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The Homeless Grapevine: Issue 42
Census 2000: Tens Years of Planning Face Pitfalls
The ten-year Census of all U.S. citizens poses special problems for homeless people. In 1990, according to advocates was a disaster with one day set aside nationally to count all displaced people. Very few government officials accepted the 1990 numbers and a handful of cities sued over the count. Plans began in early 1999 to do a better job of counting homeless people.
Problems occurred early on with decisions on a national level that angered activists at the National Coalition for the Homeless. It was decided that the homeless count would be limited to three days, while other hard to reach populations would be targeted for the entire summer. In an effort to reduce the chance of counting homeless people more than once, activists felt that the majority of the population would be missed. In fact, NCH debated their role in the Census for months and had very little involvement with the enumeration process. Some local Coalition refused to assist the Census, because of some of the choices made by officials.
In Cleveland, homeless service providers and activists worked with the Census to get homeless people counted. The City of Cleveland barely made it over the 500,000 person mark in 1990, and needs to maintain that level in 2000 to keep a healthy level of federal funding. The City of Cleveland convened meetings around the counting of homeless people and other fragile populations in the beginning of 1999 as part of the Complete Count Committee.
There were setbacks throughout the year including a decision at the national level to count those outside from 4-7 a.m. on the last day of the count. It also was difficult to get in writing that the outdoor locations would not be revealed to any other government entity to assure confidentiality. Eventually, these were worked out locally, and a plan was developed.
The social service community would offer thank you gifts to homeless people who signed up for the Census, and the Coalition would stage a Stand Down to catch anyone who was missed. Despite the years of planning, committee members privately were concerned that the sites were not finalized until the last week. Training and forms were not made available until the weekend before the three day count. Some facilities like the Salvation Army PASS program were skipped and never counted.
"There was good cooperation, but every Census we learn lessons," said Renee Whiteside, U.S. Census partnership Specialist. She said that they have not heard how other city’s counts of homeless people worked, and she has not seen results yet. Whiteside said, "The Stand Down went over well, and it was worth it for Census officials to come to the event."
Dave Campbell was hired as an interpreter for the one day outdoor locations count. He identified places where those without shelter stay under bridges and freeways. He was also supposed to go out with the enumerators, but because of miscommunication this fell through.
Campbell said, "I think that it went real well myself. We did have good participation from the homeless community overall." The Census provided a "forum for a lot of other organizing activities. It let us know we count. Government still is accountable to us, and didn’t forget about homeless people," Campbell said.
The Stand Down took place two weeks after the three day count to get all those missed to sign up. While the people counted at the Stand Down were not considered homeless because they were not counted on the nationally recognized three days, they will help the population numbers for Cleveland. One of the benefits of the collaborative Complete Count meetings was a huge number of donations were put together for homeless people as thank you gifts. Hygiene items, bus tickets donated by the Regional Transit Authority, flashlights donated by CEOGC were distributed throughout the system.
One of the large more public set backs of the three day Census count was the refusal of Census workers from entering the Salvation Army meal sites. There were three identified in Cleveland. Nationally, the Salvation Army had decided not to allow census officials into their meal sites, because of concern over privacy and intimidation. This never came up at the collaborative meetings in Cleveland. Privately, Complete Count committee members were upset that they were not informed of this Salvation Army policy, and never had the opportunity to negotiate a solution to this problem locally.
Census workers did position themselves on the sidewalks outside the Salvation Army in an attempt to get people to sign up. City of Cleveland press office never returned phone calls to respond to questions about the U.S. Census.
Angelo Anderson winner of the 2000 Distinguished Service Award
Editor’s Note: Reprinted from the NEOCH Annual Report. Anderson was presented with a distinguished service award by Councilman Joe Cimperman at the NEOCH Annual Meeting on April 19.
Angelo Anderson came to the Coalition eight years ago to solve a problem that would benefit the entire community, he left our employment in early 2000 to solve a problem the community has neglected for ten years. We wish him well, and present him with a distinguished service award at the NEOCH Annual Meeting April 19, 2000.
Anderson teamed up with a college student from Kent State to publish a collection of thought and called it the Homeless Grapevine. He was staying at one of the overflow shelters, and needed something to put money in his pocket. He and a few guys got together to photocopy poems, stories and commentaries about homelessness. This worked for a short period, but soon became unmanageable. There were guys photocopying one page and selling it on the street for a dollar. The "paper" never was new because people kept photocopying the first issue. It was chaos. Angelo approached the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless about publishing the paper using real newsprint and advances in desktop publishing.
