Streetvibes February 2006 Edition

February 2006

STREETVIBES Looking Back To “The Peoples Move” - January, 1978

by Bonnie Nuemeier (One of the original members of ShelterHouse Volunteer Group, Long Time Over-the-Rhine Resident. This story is dedicated to all those who gave their hand and heart to The Peoples Move.)

Written in January 1998 Over 20 years ago on a cold blizzardy Friday night a momentous event occurred which has gone down in our Over-the-Rhine history as THE PEOPLES MOVE. The ShelterHouse Volunteer Group, operators of the Drop Inn Center ShelterHouse, consciously planned and organized a secret, “illegal” midnight move from its second home at 1324 Main Street to our current location at 217 West 12th Street, which had been owned and not too long vacated by the local Teamsters Union. This group decision of conscience was made deliberately to get out of a dilemma we believed to be inhumane. Our story unfolded like this: Drop Inn Center began in l973 as a volunteer people’s program in a one room storefront at 1711 Vine Street, a much needed place in our neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine for men who were homeless and suffering from the disease of chronic alcoholism. As numbers grew and government money secured to build a program and hire paid staff, the Drop Inn Center moved to a five-room place at 1324 Main Street in l974.

In the following couple of years the program got into the hands of social professionals who were not based in our neighborhood and had different ideas about the direction of the program. The community was angered when a decision was made without community input to close the Drop Inn on weekends in the Spring of l976. We were angered further by talk of eliminating the overnight shelter and running a daytime program only. The winter hawk would soon be upon us and we did not want to see our people freezing to death out on the streets or in abandoned buildings. People had to be alive first before there were any hopes of recovery from chemical addiction. This pushed us into organizing a grassroots effort to reclaim our Drop Inn Center; we named ourselves the ShelterHouse Volunteer

Drop Inn Center Shelter Report Winter Update: Our average nightly census continues to hover around the 240-250 range. We have been sheltering about 25-30% women, which is up from previous averages.

Also, we are not looking forward to our January utility bill...

Funding Drive Update: Thanks to many of you who contributed to our Holiday Drive. Unfortunately, as of January 1st, we are about $30,000 short of our goal.

Please, if you can think of any avenue for support for our operations, we would appreciate it. Contact 721-0643...

Group. We were determined to keep the shelter open on weekends even if we had to do it ourselves. And we ended up doing it ourselves with food donations we hustled and use of only two of the five rooms.

During that winter of l976-77 the ShelterHouse Volunteer Group raised more grievances and these conflicts resulted in the professional staff quitting. On March 31st, l977 the community, through the ShelterHouse Volunteer Group, took back control of the Drop Inn Center and have been running it seven days a week ever since. Those were hard times, for when we got control the funds were withdrawn and it took a long lobbying effort to get those state funds restored. From that day forward we would stand firm on the principle that housing is a basic human right and that neighborhood people have the right to staff and run their own shelter. We believe strongly that residents of the shelter have the right to participate and give their strong voice to the operations of their temporary home.

And Even Harder Times Were to Come Within a very short time the Health Department threatened to close down the Drop Inn Center. They claimed our kitchen and building had 36 code violations even though this very same kitchen two months earlier was approved for a food license. We were given no reasonable time to comply. Many of the major building violations were the responsibility of the landlord, Leslie Fox, who for years neglected the building and now was in much need of repair. We were being blamed for the slumlord’s neglect. We marched to City Hall and pleaded with City Council to not carry through with the close-down orders. We were willing to comply with the orders, but we needed more time. The inspectors came in like storm troopers. When we had complied with all

orders, new violations were cited. Inspection after inspection, and we still could not pass the test. It was clear to us that we were selectively being harassed by the Health Department. We would never pass inspection because the powers at be did not support community people running a community program at the Drop Inn Center – we were not professional enough in their eyes.

By this time we were feeling the crunch of over crowdedness. We were getting nowhere with the landlord. And getting nowhere with passing inspections. Rat holes, water leaks, sewage backup were everyday problems.

Conditions in the building were unlivable for person’s homeless sleeping there, many on the hard cold floors. We could not see surviving another winter in this rundown place where icicles dangled from the walls in the back storage room. The requirements demanded of our shelter by the Health and Building Departments could never be met by the 1324 Main Street facility. We started dreaming of a better and bigger facility. We wanted a place big enough to house men AND WOMEN. We wanted a warmer, safer, dryer place. We wanted out from under this landlord who refused to do needed repairs. So we started scouting around the neighborhood for a building large enough to meet our needs.

(We were not interested in going out to Lunken Airport where it was suggested we look.

We were determined to find a place in our own neighborhood.) Of all the buildings we looked at, the former Teamster Union Hall at 217 West 12th Street had the best possibility. We started negotiating with the Teamsters on a rental lease agreement. We kept the site quiet for we knew this location would be controversial, being one

People’s Move cont. on page 9

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.

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

GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Allison Leeuw - Administrative Coordinator Monique Little - Education Coordinator Kelly Carr - VISTA Chris Dourson - AHA Coordinator John Lavelle - VISTA Mary Gaffney - Reception Melvin Williams - Reception Susan Smith - Volunteer Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photography Jimmy Heath Cover Early photo of the Drop Inn Center 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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The Winter and Our Discontent

by John Lavelle February arrives, and winter has no doubt worn out its welcome among most Cincinnatians. For the city’s most vulnerable residents, each winter seems just that much longer. Those with housing face heating bills that every year rise quicker than inflation and much faster than wages.

For the thousands that spend all or part of each winter on the streets of Cincinnati, the four months or so can be grueling.

Sleeping outdoors, a dangerous endeavor at any time of the year can become extremely hazardous to the health or even life-threatening.

Life in the shelters becomes much more difficult as resources and bed space are stretched thin.

According to Steve Knight, Shelter Coordinator for the Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine, the shelter was at or above its 235 person capacity for 20 out of the 31 days in this past December. It is Drop Inn Center policy not to turn anyone away during the winter. When they are above capacity, those without beds must sleep on benches or John Lavelle the floor; there just simply is not enough room for the sheer amount of people without a place to stay.

If it gets cold enough, the city will open an emergency overflow shelter at the Over-theRhine Community Center on

Republic Street. Under the current policy, if the overnight wind chill is expected to dip to 0 degrees Fahrenheit or lower and the Drop Inn Center is at or above capacity the previous night, the Health Department will make a recommendation to the mayor that he declare a winter shelter emergency.

Under such an emergency situation, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission opens the OTR Community Center as a shelter from 10pm-8am, and the Red Cross often provides snacks and other amenities. Those in need of shelter can go directly to the community center or be referred by other shelters that have reached capacity.

This winter, the emergency shelter was opened for three nights straight

The Future Suffers

by Jimmy Heath American TV newscasts are sometimes impossible to watch. It is always about the drama: death, accidents, natural disasters and war.

TV’s mantra, “if it bleeds, it leads” is at the heart of American public news viewing.

From my neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine, notoriety is gained by the flow of blood. It gets tiresome constantly defending the neighborhood against the permeating stereotypes of violence and bloodshed lead by the evening local newscasts.

For our suburban neighbors, this is the reality of the “hood”. We who live here know it is different. My neighbors and I live in peace and respect and watch out for each other, but there is no denying the real violence – 10 murders in Over-theRhine alone last year.

The last time there were so many murders in Cincinnati was in 1978. (Of course, that number is deceiving because triage and advanced medical services mean many more lives are saved than in 1978.) Nevertheless, the loss of any life is tragic and unacceptable.

Cincinnati’s new mayor

starting on December 19th, a particularly cold night.

However, on the brisk nights that do not qualify for the incredibly low temperature requirements of the overflow policy, individuals experiencing homelessness can quite literally get left out in the cold. For numerous and varying reasons, some individuals prefer not to stay at regular shelters, opting to sleep independently on the streets rather that in a crowded shelter. The emergency overflow shelter that periodically opens on extremely cold nights offers an alternative for many of these individuals.

Just prior to publication of the February Streetvibes, the Homeless Outreach Group (HOG), a collaboration of local outreach workers helping the homeless, completed its quarterly street survey during an early morning undertaking. The results of the forthcoming survey may shed some light on the population sleeping on the streets in the winter.

younger people to succeed or do we create more jail space to deal with recently outlined a plan to reduce them as young men? Do we create a violent crime in the city. Cincinnati powerful and engaging public school police will focus on mid-level drug environment for everyone, including dealers and seizing property through the poorest of the poor children who drug forfeiture laws. The mayor and suffer the ravages of City officials are asking less than adequate the U.S. Attorney’s education, or do we Office to accept more allow the “corner” to cases on a federal level, continue to be a viable and there will be more option and an of an effort to publicize inducement for truancy? the city’s 50 most violent Do we do something criminals. The police real to address racism chief says about 5 Jimmy Heath and classicism or do we percent of the cities allow another generation criminals are responsible for 50 of separation from opportunity for all? percent of the violent crime Sometimes the violence feeds Cincinnati police have itself through how we initiate these recently initiated more truancy sweeps discussions, especially in the news. in public places, including downtown’s We need a more positive discussion public library. and not more of the “same old.”

