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Police
Defy City Council and Judge in Austin
by
Richard R. Troxell
On September 28, 2000 the Austin City Council struck the
words “sleeping” or “making preparations to sleep including the laying
down of bedding” from the city’s “No Camping” Ordinance.
This action came on the heels of Magistrate Jim
Coronado’s ruling that one cannot criminalize sleeping.
The ruling came after over four years of direct street and court action
led by House the Homeless, Inc. and its members all of whom are homeless and
formerly homeless people.
Recently, I have been receiving
reports that police officers are issuing tickets to individuals who were
not “camping’ but merely sleeping. In
response, House the Homeless, Inc. issued a public notice seeking people who may
have been injured by receiving one of these tickets.
When we received nine such tickets, we brought this to
the attention of Robert Dogget an attorney at Texas Rural Legal Aid.
As Director of Legal Aid for the Homeless, TX Rural Legal Aid’s
outreach project, I then wrote to the Chief of Police, the Chief of the Park
Police, the City Manger, the Mayor and all Austin City Council Members and
included a copy of the nine sample
tickets.
Assistant Police Chief
Fealy wrote back on behalf of Police Chief Knee saying that only one of
those tickets was issued incorrectly by the City of Austin Police Department.
Assistant Police Chief Fealy stated however that they would put the word
out to that officer about proper procedures. He went on to write that if there
were any kind of real problem, (which they
doubted), they would retrain
police officers. Assistant Chief Fealy attributed all eight of the other tickets
to the City Parks Department.
(Clearly, from our perspective we don’t care who is
issuing the tickets...it’s all the City of Austin).
Acting in my role as Director of Legal Aid for the
Homeless, using the Public Open
Records Act, I then requested a
copy of all “no camping” tickets issued since the ordinance was rewritten on
September 28, 2000. The response to
Legal Aid was that most of those tickets were
in storage, but they did have 453 such tickets that Legal Aid could look
at. I said that those would
do for a start.
On each ticket there is a section entitled
“Violation,” where the officer writes the “charge” (i.e. “Camping in
Public Area”). However, there is
also a section called “Remarks” where an officer can put additional
information. We found that, over
and over again, several different police officers
wrote things like “sleeping on cardboard, “ or “sleeping and using
backpack as pillow” in the “Remarks” section.
In fact, in just this one sample, we found 195
bogus tickets. These
improperly written tickets had been issued for “camping” when even by the
description of the police officers writing the tickets; there was no offense.
In the words of the police officers these people were merely sleeping.
However, when we searched the COA data base, we found that ALL of these
“sleeping” tickets had been incorrectly entered under the code of
“camping.”
Why is House the Homeless, Inc. so concerned?
First, each no camping ticket carries a fine of at least $200.00.
Failure to pay the fine or to do free work for the City of Austin which
it refers to as “Community Service,” results in a “warrant” being
issued. If you are picked up on the
warrant you then serve jail time.
Furthermore, over and over again, we find that even
though homeless folks tell police officers that they are staying at or using the
ARCH or the Salvation Army to get their mail; police write down the insulting
word “transient” instead of
writing a mailing address on the ticket. This demeaning term helps deface
homeless citizens and enables people to treat homeless persons as non-citizens.
It also implies that they are not contributing members of the community
and sends the message that the community has no responsibility for their
welfare.
Additionally, failure to write down a mailing address
prevents any notification that the ticket has been turned in for processing.
A person who is issued a ticket must appear by a certain court date or
within 10 days of the ticket issuance. But
the police believe that they have two years to turn in the ticket!
That means if they haven’t turned it in when you call, you have to keep
calling for up to two years just to enter a plea
of either innocence or guilt! If
the police wrote the word “transient’ instead of writing down a mailing
address, there is absolutely no possibility that they can reach anyone by mail
about court proceedings. Again,
this results in the issuance of a warrant for arrest.
What’s the big deal?
If the ticket goes to warrant you have been found guilty
by default. In addition to going to
jail you can then be denied access to housing by the Austin Housing Authority
for ten years because of your “criminal record!”
House the Homeless, Inc. held a meeting on September 18th
when 35-40 homeless folks discussed the issue.
House the Homeless, Inc. has called for: 1) suspension in the issuance of all “no camping” tickets
where people are merely sleeping, 2) a
letter issued by the police stating that sleeping is legal anywhere in the City
of Austin other than in a park after curfew or unless it blocks a passageway or
on private property without permission 3) the
retraining of police officers about the legality of sleeping and the associated
issuance of tickets and the use of the word ”transient” and the routine
failure to properly note a mailing address.
At this point, the battle moves into the court system
where city officials continue to prosecute folks where tickets have already been
issued. In fact, Texas Rural
Legal Aid has just prepared to defend a homeless person who was issued a ticket
in 1996! Six years later.
Footnote. Community
Court is the court where homeless persons are expected to perform Community
Service and “voluntarily” serve
time for their “Quality of Life” crimes such as violating the “No
Camping” ordinance. On Thursday,
February 27th, the Austin American Statesman reported that Stacy Shorter, the
1st administrator of the Austin
Community Court, was indicted on felony charges associated with the theft of
millions of dollars intended to create housing for poor people at Vision
Village. No housing was ever created.
This is a submission from the Austin Homeless Advocate street newspaper October 2002
Jones
Meets Welfare Activists About Poverty
by
Valerie Robinson
Stop Targeting Ohio’s Poor organized a meeting in late
summer with Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones at which we presented our October
2002 Anti-Poverty Human Rights Proposal. Representatives were there from various
social service organizations, justice groups, and one representative from the E.
18th St. Woman’s Shelter. In
attendance from the County were Commissioner Jones; Gary Norton, executive aide
to the Commissioner; Betty Meyers, deputy chief administrator of the County; and
Jim Corrigan, Ms. Meyers’ aide. The hour and a half meeting was
cordial, and Commissioner Lawson-Jones gave us the impression that he
would like to work with us.
Commissioner Jones is especially interested in
activist’s idea that a mother whose child is under one year of age should not
have to work outside the home, but rather may spend the time with her infant as
well as doing appropriate developmental activities. This is in keeping with
federal and state guidelines. The infant death rate in Cleveland (a count taken
of infants under one year of age in the city of Cleveland) is roughly double
that of the nation as a whole. Therefore any move to protect the health of
Cleveland’s infants by allowing them to stay with their mothers will be a
positive step.
He was also receptive to the idea of looking at what other counties around the state are doing
with regard to hardship policy. Parents and caretakers who endure
hardships are allowed to remain on welfare after their time limits have
expired, and it is important for the County to have as many hardship categories
as federal law allows. Anti poverty activist’s proposal is based in part on
the policy of Hamilton County in southern Ohio, and adds six new hardship
categories to the four specified by Cuyahoga. It is essential for the County to
come into line with other counties like Hamilton. Therefore we were gratified
that the Commissioner said that he will consider our suggestions.
The one area of our meeting that was disappointing was
regarding the “good cause” policy of the County, and here we may have to
meet with Commissioner Jones again. This is of the greatest importance because
of the poverty and unemployment in Cleveland. We are proposing that families in
poverty be able to return to welfare for the remaining two years allowed by
federal law.
