midst of what some are calling the "Great Recession," New York is looking to cut services while the number of homeless is soaring. You can join the movement to protest these homeless services cuts. What's the state of homelessness where you live?
Photo credit: jonfeinstein
Think of every reason you can for why someone would dress up and pretend to be homeless on the side of the road. To make money? To get attention? To test a community's level of compassion? I bet you could try all day and never guess why police officers in Maplewood, Minnesota are playing make believe.
Turns out, a male and female officer, dubbed "Homeless Harry" and "Homeless Harriet" by a local newspaper columnist, are pretending to be homeless so they can get close enough to cars at stop signs to see if drivers and passengers are wearing their seat belts. If they're not, uniformed officers around the corner pull the car over and ticket the offenders as part of a nine-month-old mandatory seat belt law. (Similar stings have been reported in other cities.)
Are cops so concerned with the well-being of the town's citizens? Or were they just after the fines?
One man who spoke to the paper said his girlfriend's ticket totaled $108. The Police Department said it ticketed 103 people in three-and-a-half hours for not wearing seat belts. The male decoy held signs that said, "Will work for food" and "Unemployed ice dancer: please help." He actually collected money -- $93 in cash and grocery gift certificates. Police said it was all donated to a local food bank. The female officer was offered rides and given other propositions.
Columnist Rubén Rosario at the St. Paul Pioneer Press found that these cops might actually be breaking the law: "According to Subdivision 2 of Minnesota Statute 169.22, 'no person shall stand on a roadway for the purpose of soliciting employment, business or contributions from the occupant of any vehicle.'"
Personally, legal or not, I think the seat belt sting does more harm than good. Citizens feel duped by the people they count on to protect them. And well-meaning drivers, when faced with those in need in the future, will remember that the last time they tried to give $2 to a homeless person, it cost them another $108.
Photo credit: davidsonscott15
Remember when you set up you first home and had to buy all the bits and bobs that go with that? Over time it cost me thousands of dollars. Furniture, white goods, kitchen stuff especially. If I had to do it again today I don't know that I could afford it.
Initially, I started renting where a lot of the stuff was provided so I was able to acquire all the pieces over time. Buying my own bed was a major thing at the time. Then came the kitchen appliances. Later: a washing machine and then my own fridge.
Exiting homelessness is hard enough no matter what your story. But entering homelessness is just like a thief came and took all the stuff you had accumulated over your lifetime and you ended up with what you could carry, if you were lucky. Then, if you're able to move off the streets and get a decent income, you have to start accumulating all over again.
Slowly you build up all the items used for daily living. Like a frying pan, like a chopping board, like a potato peeler, like linens. It all adds up when moving off the streets and establishing a house. I bet you could go into your kitchen right now and find 50 things that cost you over $5 or even $20.
There are some organizations that help with household goods (if you know of those in your area please post them in the comments). If you are moving off the streets, shop around the charities in your local area and find out what they can help with. You would sometimes be surprised at the useful stuff on offer. Some places even offer home delivery for someone getting reestablished.
On the flip side, if you are upgrading household stuff, check with local charities to see if they can take a donation of sheets, appliances or anything else you no longer need. Through random accumulation I think I have five kettles, five potato peelers and about three can openers, so the spare ones are off to a local charity. What have you got that you don't need?
A lot of people donate old clothes to charities, but some organizations work beyond that need and focus on helping people establish themselves in a new home. Let's help them out and get the job done settling homeless people into independent living with the secondhand odds and ends we don't need and they would value.
Only the other day a lady called me and said she and her network of friends were talking about donating things that could be useful in setting up a home. But like many donors they didn't want their goods to be sold for a buck in a charity thrift shop to a college student but instead wanted it to go to a shelter involved in re-settling homeless people.
Let's use one act of generosity to inspire many more and get our network of friends together to support a local charity helping those who are working to reestablish a home after homelessness.
Current and formerly homeless people are invited to join the World Homeless Forum to connect with thousands of others around the world with shared experiences. Sorry, new members don't get a free set of steak knives, but they may be able to get tips on where to get some.