A lot of people say that all this More cops and more effort is just more of the same. Most punishment won’t address the root of the violence surrounds the drug causes of the violence. Listen to us trade, but cleaning up hot spots just small folk on the side streets and ask moves the dealers to other places, us what we need. Break down the other corners, other neighborhoods. wall between the police and the Somewhere, we as a society citizenry. Engage the children through need to step in with more than just high quality education and support “more of the same.” It’s going to cost programs that promote sobriety. Let’s money no matter how we deal with it. break the cycle. Contact Do we create opportunities for jimmyheath@yahoo.com

Streetvibes

have been developing the network in the Baltimore area.

Ascension is one of the seven congregations that will house the families, who will stay at each location for a week before switching to another. The families will be housed in spare classrooms that the state also has received a Compiled by Jimmy Heath and offices at the congregations. $600,000 grant to help run shelters, Because most area shelters help the homeless find shelter or Near the University of don’t house men and women help people who are at risk of California, Davis last month, together, homeless families often get eviction, foreclosure or utility David Van Buren awoke to find split up, with the mother and shutoffs. he was lying in a puddle. children typically going to one It was raining hard onto the shelter, and the father - and teenage makeshift camp where he, his In Washington County, male children - to another. As a brother Michael and three other Maryland the Community Action result, families who find themselves homeless people had lived for Council was awarded $191,192 homeless often don’t seek help. about a month. and the Washington County “There are very few shelters The five friends - Van Department of Social Services that provide services for intact Buren’s “street family,” he says will receive $45,839, according families,” says Laura Gillis, director In Stockton, California a pooled what money they had and to a statement from the U.S. of Baltimore Homeless Services, a 39-year-old homeless man died got a room at Motel 6 in Davis.

Department of Housing and last month after being shot near quasi-public agency that runs Their tents, sleeping bags, Urban Development (HUD). homeless programs in the city. a freeway underpass. clothes and other belongings were The Maryland Department The 10 congregations that Police have no suspects in ruined. A utility line and 21/2 inches of Health and Mental Hygiene will are not providing housing will help the shooting at Lincoln and of water had fallen onto their camp. receive $180,948 for programs for Lafayette streets. The victim was with meals and childcare. The About 5 inches of water still sit in the homeless in Washington County. shot once in the upper body and families will be provided with three the bottom of Van Buren and his The $417,979 awarded died last month after being taken to home-cooked meals daily. brother’s tent, and their sleeping locally is part of $1.33 billion in The program is almost San Joaquin General Hospital. bags are soaked. federal funding that will assist entirely volunteer-based. Baltimore Police have not released his name.

They were staying at the homelessness programs nationwide.

It is the first homicide in San Homeless Services provided about Motel 6, funding it with money they HUD made the $50,000 annually to hire a full-time Joaquin County this year. Last have collected and with help from announcement last month. year, homicides claimed the lives of director for the BIHN, but local charity Grace In Action, but There are more than 150 congregations are responsible for 62 people across the county. they have nothing. programs throughout Maryland and The victim was found under feeding and housing the families.

With Christmas nearly 5,000 programs in the U.S., an Interstate 5 overpass in an area approaching, it was difficult to be as well as Puerto Rico, Guam and In Cincinnati it’s a commonly used by homeless homeless, then to lose all of one’s the U.S. Virgin Islands, according Tuesday morning ritual for the people. The intersection is only a shelter and belongings on top of it, to the statement. sandwich crew at Guardian few blocks from both St. Mary’s a polite, almost soft-spoken Van The money is for emergency Interfaith Community Services and Angels Roman Catholic Church, Buren told The Enterprise. shelter and HUD’s Continuum of filling hundreds of baggies for the Stockton Shelter for the “I mean, we lost Care programs. distribution at an inner-city Homeless. everything,” he said last month in an Emergency shelter grants friary.

“He was a transient who interview.. help convert buildings to homeless The volunteers, about 15 to lived in some of the camps there,” He and his brother moved shelters, pay for operating costs Stockton police Sgt. Juan Zermeno 20 regulars dubbed the Peanut from Oregon to Roseville several and social service and homeless said Monday. “He also frequented Butter Group, meet in the basement weeks before. They moved to prevention programs, according to of the church rectory after 7:30 the homeless shelter.”

Davis when someone destroyed the statement. a.m. Mass and churn out 1,300 to their camp in Roseville and took The Continuum of Care 1,400 simple but filling sandwiches In Baltimore, area their belongings. They had heard programs provide permanent and homeless families will soon have — peanut butter, no jelly; bologna, Davis had organizations that would transitional housing to the homeless, a new option: 17 area religious no mayo. help them. job training, health care, mental When they’re done, the congregations have combined They started over, gathering health counseling, substance abuse forces to offer housing, food and sandwiches are taken to the St. enough items to survive and treatment and child care. support specifically designed for Francis Friary to feed the hungry. creating a camp in Davis about a When all the sandwiches are such families. month ago.

Shelters across the made, bagged and stacked into The group, the Baltimore With 16 people, the Davis country are taking a closer look Interfaith Hospitality Network, will milk crates, Pat George and Ginny Community Meals shelter is at at an Ottawa shelter that gives house up to 14 people - usually two Farrell load them into Farrell’s van, capacity. The staff there has tried to drinks to homeless alcoholics along with donated bakery or three families - at seven area help and has given Van Buren and after a study suggested the doughnuts and cookies made by places of worship. The network the others a tarp, food, blankets program is having a positive Guardian Angels School students includes Baptist, Catholic and and the only two sleeping bags impact.

Presbyterian churches, as well as a and their parents. available. They want to get a couple Dr. Tiina Podymow The women drive synagogue and a Baha’i temple. of tents for the group and are envisioned the program after downtown from Mount Washington The congregations are in the city hoping the community will help. volunteering with chronic to the back kitchen door of St. and in Baltimore County. alcoholics, including some who Francis, where Sister Bernadette “This addresses a segment drank upwards of 40 drinks per In Concord, N.H. the of the homeless population that isn’t Asbach starts handing out the food day, including mouthwash. government is sending a $2 well-served by other services,” said at 10:30 a.m.

Two men in the program About 35 to 50 regulars million grant to help the Jennifer Arnold, recruitment receive their drinks at an Ottawa show up every day among the 150 homeless. coordinator for the BIHN. shelter. or so who receive the sandwiches, The grant will help pay for Arnold is a member of Participants in the Managed Ascension Evangelical Lutheran along with a kind word of transitional and permanent housing, Alcohol Project were given encouragement. outreach programs and to develop Church in Towson, which is permanent beds in a shelter and, “They should get more than a statewide information system on involved in the effort. For the past from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m, allowed to food when they come to the door,” the homeless. two years she has been part of a Sister Asbach said. “Spreading the Health and Human Services have one drink of homemade wine group of about 10 volunteers who or beer per hour, carefully word of hope is important.”

Commissioner John Stephen said

Homeless News Digest

measured out at a dispensary counter.

Now a study published in last month’s edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal is raising interest in the program.

Completed by the shelter’s medical director, Dr. Jeff Turnbull, the study examined the program’s impact on 17 residents. Most had been alcoholics for 35 years before starting the program.

Critics say there’s no way to judge how effective the harmreduction approach is because there’s no comparison group in the study, such as people taking part in an abstinence program like Alcoholics Anonymous.

Streetvibes

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and fearful. Many are victims of robbery, rape or attack and are

by James Gonser overwhelmed by traditional Safe Haven in Hawai’i , garbage. programs, Lundstrom said. celebrated its 10th anniversary last Advocates say they are They live in miserable month at its downtown shelter at 41 extremely difficult to help because conditions, sometimes not even S. Beretania Street. typically they don’t seek or often The program celebrates a decade of knowing they are ill.

The shelter is for people who won’t accept professional help. work last month with an open house Inside Safe Haven is a calm are homeless and have a mental “Safe Haven is an example of at its downtown shelter. atmosphere with soothing color illness. It offers outreach, medical and how you can take those folks that are Started in 1995 with a $1.5 schemes and friendly faces. The psychiatric care, case management, on the street and they can be saved,” million federal grant and matching offices are in the basement. A 24-hour residential services and said Joanne Lundstrom, chief local money, Safe Haven is part of a reception area, kitchen, activity social rehabilitation activities. Mental executive officer of Mental Health national system developed to help center and medical offices are on the Health Kokua and Kalihi-Palama Kokua, the nonprofit agency that runs end chronic homelessness. ground floor. Apartments are on the Health Center operate the facility.

Safe Haven. “They can begin to Today, the shelter operates upper floors.

The federal Department of change their behaviors and live more with a $1.3 million annual budget and Only 25 can live there, but Housing and Urban Development independently. It works.”

19 employees. In addition, Kalihianyone diagnosed with a mental identified “safe havens” as a national John Perkins has his own Palama Heath Center’s Health Care illness who is at least 18 years old need for the homeless and financed room on the shelter’s third floor. for the Homeless Project provides and homeless can make use of the 80 programs nationwide.