The 1996 federal “welfare reform” law allowed
recipients five years of cash assistance, but low-income families in Ohio were
forced to take a two year break after three years of receiving Ohio Works First
(OWF) benefits. After not receiving
OWF assistance for two years, a parent/caretaker can reapply and become eligible
for up to two additional years if it is determined that “good cause” exists.
We propose that “good cause” be defined simply as a request for
assistance from a family in need. We
further recommend that, in this time of high unemployment, there be no
requirement for a parent/caretaker to have worked during the two years of not
receiving benefits.
We also discussed policy with regard to the increasing
number of children in custody, now numbering 5,800.
Our proposal states that “children should not be removed from a family
for environmental reasons or as a result of being born into poverty”, and
points out that “resolving the
immediate needs of a struggling family is far less expensive than the cost of
maintaining the child within the foster care system”. The Commissioner said that it was Cuyahoga County practice
not to remove children from their families solely for conditions that exist as a
result of being in poverty.
Although this is the professed practice of the County, we
feel that a statement enunciating this policy should be formally included in
law. We are hoping to have a follow-up meeting with Commissioner Jones regarding
these issues.
Published by the Homeless Grapevine Cleveland Ohio November 2002
Food
Stamp Barriers Harm Low Income Access to Entitlement
by
Teri Donelson
For those living in poverty to receive benefits that they
are entitled, they go through a large amount of red tape from the Department of
Human Services in order to receive benefits.
It does not matter your circumstances; those who are poor
suffer from the same bureaucracy. A
recent college graduate who is currently an AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteer In
Service To America) member has chosen to live below poverty level for one year
to serve her country and today has to fight to receive food stamps from the
government. The men living in the
YHaven center are having to fight in order to receive their benefits directly
instead of being issued them through an intermediary.
Susan Baker just graduated from Cleveland State
University and decided to answer the President’s call and give a year to
community service. As a VISTA
member, she is not allowed to work
or attend school for the entire year of her service.
She works a minimum of 40 hours a week and must survive off a “living
allowance” of $769 a month, which comes to about $4.43 an hour. Because of the high rental cost in Cleveland,
over 50% of her allowance is spent on housing, there is little left for
utilities, high gas prices and other bills.
Susan only “qualifies” for $33 dollars a month for food stamps.
The Department of Human Service does not consider the
“living allowance” as income with other assistance programs such as public
housing, TANF and WIC , but with the food stamps, they are allowed to count the
allowance when calculating the VISTA member’s income. During President Bill Clinton’s administration, AmeriCorps
became the umbrella for all National Service Programs: VISTA, AmeriCorps State
and Direct, and National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). All AmeriCorps programs except VISTA members are exempt from
this rule; their living allowance is not considered income.
The conflict seems to be an issue that has been over
looked for years. From interviews
of VISTA members throughout Ohio,
Government entities seems to be confused and do not know the policy so VISTA
members continue to receive incorrect information, conflicting answers and more
bureaucracy. Kevin Black, a former
VISTA member said, “What I don’t understand is why AmeriCorps members
receive those benefits when they make more money than VISTA members and they are
also allowed to have a second job and they can attend school while they serve,
it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Brit Rapp, The attorney for the VISTA program confirmed
the reason why VISTA members are not entitled to food.
When the VISTA program was established in 1973 the farmers learned that
individuals would be able to receive food stamps just because they were going to
become VISTA members and raised a storm in Washington.
They vowed to go to Congress and fight the entire development of the
VISTA program if members received full food stamp benefits.
So in order to receive some of the benefits like public housing
assistance, TANF, and WIC congressional members compromised stating that only
members who were receiving benefits prior to service could continue receiving
them and not have their living allowance calculated as income.
Due to the shift in the economy farmers have become
strong advocates for expanded participation in the food stamp program because it
is guaranteed money spent on food. “It
is hard to believe that over 6, 000 VISTA members across the nation suffer
because of the actions committed over 35 years ago” commented Lisa Etling
current VISTA members.
This policy doesn’t apply to AmeriCorps members because when President
Clinton established the AmeriCorps program they were able to add on income
disregard for food stamps eligibility. There
are very few benefits that the majority of VISTA members are entitled to receive
because most are single individuals without children.
Most VISTA would only be eligible for a small food stamp allocation and
residency in public housing which have huge waiting list, since most VISTA
members are placed in urban impoverished environments
Attorney Rapp said that each state has the right to
determine whether to consider the VISTA allowance income or not.
Baker said this: “I’ll survive somehow for this year.
But what bothers me the most is the way I was treated and I couldn’t
imagine having to deal with those workers in order to eat!
Its completely frustrating because I’m working for the government and
the government doesn’t want to help me.”
At Y Haven, a substance treatment center, they are having
trouble with the food stamp department as well.
For eleven years on the west side of Cleveland and six years on the east
side, food stamps were issued directly to the residents; but now that has come
to an end and the benefits for residents will have to be issued through YHaven.
As a result the men are now dependent and will not be able to get their benefits
directly from the Human Service. Joe
Gauntner, Director of Health and Nutrition of Cuyahoga County, confirmed the
reason why the men at YHaven are not able to receive their benefits directly.
According to Mr. Gaunter, when this program expanded from the west side
to the east side the type of license they needed changed.
When they expanded to the east side they were considered an “out
patient facility”, however, once changes were made they became a licensed
“residential treatment center”.
Under the provisions of The Ohio Department of Alcohol
and Drug Abuse, a resident in an alcohol or drug center can not take
applications or receive food stamps directly; the “shelter” is supposed to
retain the card for the client. The
state regulations simply reflect the federal requirements. Chip Joseph,
YHaven’s Executive Director says “we made the changes to be licensed as a
residential treatment center but we want the men to receive the food stamps
directly and not to be given them through the shelter.”
Angelo Anderson, Job Coach for New Life Community said
this, “The bottom line is this: food is a necessity not a luxury.
Food stamps is one of the last entitlements available, so why are there
so many restrictions for receiving it? It is already a humiliating experience to
ask for help, but when you are faced with so many restrictions it makes it an
even worse situation. It’s time
to go back to the basics in order to receive food stamps.
If you live in poverty you should be able to receive those benefits
without the bureaucracy. Its that
simple.”
Published in the November 2002 Homeless Grapevine
Cleveland Ohio
Homeless
Lack Health Care in Cleveland
by:
Amanda Brooks & Lindsay Friedrich
Imagine having to wait to receive a bus ticket, wait to
be seen at a clinic for hours, while getting treated like a second class
citizen, and then receiving a prescription slip you don’t have the money or
ability to fill. This is a glimpse
of health care in Cleveland for homeless people.
Wait and wait, then receive little or no help.
There are so many homeless people who have had to battle in order to
receive minimal health care.
A survey was recently conducted to find out what is
lacking in the health care offered to homeless people in Cleveland. Results from the survey of 87 homeless people in Cleveland
show that there are many unmet needs. Despite
many respondents saying there is limited choice and location in health care for
the homeless people of Cleveland, 65% of those surveyed were able to get to a
clinic when they were in need.
The largest responses when asked how health care could
better serve the homeless people of Cleveland were:
help filling prescriptions, ability to get regular check-ups, better
hours, bus tokens to allow ease of travel, and to treat the homeless people with
respect. These are just a few stories from those on the front line of the battle
for sufficient health care for the homeless people in Cleveland.
