Monthly Archives: May 2013

Homelessness, Non-Profit

Project Homeless Connect’s Impact

 

“You wouldn’t call somebody ‘lung cancer,’ so why label people as ‘homeless’? It’s an impermanent condition, and should be regarded as such.”

― Tarry Truitt

By Tiffany Teng

 

Project Homeless Connect is a one-stop event for those experienc­ing homelessness, providing access to housing and legal services, medical care, clothing, haircuts, and food. Ap­proximately 300 people attended the event, and were surveyed.

Downstairs in the Samaritan Bap­tist Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, patrons received services and free items. Trial sizes of Mary Kay lip balm, Palmolive hand soap, and other toiletries populated the tables while massages tables, blankets and heavy winter coats lined the pe­rimeter of the basement. Blue table­cloths indicated housing services, red for health and green for social servic­es. Crisis Ministries, Catholic Chari­ties, Henry J. Austin Health Center, St. Francis Medical Center, Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, The Rescue Mis­sion and Social Security were among the services represented.

As a volunteer surveyor, I had the rare opportunity to interview the patrons and ask questions such as, “Where will you be spending tomor­row night?” and “What happened to land you in this situation?”

A few specific cases stood out. At over 80 years old, one Vietnamese woman was pushing a metal cart dou­bling as a walker with a couple boxes of cardboard—in her frustration, she ripped off a piece to scribble down her name “Nguyho” as I tried helplessly to speak to her in English and Chinese, neither of which she understood. A 26-year old woman with three chil­dren was bitter about Hurricane Sandy because she was still displaced after Hurricane Irene. General assistance welfare, food stamps and Medicaid were not enough to sustain her fam­ily—she needed permanent housing and employment. Another man said he had been homeless for all of his 60 years.

Others I surveyed ranged from ages 30 to 60. Some suffered drug abuse problems, high blood pressure, mental issues, and poor physical health. Some were not actually homeless or jobless, just in need of more social services to support their families.

All of them had two things in com­mon: compelling stories and dwin­dling strength. This is what they are telling us, this is what is true. Without basic human needs, these people are desperate for aid and are lucky to have access to programs such as Project Homeless Connect.

Homelessness knows no boundar­ies. Some are fighting to survive while others are transplanted from friends to families to shelters. It hardens them and it erases identity. One learns to discard embarrassment for a chance to become better.

During my time as Editor-in-Chief of the Wall, I finally understood the gravity of the homelessness issue in Mercer County. And this is just one sliver of the silent voices that continue to struggle for survival.

Annual Point-in-Time Count

The Point-In-Time Count, mandated by Housing and Urban Development (HUD), sent teams out starting Wednesday, January 30 at 5 P.M. for exactly 24 hours.

During the overnight time the Rescue Mission of Trenton sent teams out looking for street home­less individuals.

Starting at 6:00 A.M., there were teams at Turning Point Unit­ed Methodist Church, Salvation Army Drop-In Center, and street teams across the county, in which 110 surveys were completed. In addition, each agency completed surveys for anyone in shelters or in transitional housing.

The annual results are posted on merceralliance.org and are pro­vided to HUD as part of reports and requests for funding.

During the year additional in­formation is collected by the shel­ters and agencies in the Homeless Information System which is reported to the Continuum of Care for planning purposes.

Homelessness, Uncategorized

Pride and Property

 

Songbird with a Passion Painting by Demond Williams
Songbird with a Passion
Painting by Demond Williams

By Hector Stewart

One of my favorite classes during my junior year of high school was Religion because the cornerstone con­cept of that class was social justice. As someone with an interest in social concerns, I’d found this class to be one of the few that operated as a win­dow for students to the greater world and not one that concealed them from it.

One day I walked into class and sunk into a daydream the second I took my seat. We had been discuss­ing homelessness the day before. I glanced at what my teacher had written on the board–the definition of homelessness. It set off an alarm of awareness within me; it read like a familiar but forgotten story.

The story was of a woman I had known all my life but, until that mo­ment in class, never knew was, by law, homeless.

Patricia was a hardworking, single mother. She worked as a property manager for a housing association she resided in. Her three-bedroom apartment was the gathering place for family and friends.

As the oldest of six, Patricia gladly wore the hat of Big Sister even into adulthood, and because of this, her front door was always open.

