Streetvibes January 2007 Edition

January 2007

STREETVIBES

Homeless Memorial remembers the Homeless and those who have died Cover Story

Cincinnati, OH – The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless remembered those homeless individuals who have passed away this year with the Annual Homeless Memorial Day, in an effort to shine a spotlight on the continuing tragedy of homelessness in our community. This year’s Memorial was held in Cincinnati’s Washington Park.

The event, which featured a burning barrel to commemorate the suffering of homeless individuals who often struggle to stay warm, was held on the shortest day of the year, December 21st, 2006.

“Many times, homeless individuals pass away with no one to remember them or mourn their passing. This event celebrates the lives of these often forgotten individuals,” stated Georgine Getty, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, the sponsor of this event.

Getty added that the memorial takes on added importance this year due to the recent and tragic increase in “hate crimes” that target the homeless population.

Homeless Memorial Day is also a chance to mourn the national tragedy of homelessness in general and bring awareness to the suffering of the 25,000 men, women and children who experience homelessness each year in Cincinnati. Dozens of people listened as the names of the deceased were read aloud. This year, cities across the nation sponsored events, which included candle light marches and vigils, graveside services, plays and

other performances and special religious services.

For over 20 years, concerned citizens, religious persons, students, homeless advocates and people experiencing homelessness have gathered on the Winter Solstice in December for the Homeless Memorial Day Every year over 30 homeless or recently homeless individuals die in Cincinnati. Often these deaths are the result of years of harsh living, lack of medical care and exposure to the elements.

The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the

Homeless is a unified, social action group, fully committed to the eradication of homelessness with respect for the dignity and diversity of its membership, the homeless and the community. The coalition performs three areas of work: coordinating services, educating the public, and grassroots organizing and advocacy.

To learn more about The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and this year’s Annual Memorial Day contact Georgine Getty at (513) 4217803*13, or (513) 295-8969.

An Over-the-Rhine Christmas Story

by Michael Flood One exceedingly cold morning in early December, with the temperature just above a single digit, I left home for work. My normal commute is a walk of two short blocks. This particular morning took a few extra minutes because I needed to remove a few items from the trunk of my car.

As I rounded the corner to approach the car, I walked past the usual crew of entrepreneurs with whom I have a relationship that amounts to no more than exchanging an occasional pleasantry.

These young men are always on the corner; rain, snow or sunshine, blazing heat or bitter cold, no matter the weather conditions, they are on the job, ready to sell their pharmaceutical products to their customers from all over the tri-state region.

This particular morning a customer was waiting, cash in hand, to buy whatever it was he felt he needed to make it through the day, or at least the next few hours. This sorrowful, droopy eyed, slack jawed individual was standing on the corner with no shoes. The only things on his feet were some summery sandals with open toes. He was shivering uncontrollably from the cold with only a light jacket and no hat.

This sad scene was brightened by the fact that as the drug dealers not only refused to take his money for their product, they admonished him to use whatever money he had to buy a pair of real shoes. Normally, I would have missed this entire exchange because I would have walked past them and gone directly to work. My delay, caused by taking a couple of trips between the car and the

house, enabled me to witness not only the honorable act of the dope boys refusing the sale, but that one of them walked around the corner to a store on Vine Street and bought this gentleman two pairs of new socks. They instructed him to put them on his feet before he left the corner. He proceeded to put on one pair, throwing the other in a garbage can. This last act did not escape the attention of the drug dealers, who retrieved the socks from the garbage and promptly told him to put them on over the first pair.

I have often thought about and marveled at the way of life of the drug dealers. Though much maligned, they have an amazing work ethic. They show up every day of the week, without regard for the weather conditions. They have developed a devoted clientele, who, judging from the license plates that flow by each and every day, come from far and wide. I have noticed customers from the teen years, to people who appear to be well into their seventies.

The drug dealers are there because there are people in need. Something in their lives needs attention, so, just as some people attempt to resolve a medical condition with a prescribed drug from their family doctor, some others need to fix what ails them with a self-prescribed drug. The people who come are from every walk of life.

Some appear to be homeless; others appear to be working class, driving up in every imaginable type of work vehicle. Others seem to be quite well off financially, arriving in late model cars, well dressed, on their way to work downtown. Just like a drive-

up coffee establishment offering the latest latte, the drug consumers can drive up and leave with their drug of choice and be sent on their way with a friendly smile.

I was heartened to see that these young men, manning their posts under brutal circumstances, had the good and common sense to care about their customers more immediate need rather than his next fix and their bottom line.

His life was in danger and they did something to help him, they clothed him against the bitter cold.

How many of us would have even noticed this poor person’s feet, let alone do something about it.

Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

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

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

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

GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director John Lavelle - Administrative Coordinator Lynne Ausman - VISTA Andy Freeze - Education Coordinator Susan Smith - Volunteer Melvin Williams - Reception Linda Pittman - Reception Matt Cohen - AHA Staff Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor jimmyheath@yahoo.com Photography Jimmy Heath Cover Homeless Memorial in Washington Park

Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or vendors.

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

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

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Breaking the Barriers

by Jimmy Heath somewhat naive, especially for As time goes by, nothing someone who actually lives in Overchanges. Wars are played out. People the-Rhine. suffer gut-wrenching poverty. There At the turn of the century are hungry children in Over-the-Rhine Vine Street had theaters, concert halls and everywhere else. Homeless and more cafes per square foot than people are buried so deep in the cycle any other street in the United States. that they can’t seem to dig their way Because of Vine Street, Cincinnati out. (and I’m still sitting at the was called ”The Paris of America”.

Streetvibes desk after ten years.)

Bad example! The French Revolution As the world closes in on us, of 1789 is recognized as one of the thanks to technology, we can see what most significant and violent events in is happening in the world and in our world history. There was an upsurge own backyard without leaving the TV in Anti-Semitism. Paris was a room. Just the same, it’s shocking dangerous place. what some people don’t War staged the know about their city. different classes against Crime, race, poverty and one another - pitting the homelessness are clergy and the lumped into the same commoners against the assortment, signaling out nobles. There was the depravity from the poverty everywhere well-heeled, well among citizens of Paris. intentioned soccer moms Social mobility and Jimmy Heath living in the suburbs. equality was desired and In this city, was one of the primary children are hungry and lack the causes of the revolution. Massive proper health care. Good, safe peasant uprisings against nobles also housing is hard to find at a decent broke out in the countryside. price. The homeless struggle to Meanwhile Over-the-Rhine survive. Many say that poverty is a remains a 21st century pocket of criminal third class self-imposed poverty. The citizens of the suburbs condition. remain isolated from the realities of United Way’s State of the the grinding destitution. The depth of Region reports that the percent of thinking isolates people outside the people living in poverty in Cincinnati inner-city to hear only the bits and was 25% in 2005, a figure that pieces of truth that might leak out into continues to rise. their communities. So they go with According to a recent TV what they know. news story, what Over-the-Rhine We continue to try to educate needs is “a better mix of residents”. the middle-class about what is going Jim Tarbell, City Councilman on in this and other poor said, “This ought to be bars and neighborhoods around the city. We restaurants and music and dancing as take presentations to schools and civic it was 100 years ago.” I think this is organizations. We protest important

Firecats Review Firecat Review: Cookies Firecats know that they can’t end homelessness on an empty stomach, so when their tummies start purring, they reach for their favorite Firecat food: cookies.

With the holidays now behind them, this group of super homeless advocates sat down to discuss this purrrrrfect tasty treat.

Firecat Chameleon: So what are we going to review?

Anti-Cat and Firecat Silver: Cookies!

Chameleon: It needs to be said that cookies are delicious.

Firecat Blue: That goes without saying.

Chameleon: No, I’ve met people who don’t like cookies.

Blue: That’s a lie!

Chameleon: Health nuts.

Blue: They still like cookies. They just can’t have them.

Anti-Cat: Homemade are best.

Silver: Yeah.

Anti-Cat: Price Club [in Arizona] has very good oatmeal cookies. I enjoy eating them.

Silver: My family’s having a cookieoff. I’m in a challenge.

Chameleon: What’s your favorite cookie?

Anti-Cat: Oatmeal raisin.

Chameleon: That’s like the pseudo health cookie.

Silver: I don’t like the ones in the plastic tray at Kroger. They always have sugar, sometimes oatmeal.

Anti-Cat: Those are my favorite!

Chameleon: Those are okay.

Blue: Wait…those ones from the bakery?

Silver: Yeah, they have a funny taste.

Blue: They do! They look delicious, but they do have a funny taste.

Silver: And they’re all perfectly the same size.

Chameleon: They should be!

Blue: No! Cookies are imperfect… that’s why they’re perfect.

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issues at City Hall. We tell our stories. We try to close the gap so that eventually everyone will have their needs met.

Inch by inch, we touch the hearts of strangers who want to do something about the current state of our society, the richest country on the planet, so that this peace will spread throughout the world.

For 30 years the Over-theRhine Peoples Movement, a confederation of neighborhood development and support institutions, has been a consistent voice in advancing plans for low- and moderate-income people, and in distinguishing between gentrification and development.

Decades of disinvestment on the one hand, and recent gentrification and displacement on the other, have taken their toll on the Peoples Movement’s ability to recruit members, articulate its critical voice, and sustain leadership But it doesn’t take large organizations, just a small group of people who care, rich or poor.

Each individual wants to fulfill their full potential. Men and women innately desire to realize the blessing of love that is fulfilled through the ideal of the true family and being together in good health and security.

People desire to live in a peaceful and harmonious society in which they can enjoy the fruits of their labor and provide a comfortable life for their families and those less fortunate. These are not only the basic goals of humanity; they are expressions of the Spirit’s purpose for mankind to be sensitive, spirited and aware of the struggles of all of those who we think are less than us.

Anti-Cat: I don’t like cookies with frosting.

Blue: I’m a snickerdoodle fan.

Anti-Cat: What about buckeyes?

All: Not Cookies!

Anti-Cat: With Greasy Piecies?

Chameleon: Reece’s Pieces? Many people incorrectly say “Riecies Piecies.”

Blue: Anti-Cat just said “Greasy Piecies.” All this time I thought he was just giving things cute nicknames, but he’s just been saying things wrong.