For Perkins, 52, that is a big outreach to people on the streets place for free meals, showers, For 10 years, Safe Haven deal. His last address was the along with psychiatric and medical laundry, storing items in a secure has helped some of O’ahu’s mentally downtown sidewalk along Kuakini care. locker, getting mail and using the ill homeless people rebuild their lives Street.

Safe Haven does have rules phone. by not telling them what to do.

“Over here is the sink,” said — no drugs or alcohol, and the door “The uniqueness of Safe The shelter doesn’t tell them Perkins, who is proud to show off his is locked at 9 p.m. But outside of the Haven is the soft approach,” they have to take their medication, or amenities, including a window and a shelter, the clients are on their own, Lundstrom said. “Other group homes attend mandatory counseling sessions desk where he likes to draw.

Lundstrom said. and residential programs have clearly or stop using drugs or alcohol.

The soft-spoken Perkins “They may be drinking and defined expectations coming in. You What Safe Haven workers frequently changes the subject in the doing drugs, but they cannot do it in need to participate.” do is listen, and take the time to build middle of a conversation. But he Safe Haven,” she said. “We In 10 years, Lundstrom said, trust with people who have serious draws intricate pictures, mixing discourage them from doing that but about 80 percent of Safe Haven’s mental and substance abuse problems Buddhist symbols and political don’t bar them from getting help if residents — about 180 people — who are chronically homeless. leaders such as former President Bill they are.” have found more permanent housing These people often are the Clinton.

There are an estimated 6,000 and are no longer homeless. most visible of those on the streets — Perkins moved into his room homeless people in Hawai’i on any Among the success stories is loudly talking to themselves, living six months ago, and in a year he given day. Safe Haven estimates that Sesa Toelupe, 45, who five years ago outside public bathrooms and bus would like to be in a home of his at least one-third, or about 2,000, are was living in public parks. Today she stops or wandering the streets own. “We’ll see,” he said. “I’m chronically homeless. Mentally ill lives in a group home in Waipahu and pushing shopping carts filled with working on it.” homeless are vulnerable, disoriented works at the Lanakila Rehabilitation Center.

Show your support! Get your STREETVIBES “I was so insecure,” she said.

“Just being out there with all those T-Shirt Today! people in the park. People taking drugs. It scared me. You don’t know what is out there.”

She said Safe Haven gave her a place to live for three years, the treatment she needed and the confidence to start a new life.

Ten years ago, the facility opened amid controversy over its location and how a facility for mentally ill homeless people would affect the neighborhood.

Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said at the time there was a (Back shown here. push to locate the shelter at the old Shirt not actual size) fire station on South Street, away from downtown. But because many of the chronic homeless live in downtown and Chinatown areas, the neighborhood board supported its placement in the Edwin Thomas Home on Beretania Street near Fort Street Mall.

“We wanted it to be right here in the community,” Matusow said. “We said it needed to be right where the problem is.”

Only $15 Laura E. Thielen, executive We will send your Streetvibes T-shirt to your door director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, a nonprofit All proceeds benefit the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for group that works with Safe Haven, the Homeless and the Streetvibes newspaper. Call said the program is the only one in 513.421.7803 x 16, or come in to our office at 117 E Hawai’i that’s tailored to get people who are both mentally ill and 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine chronically homeless off the streets.

‘Soft approach’ Saving Homeless

Once trust is established, the shelter provides medical and psychiatric care, case management and social rehabilitation services.

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Streetvibes

Filibuster Evasion

by Paul Rogat Loeb In the wake of the Alito hearings, mainline pundits are calling his nomination a done deal.

Alito didn’t spew obscenities or green bile. He didn’t admit that he’d reverse Roe v. Wade or vow to proclaim George Bush Lord Emperor. Rehearsed and coached by committee member Lindsay Graham (and by some of the same lawyers who justified Bush’s NSA wiretaps), he instead spoke deferentially and humbly about respecting legal precedent and separation of powers, while Republican committee members made him out to be a mix of Solomon and Mother Teresa. Much like Clarence Thomas during his hearings, Alito dodged the tough questions with evasions and platitudes, suffered convenient memory lapses on areas he couldn’t dodge, and justified controversial past stands by saying he was just trying to be a team player. We know little more about him than before—except about his capacity to dissemble.

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far away, former Congresswoman Liz Holtzman, who sat on Nixon’s impeachment committee, just wrote that Bush’s defiance of the law through illegal wiretapping, lying about the reasons for going to war, and condoning of violation of US law about detainee abuse constitute grounds for impeachment. Holtzman said impeachment should never be undertaken lightly. She found “voting for [Nixon’s] impeachment to be one of the most sobering and

unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake.” But she said it was necessary in Nixon’s case, and merited in Bush’s as well.

A Zogby poll taken last November, just before the wiretap scandal broke, found that 53 percent of those questioned favored impeachment of President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq.

If there’s a chance to stop Alito, much less reclaim our democracy, we need to bring these realities together.

The filibuster just might be the vehicle to do that, as Senators could spell out the links between link runaway executive Paul Loeb power and a nominee who has consistently ruled and spoken in favor of the unaccountable expansion of that power. Suppose the Democratic Senators actually used a filibuster to talk about the Alito nomination in its broadest context. They wouldn’t read the phone book. They wouldn’t get lost in an endless maze of legal rhetoric about stare decisions. They could talk about how they’d have readily accepted a more moderate nominee, much as Clinton nominated Steven Breyer and Ruth Ginzberg in part because Orrin

Hatch said he’d accept them as preferable to other proposed justices. They’d use the filibuster to educate as well as impede.

However they label their actions, suppose the Democrats started debating the nomination, and didn’t stop, in the process

illegal, what it’s like to be discriminated against, then told you don’t meet an impossible burden of proof, and whether police should be able to shoot unarmed 15-yearolds who flee after stealing $10.

They could tell the stories that bring seemingly abstract issues of jurisdiction and constitutional interpretation to life, and make clear their real-world consequences.

In the process they could remind America that this president, with this track record of lies, deceptions, and favors for the most destructive private interests, deserves no presumption of deference. And that when he nominates someone, like Alito, who will only further his abuses of power, Senators have a moral responsibility to oppose him however they can. The wink-andnod games of the hearings were designed to obscure Alito’s record and frame him as genial and reasonable. If the Democrats accept this, or even quietly vote against him without further protest, addressing the real roots of why they further the lie that this is an Alito would be so destructive. They ordinary nomination in an ordinary could read from articles and books time. If they filibuster and stand about this administration’s abuse of firm, there’s a chance that just presidential power. They could talk enough of the now politically about whether we really want weakened Republicans will back government officials to be able to down and not risk putting strip us of our rights at will, listen in themselves on the line to destroy on our phone and email nearly 200 years of Senate tradition conversations without a court order, for the naked goal of increasing and infiltrate the citizen groups their power. But Democrats have to through which we gather peacefully take the risk of standing up, and we to express our beliefs. They could as ordinary citizens have to do all talk about the choices women were we can to convince them to do so. forced to make when abortion was

Third Teen Held in Homeless Beating Death In Fort Lauderdale, Florida a third teenager was ordered held without bail last month after he was charged with murder in the death of a homeless man who was beaten with a baseball bat and shot with a paintball gun.

William Ammons, 18, was charged in the killing of 45-year-old Norris Gaynor, one of at least three homeless men allegedly attacked last month by a group of teens.

He didn’t comment on the allegations during a video court appearance, but said he was trying to hire a private lawyer.

Ammons, Brian Hooks, 18, and Thomas Daugherty, 17, all face murder and assault charges in the attacks. One beating was caught by

a security camera, and authorities say the video played a key role in identifying the alleged assailants.

Ammons initially was accused only of assaulting another homeless man.

He was released on $5,000 bail on the assault charge but was arrested again a few hours later on the murder charge.

Witnesses said Video tape shows only Daugherty struck Gaynor with a bat. Police said Ammons admitted he shot Gaynor with a paintball gun and that his

slain, even if they didn’t commit the actual killing.

“When people come together to commit a crime, they are all charged separately as if they each committed the crime,” said Assistant State Attorney Lee Cohen.

Gaynor was buried in Fort Lauderdale after a short funeral attended by about 25 relatives and strangers. His family described him as restless, and as an adult he drifted around the country, working in landscaping, roofing and as an artist.

“This needs to be stopped,” his mother, Georgia Gaynor, 72, told The Miami Herald. “I don’t want there to be another Norris Gaynor.”

National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP)

Dispute leads to homeless shelter shooting Residents of the I.M. Sulzbacher Center in Jacksonville, Florida said Jelen Shropshire, 52, and Paul Williams, 45, had been fighting since before Christmas, but their argument turned deadly when

vehicle was used by assailants in at least two of the attacks.

“I can’t imagine what would go through somebody’s mind or what they were thinking to commit a heinous crime such as this,” said police Captain Michael Gregory.

Under homeless beating Florida law, anyone who takes part in a crime can be charged with murder if someone is

Shropshire allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Williams in the chest.

Williams died at the scene.

Now, some residents of the center said they are worried about their own safety.

