Congressman Ellison of Minnesota proposed a law to reform the mortgage deduction and his bill would expand funding to CMHA, the Housing Choice Voucher program, the National Housing Trust, and expand the tax credit program.  We have posted a copy of the City of Cleveland resolution on our website under May 2013 in our advocacy section (just click on the pdf to circulate or view the resolution.)  We hope that Congresswomen Fudge and Kaptur will sign on to the resolution.  We hope that Cuyahoga County will pass a similar resolution. 

PS: We have to thank Rachel, staff of Councilman Joe Cimperman, for quickly getting this to the Council.  Also, Councilman Cimperman was very gracious in moving this to the floor for a vote before the summer vacation.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

This is a huge book in the style of a coffee table book from the 1970s.  Every page has some wonderful charts or graphs. For policy wonks this book is not to miss.  There is a page dedicated to each state with statistics on the major cities within those states.  These stats are based on flawed Annual counts, which dramatically undercounts families.  (We will print in the next Street Newspaper).  The annual count gives a good overview of homelessness demographics and can provide some interesting comparisons.  They are not accurate, but they are interesting comparisons.  For example, there is no way that there are more families in Hamilton County then there are in Cuyahoga County, but that is what the stats say. This is a reflection of the number of shelter beds counted in Cincinnati compared to Cleveland, but it has no greater meaning. Not all of our family shelters report their numbers while every shelter reports in Hamilton County.

The other nice aspect of this Almanac is that they go through issues that are impacting family homelessness in America.   They discuss causes of family homelessness, foreclosures, and family homeless sub populations.  They go into great detail about the unfortunate destruction of transitional shelters in America.  They look at homeless youth, Head Start, Food stamps, and Social Security Disability.   The Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness looks at minorities and homelessness, those who live in rural communities, and federal aid for homeless students.  You can read the almanac directly from their website, but it does not do it justice until you see it.  I would recommend policy agencies purchasing a copy of the book.  

The final section has a brief look at positive programs that are making a difference in the United States to improve the lives of homeless families.  There are no programs mentioned in Ohio which is unfortunate, but there are some interesting ideas.  There are some clunkers in the list like the Denver Donation Meter Program which we are never big on programs that single out one population (panhandlers) for shame and derision.  While others seem interesting like the Minneapolis Family Housing Fund that has built 26,000 units of affordable housing or the Chicago Hopes program to engage homeless children in enrichment activities while in the shelters. 

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

NEOCH was critical of the original report, and we wrote to the City asking for additional steps operated by a non-profit to coordinate all these activities  We even met with the police chief to offer our assistance in 2011, but the City went their own way.  There is a limited website currently available by the City of Cleveland, but it has very little information.  The big problem right now is that if the last known residence of an individual is in Woodland then that police force is the one that takes the lead on investigating their disappearance. They may not have the expertise or skills to understand the difference between a runaway, a homeless person and a missing person, but that is the way it works in Ohio.  If Cuyahoga County Sheriff is going to step forward to take the lead on these cases that would be a big improvement.  All the steps that have been taken are good, but there is much more that needs to be done.  Our recommendations:

1.  The new County website needs to have much more information when compared to the City of Cleveland missing persons online database. They need many more pictures and detailed information about the missing person.  Since most people do not use their name when they are trying to disappear, how is just a name and age useful to the public?  It should also have the ability for trusted users to login to find out additional information and submit additional information.  This would allow family members to submit non-public information and social workers to find information.  There was a nice model that the people at Microsoft set up after Hurricane Katrina.  There are some people who just don't want to have contact with their family and are not really missing.  Right now we have no ability to separate those people from the missing. Families who suspect with credible evidence that their family member relocated to Cleveland should be able to list their family members as missing in a venue seen by Clevelanders.

