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The Homeless Pay Taxes Too,
by Paul Heimer
Between early January and April 15th tens of millions of Americans will be filing their income tax returns. Some taxpayers will do it the old fashioned way - with paper, pencil, eraser, and maybe even a calculator. Other taxpayers will buy or download software and attempt to do their taxes with the help of a computer. Some people are so confused by the tax laws, or their returns are so complicated, that they pay someone else to get their taxes done. Believe it or not, homeless people are like you and me, and use all of these methods to pay their taxes.
Homeless people paying taxes - I can see some of you shaking your heads in wonderment. The first thing to realize is that hundreds of thousands of homeless people worked at some point in 2004, many of them in full time jobs that did not pay a living wage. The next thing to realize is that many of these same people are required by law to file, and more importantly are due a refund.
Why are homeless people, and so many other low income people due a refund? The answer has nothing to do with any of the tax cuts enacted in the past few years. These tax cuts were targeted at people with taxable income, and in many cases were irrelevant to families with incomes below $25,000. The real answer is in two parts. The first part is that people with incomes below the standard deduction and exemption amount do not pay any Federal Income Tax (they still pay Social Security and Medicare taxes). For example, this year a single individual with an income of less than $7,950 owes no income tax, and a married couple with two children will not owe income tax on the first $22,100 of income from wages. During the course of the year they might have had taxes withheld, so come April 15th they get all that money back. This might be just a few dollars, a couple of hundred dollars, or more. The second part of their refund will be Earned Income Tax Credit. First enacted in the 1970's, the Earned Income Tax Credit puts extra money in the hands of the working poor. The credit can be as little as one dollar or as much as $4,300. The amount of the credit depends upon a number of factors including your age, marital status, number of “qualifying children”, and your earned income. Here's an example: Take a married couple with two children and an income of $10,750. They would get all of their withholding back plus a $4,300 Earned Income Tax Credit. So their actual refund might be over $5,000 - or about 50% of their annual income. Just imagine how helpful this is to a family living below the poverty line (or even in a homeless shelter). In fact, the Earned Income Tax Credit is the most successful anti-poverty program in the country. Each year it lifts almost 5 million American families above the poverty - more than any other program.
The previous paragraph contained the good news. This paragraph has some bad news. 68% of taxpayers who are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit will seek professional help. In other words, they are streaming to H & R Block, Jackson Hewitt, and other locally owned income tax preparation sites. The big two (H & R Block and Jackson Hewitt) are franchised, and therefore have no set national rates. On the other hand, a typical return works like this: there is a set price for doing a basic return, usually somewhere in the $50-$200 range. Then there is a fee to e-file the return (even though this is more cost effective for the preparer), usually around $25-$50. Then these companies entice the taxpayer by asking this simple question - “Do you want your money tomorrow instead of in 2-4 weeks?” Many people will say yes, and are talked into taking out a Rapid Acceleration Loan (RAL) - also known as a rapid refund. In fact, these RAL's are loans with interest rates of anywhere from 50-400%. The cost for processing the loan is usually around $50 and the interest on the loan is usually in the range of $25-$75. I have even seen a bill from one Jackson Hewitt franchise that included a line item of $25 for “other fees.” Add this all up, and a taxpayer with an income below the poverty line might end up paying $200, $300 or even $400 for this service, or almost 4% of their entire yearly income.
Fortunately, low income and homeless people do not have to go to a paid preparer. The IRS sponsors free tax preparation sites throughout the country, including most of the larger communities in here Wyoming. Some of these sites target the elderly, and are co-sponsored by AARP. Other sites target the general public. Some of these sites are operated out of libraries, and others are located in schools. It is easy to find the location of the site closest to you. Just call the IRS at 800-829-1040 for information. Or, you can set up your own site. Training is available through the IRS.
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Transitional Housing Program Complex Nears Completion
Pamela Nowak
COMEA House continues to make progress on the construction of its Transitional Living Program (TLP) Complex. The new building is being added directly behind the emergency shelter. It will house a new main floor ADA accessible food service area, classrooms, and twelve efficiency apartments. The shelter is also adding a second family room. Construction is expected to be complete by mid-2005.
The new program will take COMEA's services a step beyond emergency shelter, which, by its very definition, can't provide all the tools a person needs to become independent. Often, focus in the emergency shelter setting is on obtaining employment and moving into an apartment. While clients begin to address issues such as alcoholism, inability to manage money, or other life skills, they seldom have firm control over such problems. They move out of emergency shelter ready to take on the world but ill-equipped to do so. Used to the support of other people, the alcoholic is alone and unable to cope with co-workers who unwittingly invite him out for a beer. Inexperienced with budgeting, the new employee spends her money unwisely. New to on-the-job politics, the young worker gets frustrated and makes mistakes. Alone in a new job and a new apartment, these individuals often lack the skills they need to survive, let alone succeed.
The COMEA Transitional Living Program will combine housing and supportive services to address these problems and pave the way for already motivated persons to become permanently self-sufficient. Candidates must apply to the program and demonstrate they are serious about overcoming homelessness. They must have steady income and will be required to participate in weekly case management and to pursue life skills training as appropriate. This might include budgeting, anger control classes, nutrition classes, work-place skills, AA meetings, or any other supportive services that would enhance self-sufficiency. In addition, participants will be asked to set up a savings program for emergencies and pay part of their incomes for rent to assist them in learning how to become independent. As they move through the program, supportive services will gradually be weaned.
Costs for the project total just under $1 million. Over $700,000 has been raised from federal, corporate, and local grants. Nearly $300,000 is expected in labor, material, and cash donations from the community. Persons interested in contributing materials or volunteer labor to hang sheet rock, paint, lay floor tiles, or hang ceiling tiles should contact Amy at COMEA House, 632-3174. Amy can also provide details on how contributors can Invest in Success by providing funding to finish the interior of a single apartment as part of the Host a Home program.
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Best-Dressed Homeless in the World
SEOUL (Reuters) - Some South Korean homeless are dressing in style after
the government gave away thousands of fake designer garments confiscated
by customs agents.
The Korea Customs Service distributed more than 3,500 fake pieces in the
southern city of Pusan this month with the permission of the fashion
houses whose designs had been pirated.
A customs official declined to name the designers whose ripped-off
creations are now being worn by the homeless but said both they and the
state prosecutors had approved giving away the jackets, blouses, shirts
and pants.
"We hope this will be of some help to the poor who need practical
assistance in such hard times," the official said.
Customs agents removed the labels from the clothes before giving them to
a welfare agency for distribution.
South Korea has a vibrant illegal market in pirated designer clothing and
customs officials said there would be more handouts.
"We will continue to look for useful ways to pass along the clothes -- it
saves us the cost of destroying what we have confiscated," the Customs
Service said in a statement.
One homeless man, who asked not to be identified, said he appreciated the
fancy threads.
"I don't care about the quality of the clothes, but these designs are
quite trendy," the recipient said.
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Volunteers to Undergo Homeless Weekend
BY ANDREW DEMILLO
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Little Rock's homeless advocates and shelter directors hope to see a temporary bump in the city's homeless population this weekend.
A coalition of service providers and advocates is encouraging residents to participate in a "homeless awareness weekend" where they will live on the streets or in camps for 48 hours to get a firsthand glimpse of the life of a homeless person.
More than 40 people are expected to participate in the weekend exercise, which will begin Friday night and end Sunday, said Sandra Wilson, executive director of the Arkansas Supportive Housing Network.
