Iraq War Veterans

already joining burgeoning homeless population

http://www.veteranstoday.com/article324.html

Posted on February 14, 2005 by editor

Morgan Barker

Iraq war veterans already joining burgeoning homeless populationBy Ron Chepesiuk
Adjusting to civilian life after serving in the military has always been a daunting challenge for soldiers, but as the Iraq war continues with no end in sight, an increasing number of returning American soldiers are finding it tough merely to put a roof over their heads.

According to advocates for the homeless, about 100 Iraq War vets are currently homeless, and they expect that number to increase dramatically if US troops stay in Iraq for several years, as Bush administration officials have admitted they will have to.

"Americans think the VA [the U.S. Veterans Administration] is wonderful, but that's a lot of crap," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless Veterans (NCHV) in Washington, DC. "The VA doesn't have enough resources to take care of our veterans, and Congress doesn't want to pay for them." The NCHV has 350 member organizations in 46 states, providing shelter, food and other services to homeless vets.

Maria Fostarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in Washington, DC, agreed that the VA lacks the resources to do its job well, and added: "Budgets are not acts of God. They are political choices. The VA needs to be out there making the case for veterans."

As some Iraq war vets become homeless, they join the approximately 300,000 veterans the VA estimates are homeless in the US at any given moment and the half-million who experience homelessness in the course of a year. Nearly 47 percent of homeless vets served during the US assault on Viet Nam and surrounding countries.

No organization, including the VA itself, keeps thorough statistics on homeless vets, but the agency has determined a profile of the homeless vet population. Nearly all are male and single. More than half suffer from mental illness or substance abuse problems; more than two-thirds were enlisted for three or more years; and about a third were stationed in a war zone.

Michael Stoops is Director of Community Organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless, a separate organization based in Washington, DC. He stressed that homeless vets are not "losers," as some people might think. About 89 percent of homeless veterans received honorable discharges from their branch of service, Stoops noted, citing an NCHV statistic. "It's outrageous that anyone who has put their life on the line for their country should have to live on the street," Stoops commented.

Estimates of how many homeless vets are currently served by VA-affiliated programs and services vary greatly, but the VA itself admits the number taking advantage of its services of any kind is only a minority, with around 40,000 benefiting from housing-related programs each year, mostly through on-the-ground outreach organizations like NCHV. According to most estimates, hundreds of thousands of veterans who experience homelessness at some point during the year do not receive any VA benefits at all.

The White House's 2006 budget proposal includes a small increase in funding for programs that help homeless veterans. Boone said NCHV is pleased with the increase, but said her group estimates that at least twice the amount -- or about $200 million -- would be required to help shelter all the veterans currently looking for assistance. She said the new budget will add an additional 1,073 beds for homeless veterans nationwide and provide three times that many with other services.

In the future, many homeless Iraq war vets will need mental health treatment, Boone predicted. "Studies show that mental health issues for homeless vets begin later in their lives -- as much as twelve years later," she explained. "They will seem to be doing well mentally, despite being on the street, and then some event will trigger a problem. The public should be really concerned about that because the VA doesn't have the facilities or resources to treat the current number of homeless vets with mental health issues, let alone any new ones."

Statistics from the VA show that as of July 2004, nearly 28,000 veterans of the current Iraq war sought health care from the federal agency and that one in every five was diagnosed with a mental disorder. A study that appeared in the July 2004 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that 17 percent of service members returning from Iraq met screening criteria for major depression and general anxiety disorder.

A recent NCHV survey shows that combat veterans who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq are beginning to request help from homeless volunteer service providers. The survey was conducted in response to the growing number of inquiries from journalists and government officials involved in veteran and budgetary affairs, Boone said.

Meanwhile, say veterans' advocates, the Pentagon appears to be a in state of denial. While admitting to some problems in treating soldiers returning from Iraq, Pentagon officials have told the press that the situation has been addressed.

Homeless vet advocates remain unimpressed. "The military has done a terrible job easing vets back into American life once their tour of duty ends," Stoops said.

In a recent NBC nightly news report, Dr. Alfonso Batres, head of the VA's transition assistance program, said it was up to retiring veterans to seek help. "You may offer all the programs in the world, but if they don't come in to receive those services then it's very difficult to provide them access," Batres said.

Homeless advocates said the VA is wrong to put the onus on vets and expect them to know what services are available. "Isn't it the job of the VA, as a federal agency, to make the people it serves aware of how [the VA] can help?" Boone asked.

Stoops said, "That type of attitude shows that the system is broken and why we will see more [returning] vets from the Iraq War end up on the streets of America."

As Congress gears up for new term, the NCHV has adopted a comprehensive political agenda that focuses on homelessness prevention strategies and on adequate funding levels for community based veteran service providers. The organization and its allies are lobbying Congress to provide an increase for the Homeless Veterans Revitalization Program (HVRP) and the Veterans Workforce Investment Program (VWIP), the only federal projects specifically dedicated to providing employment training and placement services to American veterans.

The NCHV warns that, without an increase in government funding, a number of programs receiving government grants will decrease and there will be no new grants for new programs.
Meanwhile, advocates for homeless vets would like to see Americans who have strongly supported US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan step forward and get involved with the issue. "You see all those cars with yellow ribbons saying Support Our Troops,'" Boone said. "What you don't see are signs saying 'Support Our Veterans.' But when those men and women take off their uniforms, that's when they need support the most."

Suspicious Death Of Homeless Woman in Fresno

I copied the folowing story from this link

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/18/18441458.php

Justice for Pamela Kincaid

by Mike Rhodes ( MikeRhodes [at] Comcast.net ) Saturday Aug 18th, 2007 5:01 PM

Justice for Pamela Kincaid By Mike Rhodes A friend of mine died under disturbing and suspicious circumstances last month. I’m determined to find out the truth and discover what led to her death. Here is what I know: Pamela Kincaid was the lead named plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the homeless against the City of Fresno, because the city was taking and immediately destroying their property. This sometimes included their IDs, clothing, tools, kittens, and in one case the urn containing the ashes of a grandchild. Pam stood up against this injustice and was willing to put herself on the line to protect the rights of all homeless people in this community. A federal court issued a preliminary injunction to stop the city from conducting these raids on the homeless and on July 30 ruled to certify the suit as a class action lawsuit. That means that all homeless people affected by the city’s policy will be compensated if the lawsuit prevails in court. On the day the class action lawsuit was certified in Federal Court, the attorneys visited Pam in UMC, the long-term care facility she was in. A day and a half later at 1:30 AM on Wednesday, August 1, Pam fell from the fourth floor, under suspicious circumstances. Pam was in this facility because she had been beaten, nearly to death, in mid July. Pam had been telling me for months that she felt she was being targeted by the police and others because of the lawsuit. She was very upset about being arrested and put in jail for several days without charges ever being filed. Pam described what happened: “You know why they arrested me, don’t you? It was retaliation for the lawsuit.”



The arrest occurred when Pam was driving around with friends in downtown Fresno. “All of a sudden there was this swarm of cop cars,” Pam said. “They got us all out of the car but they seemed mostly interested in me. One of the guys I was with had an open can of beer, which they just totally ignored. They arrested me on a probation hold. I’m not on probation and they knew that!” Pam spent the next several days in jail. No charges were ever filed. As she was being released, Pam asked one of the sheriff deputies why she had been in jail. Pam told me the officer rolled her eyes and said, “There ought to be an investigation.”



Pam thought she knew exactly why she was arrested and put in jail: she believed it was because she was the high visibility plaintiff in a very controversial lawsuit that put the City of Fresno and the Fresno Police Department (FPD) in a bad light. Al Williams, another named plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city, was also arrested and released with no charges ever being filed. The day after Al was put in jail, the encampment he lived in was raided and his disabled wife was forced to move. Later, Sherri (Al’s wife) was arrested for trying to use the restroom at McDonald’s restaurant (see page one story in the August 2007 Community Alliance). Life on the streets is hard on homeless people. If you are a woman and homeless, you can double or triple the difficulty factor. There are very few beds for homeless women in Fresno and Pam had given up trying to find a safe place where she could stay at a shelter. She was streetwise, but living in a tent in downtown Fresno can still be dangerous.



