 WYOMING WINDS |
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'I knew they needed things' By PATRICIA C. McCARTER Huntsville Times Staff Writer Emma Clark had everything she needed, and she knew some people didn't. So for her 11th birthday, she asked the 30 friends coming to her party to forgo gifts for her. Just bring something for the homeless, her handmade invitations said. Wednesday afternoon, Emma and some friends went to the Sapp Shelter at the Downtown Rescue Mission to drop off those presents, which filled the back of Maggie Clark's GMC Yukon. "I knew from watching the news and from hearing my parents talk about it that there were homeless people," said Emma, a fifth-grader at Challenger Elementary. "I knew they needed things, and I knew that I didn't. "I saw a homeless person on 'Oprah' the other day, and it was so sad. That's when I decided I really needed to do this." At her birthday kickball party in McGucken Park last weekend, her friends brought bags and bags of shampoo, soap, toothpaste and hand sanitizer. With the $60 her grandmothers gave her, Emma bought socks because she'd heard that homeless people never have enough socks. "This was completely Emma's idea," mom Maggie said as the girls were hauling the gifts into the shelter. Her mother and father, Rob Clark, didn't make up the difference by giving her lots of birthday presents. They gave her none "because that's how she wanted it." As residents ate a dinner of greens, cornbread and black-eyed peas, center director Cecilia Luna showed Emma and a half-dozen of her friends around the place. They met women who told the girls that they were homeless because of drug addiction, domestic violence and mental illness. They spent time with mothers and their young children who looked warily at the group of clean-scrubbed fifth-graders. When the tour was over, Emma said she'd learned what drugs and abuse can do to a person. "I was just thinking that I really don't need anything for Christmas," she said. "Instead, we can bring the gifts here. They'll probably need more socks by then." Tent City Could Be Without a Home Tent City 4 has been yelled at, protested and rejected in its two-year history on the Eastside, but the camp now faces its biggest challenge. The homeless encampment must leave St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Bellevue on Saturday, and because of a series of failed negotiations with churches and cities, the 70 residents have nowhere to go. If a new site isn't found this week, the camp will temporarily disband and its residents will be forced to find new homes in Seattle homeless shelters, with friends, in their cars or on the streets. The area's other homeless camp, Tent City 3 in Seattle, has no room. "The goal of Tent City is to get homeless people together and safe," said Bruce Thomas, a resident and camp adviser. "Disbanding is anathema to everyone here." The residents are "just scared, nervous," Thomas said. Most of them work, and having no home base could hurt their job security. Some couples would be split up because men and women are not allowed to live together in Seattle shelters, Thomas said. Many residents have no backup plans. The camp is talking to several Eastside and South King County churches that could swoop in as a last-minute host. "We're hoping for a miracle," Thomas said. "It's happened before." The camp's recent luck with prospective hosts, though, has not been good. Under a consent decree with Bellevue, Tent City 4 moved to St. Luke's in mid-February and agreed to stay only 90 days. The camp also agreed to stay in Bellevue no more than once a year, and in exchange the city loosened its requirements on hygiene and length of stay. Since moving to St. Luke's, the camp has talked to churches in Bothell, Woodinville and unincorporated King County, outside Bellevue and Kirkland. Discussions with all four churches fell through. Northshore United Church of Christ in Woodinville was ready to host the camp on city property, but the Woodinville City Council rejected the plan Monday night. Some council members and camp opponents said the camp was trying to rush into town at the last second without an adequate public process. In a letter to the city, Northshore United said it would host Tent City 4 on its own property if the camp weren't allowed on city land, according to city spokeswoman Marie Stake. City officials said they will impose fines if the church tries to host the camp on its own land. Thomas said the camp began talking to Northshore United in the past few weeks only after talks with other churches were breaking down. The camp's stay at Temple B'nai Torah in Bellevue last winter was marked by the consent-decree legal fight. But the stint at St. Luke's has been uneventful until now, camp and church officials say. Bellevue police Capt. Denny Bronson said officers have gone to the camp for only routine calls. "They've been doing a pretty good job of policing themselves," he said. Anne Bly, president of St. Luke's board, said hosting the camp "has been a wonderful experience for us." The church is disappointed that the camp is facing so much uncertainty, especially after the past three months at