Streetvibes December 2006 Edition

December 2006

STREETVIBES

cover story

3CDC, Affordable Housing and Over-the-Rhine

As winter sets into the Tri-State and people everywhere celebrate the re-opening of Fountain Square, 33 men and women have been evicted from their homes in Over-the-Rhine to make way for 3CDC development.

1316 - 18 Race Street Across the street from Washington Park the thirty-three residents of 1316-18 Race Street find themselves out in the cold. Technically designated a boarding house, this SRO (Single Room Occupancy) has been in operation for over 40 years, housing people for approximately $250 $320 per month.

On October 1, all of the residents of 1316-18 Race Street received their eviction notices. Development corporation 3CDC had offered to buy the building, but only if it was vacated. The owner of the building served notice to the residents, leaving it in the hands of the building manager to place the residents in other housing.

The building is finally vacated and boarded up.

“This is an alarming trend that we’ve seen before with 3CDC,” stated Georgine Getty,

director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. “They will only buy vacant buildings so they can claim they haven’t displaced anyone, but that’s disingenuous. They are making the landlords do the dirty work, then swooping in and buying up these buildings.” Getty adds that 3CDC is in the process of developing 90 units in Over the Rhine by Spring of 2007, but plans to make only about 5 of these units affordable to the current residents of Over the Rhine. “This is in clear violation of the Over the Rhine Comprehensive Plan which calls for affordable housing and mixedincome development. When you add in that 3CDC receives thousands of dollars in subsidy from the government per unit, it really is unjust.”

As for the residents of 1316-18 Race Street, they were offered a service fair on October 20 to find them new housing, but due to the specific nature of the SRO they currently occupy, many found this attempt futile. “The problem is that this is very unique housing serving a unique population. Relocation is extremely difficult,” stated Getty.

Gordon Dean, a Vietnam Veteran and resident for 17 months is angry. “I want these rich folks to just go back where they came from and leave us alone.” Mr. Dean has found a new place in Walnut Hills, and is moving with the help of the VA who will pay his rent for 3 months.

Mr. Dean has fared better than others.

One woman, with the help of her cousin, moved into the Drake Hotel, another boarding house in Bond Hill. The rent there is twice as expensive as the rent at 1316-18 Race Street and she wonders how she will be able to pay it with only her wages earned working temporary labor jobs. Further, the

Agency Spotlight: Tender Mercies Tender Mercies began in 1985 when Father Chris Hall took care of two women released from Summit Behavioral Healthcare and placed at the Drop Inn Center. Father Chris found them a place to live, got them benefits, paid their rent, bought groceries, and checked on them daily.

Tender Mercies now has six buildings in Over-The-Rhine with 150 Single Occupancy rooms, offering transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons with mental illness. Some people have lived here longer than anywhere else including the hospital or the streets. We break the cycle of hospital, streets and jail.

This winter someone with a mental illness who is homeless may come to your doors looking for housing. To make a referral, call Mary Grover, Community Resource Manager, at 639-7042. An application appointment will be set.

Acceptance into Tender Mercies is a process. We do not offer emergency shelter. We offer transitional and permanent placement.

Tender Mercies is here to serve homeless persons with mental illness and treat our residents with dignity, security and provide community and belonging.

If you have any questions, please call Mary Grover at Tender Mercies, 639-7042.

Drop Inn Center has confirmed their first intake of a displaced resident of 1316-18 Race Street on October 19, and they fear that this will not be the last.

“This is just really sad,” said Pat Clifford, General Coordinator of the Drop Inn Center. “We had 230 residents last weekend, since it started getting cold. 3CDC is concerned with homeless people in Washington Park and at the Drop Inn Center, and they block attempts to create permanent supportive housing, yet they are making new people homeless through their actions.”

Clifford is referring to the Drop Inn Center’s recent attempts to develop 40 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people in Over the Rhine. These attempts were frustrated when 3CDC vowed to “actively fight” the site location for the housing.

On October 1, residents were offered $75 to leave 1316-18 Race Street on October 21, two weeks before their 30 days would be up. Many took this money and left early, on a very cold Friday night. Because this is a privately owned building, residents are not technically entitled to a reasonable relocation allotment. This practice flies in the face of commonly accepted relocation practices. Residents have lived rent free for the month of October.

One resident, who preferred to be known only as “Joe” indicates that the loss of this building is more than just an irreplaceable hit to the affordable housing stock in Cincinnati, it’s the dissolution of a community. Joe, who worked as a machine operator before he was laid off, found out about his eviction a week before he lost his job.

He is currently staying at another area shelter.

Some critics of 1316-18 Race Street claim that this is a building full of criminals. Crime statistics to this building are spotty, but most point to minor offenses such as open container violations and jaywalking. Ultimately, safety has been proven to increase when residents of a community are safely housed and provided supportive services.

Some residents of 1316-18 Race Street do have past criminal records; this is why it is so difficult for them to find jobs and housing.

“People look at this place as a building of unemployed people. It’s more than that. It’s a family, it’s a community. You don’t just displace people, you displace emotions and temperament as well.” Joe added that he has lived at 1316-18 Race Street for 3 years and enjoys its access to bus lines, local grocery stores and restaurants. “In the future, profiteers need to find another way to make their profits other than coming into communities that are already devastated. You’re just moving people into poverty somewhere else,” Joe concluded.

The residents gathered perhaps for the last time on the steps of their home and shared their thoughts. On the one hand, the sentiment was clear that they just wanted to get it over with, especially the manager who has lost a lot of sleep trying to make sure his people have a place to go.

On the other hand, there was a lot of sorrow at leaving their family and many residents were concerned about the cold, and the upcoming holidays. “It’s really depressing, you know?” said one young woman who lived in the building. “The holidays can be hard enough, but it’s really depressing when you’re moving and losing all your stuff.”

Joe sums it up best, “Everyone doesn’t need a condo to make this a good neighborhood.

They’ve scattered my family. Everyone gets a dollar off our misery and we’re tired of it.”

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 John Lavelle - Administrative Coordinator Lynne Ausman - VISTA Andy Freeze - Education Coordinator Susan Smith - Volunteer Melvin Williams - Reception Linda Pittman - Reception Matt Cohen - AHA Staff Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor jimmyheath@yahoo.com Photography Jimmy Heath, Berta Lambert Cover 1316 - 18 Race Street, boarded up for rehab.

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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Finding the Holidays in Something Deeper

by Jimmy Heath (jimmyheath@yahoo.com) I think getting older is a gift for me; a reward for the long road traveled. I remember back to my youth thinking that I knew everything. After a few gut kicks and traveling the path of rude awakenings and self-destructive behavior, I started to learn that I wasn’t the only person in the world.

“Pass me another beer!” “Move aside wanna be hippies.” “My hair is long and I dress and I act the act...” Boy, did I have a lot to learn.

Many years later I’m still searching for a better understanding of the people and the world around me. There is hardly a thing that hasn’t crossed my life experience.

All of this experience, even the bad, has helped me to wish for something better and deeper; God, and the meaning of life. Too bad I didn’t begin the search thirty years ago. I guess that’s part of my journey too.

I wish that I could find the power that goes beyond the body.

How elusive! I meditate and I find quiet time to think about my position on earth, and my relationship with all things alive around me.

But I’m still rude and antisocial at times. I still search the physical world for self-gratification.

After I curse under my breath, I regret it. When I make fun of

someone I feel ashamed. I go to church now and pray with my fiancé, Brenda. I look at myself and ask for clarity. I meditate on almost everything; the blowing leaves and the winds and the sky and the sunshine. I know of a great power around me, a power that anyone can harness. I would imagine the discovery of the “source” would change everyone’s life. But you can’t sit and wait for it to come to you.

The answers are right in front of me. I try to take the time to Jimmy Heath pause and understand the position of the homeless person, for example. Why are some so angry?

Would they see it someday and make changes in their lives and help the lives of others? I feel regret when I walk away feeling that I had not done enough. We are not so different. We enjoy decent food and housing. We all want security and respect. We are all the same and are connected by the all encompassing spirit of a life that underlies and connects us to an elusive mystery. Void of TV’s, houses and high-priced cars the needs of the body become unimportant in the spiritual place.

What is this place? Are there trees

and birds or just a different level of living that does not include the body? When we are dead we are traditionally buried in the ground.

Where did the life source from that body go?

What are we without the physical body? Nothing, or everything? We are all centered on the surface, the body. Look at the struggle for riches, the material things, as we discard the restrictions of life in this body and instead try to practice the joy of helping others so that we may reach our own understanding and peace.

I don’t think these are two different places; the body and the spirit. Certainly we can practice our lives in a spiritual way, with kindness, calmness and serenity during our brief stay in the physical body. Rich folk, don’t despair, there is hope for you yet! And for all of us. Watch the world as it passes you by. Don’t miss an opportunity to show a little kindness. Get rid of the rage. Stop honking the horn because you are aggravated. Listen for a moment when a stranger on the street speaks to you Find kindness in youself, or make it.

The Firecat Review

The 2006 Election Firecat Chameleon: I’m glad the minimum wage passed. Now maybe I can get a living wage.

Firecat Silver: I want a living wage.

Firecat Beige: Me too.

Chameleon: I felt efficacious at the polls.

Firecat Blue: I’m not writing down “efficacious.”

(Firecat Red walks in) Chameleon: Any thoughts on the election, Firecat Red? Weird how what you voted for passed?

Firecat Red: Yeah, except Wulsin.

I wish it was a presidential election.

Then maybe we could have gotten that guy out of there.

Beige: Disorienting, isn’t it? I thought it was interesting that Heimlich and the jail tax lost. Isn’t that his thing?

Silver: Pepper’s hot.

Beige: He looks really silly in the CityBeat.

Silver: Where? (flipping through CityBeat) Chameleon: Pepper…Hot…get it? (ironically begins to choke on soup) Quick, someone do the Heimlich!

