Streetvibes October 2005 Edition

October 2005

STREETVIBES Standdown Serves Record Number of Homeless People

by Kelly Carr “Standdown” is a military term that refers to a time of rest for armed forces in combat. The grassroots initiative aimed at meeting the needs of the homeless veterans’ crisis, Stand Down, originated in 1988 by two Vietnam veterans Robert Van Keuren and Dr. John Nachison. Since 1988, Stand Down events have gained popularity throughout the United States. In cities like Cincinnati, Stand Down services have expanded to include low income and other homeless populations in addition to homeless veterans. This year, Cincinnati’s Standdown was September 16th, from 9am to 2pm in Washington Park. The event offered free food and services to an estimated 600 participants. Many social service providers, event organizers, and participants had positive responses to what might be one of the best Stand Down events Cincinnati has seen in years.

This year’s Standdown was exceptionally successful Participants received information about housing, Social Security, legal assistance, and information about chemical addiction and mental health. There were opportunities for participants to receive blood sugar screenings, blood pressure checks, haircuts, dental care, clothing, hygiene products, and immediate medical treatment if necessary. A variety of services in one central area made it easy for an individual to have all their needs met in one place. For example Jimmy, a participant, needed mental health assistance, legal assistance, and housing; usually would have spent an entire day or more contacting all the agencies necessary to serve him.

However, because of the variety of social service providers at this year’s Standdown, Jimmy could conveniently see each agency just tables away.

“I think this is one of the best Standdowns in years,” says David Knoll, Organizing Committee Chairman. “We’ve had a record number turnout of social service providers and I hope that the participants take full advantage of the social services available here today.” Not only did they take advantage of the social services but they also took advantage of the boxed lunches, complementary gifts, disco music and corn-hole. Low income and homeless persons were making connections and telling heart felt stories as they were leaving.

Participants had good things to say about the event Edward had this to say, “This year was the first in fifteen years that I have been homeless again and today was the first time in ten years that I cried. I’m speechless. I’m looking at a two bedroom on Monday and their helping me to get furniture. I am speechless.”

Participants were being matched with the services they needed all day. Goodwill was taking job applications and a few individuals actually had employment lined up for them by the time they left. One participant had this to say as he played a quick game of corn-hole, “I think it’s great y’all out here helping the community. Y’all are helping me. I’m meeting with a worker next week to see about getting me some housing. I think this here is wonderful, helping people get what they need, y’all should have this twice or three times a year ‘cause people need this all year.” He stopped playing for a minute to show off his gifts and he seemed genuinely tickled with his hygiene bag and new tooth brush.

Another participant had this to say as he shyly danced to D.J. Andy Glover’s electric slide, “I’m glad that this is here and that workers are checking on people. I was pretty excited when they told me my blood pressure was just fine and you know what? I’m having a good time, a good time.”

Stand Down Saves Lives Some participants had no idea they were in such poor health. Talk around the blood pressure and blood sugar screening tables made that obviously clear, as people were checked and then taken to the Cincinnati Health Network’s medical van for immediate treatment. For example, one individual’s blood sugar was 422 high and another individual’s blood pressure was 170 over 140; both were immediately taken to the med van for further examination and treatment. Lynn Kilbane, a service provider with Hamilton County TB control noted, “There are a lot of people here today that either need immediate medical attention or need information on attaining medical treatment. Also, this is an opportunity for service providers to get a real sense of the homeless population’s needs. We have veteran workers, retired nurses, and nursing students volunteering and learning more about better ways of caring for Cincinnati’s homeless.”

“Cornhole” at the Standdown

photo by Kelly Carr

Now more than Ever An estimated 25,000 Cincinnatians qualify as homeless and those are individuals who are catalogued in Cincinnati’s Homeless Management Information System; that does not include individuals who have yet to contact a shelter for assistance. This year at Standdown it was easy to see the rise in low income and homeless populations, as the 550 lunch boxes were quickly distributed and more than fifty others stood waiting and wanting “We were short of lunches, meaning we were a hundred over last year’s count of five hundred participants. That’s 600 hundred folks waiting in line for a hot meal,” says Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless’ Executive Director Georgine Getty.

Scores of participants received services, treatment, and information. Some folks danced and played games while more were arriving as the event closed down. The event only lasted from 9am to 2pm and there were complaints from individuals who missed the event because they were just returning to the shelter from day labor agencies.

One day labor worker threw his hands up asking, “You’re leaving? I just got here. What did y’all do today? Are you coming back tomorrow?”

Unfortunately that day labor worker will have to wait ‘til next year for another Standdown event. Until then he and others will go agency to agency for the variety of services they need and hopefully he and others will feel just as satisfied even without the electric slide or the corn-hole.

DJ Andy Glover serves up music at the Standdown

Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

Streetvibes

Day Labor Follow-Up

by John Lavelle

Streetvibes, the TriState’s alternative news source, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless and contains relevant discussions of social justice, and poverty issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

Becoming a Streetvibes Vendor is a great way for homeless and other low-income people to get back on (or stay on) their feet. Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes Vendor badge. Vendors are private contractors who DO NOT work for, or represent, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homleess. All profits go directly to the vendor.

The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing.

GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Allison Leeuw - Administrative Coordinator Monique Little - Education Coordinator Kelly Carr - VISTA Andy Lawrence - AHA Coordinator John Lavelle - VISTA Mary Gaffney - Reception Melvin Williams - Reception Susan Smith - Volunteer

In the Streetvibes article from September, titled “Day Laborer For a Day,” I alluded to the lady that I worked with at the Rumpke Recycling Plant named Tasha (her name changed for the article). She had done temp labor for several years, working at Rumke on and off for six years or so.

Two Streetvibes readers inquired as to why she was not hired permanently by Rumke. I do not know for sure, but I can speculate numerous reasons based upon the way many day and temp labor agencies operate.

First of all, it is often simply cheaper to hire day and temp laborers through an agency. They are paid less that way, and the employer does not have to provide any health care or benefits.

As stated in the previous article, the jobs contracted to labor halls tend to be the toughest and most undesirable employment that there is (such as picking through trash). High turnover rates can result in a constant flow of expensive hiring and training, a human resources nightmare. By contracting through labor halls, employers “outsource” much of their human resources burden.

I am not aware of Tasha’s full employment history, and although it seems that she is a very reliable worker, some laborers may not be or may not be able to be so reliable. For example, if a full-time employee of a business such as Rumke does not show up or calls in because of child care problems (or

any myriad issues), that business is without that employee for the day.

By contracting though a labor hall, a business is assured that it will always have enough workers on hand. With many unskilled jobs, it is not a matter of having welltrained, skilled laborers, but simply having enough hands to do the job.

The problem does not seem to be day and temp labor itself, but rather the poor way in which it is operated. Both employers and workers have a need and a desire for this type of labor. However, some people are left with no other options than temp labor and therefore no other options than poor wages and often abusive practices. That’s bad for workers.

Furthermore, that’s just bad business.

We are in the process of gathering more information about the problems with the labor halls, and we are researching the legality of overall practices and individual anecdotal occurrences. Regardless of whether or not some agencies are “breaking the law,” many are violating basic human and civil rights, continuing the cycle of poverty.

On a final note, thank you Mary Jo and Eugene for your kind letter and great questions about day and temp labor. It gives me great hope to see such interest.

If you have worked day and temp labor and would like to file a grievance, please contact John Lavelle at the GCCH: 513.421.0117 x18. We hope to soon establish some ways that all concerned citizens can take action. Stay tuned.

Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photographer Kelly Carr, Jimmy Heath Cover Standdown at Washington Park, Over-the-Rhine Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or vendors.

Subscriptions to Streetvibes, delivered to your home each month, can be purchased for $25 per year.

Address mail to: Streetvibes Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web: http://cincihomeless.org

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Letter from a Reader Dear Mr. Lavelle We’ve often been curious about what life is like for temporary industrial workers, [cover story, September Streetvibes] and now we know – the third world is right here.

Thank you for your interesting and informative piece, But, we wonder, why isn’t Tasha hired by Rumpke? And, exactly how are these labor places breaking the laws and what can be done to fix it? We’re sure we’ll find out in your future pieces. We look forward to reading more of your articles in Streetvibes.

Mary Jo and Eugene Spiegle

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week November 1622, 2005 The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is seeking willing participants to organize sleep-outs/shantytowns and/or food/clothing drives for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

Below you’ll find a brief description of the event.

Co-sponsored by: National Coalition for the Homeless and National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness Each year, one week before Thanksgiving, the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness cosponsor National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

During this week, a number of schools, communities and cities take part in a nationwide effort to bring greater awareness to the problems of hunger and homelessness.

Schools and/or Facility members interested in participating are asked to contact their local representative.

Cincinnati: Kelly Carr, Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 513-421-7803 ext.11

This hand helped take care of four kids of my own, five grandkids and their mothers.

It also provided for them as they grew up, it protected them from all harm and also helped them understand what it meant to have some kind of training for the future.

