07 22 2009

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

Where the poor and homeless July 22 to August 4, 2009

earn and give their two cents

D STE GE ON G S U N AT I DO

Volume 6 Issue 19

“For three days I am not homeless�

65 cents for the Vendor

35 cents for production of the paper

Homeless Report Rates Ten Meanest Cities Page 3

Celebrating Liberation on Bastille Day Page 4

Homeless Teams From 16 Cities Across the U.S. Participate in a Three-Day Soccer Tournament, see pages 8 and 9.

Autistic, Mentally Disabled and Homeless Page 12

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

1317 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (202) 347–2006 Fax: (202) 347–2166 info@streetsense.org www.streetsense.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS Kristal DeKleer Lisa Estrada Ted Henson Mary Lynn Jones Sommer Mathis Brad Scriber John Snellgrove Michael Stoops Martin Walker David Walker Kathy Whelpley EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Laura Thompson Osuri EDITOR–IN–CHIEF Mary Otto VENDOR MANAGER Gregory Martin ASSOCIATE EDITOR David S. Hammond (volunteer) Interns Talia Roth, Lianne Schmersahl, Vanessa Voigt, Marcus Williams VOLUNTEERS/WRITERS Sherry Antoine, Laura Arico, Robert Basler, Robert Blair, John Brandt, Jane Cave, Carol Cummings, Rebecca Curry, Katie Edson, Andy Freeze, Lisa Gillespie, Cassandra Good, Joanne Goodwin, Roberta Haber, Erica Hall, Carol Hannaford, Justin Herman, Annie Hill, Dan Horner, Phillip Hoying, Kayne Karnbach, Michael Kelly, Maurice King, Geof Koss, Brenda K. Lee-Wilson, Starlett McNeill, Kim O’Connor, Gabriel Okolski, Robert Orifici, Michael O’Neill, Jon Pattee, Katinka Podmankzy, Sarah Pope, Diane Rusignola, Cara Schmidt, Jamie Schuman, Jesse Smith, Christna Studivant, Matthew Taylor, Robert Trautman, Eugene Versluysen, Linda Wang, Denise Wilkins, Marian Wiseman, Corrine Yu

VENDORS O’Jango Amen, Michael Anderson, Jake Ashford, Lawrence Autry, Daniel Ball, Ernest Ballard, Carlie Banks, Kenneth Belkosky, Tommy Bennett, Phillip Black, Reginald Black, Corey Bridges, Michael Brown, Melody Byrd, Cliff Carle, Percy Carter, Conrad Cheek, Aaron Conner, Pamela Cooper, Anthony Crawford, Louise Davenport, James Davis, Chino Dean, David Denny, Ricardo Dickerson, Muriel Dixon, Alvin Dixon El, Charles Eatmon, Eric Ellis, Richard Embden, Randy Evans, Craig Fleming, Tanya Franklin, Roger Garner, Robert Gregory, Barron Hall, Dwight Harris, John Harrison, Patricia Henry, Shakaye Henry, Shawn Herring, Michael Higgs, Phillip Howard, Lester Irby, Michael Jackson, Patricia Jefferson, Jewell Johnson, Carlton Johnson, Donald Johnson, Allen Jones, Mark Jones, DeRutter Jones, Clinton Kilpatrick, Kevin Lasister, Brenda Lee-Wilson, Michael Lyons, Kina Mathis, John Matthews, Charlie Mayfield, Herman Mayse, Robert McCray, Jermale McKnight, Jennifer McLaughlin, Jeffery McNeil, Frank Mearns, Virginia Moore, L. Morrow, Tyrone Murray, Lester Myers, Charles Nelson, Sammy Ngatiri, Evelyn Nnam, Charity Ogbonnaya, Moyo Onibuje, Gregory Phillips, Harry Powell, Ash-Shaheed Rabbil, Forrest Rainwater, Michael Reardon, Jeanette Richardson, SeanChristopher Riley, Tyrone Rogers, Ed Ross, Denise Sanders, Melania Scott, Chris Shaw, Veda Simpson, Patty Smith, Gerald Smith, Yvette Smith, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens, James Stewart, Garland Stroman, Leroy Studevant, Sybil Taylor, Steve Thomas, Eric Thompson, Deborah Tibbs, Carl Turner, Patsy Uzzell, Martin Walker, Joseph Walker, Robert Warren, Lawless Watson, Darrell Whitmyer, Edna Williams, Brian Wills, Ivory Wilson, Charles Woods

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Our Mission

Street Sense aims to serve as a vehicle for elevating voices and public debate on issues relating to poverty while also creating economic opportunities for people who are experiencing homelessness in our community.

The Story of Street Sense

Street Sense began in August 2003 after two volunteers, Laura Thompson Osuri and Ted Henson, approached the National Coalition for the Homeless on separate occasions about starting a street newspaper in Washington, D.C. A street paper is defined as a newspaper about poverty, homelessness and other social issues that provides an income to the homeless individuals who sell it. About 25 street papers operate in the United States and Canada in places like Seattle, Chicago, Montreal and Boston, and dozens more exist throughout the world.

After bringing together a core of dedicated volunteers and vendors, Street Sense came out with its first issue in November 2003, printing 5,000 copies. For the next three years the paper published on a monthly basis and greatly expanded its circulation and vendor network.

For the first year, Street Sense operated as a

project of the National Coalition for the Homeless, but in October 2004, the organization incorporated and moved into its own office space. In March 2005, Street Sense received 501(c)3 status, becoming a nonprofit organization.

In October 2005 Street Sense formed a full board of directors, and in November the organization hired its first employee, a fulltime executive director.

A year later in November 2006 , the organization hired its first vendor coordinator, and began partnering with several service providers.

In February 2007, the paper started publishing twice a month and to support the increased production, Street Sense brought on its first fulltime editor–in–chief in April.

As of January 2009 the paper has 80 active vendors and prints about 30,000 issues a month.

Do you want to continue to support Street Sense throughout the year?

Order a subscription today!

Not only will you receive 26 issues packed with all our latest news, poetry and photography, you will also help raise awareness about poverty in the D.C. area.

___ YES! I want to subscribe to Street Sense for just $40 a year for 26 issues. ___ YES! I want to give half of the cost of a subscription to my favorite vendor: ______________________________ Name:_________________________ Address:_______________________ City:____________State:__________ Zip: ___________________________ Phone: ________________________ E-mail: ________________________ Please make checks payable to: Street Sense.

Mail to: Street Sense, 1317 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20005.

We are proud members of:

North American Street Newspaper Association

International Network of Street Papers

Vendor Code of Conduct 1. Street Sense will be distributed for a voluntary donation of $1. I agree not to ask for more than a dollar or solicit donations for Street Sense by any other means.

2. I will only purchase the paper from Street Sense staff and will not sell papers to other vendors (outside of the office volunteers).

3. I agree to treat all others – customers, staff, other vendors – respectfully, and I will not “hard sell,” threaten or pressure customers.

4. I agree to stay off private property when selling Street Sense.

5. I understand that I am not a legal employee of Street Sense but a contracted worker responsible for my own well–being and income.

6. I agree to sell no additional goods or products when selling the paper.

7. I will not sell Street Sense under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

8. I agree to stay a block away from another vendor and respect the space of all vendors. I understand that my badge is the property of Street Sense and will not deface it.

I will present my badge when purchasing the papers and display my badge and wear my vest when selling papers.

10. I understand that Street Sense strives to be a paper that covers homelessness and poverty issues while providing a source of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word.

Correction In “How a Helpless Situation Becomes Helpful Action,” on page 6 of last issue, two facts about Thrive DC’s homeless programs were misstated. Program officials say they served on average 1,000 more meals a month in 2008 than 2007. The program offers emergency services, case management, and other services to over 250 and up to 350 men, women and children each day.

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

The Meanest Streets - Getting Meaner Study tracks laws burdening homeless people nationwide

By Marcus Williams A new report released July 13 ranks the nation’s “Meanest Cities.” Both homelessness and criminalization of homelessness are on the rise according to the report, published by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP).

The researchers tracked laws ranging from citywide prohibitions on public camping, to creating odor or spitting. Some cities even prohibit businesses from sharing food with homeless people.

Out of 273 cities reviewed for the report, Los Angeles ranks as the “Meanest City,” the one with laws most hostile to the city’s poor and homeless people.

L.A.'s strict enforcement practices helped push the city to the top of the report’s rankings. And in 2007, the report says, Los Angeles spent more money on 50 extra police

officers in neighborhoods frequented by the homeless than it spent on services for the homeless.

Although the additional police have led to a decline in crime, advocates argue that supportive housing has similar effects, especially when the crimes are related to living in public spaces, which is often the case.

The homeless are rarely able to afford fines for even minor offenses like loitering, and face jail instead. "It costs more to jail a person than it does to provide permanent supportive housing,” said Tulin Ozdeger, NLCHP Civil Rights Program Director.

During one 11-month period, Los Angeles spent $3.6 million repeatedly prosecuting 24 homeless individuals. For the same amount, according to the Lewin Group, a management research consultancy, the city could have provided housing for over 350 people.

In addition to ranking the meanest cities, the report also commends four cities for exemplary programs: Cleveland, Daytona, Portland and Seattle.

