A Message From The Board President
Annual Report from NEOCH Director, Brian Davis
2003 Auction and Annual Dinner Donors
A Message from the Board President
Most non-profit organizations in Greater Cleveland are struggling, and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) is no different. In a recession economy with massive job losses and a stock market just bouncing back, we have seen declining foundation, government and private support. We have witnessed some programs closing their doors while others are cutting back their services in the face of dramatic increases in demand. It is especially difficult to explain to those in danger of homelessness that jobs are scarce, and the shelters are filled over-capacity.
In this time of extreme pressure on our budgets, we have tried to continue to focus on our core mission of raising the voices of homeless people. NEOCH has made some strides over the last year in the face of increasing strain on our ability to stay in existence. We finally got a commitment from the City and County to undertake a planning process to address the affordable housing crisis that exists in Cleveland. City and County officials are hiring out-of-state consultants to guide the process in order to finally reduce the number of homeless people with a plan for developing additional affordable housing or preserving the housing that currently exists.
NEOCH was able to get the State of Ohio to enforce its policy of not breaking up families that enter shelters. This allows children, specifically boys who are over 12 years old, to enter family shelters with their mothers. NEOCH assisted in a lobby day in Columbus, which led to the passage of a dedicated revenue source for the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. On a national level, staff worked to introduce the Bringing America Home Act (HR 2897), a comprehensive piece of legislation that would go a long distance toward reducing homelessness in America.
We are still working on a strategic planning process for the agency to reaffirm our place in the community, and set our goals for the next five years. We have a number of issues that we are ultimately going to work on at the state level including a strengthening of the hate crime laws. If homeless people are ever attacked again in the middle of the night, we want to assure that the law will prosecute with a felony charge. NEOCH staff will continue to work with homeless people to assure that there is a safe place out of the elements 24 hours a day.
You are the key to our future successes. We need your talents, time or financial support. There are many opportunities for volunteering or joining one of our advisory boards. We have built an impressive staff who are gifted in public relations, lobbying and community organizing, but we need your help in development, getting regional community leaders to begin to think about homelessness, and to assist with the administration of a grassroots organization. We could not operate with out our wonderful volunteers and financial supporters, please continue to help. If you have not donated your time, talent or resources, please feel free to contact the agency, and we will try to match you with your area of interest.
Sincerely,
Roy C. Love
NEOCH Board President
Brian Davis - Executive Director
Terí Donelson - Director of Operations/ Lead VISTA
Angela Joyce - Director of Operations
Tenecia Stokes - Lead AmeriCorps*VISTA
Joseph Perrelli - AmeriCorps*VISTA
Randall Wilson - AmeriCorps*VISTA
Amanda Brooks - AmeriCorps*VISTA
Chrissy Clements - AmeriCorps*VISTA
Lisa Etling - AmeriCorps*VISTA
Lindsay Friedrich - AmeriCorps*VISTA
Gail McWilliams - AmeriCorps*VISTA
Leigh Ann Porter - Bridging the Gap, Director
Christal Jones - Bridging the Gap, Director
Sabrina Otis - BTG AmeriCorps
Paul Morris - BTG AmeriCorps
Thomas Lewis - BTG AmeriCorps
Mike Gibbs - Community Voice Mail Director
Joan Burda - Homeless Legal Assistance Director
Lynn Murphy - Community Voice Mail Assistance Director
Ten Years of Working with Homeless People in Cleveland
by Brian Davis
I started volunteering for the Homeless Grapevine 10 years ago, and I published a version of this reflection in the Cleveland Free Times in 2004. Here is what I have learned from homeless people over the last decade of my life. Too often we ignore the ramblings of an often ignored segment of the population, but I have learned so much that I feel uniquely enriched. These are what I feel are the most important top 10 list from the last ten years.
1. Shelters keep people alive, but also prolong homelessness. Shelters are necessary to keep people from dying on the streets, but they also keep people homeless for longer than is necessary. We seem to eliminate the emergency or urgency when the person has a place to crash at night in a shelter.
2. It is very difficult for social service providers to begin to take risks. We have seen 20 years of increases in homelessness, and it is a real struggle for social service providers to switchgears or admit mistakes. We have tried for years to get the social services to address the causes of homelessness instead of focusing entirely on the emergency. They are very much afraid that they will be deemed irrelevant by changing the current paternalistic system. Just recently, the local agency that provides funds to the shelters, which is dominated by social service types voted to limit competition from new programs to protect their own funding. Shelter providers have forgotten that they are in a struggle for social justice and not just providing a bed.
