Streetvibes November 2006 Edition

November 2006

STREETVIBES

Who was buddy gray? buddy gray (he preferred his name in lower case letters) was a war resister, carpenter, preservationist, poet, community journalist, baseball coach, and friend to many. And he was known best as a relentless and uncompromising advocate for low-income housing and other services for the poor. He came from a small-town working-class family to live in Over-the-Rhine because he believed in the cause of liberation. He had decided when he was still a young man that he could not tolerate the poverty and discrimination he saw in the world around him. So he entered what his brother Jack called “a journey of fearless, selfless service.”

Many people are dedicated to feeding and housing the poor. Others are dedicated to organizing for change. Buddy’s insight was to bring these two ways of service together. He saw the people of Over-the-Rhine, not just as downtrodden souls to be given a meal or a bed for the night, but partners in a struggle to change the system and heal society.

Therefore, buddy worked to organize people and groups into an Over-the-Rhine Peoples Movement that includes organizations like the Drop Inn Center, ReSTOC, the Over-the-Rhine Housing Network, and the local, state, and national Coalitions for the Homeless. He worked with many homeless people who are now leaders in that movement.

His capacity for work was legendary.

Within a day’s time, he might attend a City Council hearing, work on the plumbing of a ReSTOC

building, help an old man get off a park bench and into the shelter of the Drop Inn Center, write a poem, and do the notes for the next day’s meetings. He lived very simply, in an apartment on Race Street, owned little, and cared nothing for fashion or show. As Jack Gray said at the memorial after buddy’s death, “He feared no man.

He took nothing and he served everyone. He worked to feed the hungry, free the captive, and heal the sick.” Many people are alive and living healthy lives today because of the work of buddy gray. He earned, thereby, the respect and love of many.

He also earned the bitter hatred of some real estate developers and some politicians, including, of course, some developer-politicians.

For months before his death, an unknown person (or persons, or class of persons) maintained a hate campaign which featured death threats, stop-signshaped stickers reading “NO WAY BUDDY GRAY,” and, if you called a certain number, a seven-minute, antibuddy recorded phone message. On November 15, 1996, during a meeting at the Drop Inn Center, buddy was shot and killed by a mentally ill, formerly

homeless man buddy had befriended. buddy was 46 years old. No one knows if the asassin had contacts with the NO-WAY-BUDDY-GRAY campaign. No one knows how he obtained the expensive pistol he used in the shooting. Within an hour of buddy’s death, the phone recording was disconnected.

Eight days later, over two thousand people from Cincinnati, Boston, Washington, Chicago, and other cities marched silently through the streets in buddy gray’s honor and in support of the homeless. buddy gray lives on because the work he started lives on. He lives on because his vision lives on. He lives on because we carry on his work and his vision.

Learning from buddy gray

by Thomas A. Dutton buddy was arguably the most misunderstood man in Cincinnati. I first met buddy in 1981, when I started attending meetings that resulted in the Over-the-Rhine Comprehensive Plan of 1985.

I have learned much from buddy gray.

Let me just share two examples.

First, buddy was not alone in his founding of institutions like the Drop Inn Center and his leadership of the Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement. Not by a long shot. And while my words here remembering buddy’s lessons may glorify a single, heroic life (as commemorations tend to do), I do not forget the many that worked closely with him. This was one of buddy’s greatest strengths, to effect a democratic, multi-voiced leadership. Decisions made in the interest of the People’s Movement always came out of the voices of many.

Second, buddy was a thinker who integrated all sorts of issues into a whole. This was especially so in how he analyzed Over-theRhine through an internationalist lens. He saw the circumstances in Over-the-Rhine— homelessness, economic injustice, class inequality, inadequate housing, intractable poverty—as different colors of the same painting, a painting that now due to globalization is of worldly proportions. For buddy, Over-theRhine was the domestic face of world imperialism, where the for-profit system of capitalism, now penetrating everywhere in its transnational corporate form, constitutes the

greatest threat to democracy the world-over and oppresses people of color and immigrants here at home. Over-the-Rhine is an example of America’s own structural adjustment program.

Imperialism and democracy are not bedfellows.

The former kills the latter.

Similar to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who “didn’t believe that capitalism as it was constructed could meet the needs of poor people,” buddy was not overt in his use of this kind of language, though it came out in many of his poems. Consider this stanza from his “How Did It Happen”(1989): As long as churches and synagogues and temples do reverent rituals for rightsand speak in pious platitudes of peace and take no angry action that stops American Business as usual to end homelessness, imperialism.

Some may interpret this stanza as a critique of religion, but I am more fascinated by his linking of homelessness and imperialism.

Imperialism and homelessness are bound together. You cannot know one without the other. And again, the stakes are high: imperialism kills the homeless.

This was buddy’s important insight and a lesson for all of us. All movements organized for social justice and social rights should continue to see themselves in this larger picture and analyze liberation movements the world-over in order to

understand their own conditions more deeply.

Early on, buddy sensed the constriction of “community organizing” and recognized that organizing at the community level had to link to national and international levels.

For those of us who have learned from buddy and remain inspired by his vision, we need to be vigilant against what scholar Arjun Appadurai calls “econocide,” which refers to new modes of violence that are playing out across the world in light of the massive inequalities and the rapidity of change produced by world capitalism. To Appadurai econocide does not just mean that whole sections of the world are undergoing death by economic means.

He has something more sinister in mind: “Econocide is a worldwide tendency to arrange the disappearance of the losers in the great drama of globalization.”

“Arrange the disappearance”— displacement by gentrification? Crime “prevention” by police sweeps and mass incarceration? Social cleansing by criminalizing the homeless? Relocate the Drop Inn Center? buddy had the insight of econocide 35 years ago, which is why he aligned with the homeless and the poor, so that they would not disappear and hopefully come to be understood by those more fortunate as having their own gifts to contribute to the human struggle. A lesson to us all is to overcome the obstacles of our privilege and power that too often restrict our own learning, so that those less fortunate are not made to disappear.

Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

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

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

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

GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director John Lavelle - Administrative Coordinator Lynne Ausman - VISTA Gina King - VISTA Andy Freeze - Education Coordinator Susan Smith - Volunteer Melvin Williams - Reception Linda Pittman - Reception Matt Cohen - AHA Staff Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor jimmyheath@yahoo.com Photography Jimmy Heath, Berta Lambert

buddy gray; He Empowered Lives This month is the tenth year .anniversary of the death of Over-theRhine community activist and friend buddy gray.

When I speak to groups about my work I preface the discussion with how buddy, his fellow activists and the Drop Inn Center were responsible for literally saving my life.

This was no small feat. I was living on the streets, caught up in the deadly grip of alcohol and depression. Alcoholism was literally killing me, destroying my body and my soul and my will. I was convinced that this was the way I was going to die and I didn’t have any choice in the matter. I was doomed to die homeless, alcoholic and alone.

One day, almost eleven years ago, I stumbled into the Drop Inn Center in Over-theRhine and another human Jimmy Heath being, a staff member, took the time to reach out to me. In me, they recognized a person, a human being, buried and hidden away in that fog. Later, I was told that I looked like “a mountain man, hair and beard all wild” and “we thought about throwing Jimmy to the mental health care workers.”

But at the same time I was told that I didn’t need to die on the streets, that I had a choice and that I could be helped to find my way out of the clutch of certain death by alcohol.

Those days are a hazy memory numbed by my emotional and physical condition. I was given a chance to enter the Drop Inn Center’s Detox program and I eventually took a step up to the six month Live-In Recovery program..

The program epitomized buddy’s vision of creating a transition out of homelessness, through treatment,

therapy, hard work and education for homeless people.

I thought I was alone in my struggle with addiction but at the Drop Inn Center I met a lot of people, including staff, that were just like me in so many ways; men and women whose lives were lost to drug addiction and alcoholism, homeless and hopeless, all trying to find their way out of various struggles.

I soon learned that the value of a human life was placed above all other things, and that many others had come before me and had been given back their lives because of this simple and just philosophy.

You would not think at first glance that all of this would be connected to a homeless shelter in Cincinnati, Ohio.

There is a denial in this city about the homeless, and the more hidden they are the better. This begins with city leaders and drives the misconceptions of the ordinary citizen. buddy forced people to think about the homeless, and many people in local government dreaded his confrontational style.

Thirty plus years ago, buddy gray and a group of devoted activists began picking up homeless, and some would say hopeless drunks off the street and bringing them into their apartments in Over-the-Rhine, taking care of them as if they were family, coaxing them out of alcoholism, feeding them and clothing them. A small storefront shelter on Main Street soon followed. buddy and the group of volunteers soon recognized that more than just temporary shelter was needed to help these people left behind by society...The needs of the homeless through permanent housing and employment and training and opportunity also had to be met.

Developing programs like this took a lot of work, with no pay and little support from the city or private citizens. buddy was aggressive and demanding in his convictions because

Cover Buddy Gray, spring of 1996 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

of his passion for the rights of folks at the bottom of the ladder.

As time went on buddy became a national figure in the struggle for human rights, justice and the treatment of the homeless. buddy and his crew were tireless in their efforts in finding ways to provide the homeless and disenfranchised with a voice. These were visionary actions.

Out of those humble beginnings grew the Drop Inn Center, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, and other organizations supporting many causes, started by buddy and many committed volunteers and linked by a single vision; human rights and justice. buddy helped set up and establish the vision of the Streetvibes program before he died.. buddy understood the power of getting the word out by using alternative media.

