All posts by shaabae1@tcnj.edu

Community

Connecticut Avenue: First Month In A Bigger Place

By Essence B. Scott

Being in a small space is something that no one should ever go through. Small spaces are not conducive to work, play, or relaxation. Living in a motel as a teenager, I was always on edge. There wasn’t any space for me to be by myself, unless I went outside. And that’s exactly what I did — I went outside. Being outside by myself with my CD player and books meant I could just unwind for a few minutes. Being in that small space was tortuous. When my family moved from the Red Roof Inn on Route 1 South to our apartment on Connecticut Avenue in Hamilton, N.J., everything was perfect. There was so much more room to move around, I couldn’t believe it. After spending years in small rooms that could barely hold everything we owned (stored in large coolers and bags), moving to Connecticut Avenue was an oasis filled with cool, refreshing water that I could drink from and swim in. The first night there was beautiful. There was so much more space. All of us didn’t have to sleep in the same room like we had done for years. The first night, we all slept in the same room because we didn’t have any beds, just a couch. I remember the smell of my mom attacking the place with Lysol cleaning supplies. My brother had gone to the HomeFront teen program that first night, and so it was just my mom, my sister and I hanging out and talking. We made a pallet on the floor. We didn’t have a television that first night, but the fact that we would be a little more comfortable from now on made things much more tolerable. Later on, we got beds. My sister and I marveled at all the room we had and how great we felt. Finally, a whole bed to sleep in! At the Red Roof, there was one bed that I shared with my mom and sister. My brother slept in a sleeping bag on the floor. We had more options for food. When you’re homeless, you can only eat and drink so much because you might not have a refrigerator to keep food cool or a microwave to warm things up. At the Red Roof, we had both, but not all the rooms were like that. We didn’t have home-cooked meals like pork chops or meat loaf. We ordered pizza or went to McDonald’s if things were going well, but that was very rare. We couldn’t keep ice cream cold in the mini-fridge, so that was never an option. The first month living on Connecticut Avenue was surreal. I was enrolled in the local high school and reconnected with some old friends. I made a few new ones, as well. I had a neighborhood where I could wander about, and I began walking everywhere. I got to sit outside when the weather was nice and I had friends who lived near me who visited often. Generally, I was much happier. I finally had space to myself to do the things I wanted to do. I kept in touch with HomeFront (I met them when I was at the Pine Motel in Bordentown in 2004) and still went to different activities that were offered over the course of the week. Being in a bigger space made me feel safer. It made me feel safer because I had a little more privacy. And even when my sister was in the room we shared, listening to her music out loud, I didn’t mind. Sometimes we talked about different things, but mostly we were in our own heads in the same space. I had my headphones and notebook, and she had her music and books; or we watched television. Things were OK. We got our first computers on Connecticut Avenue. I remember being really happy to get my computer, a MacBook, and learning how to get it up and running. My mom got a PC for the family, and I helped her, but with my limited computer knowledge, I received a lot of guidance from technical support. It was fun working the computers. The first month in a new place was equal parts exciting and terrifying. Sometimes I wondered if we would end up in a place like the Red Roof again. Other times I thought about other things. I don’t live on Connecticut Avenue anymore, but I won’t ever be able to forget the time I spent there, particularly the first month. An apartment has more space to move around and store things. There are opportunities for privacy in the apartment — these opportunities are not available in a small, crowded motel room. Depending on how much stuff you have when you’re in the motel room, the space there will automatically go to holding your items. There is no room for a child to play, for a teenager to carve a space of her own from. It is a sad place to live for an extended period of time.

 