Silver: I’m going to miss smoking in bars.

Blue: Uh-huh.

Beige: I feel bad for smokers, but it will be nice going to bars and not having to do laundry afterward. I go to bars in Lexington and I’m like, “Why don’t I smell bad?”

Blue: (discussion of Firecat Beige’s super powers of letter writing) I missed writing down almost all of that.

Silver: We should tape record this.

Beige: No, then we’d have a record of ALL that we say.

Silver: I didn’t know Streetvibes was the 3rd largest newspaper.

Blue: No, 3rd best in North America.

Silver: Says who?

Blue: The North American Street Newspaper Association.

Beige: Why is Streetvibes so dynamic?

Blue: Firecat Reviews… and when we get a Sudoku puzzle all bets are off.

Chameleon: Grapevine sucks!

Streetvibes

(alluding to Cleveland’s street newspaper) Blue: We’re not talking politics anymore?

Beige: Can Schmidt be our new nemesis?

All: YES. Firecat Favorite Political Stuff: A recap 1. Fishsticks vs. Shrimp: Cranley vs. Chabot 2. Tazing 8 year olds: Chabot vs.

Cranley 3. Playboy “Call me, Harold”: Corker vs. Ford (Tennessee) Firecat Beige: Corker won because he hates gays, loves babies, and he’s white – and it’s Tennessee.

4. Brown vs. DeWine on Meet the Press: Firecats were embarrassed to be from Ohio.

5. Chabot being turned away to vote for insufficient ID. 6. Cranley checking his cell phone during his concession speech.

7. Blackwell’s one and only “my daughter’s hot” ad.

Homeless News Digest Compiled by Jimmy Heath

San Francisco, CA. - Hundreds of people in need lined up for free clothing at the first ever Homeless Jubilee in Golden Gate Park’s Lindley Meadow. Coats, shoes and other apparel were available to keep people warm before winter sets in.

Participants also heard some music, got a free meal and a bit of spiritual advice, if they wanted it.

More than 30 ministries from across the Bay Area sponsored the afternoon event.

Orlando, FL - A group opposed to a controversial new ordinance limiting homeless feedings in downtown Orlando plans to take their protest to City Hall.

Earlier this year, city commissioners passed an ordinance on group feedings in certain downtown areas like Lake Eola Park saying they cause a rise in crime.

The ordinance requires a permit and limits them to two per year.

A coalition called Stop The Ordinance Partnership (STOP) says the ordinance is unconstitutional and wants it repelled.

Buffalo, NY - Two grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs will enhance services to homeless veterans in Batavia and Buffalo.

One of them, for $828,322, was awarded to Cazenovia Recovery Systems of Batavia. The other, for $102,134, was awarded to Altamont Program of Buffalo.

Both locations will offer job training and referrals, as well as mental health and substance abuse treatments.

The grants were announced

by R. James Nicholson, secretary of veteran’s affairs.

New Orleans - With temperatures dipping into the 30s, advocates for the homeless are concerned that a lack of shelters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina will leave many people who live on the streets dangerously exposed to the cold.

When the temperature or wind chill is forecast to hit 38 degrees or lower, New Orleans officials try to move homeless into shelters. But two of the city’s six major shelters are closed and another one is getting back on its feet only now after losing its roof.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin said the city is aware of

the problem but has not pinpointed any new shelters.

Advocates estimated that the homeless population stood about 65hundred before the storm and now is at least three-thousand. There are about 450 beds in shelters now compared to 11-hundred beds before the storm.

Vicki Judice, director of programs for UNITY of Greater New Orleans, the lead agency for the local network of homeless service organizations, said the city’s available shelters already are turning away people every night.

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood tough guy Kirk Douglas brought seasonal cheer to thousands of Los Angeles’ homeless, leading an army of volunteers serving up Thanksgiving meals.

Douglas, 89, most famous for his role as the slave who leads a revolution in “Spartacus,” joined around 400 people helping to dish out turkey dinners to homeless people at the city’s skid row.

“What a wonderful day, people from all religions and all colors,” said Douglas, who was joined by his wife Ann. Other celebrities included actors Minnie Driver and Tony Danza, who were joined by Los Angeles city mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Fresno, CA - A federal judge ordered Fresno officials to stop seizing homeless people’s property without warning as a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union proceeds against the city. The civil liberties group says the police and sanitation workers violated the constitutional rights of thousands of homeless people in the last three years by defining their property as trash and bulldozing their encampments.

Advocates for the homeless said the order by the judge, Oliver W. Wanger of Federal District Court, would help cement homeless people’s property rights.

James Betts, a lawyer for the city, argued that forcing Fresno to log and store belongings would be a burden because the city did not have the space, money or manpower to handle the volume of items.

Palm Beach, FL - Homeless, disabled Eddie Montry spent

Thanksgiving on a median at a busy intersection in suburban Boynton Beach, begging for money.

“I’m thankful for all the good people in the Boynton Beach area,” he said after some reflection, the wind from a passing tow truck ruffling his curly red hair and beard.

For the police who put up with him; for the people at the bank who tacitly permit him and his girlfriend to sleep under their drivethrough awning; for the grocery store people who look the other way when he comes to bathe in the bathroom sink; for the Taco Bell people who, if he’s had a bad day, will feed him for free.

He interrupted himself to limp into traffic and accept a crumpled dollar bill.

People eyed him. He cut a funny figure on the corner, with his Santa cap, his red-blue-and-whitestriped shirt - “my holiday outfit,” he said - and his message, lettered with care on one of those real-estate signs you can pluck from a Dumpster, which read: “BEING HOMELESS CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE.” “It can,” said Montry, 44.

A lot of people refuse to accept that, he said, and he understands.

He remembered how he felt back when he was working, driving a dump truck 12 hours a day, and he would see a beggar on the corner. In one of life’s little ironies, he would rumble past them and sneer.

Then it sort of came apart at the seams, he said. He had a thing for cocaine, his arrest record showed. Got into some bad fights with his wife. Drove without a license and went to jail.

He was on a bus full of prisoners that crashed, he said, and dislocated his shoulder and busted his hip. By the time he got out of the hospital, his wife was gone for good.

He couldn’t drive and couldn’t work and couldn’t pay rent or hire a lawyer, he said.

He was wandering near Okeechobee Boulevard when some other homeless guys introduced him to “flying signs,” which is what they call what he does on the corner.

The terrain around this shopping center - the grocery store, the retention pond, the flock of white ducks, which he feeds every night has come to comprise his entire universe.

Just a few paces from his corner, which is all the distance he can manage to walk at a stretch, is the shopping cart full of his possessions: a little charcoal grill, a 5inch, battery-powered TV, some blankets, two pillows and a change of clothes.

During a regular day he ties a tarp over it all and tucks it out of sight.

Streetvibes

But this was Thanksgiving.

He had left his grill out under the bank awning.

“I bought some turkey legs, and they’re thawing out,” he said.

Somebody had given him a bag of fresh biscuits and if the day went well, which it was, he and Sheri, his girlfreind, would wash it all down with a four-pack of Natural Ice. But at least the weather was good. He glanced at the sky, toward which, at that moment, who knows how many families were directing their prayers for the less fortunate, for the Eddie Montrys of the world.

Austin,TX - From 2005 to 2006, more than 6,000 homeless people lived in Austin with about 1,500 that were homeless children.

On any given day, the ARCH Shelter downtown is full to capacity, but it’s a temporary shelter. Now community leaders are looking for permanent solutions.

John Covington carries a heavy load. It’s not the bags he’s got, but the sting he feels from others because of being homeless.

“Most of them are afraid to make eye contact and stuff,” Covington said.

“Does it make you feel invisible when people don’t want to give you eye contact?” Covington said: “That’s one thing half the time. Sometimes when I’m depressed, I fell invisible because a couple of hundred people walk by me.”

Covington has been homeless for 10 years.

He worked manual labor for 25 years, and one day when a boss refused to pay him, he just quit.

Now he sells cans to make money. A decent place to live would be even better.

“I got a sleeping bag and a tarp,” Covington said.

“One of the paths that we’re looking at to try to get a hold on this is the housing first model. What we do is get a person that’s homeless, we get them into housing and then we start providing them services that can help them stabilized,” said Rick Rivera with the Austin Area Homeless Task force.

Homelessness even affects big cities like Los Angeles. Last month, the city filed a lawsuit against a hospital accusing it of dumping homeless people on LA’s skid row after treating them.

In Austin, Covington says he once attended college and wishes people wouldn’t judge so quickly.

“We’re all a little bit different,” Covington said.

The community realizes it will take a lot of work to solve the problem of homeless people.

Covington says in the meantime, he just wants to be treated like everyone else.

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Dark humor brightens life in battered New Orleansthe rebounding crime rates to the tourists who take

by Ellen Wulfhorst NEW ORLEANS, - A Hurricane Katrina evacuee walks up to a woman in a bar and says, “Want to go back to my place?”

“I’d love to,” the woman replies. “So would I,” the man says.

In New Orleans, struggling to get back on its feet more than a year after Hurricane Katrina, stand-up comedy and satire are surging in popularity, as survivors of the storm turn to humor, the darker the better, to cope with their plight.

Navigating government bureaucracies, battling over insurance claims, and watching politicians roll out recovery plans that are never put into practice have all whetted what was always a large appetite for the ridiculous and the absurd.

“After the storm, I came back and wondered what kind of crowds we would get and what kind of mood they would be in,” said Mike Strecker, who tells the joke about the evacuee’s pickup line in his comic routine. “The crowds are larger, and they’re so much more responsive.

“It’s a release just waiting to happen,” he said of the mood in his audiences who have returned since Katrina burst the New Orleans levees and flooded the city.

Among the new additions to the comedy scene is a satirical newspaper, “The New Orleans Levee,” with the motto: “We Don’t Hold Anything Back.”

