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The Homeless Grapevine: Issue 56
Homeless
Man Killed After He Was Set on Fire in Springfield
By
John Cartwright
Dennis R. Wade, 47, suffered severe 3rd
degree burns over 80 percent of his body as he slept on the front porch of an
abandoned house on the 13 of August 2002, according to Springfield Police Chief
David Walters. After eight days in
the hospital, Wade died from his injuries.
Walters said that he believed that Dennis Wade was doused
with gasoline or lighter fluid and then set afire by person or persons unknown
at that time. The flames on Wade
were extinguished before the Springfield, Ohio Fire Department arrived on the
scene. Careflight took him to Miami
Valley Hospital.
Reportedly, Dennis Wade told paramedics at the scene,
“I can’t believe they set me on fire.”
His brother, Johnny Wade, told the Springfield News-Sun newspaper
immediately after the incident that he didn’t expect his brother to survive
the third-degree burns over 80 percent of his body.
Wade’s brother held out little hope that his brother
would survive, and Dennis Wade died on August 21.
“He has no skin. The
damage is done. He is not going to
make it,” Johnny Wade said on
August 14. Johnny said that
he had been asked to sign a do-not-resuscitate order by the staff at Miami
Valley Hospital. “That is the
choice they are giving me.” He told the reporter.” I don’t want to lose
him. I can’t bury him.
I can’t afford it. I’ll
figure something out.”
Dennis Wade was reportedly sleeping on the porch of an
abandoned house in Springfield because he had nowhere else to go.
Springfield Police Chief Walters said that the incident is being treated
as a homicide, and are investigating the circumstance to see if it is connected
to another suspicious fire on August 3, 2002.
“I can see people doing a lot of things to people, but
this … burn is misery.” Johnny Wade said to the Springfield paper.
“This burn is not trying to kill you, it’s putting you in misery.”
Wade’s family is trying to find a way to bury Dennis who was indigent.
Published in the Homeless Grapevine August 2002, Cleveland Ohio. John Cartwright is a former volunteer with the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless who moved in 2001 to Springfield.
By
Michael Gibbs
&
Annalie Maizel
Today
I lay
On steps of stone
My cheeks wind bitten
Winter blankets my bones
My memory frosty
Each direction it roams
I can’t seem to remember
How I lost my way home
It’s here
I fear
Will be my demise
Beneath this old bridge
And the night’s twinkling eyes
My bottle is comfort
On nights such as these
But she’s almost empty
So if someone could please…
This season
I reason
That I’ll find some work
And get out of the alleys
That I used to lurk
Find me a place
With a bed and a throne
It sure feels good
To be on my way home
To date
I wait
For that voicemail call
For that janitor’s job
Up there at the mall
Night air is getting cold
Why won’t they just phone?
Can’t they see that I’m ready?
To be on my way home
Tomorrow
I sorrow
For winter’s begun
My shoes are quite tattered
And a hat, I’ve not one
I pack up my duffel, and
Alone I will roam
Just winter and I
On these streets I call home
This poem won honorable mention at the 2002 NASNA Annual Awards presented at the NASNA conference. It originally appeared in the January 2001 of the Homeless Grapevine.
Jimmie Williams has years of experience working in
housing with Famicos Foundation, and was recently appointed the commissioner of
building and housing. Some of his goals as the Director are the speedy
processing of permits to build more housing, addressing the problems with
elevators in Cleveland, and most importantly being respectful of tenants in
buildings with condemnation orders. Jim
realizes that the inspectors working for him have great power over the lives of
people and he stresses that they use discretion.
Another issue for the Building and Housing Department is
the proposal that Cleveland City Council will soon be debating to make it a
cabinet level position instead of a division of the Community Development
Department. According to Williams and the Campbell administration, this
would be a good thing for the City as it allows easier access to the Mayor and
other Directors.
I spoke with Jim, in his City Hall office about all these
topics covered in a speech he gave to the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance
group at the Department of Housing and Urban Development where he also discussed
bringing humanity back to the Building and Housing.
P. Vincent:
Congratulations on your appointment. When did it officially begin?
Jimmie Williams:“April
1st, 2002.”
PV:
“I was told you gave a speech before the CAHA at HUD where you spoke
about bringing humanity back to the Building and Housing Department.
Can you elaborate on that?”
JW:
”Not bringing it back, but rather increasing humanity...increasing the
sensitivity of the inspectors so that they realize that they are dealing with
people and buildings.”
PV:
“What about the situation with the inspectors, were there issues in the past
where they had been less sensitive to the people?”
JW: “There
weren’t any issues with them, we just wanted to increase their level of
sensitivity. The way the times are now we have less housing; we want
to make sure the families needs are considered when we’re making decisions
about their housing in the city.”
PV: “What
happens when a house is condemned, or a residence is condemned? Once
notice is given...is there a time limit for them to vacate and do the
residents receive help or assistance in finding other housing?”