"No showers, no suitcases. Whatever you take with you, you have to carry it with you the whole time," Wilson said. "I think by the end of this, people are going to get a taste of what homelessness feels like."
Modeled after a national event, Wilson said the 48-hour exercise is a response to discussions about the city's home- less population and policies affecting the homeless. Police have recently begun cracking down on aggressive panhandling, and city officials have spent months discussing plans for the more than two dozen homeless encampments spread across town.
The event is a way to show participants, including teachers and social workers, the conditions on the streets for the area's homeless. Taking only what they can carry, participants will spend the weekend in small groups with a homeless guide and a team leader with a cell phone.
Participants will be given a detailed list of instructions for the weekend, including that they must not shower or change clothes. They may bring 50 cents, picture identification, a blanket or sleeping bag, as well as necessary health supplies such as medicines or contact lens solution.
The instructions also say that "groups should expect to panhandle for food or money."
"Any funds collected that are not used to purchase food during the weekend will be divided equally to pay the homeless guides," the event's instructions say.
Wilson and city officials say they don't expect those rules to interfere with the city's efforts to reduce "professional" panhandling in the downtown area.
Earlier this month, Little Rock police announced an undercover task force to crack down on professional panhandlers and aggressive beggars in the city. Formed in response to residents and business operators, the task force has led to the arrest of more than 28 people for violating Arkansas Code 5-71-213. The statute states that a person commits the offense of loitering if "he lingers or remains in a public place or on the premises of another for the purpose of begging."
City Manager Bruce Moore said he would have to learn more about the event before commenting directly on it, but said the panhandling enforcement was geared toward beggars who harass or threaten people.
"There are without a doubt still individuals who are out asking for money or for food," Moore said. "We were very clear that this was to target those aggressive panhandlers where individuals... felt threatened in some way."
Wilson said she doesn't believe that will apply to the participants in the weekend experience.
"I don't think there's going to be anyone out there who's going to be doing any aggressive panhandling," she said.
Moore said he hopes the coalition, in addition to the weekend event, will continue focusing on working with the city to reduce chronic homelessness. Little Rock's 10-year plan to eliminate chronic homelessness is expected to be released by the end of March.
"It's important to understand their plight. Some feel that you have to spend a weekend experiencing it," Moore said. "What I would hope that while they're participating in that activity, they also talk about what are the needed services. What can the community do as a whole to address these issues?" Wilson said this weekend's event is the first of what is intended to be several immersion experiences for the public. A forecast dip in temperatures is expected to keep many participants away, she said.
The event, however, won't completely mirror life on the streets for the city's homeless, Wilson said.
"We know this isn't going to be a reality, true experience," Wilson said. "We will be going through a bit of discomfort. We all get to go home and get a hot bath on Sunday. The homeless don't get that opportunity."
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San Francisco Reports Reductions in Homelessness, Homeless Deaths
From The National Alliance to End Homelessness Newsletter
Last week, the City of San Francisco announced dramatic decreases in both homelessness and homeless deaths. On February 14, Mayor Gavin Newsome reported a 41 percent reduction in street homelessness (from 4,535 to 2,655 people) and a 28 percent reduction in homelessness overall (from 8,640 to 6,248) between October 2002 and January 2005. Later in the week, his office released further numbers from the medical examiner's office and Laguna Honda Hospital showing that the number of people who died while experiencing homelessness decreased by 40 percent (from 169 to 101) between the fiscal years ending in June 2003 and June 2004.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city's homeless advocates and providers received the numbers showing declines in the street and overall homeless populations with a mixture of support and skepticism. Responding to those who challenged the accuracy of the recent count, however, the Mayor's office explained that for each of the years compared, the City used the same counting methods and the weather conditions were similarly inclement. Meanwhile, the Chronicle reported, homelessness appears to have grown in the neighboring Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties. San Mateo County, which borders San Francisco to the south, was the only other county in the area that reported a decrease. There, the homelessness count dropped from 1,700 in 2003 to 1,400 in 2004.
Mayor Newsome and San Francisco Department of Human Services Director Trent Rhorer attributed the decreases in homelessness and homeless deaths in San Francisco to the city's growing emphasis on Housing First. "These numbers represent tangible results from the City's efforts over the past year, including bringing almost 800 supportive housing units on line and implementing an aggressive street outreach program to link the homeless with the housing and services they so desperately need," stated Rohrer. Moreover, according to Mayor Newsome, over 95 percent of individuals placed in permanent supportive housing through the city’s Housing First approach remain housed.
The Mayor’s office also pointed to the growth of the Direct Access to Housing program, which the Department of Public Health has used since 1998 to house and support those among the street homeless population who were the highest users of the public health system. Previously reported outcomes for this program included a 58 percent reduction in emergency room visits and a 78 percent reduction in inpatient hospitalization stays after the individuals were housed through the program.
More information on San Francisco’s New Housing First Initiative
More information on Direct Access to Housing
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Date of Issue: February 14, 2005
For more information, contact:
Michael Stoops
Ph. 202-462-4822 x19
mstoops@nationalhomeless.org
NCH Website
National Coalition for the Homeless Reorganizing,
While Remaining Loyal to the Principle of Bringing Every American Home
Washington D.C.: The National Coalition for the Homeless has reorganized by
appointing Michael Stoops as acting Executive Director and moving its
offices into the Church of the Pilgrims in Downtown Washington, DC. Molly
Neck will support Stoops as the Director of Programs for the agency. Along
with the other support staff this team will keep the doors open and maintain
public education, community organizing activities and above all a strong
advocacy presence to end homelessness for the estimated 3.5 million homeless
in the United States.
The geographically diverse Board of Directors remains a strong, active,
working board that will continue with the core mission of ending
homelessness in the United States. Activists from across the nation are
members of the NCH Board and work to change the dialogue at the national
level to illuminate the injustices of homelessness.
Michael Stoops has been a part of the National Coalition for the Homeless
since its inception in the early 1980's. Stoops previously served as the
Director of Community Organizing for NCH. He has thirty years of experience
on voting rights, anti-discrimination campaigns, and defending homeless
people against hate crimes/violence.
Molly Neck previously worked on NCH's National Homeless Civil Rights
Organizing Project. In 2003, she was the editor of our two annual reports
on the criminalization of homelessness and hate crimes/violence against
homeless people. In 2004, she was NCH's Director of Development.
Founded in 1984, the National Coalition for the Homeless is the oldest
national advocacy group with a focus on homelessness. NCH has refocused its
talents and energies around a few core issues. NCH will continue to be a
leader in the protection of the civil rights of homeless people by
publishing research as well as, organizing local and statewide coalitions.
The staff will continue to put a “face” on homelessness through its national
Faces of Homelessness Speakers' Bureau. With a great deal of support from
the NCH Board of Directors, the organization intends to focus attention on
local, state, and federal policies as well as funding allocations to ensure
that homelessness is ended. The centerpiece of this campaign is the
reintroduction of the Bringing America Home Act, a comprehensive piece of
legislation that would end homelessness in the United States. This Act is
scheduled to be reintroduced in Congress within several weeks.
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Crimes Against Homeless Deserve Public Scrutiny
an editorial
Blethen Maine Newspapers
The hardship of life on the streets for Maine's homeless is compounded by
the very real danger of violence, a problem that has attracted little public
attention and even less action.
A new report from the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence calls for
state and local efforts to counteract this disturbing trend.
The center interviewed 138 homeless and formerly homeless people as well as
30 officials including shelter staff, police and providers of social
services starting in July 2003. It found at least 60 crimes that appeared to
be motivated by the victim's state of homelessness, including 35 physical
attacks. Some of those attacks were particularly brutal, involving objects
such as rocks and pipes.
