We Mourn the Loss of a Reporter

I have met with hundreds of reporters about homelessness in the last 18 years.  Most are zoned out just doing their job in getting the facts.  There are some who are so burnt out that they don't care about anything you are saying.  I swear you could say, "Homeless people are planning an armed overthrow of the Human Services building" to some of these reporters and they would not even flinch or follow up.  There are a few reporters that care deeply about their subject matter and listen and try to interpret exactly what the subject of their interview is talking about.  I don't want to mention specific people, because I know that I will miss some.  There are men and women at the Plain Dealer who care deeply for the City and love featuring the individual stories who are typically falling through the cracks in the safety net.   There are some senior television reporters who support social justice and understand the importance of these groups to push government.  There are a number of radio reporters who want to bring the forgotten, the suffering and the oppressed to the airwaves.  Mhari Saito was one of those special reporters.

Mhari Saito photo from the WCPN websiteI met Mhari Saito at WCPN 90.3 FM about four or five years ago, and all of us at the homeless coalition are sad that she died recently.  WCPN staff had a nice feature on her on the air and on their website. Saito talked to us about our voting activities as part of her daily reporting.  Mhari locked on to the foreclosure issue in a time that we desperately needed in Cleveland.  She did features that were picked up by NPR about one of the hardest hit communities for housing instability.  I remember Saito talking to home owners who were tricked to leave their house and then found that they were fined for not maintaining it.  I remember families talking about being terrified that they were going to end up in the shelters.  She featured stories on some of the secondary industries that blossomed as a result of the foreclosure crisis as well as some of the secondary victims.  Saito went into some detail about how banks had failed their customers with the robo-signing and not doing mortgage adjustments in a timely manner.   She did features on individuals harmed by the crisis and she was great at pointing out the impact of the foreclosure crisis on the suburbs.  

There are critics of advocacy journalism in the I.F. Stone at The Nation or David Corn at Mother Jones, but I really believe they serve a valuable purpose for our democracy.  After the retirement of Roldo writing a regular columns in Cleveland, we had a real lull in advocacy journalism in Cleveland. Mhari Saito had the demands of daily journalism at a local NPR affiliate, but she really focused on advocacy journalism around the foreclosure issue.  She was passionate about spotlighting the corruption, the heartless policies of the banking industry, and most of all the insanity of the bureaucracy that these home owners were facing. She was a really great reporter with easy to understand and vivid radio stories.  We will miss Ms. Saito, and we hope that someone takes up the gauntlet on continuing the focus on the devastation caused by the foreclosure crisis.  

Brian

Day Care Horrors on Fresh Air

There was a lengthy article in the New Republic by Jonathan Cohn about the crisis in the Day Care industry in America.  The story weaves in the tragedy of one Houston area home day care throughout the long expose on day care in America.  The Houston day care center had many children and the lone care taker left oil heating on the stove and went to Target and Starbucks while her house caught on fire and four of the children died.   This may be the extreme, but the facts surrounding day care speak for themselves.  The workers are some of the lowest paid workers in our society.  For many moms they cannot find an affordable place to care for their children. 

The author who appeared on Fresh Air yesterday, compares our system to the amazing system in France.  He details the plan outlined by the Obama administration to expand the Georgia and Oklahoma early childhood state funded programs.  Cohn looks at the military childcare facilities which are far better for inspections and paying staff a decent wage.  He looks at the history of day care in America with the massive changes that took place during welfare reform as well as the economics of providing quality care to young people.

NEOCH staff going back fifteen years have complained about the childcare issues associated with welfare reform in Cleveland.  Our society has told women to go out at any cost and find a low income job.  Cuyahoga County gives very few exceptions to the lifetime time limits, and then those women have to struggle to find childcare.  Our public policy is to force low income women to pay other low income women to take care of their children.  We could just cut out the middle man and pay the women to take care of their own children as they do in France with tax breaks and the children would be way better off.   I have never understood the logic of welfare reform and how so many championed this as a success.   It still does not make sense 15 years later.  It is dumb public policy and the Cohn article is exhibit A to demonstrate this failed policy.