The free paper pokes fun at politicians and officials who are supposed to lead the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, said publisher Rudy Vorkapic, 42.

“This isn’t making fun of New Orleans.

This is making fun of people who are failing New Orleans,” he said. “This is born out of frustration.”

Launched this fall with a budget of just $5,000, the nascent newspaper is almost breaking even and attracting thousands of viewers to its online edition (http://nolevee.com ), Vorkapic said.

Unlike comedy by professionals such as those in the televised “Comic Relief” benefit for Katrina on Nov. 18, local humor is rooted in storm experiences, said Mike Strecker, 43, who works in the communications department at Tulane University.

“Before the storm, if you had a tree fall in your front yard, you had a story to tell. Now when somebody asks, ‘How did you do in the storm,’ you say, ‘Good, good, we got nine feet of water and we can’t find Grandma, but we were blessed,” he said. Local comics make fun of everything from

the so-called devastation tours of storm-ravaged neighborhoods.

“Comedy isn’t the jokes,” said comic Bill Dykes, 40. “It’s your experience and how you tell it.”

The number of amateur comics showing up at “open-mike” nights has grown from a handful to dozens, said Dane Faucheux, 27, a local professional comic.

“Before Katrina, people would think, ‘I can’t get up before an audience,’” he said. “Now, who gives a crap?”

Not that he finds the trend surprising, he added, in a city where T-shirts mock the initials of the New Orleans Police Department, with the slogan “Not Our Problem, Dude” and the Federal Emergency Management Agency with the slogan “Fix Everything, My Ass.” “We’re a city who throws parties for funerals. That’s how we deal with grief,” said Faucheux.

The interest in comedy has Dykes and Rodney Tate, 39, who moved to New Orleans after Katrina to build sewer lines, trying to open a ull-time comedy club. “It would be therapeutic for New Orleans,” Tate said.”People need to laugh.”

Free Speech in Harvard Square, Massachusetts, USA?

by Paul Rice A book vendor who was arrested this year in a potential violation of his First Amendment rights has had his case turned down by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, even though the organization’s New York chapter has been active in similar cases.

The vendor, Gary Kibler, had been selling books on a table in Harvard Square for about three hours when police arrested him for selling books without a permit, using a table that took up more than 25 percent of the sidewalk. According to measurements taken by Spare Change News at the time, the bookstand was only taking up approximately 9 percent of the 28-and-a-half-foot sidewalk.

“The state, when it regulates what [vendors] do, are allowed to ask for permits,” said John Reinstein, legal director of the American Civil

Liberties Union of Massachusetts. “[Kibler] asked us to represent him, and we elected not to.”

“The people running tables in the Square that I’ve asked don’t know anything about permits,” O’Brien said. He had noticed over a dozen tables set up throughout Harvard Square, with no police interference.

There are also Harvard Square businesses in violation of this law – Toscanini’s at 1310 Massachusetts Avenue, only a block away from where Kibler’s stand was located, takes up approximately 40 percent (or six and a half feet) of the 17-foot sidewalk, according to measurements taken by SCN. According to the Cambridge Licensing Commission, the entity that licenses outdoor seating for restaurants, Toscanini’s meets their size standards. The Cambridge Police Department could not be reached for comment in time to make this paper’s deadline.

Reinstrin advised him to ask for a week’s continuance, and the judge granted the request.

Kibler was scheduled to appear in court on June 26 to provide evidence that his First Amendment rights were violated, but the Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU turned him down on June 20.

Asked whether this will slow him down, Kibler didn’t mince words. “I’m taking it all the way,” he said. “My fundamental rights have been violated.”

When Spare Change News approached Kibler for an interview on June 21, the reporter noticed Kibler having a conversation with a Cambridge police officer. Kibler was explaining his situation to the officer, while the officer nodded.

When Kibler finished, the officer told him he believed he was doing the right thing and wished him luck, then the officer continued down Massachusetts Avenue, walking his afternoon beat.

More homeless in Wyoming CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Despite Wyoming’s booming economy and low unemployment rate, the number of people seeking help from homeless shelters and similar services is growing.

The Casper Star-Tribune surveyed emergency shelters, low-income housing providers and clinics for the homeless across the state.

The newspaper reports shelters statewide are serving more women, children and families than they were two years ago.

City officials and shelter managers across the state say many communities lack money for homeless services. Wyoming now relies almost entirely on federal dollars to care for the homeless.

Meanwhile, state government hasn’t implemented the recommendations of its own homelessness survey completed in May 2005 that called for increased state funding.

The state survey called for $150,000 to fund a permanent, statewide organization to track homelessness and produce an annual survey. It also called for better cooperation among state agencies, nonprofit groups, Indian tribes and shelters.

Page 4

Lara Azar, spokeswoman for Gov. Dave Freudenthal, said the recommendations haven’t yet produced action because “I think the governor feels that they have not yet had the time to fully mature.”

Richard McCullough, outreach worker for the homeless in Cheyenne, said he made 337 contacts with the homeless in all of 2005 but has already made more than 400 contacts this year.

“People always ask me, ‘Do we have a homeless population?’ “McCullough said.”It’s time to get past that. Yes, we have a homeless population.”

According to last year’s survey, completed by the Wyoming Interagency Council on Homelessness, half the homeless people in the state are women and children and more than one-third of the homeless are members of homeless families.

More than 50 percent reported that Wyoming is their permanent place of residence.

Other survey findings include that a quarter of the state’s homeless are veterans. And while American Indians make up just 3 percent of the

Streetvibes

state’s population, they are 19 percent of the homeless.

The survey cites substance abuse, physical illness and mental disabilities as the major causes of homelessness. About 80 percent of homeless women reported they had experienced domestic violence, and many said it was a prime reason for their being homeless.

A lack of housing in many areas is also a significant factor, according to professionals around the state.

“This is not the stereotypical profile of homelessness,” said Lynne Weidel, co-chairwoman of the Wyoming Interagency Council on Homelessness. “These are fellow Wyomingites.

They are women and children. They’re our people.”

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Homeless Woman Dropped Off on City’s Skid Row, City Attorney Says LOS ANGELES - In an unprecedented under investigation on suspicion of discharging crackdown on a practice experts say is shamefully homeless patients onto the streets instead of into common around the country, a major hospital chain the custody of a relative or shelter. was accused by prosecutors last month of ridding The legal actions filed against Kaiser last itself of a homeless patient by dumping her on month include criminal charges of false crime-plagued Skid Row. imprisonment and dependent-adult endangerment, A surveillance camera at and civil claims involving the a rescue mission recorded the treatment of patients and laws demented 63-year-old woman on discharging them. wandering around the streets in a “They have violated every hospital gown and slippers last ethical obligation under which March. they operate,” Delgadillo said, In announcing the criminal “and they have also broken the and civil charges, City Attorney law.”

Rocky Delgadillo said a Kaiser Diana Bonta, vice Permanente hospital put the president of public affairs for Patient wandering the streets woman in a taxi and sent her to Kaiser Southern California, said the neighborhood even though she had serious, untreated health problems.

“Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, part of Kaiser Permanente, the largest HMO in the nation, will be held accountable for violating state law, its commitment to its patients, its obligations under the Hippocratic oath, and perhaps most importantly, principles of common decency,” Delgadillo said.

No U.S. hospital has ever been prosecuted on criminal charges of patient dumping, said President Bush’s homelessness chief, Philip F. Mangano.

Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said patient dumping is a widespread practice. “We need to hold hospitals accountable, but also work with them to resolve these issues,” he said.

Kaiser’s Bellflower hospital, which discharged the woman, is among 10 Los Angeles-area hospitals

the legal action unfairly demonizes Kaiser, which she said has taken steps to see that no more of its patients are left on Skid Row. “It’s a big disappointment,” she said.

“They’re taking one isolated case and saying, ‘This

is what hospitals do.’ In reality, hospitals are trying our best to take care of all people, including and especially the most vulnerable.”

Bonta acknowledged that hospital officials had called a taxi to take the woman to Skid Row, but added that they had called ahead to a shelter there to let workers know she was coming.

Kaiser could be fined in the civil case and be hit with penalties including restrictions on its practices if convicted of the criminal charges.

Police have long suspected that medical centers and outside law enforcement agencies were using Skid Row as a dumping ground for the homeless. Skid Row already has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of homeless people, in part because of its cluster of shelters and services to help them.

The woman found wandering on the street, Carol Ann Reyes, was taken in at the Union Rescue Mission. Its director, Andy Bales, said Reyes is being cared for.

Advocates to test homeless feeding ban in Orlando ORLANDO, Fla. Advocates for the homeless say they’ll test the Orlando ordinance banning the feeding of the homeless.

Ben Markeson is a member of Stop the Ordinance Partnership, a homeless-advocacy group.

He says the group will go to Lake Eola Park on Friday to pass out food.

The City Council passed an ordinance in July forbidding the feeding of the homeless in city parks, and set up a designated feeding area on city-owned property.

The homeless who camp near the feeding site were recently evicted

by Orlando police.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging the anti-feeding ordinance.

Streetvibes

Page 5

Boys in the Alley My brother and I are looking out of the window. The one that overlooks the alley. Where we played during the day. But tonight we have spotted rats from the second floor. They were a problem. One ran right below the window. Plop!

My brother just missed one. We had small pumpkins we were dropping on the rats. Dropping these on the rats.

She looks at my father. He looked back. Mom says I don’t know why you rented this apartment.

His reply is your mother is just up the street. She looks at him with disgust. We try to go back to what we were doing. Mom will have none of that. It’s time for bed boys.