Few of these crimes make it to a police report. There's a general distrust
of police by homeless people, and that's a difficult issue to resolve.
Police have a responsibility to arrest homeless people who are breaking the
law, but that inadvertently serves as a deterrent to report victimization.
Stephen Wessler, the director of the center, said that many homeless people
who have suffered violence lack outrage because attacks are so common.
That says a great deal about the lack of attention and public indignation
concerning these crimes.
The center is calling on lawmakers to protect homeless people under the
state Civil Rights Act. That could prove controversial. In the meantime,
however, there are other steps that can and should be taken to help fight
violence against people who are living on the streets.
Though some violence occurs between homeless people, many of the incidents
involve teenagers attackers. Boosting educational programs in middle and
high schools is one of the center's ideas, and it's a great one because it
has a value that stretches beyond preventing violence. Schools and service
providers could work together to bring in speakers or have students tour
shelters to increase understanding, for instance.
The Portland Police Department and local shelters already work together, and
this partnership can be expanded. They can talk about the report's other
recommendations, including training programs that teach homeless people to
report crimes and mandatory training for police officers on homelessness.
The best way to help counteract crimes against the homeless is to increase
the number of reports on such attacks. This is a serious and potentially
deadly issue that demands the immediate attention of officials and the
public. Understanding that it's a real problem is the first step.
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Illegally Cut Off From Shelter
By Theola S. Labbe
Washington Post
On a cold night recently, the McCulloughs, a homeless family, dialed the District's 24-hour emergency hotline to request a warm place to sleep. They were turned away.
David McCullough, 38, said a hotline worker told him that D.C. Village, an emergency family shelter in Southwest Washington, was full. When he asked about other options for his family, he said, the worker told him he didn't have any and abruptly ended the call.
McCullough called a homeless advocacy group that night, Feb. 1, to complain. Then, with his wife, Michelle, 37, and their son, Matthew, 11, at his side, McCullough put his faith in the public.
The family sat on the ground on First Street NE near Union Station, with a gray blanket as a buffer from the cold sidewalk, and they displayed a cardboard sign: "Homeless Family Please Help God Bless." With quick thanks, the McCulloughs accepted folded $1 bills from strangers. They collected $54.50 to rent a hotel room in Virginia and enough to buy food.
City officials confirmed that the city had violated the law by turning away the McCulloughs on a night a hypothermia alert was declared by the District. They said the city had investigated the incident and had taken steps to prevent it from happening again. "Our policy is that no one gets turned away, especially on a frigid night," said Lynn C. French, senior adviser to Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) on homeless policy.
The McCulloughs moved to Washington from Florida during the summer to petition for Social Security benefits after David McCullough was injured in a car accident. Although the family is atypical of most of the city's homeless families, who are generally longtime residents of the District or the region, advocates said the family's shelter experiences point to the shortcomings of an overburdened system that is struggling to keep up with rising demand.
The McCulloughs spent four months in a District family shelter last year and raised money by panhandling. Like many homeless families that seek the city's help, the McCulloughs said they have not found permanent housing.
Last year, there were 3,326 applications for family shelter space in the District, according to the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness. The number of family shelter units, which by law are supposed to be apartment-style for the safety of children, declined from a high of 1,216 in 1991 to 110 this year, according to the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
On any given day, there are about 200 pending applications for family shelter, French said. On nights that the city has declared a cold-weather alert, she said, there were a few times when there were only two or three vacancies for families out of 191 beds set aside. "We know we're dancing on the edge here," French said.
The city also has been unable to meet a commitment to open 75 additional beds for families this winter because it could not secure a building that it had planned to use as a shelter.
After the McCulloughs were turned away, the city sent a notice to shelter providers, reminding them that during the hypothermia season, all families seeking shelter must be placed on the day that they request assistance.
Dana M. Jones, interim chief executive director for the United Planning Organization, which has a $543,000 contract to operate the shelter hotline, said workers are supposed to arrange only for transportation to shelters. "I want to apologize to the family because we have no role in deciding who gets admitted where and when," Jones said.
Marta I. Beresin, a staff attorney for the Legal Clinic, said the city needs to have better contingency plans.
Beresin called city officials Feb. 1 to say that the McCulloughs told her they had been turned away. French arranged to get shelter for that night, but Beresin could not locate the family, which was panhandling during the day and spending the nights in hotel rooms.
"What if the McCulloughs didn't know me or didn't have my cell phone number or my home number, or didn't get the money to get into a hotel that night? Someone could have died," Beresin said.
While waiting to hear from the city, the McCulloughs were at Union Station, sitting on their blanket and accepting donations from strangers. Matthew, a fifth-grader, sat with drawing books filled with comic book sketches and excitedly described the comic book heroes. Other times, he silently watched as commuters ignored his family.
"I just don't understand why they walk by," he said.
On Sunday, the city referred the family to a shelter for families on the grounds of the former D.C. General Hospital in Southeast that is open during the winter season. The McCulloughs were given a seven-day placement. They are not sure where they will go next.
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Affordable-Housing Agency to Sell 40 In-City Properties
By Stuart Eskenazi
Seattle Times staff reporter
The Seattle Housing Authority has begun selling 40 single-family houses that have been rented exclusively to low-income families for at least the past 20 years.
In 1978, the Housing Authority began buying single-family houses in predominantly white neighborhoods, mostly in the city's North End and West Seattle.
The philosophy behind the program was to reduce the concentration of subsidized housing in Southeast Seattle and to expand opportunities for poor people by having them live in wealthier parts of the city.
As bidders go bonkers competing for the coveted in-city properties, low-income tenants are moving to apartments. They also are deciding whether staying in the more affluent neighborhoods and#8212; or moving to Southeast Seattle and#8212; best suits them. Their conclusions seem to reflect the changes that have taken place in Seattle neighborhoods since 1978, with the economic line between north and south becoming less glaring.
The two public-housing projects in the South End, Rainier Vista and Holly Park (now NewHolly), are being redeveloped as mixed-income neighborhoods where low-income people live among middle-income homebuyers.
Some tenants who are forced to move are opting for a new home at Rainier Vista or NewHolly. They might have to share a wall or two with a neighbor, but they believe their connection to the community will be better.
North End living has had its share of inconveniences, said Sadiyah Salaymang, who lives with her husband and five young children in an authority-owned three-bedroom house in Ballard. The family, which moved from Beacon Hill in November 2001, is on the waiting list for a new Rainier Vista townhouse."It's been a hard thing because my doctor, my husband's work, my mom and my sister are all in the South End," Salaymang said. "I'm Asian and once a week we go to the South End to shop for our groceries at Chinese and Vietnamese stores. Ballard is a good and peaceful neighborhood, but for my kids, it's boring. They have nobody to hang around with."The 40 houses being sold represent the first phase of a Housing Authority sell-off, which also includes eight duplexes, one triplex and two small apartment complexes and#8212; 71 housing units in all. By 2006, the authority, an independent agency that provides low-income housing, hopes to sell as many as 200 units that it owns across the ci ty, including more than 80 single-family houses.
The sell-off is a bonanza for buyers in the market for entry-level houses within the city limits as well as developers looking for land to build multifamily housing. Charles Fulcher, a Realtor with Windermere who has listed four Housing Authority North End properties, said offers poured in soon after the houses went on the market. Three of the four houses listed below $300,000.
One house had 20 offers, and all of the properties are selling above the listing price, he said.
