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Problems in the Near Future that the City will face with regard to Homeless People
1. Aviation High School.
Background: Cleveland is one of the only cities left in the United States that accepts anyone who comes to the door at both the Women’s Shelter and the 2100 Lakeside shelter. This is very expensive, but humane. The only way to accomplish this was to open the overflow site at Aviation High School with beds for the 150 extra people who showed up every night. Federal Aviation Officials want the site closed, and so the City is obligated to find an alternative by the end of the winter. This will create great strain on the men’s shelter if 150 who just want to be left alone are moved into the main building. There will be many who choose to use the street instead of the shelter when Aviation closes. There is a plan to use the motel on Superior Ave. (North Pointe Inn). This is a good plan, but needs to involve the entire men’s shelter system to make it work.
2. Public Square Problems
Background: The number of people sleeping outside has increased every year since 2000 when 2100 Lakeside Shelter opened. This will continue to increase if Aviation High School overflow shelter is closed. Cleveland has a very extensive network of outreach teams, but they are not always working together. There is also an agreement with NEOCH that prevents police from harassing homeless people who sitting, sleeping, eating or standing on the sidewalk (Key vs. City of Cleveland.) This rise in the number of people sleeping outside is going to pose a problem for that new clean up crew in the Downtown area, and is going to put pressure on the City to do something. This also leads to a discussion about the large number of churches that serve food on Public Square and the mess that is created.
3. Financial Problems of Family Shelters
Background: HUD policy is directing resources at single people who have been homeless for one year or four episodes over the recent past. They call this population “chronic homeless,” which we find highly offensive (homelessness is not a disease). The result is that it is very difficult for agencies not serving non-long term homeless especially families. In Cleveland, we have three shelters that are in danger of closing without swift action.
a. East Side Catholic: has struggled for the past three years because of mismanagement and a change in funding priorities. They have been on the County watch list for three years now, but the problems have not been solved. There is concern that this large facility will close.
b. Family Transitional Shelter: They are also struggling because their founding board members are getting older and retiring and their strong executive directors moved on. They are finding it hard to stay open because of federal policy, competition, and requirement for a local match.
c. Zelma George Shelter: is operated by the Salvation Army. They are the only facility that accepts intact families (both Mom and Dad). They are having financial concerns and are thinking of reducing the number of beds available. At this time is nearly impossible to get a human on the phone when calling the shelter, and they have an important resource in the community.
4. Families Must Break Up When they Become Homeless
Background: The entry shelter at Payne Ave. (Community Women’s Shelter) does not allow men. In the first six months of 2006, not one adult male entered any publicly funded shelter. We can only conclude that local policies break up families. At a time when the family is facing its greatest stress, the shelters force the family to break up. The only publicly funded shelter that has units for married men and women is Zelma George, but they require the family prove they are legally married with a marriage certificate—certainly the last thing on the mind of the homeless family. Most families are broken up for a time before a bed opens up at Zelma George, so their important documents are usually in the wind. Interfaith Hospitality can serve four families with a male as the parent or with two parents. The problem is that most of the family shelters serve domestic violence victims, which makes it difficult to serve homeless men.
5. Lack of Domestic Violence Beds
Background: The staff of the Domestic Violence Center have put the best face on the problem of reduced number of beds in Cuyahoga County. In 1999, there were four Domestic Violence shelters in Cuyahoga County. The two agencies merged and today there is only one facility and 34 beds. This compares to 90 beds in Summit County and 27 in Lake County. In fact, every other county in Northeast Ohio has more per capita DV beds than Cuyahoga County, and every other big city in Ohio has more beds than Cleveland. The DVC staff do a great job, and do whatever they can to help those women fleeing a violent house who are staying in the other shelters. NEOCH believe that there is value to a Center where all the staff are trained to deal with domestic violence and there is a higher level of care than they would receive in the other shelters.