Photo credit: James H.
Residents of Springfield, Missouri were flabbergasted when they learned that their most recent homeless count turned up over 450 homeless youth between the ages of 11 and 22, half of whom were thrown out of their homes. Who are these kids?, they wondered. And more important since teens have a way of hiding in the shadows, where are they? In Springfield's Greene County, homeless youth estimates totaled between 950 and 1,450 for ages 12 to 17. Compare this to 1,800 homeless youth in the entire state of Minnesota, which has a similarly-sized population (not that 1,800 is a good thing, in any case).
Although the numbers are troubling, they also have the potential to be transformative for the Springfield community, where few had been alerted to the problem. This isn't true only for Springfield; youth homelessness is low on the radar all over the country. Often, the focus is on families with children, veterans or chronically homeless individuals. Too often, teens blend in with their housed peers, all the while sleeping in parks or on couches and sometimes prostituting themselves to get by. While all homeless people deserve attention, let us not forget about our youth.
Only a handful of people in Springfield, like the good folks at the Rare Breed Outreach Center, have been trying to end youth homelessness there, despite the dismay of many who listened, in shock, at the results of the youth homelessness count. Remember the words of Changemaker Neil Donovan, "We can end homelessness if every American did just one ordinary act of compassion or one million Americans did just one extraordinary act of compassion. But, perhaps the truth will be that ending homelessness must fall on the few, those who have chosen a life of service, and we can only hope that will be enough." Let it not be the case that the work falls on a few. Decades of the homeless crisis have proven that this is not enough to end homelessness.
Don't let your representatives forget about our homeless youth. Sign our petition to end youth homelessness. Pass it on to your friends. Find out about youth homelessness in your community and give a helping hand. And if you are pressed for time, charitable donations are always welcome. The Rare Breed, for instance, is in need of everything from $50,000 to deodorant and headphones. Remember, all it takes from you is one act. More, however, is always welcome. Our youth will thank you.
Photo credit: That Canadian Grrl
There's a young girl in Chicago who can't get the lung transplant she desperately needs because she doesn't have a home. At just 14 years old, Ronnie Walker is acutely aware that without two new lungs, she will die. She's currently being kept alive with medication. The major barrier to getting her on the transplant list is a stable place to live. She and her mom have been nomads, moving from one place to the next.
Since Ronnie and her mom don't live on the street, in transitional housing, or in a shelter, they are part of a difficult-to-count portion of the homeless population. They move from place to place, often the couches of friends and family, because they cannot afford an apartment of their own. Each stay, obviously, is limited, as their host's resources or patience wears thin.
Ronnie's story presents an issue we don't discuss enough. We know that the homeless need a place where they can sleep in their own beds, but a home goes beyond a place to rest your head and put your stuff. A home is also a place to convalesce, especially needed for the quarter of the homeless who have acute health problems and the nearly half who have chronic ones. That's a very large number of sick homeless people, most of whom, it's safe to assume, aren't having the easiest time getting better.
In a shelter, people sometimes need surgery. And in a shelter, there are myriad ways things can go wrong, like a post-operative infection picked up in a bathroom that's shared with a couple of dozen people. Add to that the stress of trying to recover without privacy, quiet or space. It's not easy to change bandages, for example, when you don't have your own sink. Where I work, there is medical shelter where we send people in situations like these, and it's smaller, more private and equipped with a medical staff. But we'd hope to help the person get housing before surgery is necessary. Preventing and ending homelessness would be an even better solution, but we work with what we have.
By managing to escape staying in a shelter, Ronnie, ironically, doesn't have the "luxury" of a social service staff to help get her the housing she and her mom need. Luckily, she does have the help of a good doctor and a concerned hospital social worker who are asking that her community step in and help. If you would like to help Ronnie please contact her doctor, Robert Love, at Loyola University Health System at 708-216-0417. Your help could mean the difference between life and death for a young homeless girl.
