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A document
prepared with the input and support of homeless people
By the
Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless
January 2003
Contact:
Brian Davis
NEOCH
3631 Perkins Ave,. #3A-3
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
216.432.0540
briandavis@neoch.org
NEOCH
Background:
Longtime local homeless advocates, Lisa Thomas, Sister Mary Frances Harrington and Reverend George Hrbek founded NEOCH in 1989, as the successor to the Emergency Shelter Coalition. Over the next decade, as demand for shelter and services strained community resources, NEOCH’s role as advocate for homeless people also expanded. In 1996, NEOCH engaged in an extensive strategic planning process to clarify the Coalition’s role in the community and to create a work plan for the next five years. Through that process, NEOCH reaffirmed its role within the community as a homeless advocate organization that gives voice and leadership to homeless people in Cleveland. By focusing on four areas of emphasis, advocacy, empowerment, education/research, and the creation of nurturing environments, NEOCH works to end homelessness in Greater Cleveland.
NEOCH
Accomplishments
NEOCH is the voice of homelessness in Cleveland. Since 1989, NEOCH has been dedicated to the belief that through community action we have the power to change institutions, policies and attitudes that create homelessness and build instead a community of access and opportunity. NEOCH is the only organization in Cleveland that is developing and lobbying for solutions to the homeless problem in Cleveland. Our strategy focuses on keeping pressure on our elected representatives, educating the public about the true nature of the problem and collaborating to find solid alliances and innovative solutions.
The highlights of NEOCH’s broad range of solutions include:
· Connecting 2,350 homeless people to jobs and housing through free voice mail services in the last two years.
· Distributing 10,000 “street cards” to people living on the street directing them to a wide range of services throughout the County that offer help.
· Assisting over 100 people into permanent housing through “Bridging the Gap" in 2001.
· Supporting national efforts to “Bring America Home” in comprehensive legislation to end the national embarrassment of homelessness.
· Pressuring County leaders to improve conditions and address problems at local emergency shelters.
· Partnering with service providers to create a safe and responsive men’s shelter involving resident participation in policy decisions that affect them.
· Providing free legal services to nearly 1000 homeless people over two years.
· Teaching over 300 community leaders, church groups, school children and citizens about the hardships facing homeless people through quarterly “teach-ins” led by people experiencing homelessness.
· Publishing the Homeless Grapevine newspaper for nine years, training nearly 500 homeless people to distribute 400,000 papers.
The unique distinguishing characteristic of NEOCH’s advocacy initiatives is the comprehensive involvement of homeless people in decision making that affects them. Through the process of sharing directly with homeless people, NEOCH is able to discern problems and develop solutions with the people experiencing homelessness, then forward that agenda to local elected officials and other stakeholders. The resulting programmatic decisions can be directly related to the real world experiences of those we attempt to serve. By creating pathways for homeless people to become personally empowered, we can move them more quickly into stable housing environments.
NEOCH’s Executive Director, Brian Davis is a recognized national leader on the civil rights issues of homeless people having retained a key role on the National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project for the past five (5) years. Davis is also a member of the Executive Committee of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington D.C., an Executive Committee member of the North American Street Newspaper Association and a Board member for four (4) years of the state Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
High
Priority Problems identified by Homeless People
These are a summary of the greatest needs identified by homeless people over the last two years. This list was finalized by men and women who stayed at the two overflow shelters in the City of Cleveland in September through December 2002.
1. Homeless people need a seven day a week drop in center that operates 24 hours per day that will provide access to find help. People experiencing homelessness need a place to receive mail (post office boxes are no longer allowing homeless people to rent a box.)
2. There needs to better information about the services that are available in the community, and there needs to be better access to this information for homeless people.
3. More food sites need to be available to homeless people.
4. There is a lack of residential drug and alcohol treatment available in the community. Also there is a lack of residential treatment options available after the completion of detox.
5. There is a lack of coordination and oversight of all the homeless social services. Oversight of the shelters is a big issue, especially with regard to client complaints and oversight of staffing problems.
6. We need to develop a clear path off of the streets especially for men. This needs to include reducing barriers to providing assistance to homeless people with jobs, housing, and health care. For example, the One Stop Center has a difficult time working with homeless people on finding jobs for them.
7. There is a lack of oversight of the representative payee system.
8. A severe lack of affordable and supportive housing exists, especially for people receiving disability or other assistance.
9. There is a lack of places for people recovering from a stay at the hospital or places for people with a long term health condition to move back to stability.