Policy

Congress Allocates Increased Funds For New Jersey Housing

By Sarah Kayaten

Congress has passed the final fiscal year 2016 (FY 2016) budget allocated to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). According to their official website, HUD is “focused on helping to secure quality housing for Americans, ending homelessness, making our communities more resilient from natural disasters, protecting people from housing discrimination and providing rental housing assistance for millions of extremely poor Americans.” For 2016, HUD’s budget, approved by Congress, is about $47.2 billion — about 2.3 billion less than President Obama’s proposal, but two million more than the previous year’s budget. In a hearing on the “FY 2016 Budget Request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” the secretary of HUD, Julian Castro, notes in written testimony that “[increases in HUD funding] are provided to protect vulnerable families, reverse the effects of sequestration (cuts in HUD funding), [and] make significant progress toward the goal of ending homelessness.” Secretary Castro also stressed HUD’s initiative to support community-centered investments, including “funding to revitalize neighborhoods with distressed HUD-assisted housing and concentrated poverty.” Such goals and principles are illustrated in the budget’s summary, found on HUD’s website.  The budget ensures there are sufficient monetary resources to support community improvements, including a $170 million expansion of Choice Neighborhoods. The Choice Neighborhoods program supports locally driven strategies to address struggling neighborhoods. In response to the needs of the surrounding neighborhoods, Choice Neighborhoods allocates money to help replace distressed public housing with “mixed income housing,” which is often represented as building apartment complexes that would provide a stable “mixed” income to the area. HUD also aims to expand housing mobility through its increased funding for voucher programs. About two billion dollars are set aside for the Housing Choice Voucher Program to help approximately 2.4 million low-income families afford decent housing in neighborhoods of their choice. In addition to supporting all existing vouchers, the budget provides funding to restore approximately 67,000, many of which were lost in 2013 due to sequestration — $3 billion cuts from HUD’s FY2013 budget. Secretary Castro also emphasized that HUD’s mission is not to provide temporary relief and housing, but to provide opportunity and a platform of positive economic growth going forward. The $100 million request for Jobs-Plus seeks to increase employment opportunities and earnings of public housing residents. According to HUD, this “welfare-to-work demonstration” is marketed toward “able-bodied,

working-age resident at a public housing development in each of the following five cities: Baltimore, Chattanooga, Dayton, Los Angeles and St. Paul.” The program aims to combine employment services, rent-based work incentives and community support for work. The budget also provides for many other services, including a Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project with the goal of ending and preventing homelessness for youth and young adults, as well as other grants targeting community and agricultural development in rural areas to improve economic growth. To insure that HUD has the resources to study the effectiveness of such programs, $35 million is allotted to HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), which HUD states is “responsible for maintaining current information on housing needs, market conditions and existing programs, as well as conducting

research on priority housing and community development issues.” With the exception of Jobs Plus, these programs are available to the 50 states. New Jersey, however, is one of 13 states that received additional aid from HUD. A part of HUD’s 2016 Budget, $1 billion was allotted for storm resiliency projects in the wake of the 2013 Super Storm Hurricane Sandy. According to POLITICO New Jersey, funds were allotted to 13 states based on a rigorous, multiphase application process. New York State received the most at $35.8 million, not including the $176 million that was already allotted to NYC. New Jersey came in last, with a mere $15 million in federal funding. Secretary Castro cites the lack of diligence by Governor Christie’s administration in completing the proper documentation as the reason for New Jersey’s meager funds. But things are still looking up for New Jersey. As the deadline to request hurricane relief aid for 2017 approaches in September, New Jersey has another chance of securing the relief aid it needs As of now, New Jersey’s statistics suggest a positive trend. According to a report released by Monarch Housing Associates, the total homeless population in New Jersey has been decreasing over the last five years at an average rate of 7.6 percent. Hopefully, with HUDs’ budget greater than ever, 2016 has the potential to see even greater drops in homelessness.

Housing and Urban Development For general questions about HUD, please contact the State office located in Newwark.

Phone: (973) 776-7200

 

Policy

CEASe: Housing Made Easy

 

By Khadijah Yasin

Communities across the nation have been affected by homelessness for years, with people living in shelters and others in the streets. The Trenton area is no exception to this reality, where a large percentage of its people living without a place to call home, many for long periods at a time. Fortunately, Trenton and Mercer County have developed programs and initiatives to provide support for those living through the struggles and hardships of homelessness. One of these initiatives is the Coordinated Entry and Assessment System for Homeless Individuals, CEASe, which focuses its efforts on helping those in the Trenton community, in particular. The CEASe system is currently being run through the CEAS Center. This center assesses the status of individuals experiencing homelessness and acts as the point of entry into housing and permanent residency. “We’ve targeted the most vulnerable people in the [homeless] community,” says Janet Porter, the supervisor of the CEAS Center.  Those who fit the criteria that CEASe has in place are granted housing. Individuals under assessment must be chronically homeless — meaning they have been homeless for an extended period of time and/ or disabled. These mandates are set so that those who need the support urgently receive it quickly. Currently the CEAS Center receives patrons from agencies throughout Mercer County such as the Rescue Mission of Trenton, where hundreds of individuals experiencing homelessness are sheltered and cared for. The CEAS Center also partners with the Mercer County Department of Human Services, the Mercer County Board of Social Services, The City of Trenton Department of Health and Human

