From Congressional Staff to Bringing America Home NOW

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By Zach Bernstein

Joel Segal has spent the last several decades answering a question that plagues activist organizations while he worked on Capital Hill as well as out in the field—how do we get things done? His vast wealth of experience with outreach, activism, and policymaking at every level of government has allowed him to gain a thorough understanding of how to make change actually happen. Segal is a problem-solver, utilizing a systemic understanding of issues to craft policy solutions to resolve those problems with a conviction that we can overcome barriers facing the voters through collaboration and setting a goal to make change happen. Segal was recently hired to take on the campaign of the National Coalition for the Homeless “Bring America Home Now“—a comprehensive strategy to end homelessness in the United States. 

Show them how to solve it, and how to pay for it,” he said. “Get experts together and write bills—but do it with the people impacted. Then you’ve got to pass the bill.” Segal’s intense focus on helping those experiencing oppression is what sets him apart from most other policymakers in DC. “We can’t dance around be nice to the system,” he said. “You’ve got to shine a big mirror, show them this is what you’re doing to people.” Making people aware of the struggles of others and amplifying the voices of the oppressed is a major part of Segal’s strategy, one which lends itself to a model of social justice which is intent on making things happen.

One of Segal’s major achievements has been as a pioneer of the universal healthcare movement and as a co-writer of the original Medicare for All Bill as a staffer for Rep. John Conyers, introduced in Congress in 2003. Segal’s fight for Medicare for All began when he was kicked out of George Washington University Hospital for being uninsured. After the experience he promised himself he would start a universal healthcare movement—and he did just that. He began by meeting and getting to know other uninsured people online, then he began attending meetings of the Gray Panthers, an activist group, with whom he discussed the possibility of fighting for universal healthcare. He started holding town hall meetings on the issue, and eventually launched his campaign with a speech on the steps of the Capitol with Rep. Barney Frank and then-Rep. Bernie Sanders. 

Four weeks later, Segal was hired to the staff of Rep. Conyers, with whom he traveled to congressional districts around the country, holding town halls to promote the cause of universal healthcare. He brought together people who were uninsured, activists, and members of Congress. Segal firmly believes in the power of town hall meetings—they “take the emotion and anger and frustration, and bring it right to the doorstep of elected officials and civil society leaders,” he says. More importantly, town halls transform people’s feelings. “People aren’t going to talk to homeless people,” he remarked. “You have to bring the pain and suffering to them.” Segal also advocated for a systemic approach: “Always try to show how structural deficits create an amazing amount of trauma and pain that is immoral. Just because you have a system that’s in place doesn’t mean that it’s a moral system.” 

The next step is to organize around policies, says Segal. Mobilize in the streets, and then pass reforms, he says. Segal is insistent that legislation should be the most important goal of the movement, saying that while suburban activists may deny the importance of policy, legislation has the power to make a real difference to the lives of people living in shelters or on the street. Always tie your activism to legislation, always march with a purpose, he said. That’s how you create a movement.

Segal centers his activism around building passionate communities. In order to build a movement, “you’ve got to find the right people,” he believes. Building communities and families with similar interests, compassionate hearts and sometimes a little humor is the key to successful organizing. Segal cites his Jewish heritage and upbringing as a major inspiration for this philosophy. For thousands of years, he explained, the Jewish people survived by laughing, by caring for each other, and by enjoying life—even in the face of great adversity. This is the sort of community Segal seeks to emulate in the movements he creates. “You don’t build a community by being corporate,” he said. Building a community by fashioning relationships with one another is how you create a successful movement. And, he pointed out, by building those relationships, people who aren’t necessarily invested in the specific issue will offer support if they like the person pitching their support and if they have developed a connection. 

But it’s not always such smooth sailing for Segal—he is as aware as anyone that the work of an activist can be discouraging. But, he said, “righteous indignation will keep you going.” He recalled some work he did in Congress, when he and others plastered the halls with a laminated picture of an uninsured family. That’s what keeps him going, Segal reflected. There are poor people, sick people, and seniors in this country with no rights to healthcare or housing—“and those are things they can’t live without,” he said. “We’re the richest country in the world, so we’ve got to figure this out.” “Go where the pain is, keep with those people, walk with them,” he said. Doing that, seeing and understanding the hardships they are going through, should get you through any discouragement.