3. Be afraid, be very afraid of do-gooders. There are many agencies that promote themselves widely as solving problems, but upon looking at these programs they shove religion and rules down the person’s throat to the point homeless people choke and walk away disgusted. I am all for religion, but many on the streets feel let down, depressed or beat down. We should never force a homeless person to make the decision between a warm place to stay and a sermon about the mercy of God. I can’t imagine that even the fundamentalist’s God would appreciate sending a guy into the cold because he refuses to sit through an hour long religious service, but it happens in Cleveland.
4. We certainly love social service fads. When I started, the Republican wives club in Washington D.C. was championing services as the solution to homelessness. We dramatically increased funding to services and we saw dramatic increases in homelessness despite the best economy ever experienced by the United States. So the “experts” switched gears and decided that if we eliminate those who have stayed on the streets for long periods of time, we could save huge resources. This questionable science was pushed on the local community, and now many cities are pouring all available money into building expensive “supportive housing” programs or for the layperson housing with services offered. These are certainly needed programs, but the price tag is a little steep in a time of unprecedented crisis in American history when we cannot feed, clothe, or shelter our citizens. Credit counseling firms would never suggest, when in bankruptcy, a family purchase a Hummer H2 for reliable transportation to work. They would suggest a used Festiva or better yet a bus pass. We need more bus pass type programs for the huge number of homeless people.
5. No matter how hard we try, there will never be enough shelters for those in need. No matter how many shelters we build there will always people seeking help. We need to develop humane alternatives to shelters.
6. Planning to end homelessness is arrogant. Again, the Republican wives club in Washington is pushing this idea of forcing communities to develop plans to end homelessness. A close look at the plans show they rarely ask actual homeless people, and they rarely talk about jobs, health care and civil rights. Most of the time the plans focus on emergency services, and rarely recommend legal remedies, universal health care and a minimum wage tied to the cost of housing. The plans describe the way to rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking ship and then are forgotten the day after they are written. Cleveland is working on a plan, which we are going to work to assure addresses the affordable housing crisis and remains relevant for the next five years.
7. If you have the misfortune of becoming homeless be prepared to give up most of your rights. Homeless people no right to medicine, they have no right to a shelter bed, and privacy rights are lost. Right now, we are developing an expensive computer network to track homeless people and come up with a complete count of homeless people. We will have entire staff dedicated just to counting homeless people, and those seeking services will be pressured into giving up all their personal information. This is the worst example of the industry that has developed as a result of the personal tragedy and misery of homelessness.
8. It is easier to get a meal on the streets than it is in the entry shelters. This is one of the strange aspects of the backward world called homelessness. There are a myriad of churches that come downtown to give out food to homeless people. I have seen guys get two or three dinners a night, which is great. But in the men’s and women’s entry shelter food is scarce, portions are small, and they run out of food frequently.
9. There is so much misplaced fear over shelters in the community. Shelters are the hardest place in the world to survive. The rules are so strict and a homeless person must conform or they are punished with a night on the street, and the result is that only the most passive homeless people stay in shelters. Shelters are monitored 24 hours a day, and certainly a drug dealer does not want someone watching them 24/7. Shelters are actually assets to a community and usually improve the look of a neighborhood.
10. Empower a homeless person with responsibility, trust, and authority and they prosper. Treat them like a child, as often happens in the shelters, and they become dependent and disenfranchised.
I am constantly learning from the people I meet, who are homeless, and I am constantly amazed by the ability to persevere. I am in awe of the struggles that many have to overcome, and have the deepest respect for the people that find stability despite the obstacles put in place by shelters, government, and society.
The following businesses and corporations assisted with the funding of NEOCH in 2003. The NEOCH Board voted to keep the names of our membership confidential. This list does not include any individual, organization, or business that contributed to NEOCH as part of their membership.
St.
John Neumann Youth Ministry
St.
Angela Merici Church
Parma
Presbyterian Church
Dover
Congregational UCC
Plymouth
Church of Shaker Hgts.
Franklin
Circle Christian Church
Fairmount
Presbyterian Church
Trinity
Cathedral
Greater
Cleveland Community Shares
United
Way Services
Porter
Wright Morris Arthur LLP
The
Cleveland Foundation
Bruening
Foundation
Community
Endeavors, Foundation
The
Reuter Foundation
Emily
Waters Foundation
Abington
Foundation
O'Neill
Foundation
George
Gund Foundation
Clyde
Williams Foundation
Community
Foundation of Greater Lorain.