Firecats’ Top 5 Cookies 1. Firecat Silver’s chocolate chip cookies 2. Anti-Cat’s mom’s chocolate chip cookies 3. Snickerdoodles 4. Any Girl Scout cookies 5. Free cookies Firecats’ Top 5 Not-Cookies 1. Greasy Piecies 2. Buckeyes 3. Green Beans (Anti-Cat’s suggestion) 4. Boy Scout popcorn 5. Pie Best Out of Context Firecat Review Quote Firecat Chameleon: “You’re a hot little Mr. Goodbar.”

Homeless News Digest

exception resulted in nationwide ridicule.

Compiled by Jimmy Heath

LONG BEACH, CA. - The motorcycle-riding host of “Monster Garage” says he will help homeless people out by offering jobs at his Long Beach, Calif., custom bike shop.

People magazine reports that Jesse James, husband of actress Sandra Bullock, has found a new passion in helping out the homeless with solid paying positions at his motorcycle shop, West Coast Choppers.

People says he hired his first new employee, Richard Sihock, a former warehouse worker who fell on hard times and had been homeless for about a year. He’s earning $8.50 an hour, $1.75 over California’s minimum wage level, but has the prospect of a raise. He is now able to afford a one-bedroom apartment for himself and his wife, the report said.

James, 37, says he decided to reach out to help the homeless when he became aware of Project Achieve, an overnight emergency shelter, opened up across the street from his business. He’s looking for his next hire.

THOUSAND OAKS - An elaborate Ventura County display of Nativity scenes from around the world has attracted thousands of visitors for more than a decade and raised more than $130,000 to care for homeless people in the area.

Karen Phipps, one of the organizers, said there will be hundreds of sets on display at the 14th annual exhibit this year, but she couldn’t say exactly how many because potential exhibitors are still applying.

“It’s amazing to see the types of materials people have used,” she said. “ ... Some are exquisite.”

Some of the scenes depicting the birth of Jesus are made of porcelain and china, cut crystal, carved olive wood and clay. One is even made from office supplies, including light bulbs and phone cords.

The display has a particular emotional significance to Nora Howells, whose late husband, Huw, came up with the idea of calling it No Room at the Inn because Jesus was homeless at his birth.

Huw Howells and another collector, Judy Crenshaw, conceived the idea 17 years ago of displaying their nativity scenes for charity and using the money from visitors to help the homeless. But before he could setup the display, Huw died of cancer in 1993.

MANSFIELD — This is the time of year Harmony House receives most of its donations, Vicki Kane, executive director of the 124 W. Third St. homeless shelter, said last month..

Some people reach out for help, while others pitch in to make Christmas a season of giving.

As donations come in, the staff divide them into bags for each of the 60 or so clients.

“Men at the shelter need socks and underwear, gloves, hats and little treats, Kane said. “Women always also need socks and underwear and appreciate little gift items.”

The bags are distributed to mothers on Christmas Eve. They decide when to have Christmas with their kids.

“Many (kids) have never experienced Christmas,” Kane said.

Harmony House staff and clients work together to make the holidays joyful.

“We encourage them to prepare a Christmas meal together, and we play carols and try to do the traditional things that make Christmas a special day. A lot of them don’t have families to visit and they get somewhat depressed,” the director said. “We try to create our own little family.”

Donations of food are also welcome, with some people bringing in food, a ham or some treat not normally on the menu, Kane said.

Someone called the shelter and said she would drop off an artificial Christmas tree. Kane said everyone will enjoy decorating it.

WASHINGTON - The head of the Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County, Va., is halting an attempt to prohibit churches from donating food to homeless shelters.

Chairman Gerald E. Connolly says church suppers and feeding the homeless are not going to be banned in Fairfax County, The Washington Post reported last month.

Connolly blames overzealous county employees for trying to force churches to comply with a Virginia law requiring that all food served to the public must be cooked in certified kitchens.

The law exempts “occasional” dinners hosted by school and church groups as well as bake sales by PTAs and sports teams.

Attempts by county employees to apply the law without

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Police are checking the names of homeless people at the city’s shelters to weed out those with outstanding warrants, a move angering homeless advocates.

“It will keep a lot of people, even those who are not wanted by the law, from using the shelter,” said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.

So far, the checks have netted 21 arrests, all for people failing to appear in court on what city officials say are misdemeanor charges like panhandling and public intoxication.

City officials say they are trying to assure the safety of the people in the shelter. “We’re going to take the extra steps to make sure we’re providing a safe atmosphere for everyone,” said Harold Reaves, the city’s deputy director of homeland security.

The checks at the city’s two winter shelters surprised Victor Williams, a homeless man at one of the facilities. “What they’re doing, it’s just wrong,” he said.

In past years, police sometimes showed up with a warrant for someone at a shelter, but didn’t check the sign-in sheet regularly, said Mike Lee, who now directs the city’s shelters.

“This is a homeless shelter, not a safe haven for people who have violated our laws,” City Councilman Kirkman Finlay said. “We cannot in good conscience provide cover for people who are on the lam.”

NEW MEXICO - It’s a story nothing short of amazing. A handful of homeless men lifted a 2 ton Cadillac off a little girl who was pinned beneath it. One of the heroes is a New Mexico man who credits his tribal heritage for saving the girl’s life.

The man who helped save 9year-old Robyn Rubio’s life is not only tearful, but humble when he talks about his recent act of bravery.

“I don’t want to be called a hero,” said Stanford Washburn.

Washburn, a person who has nothing, gave everything last month to rescue Robyn. He even credits his Navajo heritage with saving her life.

“I chanted for her, ‘Please don’t leave us, be with us, be well, be well.’ That’s my chant,” said Washburn.

Washburn calls Shiprock, N.M., his home, but right now he’s homeless. Last weekend he was drinking in an alley near the Las Vegas strip in Nevada when he saw a Cadillac hit Robyn head-on.

Washburn and several other

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transients jumped up and ran to help, miraculously lifting the 5,000 pound car off of Robin’s tiny body.

“I know she was scared, I know she was scared,” said Tina Rubio, Robyn’s mother.

Rubio has been unable to see her daughter in intensive care. But her daughter’s small frame is being held together by pins and rods. Both of her arms were broken, her pelvis was shattered, and her leg broken.

“She doesn’t know what she looks like. I don’t even think she knows what is going on,” said Rubio.

What Robyn will know one day is that a homeless man from New Mexico likely saved her life. But it’s likely he won’t be the one to tell her.

He’s much too humble.

“I’m just one of you guys, a red-blooded human being,” said Washburn.

A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Police Department said he doubts the men could have picked up the car if a child had not been underneath it. They also said it shows how humans regardless of their circumstances react to saving a life.

LAS VEGAS - Calling it a safety hazard, a city official has closed a neighborhood park at the center of the city’s struggle to deal with the homeless.

City manager Doug Selby ordered Huntridge Circle Park closed last month, just days after a homeless man was stabbed to death in a fight there.

The three acres in a median southeast of downtown has been a daytime base for dozens of homeless.

Critics have blamed Good Samaritans who hand out free meals in the park.

The meal program led the City Council to pass an ordinance banning giving food to indigents. A federal judge rejected the ban.

Selby said the closure had “nothing to do with the homeless” but was a safety issue.

Homeless advocate Linda Lera Randle-El said she can understand the city’s desire to tackle what it considers a high-crime area, but wondered if Selby was taking extraordinary action.

“Are they going to close down the Strip when someone shoots somebody?” Randle-El said.

Selby said the park will remain closed until authorities find a solution to prevent crime there.

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Think Globally, Protect The Vote Locally

by Paul Rogat Loeb voted, ignoring that many were naturalized Just as local cities have adopted citizens. In Tucson, the Mexican American Legal environmental and wage laws that exceed Defense and Educational Fund photographed federal standards, maybe it’s time for local armed men attempting to prevent Hispanic initiatives protecting the sanctity of the vote. voters from entering polling places. In Texas, a We’ve been seeing electoral abuses and federal judged stopped Republican Attorney manipulations since the Bush administration took General Greg Abbott from prosecuting 13 power. So we need to ensure the Democrats largely elderly Democrats who took sealed make national electoral protection a priority. But absentee ballots from their friends to place in we can also act on a local level. mail boxes.

Though the Democratic surge took back The abuses probably weren’t on the level the Senate and House, some ugly actions quite of 2000 or 2004, in part because of major likely shifted several close Congressional races. The poster race for this election’s abuses, appropriately, is Katherine Harris’s old Congressional district in Sarasota, FL. Harris’s district saw more than just voting machine problems. In the Jennings/ Buchanan election as in over 50 key races throughout the country, Republicans called voters again and again with automated robocall that led with the name of the Democratic candidate, and then followed with scurrilous attacks. Because voters tend to hang up on these harassing calls as soon as they begin, or delete them from answering systems, many assumed they were coming from the Democrats, so switched their votes in anger As a Venice, Florida, man wrote to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, “So Christine Paul Loeb Jennings lost by 368 votes. I think I can tell her why. She should sit at home and have the coordinated voter protection efforts where telephone ring twice a day, at lunch and dinner citizens monitored the polls and had lawyers on time, for two or three weeks, and then decide if call for instant intervention. But they were she should vote for the person doing the calling.” substantial enough to have probably diminished In Maryland, the Democrats won, but the margin of their victory. To prevent similar Republicans bused in homeless men from future abuses, Barack Obama’s Deceptive Philadelphia to hand out fliers in black Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act neighborhoods featuring photographsof former would make it a felony to give deliberately Congressman Kweisi Mfume and Prince misleading information on the time, date or Georges County executive Jack Johnson. location of elections, or about voter eligibility.

“Ehrlich-Steele Democrats,” proclaimed the flier, In the process, they can hold visible and announced: “These are OUR Choices,” as if hearings on the entire Republican legacy of Mfume and Johnson had endorsed Republican purged voters, tossed provisional ballots, and gubernatorial and senatorial candidates, Robert voting machines culled from key Democratic Ehrlich and Michael Steele. Since both Mfume districts (perhaps building on the unofficial and Johnson unequivocally supported their hearings convened by incoming House Judiciary fellow Democrats, it was a blatant lie, as were Committee chair John Conyers about pervasive the accompanying fliers headlined “Democratic Republican-linked abuses in Ohio, during the Sample Ballot” with boxes checked in red 2004 election). If the Republicans filibuster or promoting Ehrlich and Steele. These weren’t the Bush vetoes these laws, citizens need to ensure only abuses. Republican-linked calls in various the Democrats keep pressing the issue. states gave misleading information on polling But just as local minimum wage and locations or told legitimate voters that they were enviromental ordinances often surpass federal registered in other states so would be arrested if standards, we don’t have to rely entirely on they voted. national efforts to protect the vote. Because A letter to Latino voters in Orange most of the areas targeted by voter suppression County, CA threatened jail to all immigrants who attempts are urban and minority communities, Democratic mayors, county executives and Judging Streetvibes? Buy it Now! governors already control many of the key jurisdictions. They just need to act on the potential power that they have.