St. Luke's. "It's sad that this is how it has to end," Bly said. By Ed Koch Las Vegas Sun Let them eat coffee cake - and muffins, cinnamon buns, doughnuts, bagels and other assorted pastries. It might not be the most nutritious meal the Las Vegas homeless get, but local nonprofit organizations that benefit from a small food recovery program operated by a UNLV adjunct professor and three of his students say they are grateful. In less than a year, the collegians' efforts have earned public recognition and have provided about 1,500 day-old breakfast items a week from Starbucks coffee shops to the needy who use the services of four local charities. "We're not the solution to the problem - we're less than one percent of the answer," said Martin Dean Dupalo, who teaches political science part time at UNLV. "Our goal is to open up a large supply of goods to nonprofits - goods that currently are being trashed." Small groups like Dupalo's have done what they can over the years to rescue good but outdated food that otherwise would be thrown away. But efforts to create a major recovery from places like the buffets of hotels have failed, experts say, because of logistics that include health issues, liability and manpower. Because no one has yet figured out a cheap way to recover large amounts of prepared food - and do it safely so that the hotels' aren't hit with lawsuits resulting from allegations of food poisoning - the uneaten food from resorts has long been donated to R.C. Farms in North Las Vegas to feed its pigs. Local homeless activists lament that that is by far the region's most comprehensive food recovery program - one that has led some to observe that area farm animals often eat better than Las Vegas' homeless. "This (food recovery) is a big, complex issue that has been addressed for at least the last nine or 10 years I know of here in Southern Nevada," said Salvation Army spokesman Charles Desiderio. "It's all logistics. How do you move the food safely from the casino buffet to a feeding agency? There has to be people working at both ends - restaurant workers to safely pack it in containers and nonprofit workers to transport it in refrigeration trucks to warehouses with large refrigeration units." Dupalo's crew has found a way around that roadblock. "Without refrigeration trucks, we have to do pickup and transport at the same time," said Dupalo, who has been recognized locally and nationally for his efforts to help the poor, including starting a similar food rescue program at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission. "We call it 'just-in-time delivery.' " Dupalo, 39, and his students - Jose Miranda, Melanie Coffee and Priscilla Primm - go to Starbucks coffee shops at night and collect their unsold pastries. They then take the food to U.S. Veterans and the Key Foundation, both military veterans assistance groups; the Greater New Jerusalem Church; and Safe House Inc., a family counseling center. The charities serve the food to their clients the next morning. Since the program's kickoff on July 29, more than 40,000 pastries and an undetermined amount of ground coffee beans have been delivered to area charities through that one operation. The food rescue program started by chance. Miranda, a 28-year-old student and Air Force technical sergeant, approached Dupalo after class one day and asked how he could get involved in community service volunteerism. The two sat down at a Starbucks on Flamingo Road and brainstormed ways Miranda could help the poor that would not conflict with his military obligations. The subject of what Starbucks did with its day-old pastries came up. They contacted the company's corporate office, which gave them the OK to take the day-old pastries from about a dozen local shops and give them to charities. The gesture was not unique for that company. Sara Fleury, president of BJC, an Arizona-based public relations firm that represents Starbucks, said that in 2005 Starbucks made "in-kind and product donations totaling $7.4 million." The local organizations that benefit from Starbucks' decision to not toss their old but still consumable food in the Dumpster say that such donations are a godsend in the wake of ever-diminishing federal funding for their programs. "All of us nonprofits are frustrated when federal funds are cut because they affect our direct services like food," said Myrna Pili, acting site director for U.S. Veterans, which operates a 122-bed shelter for homeless veterans at 525 E. Bonanza Road. "Therefore, any donation we get from the community, especially food, is big for us." Pili is among those who question why Las Vegas homeless advocates and others have not figured a way to get around the problems related to having a comprehensive food recovery program that would address the needs of her organization and many others. "In Las Vegas we have a plethora of resources, yet we are not utilizing them - at least not for food," Pili said. "We need to get the commercial end a little more involved. Things can change with more awareness." Hurricanes drove Tommy Davis from Louisiana, but now he has the drive to be on his feet By Josh Stockinger Daily Herald Staff Writer It’s 11:01 p.m. at