— James M. Streetvibes exists as a forum for the expression of the views and opinions of our readers and supporters. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Streetvibes staff or the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

Streetvibes

Homeless News Digest

Compiled by Jimmy Heath In Indianapolis, on the day Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi, the City-County Council voted 22-6 to deny approval of a project on Indianapolis’ Near Southside. The new Care Center shelter for homeless women and children. It did not receive much media coverage and hardly seemed to make a ripple in our collective consciousness. In a week during which Indianapolis and the nation poured out their hearts, homes and money to the newly homeless from Katrina, we did not support a shelter for our homeless women.

In 2004, Horizon House, the day services program for the homeless, served 4,414 individuals; 1,217 were women, a large majority of whom stay overnight at the Care Center. It’s a vital partnership that keeps many women from staying on the street at night or finding inappropriate housing options.

Last year, Horizon House served 16 percent more individuals than the year before; 1,955 were newly homeless. This year will see a similar increase.

Hundreds more of Indy’s own citizens live in poverty and are constantly on the edge of homelessness. The need for the Care Center and other shelters is increasing rapidly.

In England, the movie production of Southland Tales just gets weirder and weirder.

First it brings us images of The Rock making out with porn star Buffy, and now word comes that it somehow involves a massive encampment of homeless people.

Lots and lots of actors were hired to play the homeless, complete with “dirt” on their faces and “rags” to wear. Meanwhile, cops surrounded the area to make sure that the actual homeless were unable to scavenge any scraps from the set. Nice.

While some actually buy the excuse that the union contract probably had something to do with hiring professionals to pretend to be homeless, it seems like the situation could have been handled with just a little more delicacy.

You know, like maybe without security chasing the homeless

away from movie garbage that they might be able to use.

When thousands of unexpectedly homeless Hurricane Katrina evacuees flocked to Dallas last month, their plight immediately overshadowed a long-standing debate over how to care for the city’s resident homeless population.

On Nov. 8, Dallas residents will vote on whether to approve Proposition 14, which would authorize $23.8 million in bonds to fund the creation of a full-service homeless assistance facility. Early voting begins Oct. 24.

But residents supporting or opposing the proposition acknowledge that acts of nature have temporarily muted their advocacy.

“The storm, yes, it’s slowed us down. We’ve kind of taken a back seat,” said Larry Hamilton, who owns a Dallas real estate development company. He organized the Heart of Dallas Partnership, which opposes a homeless facility built at the City Council’s location of choice, in the southeastern corner of downtown.

Council member Angela Hunt, who supports building the center on the southeastern downtown site, said, “The entire city has been focused on the Katrina effort.”

But expect the quiet to soon cease, both sides say.

The Dallas Citizens Council and the Greater Dallas Chamber are planning to produce brochures supporting a homeless assistance center, Mayor Laura Miller said.

The chamber, for its part, just organized a homeless assistance center task force that plans to work in support of Proposition 14 immediately, spokeswoman Jo Trizila said last month.

He was found unconscious on a bench on Upperhead Row in Huddersfield town centre by police last month. He was taken by ambulance to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but was dead on arrival.

A pathologist carried out a post-mortem examination and certified the cause of death as a chest infection and chronic alcoholism.

Police have revealed that he suffered face and head injuries when he was pushed off a seat in a bus shelter on Westgate in Huddersfield town center. He was taken to the casualty department at the Infirmary suffering from cuts, grazes, bruises and swelling. He was allowed to leave after treatment.

In Michigan, about 175 dogs and cats displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina will get new homes in the Grand Rapids area.

An anonymous donation of $30,000 was used to charter a plane and fly in about 90 dogs and 60 cats that arrived early Thursday.

They were transferred in their crates to the Humane Society of Kent County, where veterinarians examined them.

Meanwhile, 26 dogs arrived by trailer Mackenzie’s Animal Sanctuary near Ionia County’s Lake Odessa.

“We are going to find them good homes,” Jen Azza, director of Mackenzie’s, told the press.

The animals are to be housed at the sanctuary for at least three months while their owners are sought. Erik Bauer, the shelter’s general manager, said reuniting dogs with their owners will be hard because the animals had no identification tags.

Most of the dogs and cats flown to the Humane Society of Kent County will be housed in a garage area. Ten dogs and five cats are to be transferred to the Capitol Area Humane Society in Lansing.

After they are treated for any medical conditions, every effort will be made to find the pets’ owners, said Karen Terpstra, executive director of the Humane Society of Kent County, which is in Grand Rapids.

The animals will be scanned Again in England, a to see whether they have been homeless man died a week after implanted with identifying he was the victim of a microchips. Their photos will be motiveless attack in posted on the Internet.

Huddersfield town center.

Terpstra said they will be The 60-year-old man’s kept at the Grand Rapids shelter death is not linked to injuries he until Sept. 30 and then placed in suffered when he was shoved off a foster homes until Oct. 15. After seat, but police are anxious to catch that, the cats and dogs could be put his attacker. up for adoption.

The man - who has not She was confident that her been named - shuffled along using a organization will find homes for zimmer frame. them all.

Streetvibes

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa the head of a federal homeless agency says Iowans would save money by preventing homelessness instead of reacting to it.

Philip Mangano is the director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness. He visited Cedar Rapids this week and told Mayor Paul Pate that cities spend far more money hospitalizing and jailing the homeless than it would cost to fix the problem.

One study found that taxpayers spend 100-thousand dollars a year on each homeless person for emergency room visits and jail stays.

Pate says he wants Cedar Rapids to join about 70 other cities in developing a ten-year plan to ease homelessness. He says the city has 400 to 500 homeless people _ many of them facing drug addictions and mental illness.

The plan would include community treatment teams and permanent housing programs.

A plan to count the number of homeless youth in the Las Vegas area on October fifth is being postponed.

No new date has been set by the groups organizing the effort.

Volunteer training that had been scheduled today, tomorrow and next Tuesday and Wednesday have also been postponed.

The project is a cooperative effort by the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, Saint Jude's Ranch for Children, Girls and Boys Town, West-Care Incorporated and the research firm Strategic Solutions.

Organizers are promising new survey and training dates soon.

Children of the World Children of the world today See how they play every way Growing ghetto poor and stay Wealthy in their own sweet way Children of the world today Jumping rope play their own sweet day Let us pray in our only way Let us be what was today — Gerome Barksdale

Send your letters or comments to Streetvibes, 117 East 12th Street, Cincinnati Ohio 45202, or email to Streetvibes@juno.com Page 3

Still Covering for Wal-Mart ABC report has no space for critics from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting - www.fair.org

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Only $15 We will send your Streetvibes T-shirt to your door All proceeds benefit the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and the Streetvibes newspaper. Call 513.421.7803 x 16, or come in to our office at 117 E 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine

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Streetvibes

In an August 10 action alert, FAIR wondered if ABC’s reporting on corporate giant Wal-Mart was improperly influenced by WalMart’s status as a major advertiser on the network’s news programming. While ABC failed to answer FAIR’s charges, a September 20 World News Tonight report on Wal-Mart’s business practices in China once again suggests favoritism toward the network’s sponsor.

Anchor Charlie Gibson began by mentioning the “kind of gold rush” happening in China, where companies “from the U.S. and beyond position themselves to grab a piece of the fastest-growing market in the world.” Gibson then turned to ABC colleague Bill Weir to show “how Wal-Mart is changing the way the Chinese shop.”

Weir started in a more traditional Chinese market—”there isn’t a refrigerator in sight”—in order to contrast that kind of old-fashioned thinking to Wal-Mart: “While hundreds of millions of Chinese still shop in places like this, more and more are being lured by the siren song of onestop shopping.”

Weir highlighted singing Wal-Mart workers and the “brightly-lit aisles” where “China’s exploding middle class is discovering the novelty of free samples and a wide selection of everything.”

After one customer touted Wal-Mart’s stores (“It’s big, it’s clean...and you feel good here”), ABC turned to its next source: Wal-Mart Asia CEO Joe Hatfield. (“Talk about price conscious,” he says of his customers.)

The only other source in the report was Jim McGregor, identified simply as the author of “One Billion Customers.” (His role as senior director of Stonebridge International, “a global business strategy firm that helps U.S. and multinational companies... seize business opportunities worldwide,” was not mentioned.)

McGregor enthused about the new efficiency Wal-Mart has brought to the Chinese economy, saying that Wal-Mart’s suppliers had to “clean up their act to compete.”

ABC’s Weir also praised Wal-Mart for that efficiency: “While Wal-Mart has changed the way people shop, they’re also changing the way suppliers think.... Many manufacturers were shocked to learn that if they want their products on these shelves, it’s not who you know, it’s what you know about keeping costs down.”

