| February 2005 A publication of The Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless 907 Logan Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82001-5247 307-634-8499 fax: 307-634-9089 © 2005 email: wch@vcn.com PAGE DOWN FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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Mike Arnold 1947-2005 Wyoming Winds is published by the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless, 907 Logan Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82001-5247. phone: 307-634-8499; fax: 307-634-9089. email: wch@vcn.com
Editor for this edition of Wyoming Winds is Virginia Sellner.
Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless, its staff or board.
Copyrights revert back to the author upon publication.
WCH is a 501(c)(3) all volunteer non-profit agency depending upon the community, foundation and corporate grants for funding. Donations may be mailed to 907 Logan Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82001-5247. If you would like your donation to be used for a specific need please indicate this on your check. © 2005
**In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without charge or profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
this type of information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.**
More than 60 business owners, member agencies, volunteers, community leaders and state officials, including Gov. Dave Freudenthal, attended our fun and festive grand opening and ribbon-cutting event on November 19, 2004.
The governor encouraged everyone to recognize the problem of hunger in Wyoming and the opportunity we all have to make a difference. He noted that the majority of the hungry in our state are hard working individuals who just do not have enough money to make ends meet - the working poor.
On behalf of U. S. Sens. Mike Enzi and Craig Thomas, and U. S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, representatives offered congratulations while Gov. Freudenthal and the WBFR Director Diane DeLozier, assisted by the Ambassadors of the Casper Area Chamber of Commerce, cut the ribbon and "officially" opened Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies.
One of the motivating forces for opening a warehouse in Wyoming was Food Bank of the Rockies' desire to enhance its services to the entire state. In November, our truck made its first deliveries, and now we cover five routes in four weeks.
In November, Community Action's Housing Program began offering six new efficiency apartments for rent to homeless, low-income individuals in Laramie County.
The newly constructed apartments are part of a three-building complex know as Smith Manor and will bring to 18 the total number of efficiency apartments that CALC rents to individuals in need.
"We continually have a waiting list for people who need affordable house," said Conrad Namtvedt, CALC's housing program manager. "By offering the new apartments, we can offer more people a place to live and hopefully help them get back on their feet again."
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at Smith Manor on November 3, to thank those who partnered with Community Action to plan, finance and construct the new units. Linn Rounds, CALC board chairwoman, and Cheyenne Mayor Jack Spiker delivered opening remarks.
Laramie County Commissioner Jack Knudson and CALC Executive Director Bill Buckles as well as CALC staff and representatives of the Wyoming Community Development Authority also attended.
A new health center will soon be opening its doors in South Cheyenne with the goal of providing primary health care services to local residents and especially those without health insurance.
The Cheyenne Health and Wellness Center will open as a result of a $650,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Jean Richardson, chairperson of the clinic's board of directors said she expects the center to open in April.
"Through the Cheyenne Health and Wellness Center, an estimated 6,200 men, women and children who lack adequate health insurance or sufficient income to pay for health care will have access to comprehensive services including preventive care, primary care, prescription and dental services," Richardson said.
"We expect that the majority of the patients we treat will have no health insurance whatsoever."
"Individuals and families with health insurance will also be welcome," said Richardson. "charges for the clinic's health care services will be based upon income."
The Cheyenne Health and Wellness Center is one of only 76 health centers to be awarded a grant this year.
Nationwide, health centers deliver preventive and primary care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. Almost 40 percent of patients treated at health centers have not insurance coverage, and others have inadequate coverage.
Richadson said she expects the percentage of noninsured and underinsured patients served at the Center to meet or exceed the national average.
The clinic will be located at Fox Farm Road and College Drive.
Two physicians and a nurse practitioner had already committed to working at the new clinic before the grant was awarded.
To volunteer at the center or request information about its services, call the information line at 307-635-4199.
This is NOT a phone number for emergencies or health-related calls.
It is time to end homelessness in America and establish socioeconomic stability. This year 3.5 million people will experience homelessness. The problem can divided into three major categories with the need for: affordable housing, health care, and livable incomes.
Part of the livable income picture includes 42% of America's homeless population that the federal government says is working. The problem is that the federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. According to the last several U.S. Conference of Mayors' reports, $5.15 per hour or $10,700 per year, is an insufficient wage for anyone to get and keep housing throughout the United States. While some employers are paying $6.00, $7.00 or even $8.00 per hour, the wage is still not enough to get and keep most folks in housing.