She told me that there were people on the street that were upset with her because of the lawsuit. Specifically, she said the drug dealers, who are a small part of the downtown homeless community, were angry with her. They were angry because the lawsuit had increased law enforcement’s presence around some homeless encampments and the drug dealers blamed her. On one occasion, Pam and I talked about the drug situation downtown. She said it was just unexplainable how the police will come in and arrest one person who is dealing drugs and leave everyone else alone. She said, “All they would have to do is to come in here with a drug sniffing dog and it would be all over.”



She believed there had to be some kind of payoff going on so the police protected some dealers and arrested others. A couple of months ago Rev. Floyd Harris was at the corner of G and Santa Clara streets talking to homeless people. He was surprised at how openly drugs were being bought and sold. He too questioned the motivation of the police to selectively enforce drug laws. The drug wars, as they play out in downtown Fresno, are making some people rich, other people vulnerable, and some people end up dead. Pam Kincaid usually lived in very remote locations in the old industrial section of downtown Fresno (south of Ventura). She often lived with other people because that provides a homeless woman with some protection.



Pam, like many homeless women, also had a dog. It is notable how often Pam, and the encampments she lived in, were forced to move. Even after the preliminary injunction and victory in court, homeless people are endlessly harassed and told to “move on.” The City of Fresno conducted one of their raids on homeless encampments on Santa Fe (just south of Ventura) in early July. Pam was living there at the time. This was the fourth or fifth time she had been forced to move in the last six months. Pam ended up in an encampment on Mono, just east of R Street.



On or about July 13, 2007, Pam and a friend (we will call him Mario -- not his real name) started walking toward a store on Ventura. According to Mario, they saw a FPD patrol car cruise by, turn around and pull up beside them. This is not unusual if you are living on the street. The police are always stopping homeless people and asking them for their ID, running their names through the database, and seeing what comes up. It is like fishing. Every so often the police catch someone who is in violation of parole, has an outstanding warrant, or for some other reason is being looked for by law enforcement. Cynthia Greene, who is homeless and another named plaintiff in the lawsuit against the City of Fresno, told me she was stopped four times on one day in mid July. Cynthia said, “I was out trying to collect cans for recycling and the police came up and asked me for my ID. I would get done with one stop and a few minutes later I’d get stopped again. This is unusual even for Fresno.”



Cynthia said she felt uncomfortable with all of the stops and was concerned that she was being targeted. According to Mario, the police officer checked Pam and his ID and let them go. As they were leaving, a group of about six or seven people (at least one them has been identified to me as a drug dealer) walked by and went to the police car. Mario said that he looked back and saw the officer pointing at him and Pam while he talked to the group.



Pam decided to stay at her encampment and Mario continued on to the store. Feeling something might be wrong, Mario returned (without going to the store) to see four of five women from the group savagely beating Pam. Mario said, “Pam is on the ground and one of them has these boot heels, you know like these dress boots, you know what I’m talking about? With the big heels? And they are just. . . ." (Mario jumps up and down as if stomping something on the ground.) According to Mario, they were saying, “Drop the suit, drop the suit, you’re hurting us, you’re hurting them, now we’re hurting you.” Mario says that after he stopped the assault on Pam he tried to flag down a police patrol car. T



he first police vehicle that went by on R Street did not stop. Within 15 minutes another patrol car came by. This time the officer stopped and Mario explained what had happened. The officer left, saying he was going to find the perpetrators of the crime, but he never came back to follow up on the victim or write a report of the assault. I talked to Jeff Cardinale, the Fresno Police Department Public Information Officer, about police involvement in this incident. Cardinale insisted that there is no record of any contact with Pam or Mario on R or Mono street. Pam was admitted to Community Medical Center on July 13. The nurse who attended to Pam said she was black and blue from the waist up. “It was clear that Pam had been beaten,” the nurse told me. The police report issued at the time she was admitted to CMC was more vague. The police report suggests that Pam had a bad sunburn, might have a mental illness, and did not want to press charges.



A man with extensive contacts in the homeless community confirmed, at least in part, Mario’s version of what happened to Pam. He said three young women were bragging about how they had beaten Pam up. Fearing retaliation himself, he did not want to identify those involved. I didn’t find out that Pam was in the hospital until about a week after she was admitted. She was still black and blue and it did not look like she had a sunburn to me. She was clearly disoriented. Her attending physician, Dr. Ossia, told me that Pam did not know what city she was in or what year it was. He explained that she had sub dermal hematoma, which causes swelling inside the skull, and the pressure can cause the disorientation and delusions she was experiencing. He was cautiously optimistic that she would regain her memory.



After Pam was at CMC for over a week it was agreed that she needed to move to more long-term care. But without insurance or any resources the options were very limited. UMC was one of the only long-term care facilities that would take Pam. On the day before she transferred to UMC, I talked to her nurse again. She told me that Pam was starting to remember what had happened and said that the attack had to do with the lawsuit against the City of Fresno. She was put on the fourth floor of the long-term care facility at UMC. At about 1:30 AM on Wednesday, August 1, she went through the doors to a balcony and fell four floors to her death.



The doors were supposed to have an alarm that would alert staff if they were opened and the staff knew that Pam was disoriented due to the attack. Something, we don’t yet know what, went horribly wrong. Several of Pam’s friends saw her just before she died. Those that I talked to said she was doing better, she was not suicidal, and her nurse said her memory was starting to clear up.

We are left with a lot of unanswered questions like:

* If what Mario is saying is true, what did the police officer say to the group that attacked Pam? * Why did the police officer who Mario stopped not return to help Pam or write an incident report? Why does the police have no record of this contact? * Why did the police who talked to Pam at CMC not conclude that a crime had been committed and try to find out who attacked her? * What went wrong at UMC? How could a patient who is known to be disoriented walk onto a balcony, and fall from the fourth floor? * Why was a repairman working on the alarm system leading to the fourth floor balcony the morning after Pam fell? * Why does Fresno not have more shelters for homeless women? Jeff Cardinale, with the FPD, told me they are not investigating either the beating incident or the suspicious circumstances of Pam’s death. He suggested I talk with the sheriff’s department.



After being initially told by the sheriff’s department that they did not have an active investigation either, I called back again. This time I was told that they are investigating Pam’s death. I called the detective investigating the case but have not heard back from him yet. Fresno mayor Alan Autry often talks about this town as being “A Tale of Two Cities.” I can’t help but wondering if the mayor had shown up at Community Medical Center, beaten nearly to death, would they have concluded that he was sunburned, delusional, and that no investigation was necessary?



Maybe this is a tale of two cities - one where there is justice and fairness if you are well to do, but if you are poor (especially if you are a homeless woman) you can’t even get the police to open an investigation after you have been beaten. At least the Coroner’s office and the sheriff’s department are looking into the suspicious nature of her death. I demand justice for Pamela Kincaid. I want the Fresno Police Department to open an investigation and find out who savagely beat Pam leaving her disoriented and brain damaged.



I applaud the Coroner who ordered an autopsy (we are still waiting for the results) and encourage the sheriff’s department to conduct a vigorous investigation into the suspicious circumstances of her death. Pam was a hero.



She stood up for her rights and the rights of all homeless people. As the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the City of Fresno, she sometimes became a lightening rod and vilified by those who would continue the system of bigotry and hatred against the homeless. Pam took pride in being a recognizable leader of an effort that will result in better conditions for Fresno’s homeless.

Being a part of the lawsuit was something Pam did, not for herself, but for all homeless people. It was, in part, that spirit of selflessness that made Pam such a wonderful person and a friend I will miss.



For a list of articles and documents about the struggle for civil liberties for homeless people in Fresno, see: http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/homelessness.htm


http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/homeles...