Photo credit: Steve Snodgrass
Blogger Mark Horvath is reporting from his trip to Alaska, where the homeless are subjected to the elements and die at alarming rates. Read his previous posts here and here.
Until my recent trip to Anchorage, Alaska, I had never heard the term "chronic public inebriate," yet in Alaska the word "inebriate" is spoken everywhere. It is so grafted in the Anchorage's culture that even the homeless call themselves inebriates. At first it bothered me, but I soon learned that Anchorage's homeless problem is very complex, caused by severe alcohol addictions.
I met Kim while he was panhandling on the side of the road. His wife had gone up the street for a cup of coffee. Although to Alaskans this last week was a bit of a heat wave, I still had a hard time holding the camera without gloves because it was so cold. Probably around 35 degrees!
Kim started drinking when he was nine years old, and he'll be fifty-two this May. Alcoholism is a horrible disease. Looking in from the outside, people think that drinking is a choice. But at some point along the way, alcohol completely takes over and the choice is gone. Alcoholics need booze just like we all need air, making it nearly impossible to stop. Add to that the dehumanizing experience of living without permanent shelter and people will drink until they die, which is what's happening in Alaska.
Kim is very knowledgeable about laws restricting access to alcohol that local city governments are trying to pass to solve this crisis. No matter what laws are passed, people addicted to alcohol will find a way to get it. Kim talks about his friends drinking Listerine when they cannot get served. One of his friends was the first homeless inebriate found dead last year. The man's body was found with an empty bottle of Listerine next to it.
I wish I had answers for Kim and the people of Alaska. Please watch this video and share it with everyone you know. People are dying, and we must find a solution.
Kim from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.
Special thanks to Hertz for helping to sponsor my trip.
Poverty advocates have long doubted the relevance of the antiquated federal definition of poverty, which is based on the cost of food in the mid-1950s rather than the cost of living in the 21st century. The federal government recently took an initial step toward redefining the federal definition of poverty using a new formula that more accurately reflects the cost of living and people's assets and incomes.
As homeless advocates, we should follow the lead of those fighting to change the federal definition of poverty and encourage HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) to expand its definition of homelessness to include not only people living in the street or in shelters, but people in motels and with friends and family due to economic hardship, as the McKinney-Vento definition does.
Definitions are important. Definitions provide the constraints in which we collect data. Good data should be representative of reality. However, data is only meaningful when it is collected, and interpreted, in the context of sound definitions.
For example, the City of Pasadena, California, just announced the results of its most recent annual homeless count. Like most homeless counts, the city attempted to enumerate the total number of persons living on the streets or in shelters on a particular day. The city identified a total of 1,137 people as homeless, a 13 percent increase over last year. Provide homes for those 1,137 and the problem disappears, right? Wrong.
While I have serious doubts about the methodologies used in homeless counts generally, my point here is not to dispute the method of the count, but rather to comment on the definition it is predicated on. It is simply inane to assess the level of homelessness in a community and not include people living in motels or double or triple occupying cramped apartments with friends or family. The risk in not adopting a more realistic definition of homelessness is very real.
If we are to end homelessness, we have to agree on what homelessness means, and how we measure it. The current HUD definition, which acts as the basis for homeless counts, fundamentally obscures our ability to assess the true number of persons experiencing homelessness. I believe that data is important, but I don't like playing number games. If we end homelessness based on a definition that under-counts the true degree of human suffering, we will have ended homelessness by definition, but not by deed.
Photo credit: Horia Varlan
Blogger Mark Horvath is reporting from his trip to Alaska, where the homeless are subjected to the elements and die at alarming rates. Read his previous post here.
I was really honored that Mayor Dan Sullivan took the time out of his busy schedule to speak with me this week. Anchorage, Alaska has a serious homeless problem and, making matters worse, a serious alcohol abuse problem. I was told that the official number of deaths of homeless people in 2009 was 12 to 14. Most all were alcohol-related. What has not been officially reported is the number of deaths of people found in hotels, so the actual number of deaths is higher.
