0 American Christmas Celebrations, Not (Homeless) Family Friendly

Christmas spoiler alert: I am not a fan of what Christmas seems to have become here in America.

Beyond that, I'm not a fan of what this country continues to do to millions of families who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.

Like Tina. Here's my latest AlterNet post on her holiday-hell. If you're not going to read it--the bottom line is this gallant mother of 7 children is right now scrambling around to move her family into a small house trailer before Jan. 1.

The kicker--she's got to wait for the local housing authority to inspect the 3-BR trailer she's located to move into to make sure it's up to the HUD (US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development) standards. Factor in double holidays at the end of this month and she'll be lucky to make this all happen. If she doesn't, her family will be on the streets in a city without a family shelter.

She didn't procrastinate. Her landlord gave her exactly 30 days notice as required. She jumped right into the search, list of potential housing units in hand. When they weren't panning out, she pleaded for an extension but no go. Speculation is that he's losing the house where her family's lived for this past year. They've gotta go.

I don't know, but I'm thinking Tina and her kids probably aren't enjoying this commercially-motivated Christmas season. And I know they're not the only families suffering from house-lessness, hunger and other maladies during this time of year when most of us are involved in parties, time off from work with pay, shopping and ripping into presents. Scant media attention is given to these unfortunate millions, with a smattering of feel-good stories about Christmas cookies and Barbie dolls being shared with shelter kids.

Here's stuff most people don't know about how millions of our nation's most vulnerable families are housed:

• Subsidized housing, which pays the balance of rent after 30%, using our tax dollars, is only available for about 25% of those who really need it.
• Tenants must pay utilities and deposits, often hundreds of dollars.
• Strict rules govern tenants' behavior--and being kicked out of housing or falling behind on rent can blemish their record to the point of banning them from this program.
• Family/friends who need a place to stay can't bunk with their subsidized housing friend/family member. Guests are limited to 10 days...and pushing that can get everyone tossed to the streets.
• Family/friends with felony records are typically banned from subsidized housing properties.
• With 30 days notice, at the end of the lease period, the owner can tell the tenant to move. No recourse. 

Housing authorities oversee subsidized housing. They get federal funds. HUD's budget, now about $45 billion, despite the increased population and soaring poverty and homelessness, has been drastically slashed by the housed Members of Congress over the past 3 decades. That doesn't take into account The Sequester, when HUD's budget took an additional and devastating 10% hit.

Imagine--please--what Tina's family is going through now. No tree or Christmas celebration for the kids. Her truck's axle broke the other day, adding to her fiscal duress. She's scrambling around gathering boxes, shoving stuff in it, and getting her older kids (14 YO) to help. Stress, stress and more stress. 

Before you label Tina's family as freeloaders, dependent on government assistance, swallow this bitter pill:

According to WRAP, the recent big corporate bailout cost taxpayers over $800 BILLION, far exceeding the entire homelessness/housing assistance budget for 3 decades.

In the spirit of anti-commercial-Christmas, I'd call on a boycott of this carnage called "Christmas" until the most vulnerable families in this country have what they need to (at least) humanly survive. I'm guessing that even Jesus would approve.

Detail: American Christmas Celebrations, Not (Homeless) Family Friendly

0 New Report Quantifies Challenges Facing Homeless Moms: Give 'Em A Break...or Help

As a former shelter director, I confess that big and little infractions by families staying at our shelter sometimes annoyed the snot out of me. If I knew then what I know now….

Homelessness has gained more awareness, but unfortunately the stereotypical guy begging on the street corner image prevails despite the reality that families and youth without homes far exceed HUD’s “chronically” homeless individuals,last reported as 610,043 (Jan. 2013).  And despite documentation that homelessness among children/youth has increased more than 70% since 2006, homeless kids don’t seem to count. Schools have identified 1,168,354 students, a record number that doesn’t include babies, toddlers and youth outside school systems. Congress hasn't learned that helping kids and families is cost effective, not to mention the right thing to do.

The families in our shelters taught me their circumstances were never simple. Sadly, family-unfriendly policies and practices prevail. In my book, Crossing the Line: Taking Steps to End Homelessness, I share stories of families and offer a multi-choice menu of causes of homelessness. Even that doesn’t cover the gamut.

Unenlightened shelter staff and bureaucrats can be quick to condemn the parent, typically a single mom, pointing out flaws in her behavior, choices and lifestyle. Too many shelters turn away hard-to-serve families.