(picture at top of page)
Pam spoke at the Press Conference on the steps of Fresno City Hall. The Press conference announced the lawsuit against the City of Fresno to stop them from bulldozing homeless encampments.
http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/homelessness.htm

No Sitting On The Sidewalk Here Pal

THE PORTLAND ,OREGON CITY COUNCIL ADOPTED AND PASSED THE RECOMENDATIONS OF THE S.A.F.E. COMMITTE ONE MONTH AGO. They take effect on June 9th,2007. Unless you are sitting down on a parade route,or at a "permitted" event,you will be given a warning by a Portland Police Officer.

After that, one time warning, you will be given tickets with fines attached. You can not sit down on pavement in Portland,Oregon from 7:a.m. - 9P.M. at night. This is in effect for 2 years. Unless you are having a medical emergency,that is the only allowable excuse for being on the ground,(passed out drunk,counts too)

I asked the question of the Chiefs Forum,yesterday during citizen imput time,and Assistance Chief Lynn Berg,Stated the above. My follow -up question was ,"whom will write the tickets? Berg's response,was ,"only the Portland Police.

Clean and Safe Officers, do not write tickets,nor are suppose to search you,ever!. Their Boss,Director of Clean and Safe, Bill Sinnot(retired from PPB last April to take this Postition) was present as I asked the question, so he knew and knows all along, what his Officers can and can not do.

When you start getting those citations,and any force is used,that is questionable, and or an arrest is attached, contact the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center @503-295-6400 or pop in for guidence at 520 SW 6th Ave #1050, downtown Portland , Oregon. As always,check in with The "Sisters of the Road" cafe staff,and they too will assist you.

Or contact "Street Roots" newspaper.

They did have complaint forms about a month ago, to list the contact some of you have had with the Portland Police that was of concerning/questionable behavior. Feel free to contact "Mayor Tom Potter" with complaints,as to the lack of Bench's and Bathrooms, and SERVICES in Portland to meet your needs.

As well as your City Ciommissioner Erik Sten, whom is your housing commissioner.

Commission Randy Lenord is your- public safty commissioner,Police complaints etc...

Commission Dan Salztman is over- City Parks, clean and safe complaints or harrashment of the homeless

Commissioner Sam Adams is over -transportation...sidewalk movement etc.

Now if any of you, clearly see anyone whom seems like they are the "Blue collar" type of people,sitting on sidewalks,and a cop is near them, and does nothing to them, note the time, Officer name, and tell Street Roots, newspaper or call the N.W. Constitutional Rights center so they can start tracking the patterns of discrmination.

This ordinance is a clear attack upon the downtrodden in life...And it is going to create a lot of hostility between Police and homeless and mentally ill persons whom could not begin to comprehend.

BE Safe everyone....Bless -You all. Teresa (article copied from Portland Indy Media)
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/06/360532.shtml?discuss

I new website I just came across is here

Just found this website and wanted to share it with my Zebra 3 readers

The story I just read and am commenting on my blog here is found at this link about the iceman:

http://www.street-people.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=35&mosmsg=Comment+saved+to+content+item%21+If+the+comment+is+not+related+to+the+topic%2C+it+will+be+deleted.

The only one word I heard used that was somewhat "an itch" to read was the use of the word "bum" in the context and the line itself seemed to poke humor or somewhat a yuppie sentence with the word bum being used" (( Fashion week may be over in New York but I am sure one of those young funky designers would have jumped on this urban retro look creating a line of bum couture. ))

I have done it my self but i personally feel it carries a slight if not well contended (not saying intended) notion this is a degenerate a sub standard or un-excepted type of person.

It is just my opinion that this using of the word is derogatory is in sort of a "political correct" correction.

Now in my vocabulary I do use the word "bumming" like he was bumming around or he was begging and bumming food and water" ....more in the line of an adjective of an action taking place

Yes ... I used to but no longer like to refer to the people who happen to be homeless or are "street people" as bums ...... it's my opinion....that I am trying to not use this word as in a way to show dignity and respect.

SO ..........HEADS UP Z3 READERS!!

As I read more of the next few stories on this website I start to see sort of continuing use of the word "bum" and a sort of callous sarcasm. In fact i am not alone ...

At this link which i found on their very website in a boastful way seems to me like it may be hitting the nail closer straight on.

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5319386

I bet within a few minutes you may feel like I am starting to feel

And I am not sure this website street people .com it is all peaches and cream!

Homeless Story And Insight ~ By Jody Paulson

I have been technically homeless since January and truly homeless (by that I mean homeless and broke) since June. I woke up yesterday morning and realized that this condition might present a good journalistic topic on Indymedia, so here it is.First of all, in advanced countries (I'll be generous and include my own nation, the United States, in that category) it's not all that bad.

For as much fear as it inspires in the heart of man to keep working at their horror of a job, the hells of homelessness are definitely overrated. The worst things about it are boredom and daily rituals of pride-swallowing. Sounds like your typical low-end service job to me. I'm a good person to ask about this: in the span of a year I've gone from working so much I didn't have a life to not working at all and thus not being able to afford a life. I honestly can't say which is worse, though the latter definitely carries the greater stigma in my country.In point of fact, there are several benefits to homelessness that man "home-guards" fail to appreciate:1) Lots of exercise2) Great opportunity to work on your tan3) Feel more like JesusSeriously, homelessness is a great way to work on your materialist hang-ups.

One thing I've discovered is that my fellow homeless people are far less likely to rip me off than your average Fortune 500 CEO. I'm also much more likely to toss things that I don't need because I simply can't carry them every place I go. In the past few weeks I've given away a cassette player, paints, clothes, and thrown out stacks of old love letters. They just weren't worth the weight and space they were taking up in my knapsack.One also has ample opportunity to work on that most boring of the seven virtues: patience. If there's one phrase that I could use to characterize the experience of institutionalized homelessness, it's "hurry up and wait." For example, I spent six months waiting at a free health clinic last Monday in a bid to obtain a month's supply of badly needed thyroid medicine. I was sent away with an appointment for a week and a half later. Then there's the Salvation Army, who kicks you out at eight in the morning and lets you back in at 6:30 pm. At 5:30 you see people who honestly have nothing better to do gather like crows on a telephone wire near the Salvation Army's back door. The entire day they've been waiting - at the library, the park, the public square - for the precise moment when they can roll out their bed, claim that space as their own for the night, and collapse there from exhaustion.

I still don't understand why, but there's something about lugging your earthly possessions over pavement all day that saps every ounce of energy a human being has.I would like to stress, however, that even in the US (at the time of this writing) there is no real reason one "has" to sleep outside on a park bench. There are shelters and soup kitchens in every decent-sized American town (admittedly easier to find if you are female), and there are always ways to get from town to town. Hitchhiking is considerably more dangerous and less common in the US than it is in Europe, but other homeless people are your best ally in this regard. Everyone always knows somebody who's going somewhere and can hook you up with a ride to the next shelter in an old beat-up van. Most shelters only give you 2-4 weeks to stay and if your time runs out before you can get a decent job you can always pack up and move on to greener pastures (or at least more shelter time). Some people would rather do this than work and this lifestyle is known as "shelter hopping." I think this gives homeless people in general a bad name and I can't understand why anyone would find this existence less exhausting than, say, cleaning toilets for a living ... but on the other hand, it does let you see more of the world ... sort of.If you're the type of person who prefers to suck but not swallow, however, homelessness is definitely not for you. In this lifestyle one must force down one's pride on a daily basis: Petty bureaucrats will look at you the way they'd look at a pet poodle they suspect of piddling on their carpet. You will be directed through a series of hoops and rules, which often seem to exist for the sole pleasure the enforcer gets from enforcing them. If you smoke (which, fortunately, I do not) you may find the experience of homelessness an excellent incentive to quit -- failure to do so means constantly bumming from strangers and "hunting for snipes" in the gutter.

