Josh Kanary: An Intimate Portrait from a Co-Worker

Josh giving thumbs up with the activists helping to drive homeless people to vote in 2008

Anyone who met Josh Kanary would describe him as kind, but he was far more than a surface-level "nice person." He was a guy who devoted his life to helping people -- to fight for the underdog, to focus on the otherwise forgotten. He was a homeless advocate, a community organizer, a self-described "oddity in an American world" who was about to receive his master's degree in social work. I met Josh while working at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH). We both worked as AmeriCorps*VISTAs and quickly became good friends.

Originally from Toledo, Josh was already working at NEOCH before I arrived. I remember him in the office, quiet and very polite. We were both involved in civil rights and advocacy, and quickly began collaborating on projects. During this time (in 2007) homeless people were increasingly subjected to hate crimes. Stories came out, nationally and locally, of homeless people being randomly assaulted by young men, many from the suburbs, who took videos of their attacks in some sort of prank. Josh was, rightly so, sickened by all this.

As the attacks increased (and some guys were making money selling these videos), the mainstream media took notice -- even Dr. Phil, who was running an episode wherein he confronted a guy at the forefront of these assault videos. Josh didn't know me well at the time, but he really wanted to see the show and didn't have cable. I remember him asking, sheepishly, if he could maybe, possibly, if it wasn't any trouble come over to my place and watch the show. I said yes, of course, and this was the start of us not only becoming partners-in-advocacy, but good friends.

We decided to focus on documenting hate crimes committed against homeless people in Cleveland. Together we took calls and met with people attacked on the streets and were both deeply affected by the stories we heard -- ambush attacks, stolen dogs, a whole lot of confusion. It was heartbreaking. Josh listened to countless stories of hardships. He never judged or jumped to conclusions -- he just listened with sincerity, documented everything and encouraged people to make police reports.

He had the idea of collecting national news stories of hate crimes to track where they were occurring. This research became part of the National Coalition for the Homeless' annual hate crimes report. I can remember him dropping news clippings on my desk, saying, "Did you hear what just happened…?" and so would begin lots of sighing and seemingly endless discussions on how the world was so messed up.

Josh never stopped caring. Instead of doing menial tasks to bide his time, he pushed his responsibilities further -- he organized music shows at homeless shelters, joined outreach teams to meet people living on the streets, helped with re-entry issues and wanted to visit homeless coalitions all across Ohio -- not because he had to, but because he felt it was the right thing to do. He wanted to get at the root of why people became homeless and who, exactly, homeless people were. He made surveys and gave out voicemail numbers to people who didn't have a phone yet needed a number to give out to friends, family or potential employers. Josh was always so proud of this service, impressed that something so simple could make a big difference for someone. 

Working to alleviate homelessness in one of the poorest cities in the country was a draining endeavor, yet Josh's humor and quick wit helped me get by. Much time was spent quoting The Simpsons and reading headlines from The Onion. He often invited me to watch him play guitar/banjo/harmonica at open mic nights; I likened him to Woody Guthrie… a Woody Guthrie who was also a gamer.

We frequently traveled to Columbus to meet with other VISTAs and hold conferences. Josh played CDs of old-time Americana music like Memphis Minnie, or maybe some Liz Phair or even video game soundtracks along the way. We'd never drive straight back. Instead we made a day of it -- I'd insist we'd get vegan bakery at Patty Cake and check out a retro clothing store; he would get a snickerdoodle and stand patiently in the store, commenting that the clothes were way too trendy (and hipster) for him. We even found ourselves temporarily homeless when a hotel we had to stay at rejected our supervisor's credit card. Even though it was late and we were starving and tired, Josh was still so polite.

AmeriCorps*VISTA terms last a year, but Josh signed up for a second year, and, in the process, inspired me to serve a second year as well. Whenever there was a slump in my work and I was left wondering what to do, I would go to Josh and he'd inspire me with another project. He got me back on track. Before we became VISTAs we had to take a training session in Chicago, but since we started at different times we didn't have the same session. I told him how at my training I was in a group that had to create and sing a song. The group chose to sing "Lean on Me" but inserted "VISTA" into the verses, so it went "Lean on me when you're not strong / And I'll be your VISTA, I'll help you carry on…"  Josh and I thought that was completely lame and would often recite those lyrics for a laugh. "You just call on a VISTA when you need a hand…" Funny though how, cheesiness aside, he was that VISTA.

After his two VISTA terms, Josh was hired at NEOCH as a community organizer, and then worked at a variety of non-profits while taking classes to get his Masters of Social Work from Cleveland State University. He figured a social work degree would enable him to continue helping disadvantaged people at a time when non-profit organizations weren't in positions to hire community organizers. During that time he adopted two cats, Lenny and Carl, and met Julie, who became his beloved wife. Josh left a positive impact on this world and will be missed.