Services, and Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness. The main priority of CEASe is to filter through potential clients, and to provide housing to those with the most need. An important aspect of the process ensures that the housing is varied for every patron and that it meets his or her individual needs. This housing is founded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Many of the patrons coming from these shelters are accustomed to the community-based settings that they promote. And for this reason, the CEAS Center and its partner organizations work to make the transition into housing an easy and comforting process for the client. To ensure a smooth transition, clients are provided with support housing. “Many of these people have to have support and it is important that we meet the client’s needs,” said Porter. Additionally, Porter explained that the homeless community has a large majority of disabled individuals — some mentally disabled and others physically disabled — who need help feeling safe and healthy. The CEAS Center works to provide support housing and services that cater to the individual needs of its clients. As of now, the CEASe initiative is still developing and taking steps to expand its efforts across the Mercer County area. According to Porter, the CEAS Center only accepts patrons who are referred to it from shelters like Rescue Mission; it also hopes to expand and help those living on the streets, as well. The organization is making strides and to ensure it continues to progress, it is being evaluated by the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).

 

Sufficiency

“Strike Out Hunger” Combats Summertime Food Insecurity

By Aphrael Boltas

Summertime means a lot of things: warm weather, longer days, trips to the beach, vacations and lying poolside. And for many students, it means a break from school. However, for a growing number of people, the absence from school leads to something else: food insecurity.

The number of children eligible for free and reduced meals has been steadily rising. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2012, more than half of the nation’s children attending public schools were eligible for the free and reduced lunch program.

This means that during the eight weeks of summer when children are no longer going to school and receiving free breakfast and lunch, parents must determine how to fill the gap.

Untangled by Charles Smith
Untangled by Charles Smith

While there are several year- round options for families and individuals to receive food assistance, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC), and food banks across the country, it is important to understand how the gap is bridged during the summer.

As someone who personally received free or reduced lunch for my four years at a Trenton public high school, with three siblings ranging from ages five to 12 who were also in the Trenton school system, I was entirely unaware that summer food assistance programs existed. Had I known, this could have made a major difference when it came time for my parents to decide to devote more money to the food budget and where to take it from.

The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), a major summer assistance program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides free meals and snacks during the summer months to children across the United States. The program includes three different sites: an open site, which operates in low income areas (areas where half of children come from families at or below 85 percent of the poverty level) and is able to provide free meals to all children. The second site, an enrolled site, provides free meals to any child enrolled in an activity at the program (at least half of children must be eligible for free or reduced lunch for the program to be eligible). Campsites, the third type of site, receive reimbursement for meals provided to children who are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Anyone can search for a food service site in their area by using the Summer Food Rocks website, operated by the Food and Nurtition sevice (FNS). The website lists local sites and specifies their type and their times of operation.

Sunflowers In The Wind by Joann Abdelwahbe
Sunflowers In The Wind by Joann Abdelwahbe

In June, 2015 United Way of Greater Mercer County held an event called “Strike Out Hunger” where participants packaged oatmeal to distribute to food banks across New Jersey. Denise Daniels, who coordinated the event, said that “Strike Out Hunger” was a “way to bring awareness to the issue as well as supply food banks with much needed breakfast at the end of June when kids no longer have free lunch or breakfast.”

Daniels also spoke about the fact that during the summer months, in particular,  families rely on food banks. And in comparison to Thanksgiving and Christmas time, there are far fewer donations. Participants at the event made 9,000 packages of oatmeal (75,000 servings), with three different food banks receiving 3,000 packages each. When United Way followed up with these food banks, they were told that all 9,000 packages were gone within two to three weeks.

 

United Way of Greater Mercer County

“Strike Out Hunger” June 2016

Phone: (609) 896-1912

www.uwgmc.org

Poetry

“Someone Unknown”

By Ethel Mack

 

Once I lived a life as someone I didn’t know.

When in others company, it started to show

I had become another person, another in my body,

who I couldn’t ignore, I became ugly, said

things I didn’t mean, people around me,

became very bored of me.

 

So I went off to be by myself and relieve some

of this pain that was in my chest,

trying to figure out how I got in this mess.

This pain has clouded my heart

and needs something, someone to help pull the stress apart.

I need a fresh start.

 

I’m kicking, punching, screaming for someone

to hear my shout. I’m lost within myself, and I

want to be freed.

I need your help, please help me.

I realized that this person I’ve become isn’t made

of stick and stones.

I no longer want to live in here all alone.

I no longer want to live in here all alone.