Senator Ted Kennedy has a bill to raise the federal minimum wage by $1.50 over the next two years. The problem is that the day that bill gets passed, not one minimum wage worker can then work themselves off the streets in the very city where it is passed.
Others wonder about the approach of paying a flat national minimum wage of say $10.00 per hour. Again, that would not afford any minimum wage worker an efficiency apartment in cities such as Washington D.C. or Santa Cruz, California. However, at the same time, that flat wage would swamp small businesses all across America in cities like Biloxi, Mississippi or Harlingen, Texas. In fact, this is Congress's biggest problem; one wage size no longer fits all.
It is recognized that the single most expensive item in an individuals budget is housing. Amazingly, families consisting of one wage earner, a spouse and two children, are often forced to live on the minimum wage. In response, we've devised a single national formula that relates to the local cost of housing across the U.S. The Universal Living Wage Formula (ULW) ensures that anyone working a 40 hour week will be able to afford basic rental housing (i.e. an efficiency apartment) wherever that work is done throughout the U.S. Using a single formula, each city and Fair Market Rent (FMR) designated area, has a wage relative to the local cost of living based on
housing.
The formula is based on existing government guidelines:
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under its Section 8 housing rental program, annually determines what one can reasonably expect to spend on rental housing across the U.S. for an efficiency, one, two, three, and four bedroom apartment. They are referred to as Fair Market Rents(FMR).
Over the past ten years, due to the Herculean efforts of local initiatives, the concept of a "living wage" has swept across America. However, even with over 100 local campaigns, less than 150,000 workers are represented. Between monied opposition and unorganized rural America, this won't bring wage equity for all 10.1 million minimum wage workers for about 3000 years (if then).
In1938, the federal government answered this question by creating the Fair Labor Standards Act establishing the Federal Minimum Wage. Our goal today is to fix it... to everyone's benefit.
The Universal Living Wage Formula is based on the moral premise that anyone working 40 hours should be able to afford basic rental housing. To this end, we have launched a national campaign that has garnered wide spread support across the United States. One aspect of the campaign has captured the imagination of unions (i.e. the Communication Workers of America International boasting 650,000 members) and businesses like American Apparel and HSR Construction. It is the idea that enactment will create a true Economic Stimulus Package as the local construction industry all across America responds to the millions of minimum wage workers' new ability to rent non-existing efficiency apartments.
Based on federal government statistics, it is conservatively estimated that, with implementation; over one million homeless people will be able to work themselves off the streets of America. The plan will prevent economic based homelessness for all 10.1 million minimum wage workers, at the same time, it will offer businesses stable workers. . . thus avoiding costly turnover, repetitive retraining costs, high absenteeism, and internal theft.
Finally, the plan will prevent economic based homelessness for all 10.1 million minimum wage workers. That's true Homeland Security. The Texas Homeless Network has endorsed this courageous initiate. We encourage you to visit the Web site and have your local organization endorse on line.
HUDSON-Melinda Johnson smiled politely and answered the questions with
quiet, succinct responses. No, she did not have children, she told Kathy
Applegate of Columbia Opportunities in a soft voice. She is on her own.
Ms. Johnson is 23 years old, and for the first time in her life, she
is homeless.
A coalition of 24 social service and municipal agencies in Columbia
and Greene counties spoke with folks like Ms. Johnson last Friday, January
28, in the second ever survey of local people who have no stable place to
live.
The agencies expected the survey to reflect a sharp increase they saw
in the number of homeless people last year.
The Columbia-Greene Housing Coalition (CGHC) carried out a similar
survey last year, part of an application for a three-year, $324,000 grant
from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Officials learned last week that last year's proposal was largely
rejected, though they still awaited confirmation of this from HUD. Yet
directors of four social service agencies said the number of homeless in
this area has nearly doubled since last year.
"The problem has gotten worse, there's no question about it," said
Tina Sharpe, executive director of Columbia Opportunities.
Ms. Sharpe said the housing coalition learned from a HUD press
release last week that it won only a small amount of the funding for which
it applied. She said the coalition expects to receive about $10,080 that
will be used to join the Capital Region Homeless Management Information
System, a database of homeless people that is based in Albany.
The coalition had originally proposed to establish 12 supported
living arrangements run by the Columbia-Greene Mental Health Association
(MHA) for homeless people with mental illnesses, and to start its own
database.
The funding was awarded through HUD's Continuum of Care program.
Representatives from Columbia Opportunities, MHA, the Columbia County
Department of Human Services, and Catskill Mountain Housing said last week
that CGHC would take a second shot at the full funding this year.