Former Bush-Cheney New England coordinator James Tobin has already been convicted for an illegal phone-jamming operation during the 2002 New Hampshire Senate campaign. Other states may be able to sue the NRCC and their allies as well. es b i v Perhaps former Congressman Mfume et Stre and County Executive Johnson could even sue the Republican creators of the leaflets that featured their picture-arguing that this reckless disregard for the truth defames their good name

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by implying they endorse politicians they diametrically oppose. Whether or not these suits entirely succeed, they’d keep these profoundly antidemocratic actions in the public eye.

Passing tough new local laws to protect the vote could create an immediate check against voter suppression in a situation where the Bush administration is un0likely to prosecute its own political allies. California, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin already have laws with strong penalties. Since the election, elected officials in Missouri, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have introduced bills to protect citizens from automated robocalls. Michigan already had a robocall bill on the agenda, and some Connecticut legislators are reportedly interested in addressing this as well. Statewide same-day registration laws, like those in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota can also counter the possibility of politically driven voter purges or refusals to accept people’s registrations, not to mention encouraging voter participation in general. If state and local voter protection laws were enacted before 2008, they could prove a major deterrent against the kinds of abuses we’ve seen in the past several elections, ensuring their perpetrators could be prosecuted no matter who won at the national level.

We still need strong national laws to safeguard elections in Republican controlled states-Florida, for instance, has continued its voter purges, and instituted draconian procedures and penalties that have made it virtually impossible for groups like the League of Women Voters to even begin major registration drives. But even in these situations, local initiatives can mitigate disenfranchisement. In the most recent election, California’s since-defeated Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson tried to reject 40% of new registrants, primarily Democratic-leaning Hispanics, by claiming they didn’t match state databases. In response, the office of Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villagarosa contacted those purged, verified their information, and got almost all of them back on the rolls. Local officials in Miami, Tampa, and Orlando could have done the same to challenge Jeb Bush and Catherine Harris when they gave Bush his 2000 victory by knocking out 94,000 largely Democratic and minority voters for supposedly being disenfranchised felons-a BBC follow-up found that 90 percent of those scrubbed were legitimate voters.

Officials in Cleveland and Columbus might have countered Ken Blackwell’s purging of 300,000 largely Democratic voters in 2004, his pulling of voting machines from key urban neighborhoods, and his refusal to count ballots cast in the wrong precincts. .

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. See www.paulloeb.org To receive his monthly articles email sympa@lists.onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles

94 deaths of homeless people highlight lack of care

by Warren King If you’re homeless in King County, you’ll likely live about 30 fewer years than other people in the country.

You’re also about eight times more likely to commit suicide, compared with U.S. averages. You’re about twice as likely to die in an accident. And you have 13 times the chance of being murdered.

That’s based on a report on homeless deaths released last month

by Public Health — Seattle & King County, which studied nearly 100 King County residents who died without a home last year.

“It’s very disturbing,” said Janna Wilson, director of the county’s Healthcare for the Homeless

Network. “These people have a lot of barriers to early and preventive health care.”

In 2005, 94 homeless people died, up 15 percent from 2004 and 22 percent from 2003. And with an average age of 47, they were relatively young compared with the current U.S. life expectancy of 77-½ years.

The numbers are derived only from cases that came before the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Wilson said there are no clear explanations for the increases in deaths, from 82 deaths in 2004 and 77 deaths in 2003. But drug and alcohol deaths were a concern. Thirty died of acute intoxication in 2005, compared to 20 in 2004.

“Like previous studies of homeless deaths, the causes ... continue to reflect the harsh realities and risks faced by those who live on the streets and in shelters — chronic health conditions, traumas and the troubling role of alcohol and drugs,” the report said.

King County has about 8,000 homeless people. Public Health nurses and substance-abuse experts seek them out in shelters and on the streets to try to steer them toward care at community health clinics and at Harborview Medical Center.

But other factors get in the way, including mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction and a lack of transportation to the clinics, Wilson said.

“They all cause delays in care,” she said. “It can be very challenging.”

Only about one-third of the King County homeless people who died in 2005 had seen a health-care provider during the year, the report said.

Wilson notes that recent state legislation has been designed to help communities end homelessness. And Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed $3 million in the 2007 city budget for a new initiative against homelessness.

“We hope these new measures will help get the numbers [of deaths] going in the other direction,” Wilson said.

Report: One In Six New Yorkers Goes Hungry The New York City Coalition Against Hunger released a survey last month showing a jump in the number of New Yorkers going to bed hungry.

The recent report found more than 1.2 million New Yorkers, or one in six people, can’t afford adequate food, despite the fact that the unemployment rate is falling and the economy is good.

Despite the cold, the line outside the Benedict Avenue food pantry in the Parkchester section of the Bronx winds around the block.

“If I do not come Tuesday, I come Thursday and whatever I get I’m thankful for,” said food recipient Velma Hoyte. “Sometimes I get something; sometimes I don’t.”

The study showed that between 2003 and 2005, one in six New Yorkers lived in households that did not have enough food..

“According to the New York City Coalition’s survey of pantries and kitchens there was an 11 percent rise in people going to pantries and kitchens over the last year,” said NYCCAH President Joel Berg.

“New York State was the only state in the entire United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau where both poverty increased and income increased in 2005, making us the poster child for inequality,” said Berg.

“The Federal Emergency Food Assistance Program has been cut. So to some level, the city, in terms of food, has seen some reduction,” said Food Bank executive director Nurah Amat’ullah.

“The bottom line of this survey is that you can look around this city and be thankful for so many things, but you cannot be thankful for the fact that the number of hungry people is growing and you cannot be thankful for the fact that we are failing to meet the needs of those New Yorkers,” said City Council Speaker Cristine Quinn.

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Washington D.C: Woman Accused of Housing Locator Scam (Street Sense, USA)

by Daniel Horner In February 2006, Alexis Twyman, looking for help in finding a place to live, went to the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, the District’s central intake office for families requesting emergency shelter assistance.

From a flyer at the center, she learned about a woman named Jasmine Worthy who claimed she could find housing for homeless families.

Twyman met with an associate of Worthy’s and soon turned over $600 plus a $25 application fee with the promise that the company would find an apartment for her in about two to four weeks.

After that Twyman said Worthy “gave me the runaround.”

She said Worthy showed her a number of apartments, but it turned out that all of them were occupied or someone else was ready to move in.

“I kept asking her what she was going to do,” but Worthy didn’t give an explanation, Twyman said.

“Then I got tired of it,” she said.

Around the beginning of April, she asked for the money back.

After Worthy did not return the money, Twyman said she eventually sought help from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to homeless individuals.

According to documents from the Legal Clinic and the D.C. government Worthy has taken thousands of dollars from homeless people such as Twyman and failed to deliver on her promises. Worthy denies doing anything wrong.

A February 2006 report from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), said that Worthy “targets her services to persons with HIV/AIDS, exoffenders and shelter populations.”

“Unfortunately, for her clients, Ms. Worthy did not find them an apartment and kept their money,” the report said. Worthy was “unresponsive” when they asked for their money back, according to the DCRA. However, the recorded message at Worthy’s office number says, “We’ve been fighting the war on homelessness, and I think we’ve been winning.” In an interview, Worthy said she was “serving the community” by finding affordable housing for people who needed it, and keeps the money is escrow while they are waiting for housing.

The DCRA prepared its report in response to complaints of neglect and mismanagement about Worthy from the owner of a property in Southeast. On the basis of its investigation the DCRA issued a February 28 order fining Worthy $2,000 for engaging in “property management” without a license.

While there were no other charges, the DCRA recommended that the D.C. Office of the Attorney General (OAG) pursue criminal prosecution of Worthy for activities described in the report.

But the OAG is not pursuing charges against Worthy, spokeswoman Traci Hughes said in early November. The office began an investigation but dropped it once the DCRA imposed its fine on Worthy.

The DCRA “has first crack at” cases like Worthy’s, Hughes said.

If the fines are not paid, the OAG could get involved, she said.

When asked why the fine for a property-management violation precluded charges for other activities, Hughes said the case “wasn’t parceled between charges.”

The Legal Clinic started receiving complaints about Worthy one and a half years ago, according Ann Marie Staudenmaier, a staff attorney for the clinic.

Before that, there was a time “when we were on friendlier terms with her,” Staudenmaier said. The clinic wanted to get more information on how her business operates, and Worthy saw it as an opportunity to promote her business, Staudenmaier said.

However Worthy was “very cagey” and proved to be “an incredibly elaborate liar,” Staudenmaier said. Worthy would agree to meetings and then break the agreements, Staudenmaier said.

Once, Worthy said she had just gotten married; another time, she claimed to have a high-risk pregnancy, Staudenmaier recalled.

Cornell Chappelle, the chief of program operations for the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, said he was concerned by the complaints about Worthy. But he said the partnership, which oversees District homeless shelters for the D.C. government, had more positive experiences with her in the past.

While Worthy sometimes was late in finding apartments for clients, she eventually did find them, he said.

About six months ago, the partnership started hearing about

problems with her “here and there,” and the Family Resource Center stopped dealing with her, Chappelle said.

Still, Worthy continues to attract customers, Staudenmaier said.

Sarah Bennett and her boyfriend, Bennie Freeman, also came to the Legal Clinic after their experiences with Worthy. Bennett said they were referred to Worthy in May, and they gave her $1,000. At one point, Worthy said she had found them an apartment but claimed it needed electrical work before the couple could move in, Bennett recalled.

After a while she and Freeman got frustrated, Bennett said, and Freeman called Worthy to get the money back. But Worthy was “always giving him some false hope because she knew how bad we wanted an apartment,” Bennett said.

She and Freeman are now living with Freeman’s mother, having been told multiply times by Worthy that the “check is in the mail.”

As for Twyman, she is now going to school and working a temporary job while living at D.C. Village. In a brief follow-up interview Nov. 11, Twyman said Worthy had called “out of the blue” and left a message. Twyman said that when she called back and left a message but has not heard back.

Worthy said she had “just lost contact” with Twyman but was “supposed to be” meeting her soon.