JW: “There’s a time limit given and what we do now is we make
sure the proper agencies are involved so they can find decent housing. Our
primary goal is to insure that people are living in safe housing.”
PV: “What are some of the big changes or goals you have this year
that you want to accomplish?”
JW: “Expanding training and careers, enhancing opportunities for
staff, we want to have better interaction between Building and Housing
personnel, we want to move inspectors into the community, we want to reduce the
number of court cases especially where owner occupants are involved.
We want to be able to use information technology...”
PV: “Is
that to help track everything that’s in process with the houses?”
JW:
“That’s right, and we want to reduce the number of condemnations with
properties and reduce the number and size of inventory of condemned homes.”
PV: ”So there will be houses that are raised and more being built
to replace them?”
JW:
“Not necessarily, just because a house is condemned doesn’t mean you
raise it, you condemn a house because it’s unsafe.”
PV: “Are
there financially opportunities for them to utilize to improve their homes like
low interest loans”?
JW: “There are several low interest loans available to them, the
City of Cleveland has two programs: Repair-A-Home (RAH), and (SHAP) Senior
Housing Assistance Program for the elderly people to contact. The County has a
program called HELP, which provides low interest loans, administered through the
banks.
PV:
“I understand one of the things you also mentioned in your speech was
speeding up the process for the permits?”
JW: “Yes.”
PV: “Does
that tie in with your technology improvements and the training for staff?”
JW: “Yes, training, technology, establishing and monitoring
performance standards, [and] having an open door policy for interaction for
working with the builders and developers.”
PV: “Do
you have a goal in mind as far as the turn around time for permits or is that
something that will happen down the road?”
JW:
“The State requirement for permits is 30 days, we try to do the best we
can to keep to that number.”
PV: “Will these changes require that you have additional staff to
help and be out there with the inspectors?
JW: “We need additional staff but I know the budget will not
allow for additional staff.”
PV:
“So do you think that in the coming years you’ll be able to expand
your staff once money is in the budget, because you really seem to need them.”
JW:
“Yes, there’s a need for additional staff, so hopefully we’ll be
able to expand in that area.”
PV:
“In your speech you also talked about the problems with the elevators in
Cleveland, do you remember what that was about?”
JW: “The
Division of Building and Housing is responsible for elevator inspections, we try
to mandate to make inspections on a routine basis and we generally do that and
write up certificates for inspections.”
PV: “Is
there a lag time because I’ve heard it takes a while to receive the
certificates?”
JW:
“We’re behind on the certificates, and we’re trying our best to
catch up working overtime to catch up on the issuing of certificates and
permits. We issue twenty-thousand building permits a year, and I’m not
sure of the exact number of certificates of occupancy we issue each year, I know
we’re 200 behind so it’s got to be quite a few.
PV:
“You mention that you wanted to get your inspectors out into the
community, are there stations set up for them to work in at different sides of
town?”
JW: “They’ll
be working through CDC offices, (Community Development Corporation) and at
public facilities such as recreation centers.”
PV:
“This is going to happen this year?”
JW: “Some of them are in place working right now so we’ll be
improving on that.”
PV: ”How is the public made aware of these new stations?”
JW:
“Right now the way we’re using them as a point for them (the
inspectors) to do their paperwork every day. It saves them a one-hour
travel to come here to use a desk. We hope to eventually have, sometime in
the far future, satellite offices or places where they can be for them to check
on the status of the plans. In fact we are going to be doing that online.
We working right now to put the application for the building permits
online, the status of the permits applications and plan reviews online and also
information on inspections...housing inspections, building inspections, board
ups...we’re working to put all of that online so that the public can access it
and find out what the status of the permit is.”
PV:
“What about having access to print out their certificate online? That
could save mail time and postage fees.”
JW: “We’ll
probably be doing that. I’m
pretty sure we will, we already have permit applications online that can be
downloaded they don’t have to come down here to fill out an application.
We want them to be able to do the entire process online and that’s our
goal. We also want to establish a road map where by people coming to the
city to visit Building and Housing will have the staff there to tell them what
stations to go to and what’s expected, what there needs are, we’re working
on that as an all City Hall practice particularly through Building and Housing.
Putting out more information, brochures, and online how to complete a
building application permit and we’ll be adding to that.”
PV: “The
inspectors would be able to help the homeowners or builders etc....filling out
the forms for permits or repairs, or financial assistance. Sometimes
people have trouble filling out the forms or understanding the process.”
JW: “That
what’s we expect to fall under the realm of the Community Development
Corporation. They generally have people available to assist and work with
the residents to fill out forms. The inspectors can do a lot of explaining
as to what takes place and why things take place as well as having a lot of
written information. We seem to have a lot of fence applications so
we’ll have instructions online for filling out fence applications or other
specific applications.”
PV:
“For specific home improvements that are pretty common like roofs...?”
JW: “Yes,
that’s one we do that’ll we’ll have instructions for and things like
weather insulation and things like that.”