Lisa Smith lives in Cleveland and is frequently homeless.
When asked about health care in Cleveland, she had a long history of
negative experiences. However, she has found Care Alliance has always helped,
treating her quickly. Smith said
there were always doctors available, the staff was courteous, and her
prescriptions were filled there.
Ms. Smith did not have such praise for St. Vincent
Charity Hospital. She said she has
waited there several times for several hours.
“If you have insurance, you are a queen or king there,” she said,
“but if you have no insurance they tell you to get a home remedy book, or they
give you some home remedy.” Smith
complained once about the lack of actual care, and the nurse said, “It’s out
of our hands.” Yet, she still had
Smith sign the ‘white homeless form’ which allows the clinic to receive
money for the homeless population they ‘serve’.
Her experience at St. Vincent Charity Hospital shows the poor treatment
many homeless people receive from staff at these facilities.
One homeless man, 69-year old Willis, has had different
experiences with different clinics. At
Care Alliance he said he received the best care they were able to offer to him.
He used to go to Murtis Taylor clinic, but since they closed, he said
there is a big problem with lack of health care facilities in that area.
“I don’t think the health care here provides enough for all the
different problems people have,” Willis said. “They throw us all together
and treat us all the same. It lacks
a whole lot.” Willis does have a
variety of health problems to deal with, including spinal cancer, diabetes,
neropathy (numbness in legs due to the diabetes), Drusen (a rare eye disease),
and arthritis. “I’m in pain
twenty-four hours a day,” he said. Due
to his long list of health problems, Willis requires medicine in order to
alleviate some of his pain and suffering. His
prescriptions are difficult for him to attain.
His story is like that of 19.4% of the survey respondents who said the
biggest health care need in Cleveland for the homeless people is prescription
coverage.
Aside from dealing with his various health problems, he
had a very bad experience at one clinic, though he would not reveal which one.
He was accused of having narcotics in his system when he was admitted to
the facility. He was aggressively
interrogated. However, two days
later, the staff informed him that someone made a mistake, switching his sample
with another patient with a similar last name. No one ever apologized, and they
continued to question him throughout his stay at the hospital.
This is another example of how homeless people are treated with a lack of
respect by many of the health care facilities in Cleveland.
Leslie Stanchik, 31 and currently homeless, lives on the
streets of Cleveland. She is also dealing with the lack of health care in
Cleveland for homeless people. She
had a child four months ago. She
was able to get prenatal care from University Hospitals.
This was due to the fact that she made it into their database before the
hospitals non-insured patient quota was reached. “They have to take a certain number of non-insured
patients,” Ms. Stanchik said. However,
she realized that she was lucky to get in since other clinics are farther away
with strange hours, and overworked staff. She
said that the hospital staff treated her very well, and did not treat her
differently because of her lack of housing. Her friends on the streets warned
her about other clinics and hospitals. Ms. Stanchik has never tried to receive
treatment anywhere else because of the stories of hassles others have been
through.
Regardless of her University Hospital experience, Ms.
Stanchik did say she still has trouble with health care.
She is unable to visit an eye doctor in order to receive much needed
glasses. She is also unable to get
in to see a dentist, which she said was a major concern for her.
This is also a major concern for 38.9% of survey respondents, who stated
that dental care was their major health need which has gone unmet.
Stanchik stated that she really needs both of these services, but has not
found a way to receive them. “Most
eye doctors and dentists want money up front if you have no insurance, and I
don’t have the insurance or the money,” said
Stanchik. Most services are
available at the Free Clinic, she has found that short hours and lack of
available bus tickets has kept her from being able to utilize this facility. “I never know when they are open,” Ms. Stanchik said,
“it depends on the day if they are open, accepting patients, the hours; you
always have to wait, it isn’t worth it.”
Even though their hours are often strange, and the
facility is located rather far for many of the homeless people in Cleveland,
48.1% of survey respondents said the clinic they visited most often is the Free
Clinic.
One formerly homeless woman, Pat Swindell, 34, said that
she found health care in Cleveland to be anything but helpful. She found health services in the area for pregnant women to
be practically non-existent. Swindell
was told by local facilities that there was no more room in Cleveland for her to
be cared for. She was transported
to a shelter in Akron in order to receive care for herself and her unborn child.
Swindell has two children, and it is difficult for her to
get them in for check-ups due to the limited clinic hours and staff.
She said there is still great need for improvement in the health care for
homeless people. “Not all homeless people are there because of drugs or
alcohol,” said Swindell, regarding how homeless people are treated as
patients. Swindell said that more
women’s clinics and health services are desperately needed.
Another void in her opinion is a lack of treatment
facilities for those suffering from drug or alcohol addiction. Swindell said that to get help at Metro Hospital for an
addiction problem, one needed to go through the outpatient program to qualify
for the inpatient program. Swindell
claims that anyone familiar with recovery programs knows this is opposite of the
needs of the addicted individual. It
is also difficult for homeless people to be able to make it to outpatient
treatment consistently given their lack of transportation. This is a major health care issue since, according to a
survey conducted at one shelter early in 2002, many homeless people have had to
struggle with some addiction problem. According
to the recent health care survey, 35% of the respondents stated that their
greatest need was mental, alcohol, or drug treatment.
Overall, Cleveland lacks a reliable way to provide health
care consistently to homeless people. The
local hospitals are able to accept a certain number, no where near fulfilling
the need. The clinics are either
partially staffed, hard to get to, or offer insults with treatment.
This all causes homeless people to be left without reliable health care.
Many interviewed considered the health care shortages as an outrage, since
Cleveland is a city with world renowned health care providers.
Published in the November
2002 Homeless Grapevine, Cleveland Ohio
2100 Lakeside Update:
Rising numbers are again plaguing the men’s shelter.
The City of Cleveland and the Salvation Army have worked out a comprise
to bring additional bathroom facilities to the shelter to accommodate more than
the 365 people a night at 2100 Lakeside Men’s shelter.
The Salvation Army did fire Ron Reinhart, who has worked with homeless
people in Cleveland for over 15 years. The
shelter has returned to a divided facility with like minded individuals
occupying six different communities similar to the first director’s strategy.
The County Request for Proposals was competitive with at
least three social service providers seeking to take over operation of the
shelter. Even if the existing
provider gets the grant there should be dramatic improvement in the services to
homeless people. The minimum
requirements for submission to the County were very progressive and demanded a
great deal of involvement by homeless people.
Lawson Jones Sleeps at Shelter:
County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones did in fact keep
his promise to sleep at 2100 Lakeside men’s shelter. The Grapevine has dogged Commissioner Jones into
keeping his promise which he first made at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the
Homeless Annual meeting in April. Jones
did not announce his presence, and was able to get an idea of the conditions at
the facility. At the next
Commissioner meeting, Jones talked about his stay and the intelligent men he
met. He specifically was disturbed
that the facility ran out of blankets early in the evening and the fact that
nearly 90% of the men were African American.
The Grapevine will carry an interview with Commissioner Jones in
the next issue conducted by an alum of the shelter and a community volunteer.