Lazarus House when the light bulbs start to dim, one by one. Tommy Davis hunkers down in his cot and reaches beneath it with a probing hand to retrieve a portable CD player. Sometimes he can’t sleep without headphones. Inches away, a shirtless man on a cot next to Davis’ rolls over. Someone else snores. Davis needs his rest. The next day, he will rise at 5 a.m., dress in hospital scrubs and climb into a taxicab bound for Elgin. He will work until 3:30 p.m., wait for a bus, then return to the St. Charles shelter. He might stop at the library for a few hours. But that’s tomorrow. On this night, Davis already looks tired — beat. He rubs his eyes and smiles. Tommy Davis is 33. He was never homeless before the hurricane and never lived in the Chicago suburbs. But this is where he will rebuild. “I've never had to do anything like this before,” he says. “I always provided for myself.” Davis rolled into the Fox Valley on a bus last October. Like 15 other men, women and children who ended up seeking shelter at Lazarus House after Hurricane Katrina, he brought few possessions, little money and a shattered life. He, too, faced the paramount task of starting over — his children, his job, his friends, all hundreds of miles behind in his boyhood home of Slidell, La. Yet only eight months removed from the natural disaster, Davis has gone to college, secured a job in health care and found a renewed desire to put the past behind him. He looks at two pictures hooked to a key chain in his pocket for inspiration. They are photographs of his two young daughters, Cathy and Della Louise, whom he wants to move here one day. They are the missing pieces of a life he hopes to complete in St. Charles — a life he always wanted but never found down South. Davis admits he’s made lots of mistakes, yet he saw the chance to head north as a way out — a way to finally start clean, even if it meant leaving his little girls and family behind. “There’s times where I feel like just giving up and going back,” Davis says. “But then I say, ‘Well, I’ve come this far. I might as well keep going.’æ” About 30 miles separate New Orleans from Slidell, a city on the northern banks of Lake Pontchartrain. Davis grew up in Slidell, where, in August, Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city, including a trailer he was renting at the time, with 176 mph winds and a 23-foot storm surge. The disaster was the latest in a life of setbacks for Davis. He had dropped out of high school after becoming a teenage father. The boy, now 16, lives with his mother in Louisiana, Davis said. He spent his early adult years working in construction and landscaping for minimal pay. He had two children with his first wife, but their marriage fell apart. Davis said his second wife left him shortly before the hurricane struck and he intends to file for divorce. He earned a general education diploma and struggled to stay afloat. He sometimes had problems with alcohol. But in the months leading up to the disaster, life had begun to turn around. Davis was working full time for $6.30 an hour as a psychiatric aide at Southeast Louisiana State Hospital — a job he had for two years. While the pay wasn’t great, he said, it was typical for the area and getting him by. His daughters lived nearby in his parents’ custody, he said. He rented his own place and had met a woman over the Internet. Later, she would be the reason he came to St. Charles. The relationship also led Davis to make positive changes in his life, such as drinking less alcohol. “I was thinking things were starting to go good again,” he says. “I was watching my Ps and Qs, working the graveyard shift and pulling doubles whenever they would let me work. I was finally getting money in the bank. I had a car.” Davis missed the first wave of evacuations, so he holed up in a Slidell motel with dozens of others, he said. Over a series of weeks, he says he watched the flood waters rise and fall alongside fellow Southerners also gripped with fear. For a time, he shared a modest house with his parents, children, brother, sister-in-law and extended family. But he finally fled the ravaged land, scraping together what money he had for a bus ticket that would take him to a place he had never seen. A place with good jobs, less crime and no hurricanes, he says. A place with possibilities. Davis says he came to the Tri-Cities upon an invitation from the friend he met online. After about two weeks, he learned that shacking up with her family, which didn’t know him, wouldn’t work. While looking for a job in the area, word of Lazarus House — an emergency shelter that houses dozens of people at a time — came Davis’ way. With no transportation, no money and no place to go, he swallowed his pride and showed up there one day, seeking a bed and a roof until he could get back on his feet. In his first nights at the shelter, Davis became aware of the differences between living alone and with 50 people. He hears folks climbing the stairs, feels bunkmates roll over and deals with a spectrum of personalities. “It’s really different,” he says. “They try to keep everybody as comfortable as possible in a place like that.” But the coffee’s good. The food’s