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Prepared by the Coalition for
the Homeless--Cleveland The Northeast Ohio Coalition meets weekly
with homeless people. We have
developed a platform to end homelessness. The
four areas of importance include: Housing,
Civil Rights, Income Justice, and Health Care. These are areas of social justice
that the NEOCH will focus energy over the next five years. We need your help. All
of these efforts need the support of the community. The Coalition was successful over the last 10 years in
starting the Community Voice Mail program, Homeless Legal Assistance, the
Community Hiring Hall, and we were instrumental in the advocacy to create two
decent overflow shelters so that no one had to sleep on the streets.
I.
Housing:
Pay-to
Stay Facility:
The Coalition is committed to providing alternatives to shelters for homeless people. We would like to work with community groups to find buildings and space for both dormitory and private spaces for homeless people to be able to pay for a safe place to live. We are envisioning a non-profit pay by the night facility that would offer a place for people to keep their valuables safe.
Housing Advocacy:
Every month, government, advocates, landlords, and social service providers meet to discuss potential troubled housing in the community. This group needs assistance with coordination, distribution of notes from the meeting, research, and publicity. The goal is for no further reductions in affordable housing in our community.
Affordable
Housing Website:
Volunteers are needed to go to the shelters and development corporations to advertise this valuable resource. We need volunteers to communicate with various providers to let people know about this new valuable resource that has 1,500 affordable housing units on the site. Volunteers need their own transportation.
Welcome
Home/Project Cover
The Bridging the Gap program helps people move into housing. There is a need for faith-based organization to adopt families or individuals to assist them as they move through the system. This would involve a longer relationship with a household as they apply for housing, move into that housing and then keep in touch so that they do not get evicted. There is a new effort by the Cleveland Bridge Builders to re-create the Furniture Bank locally. This effort will need broad community support to remain affordable and operational.
Homelessness
in the Suburbs:
In 2004, there were over 7,000 evictions outside of the City of Cleveland, but very few cities even think about homelessness. The Coalition would be interested in helping community groups outside of the City of Cleveland push their local government to develop policies to better serve homeless people, prevent evictions, and pass living wage ordinances in the suburbs.
Civil Rights
Voter
Registration and Mobilization:
Volunteers are needed to go to the shelters and
service providers and sign people up to vote.
Then during the few weeks before an election mobilizing people to make
sure that they actually go to the polling places.
Civil Rights Protections:
With other volunteers in the State of Ohio, the Coalition monitors and reports on violations of the civil rights of homeless people. We need help investigating reported hate crimes or municipal activities directed at homeless people in the state of Ohio. We also need help with a potential local shelter standards legislation that would protect the privacy of homeless people. This project could be adopted by a local faith community and their social justice committee. They could meet with NEOCH staff once per month and have the members work on various projects.
The
Faces of Homelessness:
The Coalition has a very comprehensive website on homelessness. We are looking for an expanded effort to put anecdotal information with a picture of the many faces of homelessness on our website. This would just feature basic information about a person and their struggles to get out of homelessness.
Leadership
Development Among Homeless People
NEOCH works with a number of groups of homeless people, but we need to figure out a strategy so that these leaders take the next step in forming an organizational structure to speak on their own behalf. The Coalition needs help in organizing meetings, discussion groups and venues to move an agenda forward. There are shelters that need to develop some leadership structure as well, and volunteers could assist with this effort. We would also be interested in leadership training classes for homeless people.
Re-Entry
for Homeless People:
The Coalition realizes that many people are homeless because of recent involvement with the criminal justice system. This often presents a barrier that is impossible to overcome. This problem is especially acute for those convicted of a sexually based offense. The Coalition needs some assistance in assuring that the special needs of people re-entering from prison or incarceration are in front of politicians, the media, and the social service network.
Homeless Grapevine:
This is the street newspaper sold and partially written by homeless people. We would like to expand the paper so that the vendors have a uniform and are some competition to panhandlers. Trinity Cathedral helped to start the paper, and we could use help in keeping the paper growing. We are also looking for training opportunities to teach homeless people to be citizen journalists.
Economic Justice:
Economic Justice Protections:
The Coalition is committed to protecting the rights of very low income and homeless people with regard to exploitative employers especially temporary labor companies. In partnership with the Community Hiring Hall, we are trying to get legislation against exploitation passed locally. We are also working on other strategies to get the for-profit temp. companies to deal with lower income people in an honest and respectful manner. Contact Brian from NEOCH or Sarah from the Community Hiring Hall to help in this advocacy effort.
State of Ohio Voice Mail:
Cleveland Community Voice Mail is such a valuable tool for homeless people. It allows homeless people to connect with social services, landlords and employers. We want to form a committee of concerned citizens to move this wonderful program throughout the State of Ohio including the development of a funding mechanism to make this happen.
Homeless Speakers/Face to Face:
The Coalition supports a program called Street Voices that brings speakers who have experience with homelessness to religious groups or civic organizations. This program needs assistance in finding congregations who want a speaker and assistance with transportation of the homeless individuals to a speaking engagement. The Face to Face display is an art project that provides features warm and professionally done photographs of homeless people. This display could be hung at a church, synagogue or mosque for a month and then a forum on homelessness could be conducted. We need volunteers to help with this effort to expand this program. The Coalition can also assist with constructing a salon or discussion group to talk about poverty issues and specifically poverty with materials and potential reading lists.
Health Care:
Health Care Advocacy:
Volunteers are needed to assist with the Health Care for the Uninsured Advocacy Committee. This group is made up of front line providers and is developing their own agenda to organize and advocate for universal health care. This group needs help with coordination, distribution of notes, research, and public relations.
Solutions
Resources:
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Low Income Housing Coalition
Toronto United Way—Homelessness Action Task Force
Call NEOCH for More details at 216/432-0540