| March 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 © 2004 email: wch@vcn.com |
|
5th Annual WALK IN MY SHOES fundraiser for WCH, sponsored by Beacon Hill Baptist and Northcutt Retreat Center. Sponsors, contributors, walkers and ghost walkers needed. For more information: Stop by WCH at 907 Logan Avenue or phone 634-8499. Low Income Home Buyer Fair, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless, 907 Logan Avenue For more information contact HUD at 307-261-6250. 2004 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference, June 17-19 Endorsers needed from Wyoming for the Universal Living Wage - click here to sign on - this is for a minimum wage that will provide people working a 40 hour week with enough money to live on - to pay rent and to purchase food. Your sign on is needed.
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.** By Tony Lystra The Daily News Longview, Washington The Longview City Council on Thursday, February 26, 2004, approved an ordinance aimed at keeping people from rifling through waste bins, despite concerns that the law could be used to target homeless people in search of food or recyclable cans. The ordinance, which would make it illegal for anyone except sanitation workers and a garbage can's owner to remove items from waste bins, is intended to stem identity theft, officials said. Violators can be fined $125, but would not face jail time, they said. Officials said they worry that criminals are rifling through Dumpsters for residents' personal information, then using it to rack up credit card debt. "One canceled check, one deposit slip, one Visa ticket and you can get fleeced," Mayor Mark McCrady said. Officials said it is the fastest growing crime throughout the nation and in Cowlitz County. Only Councilman Kurt Anagnostou voted against the ordinance. He said the legislation "goes too far." "Somebody who is grabbing some aluminum cans, that shouldn't be a crime," he said. "We don't need to make criminals out of them. We already have enough of those in this community." Police Chief Bob Burgreen said his department worked six identity theft cases last year, one of which included more than 100 victims. In each of the cases, suspects stole people's personal information from mail boxes and trash cans, he said. Using the Web and telephone services, "all a thief needs is just a little bit of information that they are getting from our Dumpsters," Burgreen said. Residents have been complaining to police about people going through trash bins, the chief said, but until Thursday, there was no ordinance that allowed police to stop so-called "Dumpster-divers." Some worry, however, about targeting homeless or destitute people rooting through trash cans for food and cans. "Why do we need this ordinance that could hurt others?" asked Longview resident Robert McVay. Eric McDaniel, also of Longview, asked the council, "At what point do we have to ruin some lives because of six people doing bad acts? When somebody throws something away, shouldn't it be their own responsibility that they're not going to be victims of this?" In an interview, Burgreen said destitute residents are "not the people that we're targeting, but we're going to be talking to people if they're in your Dumpster." Officials also warned residents to shred all canceled checks and other documents that contain Social Security numbers, account numbers and other personal data. The ordinance approved February 26, will also make it illegal for people to dump garbage into waste bins that they do not own, with the exception of garbage cans in public parks and other public spaces. The intent, said Dave Spencer, the city attorney, is to prevent people who do not pay for garbage services from dumping their garbage at others' expense. By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI / Associated Press A one-acre shantytown established by Portland's homeless has won the right to be called a "campground" - a designation which finally makes it legal. Since 2000, the 60 residents of Dignity Village have battled to gain legal recognition for their encampment of tents, scavenged planks and cardboard boxes, all of which violate the city's zoning codes if defined as "housing." The campground status - which four of five city officials voted for Thursday, February 26, 2004 - gives them the right to stay in their self-regulated tent city. But it also legalizes a lower standard of living for the city's poorest. "Lowering standards is just hard for me to do," said Jim Francesconi, the only city commissioner to vote against the camp, citing the camp's rat problem. Critics of the tent city argued that the focus should instead be on creating affordable housing, but supporters say that solution would take years to implement. Dignity Village was founded four years ago when eight homeless men and women decided to pitch five tents on public land, saying they had nowhere else to go. Waiting