2.  Agencies that deal with new people on a regular basis should receive a weekly report of people declared missing from the county.  Right now we get a weekly update of the 800 person list of everyone missing.  They do not separate the new from the old.   We could then look out for people missing in our community, and encourage those individuals to get their names off the missing persons database.   The social service providers would not violate the privacy of their clients, but just try to get the "missing" individual to put their family members at ease if they were searching for them.   We have found many people who family has been looking for, and if they had known the individual was homeless they would have stepped forward to help.  Unfortunately, many don't find their loved ones until they appear on our homeless memorial list.

3. The County Sheriff needs to start doing work with the homeless groups, the rape crisis center, youth outreach teams, mental health agencies, and alcohol and drug treatment centers if they are going to be leading the effort to find missing people.   They need to start building trusting relationships with community groups in order to help re-unite families and find missing people.

4.  We would like many more details from the County and some input on the development of this new resource.   We want the women of Imperial Avenue support group to have some input and the families of missing adults to be involved.  We could have a top notch system for finding people, and we could actually make something meaningful if we just listen to the experts.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry

South Dakota

Has decided not to expand Medicaid.  Worked to establish a state Housing Trust Fund in March 2013, and part of the fund goes to economic development.

Washington State

They are experiencing such a rough time with the budget that there is a proposal to cut homeless assistance by half.  Advocates are rallying to push for "closing loopholes" in taxes to prevent the cuts to human services. 

New York

They have had record numbers in the shelters with 50,000 reached last month a new record.  That marks a 61% increase in shelter during the Bloomberg administration and a 20% increase in one year.  The point in time count released by HUD is highly inaccurate, but it the numbers show that 1 in 4 homeless people live in New York City.  One of the big issues is the loss of targeted housing vouchers for homeless families that the Mayor cancelled.  There are regular fights with the administration over access to shelter.  Advocates have been fighting over the "diversion"  rules in court.  They hope to delay the implementation until a new Mayor can make the final decision.  They are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy with many still in temporary locations.  There have been protests and efforts to extend the time people have to find housing. The plan to house everyone who lost their housing in the hurricane is still not in place, but the City continues to set arbitrary deadlines.

New Orleans

The Public Housing Authority has been successful in replacing as many as 2,400 units which has helped to keep the homeless population down.

Mississippi

They have put together a plan to end homelessness with a focus on children and families.

California

Advocates are working on a Homeless Bill of Rights.  There was an attempt to weaken the legislation to make it largely symbolic.  This was successfully beaten back, but there is no guarantee that the Governor will sign the legislation. They have a Housing Trust fund without money, and there is an attempt to find a revenue source.   There have been stories in the local paper of individuals being transported from Nevada to California and dumped.   There is great concern for the local housing authorities having to evict people beginning this summer because of federal budget cuts and sequestration. 

South Carolina

There was a anti-camping ordinance passed that allows homeless people to live under a bridge for 48 hours before they have to move on.  There are no resources to help people in South Carolina and a tangible fear and loathing of single homeless males and lower income citizens. 

Ft. Lauderdale

They have expanded their drop in center to serve larger numbers.  There is an expanded health care for the homeless clinic operating in the community.  The entire state has a large number of attacks, brutal treatment of those living outside and massive numbers of arrests.  It is a rough place for homeless people to live.

Denver

The anti-camping ban passed and they are still dealing with the results.  People are feeling less safe and feel constantly under threat for arrest. While there have not been arrests using the anti-camping it is an opening to do a background check and arrest for some other reason.  They are trying to renovate  an old VA hospital as a transitional housing facility and rehab center.  There is concern that HUD will not allow congregate living arrangements after a controversial court decision that attempts to de-concentrate disabled populations.  The problem is that the only way to make these projects work is to have larger scale facilities with over 100 people living together.  It is a problem that Congress or HUD need to resolve this issue.   They continue to develop 100 Permanent Supportive Housing units a year and the latest property increased the size of the Denver Health Care for the Homeless clinic. 