Submitted by Sarah Valek

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Former NEOCH Staff Dies

Joshua Kanary

NEOCH was fortunate to have Joshua Kanary work for us between 2005 to 2009.  He began his career as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member serving the United States for two years here locally.  He was soft spoken and would go out of his way to help people.  We received word from two former employees that Josh had passed away over the last two days. Larry Davis, our volunteer coordinator, was hired by Josh and worked closely with him at our West Side location.  He could not believe the news, and wants to gather people for a local remembrance.  We are all terribly sad today to hear the news of his death at such a young age.  It makes us step back and want to hug our own loved ones.  We want to tell our co-workers that they are doing a great job for such little pay.  It forces us to reflect on the positive impact we are making in the face of such adversity, stupidity and pettiness that we all have to deal with everyday in this job. 

After leaving NEOCH, he received his Masters of Social Work from Cleveland State and really wanted to help people with their individual struggles.  Josh always wanted to take a chance with our vendors and people who had sympathetic stories, and he got burnt a couple of times by these people.  But he had a big heart and peaceful outlook.  After his VISTA career, we hired Josh as a Community Organizer.  He helped us with our Voice Mail program, the Bridging the Gap program and moving some of our programs to other agencies.  He worked independently often alone at the West Side office. Josh did public outreach work for a year until the financial downturn when we had to lay him off.   I wish that we had enough money to really work toward an end to homelessness in Cleveland.  I would have hired him back in a second to assess individuals and implement programming that actually moves people into housing.

Josh married after leaving NEOCH and moved to Mentor.  He worked as an intern for Congressman Kucinich's office and had worked out in Lorain County for Catholic Charities.  Josh did a lot of work on the Homeless Stand Down in the past as a volunteer and staff, and performed on guitar at our Homeless Memorial Day three or four times.  Our hearts go out to his wife, Julie and his family back in Toledo.   He was a quiet and respectful individual who seemed consumed by trying to improve society.  He trusted people that he met, and could listen to problems people were facing for hours. I always enjoyed hearing his perspective on issues facing homeless people, and he was a good barometer of the perspective of the average Clevelander.  I could ask Josh, "How will this play in Parma?" He always had a remarkably accurate and inciteful response.   Josh helped us with the Street Newspaper and wrote a couple of stories in the paper  (we will post a number of his stories in the next few days).  He helped with advocacy around re-entry, public housing, and TB issues for the Coalition.  Josh was responsible for finding Street Voices speaking engagements and helped to improve our public education programs to dispel myths about homelessness.  It is a terrible loss of a talented young man.

Brian Davis

UPDATE:  We have posted a page of stories that Josh wrote for the Homeless Grapevine newspaper here.   This is the link to the Toledo Blade obituary.

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Pancake Breakfast for NEOCH

Sponsored by

We hope that you will support the Coalition by attending the pancake breakfast being organized by the National Honor Society students at St. Josephs Academy.  We thank CareSource for providing the funds to buy the supplies for this fundraiser.  This is the first year for this collaboration, and we hope to raise the issue of the increases in family homelessness.  We anticipate another rough summer and we hope to distribute additional resources to meet the demand. 

Brian

Posts reflect the opinion of the those who sign the entry.

Government Programs Do Work 2

The affordable housing website was created by funding from Fannie Mae (before they turned to the dark side) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.   There is a need for a list of housing that is available to the public in every city.   There must be a free resource available for landlords to list their apartments and those apartments that accept a voucher.  This service is a prime example of private--public partnership.   Socialserve.com is a non-profit organization funded by government and the quasi government organization in Fannie Mae Foundation.  We call it HousingCleveland or HousingOhio locally and it has been active in Cleveland since 2005, and in 2011 we crossed one million searches done in one year.  The government funded website has spread across the United States and they are now in over 30 states.   

This service was invaluable to Cleveland in 2005 when trying to relocate those fleeing the Army Corps created disaster in New Orleans.   We were able to propagate the site with a large number of landlords at the beginning because so many were interested in helping.   It has been an outstanding resource for us to use to refer people looking for housing.  We have made improvements to the site over the years, and added the ability for case workers to login to see additional information about the properties to assist their clients.   We found out that we see as many visitors to the site as the Los Angeles affordable housing website and we have one eighth the population.  

Social serve offers a nice staff that keeps that website up to date with updated information on the availably of the housing.  They have a call center to answer questions or list new properties on the site.  They are a nice partner for the local community.  It is way better then the waste of money housing locator that the State of Ohio funded.   It is never updated and is useless.   In Cleveland, we have funded the HousingCleveland.org with HUD dollars, CMHA assistance, homeless dollars and Cuyahoga County support.  It would be easier if HUD gave a blanket ability for the local communities to fund essential services like HousingCleveland without a lot of redtape.  We know that thousands use the site every week, and we know that many of the landlords are happy with the free platform to advertise their property.