Although the District of Columbia did not make the rankings, some restrictions, like a citywide ban on vehicle residence and camping, are broader than those in Los Angeles.

Top Ten Meanest Cities

Check out past issues and vendor profiles at www.streetsense.org

1. Los Angeles, CA 2. St. Petersburg, FL 3. Orlando, FL 4. Atlanta, GA 5. Gainesville, FL

FOUNDRY A Reconciling Congregation Invites you to join us in worship on Sundays at 9:30 and 11:00 AM Homeless Outreach

6. Kalamazoo, MI

Hospitality: Fridays 9:00 AM

7. San Francisco, CA

Foundry United Methodist Church

8. Honolulu, HI 9. Bradenton, FL 10. Berkeley, CA

1500 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 (202) 332-4010

www.foundryumc.org

Donate to Street Sense My Information

I will donate:

Name:_______________________________________________________ Address:_____________________________________________________ City/State/Zip:_______________________________________________ Phone:_______________________E-mail:_________________________

___ $50 for two vendor awards each month

Please make checks payable to Street Sense Street Sense is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization.

All donations are tax deductible.

Mail to: Street Sense, 1317 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20005.

You can also donate online at www.streetsense.org

___ $70 for food for vendor meetings ___ $100 for postage each month ___ $200 for the vests of 15 new vendors ___ $500 for rent for vendor office ___ $1,200 for the printing of one issue ___ Another amount of $_______ ___ Another amount of $_______ for vendor: ________________

In Kind Donations Needed * Messenger and tote bags and backpacks for vendors

* Laptop computers with at least Windows 2000

* Bottled water to hand out to vendors

and 10 GB of storage space

* Food for vendor meetings

* Laser color printer

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

Activists Find Hope in French Holiday For advocates against forced psychiatry July 14, Bastille Day, is a symbol of liberation.

Bastille Day, France’s national holiday, commemorates the day when revolutionaries freed prisoners from the Bastille, a government fortress. Two of the prisoners were locked up because of psychiatric disorders.

“It is a historic day of fighting against psychiatric oppression,” said Lauren Tenney, who organized a demonstration in Albany, N.Y. this Bastille Day to ban the use of electroshock therapy on children. Fifty people came out to support legislation for such a ban.

“We saw children as a first step towards a conversation about court-ordered and coerced shock,” said Tenney.

To those who saw the 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” electroshock may seem like a thing of the past. But electroshock is still used to treat psychiatric disorders, especially amongst elderly patients and women.

“We don’t know how often it is used,” says Linda Andre, author of Doctors of Deception. “Numbers simply don’t exist.”

Andre’s book explores the history of electroshock and its dangers. “The horror never was the shock itself; it is the aftereffects, which patients are not informed of,” Andre said.

Electroshock is one of many treatments that a person may be forced to undergo by court order, and against which there is organized opposition.

“Court-ordered prescription treatment exists in 40 states and the District of Columbia,” said David Oaks, who underwent forced psychiatric drug treatment and solitary confinement while attending Harvard University in the 1970s. Oaks is now the director of MindFreedom International (MFI), a group that advocates patient choice in mental health treatment.

Several groups hoping to raise awareness about mental health began organizing on Bastille Day in 1981. Advocates now hold events and demonstrations around the world. “We’re even getting out to developing countries, where pharmaceutical companies are looking to expand,” Oaks said. And MFI’s last two Bastille Day demonstrations in Ghana have been their largest.

Studies have repeatedly found higher rates of recovery from psychiatric disorders in developing countries, according to Dr. Norman Sartorius, former Director of the Division of Mental Health of the World Health Organization. The reason for this difference has yet to be confirmed, but lower rates of prescription drug use and better familial support could explain part of the difference.

MFI suggests peer support and counseling as some of the most successful other treatment options. “If you’re homeless and justifiably upset, a doctor will probably offer you ten choices: drugs, drugs, drugs, and drugs,” Oaks said. “That isn’t a choice.”

PHOTO by jane cave

By Marcus Williams

The library at St. Elizabeths hospital features a historic painting of the original Bastille Day event.

The Potter’s House Presents:

Sounds

of

Hope

Good Music, Good Food, for a Good Cause!

F

u t ea

g n ri

THE MODERN FOLK ROCK OF

TERRENCE J.

THE ROCK BALLADS OF STREET SENSE VENDOR

GREG PHILLIPS

THE FOLK ROCK OF ANTONIO ANDRADE

THE ACOUSTIC FOLK POP OF:

SARAH GILBERG

Friday August 7, 2009 Proceeds from this concert benefit:

Where the poor and homeless PHOTO courtesy of Dan Taylor

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Over 400 people attended a Bastille Day demonstration in Ghana.

earn and give their two cents

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

New Hospital Ushers in New Approach

PHOTO by jane cave

By Liane Schmersahl

Work continues on St. Elizabeths new hospital facility, which is to be opened around March or April 2010. The new facility will replace all but one of the hospital’s buildings.

The new hospital allows us to have a much bigger emphasis on recovery.

PHOTO by jane cave

For more coverage of mental illness and homelessness, watch for our August 5 edition of Street Sense!

Downsizing often means sacrifice, especially in today’s struggling economy.

But St. Elizabeths hospital in the District says its “downsizing” efforts will, hopefully, lead to simplicity without sacrifice.

By early 2010, the hospital plans to cut the ribbon on a new mental health facility, which will replace all but one building on the largely dilapidated and unused campus. The hospital currently operates approximately 15 of the 40-plus buildings on the east campus.

The new facility will replace the current John Howard Forensics Hospital, which treats patients admitted via the courts, and will also house some civil patients, who are admitted privately. St. Elizabeths now cares for about 400 inpatients.

The new hospital will care for 250-300 patients, and the existing civil hospital will remain as the only other functioning St. Elizabeths facility and will hold remaining patients.

Maureen Jais-Mick, director of community outreach and volunteer services at St. Elizabeths, says that the new building will not only provide more resources for patients, like courtyards and gymnasiums, but also represents a shift in the hospital’s goals and methods.

“The new hospital allows us to have a much bigger emphasis on recovery,” Jais-Mick said. For example, she said, one significant change St. Elizabeths hopes to fully implement by the transition is a switch to restraint-free care.

“You can drastically reduce the need for restraint if you de-escalate the situation rather than escalate it,” said Jais-Mick. “There is less trauma involved for the patients that way, so we’re training against the use of restraints.”

A move toward restraint-free care is seen as supporting founder and mental health pioneer Dorothea Dix’s mission for St. Elizabeths: “The most humane care and enlightened curative treatment.”

Additionally, the hospital hopes that the building’s design will allow it to stay true to Dix’s principles of “moral treatment.” With lots of natural lighting, open spaces, accessible courtyards, greenhouses, single-patient rooms, and a 28,000-square foot green roof, it will try to create a more comfortable environment for maximum and minimum security patients alike.

“There are courtyards all around the building so some patients will be able to go outside without staff,” Jais-Mick said.

Another important feature of the new building is a 250-seat auditorium, which will be open to both patients and the community. Jais-Mick emphasized the hospital’s focus on the arts, which includes a summer concert series and will allow for patient artwork to be featured throughout the hospital.

Patient care and mental health research at St. Elizabeths have steadily declined since their peak in the 1950s with about 7,000 patients, but St. Elizabeths remains an American landmark in mental health treatment and research. After opening as the first federally run insane asylum in 1855, the hospital provided a model for other American mental health facilities.

Its opening was an important step in American mental health care during a time when people with major mental illness were typically marginalized and abused in archaic facilities, or simply imprisoned.

The hospital has a long history that includes famous researchers and patients alike. For example, the nation’s first forensic psychiatry patient, Charles Guiteau, was treated at St. Elizabeths before he was executed for the assassination of President James Garfield. Some years later, Carl Jung studied African American patients at St. Elizabeths, looking for innate links between race and the unconscious (he concluded that there were none).

Today, the west campus belongs to the federal government, which plans to use the site as the new headquarters for the United States Department of Homeland Security. This decision has brought much controversy to the hospital and the surrounding community. Some are concerned that the development will jeopardize the historic value of the site, and others lament that the Department of Homeland Security will simply exist in, but not interact with, the surrounding economically depressed community.

The east campus will be consolidated into the two buildings, and will continue to belong to the D.C. government.

The new hospital facility will feature courtyards off all the ground-level wards and will be accessible to patients. Labryinth-style patterns influenced the patio design and construction.

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

Family Homelessness Increases Nationwide

By Matthew Allee The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report earlier this month, a yearly report to Congress that examines homelessness trends nationwide.

It found that although the overall number of sheltered homeless persons has remained fairly constant since 2007, the number of homeless families seeking shelter rose by 9% overall from the previous year and by 56% in rural and suburban areas.

HUD also announced that, for the first time, it will begin measuring rates of homelessness on a quarterly basis, as opposed to the annual reporting done up to now.

The department has labeled this effort the “Homeless Pulse Project” and hopes it will provide a better understanding of the effect the financial crisis has had on homelessness, as well as a more accurate assessment of trends in homelessness.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said, “The annual report tells us a great deal, but it also begs many questions about how today’s housing crisis and job losses are playing out in our shelters and on our

streets … With our new Quarterly Homeless Pulse Report, we will be able to better understand the impact of the current economic crisis on homelessness across the country.”