10. Identification is difficult for homeless people to acquire. Other obstacles to stability include the lack of laundry facilities, telephone access, lockers for storage, and availability of computers.
11. It is difficult for homeless people with a physical disability to find a shelter bed.
12. Agency staff are not always passing the donations onto homeless people.
13. There is a need for help with mental illness including outreach, shelter, supportive housing and especially application for disability. There is also a need for better emergency services to women with a mental illness.
14. There is a need for better access to units operated by the Public Housing Authority. This would include problems with access and the high number of vacancies especially those units designated for seniors.
15. There is a serious problem with the Ohio Department of Corrections using the shelter system as emergency housing for those coming out of a corrections environment. It is very difficult for men and women released from a corrections situation from finding housing and a job.
16. The community needs to renovate the huge number of vacant buildings and empty housing in Greater Cleveland.
17. There is a serious need more supportive and permanent affordable housing reserved for veterans.
18. There is a need for more housing vouchers so that homeless people can find housing outside of the impacted areas of Cleveland. There should also be a prohibition in Greater Cleveland on landlords not accepting vouchers for rent.
19. Homeless and low income people need help in breaking down the barriers that prevent people from renting because of previous debt problems. There is a need for more debt counseling for low-income individuals.
20. More oversight of the rules to enter a shelter and rules for discharge from shelters need to be enacted and enforced.
21. Transportation is a serious barrier for homeless people to get to jobs or to go out and look for housing.
22. There is a lack of funds available to households attempting to prevent evictions. There is also a great need for intervention by the social service community before a household shows up at the shelter door to prevent homelessness.
23. There needs to be an assessment of the effectiveness of the programs that serve people experiencing homelessness including outside intervention to resolve grievances.
24. There is a need for housing, job, and specialized services for youth (age 12-22) who are homeless.
25. More adult education of homeless people including cultural specific education and GED classes need to be funded.
26. There is a need for better education of the suburban community of the needs and demographics of the homeless population to eliminate the myths.
Solutions
to Homelessness
§
Cleveland
must develop a plan that involves housing and homeless services and includes a
regional approach to addressing the problem.
Need accurate profiles and trends on homelessness and poverty.
Homeless people have to be brought into the process as partners
Extensive cost estimates must be outlined
Costs for not following the plan must be outlined.
A description of the role of government, private sector and non-profit community must be described.
Five critical areas
to address:
a. Affordable/supportive housing
b. Systemic barriers to stability.
c. High Risk and Long term homeless people.
d. Intensive prevention strategies must be looked at.
e. How to move people from an emergency situation to stability quickly?
Case workers should go to visit all those who are in danger of entering the system (families facing eviction). First Call for Help would dispatch the workers, and they would have to have the resources to keep people in their housing or place them directly into housing with case management without entering the shelter system. Need a dedicated pool to prevent homelessness.
Long term homeless people are a fraction of the total population, but use most of the resources. If the community can place these individuals into housing with a great deal of support services we save a great deal of money. Communities need a dedicated pool of money to build new housing, renovate housing, and develop housing opportunities for homeless people. There must be a plan for the best path into housing for special populations.
All licensed social workers should be involved in the quest for housing stability for homeless people. It is a waste of money and time to try and offer assistance to a homeless person. Treatment, literacy building, health care services have more of an impact for people with stable places to return to at night and to those who do not have to worry about their housing situation. If every social worker from job counselor to welfare case worker to hospital discharge social worker assisted people with their housing, fewer people would fall into homelessness. At this time, we each have our specialty and we defer housing stability to “someone else.”
At this time, many homeless organizations, in an effort to not contaminate the entire shelter population, will immediately evict homeless people who come back drunk or high. This denies the science of addiction, which usually involves relapses. Take away privileges, begin eviction proceedings but do not link housing to social services. Even if the individual is given thirty-day notice to leave, the shelter should attempt to relocate them to a treatment center or similar facility. This means an expansion of the treatment services available in our community.
There needs to be a central place to get information and get out of the elements. This could be a free coffee shop with computers available so that homeless people could find information about social services, housing, education and jobs. Education classes and GED classes could be held at the Center. Homeless people need places to go to get access to information and technology and learning centers. The center should also have telephones, lockers and laundry available for small fees.
Studies have found people have to work 80 hours at minimum wage or find jobs that pay $10.10 per hour to afford the fair market rent in Ohio. Communities need to require employers to pay adults an income tied to the fair market rent which are updated yearly. A component of this is to deal with plantation and exploitative nature of the temporary labor organizations in urban centers. Low skilled workers need an alternative in order to break the cycle of poverty.