If ABC were open to presenting critics of Wal-Mart’s business practices—who aren’t hard to find—viewers might have heard a different perspective on just how Wal-Mart is “keeping costs down. Many critics charge that Wal-Mart’s practice of pressuring its suppliers to meet unreasonable price goals results in serious labor abuses. Other outlets, like PBS’s Frontline (11/ 16/04) and the Los Angeles Times (11/24/03), have managed to present that case. And a recent lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart by the International Labor Rights Fund charges that the company maintains relationships with abusive suppliers in a number of countries—including China. Similar complaints have been levied for years by academics and advocacy groups like the National Labor Committee. But ABC apparently had no time for critical commentary about a prominent advertiser.

on the slow-burn disaster that’s been hitting America’s poorest communities hurricanes acts of God, but Katrina

by Paul Rogat Loeb for decades. The wealthy and was a level 1 storm, the lowest, until We’re told the 9/11 attacks comfortable could evacuate New blistering temperatures in the Gulf of changed everything for America— Orleans and did, though their lives Mexico supercharged it to level 5. that they ushered us in to a new and were severely disrupted. But in one The storm’s virulence was likely more dangerous world, where we of the nation’s poorest cities, vast could no longer afford old illusions. If related to global climate warming, numbers of citizens had nowhere to we take its full lessons, the disaster of much like the recent forest fires that go, no transportation or money with Hurricane Katrina challenges us even ravaged Southern California, floods which to leave, and no friends or that covered much of Bangladesh, more profoundly. relatives with extra space to house and European heat waves that killed The 9/11 attacks were them. They are the people left 35,000 people two summers ago. horrific, wrenching for the global desperately trying to get out, while Ironically, Mississippi Governor community that witnessed them, the helicopters and resources of a Haley Barbour played a key role, as devastating for those who lost loved third of the Louisiana National Guard an energy lobbyist, in convincing the ones and friends. But for most in are deployed in Iraq. And they will be New York City, life quickly resumed, Bush administration to break its the ones most damaged and most campaign promise to support limits although with an overlay of loss and forgotten when the floodwaters on the carbon dioxide emissions that fear. Although the deaths in New eventually recede. fuel global warming.

Orleans were fewer, most of the city We’re told we had to change This disaster was fueled by is now largely a wasteland. Its in the wake of 9/11 or face future residents are exiled from their homes, more than global climate change. terrorist attacks. I suspect there will Engineers and software writers talk of still be more attacks on American often losing everything they had. It’s “common mode failures,” where one soil, following London and Madrid, an open question whether most will ever be able to return to resume their mistake magnifies another and the and that our Iraqi invasion makes this cumulative impact is greater than all work, their lives, and their far more likely. But it’s also probable contributions to a culture that’s given the separate parts. The New Orleans that unless we change, New Orleans levees might never have been so much to the world. To rebuild will not be the last of America’s great breached had the Bush administration cities to collapse in desperation and New Orleans so it becomes more than just a raunchier Disneyland with not reversed Clinton administration ruin. Immediate relief efforts are policies prohibiting development of better music is an undertaking unlike critical, but we also need to address coastal wetlands that once buffered any our nation has ever undertaken. root crises: global warming, runaway 9/11, we were told, required the impact of storms. The levees development, deterioration of critical might have been buttressed and Americans to place unprecedented infrastructure, and a malign neglect repaired had the administration trust in their president and his that leaves more and more Americans responded to a 2001 FEMA study advisors, and to scrap longstanding poor and desperate. warning that a hurricane striking New rules of international law and A year ago, the world’s Orleans was one of the three most domestic liberties. It justified a second largest reinsurance company, likely disasters in the U.S. But instead Swiss Re, warned that the economic preemptive war against Iraq and of honoring the Army Corps of Bush’s reelection, despite all his costs of climate-related disasters failures. Of course it might never have Engineers’ request to strengthen and threatened to reach $150 billion a renovate levees and pumping stations, year within ten years. We’re already occurred if the US hadn’t supported the Bush administration cut the flood bin Laden to begin with, or if our seeing storms of exceptional virulence control budget of the New Orleans policies hadn’t so embittered the accompanying the heating of our Corps of Engineers by $71 million, Islamic world that a small number of oceans by a single degree. Given that men were willing to murder thousands 44 percent of its budget. They New Orleans may cost as much as needed the money for the Iraq war of innocent people. But we’d all $100 billion, what will be the level of and to give $130 billion a year of tax agree the attacks had a profound cuts to a tiny group of wealthy global impact.

Americans.

So what are the lessons of Finally, this catastrophe built New Orleans? We may call

9/11 In New Orleans

destruction as global temperatures continue to increase?

The development patterns that destroyed Louisiana wetlands are being repeated throughout America, with the support of an administration intent on removing all limits on private economic activity. The aging levees are part of a deteriorating national infrastructure that will take billions of dollars to address. The poverty that leaves people helpless to respond to disasters of whatever kind continues to grow, accelerated by government policies that transfer resources away from the poorest.

9/11 may have indeed changed our world forever, though the brief window of real discussion it fostered quickly closed, and we were left with false myths about how the only way to view the situation was as a war between ultimate good and ultimate evil. We now have a chance to heed the lessons of New Orleans and Katrina, with consequences potentially far worse than 9/11 if we don’t. We can start conversations, in every corner of our country, about the disasters lessons and causes, and how to move forward in a way that honors the exiled and addresses the disaster’s complex roots. We can call for accountability, from our media and political leaders. We can treat this tragedy as a call to commitment in a way that too few of us did after 9/11. It’s up to us how we respond to the power of its warning.

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of fall 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. See www.paulloeb.org

A Call to Greater Cincinnati Poets For the 2006 annual Book of Poems and Drawings on Peace and Justice 1) Call for poems from any poet from the Greater Cincinnati area 2) Poems to relate to themes of peace and justice 3) Poet may submit up to 3 poems 4) All submissions will be considered. The editors will be looking for quality, inclusiveness, and appropriateness to the themes of peace and justice.

5) If space becomes limited, priority will be given to poets not published in previous books 6) Poems selected will be illustrated in B&W by Greater Cincinnati artists (one drawing per poet) 7) Poems and illustrations will be printed in For a Better World 2006, a book to be available April, 2006 8) Book will be launched and available for sale at SOS ART 2006. 9) Poets included in book will be invited to read their poems at SOS ART 2006 10) Proceeds from sale of book will finance publication of future similar books to accompany annual âœSOS ART events. (Note: this is the 3rd annual book) 11) Submission deadline: February 3, 2006 12) Please send submissions in full text and as a Word attachments by e-mail or by US mail (on a floppy disk) to: Saad Ghosn (saad.ghosn@uc.edu), 216 Erkenbrecher Ave, Cincinnati, Oh 45229

Streetvibes

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No Room at the Inn Dear Friends of have no place to lay his or her Streetvibes: without your support head. As usual, my mind is on New Orleans and the families some of our vendors would not have food and clothing and who are homeless from the Katrina storm. support.

This is a I have been blessing in disguise. approached so many times on my way September dawns and fall begins. The leaves home on the Metro bus and asked why I will begin to turn and talk so much about the flowers will drop the homeless in my their seeds, to be planted later. The monthly article. animal’s fur will begin Miss Mary Gaffney Most are very nice people. to grow thicker for the My answer to them is that cold days ahead. the homeless are God’s children An old childhood saying: the fox has a hole and the bird too, and I will remind them about has a nest, but so many of us Mary and Joseph in the Bible.

Paul Allen’s Other Yacht

by Paul Rogat Loeb In the wake of the New Orleans disaster, I thought of an article I read about Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s other yacht.

The 300-foot Tatoosh carries a 30person crew, two helicopters, a swimming pool, a spa, a private movie theater, six other surface boats (including a separate 54-foot racing yacht and two Hobie catamarans) and a submarine.

Reading about the Tatoosh and a third yacht just slightly smaller made me wonder about Allen’s yacht of choice. Did it have two swimming pools? Four helicopters? Twelve other on-board boats? And what was Allen doing with two yachts, when he could only ride on one at a time?

Allen bought the Tatoosh in 2000, when it was America’s second largest. Three years later, he added the Octopus (aptly named for a Microsoft man), enabling him to leapfrog the founder of Victoria’s Secret to own the largest yacht in the world. Itself since surpassed by the yachts of Oracle founder Larry Ellison and the ruler of Dubai, the Octopus is 413 feet long, with seven decks, a 60-person crew including several former Navy SEALs, seven other on-board boats, a basketball court, the obligatory movie theater and swimming pool (just one?), and two submarines, one of which can stay two weeks on the ocean floor. Allen also owns a third megayacht it turns out, plus two personal Boeing 757’s, in case one is in the shop.

We know Allen is unimaginably rich, so maybe his yacht collection comes as no surprise. But the Republicans are talking about permanently ending the estate tax in the new Congressional session. Our leaders are already lavishing more and more gifts on those who already have more than they can ever use, even in the midst of crises from the Iraq War to the New Orleans

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disaster, to the shifts in global warming that, by warming the ocean, turned a routine hurricane into a cataclysmic one. Allen’s yachts remind me of our choices about what we value.

As former Congressman Ron Dellums once said, you can tell a nation’s soul by the state of its budgets. Time and again we have the chance to house people, feed them, give them health care, affordable education, and a decent chance in life. Or to invest in renewable technologies to head off future climate-related catastrophes.