PV:
“Do you think that eventually the City of Cleveland will go around and
do random inspections on the houses needing repair so that they don’t get to
the point where they need to be condemned? ”I know other Cities have
programs in place and are pretty strict about keeping the repairs up on the
homes.”
JW:
“That’s part of our plan to have an organized assessment
of residential houses. We currently do commercial sweeps but we want to be more
organized for residential and over a period of time all the houses will have
some type of inspection especially the interiors, right now just the exteriors
are done.”
PV:
“That’s seems like such a huge undertaking...”
JW: “Well they did it...in 98'...they did drive by
assessments.”
PV:
“Oh really...but, not the internal ones?”
JW:
“Well the internal inspections are much more difficult to do now because
you have to have a search warrant and if they don’t invite you in you have to
obtain a search warrant.”
PV: “When
I first talked to you over the phone we discussed your position becoming a
cabinet position.
When do you think that might
happen?”
JW: “Well
hopefully between now and the first of the year.”
PV: “What
has to happen for that to go through?”
JW: “City Council has to approve it. We have a
reorganization committee now that will come up with a process for establishing
the Building and Housing Department as a Cabinet level department...they’re
scheduling meetings now for the council to review.
City Council will review and
hopefully rule on it before the end of the year.”
PV: “Is
there anything else from your speech that you want to address?”
JW:
“Not, really just that we want to be consumer friendly, we want to be able to
make it easier for people to solve their B&H issues, through the
neighborhood committee and inspections. We want to improve the quality of
our housing stock, and we want to be able to do this by bringing in all the
relevant agencies to help.”
PV:
“OK, well I think that’s it. Thank you I appreciate your time.
JW:
“You’re welcome.”
Jimmie Williams dedication to his job is evident in the
long hours he keeps. It was well after 6 when we finished talking and as he went
in search of a snack it was clear his day was not over yet. Before I left I asked him if he usually worked long hours and
he smiled and said, “I try not to.”
As he walked me out of his office Jimmie Williams
continued to speak about the programs available particularly to assist the
elderly with fixing up their homes. He mentioned the (NPI) Neighborhood Progress
Incorporated who arranges grants through the City Council representatives.
For more information on some of these programs please call the following
numbers: RAH (Repair-A-Home) 216-664-2045; (SHAP) Senior Housing
Assistance Program 216-664-2833.; (CASH) Cleveland Action to Support
Housing 216-621-7350; (HWAP) Home Weatherization Assistance Program
216-664-4116; Paint Refund Program 216-664-4053; and (AAH)
Afford-A-Home216-664-4218.
Homeless Grapevine
Cleveland, Ohio August 2002
Homeless Man Dies on Near
West Side
Rodney Lucas, 43, died August 13 on the near west side as
he struggled with disease on the streets of Cleveland. West Side Catholic Center and St. Malachi coordinated a
memorial for Lucas who was a day laborer for years.
As a veteran, he had lived in Texas, Georgia and Ohio.
50 people attended his memorial to remember a friend who many who spoke
at the remembrance said was a “quiet and thoughtful” man.
Resident Committee Victory
at 2100 Lakeside:
Since the publication of the last Grapevine a
great deal has changed at 2100 Lakeside men’s shelter.
The tension level has certainly decreased. A new director and program director were hired.
Many of the worst staff were fired and or transferred.
The two organizers of the petition drive were allowed to return to the
shelter. And the biggest victory according to the Resident Committee
members was that the County heeded the desires of 350 men who signed the
petition asking for the issuance of a new scope of services, and the County will
soon issue a request for qualifications. This
RFQ could lead to a new social service provider operating the shelter in early
2003.
The men are now allowed into the facility at 4 p.m.
They are allowed in the patio area during the day after they leave the
Cosgrove Center at 1 p.m. and they can use the restrooms during the day. The
patio will be a cold place to stay this winter.
The facility is still closed all day, but these changes have made the
facility tolerable according to a number of the men who stay at the shelter at
night interviewed in early August.
Duane Drotar, who previously worked at the Northeast Ohio
Coalition for the Homeless and the Volunteers of America was hired at the
Director of 2100 Lakeside. He has a
grand plan to change the shelter, but there is still a question whether he can
negotiate the complicated Salvation Army bureaucracy. Ron Reinhart, formerly Director of the Salvation Army PASS
program, was moved over to 2100 Lakeside to oversee day to day operations.
Raymond Robinson appealed his termination from the
shelter, and was informed that he could return to the shelter. Unfortunately, Robinson moved to Florida before the decision
was made. Robinson had organized
the petition drive and the involvement of the City Council in attempting to
improve the shelter. After some
tension at his hearing in which the Army staff tried to exclude Brian Davis of
the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless from attending the hearing, the
shelter staff finally relented.
Much of the early summer was spent negotiating between
the Resident Committee and the Salvation Army facilitated by Councilman Joe
Cimperman to lower the tension at the shelter.
Councilman Cimperman and Ruth Gillett of the Office of Homeless Services
held a meeting in August to hear from the men what they would like to see in a
scope of service. These comments
along with others will be the basis for the release of a Request for
Qualifications.