It is hard for me to get to sleep. The day before we had been in the alley with Mr. Cox. Grannies third husband. He is a preacher. Although I never heard him preach. He had a fellow with him and out of this shed he brought it. The most wonderful thing I ever saw. A wagon! A wagon with wooden spokes, metal around the wheels. A wooden tongue and a flat bed. I was envious. The man was moving things around on it. I wanted that wagon. It looked old. One of a kind. I dare not ask We were not allowed to do things like that. All I could do is stand there watch and wish. So tonight knowing that I could not have that wagon. I was thinking of a way I could get one. As I drifted off to sleep that was what was on my mind.

The next morning as I was waking up half dreaming. Half awake. A dream as if it was real. In the dream I had built a wagon. Using paint lids for wheels. The more awake I became. The clearer it became that it just would not work.

Something happened that morning.

In my mind I started assembling a wagon in my mind. If I had the parts I was sure it would work. That started something. Let’s call it my gift. To see how things should go together.

By now Gene was awake.

We were already talking about today.

We were going to grannies apartment. Mom was up. She had my two sisters in the kitchen downstairs. Breakfast smelled good.

Eggs, bacon and biscuits. I reached for Gail in the highchair. She banged on the table in front of her.

Mary was squirming in her chair. My sisters were so different than us boys.

They were always with mom. Gail was about two or three. Mary was four. Gail’s hair is blond and fine.

Mary’s hair is auburn thick and curly.

It went in every direction.

Gene enters the room.

Always the general. Come on eat so we can go. Mom says where are you going? To grannies Gene replies. I nod and run out of the door. The ally is old. I can tell because it is made of cobble stone. The curb is that stone kind sparkles in the sunshine. The buildings that are not apartments are not painted. They look dark brown to black. Then there is the houses on right on the left are fences and gates that lead to houses. At the end of the alley there are stairs leading up to McMillan Hill.

We were not allowed up there.

We are at grannies. Lots of stairs. A steep climb for small boys.

My brother knocks on the door. My uncle Bruce answers. He is a few years older than Gene. They go off together. I see my uncle Red. He is called that because of his hair. It’s red. I go and stand in front of him.

Red what is that I ask? It’s a guitar he replied. A guitar I repeated. He strums the shiny strings. The notes I can hear each one of them. The sound is so soothing. Can I try I ask.

Red says yea go ahead. I drag my fingers across slowly trying to hear each note again. Red asks would you like to hear a song.

I shake my head up and down. Jesting yes. Sixteen Candles is the song. I am very impressed. I always looked up to my uncle. Forty five years later after his death I would own an old guitar belonging to him. It is one of my most cherished possessions. We stay for a while then leave.

Back in the alley we go to the lot next to our apartment. There are mounds of dirt. It was dumped there, or left by people who torn down a building. At least that was my brother’s theory.

The kid next door wants to come out to play. We see him at his door. He doesn’t come out every day like us. He is a little different.

For one thing he has two thumbs on each hand. His speech is off a bit.

My uncle Bruce calls him monkey boy. Luckily not to where he would hear. Grannies would get him good if she knew. I don’t make fun of him because I stutter some. I get very

uncomfortable when people laugh.

Anyway today he gets to come out.

The mounds of dirt make a perfect place to play army. This will go on all day.

That evening my uncles show up. They are going to do something about the vermin. I’m sure mom has got something to do with this decision. Gene had gotten wind of tonights events earlier than me. He had fashioned spears using mop sticks with nails sticking out of the end. Vicious weapons for vicious times. The rats had to be stopped. I have a vision of us to this day. A five and seven year old in louse fitting shorts, printed buttoned up shirts wide open. Those shoes that refuse to wear out. You know the ones taps everywhere little boots. Yes we were killers. Rat killers. Not that we ever killed a rat. Or for that mater ever seen one up close. Backed by uncles we were at least willing to try. My uncles went about there business.

Mixing noxious potions of poisons and broken glass. Mixing it all in milk cartons. Then pouring it all down the rat holes. Then they set rat traps. Big traps. Using bacon as bate. Then burning the traps getting rid of any man sent.

Later that same night the uncles began throwing rocks in the air. Throwing them as far in the air as they could straight up. A strange thing began to happen. The bats began diving for the rocks. About then mom called and we had to go in. The rat killers had to go to bed.

Soon after all that settled down. One day everyone went into a panic. My mother had a terrified look on her face. What I wondered. What was going on?

My dad was angry he was angry a lot. He seemed different this time.

He also looked scared. Soon the house was full of people. My mother by now was holding her head and crying. My brother stepped next to me and said Mary is missing. I went flush. Mary can’t be missing. The girls never leave the house. They play inside with mom.

The search was on. The whole family was there. Not one person wasn’t doing their part.

The search went on for hours.

Everyone was getting tired and frightened. My brother and I went downstairs to the kitchen. There were two rooms down there. The kitchen of course and mom and dads bedroom. We pretty much never went into their bedroom. But today we walk right in. The day before mom was trying dresses on

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 Page 6

Streetvibes

the girls and those skirts with the big ruffles. They were mint green, pink and starched stiff. I noticed something move. Gene looked at me. He saw it to. We walked over to the bed and begun removing the starchy stuff. We both gasp. Mary looked up oblivious to the uproar going on around her.

They had checked the room but not under the dresses. She had tried on the dresses and fell asleep. All were relieved.

That summer was completely comfortable. In two years or less my father will brutalize my mother.

They will divorce. Somehow my father will get custody. My father’s mother will come to live with us. The comfort I knew that summer with my family close. My brother is my best friend. Will never be the same again.

But for now this summer we were just boys in the alley.

Vendor Spotlight

David Watkins

by Andy Freeze David Watkins is a very friendly gentleman. One would know this if you ran into him selling Streetvibes or if you saw him in our lobby.

David always has a smile on his face and wants to know what is going on in your life. David has been selling Streetvibes for approximately 3 years. Streetvibes has helped him financially.

He also details cars and uses Streetvibes as a second job to increase his income. A few of the things David enjoys most about selling Streetvibes is that he gets the opportunity to talk to people about the issues of homelessness and the events occurring in Over-the-Rhine.

He also meets new people each day.

David’s goal each month is to be the top vendor. He hopes that by selling papers he will push others to understand what is really going on in Cincinnati.

You can usually find David selling his papers on court street by the DMV. David says, “Streetvibes is a great paper and everyone should actually read it, know about homelessness, the Coalition, and Over-the-Rhine.”

Homeless vets to get chance to rebuild Frederick, MA - Way Station, a Frederick-based mental health nonprofit organization, has partnered with government agencies to start a transitional living program for homeless veterans.

In a ceremony the shelter officially opened and dedicated a 10bedroom duplex house in Hagerstown for veterans in the Welcome Home Program. “Our slogan is we don’t

leave anyone behind,” said Bob Simpson, veteran’s program manager at Way Station.

A retired Marine, Mr. Simpson has worked with homeless veterans for many years. Those who are accepted into the program must be motivated to improve their lives, he said.

“Our job is to clean them up, help them with their mental health issues,” he said. “I hope we can maybe make a small dent.”

Ten veterans will initially live in the house; move-in is still pending final approval from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Simpson said.

Sixteen veterans will be able to live in the house once additional funding is acquired, according to a Way Station press release.

The residents must be clean and sober for at least 90 days before they move in, Mr. Simpson said. Stays will range from about seven months to two years and residents will ideally have saved between $1,500 and $2,000 when they move out.

Case managers will assist veterans with employment preparation, counseling and obtaining benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs if needed.

Several agencies collaborated with Way Station so they could acquire and renovate the house, including the VA, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and Washington County Gaming Commission.

Dogs and cats comfort the homeless and others who ‘don’t have a lot’ Seatle, WA - -Just before Halloween, Urlina Nozlic sat in the basement of the Union Gospel Mission holding Pumpkin, an orange cat, on her lap.

Kiki and Brano sat quietly next to her in cat carriers in downtown Seattle. “We have a special rapport,” she said of the furry brood.

She has to. They all live in her car.

“It’s a good thing I have a 1992 Buick LeSabre,” she said.

It is Saturday afternoon, and Nozlic is waiting to see one of three veterinarians and an assistant who donate their time every other week to the furry friends of the homeless and the very poor.

In the basement of the Union Gospel Mission men’s shelter in Pioneer Square in late October, a few people tell hard-luck stories — and the comfort provided by the cats and dogs they clutch.

Near Nozlic and her cats sits a blind man holding the leash of a 13year-old brown terrier.

Witton Rabon says Buster is the last of his litter. “He’s a survivor,” he says. And so it seems is Rabon.

The dog, like the other animals, is quiet, resting his aging head on the floor at Rabon’s feet.

There are those who volunteer at food banks to nourish people in need. And there are those, such as Dr. Stanley Coe, a retired veterinarian, who nourish the souls of people by volunteering to keep their best friends — and sometimes only companions — healthy.

Dr. Larry King of Lien Animal Clinic in Seattle explains to C’zar Carter of Seattle what should be done for some swelling on his dog, Skipper, at the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic at the Union Gospel Mission men’s shelter in downtown Seattle.

“It seemed like there was a need to provide the service,” said Coe, who has run the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic for 20 years. The pets “probably give some people a reason to live.”

Nozlic said she would try to raise the money to care for her cats even if the clinic were not available.

“They’re my friends,” said Nozlic, who said she’s been homeless

since losing a job as a stagehand in March.

Upstairs in the mission, Eli, a 55-year-old woman who lives in a small, subsidized studio at the Yesler Terrace housing project, stood in line for free pet food and medication for her cat, Choo Chool. Eli, who did not reveal her last name to protect her privacy, is one of about 40 people who typically come to the clinic each Saturday.

Choo Chool means “tassel” in her native Bulgarian, Eli said.

“When I first got him, he’d jump on the drapes and hang there.”

She said she would have committed suicide if not for the clinic.

“I suffer from chronic depression and fibromyalgia, which means I have constant muscle pains,” she said.

“My daughter won’t have anything to do with me, so I’m alone.”