§
Agencies
must be held to performance standards that place people in housing.
Too often we allow social services get a pass because of their good deeds, but never are asked to provide their impact on the community. Homeless service providers must be held to a standard that requires them to place clients who seek help into housing with annual performance goals. There also must be an attempt to move people as fast as possible out of the homeless situation. Shelters are not always the answer for homeless people. Many people can be successful with a less intrusive level of intervention. Studies have shown that families and those with mental illness can be more successful going directly into housing with support services.
§
Shelters
must have a set of standards that is periodically reviewed and funding is tied
to that review.
At this time, shelter is the entry point for a person returning to stability. We need a set of rights that a homeless person has with regard to shelter. These would include guaranteed access, standard grievances, and a prohibition on discharges to the street. When a homeless person enters a shelter they should know their rights and responsibilities. This standard should be monitored and reported to funding entities. Those shelters that violate the standard should be denied funding.
§
Public
entities must learn to forgive and forget.
We consistently, over the last ten years, have moved to punishing an individual for life for mistakes. Felons, people with poor credit, and those with previous evictions are punished by not being extended housing and even employment. Those who serve their time or seek legal relief from their debts should not be forced into a homeless situation for life. Communities must figure out ways for those that make mistakes to reintegrate into society. It serves no one to continue to punish these individuals so that these individuals are desperate or depressed or both.
§
Critical
systems need to meet on a regular basis to discuss better service to homeless
people.
Too often we treat the triggering factor for an individual's homelessness, but we never get around to treating the reason the individual turned to drugs or crime. There is such a huge demand for mental health counseling most communities have prioritized only those with a severe mental illness (those who are a danger to themselves or others.) as deserving of counseling and support. States need to adopt mental health parity so that individuals will get the same health coverage for mental illness as with other health problems. By adding counseling services for people with any depression, personality disorders, and other obstacles to stability, we will all live in a healthier community. People could work through the anxiety and rage from a history of sexual abuse or child abuse.
Current Facts
Supporting the NEOCH Recommendations:
Ø The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports in 2002 that housing is becoming more “Out of Reach” for residents of Cuyahoga County. They estimated that a single individual must make $11.60 per hour for 40 hours a week in order to be able to afford a one bedroom apartment while a family must make $14.38 per hour to be able to afford a two bedroom apartment.
Ø The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that 45,000 people were in need of affordable housing in Greater Cleveland in 2000.
Ø The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported in 2002 that Cleveland had 18 straight years of increases in homelessness. Last year, there was a 15% increase in requests for shelter in Cleveland and 10% increase in requests for shelter from families. According to the report nationally 26% of all shelter requests go unmet because of a lack of resources.
Ø According to the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless nearly 26,000 people were homeless in Cuyahoga County every year with 3,800 people homeless every night in the county. This includes the shelter population of 2,100 people and 1,700 sleeping on the streets or staying in abandoned or inappropriate spaces.
Ø No where in the United States does welfare or disability assistance provide enough income for an individual to afford an apartment at the fair market rent.
Ø According to the recent census, 50% of the approximately 101,000 rental households pay more than 30% of their monthly income on rent, and 25% pay more than half of their monthly income on rent. These households are in danger of becoming homeless.
Ø The City of Cleveland Housing Court processed 12,400 evictions in 2001, the majority of which are for non-payment of rent. This is the largest number of evictions in the last 15 years. In 2002, there were 10,676 evictions filed and 1,755 forced move outs by bailiffs.
Ø According to Ohio Policy Matters the foreclosure rate on houses increased by 23% between 2000 and 2001 in the State of Ohio.
Ø The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority reports 7,000 people currently on the waiting list for housing. They also report that the last time the voucher program was opened in 2000, 35,000 people applied for the 6,000 vouchers that were available.
Ø United Way’s First Call for Help reports a 23% increase in overall calls seeking social service help with a 6.5% increase in requests for help with housing and shelter this year over last.
Ø Every shelter in Cleveland is full every night. The men’s shelters that accept overflow or anyone that comes to the door have had as many as 144% of capacity. Just as an example, on Monday 12/2/02 they served 500 people in a shelter that has space for 365 people. The women and children’s shelter that accepts overflow has operated on some nights at 137% of capacity.
Ø All of the emergency and transitional shelters in Cleveland surveyed in 2002 report turning between 20-50 people away per week, because they were full.
Ø Cuyahoga County provided nearly $7 million in eviction prevention to non-profit organizations, which was provided to families in 2001. This assistance helped thousands of families, but the funds were withdrawn by the State of Ohio in 2002.