The Grapevine received a copy of a letter the
Salvation Army sent to the County claiming that they would not respond to the
draft Request for Qualifications and reminding the County that they hold the
lease on the shelter at 2100 Lakeside. It
is unclear what would happen if the Salvation Army chose not to respond to the
Request for Qualifications or if this letter was just stating that the Army
staff would not provide input on the draft.
It seems that if one qualified organization responds it would be
difficult for the County to side step the bidding process and give the contract
to the Salvation Army.
Salvation Army Moves PASS
Over the objections of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for
the Homeless and many of the residents, the Salvation Army moved the PASS
program from a free standing building into the Harbor Light building.
Harbor Light contains emergency shelters and a corrections pre-release
center. Many feared that this would
change the family atmosphere of the transitional housing shelter.
Cuyahoga County and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development approved the move over the objections of NEOCH and many residents.
An alum of the program who visited the shelter now that it is in Harbor
Light said that the atmosphere is much different.
Staff have said that many of their benefits were changed and the
Salvation Army is attempting to alter programming offered.
Triumph
House News:
The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority operated a
transitional housing program called Triumph House in the Carl B. Stokes mall.
The facilities housed mothers and their young children who found
themselves homeless, and was operated by a sub-contractor under the name of
Triumph House. The shelter abruptly closed in June after a negative review
by Cuyahoga County. Many of the
families were transferred to another facility by early August only 5 to 6
families remained. The program is
currently being sustained by volunteers.
CMHA is going to issue a request for a new social service
provider to operate the facility.
What to
do about the growing number of homeless people around East 18th
St.?
In early 2000, the number of men that sleep outside or
exist on the sidewalks dramatically fell. With
the opening of the new shelter at 2100 Lakeside which did not exclude people,
and the dinner offered at the Bishop Cosgrove Center, there was always a place
to go inside. There were very few
who chose to stay outside in the harsh winters or the brutal summers in the last
two years. In fact, when the
Coalition for the Homeless spent a November weekend walking the Downtown
neighborhood, they found only seven people staying outside.
In November of 1999, there were 35-40 people sleeping in the
neighborhood.
In early 2002, the shelter at Lakeside began turning
people away and began phasing out their day services.
The Bishop Cosgrove Center phased out their night meal in 2001, and in
the late afternoon the women in the Women’s Shelter have no where to go.
This has caused much anxiety by the neighbors, the police, and
pedestrians in the neighborhood who have reported defecation outside, blocking
the sidewalk, and aggressive solicitation.
The 400 men at the day shelter are released at around the
same time in the morning. They then
walk either to the Cosgrove Center or to the temporary labor companies.
Then at 1 p.m. the men are released to the streets to wait for the
shelter to open at 4 p.m. This fractured service to the population is at the root of
the problems in the neighborhood. Concern
is growing that we will return to the years of past when hundreds of people were
in the neighborhood with no where to go.
North
American Street Papers Gather in Boston
The women and men who publish, edit, write, find
advertising, and vend street newspapers traveled to Boston to celebrate previous
victories and layout a plan for the coming year.
For Cleveland, the Homeless Grapevine was represented by editor
Brian Davis and vendor Marsha Rizzo Swanson.
Once again this year Swanson won the North American vend off by dressing
up as a duck and selling nearly 50 papers in one hour.
The North American Street Newspaper Association meets on
an annual basis in various cities in Canada and the United States to rekindle
bonds and refocus the movement. Spare
Change and Whats Up Boston were the host newspapers this year and
graciously opened their arms to the 43 other street newspapers in North America
and even representatives from the international street news papers.
This year’s conference featured a rich, diverse and informative group
of workshops to educate the membership on vending strategies for recruitment,
fundraising and updates on social justice movements.
This year the hosts planned many events outside of the
conference, which allowed the members to interact in an informal setting.
Spare Change celebrated its tenth anniversary of continuous publishing
during the conference with a celebration dinner.
There was a nice mix of homeless people, vendors, volunteers, and staff. The organizers provided the members a chance to go on the
famous amphibious duck tour of Boston and a traditional Boston clam bake.
A new executive committee was constructed with former
chairperson Tim Harris of Seattle’s Real Change.
Next year’s host city Quebec City representative Bernard Helie has a
seat as a vice chair. The new
executive committee has an aggressive set of goals to accomplish this year.
Goals include finally obtaining non-profit status, capacity building for
existing papers, and effectively communicating the work of the street papers to
the broader community.
Cleveland’s own Homeless Grapevine vendor,
Marsha Rizzo Swanson successfully defended her title as champion sales person.
In the spirit of the Duck Tour of Boston, Marsha spent days making a duck
costume to boost her sales during the vend off.
Marsha was able to sell nearly 50 papers in one hour.
Her continued dominance of the vend off contest did create some
controversy with the other vendors. Marsha
was the only vendor dressed in a costume and was very aggressive in talking to
as many pedestrians as possible. NASNA
members agreed to establish a rigorous written set of rules and judges for next
year.