It’s important to Segal that he always walks with the people he’s trying to help, never above them. He always is sure to organize “the people at the tip of the oppression” first in order to build communities based on love and care. In one story he told, Segal started up an emergency winter shelter by taking over a park with about 120 people from a shelter, promising the people living in tents they wouldn’t be left out in the cold. The key, Segal recalled, was going directly to the people in the tents and teaching them how to organize, how to do TV interviews and other such skills. Segal is well-practiced in building bridges, especially with people with whom he, or the organization he is working with, might have little in common. “Respect the person when you first meet them and ask them what they are working on,” he said. The most important thing, he advised, is to ensure “everyone benefits from the work you are doing. That’s how you build a coalition.”  He will work to organize diverse communities to put in place legislation that fundamentally changes the injustice that every unhoused person in America understands and has to overcome with BAHN.

“The problem with this country is we evolved into a Reagan nation,” Segal said—a nation where you look out for yourself and no one else. “How do we get people to care about each other again?” Segal wondered. “How do we get that back, just caring about each other?” That, Segal emphasized, is the crucial work of any activist but especially those working on behalf of a traditionally marginalized group. Not only must we fight for our political goals, but to do that we need to build coalitions, build power and in the end build families. By creating families of people dedicated to a cause, we can get things done. We can bring the pain of the people to the doorsteps of the powerful; we can get people to understand that pain; and most importantly we can write bills and pass laws to alleviate that suffering. Segal firmly believes that we can make the world a better place by working with one another. “There’s nothing more powerful than caring about each other,” he said as he begins his journey to Bring America Home. 

The pandemic has caused great disruption in our economy. But even before COVID started to spread across the world, decades of institutional racism had caused racially-based inequity in housing, education, employment, criminal justice, civil rights and health care. It is this underlying discrimination, plus ongoing political inaction to address the root causes of homelessness, that has left the U.S. with a situation where our emergency housing systems are in no way capable of assisting millions of households that may become homeless.

Our systems are already overwhelmed – We do not need another big wave of homelessness!

State and Local Guide to getting help

Read more about the current situation and need for rental assistance during the ongoing pandemic economic downturn:

Legal and Institutional Resources:

State and City Rental Assistance Examples:

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The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) and the National Organization for Women (NOW), along with advocates, tenants, and community leaders will gather in late October, in Washington, DC, and communities across the country to push for the prevention of anyone falling into homelessness.

National Organization for Women and National Coalition for the Homeless call for addressing the emergency of evictions

“The homeless social service sector cannot accommodate any more people during this national health emergency with rising levels of COVID-19 in many communities. There are millions of dollars sitting on the table from the federal government and we need state and local officials to move mountains to get rental assistance out to those facing evictions,” said NCH executive director Donald Whitehead.  

In August, CNBC reported 11 million households are behind on their rent, but even if only 1 million get evicted the homeless shelters and services will collapse. Whitehead said that shelters have had to de-concentrate due to the pandemic and do not have the means of taking more people in to provide a safe place to stay while they look to find other housing options.  

We are urging the Governors to do whatever they can to stop any evictions into homelessness or they will see the huge rise in those living outside that Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, and Phoenix have seen over the last year.  

The Problem

As of Thursday, August 26, 2021, the federal moratorium on evictions related to COVID was lifted. As many as 35 million people in the United States, whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by pandemic-related economic shut down, are at risk of homelessness. 

What’s more, there are hundreds of thousands of people and families who were placed into hotel rooms with CARES Act funding that is due to expire. Many of these folks will be forced back onto the streets, and into congregate shelters, with desperately increased risk of contracting COVID.

This is a massive economic and public health crisis, disproportionately affecting people of color. We must protect individuals and families – and especially our children and youth.

What we Know

Without safe housing, millions of people will be forced into congregate settings, increasing the risk of transmitting COVID-19, at a time when hospitals are operating at capacity.  

Lack of capacity at the state and local level, combined with bureaucratic red tape, has prevented up to 75% of aid from the Federal government from reaching renters and desperate to maintain their housing. 

Even though it is illegal, there is the danger that families forced back into homelessness risk losing custody of their children. Studies have shown overwhelmingly that safe housing has more to do with a child’s wellbeing and achievement than any other single factor. 