It would often seem that thirty people were living in her apartment–not three. These appeared to be some of the happiest moments of her life. But injury would change everything. In a whirlwind, Patricia found herself looking for an open door and welcom­ing home like the one she had just lost.

A slip and fall on the job forced her into temporary disability, and after filing a lawsuit and being fired, the 15-year employee was out of work and without a place for her ten year old son, 5 year old granddaughter, and herself to lay their heads.

Patricia was a woman of dig­nity, which meant she would prefer her own place – no matter what the conditions were. So after weeks of bouncing around the living rooms and guestrooms of others, this career-ori­ented woman checked her family into a temporary residence hotel designed as a temporary haven for the city’s penniless, aimless, and hopeless.

Ironically, as she rebuilt her career in housing management while liv­ing in such a decrepit and dangerous place, she landed a job as an assistant manager of a comfortable and clean high-rise apartment complex. It had a community center, laundry, and backyard, and it was just three blocks away from that very same decrepit and dangerous residence. With rent due weekly, hotel policy had it that one could not stay at the hotel for longer than a three-month period. While Patricia’s assistant manager position came with a respectable salary, her tuition and the living expenses for her children kept her there passed what of­ficial policy would allow.

Every morning she would walk into her office and be greeted with the shouts of residents who were months behind in their rents and too upset to have to talk with an assistant manager they believed – because of her profes­sionalism and presentation – was of a higher socio-economic class. Little did they know that the same woman whom they believed pitied them, ate and fed her children chicken-noodle soup from a hotplate nightly. They would never know that when Patricia left her office she would go “home” to an 8-story nightmare, riddled with roaches and rival gang members. She would work to create the best living experience for hundreds of residents, while, by state law, she herself had no legal residence. This psychological dynamic could only be weathered by one of great strength.

Patricia was promoted to manager, but her family continued to spend their nights inside a sweaty, gray two-room box of an apartment where, from the bar-covered window, Patricia could see the building she ran but could not live in, the building that the Mayor’s office would annually recognize for its excellent upkeep and management. She was the award-winning manager with no legal residence of her own – secretly shattering preconceived notions of what homelessness looked like.

For two years Patricia would spend her nights, sleepless at that window, reminiscing on the roller coaster she’d been riding – not to mention the night­ly fighting heard down the halls, that would keep any parent at attention throughout the night. Three bodies in a full sized bed was an uncomfortable experience. With uncanny wisdom and foresight, she would always say that her passion for creating the ideal living experience for her hundreds of tenants was fueled by her understand­ing of what it means to have the most aberrant living experience – an experi­ence she returned to daily after a day’s work surrounded by everything she did not have.

After years of saving, Patricia and her family finally moved to a secure and modest normative apartment. Over months she furnished it with everything she had to live without. For the first time in roughly three years, Patricia had a kitchen, a stove, a key, and a dresser. She could open her front door as well as her arms to any and all that needed a haven or a hug. But most importantly, she had a good night’s sleep.

By the end of my flashback, class was ending. The bell rang and I hur­ried over to my teacher and told her Patricia’s story and how, until that class, I never realized that Patricia and her family were homeless. As we fin­ished talking I began to head toward the door.

“Wait! You never actually told me who this woman is? Did you know her family? Her son?”

I looked over my shoulder as I walked out, smiled, and replied, “I am her son. That was my family.”

Homelessness, Policy

Paris: Are We There Yet

“Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.”

― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

By Tiffany Teng

 

In the spring of 2012, I studied abroad for 4 months in the elegant, romantic city of Paris.

Paris has long been touted as a conflation of the elite and the beg­gars, ever since the French Revolu­tion sparked a rebellious, Bohemian culture in Paris.

Every morning, as I walked to and from my host mom’s apartment, I passed dozens of rough sleepers. “Rough sleepers” are homeless people who sleep in the streets or metro sta­tions because they have nowhere else to go.

Outside of Mercer County, home­lessness prevails internationally.

Researchers and policymakers created International Alliance to End Homelessness in March 2011 (http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/iaeh). In just two years, they have measured the best practices in policies revolving targeting, creating homeless systems, migration, accessing main­stream assistance and outcomes.