Or at least to rebuild critical infrastructure and restore dignified lives to the wounded and displaced when tragedy hits. Each time we’re told we don’t have enough resources. Yet in the richest country in human history, we make it a point, at every turn, to help those of vast wealth accumulate more and more. Recently I saw a $3 million Brentwood house being torn down so someone could build one on the same lot worth twenty million. I’ve seen comparable extravagance throughout the country, combined with massive cuts in practically every program that serves the needs of ordinary citizens. The super-rich get infinite breaks with nothing asked in return, while more and more Americans struggle just to survive, even in the absence of unexpected cataclysm.

The proponents of ending the estate tax warn of devastated small farmers and businessmen, though they can’t come up with a single case of a family farm that’s gone under in recent years as a direct result, and the handful of affected family businesses could be addressed with modest increases in the exemption level. Evidently it’s far more salable to couch these and other regressive cuts with salt-ofthe-earth images than those of Paul Allen on his yacht or Paris Hilton in her gilded video playpen.

So many times they were turned away while looking for a place to take care of Mary, because of their looks, their poverty or what they were wearing. There was never room at the inn. But a man with no room but for a stable full of smelly animals offered that space to them. A child was born and at the end of this child’s life he was hanging on the cross between two thieves, eventually to rise up again.

What would our lives be without this? It doesn’t hurt to respect other regardless of who they might be or where they have been That’s why I thank the people who buy Streetvibes – it is helping those without.

Yes, I am very fond of the

homeless. Sometimes they are hurt, and angry with problems.

They always speak to me with respect and I return the respect.

If I get to the office late they will be waiting. And sometimes they will be at the bus stop waiting. If I have packages, they will help carry them. Some have my home phone number. If I am out of the office they will call to check on me. When I was in the hospital they called me with concern.

So it pays to treat people as you would like them to treat you. We are all God’s children in this garden of life, regardless of race, creed or color. Remember, until next month, be good and kind, for He loves you, and so do I.

We might remember Dwight Eisenhower’s famed words: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in a final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed— those who are cold and not clothed.” So is each massive regressive tax break.

Permanently ending the estate tax will cost the public another trillion dollars over ten years. But we were already making things far worse before the ending of the estate tax. The top 5% of Americans now get $110 billion a year from Bush’s tax cuts, with most going to the top 1%, during a reign that’s cut child abuse prevention, community policing, AmeriCorps, low-income childcare, health care, housing, and even support for military families.

Because payment of Social Security taxes is capped at $90,000, and because capital gains taxes have been cut to a maximum of 15%, self-employed carpenters making $30,000 a year already pay a higher percentage of their income than do Paul Allen and his cofounder Bill Gates. In Seattle, where I live (and in whose suburbs Allen and Gates reside), the public paid $300 million to subsidize a football stadium for a team Allen owns, and the City Council has just allocated $50 million to fund a milelong streetcar connecting downtown with Allen’s cluster of biotech companies. Meanwhile the high school my son attends recently had to lay off 11 teachers.

We should debate where our government should spend the revenue it takes in. But we also need to discuss where it gets this revenue, and how to share the burden equitably. As Bill Gates Senior wrote, in opposing the estate tax repeal, “Our society has facilitated wealth-building by creating order, protecting freedom, creating laws to govern property relations and our marketplace, and

investing in an educated work force. What’s wrong with the most successful people putting onequarter of their wealth back into the place that made their wealth and success possible?”

That’s one key argument: those who have the most benefit infinitely more from the institutions of our society than do those who have far less. The other argument is the concept of enough, where we question whether our most important social priority really is to do everything possible to enable a tiny few to buy as many yachts and $20 million houses as they please.

Do we really need to help Allen be able to fly 500 of his closest personal friends wherever and whenever he chooses on his two 757s? We might remember that there are more important goals to support with common resources, and more important things to live for.

Streetvibes

20 YEARS SERVING THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Empowering our neighborhood children through peace, art and education Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

(513) 621-5514

Goodbye, Coalition

A Woman’s Touch

violence, poverty, and prisoner reentry. The report was a challenge to all cities to To the people who address these issues. It echoed frequent our lobby, to the the sentiments of homeless vendors of Streetvibes, to the advocates from across the people I’ve worked with who nation. live under bridges and in our Because of the work of local shelters, to the staff of the Coalition for the Homeless, these advocates, we are seeing city officials turning now to to the Coalition’s member options that address the causes organizations, to the teachers and students I have worked with, of homelessness, rather than relying upon band-aid to the Firecats and approaches that often the Ohio Coalition of result in jail time for Homeless Advocates, homeless people. to the National There is still a Homeless Civil very long way to go Rights Organizing in order to eradicate Project, and to the homelessness. And people at the Andy Erickson while advocates in National Coalition recent years have for the Homeless: I made significant advances want to thank you all for your toward that goal, they need guidance, kindness, openness more help to make it happen. and confidence.

Many legislative and economic It has been a pleasure working with all of you over the trends will have to be stopped and reversed. It will take much past three years. It’s time and effort, but it’s a continually impressive to see necessary goal to achieve. the many people who are There are 3.5 million people working together – not just in experiencing homelessness Cincinnati, but across the during just one year in these nation – to eradicate United States, and one-third of homelessness from every them are children. That’s 3.5 hidden corner of our million reasons to get involved. neighborhoods, cities and Homeless advocates states. rightfully aim for a time that is To the readers of Streetvibes, I would like to tell 100% free from homelessness – a day when all of the citizens you a little about the work that of our country are provided these advocates are doing. with the basic needs of life, They are causing some including housing. There is no important things to happen. acceptable number of homeless Because of their work, people. It’s a shame that we cities across the US are allow any of our neighbors live recognizing the importance of on the streets. increased services for people As I leave the Greater experiencing homelessness.

Cincinnati Coalition for the More and more, officials are speaking out about the growing Homeless, I feel in my heart problem of homelessness – like that the work the Coalition is doing is some of the most mayor Bill Purcell of important work to be done in Nashville, who stated, “These are not simply statistics. These this lifetime. Thanks again, everyone. I feel privileged to are real people, many are families with children, who are have worked alongside you. I know you will be successful in hungry and homeless in our your mission. cities. Unfortunately…we are still far short in meeting the challenges of our neediest citizens.”

Mayor Purcell is the cochair of the US Conference of Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness, which Support released a report in December Your citing as major causes of Vendor homelessness the lack of affordable housing, the lack of Buy Streetvibes treatment services, low paying jobs, unemployment, domestic from Andy Erickson

by Joanne Zuhl

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lonely in a lot of ways, too. Yet I can’t connect to a guy yet. I have Pushing a stroller, one trust issues. So I come here all the woman can’t get through the time.” crowded room, so she calls for her Grochowski was abused by playing children to come closer to her husband, evicted, and ended up her. Another woman helps carry the on the streets where she was then toys the children are using over the attacked by other men. At Rose heads of the chatting masses to the Haven, she says she feels safe. She other end of the office, past the has bonded with friends there and seated women sipping coffee and has applied for Section 8 housing. reading books. She hands off the “I’ve been homeless for about five toy and settles back down for a years now off and on. But I really back rub from another women who feel in my heart I’m on the right hasn’t missed a beat in a path now. I’m waiting for housing.” conversation with two others as “This is where everybody they grabbed a few seats among the meets,” said another woman who throng of people, all of them didn’t want her name used. “The women, who come daily to the ladies get together and we just chit sanctuary of Rose Haven. chat and talk and get into groups For all the activity and and go off and do things together. noise, the room is inviting, filled This is pretty unique. This is a very with the conversation of women of unique spot.” all ages and abilities who come here She became homeless about for some respite from the street. two months ago, and has bounced About 85 percent of the women around in and out of temporary who use Rose Haven’s services are shelter. She started coming to Rose homeless when they walk in the Haven because it was one of the door. The others are near to it. few women-only service providers They come here to use the phones, she could find. If Rose Haven receive one-on-one counseling and wasn’t here, she said, “I’m afraid basic health care, attend the women would probably go crazier workshops and look for resources. than they already are.”

Most importantly, they come here For all the women in the because it’s safe. office, there are always three more; “I come down here three homeless victims whose periodically just to get moral names have survived their deaths. support,” said Donna Drew who Lilla Moler, 28, Stephanie Russell, stepped outside Rose Haven’s 26, and Alexandria Ison, 17, were crowded office on Third Street. found strangled to death in Forest “I’m homeless right now. I’ve been Park in 1999. Their deaths raised on the streets almost four months. awareness of the plight of homeless But I get my apartment this week women and spurred efforts to and the support here helps me to develop emergency shelters for get out there and do what I need to women on the streets. A small do.” plaque, created by a woman to Rose Haven sees an honor their memory, hangs in the average of 86 women every hall at Rose Haven. It states simply, morning, Monday through Friday, “No woman should be homeless.” each of them, like Donna, looking “Our first year we had two for the strength and confidence to women in their late 60s come in. do what they need to do.