Washington, D.C. was one of the nine geographi-

The annual report tells us a great deal, but it also begs many questions.

-Shaun Donovan, HUD Secretary cally diverse areas studied for the first quarterly assessment of the Homeless Pulse Project for 2009. It found that from January through March, the number of homeless individuals in Washington rose from 5,907 to 5,983, an increase of 76 persons. It also found that approximately 60% of D.C.’s home-

less are individuals, while the other 40% are persons in homeless families.

Following the annual report’s release just over a week ago, HUD Secretary Donovan awarded a $7.4 million grant to the District of Columbia to combat homelessness. The funding was made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and with it HUD seeks to provide housing for the homeless and to prevent more individuals and families from becoming homeless as a result of the economic recession.

The grant will provide short- and medium-term assistance. This could include rental assistance for up to 18 months, security and utility deposits and payments, moving assistance, and hotel vouchers.

The funding will also be used to rehouse persons who are likely to remain stably housed as a result of the assistance.

“This is money that will not only spare families the hardships of homelessness, but will save taxpayers significant money in the long run,” said Donovan. “Often times, a little bit of financial assistance can make all the difference between finding a stable home and being forced to live in a shelter or on the streets.”

District Family Shelters Overwhelmed With demand up and a system in transition, D.C. runs short of beds

By Mary Otto At a July 17 hearing on capacity at the District’s homeless shelters, City Council member Tommy Wells listened to testimony about overflowing women’s shelters, homeless mothers sleeping in cars and an infant marooned in a hospital because the child’s parents could not get a place in a shelter.

As for sheltering homeless women and families in the District, Wells concluded, “I’m fairly convinced we have a crisis.”

Since the winter season's emergency beds were closed in April, the 352 city-funded beds in women’s shelters have often been filled. So women seeking shelter have been regularly turned away, said Debbie Billet-Roumell of the D.C. Women's Agenda, a local advocacy group.

“Offering shelter based on climate is not working,” she said.

The need for emergency shelter for families is even more acute, according to witnesses who spoke at the hearing. Currently in D.C. at least 280 families remain on a waiting list for emergency shelter.

In the midst of the national recession, family homelessness has been climbing steadily. “With D.C. at over 10% unemployment, we are not being spared,” Wells noted.

Among the 6,228 literally homeless people reported in the District’s annual homeless count this year were members of 703 families. The families included 868 adults and 1,426 children.

The total of homeless people living in families in the District grew by 25% since 2008, according to the homeless count.

The District currently provides emergency shelter for 162 families, including space in former patient rooms at the crumbling D.C. General Hospital.

“I'm going to investigate what it means to have 280 families on a waiting list for housing,” said Wells.

“We don't want to have tent cities across the District.”

Some speakers at the hearing stressed the importance of providing additional emergency shelter beds for women and reopening an additional 40 rooms at D.C. General that were used to shelter families last winter. Another family shelter, the blighted 115-family D.C. Village, was closed in 2007.

But the District’s Department of Human Services Director Clarence Carter stressed the city’s efforts to move past a reliance upon shelters as a way of coping with homelessness.

“Emergency shelters only serve to warehouse those with the greatest need, produce few positive exits and even fewer instances of housing stability,” he said.

Under the administration of Mayor Adrian Fenty, the city has invested $12 million to move 463 chronically homeless individuals and 56 families into permanent supportive housing. The program will move approximately 160 more single people and 24 more families into housing in the coming months, Carter said. In addition, a $7.4 million federally funded homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing program is expected to be up and running soon, Carter said.

“Shelter is not home,” Carter said. “We should continue to work to reduce emergency shelter in exchange for housing, whether it is transitional, per-

manent supportive or just plain affordable.”

Yet until adequate housing is in place, the wait for emergency shelter puts homeless people, especially families, in a desperate state of limbo, according to Marta Beresin, staff attorney for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

“These families are living from pillar to post," Beresin testified, "praying each day that a friend or relative will let them stay one more night, traveling back and forth from the family resource center waiting and hoping for a spot at D.C. General Shelter so they can stabilize their lives.”

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

A Frank Discussion About Addiction and the Streets

By Israel Bayer

T

his note landed in my e-mail inbox yesterday from a reader: “It has come to my attention that some of your vendors are alcoholics and drug addicts. If this is true, I’m sorry to hear that. I was under the impression that buying your paper you were helping them.

You maybe helping a few but not all and for that reason I will not buy your paper. You really should let the public know about the people that sell your papers and the problems they have.

The money they make is going to their addiction and not helping them.”

Having an honest and open discussion about alcoholism and drug addiction is always hard, specifically in the context of homelessness.

It’s even harder when an organization creates an alternative economic engine for people living on the streets, like a street newspaper.

Selling Street Roots is hard. There’s no question that the individual sleeping under a bridge tonight or in a cheap motel, after selling Street Roots all day, has put in a hard day’s work.

There’s a lot of ways to make money on the streets, and selling Street Roots is an honest one.

Why do people experiencing homelessness and poverty ask for your dollar, specifically Street Roots vendors? The answers are as colorful as the people that walk through our door. The short answer is survival, but there’s more.

Some have been slammed by circumstance, the recession or an unforgiving health care system. Some of the new faces of homelessness have been baffled at the idea of having to sell a street newspaper.

One vendor, possibly in his 50s, recently told me he was terrified to sell Street Roots because of the humiliation it would bring.

He had grown up in Portland and worked most of his adult life here.

“What if I see people I used to work with or old high school friends? It will kill me on the inside if I see these people,” he told me with a cringe. I had no logical answer for the man.

One vendor has been on the streets since he was 14 years old. He’s now in

his 20s. Last month a Portland police officer came to Street Roots to talk to me about him.

The police officer told me the vendor had become a nuisance downtown and had apparently said something smarmy to a precinct commander while trying to sell him a paper. We agreed that the vendor was out of line and that Street Roots would talk to him and let him know that’s not OK. It’s about respect.

What both the officer and I agreed on is that Street Roots shouldn’t give up on him. He could still go either way. Would it be a life of hard knocks, or will this young man go on to chase his dreams someday? Time will tell.

Everyone has a different story.

Some have been abused both physically and sexually and their adult life has been spent lost at sea – trying to capture some form of dignity they lost as a youth.

One vendor in his 20s has just come back from two tours in Afghanistan and is sleeping on the streets. You can see in his eyes that he’s dealing with things I can neither capture nor describe.

My point is, nothing is black or white on the streets; it’s just different shades of grey. So when we talk about addiction and alcoholism, we have to talk about the atmosphere surrounding people’s lives.

Are some vendors using or drinking? Yes. Are there reasons that Street Roots or Portlanders should judge this kind of behavior? Depends. Should we seek to get people the help they need? Absolutely.

Street Roots is not a direct service.

We believe in helping people help themselves – both through selling the newspaper and socialization (relationships) and by providing individuals with the resources and knowledge that exist for people. (See www. rosecityresource.org) For some, Street Roots doesn’t work.

It takes dedication and very hard work to day in and day out be at a specific location to sell the newspaper.

We don’t allow people to be aggressive and when they are, we work with vendors, business owners and readers to correct the problem.

We ask the vendors to be kind and

courteous and treat people like they expect to be treated. We also ask that vendors do not use or drink while selling Street Roots. But we do not attempt to police their behavior once they are done selling the newspaper.

Should we? It’s always been a tough question.

The answer we’ve always landed on is no, we shouldn’t punish a minority of vendors who may use some money made from the sales of Street Roots for drugs or booze. Here’s why: If a Street Root vendor chooses to have a beer or smoke a joint after work, for either leisurely or medicinal purposes and is not on the streets because of his or her addiction, how does that make him or her any different than the average Portlander?

Street Roots is not a charity, but instead a method of work to earn an income.

Why is a homeless person that works held to higher standards? We believe it’s because people don’t have a home.

By default, drinking beer or wine is illegal. Does that make someone not worthy of working? We don’t think so.

Street Roots vendors and people experiencing homelessness deal with the realities of the streets every day of their lives. Often times that means being exposed to hard drugs like crack cocaine or heroin. It’s not hard to find.

At Street Roots, we call it living on both sides of the gun. On one side are the drug dealers and the drugs themselves, and on the other side are inhumane laws targeting homeless folks.

We tend to believe that if a vendor is using after selling Street Roots, it’s better than the alternative.

They are not stealing from anyone to get their fix and they don’t have to hustle anything other than paper to be on the up and up.

It may seem twisted, but we would rather be able to engage a vendor who is using on a day-to-day basis than have that person be shoplifting or breaking into somebody’s car to get money for a fix. (Such stories were highlighted in Tye Doudy’s awardwinning column called Addict’s Almanac that ran in Street Roots in 2008.)

The person dealing with a hardcore addiction has the opportunity to

be influenced by other vendors and staff in a positive way, while having to maintain the discipline of selling the newspaper.

We also encourage people to deal with their feelings and emotions by expressing themselves through art, poetry and opinion pieces in the paper.

We also engage folks on the resources that do exist for help. It’s more or less a harm-reduction approach.