Riverview Moves to Fill Vacancies:
Over the last year Riverview Towers in Ohio City has seen
between 150 to 220 vacancies. This
public housing project was designated for seniors (50 years and older) only
three years ago. During the last
annual planning process the maintaining of this facility for seniors came under
scrutiny by housing and homeless activists.
Seniors are not moving into the Towers despite extensive renovations and
a marketing campaign. In October,
the public housing authority announced the passing of 80 units at Riverview
specifically targeting the single men who currently reside at 2100 Lakeside
shelter. This plan was approved by
the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority’s Board, which will contract with
the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation to assist with the application
and placement of the individuals. Further
details on the plan are to be worked out.
CMHA Annual Plan:
The CMHA annual plan was passed by the Board of Trustees
in October. This is an annual
update of policies and procedures for agency staff to follow. One notable improvement for homeless people is the
reinstatement of actual preferences that will benefit homeless people.
In the past there were seven preferences including for veterans, those
coming out of treatment, and those enrolled in work training program.
The individual received equal status if they qualified for any one of the
preferences, which translated to the fact that 80% of the population that
applied for housing received a preference.
The new plan will allow the agency to establish real
priorities for housing with those coming out of a residential treatment program
as the highest priority, those involuntarily displaced by natural disaster the
second highest priority, and homeless people as the third highest priority.
An individual will apply for the priority that provides them the highest
priority. This shows the importance
CMHA places on housing homeless people.
Housing activists were not able to overturn the senior
only policy or the minimum rent which requires people without income to apply
for a hardship exemption or have to pay $25 minimum rent. The Legal Aid Society
had proposed an innovative idea of putting in the plan language to protect
innocent tenants from eviction as part of the “One Strike and Your Out”
policy. This would protect a
grandmother from eviction if her disabled grandson were caught on the CMHA
property breaking the law. CMHA
said that they would continue to investigate these evictions on a case by case
basis. For more information on the
CMHA annual plan, see the public housing website at: www.cmha.net.
Care Alliance Looking for New Leader:
The often embattled organization, Care Alliance, saw the
resignation of controversial executive director, John McKinney.
Care Alliance was originally constituted as Cleveland Health Care for the
Homeless, and had a mission to provide basic health care for the medically
indigent who found themselves homeless. The
agency began to broaden their mission to include public housing residents,
people with AIDS, mentally ill people and women.
Many claimed that the agency was adrift following funding streams while
neglecting its core mission of providing health care to homeless people.
Care Alliance was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars
by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the State of Ohio.
Cuyahoga County was engaged in negotiations that have dragged on for over
a year to settle outstanding debts and usage of property owned by the agency.
Those knowledgeable with the agency have said that there was a split
among the Board of Trustees over the culpability of the executive director for
the lack of confidence in the organization and the precarious funding picture
for the agency.
Free Times Ends After Ten Years
Over the past 10 years, the Cleveland Free Times
has featured stories about homelessness including a cover story on staying in
the Jay Hotel, Camelot, and temporary labor agencies. Cleveland readers benefited from some diversity in journalism
with the Free Times often covering stories never appearing in the Plain
Dealer. The Free Times
did a cover story on the dumping of homeless people on the outskirts of town and
a profile of Robert Igoe, who was soon after provided a home, education and
stipend by an anonymous donor.
The Free Times closed as a result of a trade by
the Village Voice and New Times company at a national level. Village Voice agreed to close the Free Times, and in
exchange New Times agreed to close the Los Angeles alternative paper.
This allows Scene Magazine in Cleveland owned by New Times to
publish without competition.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, House District 10, has asked
the Justice Department to investigate the closing of the Free Times as a
violation of anti-trust laws by conspiring to form an alternative media monopoly
in the two markets.
United Labor Agency Takes Greater Role in Hiring Hall
The union created social service and training
organization, United Labor Agency, has contributed $30,000 to hire a project
development director to bring the Community Hiring Hall to reality.
The ULA will assume fiscal responsibility for developing the project, and
are currently looking for a staff person to move the project forward to the
point of opening the door. The
hiring hall brings together religious, non-profit and union to open a facility
for day laborers to find work that pays a fair wage and does not subject them to
the exploitation of the for-profit temporary labor companies.
Women’s Center Meet with Administrator
The women who stay at Catholic Charities Women’s
Shelter on East 18th
St. have formed a resident committee and constructed a priority list of
problems. They met with the
director of the shelter to discuss issues ranging from staff treatment, curfew
and wake up hours, and problems with the current facility.
They plan to have continued discussion with the shelter directors, but
have made progress just in the first meeting.
The shelter got new carpeting and the entire facility was
painted. The staff was instructed
to allow the women in immediately after dinner and allow women to leave the
facility at night to get a breath of fresh air. They also successfully argued for a later wake up time on the
weekends. The residents will
continue to press their issues.
Selling Cleveland
Initiative Stumbles
The Homeless Grapevine staff proposed in the last issue
to sell Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the surrounding counties in order to
close the expected $4 billion dollar deficit.
Thus far, there is no response from Governor Engler of Michigan.
Staff will take up the issue after the election as a new Governor takes
office. There is also talk of sweetening the pot by lowering the price because
of the depressed economy.
One bright spot was that WCPN announcer, April Baer asked
Ohio Governor Taft about the initiative. He
quickly offered that neither Cleveland nor Toledo was up for sale.
This brought a question as to whether there are similar efforts taking
place in Toledo that have not been publicized.
If both Cleveland and Toledo are competing to leave the state, we need to
take a page from Salt Lake City Olympic Committee and offer certain “perks”
to Michigan legislators. Peterson
Nuts for life?
Published by Homeless Grapevine November 2002--Cleveland Ohio
People
Experiencing Homelessness Looking For Storage Space
By Michelle Martin
Imagine the burden of carrying your belongings with you, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For many Cleveland homeless like Tony Gentile, this is a reality. Cleveland is currently lacking storage lockers for homeless people to use in order to keep their important documents, a change of clothing, and other personal items. Lost or misplaced documents often makes obtaining city services, and ultimately, getting back on their feet more difficult. Mr. Gentile summarizes it by saying, “If you walk into a potential employer’s office carrying all your worldly possessions, it does something to your credibility.”
Changes at area shelters have left a huge demand for storage lockers and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, along with Mr. Gentile, are asking for the community’s support in obtaining storage lockers for our homeless citizens. According to Mr. Gentile, this project started earlier in the summer of 2002. NEOCH and Mr. Gentile are asking local social service agencies for non-committal letters of support to help in acquiring space for lockers. A rally for the homeless is tentatively scheduled in November to start at 2100 Lakeside and end at City Council. After several letters of support are received, NEOCH and Mr. Gentile hope to discuss with the Cleveland City Council the possible use of city buildings for a nominal daily fee.
Other cities such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Denver have adopted plans to help the homeless with their storage needs. Those plans are being looked at in hopes of helping Clevelanders with similar situations. Gentile is soliciting letters of support for his campaign. He has met with a few providers and is going to forward his letters to City Council and Cuyahoga County.
Published
by the Homeless Grapevine Cleveland Ohio November 2002
Chicago Killer Captured on Video:
A nicely dressed man was caught by surveillance video
killing a homeless man as he slept. Floyd
Mummert, 64 was killed by a white male who stabbed him in the head.