A new report, Service and Housing Interventions for Families (SHIFT), produced by theWilson Foundation in collaboration with the National Center on Family Homelessness, documents needs of women with children experiencing homeless and explores effective approaches. In the process, it points to the common shortcomings of our family shelter “system.”

The report focuses on women and their children in emergency, transitional shelters and permanent supportive housing in the Rochester and western New York region, not in metro areas. From what I’ve seen in my 9 years of HEAR US Inc. travels, the NY findings appear to reflect homelessness among families similarly sized communities.

The report’s key findings:

• 93% mothers had a history of trauma.
• 81% experienced multiple traumatic events.
• 79% had experienced trauma in childhood.
• 56% had multiple childhood traumas.
• 82% experienced trauma in adulthood.
• 64% experienced multiple traumas in adulthood.

Other significant findings:

• Obviously “the most powerful predictor of residential stability for homeless and low-income families is vouchers or housing subsidies,” but Congress is poised to drastically cut the already inadequate vouchers.
• Doubled up was the 2nd most common option when families moved out of shelters.
• The average childhood traumas experienced, 3.2.
• Sexual assaults, often in childhood, were common. (Watch our film on the edge: Family Homelessness in America to hear from women with firsthand experiences.)
• Despite the high rate of women experiencing PTSD-inducing trauma, only 5% reported receiving treatment.
• A significant number, 20%, reported being homeless as a child, with even more, 24%, spending time in foster care.

The report gets even more valuable, pointing out often-ignored realities:

• Depression is common, yet tragically untreated.
• Women in permanent supportive housing reported higher rates of sexual abuse, bipolar and other mental illnesses, and psychiatric hospitalizations. The connection between PTSD, substance abuse, and depression is significant, and under-treated.
• The mother’s mental health was tied to the frequency of separation or the proximity of her children, commonly either removed by authorities or farmed out to survive unstable housing circumstances.

We need a better way of helping vulnerable women with kids. Kicking out or denying service to hard-to-serve women (likely depressed or experiencing other mental health issues), penalizing and incarcerating, or berating doesn’t work. Worst case example, the death of a mother who had been locked up for failure to pay school fees.

But since our federal government has yet to prioritize, much less fund, efforts to end family homelessness, we’ll be hashing this issue around for years to come, wondering why kids fail to thrive, parents fail to parent, jails are filled, schools stumble, and poverty soars. That annoys the snot out of me the most.

Republished from AlterNet, 6/19/14 

Detail: New Report Quantifies Challenges Facing Homeless Moms: Give 'Em A Break...or Help

0 The Weirdness of Facebook

Posted to my Facebook page October 12, 2013 at 5:28pm

A simultaneous conversation between 2 people I know and love...and me is way too weird.

On one thread, a former employee who worked with me helping homeless families.

The other thread, a formerly homeless mom that I've gotten to know quite well.

My former employee, hard-working, mother and a decent person.

My mom-friend, a hard-working stay-at-home single mother and a decent person.

The difference? Poverty, opportunity (or lack thereof) and perspective, for starters.

My former employee is evidently listening to the gospel of prosperity in one of its many forms, perhaps designed to encourage people to reach their full potential, thus eschewing dependence on government system, relying on God.

My mom-friend is being ravaged by the reality of poverty and bureaucratic dysfunction keeping her from life-saving surgery for cancer. Insurance-less, she's being denied the surgery she needs because she doesn't have the $13,000 to cover the procedure she desperately needs.

The argument against dependence on a system is valid--as far as it goes. People need to be encouraged to be independent, some need the nudge more than others. However, I don't believe that everyone all the time can avoid the system. And God is, was, and ever shall be distorted by human condition.

In some cases, lacking a personal support network, when the rug gets pulled out from under you by any number of disastrous experiences that can befall any of us at any time, you may need help. Or when you have no where to go but up, and no way to scale the slippery walls surrounding you, lacking a miracle, you'll perish. From what I've seen, miracles are in short supply for too many deserving, unfortunate souls.

In this case, my mom-friend is being told her life is worth nothing by virtue of inaccessible health care. She's been told she makes too much (child support) to qualify for Obamacare coverage.

In my opinion, the hoopla over Obamacare has fueled the disdain of the poor, not to mention a government shutdown, among other things. The haves are looking down on the have-nots, and in this case, the systemic looking down is depriving millions of babies, children, teens and adults of what they need most to live, much less thrive.

Implying that government is bad and people become dependent on hand-outs is a popular position. For religious leaders to preach it is, in my mind, holy malpractice. If this is what their congregations are hearing, then the preachers need a reality check.