How serious is the problem? Several of the people were found dead with Listerine bottles next to the body. Original formula Listerine is 26.9 percent alcohol, making it approximately 54 proof. When stores are closed, or sale is refused, people addicted to alcohol drink Listerine.
In my next post I will write about my own addiction to alcohol 20 and 30 years ago to help give some perspective. I also rode along with Anchorage Police and I am still trying to process everything I experienced. I will write about that, too, and add a video made with a member of the police force.I wish I had answers for this community. The people of Anchorage are some of the nicest I have ever met. From what I saw (I was there three days), Mayor Sullivan is taking some right steps to solve a huge problem. But talk is talk and the community must work together to turn talk into action. After this interview Mayor Sullivan allowed me to join a homeless task force meeting. To be honest, I got emotional in the meeting. Not because I was there, but because I kept on thinking about what would happen in Los Angeles if all the homeless service providers and politicians got in a room and worked out real solutions.
The Anchorage Press wrote a story about my visit. You can read it here.
Since 1984, the White House has officially recognized March as Social Work Month. Each year, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) uses it to promote the profession in general and the specific vulnerable populations that we work with. The National Social Work Public Education Campaign was enacted during the last five years to help promote positive images of social workers.
And boy do we need the positive publicity. Social workers have long gotten a bum rap. We are often seen as "do-gooders" or decried as people who take children away from their families. Unfortunately, the media only seems to pay attention to our profession when a child tragically dies due to system neglect. Those stories are horrific, and they do happen, though rarely. Every profession has its unfavorable images. We're not alone in that.
There aren't many positive stories in the media about social workers. This is why Social Work Month is so important -- so we can give people a better understanding of the profession by describing the vast and dynamic work that dedicated social workers do. Much of this work is on behalf of the homeless.
Social workers are an integral part of the daily lives of homeless people. We work at the shelters where they reside, we are part of the emergency room team that treats their illnesses, we assist in obtaining concrete benefits (such as Social Security, disability, Medicaid and/or food stamps), and we provide mental health and substance abuse counseling. The life of a homeless individual may seem simple, but it's almost impossibly complicated. Social workers are there to help the homeless individual navigate these systems and to improve the quality of her life. We're also advocates at the policy level, and use our voices to effect changes in laws and policies that can have profound effects on the quality of a homeless person's life. One such example is the current movement in New York City to have Mayor Michael Bloomberg restore federal housing aid priority to homeless New Yorkers.
On a more basic level, we are often the only people in a homeless person's life who take the time to sit and listen. Because of the overwhelming nature of the lives of homeless people, and often because they lack adequate support, we become their support systems and their sounding boards to vent frustrations and to discuss goals. And yes -- homeless people have goals. All of the remarkable individuals we meet who are not working want to work and contribute to society. The problem usually comes in the details. To get an apartment, you need a job. To get a job, you need an address and a phone to communicate. Without these, many people don't make it through an interview or even an application. We not only help people navigate this catch-22 and obtain some of these concrete necessities, we provide support and encouragement through the process.
Social workers are a vital part of the quest to end homelessness. We often know this population on a deeper level and can help provide insight and advocate in a unique way. We encourage all of you to check out the NASW and Social Work Month to learn about the people working on the front lines of the movement to end homelessness.
Photo credit: Rich Lombino
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has evicted a group known as the "bridge people" from their homeless encampment underneath an overpass. Not only has he evicted them, he hired contractors to put up a wall to ensure that they do not return. A wall has been built for sure -- between the city and its homeless population, and Ballard is their Elmer Fuddian antagonist.
Yes, local homeless services providers like the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention did what they could to help the 30 or so residents move out, including offering them social services and shelter. Yes, the mayor felt that the encampment had become a squalid and dangerous shanty town, especially in freezing temperatures. But this is no way to address the problem. And to be clear, the problem is that people have no access to a home, so they live in unhealthy conditions under a bridge. This runs contrary to the opinion of local businesses and residents who think the problem is that these homeless people are a big, irritating, frightening nuisance.