Referring to her black and white pet, who she says is a “tuxedo cat,” she said: “It’s because of her that I have to get up and leave the house and take care of her. She seems to know when I’m sad.”

Last year, the cat developed an infection in her eye and could no longer see. She said Coe, who used to be a co-owner of the Elliott Bay

Animal Hospital, operated on Choo Chool for free at the hospital. These days the cat’s eye has reopened and can see just fine.

The non-profit clinic, supported by donations and volunteers, was started by veterinarian C.W. “Bud” Doney in 1983 in the basement of what was then a Christian coffee shop and drop-in center. It was across the street from the mission at Second Avenue South and South Main Street, and Doney ran the center until he died of cancer in 1986.

“I read in the paper that his wife didn’t think the clinic could keep going, so I called her up and said,

Streetvibes

‘Let’s do lunch because we can probably figure something out,’ “ said Coe, who has kept the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic going ever since.

Among the 15 volunteers, mostly veterinarians, who keep the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic going is Don Rolf, who used to train dolphins and whales at Sea World. He has volunteered at the clinic for 20 years.

Twice a month, he drives to the shelter in Seattle from Centralia.

Why does he do it?

“The bond between the people and the pets seems to be a comfort” to the owners, Rolf said. “I think maybe because they don’t have a lot.”

Page 7

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

Letter from Texas prison inmate

Berta’s Art Corner Corporate entrance, Cincinnati, 525 Vine Street, 2nd floor.

Quotes...

“It is not necessary to advertise food to hungry people, fuel to cold people, or houses to the homeless.”

John Kenneth Galbraith To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.

Johannes A. Gaertner We can always find something to be thankful for, and there may be reasons why we ought to be thankful for even those dispensations which appear Albert Barnes Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.

Albert Camus

Page 8

Streetvibes

On the Sunny Side of the Street

by Chris Miller Seattle - “Go ahead, I won’t tell anybody,” Jonas says to the young man with a low baseball brim walking by onto the pedestrian walkway to the ferry terminal. The man pulls his hat lower but can’t suppress a smile with the half-shake of his head.

“For some people, maybe they just can’t smile, maybe they’ve got loved ones in harm’s way, some it takes four years to notice, recognize what it is that I’m doing out here,” Jonas says.

Most downtowners, though, are expectant to trade jokes, jibes, and smiles passing Jonas standing at the southwest corner of First Avenue and Marion Street. Some hurriedly head onward to the ferries. “Hope you win the race!” he bellows to the ferry-catching runners.

“Injected humor,” he dubs it, and calls out to one woman passing by, “When will you marry me?” She pauses, turns, and smiles. While greeting pedestrians on the street corner, his “smile” sign is a painted, gold-lettered rainbow proffered as equal parts subtitle, stage prop, and street-level PowerPoint visual aid.

Five years now the staunch Chippewa from “the Great Lakes States” who declines to give his last name has been a sight more regular than rain — totaling a personal smile-streak of 43 bright days to the city’s mere 33 drizzle-dim days of 1953. He most recently completed a 20day stretch this summer.

The smiles actually brighten the brainchemistry of gray Seattle, as long as they are genuine, or so-called Duchenne smiles, which crinkle the skin around the eyes. Anything less than an eye-crinkler is a polite counterfeit. “There are so many people walking around downtown like they’re the last person on earth!” Jonas decries.

“People in Seattle just need to put that smile on and wear it around.”

A spate of copycat smile-signers have spread the request around downtown in homage to the success of his idea.

“He works eight-hour days just like all of us and he doesn’t have a [cardboard] cutpiece, he’s out there entertaining people,” says a young woman who works nearby. Her coworker estimates his smile success rate at 90 percent — he puts it at 99.5 percent.

How? An improvisation of compliments and jokes makes up his “tireless, never-ending” patter, and operations are donations-only. “It’s the toughest, most rewarding job I’ve ever had. It’s not about me, it’s a way to do something for everyone else out there.”

Jonas calls his work his “anti-depressant.”

An epileptic with Parkinson’s, he moved to Seattle in 1991 with a wife and kids for a job, then became addicted to heroin. Now he’s hooked on smiling. “I’ve lost all: kids in foster care, wife remarried. I got no means, nothing, but I got tired of flying a sign saying ‘I’m broke, I’m hungry.’ No chin-dragging on the ground for me.”

This attitude helps Jonas let his message of peace — what he calls the “most natural thing in the world” — reach thousands of passersby daily.

“There’s so much negativity in the world already right now — I pray every day. I don’t go to church, I pray all day long, and Creator is with me always.”

A last word from the Sultan of Smile: “Go on, take a smile home with you, maybe you’ll find it when you wake up, or pass it on, but somebody’s going to need that smile later.”

Many Attend buddy gray Memorial On November 15th several hundred people attended a memorial in Over-the-Rhine to commemorate the life of activist, buddy gray.

Killed ten years ago by a formerly homeless man whom buddy had helped over the years, the spirit of his commitment to low-income housing and taking care of the homeless is still alive and active today. The large group of friends and mourners first gathered at buddy’s place, on 14th and Vine Street The buddy’s place building represented a major struggle. The building had been half destroyed by a fire and needed extensive renovation. The city wanted to see it torn down.

After several years of restoration by contractors and volunteers, the twenty unit building for exhomeless people opened. The first floor storefront of the building is now occupied by Miami University’s design and architecture programs. buddy did not see the building to its completion.

Bonnie Neumeier

The march began from Miami University’s space in buddy’s place. There was a hard rain for the marchers to Washington Park and a change of plans were made. The large group squeezed into Nast Trinity Church’s sanctuary on Race Street. There were photos and other memorabilia on display at Nast Trinity and chili-spaghetti with cakes for dessert.

Speakers included Marion Spenser, Jack Gray, buddy’s brother and friend Bonnie Neumeier. Michael Stoops and Donald Whitehead of the Nationl Coalition for the Homeless spoke at the memorial. There was wonderful music from members and friends of the Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement. buddy founded the Drop Inn Center, Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, local and national offices of the Coalition for the Homeless and others. Countless individuals benefited from the non-profits that buddy and many others helped to establish. buddy’s fight for social justice and peace in the world continues to this day.

Jack Gray, buddy’s brother

Marion Spenser Michael Stoops, of the National Coalition for the Homeless

Streetvibes

Page 9

Voters Wanted Change

by Gary D. Bass Executive Director, OMB Watch Clearly voters said it was time for a change. But will change occur? And what type of change will it be?

Election exit polls indicate the top issues on the mind of voters as they voted for the House were the economy, corruption and scandal in government, and the war in Iraq - and in that order.

Eighty-two percent of voters responding to exit polls said they voted the way they did because they thought the economy was an important issue and those votes didn’t go Republican. While Bush may have thought the past tax cuts for the rich would resonate with voters, they didn’t. This may be because of stagnant wages and the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us or because voters may recognize that we cannot continue to mortgage our future with a national debt that now stands at $32,000 for every American family and growing.

Three of four voters also said corruption and scandal in government was either an extremely or very important factor in how they voted. No doubt the revelations about the Mark Foley scandal just before the election had a huge impact.

But Foley represented a broader set of problems and frustration with how our government operates.

The abuse of power exhibited in the Jack Abramoff-Duke Cunningham-Robert Ney-David Safavian ever expanding circle of cozy deals is but one example. The mosaic of corruption and scandal also comes from a government that has put special interest and party interest above public interest in so many of its actions. This includes powerful corporations shaping federal policies (energy policy and oil industry, health care and the pharmaceutical industry), and appointing representatives of industry to regulate the industries they represent. It also comes from a Congress that treats appropriations and tax earmarks as normal business, a president that abuses power by infringing on civil liberties and increasing

government secrecy, and a Congress that has too little transparency. These are all part of the corruption and scandal picture the public wants addressed.

It appears the House Democrats have a good jump on addressing these voter concerns with a blueprint for legislation to be tackled in the first 100 hours of the new Congress. It includes: Addressing corruption and fiscal responsibility by “breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation” and committing to “payas-you-go, no new deficit spending” rules; Implementing the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission; Raising the minimum wage; Making health care more affordable for all Americans, negotiating for lower drug prices under Medicare, and promoting stem cell research; Broadening college opportunity, and cutting interest rates for student loans in half.

Moving towards energy independence, and “rolling back the multi-billion dollar subsidies for Big Oil”; Guaranteeing a “dignified retirement,” and opposing attempts to privatize Social Security.

This is certainly an ambitious agenda. And incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (DNV) has talked about the importance of transparency and open government. We concur.

But while disclosure is vital, strong rules, oversight, and enforcement are essential. And, of course, the specifics of the Democrats plan will be what really matters.

We hope the 100 hour agenda is put in the context of a broader goal: putting us on the path to fiscal sanity - certainly not an easy task given recent policies. While pay-as-you-go rules are a critical element, it’s not the entire solution. National priorities must be realigned so that government spends the public’s money on the common good.

This must be done in a responsible manner so as not to continue mortgaging our future. Our elected

Cincinnati, OH - According to Georgine Getty, Chair of the 1.5% Coalition, the watchdog collaborative over city human service funding, the City of Cincinnati human services funding has been cut in half. Milton R. Dohoney, Jr. City of Cincinnati City Manager presented the Human Services Advisory Committee (HSAC) an amount that is to appear in the budget $1.2 million dollars, somewhere between .2% and .3% of the general fund.

A setback to the government commitment to human services as a priority in ifs funding plans, the total impact to HIV clients who rely upon the whole array of agencies funded is unclear. .

HSAC was challenged to divide this money evenly and, in doing so, not have any substantial income to any agency or prioritize the funding. Consequently, the committee decided to fund the Tier 1 agencies, but only at 80% of their original funding.

According to the 1.5% Committee the other agencies ranked in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 agencies were eliminated from the budget completely.

According to Getty, “these agencies are needed, necessary and important. As we know, we are all connected in a web, and the cut of

make and they did the best they could.