6. Debt Issues of Homeless People Especially Men
Background: Once a lower income person gets in trouble they try everything to avoid the shelters including massive credit/loans to remain in housing. This makes it very difficult to get back into housing and now even makes it difficult to get a job. The other issue is that men do not always keep up on their child support when they become homeless. Part of the problem is that it takes months or years to get the child support lowered to reflect the new reality of being unemployed and homeless. The result is that men have this huge debt that they must pay and may never get out of this debt. This money comes directly out of their paycheck and makes it very difficult for the individual to find stability.
7. Lack of Rental Assistance to Prevent Homelessness
Background: In the past, the County has had a large surplus of welfare dollars and they used that to help prevent evictions by offering rental assistance. This could help with first months rent or security deposit or could prevent an eviction. These funds were taken back by the State of Ohio, and since then there is only money for those with children and there are severe restrictions on those funds. This adds many more homeless people that just needed a small hand up to prevent entering the shelters where they soon develop a bunch of other problems.
8. Constant Complaints of People Living in Shelters
Background: Any meeting of homeless people will result in many complaints of the current shelter system. There is no government agency that handles these complaints, and so it is hard to make a change. We also have the reality that our only answer to a housing crisis in Cleveland is shelter. We push many people into inappropriate congregate living arrangement that they do not want to be, and then have no where for them to complain. This makes it hard to build trust and allow people to move on if they become so disillusioned with “the system.”
9. Number of People who Use Cleveland Shelters from Other Counties
Background: While it is certainly not the majority there are a significant number of people who enter the shelters from suburban communities and even from surrounding counties. There are 6,000 evictions from outside of the City of Cleveland every year and certainly some of those make their way to the shelters, which are all in Cleveland. The suburban communities will say that County funding that supports the shelters are their contribution to the continued operation of the shelters. But why are there no shelters (even domestic violence shelters) located in other communities? Why does Cleveland spend such a large amount in comparison to Cuyahoga County on homelessness? The surrounding Counties do not have any men’s shelters, and so their policy is to bus people to Cleveland. They pay no money toward the operation of our shelters. We should charge them for sending people to the Cleveland shelters. Now that we have a better system of keeping track of the number of people entering the shelters, we can figure out how many people had their last address in Medina, Geauga or Lake Counties.
10. Rise in Problems with Legal Problems Faced by Homeless People including Re-entry issues.
Background: County and City officials have worked on a very good Reentry plan and those plans need to be advertised and implemented. There is a special problem facing our shelters caused by the State of Ohio. The stepped up “Jessica Laws” which put special restrictions on where a sexually based offender can live is putting a huge unfunded strain on the Cleveland shelters. Keep in mind that most sexual child abuse is conducted by someone that the child knows and not a stranger. So, no matter where the abuser lives they prey on kids where they have the opportunity like their own children or family or friends. So, Ohio and most states have these rules about where a sexually based offender can live. The problem is that this often displaces those individuals to live on the streets or in some cities in the shelters. Right now, over 100 people claim 2100 Lakeside as their residence. Where do we put all these people who have no where to live? They have been punished and now continue to be punished because they cannot find a place to live.
11. Panhandling
Background: Nearly every city in the United States has passed a similar “aggressive solicitation ordinance” as Cleveland did in 2004 and 2006. The problem is that these laws rarely solve the problem. The public gets frustrated and wants the laws to be more severe. Then when those don’t work they want registration of panhandlers, etc. No city has found a law enforcement solution to panhandling. There are other ideas that have only been tried in pieces and not as a coordinated strategy.
12. No Long Term Plan for Funding Essential Services
Background: The County has led planning and coordination for over a decade. Largely, because the City abdicated that role instead focusing on arrests and attempts to hide homeless people. This in the face of every public shelter located within the city limits. The County for many reasons has focused on immediate issues and emergencies (Black mold at the Women’s Shelter, NEOCH protests, or severe overcrowding). Long term planning for how to sustain the family shelters, First Call for Help, the affordable housing database—Housing Cleveland, or access to Voice Mail for every homeless person has not been a priority. These essential services that to date have not been in crisis are largely forgotten in the planning. There is no agency that is looking at how we fund programs that are used everyday by homeless people if the whims of government or foundations blow in a different direction. The homeless funding is very fragile and there is more competition for dollars than there is real collaboration.