In recent years, the French gov­ernment has begun to resolve this devastating issue. It has been one of the government’s main priorities since 2007, met with much political debate and bureaucratic red tape. However, in a city where homelessness has become a stitch in the culture, the legal actions to remove rough sleepers and create more accessible homeless shelters have not led to dramatic results.

Meanwhile, the disparity between the rich and the poor is devastating—homeless men beg for scraps right be­side the most luxurious shops selling imported Spanish ham and diamond-encrusted handbags. Entire families panhandle and gypsies are ready to pickpocket the nearest tourist.

On any given night, there are between 2,000 and 15,000 homeless in Paris, according to The Economist. In October 2012, this number was ap­proximately 12,000, with the youngest population of rough sleepers the city had ever seen.

There was a young man with a large dog that I passed every day on my way to the Bastille metro station. He lived in a nook in the wall that used to be a fountain and was now a protective cave shielding him and his dog from the harsh winter winds. Each day, I would smile, give a little wave, and he would respond with “Salut!” If he were not there, I would wonder where he was and felt as though some­thing was missing. I worried for him, and wished there was something more I could do. After all, since the first day I met him and asked to take his photo­graph, we had become friends—in the way that only two complete strangers can become friends from sharing one serendipitous moment.

One year later, I wonder where he is and how he is coping. I hope he found a permanent home so he can move on with his life and do all the wonderful things young people have the potential to do.

Living on the streets on a few dol­lars a day without food or shelter, let alone good hygiene and health, takes a toll on physiological and safety needs, and develops psychological problems within an individual.

Unfortunately, the unemployment rate reached a 13-year high in 2012 at 10.2% and rising, according to Reuters. The French public blames bureaucracy and centralization, but the reality is that homelessness can be eliminated through a series of measured steps and thorough policy-making.

Until then, rough sleepers will con­tinue to call Parisian streets “home.”

Even the wealthiest cities in the world suffer from homelessness—un­derneath the glamour and romance, Paris reveals a bitter truth and offers its streets as a default home for thou­sands every night.

Homelessness

Learning from Katrina

By Raj Manimaran

 

On Sunday, January 13, 2013, three vans stopped outside the First Street United Methodist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. As the bleary-eyed passengers strode up to the church, residents may have been able to guess that the visitors were college students.

The 24 students were Bonner Scholars from The College of New Jersey’s Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement in Ewing, NJ. They had come to volunteer for one week to help rebuild houses from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“I feel it is important for the Bon­ner students to continue rebuilding in New Orleans because we have been a committed group of volunteers since the storm, and while many others may have forgotten, there are still many people without homes due to the storm in 2005,” remarked Brittany Aydelotte, Senior Program Coordinator at the Bonner Center. Having volunteered in the city many times herself as a former Bonner Scholar, Aydelotte understood firsthand the extent to which the storm changed the city.

Katrina was one of the most de­structive natural disasters in American history. It struck southeastern Louisi­ana reportedly as a Category 3 hurri­cane on August 29, 2005.

Due to high-speed winds, intense tidal surges, massive flooding, and the controversial breach of the levees, much of New Orleans was destroyed, especially the parishes that reside below sea-level. One of the poorest areas, the Lower Ninth Ward, not only received the worst devastation at the time, but even today, only less than 20% of the population has returned.

Although Mayor Ray Nagin had is­sued the city’s first mandatory evacua­tion in history, over 1,400 people were reported dead. Those who were able to return to their homes, months after­wards, were stunned and shocked by how little remained, if anything.

This catastrophe, followed by loot­ing, contractor fraud, lack of insurance and other assistance, left few to even contemplate rebuilding their homes.

“My hope is that our commitment will remind others that there is still work to do and show our students the importance in remembering those in need even after the media coverage has died down,” said Aydelotte.

Even after seven and a half years, clear signs of the hurricane’s wrath were still evident throughout the city.

The Scholars volunteering with the St. Bernard’s Project, one of the most successful rebuilding organizations in the Greater New Orleans Area, worked in two separate houses dur­ing the course of the week. Patching, painting, and putting up drywall pro­vided a unique experience for many of the scholars, but not as unique as the residents themselves.

Kayla Simpkins, 21, a junior at The College of New Jersey, has made it a point to return to “The Big Easy” multiple times throughout her 3 years as a Bonner Scholar.