Marsha is undecided if she will defend her title in
Quebec or will take a one year break and compete in the 2004 conference which
will take place in Fort Lauderdale Florida.
Every year in the recap of the NASNA conference, we look
at the host city and their treatment of homeless people. This year’s host, Boston, has made national news in their
attempts to deal with the number of homeless people. Mayor Tom Menino addressed the NASNA conference and was
thanked for putting housing at the top of the agenda of the U.S. Conference of
Mayors, which he chaired this last year. While
touring Boston and its famous freedom trail, we did see a number of homeless
people who were expressing that freedom by sleeping outside.
Boston did not have the huge pan handling problem of
Seattle or Chicago. There are also
not the large number of homeless people sleeping outside that face Washington
D.C. or San Francisco. There is a
great amount of hype associated with Boston’s strides in serving the homeless
population. There are not the
stories of Boston conducting massive criminalization efforts that other cities
have embraced. The man tapped by
George W. Bush to head the InterAgency Task Force on Homelessness, Phil Mangano,
hails from Boston. For all the
hype, Boston seems to have found some ability to move homeless people into
stability despite the high cost of rent.
Published in the August 2002 Homeless Grapevine
Cleveland Ohio
by
Marsha Rizzo Swanson
The street newspaper movement now encircles the world.
Once again I brought victory to the Grapevine street paper out
here in Cleveland Ohio by winning the international vend off in Boston this
year. I am proud to be part of the Grapevine
paper. I am a vendor and I love to
go to the North American Street Newspaper Association conference.
I enjoy and learn a lot at the workshops at the conference every time.
I have had the opportunity to attend these conferences.
It gave me the chance to learn about the different ideas, and how we can
make a difference in the lives of the homeless people with strong papers.
The reason I also like going to the annual NASNA conference is because
something needs to be done now. I
always feel that going to the NASNA Conference gives me incentives to continue. When I realize that we have this association that is together
working to get homeless out of the streets, I feel that this is the way to build
a new movement.
I got to go to many different workshops like getting the
word out, lessons from the homeless marathon, street newspaper vending sales
techniques, research, reporting and news writing, and recruiting vendors.
These were great workshops that I was able to attend.
This was NASNA’s third annual vend-off, and I won for
the second year in a row. I am
proud to be able to bring this news to the Cleveland area.
This provides a ray for the Homeless Grapevine paper and helps me
as a vendor of the paper. I brought
the title here again. I dressed as
a duck for the vend-off, and it was a quacking good time. So when you are a duck.
Don’t press your luck. Just
be the duck. Ha ha.
We also went on a duck ride, and that was the reason why I dressed as a
duck. Boston is a duck town.
This was the seventh annual conference of NASNA, and I
never thought that I would ever be here. The
Mayor of Boston came to the conference and told us of his concern for homeless
people. Well we live in a world of
greed, and when I saw the Mayor of Boston speak to the problem of homelessness,
I was amazed. I have never heard
our Mayor of Cleveland say these things about homelessness.
I think that Mayor Jane Campbell needs to get to know what is needed to
be done here in Cleveland to reduce the number of homeless people.
I don’t think our Mayor of Cleveland is aware what is going on here on
the streets.
I want the Mayor to have a meeting with the vendors and
the homeless people in Cleveland to follow the example of the Mayor of Boston.
We will tell the Mayor what is needed.
So, if you the Mayor reads this article then please get a hold of Brian
Davis at NEOCH at (216)241-1104 or e-mail him at neoch@bbs2.rmrc.net. Thanks in
advance to Mayor Jane Campbell.
Sell
Cleveland to Settle Ohio’s $4 Billion Deficit
by Brian Davis
Commentary
Ohioans have heard the projections for a $4 billion deficit by the end of the fiscal year next year, and we have not heard very many credible solutions. The Homeless Grapevine newspaper as a public service has come up with a solution: Sell Cuyahoga and surrounding counties to Michigan for $5 billion. We have recently sent a letter to the Michigan governor John Engler asking what steps we would need to take to initiate this change in the political boundaries.
The reality is that we face declining tax revenue in Ohio because of years that the Ohio legislature gave money back in times of surplus instead of building the capital and infrastructure needed. The Ohio legislature is terrified of the word tax increase, and has a court mandated “I Owe You” to the schools. In 2002, Ohio solved the problem of a deficit by raiding one time only pools of funds (tobacco settlement, rainy day fund, welfare surplus, etc.) This year when they go to the cupboard they will find it bare. We anticipate homeless people and all poor people will face greater hardship, with the state budget balanced on the backs of poor people.
The truth is that those of us in Northeast Ohio have more
in common with Michigan than we do with Ohio.
We are much more socially responsible than our strip mining friends of
Southern Ohio. We are a union
friendly environment, as is Michigan. We
do not understand how the state house was hijacked by rural farmers and used car
salesmen who don’t give a crap about poverty.
