NAACP Renaissance ~ p.12
Respecting one another ~ p.5
Interview with Peter Block ~ p.9
STREETVIBES
$1
N o v e m b e r 2 0 0 8 • I s s u e 1 4 8 • C i n c i n n a t i ’s A l t e r n a t i v e N e w s S o u r c e
Tarnished Grandeur
The life and times of an SRO By Larry Gross Contributing Writer
T
he sign on the side of the Dennison Hotel at 716 Main St. advertises “105 rooms, 60 baths.” Directly below the sign, a man and a woman sit in the alley. Dewayne and Irene appear to be middle-aged. She’s white, he’s black. They didn’t give their last names. Dewayne has lived at the Dennison for almost a year. Irene used to, but moved to a place in English Woods. She still visits her friend. “I got $70 behind on my rent and they put me out,” Irene says. “The owner got aggressive with me and we got into an altercation.” That altercation led to her being charged with disorderly conduct. That’s why she and Dewayne have to meet in the alley. But even if your not barred, visiting tenants at the Dennison can be tricky. “You can get only one guest, and they only have two hours that they can sit with you,” Dewayne says. “If you got three kids that you need to see – like you ain’t seen them in five months – you want all three of your kids to come, but
you can’t do that.” If tenants want visitors after 6 p.m., it’s going to cost them. “After 6 o’clock, you can’t have no visitors,” Dewayne says, “unless you want to pay $9.40.” Dewayne pays $85 a week for his room with no bathroom. He gets a bed, sheets, a sink and toilet paper. He shares a bathroom with other tenants. He knows it’s risky to get behind in his rent. The management, he says, doesn’t understand what poor people have to go through. “I would have got put out this week if I didn’t come up with $170,” Dewayne says. “I couldn’t find work last week, so I was a week behind, so I found a job and worked three days. I made more money than I thought I would and she (Irene) helped me out. That made me able to stay here. That $170 made be beautiful.” On the third floor of the Dennison, overnight guests are welcome. On this floor, the Dennison is what one would expect from a hotel – a bed, a
See DENNISON p.6
Council Orders Plan for Single Homeless People Sudden action, but will council pay to make it work? By Andrew Freeze Staff Writer
C
incinnati City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Oct. 8 directing the Cincinnati/ Hamilton County Continuum of Care for the Homeless to “immediately address the inadequacies of the current provision of services for single homeless individuals” in the city and develop a comprehensive plan for services. The ordinance wasn’t on the published agenda for the
Oct. 8 meeting, and council passed it without taking public comment. But private conversations about the ordinance had taken place for months, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The draft ordinance read that someone would be hired to come in and completely redo the way our services are in Cincinnati/Hamilton County,” the source says. “If that version of the ordinance had passed, it would have completely thrown out the current
Continuum of Care and dangerously risk all Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding.” The Continuum of Care has partnered with the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County since 1996 to plan and implement services and shelter for the homeless. This year the organization received a HUD grant for services to homeless individuals totaling $12.4 million. The Continuum of Care (CoC) must present its plan to the city by March 31, 2009.
The ordinance makes no mention of increased funding in return but the subject has been discussed. “The city has said, not in the ordinance, that if the CoC comes up with a plan, they (the city) are willing to bring other resources to the table,” the source says.
‘Highest standards’ The goal is a major overhaul, according to Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls. “The recommended plan
must not For a copy of look like the City Council the current ordinance, shelter and check out the service de- Streetvibes blog livery sysat streetvibes. tem,” she wordpress.com says. “We are not seeking to achieve minor reform. Rather, the Continuum of Care should use this opportunity to plan for homeless individuals by starting with a ‘blank slate’ and designing from the ground up
See PLAN p.4