They had been on the streets for Advocates at the center help the three or four days. I think it was women connect with emergency because one of their husband’s had shelter, housing, health care and died. They were on the street and it other services. It is often a struggle, was winter and it was cold. We put the staff says, with fewer and fewer them in a comfortable chair. They resources left available for had cold, cold feet, and we put emergency shelter specifically for their feet in warm water. And I women. Rose Haven’s clients are walked in and they asked if I was in all victims of extreme poverty, but charge, and they had tears running many are also living with the other down their face and they said, ‘We fall-outs: domestic violence, drug thought we’d never be warm again,’ and alcohol addictions, prostitution, and, ‘Everybody’s being so nice to and increasingly these days, human us.’” And we were able to get them trafficking. into a winter shelter. And they were “I came here because it’s a just weeping. Nobody should be on women’s place,” said Yvonne the streets, but our seniors? Come Grochowski, who is homeless. “It on. We have people in their 80s makes me feel like a person and I coming in here,” says Sister Cathie get to interact with women. I never Boerboom, Program Manager, really had girlfriends. So I’m really Rose Haven.

Streetvibes

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Mississippi high court declines to hear man’s appeal in death of homeless man The Mississippi Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of a Gulfport man sentenced to 15 years for his role in the beating death of a homeless man.

Roy Charles Schankin was sentenced in 2003 in Harrison County. He had been convicted of manslaughter in the 2000 death of Claude E. Cochran, 57, of Sylacauga, Ala. The state Court of Appeals in March upheld Schankin’s conviction. The Supreme Court on Thursday denied Schankin’s request to hear his appeal.

Schankin was the second person convicted in the death of Cochran, who fell into the Mississippi Sound after a beating

on the old Courthouse Pier.

Cochran died two days later.

Schankin and William “Lee” Cobb originally were charged with murder.

Cobb pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in 2002 in exchange for testifying against Schankin. Cobb was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The beating, Cobb testified at Schankin’s trial, was over a fight the previous night, when Cochran allegedly assaulted Cobb and robbed one of his friends. Cobb testified that he obtained the metal pipe from Schankin for protection, then beat Cochran with it and rolled him off the pier.

Homeless Who Am I? Your sister or brother, your Mother or father, your daughter or your son.

I am homeless. Black or white, red or brown, I walk the streets all day looking just to make it. Through the day people look at me and stand back to their friends and talk about me, about how I look and how I smell, never knowing the real person that is inside of me. As you watch your TV and play your tapes, I try to stay warm on very cold days. When you are warm in your home, I am homeless. As you sleep at night in your nice warm bed I am trying to sleep anywhere I can: rooftops and doorways, park benches and so on.

— “Homeless”

National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP)

Got The Vibe?

117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 homelesscivilrights@yahoo.com Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (513) 421-7803

Berta’s Art Corner

This beautiful, original artwork depicts the vibrant role that Streetvibes plays in downtown Cincinnati and neighboring communities. Created by local artist and activist Mary Ann Lederer in collage form, this colorful 18" X 10" reproduction can be yours to own for only $10. Commemorating Streetvibes 100th issue, proceeds from this limited time offer will go to support the Streetvibes Program and Vendors.

Time, Shadow of bricks, Peaslee Neighbor Center

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Streetvibes

Visit the Greater Cincinnati Coaltion for the Homeless website at - http://www.cincihomeless.org Visit the Streevibes archives at - http:// www.cincihomeless.org/content/streetvibes.html Streetvibes

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need in our city and the Gulf region.

Immediately, almost every hand went up and we began to hear

by Steve Sunderland the stories of what is The September Crisis: The going on in each school disaster on the American Gulf to raise money, food, Coast has caught so many by water, and support for surprise. No plan for caring the citizens of evacuation of those in greatest need Louisiana, Mississippi, has happened. The city of New and Alabama. Dr. Orleans is almost empty of Donna Mayerson Dr. Steve Sunderland everyone who wanted to go; spoke eloquently of the perhaps thousands are remaining need to recognize Cincinnati’s and due to a commitment to their city.

Northern Kentucky’s needs as well. “Duckie Regatta” on the Major issues of hunger, thirst, But the momentum is clearly aimed Cincinnati’s waterfront on Labor housing and health care have been at using New Orleans as an Day when 80,000 rubber ducks so brutally handled that the stress of opportunity for both service and were released to race. Each duck viewing the abandoned is beyond learning. The youth of Cincinnati, raised about $5.00 for the words. What is necessary to say is no matter what our problems, are FreeStore, our local and regional that the poor and those living on saying: “We can help!” food bank. Students and faculty fragile existences has dramatically I was honored to talk with from the Peace Village helped with increased in every major American these teachers, many active the removal of the ducks following city, Cincinnati especially. Now, members of the Peace Village. I the race. we need to take this insight and see saw Gina Keith of McCauley, Now, we are aiming for our how we can productively help both Melanie Brinkman of Mt. Notre second annual conference on Peace our cities and the Gulf area.

Dame, Craig Rush of Shroder, and and Hunger. This will be on Last month, at a meeting at several others as well from Aiken, October 22, University of the Mayerson Teacher Institute, 60 Moeller, Roger Bacon, Cincinnati Cincinnati’s African American teachers from schools all over Hills Christian Academy and many Center, 9-1pm. Teams of students, Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky from schools I have had no contact faculty and members of the joined Steve Elliot, master teacher with in our programs.

FreeStore will meet and hear what of service learning, and me for a I spoke about the Peace worked last year in our gathering of discussion of service learning and Village Peace and Hunger program. resources for Thanksgiving and the crisis of facing those in greatest Our year has begun with a great Xmas. Please contact me if you are

The Peace Village

interested in attending. You can reach me at 513.919.2538.

I also spoke about the connections between what we have learned from September 11, 2001 and the New Orleans disaster and invited the group to bring teams to our 4th annual commemoration of the September 11 attack.

All of these programs of reflection are open to the public and you are strongly urged to join us, share your voices and deep feelings about what has and is happening to our country and our world. We, in the planning groups, have felt that our small efforts to make peace, be peace, and create chances for people to express themselves are essential parts of showing continued concern for justice and peace.

Dr. Steve Sunderland, professor of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, is the Director of The Peace Village, a group of individuals from the national and international community committed to examining all issues of Peace in the world. Dr. Sunderland also heads up Posters-for-Peace which engages people in expressing their visions of Peace, in their own words through the creation of posters.

FRAC Food and Hunger Report Study: Food Programs Help LowIncome Children Maintain Normal Body Weight; Do Not Contribute to Obesity. (“Obesity Rate for Low Income Children Not Higher,” newsdesk.umd.edu, September 14, 2005) A new University of Maryland study found that America’s lowest income children do not have a higher rate of obesity than higher income children.

Federal food programs, such as the food stamp and national school lunch and breakfast programs do not increase the incidence of childhood obesity in households below the poverty line. Researchers wanted to explore whether media reports that portray spreading childhood obesity as a result of too much food provided by food programs are right, since evidence of that might result in program cuts. “We wanted to find out whether there is a relationship between family income and a child’s being overweight and whether participating in federal food programs is associated with child overweight, ”said Sandra L. Hofferth, professor of family studies at Maryland, who co-authored the study. Children from the poorest families were found to

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benefit from the food programs.

Children who eat school lunches maintain a normal body weight, whereas those who do not eat school lunches weigh less than normal.

Children from families with incomes just over the poverty line – the near poor – are most at risk of being overweight, but school lunch participation was not the determining factor. “In addition to school food programs, these children in near poor or working class families may have more money to spend on food in school vending machines or the snack bar,” said Hofferth. In contrast, highincome children were less likely to be overweight, which suggests that more food expenditures most likely lead to higher quality of food rather than quantity. The study was published in the September issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Disaster Might Help Convince Congress Not to Reduce Assistance to Poor (“Hurricane May Help Advocates Protect Medicaid, Food Stamps From Planned Cuts,” mlive.com, September 10, 2005) A coalition of Michigan anti-poverty groups urged lawmakers not to allow the proposed food stamp cuts. The

antihunger advocates say that the Katrina disaster has shown how essential safety-net programs – such as food stamps and Medicaid. “As we look at dealing with a disaster like Katrina, we see people fleeing to all parts of the country who have no income and no food,” said Terri Stangl of the Center for Civil Justice in Saginaw. “This is a bad time to be looking at cuts when we see that this kind of program can make a huge difference.” The advocates hope that refugees in camps across the country will be their allies in the battle to preserve – if not increase – funding for social programs. “Now there is a human face on poverty that people can relate to,” said Marianne Udow, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services. “The priorities in the budget that the president proposed and Congress is considering are not aligned with helping those most in need.” http://tinyurl.com/an4tk Will President Bush Seize Moment and Attack Poverty Rather Than Cut Taxes for the Rich? (“The Other America,” msnbc.com, September 10, 2005)

Streetvibes

In this Newsweek piece Jonathan Alterwrites that Katrina may offer a chance to make Washington think harder about why parts of the country seem like the Third World. While, over the past four decades, Social Security has eliminated most poverty among the elderly and food stamps mostly have eliminated severe hunger, poverty in America has gotten worse for three years in a row. The primary economic problem is not lack of jobs, but low wages for workers of all races: “For the poor, the idea of lowwage jobs’ covering the basic expenses of living has become a cruel joke.” Another problem is racism. Yet leaders in Congress give priority to estate tax repeal and are set to slash food stamps by billions, yet keep subsidies to wealthy farmers intact.