The Coalition is developing three points in its response to the cuts.

1. Mayor Mallory is scheduling a series of public hearings about the budget. Supporters, agencies and clients are encouraged to attend these meetings to demonstrate support 2. An information sheet is now being developed highlighting the impact of these cuts on the community 3. The 1.5 Coalition has always said we had two goals: to restore the funding to 1.5% and to preserve the HSAC process. It has succeeded in one of these goals. The HSAC Committee has been forced to make hard decisions, but at least it was they who made them and not a lead agency or politician.

leaders must recognize that this requires fair and progressive ways of raising the necessary revenue to meet our national priorities. This is not to shun the need for spending cuts, but to put it in perspective. Cutting spending to the bone leads to inadequate and inept governmental response such as with Hurricane Katrina. We must have a government that responds to public needs, both before and after crises.

Democrats will face difficult choices and a lot is yet to be decided about their path. For example, they must fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, a tax aimed at the rich but because it was never indexed to inflation is now hitting the uppermiddle class. This fix will be costly and may prove difficult to do within the confines of pay-as-you-go rules. Another issue will likely be the minimum wage. If firebrand conservatives take over the House Republican leadership - an issue all should keep an eye on - they could push hard to include special interest favors, such as further tax breaks for the wealthy, which could undercut any progress being sought by minimum wage legislation.

Strengthening homeland security is another daunting task before the new Congress. For example, we need a comprehensive regulatory approach to address chemical plant, nuclear plant, and port security. As we move forward on strengthening homeland security, basic civil liberties must be protected - and Congress should revisit policy changes that have infringed on such civil liberties.

Now the governing must begin. The president and the new Democratic leadership have been in dialogue - a constructive sign. However, it may not be sufficient to overcome the partisan infighting that has dominated our nation’s politics.

OMB Watch will continue working with Democrats and Republicans alike in our pursuit of a more open and accountable government that promotes fairness and equity. We hope the new leadership in Congress will provide fresh views and leadership in moving towards this vision.

City Of Cincinnati Human Services receive Bush Looking Haggard agency hurts us all.” Adds Getty, “I know Severe Financial Hit any that HSAC was given an impossible choice to

by Dr. Wesley Browning

Page 10

For more information contact Georgine Getty, Executive Director. Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

513-421-7803, 117 East 12th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Streetvibes

Many weeks ago we enjoyed Ted Haggard’s pronouncement that President George Bush is not Satan. Years before, the evangelical leader Reverend Ted Arthur “I Did Not Have Sex With That Male Whore And Never Used That Meth” Haggard made a key endorsement.

George Bush needed to win the presidency in 2000. “He is a good, honorable man and I, for one, totally believe his denials of wrongdoing.”

Haggard was only being Christ like in his love for his male flesh merchant. His frequent payments of $200 to his for-hire boy toy were not for sex. They made Haggard an instrument of God’s Love to a poor struggling sinner. Likewise, when he bought unwanted meth from his drug-dealing hooker it was just a kind way to give without demeaning the recipient.

Who needs happy endings, when they’re on the Way to the Lord’s Eternal Happy Ending?

Bed race highlights homeless concerns Superman, Batman, the X-Men and even Scooby Doo raced to the rescue last month to help fight homelessness.

For the third annual Great City Rescue Bed Race, more than a hundred people dressed as superheroes and raced beds on wheels around a track. It was to raise money for City Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter.

More than 25 teams of five raised more than $25,000 through corporate sponsorships and grass-roots fundraising. Each team had to construct and decorate its own bed on wheels and push them around the track at Landon Middle School to compete for the best times.

There was also an obstacle course and costume competition.

A wide variety of superheroes were represented for this race’s theme. There were Care Bears in a bed adorned with cottony clouds.

Scooby Doo and his gang raced in a bed made to

look like the Mystery Machine. Traditional superheroes like the Justice League raced against Pixar-inspired superfamily, the Incredibles. Even real-life heroes were represented with an Army tank bed, which ended up winning for fastest bed.

The residents of the McDuff Avenue area dressed as the Super Jaguars and posted a track record time of 1:13. Considering the real NFL team’s 5-4 record, team member Eugene Garcia said, they might be just as fast.

“I don’t know, the real Jaguars haven’t tested us yet,” he said.

The top overall winner was a team of University of North Florida nursing students dressed up as Ghostbusters. Nursing student James Tesh said they spent more than 50 hours working on their version of the Ecto-1 ambulance, complete with a stereo playing the theme song, but the work was all worth it to be able to help the cause.

Dallas nonprofit buys building for homeless DALLAS, TX - The Central Dallas Community Development Corp. last month completed the purchase of a downtown Dallas building that will be converted into apartments for the homeless and low-income residents.

Construction on the project will begin next year. The 15-story, 167,000-square-foot building at 511 N. Akard St. will be redeveloped into 209 apartments, ground-floor retail and two floors of office space.

The project will have 200 apartments that will be used for affordable, work force housing. Of

those, 50 will be set aside for homeless individuals.

Nine of the units will rent at market rates.

Central Dallas CDC has secured nearly $14 million in funding for the project, including $1.75 million from the city of Dallas and $12 million in low-income, housing tax credits from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. The estimated total cost for the project is $23 million.

“Dallas currently has less than one unit of permanent housing for every 25 homeless people that need a home,” said Larry James, president and

Something strange in your neighborhood?

Who you gonna call? The Ghostbusters team of University of North Florida School of Nursing were overall winners in the Bed Race. The annual event was a fundraiser for City Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter.

More than 3,000 people are homeless in Jacksonville, and Robin Wilson, publicist for the City Rescue Mission, said the shouts of “Get a job!” from passersby aren’t going to solve the problem. Wilson said many of Jacksonville’s homeless work full time, but a lack of affordable housing is forcing many to the streets. Housing costs in Jacksonville have increased more than 15 percent a year since 2004.

Valerie Wrenn, director of development for City Rescue Mission, said the hard work that went into the race will help raise awareness about the problem and possibly inspire others to contribute their time or money to the cause.

“We get money all of the time, but something like this really shows that people care,” she said.

CEO of Central Dallas Ministries. “We firmly believe that providing our homeless neighbors with a place of their own will allow them to address the most significant problems that forced them onto the streets of our city.”

Central Dallas CDC is a nonprofit organization started by Central Dallas Ministries to increase the affordable housing in the inner city of Dallas. Central Dallas CDC is co-developer of the project along with Dallas-based McCaslin Development.

“King of the Hobos” passes away An Ohio man who was known as the “King of the Hobos” has died. Maurice Graham began riding the rails at age 14 in 1931. He died last month at a rehabilitation center in Napoleon. He was 89. Services were held in Toledo.

What is the Hobo Convention?

The National Hobo Convention is the largest gathering of hobos, rail-riders, and tramps, who gather to celebrate the American traveling worker.

When and where is the Hobo Convention?

The National Hobo Convention is held the second weekend every August in Britt, Iowa How can we get to the Hobo Convention?

Britt, Iowa is located 31 miles west of Mason City, Iowa. Route 18 travels through Britt.

Greyhound Bus Services mason City. Clear Lake Municipal Airport offers flight service.

Can we still ride a freight train to the Convention?

Freight train riding is illegal! Train service to Britt, Iowa is sporadic at best. There are 2-3 trains daily in either direction. While we don’t condone freight train riding, we recognize that there will be individuals who will choose to travel that way. Please be careful.

What is there to do at the Hobo Convention?

Aside from the scheduled events, there are many opportunities to visit with local townspeople and hobos and share stories and music and poetry.

Are there any real Hobos at the Convention?

There are many former and current hobos who join us at the Convention Are there any hotel or camping facilities at the Convention?

There are hotels in Mason City and Clear Lake, Iowa. There are also primitive (no services) camping available in Britt.

Where do the Hobos stay?

Most of the hobos stay at the hobo jungle, located on the Northeast side of town, by the railroad tracks.

Who runs the Hobo Convention?

The City of Britt runs the Hobo Days Celebration, The Council of Hobos handles the business of the convention. The Hobo Foundation operates the Hobo Museum and maintains the Hobo Cemetery.

Can we drink at the Convention?

The Convention events are located on public property. Local laws do not allow for drinking alcoholic beverages on public property. There are a number of taverns located in Britt.

Can anyone become Hobo King or Hobo Queen?

To be elected King you must be a true railrider. You must pass a committee of hobos who will test your worthiness to run.

How can we trace a loved one who was on the rails or possibly still on the rails?

You may contact the Hobo Museum for more information. Call 641-843-9104. During Hobo week, you may ask at the Hobo Jungle.

How can we get someone buried at the Hobo Cemetery?

Contact the Hobo Foundation for information at 641-843-9104.

How can I donate to the Hobos?

You may donate to the hobos at the hobo jungle during Hobo Week, or you can donate financially or with memorabilia at the Hobo Museum 641-843-9104

“Don “Don’’t Leave Home Without IIt” t”

Streetvibes

Page 11

Albany hosted homeless summit Albany, NY - Faced with what seems like a rising number of homeless, the city of Albany organized a local summit meeting to try to find answers.

About 70 people were invited, and so far more than 40 have said they’ll come, according to Marilyn Smith, the Albany public information officer.

Capt. Ben Atchley of the Albany Police is took the lead in setting up the meeting.

This past summer the city

closed a squatters’ settlement, “Camp Boondoggle,” in a remote part of Simpson Park, displacing a number of people who had lived there in improvised shelters.

Later, the Albany Helping Hands homeless shelter off the Pacific Boulevard overpass reported it was having trouble accommodating all the people seeking shelter there, and city officials increased the authorized capacity of the place. Both events helped focus new attention on

homelessness in Albany, Smith said in the invitation to attend.

Invitations went to groups or people who provide some kind of service to homeless people.