And what's worse is that the Coalition and the mayor are both blaming the good will of sympathetic locals who regularly provided food and supplies to the encampment, which supposedly enabled the homeless by luring them under the bridge and thus deterring them from seeking services. Can you imagine? They are actually blaming people for helping their homeless meet a few basic needs when no other enduring help has been given and then comparing their homeless to feral cats -- they will keep coming back if you keep feeding them.
Sorry, come again? Let me make something very clear: feeding and clothing unsheltered homeless is never going to hinder any real efforts for social change. It will never seriously compete with efforts to end homelessness. It will, however, make sure bellies are full and bodies are warm.
Bridge People move out - More The Indianapolis Star Galleries View this gallery at The Indianapolis Star: Bridge People move outPlus, shame on the homeless services providers and city officials who condone this eviction, freely tossing around ignorant phrases like, "What they need is ... " and "What they need to do is ...." Since when did self-determination take a back seat? Apparently not having a home, a meal or a shower means your right to make your own decisions is automatically revoked.
After the eviction, those who lived in this encampment moved to another outdoor location (gee, we couldn't see that coming), which the Coalition and the mayor's office expected. If this was expected, then why were they forced to move? This only proves whose side the mayor is on. If he were for the homeless, this never would have happened.
This encampment has been around for a while, which means the mayor had plenty of opportunities to intervene in more appropriate ways, and sooner. Tell the mayor how wrong he was to evict those people. Tell him that he is responsible for providing housing for Indianapolis's homeless, not just catering to the whining of pampered citizens. Has it not occurred to you, Mayor Ballard, that providing real housing for the homeless, not just shelter beds, will make everyone happy?
On a more positive note, Indianapolis is doing something for its homeless, even if it's aimed at the more socially-accepted kind. On March 23, the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, along with the mayor's office, is hosting 2010 Indy Homelessness Connect, where people who are homeless or near-homeless can connect to services, from haircuts to housing. Hopefully the "bridge people" make it to the convention center -- and don't get thrown out again.
Photo credit: canada.poverty
The advocacy world can be such a drag sometimes, with a focus on what's wrong with society, and less with what's right. But I have some wonderful and encouraging news to share. The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) has shared that their recent McKinney-Vento Appropriations letter-writing campaign was a big success. Nearly 1,200 letters (letters you wrote!) from all across our nation were sent to Congress urging them to support the appropriation of $2.4 billion federal dollars needed to prevent and end homelessness. The NAEH said that this was more than they were even expecting. They are ecstatic.
This means that people care and are willing to take the time out to write letters, make phone calls, read articles, and sign petitions to let our government know that we are serious about preventing and ending homelessness.
Not only this, but your letters and efforts have directly impacted the future of McKinney-Vento appropriations. In response to you, several congressional offices have already contacted the NAEH to share that they support the campaign and will push for the requested $2.4 billion dollars.
The next leg of the campaign will involve phone calls to your Congressional leaders, first to the House and then the Senate. Exciting! We are shaping policy, making history, and preventing and ending homelessness. Keep up with the NAEH blog to look out for announcements.
Dear writers and readers, your letters save lives. Don't forget it.
Photo credit: Beverly & Pack
The doggie bag from your restaurant dinner could be tomorrow's lunch. But then you see someone on the street who needs that meal more than you do. So you hand it over (with a smile) and continue on your way, maybe feeling a little better about yourself.
Then a police officer stops you and hands you a $300 ticket.
That's what could happen if a city ordinance being considered in Miami is enacted into law.
The Miami City Commission is considering a proposal that would prohibit "unauthorized" people and groups from sharing food with homeless people in the downtown area.
Proponents say the ordinance will cut down on litter and ensure the safety of the food that homeless people eat.
