• There's a Difference Between Homeless and Transient, Richard McCollough
• Feeding Homeless in Park Can Continue for 90 Days, David Migoya, Denver Post
• Cities Fight Panhandling by Outlawing Food Giveaways in Parks, Matthew Phillips, Newsweek
• Homeless Men Find Happiness, Stacey Shepard, Bakersfield
• Calgary Happenings, Ron Murdock
• Old Brewery Expands its Mission, Alana Coates, Montreal Gazette
• Cambridge, State at Odds on Homeless Roust, Jessica Fargen, Boston Herald
• Homeless Advocates Take Over Building
• Chosen Fast, a blog about homelessness, outreach, advocacy and community, Cara Michele
• Bones of the Homeless, Book of Poetry and Photographs by Judy Jones
• Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
• Homeless Home Movie
• The Homeless Plan in Action, Vancouver, B. C.
• Cathy Crowe's (Street Nurse) Newsletter
• Homelessnation.org
• LA's Homeless Blog
• Volunteer opportunities at WCH
• Donations needed at WCH
• Click Here for WCH Donation Form
• Click here for 2007 Walk in my Shoes Registration
• Publication Information
• Wyoming Housing Network
• Equality State Policy Center
• HUD in Wyoming
• Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless Home Page
• Universal Living Wage
• Universal Living Wage
• HMIS Information
• HUD Clips
• National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Campaign
• National Interagency Council on Homelessness
• National Coalition for the Homeless
• National Alliance to End Homelessness
• National Low Income Housing Coalition
• National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
• International Alliance of Inhabitants
• North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA)

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Denver parks officials agreed Tuesday to allow groups to continue feeding the hungry and homeless in Civic Center park - at least for another 90 days.

The three-month exception gives the groups time to petition the Parks and Recreation Department for a change to the regulations that prevent the mass feeding of homeless at the downtown park.

Or they can find someplace else to feed them.

"It's not a matter of right or wrong, but rules and permits," said Susan Fry, director of the department's park ranger program. "We appreciate that there is a huge effort by people that should be considered."

Several groups that met with city officials Tuesday said they'll also consider banding their resources to find a suitable location to feed the hungry away from the park. One offering was the Temple Events Center, 1595 Pearl St.

"We'd like to plug into the resources and tap into the city's agenda," said Kim Huffman, an Arvada resident who frequently feeds the hungry at Civic Center.

At issue is a park regulation that requires a permit for all activities with more than 25 people. Some feedings have attracted more than 100 homeless and hungry.

But mass feedings are not among the permitted activities, so parks department officials said that activity was prohibited.

Groups that feed the homeless said banning them from the park is just a way for the city to push the problem out of the public view.

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A father and son who haven’t seen each other in almost 40 years were reunited at the Homeless Veterans Stand Down Saturday in Stramler Park.

The talk of the Kern County Homeless Veterans Stand Down this weekend at Stramler Park was Saturday's surprise reunion of Sammy Kahler, 45, left, and his dad, William Kahler, 70. The two men even ate breakfast together without knowing who the other was, but later as names were read it became evident that the father and son, who hadn't seen each other in about 40 years, were at the same event.

Sam Kahler, 45, was standing near a tent where a ceremony was taking place when he heard the announcer call out the name William Kahler.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘No way, this can’t be,” said the Army veteran, who hadn’t seen his dad since he was 5 or 6.

When the older man came out of the tent, Kahler rushed over to him.

“Are you William George Kahler?” he asked.

“Yeah,” the man replied.

“Hey, Pops!” Kahler said to him. “I’m your son. Sammy Lee Kahler.”

The two were inseparable the rest of the day. Word of the reunion spread quickly around the camp, and others began referring to the pair as “dad” and “son.”

The two were in Stramler Park for the annual Stand Down, which provides homeless veterans with food, clothing and access to medical, legal and counseling services. Both men had attended since Thursday, when the event got under way.

“It’s one of the proudest days of my life, right there,” said William Kahler, 70.

The younger Kahler was about 5 or 6 the last time he saw his father, who had left California and moved to Washington. Both men traveled by freight train around the country looking for work in the intervening years. Neither knew the other had served in the Army. “Like father, like son, I guess,” the younger Kahler said.