As the authority is selling, it also is buying, searching to replace the houses with apartment complexes of around 20 units in the same neighborhoods, said Ellen Kissman, the authority's asset management coordinator. Since multifamily housing is cheaper to manage and maintain than single-family houses, the Housing Authority hopes to net $20 million through the property flip.
"We are definitely looking at continued deep cuts in our federal funding, so we have to get better in managing the housing stock we have," Kissman said. "Plus, the real-estate market for single-family housing is good right now and we need to take advantage of that."
The Housing Authority expects to plug the $20 million into the costs of replacing low-income housing that has been lost through the NewHolly and Rainier Vista redevelopments and another just under way at High Point in Southwest Seattle.
John Fox of the Seattle Displacement Coalition said the Housing Authority should use the $20 million to create additional low-income housing in Seattle, not just pay for housing it already has committed to replace.
"It is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, with low-income people as the ones getting squeezed," he said.
Authority tenant Carolyn Russell made her move from house to apartment in August and#8212; and opted to stay in the North End. Russell moved her family from Holly Park to the North End in 1997, and doesn't want to return.
"I work 10 minutes from where I live," she said. "My daughter goes to Ballard High School and the school bus picks her up right around the corner and drops her off right in front of our apartment."
When her family first moved to the North End, it was a hardship for her two children who had become accustomed to summer recreation programs at Holly Park. "I didn't know of any similar programs when I moved out this way," Russell said.
But her children are older now and Russell said those issues are no longer relevant.
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How Homeless are Treated Abroad
How Homeless are Treated Abroad
Hugh Curran
Bangor Daily News
I t may be that readers will be able to get a better perspective on homelessness in America if they can see how the homeless are treated in other industrialized nations. I reviewed several books on European homelessness for the Homelessness Marathon broadcast on Febuary 14 on many community radio stations.
Germany was the first country whose homeless issues I examined. Germany is the size of Montana but with a population of 80 million people. Surprisingly, given its social welfare system, it has 1 million people "living in insufficient housing, or in emergency housing." Despite a housing shortage Germany still continues to provide a major safety net for its citizens by giving 3 million residents housing allowances so as to keep rental costs below one-third of monthly income.
Germany has changed radically from its pre-World War II fascist policies and the intolerance that prevailed at that time. Curiously enough, it was not until 30 years ago that the prevailing attitude of the homeless being "useless vagrants" with "personality defects" lost its currency.
In the present more tolerant political and social climate, municipalities in Germany are "required to provide sufficient shelter for homeless individuals within city limits." These municipalities provide 270 counseling centers and numerous homeless shelters supported by the government and private non-profit organizations. Since 99 percent of the German population is insured by private health care plans or by welfare departments dental care, eyeglasses, medication and preventative and rehabilitative medicine are provided free of charge. Some communities even intervene to discourage tenant evictions by providing temporary funds to the landlord on the understanding that this will, in the long run, be "less than the cost of sheltering the person or family" in homeless shelters at public expense.
Denmark, like the rest of Scandinavia, defines homelessness as those who are "socially excluded" from the "job market, from their family and/or other social networks." Denmark has only about 1.4/1000 people homeless at any given time (compared to 3.4/1000 in the United States). This means that about 7000 are homeless out of a population of 5 million whereas in the United States the homeless population is 750,000.
Denmark has a substantial safety net in which "monthly payments are given to those considered in need [as well as] free hospitalization and education." The "Social Assistance Act" considers it a government obligation "that everybody has the right to accommodation." Several writers on homelessness in Scandinavia have noted that "homelessness is not the [result of] a personal quality or flaw but is primarily the result of a lack of affordable housing. The prevailing attitude is that symptoms, such as drug abuse and mental illness, are more likely to be caused by homelessness rather than being the cause of homelessness."
Sweden, another Scandinavian country with enlightened policies respecting homelessness, has a population of 9 million with close to 9,000 homeless (1/1000). But in Sweden, as in England, Europe and the United States there has an endorsement of policies involving deregulating and decentralizing. This results in a transfer responsibility to municipalities which cuts into the social safety net that to be fair has to be fair in the whole country.
Another country with much homelessness is England. It has less than one-fifth the population (i.e. 50 million) than the United States but a more liberal homeless policy. English authorities have, over the years, alleviated the plight of the homeless by making housing more affordable, increasing access to community services and welfare benefits and providing employment services. The European Union uses the gauge of one-half the average income to determine poverty and on this basis the United Kingdom (made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) has 17 percent living in poverty.
But since there is a safety net concerning welfare benefits residents are assured that they will not fall into abject poverty. At the same time budget cuts through the '90s have resulted in a 72 percent cut in the building of affordable housing at a time when demand [far] exceeds supply. In this respect England has much in common with the United States.
A country facing the most severe homelessness is Russia which, after the Soviet period, shifted from state ownership to private ownership. At that time "owners sold their property" often without considering the effect on their children. In 1961 the criminal code stipulated punishment for vagrancy and the word "tunedyadka" or "parasite" was applied to the homeless. After serving in detention following a court appearance, they were sent to a distant detention camp for vagrancy which made them into a kind of camp slave.
Recently following "economic reform" the costs of housing soared. Now there is a massive growth in "the army of homeless people" and they "constitute one of the most criminalized strata in the population," in Russia. For 70 years the homeless "didn't exist" but neither, supposedly, did "drug addiction or prostitution." According to estimates there were 50,000 to 70,000 thousand in the 1970s while at present the number has approached nearly 1 million which is is comparable to the United States but on a per capita basis it means that twice as many homeless exist in Russia. There is no "governmental or municipal structure that specializes in helping the homeless. since the state policy focuses on punishment."
If people are imprisoned, even for minor offenses, their rooms, apartments or other forms of housing can be expropriated. "Propiska" is a term that refers to registering people. Lacking "propiska" means that one barely exists and since the homeless lack "propiska" they are not given protection under the law.
A European Union country that has been increasing its awareness of its homeless problems and is developing more humane policies, is Spain, which has a population of 40 million. Spain has a very high unemployment rate while one-fifth of the population lives on less than half of the average Spanish income. It ranks first in AIDS disease in the EU and spends one-half the amount that the United States does on health care (14 percent of GDP). Although Spain is estimated to have 160,000 homeless the Minimum Social Income policy helps to buffer the effects of serious housing problems.
European studies show that "material" causes such as housing, unemployment, etc are the primary causes of homelessness, while "relational" causes such as death in the family or rupturing of relationships with friends are secondary causes.
Personal factors such as diseases, addictions and loneliness and mental health account for 25 percent of the homeless.
Spain has been experimenting with a variety of ways to help the homeless. For instance there are multi-service shelters such as in Saragossa which includes gardens and workshops and job training and a family like atmosphere with an emphasis on education and culture. Night centers offer medical first aid and psychosocial assistance. Twenty companies in Madrid have undertaken the rehabilitation of homeless people. Emmaus Centers (one in Madrid but several hundred worldwide) provide employment for homeless people through such means as selling scrap iron or repairing furniture and reselling it, etc.
Despite the relatively high poverty rate in Spain its per capita homeless population is among the lowest in Europe. The quality of social support networks and the protective role of typical Spanish families are two good reasons why this is so.
If any reader is interested in more information or on sources for this article please contact Hugh Curran.
Hugh Curran is a former co-director of the Emmaus Homeless Shelter and now teaches in Peace Studies at the University Maine.
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Is There a Difference?
Sean Anthony Cononie
The Homeless Voice
It happens from time to time. Disaster after disaster. And when you see it on TV, some respond in the most saddened way and some just make a comment like, “This is so bad, how can that happen, this is a shame”, while others do not even say a word.