Do we always get it right? No. One Street Roots vendor and dear friend died of a heroin overdose in our doorway. Did we enable that person or not do enough? Should we have not allowed him to sell papers? It weighs on our minds.

On the flipside, dozens of vendors have gone from using to getting clean and sober while with the newspaper and with the help of our friends in the region.

What we do know is that the vast majority of our vendors use the money made from selling Street Roots to better their lives.

A handful of vendors with either criminal and/or eviction records pool their money every week for hotel rooms.

Some use the money to buy organic food they can’t find at many services.

Some buy bike trailers and adequate camping gear. Others use the money to supplement medical costs or to rent a studio apartment.

So, are we honest with the public at Street Roots about drugs and alcohol?

We believe so.

For every person dealing with an addiction on the streets it’s a different road. For some people it takes a day to climb up the mountain, for others a week or month or possibly even a lifetime.

At the end of the day, without an adequate health care system, a supportive social network and ultimately a will to live, it’s all for naught.

Street Roots does its best and can never in good faith turn our backs on those who may be walking a thin red line.

It’s a conversation that must continue.

Reprinted from Street Roots© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

Homeless Players Find Liberation in Street Soccer

By Talia Roth They called him “soccer boy” because he was always kicking a ball around the shelter. He was in and out of jail and dealing with sickness and spiritual issues but the soccer ball was a constant.

“Soccer boy” eventually found what he called “this light shining where there’s darkness:” Street Soccer USA (SSUSA), a soccer league for the homeless. He moved away, half-way across the country, and with the help of soccer, he got rid of some bad habits and found his solace.

“Everything else didn’t matter, “ Chris Parkinson said. “I focused so much energy in soccer. I was able to get so much out through it. All that energy was being channeled through me. I was left with clarity.”

Street Soccer is a project of Help USA, a nonprofit homeless assistance organization based in New York. Lawrence Cann, who organized the soccer league said the effort quickly took on a life of its own. The first tournament was held in Charlotte in 2006. Now there are 16 teams in cities across the country, including the local team, the D.C. Knights.

And from the beginning, there has been more to SSUSA than the game itself. Participation can offer players lessons in communication, trust, confidence and motivation that have a way of taking root in their lives.

If you ask Cann, one of the major flaws of many homeless shelters and other programs is that they only target a person’s most basic needs, not the problems that may have contributed to their homelessness.

“You’ve got to be solution-oriented,” he said. “We can help them [the players] build those social skills, confidence skills,” attributes that can ultimately help men and women move out of homelessness.

“You can have all the technical skills in the world, but if you aren’t comfortable speaking to someone, you’re not going to get a job,” Cann said. “It’s kind of like establishing some reasons for being in the world: having a hobby, a community where you feel welcome, that is going to sustain you as you go out into the world and into life. You have to have passions and things you care about.”

In each city, SSUSA organizers use a three, six, and 12-month goal setting program to improve the players’ lives off the field. They claim a 75% success rate with their players making significant positive life changes; such achievements as getting a GED, addressing a substance abuse problem or mental health issue,

securing full-time employment, or moving off the street.

“At face value this is just soccer,” said Jony Bell, a team manager for the Knights. “It’s when they [the players] start to get more involved in it, that’s when those doors start to open for them, whether it’s doors on the soccer field or in their life.”

For some “playing soccer is a little like a therapy,” agrees player Frank Mearns.

“It relieves a lot of tension.”

Soccer As Self-Discovery Mearns, 37, was in a drug and alcohol program last year and said the soccer team gave him exactly what he needed. “It got me outside,” he said. “We were constantly inside.”

Mearns said it was nice to have something constant to go back to every week.

“It kept me going,” he said. “It gave me a reason to keep going. It gives you a reason to stay clean.”

Chino Dean has been a part of Street Soccer for two years. “It gives me a chance to get out there and be energetic,” Dean said. “It gets me away from those preventing [me] to score….at least on the soccer field it’s up to me to put the ball in the net.”

For Dean, 35, the game is a kind of oasis. “It’s the only place I can go to get away from all the hypocritical feelings in the everyday meetings and greetings with other people,” he said.

Maurice King started playing Street Soccer at the age of 57. He said playing soccer reminded him of what his high school band teacher used to tell him.

“In the beginning you will feel ridiculous and you will look ridiculous and in the end you will just look ridiculous,” he said. “I wasn’t the most agile, but I didn’t let that stop me.”

The organization made its players reevaluate the paths their lives were taking, King said.

“The people that were on the team, they sort of took the task of finding more direction to their lives more seriously,” he said.

Within the homeless community King said, “There is sort of a feeling of stagnation.” Street Soccer, “for me, was an activity I looked forward to participating in,” he said. “It was something I was proud to be associated with.”

This year, the Knights team has formed a partnership with Neighbors Consejo, a service organization that works with Hispanic men with either addiction or mental health issues. Most of the team’s consistent players come from the shelter.

The players from Neighbors Consejo agreed that they are a team on and

off the field. Through the enjoyment of the game and their teamwork, they are helping each other reinvision their lives.

“I feel like I’m playing for D.C. United already,” player Jorge Munoz, 43, said through a translator.

Yet the team also faces challenges.

On the field you can hear a mix of Spanish and English calls for the ball and cheers, but often there is silence.

According to one of the coaches, Omar Abdul-Baki, there are often problems of communication. With any sport, players must talk with their teammates on the field or court to work as a team. But in addition to learning to cooperate with and to trust one another, the D.C. Knights Street Soccer team is also coping with a language barrier.

The Struggle To Connect Most of the 15 players speak Spanish, while the rest of the players and most of the coaches speak English. When language fails, coaches improvise by pointing, gesturing, and resorting to their best Spanglish.

“Let’s score some goalitos,” a coach yelled out as he threw the ball in play.

“Uno minuto,” he said in a heavy English accent.

Despite the hurdles, Bell, who works for the National Coalition for the Homeless said the partnership between the D.C. Knights and Neighbors Consejo has brought dedicated new players to the team. The increased structure and consistency of the team and has made it easier for the players to get to know each other and work on their personal goals.

The players and coaches alike agree the team has become much more organized over the past year. While only two players returned to practice this year, this was to the organizers’ delight. Others had left the team because they had made positive changes in their lives and were in the process of leaving homelessness behind.

“We were actually happy that our team was breaking up because it was all for good reasons,” Bell said. “It’s just been kind of amazing to see transformations in the players’ lives.”

A Vacation From Homelessness The 2009 Street Soccer USA Cup will be held on July 31 through August 2. There are 16 teams participating from 16 different cities across the U.S. The tournament is sponsored by a number of organizations including the Leonsis Family Foundation, Washington Kastles, U.S. Soccer Foundation, Nike, D.C. United, and e7 Sports. Teams are comprised

of homeless men, women and youth ages 16 and up.

From the competitors, what Mearns would call an “all-star” team is chosen for the U.S. National Street Soccer Team.

This team will travel to Milan, Italy to participate in the Homeless World Cup Sept 6 through 13. The World Cup unites teams from over 48 different countries.

Since 2005, a total of 32 Street Soccer USA players have traveled to World Cup contests in in Edinburgh, Cape Town, Copenhagen, and Melbourne. The best news of all is that 28 of those 32 players are now off the streets, attending school or working.

Megan Hustings a D.C. Knights team manager said that the tournament is a release for all the players from their daily worries and just a time to relax and have some fun. “I can’t imagine trying to find food and shelter and then try to have fun,” she said. “I just wouldn’t do it.”

At the tournament players get housing and food. Hustings, Development Director for National Coalition for the Homeless, said at one tournament she remembers spotting a scrap of graffiti that has remained in her mind ever since. “For three days,” someone wrote “I’m not homeless.”

Street Soccer USA Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Goldberg said the recent success of the organization has shown that the program model works.

“Local partners and organizations are embracing the idea that sport is a very important tool in community and personal development,” he said. “Sport is one of the most powerful tools for social change.”

Parkinson, 28, said that sometimes the efforts to help homeless people aren’t really what they need or come from too high up. “There’s always laws or rules or regulations, things handled in courts or offices, there’s never that much handled on the streets,” Parkinson said.

“The soccer program is actually on the streets helping people do something.”

To King, the concept was unique.

“Especially in the world of the homeless, the idea of getting together to play together was revolutionary,” he said.

Cann said his concept is simple, “We believe in the ability and the inherent value of our participants.”

At the end of the practice, Goldberg called his players in for a huddle. They came together, close, knowing there was just a little over a month before their big game. Goldberg screamed, “less than 40 days, 40 days.” It is clear those are words all the players recognize as they yell loudly and put their hands on each others’ to make one big stack and cheer, “D.C. Knights.”

S treetS ense.org

July 22 - August 4, 2009

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Schedule of Events JULY 11 D.C. Knights Street Soccer and the Montgomery County Street Soccer team, Los Del Cid, participated in the Major League Soccer fotbolso four-on-four soccer tournament.

JULY 17 D.C. Knights and Los Del Cid, the Montgomery county team, went to RFK Stadium to train for one hour, watch the D.C. United practice and then meet with the players.