Both men are also homeless.

The younger Kahler lives in a tent on the banks of the Kern River. The elder stays at a mission in east Bakersfield.

Sam Kahler said he had some idea his father was around Bakersfield. While checking into the mission where his father stays one night, staffers asked for his last name. When he said “Kahler,” they dug through some records and then asked, “William?”

“I thought, ‘My dad stays here,’” the younger Kahler said. “Our paths must have just missed each other.”

Today, Sam hopes to introduce William to his 16-year-old grandson. The two men, who live off Social Security, also talked Saturday about renting an apartment together.

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Nov. 6, 2006 issue - Walking around downtown Orlando, Fla., feels like strolling through "The Truman Show" 's fictional town of Seahaven. But spotless sidewalks, a tidy business district, lush parks and lakes belie a real city with real problems, in particular a burgeoning homeless population that local officials are struggling to control. After a law banning begging outright was struck down by the courts, the city tried regulating panhandlers by issuing them ID cards, then by confining them to three- by 15-foot "panhandling zones" painted on sidewalks. But it wasn't enough, so this summer Orlando tried a supply-side solution, cracking down on churches and activists who had been feeding large groups of homeless people in downtown parks. Now it's not just the panhandlers who risk getting arrested, it's the people trying to help them.

Advocates say anti-feeding ordinances are the latest in a series of municipal efforts to legislate against homelessness. A report this year by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) found double-digit increases since 2002 in laws prohibiting begging, sitting and lying in public places. A week before Orlando passed its ordinance, Las Vegas outlawed giving food to even a single indigent in any city park. The law defines an indigent as a person who appears "to be entitled to apply for or receive" government assistance. "It's revoltingly immoral. It literally enforces a class regime by defining criminal behavior based on income," says Lee Rowland, a public advocate with the ACLU of Nevada, which filed suit in August against the Vegas feeding ban.

"Cities figure that if you quit feeding the homeless, they'll go away," says NCH executive director Michael Stoops. But in Orlando they've kept coming, drawn by warm weather and low-skill service- industry jobs. The homeless population, including seasonal agricultural workers, is estimated at about 7,000; the city has shelter capacity for about 2,000.

Activist and church groups tried to fill the gap with food programs. The largest, run by a group called Food Not Bombs, began giving away meals once a week at Lake Eola, one of Orlando's most pristine parks. Their well-intentioned efforts led to some negative side effects for nearby residents. Police say that crime, along with reports of trespassing and lewd behavior, spiked after many of the large feedings, which often drew hundreds of homeless into some of the nicest parts of downtown. "I was having to pick up human waste from my yard and shoo people out from sleeping in my bushes," says Robert Harding, a local attorney whose office is around the corner from Lake Eola Park.

While the ordinance has reduced the size and frequency of feedings, Food Not Bombs is finding ways around it by feeding from the backs of cars parked across from parks. More than once, it's thumbed its nose at the city by feeding in front of municipal buildings, even city hall, which raises the issue of whether the ban is even enforceable—just as the city prepares to defend it in court. Supported by the ACLU, Food Not Bombs sued to overturn the ban earlier this fall. Food, says the group's head Ben Markeson, "is a right, not a privilege." The city may look like a movie set, but the people lining up for sandwiches aren't actors.

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Apparently in Thursdays (November 2, 2006), Calgary Herald there was an article about an 84-year-old woman whose rent was about to be increased to $1500 a month. She is now facing the prospect of being homeless. I presume she is on a fixed income like many senior citizens but I wonder how in good conscience any landlord can do this to anyone never mind a person of that age.

I just hope and pray that the 84-year-old woman can find a place she can afford to rent or has someone who can help her out.

This is in Calgary, Alberta where the vacancy rate is less than 1%.

Cheers:
Ron Murdock

In Calgary there is a former BRICK warehouse that is being converted into a homeless shelter for the next 5 to 6 months. This is at a cost of about 1.5 million.

