Random Thoughts

Dallas spent years in court and had to pay the legal fees of a local church over feeding of homeless people. Dallas had to pay $225,000 settlement to the Big Hart Ministries and are not allowed to restrict access to food. Are you listening Ft. Lauderdale and the other cities in Florida?

I came across a sad documentary about an advertising executive named Brian Davis from London England.  Not a good ending, but a poignant story about the in ability to find help with mental illness and substance abuse. 

HUD discusses the "Limitations" of their point in time counts then they proceed to make conclusions based on this limited data. 

"The good news is that, nationally, we are continuing to see decreases in key areas like homelessness among veterans and chronic homelessness."  This is incorrect.  It should say that we are continuing to see decreases on one random day of the year.  The problem with this data is that it is so flawed, no one should make any broader point except that on one day in January homelessness decreased. 

Remember the Homeless Memorial day and Candlelight Vigil is Sunday at 7 p.m. at Metanoia.  If you want to make sure that we read the names of individuals who may have passed away over the last year give us a call (216/432-0540) and talk to Joyce.   Please join us for this important event.

Who is going to pay for Permanent Supportive housing?  California and some other cities in the United States want to use Health care dollars to pay for housing.   As we have said many times, there were no long term plans for how to fund these programs.  The tenants are disabled and will not be able to contribute much to their housing, and are unlikely that they will move out.  They need 24 hours of case management and that is expensive.  So where will the money come from to support these units?  It is a good idea that health care dollars go to support these units, because without this housing these people would be living on the streets and using the emergency room.  The problem is that government does not always do what make sense especially in a timely manner. 

Thanks to Brian Henke for helping organize the 12th Woodchopper's Ball this weekend at the Kent Stage.  We made over $3,000 for the organization.  Brian is a fantastic guitarist and he has a number of CDs available for sale. 

Atlanta caught an alleged serial killer of homeless people.  The man killed four homeless individuals, two while they were sleeping.  The suspect was arrested for jumping a transit fare, and then identified as a suspect in two murders of homeless people.   After interviews, he was charged with the murder of two other individuals in Atlanta. 

Brian Davis

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