warm. And in this place Davis has found more of a chance to succeed in life than perhaps ever before. Which is why he describes it as a “godsend.” Darlene Marcusson, executive director at Lazarus House, said Davis is representative of more than a dozen hurricane evacuees who trickled into the shelter in the months after the disaster. “People began to drift in by ones and twos,” Marcusson said. “People had come in this direction because they had somebody they knew here, that there was a connection. Then, it didn’t turn out to be all that they had hoped for.” There was an elderly woman who came to St. Charles under the assumption some friends still lived here but ended up sleeping in a car. There also was a family of three teenage daughters, a mom and dad. A family of three adults. There was a single mother and her daughter. A boy traveling with his mom and dad. Another family of five. Davis is the lone evacuee still living at the shelter. The nonprofit paid his tuition at Elgin Community College, where he recently earned certification to be a psychiatric aide. The process took a semester of schooling and the passing of a state board exam. It also helps him pay for transportation when he needs it to get to and from a new job at Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, where he started working in February. He now pulls any additional shifts he can, he says, hoping for overtime pay he can put toward getting into a transitional housing program, an efficiency apartment, or a car. He and his online friend still date, and the woman gives him rides to work sometimes. Aside from Davis, at least six families forced from their homes by the hurricane have established new stakes in the Tri-Cities with the assistance of Lazarus House. Each now have income, transportation and homes, Marcusson said. But there still are struggles in keeping afloat. “It’s not just that someone’s in housing, then ‘Next!’æ” Marcusson said. “These folks are going to have needs for years.” Davis doesn’t like to think that it probably will be Thanksgiving before he can see his daughters again. But he doesn’t fib to them about it. In weekly conversations over the phone or online, he says he tells them he will come for a visit when he can, although it might be awhile. He knows in the back of his mind that it will be even longer before they might all be living together as a family. His ex-wife currently sees the girls on weekends, he said, and a legal battle could result if he tries to bring them to Illinois. Davis also plans to return to college to become a registered nurse once he gets back on his feet — a cause his professors say isn’t lost. They respect his natural abilities with people, they say, and his drive to find a home. “He just really seems to be trying to build his life from the bottom up,” says Diane Ainsworth, one of Davis’ teachers and an associate professor at Elgin Community College. “I know it can’t be easy.” On a chilly day, Davis took about $30 someone had given him as a gift and spent it on new work clothes. He says he invests practically every dime he gets back into his career, aside from the cigarette habit he just can’t kick. Davis says he’s always been a fighter — one who isn’t easily discouraged, no matter what comes his way. Still, he hopes this fresh start is the one that sticks. “I try not to concentrate too much on the negative things. I look at every improvement I make and try to focus on those things,” he says. “I look at those things as stepping stones I can be proud of. “I say, ‘OK, this is what I’ve been handed. Now, where can I go from here?’æ” GREAT NECK, N.Y., May 9, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- New York businessman Frank Marzano decided to do something about the atrocities being committed against homeless people. He teamed up with the National Coalition for the Homeless, songwriter Bervin Harris, and film producer Hedley Turk, with Harris and Turk donating their talents, to create an awareness program in song and dance. Aimed at youths and adults, the record and video entertain as well as educate. The audio visual project heightens people's sensitivity toward the plight of the homeless as well as increases public and private support of projects to help the homeless and eventually eradicate homelessness. The case of a Florida homeless man beaten to death with a baseball bat by a gang of violent teens shocked the nation. It brought to the public eye the problem of crimes perpetuated on the vulnerable homeless as they lay sleeping on public streets. Mr. Marzano's motto is: "Instead of beating the Homeless with a stick, feed them a steak." He launched and funded the project not only to protect the homeless but to try and put an end to homelessness in America through help programs, education and behavior modification. To enable the men and women who sleep on the streets to become self sufficient and prideful is the ultimate resolution of the homeless problem. Marzano states, "There will never be an end to homelessness, but we can educate everyone to help them, not hurt them." Mr. Marzano said, "Homeless persons need help from hate crimes that are carried out mostly by youths. Homeless coalitions