We would move to a state that does not have the death
penalty, treats its welfare recipients with a little more respect, and does not
have the problem of routinely allowing federal dollars to bypass the state.
We are proposing Lake, Geauga, Cuyahoga, and Medina County become the
lower peninsula of Michigan.
Michigan is the best state
to buy Northeast Ohio because they are familiar with having a non-contiguous
geography. Lake County has a couple
of fine lighthouses, and Michigan is the state with the largest number of
lighthouses. Michigan has the
longest freshwater shoreline in the world and would only be augmented by
Cuyahoga and Lake Counties. Michigan
has some wonderful city names including Bad Axe, Eden, Hell, Paradise, Podunk,
and Slapneck. Michigan has the
first paved road, but best of all, it is illegal in Michigan to kill a dog using
a decompression chamber.
Ohio has a larger population, but only 68% of the
population own a home while Michigan
has a 73% homeownership rate. There
is more space in Michigan for our homeless population with only 175 people per
square mile while the overcrowded Ohio has 277 people per square mile.
Michigan had more housing starts in 2000 compared to Ohio despite their
smaller population, again benefiting our homeless population.
Michigan is also more diverse than Ohio with a 14% African American
population and 80% white population. Ohio
is 85% white and only 11% African American according to the U.S. Census.
We anticipate beginning a petition drive in September to
put this on the ballot in March before the end of the Ohio fiscal year.
The Ohio legislators tell us that we need to treat the Ohio budget more
like our personal budgets and cut when times are tough.
This is actually not how the real world works.
When times are tough we not only cut our expenses, but we get second jobs
and have a garage sale. Since it is
unlikely our legislators will get second jobs to raise $4 billion, we will need
to stage the largest garage sale in history—sell Cleveland.
With the plan of selling four counties in Northeast Ohio,
the state would finish the year with a surplus of $1 billion dollars that could
build more housing, rebuild the schools, or construct a real economic stimulus
plan to develop a high tech sector. For
an extra billion, Ohio could throw Summit County into the deal.
Published in the August 2002 Homeless
Grapevine Cleveland Ohio.
Ohioans have heard the projections for a $4 billion deficit by the end of the fiscal year next year, and we have not heard very many credible solutions. The Homeless Grapevine newspaper as a public service has come up with a solution: Sell Cuyahoga and surrounding counties to Michigan for $5 billion. We have recently sent a letter to the Michigan governor John Engler asking what steps we would need to take to initiate this change in the political boundaries.
The reality is that we face declining tax revenue in Ohio because of years that the Ohio legislature gave money back in times of surplus instead of building the capital and infrastructure needed. The Ohio legislature is terrified of the word tax increase, and has a court mandated “I Owe You” to the schools. In 2002, Ohio solved the problem of a deficit by raiding one time only pools of funds (tobacco settlement, rainy day fund, welfare surplus, etc.) This year when they go to the cupboard they will find it bare. We anticipate homeless people and all poor people will face greater hardship, with the state budget balanced on the backs of poor people.
The truth is that those of us in Northeast Ohio have more
in common with Michigan than we do with Ohio.
We are much more socially responsible than our strip mining friends of
Southern Ohio. We are a union
friendly environment, as is Michigan. We
do not understand how the state house was hijacked by rural farmers and used car
salesmen who don’t give a crap about poverty.
We would move to a state that does not have the death
penalty, treats its welfare recipients with a little more respect, and does not
have the problem of routinely allowing federal dollars to bypass the state.
We are proposing Lake, Geauga, Cuyahoga, and Medina County become the
lower peninsula of Michigan.
Michigan is the best state
to buy Northeast Ohio because they are familiar with having a non-contiguous
geography. Lake County has a couple
of fine lighthouses, and Michigan is the state with the largest number of
lighthouses. Michigan has the
longest freshwater shoreline in the world and would only be augmented by
Cuyahoga and Lake Counties. Michigan
has some wonderful city names including Bad Axe, Eden, Hell, Paradise, Podunk,
and Slapneck. Michigan has the
first paved road, but best of all, it is illegal in Michigan to kill a dog using
a decompression chamber.
Ohio has a larger population, but only 68% of the
population own a home while Michigan
has a 73% homeownership rate. There
is more space in Michigan for our homeless population with only 175 people per
square mile while the overcrowded Ohio has 277 people per square mile.
Michigan had more housing starts in 2000 compared to Ohio despite their
smaller population, again benefiting our homeless population.
Michigan is also more diverse than Ohio with a 14% African American
population and 80% white population. Ohio
is 85% white and only 11% African American according to the U.S. Census.
We anticipate beginning a petition drive in September to
put this on the ballot in March before the end of the Ohio fiscal year.
The Ohio legislators tell us that we need to treat the Ohio budget more
like our personal budgets and cut when times are tough.
This is actually not how the real world works.
When times are tough we not only cut our expenses, but we get second jobs
and have a garage sale. Since it is
unlikely our legislators will get second jobs to raise $4 billion, we will need
to stage the largest garage sale in history—sell Cleveland.