Finally, there is no dignified way of waiting in line to receive a free lump of mush from a server with a condescending smile. If you know how to zone out in the midst of a deafening crowd, you'll soon find this to be a valuable skill.As disheartening as it is to inevitably smell bad, feel chained to your change of clothes and constantly chastise yourself for getting angry over being made to wait for charity, in this day and age there is one side-effect of homelessness that can definitely be avoided: the feeling of being invisible, ineffectual, and unimportant. Trust me, I know how to get around this one.

Here's what you do:1) Sell one of the bus passes they give you at the Salvation Army (or panhandle, or beat your bongos, whatever) and buy an 89-cent box of chalk from Walgreen's and write "Bush Knew" and "9/11 = Reichstag" in front of a prominent government building.2) Spend all your allotted Internet time at the public Library railing against the US government and multi-national corporations.Before you know it, important people will be paying very close attention to you.

Caution: this plan may be as hazardous to your health as smoking cigarettes, only quicker!
By Jody Paulson

https://www2.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6649125871844502857&postID=1227967344895143859

Homeless Sex Offenders in Florida now-live Under the Overpass

I found this story today in a MSN headline
Homeless and a sex offender - Florida sends them under the overpass
Here is the link to the original article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/05/bridge.sex.offenders/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Florida housing sex offenders under bridge

Story Highlights• Sex offenders can't live within 2,500 feet of places children might gather• In an urban area like Miami, this leaves few options for the convicted criminals• A handful of sex offenders are now living under a bridge
By John Zarrella and Patrick OppmannCNN
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The sparkling blue waters off Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway look as if they were taken from a postcard. But the causeway's only inhabitants see little paradise in their surroundings.
Five men -- all registered sex offenders convicted of abusing children -- live along the causeway because there is a housing shortage for Miami's least welcome residents.
"I got nowhere I can go!" says sex offender Rene Matamoros, who lives with his dog on the shore where Biscayne Bay meets the causeway.
The Florida Department of Corrections says there are fewer and fewer places in Miami-Dade County where sex offenders can live because the county has some of the strongest restrictions against this kind of criminal in the country.
Florida's solution: house the convicted felons under a bridge that forms one part of the causeway.
The Julia Tuttle Causeway, which links Miami to Miami Beach, offers no running water, no electricity and little protection from nasty weather. It's not an ideal solution, Department of Corrections Officials told CNN, but at least the state knows where the sex offenders are.
Nearly every day a state probation officer makes a predawn visit to the causeway. Those visits are part of the terms of the offenders' probation which mandates that they occupy a residence from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
But what if a sex offender can't find a place to live?
That is increasingly the case, say state officials, after several Florida cities enacted laws that prohibit convicted sexual offenders from living within 2,500 feet of schools, parks and other places where children might gather.
Bruce Grant of the Florida Department of Corrections said the laws have not only kept sex offenders away from children but forced several to live on the street.
"Because of those restrictions, because there are many places that children congregate, because of 2,500 feet, that's almost half a mile, that's a pretty long way when you are talking about an urban area like Miami, so it isn't surprising that we say we are trying but we don't have a place for these people to live in," Grant said.
For several of the offenders, the causeway is their second experience at homelessness. Some of them lived for months in a lot near downtown Miami until officials learned that the lot bordered a center for sexually abused children.
Trudy Novicki, executive director of Kristi House, said the offender's presence put the center's children at risk. "It was very troublesome to learn that across the street there are people who are sex offenders that could be a danger to our children," she said.
Keeping the rats off
With nowhere to put these men, the Department of Corrections moved them under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. With the roar of cars passing overhead, convicted sex offender Kevin Morales sleeps in a chair to keep the rats off him.
"The rodents come up next to you, you could be sleeping the whole night and they could be nibbling on you," he said.
Morales has been homeless and living under the causeway for about three weeks. He works, has a car and had a rented apartment but was forced to move after the Department of Corrections said a swimming pool in his building put him too close to children.
The convicted felons may not be locked up anymore, but they say it's not much of an improvement.
"Jail is anytime much better than this, than the life than I'm living here now," Morales said. "[In jail] I can sleep better. I get fed three times a day. I can shower anytime that I want to."
Morales said that harsher laws and living conditions for sex offenders may have unintended consequences.
"The tougher they're making these laws unfortunately it's scaring offenders and they're saying, 'You know what, the best thing for me to do is run,'" Morales said.
A Miami Herald investigation two years ago found that 1,800 sex offenders in Florida were unaccounted for after violating probation.
Florida's system for monitoring them needs to be fixed, says state Senator Dave Aronberg, who proposed a bill to increase electronic monitoring and create a uniform statewide limit that would keep them 1,500 feet away from places where children go.
'We need to know where these people are at all times," Aronberg said after CNN invited him to tour the bridge where the sex offenders live. "We need residency restrictions, but just don't have this hodgepodge of every city having something different."
State officials say unless the law changes their hands are tied, and for now the sex offenders will stay where they are: under a bridge in the bay.

Thnks for reading this far
~ joe anybody

Homeless protest the sit-lie law in Portland Oregon

Over on my ZEBRA 3 Report blog http://zebra3report.tripod.com/zebra3report/index.blog/1657008/homeless-protest-and-joe-anybody-is-there/

I have posted a link to some of my videos on this isue

They were taken while a homeless protest was going downtown

It was peaceful and to the point, I support their agenda

So far I have two videos One is on YouTube and is the first part

The second is on Google and is the City Hall part

This ordinance I think will target homelessness in a criminal way

So zip on over and check it out there is links to the Indy Media post on this too.

~joe

Homeless In Portland? Is it getting better in 2007?

So here in Portland in Oregon
There is some chatter in the local paper
That there are improvements in getting
People of the streets, some what debatable
In the detail.... Yet I think maybe we are seeing
Some slight change ..... I am a million miles up ....
Maybe I am being optimistic.......
Here is the story that I am basing some of my opinion by:

City Commissioner Erik Sten, who spearheaded the plan in December 2004,
said last month’s unduplicated count of people sleeping outside in Multnomah
County and the cities of Portland and Gresham came to 1,438. In 2005, the number
was 2,355. That’s a drop of 917 people, or 39 percent.
Both counts were taken during the last week of January. Fifty-seven outreach agencies took part in the count two years ago, tallying everyone who slept on the street, in a vehicle or an abandoned building.

About 200 agencies took the most recent count, so if
anything, city officials expected to see a much higher number of people
identified as homeless this time around. The city saw an even greater drop in
the number of people identified as chronically homeless, which means having a
disability and being homeless for more than a year or four or more times during
the last three years. In 2005, that number came in at 1,284. This year, it was
386. That’s a decrease of 918, or 70 percent.

Sten said he’s pleasantly surprised by the results, and credits the work of outreach agencies and the city’s new “housing first” strategy – which shifts the focus from shelters to permanent housing, where people can stabilize their lives before they are
connected with jobs and other services. “It’s really energizing,” Sten said.

“The community’s been working hard; we know we’ve been making progress, but
sometimes you make progress but the bigger trends keep getting worse.”
Some people on the front lines question the numbers.

Israel Bayer, director of the Street Roots newspaper, which covers homeless issues, said he hasn’t noticed any dramatic drop-off of people downtown. “I think that while they’re doing a great job at putting people in housing through the 10-year plan … I’d find it hard to believe there’s a 40 percent drop in homelessness in Portland,” he said.

While Street Roots took part in the count, he said, “I would question
how well they did outreach on the ground level. … I would argue there’s as many
people entering homelessness as there are being housed.” Marc Jolin,
executive director of the nonprofit Join, one of the lead agencies that took
part in the street count, said he his organization alone has helped place over
750 people into housing over the past two years, and he has no doubt that the
city’s plan is working.

But he cautions against using the latest numbers as a true account of what’s happened on the streets. There were differences in the way the surveys were worded each year, and a more stringent definition for chronically homeless was used this time around.