People who are unhoused face targeted enforcement and criminalization of life-sustaining activities. This over-criminalization separates families, eliminates employment options and further jeopardizes the mental and physical health of those affected.

What has been done

Through the CARES Act and the American Recovery Plan, the federal government has allocated over $85 Billion to housing and homelessness programs, including $25 billion specifically for Emergency Housing Vouchers. Many communities have used these recovery dollars to house folks temporarily in hotel and motel rooms, and further secure individual housing accommodations. But many of these programs are closing and people are being returned to congregate shelters or the streets.

The U.S. Treasury has provided explicit direction to local agencies distributing funds to allow renters and landlords to attest to their need without onerous documentation. The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Veterans Affairs (VA) have also taken action to protect and support vulnerable renter households. The Secretaries of HUD and Treasury, along with the Attorney General, wrote a letter to governors, mayors, county Executives, and chief Justices and state court administrators to issue their own moratoria, stay evictions while rental assistance applications process, and use ERA and State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to enhance tenant access to legal representation. 

But we know that landlords and eviction courts are eager to start processing evictions that have been held up. We know too that without legal representation, tenants overwhelmingly are not able to exercise their full rights to remain in housing.

What we Need

NOW and NCH are urging local and state elected officials to assign additional staff, enlist every housing non-profit in their communities to get this money to the people in need! Additionally, struggling Americans need:

  • Congress to pass legislation halting any eviction until ERA and Recovery applications are fully processed. 
  • Emergency Rental Assistance and other recovery programs should assume presumptive eligibility, instead of forcing long drawn out documentation of need. 
  • Landlords should get paid all back rent, either through direct payment and/or tax credit within 30 days.
  • There needs to be broad civic education on renter rights and eviction and homelessness prevention, in addition to ending and addressing the underlying causes of poverty and homelessness.

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The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), founded in 1981, is the oldest national organization focused on ending homelessness in America.  It is a national network of people currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to their mission of: To end and prevent homelessness while ensuring the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness are met and their civil rights protected. NCH’s advocacy addresses the root causes of homelessness including lack of affordable housing, and partnering to write landmark legislation including the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. 


The National Organization for Women is the largest grassroots organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has hundreds of thousands of contributing supporters and members in chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since its founding in 1966, NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

There are cities throughout the United States moving displaced citizens onto public land typically in tents calling these locations “sanctioned encampments.” It is the position of the National Coalition for the Homeless that housing is a human right which is defined as a safe, affordable, accessible place to call a home. The issue is that by identifying a “sanctioned encampment” cities by default are declaring that there are “unsanctioned” encampments.  NCH does not believe that people who are experiencing a period of homelessness should become involved with law enforcement while trying to survive. 

Photo credit: Justin Sullivan
  • It should go without saying, but in the current divided society with words being distorted to become propaganda for those who want to make it illegal to be without housing, we must say that a tent is not a permanent solution to homelessness.  Secure, safe, accessible and affordable housing should be available to every family or single individual who requests a place to live. 
  • In a free society, a person should be able to congregate with others and peacefully assemble in groups of their choosing not forced to live where the municipal government decides with neighbors of their choosing.
  • No one should be forced by any authority or coerced to choose between a place with large numbers packed together or face criminalization for being homeless and living without shelter. Whether this is forcing someone into a congregate living facility that strips a person of their dignity or sending them to a government sanctioned site to pitch a tent, people living in the United States have always cherished the free will to not be told what neighborhood or municipality to reside in by government or government funded organizations.
  • Persons who refuse forced entry into any facility must not be categorized as “service resistant” and thereby face incarceration or exclusion from services. They should receive trauma informed care by trained professionals and be met with services they request not services forced on them. 
  • In the current environment in which municipal governments have largely given up on affordable housing solutions to homelessness and instead resorted to using law enforcement as the primary point of contact for those without housing, we see a broader trend in which the mere offer of any kind of assistance or social service is enough for local governments and law enforcement to justify penalty, arrest or a threat to withdraw a person’s liberty for those who reject the help.  We believe that sanctioned encampments will be used as permanent placements for local jurisdictions to avoid providing safe, affordable, accessible and permanent housing.
  • Sanctioned encampments are an inexpensive alternative to building housing or shelters that serve the needs of those individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness. 
  • Local governments should not act as nannies for adults and force them to a segregated section of town to live under a set of rules developed by strangers under threat of arrest if the taxpayer strays from the sanctioned encampment.  