Coalition leaders said they hope to meet with HUD to discuss why they
were turned down, and will make changes to this year's proposal accordingly.
But even as they waited to hear back from HUD, the social service providers
had to carry out a new survey last Friday to be eligible for this year's
round of grants.
The coalition was required to survey the homeless with whom they
worked on one day only. Last year's effort netted 181 responses, about half
the 320 homeless people the agencies believe actually live in the two
counties.
Though the coalition deemed the result of the homeless census last
year a good reflection of the actual situation, its leaders worked out
glitches and have more agencies participating this year, said Ms. Sharpe.
For example, more participation was expected from the Hudson City
School District, which would track down homeless children, and the coalition
had improved coordination with Columbia Memorial Hospital.
Social service providers last week described a "bottleneck" of local
people who need affordable housing or services as rent prices in the region
continue to rise.
Ms. Sharpe said the long waiting list to receive Housing Choice
Voucher rental assistance is growing, leaving a growing number of people
reliant on emergency shelter provided by the county.
The average stay for someone put up at a hotel by the county was
eight days in 2003, and jumped to about 30 days last year, with spending
doubling from $200,000 to $400,000 according to Ms. Sharpe.
Bradley White, dual recovery coordinator for Twin Counties Recovery
Services, and Susan Owens, residential director for MHA, described similar
increases in mental health and substance abuse cases.
"I couldn't even count the people who are in the supported housing
program we run now," said Ms. Owens.
Counting the homeless in a semi-rural area like this is tricky, said
Mr. White, because homelessness here doesn't easily fit into the federal
definition. Because there are few public areas of places on the street to
survive, the homeless here often bounce from one friend's couch to another,
or live in abandoned shacks.
Even if the coalition wins more funding this year, it will only begin
to help what the agencies see as a problem that will only grow as real
estate prices continue to rise in this area and affordable housing becomes
more limited.
"Shelters save lives today, but affordable housing saves lives
tomorrow," said Mr. White.
SEATTLE, WA---On Wednesday, February 2, 2005, Real Change will become the only street newspaper in North
America to publish weekly. Real Change currently comes out every two weeks. A redesigned, more community news oriented Real Change will debut to be sold by the newspaper's 250 homeless and vulnerably housed vendors. The newspaper is in its tenth year of publication, with a bi-weekly paid circulation of 18,000 copies.
"Over the last four years our circulation has risen by about twelve percent annually, but the
majority of these are sold in the first week," said Real Change Director Timothy Harris. "Weekly
circulation will mean our vendors will make more money, our readers get more up-to-date news,
and our advocacy will be more current." Real Change estimates that weekly circulation will begin
at about 13,000. This move further establishes Real Change as one of the dominant success
stories among North America's more than 30 street papers.
Real Change has planned the move to weekly publication for two years, and has received multiyear
funding commitments totaling $165,000 from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, United
Way, and the Lucky 7 Backus Family Foundation to defray increased staffing expenses.
In January, two new journalists joined the Real Change staff to increase the paper's news
capacity. Cydney Gillis comes to Real Change from the Snohomish County bureau of the
Seattle Times. Rosette Royale was most recently on staff at the weekly Provincetown Banner in
Massachusetts.
Real Change helps meet the direct needs of the poor by providing immediate employment
opportunity while advocating for long-term social change. Through First Things First, the Real
Change advocacy project, readers are given the tools to easily take action on a variety of
issues.
Real Change has recruited a 35-member advisory board of community leaders and activists who
have pledged to help make Real Change Seattle's most widely read community newspaper.
Advisory Board member Sherman Alexie has committed to donate a detective serial featuring
his beloved character Thomas Buildsthefire.
"Real Change has been an effective advocate in the fight to end homelessness," said City
Council member Peter Steinbrueck. "I am proud to stand with them in their continuing efforts to
put people first."
The majority of Real Change's $550,000 budget comes from reader support, with more than 900
private contributors donating over $190,000 in 2004. About forty percent of revenue comes from
circulation and ads. Less than twenty percent of Real Change's budget derives from foundation
support. "Our long-term plan is to grow the ad sales and circulation to provide a stable platform
for the long-haul," said Harris.
Divorced and unemployed, Brian Grills took his trumpet and hit the streets. He's been there ever since.
Some people know him as "the trumpet man." Some call him "the music guy."