Katrina could change these politics, which is not good news for those who want to reduce the government to the point where it can be, in Grover Norquist’s words, “strangled in the bathtub.” Katrina also gives President Bush an “only-Nixon-could-go-toChina” opportunity to seize the moment and undertake a correction that might change the lives of millions of poor people. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9287641/

Community Leaders Take Responsibility

by Oren Elow Black boys in Massachusetts are dropping out and away from high school and represent the highest percentage of suspensions in middle school and the largest percentage of preschool expulsions.

Black boys in Massachusetts represent the single largest percentage of youth in school suspensions, expulsions and the Department of Youth Services.

Foster care and the Youth Services Department appear to be the “feeder system” for the state correctional system for black men.

Black leaders recently gathered together at the Fourth Annual 21st Century Black Massachusetts Conference at the Hynes Convention Center, which State Senator Dianne Wilkerson and Representative Byron Rushing convened to ask the question, “What do you think is happening to our black boys and what can ‘we’ do about it to turn it around?” The conference theme this year was The Pampers to Prison Pipeline: The Ms. Education of Black Boys in Massachusetts.

This was just a fragment of the issues that would be discussed over the next two days. But because of my grandson graduating the next day from Holy Cross Cathedral High School, I could only attend the conference on one day. But by attending both functions, I had the opportunity to get two different narrations.

From the 21st Century conference came questions: What is wrong with out public school system?

Are white women teachers, who make up 80 percent of our public school teachers, capable of teaching black male youths? And what to do about the deadly, violent crimes in the streets, especially in the urban cities?

At Holy Cross Cathedral the next day, the atmosphere was much different from that of the 21st Century Black Massachusetts Conference.

Here at the graduation ceremony, no one asked why our children couldn’t learn, or whether or not white female teachers can teach black and Hispanic male students. What was going on in this great Gothic cathedral were applauds, standing ovations and shouts coming from the audience of 600 proud parents, relatives and friends cheering as each graduate got up to receive their diplomas.

“That’s my boy! Hey, man!

I see you!” shouted a proud father from the audience.

Here the leaders and teachers of the school praised the graduates, who were mostly black and Hispanic, for the hard work they’d done over the years to complete high school. At the Hynes Convention Center, the leaders and the audience were

struggling with what to do for their youths who weren’t graduating high school and why were there so many black children in special educational classes.

There were many questions posed by the audience to the sitting panel at the 21st Century forum.

Panelist Minister Don Muhammad, of Muhammad’s Mosque of Islam, began by asking, “Why are our black boys so angry?

And most of us interpret this anger to be against society, and against white people. But the truth of the matter is that they’re angry with us.” Applauds – and a few “Amens” sounded from the audience of about 500.

“Oh yes, they’re angry with us,” the minister continued. Now his voice was coming from his stomach and not his head. “They’re angry at their mothers who gave them television as a babysitter; they’re angry with their daddies for impregnating their mothers and leaving them. Oh yes, they’re angry; they’re mad at the world, and angry with themselves. And if we don’t do something, we’ll continue losing our black boys to street gangs, prison, death.”

Minister Don also stated that 69 percent of black children in America’s homes are reared only by a mother. He also went on to say that the black problem lies with some of the neighborhood black leaders who are doing their own thing. “No one is working together; they don’t want to play team ball. They all want to be superstars and celebrities.”

The panelists – whom also included guest speaker Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, an educational consultant; Dr. Deborah Stith, a Harvard professor; and Rev. Eugene Rivers, an old guard and who was one of the first community activists in the late ’80s to work the streets to help with the youth problems – now understand that in order for the community to develop fully, they as leaders and the community must now stop putting all the blame on The Man and put it where it belongs, back in the community.

“We must take on the responsibility of seeing to it that our children are brought up in a decent environment,” Rev. Rivers stated.

How to do this? The panelists suggested that community organizers get involved and that individuals who aren’t involved in community organizations get involved for this objective. In fact, they’re calling on everyone to take part in this issue.

They’re calling on the lucrative black folks that have moved out of the city and into the suburbs to come back into the city as volunteers to help inner-city youths. With this kind of attitude coming out of the conference hall, things should only get

better for the black youths in Massachusetts.

As for the 57 Holy Cross graduates, they’d done their thing and were now looking forward to higher things, like college and higher education, while the kids in the streets were dying from lack of love.

After the graduate ceremony ended and everyone had gathered outside, I had the honor of interviewing Jorge Castellanos, the student-graduate speaker who impressed the entire church with his speech on school ethics and the esteem of learning at Holy Cross Cathedral High School.

I wanted to meet and interview this bright young man because he was smart, articulate and a potential leader. Thus I found him surrounded by a jam-packed crowd outside the church. And here’s what he had to say when I asked him, “What do you think is the difference between the young men and women who are graduating here today and the many young men and gang members who have given up on school and are unwilling to learn?”

“Well,” Jorge said, standing tall with chin up in his black cap and gown, “basically, we’re the future, and the future depends on the youths.

And those who are graduating got to get out there and give good names to our communities and the minorities out there. Our neighborhoods don’t have good names. So, that’s what I’m trying to do, set an example for my brother,” who was standing at his side, “and all my siblings. And for everyone that is young.”

“What do you think of the teachers here?”

“Well, you know, they’re good teachers and very supportive.

I’m glad I came to this school, or else I couldn’t have done the things I’ve done. Without them I wouldn’t be going on to college.”

“Most of the teachers here are white women,” I said.

“Yes.” I then asked Jorge, did he believe that white female teachers can teach, plus understand the problems both black and Hispanic students confront each day in the city streets?

“Yeah,” Jorge said. “I think they’re great teachers. And, like I said, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be standing here today. And about our problems – yes, I think they try hard to understand what they don’t already know. They’re not prejudiced at all.”

No matter how different these two narrations, they’re both about moving forward. One is about accepting responsibility for the modification of the missing education of black boys. And the other is about moving on to high education. Both are a sign of growth and change.

Streetvibes

Homegrown homeless go begging Mary lived in a Cutlass Sierra with three grandchildren for six weeks. Today, they live at The Crossing, Denver Rescue Mission’s transitional facility for homeless families.

Mary and her grandkids need help. If they had come from the Gulf Coast to Denver, they’d be getting it.

Instead, they have languished for two months in a small room as Mary searches for full-time employment and works temp jobs to pay the rent.

Mary is not a victim of Hurricane Katrina. She’s a victim of compassion fatigue.

“I went to several agencies,” Mary said. “They had no housing. I don’t why they had no housing, then, Katrina happens, and you throw the doors open. If the housing is here now, it was there then.”

She feels for the hurricane evacuees living in a dormitory at Lowry. She knows they didn’t choose to be victims of the country’s worst natural disaster. But she also knows she didn’t choose to be homeless with three grandkids.

She’s not whining, just making a point.

When resources are available to offer jobs and health care and apartments with a year of free rent to evacuees from New Orleans, Mary asked, “why isn’t it offered to women and children who are already on the streets?”

Coloradans will answer the question as they follow up on their generosity for Katrina victims.

Advocates for the homeless hope folks continue to donate money, time and services to local charities.

“We certainly have seen people come out in massive numbers (to help hurricane evacuees),” said John Parvensky, president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

“It’s more than we see in response to the day-to-day concerns. To some extent, we grow numb to the ongoing pain in our community.”

We judge needy neighbors in ways we would never judge hurricane victims.

People “can see themselves in the same situation as Katrina victims,” Parvensky said. These same people see the local homeless as ne’er-do-wells on the street by choice.

Fact is, Parvensky said, most people become homeless through no fault of their own. They lose a job.

They get sick.

She is the face of the Denver homeless we don’t want to see. We prefer the faces we can

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Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati All Vendors Sign and Agree to a Code of Conduct Coalition for the Homeless and Report Any Violations to GCCH - 421-7803 Streetvibes....

1. Streetvibes will be distributed Vendors must not tell customers earned. This program has helped for a $1 voluntary donation. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, vendors are allowed to keep that donation. However, vendors must never ask for more than $1 when selling Streetvibes.

2. Each paper purchased from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) costs 25 cents. Papers will not be given out on credit. Old papers can not be traded in for new papers.

3. Streetvibes may only be purchased from GCCH. Never buy papers from, or sell papers to other vendors.

4. Vendors must not panhandle or sell other items at the same time they are selling Streetvibes.

5. Vendors must treat all other vendors, customers, and GCCH personnel with respect.

6. Vendors must not sell Streetvibes while under the influence.

7. Vendors must not give a “hard sell” or intimidate anyone into purchasing Streetvibes. This includes following customers or continuing to solicit sales after customers have said no. Vendors must also never sell Streetvibes door-to-door.

8. Vendors must not deceive customers while selling Streetvibes. Vendors must be honest in stating that all profits go to the individual vendor.

that the money they receive will go to GCCH or any other organization or charity. Also, vendors must not say that they are collecting for “the homeless” in general.

9. Vendors must not sell papers without their badge. Vendors must present their badge when purchasing papers from GCCH. Lost badges cost $2.00 to replace.