lists for shelter beds, a recently released study said, is as long as 12 weeks. The encampment has grown to include its own village council, elected officers, a Web site and non-profit status. It has a Web site and most recently has given birth to a "sister city" - a homeless camp in Osaka, Japan. "Usually, when I became homeless, I went into the woods," said the village's treasurer Tim McCarthy, 56. "I was all alone - this was the first chance I had to be around other people in the same situation." One of the largest hurdles, said Dignity Village Chairman Ron Wold, is the fact that when you are homeless you don't have an address, making it nearly impossible to respond to job ads. "If you don't have a phone number, or a place to get mail, or a place to shower, it gets very hard to get back on your feet again," said Wold, 49, who was living in a motel room until his money ran out in 2002. Jack Tafari, 57, one of the camp's original eight founders, said he used to sleep in a doorway. Portland has an estimated 2,000 homeless people, and 20 homeless shelters run by the city and private organizations. Other cities generally do not tolerate large-scale encampments of homeless people. In October, Seattle cracked down on "The Jungle," a homeless camp in the woods. In Anchorage, Alaska, authorities cleared out about 50 sites in May because of the danger posed by the homeless people's campfires. Until its designation as a campground, Dignity Village was in legal limbo, relying on the city to extend its lease. "It could be seen as a beacon of hope for people around the world," said one homeless man who took the microphone to address the commissioners. About 100 demonstrate in Denver By Mike McPhee Denver Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 16, 2004 A small but vocal group of homeless citizens continued to push for a tent city Monday by rallying with loudspeakers on the steps of city hall. "I'm here to ask the mayor, the City Council and the citizens of Denver: Why not a tent city?" said John McDermott, one of the leaders of a movement to establish a tent city somewhere in Denver to house the homeless. A number of the city's temporary shelters will close April 15, so the homeless are trying to establish the tent city before then. "In a tent city, we could get up at 3:30 a.m. and go to a labor pool. But in the shelters, you can't. The shelters keep us homeless with their rules. They make a living by keeping us homeless," he said to a crowd of about 100 people, about two-thirds of them homeless. The city's Emergency Shelter/People Living in Public Places subcommittee of the Mayor's Commission on the Homeless plans to announce three possible locations for temporary shelters at its meeting this afternoon, said Debbie Ortega, executive director of the commission. One is downtown, one is in northwest Denver and the third "is still up in the air," she said. Ortega declined to discuss the commission's view of a tent city. At the rally, Randy and Dottie Sloan spoke about the travails of being homeless for the past six months. Dottie recently spent six days in jail for trespassing by sleeping in the parking garage of a hospital. The couple has been sleeping in the visitors lounge of a hospital the past week or so, posing as relatives of a patient. "Whenever there's a disaster, there are shelters put up immediately," said Dottie, 50. "There are 10,000 homeless in Denver. Isn't that a disaster? "There are city parks for pets now but it's illegal for us to go into them," she said to applause from the small, noontime crowd. Her husband, Randy, 43, said he was working on a horse ranch in Parker six months ago when he suffered his third heart attack. He said the ranch owners had housed them in a small trailer with no heat and no water and paid them a total of $165 per week. "I saved the life of their $20,000 animal and had a heart attack doing it," Randy said. "When I got back from the hospital, they fired me." He said he suffered his fourth heart attack Nov. 25 while staying at the Samaritan House. Dottie said she has applied for 12 jobs in the past three weeks at hospitals, hotels, fast-food restaurants and retail stores. "As soon as they see your address is the mission, they tell you no. If you're not bilingual, the fast-food places don't want you," she said. So Where Are the People Staying? By NATE PARDUE Democrat Staff Writer FostersCitiziens On Line ROCHESTER NH: Two area homeless centers are at less than capacity, only two months after frigid temperatures had many shelters bursting at the seams. The Homeless Center for Strafford County, located off of Rochester Neck Road, has not reached capacity for most of the season. The shelter holds as many as 24 people, but as of last week was only housing 14 residents. "It's a mystery to us. We've been observing the numbers too," said John Whiting-Grant, the shelter's executive director. Likewise, Cross Roads Shelter in Portsmouth