Brian

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Join Us May 16 at 1 p.m. at Cleveland City Hall Health and Human Services Hearing on the Second Floor

This Thursday May 16, 2013 at Cleveland City Hall there is a hearing of the Health and Human Services Committee at 1 p.m. on two resolutions if passed will push the State and Federal Government to act.   The City Council will take up the measure to urge the State of Ohio to pass Medicaid Expansion as the Governor has requested.  They will also take up a measure to support the United for Homes adjustment of the Mortgage Interest Deduction to support the National Housing Trust Fund.  This campaign is led by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and now there is a piece of legislation to support introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (HR 1213). Both are on the agenda for Thursday.  We hope that you can come out to support both these pieces of legislation.  Show that you care about low income people who need housing and health care.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry

Federal housing plan for 2014?

The big picture is that Sequestration will not hit the shelters until 2014, but there will be an impact.   Because the federal dollars for homelessness have remained steady for the last two years and now are being cut 6% because of Sequestration, there are expected to be cuts to the local shelters.  We are over a year behind in allocating federal dollars, and then there is almost a year for each program to complete their current contracts. 

Earlier this year in allocating the 2011 funds, three programs locally did not ask for renewal funds.  This assured that all the shelters received renewal funding.  The renewal burden is bigger every year even though no programs gets an increase based on inflation.  In this upcoming year, we will have to make some tough decisions.  Programs that serve the most difficult to serve and thus have poorer outcomes may be lost.  Smaller programs may have a harder time demonstrating their impact.  Those programs that take people right off the street may have difficulty obtaining enough points to get renewal funding.  We estimate between two and five programs may lose federal funding locally over the next two years because of the austerity of the federal government.  We will keep the community updated on these developments.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Our proposal at the Homeless Coalition is to use public money and the donations that come in to provide "No Worries" for the women for at least the length of their captivity.  We should buy each of the three kidnapping victims a home through the Cleveland Housing Network or Habitat for Humanity in the neighborhood of their choice that could be renovated this summer.  We know the value of having safe and secure housing to the healing process.  We know that veterans who are struggling with PTSD issues make a quicker recovery with intensive counseling and a secure place to live.  If we can lift the burden of trying to pay the rent or having to pay property taxes off of these women, they will recover faster.  They should not have to worry about housing and be secure in that housing for the next ten to twelve years.  We should pay the property taxes or provide property tax abatement for the next decade.  The women should have their groceries delivered to them weekly so that they can work on their mental health issues and attempt to make up for all the lost time.   We should provide twelve years of landscaping and lawn care so that they look outside and can enjoy the outdoors which they were deprived for a decade.  We have a debt to repay especially to Michelle Knight who we did not even realize was missing.  We hope that the community can step forward and provide secure and safe housing to these women while they recover.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Every summer family homelessness increases in Cleveland.  Last year we had record numbers, and we need help.  We don't necessarily need space, but we need volunteers, hygiene items, care kits, and support for the family shelters in Cleveland.  The first meeting in April, there was discussion about an overflow plan for the summer.  We are working on finalizing that plan over the next few weeks.  The goal is to not turn anyone away from shelter and to keep families together.  If you are a member of a religious congregations social justice committee, or your House of Worship youth committee, or your hunger and homeless committee we want you to attend the meeting.   Tuesday May 28, 2013 at 5:30 p.m. at the Mental Health Services main building.

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Phil Star and Bill Faith at CAHA 2007The next Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting is May 6, 2013 at HUD (1350 Euclid Ave) in the US Bank Building lower level at 1:30 p.m.  We will have the Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, Bill Faith who will give an overview of the state budget process, talk about some national policy issues, and the protection of the state housing trust fund. Bill is the leading advocate down in Columbus for the past 20 years on housing and homelessness.  He keeps his fingers on the pulse of the Ohio legislature and can tell us how bad things will be for housing developers and homeless service providers over the next two years.  Bill will be our only guest at this meeting so there should be plenty of time for discussion and questions.  We hope that you can attend. 

Brian Davis

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry