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WYOMING WINDS
June 2009
 A publication of 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 ©1990-2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page on down!!

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN FOR DAY CARE REMODEL

An additional $120,000 is needed to complete the remodel for the day care at the Richards Center. Special recognignition will be given to those contributing to the fund and a wall of honor will greet those coming into the reception area of the day care.

Click here for donation form

DONATIONS NEEDED FOR DAY CARE:
  • COMMERICAL STOVE - ELECTRIC
  • FIRE SUPPRESANT HOOD
  • COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATOR
  • COMMERCIAL FREEZER
  • FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
  • KITCHEN CABINETS

DONATIONS AND GRANTS TO DATE:

  • COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANTS
  • DANIEL'S FUND
  • UNION PACIFIC
  • WYOMING COMMUNITY FOUNDATION -
    CREDIT BUREAU SERVICES, CHEYENNE FUND

  • ANONYMOUS
  • ARLENE & CARL MARVIN
  • BESS ARNOLD
  • CAROLYN & PETER HOBBS, MEMORY OF MONTGOMERY SCOTT RICHARDS
  • CATTAIL RANCH
  • DAVID CRANE
  • DAVID MCNULTY
  • ED ATCHISON
  • EQUALITY CONNECTIONS, P.C.
  • GAIL YOUNG
  • JIM LEWIS
  • KAL PATEL
  • KEVIN HICKS
  • LESLIE CONNAGHAN
  • MARY FLANDERKA
  • MARY JANE LENHARDT
  • ROCHELLE AMES
  • ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL
  • SUSAN GARRETT
  • THERESA MURRAY
  • VIC AND PENNY VILLALVA

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Walk In My Shoes 2009

June 13, 2009 the 11th Annual Walk In My Shoes will take place, starting at 907 Logan Avenue. Registrations starts at 8:00 a.m. and the Walk begins at 9:00 a.m. The walk registration form can be found at... Registration for walkers or ghost walkers is $12.00 prior to the event and $15.00 on the day of the event. Contributors and sponsors are needed. Door prize donations are needed.

Bring your children and your 4-footed friends. Dogs must be on a leash, but children don't need to be!!!!

Ghost Walkers are those that would like to attend but cannot -- but they register, pay, and are eligible for door prizes.

If you only donate one time a year to the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless make it a donation to Walk in My Shoes and become a registered walker, ghost walker, contributor, or sponsor.

Funds from the walk are used to purchase items needed daily for use by our clients.

CONTRIBUTORS, SPONSORS AND VOLUNTEERS:

    

CHEYENNE HERALD

TRADER'S PUBLISHING

WYOMING TRIBUNE EAGLE


            Earl Janack

     
    Michael Riversong

Al and Ernestine Chandler
Angie Hernandez
Betty Ann and Woody Absher
Katherine Flandera
Robert Martinez
Shirley Patrick
Vic Villalva
The family of Fontaine Yeoman
Shy-Wy Amateur Radio Club

CLIMATE CONTROL

SOUTHSIDE SERVICE
1st EDUCATION FCU
NEWCO
THERESA WARD, STATE FARM INSURANCE
JIM WARD, WYOMING PROPERTY SOLUTIONS
HOLLAND AND HART LLP
TOM AND NANETTE OURDA - in memory of Sonny and Montgomery Scott Richards
CONNIE JANNEY
WALT HAYES - in memory of Montgomery Scott Richards
RACHEL AND MATT BENNETT
MARY AND DENNIS DIXON
JUDY AND DAVID STRATTON

SPRADLEY BARR CHEYENNE
JIM LEWIS
BERTHA BIKULCS

DOOR PRIZES
  1. BOOK, CHANCES, BY PAM NOWAK
  2. NAME DOILY MADE BY KATERINE FLANDERA
  3. HARVEST CANDLE SET
  4. BACK PAK
  5. CHESS/CHECKER SET
  6. CHECKER/CHESS SET
  7. BASKET OF BATH PRODUCTS
  8. FAMILY PIZZA
  9. FAMILY PIZZA
  10. GREASE MONKEY - OIL CHANGE
  11. DOMINO'S PIZZA
  12. DOMINO'S PIZZA
  13. BASKIN ROBBINS
  14. BASKIN ROBBINS
  15. SOME LIKE IT HOT - 8 PRIZES
  16. PAINTING BY GARY CROOK WINNERS CHOICE
  17. PAINTING BY GARY CROOK WINNERS CHOICE
  18. CHEYENNE COUNTRY CLUB - DINNER FOR TWO
  19. HABITAT FOR HUMANITY COOK BOOK
  20. CHINESE CHECKER SET
  21. POSTER BY EARL JANACK
  22. POOR RICHARD'S