However, service providers are not convinced. “If [Worthy is] found to have taken folks’ money illegally, she should be prosecuted,” Chappelle said.

Burrito Shop Employs Homeless

by Ivy Chen New York, NY - Local Flavor Burrito Shop, which opened for business last month at Broadway Presbyterian Church, offers a quick lunch and jobs for the local homeless population.

The shop, which is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., operates under Broadway Community Inc., a local homeless services organization that is run in the basement of the church. It is staffed by a combination of church volunteers and the homeless.

The idea came from John Martin, a sophomore at Union Theological Seminary.

“We have a lot of people with food-service training and experience

and people who want jobs,” Martin said. “So we’re hoping to use the strengths we have, the industrial kitchen downstairs, and the space up here.” Many of the volunteers come from the Food and Nutrition Training Awareness Program run by Broadway Community Inc. Inside the church, the serving area is to the left, and on the right, there are three tables with chairs for those who decide to dine in.

The next three weeks are a trial run, but as church volunteer Will Brown expressed, there are “definitely high hopes.” If the trial is successful, the staff hopes to make the restaurant a year-long program.

There are seven or eight other volunteers like Brown working

in Local Flavor, including the chef, Andre A. Smith.

“John said he needed help, and I was his man. I like helping

people,” Smith said. He is also the chef for the local soup kitchen run by Broadway Community Inc. Some of Martin’s classmates from the seminary dropped by to try out the burritos.

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

Streetvibes

“I’ve known about the project for five months, and I was excited about the burritos,” Jeremy Kirk, a first-year master’s student at the seminary, said. “This is awesome for $4.”

“I want to put out the word for people to come,” Sarah Ward, a UTS first year, said.

Although some of the very first customers were Martin’s classmates, passers-by soon trickled in as the sign caught their eyes.

“This is the difference between talking about employing people and actually employing them,” Kirk said. “It was an innocent and revolutionary way to figure out this low-skill requirement and high-profit way to employ people.”

Onslaught of retiring baby boomers could crush current systems The struggle to brace the Medicare and Social Security programs from the oncoming onslaught of retiring baby boomers has played out very publicly from the White House to Capitol Hill.

The boomers also are expected to flood a slew of benefits programs in addition to those, and soon.

In response, City Halls and state governments have been creating Web sites and computerized applications so people can apply for benefits online rather than having to wait in long lines.

“If we don’t change those systems now we’re going to be hurting when the crush comes,” said Paul Taylor, chief strategy officer for the Center for Digital Government.

Boomers will significantly increase the demand for food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and dozens of other programs. Because of the sheer volume of retiring boomers, “there has to be a greater demand for all of these things,” said

Frank Burns, deputy assistant secretary of the federal Administration on Aging.

To hold off that flood, government agencies are increasingly turning to the Internet and new technologies that they hope will make it easier for users to navigate and cheaper for government agencies to run.

In most states people trying to figure out what benefits they qualify for have to hustle from office to office, wait in long lines and fill out application after application.

“Any one program may not be hard to access. But oftentimes, people need multiple programs that are most often administered by separate agencies, having different forms, different procedures you have to follow, different places you need to go,” New York City Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said. “It can feel like you have to travel all over the city just to collect the information.”

Enter such programs as ACCESS NYC, which launched in

September and allows people to use one Web site to determine their eligibility for 21 different benefits programs.

Rather than fill out several applications that often require the same information, users input their household information one time and get a report of all the benefits they’re entitled to.

New York City is following similar programs already under way in Utah and Louisiana. Agencies in at least 30 other states are considering similar proposals.

In Utah, which started Utah Cares in 2001, officials said it frees up state employees from spending their days filling out redundant paperwork.

“Some of these people really need a lot of hands-on counseling,” said Curt Stewart, a spokesman with the Utah Department of Workforce Development. “The more time that can be spent seeing a customer rather than filling out government-required paperwork is a better way for us to

serve our customers.” The National Council of Aging has a similar site for senior citizens that checks nearly 1,500 government and private programs for possible benefits.

And the Administration on Aging has created centers in 43 states, known as Aging and Disability Resource Centers, that serve as “one-stop shops” for people seeking benefits.

Taylor said all these programs are heading in the right direction after decades of flawed planning from health and human services agencies.

“Everybody bought or built something that served their specific needs without consideration of it linking up with other agencies or third parties that do similar things,” Taylor said.

With departments now being forced to adopt similar software and work under one umbrella, some agencies may be able to cut down their staffs.

Wyoming hunger grows along with economy

very low food security, according to

As Thanksgiving dinner digests and the Christmas party season commences, consider this: In 2005, more than one in 10 Wyoming households had trouble getting enough food for an active, healthy life, according to an annual report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“It’s not what people want to hear right now,” said Rodger McDaniel, director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services.

“It reflects everything in the national economy between those who have and those who don’t, and Wyoming is a microcosm of that,” McDaniel said.

If anything, the information probably errs on the side of caution, he said.

Wyoming had 11.1 percent of its households reporting “low or very low food security,” compared with the national average of 11.4 percent, according to “Household Food Security in the United States, 2005” published recently by the USDA’s Economic Research Service.

For about a third of those groups, the situation gets serious.

Of the households in Wyoming, 4.1 percent had “very low food security,” compared with the national average of 3.8 percent.

McDaniel who faults the welfare reform act signed by President Clinton in 1996 — and Wyoming’s slashing welfare rolls by 90 percent — for much of the ongoing problems with hunger.

While the changes removed people from the Aid To Families With Dependent Children program, it did not change the food stamp program and other support systems, he said.

Many of those AFDC recipients went to work in entry-level jobs and stayed there, McDaniel said.

Wyoming ranks fifth in its workers working more than one job, and many employees are among the 11.1 percent of households reporting “food insecurity,” he said.

“What is going on is that people work multiple jobs and cannot make enough to put food on the table for children,” McDaniel said.

Besides the problems with welfare reform, Wyoming does not recognize poverty and hunger when it sees them, he said.

“The face of poverty is the person who cleaned up your room in the (hotel), the person who tended bar or served you that fast food meal,” McDaniel said. “These are hard-working folks.”

That means “at times the food intake of some household members is reduced and their normal eating patterns are disrupted because of the lack of money and other resources,” according to the survey.

The state’s current percentages are not that far off the national percentages.

However, the percentages of “food insecure” — a controversial technical term for “hunger” — households in Wyoming have increased over the past decade even though the state’s economy has grown, according to the survey.

Between 1996 and 1998, food insecurity was 9.9 percent of households surveyed.

Food insecurity increased to 10.7 percent of households surveyed between 2000 and 2002, and to the 11.1 percent average between 2003 and 2005.

Nationwide, food insecurity stood at a 11.3 percent average in 1996-98, 10.8 percent average in 2000-02, and 11.4 in 2003-05.

There’s no question that Wyoming’s economy has improved, but it hasn’t improved equitably, McDaniel said.

“There’s no question in the past couple of years that skyrocketing utility costs and fuel

costs for transportation have put a huge pinch on low-income families,” he said. “Still about one-third of the jobs in the state pay a wage that won’t lift a family out of poverty.”

The energy boom has created good jobs, but the service industry — the state’s largest economic sector — has not kept pace, McDaniel said.

Market forces have pushed up retail prices in communities affected by the boom, leaving many families behind, he said.

From what he and his department see, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s figures are conservative, especially when the data focus is on households headed by single mothers.

“Fifty-three percent of those homes (headed by single mothers in Wyoming) are below the poverty level,” McDaniel said. The federal poverty level threshold in the 2000 Census was $16,895 for a family of four with two children under 18. The poverty threshold for an individual under 65 was $8,667.

The USDA’s report does not break down the data by state.

Nationally, however, 22.9 percent of households with children headed by females with no spouse fall in the category of low food security, and 8.6 percent fall in the category of

Lawmakers to deny minimum-wage rights Tell your State Representative to Vote NO on HB 690. Two months ago, over 2 million voters approved Issue 2 to raise Ohio’s minimum wage. Now, lawmakers are trying to rewrite the voter-approved amendment, deny

low-wage workers their rights, and undermie the will of the voters.

Call your state representative today and tell him or her to vote NO on Substitute House Bill 690.

This bill attempts to rewrite the Ohio Fair Minimum Wage Amendment and deny groups—such

as home healthcare workers—their newly entitled minimum wage. HB 690 also strips out some of the worker protections in the voterapproved amendment. We cannot let this happen.

The new wage rate will begin on January 1, 2007, even if HB 690

Streetvibes

doesn’t pass. We cannot allow those who have vehemently opposed raising the minimum wage to undercut our success on November 7 and deny low-wage workers their rights.

Call your state representative today and tell him or her to respect the will of the people. Tell him or her to Vote NO on HB 690.

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Letters

If you really want to feel better about the world, I can recommend one great place to go: the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless’ annual dinner!

The banquet hall at Xavier’s Cintas Center was packed with people on a cold December evening: homeless people, a big contingent of Drop Inn Center staff, hard working folk from all the other agencies who work with the currently homeless, the nearly homeless, those at risk of homelessness, and those who have been homeless.

Housing agencies are there, as are the families of those who will be receiving awards, lots of faithbased folk, everybody is there - the place is truly packed.

There’s just enough room for the silent auction items, a table to sell buddy gray’s poetry and Michael Hanson’s, plus handpainted Christmas ornaments, enough room for the buffet line (yummy mashed potatoes and spicy green beans, says this vegetarian) - the rest of the huge room is packed with tables of people celebrating their hard work, their victories, pondering their losses, pondering homelessness in the richest country in the world.

Everyone in the room is a poet, judging by the introductions of the award winners, the acceptances by those who won, Georgine Getty’s State of the Coalition poem, which is destined to live well beyond its premier performance. David Logan, who’s traveled along a lot of roads himself, took us from Dickens’ 1850’s Bleak House to today’s Over-the-Rhine, with grizzled perceptions and much wry humor during his keynote.

The beauty of all those words, the realities and truth and resonance of them. With people like this alive and working to create the world I want to live in - there is no room for despair. And plenty of space for love and hope.

My deepest thanks to all those who worked so hard to make this wonderful evening happen!

Patricia Garry

DIC Update

Congratulations, Fannie!

Fannie Johnson, our Emergency Shelter Coordinator at the DIC was featured in a recent story in the Life section of the Enquirer. We are very proud of Fannie, and appreciative; for her hard work every day, helping our residents improve their lives. Congratulations from all!

