Streetvibes April 2006 Edition

April 2006

STREETVIBES CityLink offers opportunities for people who want real life “CityLink will change connect people to Just like any other city in the U.S., Cincinnati has its own poverty issue. Cincinnati is ranked 16th, ahead of Los Angeles and New York, for percentage of residents living in poverty. One-fifth of Cincinnati residents live in poverty. One-third of Cincinnati’s children live in poverty; simple statements describing a complex problem.

Enter CityLink Center, a new proposal to join the fight against poverty in Cincinnati.

CityLink is made up of four experienced service providers, dozens of visiting service providers, and hundreds of volunteers who are working together to provide health and wellness recreation, life skills and employment and education services. The four permanent service providers—City Gospel Mission, Jobs Plus, the Lord’s Gym and Crossroad Health Center— believe that they can have greater impact by working together under one roof and coordinating services, rather than providing services independently in their current Over-theRhine locations.

concrete, lifechanging programs and a support network,” says Mark Stecher, Director of CityLink. “It is a place for people to learn how to get a different and better life.”

“In our experience with CityCURE and City Gospel Mission, we found two key things: first there are many people who are hoping that a better life is just around the corner, and second, there are hundreds of organizations, donors and volunteers scattered across the city who want to help, but just don’t know how,” says Roger Howell, President of CityCURE. “This center provides a place where these

News From the Drop Inn Center First Day of Spring?: Unfortunately, we are dealing with what will hopefully be the last blast of winter. One night recently there were 249 people who stayed with us. Let’s hope warmer weather is on the way.

New Mats for the Men: A Grant from the Helen Steiner Rice Foundation for new mats for the Men’s Dorm as well as bus tokens for Advocates to use for the next year. Thank you to the Helen Steiner Rice Foundation as well as the staff of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation for making this possible.

Funk for the Whole Family: Please mark your calendar for Friday, April 28 from 7-10 PM at the Starlite Ballroom. Be there for a Benefit Concert for the Drop Inn Center featuring the Clark Montessori Steel Band. For a mere $15 you can enjoy co-hosts Bootsy Collins and Tracy

Wilson, “Name That Jam” Emcee Tori Turner from MOJO 94.9 and much more! For more information or for tickets visit www.hoxworth.org/ clark (as of now, still under construction) or call 363-7184.

Drop Inn Center 5K Run and Walk: This year’s run and walk is themed “A Celebration of Life and Hope” and will be held on Sunday, April 30th at Spring Grove Cemetery. The run starts at 8:30. You can register online by following the link at www.dropinn.org. We will be mailing fliers soon to past participants. If you want to be sure to get a registration form, send an e-mail to amerritt@dropinn.org.

Congratulations to Staff Worker Arthur Gerald!: Arthur was the winner of the Entree Competition at Guys, Griddles and Grub— a fundraiser for Community Shares. He prepared

people can be linked together to help each other.”

The vision is to create a place for people who want to work towards real life change.

“You have to want real life change,” says Keenan Robbison, who went through multiple agencies to get on his feet. “CityLink is necessary for this change.”

CityLink brings together experienced service providers to offer employment and education, health/wellness, life skills and recreation services under one roof. CityLink also provides the infrastructure to mobilize volunteers and connect individuals to meaningful ways to utilize their skills. Volunteers can offer discussions, greet clients, help with ongoing research to develop best practices or just be a friend.

“I grew up in the West End, and my family had to travel to every social service in the city just to meet our basic needs,” says Aaron Jones, who is now a successful mortgage/life insurance broker in Cincinnati. “CityLink will make it easier for families to get help. It will be an asset to the community and force people to acknowledge the West End.” Not only will CityLink make it easier for people to coordinate true, life-changing services, it will also provide them a strong support network of caring friends that will last for a life time. CityLink desires that all people coming to the center will find a friend who will partner with them and support them in meeting their goals.

pork crown roast, stuffed with his special dressing. Truly one of a kind!

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

Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

Streetvibes 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 Chris Dourson - AHA Coordinator John Lavelle - VISTA Melvin Williams - Reception Susan Smith - Volunteer Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photography Jimmy Heath, Berta Lambert Cover Proposed site of CityLink Center in the West End 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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Homeless Empowerment Project by: Mike O’Neill from the National Coalition for the Homeless We are grateful for the Catholic Campaign For Human Development, Archdiocese of Washington which gave the National Coalition for the Homeless a grant to assist us with our Homeless Empowerment Project mission of empowering those who have or are experiencing homelessness through trainings and skill-building workshops on various issues surrounding homelessness and poverty.

The first workshop, “Know Your Legal Rights on the Streets of DC” was led by Tulin Ozdeger, Civil Rights Attorney, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

Twenty-five homeless and formerly homeless individuals attended this workshop. At this workshop Ms. Ozdeger discussed the D.C. antipanhandling, anti-sleeping and other ordinances targeting the homeless population. Street rights cards were given to each of those attending the workshop-the street rights cars talk about how “vagrancy” or loitering is not a crime-one can’t be stopped or arrested by the police for simply being on the street, a sidewalk or in a public park and police do not have the right to tell you to move from a particular area if you are doing

nothing illegal. You also have a right to panhandle in D.C. as long as you are not within 10 feet of an ATM or 15 feet of Metro property and as long as you aren’t aggressively panhandling.”

The second workshop had 10 participants and was led by Michael Stoops, Acting Executive Director, National Coalition for the Homeless and Tulin Ozdeger, Civil Rights Attorney, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. The workshop was titled, “Criminalization of Homelessness” and was aimed at discussing the various laws that target the homeless population not only in the District of Columbia, but across the country. NCH and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty surveyed 224 cities across the country and ranked the “Twenty Meanest Cities” based solely on the laws targeting the homeless such as curfew laws, restrictions on feedings, sweeps and raids of homeless encampments, anti-sleeping and antipanhandling laws. The various laws were discussed, as well as verdicts that have been reached in various court cases on these issues.

The most recent workshop was led by Richard Troxell, National Chairman, Universal Living Wage and Board Member of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Nine participants attended Mr. Troxell’s workshop where they learned about the Living Wage formula and how if put into effect, it could end homelessness for over 1 million homeless citizens and prevents

economic hardship for all 11.8 million minimum wage workers. The goal of the Universal Living wage campaign is to fix the Federal Minimum wage so that someone working forty hours a week can afford a place to live in their community. Statistics were given on the average amount one would need to make to afford a one bedroom apartment in the United States.

The goal of these workshops and the Homeless Empowerment project is to provide the opportunity for people who have or are experiencing homelessness to use their voices and faces to dispel stereotypes, personalize homelessness and inspire involvement through volunteerism and advocacy.

The project also aims to serve as a training, skill-building and empowerment tool for those who have experienced homelessness. The Homeless Empowerment Project works in conjunctions with the Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau which recruits currently and formerly homeless individuals to share their personal stories dealing with homelessness to groups throughout the country.

Please check our website at www.nationalhomeless.org for more information on the Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau and the Homeless Empowerment Project.

Information on future workshops and activities, as well as pictures and recaps from our events will be posted on our website. Stay tuned for information on Hill lobbying visits and other projects.

Group’s goal: Housing for all homeless in 10 On any given day, there are years an estimated 792 homeless people in states largely on their own to deal Muskegon County by 2016.

Grand Rapids, Michigan It’s an ambitious goal, but officials involved in the effort said they will pull it off by changing the way social service agencies assist the chronically homeless.

A coalition of social service agencies plans to attack the problem by getting homeless individuals and families into permanent housing much faster than in the past.

Under the current system, the chronically homeless are shuttled between emergency shelters and transitional housing for two to three years before they are placed in permanent housing.

“We can’t afford to have solutions that take three years to provide (housing) stability,” said Jane Johnson, director of the state Department of Human Services office in Muskegon. “We’ll house people first and then help them solve their other problems.”

Muskegon’s effort is similar to an initiative started last year by the city of Grand Rapids and Kent County. Officials there also hope to end homelessness in 10 years.

Muskegon — 394 of them children, according to government data. Of those 792 individuals, 126 are chronically homeless, which means they are living on the streets, in shelters or regularly moving from one temporary residence to another.

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell spoke to a group of about 60 social service providers Tuesday to kick off Muskegon’s effort to end homelessness by 2016.

“We got into this problem of homelessness relatively quickly and we can solve the problem quickly if there is a community will to do it,” Heartwell said.

The number of homeless families in America soared in the early 1980s, Heartwell said, when former President Ronald Reagan’s administration “eviscerated” funding for the department of Housing and Urban Development. Funding for HUD, the primary source of assistance for the homeless, has been reduced by every presidential administration since Reagan, Heartwell said.