Another Opportunity to Hear Daniel's Poetry

The Drumplay folks are doing a second show to remember the poetry of DanDaniel Thompson attended a 2000 rally to celebrate the NEOCH victory over the City of Cleveland at Willard Park by City Hall. iel Thompson.  April is the anniversary of his birth (also national poetry month), and so there is always a great deal of activity.  Of course, poetry in the spring is always the best time of year to be open to the creative uses of the English language. 

We have previously posted the event at the Lakewood Library on April 19 at 6 p.m.  But if you cannot make the Friday event there is a Sunday session at the Shaker Library from 2-4 p.m.  What possibly could be better than an afternoon of Daniel's poetry at the people's university?   The Shaker Library is at 16500 Van Aken Blvd 4/21 at 2 p.m. Featuring Ray McNiece, Ernie Krivda on saxophone and the jazz/folk musicians of Drumplay led by our friend James.   We hope that you can attend one of these events.

Brian Davis

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Rally in Columbus to Expand Medicaid

Photo by Norman WolfeOn Tuesday, April 9^th, a bus load of Cleveland lobbyist, assembled and organized by Northern Ohioans for Budget Legislation Equality (NOBLE),  headed to Columbus to voice their concerns on the items that were going to make up the 2013 Ohio State budget.  The headlining issue was the Medicaid Expansion suspected of being removed from the budget.  Teams of delegations were formed and we headed out to either planned appointments or several unscheduled stop-ins on officials that could not meet with a delegation.  Three members of the Homeless Congress attended the lobby trip.

My delegation consisted of a varied cross section of Cleveland’s constituents which included senior citizens and one single parent with his, well behaved, child, to illustrate our diversity.  Our team was assigned Senators Shirley Smith, Frank LaRose, and Michael Skindell’s aide.  We talked up our points that the individual team members felt covered concerns that affect many Ohioans that suffered similar financial problems and placed them in dire straits.  All testimonies were delivered eloquently and were received with genuine attention from the legislators and their staffs.

Although each member of the senate that we spoke to was informative and forthcoming, the highlight of our delegation was our session speaking with Senator Shirley Smith.  She was happy to host our team and at the same time, a group of clergymen, headed by Bishop Tony Minor, joined our team for the meeting with the Senator.  As soon as the Senator walked in the door, she informed the assembled group of the signing of a bill to remove employment restrictions and some limitation of expunging misdemeanor and felony convictions, an obstacle for reentering citizens seeking jobs (for more information, click here.)  Then she turned her attention to our delegation and heard the testimony of those struggling in this economy.  She responded gracefully adding comments to provide additional assistance for each person.  It was clear that the senator was knowledgeable of the Cleveland area and some of the people who names were mentioned during our presentations.

At the end of the day we were informed that the Medicaid Expansion was taken out of the House budget and would be sent over to the Senate without the expansion.  We will need to continue our efforts to push for this critical piece of the budget to be included in the final budget. 

By Norman Wolfe

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Forest City Donates Supplies and Funds to Homeless People

Thanks to the staff at ForestCity Enterprises in Cleveland, Ohio for collecting hygiene items and delivering six big boxes today to our offices.  They have a "Jeans Day for Charity" program in which staff pay for the ability to wear jeans to work.  They took our list from our website and collected items such as soaps, toothpaste and deodorant, blankets, towels, and hand sanitizers.  They also donated over $1,700 to help NEOCH and our outreach efforts. 

We give out these donations as part of our Homeless Congress meetings and during our every other week outreach meetings.  We have outreach workers come to our office every two weeks and give out all the items we have collected to distribute on the streets.  We use these items to build relationships with those living outside or resistant to shelter with a hope that they will agree to come inside eventually.  We also provide items to the shelter at 2100 Lakeside, our state's largest shelter which provides overflow assistance to any man in the community who requests a place to stay at night. 

We forgot to thank the Cleveland Browns who provided a huge donation to 2100 Lakeside and West Side Catholic two weeks ago.  They both collected a busload of clothing items for homeless people nearly all with the Browns logo from the Brown's organization.  So there are many happy homeless people who will be fans or at least billboards for the Cleveland Browns this summer and fall.  Thanks to the Browns for their help. 

Thanks especially to the ForestCity Enterprise staff for picking out the homeless for their Jeans Day program in March.  They did a great job collecting just the items we said that we needed.  Homeless people thank all the employees for the help. 

Brian Davis

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