Page 8

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

Students Renovate Housing and Learn Life Lessons On Saturday December 9 at 4 p.m., the Miami University Design/Build Studio celebrated the completion of their semester in the first ever Miami University/Over-the-Rhine residency program with an Open House at 530 East 13th Street. Students have been working at the historic 4-story building for several semesters, but this is the first time students lived in the community and worked at the site on a daily basis. The residency program is administered through the Miami University Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine.

Students met with prospective residents and advocates to get input on the redesign as they worked to create a unique and affordable living space. “The students have transformed this building into a high quality livable work of art” said Mary Burke, executive director of Over-the-Rhine Community Housing — owner of the building and sponsor of the residency program. “It has been so rewarding working with the students this semester.

They are very smart, caring and committed young people. They help to restore hope for a kinder gentler future world.”

Students redesigned the apartments and added amenities. Redesign work included replacing the building plumbing, HVAC and electrical systems as well as gutting the unit down to the studs and creating new floor plans. Students paid attention to energy efficiency issues and the needs of the families moving into the units.

“Its nice to not only learn design and building skills but it is good to give back to the community that we have learned from and engaged with this semester.” Jeff Kruth, senior urban planning student.

“The design/build aspect has been challenging. As architects this project really developed our appreciation for what happens on a construction site and the problems that arise. We now have an understanding of how our designs translate into the actual build,” Said Britni Rex, senior architecture student.

The renovated units will provide housing for two families in the successful Renter Equity program developed and operated by Cornerstone Community Loan Fund. Renter Equity provides a system where residents can earn equity by helping to maintain their units and by participating in community building activities.

As Over-the-Rhine continues to redevelop, it is important to pay attention to the hard work and relationships that don’t grab the headlines.

Please help us to shine a spot light on this beautiful program that builds on what is good about our world.

Over-the-Rhine Community Housing is a non-profit organization that works to build and sustain a diverse neighborhood that values and benefits low-income residents. We focus on developing and managing resident-centered affordable housing in an effort to promote inclusive community. www.otrch.org

Streetvibes

Some homeless resist shelters despite the cold

by Angie Welling Salt Lake City, UT - Frigid nights have sent hundreds of Utah homeless into area shelters, but not everyone is willing to move inside.

The Road Home served 791 clients on a Sunday night, which included 19 families and 39 children. One week, when temperatures dropped into the single digits, the nightly totals reached more than 800 people and at one point included 121 children, according to shelter officials.

Executive director Matt Minkevitch suspects the heavy shelter use is just beginning.

“That probably won’t be the highest number we see this winter,” Minkevitch said.

“We’re on track to see nights over 900, there’s no doubt about it.”

Continued cold weather will eventually drive most homeless Utahns to the shelters, even many of those generally resistant to seeking help, Minkevitch said.

Still, homeless advocates are aware of one young couple who refuses to go to the shelter and has spent the record-breaking cold nights squatting in a home with no heat. And since advocates can’t force anyone to move to shelters, they simply keep them stocked with things such as warm blankets and hand warmers, said Nicole Campolucci, director of outreach services for the Volunteers of America.

“We just make sure that they have what they need to be able to stay safe throughout the night,” Campolucci said.

Often, homeless youths are hesitant to go to the shelter for safety reasons or, as Campolucci suspects in this case, because unmarried couples are not allowed to stay together. Last year, Volunteers of America was aware of a young boy who slept outside all season because he had grown up in shelters and refused to go back.

“I don’t have any idea how he survived,” Campolucci said of the boy, who suffered serious frostbite over the course of the winter.

Volunteers of America runs two street outreach programs, one for homeless youths and another for adults. They stock their vans with warm winter clothing and blankets and encourage people to move inside.

“We work extra hard when it’s cold like this to make sure that there aren’t kids who are outside and if they are we try to get them into the shelter,” Campolucci said.

The Road Home partners with Volunteers of America to make sure everyone in need has access to warm winter gear, such as blankets and sleeping bags. Clothing of all sizes and gloves are especially valuable, Minkevitch said.

“Anyone who asks for a pair of gloves is going to get one,” he said. “In weather like this, we just want to make sure that people are protected from the cold.”

Between its downtown shelter space and an overflow shelter in Midvale, The Road Home can safely accommodate about 900 people, Minkevitch said. Above that, advocates open up meeting rooms and offices for sleeping space.

However, he said, things start to get dangerous when numbers climb to 950.

Still, Minkevitch stressed, advocates will find space for anyone in need of a safe place to sleep. “If you’re in need of shelter, do not hesitate to come down. We’ll fit you in.”

How Did it Happen? Renewing the Vision....

Excerpts from their MySpace accounts to encourage their friends you wonder why you didn’t listen to your mother Georgines to vote. and major in something practical, like accounting.

Getty’s speech 2006 marked the year when the Day But walking in buddy’s footsteps also means there at Homeless Labor Organizing Project, or DLOP, really took are days when you couldn’t wipe that stupid grin Coalition off, thanks to the workers, volunteers and our off your face for all the money in the world. The Annual Dinner friends at the Cincinnati Interfaith Worker’s Center. days when someone comes in brandishing the keys We For over a year we’ve been meeting every to their chose this theme Wednesday morning at Our Daily Bread. The new for our annual workers have chronicled their mistreatment, apartment. dinner (How Did Georgine Getty, Director of handed out flyers, met with lawyers, the Mayor The days the Greater Cincinnati It Happen). and City Council and started a speaker’s bureau to you hear Coalition for the Homeless because this year educate the community about the abuses of day the magic marks the 10th anniversary of our founder, buddy labor. And it’s all paid off. Coming soon, we are words “1 gray’s death. If you’re like me, you have the “How promised citywide legislation that will make it illegal year did it happen” poem taped to your wall or pasted for day labor halls to charge for transportation or sober” or Dave Logan, keynote speaker up somewhere. It’s a moving poem and in that I safety equipment, to make people wait in holding “1 month mean it’s emotionally stirring, but I also mean it gets pens, without pay, for their shift to start, or to sober” or you moving. discriminate on the basis of race, sex or for any “1 day sober”. The days when 600 people fill city At the Homeless Coalition, we keep other reason. There’s also been a record hall to demand the money that is rightfully theirs. buddy’s vision alive in the work we do. It’s only Standdown, with over 600 attendees. There were The days when day labor workers come to a been 10 years, and it’s 11 general body DLOP meeting with a pocket notebook of dates amazing to me both how meetings with guest and times they have been wronged and the much things have changed speakers. There righteous anger to do something about it. The days and how much they were Affordable someone votes for the first time or talks to the remain rooted in the Housing Advocate Mayor and he listens. foundations buddy and meetings leading to Those are the days you make everyone other advocates laid for progress on the around you give you high fives. The days when us. The agencies that development and there’s a warm knot in your stomach, and for once make up our general inclusion of it doesn’t feel like an ulcer. The days you strut. body membership have Affordable These are the days when, suddenly, all the money grown and grown, yet we Housing. There in the world doesn’t mean a damn thing and remain a community, a was Streetvibes, accounting just seems so colorless. family. Gentrifying forces the Speaker’s Walking in buddy’s footsteps is not for change their names and Bureau, and the wimps. There are no wimps in this room. It’s the their strategies, yet the Education packet. hardest work you can do. You do know there are Affordable Housing There’s the people out there with lakehouses and timeshares.

Advocates still rally to statewide People who leave their work behind them at 5p.m.

Raynard Jones,Vendor of the year. demand that poor people advocacy group People who wander through life, content. get their share. Some advocates may have grayer the Ohio Coalition of Homeless Advocates which And then there are those who walk in hair, or less hair in general, but they still have a fire grows stronger every year – this year we added buddy’s footsteps. The crazy, underpaid, in them that brings them out on rainy nights, cold Youngstown and Athens County, next year, Toledo. overworked, bleeding hearts who do battle for a nights, miserable nights to stand in the rain with a There was progress on the lawsuit to overturn the living. The people who take that ‘brother’s keeper’ sign or sit in a meeting hall with 600 other people. panhandling registration, the acquisition of a new thing to heart. The people who cry when it’s cold And young people still come to the Coalition, medical van, the buddy gray memorial, and outside and curse out political ads on TV. The talking about revolution and change and justice and countless other day to day victories, big and small. people who care through the hurt, who mend the wanting to move it forward.

But we’ve also had our share of tragedy. broken, who clean up where society has made a This year was a hard year for homeless In February, we lost our good friend Mark Merilla, mess. The people who laugh at the Emperor with people to vote. Yet vote they did. There was a a homeless man who used to drink his morning no clothes, even when no one else will listen. loophole in the voter i.d. requirement that left one coffee in the alley behind our office. This Walking in buddy’s footsteps means you’re week open where homeless people could register September, we lost Louis Donnamaria, another awake in a way that most people don’t get to be. to vote and vote absentee without a photo i.d. The homeless friend who also hung out in the alley.

It means you’re connected with the people around Homeless Coalition, with help from the statewide They were the victims of violence and bad luck. you in a way most people fear. It means you feel group COHHIO, rented a van and got as many More than that, they were the victims of sorrow much deeper, but joy oh so much stronger. people to the polls as were interested in voting. homelessness. In 2007, we pledge to do all we It means you’re needed in a way that makes My favorite day was when we took a vanload of can to work with the SHARC committee to people jealous and you’re loved in a way that most youth from Anthony House to vote. About 10 kids develop permanent supportive housing so that this people will never know. crammed into the van and voted for the very first sort of senseless tragedy never occurs in Cincinnati And so we walk in buddy’s footsteps, but time. They were so excited to be a part of the again. buddy only laid the path. They are buddy’s process that they posed for pictures at the board of So back to walking in buddy’s footsteps. footsteps, but we will leave ours too. And we will elections and promised to put the pictures up on Walking in buddy’s footsteps means that there are walk, arm in arm, for as long as it takes. days when your job SUCKS and it rips your heart right out of your chest. The days when you have to bury people.

The days when you have to hold their daughter, or sister or friend in your arms while they ask you why did this happen, and you have no answer. The days of evictions, sweeps and idiotic laws. The days when the people you love lose their battle with addiction and you see that light has gone out in their eyes. The days you want to curl Jimmy’s Jimmy’s hair, hair after after getting up in a ball or beat the living hell getting out ready for the out of every politician and of bed... day... developer you see. These days Even the kids enjoy the Annual Dinner celebration

Jimmy’s Couture

Streetvibes

Page 9

Shocked out of Childhood

by Amanda Morley It all began for me about eight years ago.

Having a mostly undiagnosed mental illness, I was an inpatient at McLean’s Hospital in Belmont. Three times a week I would go for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). ECT is a treatment that causes electric current to flow through the brain and induces a seizure that lasts up to 60 seconds. Introduced in the 1930s and common until the late 20th century, ECT was used to treat acute psychosis, mania, mood disorders and clinical depression in people who’s illnesses were not responding to other forms of therapy. Although better drug therapies have become more available and effective, ECT is still a common form of treatment, and many doctors currently believe that shock therapy can be beneficial in some circumstances.

It was decided that I would receive this form of treatment. During the procedure, an IV was placed into my arm for the anesthesia to pass through my blood – a quite unpleasant experience. In the beginning, my veins were not very pronounced and so once, after eight tries to insert the needle into my arm, the doctors finally put the IV into my foot, where it was finally secured, but hurt more than if it was in the proper place. I don’t remember much of my stay at that hospital, or the ECT treatments themselves.

Finally, after a long hospitalization, I was released into my mother’s loving arms, and then was transferred into residential housing funded by the Department of Mental Health. Was it the ECT that helped me, or was it time that began to heal me? I don’t know, and am not sure I want to know.

Cambridge Hospital was the next step. From three times weekly, then to two, then once a week, I would awaken at the ripe hour of 5:30 a.m., when I would get up, get dressed, get in the car with my mother and drive to the Hospital’s third floor pre-op.

After filling out the form, which eventually became routine to me, I entered into a small room, where I would remove all metal objects from my body, my rings and my watch. After midnight I was not allowed to have any food, water or even cough drops. The nurse would ask me when I last urinated – I became so obsessed with this that I began to time it. “6:03,” I would respond. Laughing, she wrote it down, and proceeded to ask me more questions, which I could answer with my eyes closed.

The nurses and doctors got to know me, and would come to me with warm blankets, stories of

their week and pictures of their cats. I made friends with them and my mother and I would bet on which anesthesiologist would word with me that week – we played favorites: The one with the blue shirt, or the one with the suspenders? Slowly, I began to be indifferent to the idea of needles being stuck into my arms, and oftentimes looked straight at them.

After a wonderful hug, and a loving goodbye, I passed my glasses to my mother and was wheeled to the operating room where the unpleasant adventure began. A big machine stood by the bed. I was transferred to the operating table and heart monitors were placed on my chest and a blood pressure cuff went on around my ankle.

An oxygen mask went over my mouth; the anesthesia would enter into my blood through the IV, burning and uncomfortable. “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you,” the doctors would say. “You’ll be alright.” I took a couple of short, indescribable breaths while reciting the Hail Mary or the Our Father and fell asleep, to awaken 20 minutes later in the post-op, tired and confused. Painfully, my IV was removed, the tape ripping against my skin, and I was given Tylenol for my often-pounding headaches. After about 30 minutes of sleeping, waking, sleeping and waking again, I would get up, remove my hospital johnnies, get dressed and go to meet my mother out in the waiting room, to be welcomed by yet another wonderful hug.

Returning to the crisp morning air was pleasant, I suppose, but the ride home was scary. My memory was shot. I couldn’t remember much. Not where work was, nor home, nor my plans for the day.

My mother would review this information with me, and repeated back anything else I had told her to remember on the ride to the hospital.

Arriving back home, I fell into a deep and lengthy sleep, to awaken to the unwelcome noise of my alarm clock, which alerted me that it was 2 p.m., and I must get up and go to work at the library where I volunteered. I would grudgingly pull myself out of bed and go to shower, removing the heart monitor

buttons from my chest and try hard to wash out the gel that was placed on my temples during the procedure.

Believe it or not, I came to savor those experiences – the time spent with my mother at my bedside, her loving eyes and her comforting and often funny voice. I began to take for granted those Wednesdays where I would have loving, social interactions with my mother.

The doctors said the treatments helped – I don’t know. They finally told me, and I started to believe, that the ECT was not a quick fix like medicine for a headache, but a sustaining and stabilizing form of treatment.

Due to regulations that would only allow ECT to be performed on inpatients, I could not receive treatments at Cambridge Hospital. I returned once again to McLean Hospital. After I woke up and was waiting to muster up strength for the ride home, the nurses would offer my mother and I English muffins to eat. “Jelly?” “Sure.” Then I would return to the car, and go back home. Those rides were longer and more special because I got to spend time with my mother – loving and caring moments that I hope I never forget.

After years of confusion about and dependence to the therapy, I was once again in the inpatient psychiatric unit at the Cambridge Hospital. I continued to receive the ECT, but one morning after the treatment I returned to the unit tired and anxious.

Later that day I broke into a panic, and had to be restrained and given an injection to calm me down. It was that day that the doctors and nurses finally questioned the effectiveness of the ECT. They decided it wasn’t working and that I should be weaned off of shock treatment. Once a week turned into every other week, then finally to once monthly.

But ECT was not only an experience unto itself. My memory was severely and permanently damaged. I forgot most of my childhood years and have only brief remembrances of days gone by – I still struggle when someone asks me about those times.

“What was it like in Japan when you were there?” they asked. I didn’t know. “I don’t remember,” I had to say. “I don’t remember.”

Since age 13, I have been to and fro in the mental health system. I am now 26: 13 years of life gone down the drain and countless memories lost.

Amanda Morley is assistant to the editor of Spare Change News.

“Holiday Loans?” - Stay away!

Now you can borrow against your own money even earlier.

Two nationwide tax preparers are offering new loan products in time for the holidays, backed by future tax returns. To issue a loan, tax preparers use pay stubs to estimate a customer’s tax refund.

A local research group thinks this kind of Refund Anticipation Loan is a terrible idea. The Woodstock Institute said the holiday loans, combined with other refund anticipation loans taken at tax time, will eat away hundreds of dollars from individual returns.

“From the looks of this product, tax preparers are moving into the payday loan business,” said Marva Williams, senior vice president of Woodstock. “We strongly urge consumers to stay away from these expensive loans this holiday season, just as they would avoid a payday loan.”

The loans are being offered by Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block. Liberty Tax Services’ CEO John Hewitt called the holiday loans “a kind of predatory lending” and said tax preparers at his chain won’t do them.

Page 10

The holiday loans are a variation of a tax refund anticipation loan or RAL. An RAL is a short-term loan that’s backed by a tax refund.

The average cost of a rapid refund loan is $100, paid by taxpayers to receive their refund money a couple of weeks early.

Annual interest rates on RALs range from 40 to more than 700 percent, according to the National Consumer Law Center.

The new holiday loans act as RALs on top of RALs. Jackson Hewitt’s “Holiday Express Loan Program” or “H.E.L.P.” will offer a $600 loan. If the loan is approved, the bank fee is $65. The loan is due to be paid back in March, and while another RAL isn’t necessary, a customer can use another RAL to pay it off at tax time.

H&R Block also offers an “early season” loan product, which started this month, though a company representative declined to comment about it.

CEO Mark Ernst said at a financial conference in November that loans would be priced 40 percent lower this year.

Streetvibes

Woodstock Institute spokesman Tom Feltner said that RALs are mostly used by the working poor, who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit.

That federal tax credit is available to families with two or more children that in 2006 earned around $37,000, with one child around $32,000 and with no children around $12,500.

Feltner said of people claiming the EITC in predominantly minority Chicago area communities, 54 percent took RALs. Of those not claiming EITC, only 17 percent used RALs. Mark McCarthy, a DePaul University professor of accounting, said he believes these kinds of financial products are on the rise. “It’s another case of consumers going farther and farther out on a limb,” McCarthy said.

“Anybody with any means won’t take advantage of this.”

The Center for Economic Progress offers free preparation of tax returns for low-income families. Last year, the Chicago-based group helped families claim more than $39 million in refunds.

Housing Crisis

by Joanne Zuhl USA - A new report charts the decline of housing for the poor and the perpetuation of homelessness The United States doesn’t want to end homelessness. It’s just that clear to Paul Boden, coordinator for the Western Regional Advocacy Project, or WRAP. Boden’s assessment is spelled out in a new report by the homeless advocacy organization that follows the money behind federal affordable housing programs during the past 25 years. The conclusion is that even as the Bush administration pushes its “housing first” model on local homeless agendas, ending homelessness is the last thing on the feds’ priority list.

“It is unadulterated bullshit for the federal government to be saying we support housing first if they are going to continue to eliminate housing programs, and then take this housing first concept and try to fund it with the homeless programs,” said Boden, speaking from San Francisco. “They have absolutely no intention of doing housing first. “If they did, they would fund it through Section 8, Community Development Block Grants, public housing... They would use their housing programs to do it. They wouldn’t use their homeless programs. Their homeless programs were created because their housing programs were cut.”

If it sounds personal to Boden, it is. He was homeless in the 1980s in San Francisco, at a time when the housing market there was being launched into the stratosphere. He began organizing, and with a group of civil-rights advocates on the homeless front formed the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. Fifteen years later, the coalition remains an outspoken and influential voice in the city’s political landscape.

WRAP takes that movement to a regional level in a campaign involving individuals and member organizations along the West Coast, including Sisters of the Road Café in Portland and Real Change, Street Roots’ sister paper in Seattle.

WRAP seeks to create a national advocacy agenda rooted in the experiences of homeless people. To do that, it is creating an information clearinghouse of budget analysis, documented funding trends and engaging charts to help educate the public and policymakers on the underlying causes of homelessness.

The report, “Without Housing: 25 years of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures,” was more than three years in the making and will be made public this month through local agencies at WRAP’s Web site..

Drawing on information provided by the federal budget, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the White House and the Census Bureau, the report chronicles a course of funding cuts and lip service to the goal of ending homelessness. The conclusion isn’t revolutionary; that to truly end homelessness, the federal government must make a massive recommitment to create, subsidize and maintain affordable housing.

But it does what individually, the sources fail to do: chart the fiscal history of how the world’s wealthiest nation created — and sustains — contemporary homelessness.

The irony of WRAP’s report is that the federal government hasn’t actually reduced its spending on subsidized housing over the past 25 years, but rather reshuffled the money to benefit higher-income homebuyers. Funding for programs to build, maintain and subsidize affordable housing

for the poorest populations have been slashed, while homeownership tax deductions have grown.

From 1976 to 2002, the number of HUDsubsidized housing units declined from nearly 214,000 to less than 26,000, according to congressional records.