Ten years later Streetvibes still thrives.

On November 15th, 1996, buddy was gunned down at the Drop Inn Center. Ironically, buddy was killed by a man he had helped through the years – a man who had struggled through mental illness, addiction and homelessness. His assassin personified what buddy had stood up for; helping and creating programs to help these individuals. (buddy’s killer is now in a state mental hospital) As news about buddy’s murder spread, people in the community grieved deeply for the man who dedicated his life to serving the people. Days after his death in 1996, thousands of people came to Over-the-Rhine for a memorial march and recognition of buddy’s work. buddy “Stanley” gray went to college in the early ‘70’s and became active in protests against the war in Vietnam and other causes. He did volunteer work in Over-the-Rhine and eventually made it home. He organized and fought against big business developers who wanted to push the poor out of OTR. I have not been able to leave this inner-city neighborhood. buddy and others taught me to recognize a new life as a sober individual. He encouraged my photography and carefully analyzed my usefulness to the cause, driving me to see poverty and injustice and do something about it.

Through buddy and all of the people that I have met and worked with since my pathetic beginnings at the Drop Inn Center over 11 years ago I have discovered the beauty of OTR, in the faces of the people and the strength in their adversity; the power of the poor to rise up.

For me, this where my life began again, renewed and with a sense of purpose. Thanks buddy, for saving my life. (jimmyheath@yahoo.com)

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Streetvibes

Homeless News Digest Compiled by Jimmy Heath

Portland, OR. - Portland mayor Tom Potter has been a long-time advocate of helping the city’s mentally ill and those battling drugs and alcohol addiction.

Now he has a plan to do that in hopes of preventing more tragedies like the Chasse case.

In just the past few weeks there have been a number of highprofile cases involving Portland police and mentally ill suspects like James Chasse Jr, who died while in police custody.

Last Month, Julius Lee walked into a family’s southwest Portland home and refused to leave.

Police say he was mentally ill as well.

Now Mayor Potter plans to organize a committee to help the homeless and mentally ill. Potter says that estimates indicate that 60 percent of the homeless in Portland are mentally ill, and as many as 25 percent of those imprisoned need mental health assistance as well.

Elected officials, mental health experts, police and homeless advocates would all take part.

Potter hopes this will help bridge the gap between health care providers and police to prevent situation’s like Chasse’s in the future.

Daytona Beach, FL - The beds were made. The floors were clean.

The new playground was ready.

All that was missing last month at the official opening of the new 94-bed homeless shelter were the families.

The shelter at North and Segrave streets is for families and those with medical problems, but officials were having problems getting homeless families staying in local motels to come over.

“We’re all ready and waiting for folks right now,” Linda Callaghan, executive director of the Homeless Assistance Corp., which operates the shelter and other services, said. “We thought there would be more families showing up today. It’s quieter than we expected.”

But later, a medically needy man had moved in as well as a single mother who had been living in her car with her two daughters.

Several families were expected, but some decided to stay in motels until today, when the local homeless coalition would no longer foot their motel bill. Two others found permanent homes, Callaghan said, and at least one was leery about the new shelter and its surroundings on North Street and decided against staying in the shelter altogether.

“Some are hesitant,” Callaghan said. “We’re still talking to people.”

Denver, CO - Daunted by the throngs of more than 600 homeless people and 700 volunteers, 16-year-old Epiphany Flores and her family nearly gave up at the Project Homeless Connect services fair.

But one of the project’s supervisors caught them at the door.

Did they have housing?

Food stamps? Did they need medical attention? Diapers? What about the baby and toddler? How about some lunch?

Then Jamie Van Leeuwen, project director of Denver’s Road Home and one of the leaders of Project Homeless Connect, learned that Flores’ mother, Danza Simpson, was HIV- positive. It had been two months since she had access to the cocktail of medications that hinders full-blown AIDS. Van Leeuwen steered the little group back inside the Department of Human Services on Saturday and led them through a gantlet that left the family exhausted but with a place to live, transportation, arrangements for Epiphany’s mother to resume medical treatment, food, diapers and a medical exam.

“We got done in one hour what it can take a month to do,” Van Leeuwen said.

This was Denver’s third Project Homeless Connect fair.

More than 700 volunteers worked with the homeless one-on-one.

St. Petersburg, FL - Homeless people with mental illnesses in Pinellas County finally are getting some attention that should help improve their lives for the long term.

Until now, if they needed help beyond the basics of a meal or a bed, they struggled to find the right person or agency.

Last year, the therapists and counselors at the Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health decided to do more for this homeless population by establishing offices where people with mental illnesses routinely go for help: shelters, soup kitchens, the Pinellas jail and other sites.

From all indications, the program is succeeding. Managed by Larry Chambers, it now has offices in places such as the Davis-Bradley Center, a drug rehabilitation facility; the Enoch Davis Center, site of a

criminal justice diversion program; St. Vincent de Paul; the county jail; the Family Emergency Treatment Center; and the Salvation Army’s emergency shelter and one-stop center.

Homeless people with mental illnesses need a host of complex services for them to enjoy a simple quality of life the rest of us take for granted. Renee Kilroy, director of adult services at Suncoast Center, told the St. Petersburg Times that during the last fiscal year, 95 percent of the people the agency helped were referred to other assistance programs that can serve their special needs.

She said the staff in the jail’s booking department, for example, looks for signs of mental illnesses as homeless people are being processed. In this way, they can get the people out of jail more quickly and get them the right help sooner.

Chambers said that two-thirds of the program focuses on continuous care to prevent people from committing more offenses.

Santa Cruz, NM - With rain starting to fall and temperatures dropping, more and more homeless people across Santa Cruz County will be looking for a warm bed at night.

The county’s 2005 Homeless Census Survey, the latest count available, estimates that nearly 2,700 of the 3,371 homeless people tallied live outdoors or in their vehicles.

According to the county Human Resources Agency, there are currently 319 year-round emergency shelter beds to serve them and another 120 beds expected to become available in November.

That’s in addition to roughly 1,000 transitional spaces aimed at people more serious about getting their lives back together.

But the resources are inadequate, homeless services providers say.

Marcus Banuelos, day services coordinator of the Homeless Services Center on Coral Street, said nearly 40 people are turned down at the shelter every day.

“I am sure that many more don’t even try to come because they know they won’t get in,” he said.

Ken Cole, executive director of the Homeless Services Center, said many are waiting for winter emergency programs to begin Nov. 15, which will provide at least 100 more emergency beds in the city of Santa Cruz and about 20 more in Watsonville.

“This is a very hard time of the year for those without a place to go,” Cole said.

Dennis Hargrove said he benefits from the Homeless Services Center. He came from Reno, Nev., and suffers from mental health problems that make him unable to work, he says. He, like others, lines

Streetvibes

up at 2:30 p.m. every day in front of the shelter and hopes he can get accommodation.

“If it wasn’t for this place, I’d probably freeze to death”, he said.

Frederick, MD - Advocates for Homeless Families Inc., a local non-profit organization, recently received the Wise Giving Charity Seal from the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland.

The organization is one of five in the state to receive the seal, which shows donors that the organization is accountable and operates responsibly.

“It’s sort of a reaffirmation for us that we are doing things right,” said Elizabeth Galaida, executive director of Advocates for Homeless Families.

The organization was officially recognized by the Better Business Bureau during the bureau’s annual meeting on Oct. 12 in Baltimore.

Omaha, Neb - A new city bus route is creating opportunities for some Omaha homeless people.

Metro Area Transit has created a bus stop near the Open Door Mission after 20 years of lobbying. Residents of the shelter said it’s already changing their lives.

“I think it’s really wonderful,” said shelter resident Arthur Franklin.

“It’s really great because it gives us the opportunity to get away when we need to. With the bus line, it allows us once again to be able to be more mobile, to be more free instead of being stuck down here trying to get a ride if you need to get somewhere else.”

Washington - ‘Desperate Housewives’ star Eva Longoria’s unexpected sneak peek into her new mansion left her horrified, after she discovered a squatter living in her brand new Hollywood manor.

She found the unexpected guest when she took her mother to view the dream home - one she has been renovating for the past five months.

Although she earlier didn’t want to set foot inside until contractors and builders had completed their work, she decided to drop in without warning. She was stunned to find a homeless man living there.

“We walk in and there’s beer cans everywhere and I’m like, ‘What is this?’ And a guy comes down (the stairs) in, like, boxers and he’s like, ‘Oh crap..! I’m fixing the electricity.”.

“He was a worker on the house that just decided to squat.

There’s nothing there, it’s like and empty house... I was livid,” she added.

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Images of buddy gray

- by Jimmy Heath

I remember buddy

by Bonnie Neumeier zipping through Washington Park on his bike wearing his yellow hard hat fixing up housing carrying a huge stack of documents to the podium at City Hall drinking a carton of chocolate milk hugging children on the street putting his arms around friends homeless in the park picking up Nannie to defend our homes from demolition encouraging involvement in our efforts sending little notes at meetings to keep us sane calling his Mom often playing an energetic game of baseball remembering names and phone numbers by rote watching election returns and naming senators in each state riding around in his blue truck wearing headbands of all different colors saying so much in a small sound bite taking lengthy notes for clarity and documentation listening to Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, and Peter, Paul & Mary

buddy and Bonnie Neumeier lead protest march...One of many.

carrying his tools in a big 5 gallon white bucket offering ReSTOC housing to displaced neighbors planting trees and seeds for change sacrificing his life for what he believed in making mountains of phone calls late at night teaching others how to lead and live simply dreaming big dreams doing the seemingly impossible building connections around the country standing up for human rights laughing to help get us through loving Wilbur his friend who pulled the trigger buddy was as ordinary as you and me but with extraordinary fiery determination to put all he had in the service of his vision believing that one day we all will be free demanding justice shine in Over-the-Rhine as well as all over this land.

buddy with the late Rev. Maurice McCrackin. “Mac” was a friend and inspiration to buddy and an activist in his own right.

buddy gray Reflection Continue to Involve Younger People

buddy with filmmaker Michael Moore in front of the Drop Inn Center. Moore was interested in how the demise of the local automotive industry affects homelessness in Cincinnati.

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by John Lavelle I never had the pleasure of knowing buddy personally. To put it in perspective, I was one year old when the Coalition was founded in 1984.

When buddy died, I was looking forward to Thanksgiving break as a big, bad eighth grader. Now, a year and a half out of college, it’s hard not to feel a little overwhelmed by the tradition and history surrounding the homelessness advocacy movement in Cincinnati.

Like buddy did to many of the individuals who now run our agencies, several people have helped me join the movement and find my place. It is imperative that all of us continue to involve more young people in our work, thus engaging and fostering the next generation of advocates and service providers. They possess fresh eyes, new vision, and often limitless energy.

As one of these young people, the part of buddy’s vision that I relate to the most is his sense of urgency. There is a sign in our office that looks like it has seen its fair share of battle. It reads: “HOUSING NOW.” Housing NOW – not tomorrow, not after we get that funding we’re holding out for, but NOW. Even as advocacy techniques change, I believe that we must not lose this sense of urgency in what we do. There have been two particularly tragic deaths in the homeless community so far this year, deaths that very likely would not have happened had there been housing for some of the toughest to serve. I pray that I never get to the point where these daily tragedies don’t upset me, make me angry, and shake me to my core. Ten years after buddy’s death, I hope that we stay angry, upset, and, in buddy’s words: “contagiously collectively…as long as is necessary.”

Streetvibes

New tools implemented to help the homeless Addison County, VT— Addison County human services providers are putting the finishing touches on a new DVD, brochure and other material aimed at helping local homeless people find — and keep — affordable housing.

The providers, working under the banner of the Addison County Housing Coalition, have also enlisted the help of Northlands Job Corps students in making a series of wooden human silhouettes that were placed throughout the county to increase public awareness of the plight of the homeless.

Cheryl Mitchell, director of People of Addison County Together (PACT), is spearheading creation of the new brochure titled, “Almost Home: Finding an Affordable Place to Live in Addison County.” The 11-page brochure, in its final draft, will let homeless people know how their incomes play into qualifying for affordable housing; how to overcome bad credit; how to apply for rental housing; and what their rights are as tenants.

Area college students helped create illustrations for the brochure.

“It looks like we will be able to print out about 200 copies for human services agencies,” Mitchell said, adding the brochure could be useful in giving legislators background on future affordable housing lobbying efforts.

Another new arrow in the coalition’s quiver is a training DVD, titled simply “Finding Affordable Housing.” The DVD offers some role-play discussions between counselors and individuals looking for affordable housing.

A copy of the DVD will be given to each social service agency in the county, according to Mitchell.

Those agencies are currently dealing with many clients who are finding it hard to keep up with local rents.

The average fair market rent for a modest, two-bedroom apartment in Vermont was $723 in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. An Addison County resident needs to earn at least $13.67 per hour to pay that rent and still have enough left over to cover utilities and other basic expenses, according to the Vermont Housing Council.

There are currently 4,000 Vermonters regularly relying on homeless shelters, including 1,000 children. The Vermont Office of Economic Opportunity estimated that 1,443 people were turned away from Vermont homeless shelters between July of 2004 and June of 2005, due to those shelters being full.

In Addison County, many homeless citizens try to make ends meet by rooming with families, friends, or living out of their car during the warmer months.

“I think poverty is really well hidden in Middlebury,” said Laura Morse, housing advocate with the Addison Communit Action ChamplainValley Office of Economic Opportunity.

“We really don’t see it publicly.”

That will change later this month, thanks to a project being spearheaded by Northlands Job Corps students, the John Graham Emergency Shelter and Addison County Community Action Group (ACCAG). Northlands students have been busy transforming plywood sheets into the silhouettes of everyday people. Once complete, ACCAG and the John Graham Shelter will provide written profiles of real homeless people in Addison County that will be tagged onto the silhouettes.

Here are two of those stories: • Connie had just started her new job. She was under a lot of pressure already because her boyfriend was insanely jealous. Then she found out that she was pregnant. Her boyfriend, the baby’s

Streetvibes

father, beat her so severely that her eye was swollen shut when she came to the shelter. She also now had a broken leg and was forced to quit her new job.

• Andy, an elderly man who suffers from schizophrenia comes to the shelter to cook a meal and take a shower. He has lived outside and bounced from shelter to shelter. He is offered a bed. He is found in the morning sleeping on the kitchen table. He explains that after sleeping on the ground for so many years, he can only sleep on flat surfaces. He moves into a nursing home.

On Oct. 28, Job Corps students and local volunteers took the dozens of the silhouettes to pre-approved locations throughout the county, including parks, stores, churches, schools and other public venues.

The silhouettes will stay up for several weeks, officials said.

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New Compactor Trash Cans Leave ‘Canners’ Feeling Dumped

by Paul Rice ‘Canners’ working in downtown Boston, are concerned about the recently installed solarpowered trash compactors in the Hub. For the uninitiated, canners are people who comb city streets and trashcans for bottles and aluminum cans left by passersby in an urban environment. Canners collect other’s trash and turn it into a living for themselves.

Peter Azadian has been an active canner in Boston and Cambridge for the past five years, earning enough from the job to buy food and meager supplies for his life, not to mention discovering any number of useful items abandoned at landfills by their previous owners.

“Not only have I taken good, quality clothes out of the trash, but also quilts, blankets, and even some expensive copper wire,” Azadian told Spare Change News.

Unfortunately for Azadian and other canners, the new bins do not allow for such rummaging.

Manufactured by the Seahorse Power Company, the “Big Belly” bins look more like giant mailboxes than trashcans. Once refuse enters the receptacle, there is no way to retrieve it. Solar cells

implanted at the top of the cans store electricity, which is then used to power a pneumatic press that flattens the contents of the can, making room for more refuse.

Ever since July, when the new trashcans were installed throughout downtown Boston, Azadian has seen a significant drop in the amount of business he does in that area. He watches as cans and bottles get dropped in the receptacles, but has no way to get them out.

“There’s a problem with fastidiousness,” he said, explaining his view on the introduction of the compactors. “The city wants things more sanitary, more visually appealing.”

He also sees it as cheap publicity in the form of new technology.

It’s a high-tech glamour sort of thing, a politician thing rather than a people thing,” Azadian said.

He also believes the compactors might embody discrimination.

“They probably don’t want scruffy people digging in the barrels,” Azadian surmised. “I think the city may be trying to squeeze out people who are supplementing their incomes with cans and bottles.”

Not so, according to Tim McCarthy, spokesman for the Boston Department of Public Works (DPW).

“We certainly want to help out some of the people who need these cans to subsidize their living,” he said.

The DPW is in talks with James Poss, the founder and CEO of Seahorse, to provide recycling bins adjacent to every solar dumpster in the city. There is already one such bin currently being tested at a compactor in the Boston Common.

“We are an environmental company, so recycling is important to us for sure,” James Poss told SCN. He says he understands the concern on the part of the recycling community, specifically the canners.

“The best thing to do is have open

recycling containers so the canners have access.”

Recycling advocates in the state have been eyeing these compactors and are happy to see steps taken to promote recycling alongside the solar-powered bins.

“That’s the first step and that’s wonderful,” Jessica Wozniak, assistant director of MassRecycle, a recycling advocacy organization centered in Boston, told SCN. “You need to make it so easy to recycle.”

The attached recycling bins may give people the easy option to recycle, but Azadian is still concerned about myriad useful things people throw away every day. Without allowing canners to dig through the trash, the city may unwittingly upset an ecological balance in this urban environment.

“If you waste resources, it’s going to come around and bite you in the butt,” Azadian said.

He may yet see a return to normal trashcans. The “Big Belly” receptacles are part of a pilot program that is not guaranteed to last forever.

“The reality is, if the barrels aren’t saving us money, they’re not going to work,” noted McCarthy.

Reprinted from Spare Change News

Reedy Place apartments give 15 residents new lease on life Greenville, MN - Chronically homeless for six years, Emma Swittenburg has since moved into Reedy Place in Greenville and says she’s experiencing something she has only dreamed about.

Swittenburg, saddled with a drug problem, said she slept on benches, under bridges or wherever she could find a dry place. She said she’s had a reversal of fortune since her address became Reedy Place, a $1.4 million housing project built for the homeless.

“I have my own place,” Swittenburg, 44, said at last week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony at Reedy Place on North Calhoun Street, on the edge of downtown. “I’m a productive member of society. I pay taxes.”

Swittenburg and 14 others will reside at Reedy Place, which took four years to design and build, said Mike Chesser, executive director of the Upstate Homeless Coalition.

He said those like Swittenburg have been screened and approved by mental health clinicians

and have a good chance of avoiding future homelessness.

Chesser said those who are homeless tend to be timid, carting everything they own in the world with them.

“When they come here, they will feel safe, and no one will bother them,” Chesser said. “This is an opportunity to recover.”

How long each person stays is an individual choice, he said.

He said most are able-bodied and hardworking, but frequently aren’t able to handle setbacks.

“They’re able to be selfsufficient until they have an emergency,” Chesser said.

Michael Dahl, executive director of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, said providing permanent housing for homeless people provides an environment in which they can work on their problems.

“When you provide temporary shelter, you don’t give them the support so that they can recover,” said Dahl, who spearheads

a statewide homeless effort in Minnesota.

Dahl said permanent housing is also cost-effective. He said when you add the costs of the police who must deal with the homeless, emergency room costs and the expense of temporary housing; it’s cheaper over the long run to provide permanent housing.

He said Minnesota plans to provide housing for 4,000 households in the next six years.

Mary Duckett, a Greenville civic leader, said she was impressed with the local effort. She said it takes some of the strain off an overpopulation of homeless people in her neighborhood, HamptonPinckney, and the Pete Hollis Redevelopment District.

Richard Chludzinski, 39, a new Reedy Place resident, said he’s had a tough time keeping a roof above his head.

He said he is disabled. He said his pastor has played a big role in getting him in Reedy Place.

Visit the Greater Cincinnati Coaltion for the Homeless website at - http://www.cincihomeless.org Visit the Streevibes archives at - http:// www.cincihomeless.org/content/streetvibes.html Page 6

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Chludzinski said he would spend his days in therapy, Bible studies and group activities.

“Now, I can live like everybody else and have goals,” he said.

Jack Read, who chairs the board of the Upstate Homeless Coalition, said he’s impressed with what Chesser and other homeless workers, along with mental health experts have accomplished with envisioning and building Reedy Place.

He said the group is “a unique blend of people who can achieve.”

Swittenburg, employed by McDonald’s, said a key part of this new phase of her life is the safety net from the Upstate Homeless Coalition.

“I have people who support me,” Swittenburg said. “This is more than I could ever achieve.”

Chesser said residents are given access to their living space with an electronic key to their front door.

“We want to help those who cost the community the most,” Chesser said. “We want them off the street.”

Church program for homeless cuts its hours San Francisco - They line up each weekday morning — not for food or clothes or welfare checks, but for the simple luxury of lying down and falling asleep.

For hundreds of homeless people in San Francisco, the wooden pews of St. Boniface Catholic Church in the Tenderloin are the only place where they can sleep for a solid nine hours.

Many say they’re too frightened of being robbed or attacked if they sleep on the streets or in shelters at night, so they force themselves to stay awake until the church opens at 7 a.m. and they can drift off peacefully until 4 p.m.

In appreciation of the rare opportunity for tranquility — believed to be the only one of its kind in the country — the homeless people call it “Sacred Sleep.”

“I call them owls because they’re up all night and they come here for refuge,” said Luis Ramirez, 44, who is paid to watch over and help the sleepers.

But starting last month, they’ll only be able to sleep from 8 a.m. to noon, cutting their sleep time in half.

The St. Boniface Neighborhood Center, an outgrowth of the church that runs the sleeping program and provides other services, has had a tough time fundraising lately — and if the financial situation doesn’t turn around, the sleeping program could end altogether.

“Whatever we’re getting in just isn’t sufficient to keep the doors open until 4 o’clock,” said John Weeks, the interim executive director of the neighborhood center, adding that he hopes cutting the hours in half staves off the need to close. “The likelihood of us shutting down is greatly reduced, but there’s always a danger of that happening.”

Weeks said an endowment used to start the program, private donations and public grants have dried up. His staff has been focused on opening a new shelter in the coming months in the South of Market area and hasn’t had time to conduct a major fundraising effort to replace the lost money.

It costs $140,000 annually to run the program, and the Neighborhood Center is now $60,000 short. The city contributes 20 percent of the program’s annual budget. Currently, the program employs nine staff members to oversee and help the sleepers, and it will cut back to four staffers with the shortened hours.

It’s a big blow to Miley Wilson, 55, who said he has been out of jail since February 2005 — his longest period of freedom since he was 13. He said he recently kicked his crack addiction and attributes it, in part, to the staff at St. Boniface.

At the church on a recent afternoon, Wilson pointed to a statue on the wall of Jesus being crucified.

“I have peace when I come here. I reach back to my old morals, to my parents and my grandparents,” he said. “I’m not reaching for the drugs.”

Wilson comes to St. Boniface every day to sleep or just kill time away from the squalid, rough streets of the Tenderloin, where drug use is rampant. He said sending all the homeless sleepers outside onto Golden Gate Avenue every afternoon will be disastrous.

“If you wake up everybody in here and put them out on the streets, you don’t know how much crime there will be,” he said, shaking his head. “We have bad people in here that’s doing good. In here, they can be away from that. The bad stops at the door.

“Once you go out that door, the bad starts again — women being abused, things getting stolen, drugs getting sold. It’s all right out there.”

That’s why Miley and others fear neighbors in the Tenderloin also will suffer the side effects of the cut in hours, including more people loitering on the streets — and urinating and defecating on the sidewalks.

If the chance to stretch out and sleep seems basic, the use of a toilet is equally so. The bathroom at St. Boniface is one of the few public restrooms in the neighborhood that homeless people can use, according to Michele Thorsen, who coordinates the program, and the neighborhood is likely to suffer if the restrooms are closed.

“It’ll mean a poor quality of life for neighbors,” she said. “It’s going to be really rough.”

Angela Alioto, the former San Francisco supervisor asked by Mayor Gavin Newsom to lead the writing of a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness in the city, said she admires the work of those at St. Boniface tremendously, but does see an upside to limiting the sleeping hours at the church.

“Nobody should be sleeping in the day and up all night,” Alioto said. “It’s just not humane.”

She said that programs like these, while well intentioned, can keep people from finding the motivation to seek permanent housing.

“They won’t assertively search for permanent, supportive housing if they think they can sleep in the church all day long,” she said.

Still, others who advocate for the extended hours say people stop by the church for more than just the chance to sleep or use the restroom.

They talk to staff members to get referrals to mental health clinics, legal aid and other assistance. They also pick up toothpaste or socks or take a meditation class — or even get their hair cut.

The program was begun around Easter 2004 by the Rev. Louie Vitale, the activist pastor of the church who retired last year. He named it the Gubbio Project after the town of Gubbio, Italy. Legend has it townspeople there befriended a killer wolf after realizing the animal was not dangerous, just hungry.

When the program started, just 30 people slept there — but now the number has climbed to 200 or 300.

Reached at his temporary post at a church outside Carson City, Nev., Vitale said he was saddened by

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the news of the cutbacks — especially since the cold days of winter are fast approaching.

“I’m relieved that they’re not having to close it down completely, but I would really hope that people will hear about it and come forth,” he said. “We hope the generosity of the city of St. Francis can rise to help restore it to full time.”

The new pastor, the Rev. Jorge Hernandez, has made some changes to the Gubbio Project, such as not allowing the homeless people to store their belongings in the confessional closets and requiring them to sit up during the noon Mass.

Hernandez is traveling in Rome and couldn’t be reached.

Michele Thorsen, who coordinates the Gubbio Project, said despite small changes that have irked some of the homeless people, Hernandez has been incredibly supportive of the program overall.

“Rumors started flying around that he was going to shut down the Gubbio Project, and he never did — that’s just not true,” Thorsen said. “The fact that he’s allowed this program to continue is a real gift.”

On a recent afternoon, Jeffery Grant, 44, was just waking up from a nap on one of the pews.

Bleary-eyed, he said that he never has dreams when he dozes outside; he has to keep his guard up and resists the urge to fall into a deep sleep.

At St. Boniface, though, he dreams.

“Good dreams,” he said.

“About good things happening in my life.”

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Letters

Anti-War Protesters Still Active Four Years After old high school student, a minister, and a filmmaker.

Start of War in Iraq They were joined by other socially conscience

To the Editor: With all the scandals swirling around Congress, one serious failing has not received enough attention. Congress left for its pre-election recess without fulfilling its most basic responsibility – to enact spending bills that invest our tax dollars wisely. Instead, they passed a short - term measure that shrinks most domestic programs and tosses decisions about the rest of the year to a post election “lame duck” session.

The failure to protect funding for education, health care, job training, housing and energy assistance, nutrition aid, HeadStart and many other services hurts all of us. The federal government ought to be investing in our children – making sure they grow up healthy, safe, and ready to learn.

Low income people, young and old, need relief from high energy and housing costs. Workers and students need training for decent jobs. In recent years Congress has cut billions from domestic programs while at the same time continuing tax cuts that help only the wealthiest few.

When Congress comes back, members will confront proposals to cut still more. Every member of Congress and every candidate, including (candidates and members in your district), should commit to support enough funding to reverse recent cutbacks and reject proposals to make things even worse.

Crow Call - Poems by Michael Henson West End Press 12.95 Bright orange stickers reading “NO WAY BUDDY GRAY” were plastered around the city of Cincinnati and particularly the

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by Lynne Ausman Cincinnati, Ohio - On Wednesday September 28, 2006, a group of anti-War protesters descended on the office of Congressman Steve Chabot, located in the Carew Tower, downtown Cincinnati.