Broken or worn badges will be replaced for free, but only if the old badge is returned to GCCH. 10. Streetvibes vendor meetings are held on the first weekday of the month at 1pm. The month’s paper will be released at this meeting. If a vendor cannot attend the meeting, he or she should let us know in advance. If a vendor does not call in advance and does not show up, that vendor will not be allowed to purchase papers on the day of the meeting or the following day. Five free papers will be given to those who do attend.

11. Failure to comply with the Code of Conduct may result in termination from the Streetvibes vendor program. GCCH reserves the right to terminate any vendor at any time as deemed appropriate. Badges and Streetvibes papers are property of GCCH, and must be surrendered upon demand.

The mission of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) is to support a street newspaper movement that creates and upholds journalistic and ethical standards while promoting self-help and empowerment among people living in poverty. NASNA papers support homeless and very low-income people in more than 35 cities across the United States and Canada.

Streetvibes Vendor: 75 Cents (70 cent profit goes directly to the vendor)

Homeless Coalition

25 Cents Printing and Production: 25 cents (this cost does not cover expenses)

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The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) was formed in May of 1984 for one purpose: the eradication of homelessness in Cincinnati. What started out as a coalition of 15 volunteers meeting weekly in an unheated church basement has since grown into a Coalition of over 45 agencies and hundreds of volunteers dedicated to improving services for homeless individuals, educating the public about homelessness and empowering homeless individuals to advocate for their civil rights and housing needs.

Streetvibes is a tool of GCCH used to help us achieve our goal of ending homelessness.

On the one hand it is a selfsufficiency program geared towards the homeless and marginally housed individuals who are our vendors. Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 30 cents per copy and sell it for a suggested one-dollar donation, keeping the profit that they have

hundreds of people find and maintain housing. The vendors also sign a code of conduct stating that they will behave responsibly and professionally and they proudly display their official Streetvibes badge while selling the paper. Our vendors put a face on “the homeless” of Cincinnati and form lasting friendships with their customers.

On the other hand, Streetvibes is an award-winning alternative newspaper and part of the international street newspaper movement. Focusing on homelessness and social justice issues, Streetvibes reports the often-invisible story of poverty in our community. Streetvibes is also proud to include creative writing, poetry, articles, photography and interviews written by homeless and formerly homeless individuals. Streetvibes enjoys a loyal reader base that respects the honest portrayal of the joys, sorrows, and challenges facing the people of Cincinnati.

Streetvibes is a member of the:

The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) unites street papers sold by homeless and people living in poverty from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organisation, which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers and advises on the setting up of new street papers and support initiatives for marginalised people.

Where Your Dollar Goes...

The Streetvibes program maintains a minimal overhead cost so that our vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible.

Please call our office at 421-7803 for more information about the program. Many thanks for your support.

Streetvibes

Don’t be Squirrelly!

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Feel Safe or Be Safe?

by Suhith Wickrema

no squeegee men and panhandlers, dope peddlers will stop selling dope, Cincinnati has a real battle for gang-bangers will stop shooting each Mayor this election and the issue of other and men will stop raping women. public safety has dominated the Even discredited theories take twenty political discussion. Three of the years to come to Cincinnati! candidates have announced their Mr. Pepper’s plan to decrease Public Safety plans. Let’s examine the violent crime rate in Cincinnati is to their proposals. have zero tolerance for “quality of life Mr. Pepper and Mr. Winburn concerns” such as “noise graffiti and tout the “broken window” theory litter.” He makes an obligatory mention popularized by John Q. Wilson and of treatment, but no mention of George L. Kelling who wrote, in increasing treatment slots. He claims 1982: “one unrepaired broken that Cincinnati is “under staffed when it window is a signal that no one cares comes to its police force.” and, breaking more windows costs Mr. Winburn promises to nothing.” increase the Cincinnati Police When it comes to policing Department by 200 officers at a cost of theory this translates to zero tolerance $8.5 million. He also promises to build for “quality of life crimes.” This was a new jail. He does not say how he is the rational used by New York City going to find the money for these Police Commissioner William Bratton projects. Although Mr. Winburn claims in the 1990’s to start arresting minor that he will fight violent crime from “all lawbreakers such as “squeegee” men directions and angles” he does not and panhandlers. address treatment.

Mr. Pepper and Mr. Winburn would have us believe that if there are

Mr. Pepper and Mr. Winburn cite New York City as a model in reducing crime –– is it the best model? During the same period when New York City took this approach and coincidentally saw a reduction in crime rates, San Francisco took a different approach –– alternative sentencing and community involvement –– and saw a larger decrease in crime rates than in New York City. From 1995 to 1998 San Francisco’s violent crime rate went down 33%. NY City’s violent crime rate went down only 26 % in the same time period.

While claiming that the CPD is understaffed, both candidates have omitted some interesting figures about the CPD compared to other cities: Cincinnati has 31 police officers per 10,000 residents while San Francisco has 29, Louisville has 27, Columbus has 25, and Lexington has 19. The salary of an entry-level officer in Cincinnati is $37,487, in Columbus

it’s $30,480, in Lexington $30,274, and in Louisville $27,689. (All figures are for the year 2000) Mr. Mallory is pushing boot camps to fight crimes. Boot camps may satisfy the punitive instinct in most of us. Boot camps by themselves are purely punitive and have not shown to be effective.

However, Mr. Mallory does include the after care component for boot camps that have shown to reduce crime.

Having a parent in prison is a strong predictor that their child will end up in prison. A policy that promises to lockup people will only increase the prison population. It will not reduce crime. It will not reduce the number of victims. The ‘Lock them up’ mentality makes most of us feel safe. It does not make us safe.

So, think before you vote! It is time that we got smart on crime!

Anti-racism workshop organizers hit by Hurricane Katrina

by Adam Hyla Its offices were flooded, its computers destroyed, its reams of paper records dissolved in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Its director had to fly back to the city in the face of the hurricane to extract his family; his 80-year-old mother was lifted out by an evacuation team, dangling from a helicopter.

And the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, a national organization which conducts seminars on reversing the effects of racial bias, was located in the eye of a disaster — one that lifted back the curtain veiling social inequities for millions of Americans who have never been to an anti-racism workshop.

The destruction of the national headquarters “has tragic significance,” says Daniel Buford, head of the group’s satellite office in Berkeley. “Our archives, print and electronic, were completely destroyed. We have been documenting racism in the United States and New Orleans for over 25 years. So it’s a tragedy on the organizational level.”

And on the human level, too: “knowing your friends, people you loved had to get out of town with just the clothes on their back.”

One of those people is organization director Ron Chisom, 64, whose days are now spent finding food, shelter, clothing, and a home for his mother. “You never think it’s going to happen to you,” says Chisom.

And at the same time, you do; Chisom recounts how family and friends remember the flooding of the mostly African American Ninth Ward after Hurricane Betsy tore through the city in 1965, killing 75 people. Just

like today, racism played a role then, he says. “There is such history and such a cultural dynamic” to racism, he says; it manifests itself differently everywhere, but it’s always the same thing.

The People’s Institute has trained an estimated 5,000 people in Seattle alone in a two-day “undoing racism” workshop that tackles the malingering 500-year-old struggle with racial inequality in North America. It asks participants to take an expansive view of race in American life: it’s the system, not the people, which perpetuates inequality.

No matter how healthy the relationship between individuals of different races — or, as Chisom says, regardless of “how people feel about somebody” — people of color have a very different experience with civic agencies and power centers from hospitals to high schools, bus systems to banks.

Workshops trainers offer a historical analysis of how race difference were enshrined in law, provide examples of institutional racism in everyday life, and then invite participants to turn such situations into opportunities for action.

The trainings continue in cities across the country, including Seattle.

Satellite offices are set up here and in New York and Atlanta. Trainers will be paid for their work; Chisom says the organization is raising money to continue payments for home-office staff — who, Buford says, are displaced to seven different cities.

“We’ve reverted back to our roots of being a network organization, not hierarchical or top-down,” says Buford. “Diaspora is an appropriate term.”

The group is also calling for a reconstruction with justice: a living wage paid to residents of the Gulf Coast, rebuilding communities of their design.

Buford says what’s happened to their home base validates the organization’s teachings.“The slow federal response, the slow state response, the unwillingness to spend money on the shoring up of the levees, it comes from an essential fact: they do not value the lives of the people who make up the majority of New Orleans, who just happen to be of African descent.”

More information: www.pisab.org.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. — Martin Luther King, Jr. Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory. — Norman Vincent Peale Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit.

— Norman Vincent Peale

“Don “Don’’t Leave Home W ithout IIt...” t...”

Streetvibes

Page 13

CHILDREN ENGAGING COMPASSION is a project of S.O.S. Art and Peaslee Neighborhood Center. Over the course of a week, children worked with artist C. Pic Michel and writer Andrea Nichols (WWF(a)CF) to learn about values of compassion, caring, sharing, free giving, respect and appreciation of others through the creation of art and writing. The purpose was to help instill these values and make them tangible and actively present in the children’s thinking and behavior.

S.O.S. Art is an organization that promotes social/political expression.