has experienced a "thinning out" in the past two months since cold weather in January substantially increased the number of people staying there. My Friend's Place in Dover is the only shelter in the area reporting that it is consistently full. At this time last year, the seasonal Rochester shelter was also at capacity. In January, a few more people sought shelter because of the cold temperatures, but not nearly at expected levels, Whiting-Grant said. Unlike the shelters in Dover and Portsmouth, the Homeless Center bars single males from living on the premises, focusing strictly on housing for women and families. Even so, the discrepancy between the numbers this year and last is befuddling to Whiting-Grant. "It's hard to know what the difference is this year," said Whiting-Grant. The seasonal shelter closes at the end of April. As of this morning, the 108-person Cross Roads Shelter in Portsmouth is housing around 80 people per night, after nearing capacity just two months ago. Cross Roads Executive Director Chris Sterndale said more readily available housing and the efforts of welfare departments around the area are helping to keep people off the streets and out of shelters. The levels at Cross Roads have fluctuated much more this year than in the past, especially during the January weather, Sterndale said. "Part of it is probably the weather, but I think in broader terms, the rental market is a little bit more friendly to folks than a few years ago," Sterndale said. But, the figures actually contradict that theory. According to numbers compiled by the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, apartment vacancy rates have actually dipped over the past decade. In 1995, the statewide vacancy rate for two-bedroom apartments was 2.5 percent. Now, the rates are under one percent. "It means that landlords can be more selective who they choose to offer housing," said Bob O'Connell, executive director of My Friend's Place in Dover. Unlike the Homeless Center and Cross Roads, My Friend's Place has been at capacity for most of the year, as it is now. In an average year, My Friend's Place receives about two or three calls a day from people to whom they are unable to provide housing. The year-round shelter has a capacity of 17 to 18 people. Because My Friend's Place receives state funding, it has to take in homeless people from around the state, which may be why occupancy levels are always high, said O'Connell, adding that housing shortages could also be leading to the increases. The lower occupancies at the Rochester and Portsmouth shelters seem not to share a connection with city welfare departments, which expect to be over budget soon, if not already. "It's horrible," said Rochester Welfare Director Lynn Carey, whose department was recently approved for a $40,000 appropriation by the city's finance office. "I can't even guess if that's going to be enough." Carey said welfare directors from around the area are reporting to her very similar situations with welfare budgets soaring. In Rochester, where this year's welfare budget was originally set at $375,000, Carey said favorable refinancing options have enabled apartment owners to raise rents, narrowing the pool of people who can afford to pay. A shrinking job market has also lead to increases in the number of people in the city who seek assistance from welfare. Carey said she didn't know whether the increased welfare claims and decreased shelter requests were related. Regardless, the issue of homelessness has certainly not gone away. "There are a real big number of homeless, I would say," Carey said. Martin Wainwright Tuesday March 16, 2004 The Guardian In the centre of Leeds, where a penthouse fetched £600,000 within 24 hours of going on sale last week, a rough sleeper died every month for most of last year. Figures compiled by the Simon Community, which befriends homeless people and works to get them off the streets, list eight deaths between March and October and a ninth in November. Drug-related conditions were to blame in most cases, but there was one suicide and one victim of long-term medical problems worsened by sleeping out. "Every week we hear of yet another hospitalisation and during the last year we have visited over 30 people, many of whom have had repeated stays," the charity's latest progress report says. "The most common reasons are chest and wound infections, deep vein thrombosis, or blood disease." A fortnight ago Simon Community workers found 23 people sleeping out in the bitter cold, although a local authority search in December found only three. More resources are needed to help long-term rough sleepers rebuild their lives, the report says. Keith Goodenough March 10, 2004 Editor, One of the biggest failures of the 2004 Legislature was the refusal to take a look at a variety of proposals to address the health care issues of Wyoming. This is a critical issue and the lack of leadership is astounding. The