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

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Retiring Doesn’t Mean Goodbye

by Ms. Mary Gaffney

I will share one or two days As we enter the second a week with a visit here at the month of the New Year, I’d like to Coalition as a volunteer. I will also thank each and every continue my column. I one of my friends who will visit with my purchase Streetvibes. homeless friends and You have helped the bring coffee to share. poor and homeless Even though I won’t vendors have a place be here, I am still and an income of their concerned about the own. I have been here homeless – keep your Miss Mary Gaffney five years and have head up and walk tall, watched what you have and if you stumble get up, brush done for our vendors. I will not be yourself off and continue on. with my homeless friends here at History shows that you the Coalition because I am retiring. aren’t the only one who have made

a miss-step in life or fallen during life’s strides. We have all stubbed our toes in life. Remember, there is always a brighter day ahead. Keep the faith and attitude that you can and will make it.

Remember, regardless of who you are and what has happened in your life, you are still important in my sight and the eyes of our Heavenly Father.

Until next month, to the purchasers each month of Streetvibes, continue helping my friends.

Taxes continue to rise and jobs dry up but there is always a brighter day ahead.

Until next month.

National News on Homelessness and Poverty FRAC (the Food Research and Action Center) and its partners in the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) and the Emergency Campaign for America’s Priorities (ECAP) will try to build on partial victories from 2005 to derail remaining FY 2006 Budget Reconciliation Bill cuts to lowincome programs and legislation giving tax cuts to wealthy Americans when Congress returns in late January. One key victory came in December when Congressional leaders abandoned cuts to the Food Stamp Program.

In addition, due to a successful parliamentary challenge, the conference report that passed the Senate differed from that passed by the House and so will require further action to become law.

In a December 27th ECAP Update, Jeff Blum and Brad Woodhouse report, “These victories are, to be sure, still partial.

But they are very real. And few pundits, legislators or even activists would have given us much chance to achieve them before we started ECAP fewer than three short months ago.

The discipline of thousands of activists to believe we could win, to stay together on message and to target vulnerable Members with a never-ending barrage of constituent pressure was unprecedented in federal budget fights.”

As US Student Association President Eddy Morales says, “This was the one issue where we were able to generate student activism.

Students made 15,000 phone calls about budget reconciliation – about student loans, and also about Medicaid and food stamps. Our discipline helped Democratic leadership hold their entire caucuses on very tough votes, and convinced moderate Republicans that they should be with us on very tough votes.”

ECAP partners met on January 5th in Washington, DC

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President Likely to Propose Entitlement Program Cuts in 2007 Budget (“Bush Seeking to Limit Spending Growth in ’07 Budget,” bloomberg.com, January 10, 2006) President Bush is preparing a budget proposal for fiscal year 2007 and officials say it likely will cut programs such as Medicaid, NASA and agriculture programs to restrain budget growth spurred by the cost of hurricane relief, the war in Iraq and prescription drugs for senior citizens.

“The rate of growth [in the budget] is going to be below the rate of inflation” except for defense and homeland security, commented Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg. Gregg said, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security account for about 60 percent of the federal budget, so they should account for 60 percent of budget savings.

The president may face resistance to his plan. All members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senators will be reelected in November, and many of them may not risk going against the wishes of their constituencies who support the targeted programs. ”Policy is going to butt heads with politics this year,” said Bill Hoagland, a budget analyst for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Cuts in entitlement programs “aren’t politically saleable.”

Along with farmers and environmentalists, who fear a further tightening of the Agriculture Department’s budget, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe also would resist the cuts. ”She wouldn’t want the beneficiaries to bear the brunt of cuts,” in any new proposal affecting Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps, said Snowe’s spokesman Preston Hartman.

IRS Withholds Hundreds of Thousands of EITC Refunds for Poor

(“I.R.S. Limited Tax Refunds of Poor, Congress Is Told,” nytimes.com, January 10, 2006) The tax refunds sought by hundreds of thousands of lowincome Americans were frozen and their returns labeled fraudulent by the Internal Revenue Service without any notification, according to a report by the IRS taxpayer advocate, Nina Olson. Affected taxpayers had an average income of $13,000.

They were seeking the earned income tax credit, a benefit for the working poor, and their requests were assigned questionable status by an IRS criminal division’s computer program. Once a return is flagged, future requests by the same taxpayer also are frozen for a number of years which IRS rules prohibit the advocate from specifying publicly. Olson reported that the IRS devoted more resources to investigating questionable refunds to the poor, worth no more than $9 billion, than to a $100 billion problem involving unreported incomes from small businesses.

Olson found that the IRS owed all the money, or more, to two-thirds of the taxpayers who pursued their refunds, and it was unfair, and a waste of resources, to withhold refunds from poor people when, at most, one in five of them appeared not to be due refunds.

Leslie M. Book of Villanova University commented: “Freezing refunds without giving taxpayers process is an extremely dangerous way to administer the earned income tax credit. These taxpayers often need more rather than less protection because they are not sophisticated, are afraid of government involvement.”

High Costs of Poverty Make it Harder for Poor to Improve Their Lives (“High Living Costs Help Perpetuate Poverty,”

Streetvibes

Homeless Quotes It’s so bad being homeless in winter.

They should buy a plane ticket and go somewhere hot like the Caribbean where they can eat free fish all day.

by Lady Victoria Hervey What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.

by Ronald Reagan Is not necessary to advertise food to hungry people, fuel to cold people, or houses to the homeless.

by Galbraith palmbeachpost.com, January 8, 2006) Megan Adams learned the hard way that being poor is not cheap. On payday she was usually able to leave work only when the bank was already closed and her paycheck often ended up at the local check casher.

For Adams, who provided for her children on $9 to $10 per hour, a 3 percent fee for cashing a check was significant.

A Brookings Institution study concluded that the higher prices paid by the poor for everything from car insurance to utilities to groceries leave them too little to invest in education or homes.

A survey of convenience stores in Adams’ Delray Beach, FL neighborhood found their prices more than 25 percent higher than those of grocery stores just outside the neighborhood. The high cost of poverty often prevents the poor from acquiring assets, including homes, said Bonnie Howard of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Also, poor people do not have savings to use during hard times and live one crisis away from a financial disaster.

California: Governor Schwarzenegger’s Budget Cuts Hit Welfare Programs (“Gov’s Budget Cuts Welfare, Boosts Schools,” latimes.com, January 11, 2006) California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced a budget proposal that would cut welfare programs almost $200 million over the next two years while increasing funding for schools and health care programs for lowincome children.

The proposal was a departure from the governor’s previous plans that called for reductions across the board, but came as a shock to anti-poverty activists who had hoped that services for the poor would be spared cuts.

Dallas library code of conduct New Study Finds 20 Meanest Cities and Constructive Alternadraws criticism A new Dallas Public Library code of conduct that bans distracting odors has drawn criticism from homeless advocates who say the rule unfairly targets the homeless and poor.

“No one in Dallas wants the homeless hanging around their door, especially the city,” said Paul Voorhees, a homeless man who spends much of his day reading and using the computer at the downtown library.

But library officials say the code of conduct, which took months to develop and will be implemented in February, is meant to create a reader-friendly atmosphere.

The rules prohibit a variety of activities, including sleeping, eating, bathing, loud talking on cell phones, fighting, bare feet and sex.

The rules also apply to city recreation centers.

Dallas library Director Laurie Evans said the conduct code has not been updated for years.

The rules are meant to address behaviors, not people, and are not an excuse to kick people out of the building, she said.

Any violations, including offensive smell, would be addressed on a case-by-case basis, and only when visitors or staff members complain.

“The intent is to provide a welcoming environment for anyone who walks through the doors,” Evans said. “They deserve to be comfortable; they deserve to feel welcomed in public buildings.”

Dallas homeless advocate James Waghorne said the city does not provide facilities for some of the library’s neediest patrons to keep shower-fresh.

Homeless people often need libraries for resources they can’t get elsewhere, he said.

“There are resources there that are set up for everyone to use,” Waghorne said. “If you don’t have 50 cents to buy a newspaper, you can go to the library and read want ads.”

For years, library patrons have complained about homeless people using Dallas’ downtown public library for activities such as bathing in the restroom or loitering outside.

Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt said the homeless are welcome at Dallas libraries, but that libraries were never intended to be used as shelters.

Libraries across the country, from Redwood City, Calif., to Boston and Houston, have adopted similar policies.

“If people can’t take care of basic hygiene and are disturbing to the 100 or so people around them, then it’s perfectly acceptable for the library to say, ‘Will you please sit somewhere else?’ or ‘Will you consider coming back another day?’ “ said Leslie Burger, president-elect of the American Library Association.

Burger said similar codes have held up in court.

tives to a “Dream Denied” The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) will release their 2006 report tracking the escalating trend of criminalizing homelessness in 224 U.S. cities.

The report also ranks the top 20 meanest cities in the country based on a number of factors, including the number of antihomeless laws in the city, the enforcement of those laws, the general political climate toward homeless people in the city, and the city’s history of criminalization measures.

A Dream Denied focuses on specific city measures from 2005 that have targeted homeless persons, such as laws that make it illegal to sleep, eat, or sit in public spaces or placing restrictions on providers serving food to poor and homeless persons in public spaces.

