| February 2004 A publication of The Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless NASNA member 907 Logan Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82001-5247 307-634-8499 fax: 307-634-9089 © 2003 email: wch@vcn.com |
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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. © 2003 **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.** Recently WCH had the first car donated for resale -- we are doing this as a fundraiser -- donate your old car, with a clear title that can be made over to WCH, you will receive a receipt for tax purposes, and we will be able to add some funds to our account after the sale of the car. The car we have now is a 1996 Ford Contour GL, 4 door, with 69,800 miles on it. Recent diagnostic tests have shown that the car is in good shape. We are asking $3,500 or best offer. Please contact Virginia, at 307-634-8499 if you are interested in this vehicle. Beacon Hill Baptist Church and Northcutt Retreat Center will sponsor the 5th Annual Walk In My Shoes fundriaser to benefit the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless. The Walk this year will take place on June 5, 2004. It will start in front of the WCH building at 907 Logan Avenue. Check in time will begin at 8:00 a.m. and the 2 mile walk will begin at 9:00 a.m. Registration donation is $12.00 prior to the walk and $15.00 on the day of the walk. All registrants will receive a T-shirt and will be entered into the door prize drawings. Last year's Ghost Walker registration was a hugh success and is being encouraged again this year. Ghost walkers are those who would like to participate but are not free on that date -- registrations should be sent to Beacon Hill Baptist Church, 110 Central Avenue, Cheyenne, 82007, and should be marked "WALK". Ghost walkers will receive T-shirts and be entered into the door prize drawings. Earl Robert Janack and Michael Riverson will be performing on the guitar and Celtic harp. There will be free food. In addition, Earl will be having a showing of his art in the WCH Art From The Streets Gallery. Sponsors and contributors are also needed. Sponsors are those donating $100.00 or above and contributors are those donating $25.00 to $99.99. For more information on the walk contact Betty Ann Absher, church walk coordinator, at 632-6248 or Virginia at WCH, 634-8499. by Stuart Shepard, correspondent Family News In Focus On any given day, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates there are 250,000 homeless veterans on the streets, under bridges or in shelters. And they are in desperate need of help, according to Linda Boone of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "Communities just make . . . the assumption that the VA takes care of all veterans for all things," she said. While that's generally true for medical care, Boone said, it's not true for many long-term needs. "The community, by default, has had to pick up those services, particularly for homeless veterans," she explained. "They can't get outpatient treatment in a very effective manner if they don't have a clean, safe place to live." Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs for the VA, said churches and other faith-based groups can help with everything from food and clothing to job training and mentoring. "About one-third of our grants, one-third of our funding, goes to faith-based organizations who provide transitional housing and supportive services to homeless veterans," he said. Churches that want to get involved, he added, should contact a local veterans group to see what's needed. FOR MORE INFORMATION: NLIHC will hold a briefing on Monday, March 1, to release new reports that examine housing affordability based on 2000 census data. The reports will examine trends between 1990 and 2000, the effect on children, and a county-by-county analysis that will complement NLIHC's Out of Reach data. The briefing will be held from 9:30 to 11 am in the conference room of the National Housing Conference (1801 K Street NW), and is open to advocates and members of the media. Please join us! RSVP to Scott Stoneburner at 202-662-1530 x244 or scotts@nlihc.org. Increasing voting among low income people is the only way to assure their interests are represented in Washington. Public opinion analyst Celinda Lake, voter engagement expert Frances Fox Piven, and House Minority Whip Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD) are confirmed speakers at NLIHC's annual housing policy conference and lobby day on April 26 and 27. Register today! For the complete conference schedule and registration forms, visit NLIHC Annual Conference. As HUD continues to tout its Flexible Voucher proposal, public housing authorities (PHAs) and the groups that represent them are beginning to speak out against the plan. HUD is courting PHAs to win their approval. PHAs fought against HUD's proposal last year that would have block granted the voucher program to states. This year HUD hoped to mute PHAs objections by block granting the voucher programs directly to PHAs. While acknowledging lower funding