Peaslee Neighborhood Center is a peaceful place where Over-the-Rhine residents create and participate in dialogue based educational programs that foster creative expression, self-determination, personal voice, and social change.

Women Writing for (a) Change Foundation’s mission is to foster a healthy writing community where the words of women and girls from all walks of life are nurtured, developed, and celebrated. Funding for the foundation is provided by the City of Cincinnati, the Ohio Arts Council, the Tomcinoh Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and theManuel D and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation.

Character Development of “THE KINGDOM OF PEACE” A Book By Children from Peaslee Neighborhood Center in Over-the-Rhine All of the characters and events in the story were determined by the children.

Guided by prompts, the youth focused on specific qualities as attributes (citizens, heroes, adversaries) of peace and used words, clay, and crayon colored drawings to define and develop their story. These are the characters from their story.

The project was funded by The Greater Cincinnati Foundation Summertime Kids grant, the Fine Arts Fund, and Women Writing For (a) Change Foundation, with an in-kind contribution from C. Pic Michel to photo document, design and organize a book.

THE KINGDOM OF PEACE An Enchanting Tale of the Qualities of Peace from Children at the Peaslee Center in Over-the-Rhine Once upon a time Miss Evil and Mr. Anger fulfilled their plan to destroy the Kingdom of Peace. Miss Evil invited all of the townspeople to a party that wasn’t really a party. Her party was actually a war.

They also invited the Prince because they really wanted to lock him in prison because they knew he would do anything to save the Kingdom. All they had to do to trap him was to tell him that they didn’t like him over and over and pretend that they weren’t really going to invite him to they party because once they did this, he turned into a beast called Mr. Death.

Mr. Death bit a lot of people before they locked him in the prison. Lots of the townspeople lost their lives at Miss Evil’s party that was really a war.

While Miss Evil was hosting her so-called party, Mr. Anger destroyed the rest of the town. He cut the ropes to the bridge across the river so no one could get out. He kicked in the doors to homes and let dogs loose to eat everything up. All of the blue and red houses were knocked down into piles of rubble.

The people tried to fight back but Mr. Anger turned the sun into fire and the thunder into rocks and they came down out of the sky to destroy everything in their way. Mr. Anger even turned the buildings into robots that smashed cars.

When Mr. Anger and Miss Evil were finished the only thing left in the Kingdom of Peace were busted windows, and dead trees. Everything fell into a pile of rubble and the Prince was locked in prison.

At the top of a hill on the other side of the river, Ms. Kindness and Mr. Forgiveness surveyed the damage. They felt sad for their Kingdom and had to do something to save it.

Mr. Forgiveness reached in his pocket and found love and Ms. Kindness pulled some sympathy out of her purse and they began their job of fixing the kingdom.

They cleaned up the rocks and stacked them in the river for people to climb on so they could get out and Ms. Kindness used her helping rope to rebuild the bridge. Mr. Forgiveness put the fire back in the clouds and gave it back to the sun.

Mr. Forgiveness knew how to use rain to cleanse and put out fires. He used the old wood from the bridge to get people out of the water and to rebuild their houses. He cut down the dead trees and planted new ones.

Mr. Forgiveness used lots of love to rebuild the castle. The bricks were made out of generosity and sympathy.

Ms. Kindness and Mr. Forgiveness loved everyone they came in contact with to nurse them back to health. As they walked through the town loving everyone and putting lotion on their hurts they found the key of kindness to get the Prince out of prison.

On their way to the prison they bumped into Mr. Anger and Miss Evil. Mr. Forgiveness forgave them right away and Ms. Kindness wished that they could have lots of friends.

They invited Mr. Anger and Miss Evil to their car for a ride and to give them a drink of magic water that had flowers of truth in it. Ms. Kindness grew these flowers in her garden, and they always made people nicer.

Mr. Anger took a drink and turned into Mr. Generosity and went to help rebuild the castle. Miss Evil took a drink and turned into Ms. Humor and went to plan a real party.

When Ms. Kindness and Mr. Forgiveness used the key of kindness to let Mr. Death out of the prison, his first words to them were “Thank-you.” They said, “You’re Welcome.” He immediately turned back into a prince.

They promised to always make him feel better whenever he felt sad so he wouldn’t turn into a beast again and all three of them helped Mr. Anger and Miss Evil stay good by respecting them and being nice to them. They all worked together to make the Kingdom better.

That night they got to have a real party at Ms. Humor’s house and she served them coffee and everyone told jokes.

The End

Mr. Forgiveness Forgiveness wears pants and suit. On Mondays he wears a white tuxedo. On Tuesday he wears pink roses. On Wednesday he wears a tie with wheels. On Thursdays he wears grey dress clothes, and on Fridays he wears a black tuxedo with a white rose in the pocket. He is very tall.

Forgiveness is giving.

When you bump into him he listens when you say you are sorry.

He drives people home, and helps kids cross the street.

He helps moms with their babies.

He wants to tell everyone to stop fighting and be friends. If husbands and wives fight he takes them to anger management. He might take kids to the principal’s office.

He carries love in his pockets along with sunshine, clouds and rain.

He carries a badge and tells people to give things back.

He helps the poor with his money, and he donates it to Food For Thought.

His house doesn’t have blinds because when people look in he forgives them. He has a big front door with no lock. It is brown because it is his favorite color.

Forgiveness is friends with Miss Kindness, Ms. Truth and Mr. Tolerance. His boss at work is Ms. Patience. His enemies are Mr. Hate and Mr. Anger. (But he forgives them too)

Page 14

Streetvibes

Miss Kindness Kindness wears gold bracelets with red hearts, and diamonds.

She wears lucky boots because she loses things.

She doesn’t hurt animals and gives back things that are lost.

She takes care of hurt animals and braids people’s hair.

Kindness would marry Kindness and Truth.

She sends money to the president and to the needy.

Kindness carries sunshine, love, tolerance, feelings, humor, sympathy, truth and generosity in her purse.

Kindness is there for everyone when they are hurt.

She puts lotion on ashy skin, builds poor people homes, and helps Africans get food. She can sense when people are in need.

Her flowers are while and red roses made in her garden. She gives them to mothers and for birthday presents.

She builds mansions for the homeless.

She is 31 but you can be kind no matter how old you are.

She is happy and smiles. Kindness plays with both boys and girls and protects them and keeps them safe. She makes all their hurts feel better.

She helps kittens out of trees.

Kindness sounds like tapping feet, beautiful singing, running water, the ocean and the seashore, the wind, whales singing, and dolphins singing.

She gives people rides to work when their cars are broken down or when it rains. She wishes for everyone to have friends, for everyone to help everyone, and for kids to have good grades.

She has a special ball to bounce mean people back into the river.

She can see through walls to keep us away from thieves.

Kindness is friends with sympathy, beauty, and honor.

Her enemies are evil and disrespect.

Mr. Death He needs to be forgiven. He didn’t get forgiven.

He hurt a woman. He bit Mrs. Kindness, Ms. Truth and Mr. Honor.

He like humans to eat and God told him not to and if he stops he will turn into a king.

He has an angry face because he did not get forgiven. He has a sad face because he doesn’t get invited to parties because he is mean. People hurt his feelings.

He’s trying to be nice like a prince to get invited to the party.

He turns back into a beast when people tell him they don’t like him.

His house is a half house and he lives downstairs. His money is under his house. His house has white walls with blood red designs

Writers!

Submit your Poetry to STREETVIBES email your writing to Streetvibes@juno.com

Streetvibes

Page 15

357-4602

Formed in 1984, The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a membership organization. Our member groups serve the homeless through emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social services, soup kitchens, and mental health/addiction services.

The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take an active role in ensuring that Cincinnati is an inclusive community, meeting the needs of all of its citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at (513) 421-7803, 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth)

SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 St. Francis/St.Joseph House 381-4941 Mt. Airy Center 661-4620 Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954

SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335

If you need help or would like to help please call one of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless members listed below.

OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati 421-2437 Appalachian Identity Center 621-5991 Beech Acres 231-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Emanuel Center 241-2563

TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline 820-2947 A.A. Hotline 351-0422 C.C.A.T. 381-6672 Talbert House 684-7956 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 DIC Live-In Program 721-0643

TREATMENT: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Prospect House 921-1613 Starting Over 961-2256

TREATMENT: Women First Step Home 961-4663 Full Circle Program 721-0643

HOUSING: CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 Miami Purchase 241-0504 OTR Housing Net. 369-0004 ReSTOC 381-1171 Tender Mercies 721-8666 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services, Inc 751-9797

Caracole (AIDS) 761-1480 Friars Club 381-5432 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Haven House 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 961-4080 St. John’s Housing 651-6446

Need Help or Want to Help?

MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) St. Raphaels (Food Bank/Soup Kitchen) 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 New Life Baptist Mission (Soup Kitchen) 896-9800 Hope House (Homeless Families/Singles) 423-4673

Freestore/ Foodbank 241-1064 Fransiscan Haircuts 651-6468 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental Health Board 946-8600 Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-7186 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis.

Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids 357-5720 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471-4357 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259

October 2005

Cincinnati Serves Record Number of Homeless People

Standdown 2005

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