“New Orleans is so unique because it captures you. The homeowners I have met are so welcoming and thank­ful, and you cannot help but keep coming back,” reminisced Simpkins.

The service trip to New Orleans came just months after the devastating Super Storm Sandy had struck. Sandy stripped much of New Jersey’s shore homes and left many to seek shelter, food, and other resources.

Individuals and organizations throughout the country immediately provided an unprecedented amount of donated goods and services for.

The College of New Jersey imme­diately initiated its “Here for Home” campaign, coordinated by the Bonner Center and several other organizations on campus, and provided volunteers and donations for those in need.

With all of the work that still needs to be done in New Jersey, one may wonder why students were traveling to New Orleans at a time like this.

“We are on the boards of organiza­tions, working directly with patrons in Trenton and we are playing a vital role in the Sandy rebuilding efforts, supplying donations and eager col­lege students every week,” explained Simpkins. “All of the work we do and will continue to do in Trenton and New Jersey as Bonner Scholars is only strengthened by continuing our efforts in New Orleans.”

After seeing the ruins in New Or­leans, the Bonner Scholars received a premonition of what New Jersey could remain like if they do not continue towards New Jersey’s recovery. The number of people who initially lost their homes due to Katrina was shock­ing, but the numbers who still are un­able to return are just as staggering.

The Bonner Scholars have come to understand that if New Jersey wants to avoid the homelessness epidemic of Katrina, they must be proactive towards Sandy relief. With this knowl­edge and commitment towards the cause, shore town communities can rest assured that the Bonner Center and its scholars will continue to fuel the road to recovery in the time to come.

Homelessness, Policy

Lasting Impact of “Million Dollar Murray”

By Steven Rodriguez

 

For millions of homeless Ameri­cans, the concept of having a place to call home is central to escaping the vicious cycle of poverty. While the over 2.3 million homeless in this country are often thought of as one large group, there are important sub-groups, which include veterans, youths, families, as well as the chroni­cally homeless. The National Alliance to End Homelessness defines the later group as those suffering from “…long-term, or repeated homelessness, often coupled with a disability.”

One of the chief challenges to federal programs has been determin­ing the best strategies to combat the widespread issue of chronic homeless­ness. In recent years, the approach has focused on long-term housing pro­grams for the chronically homeless, in addition to the overnight shelters that make up the safety net. This shift was very much influenced by Mal­colm Gladwell’s widely-read article “Million Dollar Murray” in The New Yorker, which states that the chroni­cally homeless (the minority) are actu­ally the most important group to focus on. These end up costing hospitals and shelters tens of thousands of dol­lars, while these expenses rarely have any enduring benefit to the homeless person. Plans had to shift away from maintaining people in this cycle to ending it through housing programs that provide long-term stability.

Federal: Some of the key federal programs include the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assis­tance Grants, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid. Despite the economic recession of 2008, addi­tional funding for homelessness was created under President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

Mercer County: As the Executive Director of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, Herb Levine has been working to find ways to end homeless­ness in the Trenton area. Levine says his organization is able to work with various groups and agencies within the state, county and community to identify and plan to distribute funds in an efficient and collaborative man­ner. This “complex web of funding sources” as he described it, is primar­ily a mix of federal, state and county grants. A smaller percentage is gath­ered from the United Way and local businesses.

While this money is distributed amongst a number of programs, in­cluding various homeless shelters, the chief focus is providing housing vouchers and service for the chroni­cally homeless.

In this area, the Alliance has been quite successful, with Greater Trenton Behavioral Health Care moving 85 people into apartments, with plans to provide 60 more housing vouchers to community agencies in the near future. Levine noted that homeless­ness has remained relatively steady in Mercer County, a positive contrast to the gradually rising national figures.

While goals to end chronic home­lessness in the United States in the next decade or so may seem a bit lofty, there are signs of real progress; com­munities across the U.S. are engaging their citizens to do their part and help to combat the issue, government fund­ing has remained steady, and more people are starting to understand the scope of this problem.

Ultimately, the battle against home­lessness returns to the idea of having a home. A home provides a sense of identity and stability that is central to a sustainable lifestyle. It is this end goal that all federal, state, and local policy strives to achieve.