The peaceful demonstration began at one o’clock in the afternoon. Every hour a protestor would board the Carew Tower elevator to the thirtieth floor and request that Chabot sign the Declaration of Peace. When the document was not signed by Representative Chabot, the demonstrator would remain in the office. This continued for the rest of the work day.

The Declaration of Peace calls for the immediate Lynne Ausman “withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, the payment of damages for the destruction caused by U.S. forces and the rejection of ‘pre-emptive war’ against Iran or any other nation.”

Among those involved in the peaceful demonstration were a 78-year-old nun, a 15-year-

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

citizens who waved signs promoting peace near the Vine Street entrance to the Carew Tower.

“Nah, he’s a wiener he won’t sign.” says Bill Lonneman, a professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph. “He’s afraid to stand up against anything against the President [of the United States].”

Meanwhile, in Chabot’s thirtieth floor office, demonstrators were in good spirits, singing songs such as Kumbaya and John Lennon’s famous song, “Imagine.”

“They [Congressmen and women] have more influence to end this war, but not enough is being done. Our family members are still being sent, the numbers of dead on both sides continues to rise, the situation is worsening, and we still have no exit plan in sight.” says Ellen Dienger, a demonstrator in Chabot’s office.

Close to six o’clock Wednesday evening, three uniformed police officers seemed to have escorted two of Chabot’s staff members out of the office, but had not arrested any of the demonstrators.

“I think the people of the world need to know that American citizens feel strongly enough that the war is so wrong and tragic that they are willing to be arrested to stop it,” says Barb Wolf, a demonstrator in Chabot’s office.

Around nine o’clock that evening, when the Carew Tower closed, police arrested the remaining protestors, still in Chabot’s office.

homelessness has on a person’s spirit with neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine days before forty-six poems. Henson calls upon personal the shooting death of grassroots activist buddy sacrifice and the rising of a common voice as a gray on November 15, 1996. cure for social malaise and political corruption. gray (who preferred his name spelled in A pair of watchful crows announces each lower case) was a relentless supporter of the section of work in this new collection. homeless and worked diligently against The poetry and writing of Michael developers and their sympathetic political Henson keeps a watchful eye on the sensitive machine by advocating low-income housing and yet sorrowful images of inner city life and services for the poor. buddy was a co-founder of the National Coalition for the Homeless, struggles. Michael Henson is the author of the local coaltion, the Drop Inn Center and Ransack, a novel, and A Small Room with Trouble on My Mind, a short fiction of local low-income housing groups. The Appalachia, both published by West End perpetrator who shot gray was a formerly Press; and also, The Tao of Longing, a homeless friend with a mental illness who chapbook of poetry. Henson currently lives was later found to be unfit for trial. No in Cincinnati. one knows how the killer obtained the expensive Berta’s Art Corner pistol he used (1980) sculptor by Stewart Fink, University of Cincinnati, facing in the Clifton Avenue... shooting. He is now in a state mental facility. In Crow Call, Cincinnati poet, activist and friend to buddy, Henson pays homage to gray dealing with his murder, grief, poverty, the environment, being homeless, and the effect

Streetvibes

The Bush Tax Cuts: Are Ohioans Better Off? Over the past six years, President George W. Bush and his allies in Congress have enacted multiple rounds of major tax cuts, including special tax breaks for capital gains and dividends, reductions in personal income tax rates, estate tax cuts and an array of corporate tax loopholes. This issue brief summarizes the effects of the Bush tax cuts on Ohioans at different income levels.

There are two key findings: First of all, the tax breaks enacted since 2001 are heavily skewed towards the very wealthiest few.

Second, because the tax cuts are being paid for with borrowed money, the cost of paying the added national debt more than wipes out any benefits from the tax cuts for 99 percent of Ohioans. Only the best-off one percent of Ohioans are net winners.

Over the 2001-2010 period, the wealthiest Ohioans will receive 26.7 percent of the Bush tax cuts in the state. # Over the 2001-2010 period, the wealthiest one percent of Ohioans, who have an average income of $784,700 in 2006, will receive 26.7 percent of the tax cuts. # The total 10-year average tax cut for this wealthiest group is $297,278, an average of $29,728 per year. # In contrast, the poorest 60 percent will get only 21.6 percent of the tax cuts, with an average annual tax cut over the 10 years of only $403.

For ninety-nine percent of Ohioans, the Bush tax cuts are much smaller than the share of the increased national debt they’ll have to pay off. Only the wealthiest one percent are net

winners.

The tax cuts enacted by President Bush and his allies in Congress have been “paid for” entirely with borrowed money. This means that every dollar of tax cuts received results in a dollar of debt that must be paid back in the future — with interest. We analyzed the effects of this added debt on a per-person basis, rather than by family units.

That’s because everyone — adults as well as their children — will eventually have to pay off the added debt and interest. We also looked only at the tax cuts and added debt that have been actually taken place so far (i.e., though 2006).

For the wealthiest one percent of Ohio residents, the tax cuts they’ve received from 2001 through 2006 outweigh their share of the added debt accumulated over the past six years by an average of $13,480 per family member. They have received an average tax cut of $49,537 per family member, which exceeds their added debt burden of $36,057 per person by $13,480. But for the other ninety-nine percent of Ohio residents, their share of the added debt accumulated from 2001 through 2006 outweighs their tax cuts by an average of $7,163 per person. They have received an average tax break of $2,585 per person over the six year period, but their added debt burden averages $9,748 per person.

President Bush has borrowed all the money to finance his tax reductions, and the interest on that enormous borrowing is building up rapidly. What makes this borrowing more alarming is that the benefits are skewed so heavily towards the wealthiest taxpayers. As the above data show, in Ohio, ninety-nine percent of taxpayers will get a debt bill that far exceeds any small benefits from these policies.

Tax cuts by state and income group were calculated by the Instiute on Taxation and Economic Policy..

Additions to the national debt (including amounts borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund) are based on actual figures for fiscal 2002 through 2005 and Congressional Budget Office estimates for fiscal 2006 and 2007. The added debt was allocated among states and income groups based on shares of adjusted gross income and population (double-weighted). Of course, no one can say for sure how the debt will be paid for in the future, whether through huge program cuts or very large, potentially regressive tax increases. The approach here, which allocates the debt payments two-thirds to spending cuts (per capita) and one third to proportional tax increases (by AGI), seems to be a middle ground of the possible outcomes.

Memorial and Vigil for the

10th Anniversary of the death of buddy gray

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 5:00PM March from Buddy’s Place (1300 Vine St.) to Washington Park 5:30PM - Memorial in the park 6:30PM - Fellowship at Nast Trinity United Methodist Church Songs—Speeches—Poetry—Food “I don’t expect to be patient until there is Housing Now for all.” - buddy gray

Other events: Wednesday, November 1, 7:30PM: Video presentation on buddy’s life, Know Theater, 1120 Jackson Street. (Free) *** Thursday, November 9, 7:30PM: Open Mic Poetry Reading, Drop Inn Center 217 W. 12th Street.

For information, call (513) 421-7803, extension 13 Streetvibes

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Drop Inn Center Update Large Men’s Sweatshirts and Jackets Needed Large Men’s Sweatshirts and Jackets Needed: With the cooler temperatures, there is a sudden, urgent demand for sweatshirts and jackets, especially XL and XXL! If you have any laying around or see a deal at the store this weekend, please keep us in mind. We accept dropoffs any time, but it helps to call the front desk before you come at 721-0643.

5 pm : Gather at Buddy’s Place, 1300 Vine Street, Walk to Washington Park 5:30 pm: Speakers, music and food at Washington Park 6:30 pm: Fellowship at Nast Trinity UMC buddy gray Video Nite: November 1st, Know Theater, 1120 Jackson , 7:30pm Special Open Mic: November 9th, McCracken Room, 7:30pm

Planned buddy gray Memorial Activities: November 15th will mark the Ten Year Anniversary of buddy’s tragic passing.

For those who don’t know, buddy was one of the founders and original Coordinator of the Drop Inn Center. He was also a visionary activist for social justice, peace and housing. buddy gray Memorial and Vigil Wednesday, November 15th...

Family Dollar Stores Target Food Stamps “In an effort to carve a niche as a ‘neighborhood convenience store without the convenience store prices,” Family Dollar Stores Inc. plans to offer more groceries in its stores and to begin installing machines capable of accepting food stamps, company officials said last month.

While food generally has low profit margins compared with products such as apparel and house decorations, people buy food more often and it gets them in the door to explore other products such as prepaid phones and clothing, said Stephanie Hoff, investment specialist “What they’re doing is to think a little out of the box as far as what dollar stores have traditionally sold,” Hoff said.

Family Dollar spokesman Kiley Rawlins said accepting food stamps will increase food sales even more because many of the company’s customers can afford to buy groceries only by using the food cards. “By not accepting food stamps, that’s a whole transaction we’ve been missing,” she said.

Injection of US funds for BHA raises hope for the homeless Boston - After escaping a physically and verbally abusive boyfriend in 2001, Marly and her two children joined the ranks of Boston’s homeless.

The family moved into a shelter, took out a restraining order against the boyfriend, and soon was placed at the bottom of the list of thousands of people awaiting government-assisted housing.

Marly’s name never rose to the top of the list, and since then, the family has been bouncing between shelters and the apartments of extended family members.