Republican leadership in the State Senate forced the discussion to center on the concept of putting caps on damages that injured citizens would be able to collect, and disallowed discussion on alternative approaches. They did this by sending the two alternative bills to the same committee, a committee by the name of the Rules Committee where the outcome is totally under the control of the Senate leadership due to the fact that three of the five members are Senate Republican leaders. By sending the proposal to cap damages to the Rules Committee, the leadership ensured it would be passed along to the full Senate. By sending Senate File 86, a Democratically sponsored proposal to take a look at alternative approaches to health care reform, to the same Committee, they ensured that it would never get to the floor of the Senate for discussion. If you have access to the internet, you can easily see the proof. Take a look at… http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2004/digest/SF0086.htm, and you will see where Committee #12 killed the study of alternatives bill by a 3 to 2 vote, the three being the Senate leadership. Then go to… http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2004/digest/Sj0005.htm, and you will see where the same Committee passed the caps bill by a 3 to 2 vote, with the same three voting together. I believe that the only way for our citizens to have any kind of meaningful health care reform will be for them to take the process of writing laws into their own hands, and start the initiative process. There are many alternative possibilities for health care that a wealthy state like Wyoming could consider, but that will not happen if the decision is left to the Legislative leadership. It is time for the citizens to rise up and force the issue. Are you ready, willing and able to do so? Senator Keith Goodenough This is to announce that Bridget Reilly's long-awaited book about homelessness in Oregon, Real Life in the Marginal World, is now available for sale. The price is $15.00 per copy plus $2.00 for shipping (of each copy). For the address to mail a check or money to, please e-mail Bridget at jmcculloch48@hotmaiil.com
LONG BEACH -- Eddie Olivas sat on his cot in the warehouse that serves as the city's winter homeless shelter and sighed. "We're going to miss this place,' Olivas said. "This has been our home. We catch the first bus at 4:30 every day to make sure we get the same cots every day.' Olivas and Clifford Johnson were hanging out in the men's dorm after having been fed turkey with gravy and "going away cake.' For Olivas and the 100 to 200 homeless who called the empty warehouse on the west side of Long Beach home since Christmas, Monday night was their last in the structure. Tuesday morning, under the annual contract, the shelter closed its doors. When and where it will reappear in December is anyone's guess, but as the shelter closed its doors for the final time this season, there is little doubt that this was a winter of discontent. Amid accusations that the facility at Harbor Avenue and W. 14th Street drew transients to the neighborhood and may have had an affect on crime, Brenda Wilson and Linda Moran, who run the shelter for New Image Emergency Shelters, were openly wondering if having the shelter in Long Beach was worth the headaches. "It's difficult,' said Wilson, New Image's executive director. "Every year we've struggled to provide a service that Long Beach needs.' Several homeless said they were busy making preparations for new places to stay tonight. Some were going to stay with friends, others were looking for other shelters. Although the Los Angeles Homeless Shelter Association's winter program ended today, it says it will have 970 beds available in 11 sites in Los Angeles County. Moran said she was tired of the consistent opposition from Long Beach residents and the lack of support from city officials. Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn has been gracious when New Image has had its South Bay winter shelters in her district, even though 90 percent of the clients are from Long Beach, she said. And, she says, her office she has a wall full of commendations and plaques from city's in which her shelters have operated, but not one from Long Beach. The Homeless are bused to and from the shelter daily and no walk-ins are accepted. The homeless must stay in the facility through the night and are only allowed outside for smoking breaks. Security guards are hired to assure the homeless remain on-site. Dan Berns, head of the West Project Area Commission, said not only has the shelter been a magnet to transients in the neighborhood, but city officials have dismissed the claims of area residents and business owners. "People were telling me, 'You didn't see what you just saw,' and sometimes so fervently that they were calling us a liar.' "I cannot tell you what people do and don't see, but we have 5,845 homeless