Federal budget cuts for subsidized housing have left cities and

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with the homeless, Heartwell said.

Bolstering the safety net for the homeless will require support of local, county and state agencies, as well as faith-based organizations and philanthropists, he said.

Johnson said homeless individuals often need help dealing with other issues, such as substance abuse and mental illness, before they can hold a job and pay for housing.

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Homeless News Digest

Compiled by Jimmy Heath In Boston last month a homeless man sleeping in a park was attacked by two men who kicked him in the stomach and then set him on fire, police said.

No arrests were made and police gave no indication of what might have provoked the attack.

The 30-year-old homeless man, whose name was not released, told police he was awakened by the men kicking him in Langone Park in the city’s North End. He drifted back to sleep after the assault, but the men returned, drenched him with a flammable liquid and set his legs on fire, police said.

A 911 caller reported flames in the park, and firefighters found the man wrapped in a blanket after he had ripped off some of his burning clothes.

“He was shivering and was partially dressed,” said police spokesman John Boyle.

The park is a short walk from a cluster of downtown bars.

The victim was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital for burns to his legs.

Nationally, the number of assaults against the homeless has risen dramatically since 2002, according to a recent report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. In 2005, 73 homeless people were assaulted nationwide and 13 died, the report said.

Last August, a 40-year-old homeless man died in Boston after he was beaten. Two teenagers have been charged with manslaughter.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a surveillance camera captured two people beating a homeless man to death with baseball bats, the same night two other men were seriously injured. Three teenagers have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder.

In Cleveland homeless men and women snooze in the early morning hours inside Hopkins International Airport, the occasional boarding call the only disturbance to their peaceful slumber.

They’ve been coming here and to airports in Chicago, New York and other cities for years, seeking quiet, warmth and safety, while blending in with weary travelers.

“It’s relaxed and they don’t really bother you here,” said James Miller, who recently became homeless after losing a restaurant job. “It’s kind of comfortable.”

Cleveland airport officials have tolerated the presence of the roughly 20 people who sleep on cushioned seats in the ticketing and baggage claim areas on any given winter night. But now they’re joining other airports around the country in looking for ways to help relocate homeless people because of concerns about security.

Although the homeless haven’t caused problems, Fred Szabo, the airport’s commissioner, said that because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, airport officials need to make sure that anyone at the airport has a legitimate reason to be there.

Cleveland Hopkins has joined LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in inviting outreach workers to the airport to help the homeless with the goal of relocating them.

“We’re not looking to arrest anybody,” Szabo said.

More than 50 area agencies participated in a 24hour count earlier this year of homeless people in St. Joseph County, South Bend Now the numbers have been added up: The count found 560 people living in shelters and 93 homeless people who weren’t living in a shelter. That’s similar to last year’s count, where there were 523 in shelters and 100 out of shelters, said the project’s coordinator, Beth Morlock, who directs residential programs at Hope Rescue Mission in South Bend.

It isn’t an exhaustive count.

Folks may have been at work, at a friend’s house or somewhere away from the counters. But this “snapshot” proves to federal officials that — in general — the community still needs money for homeless services, said Marzy Bauer, who coordinates a local committee of services that sets goals and plans to meet those needs.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the annual count of each community that receives money for homeless services.

Homeless people were found in about a dozen shelters.

And those living outside of shelters were interviewed at AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist, St. Augustine’s church soup kitchen, Broadway Christian Parish, St. Margaret’s House, Hope Rescue Mission, First United Methodist Church soup kitchen and the Center for the Homeless.

In British Columbia a vacant home that may have been occupied by squatters has been destroyed by fire.

Fire crews were called to the western portion of Abbotsford last month, and arrived in the 27700-block of Fraser Highway to find a house fully involved with fire, said Capt. Steve Oldroyd.

With the help of Langley Township fire crews, Abbotsford firefighters established a water supply from the hydrant and worked to put out the fire.

“The house appeared to have been occupied by squatters but was vacant at the time of the fire,” said Oldroyd.

As there was no power or natural gas connected to the house, investigators are considering the cause of the fire suspicious.

The incident remains under investigation.

In Eureka, Calif. two teenage boys were charged as adults last month in the murder of a 38-year-old homeless man near Humboldt Bay. Fifteen-year-old Keyontae Lamar Taylor and 16-year-old Joaquin Fitzgerald appeared before a Humboldt County Superior Court judge, but their arraignment was postponed. Both were arrested this week in the death of Tracy Daniel Reynolds.

Authorities say Taylor and Fitzgerald encountered Reynolds along the railroad tracks and the three drank some beer together before the teens left. They allegedly returned a short time later to rob Reynolds. The victim was shot once in the leg and once in the chest.

In Newark N.J. a homeless man with a history of suing government agencies has dropped a federal lawsuit against the city of Summit.

Richard Kreimer, 55, had alleged he was wrongly ejected from train stations, and he sued the city, NJ Transit and others. He signed court papers on Feb. 10 to drop the suit, and it was dismissed in court last month. Kreimer did not list a reason for dropping the lawsuit.

Last month, Kreimer settled another lawsuit against a bus company that he said barred him and other homeless people from

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riding. Kreimer said he was prohibited by the settlement from revealing its terms.

Summit Police Chief Robert Lucid said city officials felt his case against Summit had no merit.

“The city feels relieved that the issue has been resolved,” he said. “We feel completely vindicated. We never did anything to violate Mr. Kreimer’s rights or any homeless person.”

Kreimer, who uses a post office box in Morristown, could not immediately be reached for comment.

He received $230,000 in 1991 when he sued Morristown and the Morris Township Public Library for ejecting him because of his body odor and a habit of staring at patrons. He spent that money.

In New Delhi, India while President George W. Bush was busy with his official engagements in the Indian capital, First Lady Laura Bush visited homeless children at a juvenile center.

Laura visited the Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre, a charity run by a nongovernmental organization for homeless and trafficked children, and interacted with the children at a round table conference. She later enjoyed a Rajasthani folk dance performance by the children.

Dressed in an ash-grey suit, Laura accompanied by Jennie Mulford, wife of US ambassador to India David Mulford, took stock of the alternative educational centers run by the center located in Tughlaqabad, south Delhi.

“The First Lady interacted with the children without the help of a translator and was impressed by their courage to take life positively,” said Rajib Haldar, executive director of the NGO. Haldar said Laura interacted with five children about children’s problems and patted them for studying despite facing several obstacles.

The children had queries on whether there is any gender bias in the US and do all children get equal education. They also asked about women’s empowerment in the US and the situation on the education of the girl child there.

In reply, Laura said the women’s workforce in her country was more than that of men but admitted that trafficking of children was still prevalent.

Laura was given a glimpse of a village council which the NGO presented through puppets under a tree. The First Lady asked the children to write to her regularly, and promised to reply.

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Remembering Cincinnati’s 2001 Civil Unrest Did Cincinnati’s Civil Unrest Change City Politics? story and photos by Jimmy Heath .

19 year-old Timothy Thomas was wanted on misdemeanor arrest warrants and running from police in Over-theRhine on Saturday, April 7th, 2001 when he was shot by a Cincinnati policeman.

Police Officer Stephen Roach, who had never fired his weapon on duty, shot and killed Thomas in a dead-end alley off Republic Street. Thomas appeared to be reaching for his waistband during a confrontation with the policeman in the alley, according to early police reports.

Timothy Thomas was the fourth black man killed by Cincinnati police since November of 2000, and the fifteenth such victim since 1995. Thomas was the father of a three-month-old son.

This month is the fifth anniversary of the shooting of Thomas. His death fueled nearly a week of civil unrest and rioting in urban Cincinnati, the effects of which can still be felt in urban neighborhoods, especially Overthe-Rhine.

Violence erupted on Monday, April 9th, 2001 following a police news conference about the Thomas shooting. Angry residents crowded Cincinnati City Hall, targeting their rage against then Mayor Luken, City Council members, and police representatives. The protesters filled the council chambers, some standing on tables and chairs screaming at city leaders, almost preventing them from leaving during the three hour confrontation.

Thomas’s mother, Angela Leisure, took the podium at one point and demanded an explanation for the shooting of her son. “You took him from his family and his son and we want to know why. And don’t get me wrong, even when you tell me why, it’s not going to make it better.” The lack of answers fueled additional anger and frustration in the assembled crowd and the waiting community.