Disabled
American Veterans
Ida
B. Wells Fund
Cleveland
Bar Foundation
McCarthy,
Lebit, Crystal, Liffman Fund
Key
Bank National Association
The
Stocker Foundation
Sister
of Charity of St. Augustine
Cleveland
Disc Association
Booz,
Allen, Hamilton Inc.
First
Unitarian Church of Cleveland
Grapevine
Vendors
Lutheran
Church of Good Shepherd
AT & T
Future Endeavors of NEOCH's Programs
AmeriCorps*VISTA
2003 was a rough year for our AmeriCorps*VISTA program. By August 2003, we lost five VISTA members. Recruitment was tough because of the Federal Budget constraints. We could not offer the education award and NEOCH’s Lead VISTA, who is responsible for the statewide recruitment, was promoted to the Director of Operations position. Although the program had major barriers we recruited three awesome VISTA members Tenecia, Joe and Randy, in addition to four VISTA members statewide. In 2004, we plan to fill all our vacant VISTA slots and continue the important work the VISTA members do in the community. Our VISTA members are working on creating an identification program that will allow homeless individuals to get birth certificates, state ID. etc. They are also working on creating a stablewomen’s resident committee similar to the men’s shelter committee, as well as the creation of unique public awareness campaigns, such as a video depicting homelessness in Cleveland.
Bridging the Gap
BTG has been on a roller coaster ride over the past year. 2003 began very shaky with the resignation of the program director and the housing crisis with CMHA announcing a three to five year waiting list. BTG moved forward and made some changes. In November 2003, we hired a new program director, Leigh Ann Portler, and expanded our program to include Project Based Section 8 housing as well as private landlords. We applied once again for the Continuum of Care grant, and BTG was awarded funds to support the new Find Your Home initiative, an extension of the BTG program. Through this new initiative, we have housed 15 individuals. We will continue to increase the number of Project Based Section 8 Units and private landlords in our rental database with a goal of creating a public web database with bi-weekly housing updates.
Cleveland Community Voice Mail
CCVM had a wonderful year in 2003, serving over 5,200 individuals and successfully expanded into Lorain County. CCVM is having a difficult time securing corporate sponsorship for this program. Although CCVM pays SBC over$14,000 a year and has proven to be a successful program, SBC will not provide financial support. CCVM is the only program in Ohio. Toledo had a program, but because of the lack of financial support, this program was forced to close their doors. In 2004, we hope to secure more corporate support to sustain this program that has proven to help homeless individuals better their situation. CCVM hopes to expand to surrounding counties in 2004, and we are helping Cincinnati and Columbus start their voicemail program as well.
Cleveland Homeless Legal Assistance Program
CHLAP served over 250 individuals who needed legal advice in 2003, and we have finally established a good relationship with the Cleveland Bar Association. We currently have six intake sites, and our Program Director is working on including two additional sites before the end of 2004. CHLAP continues to struggle in its effort to gain support from the legal community. In 2004, we will host forums to try and recruit more volunteer lawyers and firms to "adopt a shelter". The forums will also be an opportunity to discuss sustainability of the project. CHLAP will also work to create a partnership with law students, and will give the student’s experience while helping CHLAP serve additional clients.
Thank
you to those Who Donated to the Annual Dinner and Auction
African
Safari Wildlife Park
Ambiance
The Store for Lovers!
Northfield
Park
Anything
But. Ordinary
Lo
Los Catering
Beran's
Studio
Betty
Sobieski
Kelly
Burd
Joan
Burda
Caf‚
Tandoor
Cain
Park
Carousel
Dinner Theatre
Cassidy
Theatre
City
Budda
Cleveland
Cinemas
Cleveland
Barons
Cleveland
Browns
Cleveland
Force
Cleveland
Indians
Dave
Dawson
Wilbur
Leatherberry
Cleveland
Museum of Natural History
Cleveland
Opera
The
Cleveland Orchestra
Cookies
by Design
Cuyahoga
Valley Scenic Railroad
Dennis
Kucinich
Dobama
Theater
Einstein
Bros Bagels
Filer's
Florist
Fine
Arts Association
Gesu
Catholic Church Social Concern Commission
Great
Lakes Brewing Company
Great
Lakes Historical Society
Great
Lakes Theater Festival
Hard
Rock Caf‚
Improvisation
Comedy Club
John
Roberts Hair Studio & Spa
Karen
Bourquin
Lake
County Captains Minor League Baseball Team
Lake
Metro Park
Malley's
Chocolates
Mohican
Resort (Xanterra Park & Resorts)
Northern
Ohio Golf Association
Patricia
Sobieski
Pickwick
& Folic Restaurant & Club home to Hillarities
Plants
Plus
Sheraton
Cleveland City Center Hotel
Six
Step Down Bookstore
Truffle's
Thistledown
Thompson
Hine
Thomas
Pretlow
USS
Cod Submarine Memorial
Willoughby Lost Nation Municipal Golf Course
Beyond
NEOCH
will:
·
Work
with City, County, and local businesses to develop a plan to address the
homeless and affordable housing crisis in Northeast Ohio.