Mummert was a former oil company worker who was homeless for the last
eleven years. Police suspect that
the individual was either a “thrill killer” or was attempting to kill a
witness to some other crime seen by Mummert. Chicago Police have circulated the
grainy photo to neighbors and other homeless people.
Bring America Home Act to be Introduced
The National Coalition for the Homeless has assisted in
the drafting of language to move toward ending homelessness.
John Conyers of Michigan and Julia Carson of Indiana will introduce
legislation in January called the Bring America Home Act to move huge numbers of
people into housing. The bill is
expected to state that housing is a basic human right, and would dramatically
expand resources for affordable housing and homelessness.
The bill would expand health services and provide protection to day
laborers. It would provide greater
income and work support to people experiencing homelessness.
There are also expanded civil right’s protections for people
experiencing homelessness. The
Grapevine will have more information in coming issues.
Bum Fights Video Director’s Arrested
As the Grapevine reported in the past, Las Vegas
producers sold hundreds of thousands of copies of a video depicting homeless
people fighting. The team were
trying to raise money to produce a Hollywood motion picture by filming homeless
people engaged in dangerous activities and fighting in bloody battles.
Police and FBI officials in San Diego made arrests of the directors of
the bum fights video who had recruited and paid homeless people in the San Diego
area to be a part of the project. The
men who appeared in the video were given small donations and are planning a
civil lawsuit against the filmmakers. The
video is no longer available for sale by the Las Vegas film makers.
Tree Dwellers Homeless Again
For a dozen years, Besh Serdahely and Thelma Caballero
have lived in San Mateo County in the shadow of Silicon Valley in a tree.
The pair constructed a series of huts in a public park far away from
civilization. The County were given
the couple eviction orders, and the couple lost a court battle to continue to
live among the trees. They had hosted elementary school children and taught them
about alternative life styles. They
were well known within the County, and did not bother neighbors or other
citizens. The judge ordered them
off of the land, and a community development organization was trying to relocate
them.
Forced Mental Illness Treatment Passes California
A controversial law in California would allow mental
health workers to ask courts to force those with a mental illness to receive
treatment. It is unclear the
success of the project since there is no money attached to the initiative.
The bill would allow a judge or magistrate to order a mentally ill person
into outpatient treatment and force medication on them.
Current California law is similar to Ohio law that allows committal for
those who are a danger to themselves and/or others or they are so disabled that
they cannot eat or shelter themselves. This
expands that authority to not just stabilize the individual, but requires
treatment to individuals with repeat hospitalizations.
Parents of mentally ill people lobbied for the
legislation, while homeless activists fear that it will be used to target
homeless people. Without an
expansion of money for mental health treatment, it is unclear how this law will
be implemented.
New York City Again Outside the Law
A judge has ordered the city to provide “medically
appropriate” housing to homeless people with AIDS who activists say were
living in deplorable conditions. Justice
Eileen Bransten issued the temporary restraining order in September when a group
of people with AIDS complained that the city was sending them to filthy, rat-
and roach-infested hotel rooms that lacked heat, hot water and electricity.
The issue centered around the question of whether a person with a
compromised immune system can survive in such deplorable conditions.
The City of New York also was forced to close an old jail
that was used as a shelter after outcries from the homeless community.
A young boy committed suicide while waiting to get into a real shelter,
which expedited the closure. New
York City signed a consent degree to guarantee shelter to all families in need,
but has had a difficult time living up to this agreement.
Irish Citizen’s Support Housing As A Right
An opinion poll reveals that 71% of people in Ireland
believe housing should be a constitutional right and 42% believe homelessness is
a disgrace to society. Simon Communities of Ireland surveyed likely voters in
Ireland who said that the responsibility for solving the homeless problem lies
with the Government. More than three-quarters (76%) of poll participants said
the Government should take the lead role in eliminating homelessness. Just 6%
pointed the finger at local authorities and 1% at charities.
Government officials had promised a 50% reduction in
homelessness over the next five years, but have failed to act. Activists want a
detailed plan using accurate data. The
issue many groups are concentrating on include discharge planning especially
from mental health institutions.
Santa Cruz continues to Battle Homeless People
Coming on the heals of a court victory which allowed the
police in Santa Cruz to arrest people for protesting using sidewalk chalk art,
they have now extended a ban on asking for money after dark. Some panhandlers converted to street musicians to get around
the panhandling law, but the ban was quickly extended to those who play music.
City Council has banned Hackey Sack, sitting on the sidewalk, and placing
personal items on the sidewalk. The
City has also extended no-panhandling zones significantly within the downtown.
Published by the Homeless Grapevine Cleveland Ohio November 2002
Housing
Even More Out of Reach in 2002
According to a report issued by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless in conjunction with the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, low income workers in the greater Cleveland area must earn almost three times the federal minimum wage or $14.38 per hour, if they are to afford rent for the average two-bedroom apartment. The report, entitled Out of Reach 2002: Rental Housing for America’s Poor Families—Farther Out of Reach Than Ever, takes a detailed look at the ever growing disparity between rental housing costs and the minimum wage.
“Out of Reach shows that the affordable housing crises in Ohio continues to deepen,” said Brian Davis, executive director of NEOCH upon the release of the study. “At a time when the State of Ohio continues to cut all key housing and homeless programs to the tune of 15% over the last year with more cuts expected next year. This has led to many tax paying citizens finding themselves unable to afford rent in Ohio,” said Davis. “As the economy tries to rebound from a slump not seen since the early 1990s, the gap between what people can afford to pay and the real costs of hosing continues to widen at an unprecedented pace.” Since 1997, the housing wage (the amount one must earn per hour for a 40 hour work week if they are to afford the average rent for a two bedroom apartment) for the State of Ohio has jumped by nearly 25 percentage points. To put this into context, the housing wage is nearly two-and a half times the minimum wage.
“With the State of Ohio facing a budget deficit of
approximately $4 billion in the coming biennium, critical elements of the social
safety net could well be looking at additional cuts. This does not have to be
the situation,” said Davis. “In
spite of the current crises, there is a way for the state to step up to the
plate and save a key element of the safety net and boost the economy a the same
time.” Davis also said,
“Permanent and dedicated funding for Ohio’s Housing Trust Fund not only puts
affordable housing within reach for the state’s working poor, but it provides
a way to pump billions of dollars into the state’s economy.” Since its creation in 1991, the Ohio Housing Trust Fund has
provided critical housing assistance to an estimated 317,000 households, created
more than 50,000 jobs, and generated more than $1 billion in wages alone.
“We need to commit to a dedicated revenue source for the Housing Trust
Fund or we will continue to slip further into this housing crises.
According to the report in Cuyahoga County:
The housing wage for a one-bedroom apartment in Cuyahoga
County is $11.60 per hour (or 225% of the minimum wage), the housing wage for a
two bedroom apartment is $14.38 per hour or (279% of the minimum wage) and the
housing wage for a three bedroom apartment is $18.29 per hour (or 355% of the
minimum wage).
Minimum wage workers in Cuyahoga County must work at
least 90 hours per week to afford rent for a one bedroom apartment, 112 hours
per week to afford rent for a two bedroom apartment, and 142 hours per week to
afford rent for a three bedroom apartment.