Bryan Gillooly, executive director of NEOCH, looked into the idea and found a successful paper in New York and San Francisco. Papers were starting in Montreal, Chicago, and Boston. He received support from Trinity Cathedral to buy software and print the first issue. By the fourth issue the paper was selling out, and Anderson was its top vendor.
Anderson had lost his printing job because of the advances in desktop publishing, but had turned that setback into an opportunity by helping with the creation of the Grapevine. He had lost his job, and his family disintegrated. He got involved in mind enhancing substances and then the natural cycles that go along with chronic homelessness.
Angelo often tells of the last night on the street when he stayed in a Port-o-John on a rainy night near City Hall. He realized that he was going to die if he stayed on the streets. He made a decision to seek more stable housing, and get off the streets. He used the money he made from the Grapevine to pay for housing. At first, all he could afford was a cheap hotel. He saved his money and eventually a family member was willing to take a chance and rent him a room.
In 1997, Anderson spent months volunteering with the Coalition to stage the Homeless Stand Down. It was one of our biggest and best ever. There were workshops, and manual of services available in the community, t-shirts for everyone. Anderson put a great deal of work into staging this event arriving at Cuyahoga Community College at 5 a.m. to finish the set up after being up all night finishing last minute details. We had a large dinner after the event with elected officials that was very successful.
Meanwhile, NEOCH received a grant from the Sisters of Charity in 1997 to provide mentors for homeless people and organize around homeless and housing issues. Angelo was called on in a part time capacity to assist with this project as well. This was an opportunity to meet with homeless people and learn about what they need, and develop a leadership team.
As we began to plan the 1998 Stand Down we hired Anderson to serve as Special Events Manager. He was one of two people on staff at NEOCH, and he worked to pull together another Stand Down. What we found was that Angelo was a master at drawing others into contributing time to make an event successful. He was able to pull churches and schools from all over the County together to do hygiene and clothing drives. The Stand Down was so successful in 1998 that we decided to do two in 1999.
Toward the end of 1998, we won a second grant from the Sisters of Charity to work on housing issues, and we turned to Angelo on a full time basis. This project was an attempt to reconcile the bizarre reality that existed in Cleveland in which we had thousands of people sleeping on the street and hundreds of unoccupied units at Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority. Angelo designed a program to put together groups who could forward potential applicants to CMHA, and he would keep in contact with CMHA staff to assure that the applications would not get lost. The providers that fed potential applicants had to agree to one year of aftercare to be in the program, and CMHA agreed to expedited application review.
After a rough six months, all the bugs were worked out and the program started submitting applicants. Anderson struck a deal with the State Coalition to provide Americorp staff to assist with the placement of homeless people. With the energy of the Americorps who camped out at CMHA until they got answers to the high tolerance threshold of Angelo, the program started to place people into housing. After six months in 1999, thirty people were placed in housing and 120 applications were pending.
Only Angelo could have had enough patience to be able to stick with this program. It is a war of attrition in working with a large bureaucracy. He named the program Bridging the Gap although "tearing down the wall" might have been a better name. He was able to keep plugging away with applicants no matter how many barriers were erected. Most people would pull their hair out and throw their arms up and resign. Bridging the Gap is a wonderful legacy that we hope will exist in the community for many years.
Throughout it all he honed his public speaking ability. With the a class offered by Community Shares Angelo became a terrific speaker. He was able to communicate injustice and solitude of homelessness to high school students and elderly audiences. He became a hot commodity by businesses that participate in the Federated giving process who request Angelo to speak to their group every year about the solutions funded by Community Shares.
Angelo Anderson is not done. He recently accepted a position with the Salvation Army to manage 2100 Lakeside Men’s shelter to house 300 men and build a trusting relationship so that they will return to stable independent living. This is one of only three facilities of its size in the country operated almost exclusively by formerly homeless individuals. With the proper support, Angelo will be able to do amazing things at this new facility.
By offering a humane place to enter the shelter system, we should see the length of shelter stay significantly decrease. We need to as a community figure out how to get these men who for ten years forgotten by society into something more stable to open up this facility for the majority of the population those who enter and quickly leave the system. Angelo has all the background and skills to see that this happens. It will take a period of time to figure out how to cut through the many layers of bureaucracy that exist, but he should be able to make this facility one of the best in the country. That is not to say that NEOCH will not be there to push and keep everyone focused on the needs of the customers who use the facility.