And some -- the grumpy Londoners offended by the brassy sounds that spill from his horn and slice the downtown air -- undoubtedly harbour less charitable descriptions.
"This one lady walked by one day and she said, 'Why don't you shove that horn up your you-know-what and get a job?' " recalls Brian Grills. "She was livid. So I turned to her and said, 'Well, this is a job.' "
It's a job Grills has been faithfully toiling away at for 10 years.
Since January 1995, for roughly five hours a day, five days a week -- though he logs fewer hours during the bitter winter months -- Grills takes up his regular post on the southeast corner of Richmond and Dundas streets.
He parks himself behind his little suitcase -- the one reinforced with duct tape and containing, on this day, at least, a tiny Canadian flag, three stuffed animals ("For the kids," he says), a can of ginger ale, a bologna sandwich and a vial of valve lubricant.
Once in place, Grills snuggles his lips against the mouthpiece of his trumpet -- the same one his father gave him when he was 14 -- and launches into one of the songs from his repertoire, which includes The Shadow of Your Smile, Hello Dolly, Strangers in the Night and I Left My Heart in San Francisco. And of course, My Way.
Born and raised in Toronto, the 54-year-old busker says he abandoned his heating/air conditioning business in Hogtown and moved to London in 1989 to provide a better lifestyle for his family. He worked in the trade for a while. His marriage ended. He got laid off.
And then, with only a few weeks of unemployment benefits left, Grills faced a choice.
"I said, 'What am I going to do?' " recalls Grills. "I either go on welfare or I take my trumpet and try playing downtown and see if I can earn a living that way. And that's what I decided to do.
"It was scary," he says. "I thought I was going to get run out of town, or the police were going to throw me in the back of a paddy wagon."
Grills still remembers his first streetside stint. It was early January and Grills set up at the southeast corner of Dundas and Wellington streets -- one of the windiest spots in the city.
Buffeted by the wind and cold, Grills says he lasted 15 minutes and made $2.
"I went home like a dejected puppy dog," he says.
Undeterred, Grills showed up another day outside the Market Tower. This time, before he even started playing, somebody asked him for money.
Over the years, Grills has performed at different downtown sites, including outside the John Labatt Centre. Police once charged him with obstructing traffic, but the charge was thrown out of court. Once, his beloved trumpet was stolen by a passerby, but he retrieved it after giving chase.
He's been robbed twice.
He's witnessed a few fights. He's seen a pedestrian get hit by a car. And he's been told more than once to "stuff a rag in it."
But he says he's learned to ignore the rude remarks and made many friends. And nowadays, he says he earns about $500 a month from passersby who lob loonies, toonies and maybe more -- once, somebody slipped him $100 -- into his suitcase.
His worst stint? On a weekday night outside Joe Kool's about five years ago, Grills says he made 26 cents in two hours.
It's his only income.
"I'm not on welfare," he says. "I'm not getting unemployment insurance or nothing like that. I get by."
When it's cold, Grills wraps his horn in a tea towel to keep the valves from freezing. When the valves start to stick, he squirts them with lock de-icing fluid.
But whatever the weather, Grills says 95 per cent of the reactions he gets are positive.
"Even people that don't donate are smiling," he says. "(The music) puts a smile on their face."
But will London's best-known busker ever hang up his horn?
"I'll go as long as I can," says Grills. "Who knows? Maybe London will make me the official busker of the city."
In the February 9, 2005 edition of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle there was an article indicating that a
bar across the street from Needs, Inc. (a social service agency working with the poor) had complained that
Needs was creating a problem when the Food Bank of the Rockies was delivering/unloading orders for social service agencies in Cheyenne.
The complaint was based on the fact that the Food Bank unloads orders two times a month on 9th Street,
alongside Needs, and across the street from the bar, taking no more than 5 hours per month -- the bar claims that the truck is blocking the
street while unloading, thus making it "impossible" for people to use their drive up window. Is this reasonable - we think not.
The bar has an entrance on Central Avenue that allows people to get in to the drive thru window -- they don't have to use
9th Street. For the time being at least, there will be no more deliveries from the food bank to the Needs building, which means
that the Cheyenne agencies will not be able to get their orders. Is this reasonable?? We think not. Needs does not have another
location that can be used for these deliveries UNLESS the community helps out and gets the parking lot behind their building paved --
at present it is dirt and/or mud, and the fork lift needed to unload the truck gets stuck in the parking lot. In addition, the
present entry into the parking lot does not allow a semi to enter. The solution is easy -- let's all come up with a way
to get this parking lot, paved, the entrance widened, and start getting those food bank deliveries back in to Cheyenne.