By Zachary Bernstein, Summer 2021 NCH Civil Rights Intern

During our conversation, Loh asked me to imagine my family and I were victims of one of the wildfires currently ravaging the western part of the country. Imagine your documents—passports, birth certificates, etc.—were destroyed in the fire, Loh said, and you do not qualify for assistance based on your economic status. It takes a while to get those documents back, Loh pointed out, and meanwhile you have nothing, and no help—nothing more than people staying in shelters, or tents in the woods, or directly on the street. “This is how people fall into deep poverty,” Loh told me.

Cleveland is one of the most historic cities in the United States, Loh said, and yet they allow nearly half the children in the city (46.1% in 2019) to live below the poverty line. That means one of every two children does not have enough to eat and goes to bed hungry nearly every night in Cleveland. This is clearly not the fault of each individual person, Loh emphasized again and again, but a failure of the system to keep people from slipping into poverty. 

Loh, a community activist in Cleveland, Ohio, works with the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, the Homeless Congress, and with the Poor People’s Campaign to amplify the voices of those struggling with housing.  Loh has experienced homelessness for the past ten years. We spoke for just ninety minutes, but over the course of that time, Loh painted me a portrait of a system of shelters, service providers, and government bureaucracy that has failed its most vulnerable citizens at every level. Having dealt with activism and struggling as a person experiencing homelessness and as an activist, Loh understands the ins and outs of this system in great detail—Loh understands why it has allowed its citizens to live on the street, why it has allowed its shelters to fall into disrepair, and why it has repeatedly stonewalled efforts to help these people. But most importantly of all, Loh understands how to thwart that system.

To Loh, the most important principle of organizing for the homeless is that you cannot solely organize people experiencing homelessness. The reason people are homeless, Loh points out, is because they do not have resources, they are already overwhelmed with their own economic and personal issues. In addition, Loh observes, homeless people often do not want to go out of their way to let people know they are homeless. Loh believes that organizing for homeless advocacy must involve targeting those who are housed as well as those with resources and political will. A key is to target the powerful and those who have decision-making authority to enable the movement to thrive and achieve its goals. 

In one story Loh told, a class at the Cleveland Institute of Art wanted to start an artistic outreach project for the homeless community, but had several eye-opening experiences attempting to gain access to people staying in shelters, realizing the extent of the systemic failure experienced by the homeless. Working with Loh and other members of the Homeless Congress, one student in the class changed his project to stage mock groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies that included testimonials from homeless people about their experiences in shelters. The project got publicity in newspapers, and Loh recalls how people were amazed at the stories that shelter residents had to tell. This is merely one example, but it demonstrates the power of pairing the knowledge of people who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness (such as Loh) with the power, time, and resources of those who are not. “You have to be able to organize people outside the system,” Loh emphasizes. Loh is a fixture at the County Council meetings railing against the lack of oversight of the shelters and services by the funders.  By respecting the resources and points of view each other brings to the table, we can build activist movements which have power and influence and are also built around those with lived experience and knowledge of the system.

In speaking about the importance of a systemic understanding, Loh emphasized that it is not enough to merely understand that the police do bad things to the homeless community, or that the justice system is broken, it is necessary to grasp the wider scope of the problem, to understand how systems interlock with one another to produce the problem. This is especially important, Loh says, because homeless people do not have the time or energy to think about why the system does not work. Several of Loh’s stories from the field have demonstrated how the system has failed the homeless community. The story of the art class attempting to reach out to the homeless community is especially demonstrative—at every step, Loh related, the government and service providers would delay or divert their attempts to reach out. When they wanted to create a sculpture for a shelter, they were told that the sculpture had to be metal because, a director told them, the people in the shelter were crazy, angry, stupid, and violent, and would destroy the sculpture in a short time. The reduction and mischaracterization of an entire community based on a dangerous stereotype is just one example of the pervasive and ingrained misunderstanding of the issue of homelessness.

Loh has extensively documented the mistreatment and horrible conditions at shelters with some amount of creatively particularly in the use of photography and poetry.  The shelter Loh stays at, which Loh refers to as “The HELL”. In a series of photos and captions, Loh shows insects on the floor of the only area the homeless people are allowed to eat, mold growing on the showers, and broken toilet stall doors. In a poem, Loh describes the inadequate facilities at the shelter which were originally built as two business buildings, and now involves lots of stairs, heavy doors to navigate. Loh characterizes her experiences as painful due to the injuries sustained from the unsafe environment of the shelter. Loh views these problems as a direct result of systemic failure, a system which causes Loh and thousands of others physical pain because of their lack of care. Loh described to me the network of service providers and government agencies in a dizzying flurry of acronyms. These agencies, which purport themselves to be non-profits, have no real intention of helping homeless people, Loh told me, they simply play politics to make more money. “Society produces homeless people,” Loh often says, because there is simply a lack of care and effort put into solving the problem, and these seemingly impenetrable systems of bureaucracy and capital foreclose any attempt at undermining it.

But that does not mean that there are no ways of doing so—in fact, Loh has successfully staged resistance from the inside. On one occasion, Loh was offered housing in response to complaints about the quality of the shelter. When they offered it, Loh asked if they could give 200 units because there are other people with problems like Loh’s—but they refused. Loh observed how demonstrative this experience was of the systemic failure: “You claim you are an organization to help homeless people and especially those with mental health struggles, but you have no real intention to help them.” But Loh also shows us how the system can be undermined—Loh’s request of 200 housing units is a perfect example of a way in which we can take a stand in spite of the failure of the system. Loh’s tireless dedication to solving the problem of homelessness for all and keen focus on understanding the very roots of that problem can inspire us to think in new ways about homelessness and the systems that perpetuate it. After all, if we can understand what causes the problem, we are one step closer to finding its solution.

On May 1, 2021 a political action committee convinced voters to pass an ordinance forcing the City of Austin to ticket people who violate the ‘no camping ordinance’ within the city limits.  This was contrary to guidelines by the Center for Disease Control which recommended that communities leave people alone to shelter in place until the pandemic is passed, or take advantage of the FEMA and other recovery programs to pay for hotel rooms for the population.  NCH has documented 40 of the 100 largest cities has also undertaken sweeps over the last year contrary to CDC guidelines. The City began warning people to leave their tents in June and then began ticketing people in July.

Proposition B was passed in a special election with only 20% of the voters actually bothering to show up. The dubiously named “Save Austin Now” PAC spent $1.9 million to convince Austin voters to be afraid of people who are unhoused. The legislation also demanded a crackdown on panhandling, despite sweeping judicial protection of the right panhandle. So, a deeply flawed law which violates the constitution and basic humanity for those struggling during a pandemic passed by voters and implemented by local law enforcement began to make criminals out of those who lost their housing in one of the most expensive places to live in the South. 

A number of Austin-based groups led by people who have experienced homelessness reached out and asked for help from the National Coalition for the Homeless. We worked with local groups to draft this national sign-on letter, asking for the Austin city officials to act in favor of humanity and refuse to further criminalize people for having nowhere to go. We are not taking additional endorsements at this time.  If you have questions, please e-mail them to bdavis@nationalhomeless.org

There is news that the Orwellian-sounding Save Austin Now, along with four local businesses, were filing suit against the City of Austin for not enforcing Proposition B against enough unhoused people. The City has denied the charges stating that 18 tickets were issued over the last month. The City of Austin has attempted to place more of the unhoused into hotels, but has not used much of their HUD emergency assistance to give housing relief to those struggling because of the pandemic. In an attempt to pile on, the state also passed HB 1925 which prevents local government from not enforcing anti-camping ordinances.

The millions that have been spent in this effort to criminalize people for being poor by the Texas government and governor, as well as “Save Austin Now” political action committee could have been much better used in ensuring safe, accessible housing for Austin residents!!

Please click here to view the sign on letter supported by 17 local and national groups.

After the Peachtree-Pine Shelter was forced by the city of Atlanta to close its doors in 2017, Anita Beaty has remained dedicated to activist efforts in the homeless community, continuing her decades-long career advocating and providing for those in need. Beaty, who oversaw the Peachtree-Pine Shelter for twenty years, has worked in the homeless community for much longer, her history of activism stretching as far back as the eighties. Whether it was activism or overseeing the shelter, Beaty consistently abided by a philosophy that no one should be left behind or left out. She has always placed high value on “letting the people who needed the service run the service,” and described how this philosophy of care for others informed her activism through the years. 

In one story, Beaty described a march she organized every year for twenty-nine years to celebrate homeless memorial day on November 1st. Various shelters, congregational groups, or other facilities would carry banners representing their group, made in the Peachtree-Pine art studio, along with a procession of crosses with the names of homeless people who had died that year. Each year, she recalled, there would be around 60 to 80 crosses. The procession finished at the Cathedral, where there would be a ceremony addressing the issue of homelessness, with a Litany created by the Task Force, and remembrances of the dead, name by name. 

Beaty and her organization, the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, would hire buses to pick people up at every shelter that would participate, and the cathedral served them a hot meal. Looking back, Beaty recalled the event with fondness for the community it fostered. 

Beaty also reflected that a key component of her personal philosophy was an element of playfulness. “I need to enjoy what I do,” she said. In one story she recounted, Beaty and the Task Force were protesting the improvement project the city of Atlanta was undertaking at Woodruff Park prior to their hosting of the 1996 Summer Olympics. The park had been a gathering place for members of the homeless community, so when the mayor of Atlanta showed up in a hard hat for a photo-op groundbreaking on the construction, several of the protestors laid in the hole the mayor was to stand in, completely preventing their chance at a photo-op. Beaty chuckled as she recalled how the mayor’s face turned purple with rage, and when he retreated to his car the protestors followed, and it looked as if he was the one leading the march. Beaty also recalled a city council meeting they attended, when she handed out signs to everyone with them that said “true,” “false,” and “bald-faced lie.” When one of the council members said something about homelessness, the crowd held up their “bald-faced lie” signs, and Beaty recalled it was “hysterical” as the council member tried to talk down the signs. 

Drawings by Anita Beaty

The visual arts have always been a major part of Beaty’s activism. During her time as its leader, Beaty opened an art studio at Peachtree-Pine, where shelter residents could come to draw, paint, and be creative. Beaty sometimes brought in artists from around the country, especially artists who had been homeless or experienced similar struggles. They “had a ball with us,” she remembered. “It was so exciting to intentionally bring in like-minded people who can show folks who’ve been excluded from all that that they, too, can dream.” Beaty emphasized that giving shelter residents access to resources that they would not otherwise have access to was a way of lifting them up: “There are artists who don’t even know it, don’t have the leisure to explore that, or could become artists and become part of that culture.” Beaty’s art studio is living proof that art has the power to bring out the best in people who are experiencing homelessness, mental health issues, or other problems. Not only that, Beaty noted that putting shelter residents’ work on display helped to bust public stereotypes about them. 

 “Let’s break the mythology,” she said. “Let’s take care of the fear by being together in fun places: food, art, coffee.” 

Beaty is sure to acknowledge that activist efforts do not always turn out the way we hope they will. When she took part in the Housing Now March on Washington in 1989, she recalls the immense expectations they had: “It was an action that we thought was gonna change the world, change this country at least, and sensitize the policymakers to the absolute necessity of changing laws,” she remembered. Obviously, the march did not have the effect Beaty and its organizers hoped it would.  The funding of a growing homelessness services “industry” was a direct result, but the right to housing, permanent affordable accessible housing, was then and is still the emergency need.

But Beaty also believes the march did make a difference, even if it wasn’t on the wide scale she had hoped it would. “Success is relative,” she said, recalling many times when she thought an effort she was part of was more successful than it was. But activism can still be successful, even if it’s in the smallest of ways. One outcome that Beaty pointed out from the Housing Now March was HUD policy, which, she says, she is still looking at to determine how it has evolved over the decades since the march. 

Beaty’s long career in activism shows us that success, whether small or large, can be found through determination to make a difference and a passion for celebrating inclusion. It is the stories of activists like Beaty that have the most to teach us about how to make change happen, and Beaty’s stories remind us that change happens in and with communities, leaving no one behind, including the excluded in operating, managing, and developing of all services designated for those very people, and working together to foster a just and creative world.

I have interviewed so many unhoused people who have found the violence, victimization and exploitation of homelessness to be overwhelming.

Check out the Voices of Homelessness Podcast for an in depth look at the reality of homelessness.

Many people experiencing homelessness reject the shelters based on reputation or bad personal experiences within the system. From theft to staff mistreatment, the shelter system in the United States has gone from emergency housing by people of good will to permanent institutional incarceration.  I hear all the time, those without housing begging for someone who will understand and will listen in order to help them steer through this most difficult time in their lives.  The amount of danger living on the streets is far greater, but there is a degree of freedom outside. US citizens love their freedom. The tremendous loss associated with homelessness in the destruction of family relationships and the giving up all your valuables is often too much to bare for some. These individuals accept their fate as a forever condition and stop trying to find housing or stability.  

This is a mock groundbreaking that a group of artists staged in Cleveland for the development of a new women’s shelter designed, built and run by those experiencing homelessness.  It never materialized but it was a good idea.

Unfortunately, the social service system is not built to be supportive of the unique needs of most of the population. It is built to be cost effective, sterile, with a rigid code of conduct.  It is run like a military barracks with curfews, lights out, no pets or anything comfortable, a schedule for eating, rules and mandates that many compare to a jail that kicks out everyone in the morning who then voluntarily return at night.  It is not the shelter provider’s fault.  They are dealt a hand that would be impossible to manage in the best of times with full employment, universal health care and cheap housing.  The shelters are stuffed every day full of people with multiple barriers to housing.  They are regularly over-capacity and the only way to keep order is with strict lock down type procedures.  This is the system we have built in the United States.  We have created a mental health/ drug treatment system disguised as a homeless system.  

We need a safe space for those experiencing homelessness to come to relax, listen and talk about the issues they are facing. We need alumni to come back and be willing to provide some advice to their peers.  We need the people who oversee local homeless funding to come to the space as guests and hear from those struggling with housing about the messy system they have created. Those without housing need to push community leaders to make changes in a timely manner and then come back to show that these changes are in the works.  The unhoused need help with the mundane like cutting through the bureaucracy of getting ID to the major undertakings of getting a crime from 12 years ago expunged from their record. They need government to get their boots off their necks and not be so tied to the sacred property rights of abandoned housing/warehouses/land.  They need landlords, employers, health care professionals to forgive and see every person entering the office for their humanity and not their past mistakes or solely their economic status in society.  If we provided safe spaces, leaders would emerge to push good ideas to provide affordable housing to the masses.  A million good ideas would bloom.  Some would work and some would fail, but in the end fewer people would give up and sleep on the nation’s sidewalk. 

The picture is of a dumpster corral in Des Moines Iowa near one of the universities in a suburban community and the home to a gentleman who could not find housing.  Not the kind of neighborhood most people would think of a man experiencing homeless squatting in a dumpster corral.  Homeless outreach has already been out and the individual is a veteran, but resistant to services.  There are mental health issues, and he does not want to leave. 

Working to reduce poverty is one of the hardest jobs in the United States, and in communities that add politics and culture war obstacles to the mix makes the job nearly impossible. That is the best summary of doing social justice work to eliminate poverty in Iowa.  A community organizer (or the less political charged word of advocate) has to overcome the difficulties of working to build a community that are all heading in the same direction, but then there are these unbelievably backward state government in Des Moines who only seem to add roadblocks.  Two recent example of unnecessary roadblocks and frankly just stupidity is the signing into law a bill that ended the ability for a local community to pass laws preventing discriminatory advertising and the cancellation of extended unemployment while we are still suffering the effects of a pandemic.  

Three larger communities passed laws consistent with the Fair Housing Act that prevented landlords from using the phrase “No Section 8” or more accurately “No Housing Choice Voucher holders accepted” in their advertising for potential renters. It is an attack on home rule in the three communities who had previously passed a ban on landlords using the racist “No Section 8” language in their advertising.  The law is racist because it stigmatizes those with low incomes from certain housing, and minority populations are disproportionately low income when measured against the total population.  The other extremely harmful government action is the cancelling of federal extended unemployment early as passed by the American Rescue Act in March 2021. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has decided, without any factual data, that generous unemployment benefits are keeping her constituents from seeking gainful employment.  She has cut off the federal additional unemployment compensation in June while half of the surrounding states will receive those funds through September.  The New York Times reviewed data from Missouri and found that ending unemployment early does not lead to large scale returns to low wage jobs.