With the plan of selling four counties in Northeast Ohio,
the state would finish the year with a surplus of $1 billion dollars that could
build more housing, rebuild the schools, or construct a real economic stimulus
plan to develop a high tech sector. For
an extra billion, Ohio could throw Summit County into the deal.
Published in the August 2002 Homeless Grapevine Cleveland Ohio.
Correcting
Misguided Notion of Purpose of the Grapevine
Commentary
by Brian Davis
The Role of the Homeless
Grapevine
The Grapevine
has nine years of publishing history and I have edited the paper for eight
years. My opinion concerning
editorial content has not changed. I
still believe that it is important to allow homeless people to say what is on
their mind. The opinions of
homeless people are as varied as the population.
I know a conservative Republican homeless street newspaper editor in
Arizona, and in the past the street newspaper in Toronto was bordering on
fascism.
We have featured very critical reviews of shelters, in
depth discussions of trends in the homeless community and ideas for useful
programs that should be created. My
opinion of social service providers is shaped by the hundreds of homeless people
who I talk to every couple of weeks. The
Homeless Grapevine is a newspaper first and foremost that covers issues
ignored by other media in the community.
It is not the mission of the homeless street newspaper in
Cleveland (or for that matter any other city in North America that I know of) to
bring homeless service providers together.
We have a certain bias in favor of homeless people, but we are still a
member of the fourth estate. Similar
to the pro-business bias of Crain’s publication in Cleveland or the Call
and Post or Cleveland Life attempting to keep the issues of African
American Clevelanders in the news. The
Homeless Grapevine acts as a watchdog for the public against the
potential tyranny of government and publicly supported social services.
The Role of the Homeless
Coalition:
The Homeless Grapevine is published by the
Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, but there is a clear separation in
the operation of the two entities. The
vendors and volunteers of the paper have oversight of the Grapevine, but
since there are so many different voices there is no clear agenda forwarded by
the Grapevine. The articles
that appear with the word “editorial” are the opinions of the three editors,
usually written by one but supported by the other two.
Commentaries are the opinions of the writer and no one else.
NEOCH does have a specific agenda, and speaks as one
voice. We have an advocacy agenda
developed by our constituency—homeless people.
We focus our attention on four areas of concern—housing, economic
justice, health care, and civil rights. Under
civil rights we include the rights homeless people have upon entering a social
service provider. We hear a great
deal of anger from our constituents and we have to reflect that in our advocacy
to accurately represent homeless people. After
all, in a country of such opulence, no one should be homeless, and those who
become homeless are angry and puzzled how this could happen in the richest
county on the face of the earth.
Homeless Coalitions as
Facilitators
It is true that in some cities the homeless coalition
acts as a coordinator or at least a collaborator of homeless service providers.
Columbus and Jacksonville Florida are good examples of the coalitions as
facilitators. The problem is that
the voices of homeless people usually get drowned out and are eventually lost in
these types of Coalitions. It is so
difficult to amplify the voices of a population that is hard to get in touch
with, and migrates frequently. It
is easy to stay in touch with the shelters or meal sites that rarely move.
Also, shelters don’t always like to sit down at the same table with
homeless people who only yesterday publicly complained about the shelter
operation or staff. Even though
both shelters and homeless people have the same end goal—universal
housing—they take much different paths.
Shelters have to be concerned about funding and keeping
their doors open so are in competition with other facilities for scarce dollars.
Negative publicity of a shelter can be an assault on the social service
provider’s ability to fund raise. The
bottom line is that juggling the desires of a diverse homeless population with
the needs of social service providers is nearly impossible.
In the end shelter driven homeless coalitions usually mute the voices of
homeless people and confine the discussion to services instead of solutions.
This is not to say that there is not a need in Cleveland
for shelter directors and staff to meet on a regular basis and collaborate.
This is a vital function that is not currently being met. This also does
not rule out some collaboration between NEOCH and homeless social service
providers. In my opinion, the
Homeless Service Network started by Care Alliance and City Mission does not
serve this mission because it is an exclusive club with its primary purpose to
undermine both NEOCH and the Office of Homeless Services.
It is a divisive organization, and is not an open organization that
attempts to figure out ways to better collaborate or move people faster into
stability.
Homeless People Distrust
The Coalition for the Homeless made a decision six years
ago to allow the editorial content of the paper to be uncensored and free of
outside oversight thanks to free speech attorneys who were on the board at the
time. NEOCH also made the decision
to focus our attention on amplifying the voice of homeless people.
Social service providers in Cleveland and around the country have not
done a good job building trust among homeless people.
With the strict rules and the lack of an empowering atmosphere at the
shelters and services, NEOCH has struggled to involve homeless service providers
in their advocacy campaigns.