    Click here for 2009 registration form

    Click here for 2009 sponsor form

    Small Donations

    Did you know that if you make a small monthly donation to WCH between $1.00 and $10.00 that it will work wonders with our day to day needs and solve most of the problems created by a short fall of donations. Churches, clubs, associations, businesses take one meeting time to ask everyone at the meeting, service, or work that day to put $1.00 in the pot for WCH!!! This is an urgent need -- cash donations have dropped off so that we are having a difficult time meeting necessary expenses -- your small donation will go along way toward solving this problem.

    WCH does not receive United Way or federal funding - but relies upon the community and foundation grants. The only government funding that WCH has used was funding for construction of the day care at the Richards center.

    WCH Donation Form

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    1 in 50 Children in US is Homeless
    Ranks of Homeless Kids Climb
    Cynthia Hubert
    Sacramento Bee

    In and out of classrooms, sleeping in shelters, shielded by parents, homeless children can seem invisible to society at large.

    A recently released national study finds that one in 50 children in America is homeless. They're sharing housing because of economic hardship, living in motels, cars, abandoned buildings, parks, camping grounds or shelters, or waiting for foster care placement.

    "That is something that I don't think most people intuitively believe to be true," said Ellen Bassuk, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and president of the National Center on Family Homelessness.

    The national center last did such a report 10 years ago, and numbers of children without a permanent place to sleep are growing.

    In Sacramento County, where debates over homeless issues have hit a pinnacle in recent months, school districts counted more than 6,000 children without stable housing during the last school year, a number that has been rising steadily since 2002.

    The national center's study, "America's Youngest Outcasts," shows that California had 292,624 homeless children, the 10th largest population in the nation, during the time of its count, the 2005- 2006 school year. The group counted 1.5 million homeless kids across the country, about 200,000 more than the figure it reported a decade before.

    Bassuk said family and child homelessness is a "relatively new problem," largely the result of more families splintering and becoming impoverished. "Many more of these families are headed by females, and are going to be more subject to market forces," she said. "They tend to be a lot poorer." She also cited a lack of affordable housing and a dearth of social programs geared toward families and children.

    As the economy has wilted and foreclosures have soared since 2006, homeless numbers have almost certainly increased, researchers say.

    In Sacramento County school districts, 6,165 youngsters, including those too young to attend classes, were without homes during the 2007-2008 school year, said Hilary Krogh, coordinator of the county Office of Education's Project TEACH program for homeless children.

    The number has increased every year since 2002-2003, when area districts counted 3,773 homeless infants through high schoolers, Krogh said. She works with homeless liaisons within each school district to identify homeless children and help them get services.

    Sacramento's rising numbers are mirrored throughout the state, Krogh said. The Folsom Cordova Unified School District counted 682 homeless youths within its boundaries last school year, a startling 31 percent increase over the previous year, said district liaison Charlene Hunt.

    "We are not unique," said Hunt. "Our numbers are going up, and 2009 is going to be a particularly challenging year for everyone."

    The National Center on Family Homelessness ranked all 50 states on their rates of homeless children, the health of the children and their educational achievements. It ranked California 40th overall, reflecting such factors as policy and planning efforts to deal with the issue as well as numbers of homeless children. Texas, ranked 50th, got the worst overall report card, while Connecticut got the best.

    Joan Burke at Loaves & Fishes services for the homeless in Sacramento sees the plight of wayward children every day.

    "These children really are, in many ways, the hidden homeless," Burke said. "They are doubling up with family members, staying with friends, living in hotels. It's very difficult to get an accurate count of them."

    Twenty or more children attend school each day at Mustard Seed on the Loaves campus on North C Street.

    Homelessness is "very, very difficult on children," said Burke. "They have lost their whole known world. They no longer have their neighborhood friends. They may have left a pet behind. Their parents are very stressed. They're in a new school. It's overwhelming for them."

    School director Angela Hassell said children who find themselves homeless "don't trust easily," and often have trouble focusing on school work because they are consumed with the trials of daily living.

    The national report makes a raft of recommendations for federal and state policy planners to deal with the issue. Among other things, it calls for programs that would give needy people better access to affordable housing, increases in nutrition programs for homeless youngsters, expanded health services for needy families, and improved access to early childhood education for homeless youngsters.

    "The very first thing we need to do is make sure that people realize that we do have a problem, and focus more planning efforts on families and kids," said Bassuk.

    Sacramento city and county leaders are working with churches, advocacy groups and others to improve services for homeless people, officials said.

    They are discussing a legal tent city where the homeless could live without fear of being arrested and would have access to basic services such as garbage pickup and running water. Mayor Kevin Johnson, among other leaders, has expressed strong interest in the idea.

    Oprah Winfrey's television show recently featured a sprawling tent city near the Blue Diamond almond processing plant in a show on the "new faces" of homelessness.

    City Councilman Rob Fong, meanwhile, has launched a "Faith and Homeless Families Initiative," a pilot program in which local churches agree to "adopt" homeless families and provide rental assistance, financial management tools and mentoring. The program will serve families that, in better economic times, were employed and had permanent housing.

    Also, the city and county are set to get nearly $5 million in federal stimulus funding for a variety of programs that serve the homeless.

    "Maybe this report, along with a new president and a new mayor who seem willing to tackle tough issues, is reason for hope," said Burke of Loaves & Fishes. "Maybe people will start to realize that this is a problem all around the country, including right here in Sacramento."

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    Homelessness program names new director
    KEVIN DUGGAN
    The Coloradoan

    A project aimed at ending homelessness in Fort Collins is ready to move forward.

    Bryce Hach has been named executive director of Homeward 2020, a new initiative of the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado with the stated goal of abolishing homelessness in the city. Hach starts work May 4.

    The initiative's first order of business will be to craft a 10-year strategic plan for ending homelessness. The plan is likely to draw on work done in other cities and focus on offering an array of housing solutions, said Dave Edwards, a member of the community foundation's board of trustees.

    The initiative is a public-private partnership that has received $100,000 in funding from the city as well as private donations, Edwards said.

    Fort Collins has a homelessness problem, Hach said, although it is not yet a crisis. Like most places, the community has focused on "managing" homelessness by providing services such as overnight shelters run by nonprofit organizations.

    Providing emergency services is one thing, he said, but the goal should be to end homelessness.

    "It's going to be a fundamental shift to go from that mindset to one of true abolishment," he said. "That's the extra step we really want to be gearing ourselves toward and really have a conclusion that we can point to in 10 years time."

    The strategic plan will follow a business model with metrics that track and measure accomplishments over the years, Hach said.

    Hach formerly was executive director of the Hach Scientific Foundation. He also taught high school in Mississippi in one of the poorest counties in the country.

    Other communities have seen progress by following strategic plans and gathering data on the homeless to understand what they need, Edwards said.

    The town of Springfield, Mass., has seen a 39 percent drop in homelessness since adopting and implementing a plan, he said.

    Fort Collins has a homeless population estimated at 556, according to a report released in August through UniverCity Connections. Countywide the number is estimated at 2,000.

    The majority of homeless people are "hidden," Hach said, and do not fit the stereotype of a single man with mental health or substance abuse problems. They are families with children.

    Understanding the range of problems facing the homeless and solutions is a major component of the initiative, he said.

    Poudre School District estimates 600 of its students can be defined as homeless, said Sister Mary Alice Murphy, who has been involved with social issues in Fort Collins for many years.

    The economic downturn has increased the demand for homeless services, she said.

    Last year a day shelter in the city to assist the homeless during days of inclement weather saw an average of 20 people a day. This year the shelter saw 60 to 70 people a day, with the peak being 115 in a single day.

    The community as a whole would benefit from taking proactive measures to keep the homelessness situation from becoming a crisis, she said.

    “It’s so much more humane and cost-effective to head it off instead of letting it become so much of a problem the business community shouts, ‘You have to do something,’ ” she said. “We’re being preventative; we’re trying to keep that from happening.”

    For more information on UniverCity Connections and its homelessness initiative, Click here

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    Move Along, Nothing to See Here
    Homeless in Tent City, USA
    By KATHY SANBORN
    COUNTER PUNCH

    Homeless encampments around the country are mushrooming, much to the embarrassment of government officials, may of whom prefer to hear no evil, see no evil. In Fresno, California, a shantytown called “New Jack City” is host to newly poor, unemployed electricians and truck drivers, who share space with drug addicts and the mentally ill who have been homeless for years.

    And, thanks to Oprah, Sacramento is famous for its homeless tent city, featuring several hundred people residing in pitched tents bordering the American River. With refuse strewn everywhere, and no potable water or bathroom facilities, this celebrated shantytown is clearly a sanitation risk.