That evening, (Monday night) after a makeshift march from the confrontation at City Hall, hundreds of angry protesters assembled outside police headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. Police in riot gear and on horseback sprayed the crowd with a chemical irritant and fired at the protesters with beanbag shotguns. A brick was thrown, breaking the glass front door of

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police headquarters. Ten arrests were reported.

The rioting became more serious Tuesday afternoon and evening as crowds took to the streets again. Clothing shops, restaurants and convenience stores were broken into and looted. The fire department stayed busy putting out building and garbage can fires.

Most of the unrest was focused on the downtown, West End and Over-the-Rhine neighborhoods some of the poorest communities in the city.

Cincinnati NAACP President Norma Holt Davis said the fatal shooting of Thomas by a Cincinnati police officer lead her to only one conclusion. “It appears the police force has declared war on African-Americans,” she said.

“Fifteen black males have died at the hands of Cincinnati police in the past six years. Before the healing process can ever finish, the wound reopens,” said Rev. Damon Lynch III, pastor of Overthe-Rhine’s New Prospect Baptist Church, referring to the shooting death of Thomas.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen, who denounced participants as “lawbreaking thugs who should be prosecuted vigorously,” announced he was indicting 63 people arrested on felony charges, ranging from aggravated rioting, breaking and entering, weapons possession, inducing panic and other misdemeanor offenses, such as resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

All of these events led the evening news programs – the violence, the fear, the images of rampaging “thugs” and burning dumpsters. The media continued to descend on the scene to record the mayhem throughout the week - eventually the whole world knew what was going on in Cincinnati.

Local and nationally recognized civil rights activists came to Over-theRhine calling for peaceful discussions and an end to violence on the streets. It made for good TV and painful politics. The death of Thomas was the shot heard around the world, with Cincinnati suddenly thrown into the

international spotlight. His death was a rallying point for national discussions on police violence, poverty and racism.

When protestors first took to the streets, the events in Cincinnati were put in the context of a “race riot.” However, when the discussions turned to racism, the frustration of the oppressed and the poor, the gleam of the story started to wear thin. A lot of people on the streets saw themselves as fighting the oppressor white society which is not quite the same as fighting against white people. Is it possible that Timothy Thomas would have never been shot in the first place if he had been white?

Nearly 800 people were eventually arrested for violating the four-day curfew imposed by Mayor Charlie Luken when he declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, April 12, 2001.

Over 1,000 people attended the Thomas’ funeral on Saturday, April 14 at New Prospect Baptist Church in Overthe-Rhine. More than a funeral, it was a media and political showand-tell event. Mayor Luken was there and so was the Bob Taft, the Governor of Ohio, along with other political bigwigs and throngs of reporters.

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Following the funeral service, mourners joined with hundreds outside the church and marched peacefully through the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood where Thomas was shot. Some 1,000 people of all races participated in the march.

Conspicuously absent from the march were the politicians.

Politically, nothing much has changed. The poor neighborhoods, predominately African-American communities, still feel the frustration of being black in a white dominated City Hall and police force. Some inner-city residents are just as frightened of the police as they are of the drug thugs and street-cornergangsters. Many of the thugs and looters, who were “vigorously” prosecuted five years ago have long-since been released from jail after serving out their sentences, only to return to the street filled with prison-anger and resentment.

Many businesses in Overthe-Rhine, even after five years, continue to struggle with the stigma of the event with many fearful money-spending white suburbanites staying away from the downtown area in droves. Many businesses in Over-the-Rhine left the neighborhood, never to return. In a recent TV news show it was reported that some businesses lost up to 90% of their sales after the unrest. Patrons of the Main Street

Entertainment District still feel fearful of the neighborhood and many have never returned. People frequently ask me if things in Overthe-Rhine have returned to normal.

Sadly, things have slowly returned to the same as before - if “normal” is a war zone, a crime zone, and a drug-filled zone.

The most obvious thing is the slow and agonizing lack of progress in community and police relations. Although the police have adopted less lethal methods for subduing suspects (they are now armed with the recently approved Taser stun guns), and we now have an African-American mayor, the

sense of isolation and lack of communication dominates the relationship between the police and the urban community. The police division’s leadership continues to be criticized as unresponsive and uncaring.

It is simplistic to dismiss the deaths of black people at the hands of police as unfortunate and

unavoidable aspects of police work. Since the unrest, the deaths of black men at the hands of the police have dropped dramatically but the police must come to understand the frustrations and fears that these incidents continue to engender in the communities it patrols. Even more significant from the perspective of black Cincinnatians is that no city police officer has ever been convicted of a killing. (There has been only one reprimand.)

Sadly, all that makes the news is the drama of life on the streets in the inner-city. We don’t often hear the stories of the families and the senior citizens and the majority of residents in Over-the-Rhine and other poor Cincinnati neighborhoods that are law-abiding and working hard to support their families - trying to build something for themselves and their neighbors. Many of these families have packed-up and left the neighborhood long ago. Maybe that’s the plan. To rid the downtown area of the “less-desirable” poor.

We only hear the horror stories of shootings, robbery and drug dealing. The drama that feeds the evening news is taken as truth by middle-class white Cincinnati. Even in the face of overwhelming historical precedent, American denial about the role that race or racism plays

Unrest cont. on page 8

OHIO EMPOWERMENT COALITION MAY MOBILIZATION DAY Thursday, May 11, 2006 Trinity Episcopal Church 125 E. Broad Street, Columbus Ohio (across from Statehouse) 10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

OEC’s Annual Mobilization Day brings together low-income people and advocates from around the state to mobilize to impact Ohio’s policies that directly affect our lives.

The Mobilization Day focuses on our Safe and Stable Families Campaign: Win Back Health Care This year we are raring to go to win back health care programs that are essential to keeping our Families (both single adults without children and parents with children)

Safe and Stable! We refuse to be silent when we are being terminated out of essential lifesaving health care programs. Health Care is essential to be Safe and Stable!

Win Increase in Minimum Wage We will also raise the banner cry for a raise in the minimum wage in Ohio.

No one who is working should be forced to live in poverty on poverty wages. A livable wage is essential for Ohio Families to be Safe (from bankruptcy & homelessness) and Stable.

Win Protections for Domestic Violence Victims Thirdly we continue to raise the cry for those who are crying and so far Ohio’s Legislators turn a deaf ear! It should be a no-brainer for the Ohio Assembly to adopt domestic violence protections in the “Family Violence Option” so all domestic violence victims in Ohio are humanely treated. Why is Ohio one of ONLY 3 states that has not adopted this? We won’t be quiet until we get it so that more Ohio Families can be Safe and Stable!

If you care about these issues join us May 11th in Columbus. Fill out registration form on back so we will know how many lunches are needed. Also if you have special needs or need child care. For more information call Ohio Empowerment Coalition at 877-862-5179.

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Spring is Near! new hope will enter into your life of

by Ms. Mary Gaffney employment and a place to call home.

Hello there, my Streetvibes And to the monthly friends. purchasers of Welcome to Streetvibes, my the first month of heartfelt thanks. Each spring. I do hope purchase of a dollar that the flowers and paper helps to trees soon begin to maintain things that bloom, bringing with are needed – food, the smell of new life clothing and shelter. to the New Year.

Without you, some Miss Mary Gaffney And to my vendor’s lives would homeless friends, as be very bleak and the opening days of spring appear, stormy. I know personally, they could

Dear Editor: In the article appearing in the Post on Wed. March 8th, “Panel OKs Minimum Wage Hike”, Rep. Flowers (Rep) from Columbus who voted for the increase is quoted as saying raising the minimum wage is “the right thing to do.”

I agree with the Representative. However raising Ohio’s minimum wage to merely $5.15, as the Ohio General Assembly recently did, is a slap in the face of low wage workers. The wage of $5.15, set by the Federal government nine years ago in 1997, is woefully low!

At $5.15 a full time worker who works every week of the year

Peace Village

by Dr. Steve Sunderland The Peace or Hunger Conference is coming together as the planning team, the UC Peace Village student organization, the UC Just Community and the University of Cincinnati’s Facilities and Campus Scheduling staff all have added their very valuable pieces.

We are doing a conference for the first time in the city’s history, really, in the region’s history. Students, high school and college, can come together to reduce hunger in our community by direct action and service provided by teams of schools and colleges. We meet to deepen our knowledge of just what is needed and what is possible. We meet to offer spiritual support and food to those in our community who are in greatest need.

We will meet and conference on 4/29-30/2006 at the University of Cincinnati’s Campus Green. This is a large and flat green space that we will be able to seal off with tape, bike barriers, and other ways that secure our space. It is a very large space, with room for lots of cardboard “houses,” and room for groups to meet and discuss local, regional and national issues of hunger, and room for other activities that heighten our understanding of hunger.