Sten admits there are a lot of external factors, but the drop of about 900 people does correlate with the number of chronically homeless the city moved into housing during 2005 and 2006: 1,039 people. Some of those people moved into the 480 new units of city-supported housing. Others moved into other affordable housing or private units throughout the city.

With the city’s lack of affordable housing, Sten said it’s getting tougher to find spots to place people. But he hopes to work more with private landlords to move people into vacant units by providing rental assistance.

In the city’s current budget process, Sten said he will ask for $3 million in ongoing funds for homeless programs, in place of the $3 million in one-time funds that have been supporting many of the pilot programs. He’ll also look for continued support from churches, jails, hospitals and corporations such as the Portland Trail Blazers.

jenniferanderson@portlandtribune.com

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=117252992371878100

St Petersburg Police Tear to Shreds a Homeless Camp

The police tear, slash, and trash tents from a homeless camp.
Yet the mayor endorses it and the fire department joins in by blocking off the area with their trucks.
Let me tell you folks this is one TWISTED town.

Watch this YouTube video and Notice the police woman "Bevin" try to clear the area when a news camera asks her questions......she is embarrassed.
She should be ashamed.

A true description of a pathetic destructive city government and its rouge police force.

I really wanna write the mayor and let him know this is disgusting.
I would hope that this town gets rebuked for its callous actions!
I would hope that a few creeps "loose their jobs over this" atrocity.
I am appalled at the total disregard for human dignity, and destruction of peoples homes.
This is not how authorities treat people.

In fact I am infuriated

Shame on them!

Here is the Link to the short FOX news video clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tPXytkhfI8

........ Good Greif!

Here are my notes and many more links::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Rick Baker
Mayor
St Petersburg
1-22-07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tPXytkhfI8 video of tents being cut

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=2115501&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1 FOX new website

http://sticksoffire.com/2007/01/22/homeless-shelter-or-media-debacle “Homeless Shelter or Media” blog - “Stick of Fire”


http://www.stpete.org/email.htm email address for St Petersburg City Office

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/20/Southpinellas/Police_slash_open_ten.shtml SP TIMES article on this issue

Police slash open tents to roust the homeless
ABHI RAGHUNATHAN and ALISA ULFERTSPublished January 20, 2007
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/20/Southpinellas/Police_slash_open_ten.shtml
ST. PETERSBURG - City officials raided two homeless camps Friday afternoon, seizing more than 20 tents and further rattling a community still shaken from the slayings of two of its own.
Those who refused to get out of their tents or remove their belongings watched as two dozen police and fire officials sliced the tops of the tents away from their bases, tossed them into a truck and drove off. Some said they didn't have enough time to get out before the officials began to cut with scissors, box cutters and other blades.
"I was in the tent when they started cutting," said Ken Argo, 54, who said he was asleep when police arrived. "It was very reckless of them."
The whole operation took less than 10 minutes.
The raid was the city's latest attempt to deal with the highly visible tent camps that have sprung up in recent weeks and a homeless population that is becoming increasingly organized and close-knit. Last week the city shut down a tent city on Fourth Avenue N after it said it helped about 100 of its residents get social services, including rent vouchers and bus tickets to cities where relatives or friends could help.
Those who didn't get or refused services soon set up their tents at one of two locations, Fifth Avenue N at 15th Street or Fifth Avenue N at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street.
But fire officials soon observed a host of fire code violations at the two satellite tent cities, said Lt. Rick Feinberg, a spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Department. People were smoking and cooking in their tents, he said. The tents were too close together, too close to public thoroughfares, and they didn't have fire extinguishers, he said.
Feinberg said the homeless also failed to get the required permits for their tents, which were set up on the public right of way.
"They were all in violation of codes," Feinberg said. "No one submitted plans for preparations for these two tent cities."
It's not clear if all the fire codes the city cited indeed apply. The code requiring a permit specifies tents greater than 120 square feet, which is larger than the tents used by most of the homeless. And a state fire statute initially cited by the city doesn't deal with tents, said a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal.
Still, city officials said their job is to protect and that there were significant safety concerns at the two locations, including danger from heavy traffic. City officials also said the homeless were given the chance to remove their belongings from the tents and were offered mats at a nearby shelter.
Rather than arrest or get in physical altercations with those who refused, the officers cut the tents, said Deputy Mayor Dave Metz.
"The tents were retained for evidence," Metz said.
The city's action outraged the homeless community, which said that instead of taking away tents, the police officers should have been searching for the people who killed two homeless men early Wednesday.
"And now they're putting all these people in jeopardy again," said Rev. Bruce Wright of Refuge Ministries. The reason the homeless cluster in tents is for safety, Wright said.
Metz acknowledged the criticism but said the city did what it had to do. "I think you always have those implications, but our primary concern was safety."
Wright said that advocates for the homeless, who met Friday with the city to discuss things like getting fire extinguishers, plan to sue the city over the destruction of the tents and will seek an injunction to prevent another raid.
"We're getting more tents," Wright said.
"We're bringing down the big guns now. We're gonna sue 'em."
Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 727 893-8472. Alisa Ulferts can be reached at ulferts@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2379.


(( from DIGG.com ))tp://digg.com/world_news/Police_slash_tents_of_homeless_people_Video
Lots of comments here too ...... CHECK THIS DIGG LINK OUT!
The website takes a few minutes to load

Being a local resident here and following the story as the tent city had just recently been moved, i could not believe this when i watched the news - society continues its declination - unbelievable that this even occured - the night before 2 homeless men were murdered in the same area the NIGHT BEFORE the tent city slashing, so as i see it the police are now encouraging murder of the homeless but tearing apart the only place that they have to keep them safe for the night.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/1196623351.html?dids=1196623351:1196623351&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+18%2C+2007&author=ABHI+RAGHUNATHAN&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=1.A&desc=Homeless+men+found+slain+in+early+hours

The Transition Project In Portland Oregon For The Homeless

There are insufficient services, shelter and housing for the estimated 750 women who are homeless in Portland on any given night of the year.

Over the next several months, as the temperature drops and the weather worsens, the need for homeless women’s services will be more acute – but the need will not go away after the weather warms. Portlanders can and must support permanent solutions to address this crisis.

I have been privileged to serve on the board of Transition Projects for the last nine years. Transition Projects is a locally based nonprofit agency that helps people transition from homelessness to housing.

Full article here:
http://www.tprojects.org/press.html

Homeless Used By Deceptive Republican In Philadelphia

Homeless Man to GOP Pol: "No One Has the Right to Use Me That Way"

By Justin Rood
- November 9, 2006, 12:59 PM

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001973.php

A Philadelphia Daily News columnist tracked down one of the unfortunate locals who had been tricked by the Michael Steele for Senate campaign to hand out deceptive pamphlets outside Maryland voting places.

The result: a refreshingly candid indictment of the failed GOP candidate Steele, who now hopes to head up the Republican National Committee.

"I might not have a home," an outraged Yusuf El-Bedawi told the Daily News' Ronnie Polaneczky, "but that doesn't mean I don't care about right and wrong. No one has the right to use me that way."

The Steele campaign recruited six busloads of poor and homeless Philadelphians to hand out flyers to Maryland voters portraying Steele and his ticketmate, governor Bob Ehrlich, as Democrats. Steele is currently Maryland's lieutenant governor; Ehrlich is governor.
"People started screaming, at us, 'Do you think we're that stupid? What are you trying to pull?' " El-Bedawi told the writer. "I said, 'I didn't know it was a lie! I'm from Philly!' And they said, 'Then go back to Philly!' "

"I am so angry and upset, I don't know what to do," said El-Bedawi, who's particularly shattered that he and at least 200 other Philadelphians didn't get home from Maryland in time to vote here.
"These people think we're too stupid to understand the magnitude of what we did."
What they did, said El-Bedawi, was cheat an entire community of unsuspecting voters.
And just because they didn't know they were doing it doesn't mean it doesn't feel awful.