Since 1996, HUD funding for new public housing has been zero, while more than 100,000 units of existing public housing have been lost to demolition, sale or other removal from the program’s rolls.

Since the early 1980s, HUD subsidy priorities have increasingly focused on continued funding of existing housing over the addition of new units at the nation’s affordable housing stock.

In 1983, HUD’s budget was $18 billion, almost 80 percent less than it was at its recent history peak in 1978.

Meanwhile, assistance to upper- and moderate-income homeowners increased. HUD’s budget authority dropped from nearly $83 billion to $29 billion between 1978 and 2005. During that period, tax expenditures on homeowners’ subsidies grew from less than $40 billion to more than $120 billion per year. Every year since 1981, tax benefits for homeownership have been greater than HUD’s entire budget. By 1983, the federal government was opening general public emergency shelters to house the homeless. By 1987, homeless-specific federal assistance was launched, today known as the McKinney Vento Act. “The WRAP report illuminates the failed philosophy of the trickle-down theory,” said Michael Anderson with Affordable Housing NOW! “We have spent two and half decades focusing federal housing assistance to homeowners, many very rich homeowners, in the form of mortgage interest tax breaks, while simultaneously cutting the housing assistance that goes to hard-working families earning crappy wages, and seniors and people with disabilities scraping by on fixed incomes. And what has this trickle down theory brought us? The greatest housing crisis since the Depression. These failed economic policies of the conservatives are destroying our nation, and tossing its peoples into the financial meat grinder of unbridled capitalism.”

Boden offers an equally harsh assessment.

“At a time when mortgage interest and the programs that benefit the predominately wealthy housed folks has risen astronomically, they have continued to dismantle the housing programs for poor people,” Boden said. “The only thing I can attribute it to is the massive level of elitism, classism and racism that exists in our federal bureaucracy.”

The money exists to correct the problem, says Genny Nelson, the co-founder of Sisters Of The Road Café and a member of WRAP. It’s just being spent on other things.

“It’s never been an issue of no money,” Nelson says. “It’s an issue of political will to put the money there into affordable housing and address it.

To illustrate the priorities in spending, the WRAP report cites the price of individual military instruments listed in the president’s 2007 budget proposal. A single state-of-the-art destroyer, for example, sets the federal government back $3.3 billion. One F-22 Raptor jet costs $3 billion; a new submarine, $2.56 billion. By comparison, all public housing capital expenses for 2005 was $2.58 billion. McKinney homeless assistance was less, at $1.24 billion.

Streetvibes

Meanwhile, HUD’s budget has remained constant for years. There has been no money for new Section 8 public housing since 1996, and the public housing operating expense fund has been cut by $1 billion since 2001.

“Homelessness is a direct result of the decisions and funding priorities of our federal government,” the reports states. “If the federal government had chosen to support affordable housing, health care, anti-poverty programs, workers’ protections, and quality education – rather than prioritizing war, tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate welfare – contemporary homelessness would not exist in our nation.”

Housing First is the catch phrase used today for securing a stable home for someone first and then providing supportive care and services as needed. It’s one of the tenets of the network of 10year plans to end homelessness around the country, including Portland’s. It’s also a shift, at least in the dialogue, from nearly three decades of framing homelessness as a personal problem, backfilling the system with social workers and charity programs that addressed the symptoms of homelessness rather than creating systemic change.

“Homelessness didn’t come about due to a lack of life skills training, or a lack of master leasing, lack of case management,” Boden says.

“Homelessness came about when the federal government made a conscious decision to eliminate funding for housing poor people. After 25 years or so, it seems that putting that message out is causing people to go, ‘Wait a second...”

The report suggests that public portrayals of the homeless as deviants and nuisances may have inhibited any real progress in ending the cycle. And the emphasis on fixing broken individuals has distracted lawmakers from fixing broken policies.

“Homelessness is not a personal shame issue,” Nelson said. “It’s not an issue of some person’s disability. It’s a housing issue. All you have to do is build a relationship with one person who is homeless and you get it,” Nelson said. “That it isn’t an individual, personal fault that’s doing this. It’s what’s not available to them: what opportunities don’t exist for them. And when you get to the root of that, what’s not available, you go right to your state and federal and local government.”

The WRAP report documents the shift in housing priorities over several administrations, Republican and Democrat, beginning with Jimmy Carter, into the massive cuts of the Reagan administration, and continuing today. WRAP hopes to change to alter that course in time for the next administration.

“At this point in time, it doesn’t look like either the Democrat party or the Republican party, for the presidential election two years from now, even has homelessness on either of their agendas.

That’s appalling,” Nelson said. “One of the things that WRAP is trying to do is to get that on both of their platforms with this document.”

“What we’re hearing is at the federal level, government wants to change the definition of who is homeless so that a families who live in their cars would not be in the category of homelessness,” Nelson said. “What’s wrong with that picture?”

Locally, Nelson intends to have the report disseminated not only to local and state policymakers, but also among people experiencing homelessness and poverty. The report will be available on the WRAP Web site, www.wraphome.org, and posters of the charts will be available for posting and distribution.

It’s an opportunity, says Nelson, to “learn what homeless people have discovered after almost three decades without housing.”

Page 11

California ‘green tuners’ clamor for plug-in cars

by Kevin Krolicki LOS ANGELES - Russell Long already owns a pair of fuel-efficient hybrid cars — a Toyota Prius and a Honda Civic — but his dream car is not on the market yet: a zippy number he could plug in to recharge at night that would get over 100 miles per gallon.

Long, who founded of the San Francisco-based Bluewater Network to reduce water pollution, is one of a growing number of environmentalists pushing auto companies to produce plug-in hybrids to reduce U.S. oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from auto traffic.

This push is especially strong in California, whose tough regulations have encouraged the big automakers to test a range of alternatives to traditional gas engines, from hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to cars that run on natural gas.

But the most active grassroots environmental campaign favors plug-in hybrids, which store power in rechargeable batteries and can run only on battery-power for short trips in congested cities like Los Angeles.

“It has the potential to reduce oil consumption by millions of barrels per day,” said Long, who has lobbied General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. to get behind the technology. “If the question is what we can do in the short-term, there is

only one answer, and that’s plug-in hybrids.”

The auto industry, which has a history of resisting environmental regulations, is now looking to court both activists and the growing number of U.S. drivers who say they are willing to pay more for an alternative to a traditional gas-powered vehicle.

The Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens to the public on Friday, is becoming a major showcase for major automakers to display upcoming green vehicles in a market where they are likely to find the fastest and greatest acceptance.

This year, GM is using the LA Auto Show to draw attention to a pair of current-generation hybrids: the Saturn Aura and the Yukon sportutility vehicle.

GM, BMW AG, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. will also show off hydrogen-powered vehicles.

But environmental activists like Long will be watching most closely for what the companies signal about their interest in plug-ins.

No automaker has yet committed to build a plug-in car, not even Toyota Motor Corp., whose Prius leads the market for currentgeneration hybrids.

PIMP MY PRIUS Looking to jump start broader commercial interest, one San Francisco-area nonprofit group,

CalCars ( http://www.calcars.org/ ), has helped build about 20 plug-ins since 2004 by hacking and tricking out the Prius.

The cars are outfitted with new lithium-ion battery packs, which hold a charge longer than more common nickel metal hydride batteries.

In a parallel effort, a small California company, EnergyCS ( http://www.energycs.com/ ), is planning to convert new Prius models beginning next year at a cost of an additional $12,000 to consumers.

CalCars founder Felix Kramer said the goal would be to persuade big carmakers to switch to plug-in technology quickly.

“I’m kind of looking at this like Pearl Harbor, where the auto industry went from making cars and trucks to planes and tanks in just a year.”

He said part of the appeal of the plug-in technology is its potential to reduce the U.S. reliance on oil shocks, since the cars would draw power partly from the electric grid.

But critics argue that, depending on how cleanly the electricity is generated, plug-in technology would just shift the source of pollution from the car to the power generator, which in some cases is fueled by coal.

Sherry Boschert, a member of the advocacy group Plug In America and author of a new book

on plug-ins called “The Cars that Will Recharge America,” said she worried development efforts could also be slowed by arguments about the technical limits of current batteries.

Some automakers have signaled that they would prefer to wait for the emerging class of lithiumion car batteries to develop before pressing ahead with plug-ins, she said.

“These cars are doable today,” she said. “At what point do you have to say that good is good enough.”

For his part, Kramer said he was confident his effort was tapping into two divergent interest groups that have helped define popular culture in California — environmentalists and hot-rodders.

“All sorts of trends begin in California and certainly that’s true for pollution controls” said Kramer. “But we also have a car culture here of tuners, which you know if you’ve seen ‘The Fast and the Furious.’

We’re green tuners.”

Where Your Streetvibes Dollar Goes Streetvibes Production

25 cents Vendor Profit 75 cents

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.

Streetvibes, the Tri-State’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.

To Suscribe, send $25 to the GCCH at 117 East 12th Street, Cincinnati Ohio, 45202, or call 421-7803

Page 12

Streetvibes

Hospital Patients Routinely Discharged into Homelessness

by Peter Cohn In Washington, D.C., approximately 18 people per day end up in shelters or on the street after leaving hospitals, according to a D.C. government-sponsored report. Thus, between 10% and 20% of people in District-funded emergency shelters have arrived after leaving a health institution.

Many of these individuals arrive with bad legs, a sore back, gaping wounds, or other aliments that shelters are not equipped to deal with, according to shelter staff and advocates.

At one DC shelter, a man with a broken leg arrived, according to a senior staff member.

“He had the iron rods on the outside [of his leg], and I said ‘you shouldn’t be here like that’ because you could see where the screw went into his leg and everything, and he said he was just ‘gonna be here overnight.’” The shelter employee added that the man was put in the front of the facility, where he could be watched, although he should not have been at the shelter in such poor condition.

“One guy had just had surgery, I think on his appendix or something,” said the senior staffer, “and he was bent over. He was still bleeding from the operation, and he said the hospital put him out.”

Sometimes the hospital calls in advance to make arrangements and give a heads-up to the shelter, but “other times the hospital will have them dropped off in taxicabs—any kind of ride they can get—leave them at the shelter and keep going,” said the shelter staff member.

“We’ve had some come here with colostomy bags, or various open wounds that need to be cleaned on a daily basis,” the staffer said. “They still need

medical attention, and this is not a medical shelter, this is an emergency shelter.”