All that changed this month, when the Boston Housing Authority announced plans to distribute about 700 Section 8 housing-subsidy vouchers. It has been years since the program has been fully funded, and now, people like Marly have a renewed chance at trading the shelter for a home.

“To be quite honest, I had given up on it,” said Marly, who works as a receptionist and who is excited about the BHA’s pending approval of a small rental house for herself and her children. She asked that her last name not be published for fear of being found by the former boyfriend.

“I got really excited because Section 8 is even better than public housing,” she said. “You get to pick where you want.

“I would have taken public housing because it’s better than a shelter, but this is definitely better,” Marly said in an interview.

Several years ago, the BHA’s Section 8 housing-subsidy program, which pays a portion of the rent for needy families, ran out of the money needed to provide housing help for families new to the waiting list. Rather than leave people hanging, the agency decided to close the program.

This year, the federal government provided the agency with an unexpected influx of $2.5 million — enough to finance the 700 housingsubsidy vouchers that are now available. The voucher program is separate from the agency’s public housing facilities, for which there is also a waiting list of several thousand families and individuals.

The 700 vouchers will be available on a first-come, first-served basis to any family who qualifies for immediate housing. Families or individuals who qualify for this housing are those who have a dire need, such as survivors of domestic violence, people who are homeless, or families who have lost homes because of fire or condemnation or a no-fault eviction. The voucher can then be used anywhere in the country to help offset the cost of a market-rent apartment. In Boston, this means the BHA will help pay for any apartment that is listed for no more than $1,116 a month for a studio, and up to $2,101 a month for a five-bedroom. The waiting-list application period runs from Oct. 18 to Oct. 31 and is being

advertised to people who currently live in shelters or who have previously applied for housing help.

After being thoroughly reviewed (to ensure they meet the criteria), the people who make the waiting list are then placed into a lottery, which then randomly assigns their name to a number.

The housing vouchers are then given out to the first 700 people whose names are pulled out of the lottery list.

Although the BHA is giving out only 700, the waiting list will be capped at 7,000, said Lydia Agro, communications director for the agency.

She expects several thousand to apply.

“Many of those people, depending on where they fall on the list, might qualify but will have to wait and see how our funding situation goes,” Agro said. “The people at the top of the list will get a voucher if they qualify.”

Marly said she knows of people who would be eager to get back on the waiting list because of the difficulties they encounter getting into public housing in Boston.

“It’s not that easy,” said Marly, who has a voucher, but who is waiting for the BHA to approve her choice of a rental.

“You think because you’re in a shelter you’ll get the help quick. But no...some people I meet, they’ve been waiting for years and still nothing.”

Peace Village

help, the chance for a very different life became a reality. buddy never gave up the dream that the poor could be helped by both respect and by direct action for compassionate housing.

Housing for the poor is a disgrace in Cincinnati and stands as an act of war against our citizens who deserve better from a city. buddy tried to build a bridge to a different city, a place where peace in Over-the-Rhine was directly connected to fair housing and compassionate streets. And, police that really cared to protect and not disrupt the streets and the people.

Today, buddy’s legacy is to warn the city to stop warring against the poor, the homeless and those needing good housing. No part of downtown will be safe as long as this war continues and buddy’s peace message is ignored.

Those brave people that have continued his work need to be celebrated for keeping alive a belief that

Cincinnati is a city for all of the people. They make it clear that peace and justice, buddy’s signal words, still need to be fulfilled. I bow to his memory and to those who continue the work of making peace. In peace, Steve.

by Dr. Steve Sunderland

Cincinnati has not recovered from the death of buddy gray. His tough approach to fighting for housing for the poor stands out as an amazing act of peace making. Cincinnati cannot be a great city when it forces out the poor, destroys reasonably priced housing and does everything possible to say that the poor are unwelcome citizens. buddy took the more difficult and humane path. The poor were seen as citizens of worth, as capable of making good decisions, and of being agents for the changing of the city. buddy knew that poverty was for many a temporary condition that robbed people of their internal peace. With

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Steve Sunderland

Bookselling Homeless Man Beats the Odds

by Paul Rice Cambridge, MA – After enduring multiple arrests and vaulting numerous (and potentially unconstitutional) legal barriers, a native Cantabrigian who is homeless, finally won the right to sell used books in the local meeting place, Harvard Square.

“All of the obstacles melted,” said newly permitted bookseller Kenneth O’Brien. “They knew they were wrong.”

O’Brien was arrested twice over a two month period for selling books without a permit on the sidewalk at 1324 Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square. The first case against him was dismissed, but was arrested again when he set up shop the next day. At his second arraignment, O’Brien was assigned a defense attorney named Daniel Beck, an unusual move considering the charges O’Brien faced didn’t carry a jail term.

“My guess is the judge thought it was an interesting enough case, and Mr. O’Brien needed a lawyer,” Beck told Spare Change News.

O’Brien and his associate Gary Kibler, who was also arrested in June for selling books without a permit, provided Beck with numerous court cases they felt proved they should be allowed to sell books without an expensive permit from the city.

The city continued to arrest them for not having the proper permit. However, O’Brien believed the permit the city instructed him to acquire did not apply to his circumstances. It required a $5,000 surety bond as well as $1 million in liability insurance to be approved by the city, fiscal requirements that didn’t bode well for a man who lives on the street with his family.

A glimmer of hope for O’Brien came in the form of an old Cambridge ordinance, entitled “Peddlers”. The ordinance reads: “No person shall place or keep any table, stall, booth or other erection, in any street, public place or any sidewalk, for the sale of any merchandise, without

permission from the Superintendent of Streets.

The fee for the permit set out in this chapter shall be fifty cents.”

This was the perfect permit for O’Brien’s business. There was only one problem: no one in the city’s bureaucracy knew about this ordinance, or how to apply for the peddler’s permit. Even Superintendent of Streets Bill Dwyer had no clue what the permit was, even though according to the ordinance, he was in charge of giving them out.

Gnomon Copy in Harvard Square helped O’Brien print out hundreds of pages of case files he eventually submitted to his attorney.

Beck then filed a motion of weighty determination with the judge: “The defendant hereby moves this Court to dismiss this case. In support he states that he was engaged in constitutionally protected activity, and that therefore there was no probable cause for the arrest.”

The judge ruled in favor of the dismissal about three weeks later, leaving O’Brien feeling vindicated and hopeful.

“The fact that they had no probable cause to arrest me was in black and white,” he said, smiling.

But whether or not Cambridge police would arrest him again if he tried to set up his stand remained to be seen.

O’Brien went to the Cambridge police station in Central Square and inquired at the front desk whether he would be arrested since he now had a dismissal that clearly showed they had no right to take him into custody in the first place.

The police sent him over to the City Solicitor’s office in Cambridge City Hall, who could not help him because the lead solicitor was unavailable. He went to Mayor Reeve’s office with the dismissal and inquired as to what his best course of action would be. Staff in the mayor’s office explained that the mayor of Cambridge has little to no political power and that he should try the City Manager’s office.

Making his way to that office, he started to feel a bit loopy.

A staff member in the City Manager’s

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office looked at his dismissal and listened to O’Brien’s story; the books, the arrests and the enigmatic permit. She made a call to the City Solicitor’s office and discovered that in fact the lead solicitor was available, and would see O’Brien. He returned to the office he started in and immediately received an audience, and, to his surprise, a peddler’s permit.

The permit he sought for more than 85 days suddenly fell into his lap. The next morning it was signed and approved by Bill Dwyer. A homeless man won a victory over an entire city’s bureaucracy, earning the right to sell books on the Harvard Square sidewalk.

O’Brien’s business, which he officially named “Almost Banned in Harvard Square Booksellers”, has now been in operation for four weeks. At the outset, Cambridge police would routinely stop at his stand and ask whether he had a permit to be there. He willingly shared his laminated copy with anybody who asked. Police interest has since died down, and his stand quickly became recognized by Square denizens as a legitimate business.

“Everybody in the community who’s known about this has been walking up to shake my hand,” O’Brien said. Now that his business has an official name, O’Brien is looking for more ways to link arms with the local business community, namely the Harvard Square Business Association (HSBA).

“The objective of the HSBA is to promote commerce and commerce comes in a lot of forms,” says Denise Gillson, the organization’s executive director. “I think the board would be generally supportive of this kind of enterprise.”

As of press time, O’Brien had received an application for membership from the HSBA and hoped to be a full member within a month.

As for other booksellers in Harvard Square, O’Brien initially expected to meet resistance. As it turned out, he found himself and his business welcomed.

“We welcome competition,” says Alan Powell, corporate general manager for the Harvard Coop. “If anything, we need more bookseller competition. That’s what Harvard Square is traditionally known for.”

Harvard Book Store, O’Brien’s closest bookselling neighbor, agrees.

“We do acknowledge that the bookstand in question is competition,” wrote Frank Kramer, owner of Harvard Book Store, in an email to SCN. “Harvard Book Store deals with competition every day – we compete with the Harvard Coop/Barnes & Noble, with Raven Books, among others. Competition keeps us on our toes, and encourages us to be the best bookstore we can be.”

O’Brien believes he can be stalwart competition, but he’s not looking to put anyone out of business. In fact, he’s hoping to put some people in business as he looks for ways his bookstand can give back to the community he grew up in. He set up importing networks among local homeless people, and even brought in some of his friends, homeless and not, to help him run the table for a share in the day’s profits.