FULL COMPLETE STORY CLICK HERE

71 Year Homeless Lady in Portland Or Dies on Park Bench

PLEASE NOTE:

Click this link to

PORTLAND INDY MEDIA

Which has a good discussion

going about this issue below

In today's Tribune in Portland Oregon,
I read the front-page article below the fold that is titled:
"Mourners will gather at a site of a friendly, familiar face."
The link is here-->
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=116527805479570300
I will repost the article following my short introduction, which you are reading now.

Z3 Readers, I was shocked/upset to read that Anita Floyd who was seventy one.... that is 71 years old and homeless! And she died on a bus bench on a cold fricken street corner on November 29 2006. And that is -- well .... that is just fricken rotten. .....
What a nice little article in the Tribune today..... In reading it I almost get the idea she liked to live on the bench outside in 30 degree winter weather, heck she was on the streets the paper said for the past four years. They make it sound like this is all just dapper.

In reading this article it spoke of all the people that enjoyed her presence there from day to day...... "Sitting on that bench year after year...day after day "Seventy One Fricken Years Old and living on a bench.......
Zebra 3 Readers, would you want to be there when you are 71? How about your mom sitting there "sharing smiles and a half of a sandwich"? Yes the nice people that smiled and waved or talked with her or shared a coin or part of their lunch all deserve a "GOOD JOB GUYS".
But am I wrong to think she deserved MORE?

But ......BUT ......BUT .....why did she have to spend her last 4 years on a sidewalk? Why does an elderly woman in this "great country" have to die on a bust stop bench that she called Her Home? I am angered and distraught that society can tell this story ..... that the local free paper can write about it with a warm glowing feeling. Hey it could of not even been reported. Like most homeless topics it could of been scrapped and not a word said, so yes some credit is due for the aspect of at least reporting this sad story. Its the whole overall fuzzy way this sad story is told that irks me, and in the very same breath I say this:

"It is dispictable and disgustingng that this happened as it did" It is a deplorable fact that at 71 years old you don't even have a pot to piss in and its "your own tough luck"...... and that as a memorial is set for tomorrow at 2 at the very bench she called home...the very bench her heart stooped performing for her, people will gather to give some kind of last respects and she deserves that, it sad the caring is "too late". I may be there my self.

What wont be there are solutions and answers as to why we all watched this happen. There will be no "lets make sure this doesn't happen again" speech, because it will happen again ... and again .....right in this same friendly neighborhood of churches, synagogues, and mosques, and kitchen supplies, and parking garage attendants. The fact that elderly ladies die on the street gets a warm salute to her friendlinessss...is nice and heartwarming in this holiday season.

I salute with my middle finger to all that don't care or are not willing to help or make changes to rectify this type of homeless attrocity. I salute with my middle finger to a government and city that cant even care for the people who have nothing ...people who are cold and dieing ....people who are 71 years old and are given a bench on a downtown corner to live and die on. I salute you shamless warm healthy officials that allowed her die in the street of our beautiful city of roses!

Tomorrow will be not much different - it will just be another face another few coins in a tin cup and some 1/2 sandwiches shared, and a cold, cold body that needs compassionon and love and warmth and security and privacy and some humanity ....and something we all take for granted, its called .... a HOME!........

"Sorry Grandma I cant help you with a "HOME" .... but, do you want these 1/2 eaten french fries or can I wave at you on your bus bench and give you a smile instead?"

~Joe Anybody


For More Comments on this topic check out PORTLAND INDY MEDIA by clicking here

***********************TRIBUNE ARTICLE HERE*****************************

There are places in a city that become holy ground.
The people behind churches and synagogues and mosques would have us believe their buildings provide sanctuary. But in the life of a city, sanctuary is just as often marked by water-stained notes and bouquets.
Anita Floyd, 71, lived on the wooden bench at Southwest Alder Street and Sixth Avenue the last four years, lived there as much as she lived anyplace, passing out bits of her life to people who hardly knew her, in exchange accepting bits of theirs, and spare change if they wanted to give it.
Floyd was homeless most of the four years she spent in Portland before her death last week.
On Friday one small purple flower remained on the bench outside Kitchen Kaboodle. The day before there were bouquets and coins and notes with tape that just couldn't hold on through one more rain-filled night.
A single white lily had stood tall and straight, wedged into the bench's slats. People stood in front of the bench Thursday, and some of them cried. Others stood there just long enough to remember an elderly woman who seven days a week smiled and said hello to everybody.
Tom Ayres at the Star Park around the corner remembered that just two months ago the red-haired Floyd had confided, "My birthday's next Saturday." He brought her a card and necklace to mark the day.
Employees at Kitchen Kaboodle recall watching as strangers would strike up conversations with Floyd, who always sat at one end of her bench, as if the rest of the seating was an invitation.
"People would sit down and talk to her at lunch and give her half their sandwiches," says Eileen McDaniel, store manager at Kitchen Kaboodle.
McDaniel also remembers the young man who took the memorial lily off the bench Thursday and walked away with it, and the city Clean and Safe patrol officer who chased the man two blocks and made him put the flower back.
Floyd was a panhandler, though barely, holding her silver cup in a way that said she was willing to accept money but unwilling to make it an issue.
"One time I loaned her some money," says Virginia Howard, manager at the Oregon Health & Science University behavioral health clinic down the street. "And she paid it back. Another time I loaned her money, and she wasn't able to pay me back and she told me. And she never asked for money after that."
Two weeks ago Floyd suffered a massive heart attack right at home, on her bench. The paramedics revived her, but Floyd never made it out of the hospital.
A memorial service will be held for Floyd at her bench at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=116527805479570300

Gentrification - Article (INDY MEDIA)

This full ongoing thread can be found on Indy Media in the link below
It has a originating story by Howl along with my comments and others:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/349599.shtml

The following four paragraphs are from the original poster (Howl)
He brings up a good subject.
My comments (well Ben Waiting was me also) were emotionally written and heartfelt.
As I am sure others who posted were too.

"I call it a squat because it is the only place that about a dozen of my neighbors have to live, but really it is just a covered sidewalk in front of where the old Safeway used to be and Top to Bottom and a Big Five now inhabit. This area provided a mostly dry area for these good people to sleep, lock up their bikes, and hang out with friends. For the past year that has been the extent of what they have done there. I have never seen any violent activity nor drug use/selling from any of these kind folks. In fact I have never even seen the police called on any of them, EVER.

Today something was different. As the Portland Development Commission or PDC continues their quest for urban renewal they have managed to attract new business to the area. These businesses are looking to benefit from the new light rail train that will run down I-205, the new farmers market, and of course the increased property value a lifeless commercial look brings. One of these interested businesses is Big 5 Sporting Goods. This week is Big 5's Grand Opening.

As I rode my bike past the cop cars and stopped a comfortable distance away to keep an eye on the officers I couldn't help but stand in awe at how quickly gentrification changes the face of a neighborhood. The police had formed a barrier between the consumers that were happily streaming in and out of the new retail establishment and the people whos' very existence our society has declared as illegal.

From what I could see. The cops did not physically attack anyone nor did they make any arrests. However, they did destroy the only home these people knew when they declared that if they returned they would be trespassing."

The stark reality of spending a night in the cold
....would change many a mind if one found himself firsthand feeling the pangs and restless chill

The poster Howl also latter about after a dozen comments..... sends this eye opening comment and enthustically starts collecting info from the community at large to help the issue of homelessness and gentrification and livilibity in his neighborhood. In an inspiring rightous move he post the following excerpt I found on INDY MEDIA (see link at top of this page)

Anyone interested in forming a mutual aid network?
22.Nov.2006

by Howl

It sounds like there are a lot of available resources, but not all are well known in the community. I just made an email address lentsmutualaid@yahoo.com if anyone is interested in networking the available resources we have here. Perhaps you can donate a few bucks, expired but edible food, an old coat, some extra space in your garage, a meeting space, or a few hours of time to volunteer each week. Imagine if we made a flier with all the resources that are already available from lunch programs like Food Not Bombs to drug treatment programs. We could then look to see where are neighborhood is lacking and work to fill the cracks before more people fall through them. With it being Thanksgiving tomorrow, and more holidays on the way. Try to think how you could help out our neighborhood however big or small the contribution might be. By the way, I have an 8'x8' tarp you can have. It spent some weeks out in the woods with me, but it's in good shape. Just email me.