Do we not even say a word because we don’t care or do we not say a word because we want to block it out? Years ago I would have said people just don’t care but today I find myself saying and thinking that people just want to block it out.
I do consider myself a compassionate person but I fall short in other areas of my life. When a disaster strikes I try to be the level headed person always thinking ahead and trying not to worry about the death but think about how many we can save.
Years ago when 9/11 struck us all, my assistant Mary Lingo, who died just a few years ago, just sat on the couch of her office/bedroom and had tears in her eyes. All she kept on saying was, “those poor people.” I think I fell in love with her mind , soul and spirit when I saw how upset she was. This was a woman with more compassion than any person I have known. To see her sit there and weep for total strangers proved she had so much love in her heart.
But for me, that day I remained strong and was planning in my head what I would do if something like this ever came our way. I thought what happens if we in Broward got attacked are we at the shelter prepared to assist the community and our own clients. Are we the shelter ready for a local disaster?
I did not want to panic the staff so I started, without anybody in the office really wondering what I was doing, checking to see if we were really prepared. I called my mom and dad and told them to remain inside for a few days and watch the TV for better instructions.
As some of you may remember from reading my past stories in The Homeless Voice, the 911 incident did not hit me until I was there just a few days after the attacks with our disaster crew. Our crew was made up of our Homeless people who wanted to help. These are the same Homeless people who helped the west coast of Florida this year when we got three hurricanes. These same former cleints also are starting EMT school to volunteer with our sister agecny, Helping People In Ameirca Disaster Agecny. The ground zero did not bother me as much as the people putting up the pictures of their lost ones… Have you seen this person? Have you seen my dad? Have you seen my son? Pictures everywhere! And moms falling asleep on the ground holding a picture of their lost child hoping for signs of survivors!
This was the worst time I have ever had when dealing with disasters. Years of working as a volunteer for the American Red Cross Disaster Action Team going to many disasters, I really never felt such an impact until I saw the pictures everywhere in New York. To see so many people waiting to find out if their loved ones were alive or dead is so heart wrenching it can make a big, burley, husky, some say fat guy cry. (This is me) I never thought I would see those pictures again , but I did like many other people who saw the news of the Tsunami.
This disaster in Asia was not even at my finger tips for two days. I knew something happened but truthfully I was a little selfish because my body told me I was getting meningitis again and I was going from one hospital to another because not that many doctors really know a lot about meningitis. As you may remember I was in critical care for days in a coma from Meningitis last Christmas.
I was paying attention to myself. Then a day or two later I saw the death toll it was in the 20,000’s. I sat in front of the TV and just stood there and I did not want to face it because I knew we would not be able to help this time and I did not want to see the disaster at all.
It is just me. I knew we could not send anybody over there because of me being out sick. I figured if we went and my meningitis was exposed to so many infections and got sick there, I would simply die within 24 hours because there was no advanced medical services there that are required when dealing with such an illness.
The next day numbers kept on going up and I was even sicker. I tried to avoid the TV as much as possible because I felt guilty we were not going to help, but soon got lured back to it. They were calling for agencies that had experience and resouces dealing with disasters of this magnitude. We then called a meeting to see if we would send volunteers. Considering most of our staff are disaster prepared, and have worked many disasters and all are First Responders , I thought we could do something but soon was reminded by the smart ones in the office, ‘The Gals,’ “Sean you’re out sick and not working, now let it alone.”
So we thought of other ways of helping. Sending money was an option. So we did , we donated money to Map International to buy medicine. We knew they were a good agency because they supplied the meds when our international agency The People’s United Nations provided medical services to the children of Haiti. Praying was already done and was happening by some of us for a few seconds throughout the day. As the days grew and numbers increased I started to put myself back into the planner of stopping the damage, stopping the death and I got lost in a world of my own thinking of what I could do if we were there or if I was in charge.
Some call it day dreaming, some call it the “hoping to do more” syndrome, and even some of my friends call it “you are nuts, Sean” syndrome. Well in this disaster the “what can you do” is probably the most accurate, for we all wanted to do something but how many of us really could.
Sometimes we all must block it out because we know we should be doing something but don’t know how or do not know where to begin.. After all, where do you exactly start? They have lost everything; it will take years and I mean years for the after effects to be gone.
There will be counseling, dysfunctional families, orphans, drug addictions and many more social problems. Reports already are suggesting with so many orphans children may be sold into “ sex slavery.” The elderly won’t have their kids to take care of them and the kids won’t have their parents and those parents will never see how well their grandchildren grew up.
These statements alone are enough to make you cry. Their economy will be bad and they will be stricken with all kinds of diseases and new medical problems that have not existed for years. I don’t want to sound negative but look at the damage, what can we really do? They lost EVERYTHING AND MORE THAN THAT.
As I write this letter the death toll is at 120,000 and they say that 1/3 of that figure is small children . Yes, that is the most horrific thing in the world. After all, no parent ever recovers from the loss of one of their little ones. No matter how old their child was when they died they will never fully recover.
They may look like they are functioning but I am sure as the years go by they still ask God why, why did you take my child? I guess Mother Mary could ask the same thing about her Son, Jesus. I always ask how God lets this happen. I end up closing with God knows no matter how much suffering we do at the time of our death, if we are a believer in Him, it is all perfect from death on. Jesus knew how much He would suffer but He knew it would end and He would be perfect once again.
We were in the office today, I was having my temperature taken, and CNN also talked about how many children have died and we all just sat there in a state of shock. Let me give you some facts. But before the facts let us remind ourselves how great the world is reacting by giving so much aid. People from all over are lending a helping hand while others may be so upset knowing they cannot do anything and are becoming depressed over the entire incident. Even our Homeless who have nothing wanted to help in some way, and that is why I sometimes refer to them as “ Heroes” They are the ones who raised the money we are sending.
Some people who have a lot of money are sending money to charities and some people who have a little money are trying to get it to the charity they think will do the best. Either way the giving is what counts… We all want to do something to help.
Why is that? Is it because it is unexpected and it happens so fast or it is just the death itself ? I tend to think it is the unexpected disaster that hits our hearts. We see the damage and we see the death.
But let me tell you this… it has been five days now since this disaster and they have lost about 120,000 people. But we are forgetting about the 30,000 kids who die daily of starvation and the lack of simple medicine they need, medicine that we take for granted. Since this disaster happened and this being the fifth day at the time I worte this letter, 150,000 children have died in Third World countries and what has the world done? What I have done?
What have the presidents and leaders of great nations done? It just seems so simple that we have the ability to stop the death of 30,000 children who die nightly when we go to bed. Which disaster is worse... this one or the starving one?
It seems to me the starving one would be a lot worse but why do we really do nothing to change it? Why do we let it happen? Are we just so used to it and we just think it will happen and there is nothing we can do?
Hear me out. And hear me loud! And Sean, you listen too, because I know personally I must do more. I have always written about, “There is no excuse.” I have lobbied the Pope and I have lobbied many governmental leaders and I still get no response.
Every preacher in the world talks about helping those who are poor but what do we all really do? I am not talking about our homeless, I am talking about the children and the adults who die daily because of starvation. I am asking what does anybody, including myself, really do to help the starving children? It’s not just a lack of food, it is ongoing malnutrition that can be solved so easily.
We should stop what we are doing right now and make a plan and do it like Nike says, “Just Do It.” Tonight go to Target or Wal-Mart and buy a bag of balloons QTY 100, blow them each up and lay them in your living room. When you get to 100, picture that being 100 babies who just died. By the way, by the time it takes you to blow up one balloon and tie it up, 9 babies have just died because of lack of food and medicine.