Ms. Kathleen Armontrout, UC Administrative Support

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not make it. That is why I give thanks each month for your generosity to my friends.

Until next month, enjoy the first days of spring and remember, it doesn’t take much to give a smile to help a person through their day.

Until next time, also remember to be kind to your fellow man, for this person could some day return and lend you a helping hand.

Enjoy the sunny days to come.

will make a paltry $10,712. Poverty level for a family of three is $16,600.

As an organizer for Let Justice Roll Ohio, I have heard countless stories of low-wage workers who are playing by the rules, but don’t get paid enough to afford rent, utilities, rising prices at the pump, daycare.

I’ve talked with homeless families working for full-time for $5.25/hour and can’t afford housing.

Ohio needs to truly support its workers. Most Ohioans agree.

We believe a good first step is to raise Ohio’s wage through a ballot initiative that raises the minimum wage in Ohio to $6.85/hour and indexed to inflation. Yes, Rep. Flowers, it is “the right thing to do,” but it is also the moral thing to do.

Katy Heins

No Honor in Bush’s War With the 2004 election farce behind us and spewing out the kind of politics the Republican party has come to known for, I was initially surprised at the level of my anger at Bush’s contest over who is the better Vietnam veteran, Bush or anti-war veterans of previous wars.

To understand the “veteran” question in 2006, it is important to understand what is at stake with the Republican party’s attempts to define themselves as loyal veterans. Bush served in the military during the Vietnam War and, he opposed the war with his National Guard stint.

Through involvement of thousands of veterans against the war, with actions like the Winter-Soldier

Specialist for Campus Scheduling, informs me that we will be very secure with 6-8 campus police.

Karen will be checking with campus security for special bracelets for every participant that will permit each person to enter into our conference. We hope to be able to issue each team a bracelet either before or when you arrive at the conference.

We would expect people to arrive at UC’s Campus Green with their boxes/ houses and set them up between 810am on 4/ 29/06. We are hoping that the Clark Montessori High School Steve Sunderland Steel Band will open our conference with their great music. We will have a morning of orientation, meeting new people, introductions and welcome by officials of the conference, the city and the university. We thought it would be great if everyone brought a small lunch, peanut butter and jelly, or whatever, to eat at the end of the morning. We will leave for Over-the-Rhine service activities via either cars and/or city

busses. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is placing teams at various agencies.

The service events take place between 1-5pm. Then we return to UC’s Campus Green for an “Empty Bowls” dinner, discussion about our service activities in regard to what we learned, and then we will have an evening of discussing many of the issues connected to hunger in our city and world.

Our seminars will end around 11. We will then enter our “Shantytown Houses” for an evening of rest. We have a breakfast in the morning and proceed to discussions about what are the key ways we can bring the “message” of reducing hunger back to our schools and colleges. We are planning to end by noon on Sunday. Some part of our closing will be the making of posters that can be used both back at schools or colleges and loaned to a “Peace and Hunger Exhibit” at Xavier University. We might want to turn our “houses” into art for the exhibit, too.

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War Crimes Tribunal, Dewey Canyon III, and throwing back of medals and ribbons on the Capital steps, the Vietnam War changed the image of what it meant to be a veteran in the US. No longer was the image of the veteran that of the flag-waving VFW. Rather it was now one of an anti-war activist veteran speaking out and acting in opposition to militarist policies and actions of the government. Simply put, to be a Vietnam veteran was to be against the Vietnam War. This understanding was a key component to our opposition to the overt and covert operations in Central and south America in the late 70’s and 80’s.

Anti-war veterans were among the first to oppose the first Gulf War by Bush the Elder, calling it the immoral and illegal invasion it was. Today’s war in Afghanistan and Iraq should also be opposed.

Sonny Williams

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

We are asking high schools to form teams of 7 people, 6 students and a teacher and/or parent. Each team will bring a case of food for the FreeStore and pay a team conference fee of $25.00.

This money will cover any related conference expenses and, if not completely used, be donated to the FreeStore FoodBank. College students are also to be preregistered and in teams of 7 people. Teams will travel to the service agencies on Saturday afternoon.

Everyone needs to preregister. This is important for figuring out our community space, food needs, security needs, service agency participation, seminar formats, and written materials.

Forms for pre-registration will be sent to everyone on our email list.

Todd Forman of Moeller High School is developing a web page for our conference. Please go to: http://homepages.moeller.org/ pastmin/peacevillage. We will update this page as needed.

Contact sundersc@email.uc.edu for any questions about any of the conference. I am director of the Peace Village, professor of educational foundations and peace studies, University of Cincinnati, and co faculty advisor for the UC Peace Village.

Pontiac, Michigan to hear plan for homeless Late last year, Pontiac officials gave the cold shoulder to a $1-million state grant to provide housing for homeless people.

The officials carried on a refrain heard for years in their city: They were tired of Pontiac being a dumping ground for homeless people.

Since then, two deadlines for getting the grant, set by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, have come and gone.

But hope is not lost, say leaders of the nonprofit group Lighthouse of Oakland County Inc. — whose headquarters and symbolic 2 1/2 -story lighthouse sit on Woodward Avenue a few blocks from Pontiac City Hall. They expect to meet today with new Mayor Clarence Phillips to show him that the grant wouldn’t create a magnet for street people.

Lighthouse officials, charged with implementing the grant from the state housing authority in Lansing, are enthusiastic about a new way to use the money — an approach called supportive housing, said John Ziraldo, president and chief executive officer of the 34-year-old service agency.

Supportive housing provides permanent shelter backed by intensive social assistance — from family and financial counseling to job training, mental health care and addiction treatment, Ziraldo said.

The idea is working well in Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, southwest Detroit and on a small scale in scattered Oakland County communities. Those include Royal Oak, Waterford and even Pontiac, where supportive housing has been quietly implemented in cases where

the city’s approval wasn’t needed, Ziraldo said last week.

To Pontiac officials’ demands that the $1-million state grant be spent elsewhere, Ziraldo said the situation is one of use it or lose it: “The state is clear that this grant is intended to serve people who are homeless and in Pontiac.”

The Lighthouse proposal would use the grant to lease apartments in existing buildings in Pontiac, then set up social programs to qualify homeless candidates and begin counseling them, Ziraldo said.

Phillips could not be reached for comment.

A spokeswoman for the mayor said she thought Lighthouse would face obstacles in getting the city to approve the plan, although she couldn’t elaborate.

Also at the meeting at City Hall, Ziraldo and Lighthouse Executive Director Joseph Heaphy plan to ask Phillips to bless another of their plans — to build or renovate about 40 apartments in the city’s Unity Park area, where Lighthouse has its headquarters just east of downtown.

That plan would use city money dedicated for housing to match a low-income tax credit that Lighthouse is seeking from the state, but the match would not require that any dollars be taken from the city’s deficit-ridden general fund, Ziraldo said.

“We are going to apply for this tax credit in March, and part of that process is the state asking us, ‘What kind of local support do you have?’ “ he said.

Homeless Man Attacked in Boston In Boston last month police were searching for two people who attacked a homeless man as he slept in a park and set his legs on fire.

The 30-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was being treated for burns at Massachusetts General Hospital, officials said.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino promised that the attackers would be tracked down and arrested.

“We’re going to find you,” he told reporters. “We’re going to lock you up. We’re going to hope the jury and the judge throw the book at you.”

The homeless man told police he was awakened early in the morning by the men kicking him in Langone Park in the city’s North End. He drifted back to sleep but the

men returned, drenched him with a flammable liquid and set his legs on fire, police said.

A 911 caller reported flames in the park, and firefighters found the man wrapped in a blanket after he had ripped off some of his burning clothes.

The park is a short walk from a cluster of downtown bars.

Nationally, the number of assaults against the homeless has risen dramatically since 2002, according to a recent report by the National Coalition for the Homeless.

In 2005, 73 homeless people were assaulted nationwide and 13 died, the report said.

“It’s the perception that it’s someone insignificant that doesn’t matter,” said Emmanuel Smith, a

The Provider

You have people who want to rob you, other suppliers who don’t want the competition, the police who want to shut your operation down, and the uncertain hours which are mostly late night and early morning.

Combined, it causes family problems. It’s not that you’re not providing for them. It’s every time they hear a gunshot, or an ambulance go by, or a telephone ring late at night or early in the morning when you’re not at home. By you being out all times of the day and night, you’re not spending enough time with them.