Shelters and services have often taken a more
paternalistic approach as opposed to an attitude of “homeless people know what
they need how do we best serve them?” An
example is when cities take a criminalization approach to homelessness with
sweeps and arrests, homeless service providers should be outraged and should
take swift action. When cities like
New York arrested 200 homeless people in a two-week period, the shelters should
demand a more humane policy for those they serve with direct action.
It is time to “storm the gates” when the police classify the homeless
individual as a criminal because they sleep on the sidewalk.
Unfortunately, around the United States this rarely happens.
In fact, often the shelters assist with the sweeping policy.
They sell out the people that provide them employment in order to keep
the money flowing from the municipality.
Homeless people want power over their lives, but homeless
social service providers are not usually willing to give up their power they
currently maintain. An example is
the importance homeless people place on transportation and ending the
exploitation at the temporary labor companies.
These and many other problems are not even on the radar of most homeless
service providers because they have no impact on the shelter directors with cars
and a guaranteed job as long as we keep increasing the number of homeless
people.
There is an implicit contract between “client” and
service provider that is too often broken.
This is alluded to in the licensing of social workers who have an
obligation to not harm their “client.”
Homelessness is harmful to a person, and every social service provider
has an obligation to move that individual into stability as soon as possible. A shelter is not stability either. It would be like if a doctor swept through the emergency room
gave everyone something to remove the pain for the night and then sent them on
their way. Wait a minute, that is
what happens in our HMO driven health care system.
Strike that example. It
would be like if a lawyer filed the civil case for the victim of a drunk driver,
and then said, “Okay you are on your own from here,” and the victim had to
argue the case in court. The lawyer
would be prosecuted for malpractice.
Separate Paths Taken
Gone are the days when this homeless crisis started and
social service providers were the best partners in the fight.
We have institutionalized homelessness to the point that we are merely
managing a triage center never having an impact on the solution.
Many of the strongest allies at the beginning of this fight are now the
targets of complicity. When
homelessness exploded in the 1980s, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and
mental health community in many cities provided the transportation, supplies and
bodies for demonstrations and direct actions.
I have noticed that most of the time social service providers only show
up to demonstrations to protest funding cuts.
There are rare exceptions, but I have seen the only thing that angers
most providers is cuts to their budgets.
Money was expended to solve the problem of homelessness,
but it only got worse. The task of
ending a person’s poverty became too daunting, too expensive, and too
complicated and so the provider community began concentrating on keeping people
alive instead of ending poverty. There
was no time for advocacy because there was one emergency after another or they
spent their time finding the money to keep the doors open.
We lost that fire and urgency and saw 10 years of men and women sleeping
on floors like dogs.
Many accepted our fate that homelessness would always be
with us, and so very few spoke up when homeless people were attacked in the
media as the source of all the problems in America.
Then providers including religious officials started blaming homeless
people for their fate, and the homeless population grew.
Now we are facing this vicious cycle of more services needed and more
homeless people, and service providers wonder why they are not trusted and
sometimes even viewed as the enemy. Homeless
people still have their eyes on the prize even though most of the rest of us are
lost in some political, fundraising, outcome measurement fog.
We will pass along your comments to the NEOCH board about
your recommendations for NEOCH learning mediation skills. I would pass it back to you and other social service
providers to learn how to repair the bridges with the homeless community.
Give up some of your grip on the power and money by allowing homeless
people to drive the agenda and set the rules for participation.
The homeless social service providers would have a better relationship
with the homeless community if they did not have evictions without notice from
transitional housing, discharge from the shelters to the streets, and if they
stopped blaming the poor for the problems associated with poverty.
Note: This is what I will hear after this is published,
“Brian is only critical of the social services and never compliments the tough
job that we do.” I have to say
that reading all the newsletters that I get from all the social service
providers and those stories in the December Plain
Dealer, I could only conclude that we have the best safety net in the history
of man. I never hear any
self-criticism or public comment about the shameful job we have all done.
The Grapevine is one of the few places to counter all the good
thoughts being sent to donors and government funders.
The bottom line is that the year that Cleveland sees a decrease in the
number of people seeking shelter is the day we make a step forward.
To date, all of us, including NEOCH, have nothing to celebrate and must
resolve to work harder on solutions and not just managing an emergency.
Grapevine
Declines; Message Always Critical of Providers
Dear Editor:
Over the years I have read the Grapevine and found
it an informational resource regarding the homeless in Cleveland.
Unfortunately that has changed. The
issues are briefly touched on but the core of those issues is ignored.
Any response contrary to the Editor is bashed at a later date as wrong.
Agencies that provide for the homeless are attacked instead of finding a
way to come together. Believe it or not, some Service Providers do advocate for the
homeless perhaps it is not to find a “legal” place to drink alcohol but they
do advocate for services and, yes, even for the housing for the homeless.
I have heard that in some cities the Coalition for the
Homeless actually works with providers to provide for the homeless.
One can only wonder what an amazing experience that would be in
Cleveland. Perhaps NEOCH ought to
take a few courses in mediation so that they might be able to at least attempt
to see both sides of a situation.
Vickie L. Smith
Cleveland, OH