Things are getting worse according to the report.
Across the board within the state’s 88 counties, the amount one must
earn to afford an apartment increased from 2001.
In fact, the Cleveland area recorded a jump in housing wage of more than
three percentage points. By comparison, the inflation rate for 2001 was less
than two percent. While this
difference is slight, it shows that housing costs continue to outpace inflation.
The
Silent Crisis Sweeps Across Northeast Ohio
by
Pamela Vincent
The world marks 21 years since the first case of AIDS was
diagnosed with great strides having been made in researching the disease and in
treating the symptoms of people with the disease. The early fear and panic it caused has given way to an
attitude of “Let’s not talk about it and if you have it keep it quiet
mentality,” according to AIDS activists.
Because people aren’t willing to talk about AIDS, it’s difficult to
keep public awareness and education activities a priority.
How many people are aware that the AIDS epidemic is still growing out of
control? Few paid much attention to
anything but the protests at the last World AIDS summit.
AIDS has moved off of the front pages of most major
newspapers. Americans have changed
their opinion about the disease
because of the recent advancements in a treatment regimen. Earl Pike from the
local AIDS Task Force, Latonya Murray with the Disabled Men’s Shelter and
Marty Hiller with the Cleveland Free Clinic are all on the front lines in the
battle to assist people suffering from this debilitating disease.
The three discuss the increasing number of people with AIDS in our area,
especially low income and homeless people.
Grapevine:
Earl, what is the function of the AIDS Task Force and how long has is
been around?
Earl Pike:
The AIDS Task Force was founded in 1983 and this coming February marks
our 20th year of existence. Back
when the first AIDS cases were being diagnosed there was a great deal of fear
and paranoia surrounding AIDS and initially everyone was in a state of panic.
Because of that the initial cases of AIDS in North East Ohio were treated
poorly. The people that were
infected had no support system and even the health care community, who didn’t
have as much understanding of the disease as they do now, were afraid to treat
AIDS patients. Individuals with
AIDS were isolated not only from other patients but from the community as a
whole. Early on volunteers ran the
Task Force and over the last 20 years the number of services available has grown
with the number of cases reported.
The way it works is that each person that comes to us has
a social management worker assigned to him or her.
Because the disease brings with it feelings of isolation and despair,
their caseworker is often the only person they can talk to about their disease
that understands what they’re going through.
Each of our caseworkers is assigned 100 clients (60 over what the State
Board recommends). The first thing
we try to do with homeless individuals is find them a place to live.
We have a housing program that can accommodate families
as well as individuals and a long-term facility for people that are sicker and
need 24 hour care. Our housing
program can only accommodate 750 out of the 1,700 cases we are treating so there
is a severe shortage. Our demand on
food load has tripled and on top of that our State funding for prevention was
cut by $200,000 and our State money for AIDS medication was cut by 1.5 million.
This means that more people will go untreated, get sick and die.
The rest of our services cover transportation to
and from Doctors and other appointments, recovery resources for clients that are
also dealing with substance abuse problems, massage therapy, education
departments that targets numerous races/genders for education and prevention,
providing 200,000 meals a year and a person who deals with public policy and
educates public officials about HIV and AIDS.
We have an extremely dedicated and hard working staff. They are constantly dealing with sickness and death and it
takes it’s toll on you and it changes you.
GRAPEVINE:
What do you feel is the number 1 reason for the increase of AIDS cases in
Cuyahoga County?
EP:
Largely there is mass denial that we have a serious problem with AIDS.
People think it can’t happen to them, they take risks or they think
that a cure will be found to treat them. They
confuse the success with medications to treat AIDS with a cure for it.
There is no cure for AIDS! The
majority of people think that we’re at the end of the epidemic but we
haven’t even peaked in numbers yet.
We don’t expect a vaccine until around the year 2050
and by 2010 (8 years from now) we estimate nationally an accumulated 210 million
cases of AIDS throughout the world. By
the year 2020 over 70 million people will have died from AIDS. Right now Russia
has a very large population of AIDS patients as do China (20 million cases) and
Africa has a severe AIDS epidemic. The
first AIDS case was diagnosed in 1981 and anyone born that year will be 70 by
the time a cure is found. Most of
us were young when the initial outbreak began.
This will go on to affect our children and grandchildren.
These are just straight facts I’m giving you.
GRAPEVINE: What
is the current number of infected individuals in this area? Do you know how many of them are from the Homeless
population?
EP: Right
now there are approximately 1,700 cases of AIDS in this area of Ohio.
In 1999 the number was 718 so it’s spread almost two and a half times
in the last 3 years alone. Of that
number 60% are African American, 15% Latino and 25% White.
The largest number of cases in this area is among African American men
and 29% of our clients are women heads of households. The profile of new cases is directly related to poverty and
race. The population it affects the
most makes less than $10,000 per year and 42% of the people with HIV have been
homeless at least once. You can
literally place a map of the poverty areas in the United States or even the
World and lay it over a map of the areas with the highest number of people with
AIDS and it would match.
AIDS clearly has had a significant impact nationally on
poverty areas. Poverty and Race go
hand in hand with the disease. These
people have overlapping problems. Not
only are they dealing with low income or homelessness but also they often have a
substance abuse problem and poor health. When someone comes to us we spend
months covering the basic survival issues before we can even deal with HIV.
The service our staff provides makes sense because they understand the
disease and the people they treat, in fact 15% of our staff have HIV so
they’re aware of the needs involved.
GRAPEVINE: Given that this is not a new virus and people are fairly
educated to the causes of the HIV virus what else can we do as a community to
help in prevention?
EP: For the low income and homeless population you
can’t fight AIDS by giving people a condom and a place to live.
You have to give them hope and shelter and stability among other things.
Homeless people lack inner qualities that need to be addressed.
For the rest of the general population there’s still a huge phobia
surrounding AIDS. People don’t
like to talk about sex and drugs. For example there aren’t any condom ads on
TV. Why not?
It would certainly help in prevention.
People talk about this being a gay disease and initially it was a gay
disease and it continues to largely affect the gay population.
However, the thing to remember is that it’s not who you are but what
you do that counts. More and more
women are having unprotected anal sex. That
puts them at a greater risk. Some
people think God is punishing people with AIDS.
If AIDS was God’s way of punishing us we’d all be sick.
In reality the gay population is responsible for
every organization that helps AIDS victims and the progress that’s been made
in finding cures and treatments. They
took the initiative to help themselves and now there are professionals that
provide services where once it was largely run by volunteers and now funding is
available but there’s still a long way to go and more money is needed to treat
the afflicted and to do research to find a vaccine.
GRAPEVINE: Are
homeless people more at risk of getting AIDS than other groups of people?
EP:
I would say because of their lifestyle they aren’t as healthy to begin
with and because the homeless often have other problems they are at a greater
risk for acquiring the disease. It’s
also impossible to do medical care for someone without housing.
They have special needs and nutrition that needs to be addressed.
I urge all the shelters to give out free condoms to the homeless and to
educate their residents about prevention whether it’s sexual or drug usage.