This happens every day. You know to me it makes no sense whatsoever to allow this to happen. We worry about so many hard things to fix when the impact is not that great, but simple things like feeding the starving people of the world which is so easy compared to figuring out ways to stop another problem that has less impact like bringing democracy to a foreign country.
Why can’t we all figure out how to stop this from happening? I repeat these words, “There is no excuse.” What I mean is: no longer can world leaders and people like me allow this to happen anymore. No longer can the United Nations allow this to happen. I know that some people say we should only help our own. However, if we only help our own , our hearts will become hardened. When we harden our hearts it allows us to use the same hardened heart attitude when dealing with our own. Soon we will create a forth and fifth class of people in America and we will ignore our own as we ignore the poor of the world now. Please pray for this problem to be solved.
Please come up with ways to help them. We are all God’s people and yes, we should pour our hearts out to these people of Asia; we should give them the shirt off our back, but then we should give the kids who have been starving for decades our next meal.
Yes, Yes, Yes we should help those poor disaster victims of Asia and don't stop helping but let’s not forget that many more die daily because they can’t get to eat...what we throw in the trash...to save their lives. We can’t change the past, but we sure can do something to help the future of these starving children. I am not asking you for a donation, what I am asking you to do is: that you form groups in your own communities and lobby our leaders that all world hunger is to stop now.
Dear Lord, give me the winning Lotto numbers, so I can help fix the problem.
God bless the People of Asia and God bless the poor of any nation.
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Tent City 4 Site a Surprise for Church's Neighborhood
By Rachel Tuinstra
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Dan Ross said he was surprised to learn yesterday that starting Saturday,
his Kirkland home with a Lake Washington view will also overlook Tent City
4.
That's the day the controversial Eastside homeless encampment and its 50 or
so residents will pick up and move from its current site outside of town on
Finn Hill to its new location in downtown Kirkland's lap.
"It's surprising it came up so quick," said Ross. "I'm going to watch and
see what happens. I have an open mind. I'm going to give it a chance."
After scouring the Eastside for potential sites, and with less than a week
before it had to move, Tent City 4 found itself with two invitations from
Eastside churches on Sunday. Residents voted Sunday evening to accept the
invitation from Kirkland Congregational United Church of Christ, at 106
Fifth Ave., across the street from Kirkland City Hall and the Kirkland
Police Department. The roving village will occupy the church's 40-space
parking lot.
Yesterday, tent-city residents passed out informational fliers to residents
near the church. The church will hold a community meeting from 7 to 9 p.m.
Thursday.
"I think, in general, the Kirkland community is tolerant and understanding
and is a loving community," said the Rev. Walter John Boris, pastor of
Kirkland Congregational.
"We expect them to welcome tent city with open arms."
The Kirkland Congregational building is also used by five other
congregations and more than 55 other organizations, including drug- and
alcohol-recovery programs and community-service organizations, Boris said.
Church members will use the City Hall parking lot while the church lot is
used by the tent city, Boris said.
Still, some residents expressed concern about the encampment moving in,
especially with such short notice.
"I understand their plight. I know they need help," said Paul Angell, who
lives near the church. "But I don't think these are homeless people from
Kirkland. If they are from Seattle, I think Seattle should take care of its
problem."
Kirkland Mayor Mary-Alyce Burleigh said the city set up a tent-city task
force several months ago because it knew the camp might one day move into
Kirkland.
City officials began meeting Friday when they became aware that nearby
churches were considering hosting the tent city, Burleigh said. Kirkland
Congregational plans to apply for permits this week, and the city will
continue to process the applications after the camp moves in, she said.
"I'm hoping this experience brings out the best in us," Burleigh said. "My
personal feeling is that the community has the responsibility to take care
of those in need."
Tent City 4, which is now at St. John Mary Vianney Catholic Church, also
received an invitation from Woodinville Universalist Unitarian Church but
chose Kirkland Congregational because of its proximity to bus routes and
city services, said Don Goodwin, a Tent City 4 resident.
But the tent-city residents may keep talking to the leaders at Woodinville
Universalist and consider moving there in the future, Goodwin said.
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Foes Mount Against Homeless Shelter Idea
BY ROB SHAPARD
The DurhamHerald-Sun
Some residents in the Pickard Oaks neighborhood are
adding their voices to those sharply criticizing the
idea of putting a men's homeless shelter on Legion
Road.
The Town Council has a petition on its agenda for
Monday from the Pickard Oaks Homeowners Association
board, laying out 10 reasons why the group strongly
opposes a shelter along that road. The council got a
similar petition last month from a number of
residents in The Meadows and Turnberry subdivisions
off Legion Road who said they were "appalled" by the
idea of a shelter there.
The Pickard Oaks group argues in its petition that
"a shelter at this location would endanger and
irreparably harm the Pickard Oaks community and the
other residential neighborhoods adjacent to the
Legion Road site." The community is off Old Chapel
Hill-Durham Road, with Bluefield Drive as the main
street, and has about 64 townhomes.
The petition, signed by Fred Lybrand, cites a litany
of problems the petitioners believe would be caused
by a shelter on Legion Road, with a lot of the same
concerns that residents from The Meadows and
Turnberry raised, as did residents in the Merritt
Mill Road area last summer.
The Pickard Oaks group argued that a shelter would
be a safety threat and an instant drag on property
values, and they pointed to the nearby presence of
facilities such as a daycare center and elementary
school along Legion Road. They contended that the
current shelter was associated with problems such as
panhandling and drug and alcohol abuse.
"Residents who are thrown out of the shelter for
substance abuse or behavior problems would then
become the problem of the surrounding communities,"
the petitioners stated in part.
"There is already a panhandler problem off of I-40
on exit 270," they also stated. "People's first
impression of Chapel Hill is that of vagrants. This
will further an already negative town image."
The Inter-Faith Council for Social Services, which
runs the existing shelter in downtown Chapel Hill,
does not own any property on Legion Road, and it has
made no proposals to build a shelter there.
The IFC did ask town officials in December if they
could find out more about the features of town-owned
property along Legion Road, across from the Chapel
Hill Memorial Cemetery. Town Manager Cal Horton had
mentioned that land earlier in the year as a
location the IFC might want to investigate, along
with the planned new Town Operations Center site off
Millhouse Road.
The IFC runs the current men's shelter and kitchen
in a town-owned building at West Rosemary and North
Columbia streets. The charity's leaders are
exploring building a new shelter in a different
location, possibly with a range of housing types.
Last year, the IFC had a temporary purchase option
on about four acres along Merritt Mill Road as a
possible site. It collected information on that
land's features, then let the option run out,
although the group said that site might be suitable
and wasn't ruled out.
The group is collecting similar information on the
town's Legion Road land, currently having architects
study the site, said Natalie Ammarell, chairwoman of
strategic development for the IFC's board.
"Part of the [issue] is that we don't know yet
really about these properties," Ammarell said.
"We're glad to answer questions and talk to any
neighbors if they'd like, but it's hard for us to
reach out to everybody when we're still in this
early stage."
Merritt Mill residents objected strenuously to the
prospect of a men's shelter along that road.
At this point, the IFC understands that it's likely
to face some opposition pretty much anywhere it
looks for a site, said Ammarell.
"We've said many times that we do expect neighbors
will raise questions, or potential neighbors," she
said. "The fact is that we're still looking at a
number of properties, not just this property.