13. No Local Emergency Plan for Homeless People
Background: On September 11, 2001 the Cleveland Downtown was evacuated except for homeless people. In New Orleans, low income people were left behind. NEOCH is very concerned that if the flu-pandemic broke out or their was a need to evacuate the downtown none of us are prepared to move 2,000 homeless people. There has been very little attention to this problem in the emergency response preparedness meetings that have taken place. Cleveland did a great job preparing for evacuees from the Gulf Region in 2005, but we need to capture some of those lessons and put in place a plan for an emergency in Cleveland in order to protect homeless people.
14. Public Systems Dumping Homeless People
Background: The single biggest problem that every homeless service provider recognizes that no one has done anything about is the overwhelming number of public agencies that send their clients into the shelters. From the hospitals that discharge people right into the shelters to the County/City workers who believe that a person in the shelter gets special treatment and so it is a good idea to tell a Mom to leave her substandard housing and go to a shelter to get on a “list.” This is incorrect, and often extends a persons tenure as a homeless person because they lost all stability and are at the bottom of the “list.” The Alcohol and Drug system uses the shelters as the night time residence for their clients. The mental health board uses the shelters as their overflow shelter when their system is full. And the prison system uses shelters as permanent housing for many of their most difficult to place clients. While these public systems depend on the shelters, they contribute little to their operation, locating of shelters, oversight, or funding. The Catch 22 in this whole situation is that these same public agencies that use the shelter take so long to determine eligibility that it prolongs an individual’s stay in the shelters.
15. Food to Homeless People Needs to be Evaluated
Background: 2100 Lakeside is the biggest hot meal provider in the State of Ohio with between 900-1,000 meals per day served. Yet they receive only a small amount of money for food. All homeless people know that they can get a better meal on Public Square then they can at the shelters. Usually there are two or three churches that serve a meal every night on Public Square, and yet 2100 Lakeside routinely runs out of food. There is also no oversight of the food served at the shelters for dietary or health concerns. This makes it very difficult for homeless people with chronic health conditions to get the food they need to stay out of the hospital.
16. Rise in the Number of Young People Attacking Homeless People
Background: In the United States and Cleveland it seems that the last population that can be terrorized without being labeled a hate crime is homeless people. There are rising number of attacks of vulnerable homeless people who sleep outside by young people (14-20 years old) who claim to be bored and beat up or kill homeless people for sport. We have seen in Cleveland young people video their exploits and then try to sell those videos on the internet. We have seen encampments attacked, bricks thrown, and homeless people are afraid to report these crimes to the police.
17. Health Care System Does not Serve Homeless People
Background: Many homeless people do not have regular access to health care, and see a doctor based on where they do not have a debt more than where is the most convenient or where they will receive the best care. We also see some of the largest and most prestigious health care institutions diverting people who do not have insurance like homeless people to avoid being stuck with a bill. Both of these problems result in homeless people starting with a blank slate every time they show up in the emergency room and have to be re-screened for every health issue every time they show up. Another big health issue is the large number of ambulance runs at night to 2100 Lakeside shelter (now more than once per day.) All of these issues are very expensive for the community and provide the worst possible care to homeless people.
18. Temporary Labor Companies Survive on the Backs of Homeless People
Background: After watching the Community Hiring Hall (non-profit temporary) agency try to survive for the past two years, it is now apparent that the Downtown temporary labor companies survive by stealing money from the paychecks of homeless and low income workers. They have driven down the contracts with employers to be just above cost (sometimes through illegal means), and then they make their profit by withdrawing “fees” from the workers to drive their wages below minimum wage. This is most likely illegal, but there is no where to go to complain. Advocates have tried to access the Department of Labor complaint process with no success.