Now I do believe that people should have a roof over their heads at any time but would it be better served to spend the $1.5 million on low cost housing? My reasoning is that it could be more wisely spent on low cost housing & charge about $300 per month. This way it opens more housing on a long-term basis, provide more security for tenants/clients & tax money spent to build the housing project will be made back in the way of rent.

Any ideas from those inquiring minds on this list?

Cheers:
Ron Murdock

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Shelters for the homeless used to be places to get a hot meal, a bed and brief respite from life on the streets.

But for James Hughes, executive director of the Old Brewery Mission, that's just not enough anymore.

The number of homeless people in Montreal is rising and they are getting younger every year, he said.

The way Hughes sees it, the Old Brewery can continue being jam-packed every night, or it can change tactics and start focusing more on getting people off the streets and back into society.

"Morally speaking, it would have been wrong to simply keep adding more beds every year instead of helping people on their journey out of homelessness," he said.

The Old Brewery Mission has 488 beds. Its main shelter for men is on Clark St.

Last year, the shelter had 1,264 new people requesting its services, Hughes said.

There are no precise statistics on the number of homeless people in Montreal, but it's been estimated at as many as 30,000.

Hughes recently finished a five-year plan for the Old Brewery Mission to develop new programs to reduce the number of homeless in Montreal. He is presenting his plan to an inaugural meeting of about 30 representatives of homeless shelters from across Canada, to be held at the Montreal World Trade Centre tomorrow and Friday.

Hughes said he was inspired to gather the shelters - including others in Montreal as well as sites in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver - after he ran into one of the Old Brewery's regular visitors on a street in Ottawa.

Hughes said he was struck anew by the realization that shelters throughout the country share many of the same clientele, and they should all be working together in a common goal.

"The challenges are slightly different from city to city, but we all have a lot in common and should be discussing and learning from each other," he said.

The Old Brewery Mission wants to become a model for other shelters when it comes to "exit strategies," as Hughes calls them.

"We can't all just continue to abandon people in the shelter system," he said. "We have to become more proactive in accompanying them out."

The Old Brewery first started to change its focus in 2004, when it changed its mission statement to include exit strategies.

The shelter now has two such programs, the 165-bed Transitional Residence program and the Etape program, which has 16 beds for homeless people who are assisted by counsellors to slowly ease back into society.

"Traditionally, clients leave during the day and come back at night," Hughes said. "We want to break this cycle by allowing them to stay during the day. It's a critical change."

The two programs have had some early success: The Old Brewery helped 106 homeless people get off the streets last year.

Under the five-year plan, the Etape program would be increased to 88 beds and the number of intervention counsellors at the shelter would rise to

21 from 10. As well, more beds and staff would be added to some of the mission's other programs.

The Old Brewery will ask the provincial and federal governments, as well as donors from Montreal, to help fund this plan.

"Will we succeed in stopping homelessness in Montreal? Of course not," Hughes said.

"But if we put our foot on the pedal, remind people of their talents and capacities and bring in the services to help them, we can make a change."

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A Cambridge official says the city didn’t ask that a homeless artist living by the Charles River be kicked out of his illegal digs, they merely passed along a complaint they received about his dwelling.

Brian Joyce, 54, was essentially evicted Monday from the makeshift home of stones and pieces of wood he had built over six years.

Joyce passed his time by sketching, working on his abode and scavenging for food in Harvard Square.

Cambridge Deputy City Manager Richard Rossi said the city received one “health” complaint about Joyce during an August meeting and passed it along to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owns the land.

“We didn’t ask them to remove him. We have homeless people living in locations about the city,” he said.

But Vanessa Gulati, DCR spokeswoman, said the state actually received several complaints about Joyce from the city in August, but she did not have information on their nature. DCR gave Joyce advance notice before removing his belongings.

Gulati said it is illegal to live on DCR land.

“DCR property is only open from dawn until dusk,” she said. “In our park system we don’t allow overnight residents.”

Joyce, who has been homeless since his 20s, packed up his belongings Monday and headed up to New Hampshire, where his sister lives.

The homeless artist said he plans to come back to Boston and “be homeless on bike.”

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

Editor for this issue: Virginia Sellner.
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© 2005.
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