"This is really about the needs of the homeless,"
she added. "There is a lot of mythology out there
about the homeless and who we serve. Every
neighborhood in Chapel Hill needs to learn a little
bit more about who the homeless are and what their
needs are, and what does really happen in
neighborhoods when well-run facilities are present."
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Judge Proposes Court for Homeless
Ben Kieckhefer
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Several Washoe County officials are hoping to create a fresh tool to combat
homelessness: a new specialty court that would forgive outstanding
misdemeanor warrants for people who complete treatment and intervention
programs.
The creation of homeless courts is in early stages of development, with nine
California cities having programs, said Washoe District Judge Janet Berry.
Berry proposed the idea Thursday to the Reno Area Alliance for the Homeless.
"I do think it's an extremely innovative program . It's also totally
voluntary," Berry said.
Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick said he hadn't heard about
the proposal and is concerned about creating too many specialties within the
court system. He said Washoe County's drug court is a huge success and its
mental health court is getting better, but he's not sure a homeless court is
the right way to go.
"When do we quit trying to cure all the social ills in our society and do
what we're supposed to do," Gammick said.
The Reno Area Alliance gave the proposal it's stamp of approval and created
a subcommittee to work with Berry to try to work out the myriad details to
get the program off the ground.
While most of the financial burden and workload would fall to the court
system, Berry said alliance would need to provide caseworkers with expertise
in homelessness to advise the court on diversion programs and treatment.
"We need you to tell us how to sentence, essentially, in this reverse
sentencing," Berry said.
United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra President Anne Cory said a
homeless court that would let people get out from under the burden of
outstanding warrants would be key to fighting homelessness in the area.
She said both the mental health court and drug court are proof that
therapeutic courts can help people while reducing recidivism.
"All of the providers see homeless clients who have outstanding warrants,
have loose ends with the legal system and this is a way to resolve those in
a real positive way," Cory said.
Washoe County specialty courts administrator Sheila Leslie, also a state
assemblywoman, said that while a homeless court would likely require some
new staff to help manage the caseload, it would fit in well with the county's
existing specialty courts.
"I think this homeless court would complement the mental health court
because it would focus on people whose issues may not be as severe as what
we see in the mental health court. In the mental health court we see some
serious charges," Leslie said.
The homeless court would only handle individuals with misdemeanor warrants,
which could also be bundled from other states. Berry said other
jurisdictions are usually happy to pass off their warrants as long as the
person isn't a violent offender.
Also being considered for the court is a makeshift Department of Motor
Vehicles identification center, where the homeless could get personal IDs.
Leslie is planning to introduce legislation that would waive some of the
cost for getting copies of birth certificates if the person is in the
homeless court.
Reno Police Officer Jeff McCutcheon of the Homeless Evaluation Liaison
Program said having identification is essential because without it people
can't claim any veterans or Social Security benefits they're entitled to.
"When you're on the streets and homeless and you don't have an ID it's like
your lifeline is gone," McCutecheon said.
The court could be set up once a week or once a month in a homeless shelter,
depending on need. After 20 years of debate on where to place a new shelter,
city officials are planning a groundbreaking for a new complex at Record and
Fourth streets, just east of downtown.
Also recently, the alliance got an update on the "point in time" count of
the homeless in Northern Nevada that was conducted Jan. 27, and the numbers
showed significant growth in the homeless population.
The count showed more people on the streets, as well as more people in
emergency housing and shelters. For example, counters found 178 people on
the streets Jan. 27, 2005, up from 59 three years earlier.
Kelly Marschall of count organizer Social Entrepreneurs, Inc. of Reno said
that while the numbers are higher in part because of more accurate counting,
the study shows the population has grown. The spike in people in motel rooms
is also troublesome, she said.
"There are more families that are relying on motels as a residence so they
are really a week away from the street," Marscahll said.
Cory said there's a variety of reasons there are more homeless, including
the cost of health care and housing, and the economy. She said economic
recovery is slow to trickle down to the lowest wage earners.
"I suspected they would be higher because we've seen tremendous demands for
services throughout the human services agencies and the agencies are working
with fewer resources because state and federal funding has been cut and
foundation funding has been cut," she said.
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Religious Ex-cop Runs Homeless Shelter
Sean Cononie doesn’t carry handcuffs and a gun any longer. Now, he only carries with him his faith in his Lord as he serves homeless people who live in his community.
By Steve Schneider
Published in Causeseffects.com
Hollywood, Fla. -- Pictures of Mary, Jesus and the cross he died on look out at you when you meet with Sean Cononie in his second floor office at a South Florida homeless shelter.
The burley retired police detective works at his desk in a dark, cramped office. Five trays filled with coins rest on the floor. The coins got there after some homeless shelter residents stood on traffic medians in surrounding communities, hawking a monthly homeless newspaper Cononie publishes. The paper, Homeless Voice, chronicles the lives of people who have sought shelter at a shuttered sex motel at 1203 North Federal Highway in this sun-drenched, beach-accessible community of palm trees and condominiums.
The building is serving a more useful purpose now, housing homeless people who suffer from mental illness, alcoholism and drug abuse, among other maladies. Cononie is able to provide room and board to about 200 homeless people in part because local motorists accept copies of the newspaper and
offer the homeless vendors donations.
The donations are important because the 40-year-old shelter operator does not seek any government funding.
Cononie also raises money by buying items, such as cigarettes, that clients would normally spend more money on at local stores. He then sells them at a more affordable price.
“We created our own community store where people who have no money can get things they need for free and people who have money can buy the items cheaper than the inflated retail prices,” he said.
The shelter also runs a café on the ground floor. People with no money eat for free. However, other residents, staff and Hollywood locals can buy meals there. Any profit from the venture, Cononie said, is applied to keeping the Homeless Voice shelter open.
Shelter residents who have an income also pay a halfway house fee for services rendered. The sliding-scale fee ranges up to $110 a week. People who get a monthly government check keep $140 a month after paying for their room and board, according to the shelter founder, who was identified as almost a millionaire at 35 by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Homeless residents who hawk the newspaper also contribute some of their earnings to the shelter and save some money so they can move out on their own.
These income sources have whittled the mortgage balance down from $890,000 to $751,750, according to an ad in a recent issue of Homeless Voice.
Still, Cononie muses about his ability to pay off the mortgage for the shelter, which opened three years ago.
“How can we do it?” he said. “The only real way is to depend totally on God. God will have to put His Hands deep inside our brains so we can come up with a better business plan that will allow us to succeed. It will happen because if God wants us in business, then we shall be in business.”
Dave is one of the shelter residents who helps keep the shelter running. He is a Homeless Voice newspaper vendor who lives in a furnished dorm room that includes cable television and unlimited long distance phone calls.
The 48-year-old South Florida native said he came to the shelter after someone stole his tools. He depended on them to make his living as a handy man. Without a means to make a living, Dave said he started drinking again and became homeless.
Working as a newspaper vendor gives Dave focus as well as money in his pocket. He takes a bus every work day to his traffic median in nearby Ft. Lauderdale. Dave also grooms himself in the morning, puts on his Homeless Voice cap and t-shirt and carries his vendor identification card with him in case any potential donor wants proof that he is legitimate.
Chances are, when Dave returns to the shelter at night, Cononie will be there. This wealthy ex-cop who made his fortune in the wireless industry sleeps on a twin bed in his office.
Why not go home to a fancy pad?
“We put in long days here,” he said, getting ready to check his e-mail and fire off letters in support of the homeless.