JULY 19 T h e D. C . K n i g h t s a n d L o s D e l C i d b o t h participated in the “Cambiando Percepciiones/ Changing Perceptions” tournament, a six-on-six soccer tournament at Riggs LaSalle Recreation Center in Washington, D.C. The teams were made up of at-risk youth, day laborers, and homeless soccer players. Los Del Cid won first place in the tournament.

JULY 31-August 2 16 teams from 16 different cities will participate in the U.S. World Cup, a four-on-four tournament.

SEPTEMBER 6-13 In Milan, Italy over 48 different nations from across the world will compete in the Homeless World Cup to win the title of World Champion.

photos by Talia Roth

Homeless World Cup Team.

photos courtesy of Jeremy Goldberg

This event also serves as the trials for the National

Street Soccer’s D.C. Knights’ players, volunteers and coaches practice for their upcoming tournaments. The team practices every Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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July 22 - August 4, 2009

A’s Wordfinder

by Patrick Azarius

Simply find the following names of famous historical figures in the grid below. The last names are seperate words increasing the difficulty, so give it a go and see if you can find them.

Aristophanes MacAlpin Lucy Stone John Donne

Mead Elton Democritus Ben Jonson Sergei Diaghilev

Fichte Prokofiev

Last Week’s Solution A R I S T O P H A N E S T S

Z M E E S T O N E A L U P D

W A Q R N O S N O J T T R I

A C R G R U T U H K O I O A

Z A C I Q I R N B E N R K G

X L O F I C T H E S D C O H

I P M E A D D O X Z F O F L

E I E W I Y R J A Z G M I E

R N Q H U T A D O N N E E V

Y C U L O P M N C G U D V N

SHADOW PLAY COMIC by Harvey Droke The heat is on - the hot and neverending summer days, with time to look at the bright side, the cookouts and nights filled with fun splashing pool parties.

More importantly today will be the unforgettable day of all times, no dilemmas, no drama and without any questions the best summer ever. Everyone will be taking time out for some “we time” with the family and friends.

The good times, something we all are looking forward to with the understanding of the age-old endless quest for the times of our lives.

I’m picturing the full moon, the walks under the night’s darkened blue starlit sky, and the unforgettable moments, waking up to the rising sun and becoming bewildered by the smell of flowers flowing freshly within the morning air, and the mist of the morning dew. And the morning after the rain.

In doing something bigger than life, reach out and touch someone’s life today, keeping in mind the help that you give just may change the life of someone in need. The goal is to uplift and to empower people in need, as a community.

And most of all keep your Street Sense of humor, but don’t forget to “stay on top of the game, or the game will be on top of you.”

S treetS ense.org

Will write for food: Writer’s Group

July 22 - August 4, 2009

Writer’s Group meets Wednesdays 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Street Sense office. A poetry after party is 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Mental Health

Changes of Life: A Mental State

by Sean-Christopher Riley Poof. ... King’s Challenge ... prince to pauper ‘08 – wake up, wake up ... you ain’t got a name but you are alone. ... 5:30 a.m. wake-up, sheltered reality, damn how did I get here?

I’m broke mentally and physically, surrounded confounded grounded, wings clipped, earthly dipped, prestige stripped. How do I return from whence I came, from hunter to prey, from kingdom, to nowhere to stay, evolving to decay, knowing the way to aimlessly wandering following the hopeless way?

My eyes wide open witnessing the trials and tribulations of being the abuser or abused, looking in the mirror I realize what I see is all the examples are a part of the progamification I call me.

Somewhere within me is the king I used to be. Those around me are my kingdoms, citizens victimized by my mis-leadingship. As I survey the damage I’ve done, I call upon my father for his assistance and forgiveness of his prodigal son. I pray for his guidance for restoring our souls, removing negativity’s grip on our salvation. Remote control: once our relationship was restored, the impossible could not be ignored.

With my spirit lifted, achieving the unachievable is more than conceivable. Good always triumphs over evil; now I feel blessed, being chosen for trial and tribulations, ultimate test, for my enemies have been defeated. Now II must lead by example, one day one soul at a time until the end of time.

The only escape from earthly hell is knowing that salvation is a bottomless well. So I must continue to drink, bathe, share with all within my presence, to free myself as well as my kingdom’s citizens from any and all negativity’s references. Hope for the hopeless makes the difference between being damned and being blessed.

I challenge all who read these words to put this living testimony to the life-style’s souls unrest. I’ll see you amongst the kingdom of the blessed.

One love!!! Let the joy, happiness and prosperity’s light shine throughout the darkest corners nooks and crannies of despair that linger and hold our kingdoms enslaved, surrounding our mind body and soul with positivity, and watch how inner spirit behaves.

See you where enlightened spirits dwell or even at the blessed well.

Reform your state of mind before you state your mind.

Sean is also part of the Rockville Kiwanis Club, contact: Sean.riley@rocketmail.com

Just a Guy I Know Just a guy I know, A guy I’ve been knowing since high school, Just a guy at the top of his class, A guy if you knew him way back when... you would have thought this guy is going to go places, And now today one to many trips later, Homeless and don’t even know his name or me, Lord, lord, lord... Why does it have to be somebody help please!

Robert Warren Robert is also a part of the Peoples Fairness Coaliton, contact: robertwarren47@yahoo.com

Pioneering System

Reggie’s Reflections- Intruder!!!!

By Reginald Black Things were looking up. I had a new venture in which homelessness could be my gold mine. I was uncertain how to sell the paper but I gave it a shot. I was sort of successful. One day after selling I was invited to a friend’s house. She had been talking to me off and on throughout my homelessness from the start. I didn’t tell her what happened or even describe my situation. I hastened to her house and she had a couple of drinks. Not being 211 type, I declined to partake. She got drunk and was acting very weird. She flirted with a broken voice and seemed out of touch with what was happening inside the house. We talked a while, and hung out with her child. She then sent him inside. Soon he returned. I was beginning to think something was wrong. The boy began crying loudly. She ignored my request to charge my phone and then ducked inside. Then I heard yelling.

Looks like “I’m the cause of it.” I thought. The vibe I was getting was that I am an intruder!!! How could I be interrupting? I was invited or so I thought. If I was an intruder, why would someone even subject the other to that classification?

Reggie co-hosts the Writer's Group, contact: roninworrior@yahoo.com

The Little Boys Plea Cry out your plea, little boy, Or your words are few and your apprehension little.

You sense more than the normal eye, but understand less than the normal brain.

You feel little emotion, yet contain every single one.

You are gifted and talented in many ways and have so much potential, but will you understand, little boy how valued you are?

Mikkail Douglas Mikkail is new to the Writer’s Group, contact: Mikkal_79@ymsn.com

We are Different

by Reginald Black A known fact is that 350 communities have commited themselves to ending homelessness. But what is not always understood is that mental illness is a factor and usually an initial cause of homelessness. An article written by L. Rubin, A. Lauriat, and E.L. Bassuk, stated that out of 78 homeless people, most were found to have severe psycholgical illness. Forty percent have psychosis, 29% are chronic alcoholics and 21% have personality disorders. Data collected by the National Survey of Homeless Assistance and Clients identified mental illness as a factor in homelessness. That being said, we as humans should try to understand that we are different, and think different. We should try being a friend to someone rather than labeling them as crazy.

Reggie co-hosts the Writer's Group, see Reggie's Reflections for contact information

Hanging With Dave

by David Rubin

by Patrick Azarius

Once admitted into homeless shelters one tends to be placed collectively with others and simply defined as homeless. If further scrutinized, it will be found not to hold water for not all have money, health care services and social services made available to them.

Thus mental health goes beyond clothes and personal hygiene.

The French General Maurice De Saxe (1696-1750), in origins of military thought, shows his pioneering system for clothing soldiers in clean uniforms with shoes resulted in instant good mental health. He went further to ensure that the military organization is not run as a private club. Customs and traditions gave way to set principles and rules.

Homeless shelters can contribute to mental health by considering each case on an individual basis and not treating the residents as a collective entity. Tentatively, for good mental health, one learns to be satisfied with less, as long as it is of good quality and fulfilling.

As I descended off the Q2 onto the platform at the Wheaton station, I heard someone shouting “Azarius!” It was hard to discern the voice at first, amongst the myriad crowd, but soon, I saw an old friend of mine.

“Dave, how are you doing?” greeting him with a big hug. I met Dave through my brother. He suffers from schizophrenia. He was all smiles, and we were talking about life in general. He works as a fast food restaurant manager. He told me he does not shiver the way he used to and his delusions are milder.

Looking at Dave, I realized that the triumph of the will is something extraordinary. Here is a man who never made excuses or let his pernicious disease get the best of him. Myself, after hanging with Dave, I realized that there are no excuses for me not to be successful.

David volunteers and is writing his own novel, contact: stonepotts2007@yahoo.com

Patrick created this weeks game, contact: Patrickpierre39@yahoo.com

PRODUCTION, HOSTING, LAYOUT AND SUPPORT: Cara Schmidt, Carlton Johnson, David Hammond, Patty Smith, Reginald Black

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S treetS ense.org

July 22 - August 4, 2009

Autistic, Mentally Disabled and Homeless

By Louise Thundercloud

I

n Spring 2008, District City Councilmember Marion Barry held hearings on the outrageous lapses in the numbers of people who are on the waiting list for public housing. These hearings resulted in a policy initiative, titled “Housing First,” that sought to house chronically homeless individuals in permanent housing.