“I especially want to work with the longer-term homeless, not the kids,” he told SCN. “Being older and homeless is two strikes against you right there.”

He sees the potential for a new street economy to arise centered around his activities, an economy that may benefit all those living on the streets of Harvard Square.

“What better than to give back to the streets, where I’ve come from myself,” he said.

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Suit filed over homeless meals

Voter ID News In Ohio

Orlando, FL - The Central Florida ACLU filed a lawsuit last month that claims the Orlando ordinance limiting the feeding of homeless people, adopted in July, is unconstitutional and should be overturned.

There were two hours already on the meter when Jacqueline Dowd pulled into the parking spot across from the federal courthouse.

“I thought, ‘That’s a good omen,’ “ the Orlando attorney said.

Dowd needed only seven minutes to file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court.

The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of First Vagabonds Church of God; Brian Nichols, the homeless man who serves as pastor of the church that meets in city parks; and Orlando Food Not Bombs and four of its members.

City officials and politicians reacted with dismay at the lawsuit, saying they would have preferred for both sides to have a dialogue on the issue.

But the architect of the city law said the suit could become the force for that discussion to finally happen.

“If there is a silver lining, maybe it’s that this will get us to coordinate efforts. We need to coordinate, and we need a drop-in center,” Commissioner Patty Sheehan said.

George Crossley, who heads the local ACLU, agreed but said the agency had no choice but to sue to get the city’s attention.

“We want to find a long-term solution to this problem,” Crossley said. “This lawsuit will

On October 4, a federal judge in Cleveland blocked part of a new Ohio state law that would require naturalized citizens to provide a certificate of naturalization upon trying to vote if a poll worker challenged their eligibility. Fortunately this clear form of discrimination, where naturalized citizens are meant to be treated differently from native-born citizens at the polling place, will be blocked.

“Absent proof of citizenship, the person would be allowed to cast a provisional ballot but would have to provide proof of citizenship within 10 days for the vote to count. A group of foreignborn citizens, many from Greater Cleveland, filed a lawsuit in August, saying the new law could lead to ethnic and racial profiling.”

definitely go somewhere.”A handful of charities have been at odds with the city since July, when Orlando banned groups from serving meals at Lake Eola Park and other downtown city land without a special permit.

Permits are available to any group or person just twice a year.

Food Not Bombs has continued to provide weekly vegan meals at Lake Eola, in defiance of the law. The city has responded by issuing permits to it and other groups that have continued their feedings.

The lawsuit argues restricting those meals violates freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

It also argues for equal protection under the Constitution, arguing that if any person can eat lunch in the parks, everyone has the same right.

But Sheehan noted that the city also had provided an alternative feeding site, on Sylvia Lane, which does not require a permit or any fees.

That factor is likely to be included in the city’s response, which it has 20 days to file.

There is no clear legal precedent on the issue.

In a state case in Fort Lauderdale, where the city had adopted a law restricting a religious group’s feedings on a public beach, the city was required to create an alternative site.

However, a 1996 federal court in Virginia allowed a religious group to continue with its feedings because it proved the meals were a central part of its religion.

A vile teen fad: beating the homeless

by Michael Stoops and Brian Levin Across the nation, America’s homeless are under attack - literally. They are hunted down during youthful rites of passage by roving packs of males armed with prejudice and tools of torture.

The number of violent incidents against our country’s most vulnerable members has risen dramatically this year, with 16 murders in the first nine months so far. One homeless man was set ablaze in his wheelchair in Spokane, Wash.; another man was beaten with baseball bats in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; a homeless woman was drowned by two young men who rolled her into Tennessee’s Cumberland River while she slept.

The hate behind this brutality is not fostered in rural Klan rallies or overseas terrorist camps, but in high school locker rooms and suburban living rooms. While homeless people have often been stereotyped as worthless, depraved, and disposable, prejudice now has a potent new ally: “bum rushing” videos.

This twisted fad has inspired some youths to kill for the “fun” of emulating what they see on a video screen. One group of teens inspired by these videos murdered Michael Roberts, a frail homeless man who succumbed after being relentlessly pummeled by nailstudded two-by-fours and a log in Holly Hill, Fla. Teens buy and trade hundreds of thousands of these videos, making their producers rich.

They also film their own assaults, broadcasting them online.

In the first nine months of 2006, 36 of 58

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Las Vegas homeless man shot in face by Nevada trooper LAS VEGAS - A Las Vegas homeless man was hospitalized this weekend after being shot in the face by a Nevada trooper.

51-year-old Donald O’Day was shot in face last month.

O’Day has a history of mental illness.

Police say he was throwing rocks at the trooper in a vacant lot where officers had gone to respond to complaints of people soliciting.

O’Day’s family says they are trying to get more information about what happened.

They say O’Day is a paranoid schizophrenic who has been living in and out of institutions, on the streets and with family members for nearly 30 years.

Officials should work to raise community awareness so neighbors can help eradicate homelessness altogether, not just remove it from their own line of vision. Community education efforts should model the NCH’s Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau. The Bureau is made up of current and former homeless people who give talks to break stereotypes. This year, this panel has made more than 300 appearances, speaking to more than 17,000 people, mostly youths.

Their work is leading the way to stop the dehumanization of those without homes. Without further effort, violence against the homeless will continue. The burden falls on all our shoulders to end homelessness. Until the day when all Americans are housed, the least we can do is ensure their safety. * Michael Stoops is acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington. Brian Levin is director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino

known homeless attackers were teens ages 14 to 19. Such violence seems to be correlated with the rise of bum videos. The number of reported incidents in 2003 nearly doubled, jumping from 36 reported attacks in 2002 to 70 in 2003. The number of nonlethal attacks reached 77 through the end of this September.

In Calgary, Alberta, youths filmed themselves beating and urinating on a homeless man, and screaming out “bum fights!” In Los Angeles, a youth admitted that he, too, was inspired to kill a homeless man with an aluminum baseball bat after viewing a video.

Perhaps most disturbing is not the media’s influence on violence and prejudice, but the nation’s almost casual acceptance of this violence and the images that derive from it.

If any other minority group reported hate- crime homicide numbers this high there would be a national outcry for justice. A comparison by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, and the National Coalition for Judging Streetvibes? the Homeless (NCH), found that from 1999 to 2005 there were 167 homeless homicides by domiciled attackers. The number of these killings is more than double the number of all other officially tabulated hate- crime homicides combined. The glaring disparity underscores the case for action. But how do we act? s We need to enhance data collection by ibe etv law enforcement and improve outreach to the Stre homeless community. Homelessness must be added to vulnerable-victim laws and hate-crime legislation.

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Foley’s Meltdown – The Seductions of Clicking

by Paul Rogat Loeb It’s easy to delight in the Hastert/Foley meltdown, and how it’s hit a national nerve.

Building on all the administration’s abuses, failures, and lies, the cover up of this out-of-control congressman may just give America the inadvertent gift of a chance to finally change course.

As I read the daily stories, though, I fear that too many of us will devour them with relish, then do little more than gloat. I worry that we’ll be so busy following each breaking revelation about the self-destruction of a regime so drunk on its own power it’s finally overreached, that we’ll end up doing nothing but cheering. At a moment when those long disengaged or disagreeing might finally be receptive, that would be a profound loss.

Because the degree of the electoral shift in this key election will likely be decided by the volunteer energy that turns out borderline participants to vote.

Many of us have followed the Foley/ Hastert story by reading about it on progressive websites, and these sites have done a great job of placing it in context.

Yet the time we spend online also risks being part of the problem.

I’m not talking about the ability to click and donate. That’s played a profound role in making the Democratic Party at least partially one of small contributors again, and helped bring within reach the once improbable Paul Loeb challenge of helping the Democrats take back the House and Senate.

The dollars we contribute may make the difference between winning and losing.

But we also need to get out from behind our computers, and realize that not all politics can be accomplished with the click of a mouse. That means walking local precincts, traveling to swing districts, signing up for the remote voter calling programs of groups like MoveOn, and talking to people who don’t normally agree with us. Just reading wonderful blog posts and forwarding inspiring emails won’t get sympathetic or newly sympathetic voters to the polls.

This last would seem obvious, but most of us don’t participate in these more direct ways. For instance, MoveOn now has three million members, but just 38,000 have signed up so far for a powerful new program where people from less competitive geographic areas call potentially supportive voters in swing states or districts.

Thirty-eight thousand people will make a real impact, but nothing compared to 300,000, which would be just a tenth of their members, or the half million or more who have signed their on-line petitions. I’ve seen similarly precipitous drop offs in practically every progressive group that’s rooted in online communities.

This isn’t a critique of the online organizations trying to make this happen. To take the case of MoveOn, few progressive groups in America’s history have enlisted more people to be involved in at least some modest ways, gotten out more useful information, or raised more grassroots dollars for critical races and issues. But we need

to look at why more people haven’t found ways of acting offline.

Most of us do have overloaded lives. Clicking and emailing gives us a chance to act despite them. But between now and the election, most of us could find a few additional hours to make calls or maybe even a day or two to walk precincts or monitor polls on the day of the vote. But somehow we use the excuse of lack of time to rationalize a larger withdrawal. .