    Almost as soon as the media ran with the story, plans were made to shut down the Sacramento tent city in the foreseeable future. City officials will relocate the homeless to other, presumably more sanitary, areas (e.g., at the site of the state fairgrounds, Cal Expo). According to the Sacramento Bee, “homeless campers” will be ousted in about four weeks, as the private property will be fenced off to ban the tent city population.

    California’s capital is not the only city to be brought to its knees by photos of disheveled citizens with nebulous futures. Reports of burgeoning tent cities in Nevada, Tennessee, and Washington State (just to name a few) have kept local governments hopping to fix the trouble before the media spotlight targets their own cities.

    Spotlight on Shantytown in Sacramento

    Initial reports of huge numbers of people living in the tent city in Sacramento probably were inflated, we know now. Estimates of 1200 tent dwellers were simply exaggerated by overzealous or slapdash journalists. Incorrect numbers aside, the problem remains: the new poor and the chronically homeless live side by side, with nothing but a cloth roof over their heads.

    I spoke with Sister Libby, executive director of the now-infamous Loaves and Fishes in Sacramento, which provides charitable assistance to the hungry and homeless.

    Sister Libby said, “We have over two to three hundred folks here in the Sacramento tent city. At its height, about 2-3 new faces a day were showing up. Of the tent city population, 80-85% have been homeless for over a year. Only about 10-15% are the “new poor” – those with a recent job loss or home foreclosure.

    We have seen a lot of new faces – mostly women with children – coming in to find shelter.

    Last year, according to Sacramento government statistics, the countywide homeless total was around 1200 people. It’s probably more like 1400 now.

    Since they have decided to close the tent city in Sacramento and provide 150 extra shelter beds in other locations for these folks, I worry about the people who are mentally ill or have drug and alcohol issues – which comprise about 50% of the tent city residents. They aren’t shelter-ready. What is the government going to do with them?” Mayor Kevin Johnson said the city’s shelter demand has increased “four-fold.” The executive director of St. John’s Shelter in Sacramento said they turn away 230 women and children each day, as opposed to the twenty turned away daily in 2007. These numbers indicate a dramatic explosion of growth in the homeless population, but many are hesitant to attribute this sudden rise in homelessness to the current economic downturn.

    Modern Hoovervilles Abound

    City officials in Fresno report three major homeless encampments adjacent to the downtown area, and smaller sites near the highways. All told, Fresno’s homeless population is about two thousand people, living in shantytowns with grim names such as Taco Flats or the aforementioned New Jack City. Drugs, violence, and prostitution are common in the Fresno tent cities, as people react to the stress of living outdoors with no services – and no money.

    Individuals in Seattle, Washington who have lost their jobs and homes reside in tents in the back of a church parking lot, derogatorily called Nickelsville. Named for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, whom residents say doesn’t much care about their plight, the Nickelsville shantytown is home to about one hundred campers a day.

    Nashville, Tennessee has its own problems with tent cities. According to NewsChannel5.com, Nashville has one large tent city south of the downtown area, with at least thirty additional homeless camps scattered throughout the region. There is a concern about this “huge surge in the number of encampments,” and the issue has reached “urgent” proportions. Attributing the rise in homelessness to the faltering economy that brings with it increased foreclosures and job layoffs, city officials are seeking answers – and fast – to their local homeless crisis.

    In Reno, Nevada, officials closed a tent city in 2008 that housed about 160 residents. Now, the sidewalks of Reno serve as beds to some sixty homeless people with nowhere else to go. There are homeless camps on Record Street, and local merchants believe their business is down because of the sea of homeless vagabonds invading store sidewalks and blocking customer access to shops.

    Reno officials are attempting to prevent another tent city from emerging in the summer of 2009, but with less revenue available for alternative housing, this remains to be seen.

    What can we conclude from the rapid increase in homelessness across the nation? The facts are clear: there are more people, especially women and children, who are out on the streets, without a dime. At least 10-15% of homeless individuals are the “new poor,” or those who have recently lost their jobs and homes. We can be certain that if the economy doesn’t improve soon, there will be more of the new poor pitching their tents in shantytowns across America – maybe in your neighborhood.

    Kathy Sanborn is an author, journalist, and recording artist with a new CD, Peaceful Sounds, now a top seller on CDBaby.