They’re also worried about what might happen to you. Then it gets to the point you’re expendable. They would rather you go than live the way they’re living. And you wonder why.

Didn’t I provide? Didn’t I take all the risk? Wasn’t I the one in constant danger? But when it all boils down and you think about it, they lived in fear thinking about what might happen to you. So this was a way to distance them away for you. Like the old saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.”

by Luther K. Being a provider! How do you provide for someone when you’re having a hard time providing for yourself? You know it’s your responsibility despite the circumstances that put you in that position. You try to do the right thing.

You look for a job. You do the temporary services. It’s just not enough. The work isn’t steady and they make it seem like you’re making a lot of money. After taxes, lunch fee, and transportation cost, you’re basically working for them. They’re making a whole lot of profit off of you.

Then someone tells you there’s a better way to make money.

You listen to their pitch. It seems like a good idea at the time, so you become an independent contractor with an unlimited supply of product that’s in popular demand. You make your own hours, your own base. But there’s also a downside. What you’re doing is dangerous and illegal.

counselor at the Pine Street Inn, a Boston homeless shelter.

In the overwhelming number of cases, the attackers are teenagers, according to the national report.

Last August, a 40-year-old homeless man died in Boston after he was beaten; two teenagers were charged with manslaughter.

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a homeless man was beaten to death the same night a surveillance camera captured two people assaulting a homeless men with a baseball bat. A third homeless man was bludgeoned nearby with a golf club. Three teenagers have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder.

21 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

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Homeless Count Completed Overnight In New York, more than 2,000 volunteers spent the night out in the freezing cold as they participated in the fourth annual homeless count.

They scoured the city’s parks, streets, and subways, counting the number of homeless they saw. The annual count helps the city track its progress in getting New Yorkers off the streets. For the first time last year, all five boroughs were included in the count.

“It’s a good way for the city to take account of the homeless people and I feel like I’m helping people, doing something worthwhile,” said volunteer Tom Facchiano.

Volunteers also offer help to any homeless person they encounter, but it isn’t always accepted.

“Like Malcolm X said, ‘If you need help from your enemy, then you’re in trouble,’” said a homeless man. “I don’t view the government as helping people. The government is part of the problem.”

Results of the count are expected in about a month.

Critics, however, say the count itself is inaccurate because it doesn’t include people living in cars, abandoned buildings, or other hidden places.

Last year, volunteers counted 4,400 homeless people.

The mayor has set a goal of reducing that number to less than 1,500 by 2009.

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Unrest cont. from page 5 in these, and similar events, remains strong. Despite repeated warnings from civil rights leaders and black police officers in Cincinnati, the police department’s official response was that the shootings must be considered individually rather than as a pattern.

Tragic as the death of Mr. Thomas was, the rioting that swept the city was about more than the loss of one young man. It was about the deep rifts that separate citizens and city government. It shows just how tenuous the relations are between the police and the African-American community.

And it reveals dissatisfaction in the areas of education, jobs and economic opportunity, housing and community leadership.

With this crisis has come the opportunity for improvement.

Cincinnati must make real changes in each of these areas if the city is to grow beyond the turmoil of that fateful week three years ago. Many Americans, particularly white Americans, are quick to deny race as the primary motive in almost any negative act against a person of color (unless the person committing the act is wearing a white sheet).

Police brutality cases are just a

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symptom of the illness. Cincinnati city government continues to struggle with the ‘distasteful’ symptoms of poverty and racism, confronting the issue with window dressing, sound bites and halfhearted attempts at reconciliation.

The gap continues even after five years.

In Cincinnati government, denial may be the most serious affliction.

Minimum Wage Campaign Let Justice Roll Cincinnati is sponsoring a forum along with many others on the Minimum Wage campaign in Ohio. The forum will be Sunday April 23rd at 2:00 pm at the Schiff Family conference center on Xavier University campus (in the Cintas Center).

The goal of the conference is to educate people on the issue, hear testimony from workers, businesses and religious leaders and gather signatures. We hope you will come out in support of this great event. Show Cincinnati and Ohio that we support the increase in Ohio’s minimum wage!!

If you belong to a church or an organization who would cosponsor the event, please contact Betsy or Bill at ljro_interns@hotmail.com Cosponsorship responsibilities are to have your name on the flyer and press releases, circulate the information in your church or organization, a representative of your church or organization attend the event. We hope to have a long list of co-sponsors to again show the wide support of the Cincinnati Community in raising the minimum wage!

The Firecat Review

Firecats Review the Oscars: Firecat Chameleon: Did we only watch it because Jon Stewart hosted it?

Firecat Black: I did.

Firecat Blue: I always watch it.

Firecat Turquoise: I didn’t watch it.

Oh! This yogurt is think and creamy.

Oh! I don’t like this. I AM picky.

Damn.

Chameleon: So what else happened, besides Three 6 Mafia?

Black: Dolly performed.

Blue: She looked weird.

Black: Kind of proof that Barbie could walk.

Blue: I was thinking the same thing!

Turquoise: On her show she came out on a swing. I loved that!

Got The Vibe?

Black: She’s a robot. Also, who else was I thinking’s a robot? Bob Barker!

Chameleon: She’s like 60. She’s a few months older than my dad.

Blue: She could be you dad!

Chameleon: You mean my mom?

Blue: No. Chameleon: I don’t even know what that means.

Turquoise: Yoplait, you and me ain’t doing so well this week.

Chameleon: Is it bad?

Turquoise: No – it’s like pudding.

It’s the consistency. It feels funny in my mouth. There’s something about food you don’t have to chew…

Blue: Okay, so back to the Oscars.

I thought it was really funny that they sat Keira Knightly next to Jack Nicholson.

Black: Oh yeah! She looked terrified.

Chameleon: He looked like a pederast.

Turquoise: I like Jack Nicholson.

Black: Don’t they usually sit with friends and families?

Turquoise: Maybe they’re all dead.

He’s old. Or they don’t like him.

Blue: What about her?

Black: She’s from England. Maybe they didn’t come over to L.A. She probably lives in L.A. Blue: She does…I don’t stalk her…

Black: I only know Harry Potter and American Idol (brief fight erupts over “R.A.B.’s” identity in book 6).

Turquoise: I saw American Idol.

Black: Did you like any of them?

Turquoise: There was one Simon says set the bar. And the white girl with bleach blonde hair sang the hell out of her song.

Black: She’s the one from assnowhere in like Arkansas.

Turquoise: I knew watching it would come in handy.

Blue: Why was Lost another repeat?

I watched “Little People, Big World” – so good!

Turquoise: I saw a show on them!

There’s twins and one’s a little person and one’s average height.

Blue: So good! I LOVE TLC.

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

Buy Streetvibes From Badged Vendors Only!

Streetvibes Vendors are required to sign a code of conduct and agree to abide by all the rules of the Streetvibes Vendor Program. If a Vendor misrepresents or breaks the rules, she/he may be removed from the Program. To report a Vendor, call 4217803. ext. 16

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

Page 9

Six Months After Katrina: Who Was Left Behind - Then and Now

by Bill Quigley Nearly six months ago, my wife Debbie and I boated out of New Orleans. We left five days after Katrina struck.

Debbie worked as an oncology nurse in a New Orleans hospital. She volunteered to come in during the hurricane so that other nurses with children could evacuate.

There were about 2000 people huddled in the hospital patients, staff and families of staff and patients. Plate glass windows exploded in the lobby and on crosswalks and on several floors.

Water poured in though broken windows, ceilings, and down the elevator shafts. Eight feet of brown floodwater surrounded us.

The entire city immediately lost electricity. Soon the hospital backup generators located in the basement failed. No lights. No phones. Even the water system stopped. No drinking water. No flush toilets.

You can imagine a hospital with 2000 people and no electricity, water, food, or flushing toilets.

Breathing machines did not work.

Cell phones did not work. Because the computers stopped working medicines were unavailable.

Elevators in the 8 floor building did not work. We quickly ran out of food because the cafeteria and food were also in the flooded basement.

The gains of 21st century medicine disappeared. Over 40 people died in the hospital over the next few days as we waited for help.

Now imagine an entire city with no electricity, water, food or flushing toilets and tens of thousands of people left behind.

Debbie and I left five days later by way of a small fishing boat, the back of a garden truck, and the kindness of strangers. We returned 15 weeks later. Many of those left behind then who evacuated with us have yet to return.

The Katrina evacuation was totally self-help. If you had the resources, a car, money and a place to go, you left. Over one million people evacuated - 80 to 90% of the population. No provisions were made for those who could not evacuate themselves. To this day no one has a reliable estimate of how many people were left behind in Katrina - that in itself says quite a bit about what happened.