We also may not feel our small individual efforts will really make a difference, a resignation that echoes that of many of the people we’re trying to reach and turn out-those who similarly discount the importance of their individual votes. When I volunteer to walk a precinct or call voters, I envision the modest impact of my actions being multiplied by that all the other volunteers who are joining me. If we have 15,000-20,000 progressive campaign volunteers in my state of Washington, which we often have, and we each make the different for just two votes apiece, that’s 30,000-40,000 votes in a state where the past two elections have seen a US Senator elected by 2,400 votes and a governor by 129 votes following three recounts. But for many of us our reflex fatalism leaves us passive spectators, dismissing the power of our potential efforts before we even attempt them.

Even if we’re not feeling pessimistic, or at least not during the last couple weeks, we still may end up acting as little more than political spectators. Given a juicy scandal like the Foley/ Hastert affair, it’s just too tempting to spend the

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

entire time we devote to politics just following the news, on this or other issues, until we never have to face the question of how to actually reach beyond the chorus of the already committed. The potential for people to become political junkies didn’t originate with the Internet. We could always spend free hours reading piles of magazines and newspapers. But it’s far easier in a world of endless connected links.

Our blogs and listservs keep us informed, offering facts and arguments to use in convincing friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Reminding us that we aren’t alone in our concerns, they give us quick and efficient ways to pressure our elected representatives to take wiser and more courageous stands—which if they do speak out will create powerful additional ripples. They help us reflect on every conceivable key issue, including the critical question of how to head America back from the present destructive course. But by themselves they don’t reach the unconvinced—those who’d potentially be receptive, but remain silent or disconnected. If we want to actually change America’s political culture, we’re going to have to find ways to act offline.

We now have an unexpected opportunity.

Just a few weeks until a pivotal election, during which the Republican game plan has just imploded and voters long part of their coalition are beginning to question and bolt. A month during which our perspectives and outreach just might make the difference in deciding who chairs the committees, who brings bills to the House or Senate floor, and who has the ability to pass or block legislation. But this will only happen if we find ways to reach out.

To do that, we’re going to have to step back at some point from our keyboards and screens, turn away from our favorite listsservs and blogs, and expose ourselves to the vulnerability of talking to people we don’t already know. The stakes are worth it.

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time.

Page 13

How Did It Happen? by buddy gray February 19, 1950 – November 15, 1996

Tennessee i don’t know how it happened…many events, Witnesses, years…

But more important—it has… i don’t desire to be happy unless happiness is a universal right i don’t care to be at peace when teenagers of the third world must learn to shoot anti-aircraft guns at American invading planes i don’t want to be acceptable as long as rape, racism/sexism, multinational profit, CIA destabilization of governments, joblessness, homelessness are acceptable i don’t intend to be calm, pleasant and likable if the stink of injustice must be raised i don’t expect to be patient until there is “HOUSING NOW” FOR ALL i don’t know how to be quiet when our voices may be the only counter to the Rich’s media controls, limits, inversions of the truth i don’t think about being respectful when hunger exists in the land of plenty poverty exists in this nation of wealth uneducation and ill health run rampant in this place of advanced technology and toxic waste ravages this once-beautiful country now owned by a handful i don’t plan to be non-disruptive of the “order” around us i don’t yet choose to be a carpenter if nuclear bombs production still steals the housing construction budget As long as churches and synagogues and temples do reverent rituals for rights and speak in pious platitudes of peace and take no angry action that stops American Business as usual to end homelessness, imperialism As long as business lunches still happen in the glass condos looking out over the homeless and hungry on the cold streets 10 stories below As long as the City Fathers can work 8 hours a week for $35,000 and do little to learn of the peoples problems over whom they rule i fully intend to dream of happiness and peace when i sleep. food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, equality, green space and peace for all…

And meanwhile, awake to live as unacceptably, non-calmly unpleasantly dislikably impatiently loudly disrespectfully and disruptively and as contagiously collectively as i am able as long as is necessary December 1st, 1989

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Campaigns At the Capitol i’ve been gone 3 days, Tennessee, Gone again, Tennessee To campaigns at the Capitol You always greet me, Tennessee, When I return.

You always say “I been knowing you 20 years” “You’re a good man” You have 3 little spots i know, Tennessee The steps west side of your building ‘ The stone ledge along the park The 1st bench inside the park gate Campaigns at the Capitol You support me strong Your voice has fire and wisdom You say of Tennessee a poor, old, black man But you don’t march any more Your eyes are cataract’ed Your walk is slow Your drinking now has major role Today you were at spot 3 A high man was swearing And threatening you i came up and put my arms around you and stayed a short while till things cooled down.

I plead with you to come home You say, “I’m thinking about it” I say, “Don’t wait too late.”

Campaigns at the Capitol, Tennessee They have me worried You knew the youth i was You know the route we’ve both fought Since the early days of the shelter’s struggle.

Conditions have greatly worsened since we met Campaigns are on and on and on Campaigns, Tennessee You know have taken their toll My friendships with those walking slow My time on the street My street-work intervening vs. addiction — where we met Campaigns, have me worried, Tennessee You say you’re thinking about coming back home “To save your life, Tennessee” Tennessee, I’m really worried And my heart is torn Campaigns at the Capitol shall have me And when I return and rest I’ll find You waited too late to Come back home By buddy gray Found in a yellow notepad by Bonnie Neumeier No date Tennessee was a frequent guest at Drop Inn Center

Streetvibes

Fall is a Time

by Ron Martin Fall is a time for the leaves to fly off the trees.

Fall is a time for the leaves to turn colors.

Fall is a time for the wind to whistle.

Fall is a time for the grass to get covered with leaves Fall is a time for the people to make pumpkin pie because with pumpkin you can by.

Fall is a time to throw the pigskin.

Fall is a time to put on your orange and black.

Fall is a time to be together, stick together and bake together.

Fall is a time to keep warm.

Fall is a time to eat candy corn.

Writers!

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

Disaster or Misunderstanding?

I’m sure by now that you know of Hurricane Katrina and the disaster she left behind. Thousands upon thousands of people have no homes and no place to go. Some say the disaster could’ve been avoided, others say it was just a misunderstanding. The warning came out Friday that a hurricane was forming in the ocean. Some people didn’t take it seriously, others simply had no way out. Many depended upon public transportation to get around. Yes, some didn’t want to leave their homes, but many had no choice.

To make things worse, the government responded slowly to the disaster. They said they couldn’t get in there. If the news crews were able to get down there, why couldn’t our government?

The government says, “We did help.” They told people to go to the Superdome; they would send buses to get them out. The buses never came. After the hurricane and the flood, they had nothing. People started looting because they needed food, water and diapers.

The President sent Armed Forces to stop the looting, but did not send any supplies for the victims. Can we blame them for looting? People were dying on the streets, and all they could do was stack the bodies to the side. Can we blame them for their despair?

I pray for everyone and ask God to help them.

May they find the help and hope they need.

War

by Jessye Marie Daily What does it mean?

It means children with lost dreams.

It means people lost forever, People we will never know.

People who will no longer grow.

Families who will never be together again.

All the hurt it causes And people hardly pause, To stop and think of all the effects.

The whole situation has left me perplexed.

Why is it that the children have to suffer most, While the old men are the ones who sit back and boast.

Wrong is becoming meshed with right.

We have decided against word and toward might.

Fear

Days of Darkness

by Jessye Marie Daily

They forced us to live in a desolate place Where our hearts never saw the sunshine.

They turned us into their slaves Making us mold adobes and build their fort Though they said we were free.

The soldiers gave us strange food that we didn’t like And the soil was no good for farming our corn.

The illness spread through our people like a wildfire And we couldn’t withstand the cold winter rain and wind.

It’s like they’re wasting us As they did our Buffalo that had once roamed so free.

Yet here we are, the Navajo, Desolate Ill of spirit Not defeated by the white man.

(This is a poem describing The Long Walk, in my own words, as so many Native Americans had to take.)

Fear is not a good thing.

Fear is not a bad thing, though.

Fear is a part of life and you can’t control it.

Fear is like what you may have for roller coasters, or heights, or Saddam.

We should not let it control us; if we do we will live with fear, and our hearts will die, and our fears will live on.

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

Streetvibes

Page 15

569-9500

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

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

SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth)

SHELTER: Men City Gospel 241-5525 Mission Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House 324-2321 (Veterans) St. Francis/St.Joseph 381-4941 House 661-4620 Mt. Airy Center Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954

SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 921-1131 Bethany House 762-5660 Salvation Army Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis 859-491-3335 Center Grace Place Catholic Worker 681-2365 House Tom Gieger Guest House 961-4555

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

OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of 421-2437 Cincinnati Appalachian Identity 621-5991 Center 231-6630 Beech Acres Center for Independent Living 241-2600 Options Churches Active in 591-2246 Northside Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 381-4242 Contact Center Center for Respite Care 621-1868 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 241-2563 Emanuel Center Freestore/

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

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

TREATMENT: Women 961-4663 First Step Home

HOUSING: 977-5660 CMHA Excel Development 632-7149 241-0504 Miami Purchase OTR Community Housing 381-1171 721-8666 Tender Mercies Dana Transitional Bridge 751-9797 Services, Inc

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

or Want to Help?

Need Help or would like to 241-1064 Foodbank Fransiscan Haircuts 381--0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental 946-8600 Health Board Mental Health Access 558-8888 Point Hamilton Co. TB Control 946-7601 Healing Connections 751-0600 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile 352-2902 Health Van House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 IJ & Peace Center 579-8547 621-5991 Worker Center 241-0490 Justice Watch Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis.

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

November 2006

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Remembering buddy gray

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