Due to liability concerns, shelter personnel are not allowed to assist residents who are unable to care for themselves. But individuals arriving from hospitals have nowhere else to go. “We’re not going to let anybody stay out on the street— that’s not what we do,” said Abdul Nuradeen, acting executive director at the CCNV shelter.

A committee of advocates and government officials is trying to come up with answers to alleviate the problem facing shelters struggling to help individuals needing medical care.

The group has created a plan and developed best practices for discharging patients from public hospitals.

This committee, called the Discharge Planning Task Force, was established after Mayor Williams’ January 2005 release of Homelessness No More, the District’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. The Task Force developed a document, A Comprehensive Public Sector Discharge Planning Policy to Prevent Homelessness in the District of Columbia, which proposes a hospital discharge plan. The document applies only to public institutions, not private hospitals.

The recommended process calls for hospitals to fully analyze patients’ situations to ensure that they have stable housing and proper planning for employment and post-hospital care after discharge. It requires a follow-up evaluation no more than 30 days after release and again six months later. Referring a patient to the local homeless coalition for

placement in a shelter must be only a last resort.

The Task Force is also recommending that another facility similar to Christ House, be created, recognizing that hospitals cannot be expected to hold homeless individuals for an extended period of time when there are no available facilities for placement, according to Steve Cleghorn, chief policy analyst for Community Partnership. Christ House is a 33-bed healthcare facility for the homeless where many men are often discharged to, as a step-down placement for homeless people too sick to go to a shelter after hospital release “There’s nothing wrong with the report, it’s just a matter of implementing it,” added Cleghorn, who was also a convener of the Discharge Planning Task Force.

The regulations have been mapped out, and the next step is having the Interagency Council on Homelessness (IACH) adopt the policy and find a way to pull together information and resources to be shared by all involved agencies, according to Cleghorn.

A similar discharge policy (the Model Resident Transfer and Discharge Policy for Nursing Homes and Community Residence Facilities) is already in effect in Washington for individuals under care of nursing homes and community residence facilities. That plan was legally mandated under the 1987 Nursing

Home Reform Law. There is no similar law governing hospital discharge. The nursing home discharge policy requires a full assessment of the resident’s physical, mental and psychological status before the resident’s release from the facility, in addition to aiding in locating alternative placements and facilitating the move.

Although the nursing home law does not specifically state that homeless shelters are not acceptable placement, it requires a safe and orderly transfer upon discharge, and that would preclude shelters, according to Jerry Kasunic, director of DC Long Term Care Ombudsman Program.

“Homeless shelters are not safe and orderly transfers,” Kasunic said.

After the proposed discharge planning policy is presented to IACH and approved, implementation documents will need to be created and followed by all District publicfunded institutions.

For now, shelters are forced to deal with whatever injuries individuals may arrive with.

“Ambulances bring by people who have been referred on a stretcher or in a wheel chair,” said Nuradeen. But discharged patients continue to arrive on a regular basis, forcing Nuradeen and other DC shelter staff to accommodate them. “[I do] whatever I can possibly do,” said Nuradeen.

The Homeless Man It was a cold winter’s day that Sunday. The parking lot to the church was filling up quickly. I noticed as I got out of my car fellow church members were whispering among themselves as they walked in the church.

As I got closer I saw a man leaned up against the wall outside the church. He was almost laying down as if he was asleep. He had on a long trench coat that was almost in shreds and a hat topped his head, pulled down so you could not see his face. He wore shoes that looked 30 years old, too small for his feet, with holes all over them, his toes stuck out. I assumed this man was homeless, and asleep, so I walked on by through the doors of the church. We all fellowshipped for a few minutes, and someone brought up the man laying outside. People snickered and gossiped but no one bothered to ask him to come in, including me. A

few moments later church began. We all waited for the Preacher to take his place and to give us the Word, when the doors to the church opened. In came the homeless man walking down the aisle with his head down.

People gasped and whispered and made faces.

He made his way down the aisle and up onto the pulpit where he took off his hat and coat. My heart sank. There stood our preacher...he was the “homeless man.” No one said a word. The preacher took his Bible and laid it on his stand. “Folks, I don’t think I have to tell you what I am preaching about today.”

Makes you think, doesn’t it.

Streetvibes

Page 13

Putting Down Roots

by Terrance O. Edgar Sr. Let us rejoice at this breaking of the earth to build upon this ground that will house many.

May all that will live here when complete live in peace and fellowship as one community.

May the children that will play children’s games be safe from all negative vices that plagues so many of America’s town and cities.

Putting down roots that will be a home to the homeless once housed. Housed for it is a right of all upon this earth to have a roof over their bodies.

The cold, the rain, the heat the streets should not be conditions for one to be placed in without a home.

Putting down roots so that memories can be made so that they may be remembered, of all the ones that will live here when the time arrives.

Putting down roots, the roots that will bring forth branches and leaves. And as we are all that tree, it’s limbs, its leaves, its roots. Putting down roots.

Homeless Night

by Rodney E. Penilton In the darkness, I saw four people, huddled beneath a gazebo in a park downtown; as I sat feeling depressed about my life, I watched and saw the broad shoulders of a man reaching for the gentle form of a woman, as she pulled thin covers over the small frames of two children, as they lifted theirs heads for a good night kiss.

Black

by Veronica B. Black is quiet and sad

In that moment, I saw love amidst struggle, hope come from despair and Loyalty bred of trust.

Sitting by himself Sitting the dark

As the children lay in the arms of the night and the wind, Mother and Father held one another and watched as shadows passed, and dust and leaves did their dance. ‘ Imagine the anguish, anguish of our babies sleeping in the park beneath the stars, with no home other than those found each night.’

Crying Silently into his hands Bringing baths to hose Who live in darkness

Tears unseen and questions unanswered, the children know that this is not the way it should be as they watch other kids in new, clean clothes and cool shoes, thinking to themselves, ‘ The stares don’t matter, because mommy said they don’t and daddy promised things will get better.’

Brooding in the shadows, sticking to himself Black is raven, cawing

‘Maybe my sister ? No. ‘ ‘My aunt ? How would we get them there ‘ ‘My mother ? She is too old.’

‘Baby, I just don’t know.’

Over people, landing on a Shoulder Tense with stress

‘Something has to happen, has to change, they deserve better than this.

Baby , I know, we’ll figure something out tomorrow.’

Black swallows light within us, taking happiness As he watches the others laughing As he frowns, sitting,

HOMELESS & HOPELESS

The Clock

by Kevin G. The Clock Ticks, Counting out bits of time.

Monotonous and never ceasing, making minutes seem eternities or a day of fun only a minute long.

It is our master, we its slaves.

From its place on the wall the clock rules our modern world, counting the seconds toward eternity.

by Ryan Stephen Chandler

knees drawn to his chest

Out down with crack and coke, Out in the alleys where there is no hope, One wishes to survive the horrors, And prepare for tomorrow.

Crying for a friend Black bows through treetops, silent Like the wind, bringing a smell of sadness

Out down in the streets, With nothing to eat, But scraps of meat, Which are suitable for cats and sheep.

Out down where, Nobody cares, Out down where people are scared to go, Out down where you’re hopeless and cold, Out down where you have no bed, Out down where you wish you where dead.

Under that, a slight chance of hope that Someone will help him Take his hand and say “Lets be friends.”

Streetvibes exists as a forum for the expression of the views and opinions of our readers and supporters. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Streetvibes staff or the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Page 14

Streetvibes

Day Walk

by James Morrow Daylight holds less mystery than nights beneath the moon but the sun holds inspiration and openers and light that ends too soon.

The light of the sun is always now, the moon’s always secondhand it seems nighttime mysteries grow large like a retelling of a retelling.

A new song is possible everyday although the night is not Evil as all things are neutral even unto the human will.

Much to grow into to seek the sun when one has been one with the night to turn away from closeted secrets and walk once more in the light I never before found daylight to be so great and profound wonderful to be beneath the sun after so very long underground.

Untitled

by P. Bishop

HOMELESS & HOPELESS

by Ryan Stephen Chandler

Have you ever loved someone So much you’d kill for them Or go to prison for them?

You love everything about Them, but they don’t even know.

You try to tell them In so many words But it never comes out The way you mean I love everything about her

A POLLUTED SOUL

by Ryan Stephen Chandler A faded shadow, Projects through a broken window, Everyone protests it must be a young fellow, But it turns out to be brown not yellow.

Many people stop to watch, A rotting door and a rusted lock, Some sees pleasure some sees pain, Knowing that this dirty house takes cocaine, With a hidden secret, it seeks to find, A better structure and a higher mind.

But she doesn’t even

Out down with crack and coke, Out in the alleys where there is no hope, One wishes to survive the horrors, And prepare for tomorrow.

Out down in the streets, With nothing to eat, But scraps of meat, Which are suitable for cats and sheep.

Out down where, Nobody cares, Out down where people are scared to go, Out down where you’re hopeless and cold, Out down where you have no bed, Out down where you wish you where dead.

Know I exist

Homeless Homeless Poem She left her home in her early teens, In torn shirt and faded jeans.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blue Willow

by Charles Hice

by Elizabeth Romero

A homeless man lays helpless at nite; no friendship in sight.

He cries to Jesus ‘please help me’!

An opened letter inside not just a man.

Heart is twisting and turning because some people have hurt him.

If ewe can not help him and aid him then at least ewe can leave him alone.

Please don’t hurt him.

Someday soon he will die and go home.

Cooking was something I learned to do well- this was a chicken roasted golden perfect- I was carving the leg and thigh huddled like a plump comma-the fork slipped-the chicken fell on the oakfloor while he held a plate- he liked things to go smoothlyfrightened I picked it up- I’ll take that one I said and hurried to carve some more- No you won’t he said- I don’t mind I said- I never knew the answer to these things whether my obvious fear infuriated him or something elsesuddenly he slammed the whole plate of food down on the floor- chicken rice peas- bits of plate everywhere- I don’t remember the sound- how about this he said- the dishes were Blue Willow- a gift from my aunt- I loved them- now there is one less I thought- I don’t remember what happened then- not the children’s eyes nor the frozen silence of dinneronly that bits of plate kept appearing in the sweeping in the dusting- bits of plate for weeks afterwards

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

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

Writers!

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

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 557-2873 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 639-7042 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

January 2007

Yea r

s in

Pu

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atio

n!

Deceased Homeless Persons Remembered in Memorial

Cover Story Page 1

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