The report also includes information about constitutional challenges to laws and practices that criminalize homelessness, as well as models for more constructive approaches to homelessness.

Top Twenty Ranked Cities: 1. Sarasota, FL 2. Lawrence, KS 3. Little Rock, AR 4. Atlanta, GA 5. Las Vegas, NV 6. Dallas, TX 7. Houston, TX 8. San Juan, PR 9. Santa Monica, CA 10. Flagstaff, AZ 11. San Francisco, CA

12. Chicago, IL 13. San Antonio, TX 14. New York City, NY 15. Austin, TX 16. Anchorage, AK 17. Phoenix, AZ 18. Los Angeles, CA 19. St. Louis, MO 20. Pittsburgh, PA CONTACT: For more information contact Melanie Mullen: mmullen@nlchp.org or Michael Stoops: mstoops@nationalhomelessness.org, and receive an Executive Summary.

21 YEARS SERVING THE NEIGHBORHOOD

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

(513) 621-5514

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

5) If space becomes limited, priority will be given to poets not published in previous books 6) Poems selected will be illustrated in B&W by Greater Cincinnati artists (one drawing per poet) 7) Poems and illustrations will be printed in For a Better World 2006, a book to be available April, 2006 8) Book will be launched and available for sale at SOS ART 2006.

9) Poets included in book will be invited to read their poems at SOS ART 2006 10) Proceeds from sale of book will finance publication of future similar books to accompany annual SOS ART events. (Note: this is the 3rd annual book) 11) Submission deadline: February 20, 2006 12) Please send submissions in full text and as a Word attachments by e-mail or by US mail (on a floppy disk) to: Saad Ghosn (saad.ghosn@uc.edu), 216 Erkenbrecher Ave, Cincinnati, Oh 45229

Streetvibes

Page 7

People’s Move cont. from page 2 of the top spots for future profitmaking development so close to Music Hall. But it was our top spot for a home for the homeless, and that was top priority.

We were not making headway fast enough with the Teamsters, and feeling the moral urgency to get out of the unsafe environment, we plotted THE PEOPLES MOVE for midnight on January 13th, l978. We did not plan for the blizzard. Though the blizzard made the move more treacherous, it was a blessing in disguise. It gave us time to get somewhat settled in before the City discovered we were there. The City’s reaction to our move was to wage a vicious campaign to close us down. On January 20th we were forced into court. The Building Department ordered our immediate eviction and our leadership was threatened with criminal charges. That day with 14

Early Drop Inn Center photograph ruled on behalf of the homeless. It inches of snow on the ground and was a victory for the people. zero temperatures, the 120 The Peoples Power Ran homeless residents of the shelter Through Our Veins That Day were waiting with intense anxiety As I reflect on our their fate as buddy gray on the courageous action twenty years ago witness stand defended our decision to “illegally” move into our I can still feel the people’s power new home. The prosecutors grilled that ran through our veins that day. him unmercifully. The Spirit moved It was no small feat to do what we did. Many people, including the with us that day. Judge Outcalt

residents, staff, neighborhood and community-wide volunteers, participated in the midnight move.

We were taking control of our lives and determining our own history.

We were actors, not victims. We were powerful, not powerless. We were hopeful, not despairing. We were risk-takers and not afraid to stand our ground. We stood our ground despite obstacles and determinedly weathered many torrential rains that came pouring down on us as a result of the location we chose and the City feeling threatened by our people’s action. Inspired by the Spirit of our people’s just anger I wrote this song during that tumultuous time in our history.

There are many more chapters to our Drop Inn Center story. My hope is that we continue to remember the fighting spirit that was a part of our beginnings…and never lose sight of that. The story and the spirit needs to be passed on so those who join our effort along the way can feel and claim in their own veins the power of the people and carry this struggle forward…so that someday all our sisters and brothers will be afforded a safe and decent place to call home. I believe to remember and honor our peoples history reminds us that where we are today was made possible by those who labored and loved before us. Our participation in this important work is our ticket on the Freedom Train, which has been going down the track for centuries. Once aboard we must continue to tell the stories of people seeking justice and freedom.

Homeless

Early photo of the Drop Inn Center and former Teamsters Hall on 12th Street

My world fell apart the other day.

A personal tragedy tore my world away.

I was once so comfortable and secure.

My life is now a constant blur.

Family times and days well spent Are now replaced by cold, hard cement.

I never chose to live this way.

A personal tragedy tore my world away.

It’s kind of you to help me when you do.

Maybe you realize it could happen to you.

The House of Christmas

buddy gray (center) in his new office at the Drop Inn Center

Page 8

buddy gray and Maurice McCrackin

Streetvibes

There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; In the place where she was homeless All men are at home.

The crazy stable close at hand, With shaking timber and shifting sand, Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand.

Don’t be Squirrelly!

Buy Streetvibes!

Let my people go!

Beyond the noble ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the American dream of ownership and fulfillment, there are the little things that make us simply feel human. Bathrooms are one of those unheralded accessories: one of those things you don’t appreciate until it’s not there in your time of need.

In the measures of a civilized society, public restrooms have to rank among the most basic criteria for success. Providing them should be a community concern as intrinsic as our desire for peace on earth and a worldwide wi-fi network.

Got The Vibe?

moments of privacy. But we’re willing to bet most people use them It’s not just a matter of aesthetics, or hygiene, or safety — to take care of more important business, more immediate business. although those reasons alone are enough to justify the placement and The benefits of eliminating feces management of accessible 24-hour and urine on the sidewalks, unhealthy hygiene, criminal bathroom facilities. It’s more citations, sex crimes and humiliation importantly a matter of dignity, for demand a creative solution. A the people caught between an person does not choose to use alcove and a wet spot and the drugs because there are public community that should rise to the restrooms, but a person’s humanity basic needs of all its members.

PHLUSH, an ad-hoc group and health is compromised in their absence. assembled through the Old Town/ Public restrooms also Chinatown Neighborhood present the potential for employing Association in Portland, Oregon is people to monitor and manage researching how it can make 24hour bathrooms a reality in a part of them, a service that would be offset by alleviating the cost of police and the city that needs them the most.

Old Town/Chinatown is proudly the security personnel from processing offensive deposit violations, not to city’s hub of services for people mention the improved general experiencing homelessness, but it’s hygiene of a community and its not just a homeless issue. This residents. neighborhood also hosts the If, for a moment, you have gateway for rail and bus travelers put yourself in the position of coming into town after long trips. needing, but not having, a And it’s the center of Portland’s vibrant nightlife, where clubs empty bathroom, you know how much this is the right thing to do. out around 2 a.m.; a time when emptying anything else can result in Reprinted from Street Roots a misdemeanor and a $1,000 fine.

My Life It’s time for a public

by Janet Sharp restroom, or restrooms, to be My life always changes, established in the Old Town New details to find out, neighborhood. To make that happen, the businessmen, residents Family secrets known and unknown, and the people on the streets have My temper to keep under to rally behind the effort. To make control. that happen, money and management will have to be put forward, along with innovation and Find a way to hide from the understanding. It will have to be world, seen as an investment, not a liability, Learn to listen more and talk although there are many concerns less, that can derail the right course.

Find a way to keep my mind People have, on occasion, active. used public restrooms for engaging in drugs, sex and the elusive So much to do, So little time, Finding some balance in my life.

Send your letters or

comments to Streetvibes, 117 East 12th Street, Cincinnati Ohio 45202, or email to Streetvibes@juno.com This beautiful, original artwork depicts the vibrant role that Streetvibes plays in downtown Cincinnati and neighboring communities. Created by local artist and activist Mary Ann Lederer in collage form, this colorful 18" X 10" reproduction can be yours to own for only $10. Commemorating Streetvibes 100th issue, proceeds from this limited time offer will go to support the Streetvibes Program and Vendors.

One of these days I’ll find that balance.

When, I don’t know.

More Poetry on Pages 14 and 15

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

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

Page 9

of a federal program called the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, prosecutor Kate Pflaumer. “Criminal concurs that “law enforcement by enforcement is not working, and there itself won’t solve the problem. You needs to be a big, open debate about need good prevention and treatment programs.” However, he adds, that.”

“Legalization misses the whole Echoing the overall tone of the conference, retired Seattle Police concept of what addiction is about Chief Norm Stamper declared, “The and what drives people to become addicts. It’s a fallacy that flies in the drug war is causing more harm than face of common sense. Treatment good. We are creating much more dangerous, unhealthy communities by programs tell us that law enforcement leaving the drug trade in the hands of is a necessary first intervention in the user’s life.” the underworld.” Stamper favors full Satterberg said he appeared legalization of all drugs. at the conference to dispel some Privately, many law enforcement misperceptions. “A lot of people professionals acknowledge a certain come to these conferences without futility in trying to uphold present knowing how our current system has laws. Others are convinced that any evolved. The state of Washington has softening of them will only lead to made significant progress in reducing greater damage to communities and our reliance on prison. Treatment is users.

“We’ve seen the conference’s the answer.”