A vulnerability index was created to prioritize housing by identifying people who are homeless due to several issues, including disabilities or mental illnesses.

There was an effort to identify those extremely at risk. In some cases this has worked. For many homeless individuals, however, it has not.

My stay as a homeless person was during 1991-1993. I was a street person, for the most part. Since then, I have been dually diagnosed with bipolar disease, obsessive compulsive disorder and Asperger’s syndrome. The vulnerability index would not necessarily have worked for me during the time I was homeless because I was largely misdiagnosed. I did not know that it was extremely dangerous for me to be outside, so I remained outside and received plenty of abuse. Which brings me to what concerns me in 2009.

Over the past several months, the actions of Mayor Adrian Fenty have repeatedly shown a lack of compassion and understanding regarding vigorous decisions that affect the District’s homeless residents. The most glaring example of this includes the Franklin School Shelter debacle, in which the shelter was closed by Mayor Fenty. He continues to express complete justification in closing the shelter.

Another frightening aspect of his decisions concerns the funding cuts for most out-of-state placements.

In February 2009, a congressionally appointed monitor released a sensationalized memo to writer Bill Myers at the Washington Examiner. The memo stated that District of Columbia residents were being sent to the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation for treatment and, while there, were being treated “like garbage.” City officials responded by saying the District should not pay for abuse and that these clients should be served in D.C. In reality, the lack of services for the autistics and the woefully inadequate services for the mentally and physically disabled have not been discussed.

Unfortunately, bipolar disease and autism tend to be carried genetically. My daughter has been diagnosed with both, along with other mental disorders.

She was among the clients “set free” from out-of-state placements. Fortunately, she is much better off than many others in similar positions. She is not in the District in a dirty group home. She is not with providers who beat her on a regular basis out of frustration.

My daughter is simply an example of what awaits individuals who are prematurely let out of their out-of-state placements. If funding is removed from out-of-state placements, the District needs options in place to care for these individuals. My daughter’s provider, for example, needs to create strategies to work with her violence, moods and aggression.

Which brings me back to my initial point: autism spectrum disorders are a very interesting thing. While your intellect is certainly not affected, your ability to communicate the things that you know may very well be. In some individuals, autism spectrum disorders create a disconnect from pain. When I was recently hit by an SUV, I jumped back onto the very bicycle I was thrown from and rode away. I didn’t register that I had been hurt until almost two weeks later. This is a frightening prospect when you become homeless. What if someone harms you and you do not realize that you are harmed until weeks or months later?

My experiences and those of my daughter raise questions about the adequacy of care in the Disctrict’s Housing First initiative. I don’t believe the program speaks to the needs of people who do not recognize they are in danger and people who need services.

A few weeks ago I was on a Metro bus and I heard a male voice telling a woman, “I like your shoes, I like your shoes. Hey, I like your shoes. What’s your name? Spell it.”

When the young man walked away, I saw this woman cowering in her seat. A gentleman slid into the seat next to her and she said, “He is weird,” sniggering nervously. I tapped her on the shoulder and told her, “No he’s certainly not weird, he has autism. I remember him from Florida.”

Living with Bipolar

By Jeffery McNeil

I

have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder – what used to be called manic depression – since 1995. And it's only for the last couple months that I've been getting the treatment I need.

Bipolar disorder can feel very lonely, but you are not alone.

About one in 100 Americans has bipolar disorder, according to the Mental Health Research Association. That's over two million adults.

And I can tell you what my life was without treatment, and since I got treatment. When I was young I would have episodes when I would be so depressed, I would stop going to school and miss assignments. Many thought I was a dummy, including my family, who never understood mental illness.

But just taking a shower or cleaning my room was a major accomplishment. The only relief I seemed to have from depression was marijuana or a drink. It would stimulate me and motivate me – only to leave me feeling like crap the next day.

I was impulsive and impatient, and I had a hard time doing anything but sleeping. My depression would hit me in the winter like a dark cloud. I would think of suicide and hear voices trying to kill me. I was miserable. I wanted out of my hell. I was tired of people telling me I was weird and not having true friends.

The only friend and peace I had was a pint of vodka and some music so I could dream.

Then one day I went to a dance and I found a girl who liked the way I danced.

We practiced and won a dance contest. I would love to say life went happily ever after but, being bipolar and undiagnosed, I would binge, have unprotected sex and not sleep for days.

I was so arrogant and insensitive that she and everyone else left, which sent me into a major depression. I ended up in a psychiatric ward in New Jersey for mixing vodka and some pills. The doctor said I tried to kill myself. They observed my behavior and said I was bipolar. They gave me some anti-depressants, which I thought of as happy pills.

I felt good and I left the hospital but soon I felt like I didn’t need the medication any more. I got a good job at a Shop-Rite and worked my way up to supervisor, but then got fired for stealing liquor. I was making good money there and the shame got me into another depression.

I isolated myself from my family for almost 16 years. I didn’t brush my teeth, bathe. I would just watch TV or play video games.

Cocaine and alcohol were the miracles for my depression. I was up, energetic, doing exercises. I thought I could conquer the world, but unfortunately, I had no job to pay for such an expensive drug.

After my run with drugs, I checked into a mental health facility and got a drug called Depakote. I hated it. It made me a zombie, so I rebelled and stopped taking it.

Then I went to a shelter in Philadelphia called Ridge Avenue. I got counseling with someone who would listen. They stabilized me on Tegretol. But soon, I stopped treatment because I didn’t qualify for Medicare and my anxiety wouldn’t let me go through the long waits and lines.

I went out in Philadelphia for a month straight, had unprotected sex and gambled, all just to fill any void so I wouldn’t be alone. I came to Washington running from my past but bipolar disorder is the baggage I always carry.

When I came to Street Sense, I had symptoms of grandeur. I would insult people, feel privileged and be very arrogant. I also had rage that never was addressed. I was depressed and I would drink to sell papers. I would drink to be happy and I could not quit. I was bipolar but I never thought I could be helped.

It wasn’t until I went to detox and then the psyche ward that I finally realized I needed treatment.

I am trying to follow my doctor’s recommendations and I don’t have episodes.

I no longer have anxiety and paranoia; I do my chores, take showers and feel better.

I realize bipolar disorder is the most misunderstood of mental illnesses. It’s not like schizophrenia, but both can leave you empty.

Many great people are thought to have had bipolar disorder – Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and many others. So don’t despair. You are in the company of great people who have had this illness.

There is treatment if you are diligent and you are determined to follow up. I sought treatment because I got tired of using substances, being homeless and jobless because of my disease.

And to my bipolar buddies – don’t let the disease beat you up.

S treetS ense.org

My Mental Health Clinic CLOSING!

July 22 - August 4, 2009

No Place to Go

By Eric Sheptock

S

By JoAnn Jackson

M

ay 10, 2009 was my last monthly visit to the mental health clinic where I get help. The clinic is closing.

I was shocked when I first heard about this closure. And it's not fair, because we were told that before anything happened we would receive something in the mail. I'm still waiting.

Whoever thought of this idea should get up from behind their desk and visit a few of our neighborhood clinics. Some patients don't even realize what's happening.

I'm not just speaking for myself. I'm speaking for those who can't.

My heart is broken because I've attended this clinic for so many years.

All of the staff are very helpful and concerned about your health.

I've been going to this clinic for years and received a lot of help. Now that it's being closed my major depression is almost out of control. I stay to myself and the problem that really hurts is that I think of killing myself.

I really think that the government doesn't care about us because we've already put them in office.

And remember this: If respect is free, then why do I have to be rich?

Why do we have to be treated like we don't exist? Just because we have problems? It seems that any program the government starts for the mentally ill, homeless people and people without jobs doesn't last very long. The homeless and mentally ill have to follow orders. When they say, "Jump," we say, "How high?"

It's time for us to stop jumping and start fighting for our rights as low-income citizens. A lot of us have worked here all our lives, paid taxes, and helped build some of the buildings that some who are slowly taking our rights are working in.

At election time they can find the homeless, mentally ill and unemployed citizens to vote. And after the election it's bye-bye to all their promises. Everything they promised goes the opposite way. Homeless shelters that are supposed to be kept open are closed. Now the mental health clinics are being closed, especially 35 K Street.

If you're reading this article and you're part of closing 35 K Street, I'll make you a sincere promise from my heart that you can take my next appointment there, which is in early August. Because I think you need help! Let's fight for our home away from home.

So, fellow patients and friends, we're going to fight with all our might to keep our mental health clinic right where it belongs. 35 K Street is our home away from home.

Any patients interested in fighting to keep 35 K Street open, please contact me, JoAnn Jackson, (202) 232-3489 as soon as possible because our time is running out. Together we stand! Divided we fall!

Clinic patients: Talk to your doctor for a new clinic assignment!

And clinic patients, please contact your case manager so you will be placed in a proper clinic. This is no joke. If you don't get re-assigned it's possible that you may be placed anywhere.

So if you haven't signed up for a new clinic, do it immediately. I talked to my doctor and to Mrs. Smith at (202) 442-4946. I got scheduled at a mental health clinic at 216 Michigan Ave., NW, at Washington Hospital Center.