and that was a shelter for 200,' said Corinne Schneider of the health and human services department. " Yes, there are going to be homeless on the street and, yes, you're going to see them. Just because we open a shelter doesn't mean they're all going to go away.' Jack Smith of the Wrigley Association, which bordered the winter shelter at its location on Pacific Coast Highway last year, said his neighborhood had similar problems with an influx of homeless. "We never had people sleeping under the trees on Daisy (Avenue) until the winter shelter came here,' Smith said. "That year we had to put up fences around our Christmas displays. Was that fault of new image? They'll tell you no. The problem is they make promises maybe they can't keep.' Wilson and Moran countered such claims with letters from 22 surrounding businesses, saying y only one was negative. Many business owners said they weren't even aware the shelter was in their area. Wilson and Moran also said they did outreach to local businesses to ask if there were problems and received no calls. "(Business owners) had more complaints about prostitutes than the homeless,' said Vernal Moore, one of the New Image workers who canvassed the neighborhood. Community leaders also complained of increased crime in the area since the shelter. Comparing crime stats from January of 2004 and 2003 in the area around the homeless shelter (the city has not compiled its crime lists beyond January for this year) there were four commercial burglaries, two auto burglaries and three petty thefts in the area this year. Last year, there were two auto burglaries in the same area. However, the Sgt. Paul LeBaron said the Long Beach Police Department had made no connections between the crimes and the homeless shelter. Despite the problems Berns and Smith cited, District 1 councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal said she got very few complaints about the center this year and none last year. Likewise, Schneider said she had received no complaints about the shelter and labeled New Image as "a good partner.' Berns said he might be willing to welcome another winter shelter in the West Side, but only under new management. 'I will try to have and open mind if it's another operator,' Berns said. "If (the city was) willing to help us with whatever services we need, I would stick my head in door jamb and see if it hurt again when it got slammed on it.' Another complaint about the winter shelter is that neighborhoods don't have time to react when the shelter finds a new home. Wilson and Moran say that's unavoidable. They often don't get grant approval until October and have to work fast to find a facility and modify it for their needs. As Olivas and Clifford Johnson reclined in their cots, they were amazed that there was a controversy. Johnson said it was common knowledge in the Long Beach homeless community that the winter shelter didn't accept walk-in and he had never heard of another homeless trying to walk in. "I don't know what those people are talking about,' Johnson said. "They should at least know what they're talking about.'
SPRINGFIELD -- Bad weather and the lack of a bicycle or family car won't keep school-age children at the Missouri Hotel from getting to class on time. A federal grant has provided them with school bus service.
More than a dozen of the 120 students at Boyd Elementary live at the Missouri Hotel on West Commercial Street, a shelter for homeless families. For those students' families, transportation is often hard to find.
"We have had in the past trouble with children and their attendance," said Valerie Lorenson, a member of the Missouri Hotel staff.
"If it was too difficult of conditions or their family situation was too difficult or something was going on that was a distraction, that became a priority because it wasn't convenient," said James Grandon, principal at Boyd.
The Springfield School District now provides bus service between the Missouri Hotel and Boyd, which are too close together for the district to provide service under its regular transportation program.
"Our homeless population traditionally is 10 to 15 percent lower in their attendance rates than the rest of our students," said Grandon.
"Now that we have a bus available for them, it helps them hopefully to be motivated to attend school," said Lorenson. "I think that it will help bring attendance up here with children at the hotel."
"They get to come and start their morning instead of late, which was more often the case," said Grandon. "Having the bus, it's easy. It's right there behind the home. You send the children into the bus and they're warm and they're safe and they're brought to school and they get to come and have some extra tutoring."
Before receiving the grant, the school district hadn't provided bus service for the students from Missouri Hotel for at least three years. Grandon hopes the grant money also will be available next year.
|