Rodriguez points to the proposals and feel they are out of success of drug courts and deferred touch with reality,” says Jeff Eig, prosecution. “This is a sensible spokesperson for the local Drug solution, because many addicts need Enforcement Administration. “It’s completely away from the situation on supervised and coerced treatment” — something that could not happen the ground and going in the wrong without the threat of incarceration. direction.”

While nearly everyone agrees Dave Rodriguez, local head

Drug Debate Goes On

by Tom Cogbill Can America’s longstanding love-hate relationship with addictive substances be defused by drastic reform of current drug laws? That’s the $20 billion question — about what the U.S. government spends annually on the War on Drugs.

Nearly 200 reform advocates met in Seattle Dec. 1-2 to discuss issues and strategies for dismantling the present “prohibition” approach to problematic drugs. Speaker after speaker decried the bankruptcy of the policy, which relies heavily on imprisonment as a deterrent, and on interdiction and eradication (which take up two-thirds of the overall budget). About 70 percent of inmates are serving drug convictions; yet, as Dan Satterberg, chief of staff for the King County Prosecutor, noted, “No one believes we can incarcerate our way out of the problem.”

“If we took the money spent poisoning fields abroad and spent it on treatment here, it would be far more useful,” says former federal

Funeral Show

“One way to get rid of the race problem.” He was being sarcastic,

by Jay Thiemeyer unlike that white Republican It’s Xmas Eve and I’m Louisiana legislator talking about missing “It’s A Wonderful Life” Katrina’s elimination of low-income again. I like Jimmy Stewart. And black folks’ housing on the Gulf.

Donna Reed. I had scarlet fever Clearing the way for “Opportunity when I was 8 and spent a feverish month in bed watching “The Donna Zones.” Clearing out affordable housing and people with no dough Reed Show” every day. If it was to contribute to the business model on every day, I watched it every of how civilization was supposed to day. It was just me and the boob work. Business enterprise tube. unimpeded by human Donna Reed was the cat’s a#$ as far as I was concerned. Just considerations. The PBA’s dream me, and the post-war ideal of a big written out on the blank slate of a post-Katrina world. Clear the sister. Scarlet fever and the cat’s South Park blocks of human refuse a#$ of American iconic women, to promote Holiday commerce. suburban domestic. Remote, Business has its entitlement and the untouchable, but big sisterly. The police goons are there to enforce it. ideal, insinuated into a kid’s Advance their careers. Win awards feverish, defenseless brain. and citations as productive citizens.

And I remember seeing And for the homeless, we “Birth of a Nation” on the small have vigils. box. Norfolk offered it all on the When I was 8 and feverish small box. All the acculturation a and bed-ridden, though, I didn’t young boy in a fever would ever know from nothing. But even as need. obtuse as I was, I knew I had it There were no homeless in good. Living indoors isn’t bad. A Norfolk that I recall. The GI Bill new sort of entitlement. Lying in had assimilated the returning vets bed watching cable. Old movies before they could constitute a from the ’50s. “The Far Country” homeless army of malcontents, in Alaska. Made in 1956. It permanent evacuees from the wasn’t bad; interesting comparison bivouacs of war. with Clint Eastwood. Same loner, The government and the drifter, hobo type. Inner Child American Legion and bureaucratic buried deep, incommunicable. Iron anti-Communist unions had made sure there would be no more Bonus Man shell was what was happening.

High Plains Drifter, or Jimmy Armies or Anacostia Flats. There Stewart in “The Far Country.” were only the dreaded skid rows Same character, same American where non-whites red-lined from white manhood appeal. Masters of suburbia were quarantined, and their fate. Living by their wits. urban renewal would soon erase Very romantic. Very rad. An ideal. them. “Bulldozer diplomacy,” a A fiction. friend in city planning called it.

Page 10

Earlier in the evening I had been to a candlelight vigil, part of a nationwide acknowledgement of the homeless who’d died over the past year.

It was, predictably, not well-attended. A handful standing in the rain. Some had skin in the game, some were simply sympathetic. Xmas lights hung dreamily in the trees. The newly refurbished Art Museum to the west of us, The Schnitzer to the east of us. On we rode into our small valley of dead homeless. A regular light brigade of sympathizers. Very tame, very domesticated and contained. No outrage was voiced.

One of the perhaps dozen names was one I knew. Richard Nash. I had been to a memorial for him a month ago. His parents, his twin, a cousin, were there. Dave Utzinger, the facilitator for Potluck in the Park, had arranged it, expecting the people he told about it and who promised they’d be there, to actually show up. They didn’t.

Couldn’t remember his face or name. Maybe that’s ultimately why I went. I should have known him but couldn’t place him. Nash slept squeezed against a fence that separated PDOT land, a small slice of it, from I-84. He lived alone in that same place for years, during every day of every season. Come rain or come shine. Barely sheltered by some low-hanging evergreen.

Richard drew no comment that I discovered the particular afternoon of his memorial. He apparently lived as anonymously as

Streetvibes

more should be spent on education and treatment, reform advocates claim a certain percentage of the population gets addicted to drugs no matter what. These people can be managed most effectively by “medicalizing” their addiction: providing inexpensive, pharmaceutical dosing of their drugs in a hygienic environment with treatment and social services available upon demand. The idea is to expose addiction as a serious risk to health and social status and thus deflate the glamorous image young people often have of prohibited substances. DEA’s Eig doesn’t buy it. “We have to be sending a clear message to our young people that drug use is unacceptable.”

“I commend [the conference] for discussing the topic,” says Satterberg. “There’s plenty to criticize in our current approach. But you need to have thought out the details.

Nobody knows what would happen if the state were to hand out heroin and hard drugs. There’s lots of rhetoric, but it’s not an academic matter. It’s a real [bad] deal for people who lose their families.” he died. His body went unclaimed at first. Either his ID was knocked so far by the collision that they couldn’t find it, or he didn’t have one. It costs a lot of money to have an ID. Which brings me back to why I attended.

That’s what I really wanted to say. What I went there to see.

The appearance of grief and sympathy. Richard’s family seemed nice enough. They lived within an hour’s ride by TriMet. Their door, they said, was always open. So, why did things happen the way they did? How did he wind up dead, wiped out while pushing a cart, something he’d been doing for years? What does “accident” mean? What does “home” mean?

Why did I care about going to his memorial? Was it because it didn’t matter? At the candlelight vigil nonetheless, someone held his name printed boldly on a sheet of paper along with the others.

The mayor made some remarks about providing housing for the homeless. To rehabilitate and incorporate into the mainstream. Something to that effect. He mentioned Project Homeless Connect on Jan 17 at the convention center. That resources including foot massage and haircuts would be there. Dentists and visionaries. And expanded community awareness. Volunteer involvement. “It’s only when people see for themselves what homelessness is about. When they

Funeral Show cont. on page 13

Alito’s Extraodinary Circumstances

by Paul Rogat Loeb Remember the “nuclear option” compromise? When the group of 14 Senators reached their agreement last May, they said they’d support a filibuster only under “extraordinary circumstances,” presumably if Bush nominated Attila the Hun. I’d suggest these circumstances apply not only to Samuel Alito’s track record but also to his nomination’s entire political context.

In threatening to end the Senate’s ability to filibuster judges, Republican leaders talk much about high principle, the right of Presidents to have their nominees accepted or rejected without parliamentary obstructions. But the sole principle behind this proposed change is that of the power grab.

The Republicans control the White House and Senate. They’re attempting to consolidate control in every way they can, including trying to obliterate 200 years of Senate tradition on the filibuster. This threat isn’t a moral stand: Republicans have filibustered nominees themselves. It’s just one more in series of attacks on individuals and institutions that they’ve viewed as political obstacles, like Tom DeLay’s mid-census gerrymandering, the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity, the jamming of Democratic phone banks, and the branding of political opponents as unpatriotic.

Honorable conservatives used to warn against the raw power of the state. But the love of power has now become the political right’s prime gospel, making the slightest notion of checks or balances heretical treason. Republican leaders work to end the filibuster not because they believe it violates some deep constitutional mandate, but because they believe they can get away with it.

But maybe they can’t anymore. When Republicans first floated the “nuclear option” threat in early 2005, Bush’s polling numbers were as high as 57 percent. His support has dropped steadily since, in the wake of the Katrina disaster, the legal problems of DeLay, Bill Frist, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Duke Cunningham, and an Iraqi quagmire that’s inspired powerful challenges

by Cindy Sheehan and Congressman John Murtha.

Republicans have lost key electoral battles in Virginia, New Jersey and California. Bush’s polls have dropped as low as 37 percent.

With once-solid Republican Senate and House seats now seemingly vulnerable, those who vote to eliminate the filibuster and confirm Alito will be taking far more of a

Ken Blackwell’s elimination of 300,000 overwhelmingly political risk than they would have Democrats and moderate Democratic voters from the Ohio just a year ago.