need money to fund programs to feed, house, and clothe the people. Our record and video will create awareness and raise money through sales." Michael Stoops, Acting Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. said, "Due to the recent increase in hate crimes and violence committed against homeless people, we support doing a song/video to help break down the stereotypes and prejudices that we all have about homeless people." Since today's young people are greatly influenced by audio-visual arts, (television, movies, video games) the project, when completed in early summer, will reach out nationwide to the public, both young and old. Surviving and willing victims of such hate crimes will join young people to sing together on the video, with a show of solidarity and support for the homeless. Hoping to solicit volunteers, material donations, and money for ending homelessness in America, the project is open to help from the public now. Frank Marzano is completely funding the project but help is needed from the public and business sector, particularly endorsements from major business, for marketing and distributing the record and video. For information, contact Frank J. Marzano at: PROJECTHOMELESS@AOL.COM (516) 334-6926 (516) 521-5878, cell 247 E. Shore Rd Great Neck, NY 11023 by Neil Nadel News 12, Chatanooga He says that part of the city served as a dump decades ago. The mayor and some council members say that doesn't mean the site can't be turned into something useful. "Absolutely. We have been using it for a long time. We've been eating fruits and vegetables from that location. We have people that are living down there now. So, we're not really changing anything," explains Littlefield. "But does that mean that the surface of the land is a danger to anybody that would keep us from building over there or doing something there? We'll just have to ask the experts and be guided by whatever they tell us," says city councilwoman Sally Robinson. Mayor Littlefield adds the city built around a similar problem at the city's Development Resource Complex on Market Street. BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DENVER - A one-night survey of homelessness in metro Denver found that the number of people without a permanent place to live decreased about 11 percent from last year, but a larger percentage of the homeless were families with children. The survey was released Monday (May 8) by the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative and the Mile High United Way. It was taken at more than 150 agencies and locations in seven counties on Jan. 23. Those counted filled out a questionnaire, either at a place offering services for the homeless or after being identified by volunteers on the street. The survey had 5,424 respondents, who said they were accompanied by 3,667 family members. The 9,091 total was below the 10,268 counted in 2005 but above the 8,668 counted in 2004. Single parents made up 39 percent of respondents in this year's survey, compared with 35 percent in 2005 and 36 percent in 2004. Households with children saw a bigger jump, 58 percent this year from 50 percent a year ago. More than 3,200 children and youth were counted. Respondents listed lost jobs as the top reason for being homeless, although about a third reported having a full-time, part-time or day-labor job. Linda Murphy, the homeless initiative's executive director, said some of the decrease could be attributed to increased efforts to address the problem. This year's count was the first since Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper began his 10-year plan to end homelessness in the city, called Denver's Road Home. The project took effect in July. About half of the homeless counted in the survey were living in Denver. "We do believe that the emphasis that Denver is putting on their plan to address homeless, that's impacted the numbers," she said. The survey also contradicts some common beliefs about who the homeless are in the Denver area, she said. "We tend to stereotype homeless people as single males with alcohol or substance abuse issues," she said. "We're seeing the number of families go up, and that's very disheartening." Hickenlooper said the increase in families underlined the need for one of his plan's major components, having the city's religious congregations "adopt" a homeless family, paying for their first month's rent and mentoring them as they try to become self-sufficient again. About 200 congregations have volunteered, he said. "I feel very confident that we're going to address that aggressively," Hickenlooper said. Though a useful marker, Murphy said the survey does have limitations. Counts can be affected by the number of volunteers available or the weather, and information about substance abuse or mental health can be skewed because participants are self reporting. "We know that there are 9,091 persons who were identified. We don't really know how many weren't identified," she said. "We believe the number will always be an undercount." Losing Job Was Biggest Reason People Were Forced To Live On Streets Channel 9, Denver DENVER -- Nearly 60 percent of the homeless in metro Denver are families