Our staff is available to speak at any of the shelters or for any group
that needs education. I think the
shelters should make it an official policy to hand out condoms to everyone
coming and going from their facility. The
cost of a condom is only 10 cents. That’s
an inexpensive cost to save a life.
Laytonya Murray is a Shelter Supervisor at Mental Health
Services. The Grapevine asked her
about her contacts with the problem of AIDS in the homeless community.
GRAPEVINE:
Can you give me some back round information on the Disabled Men’s
shelter? How long in existence, the
average number of residents, lengths of stay...etc.
LM: The
Disabled Men’s shelter has been in existence for two years and has
accommodations for 50 men. We often
exceed that amount and try not to have more than 55 men here at a time.
The average length of stay so far is 8 to 10 months.
Most of the residents (about 80%) have mental illness disabilities and
they usually move out of here and into a group home or a facility where they can
develop daily living skills so they can eventually care for themselves.
GRAPEVINE:
Has the increase in AIDS cases in Cuyahoga County impacted the Disabled
Men’s shelter?
LM: No
not really, we’ve only had 3 residents this year and 3 last year that had
AIDS. Of the men afflicted with AIDS a few of them have been transient
for a long period of time. They
have the same provisions available to them as the other residents.
GRAPEVINE:
Does the shelter have special provisions or make special provisions for
residents with AIDS?
LM: The
shelter does not have or make special provisions for them and the residents with
AIDS usually transfer to a facility where they can stay long term and get the
proper care they need. The men
usually get help from the AIDS Task Force and are placed in a facility through
their assistance.
GRAPEVINE: Has this created financial or other additional burdens for the
shelter or are the AIDS residents just as challenging as the other disabled
residents?
LM: We
haven’t experienced any additional burdens because of them.
The men don’t usually stay here very long.
They seek long term care at a facility specifically for their disability.
We do have an educational group where we teach sexual prevention of AIDS
and we provide free condoms to the men. We
encourage them to practice safe sex but some of the men don’t care about their
well being that much.
GRAPEVINE: Do
you feel that being homeless contributes to their disability or makes them more
susceptible to acquiring a disability or AIDS?
LM: Some
of the men are homeless because they have disabilities and I think the homeless
men that are more transient are at a greater risk for acquiring AIDS or any
other disability. They are in
situations where there is the potential for contracting the virus and some of
them take that risk. They either
don’t know any better or they don’t care.
Marty Hiller is the director of the Free Clinic of
Greater Cleveland. They serve a
diverse population including homeless people.
They also have a program for people with AIDS.
GRAPEVINE: Working
at the Free Clinic, have you seen a large increase in the number of AIDS cases
within Cuyahoga County? If so what
do you attribute that to?
MH: We’ve
never had a disease that we knew as much about as quickly as we did and knew how
to prevent it and yet new AIDS cases continue to occur. People seem to have the attitude that it can’t happen to
them and people as a whole aren’t as vigilant about the disease and that has
contributed to the increase. There’s
a new generation of people that it is affecting.
It initially hit the gay population first, and now we see young people in
their teens and early 20’s in a situation where they explore their sexuality
and they don’t have the same awareness and education that we were exposed to
when the disease scare initially started. A
large portion of new cases is among the younger generation.
Education among teens is high but with teens you have a significant
barrier in that they think it can’t happen to them or that it’s somebody
else’s problem.
Drug usage also contributes to the increasing number of
cases of AIDS. The syringe exchange
program hasn’t been greatly accepted by the Political areas and hasn’t been
widely put into use and therefore it has the outcome of increasing cases.
GRAPEVINE: Do you know what percentage of the new AIDS cases are Homeless
and are there more men affected than women?
MH: I
don’t really know the answer to that question.
Perhaps there are people at the state level that would know this answer.
The homeless and poor seem to have a disproportionately higher rate of AIDS, but
I don’t know the percentage of homeless or the number of men versus women
infected.
GRAPEVINE:
Are homeless people able to get long term treatment for AIDS from the
Clinic or are they referred to another facility or treatment center?
MH: Yes, the clinic has a treatment program that
provides long term care without regard to income.
There are a number of out patient treatment programs that provide care
without regard to income. University Hospital, and Metro, Care Alliance has a
treatment program. Care Alliance
was previously known as health care for the homeless. If we have someone in our treatment program that needs
hospitalization we would use Metro. Infectious
disease unit.
GRAPEVINE: Do
you think being Homeless increases the chances of acquiring HIV and AIDS?
MH: When
you’re homeless you often have severely limited options to how you live and it
can impact the ways in which this disease is transmitted. We suspect more numbers of infections due to sexual
transmission than through drug usage. We do offer free condoms and have a
syringe exchange program in place. In
some cases an individual or homeless person might not know any better and in
other cases they might know and not care. If
they are using drugs or alcohol or if they are mentally ill they might take
other risks like practicing unsafe sex.
GRAPEVINE: What
kind of cost is associated with treating the AIDS virus on a per person basis?
I’ve heard it’s approximately $150,000 over the life of
the disease and most of that is the cost of medication.
It seems that people with AIDS are living longer due to
advances in medications and treatments. Do
you find that is true among the Homeless people suffering from AIDS or do they
have a harder time fighting the disease due to their being homeless?
MH: Once
you’re infected you need to keep yourself in good health and use a complex
array of drugs and you fit that together with a person with an unstable, complex
lifestyle and it works against them. If
they don’t keep to their medication schedule they won’t stay healthy.
It’s imperative that they take all their pills every day and the
lifestyle of the homeless doesn’t work well with the treatments that can be
most effective. Homeless people
with AIDS presents a real problem because if they remain homeless they won’t
effectively be able to be treated and they won’t keep themselves healthy
otherwise. When we treat homeless
people we recommend them to case management services to either help place them
or to the AIDS Task Force for help placing them.
In dealing with
AIDS patients we work to improve the over all health of the individual, we have
made great strides in treating this disease but we haven’t found a cure.
People are living longer and with greater quality of life but we can’t
take a person and cure them of AIDS. Public
health speculation puts a vaccine cure date at approximately the year 2050.
We can’t put an exact cure date down because we don’t know when it
could happen and we can’t say that a vaccine or cure for AIDS is soon to come
because it’s not.
Published
by the Homeless Grapevine Cleveland Ohio November 2002
Ohio
Voters Believe Welfare Law Should Reduce Poverty
Ohio’s registered voters choose education, job
training, publicly funded jobs, and childcare as their top priorities when
considering changes in the nation’s welfare system, according to a poll to be
released today, a day before the 1996 federal welfare reform law expires. The
U.S. Senate is considering a reauthorization proposal that closely matches the
poll findings.
The poll was conducted by the Triad Research Group for
Have A Heart Ohio and the Federation for Community Planning, a nonprofit based
in Cleveland. The poll results show strong voter support for families on welfare
to have access to education, job training and, childcare as well as to publicly
funded jobs when private employment is unavailable. The survey also showed little support among Ohio voters for
making marriage promotion or tougher work requirements a high priority for
welfare reauthorization.
The poll also found that a majority of Ohio voters
willing to extend welfare benefits beyond Ohio’s three-year time limit in a
number of circumstances. According to John Corlett of the Federation for
Community Planning, “In a number of instances Ohio’s voters seem more
willing to continue benefits than Ohio’s elected state and county
officials.” For example, 67 percent would extend benefits for “women who are
working at a job but whose earnings are still below the poverty level.”