Cut down on litter? Give me a break. Beyond the silliness of that, I'll put my lawyer hat on and tell you that the Supreme Court has ruled that the governmental interest in preventing litter was insufficient to justify an ordinance that would have prohibited individuals from handing out literature to those willing to receive it. That ordinance violated the First Amendment right to free speech. (The case is Schneider v. State of New Jersey, Town of Irvington). Of course, a city has the power to punish individuals who throw leaflets (or food wrappers) on the ground, rather than those who hand them out.
Ensure the safety of food given to hungry people? That's even sillier.
Punishing people who try to help homeless people is a new tactic adopted in the past few years by many cities, including Las Vegas, Dallas and my hometown of Orlando. The National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty have published a report on this tactic, entitled "Feeding Intolerance."
In Orlando, we're waiting to hear from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in our case. Orlando Food Not Bombs and others challenged the ordinance on constitutional grounds. After a trial, the judge ruled -- for the first time in the United States -- that sharing food with hungry and homeless people in public spaces is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. The judge also ruled that Orlando's ordinance restricting food sharing violated the right to free exercise of religion. The city appealed, and we're waiting for the appeals court decision.
But whether the ordinance is constitutional or not, should the government be able to tell me to whom I can give my own stuff? Urge the mayor of Miami not to punish those who help the most vulnerable.
Photo credit: Haundreis
Blogger Mark Horvath is reporting from his trip to Alaska, where the homeless are subjected to the elements and die at alarming rates. Read his first post here.
It is days like this I really wish I had paid more attention in English class. So much happened I want to share with you, yet I just don't know how to express it in written word.
We started the day at the Anchorage Rescue Mission. See a photo gallery of the place here. Lots of great improvements. I still wish I could check in multiple times for same story. I interviewed program director Dave Williams and you can watch that here. I really enjoyed my tour and getting to meet Dave.
Ed O'Neill then picked us up to visit camps. But first stop was a meeting with Assembly Member Debbie Ossiander. If I had known I wouldn't have worn my "Animal" muppet shirt. It was very interesting seeing
the political process in the works and I was honored to be included.
Ed is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He once owned 20 liquor stores and now runs a nonprofit called Anchorage Responsible Beverage Retailers Association that is funded by the liquor stores he sold. Basically it goes to homeless camps and cleans up the mess while also trying to help people get out of homelessness. ARBRA is a really amazing and unique nonprofit community support model. Here is a short interview with Ed at one of the nearly two dozen camps around Anchorage.
Ed O'Neill interview at homeless camp in Alaska from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.
Ed drove us around trying to visit camps. During the day no one is home so we didn't meet anyone at the two camps we visited. I did have the honor of meeting Bernice on the side of a busy road. She has severe mental illness and was extremely grateful for the gift of socks and gloves. Thanks to all of you that helped support this trip for making that happen. Special thanks to sponsor Hertz.
Luke we met panhandling. I still cannot wrap my mind around living outside in this weather. But I saw an example of that story, the main reason I am here, play out in real life. We stopped at a park and I met a nice older man with a female confined to a wheelchair. They are also sleeping outside and have been homeless 11 years. They were very nice but did not want to go on video. I always respect people and my first priority is to make a friend. I really wish you could have seen the woman put on the new gloves. She was so happy. While talking, another homeless man pointed out a "native" trying to walk down the street. Alcohol is a huge issue here and this man could hardly walk. He went behind a van so I could not see him fall, but I noticed he wasn’t coming into view so I walked over. He was collapsed in a snow bank.
I ran over to see if he was ok and Ed followed. The man was barely conscious and mumbled something about his back. Ed called 911, which is the right thing to do. Left alone in the snow this man probably would have died. The police arrived quickly, but by this time the man had gotten up and had stumbled around the corner only to fall down in another snow bank. The officer loaded the man into a police car and I am told this is called a "sleep over" where drunks are given an overnight stay.
As I type this I cannot get the image of this man out of my mind. What if we were not there? How many other drunks are falling into snow banks tonight? My heart is broken from what I experienced today. Sadly, there is no easy or quick solution for Anchorage's complex homelessness problem! More people will continue to die unless real action is taken.
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