I'm not sticking up for government across the board. Plenty is wrong with the way it's been going for a long time. But to toss government out...well...I'm just not sure that Jesus, or any other spiritual force, will be coming down in time to save the imperiled...like my mom-friend who needs surgery NOW.

Have we gotten to a point where we're even more isolated, using church walls to block out society's dysfunction and to separate believers from the undeserving? Inspiring others to reach for the gold and disdain the broken will accomplish just what the puppet-masters seek--total anarchy among the masses.

Whether or not anyone has thought through what this means is a valid concern. The blatant disregard of humanity --and our responsibility for ourselves and others--will bring about a whole new world...far weirder than I can even imagine. For my mom-friend, it very much means her children will lose their mother.

But thinking seems to be in short supply during this crisis of confidence in our elected officials. And we'll all pay the price.

Detail: The Weirdness of Facebook

0 Who Pays?

Within the past few days, I’ve been asked for money 3 times by deserving people who are "economically-challenged." Generous as I like to think I am, I’m coming up short. And I'm getting annoyed...not at the askers.

The first was easy to help. A slight, bearded man politely asked if I had any change. I used to agonize about people on the streets asking me for money, but that was before the economy tanked (one might be tempted to ask how it tanked, who was responsible?) and I had to acknowledge that some folks weren’t going to make it through the day without us sharing. And I can do it without judgment, a personal accomplishment.

Second, a reasonable request on one hand, but it could be seen as frivolous by those with a discerning eye toward self-sufficiency: a mother of 3 small boys wants help getting them Halloween costumes. The family is in an undefined/unsanctioned state of homelessness, bad enough, but they are also grappling with horrendous health issues with all of the boys, who apparently have been exiled by the local public school system—deeming these little guys too tough to handle. So much for free, appropriate education....

Third, a young woman I’ve known for about 20 years asked if I’d help raise funds for essential back surgery following an accident; she had a seizure and totaled her truck. She has no insurance and no income. She just started nursing school, which may be on hold unless things come together fast, leaving her income-less, and pretty well screwed. I just can’t fathom how this country, with money to spare for the things it wants to spend it on, can’t figure out how to make sure people can get quality health care. And holding bake sales seems a tad ineffective in light of the 100s of thousands in medical bills. 

Now, those, ahem, more conservative readers are stirring in their seats thinking, “If people would just be more self-sufficient, and better use their money, they’d have what they need.” And, let’s assume for a moment that it is true (far from my belief).... 

That kind of thinking assumes that at the count of 3 that everyone will jump up and become productive enough to afford the basics of food, health care, housing, etc. What about those who, for any number of valid reasons, are not able to jump up and pull it all together? What about those mired so deeply in the pit of poverty that they’d need a crane to lift them out? What about those who couldn’t succeed in this crazy and cruel world despite their best, albeit flawed, effort? What about those working for corporations like Walmart, whose wages are so low they qualify for welfare (my tax dollars and yours)?

Do we just toss people into the dump? We already toss “dead-beats” into jail, further impeding their self-sufficiency and self-esteem. Who pays for this punitive and fruitless approach?

What’s wrong with bolstering a safety net for those who need help temporarily, with dignity, letting them move forward, while ensuring those who need more substantial assistance to receive it?

It’s not just Congress’ fault, though they bear a significant responsibility, as do our President and elected officials. Each person, according to their abilities, must be responsible for living a productive life. And to those who have been given much, much is asked, but to those who've been slammed with daunting challenges, they need help. Continuing on the path of our mutually destructive ways, the weakest will crumble and fall. 

Do we think that the wealthy/healthy among us deserve to enjoy the fruits of their—and other—labors while the lowly crumble and fall? Who pays? still demands an answer. I'm not holding my breath.

NOTE: "Garbage" photo, (c)Pat Van Doren, used with permission

Detail: Who Pays?

0 Poverty and Homelessness: Call It What It Is!

A family having "hard times" (translation, homeless because they lost their housing due to hardship) in Starkville, MS was taken in by a mother who understood what "hard times" does to a family, as she was not far from that pernicious condition. On Monday, Dec. 28, in Starkville, a fire rooted in poverty and overcrowded living space took their lives, 3 women and 6 small children.

Having known "hard times," India Williams, the 25-year-old mother of 3 small children, squeezed the other 2 women and 3 children into her humble apartment because they needed a place to stay. I'm not sure of the exact circumstances, but having seen this tragic story unfold countless times, I would guess that a domestic disturbance, money problems, and/or neighborhood violence caused the loss of housing.