levels, HUD officials assert the Flexible Voucher program will reduce regulatory burdens on PHAs and allow them to serve more families. HUD sent PHAs a two-page fax last week to explain how the Flexible Voucher program would address the "problems" with the existing Section 8 program. According to HUD, the program is too complex and is a "one size fits all" model. While HUD staff have been traveling across the country trying to convince PHAs of the proposal's benefits, PHAs are recognizing that the plan could mean the ultimate demise of the Section 8 program. The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), one of the largest Washington-based advocacy groups representing PHAs, released a statement on February 18 denouncing the proposal. NAHRO says that the significant funding shortfalls that would result from the proposal would "undermine the program's longstanding objectives." "This proposal, if enacted, will harm those lower income families, seniors and disabled individuals who are least able to provide for themselves," said NAHRO President James Inglis, who is head of the Livonia Housing Authority outside Detroit. "Those who need help the most will likely be among the first to lose their homes." Another industry group, the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association (PHADA), has also released a statement expressing concern over inadequate funding levels, cuts to administrative fees, and the consequences that would result from trying to implement such sweeping change in such a short period of time. Representatives of the third PHA group, the Council of Large Public Housing Authorites (CLPHA), have been quoted in the press expressing dissatisfaction with the proposal. Several individual PHA directors have also spoken out against the proposal. In a recent Miami Herald article, the director of the Hileah Housing Authority is quoted as saying the proposal is "another attack on poor people." The Marin Independent Journal in Marin County, CA, quotes the director of the Marin Housing Authority as saying that the prospective voucher cuts are "a very serious problem." The Flexible Voucher program has also been the subject in prominent newspapers' editorials. A Boston Globe editorial on February 18 criticized the proposal, describing the housing needs in Massachusetts and asserting that the Flexible Voucher program would exacerbate the affordable housing crisis. A New York Times editorial on the same day condemned the Administration's proposed domestic spending cuts, citing the voucher program as one of the social programs most adversely affected by the cuts. By James Goodman Democrat and Chronicle Staff writer (February 20, 2004) - Wayne Russell was recently eating his lunch in the warmth of The Salvation Army's cafeteria at its shelter for the homeless in downtown Rochester. In December and January, Russell was braving the cold in the "subway," the abandoned tunnel under Broad Street a few blocks away. Russell, 44, who has a drinking problem, agreed to go to The Salvation Army after he was found by county workers making a monthly sweep looking for homeless people. "I want to get cleaned up," said Russell, who is waiting for admission to a treatment center for his drinking problem. While Russell is being helped, the results of a recent survey by the Homeless Services Network, representing various local providers of services to homeless people, suggest that there are many chronically homeless not being assisted by Monroe County. Sixty-nine of the 243 people interviewed - 28 percent - were on the street or in shelters without treatment and support services, said Connie Sanderson, who coordinated the survey. The survey gives the most comprehensive snapshot of the homeless population here from a nongovernmental group in almost a decade. It shows that many homeless people are outside the services funded by the county and are less likely to break the cycle of homelessness. Homeless providers say the county is more strictly regulating emergency housing since it started a concerted effort last year to keep public assistance caseloads down. The Homeless Services' survey comes at a time when the county has completed its own annual report on the homeless. The report, released Thursday, shows that for the first time in at least 11 years, the number of people put in emergency shelters by the county has dropped. There were 7,991 placements in emergency housing paid for by the county in 2003 compared with 8,533 in 2002 - a 6 percent decrease. Patty Connelly, manager of financial assistance programs for the county, said that the main reason for the decrease is that the county is doing a better job finding permanent housing for the mentally ill. Connelly said that the county provides emergency housing to anyone who is eligible. And she rejects the contention that the county has made it more difficult to get emergency housing. "Anyone who is eligible for placement we place," Connelly said. "But there are a number of people who are not eligible, and there are a number who don't want assistance." Different data Monroe County puts out an annual report