Brian

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry

National Coalition for the Homeless Marks 30 Years

Thirty years ago, the National Coalition for the Homeless was founded after spinning off from the New York Coalition.  I attended the kick off event to mark this historic day in Washington.  I got to talk to Fred Karnas who was a previous Executive Director and has some great stories of building the organization.  It was nice to meet Heather from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty during the gathering.  I had talked to her on the phone during civil rights conference calls, but never met her in person.  Michael Stoops gave a history lesson on all the work done by the Coalition including the HousingNow march in the 1980s, the McKinney Vento legislation and pushing for additional funding for the homeless programs.  For thirty years the National Coalition has been known to represent the civil rights of those experiencing homelessness. The best part of the evening was hearing from the Speakers, Steve and T.,  who do hundreds of speaking engagements at schools and before religious communities.  I talked to a number of the speakers who attended the event; all had previous experience with homelessness.  It is amazing that some of these people can get up in the morning let alone talk publicly about the trauma they underwent on their path back to stable housing.  They all have tremendous stories about the adversity of living on the streets, fights against bureaucracy, and abuse.  These speakers had found stability and a voice to work out their pain.  It is always amazing that they can put their rough times into perspective that provides a small glimpse into homelessness.

NCH has for 30 years represented the interests of those living without housing and trying to bring those voices to the halls of Congress.  It was great hearing from a professor at Georgetown, Sarah Stiles,  who makes it a point of having her classes hear from people living on the streets.   She talked about the classroom talks and the alternative spring breaks offered to college students from around the country in Washington.  As an aside for the first time a group got in trouble with the police for sleeping outside.   The group never disclosed that they were students on break in DC, and were taken in by the police but not charged. 

Neil Donovan was the Master of Ceremony for the event, and most of the Board were able to attend the anniversary.  We are going to miss Neil, but we know that he left the organization in a better place than he found it.   It is difficult to not have a feeling of remorse that the country has not solved homelessness in thirty years.   How does the group celebrate that they made it through tough times, but not send a confusing message that they are celebrating that homeless people have kept them in business for 30 years? It is a balancing act to not alienate the group you cherish most of all, homeless people, but celebrate overcoming obstacles that would have killed most groups.  NCH has seen some great times when they had staff in all different policy areas and were the foremost expert on the rights of homeless children and youth.   They have made hate crimes against homeless people a national policy issue.  The staff were experts in housing, the rights of homeless people, entitlements, and employment issues.  They wrote white papers every couple of months on policy and legislative issues.  They led letter writing campaigns and pushed local governments to give up on attempts to hide homeless people.  They pushed against Congress and social service agencies trying to mute the social justice aspects of the struggle to find a place for everyone in society.  They worked to make housing a right and not a privilege that only the sobor or mentally stable have access to in our society.

It is a good time to remind supporters of the local Coalitions to contribute to NCH with a donation to assure that they will be around to see this housing crisis to a just end.  We urge you to support a group that has spent 30 years fighting the good fight?  Many who founded the organization are no longer around including Mitch Snyder in DC, buddy gray in Cincinnati, Ellen Daily in Massachusetts, and John Donahue in Chicago.  These four were amazing advocates in the struggle to build affordable housing and provide universal health care in the United States.   NCH has had some amazing advocates associated with the organization over the years including Cheryl Barnes,  Dr. Matt Vega,  Barbara Duffield, Lynn Lewis, Shelia Crowley, Paul Boden, Bill Faith, John Lozier and Chuck Currie.    I am happy to currently serve with John Parvensky of Denver who is the current board president doing amazing work out in Colorado.   Donald Whitehead who cut his teeth in the shadow of buddy gray fighting against the forces who wanted to sweep poor people out of Over the Rhine is a former Executive Director and current board member.  The NCH Board also has Patrick Markee who grew up in Cleveland, but now is a major policy wonk in New York City.  There are powerful voices from the deep rural south, Florida, Indiana, Washington state, Sacramento, and Boston on the current board.

NCH has always had some strong loud voices, but the majority of the people associated with the organization over the years are the people who day in and day out are trying to figure out how to get the food to last for the last 20 stragglers in the soup line.  They work every night to find a bed for the individual forgotten by the rest of society sleeping on a park bench at midnight.  They come to the nation's capital looking for someone else who understands the misery of homelessness and wants to find a long term solution.  They are looking for a plan, resources, or a massive development of housing to keep the children back in their community from facing the fear of not knowing where they will sleep at night.  

Please help the National Coalition for the Homeless as they mark 30 years of survival and 30 years of finding a place in our society for all. 

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.