with children, according to a new study released Monday. The 7th Annual 2006 Point-In-Time survey, conducted by the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI) and Mile High United Way, also said that about a 36 percent of the area's homeless are working either full- or part-time or in a day labor position. Those questioned said the loss of a job was the No.1 reason contributing to their homelessness. The group implementing the survey questioned homeless people during one cold night in January, and asked them where they spent their night, what they did with their day, and how they got to be homeless. More than 9,091 people in the seven-county Denver metro area -- including 3,261 children -- did not have a permanent place to live the night of Jan. 23. "Many families and individuals are vulnerable to economic disaster in many forms and are becoming homeless because of increasing housing costs, difficulties in obtaining health insurance to guard against a healthcare crisis, job loss or inability to find work at a livable wage," the report said. Nineteen percent of those surveyed are homeless for the first time and for less than a year, nearly three-quarters of whom are families with children. The 7th Annual 2006 Point-In-Time survey provides a snapshot of the homeless community in the seven county metro Denver area and allows local government and service agencies to spot trends in homelessness and to evaluate the success of existing programs. The survey is not an "exact" count of every person who is homeless in the metro area. It only captures information about people who were either receiving or seeking assistance through homeless service providers, or who confirmed their homeless status when approached on the street by outreach workers. "We need to ensure that the same kinds of resources available for those who are homeless from hurricanes Rita and Katrina are available for long-time residents of metro Denver. This survey reveals certain realities as it looks into the face of homelessness and we as a community cannot look away," said Tom Luehrs, chair of MDHI's Board of Directors. To learn more about the results of the study, go to: www.MDHI.org. Monica Alonzo-Dunsmoor The Arizona Republic With sweltering temperatures creeping toward the Valley, Phoenix officials say they are better prepared this summer to protect vulnerable residents than last year when the heat claimed at least 10 lives, many of them homeless. "We've learned some important lessons from last year," said Councilman Greg Stanton, who is chairman of the Regional Continuum of Care, a Maricopa Association of Governments committee that deals with homelessness issues. "And we'll be better prepared this year." The city is working with 26 faith-based organizations across the Valley to collect and distribute water bottles, provide a cool escape from the heat and check on elderly residents to make sure they're using cooling systems or can get to a cool place. The plans kick in when the National Weather Service issues certain heat advisories, such as temperatures significantly exceeding the day's average. "We're going to rely on the Weather Service to give us information, but common sense will prevail," said Marcus Aurelius, Phoenix's homeland-security coordinator. "If we have conditions that we're not comfortable with, we're going to respond appropriately. "It's more than just handing out water. It's education, reminders to the public to take care of themselves and check on their senior neighbors if they're vulnerable to the heat." Tim Jent, 36, lives in a Phoenix homeless shelter and knows how to survive the summer heat. "You have to take really good care of yourself and drink a lot of water," Jent said. "Some of these people have a lot of pride, but there is no need to stay in the heat. There's all kinds of places you can go. You can always find shelter." Some of those places will be the Human Services Campus Day Resource Center at 10th Avenue and Jefferson Street; the Phoenix Rescue Mission, near 35th Avenue and Durango Street; and United Methodist Outreach Ministries, near 32nd and Van Buren streets. St. Mary's Food Bank agreed to store a couple of thousand bottles of water for the city. Once the temperatures get even higher, those bottles fly off the pallets. "We've got the space," said Ben Bradley, the food bank warehouse manager. "And if this is helping prevent death because of dehydration, that's huge." Steven Napora, 56, is homeless and doesn't plan to weather the Valley heat. "I'll be going where it's cooler," Napora said. "I'll be gone in a few days. But most people who are here (homeless) are from somewhere else, and they aren't used to the heat." Janice Hartman, 58, is one of those newcomers. She's been staying at a homeless shelter 23 weeks. "I drink water like crazy," she said, holding up a half-filled bottle of water to prove it. "I always have my water with me." She said she too plans to head for cooler climates. "I don't plan on being here in the summer," she said. "But if I am, God will see me through." Wyoming Winds is published by the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless |
7th ANNUAL WALK IN MY SHOES FUNDRAISER