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    BEST Workexchange Offers Workforce Development by Training the Homeless

    DENVER, CO. -- The Best Workexchange Program is partnership between Denver's Road Home, Bentley Systems, Inc. HOPE worldwide Colorado, Volunteers of America, United Way, and community volunteers with engineering experience.

    This pilot project was designed to create an opportunity for those less fortunate, to learn a valuable skill and perhaps a life-long career in CAD drafting and design, by providing simple CAD services to partnering companies used as paid training. Bentley has provided BEST with applications and online training on a broad scope of infrastructure design disciplines: electrical, mechanical, structural, civil, plant, etc. VOA has provided lab space.

    Bentley’s LEARN Server allows participants to access self-paced training and be credited with Learning Units summarized in a Bentley Transcript upon completion of each lesson or course. BEST hosts 9 CAD workstations and server with internet access. Participants enter the program and train online and self-paced until they are ready to take on the more difficult paid work.

    Primary to BEST is, a unique concept based on Bentley Microstation, CAD (computer-aided design) software and Bentley ProjectWise, an Engineering Document Management System that dually provides training and supported workforce to project partners, along with employment and training opportunities for the homeless population, resulting in a fully functional, cost effective model. Because of the inherent global enterprise architecture of Bentley ProjectWise, BEST trainees can provide simple drafting and technical data services to local and global businesses from their workstations BEST lab or on laptops wherever free wireless access is available. < p>Companies can post the work and rely on Bentley ProjectWise notification, security, workflow and messaging to collaborate.

    Rates are competitive to offshore work, and participants will enter the work force as contractors or full time employees as experience and opportunity allow. BEST aims to partner with companies, who can post non-critical drafting work by piece or in bulk to the work center.

    As 95% of the architecture, engineering and construction world uses the DGN or DWG format, BEST participants are trained on a suite of Bentley Microstation based applications that will enable them the capability to produce and edit both DGN and DWG drawings. AutoCAD/AutoPlant training will be available in the future as required.

    "Donated" work from participating companies includes CAD redline markups, text editing, basic drafting, scanned file redrawing, data entry, title b lock extraction, and word processing. Companies can post a work package to the BEST hosted Bentley ProjectWise Server as the central repository. Many plant design or Oil/Gas owner-operators and EPC’s require tag based data-to-document associations for hundreds or even thousands of drawings, but limited budget. BEST offers an affordable alternative solution that keeps work from being outsourced overseas.

    Suzanne Baity, the program director reports: “The mission of BEST is to provide workforce/employment training skills, in a user friendly environment, in collaboration with state, local and community agencies for homeless adults that will lead to permanent employment and economic stability.”

    The project primarily targets the audience currently utilizing the Volunteers of America’s (VOA) meal program at the Mission facility, with the possibility of being replicated to other parts of the city throug h other partnerships.

    Participants will be provided with a full continuum of services (e.g., workforce assessments, life skill training, job placement, etc.), that brings together both service providers and existing workforce readiness projects to address employment issues specific to homelessness, with the ultimate goal of providing them with employment opportunities both within and outside the VOA facility”.

    Since BEST began operations in September 2007 we have seen over 60 students successfully complete their CAD training and transition into the workforce (Oil/Gas, DOT, Infrastructure) through partnerships with local engineering firms. We have also been able to do paid contract work for global firms (competing with offshore drafting services) and give our students experience in drafting while continuing their technical education.

    We have an individual who came into the program 6 mon ths ago currently serving as our project Administrator in a paid, part-time position training new participants and developing curriculum. He has achieved 5-star Bentley Accreditation, which is recognized industry wide.

    BEST was featured as a model for community involvement program at the 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami, FL. As well as the May 2008 Issue of BE Magazine.

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    Shelters Struggle to House More Homeless
    By Tracy Agnew
    Suffolk News-Herald

    If there’s one thing that people who provide resources for the homeless in Suffolk can agree on, it’s this: The number of homeless people is on the rise, and the homeless people need help now.

    Since 2007, the number of people without a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence in Western Tidewater has more than doubled, from 30 just two years ago to 71 in 2009, according to a recent survey. This year’s numbers include 15 families with children, as well as 29 adults without children.

    The situation is dire and is likely to get worse before it gets better, said Larissa Sutherland, community relations coordinator for the ForKids Suffolk House.

    “Often, families will move around, staying with friends or family, for six months to a year before exhausting all resources and coming to the shelter,” Sutherland wrote in an e-mail. “We anticipate that within six months to a year, we will see an even greater rise in homelessness, due to this economic turndown.”