Who was left behind in the self-help evacuation?

In the hospital, we could not see who was left behind because we did not have electricity or TV. We certainly knew the 2000 of us were left behind, and from the hospital we could see others. Some were floating in the street - face down. Some were

Page 10

paddling down the street - helping older folks get to high ground. Some were swimming down the streets. We could hear people left behind screaming for help from rooftops. We routinely heard gunshots as people trapped on rooftops tried to get the attention of helicopters crisscrossing the skies above. We could see the people trapped in the Salvation Army home a block away. We could hear breaking glass as people scrambled to get away from flooded one story homes and into the higher ground of several story office buildings. We saw people swimming to the local drugstore and swimming out with provisions. But we had no idea how many were actually left behind. The poor, especially those without cars, were left behind. Twenty-seven percent of the people of New Orleans did not have access to a car.

Government authorities knew in advance that “.100,000 citizens of New Orleans did not have means of personal transportation.”

The sick were left behind.

Some government reports estimated 12,000 patients were evacuated. I estimate at least an additional 24,000 people - staff and families of patients were left behind in the twenty-two hospitals which were open at the time.

The elderly were left behind.

The 280 plus local nursing homes remained mostly full. Only 21% evacuated and as a consequence 215 people died in nursing homes, at least six people died at a single nursing home while they waited four days for busses. The aged who lived at home also certainly found it more difficult than most to evacuate as they were more likely to live alone, less likely to own a car and nearly half were disabled.

A physician reported hundreds of people in wheelchairs were in front of the Convention Center. A comprehensive study of evacuees in Houston shelters found one in seven physically disabled, 22% physically unable to evacuate, 23% stayed behind to care for someone physically disabled, and 25% had a chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes or high blood pressure.

There were no provisions made for their evacuations.

Children were left behind.

While there are no official estimates breaking out children left behind, I know from what we saw during our evacuation that many, many children were among those left behind. About one-fourth of the people living in the areas damaged were children, about 183,000 kids, including 47,000 children under the age of 5. Over half of the children displaced were African-American and 30% of children in the damaged areas were poor, nearly double the 2000 national

census rate for child poverty of 16.6%. These children were almost twice as likely to live in a femaleheaded home than children nationally.

Prisoners were left behind.

Local prisons held 8300 inmates, most on local minor charges awaiting trial and too poor to post bond.

Thousands were left behind with no food, water, or medical attention.

Jails depend on electricity as much as hospitals do - doors of cells and halls and pods and entrances and exits are electronically opened and closed. More than 600 hundred prisoners, one entire building, were left behind once the prisons were evacuated - left in chest deep water, locked into cells.

Ultimately as many as 40,000 people took refuge in the Superdome which lost power, lost part of its roof, the water system failed and the toilets backed up.

Another 20-30,000 people were dropped off at the Convention Center. Conditions at the Convention Center were far worse than at the Superdome because the Convention Center was never intended to be used for evacuees it did not have any drinking water, food, or medical care at all. Ten people died in or around the Superdome, four at the convention center.

Unfounded rumors flew about rapes and murders inside these centers - and the myth that rescue helicopters were fired upon - have all been found to be untrue. But those rumors so upset military and medical responders that many slowed down demanding protection from the evacuees - only to be greeted by “a whole lot of people clapping and cheering” when they arrived.

Debbie and I left the hospital after five days. Helicopters finally came and airlifted out many patients, their families and staff. Others, like us, left in small fishing boats piloted by volunteers. The Coast Guard reported it rescued 33,000 people and the National Guard reported rescues of another 25,000 people.

Louisiana Department of Homeland Security said 62,000 people were rescued from rooftops or out of water - not including those already in shelters. Many, many others, like us, were rescued by volunteers in boats and trucks.

Some people never made it out of metropolitan New Orleans.

February 2006 reports from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals show 1,103 bodies were recovered from the storm and flood, with over 2,000 people still reported missing. About 215 people died in local hospitals and nursing homes.

Where did the survivors end up? According to FEMA, evacuees

Streetvibes

ended up all over - applications came in from 18,700 zip codes in all 50 states - half of the nation’s residential postal zones. Most evacuee families stayed within 250 miles of New Orleans, but 240,000 households went to Houston and other cities over 250 miles away and another 60,000 households went over 750 miles away.

Who ended up in shelters?

Over 270,000 evacuees started out in shelters. The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health surveyed 680 randomly selected adult evacuees in Houston shelters on September 10-12, 2005.

“Hurricane Katrina likely made one of the poorest areas of the country even poorer. Both those who were poor before the storm and those who have become poor following the storm, are likely to face a particularly difficult time in reestablishing their lives, have few if any financial resources upon which to draw.” Congressional Research Service 2005.

Debbie and I ultimately ended up spending several months in an apartment in Houston while New Orleans started its recovery. Loyola Law Clinic, where I work, moved into the Disaster Relief Center in Houston and our clinic students interviewed and gave assistance to over a thousand evacuees.

We were able to come back to New Orleans for good in midDecember because our house was located close to the University and only sustained roof damage. Very few of the people who were evacuated with us have been able to return.

It seems clear that most of the same people who were left behind in the evacuation for Katrina are being left behind again in the reconstruction of New Orleans. In fact, now there are even more being left behind. Hundreds of thousands of people have not been able to make it back.

Drive through the city away from the French Quarter, Central Business District and the St. Charles streetcar line and you will see tens of thousands of still damaged and unoccupied homes.

Hundreds of thousands of people have not made it back.

There were 469,000 fewer people in the metropolitan New Orleans area in January 2006 than in August 2005.

Most of the City was still without power in early 2006. About two-thirds of the homes in New Orleans did not have electricity in early 2006, even fewer had gas.

Seventy-three percent of the homes in New Orleans were in areas damaged by the storm. But, as the

Brown University study concluded “storm damage data shows that the storm’s impact was disproportionately borne by the region’s African-American community, by people who rented their homes and by the poor and unemployed.”

The little reconstruction that has started is aimed at home-owners.

Louisiana is slated to receive $6.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant money and the Governor says $1 billion “could be used to encourage the rebuilding of affordable housing.” So with 45% of the homes damaged occupied by renters, affordable housing “could” end up with 16% of the assistance.

Public housing is politically out of the question in early 2006.

There is no national or local commitment to re-opening public housing in the city. U.S. Congressman Richard Baker, a longtime critic of public housing in New Orleans, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal after the storm saying “We finally cleaned up in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” As the Brown study politely observed “people who previously lived in public housing seem to have the least chances to return, given current policy. All public housing has been closed (and special barriers bolted to the doors).plans for reopening the projects or for constructing new affordable housing have not become public.”

Debbie lost her nursing job when her hospital failed to reopen.

She is not alone. There are now 200,000 fewer jobs in the area than in August.

The sick are not likely to return anytime soon. Healthcare in New Orleans is now difficult even for those with insurance but nearly impossible for the poor without it.

While there were 22 hospitals open in New Orleans in June, in early 2006 there were 7, a 78% reduction.

Before Katrina there were 53,000 hospital beds in the area, in February 2006 there were 15,000 - waits of more than 8 hours in emergency rooms are not uncommon. With so many hospitals closed, people needing regular medical care like dialysis or chemotherapy cannot expect to return. Worse still for the poor, there is no public hospital in New Orleans any more - the Charity Hospital that over 50% of the people in shelters went to has not been reopened.

Many of the disabled are still in the areas where they evacuated to, causing financial and medical concerns in those states. Others of the disabled, who lived at home prior to the evacuation, fear being institutionalized. Children have not returned to New Orleans. Most public schools remain closed or have been converted into charter schools.

Before the storm there were 117

public schools with 60,000 students.

In January 2006, there were 19 open, including 8 new charter schools, serving about 13,000 students. Houston alone has nearly 20,000 evacuated students. The failure to reopen public schools in New Orleans has prompted litigation to force the charter and public schools to accept children.

Even among homeowners, it is much more likely that white homeowners will have the chance to rebuild than black homeowners because of deep patterns of racial disparities in income - white median income is $61,000 compared to black income of $25,000. Black businesses were severely impacted

by Katrina. Rebuilding by homeowners in mostly black lowlying neighborhoods is much less likely at the time of the writing of this article because of bulldozing plans by the city and because rebuilding in those areas depends heavily on planning and homeowners insurance and flood insurance issues, many of which have yet to be resolved. As a result, because renters, poor people and those without work are overwhelmingly African-American, “New Orleans is at risk of losing 80% of its black population.”