“It is time for all of us who provide help or services to the homeless to look for more effective solutions,” the invitation said. It also said the conference will be a chance to “learn about the services we provide, address areas of concern, and begin to form an integrated

approach to getting these individuals the housing, jobs, supervision, and other help that will end their homelessness.”

Terry Holderness, captain of the special operations division of the Fontana, Calif., Police Department and an expert in ending homelessness, also is expected to attend.

kicking a homeless woman in Berkeley last year.

Jarell Maurice Johnson, 19, of San Leandro and Derrell Lamont Morgan, 19, of Berkeley were each found guilty in September of seconddegree murder for attacking Maria King, 49, at about 1 a.m. Feb. 8, 2005, behind a secondhand clothing store near University Avenue and California Street.

King died at a hospital 12 days later. Doctors said the beating was so bad that her brain shifted 5 centimeters.

King was a university graduate and a legal writer from Illinois who injured her back while trying to move a desk after moving to the Bay Area. She quit work, became permanently unemployed and

her on the streets.

At a hearing in Oakland, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner sentenced both men to 15 years to life in prison.

Neither will be eligible for parole until after they serve at least 15 years behind bars.

The two men attacked King “for the simple reason that they could,” Deputy District Attorney Ben Beltramo said after the jury delivered its verdicts in September. The prosecutor had argued for firstdegree murder convictions.

An apartment manager who witnessed part of the attack saw what he described as “two people kicking an object as if they were kicking a soccer ball,” Beltramo said.

their roles in the attack, authorities said.

Johnson had a history of attacking homeless people “for no reason,” including a couple in Oakland in 2003, Beltramo said.

Johnson smashed a bottle over the male victim’s head, and the couple testified about the incident during this murder trial, the prosecutor said.

Morgan’s attorney, Walter Pyle, argued during the trial that his client wasn’t involved in the attack.

“The jury has spoken in this case,” Pyle said today.

“Nevertheless, I continue to believe that young Mr. Morgan was not the second assailant, and I will pursue on his behalf whatever remedies are available under the law.”

Jackson, MS - Only just over a hundred poor and homeless people showed up at the Gateway Rescue Mission in Jackson, Thanksgiving Day. That is fewer than normal.

Gateway Director Rex Baker, a former television reporter says churches will feed the needy on Thanksgiving when they don’t other days and that is one reason for the reduced number.

Baker says to run the program for the needy means, in his words, “My life makes a difference.

You can come here every day and find somebody who needs help. And, it feels good to help them and leave with a sense of fulfillment.”

Gateway exists on donations and is located in the heart of the inner city in Jackson on South Gallatin Street.

Gateway Rescue 2 sentenced in fatal beating of homeless woman Mission Feeds Johnson was arrested at the Oakland, CA - Two men were attempted suicide twice. She lived in scene. Morgan was arrested several sentenced last month to 15 years to a residential hotel in Oakland before Homeless months later. Both bragged about life in prison for fatally beating and a dispute with her landlord landed

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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.

Program helps homeless veterans reclaim their lives Lexington, KY - If you asked Ken Banta to share his life story, the 51year-old would probably tell you his fall from combat medic in the Army to homeless alcoholic is not unique.

He might show you the large scar that stretches across the middle of his belly. Or the two thick scars, one hidden under his gold-and-silver watch band, below the palms of his large hands. All were attempts he made at cutting his ties to life.

And it’s also likely Banta would tell you he’s thankful his life was spared because he knows not everyone is so lucky.

“I’m not supposed to be here,” he says solemnly, gazing at the reminders on his wrists. “I was so down and out — down emotionally — that I either had to seek out help or die.”

That period in his life, when Banta says he hit rock bottom, was more than two years ago. It’s been nearly a year and a half since he took his last drink.

Today, Banta is one of four men living in a new wing for veterans in recovery at Central Christian Church’s St. James Place.

The 38-unit residence, which opened in September, is a supportive housing program subsidized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and run by the Foundation for Affordable Housing Inc., which is affiliated with Central Christian Church.

The rooms, which resemble those in a college dormitory, each have a single bed, a kitchenette with a

full-size refrigerator, sink, and microwave and a private toilet with shower.

“It’s not very big, but I’m grateful for what I got,” Banta said of his room, still littered with moving boxes.

Banta arrived in September at the residence, tucked away on Deweese Street, after he graduated from the Homeless Veterans Transitional Treatment Program at the VA Medical Center’s Leestown campus.

To date, there have been five veterans in the program, said James Kemper Millard, president and chief executive officer of the Foundation for Affordable Housing. But one veteran fell out of the program and returned to rehab. Part of the residents’ leasing agreement is that they remain drug- and alcohol-free.

Most, but not all, have already gone through some type of treatment before their arrival, Millard said.

The veterans are given job training and assistance. When they feel ready, they’re free to move out.

Millard, who became president shortly after the wing was built in May, says homeless veterans are often “ignored by our community.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimated in 2003 there were 313,087 homeless veterans in the United States. In 2004, the figure was reported at nearly 200,000.

Kentucky had 963 homeless veterans in 2005, according to a department report. The Foundation

for Affordable Housing estimates there are more than 400 homeless veterans in Fayette County.

“It’s a critical situation that we have,” Millard said. “What are we doing as a community to help the warriors who came back and they’re not whole?”

Banta’s rough patch in life came around 1987, when the Bryan Station High School graduate returned to Lexington from a yearlong company tour in Korea after 12 years in the Army.

A nasty divorce left the father of three depressed and he began drinking. He didn’t see the point in returning to the Army, so he became a nurse, which is what he had done during his last six years in the service.

But he began drinking heavily.

“I would never come to work drinking, but I would go to work hung over, and that’s just as bad,” he said.

He was eventually fired and his nursing license was revoked.

Rather than getting his act together, Banta fled to Ohio, where he began working as a nurse again. But he eventually let that license lapse and was out of work again.

“That put me on the road to homelessness,” he said.

For Banta, homelessness led him to make the change. He got tired of living in his car (before he totaled it and lost his license for a DUI), living under bridges in the summer and bouncing from shelter to shelter in winters. Another drunk found him outside one day, bleeding from

Downtown Partnership to use parking meters for city homeless donations The partnership plans to use old parking meters throughout downtown as donation coffers for Baltimore Homeless Service Inc. City officials hope the program will decrease panhandling downtown.

As part of the program, dubbed Make A Change, the partnership will collect parking meters that are being replaced by new high-tech meters that accept

credit cards. The old meters will be painted bright green and display the phrase, “Give your change to make a change for homeless people.”

They will be relocated in pedestrian areas downtown, away from parking spots to avoid confusing them with actual parking meters, city officials said.

Nine meters will be installed at first. The partnership also

operates collection boxes for the homeless that can be found inside downtown businesses and hotels.

Baltimore Homeless Service will receive all donations collected from the meters and collection boxes.

The new meters are part of a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Baltimore City, according to city officials.

Officers From Other Cities Accused Of Dumping Homeless DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Daytona Beach’s police chief said he’s fed up with his neighbors. He said officers from nearby police agencies are dumping homeless people in his city.

The Daytona Beach Coalition for the Homeless is where the homeless from Daytona Beach and surrounding areas come for services.

It’s no secret that Daytona Beach has more than its fair share of homeless. Now the chief says other cities are making it worse.

Daytona Beach Police Chief Michael Chitwood alleges his officers have caught other police departments, Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach Shores, dropping homeless people off at the Daytona Beach city limits.

Chitwood has said in the past that he intends to lock-up all transients if they don’t agree to go and get help with employment or medical conditions. He said it is an issue that has been around in Daytona for a long time. He just seems to be the first one to address it.

“Did one of our sergeants catch somebody dropping someone off on Silver Beach? Yeah,” Chief Chitwood said. “Don’t just drop them off on the corner; drive them to where they have to go.”

Chitwood is already training a special task force of his officers to be able to deal with homeless people with mental and drug problems.

Local social services said they simply do not have the money or the facilities to deal with all the homeless in the area.

Streetvibes

plunging a steak knife into his stomach. It was time to get it together.

“See, there gets to be a point where you gotta hit rock bottom before you’re ready to give in,” Banta said. “I had hit several bottoms — like losing my marriage, losing my job, losing my nursing license. But they weren’t enough for me. For me, it wasn’t until I became homeless — without a job, a car, a driver’s license, without any hope at all.”

Banta sought help. There were the temporary programs — five to be exact — but none of them worked. Then he enrolled in the program at the VA Medical Center’s Leestown campus.

He hasn’t had a sip of alcohol since May 20, 2005.

He started working toward getting his nursing license back, which he thought would require him to jump through “hoops bigger than Rupp Arena.”

He will appear before The Kentucky Board of Nursing in December to learn what stipulations will be placed on his license. He realizes he will have to tell his employer about his past. He’ll have to attend a nurse support group and submit a drug test to “anyone who wants it.” But he welcomes it. He wants to put his life back together.

Although he could stay at St. James Place for two years, Banta hopes to leave in six to 18 months.

“You wouldn’t have wanted to know me a year and a half ago,” Banta says. “It’s taken me several years to put all of this together. But I’ll be able to hold my head up and say ‘I did the right thing.’”

Boise Restaurant “Cazba” Serves Meals To Homeless Boise, ID - On Thanksgiving Day, one Boise restaurant opened its doors to the homeless for a turkey meal and some holiday cheer.

The Cazba was rockin’ as staff and volunteers served more than a thousand turkeys to those in need.

For a decade the owners have helped the homeless to an elegant meal. One of Cazba’s owners says why he started this tradition. ”My parents overseas, we are from Iran, they used to feed once a year about 5,000 people and that’s a big production,” says Max Mohammadi. “I do 500 and I think that’s pretty big.”

Mohammadi says the event wouldn’t be possible without volunteers, and he hopes that people in the Treasure Valley won’t forget about the homeless this season.