Education, Training,
Public Jobs, and Childcare are Top Priorities for Ohio
“Ohio’s voters clearly want the U.S. Congress to
focus on services that help persons on welfare to move from welfare to work, and
in circumstances where jobs aren’t available they think it is appropriate to
create public jobs,” Corlett added.
When asked whether tougher work requirements or expanded
job training, education, and childcare should be a priority, Ohio voters chose
expanding job training, education and childcare by a nearly two-to-one margin
– 61 percent to 33 percent.
Education and training received broad support from Ohio
voters, with 8 out of 10 agreeing that welfare recipients should be able to
fulfill their work requirements by taking courses to complete their high school
education or by taking job-training programs.
Childcare is also seen as important, with 7 out of 10
Ohio voters favoring an increase in childcare funding as part of welfare
reauthorization. And over half of Ohio voters are willing to pay more taxes in
order to increase childcare funding, further evidence of strong voter support
for childcare funding.
In the midst of a continuing economic slowdown, 8 out of
10 Ohio voters also favor creating public jobs for people on welfare who are
willing to work, but can’t find employment. But the U.S. House proposal
contains insufficient funding for most states or localities to undertake any
major public job creation program.
Fewer than 3 out of 10 Ohioans favor implementing tougher
work requirements for people on welfare – a proposal which was part of the
welfare plan passed earlier this year by the U.S. House.
Ohioans Cool to
Federal Marriage Promotion Proposals
Increasing funding for programs that encourage welfare
recipients to get married receives scant support from Ohio voters.
Only 15 percent of Ohioans would spend additional welfare funds on
programs that encourage marriage versus 80 percent who would invest those funds
in expanded job training, education, and childcare. Only 12 percent think
marriage promotion should be Congress’s first priority for the welfare system,
and only 14 percent would be willing to pay increased taxes to pay for such
programs.
Ohioan Reject
Increased Work Requirements
A key sticking point in the debate over welfare
reauthorization is whether work requirements should be increased from 30 hours
per week to 40 hours per week. The
legislation being considered by the Senate would retain the 30 hour-a-week
work requirement. By a nearly two to one margin, Ohio voters think expanded job
training, education and childcare should be more of a priority than increased
work requirements.
Ohioans Favor Tax
Relief for Low-Income Workers:
Several states currently use federal welfare funds to
provide state tax relief to low-income workers. Seven out of 10 Ohio voters
would support giving low-income parents a tax break on their state income tax.
Nearly 60 percent of Ohio voters would choose state income tax breaks for
low-income working families over tax breaks to businesses to encourage economic
development.
Ohioans Favor Extending
Welfare Benefits for Persons Experiencing Hardships
Ohio law limits welfare recipients to no more than 36
months of cash assistance in their lifetime.
After 36 months, recipients, depending upon where they live, may be
allowed to reapply for up to 24 additional months of assistance. Ohio voters
seem much more willing to extend benefits further than is currently allowed by
either Ohio law or by county practice. Eight out of 10 Ohio voters would extend
benefits for women who are caring for a sick or disabled child or other family
member. A nearly equal number would extend benefits for women who have physical
or mental disabilities that limit their ability to work. Finally, nearly 70
percent of Ohio voters would even extend benefits to those who are working at a
job but whose earnings are still below the poverty level – a characteristic
that applies to a majority of those women who have left welfare for work.
The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed a
bill to reauthorize the 1996 federal welfare law that incorporates several
provisions – stricter work requirements, less emphasis on education and
training, and marriage promotion – that seem to contradict the opinions of
Ohio voters. The U.S. Senate is currently considering reauthorization and
Senators Voinovich and DeWine are considered key votes in the federal welfare
reform debate.
Published by the Homeless Grapevine Cleveland Ohio November
2002
Wellstone
Death A Huge Loss to Homeless People
Homelessness is no longer front page news.
Housing is too complicated a problem to tackle especially in this era of
small government and big defense. Homeless
people and those who realize that the housing crisis is a national disgrace lost
one of the few champions on Capital Hill with the death of Senator Paul
Wellstone.
Often the lone voice in the Senate to champion proposals
that would benefit disenfranchised populations.
The words “principled” and “deep convictions” were thrown around
by the President and his Senate colleagues.
Some of Wellstone’s most strident opponents in the Senate seemed to be
using those words to mean “wrong” and “deeply flawed.”
He was one of the few Senators who used long forgotten
and unpopular words like homelessness and affordable housing.
He was one of the last elected officials to follow in the footsteps of
Robert Kennedy and the idealism of Camelot and the 1960s.
He even retraced the steps of Kennedy through Appalachia, Chicago and Los
Angeles public housing properties to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the
Kennedy poverty tour. While not
receiving near the attention of American royalty walking among the peasants of
1967, he did call attention to lack of progress in addressing poverty in America
in the last thirty years. He did
not just have a fond recollection of Kennedy, but lived the values and pushed
the idealism into his legislation.
He was an outcast even within his own party as homeless
people are often outcasts in their own neighborhoods.
He was the lone dissent on the war resolution against Iraq.
He was a leader of the Progressive Caucus, and often told audiences that
we need to focus on “good education, good health care, and good jobs in
America.” He was the only Senator
up for re-election coming off his “no” vote on welfare reform.
He was a critic of President Bill Clinton for talking about high minded
social justice issues, but providing little money to back his rhetoric.
He did not always follow the progressive vote having
voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and the terrorism bill that was passed in
the days after the September 11 attack on the United States. His importance to homeless people was not that he voted the
liberal party line, but that he was one of the few Senators that even spoke
about the issues of poverty. Homeless
people and housing activists could take comfort in the fact that he was there
acting in our interests. We all
could feel that at least someone in the Senate cared about our issues, and it
was not hopeless. We felt that
maybe the lack of affordable housing would be taken up by our government if at
least someone was talking about the issues.
The sad reality is that most homeless people and most low
income people do not vote. They do
not see anyone serving their interests, and so what is the point.
There is no one who talks about exploitation by banks, temporary labor
companies, and medical insurance companies because we all know who pays the tabs
on re-election—banks, temp. companies and insurance companies.
Paul Wellstone was the exception to what we have all grown to
accept—politicians are beholden to big business and corporate interests.
Wellstone gave us all hope that someday our issues would
be heard and we could realize the vision of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert
Kennedy, and George McGovern. He
proved that a radical grassroots organizer could be elected.
He was the counterbalance to the hate filled, war mongering, and scape
goating that so often drives elections these days. He stood in stark contrast to the Clinton mantra of moving
toward the center in order to attract voters
We all hope for another decent politician to come forward
in the most exclusive club in the United States who will talk about homelessness
and affordable housing. We hope
that the people of Minnesota send forth another son or daughter to be a leading
voice on progressive issues in the United States Senate. And we hope that the improvement of education,
universal health care, universal living wage, and a right to safe decent housing
becomes a reality and we remember Senator Paul Wellstone as a founding father of
this progressive agenda.
Published by the Homeless Grapevine Cleveland Ohio November 2002