The fire that took their lives, sadly, is not unlike a mostly unnoticed nationwide house fire epidemic (certainly getting less attention than H1N1), as winter's wrath has frozen even Florida. The Red Cross reports a 200% increase in house fires in this country, and utility shut-offs cause a good number of those fires as impoverished and desperately cold households turn to unsafe methods to stay warm. (Does your Red Cross do more than put house fire survivors in a motel for just a few days? Enlighten me.)

I've noticed an interesting, and revealing, phenomenon when it comes to news stories about these tragedies. "Hard times" is a common term. The Tulsa World just ran a story with the headline "Tough Times" that described poverty among families in the OK state. The Denver Post just ran a superb feature on CO childhood poverty, people "trying to get by."

"Hard times," "tough times," "trying to get by," are euphemisms for abject poverty and homelessness. I want to call it what it is so thick-headed legislators and policymakers get a clue. Poverty causes a dreadful ripple effect through all communities. It costs more to maintain poverty than it does to holistically address it.

So HEAR US is launching a campaign, "Up the Food Chain," to challenge mayors to look at hard times for what it is--poverty. We're setting up a simple way for people to petition mayors to go up the "food chain" to urge legislators on state and national levels to seriously address poverty. We're targeting communities where poverty-related house fires occur, hoping to in some small way make sense out of these tragedies.

Why mayors? Well, the US Conference of Mayors is an influential body, and they have ties--formal and not--to other politicians. Petitions get mayors' attention, as demonstrated with the successful campaign HEAR US launched in Grand Junction, CO that improved daytime options for homeless families otherwise left out in the cold.

Seems to me that it's time to put significant energy--or at least a few keyboard clicks--into something worthwhile, reducing hard times, before we all get to know first-hand what it means to experience hard times. I urge you to join our effort, share this campaign, and do what you can in your community to make lives of homeless children, families living in poverty, and those having hard times just a little easier. We'll all be better for it.

Detail: Poverty and Homelessness: Call It What It Is!

0 Good Ship USS USA Going Down?

Imagine a ship filled with passengers and crew, an adequate vessel owned by a wealthy, respected maritime corporation.

The ship fairly capably sails for a long time, and passengers and crew are mostly satisfied. But, unbeknownst to the passengers and the lower-ranking, least respected crew members—those who do the grungy grunt work—things are drastically changing.

Instead of plotting the course, the officers, including previous Captains, have spent a lot of time plotting how to have better accommodations and more control, at the expense of both passengers and the “non-essential” crew. This top-down systemic mutiny doesn’t happen with one swing of the sword, but as a gradual, noticeable change in the way things happen and how the ship's supplies are divvied up.

Soon it becomes apparent that because of the redistribution of space and materials, something has to give. With little fanfare, lowest ranking crew gets tossed overboard; then passengers, the least-affluent, up through the ranks. Finally, only the elite members of the crew remain and a handful of very lucky, and very wealthy, passengers who were able to buy their safety.

To say operations became dysfunctional is an understatement. Despite the need for crew and passengers for balance, the ship kept churning, although in erratic circles. Without adequate sailors and crew, the ship hits a hidden shoal, seriously damaging its hull. Abandon ship! Anarchy reigns....

The good ship USA is off course. Alienation is the norm. Thrashing, desperate former ship occupants and crew scramble to get on the lifeboats as the USS USA starts to list further to the right. The elite passengers and crew struggle to repel the invaders. With incredible help from the waterlogged masses, a new Captain, determined to rescue the ousted passengers and crew, fights his way on board and makes his way to the top deck.

Now what?

Take the above analogy and apply it to the current health care debate, or affordable housing/homelessness issues, racism, sexism, fair wages, environment, or any conundrum between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

We're at a time in our country's history when more people are disenfranchised than ever. Homelessness among families, teens and single adults has blown off the charts. Poverty is spreading like wildfire thanks to those who schemed to gain control of even more money and power by sabotaging national and global economic engines.

Don't tell me that we CAN'T improve things. We can't afford to fail. Remember, we've managed to make progress on many essential issues, but every time we crawl onto the lifeboat we let some big brute stomp on our fingers and kick us off.

Seems to me that the only hope is for a strong voice of reason to be heard above the cacophonous cries of the self-interested mutineers. They need to walk the plank. Captain Obama and the masses need to get our mass-asses together and kick some ass. We may have to out-mutiny the mutineers....

NOTE: The New York Times ran a powerful op-ed column about poverty by Barbara Eherenreich, one of my s-heroes. It's worth reading, pondering and sharing! DDN

Detail: Good Ship USS USA Going Down?