Republicans have a responsibility to rolls and the withholding of voting Were Alito a reasonable challenge his nomination through machines from key Democratic Supreme Court choice, all this every possible mechanism, including precincts. My friend Egil Krogh, would be moot. But he isn’t. He’ll the filibuster. Republican leaders who worked in the Nixon follow the script and evade who try to eliminate it as a political administration, hired G. Gordon specifics at his confirmation option need to be branded, along Liddy, and went to prison for hearings, but he’s still the candidate with every Senator who supports Watergate, told the sentencing nominated to appease the political them, as embodying a politics that judge that he and his colleagues had right because they deemed Harriet believes in nothing except its own “almost destroyed democracy.” The Miers insufficiently hard-line. right to power. With Roberts, Bush people, he said to me Consistently opposing the federal Senators could say they were recently, “are even more ruthless.” government’s right to address replacing the equally conservative Alito’s nomination embodies corporate abuses, Alito has argued William Rehnquist. To support that ruthlessness. If confirmed, his for virtually unlimited executive Alito, we need to make clear, is to track record suggests he’d support power, including the government’s alter the balance on the Court the Republican consolidation of right to intervene in the most radically for the most dubious of power at every opportunity. But intimate realms of personal life. political ends. It does no good to maybe the capacity of that power He’s endorsed the rights of police reserve the right to filibuster in to intimidate is finally beginning to to shoot an unarmed 15-year-old theory. If our Senators aren’t willing wane. If the Senate can find the who was fleeing after breaking into to risk using it in a situation this courage to block Alito’s a house, defended the refusal of exceptional, it becomes practically confirmation, they will draw a state employers to pay damages for meaningless. critical line on a choice whose violating the Family and Medical Senators accept a effects could echo for the next forty Leave Act, and said it created no president’s court nominations for years. They need to recognize the undue burden if husbands could three reasons: They respect the high stakes and extraordinary prevent their wives from getting perspectives of their nominees; they circumstances of our time. abortions. Citizen groups, he’s believe a president should have the Paul Rogat Loeb is the ruled, have no standing to sue right to choose whomever they author of The Impossible Will convicted polluters under the Clean please as America’s legitimately Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Water Act. The federal government, elected leader; or they fear the Guide to Hope in a Time of he’s argued, has no right to pass president’s political power. But this Fear, named the #3 political national consumer protection administration has no moral book of 2004 by the History legislation aimed at preventing standing to which Senators should Channel and the American odometer fraud or banning the sales automatically defer. Bush gained the Book Association, and winner of of machine guns. Regarding the presidency through the the Nautilus Award for best exclusion of blacks from juries in extraordinary interventions of his social change book of the year. death penalty cases, he’s called the brother Jeb and the existing His previous books include Soul statistical evidence as Supreme Court. He was reelected of a Citizen: Living With inconsequential as the based on lies about Iraqi weapons Conviction in a Cynical Time. disproportionate number of recent of mass destruction, ties between See www.paulloeb.org To U.S. presidents who’ve been leftSaddam Hussein and Al Qaida, receive his monthly articles handed. In one case, Alito’s Third John Kerry’s war record, and the email sympa@onenw.org with Circuit colleagues said the federal true costs of his tax cut and the subject line: subscribe law prohibiting employment prescription drug plans. And paulloeb-articles discrimination “would be through Ohio Secretary of State eviscerated if our analysis were to halt where [Judge Alito] suggests.”

Alito now downplays his membership in a Princeton alumni group so hostile to the admission of women and minorities that even Senate Majority Leader Frist condemned it. He dismisses as mere job-seeking his declarations, while applying to the Reagan-era Justice Department, that the Constitution does not protect a woman’s right to choose an abortion, and that he disagreed with the Warren Court rulings that desegregated schools and expanded voting rights. He’s trying to dismiss he memo he wrote, after getting the job, embracing the “goals of bringing about the eventual overturning of Roe v.

Wade.” He also minimizes the breaking of his pledge to recuse himself from cases involving his sister’s law firm.

It’s precisely because Alito’s presence on the Court is so potentially damaging that

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

Streetvibes

Page 11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Homeless Coalition

25 Cents

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

Page 12

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

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

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

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

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

Streetvibes is a member of the:

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

Where Your Dollar Goes...

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

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

Streetvibes

Homeless man a reminder of Christ’s life

by Pastor Mark Driscoll I was sitting at a traffic light in my old truck next to the Ballard Bridge in Seattle rocking out with my sons recently. To our left was a homeless man with a hand-written sign asking for money that also read “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and May God Bless You.” It dawned on me that not only was his sign about Jesus, but that his life was, in some ways, like Jesus’ life. The happy New Year he was wishing passers-by is 2006 anno Domini (in the year of the Lord) and contrasts with the years before the birth of Jesus Christ (B.C). Isn’t it curious that in all of human history, it was the brief life of a homeless man that was chosen as a reference point for time?

Jesus was born in a small town to a poor, unmarried teen mother. He was adopted by Joseph, a simple carpenter, and spent the first 30 years of his life in obscurity swinging a hammer with his dad.

Around the age of 30 he began a public ministry that included preaching, healing the sick, feeding the poor and befriending people who were marginalized because they were considered sexually immoral, alcoholics and thieves. His ministry spanned only three short years before he was put to death for declaring himself to be God. He died by shameful crucifixion like tens of thousands of people had before him.

curiously, his résumé is rather simple.

He never traveled more than a few hundred miles from home. He never held a political office, never wrote a book, never married, never attended college, never visited a big city and he died both homeless and poor.

Yet, he is the most famous person in all of human history. More songs have been sung about him, artwork done about him and books written about him than about anyone who has ever lived. Furthermore, billions of people from the nations of the earth worship him as God. No army, nation, or person has changed human history to the degree that Jesus, the homeless man, has. In his book “What if Jesus Had Never Been Born,” Dr. James Kennedy explores some of the ways that Jesus has forever changed history.

Had Jesus not been born, the value of human life would be diminished. In the ancient world, child sacrifice and abandonment were common, and it was Jesus who not only taught and demonstrated the love of children, but his own adoption

by Joseph set a precedent that Christians emulated in adopting discarded children. Jesus also elevated the dignity of women by befriending and teaching women as God’s image-bearers, equal in worth to men — a revolutionary concept in his day when women were denigrated as mere property.

Funeral Show cont. from page 10

on the police accident report.

Soon forgotten. To float in some police bureau’s cyberspace forever.

Time immemorial.

The question comes to mind, of course, was his death a suicide? Was his life, at least the latter half of it, really just a protracted suicide attempt? Was there a fork in his life that, having unwittingly committed to it, found him in the crosshairs of a car, two cars, at the intersection of 33rd and Sandy? Is it fair to ask that? I ask it of myself sometimes. On some level I know the answer. I opted out awhile back. I knew enough, had seen enough examples of how it was done, that I could have chosen a certain life that now, in retrospect, might have been preferable. But I chose one that became clearly self-destructive. A denial of possibilities that would have led to a place of so-called success.

A place I thought was a fraud, but I didn’t know where contrary choices would get me.

Now I know. Whatever choices or refusals Richard Nash made, whatever confusion, we know where all that ended up. We just don’t know why, or if a step right or left might have led him to a better place.

meet real homeless... When you’re eye-to-eye....” Several CEOs who had expressed interest in sitting at the intake tables.

I thought: “This could be like Xmas 365 days of the year!” I looked at a picture of Richard Nash at his memorial. Richard had a face that didn’t draw attention to itself.

In the photo, he wore a cap with a visor, pulled evenly down, not concealing anything important. His expression was non-committal and bland. Amazingly even, as I studied it. Like a police sketch. Nothing suggested itself in the photo. His hair had been recently cut, his ears were clear. His mouth drawn impassively across in an untaught line. His eyes seemed almost perfectly round. They revealed nothing that I recall in the way of experience or world-weariness or discovery as to life’s meaning or lack thereof. The brim of his cap didn’t shade or obscure them.

What you saw was what you got.

That was the impression I had.

Reality be told, Richard Nash simply was. For 48 years, he was and then he wasn’t. For all but a handful, no one will know what he was about more than could be read

Jesus the great physician set an example of healing in his ministry that carried over into the establishing of Christian hospitals in an effort to provide medical care for all. For example, the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 decreed that a hospital be established wherever there was a church to ensure that people had both body and soul cared for. Today many hospitals continue to denote their heritage by retaining names connected to Christian saints and denominations.

Jesus the teacher demonstrated a love for literacy that has greatly benefited the entire world.

Many of the world’s languages were first put in writing by missionaries, the first printing press was invented by a Christian, and for the first few hundred years of our nation’s history, essentially all education was private and Christian. Additionally, nearly every one of the first 123 American colleges and universities had Christian origins.

If Jesus had never been born, the world would indeed be considerably different. It is truly amazing to consider what a difference one homeless man who lived some two millennia ago has made in all our lives as we enter the year of the Lord 2006.

Pastor Mark Driscoll is founder of the nondenominational Mars Hill Church in Ballard, Seattle.

Homeless Man Sues Over Toxic Drink Waffle House, Fired Employee Named In Suit

In Atlanta, Georgia a homeless man has filed a lawsuit claiming he suffered injuries when a Waffle House cook offered him $5 to drink a toxic mix of industrialstrength dish cleaner and apple juice.

The lawsuit, filed last month in Henry County Superior Court, names Waffle House and the cook, Quinton Wilson.