What is A homeless lady to do ...you can only hide so long

Women's shelters fall by wayside
Emergency facilities dry up as city sticks with 'housing first'
By Jennifer Anderson

Portland Tribune 10-24-2006

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=116164454350380800

A year ago, city Commissioner Randy Leonard came to the rescue of the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Shelter, which was providing the only public emergency shelter access for homeless women in Portland.

Leonard had seen the Salvation Army’s full-page ad in the newspaper, denouncing the city Bureau of Housing and Community Development’s decision not to renew its $164,000 grant to fund the 34-bed dormitory program at the shelter, located at 30 S.W. Second Ave.
This year, however, Leonard isn’t stepping in and the Salvation Army has been left with empty shelter space and a gap in covering its facility costs.
When the city funding ran out in March, Harbor Light Director Lt. Ron Owens kept the shelter going until July, while he looked for other funding sources. There were none.
Now, the city of Portland officially has no public emergency shelter space for women, and Owens finds that troubling.

“Let’s say your boyfriend beats you up, puts you on the street and you’re an active drug user, burned all bridges with your friends,” he said. “You’re on the street. You need a place tonight to stay. You’re not going to find it with a seven-week waiting list” for other available women’s shelters.

According to the city, there are about 750 women classified as homeless in Portland at any one time – sleeping in a car, at someone’s house, under a bridge or in a doorway.
Heather Lyons, the city’s homeless program manager, said it’s true that there are now no public emergency shelters for women, but there are 56 year-round emergency beds for women that are run by nonprofit agencies.
The agencies also provide support including motel vouchers and help finding and retaining permanent housing.

But Lyons acknowledges it’s not enough. The beds are constantly in use, she said, so she is working on securing about 20 to 30 more emergency beds for women this winter. She’s looking for a nonprofit agency to run it, and “the Salvation Army is a potential candidate,” she said.
Lyons said Mayor Tom Potter will probably request about $90,000 in one-time funds from the city to get the beds open by Nov. 1.

Shelter doesn’t fit model

The city decided to end its funding of Harbor Light for a number of reasons, Lyons said, including disagreements over the operation of the shelter and the city’s 10-year plan to end homelessness, adopted two years ago.

The plan follows a nationally recognized “housing first” model of placing people in housing before working with them to help them find other services and become self-sufficient.
“The focus is on creating housing and not more emergency shelters,” Lyons said. “We were making progress on the 10-year plan, instituting changes with a lot of providers, including the Salvation Army. We moved in one direction, and the Salvation Army wasn’t moving in that direction … connecting women in the shelter to housing.”

Owens said he understands that the city has a new strategy but says the emergency space also is crucial.
“It’s much like a hospital who said we’re a hospital, we have hospital beds, we have doctors and nurses, we really don’t need an emergency department because that’s not our emphasis,” he said.

Several groups offer help

While the beds at Harbor Light sit empty, the city is partnering with several nonprofit agencies who’ve joined forces to get women off the streets and into housing.
Unlike emergency shelters – which provide bare-bones services such as meals, showers and toilets – they provide wraparound social services to tackle the issues that put the women on the streets in the first place.

For details on those programs, visit portlandonline.com/bhcd.
Meanwhile, Lyons noted that many providers say they’re seeing more homeless women on the streets, which – if true – may be due to the closure of Harbor Light and of Rose Haven, a day shelter for women that shut down recently after seven years when it was forced from its Old Town location and couldn’t find a new home.

Run by the nonprofit Catholic Charities, Rose Haven provided a safe place for women and children; it served about 80 people a day.

Sister Cathie Boerboom, who ran Rose Haven, said that since Catholic Charities adopted a new focus on housing programs for women, she’s decided to establish Rose Haven as its own nonprofit and resurrect the program in another location within a mile of Old Town, where other social services are.

In the meantime, Boerboom said the situation is bleak.

“There’s no safe place to go at all, and less shelters to go to,” she said. “You can only hide for so long, and then you have to find something to eat and find a bathroom.”
Nick Budnick contributed to this story.
jenniferanderson@portlandtribune.com

Homeless refuge: "Our Peaceful Place"

Copied in its entirety by Joe Anybody from:
The excellent Homeless Newspaper

From Portland Oregon

"Street Roots"

http://www.streetroots.org/past_issues/2006/09_02/column_lujan.shtml

Our Peaceful Place: Family spoken here
By Mike Lujan, Contributing columnist

Like a mother who lovingly attends to the welfare of one of her sick children, Barb Lescher, Director of Services at Our Peaceful Place, stays awake all night to make sure everyone is safe and needs are met. Talking with Barb at Our Peaceful Place's new location (since March 2006), I couldn't help but feel the warmth, kindness, and camaraderie Our Peaceful Place stands for, enveloping me as Barb prepared the meal for the evening — spaghetti, perfectly seasoned with lots of garlic and just enough spices, steaming garlic bread, and salad.

When coming to Our Peaceful Place, Barb likes to help everyone feel like they're going to grandma’s. But Our Peaceful Place is much more than an outreach to obtain a hearty meal; it's sanctuary for the homeless — a place to call home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m. It’s a place of refuge in the darkest hours of the night for anyone, yes, anyone, who is looking for safety from loneliness, hurt, despair, fear, or just wanting to share some companionship with others or to have other social interaction and activity. It's a place anyone can count on, contributing to the overflow of existing shelters and other family-care programs.

Our Peaceful Place is now located in the basement of the Calvary Christian Center Ministries building at 126 NE Alberta. It's the brick church that sits right on the corner of Alberta and Mallory, two blocks west of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The entrance is the white door just west of the church's main doors. A large sitting room, with chairs, sofas, and a television is available. Additionally, an open eating/coffee area, game room, quiet room, and bathroom (no shower, though) are provided. Considered a drop-in center, people can nap, but the center is not equipped with beds or cots. Barb says, “We're all about family; you know, sharing the camaraderie of times like just before everyone sits down to the evening meal — the magic of laughter, giddy conversation, the clanking and clattering of dishes and glasses and utensils being taken from the cupboards and out of the drawers and placed on the table of plenty, the wonderful smells of good food almost ready, and the excitement, stomach growling, when one hears those words, 'dinner's ready!'”

“No one goes hungry,” says Barb.

The spirit of Our Peaceful Place is one of a family at holiday, where everyone comes home, there's dinner, lots of activity, everyone in the kitchen, others playing cards — the pulse of family life.

“We are not easily accessible by the homeless from the downtown area during the day, which is why we changed our time of outreach to the evening,” Barb said. “Although we are limited to 20 hours per week of availability, we are open at 10-hour intervals, from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

At 6:30 a.m., Barb and other volunteers start waking those who have stayed through the night.

“This schedule has been revised from Our Peaceful Place's previous schedule, daily, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.,” Barb says, “because many of the homeless are taking care of matters, for example, looking for work, hoping to be 'labor-ready' during the day, and would realize more benefit from an outreach with evening hours.”

After 1 a.m., the policy is exit only; however, if notified (through a phone call or an agency), people can enter the facility later that night.

In the earlier days of Our Peaceful Place, downtown, access was easier. However, public transportation can place one almost right at the doorstep. It's easy to get to by bus: Take number six bus down MLK or the number 40 bus down Vancouver Avenue — two blocks from main arteries — off of Alberta. Also, the MAX is free from downtown to the Convention Center, and the rest of the journey is approximately a 2.5-mile walk north from the Convention Center.