0 Signs of the Times

Counting my 3 blogs--this, my Camper's RVue, and the HEAR US media center--this entry is my 100th blog! In honor of this momentous occasion, I am offering a free "Piggies" poster to the first 10 people who email me mentioning the 100th blog. diane@hearus.us will do it!

(This house is not the house in this blog, but it easily could be. It is in the same neighborhood.)

Sunday morning at the campground I watched a 5-ish year-old girl do the kid thing on a scooter, going up and down the paved road in front of the campsites. She was focused on her mission, seemingly to set a worlds’ record for going back and forth on a scooter. Some adult was outside, sort of keeping an eye on her.

Then I headed to M’s house, one of the kids who participated in the HEAR US documentary, My Own Four Walls. The yard and street were not fit for playing in. To be honest, the house, from what I could see, wasn’t fit for living in, but it is a roof over this vulnerable family’s head.

From the porch I could hear sounds of kids playing inside. One of the older boys answered the door and at least had enough sense to appropriately question why I wanted to talk to his younger sister.

Some families have everything, or at least an abundance of what they need, or sufficient resources to meet their needs, and sometimes even their wants. Other families, a growing segment, have not even enough to meet their basic needs. M’s family would fall in that category. They live in poverty in an impoverished neighborhood. They have little, if any, hope to get ahead. Their worry is keeping this shabby roof over their heads, knowing that if they lose it, homelessness hits them in the face, again.

As I drove along the PA countryside, through the mountain towns and countryside, I saw as many “FSBO” (for sale by owner) signs and for sale/rent signs on shuttered businesses as I saw presidential campaign signs. I thought of the money spent by both sides on this blistering campaign for a job that no one in their right mind would want. Spending hundreds of millions to slam the other and promote themselves, these candidates are taking disconnected to new levels, so far from M and her family that the gap will never be closed.

Will the next president be able to reach his influence into hopeless neighborhoods like this and so many others, to touch the lives of people with homes and without, to gently lift them up from the downward spiral that has enmeshed so many families in this past 8 years?

Or will more join these, the huddled masses, in the growing underclass that doesn't seem to matter unless it's you or someone you know heading in that direction.

It seems to me that it's time for a trickle-up approach. Let's reinforce the safety net, insulate people from abject poverty, provide resources for health care, education, and child care; utilize abandoned/foreclosed housing to shelter families, create jobs that would let people work on the infrastructure that the rich have so long neglected...it can't be any worse. But it will take some informed voters to figure out the candidate likely to care about those who have nothing. I'm having a hard time not mentioning any names....

Detail: Signs of the Times

0 Can't Help But Wonder...

My perspective is different than the average American, whatever that means any more. I look at the extremes of wealth and poverty with a somewhat jaded eye, knowing more about the effects of the extremes on the bottom end than the top.

That being said, I can't help but read this op-ed submission with agreement as to the absurdity of income levels of Wall Street's leaders who seem to have led this country's, and global, economy down the toilet.

As millions of US households struggle with unmanageable mortgage payments, falling home values and foreclosure, Wall Street executives are awarding themselves record year-end bonuses.

Major US banks are reporting billions of dollars in write-offs from bad investments and double-digit losses in stock value. Nevertheless, among the four largest investment firms—Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns—bonuses amount to nearly $30 billion.

You see, my thoughts tend to drift to the "have-nots" who have not even a place to call home.

The kids who played with these stuffed animals are now getting closer and closer to the abyss of the worst kind of homelessness that families experience--having absolutely no place to stay at any time.

Imagine, if you will, hearing mom and dad stress out because they know their motel room costs more than they can pay, and their city has no place for them to turn for emergency shelter. That stress pours out, tainting family life with a toxic residue that poisons the kids as well as the adults.

If this family can't soon find a home they will slip further into the vortex of homelessness. It shreds any vestige of "normal" family life that exists. It causes people to make mistakes, some serious, as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Parents slip into despair because they can't provide the basics for their children. Kids act out, knowing their lives are not anything like they were, and they become alienated from friends and isolated from normal childhood experiences.

What would one of these over-compensated money people say to the kids who had to leave their toys behind in the home their family lived in for the past 5 years, paying rent and caring for each other, when the landlord refused to make needed repairs and the city condemned the property?

Seems to me that real national leaders would realize that allowing out-of-control wealth building is not good for anyone, including the overly-wealthy who have more money than God. But changing things would turn today's economy on its ear. How bad could that be?

Detail: Can't Help But Wonder...