There is not a sign outside of New Orleans saying “If you are poor, sick, elderly, disabled, children or African-American, you cannot return.”

But there might as well be.

The people left behind in the evacuation of New Orleans after Katrina are the same people left behind in rebuilding of New Orleans the poor, the sick, the elderly, the disabled, and children, mostly African-American.

Now that we are back from Houston, Debbie has just started a new job at another hospital. I am fortunate enough to work at one of the universities which was not severely physically damaged by the storm and floods.

We are back. But where are our neighbors, the people we rode out of the city with? Where are the hundreds of thousands of our neighbors and will they ever be allowed to return?

Where is New Orleans now, and more importantly, where is it going to be?

Finally, if all levels of government and corporate power allow this to happen in New Orleans, do you think it will be any different in your city?

Bill Quigley is a civil and human rights lawyer and Professor of Law at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. He donated this story to the Street News Service. All opinions held in the article are the author’s-you can reach him at Quigley@loyno.edu

Agencies Mislead the Public on Katrina State and federal government NRDC senior scientist who oversaw officials are misleading the public about potential health hazards from toxic contamination in New Orleans, according to a Feb. 23 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Hurricane Katrina’s winds and floodwaters released heavy metals and other industrial byproducts throughout the area, according to the report. These hazardous materials then deposited in homes, yards, and schools across the region, in what is now a cracked layer of toxic muck. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), however, state that contamination levels in the city pose no “unacceptable” health risks — a statement disputed by the NRDC report using EPA’s own data.

EPA took hundreds of soil samples in the New Orleans region from Sept. 10, 2005 to Jan. 15, 2006. While EPA has posted its testing data online, the agency has provided no comprehensive analysis of that data. The hundreds of data points are too complex to be useful to the average concerned citizen trying to determine if it is safe to return to his or her home, or what precautions should take before returning home.

Without analysis of the data, residents are left with little other than EPA’s and LDEQ’s vague press statements about environmental conditions in the area.

The NRDC, for the first time, analyzed the hundreds of EPA soil samples, connecting the data to create the missing overview for the area. The NRDC analysis found high problem,” said Dr. Gina Solomon, the

the analysis. “More than a third of the EPA samples in New Orleans had arsenic levels that exceed the Louisiana threshold level requiring an investigation or cleanup. Federal and state agencies have to clean up this toxic mess to ensure returning residents are safe.”

The report identified eight hot spots where levels of diesel fuel ingredients, which can cause kidney damage, increased blood pressure, and decreased ability to form blood clots, are more than 100 times higher than the LDEQ’s standard for residential neighborhoods. These hot spots are located in Bywater, Lakeview, Central City/Garden District, and Mid-City, as well as in Chalmette and St. Bernard Parish.

In the absence of meaningful state and federal warnings against possible chemical exposures, community members in St. Bernard Parish are taking matters into their own hands. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and the St. Bernard Citizens for Environmental Quality held a March 4 training to distribute and instruct on the use of sampling kits for residents to take soil samples on their property. The samples collected by residents will be shipped to a laboratory to be tested for heavy metals and diesel fuel ingredients — called diesel-range organics.

Environmental groups are pressing EPA to remove toxic sediment and contaminated soil from yards, fully inform people of the precise scope and nature of the health threats, and provide detailed information about what precautions citizens should take to protect themselves and their families.

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

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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 (75 cent profit goes directly to the vendor)

Homeless Coalition

25 Cents

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

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.

Hungry not only for bread - but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing - but naked for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks - but homeless because of rejection.

Mother Teresa

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Streetvibes

Gunshot victim waits 32 hours for help The Oakland, California police answered call but didn’t see homeless woman.

The graveyard-shift dispatcher at Veteran’s Cab in Oakland heard gunfire and called the police, but more than a day passed before anyone peered into the bulletriddled car on the street and saw the homeless woman inside with a gunshot wound to her head.

She was still alive after spending 32 hours wrapped in blankets and slumped in the back seat of the abandoned Oldsmobile she had called home. Police had been alerted to the shooting moments after it occurred.

“It’s a real miracle that she stayed alive so long,” the dispatcher, Linda, said that day, asking that her last name not be published for fear of retribution. “There was a bullet hole above her right eye, and the whole (right) side of her face was swelled up. It was shocking. How did she survive like that?”

Oakland police, who insisted they promptly checked out Linda’s report of gunfire early Sunday morning and found nothing amiss, had not determined a motive and had few clues in the shooting, which occurred in a desolate industrial stretch of East Oakland.

“It just appears to be a random incident,” and Oakland police spokesman, Officer Roland

Homeless problem hardly swept away In Hawaii homeless advocates say it will take more than “sweeps” to clear areas where homeless are reappearing About a year ago, police officers swept through the Lake Wilson area, removing homeless people living there.

One of the homeless who moved before police got there was Owena Hooks. But after staying away for a week, she returned because she didn’t want to be a burden on her friends and family.

Today the 47-year-old woman lives in a neatly kept tent by the bank of the lake. The tent — with a small living and kitchen area, coffee table and couch — is hidden from view, unseen by passing motorists on the road above. Hooks has worked hard over the past year to make it “homey.”

Holmgren, said. “It’s under investigation.”

Although police were called to the scene moments after the shooting, no one spotted her until 9:30 a.m. the following Monday, when employees at Veteran’s Cab and an auto body repair shop across the street found her sprawled across the backseat of a silver 1987 Oldsmobile 98 on 54th Avenue.

“I saw the gunshot holes on the (driver’s) side of the car, and then I looked inside,” said Alberto, who was the first to see the woman. He was opening his auto repair shop when he wandered over to check out the Oldsmobile, which the woman had lived in for three months. “I saw her and the gunshot wound in her face. I thought she was dead, then she moved. I was surprised she was alive.”

Alberto, who also did not want his last name published, called 911. He said it seemed to take forever for help to arrive.

“There was a big bullet hole in her forehead, and I thought she was going to die any minute,” Alberto said. “It took police 20 minutes to get here. I was praying they would be faster. I didn’t realize she was there just hanging on for two nights.”

Police said the woman told them she did not know who attacked her or why. Investigators do not believe anyone witnessed the shooting because it happened in the early morning in an area filled mostly with small auto-repair businesses that are closed nights and weekends.

“It’s a desolate area,” said Holmgren, who spent five years patrolling that neighborhood.

“There’s no real reason to be there in the late hours of the night and the early morning. There’s really nothing there.”

Linda, Alberto and several employees of Veteran’s Cab said the homeless woman was quiet and kept to herself. She would return a greeting or smile, they said, but would never initiate a conversation and often kept her eyes downcast. They said she would sleep in the car at night but leave the block during the day. No one knew where she went.

Her return underscores Oahu’s homelessness problem and the ineffectiveness of sweeps. A year after law enforcement cleared the homeless from Wahiawa, Ewa Beach and Mokuleia, some have returned simply because there is nowhere else to go, homeless advocates say.

“There’s nowhere to go and the numbers are increasing,” said the Rev. Jack Smith of the Wahiawa Community Church of the Nazarene, among those who assist the homeless at the lake. “The success rate is one out of 100. There are other areas in Lake Wilson that we have not begin to touch yet.”

Smith stressed that education is necessary for the homeless to maintain jobs and manage their own finances. “Unless they are taught responsibility and management, they will return back to where they have been taken from,” he said, noting there are about 50 people he assists in the area.

Forcing them to move from one place to another is not the solution, according to Darlene Hein, director of the Waikiki Health Center’s Care-A-Van program, which provides food, clothing and

medical care to the homeless around the island.

More low-income housing is needed, as well as treatment and services for the homeless, said Hein, who recently testified at the state Legislature in favor of repealing a law that makes it a petty misdemeanor to trespass at public parks and recreational grounds.

A report compiled by the Joint Legislative Housing and Homeless Task Force made recommendations to lawmakers that include a five-year plan that calls for developing more affordable housing, repairs to vacant public housing units and additional services for the homeless.

According to one recent study, nearly 6,000 people statewide are homeless at any given time, said Sen. Ron Menor, co-chairman of the task force.

In Ewa Beach, near Oneula Beach Park, a hibachi, two mattresses and other personal items partially covered by tarp crowded the side of a van parked along a small, rocky edge. Several other vehicles lined the edge where some fishermen go to cast their lines.

“She was living in that car, and I think she didn’t want anyone to complain about her,” Alberto said.

“She wasn’t friendly or unfriendly.

She was trying to keep a low profile.”

The car was not registered in the woman’s name, police said, and witnesses said it had been there since last fall.