I found a new clinic. And if I can do it, you can do it too!

ometimes it seems that the homeless have no place to go. First of all, they have no home to go to. Then, they are often chased away from storefronts or told not to sleep in certain parks.

The Fenty administration is still reeling from the closure of the Franklin School Shelter and the backlash that it has caused.

They are still being dragged through the courts in the case of SHEPTOCK, et al v.

FENTY, et al, which is now in federal court to try to grant a restraining order to keep the Franklin shelter open. Rumors have been circulated for years saying that the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) Shelter is on the chopping block, too.

While Congress has lauded the mayor's efforts to move from shelters to Permanent Supportive Housing, they seem to be uninformed about the present shortage of shelter space, the lack of affordable housing, the shortcomings of the program that they praise or the fact that it has already been scaled back considerably.

With the shelter closures and dwindling funding for social services, the remaining shelters are full to capacity and operating under substandard conditions. The Homelessness Emergency Response Workgroup, a coalition of homeless service providers, advocates and homeless people, has been formed to address the shortage of shelter space. Shelter capacity must be addressed now, as it is bound to increase during the hypothermia season. Otherwise, homeless people will have no place to go, come winter.

As if all of this isn't enough, the homeless are now being told not to hang out in front of the CCNV shelter, where I stay, even after they might've just gotten off from work. Following the death of a homeless woman on a bench in front of CCNV, the city Department of Human Services reminded the shelter administration that the service contract stated that people would not be allowed to loiter in front of the building.

The city threatened to end the contract this term were it not adhered to.

This is a prime example of backwards logic. In order to make sure that no more homeless people die on a bench outside of a shelter, the benches have been removed and the homeless forbidden to congregate in front of the shelter, rather than providing sufficient shelter or housing.

There are now volunteer security personnel keeping the sidewalk in front of the shelter clear. The homeless then began congregating on the wall in front of the U.S. Dept. of Labor, which is in the next block. One would think they might be given jobs by DOL. On the contrary, they have been chased away by DOL security.

Few, if any, people would want to be pushed around because they are underprivileged. Even those who have no sympathy for the homeless shouldn't push off on another neighborhood those whom they wouldn't want near their own home. In any case, shuffling the homeless around town doesn't move them forward. It only serves to set them back.

As it turns out, wisdom sometimes comes in the guise of simplicity. That said, the first thing that a homeless person needs in order to rise above homelessness is a stable residence, be it a shelter or housing.

Some of the homeless who have no place to go might be solving their problem by squatting in the now vacant Franklin School Shelter building. The fire alarm has gone off at least twice since the shelter was closed abruptly by Mayor Fenty on September 26th of last year, in an effort to appease the business community. A homeless man told me that he has witnessed others entering and exiting the building in recent days. This would explain why the fire alarm keeps going off. The fire department actually had to break into the building on July 5th in order to shut off the alarm, badly damaging one of the doors on this 140-year-old historic landmark.

I guess Franklin is the gift that just keeps on giving and the school that just keeps on teaching. It is still giving shelter to the homeless and teaching us that desperate situations call for desperate measures. The homeless are possibly squatting in the building because they have no place to go. Let's hope that the police understand and don't house the homeless in jail. Fat chance.

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S treetS ense.org

July 22 - August 4, 2009

Street Sense Editor Selected for MIT/Harvard Fellowship

By Michael Muller Street Sense editor-in-chief Mary Otto has been selected as one of 12 journalists from seven countries to receive a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship, a nine-month program that will allow her to learn from and study with the best and most knowledgeable in the field of science journalism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

This fellowship allows experienced journalists the opportunity to live and study in an environment that encourages thinking beyond the necessity of “getting the story” and provides fellows the time to follow intellectual digressions and improve their skills. This fulltime fellowship will run the 2009-10 school year.

Consequently, come August, Mary will begin an extended leave-of-absence from her position at Street Sense. During her time at the fellowship Otto

hopes to attend classes at Harvard University Medical School and the School of Dental Medicine and the Kennedy School of Government studying oral care, mental health, and health care reform.

Before coming to Street Sense, Mary worked for the Washington Post for seven years and wrote extensively about health disparities and the difficulties that the working poor face getting access to health care, particularly dental care. One article she wrote about a 12-year-old boy, Demonte, who died from dental complications gained national attention and help to reform dental care for the poor.

“Covering that issue and reporting about what happened to him really provided a window to me.

I saw a real gap in access. This is something that could threaten somebody’s life and certainly affects a lot of peoples’ quality of life,” Otto said. “If you’re in pain all the time, you can’t eat, you can’t concentrate, and you can’t sleep. How are you supposed to do well in school or do well at your job?”

Street Sense In Search Of New Executive Director Job Description As a highly driven professional with a mix of business and nonprofit management expertise, you will have the opportunity to take an established brand and extend its reach and influence through creative sales, distribution, advertising and development strategies. You will also have the chance to make a difference in the lives of poor and homeless community members by managing a program that provides both employment opportunities and a voice in their community.

Tasks / Responsibilities • • • • • • • .

Mission Promotion Strategic Planning Revenue Development Fundraising and Development Financial Management Communications and Outreach Editorial/Staff Supervision

Mandatory Skills / Qualifications / Experience • • • • • • • •

5+ years of professional experience in newspaper industry, nonprofit association management or high-level development position BS/BA degree or higher (concentration in business, finance or journalism desirable Experience in and willingness to engage in development and fundraising required Strong leadership skills, ability to work collaboratively Experience with managing small teams and with developing staff and partners Ability to interact effectively with people of other cultures, capacities, and organizations Strong interpersonal and speaking skills Familiarity with content management systems for web publishing

Compensation & Benefits • •

Salary $45-50K with growth potential based on performance Benefits package including health care, vacation and parental leave

To apply: Email cover letter, resume and three references to hiring@streetsense.org

Transition Times

By Laura Thompson Osuri

F

rom the other items on this page – an article about editor Mary Otto’s fellowship, and the advertisement for a new executive director – you probably figured out that there will be a lot of transition here at Street Sense over the next few months. And you may also be wondering what the heck is happening to the staff of the organization.

But have no fear, the board knew of Mary’s fellowship plans – and my long term plans - many months ago and took time to put together a thoughtful plan to ensure that when Mary returns in spring 2010, Street Sense will be a stronger organization well prepared for the future.

So here’s the plan. When Mary leaves in midAugust, I will fill her very large shoes as editor on a part-time basis. Consequently, I will give up my role as executive director, passing that onto a yet to be named individual. Hopefully the new executive director will start sometime in September. (During this brief month or so when neither Mary nor the new director is around, former intern Lisa Gillespie will be lending a hand on the editorial side.)

Then when Mary comes back in 2010, she will jump back into her fulltime editor role and I will leave the staff of Street Sense. Mary will join the new executive director and Gregory, our vendor manager, who will hopefully be fulltime by then.

And where will I go, you ask? Well, I am going to spend a few years being a fulltime mommy to my now 16-month-old son Isaac and – God willing – a little brother or sister. I hope to still volunteer at Street Sense and perhaps do a little freelancing.

Wow! Even though I am part of all this, I am still amazed how everything worked out for the best for everyone and especially for the organization. It’s a great opportunity to hire a new executive director and still have myself – one of the cofounders and the first executive director – around for eight months to help ease this person into all the quirks and traditions here at Street Sense. With all this time together, the transition should be seamless with no negative effects on operations. Also as Mary now leaves, she can be assured the editorial side of things is in good hands while she’s gone. And then when I leave in May 2010, I can be worry free knowing that Mary is back on board doing superstar editorial work for Street Sense.

So that’s the plan. We wanted to make things clear to our readers to make sure there was no confusion on your end. But if you do have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at laura@streetsense.org.

I look forward to all that is to come in the next 10 months and I hope you do as well.

S treetS ense.org WASHINGTON, D.C. SHELTER Calvary Women’s Services 928 5th Street, NW (202) 783–6651 www.calvaryservices.org Central Union Mission (Men) 1350 R Street, NW (202) 745–7118 www.missiondc.org CCNV (Men and Women) 425 2nd Street, NW (202) 393–1909 users.erols.com/ccnv/ Community of Hope (Family) 1413 Girard Street, NW (202) 232–7356 www.communityofhopedc.org Covenant House Washington (Youth) 2001 Mississippi Ave SE (202) 610–9600 www.covenanthousedc.org Housing, education, job prep Gospel Rescue Ministries (Men) 810 5th Street, NW (202) 842–1731 www.grm.org John Young Center (Women) 119 D Street, NW (202) 639–8469 www,catholiccharitiesdc.org My Sister’s Place PO Box 29596 Washington, DC 20017 office (202) 529-5261 24-hour hotline (202)-529-5991 shelter and other services for domestic violence victims N Street Village (Women) 1333 N Street, NW (202) 939–2060 www.nstreetvillage.org 801 East, St. Elizabeths Hospital (Men) 2700 MLK Avenue, SE (202) 561–4014 New York Ave Shelter (Men 18+) 1355–57 New York Avenue, NE (202) 832–2359 Open Door Shelter (Women) 425 Mitch Snyder Place, NW (202) 639–8093