    The economy and a collapsed housing market have combined to create every homeless shelter director’s worst nightmare — having to turn people away, because there is not enough room in the shelter.

    “In March, we received 53 requests for shelter and were able to house three people,” Sutherland said. The Suffolk House also has experienced a dramatic increase in calls for utilities assistance, she added. Many callers are in tears.

    Although the aptly-named ForKids organization, which has a second four-month emergency shelter in Norfolk, focuses primarily on families with children, Sutherland has taken in six single women in recent months, because the need was simply too great for her to turn them away.

    Coupled with the increased demand comes a decline in monthly contributions from the community, Sutherland said.

    “Contributions are coming in well under half of what we projected in order to meet our budget requirement,” she said. Suffolk House relies on volunteers and donations of food and supplies to sustain its operations. It takes about $50,000 a month to operate the shelter and service program, Sutherland added.

    Across town, the Genieve Shelter, a shelter and support system for abused women and children, has been trying to help fight the homeless problem, as well. Val Livingston, the shelter’s director, said she has seen a spike in the number of women the shelter has helped, and believes it’s related to the economy. So far this year, the shelter has helped 119 women, compared with 98 for all of last year.

    Livingston also noted an increase in calls for assistance, mostly from homeless people.

    “I’ve probably helped more homeless individuals this year than in past years,” Livingston said. “We get homeless calls every day.”

    Two calls Livingston received recently made her realize just how desperate the situation has become for some people, she said. One man had just been released from the hospital after having surgery, and was staying in his car because he could not afford shelter.

    A woman with children went to the Department of Social Services for help, and they offered a list of phone numbers and told her that if she came back still homeless, they would take her children.

    “For her, that meant ‘Don’t come back,’” Livingston said. “This is the stuff that makes your heart bleed.”

    Some callers, Livingston said, are contemplating suicide as their last option. Some children in homeless families haven’t been in school in weeks, which causes a whole other set of problems.

    “These children, through no fault of their own, are not in school,” she said. “They’re not going to get promoted and are going to fall further and further behind, and end up being the people we’re afraid of on the street.”

    Livingston said the Tidewater Continuum of Care Council is investigating ways to address the lack of resources and shelter. The group would like to have donations of property that can be rehabilitated and established as emergency shelters to increase the area’s capacity, she said.

    “Most of the shelters have been full almost any day you call them,” she said.

    The council also is working on solutions to the two largest segments of homeless society — single men and single women.

    “We don’t have enough resources for single women,” Livingston said. “There’s nothing for single, homeless men.”

    The problem will require plenty of community effort, Livingston acknowledged.

    Those are two things we really need to address, and no one organization can do that by themselves.”

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    Homeless on Their Own
    Northwest Hearld

    With the help of amazing volunteers and cooperative church congregations, McHenry County PADS – or Public Action to Deliver Shelter – operates emergency shelters at seven churches throughout McHenry County from Oct. 1 through April 30.

    It’s a great service, and, unfortunately, it’s needed more now than in most residents’ memories.

    But what happens Friday, after the area’s homeless have enjoyed their last opportunity to bed down in an indoor shelter until Oct. 1?

    Some will camp. Some, if they’re lucky enough to own one, will sleep in their cars.

    They do not vanish. Nor do they often enjoy a sudden change in circumstance.

    That is why we applaud PADS organizers for beginning talks about constructing a year-round shelter. When McHenry County PADS originated more than 20 years ago, the thinking was to provide a warm place to sleep during cold winter months.

    Clearly, though, the need does not end when May begins. Studying how a permanent shelter could be funded – perhaps a mix of public and private dollars – as well as where such a facility might go is overdue.

    An average of 55 people stayed at emergency shelters each night this season. Sometimes the number spiked as high as 70, said Scott Block, division director for PADS, which in recent years has been a part of Pioneer Center for Human Services.

    A “point in time” count of the homeless conducted Jan. 22 found 314 homeless people in McHenry County.

    “This is the highest we’ve ever seen our numbers at PADS,” Block said.

    Ending homelessness is PADS’ stated vision. It’s a tremendous vision, and personnel work daily to try to help the homeless become more self-sufficient.

    But the need to shelter them exists. It won’t go away Friday. Nor is it likely to be gone every May 1 in years to come.

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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
    Views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless, its staff or board.

    Editor: Virginia Sellner.
    Copyrights revert back to the author upon publication.
    WCH is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency depending upon the community for funding.
    © 2009.
    **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.**