In the lawsuit, Rex Leo claims Wilson mixed dish cleaner with apple juice, sugar and sliced lemons to disguise the odor and flavor. He then offered Leo $5 to drink it, telling him it was a “Christmas shake.”

Wilson knew Leo was frequently intoxicated and in such “dire financial straits” that he would take the offer, the lawsuit says.

Waffle House is liable, according to the lawsuit, because officials knew Wilson had a “propensity to exhibit dangerous and inappropriate behavior.”

Leo, 50, remains in Henry Medical Center for treatment of Funeral show. I went to the corrosive damage to his mouth and internal organs from the December memorial and vigil and others I’ve 14 alleged incident. Wilson, 19, of been to, to muster myself. To remember myself before it was too Jonesboro has been charged with aggravated battery. He was also late to do something. To see if I mattered by checking out what this immediately fired after the incident.

The lawsuit also claims gone person mattered. To see if Waffle House employees helped I’ve been wrong all these years in believing there’s not anything real to Leo get alcohol before he was believe in, least of all people. That served the toxic drink.

The lawsuit does not seek life is not what we’re instructed and any specific monetary damages, but manipulated to support; that general damages to be determined whatever it is, it’s not what we in court. know. And all the right ways are Leo’s sister, Linda Leo, illegal and unattainable. said her brother continues to It did bother me that at the vigil nothing very human was said to improve and will be moved to a long-term care facility because flesh in the people we were theoretically there for. Were any of ingesting the drink caused brain them vets? What did that say about damage.

Wyoming Youth Services the kids returning from the desert?

Who was Whiskey Jack? Was he Bureau is looking for a rail-riding Nam vet who never left volunteer tutors to assist the jungle? Some kind of longwith 5th through 8th grade range re-con still living his outlaw students. The program is myth in the free state of the jungle? held at the Presbyterian Or was it just a name he assumed, Church of Wyoming, Mondays like Wheeler or Doc? For lack of through Thursdays after anything real about him? school from 3:15-5:00 and will I can project onto large continue through June 1st, issues like war and justice. The 2006. All materials are way I used to dream an American provided. Please contact Dream when I was small and Jackie Smith at 821-2428 or impressionable. The way some by email at people watch “It’s A Wonderful smithj@wyomingcityschools.org Life” and weep every Xmas. if you are interested.

Streetvibes

Page 13

Homeless Guy Looking for Cigarettes at the Bus Stop

by David Fewster He picks up a crushed butt, Doral, with lipstick stain.

“Low tar, less nicotine,” he frowns.

Old adage of beggars and choosers.

Inhaling, his mouth caresses the livid filter, Color of a blood spoor, As he dreams of kisses from the legal secretary he dated All those many years ago.

waiting at a bus stop “This isn’t City.

All the stores are closed.

This is Night, and I am safer in my book.”

“This is the place between work and home the long dull ride between frustrating boredom and irritation.”

“This is the Main Street, this is the Hot Time, this is the Bad Dude, you ain’t gotta Clue!”

“This is the Feeding Ground.

There’s a likely pocket.

Soft Touch; Too Strong; That one’s Broke.”

People start to glance my way, increasingly.

A woman on the bus darts sharp, quick glances at me as she reads car ads.

This is the Danger Ground between safe burrows.

I am possibly Falcon.

I have discarded layers of gags over my mouth; I never noticed the silent press of the Gag Order on Eyes.

The Weighted Hour

The Map Is Not The Territory

by Michael Henson

Eskimos have a hundred words for snow.

Here in the land that made dysfunctional famous we have one word for one thousand realities: depression.

There is an hour when the world is too weighted for us to bear.

When the minutes press on us like the stones of Salem. open your eyes to the faded ceiling An hour when the slant light falls to ash. stare without interest When the red-eyed liar gnaws at the ear. fall asleep again When there is no end to the drone of engines.

And there is no end to the sad parades. rock on the toilet And hour when anger clots the lungs. stare at the razor on the sink When there seems to be no hope. teetering on the edge Then I look to the lonely crow.

There, in his cold rooms walk through a crowd high above the red tips of the maples stare ahead fixedly above the strung powerlines ignore all the saw-edged above the cell phone towers. whispers of your name He is a black ship in a vast bottle.

He works his wings in short bursts against the wind, walk through a crowd then coasts for a time, hearing nothing works in a burst, then coasts again.

Then I want to think myself the crow, my bones have turned to concrete eagling across a broken heartland. my flesh bruises itself on them Far below me, the asphalt ribbons and the bulldozer scars.

I do not touch Far below me, I do not taste the suburban checkerboard, my body is a feather Far below me, anchored in nothing the gash of abandoned factories.

Far below me, I will never stop weeping the rivers that choke with the runoff of the poisoned I will never cry again farms.

Far below me, rock and bone have turned villain the small men who walk green fields hitting small white balls.

I am all that is wrong with Life Far below me, strip malls and theme parks.

Daddy came in at midnight Far below me, it has been midnight ever since the broad separate roofs of the houses on streets that meander like the tunnels of the mole.

I lost my Daddy to cancer Far below me, I am lost the close-packed roofs of the projects.

And I am sad, everything is fine for I see nothing that looks like home. and I don’t give a damn The horizon is wide and far off.

I need more than a hundred words.

At the line where the sun sets, I see the gray fences and the leaning stalks of corn.

The light leans to the earth’s back door.

I search the dusk for my brothers and my sisters.

Homeless I call them

by Skip Zilla in a voice of husks Come out and play, they said. and gravel.

We’ll see if we can bat grenades over the red river with the butts of rifles.

The bayonets are sheathed so our swings won’t bloody the bases from cuts in our bellies.

Oh God, Thank You

by Karen Bowman For saving me when I did not know how to save myself.

For rescuing me from the grip of crack, from the grip of a rapist.

For jamming the gun that was placed at my head.

For keeping me alert after the blow that was placed to my jaw.

For protecting me on the nights I walked through alleys And abandoned houses looking for a place to sleep.

For directing me to N Street Village and placing the right People in my life.

For being on earth as you are in heaven.

For loving me, Oh God, Thank You.

Page 14

This isn’t the game I played, I said, when wee kids wrapped a broken ball with tape and hit it with a naily Louisville slugger and ran paths in the grass to laughing collisions at home.

Come on, they said.

We’ll clear a field of corpses and run round the red sucking mud.

No, I can’t, I said.

I’ve lost my legs for running fun, and you’ve no home to return to.

Streetvibes

The Flood of ‘83

Me!!

by Sarge Lintecumb

by Robin Remy

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

Me (Mother) Through my addiction I Manage to be a Mother and only by the grace and mercy of God I made sure of the essential things In my sons’ lives in order for them (1) to become men, and (2) to be able to survive.

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

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

The scenery was breathtaking And the soil felt like mulch.

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

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

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

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

Me (Friend) I’m a good listener.

I have very profound advice.

Always willing to share even my last.

I must have been a good friend, Because my friends have been with me for the last 30-40 years.

Me (Robin) I’m a giving person.

I’m a no-nonsense person.

I’m very strong with inner strength.

I have a lot more to give from my spirit and my soul.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Under an Azure Blue Sky

by Andrea Hayfile Under an azure blue sky That’s so clear, not a cloud in sight I stand With the white sand hot beneath my feet Sand so fine, so soft, so clean And with the smell of the ocean All salty and sweet I think How there is such perfection in this Moment and I marvel at the beauty of this place.

Now, Who Will Lead the Way?

by Judi Mendriski buddy, you led the way to help the downtrodden people, who could not help themselves; Homeless, Low-Income Housing you, with “in-your-face confrontationalattitude” Now, who will lead the way?

Earnest, you led the way with the Civil Rights Movement, bussing and discrimination, you, with your quiet & yet, steadfast attitude; Now, who will lead the way?

Mac, you led the way empowered people for a peaceful planet; fought for arms disarmament, you, with your quiet voice, put up a hard & strong fight; Now, who will lead the way?

All of you, were branded Radicals, Troublemakers, Renegades; All had the strength of giants; NOW, WHO WILL LEAD THE WAY?

But, as I listen to the crashing Sound of the waves as they Find their way to the stony shore That waits My spirit is not safe. I am uneasy As uneasy as the furious ocean waves And with the rise and fall of each Sound, I long for peace and I search my soul and pray That one day I will become as marvelous as this place. ..

I Feel Blue

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

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

by Toni Bell I feel blue . . . not like the bright pretty sky.

I feel blue like the dark blue sea.

There is a rumble in me, Not a rumbling like a raggedy car, But a rumble from a distant storm waiting to erupt As soon as it arrives.

Writers!

Submit your Poetry to STREETVIBES email your writing to

I yearn to blossom like a flower When it blooms, releasing my Petals and fragrance through all My spiritual rooms.

I want to bloom away the gloom That sometimes invades my soul.

Streetvibes@juno.com

I want to be free to be me.

Streetvibes

Page 15

357-4602

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

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

SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Need Help or Want to Help?

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

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

Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect, Homeless Kids 363-1060 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471-4357 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259

February 2006

10 Years in Publication!

Looking Back on the “People’s Move”

Cover Story - Working in Cincinnati to Eradicate Homelessness

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