FOOD Charlie’s Place 1830 Connecticut Avenue, NW (202) 232–3066 www.stmargaretsdc.org/charliesplace Church of the Pilgrims (Sundays only) 2201 P Street, NW

July 22 - August 4, 2009 (202) 387–6612 www.churchofthepilgrims.org THRIVE DC AND the “9:30 Club” Breakfast 309 E Street, NW (202) 737–9311 www.thrivedc.org Food and Friends 219 Riggs Road, NE (202) 269–2277 www.foodandfriends.org Miriam’s Kitchen 2401 Virginia Avenue, NW (202) 452–8089 www.miriamskitchen.org The Welcome Table Church of the Epiphany 1317 G Street, NW (202) 347–2635 http://www.epiphanydc.org/ ministry/welcometbl.htm

MEDICAL RESOURCES Christ House 1717 Columbia Road, NW (202) 328–1100 www.christhouse.org Unity Health Care, Inc. 3020 14th Street, NW (202) 745–4300 www.unityhealthcare.org Whitman–Walker Clinic 1407 S Street, NW (202) 797–3500; www.wwc.org

OUTREACH CENTERS Bread for the City 1525 Seventh Street, NW (202) 265–2400 AND 1640 Good Hope Road, SE (202) 561–8587 www.breadforthecity.org food pantry, clothing, legal and social services, medical clinic Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW (202) 364–1419; www.cchfp.org housing, medical and psych care, substance abuse and job counseling Bethany Women’s Center 1333 N Street, NW (202) 939–2060 http://www.nstreetvillage.org meals, hygiene, laundry, social activities, substance abuse treatment Father McKenna Center 19 Eye Street, NW (202) 842–1112 Green Door (202) 464–9200 1221 Taylor Street NW www.greendoor.org housing, job training, supportive

mental health services Friendship House 619 D Street, SE (202) 675–9050 www.friendshiphouse.net counseling, mentoring, education, youth services, clothing Georgetown Ministry Center 1041 Wisconsin Avenue, NW (202) 338–8301 www.georgetownministrycenter. org laundry, counseling, psych care Martha’s Table 2114 14th Street, NW (202) 328–6608 www.marthastable.org dinner, education, recreation, clothing, child and family services Rachel’s Women’s Center 1222 11th Street, NW (202) 682–1005 http://www.ccdsd.org/howorwc. php hygiene, laundry, lunch, phone and mail, clothing, social events Sasha Bruce Youthwork 741 8th Street, SE (202) 675–9340 www.sashabruce.org counseling, housing, family services So Others Might Eat (SOME) 71 “O” Street, NW (202) 797–8806; www.some.org lunch, medical and dental, job and housing counseling

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Academy of Hope GED Center 601 Edgewood St NE 202-269-6623 www.aohdc.org Bright Beginnings Inc. 128 M Street NW, Suite 150 Washington DC 20001 (202) 842–9090 www.brightbeginningsinc.org Child care, family services Catholic Community Services 924 G Street, NW (202) 772–4300 www.ccs–dc.org umbrella for a variety of services D.C. Coalition for the Homeless 1234 Massachusetts Avenue, NW (202) 347–8870; www.dccfh.org housing, substance abuse treatment, employment assistance DC Food Finder Interactive online map of free and low cost resources. www.dcfoodfinder.org Community Family Life Services 305 E Street, NW (202) 347–0511

15

www.cflsdc.org housing, job and substance abuse counseling, clothes closet

MARYLAND

VIRGINIA

SHELTER

SHELTER

Foundry Methodist Church 1500 16th Street, NW (202) 332–4010 www.foundryumc.org ESL, lunch, clothing, IDs

Comm. Ministry of Montgomery Co. 114 W. Montgomery Avenue, Rockville (301) 762–8682 www.communityministrymc. org

Alexandria Community Shelter 2355 B Mill Road, Alexandria (703) 838–4239

Hermano Pedro Day Center 3211 Sacred Heart Way, NW (202) 332–2874 http://www.ccs–dc.org/find/ services/ meals, hygiene, laundry, clothing JHP, Inc. 1526 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE (202) 544–9126 www.jobshavepriority.org training and employment Jubilee Jobs 1640 Columbia Road, NW (202) 667–8970 www.jubileejobs.org job preparation and placement National Coalition for the Homeless 2201 P Street, NW (202) 462–4822 www.nationalhomeless.org activists, speakers bureau National Student Partnerships (NSP) 128 M Street NW, Suite 320 (202) 289–2525 washingtondc@nspnet.org Job resource and referral agency Samaritan Ministry 1345 U Street, SE , AND 1516 Hamilton Street, NW (202)889–7702 www.samaritanministry.org HIV support, employment, drug/ alcohol addiction, healthcare St. Luke’s Episcopal Church 1514 15th Street, NW (202) 667–4394 http://stlukesdc.edow.org food, counseling St. Matthew’s Cathedral 1725 Rhode Island Avenue, NW (202) 347–3215 ext. 552 breakfast, clothing, hygiene Travelers Aid, Union Station 50 Mass. Avenue, NE (202) 371–1937 www.travelersaid.org/ta/ dc.html emergency travel assistance Wash. Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U Street, NW (202) 328–5500 www.legalclinic.org

The Samaritan Group P.O. Box 934, Chestertown (443) 480–3564 Warm Night Shelter 311 68th Place, Seat Pleasant (301) 499–2319 www.cmpgc.org

FOOD Bethesda Cares 7728 Woodmont Church, Bethesda (301) 907–9244 www.bethesdacares.com Community Place Café 311 68th Place, Seat Pleasant (301) 499–2319 www.cmpgc.org Manna Food Center 614–618 Lofstrand Lane, Rockville (301) 424–1130 www.mannafood.org

MEDICAL RESOURCES Community Clinic, Inc. 8210 Colonial Lane, ilver Spring (301) 585–1250 www.cciweb.org Mobile Medical Care, Inc. 9309 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda (301) 493–8553 www.mobilemedicalcare.org

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Catholic Charities, Maryland 12247 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring (301) 942–1790 www.catholiccharitiesdc.org shelter, substance abuse treatment, variety of other services Mission of Love 6180 Old Central Avenue Capitol Heights (301)333–4440 www.molinc.org life skills classes, clothing, housewares Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless 600–B East Gude Dri Rockville (301) 217–0314; www.mcch.net emergency shelter, transitional housing, and supportiveservices

Carpenter’s Shelter 930 N. Henry Street, Alexandria (703) 548–7500 www.carpentersshelter.org Arlington–Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless 3103 Ninth Road North, Arlington (703) 525–7177 www.aachhomeless.org

FOOD Alive, Inc. 2723 King Street, Alexandria (703) 836–2723; www.alive–inc. org Our Daily Bread 10777 Main Street, Ste. 320, Fairfax (703) 273–8829 www.our–daily–bread.org

MEDICAL RESOURCES Arlington Free Clinic 3833 N Fairfax Drive, #400, Arlington (703) 979–1400 www.arlingtonfreeclinic.org

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Abundant Life Christian Outreach, 5154 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria (703) 823–4100 www.anchor–of–hope.net food, clothing, youth development, and medicines David’s Place Day Shelter 930 North Henry Street, Alexandria (703) 548–7500 www.carpentersshelter.org laundry, shower, workshops, hypothermia shelter Legal Services of Northern Virginia 6066 Leesburg Pike, Ste. 500 (703) 778–6800; www.lsnv.org civil legal services

Shelter Hotline: 1–800– 535–7252

S treetS ense.org

July 22 - August 4, 2009

Vendor Profile

Charles Lester Myers

THe Last Word

Preparing for an Uncertain Future

By Vanessa Voigt Charles Lester Myers, who goes

by Lester, is from Baltimore, Md., which he describes as a good place to grow up. At 22 he moved to D.C. and at 61, has lived here ever since. He is a recovering alcoholic but has been sober now for six months.

How did you become homeless?

I made some bad investments and bad choices. I was drinking a lot and that caused me to be in a position that could be taken advantage of financially.

How is it being sober?

Being sober I think is where it’s at. I can think clearly, I can get things taken care of that need to be taken care of. My life is a lot better. I can concentrate more on the things I need to do.

By Joseph Walker

O

ne day, when I was selling Street Sense, a thought occurred to me. What will happen to the homeless in the future? How will we survive?

In today’s technological world, full of computers and other electronic devices, how can we manage? Most of the homeless do not know much about computers. How will we keep up with society?

To make matters even more difficult, everything changes every six months or so. It is really hard to stay on top of every new development.

In the future, will life get even harder for us? What type of life will we live? I ask this type of question to people and most have no clue. A few act suspicious as if they know something but are afraid to answer.

So I continue to wonder: should homeless people be worrying about this or should we just go on, business as usual. I, for one, am trying to invest in myself and save as much money as I can so I can better prepare for the future, whatever it brings. My advice to other homeless people is to do the same.

How do you like working for Street Sense?

I love working for Street Sense. It’s given me a chance to meet people, advance myself, at the same time make some money and write! The writer’s group is terrific!

Street Sense is| Shop searching a new | miDCity | Shop | Eat | Explore | miDCity | Eat for | Explore | Eat | ExploreExecutive | miDCityDirector. | Shop |For Eatdetails | Explore miDCity see|page 14.| Shop What is the writer’s group?

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