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Umbrella Religious Organization Opens Church Doors to Homeless
By Steve Schneider
Published in Causeseffect.com
Hagerstown sits about an hour and a half west of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., near where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers merge. This Maryland community of about 35,000 people is known as a "Hub City." Hagerstown earned the name in part because people from nearby Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and western Maryland come there. Interstates 81 and 70 run through the city, which hugs the southern b order of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Hagerstown residents deal with cold and even freezing temperatures in the winter. They know how to lift a shovel to clear away snow. Some residents work in the tourism industry; the Civil War battlefield of Antietam lies adjacent to Hagerstown; tourists can visit the Gettysburg battlefield, which is about an hour to the north.
People in Hagerstown also deal with homeless neighbors, many of whom suffer from drug and alcohol problems and mental illness.
"The community would like to see the homeless go somewhere else and some times the police do arrest homeless people here in Hagerstown," said Dave Jordan, the executive director of the Washington County Community Action Council (CAC). "But most times the police will get the homeless to the cold weather shelter," he said. CAC is a nonprofit group created by the federal government to help poor people become self-sufficient.
Jordan is talking about the REACH shelter system in Hagerstown. REACH stands for Religious Effort to Assist and Clothe the Homeless. About two dozen local churches take turns opening their doors during the winter to house homeless people, Jordan said. He said up to 50 churches pitch in to make meals and provide shower facilities. Volunteers hand out bag lunches when the homeless people leave in the morning. The religious institutions provide these services for free; REACH pays its bills, which include liability insurance, with money it gets from the government, foundations and donors.
The REACH shelter system was founded in 1996, according to the organization's web site. Last winter Reach gave shelter to around 350 different people, said Jordan, whose group works closely with REACH. Last year the churches affiliated with REACH housed 50 homeless men and women on an average night, he said. REACH volunteers man the shelter; paid security guards also keep watch at night.
No one is turned away, unless they have been barred for breaking the rules. Religious observance is not required to gain entrance to the shelter system. This stands in contrast with the downtown Union Rescue Mission, which houses homeless men who are required to attend daily worship services before dinner.
I think Flagstaff can learn from the Hagerstown experience. After all, The Arizona Daily Sun reported recently that many beds remain empty at the Sunshine Rescue Mission in downtown Flagstaff. The paper has also said some homeless men avoid the Rescue Mission because they don't like the religious orientation that they find there.
Additionally, our local newspaper has noted there are no plans to open a different shelter to house homeless men, even though an official with Catholic Social Service said a new shelter is needed desperately. This series of facts suggests our community needs to take action.
At least one city representative seems to agree. "One piece to our social service world that needs to be addressed...is the creation of a Detoxification Center...Similarly, our homeless shelters do not have adequate capacity," said Councilman Art Babbott. He made these remarks in response to an e-mail I sent city and county elected leaders in August.
Liz Archuleta, District 2 Supervisor, also replied to my concern that police were jailing homeless men, even for violations that normally warranted tickets. She said, "The jail is not the appropriate place to put people with mental illnesses, substance addictions and those who need medical attention...we need a comprehensive system of care..."
Yes we do. But it will take years to create in-jail treatment programs and policies that divert homeless people from jail to community facilities that offer subsidized housing, work and treatment.
In the short term, though, we can improve conditions for homeless people in Flagstaff by creating an adequate shelter system. Housing homeless people protects them from "death or bodily harm from hypothermia," the Hagerstown REACH web site said. Providing shelter also lets shelter workers refer homeless guests to agencies that can help them get back on their feet. It also serves as a workingman's shelter of sorts for homeless people who get up in the morning and go to work. Staying at the shelter gives them the time they need to save enough money to get their own place.
Over time, community acts of compassion and wisdom develop a momentum of their own. That is what happened in Hagerstown.
Jordan said REACH plans to run an all-year-round shelter, probably starting in February. This became possible because the Christ Reformed Church was given an abandoned building next to the downtown church. Christ Reformed, in turn, will give REACH the permanent shelter space for free, although Jordan said REACH will pay the church rent for office space in the building.
The office space in the new shelter is important, according to Jordan. He said organizers want to make it a one-stop facility where homeless clients can take care of all of their social service needs.
I'm not suggesting we should do exactly what Hagerstown has done. I am saying, however, that Hagerstown is not unique. And Flagstaff does not have to reinvent the wheel.
We won't move the wheel forward, though, until we overcome our fears of homeless people. We can continue to ticket them and jail them and deny them shelter. Or this environmentally-friendly, Democratic community can heed its progressive instincts.
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CITY TO FIGHT TUBERCULOSIS AMONG THE HOMELESS
TORONTO - Toronto's Public Health department is putting together a special
team to combat tuberculosis in the city's homeless shelters.
The move comes in the wake of an outbreak of the disease in shelters last
fall that killed one homeless man and made several others sick.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection which, if left untreated, can cause
lung failure.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Toronto Associate Medical Officer of Health said
homeless people were particularly vulnerable to contracting tuberculosis.
"They are at high risk for a number of reasons:…because they live in
congregate settings…and because they tend to have poor nutrition,
underlying health problems and a lot of stress," she said.
Yaffe said the team of eight health workers would begin their work at
Toronto's two largest homeless shelters this fall.
They will conduct regular tuberculosis testing, refer people to treatment
and identify people who may have been exposed to the disease.
The two shelters are Seaton House on George Street and the Salvation Army's
Maxwell Meighen Centre on Sherbourne Street.
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Hitting the Streets to Count Homeless
By Michelle Garcia
Chicago Tribune
NEW YORK -- They offer their stories of life on the streets of New York--as seen at 2 a.m. outside Penn Station. The woman with the gray-streaked hair says a landlord forced her out. The stoned young man says the drug rehab did not come soon enough.
On a night early in March, 2,000 volunteers went into the corners of New York's five boroughs, logging names, listening to these stories and counting the homeless people who live on this city's streets.
Their count was part of an effort by the city to improve its chance of receiving millions of dollars in federal grants. Dozens of cities from San Francisco to Louisville to Dallas are conducting similar head counts for the same reason.
Federal officials will not use the counts to allocate need-based assistance for homelessness. Rather, officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development said the data will be used to rank cities in a competition for new funding and special projects.
"This is simply a glimpse of homelessness," said Brian Sullivan, a HUD spokesman. "You can't get a complete picture unless you count it at the street level."
Last year, HUD awarded $4.1 billion in funding for the homeless across the country. New York state was the largest recipient, with $73 million.
Some homeless advocacy groups dismiss the counts as a publicity gimmick, saying the counts concentrate on a small number of people who live on the streets and are a distraction from the real task: finding homes and getting mental health and drug treatment services for the homeless.
"The point is not to count how many people are sleeping on the streets," said Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless. "The real question should be, `What should we [be] doing to get people off these streets and long-term solutions?"'
New York's count had a number of imperfections. Volunteers canvassed only about a fifth of the city, and the surveyors did not poke into such common refuges as abandoned buildings and ATM vestibules.
Still, Linda Gibbs, the city's commissioner of homeless services, said the survey helps plan distribution of services to the street homeless--the hardest population to address.
"What we're trying to do is ensure that the substantial resources that are spent on homeless are being used in the wisest fashion," she said.
On any given night, about 37,000 New Yorkers bed down in public shelters, according to the city's Department of Homeless Services. Three-quarters of that number are families; the rest are single adults. But city officials have only a vague idea of how many people curl up over steam grates, tuck into doorways or sleep on subway platforms.
City officials expect to have a calculation of this week's count within a few weeks.
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Amazing Girl Teaches us to Help Homeless
By LAURIE MUSTARD