It was unclear why the wounded woman didn’t seek help or honk the car’s horn. She may have been unconscious for much of the time, witnesses said, or may not have realized anyone was at the taxi company to help.

“I darkened the lights and looked outside, and I saw a green car drive away and then turn onto San Leandro Way,” Linda recalled . “I didn’t hear any shouting or screaming or anything, so I just called 911. I was afraid to go outside.”

Streetvibes

Linda said she never saw a police officer, but Holmgren said an officer checked the area but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Linda said she called 911 again just before her shift ended at 9 a.m. Sunday to report what she’d heard, then left. She didn’t see bullet holes on the driver’s side of the Oldsmobile until she was driving away. She knew the homeless woman lived in the car, but it didn’t occur to her that she might be lying wounded inside.

“I didn’t see anyone inside, I just saw blankets in the back seat,” Linda said. “I didn’t realize she was in there.”

When Linda arrived at work at about 11 p.m. Sunday, she called the police again ask what had happened and if the homeless woman was OK. “I got frustrated because the police didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, and it was my third call,” she said.

Then, as she was getting ready to leave work Monday morning, Linda heard a commotion outside, and Alberto and several mechanics who work for the taxi company urging her to call 911.

She made the call, then ran to the Oldsmobile. She opened the door and saw the woman looking back at her.

“I told her that an ambulance was on the way, and she just nodded at me. I think she was in shock,” Linda said. “I’m so glad she’s alive.

I can’t believe she made it.”

About 30 homeless people have returned to the beach park, according to Jeff Alexander, member of the Ewa Neighborhood Board.

“They live in their cars.

They’re setting up tents on the beach again,” Alexander said.

On March 2, 2005, police evicted about 100 homeless people from the park. And as in other places, some slowly trickled back after the sweep.

At Lake Wilson, Jody Celoza has been camping for a month after leaving a transitional home in Waipahu. Celoza, 34, said she overcame a five-year habit of abusing crystal meth, or “ice.” She has been drug-free for six months.

Celoza learned about the campsite near the Wilson Bridge through a friend, and said she is staying there temporarily.

Though she has family members on the island, Celoza said she doesn’t want to burden them with her problems.

“I don’t want to be homeless.

But I am,” Celoza said, smoking and standing under the tarp to protect herself from the rain. “Hopefully, I’ll get back on my feet.”

Page 13

Friendship in Over-the-Rhine

by W. McLindon Hey man, give me a dime. How about letting me have half-adollar? Come on man, you can do that for me, can’t you? Most of the time I hear words of this nature from total strangers. But more and more they are the echoes of the mouths of people I have thought of as – if not friends, at least as being close. I can not help but wonder has the situation in this part of town come to measuring all emotions on the scale of what one person can give another. So everyday I am going to see how much friendship I can buy with a halfa-dollar. Maybe I can buy enough to last until I make it to the next block on the street.

Friendship – such a strong, powerful word; yet how often have we misused it. Put it in such a small, unimportant position. Be my friend doesn’t appear to mean the same thing as it did when I was a kid. Now to say we are friends don’t have to mean anymore than we know (knew) each other for more than 5 or 6 minutes. Have the financial means (meaning 5 or 6 dollars in one’s pocket) in Over-theRhine one can purchase friendship, but only 5 or 6 dollars worth. Yet friends do exist; someday even we may become friends.

The Color of my Skin

by George Herrell I remember when I was younger, some kids couldn’t be my friends They’d said their parents had said something , about the color of my skin We had laughed together often, and we got along fine.

We just figured that as time went on They would surely change their minds.

But is seemed as we got older, we grew further apart I found their parents opinions of me had polluted their minds and hearts

THE FLOOD OF ’83

Alough that was many years ago Not very much has changed I would have sworn that time would overcome, And yet prejudice remains

by Sarge Lintecum One time when city livin’ Became more than I could afford, I took my wife and children To a place with free room and board.

How could people be so ignorant?

And have so much hate within?

That thy would judge me not by heart but by the color of my skin?

We moved out in the boonies And in case a ranger came, So we could be there legal, I decided to stake a claim.

We made our camp at the junction Of Temporal and Gringo Gulch.

The scenery was breathtaking And the soil felt like mulch.

I stacked stones at each corner Till they were three feet high.

I didn’t have a measuring tape So I did it all by eye.

For two months we were happy; The kids had room to run.

I made them bows and arrows; Our days were filled with fun.

Then the sky turned black with thunder And lightening crashed all around.

We brought our two dobie guard dogs In the truck so they wouldn’t drown.

Four days and nights the rain came down But we stayed dry inside, Till some town folks came sayin’ we should come in Before the stream’s too wide.

We got a rope across the water So we could all hang on, ‘Cause if you were to fall on a slippery rock In a second you would be gone.

Well we all made it out to safety And soon we were dry and warm, But you know when I think back on those days I don’t hardly think of the storm.

I can see my wife smile by the campfire; I can hear her sweet laugh in the sun.

She made us prickly pear jelly To go on a freshly baked bun.

I’m Back

by Robert Manassa I made a vow to self and to you To sell you Streetvibes on Saturday Though someone else had something else in mind They thought evil thoughts about me, they thought I was in the blind I’m Back I’m proud of you , you have fait in me, you are on my side.

You helped me to hold to hold on to my dignity and my pride When you are right, you are right, and when you are wrong you are wrong I’m here now and forever I’m not ready to say so long I’m back Sure, my given name is Robert, that I won’t change From this day forward I will tell the story You call me Robert need more You won’t find me in any store I need more of this, more of that I need more of everything, and that’s a fact I’m back

STREET DOG

by Sarge Lintecum I was brought up to be just a big puppy, Then they trained me to be an attack dog.

After my career as an attack dog They said I didn’t fit back into the pack any more, And they wanted to have me put to sleep, So I ran away and became a stray dog, Looking for a kind handout, but expecting a kick.

I tried to get a job as a guard dog, But after a few days I wouldn’t even let the owner in.

Being a stray dog is no picnic, But being old and a stray is a bitter fate for any dog, Especially since I’m not a dog at all; I’m an American veteran.

You could say back then we were homeless, But I just remember the fun.

When the worst times leave you fond memories, You know that you’re with the right one.

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Streetvibes

Song of Wounds

by Michael Henson I look at you, my friend, and I see nothing but wounds.

Just one wound, and you might still be with us.

We might tell stories, we might embrace as friends.

But no, there are far too many wounds.

The blood, broken from its familiar channels, is naked and confused.

Muscles, unstrung, will not stand.

Nerves throw up their pale hands in surrender, for there are just too many wounds.

I press my fingers to the lips of each.

I note the contours closely.

I see them in their intimate and parasitical relations.

I give each one a name: the one that tore at the moorings of the lungs the one that cut at the roots of the liver the one that frayed the ropes of the intestines the one that broke through bone like an axe the one that shattered the beating heart: For today, I see nothing but wounds.

Wounds in the alley Wounds in the park Wounds blackened in the asphalt of the beltway Wounds with the marks of the teeth of the wind Wounds in the bellies of small brown children.

Wounds sleepless at four in the morning Wounds in the disordered ladders of the cell: Five wounds, and I ponder over them within me.

Five wounds, sharp as a hammer Five wounds in the shock of morning Five wounds and there is no escape Five wounds and five curses My friend!

My friend!

I see nothing today but wounds!

Spring

by Michael Henson First hints: A red haze among the maples.

A great clutter of branches thrown down by a storm.

A row of daffodils that raise their baffled heads out of the cold beds of the garden.

The light, stretched back by the black fingers of the trees at the horizon, stretched back by the rooftops at the head of the alley, ekes out the lingering days.

The winter rains become the spring rains, cold and persistent.

The rivers rise to their banks; they darken with silt.

They boil coldly in their drive to the Gulf bearing downstream anything loose in their path.

Then, a day that ignites green fires at the tips of the sycamores.

A day when the earth shimmers with a dim mammalian pulse.

After the million deaths of winter, partisan births, clandestine cadres, in tens and twelves, here, and here, and in the hedges.

Everything swells.

Everything grows more numerous.

New hungers arise, some small as the belly of a vole, some neatly small as thought.

Some hungers large as a field of wheat.

Still others larger than we dare name.

Everywhere the hungers assert themselves.

They stretch among the root hairs in the compost.

They call from the nests tucked in the branches of the cedars.

They quiver on the dark floor of every pond.

They weep themselves known in the houses of the poor.

Berta’s Art Corner

Writers!

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

Painted Circles on Glass, Cincinnati 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 381--0111 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 363-1060 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259

10 Years in Publication!

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