NEW HAVEN -- Public housing advocates have long struggled to find a way to help the "chronically homeless" - those who don't fit in with traditional shelters, often because of severe mental, physical or drug problems.
Liberty Community Services, a nonprofit organization in New Haven, hopes to take a step toward addressing the needs of this group with the opening of the state's first "safe haven" housing later this month.
The 33-unit apartment building on State Street, called Liberty Safe Haven, is designed to provide permanent homes for its residents. Liberty Community Services is holding a dedication ceremony for the project today.
The housing facility is based on a model designed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the mid-1990s. Though this is Connecticut's first, there are several operating in the nation.
Sarah Caldwell, executive director of Liberty Community Services, said the program will provide one-person units to people who have been homeless for more than a year or have been homeless on four or more occasions within the past three years. Many of these people have been unable to meet the more stringent criteria of traditional homeless shelters, such as curfews or participation in certain programs. Others have mental and physical problems that the shelters can't accommodate.
"Those are wonderful for a certain group of individuals, but for a certain group, that doesn't work," she said.
Like most everywhere else, advocates say, the homeless population has increased in the greater New Haven area in the past few years. The latest count is more than 3,000, of which about 250 are chronically homeless. According to the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, up to 33,000 people in the state experience homelessness in a year.
Liberty Community Services has received 110 referrals for the building.
Alison Cunningham of the Columbus House, a homeless shelter in New Haven, said she's grateful for the extra help at a particularly tough time.
"Every one of our case managers will be making referrals, as will every case manager in every agency in the city," she said. "We're thrilled to have additional units in the area."
Liberty Safe Haven focuses on a "low-demand" philosophy. Residents speak with workers about what they want to accomplish while staying at the safe haven, and workers will help them achieve it.
"It might be that they want to begin thinking about their health care," Caldwell said. "They've never had a regular doctor, so they may have a slew of health needs, having been on the street for a while. For another individual, it may be that they want to address an addiction issue."
Residents will have a one-year renewable lease. Though the goal is to prepare residents to live on their own, there's no set time period. For some residents, it could be as short as a few months, while others could live in the building for several years.
There will be at least two staff workers on site at all times. One of the programs will focus on helping the residents prepare their own meals. Open Door Alliance, a program of Liberty Community Services, will be in charge of the fourth-floor units, which will house homeless adults whose needs are less intensive than the building's other residents.
Liberty Community Services has been planning the project since 1995. In that time, it has raised more than $10 million. Of that, $3.3 million came from HUD to cover the operational expenses for the next three years.
Renovations of the 26,000-square-foot building, which was once a cigar factory, cost about $5 million. Caldwell said $1.2 million has been secured to cover the building's maintenance for the next 15 years.
Advocates for the homeless say it's a group they have long struggled with placing. Often, traditional homeless shelters have proved intimidating or too structured for the chronically homeless.
Mary McAtee, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, said Liberty Safe Haven could serve as a stepping stone for many residents to more traditional forms of housing.
"It could make the difference for a person who has been on the street for a long time," she said. "There's a certain number of people who have very significant barriers to independent living. I do think the model in New Haven is going to make a significant difference in the lives of the people that they serve."
Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C., said there's no "hard science" on the effectiveness of this type of housing because it's relatively new. But there's anecdotal evidence that it's working, he said, getting "the hard-core homeless folks off the streets and into programs and, in some cases, independent living."
"There needs to be a program like that in every community where they take people as they are and work with them," he said. "It's an important component to ending homelessness in any community."
A new program aimed at preventing people from getting thrown out on the street - the first of its kind in the nation - has been launched in the South Bronx, which has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the city.
The Housing Help Program, spearheaded by city Civil Court Administrative Judge Fern Fisher, offers a new approach to handling eviction cases that includes a specially trained judge and a dedicated court team to handle cases from start to finish.
There are also supportive services aimed at addressing tenants' inability to pay their rent, such as job training, family counseling and substance-abuse programs.
"Rather than simply deciding a case and then shutting our eyes to what happens after a family leaves the doors of our courthouse, it's time to think about future outcomes," Fisher said.
The program is being implemented by the Civil Court of the City of New York; United Way of New York City, which provided $1 million in funding; Legal Services for New York City-Bronx; and Women in Need, a social-services organization.
About 36,500 people, including 15,000 kids, sleep in city shelters nightly.
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