Page 13

Homeless For Christmas

Homeless Poem

All alone he sat, on the sidewalk cold, Ragged coat, beaten hat, stooped over, looking old.

He asked for change for a coffee and a smoke, Of all the people passing by, who thought him just a joke.

He was just another homeless guy, another bum on the street, On the street, he’ll probably die, right at the Christmas shoppers’ feet.

It’s the time of good will to men, when, for all, we’re supposed to care. We hear that time and time again. Why then was he still there? On the dirty side of town, Where does this man go? On his sodden way down?

Nobody knows about his past, nobody knows his sad story. Why has he gone down so fast? All the way to ruin from glory.

I came upon him on the street and put five dollars in his hat, Right about then, we began to talk, I joined him where he sat.

“Do you have a smoke?” he asked as I sat down, Soon he was enjoying his smoke, there on the dirty side of town.

He told me the story of his life, about the trail of abuse and neglect. How his soul “died” when he lost his wife, how his family he began to reject.

He finally hit rock bottom. He had nowhere else to go.

Where the booze had finally got him, what then? He didn’t know.

I said, “I know how you feel, helpless and alone.”

“You need a bed and a hot meal, and someplace to call home.”

I’ll send you to a friend of mine, he’ll help you on your way, And the bus fare I will lend, you go and see him today.”

“He runs the South-Side Mission, on the other side of town,” “You talk to him, he’ll listen. Get him to show you around.”

I gave him the change for the bus and heartily shook his hand, I thought, “He’s the same as one of us, throughout this great big land.”

As I watched him go down the street, I wondered to myself, “will he come back?” Will we ever again meet, on the better side of the tracks?”

I realized it was getting late, I had to get to a Christmas Party, I hurried to make my appointed date, for eggnog and turkey hearty.

As I hurried on through the snow, I wondered to myself, “Where does all our compassion go? Is it put upon the shelf?”

At this Christmas time of year, Let us think of those who are with us all the year.

The homeless, the hungry, the destitute, who live on our streets each day. Let us show them a better route, where they can find their way.

It’s Christmas time, Do you care? Will you help another one?

Come on people, show you care. Do what the Master would have done.

Just think, if that was you, sitting on the sidewalk cold, Wouldn’t you want some help too? Or would you rather die in the cold?

by John McKay Withey She left her home in her early teens, In torn shirt and faded jeans.

Looking for the love she was never given, Away from her family she was finally driven.

She sits by the fountain every day, Her lovely young face looking cold and grey.

Her sad blue eyes slowly searching around, Looking for coins dropped on the ground.

With pleading eyes she holds out a hand, In pouring rain for hours she will stand.

All she wants is a lttle respite, And something warm for her teeth to bite.

Uncaring people pass her by, They see her plight and wonder why, So young a person has no home, And around the streets aimlessly roam.

Addicts and prostitutes, she knows them all, They tell her the dangers, if her pride should fall.

Often tempted, her back to the wall, When deep inside she hears a call.

Her bed is a box propped in a door, Often her body is tender and sore.

But when she sees those ever so younger, She forgers the pain caused by hunger.

Up to the skies she will often look, Remembering words she read in a book.

The meaning now she can clearly see, ”Suffer little children to come unto me”.

by Charles Hice A homeless man lays helpless at nite; no friendship in sight. He cries to Jesus ‘please help me’! An opened letter inside not just a man. Heart is twisting and turning because some people have hurt him.

If you can not help him and aid him then at least you can leave him alone. Please dont hurt him. Someday soon he will die and go home.

WHY?

by Vera Zlatkin Why do you hate me?

Is it something I did, or something I said; Is it the way I look or walk or talk; Or the color of my skin?

Why do you hate me?

Is it the cloths I wear; is it my hair: my size, my shape, my smell; Or what you believe I am?

Why do you hate me?

When you see me walking toward you, Why do you turn your face away Forbidding me to greet you? Why? Why do you hate me?

Is it my age; do I talk too much, Or have I remained silent too long So you never got to know me.

Why do you hate me?

Do you perceive me as something less than Those you deem to be acceptable But how can you judge me?

How can you hate me, When you don’t even know me; How can you judge me as less?

Am I so much different than you?

Why do you hate me?

I don’t hate you.

STAND

by Billy Ray Sanders Be careful if you stand against something, in which you do not believe.

Talking with your mother about all your fears.

Talking to your lover revealing that your queer.

Caution the lines are taped.

The walls have ears.

An American with a different color skin.

Is to be locked away, from which there is no reprieve.

Oh I can hear what is in the wind.

Our freedom is being tested again.

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 Page 14

Streetvibes

Acquainted With The Nite

Elves in the Nite

by buddy gray

by buddy gray

i am one acquainted with the nite, From my growing up years in the country, to my adult life in the inner city. i began with the very dark – unless moonlit – nites, With people all asleep And crickets – 1000’s it seemed – chirping their screeky, leggy noises, And occasionally – in the wee hours of the nite – long-distance soulful whistle of the train, blowing for a crossing – long and deep.

THEN to the city, at first hard to sleep, Since, it seemed, there were always People and Machines that never sleep, All beneath my 4th floor window – echo-ing between the concrete streets and rows of tall brick buildings, Voices in Stress, or High or in Terror, Fighting intoxicated, or children playing late on concrete, Or hot-muggy polluted summer and poverty stress, Many nitely screams of our city’s Women being battered, On Lonely, unsafe, nite streets – or echoes imprisoned in an apartment with the abuser.

Cops – often siren-maniacs – racing dangerously down dark, skinny, populated streets Going the wrong way down one-way streets chasing one individual.

The Flood of voices and cars of the Well-To-Do in evening gowns oblivious to the social stress Ending their social event – in the wee AM hours from Music Hall across the street.

JUST before dawn – the whirring, brushing sound – of the city’s street sweeper Through many ALL-Niter work projects at the shelter, or sleepless, tossing nites, i’ve heard and seen it all.

June 1995

This has been typical of my life 8AM to 5 ReSTOC, Housing 7 – 4 AM DIC Working late on DIC bills, $ etc.

MY LIFE by buddy gray

Then time to go home But 3 vehicles need moved To prepare for street sweeper Can’t afford $29 ticket Then finally getting to move My clothes chest to Sort out my clothes Time for personal tasks When streets are quiet And all else is asleep Elves in the nite

My Life is so HELLIOUS with battle and demands of services that when there is a brief letup – an evening with no pressing battle – my body and mind, can’t believe or accept it. i have to talk to myself and say there is no immediate crisis tomorrow we can relax and rest for a brief bit without worrying March 12, 1995 Found written on yellow note paper

June 5, 1991 5:00 AM Found in yellow pad

On the occasion of buddy gray’s 10th anniversary of his tragic death, Bonnie Neumeier, a long time friend and co-worker, compiled 27 pieces of buddy’s writing, edited and wrote a foreword to a book entitled FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES: Selected Writings of buddy gray.

Bonnie said: “There is no better way to celebrate buddy’s life than to share his raw and passionate words with the public. Let buddy’s words inspire you to keep on keepin’ on morning by morning for the cause of justice and peace in our world.” If anyone is interested in having a personal copy of this book please email Bonnie at bonnie49@zoomtown.com. All proceeds of this book will go to support Drop Inn Center and Over-the-Rhine Community Housing. A minimum donation of $10 is the suggested donation.

Afraid of Truth I want you back!

Holding on Do You Know?

Love Blues Love Her Heart Break The White Man Just A Little Reminder Within Yourself Just Please Is There a Reason?

Thoughts From a Drama Filled Mind Why not love me I Love You? Singing Dancing Eating and Loving Dirty Words I Miss You Hard If lLove Is Poem All I Did Wrong Love Is The Reason Love Is Leave Him This Is the Real End My Dad Drunk I Loved Her Poem Pain Goodbye And Life Goes On

Un American

by Billy Ray Sanders

Food Banks So, it’s off to the food bank one more time, Hours of waiting in that long, long line.

Every month you make this trip, Ask yourself, is it worth it?

Half-dead vegetables and second-hand food, You rarely get anything that’s any good.

Canned food and that horrid Kraft Dinner, We all know that stuff’s not a winner.

All around us food banks close, They say, to ease the financial load.

But what about the load of hunger we bear?

What about us? Does anyone care?

We need food, to live we must eat, Even those who live on the street.

Because Welfare rates are so low, To rent, our food money must go.

What will replace the food banks that close?

We need to be making more of those.

So I’m off on my monthly trip to the city, Believe me, the picture’s not pretty.

I’m hungry because there’s no food, I am sick because the food is no good.

This is the life of a person who’s poor, Is that all there is? Is there nothing more?

Streetvibes

Endless wars on the side of right.

Justice only for the ones in sight..

Children paying with there flesh.

From Harlan County to the west.

To Africa and Asia the stories told.

Torture made legal in America you know.

With our leaders truth is made loose.

The pain is the same to much to bear.

No caskets in sight are they not there.

Writers!

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

Page 15

569-9500

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) 324-2321 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 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 Tom Gieger Guest House 961-4555

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 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 Emanuel Center 241-2563 Freestore/

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

HOUSING: CMHA 977-5660 Excel Development 632-7149 Miami Purchase 241-0504 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 639-7042 Tender Mercies 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?

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 946-7601 Healing Connections 751-0600 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 IJ & Peace Center 579-8547 Worker Center 621-5991 Justice Watch 241-0490 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis.

Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 Mercy Fransiscan at St John 981-5841 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 NAMI (Mental Health) 948-3094 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Oral Health Council 621-0248 Over-the-Rhine Soup Kitchen 961-1983 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect, Homeless Kids 363-1060 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 Services United For Mothers 487-7862 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless Worker Center 621-5991 W omen Helping Women 872-9259 MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) St. Raphaels 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276

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December 2006

3CDC, Affordable Housing and Over-the-Rhine

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