When the organization first relocated to the new location in March of this year, it received an average of 15 people per day. That has increased to nearly 40 people per day, sometimes more. Operating expenses are approximately $3,500 per month, covering overhead and utilities. Included in this is a monthly lease. Expenses are covered mostly by donations from individuals. So far, the neighborhood accepts the outreach — nothing negative has been directed toward Our Peaceful Place, according to Barb. Some interaction with the immediate neighborhood has been done, and Barb believes that increased agency awareness will make Our Peaceful Place more effective. Barb said she plans to increase interactions with neighborhood association meetings. People appreciate Our Peaceful Place, knowing that it is there to help them get through the days when they don't have help — as many have shared with Barb. One person said, “Knowing that I can come here on Thursday helps me get through the weekend, till next Tuesday.”

Children are welcome and just need to show proof of family or legal guardian to be able to stay overnight. Currently, four volunteers stay all night; three other volunteers come in and stay until around 2-3 a.m. Smoking, alcohol, or drugs are not allowed. But Barb says that has never has been a problem. “People have a great respect for Our Peaceful Place.”

Recently, Bruce Glass, previously a volunteer, was welcomed back to the team. “Bruce has managed both of our moves, is very organized, and is always willing to roll up his sleeves,” Barb said. Bruce grew up in the community where the new site is located and is a familiar face to many. Barb describes Bruce as “indispensable.”

“We are looking forward to building a reputation of warmth and welcome in this new neighborhood,” Barb said. “We hope for the opportunity to minister to old friends and look forward to being a blessing to those we have yet to meet.

“We invite you, our friends, partners, and supporters to continue to minister with us by equipping us with the day-to-day materials we need to do the work,” Barb says with open arms. “We also invite you to come visit us. Come see where we are, meet our staff and see what your support is allowing us to do.

Come see if this is the place where you would like to spend time serving the poor.”

Thanks for all you do Barb and everyone who helps with Our Peaceful Place

~ Joe Anybody & Ben Waiting

In LA the Police Arrest Homeless Sleepers

From The LA Times we see an ugly concept
The Police are arresting Homeless People who
are... sleeping on sidewalks during the day in Downtown LA, California

This is a scary though... arrested for being homeless!?
Can you imagine... You are considered a criminal for being homeless?
Scary times when the poor are thrown in jail...
Arrested for having no where to go and no where to sleep...
I am appaled... this is an outrageous decision, and full of hate and meanness!

Below is the article that I found on this website --> http://prisonplanet.com/articles/october2006/041006skidrow.htm

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The LAPD on Tuesday escalated its crackdown on skid row's homeless encampments, for the first time in months arresting transients for sleeping on the streets.

Police Chief William J. Bratton said he authorized the arrests after the L.A. city attorney's office issued a legal opinion saying that officers could arrest homeless people who slept on skid row's streets during the day.

But the new tactics were met with concern from some L.A. council members as well as the American Civil Liberties Union, which has aggressively challenged the city's efforts to remove the homeless camps.

Catherine Lhamon, racial justice director of the ACLU of Southern California, questioned whether the arrests made Tuesday are allowed under an April federal appeals court ruling that struck down the city's ban on people sleeping on streets and sidewalks.

The court, siding with the ACLU, ruled it was cruel and usual punishment to arrest homeless people for sleeping when the city could not provide enough shelter beds for them.

"It would be unwise social policy to be making arrests pursuant to that ordinance," Lhamon said.

The chief said he felt comfortable making arrests on the sleeping ordinance in part because there are more than 100 shelter beds available on skid row this week. The city attorney's office gave the go-ahead, concluding that the appeals court ruling applied only to camping at night, not during the day.

But Councilman Dennis Zine questioned a policy of arresting homeless people only during the day but allowing them to remain at night.

"It sets a terrible precedent," Zine said. "Are we going to say you can commit any type of crime if it's at a certain hour? Elsewhere in the city, like the Valley, the law is enforced 24 hours. … I think the ACLU is on shaky ground."

The new tactics come after the City Council last month rejected a compromise with the ACLU, backed by Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, that would have allowed night camping but permitted police to arrest those who camped during the day.

Bratton announced that he and Villaraigosa have reached a new compromise with the ACLU that they hope the council will consider later this month.

The arrests mark a new push in the LAPD's 10-day-old crackdown on crime and blight, which resulted in a surge of arrests and the first decline in the district's homeless count in months.

With an infusion of 50 additional officers patrolling the area, officials have removed scores of homeless encampments and recorded 600 drug arrests in the the alleys of skid row, Bratton said Tuesday.

An LAPD homeless count of the area found the population had dropped from 1,801 two weeks ago to 1,447 on Sunday.

The drop is the first since March and comes after months of counts that found both the number of homeless people and the tent cities increasing.

"Compared to two weeks ago, it is clean…. It is getting better," said Bratton, who recently has been visiting skid row daily. "This isn't about arrests. This is about changing behavior. If you control behavior, you can change an area for the better."

Bratton declined to provide details about the new settlement proposal, which was hammered out by city representatives and ACLU leaders in recent days.

Councilman Eric Garcetti said Tuesday the deal calls for the city to implement the terms, allowing night camping on skid row, outlawing it during the day and prohibiting homeless people from sleeping next to doors.

But under the compromise, all parties would ask the federal court to set aside the April decision, Garcetti said. By pulling back that ruling, it would not be published and could not set a precedent for other city homeless cases.

This is meant to address a central concern of the City Council, which feared the settlement would allow homeless people to camp out on streets at night beyond downtown.

The compromise would apply only to the skid row area. Council members also questioned the wisdom of settling the suit when some legal experts believe the city has a reasonable shot at prevailing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The LAPD deployed the extra officers last Sunday, part of a long-promised effort to clean up an area plagued for decades by chronic homelessness and drug dealing.

They have fanned out across the area, demanding that homeless people remove their camps. But Tuesday marked the first day they made arrests for violating the sidewalk sleeping ordinance.

Six homeless people were detained for violating the ordinance. Three ended up being booked on narcotics charges or outstanding warrants, one was released and two were charged with sleeping on the street.

Capt. Andrew Smith said the people booked under the ordinance refused to respond to officers' warnings to move. They were released to a homeless services agency.

The LAPD will use the sleeping ordinance only when it knows there are beds available — some 141 on Tuesday, Smith added.

The added police presence came amid growing concern that skid row's problems were getting worse. LAPD homeless counts found the homeless street population in skid row rose from 1,345 in March to 1,527 in July and 1,876 in September.

Some fear the crackdown is simply pushing some homeless people into adjoining neighborhoods, particularly the Newton Division just south of downtown, where some have noticed an increase in transients. Smith said the LAPD is aware of that potential and is planning to survey the area's homeless population in the coming weeks.

Edward Jones, a plaintiff in the original ACLU lawsuit who still lives on skid row, said he was disappointed by the LAPD's tactics. He said it ignores a larger reality about homelessness in L.A.

"I am out here because I can't afford to live anywhere else," he said.

When Bratton took office in 2002, he vowed to apply the same "broken windows" theory of law enforcement to skid row that he successfully used in New York's Times Square when he was chief of that city's Police Department in the early 1990s.

But the department slowed its efforts after the ACLU filed its lawsuit in 2003.

Some of the region's top political leaders, including Villaraigosa and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, have vowed in the last several months to make skid row a priority. The area has long had the largest concentration of homeless people in the western U.S. and is the site of about 20% of all drug arrests in the city.

The focus on skid row has also coincided with a boom in residential development downtown, with luxury lofts and condos rising on the fringes of the district.

The original ACLU settlement faced some of its greatest opposition from downtown developers and residents. They argued that signing off on a deal that allows homeless people to sleep on the streets at night would worsen skid row's already severe problems.

Estela Lopez, executive director Central City East Assn., said she remains skeptical about any deal that allows night tent cities.

"Elected officials move on. Chiefs of police move on. Attorneys for the ACLU move on," she said. "The only people who are going to live with the consequences of whatever is settled or whatever the appeal is are the people" in downtown.