that shows trends based on data it collects from the homeless network that it oversees. That network includes community groups that get reimbursed by the county for housing the homeless as well as motels that are used for emergency housing. The report shows that stays in emergency shelters are three days shorter than in the previous year - which the county attributes to finding permanent housing sooner. And the report says that 52 people living on the streets for more than six months were helped in getting emergency housing last year. But the number of homeless youths that the county placed increased to 940 in 2003, or 167 more than the year before. Still, the picture that emerges from the county's annual report doesn't tell the whole story of the homeless here - and address some of the issues raised by the Homeless Services' survey. That survey is based on questionnaires filled out by volunteers during interviews with 243 homeless people - some helped by the county, others not - on Oct. 30. And it points to a sizable group of homeless people either on the streets on in emergency shelters outside the network of county-funded shelters and support services. About two dozen volunteers, working at homeless shelters or with groups that provide services, conducted the survey by going to places the homeless frequent, such as soup kitchens and the subway bed under Broad Street. According to Sanderson, the survey shows trends since 1995, when the Center for Governmental Research did surveys of homeless providers: The number of homeless people with mental health and substance abuse problems is on the rise, while the number of homeless people blaming their plight on job loss and denial of public assistance benefits has also increased. Sanderson is administrator of the Rochester/Monroe County Homeless Continuum of Care Team, which draws from both the public and private sector for planning homeless services. The results of this survey are still being compiled, but she noted that the system does well for those who hook up with it. The problem is that a lot of people aren't getting connected. Sixty-one people interviewed fell into the category of being chronically homeless, describing themselves as homeless at least four times in the last three years or continually homeless for a year or more. A higher number - 87 people - said they were "sanctioned," which means they were barred by the county from receiving county-funded emergency housing for a specific time because they failed to follow certain requirements, such as showing up for job training. Nicki Reams, 19, learned the hard way that the county does not allow much room for error for missing appointments. She got turned down for emergency housing by the county last month because, she said, she missed two sessions for a work experience program and missed one of the makeup sessions. "They don't give you enough time to get on your feet," Reams said. Reams ended up at The Salvation Army, but the county won't pay for housing because she was "sanctioned." So The Salvation Army paid for her emergency housing, without any reimbursement. Reams plans to move back to California today, where she previously lived. She hopes to get more help there, she said. Long-term needs During 2003, The Salvation Army housed - either at its own shelter or at other shelters - 785 more people than in 2002, said Ruth Nieboer, director of social services for the local charity. As the county tightens up its processing of assistance applications, some of those working at shelters tell of applicants having to start the assistance process over and losing their temporary housing while they do so, because they missed appointments that they had been scheduled to meet. "They are just following the letter of the law much closer," Nieboer said about the county. Connelly denies that the county is being stricter, saying that the number of recipients who lost emergency housing because of missing an appointment was 68 fewer in 2003 than the year before. And she said that the 5,361 people sanctioned in 2003 were 1,646 fewer than in 2002. A true picture of the homeless, said Sanderson, should include not only those in county-paid shelters, but also those staying in shelter beds not reimbursed by the county. There are as many as 90 such emergency shelter beds that, on average, are used 85 percent of the time in this network outside what the county reimburses. For Reggie Harris, who recently moved into The Salvation Army's Booth Haven Men's Emergency Shelter, making a clean break with some bad habits seems key. Harris, 47, said he has had substance abuse problems since he was a youth growing up in New York City. He noted that, after relocating to a drug infested area here about a year ago, he ended up homeless. After spending several months at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Canandaigua and a stint in transitional housing, Harris was referred to The Salvation Army's Booth Haven shelter while going to the McCree McCuller Wellness Center for counseling and other services. "Thank God for a place like this," Harris said about Booth Haven. |