·
Work
with state advocates to expand the dollars going to affordable housing in
the State Housing Trust Fund.
·
Develop
a plan to assure better access to health care for homeless people to
provide continuity of on-going care.
·
Work
with local labor, religious, and other non-profit organizations to realize
the hope of low-income workers in the City of Cleveland to see the
creation of a large scale non-profit hiring hall that could compete with
existing day labor companies.
·
Work
to develop emergency housing opportunities or boarding houses for people
with income that have a hard time locating housing.
·
Seek
a statewide upgrade of the hate crimes law to include homeless people so
that we will never again see a slap on the wrist for violently attacking
homeless people.
Assist in the creation of a statewide voice mail system for homeless
people that may include an additional universal access fee to pay for this
service.
2002
Audited Financial Information
For
the year ending December 31, 2002
Revenue
and Support
(Unrestricted and Temporarily Restricted)
Grants,
gifts and bequests
$175,878
Governmental
support
$167,509
Donated
goods and services
$5,235
Program
Services
$10,361
Special
Events
$14,878
Total
Revenue and Support
$373,951
Operating
Expenses
Salaries
and wages, administrative
$69,588
Salaries
and wages, program
$162,226
Employee
benefits
$13,412
Payroll
taxes
$10,319
Accounting/auditing
$14,828
Bank
fees
$1,536
Contract
Labor
$9,504
Depreciation
$3,876
Dues,
publications and conferences
$4,705
Insurance
$2,485
Office
supplies and expenses
$4,183
Postage
$3,004
Printing
$16,077
Program
supplies and operations
$13,432
Rent
and occupancy
$8,569
Rent
and occupancy donated
$5,000
Repairs
and maintenance
$1,254
Telephone
(incl. voice mail system)
$17,352
Training
$931
Transportation
$14,964
Total
program expenses
$377,245
Increase
in net assets
($3,294)
Net
assets, beginning
$15,773
Net
assets ending
$12,479
2003
Financial Information
This
information is based on the cash basis accounting, and is not audited to
date.
Revenue
Foundations
$190,124
Federal
Government
$134,107
Community
Shares
$15,010
Special
Events
$13,749
Individuals
$12,095
Membership
$9,688
Religious
Organizations
$8,912
Grapevine
Sales
$4,120
Program
Fees
$3,942
Corporations
$1,960
Program
Operations
$1,057
Other
Revenue Sources
$753
Program
Balance from 2002
$12,479
Total
Revenue 2003
$407,958
Expenses
Salaries
$223,296
Telephone
$26,282
Taxes/Fringe
Benefits
$25,043
Consulting
$19,363
Office
Rent
$19,201
Professional
Services
$17,324
Printing
$15,639
Equipment
Maintenance/Purchase
$12,617
Program
Operations
$12,227
Staff
Travel
$9,350
Office
Supplies
$4,801
Conferences/Memberships
$3,721
Postage
$3,098
VISTA
Operations
$2,400
Grapevine
Printing
$1,456
Program
Balance for 2004
$12,140
Total
Expenses 2003
$407,958
NEOCH's
2003
Award Winners
Martin Gelfand
Social Justice Advocate of the Year
for
his commitment the past year in preparing the Tenth District Homelessness
Summit, assuring that homeless people are not forgotten within the Federal
Government. Marty Gelfand has
helped the Coalition with setting priorities and making those program
priorities a reality in Cleveland.
Ron Reinhart
Advocate of the Year
for
his six year commitment to serving homeless people as a member of the
Board of Trustees and willingness to participate whenever needed to assure
that homeless people’s voices are heard.
Denise Sobieski
Outstanding Volunteer of the Year
for her hard work on NEOCH’s annual meeting, her participation in the development committee, the Community Voice Mail program, and her willingness to always lend a helping hand.
Stand Down 2003
Edwardo Lauriano and unidentified woman
The Following Photos Were Taken by Charles Hurlbert and Appear in the 2003 Annual Report:
Charles Hulbert did most of the photos in this Annual Report. He was homeless and lived at 2100 Lakeside shelter. At the shelter, he had all of his camera equipment stolen. A sympathetic Grapevine reader saw his story and donated replacement equipment. His work was published in the 2003 Homeless Grapevines.