There are so many strategies to reduce poverty including expanding public benefits or providing a universal basic wage or a negative earned income tax credit or adding entitlements, and it takes all ones energy to get community leaders and those living in poverty to focus on any strategy.  Then to have government show up and additional barriers to the struggle like racist policies or fact-free policy decision or government acting as unforgiving punisher for bad behavior just makes the job of working on solutions that much more difficult.   It is taxing to have to fight for justice against what seems like the whole world.  It is tough to organize people who are struggling with basic life sustaining functions like housing, food and sleep while the government is passing laws or changing policy that harms low income people. Then getting everyone on the same page for a goal, only to find out that there is an even bigger struggle against government officials operating in an unscientific and damaging manner can seem like the advocates are taking fire from all sides.  These are intelligent well educated people who are acting purely out of self-interest to reinforce and amplify fears that exist in society.  The only reason for acting against the interest of your own citizens is to appeal to a fringe element of the voters who come out for a primary.  They seem to have no concern for the good of the community or the majority of the population who either do not vote or voted for the other side.  Every day is trench warfare sticking it to the other side when it is often hard to figure out friend or foe. 

Everyone knows that landlords use the “No Section 8” phrase to discriminate against potential tenants. Source of income discrimination strikes at the heart of the Fair Housing Act, and will surely draw lawsuits from the fair housing community and hopefully from the federal government.  What possible justification can someone have for rejecting a federal housing program? In fact, many landlords are thanking their stars that they have a tenant with a guaranteed source of rent during a pandemic.  There are so many who lost their jobs and cannot afford the rent. They cannot be evicted due to CDC guidance and common sense.  The Section 8 landlords receives the federal portion of the rent like clockwork at the beginning of every month no matter what the state of the economy, and if the tenant loses their job the landlord gets more of the rent from the feds.

The extended unemployment is entirely paid by the American Rescue Act out of federal coffers so why is Iowa and 24 other state officials rejecting these funds? How are Iowans going to feel when their neighbors in surrounding states will still be eligible for extended unemployment but because of a decision by a group of vindictive governors they will not get those added benefits?  How will the worker who specialized in event planning or a travel related business and saw their business disappear last year feel when their governor decided that they do not deserve extended federal unemployment because they have not found a job yet? The pandemic is not over and only 43.7% of the residents of Iowa are fully vaccinated causing many to fear for their safety if they return to work, which dropped 32% over the last few weeks. It does not help the 30,000 Iowans currently unemployed and the thousands of others who have given up finding work to say that unemployment is “low.” Studies have shown that being on unemployment assistance does not discourage work and even encourages people to take jobs that pay less than they received in the past.  

Other stupid examples of government acting against its own taxpayers in Iowa include the new voting restrictions signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds which shortens the early voting period for Iowa and the sudden dropping of COVID restrictions in early February well before the rests of the country.  Reynolds never acted in a leadership capacity against COVID which placed Iowa regularly in the top 20 states with regard to cases and deaths when adjusted for population.  This February the dropping of all COVID restrictions took everyone by surprise especially those serving the elderly and fragile populations like homeless people because it came without much guidance or planning. Early February was well before most of the population even the frail were even offered a vaccine.  The state also adopted something called “Constitutional carry” which eliminated most restrictions on carrying a concealed weapon. This of course is exactly what we need in the middle of a pandemic, while there is a near total shut down of the mental health system and the economy teetering is the best time ever to allow concealed firearms. Iowa elected officials decided this was the perfect time to allow a bunch of masked people suffering PTSD from the horrific last year to freely carry weapons in their coats with bank tellers and 7-Eleven clerks worried what they will face at work everyday.

So maybe they have run out of things to govern because Iowa is a hidden oasis of rainbows and peaceful co-existence. It might be exactly like the Field of Dreams and people are flocking there from miles around because they “built it” (whatever that means). Well, 11.2% of the population lives below the poverty level and none of the bills passed or restrictions removed are going to help the impoverished. There are still people sleeping rough in tents in the larger metropolitan areas and they are not doing that willingly in order to be first in line for the limited seating ball park to watch the ghosts playing baseball.  Iowa has a relatively low unemployment rate, but the pandemic did expose the horrible working conditions in Iowa for the meat processing plant workers.  Still no legislation improving the working conditions in one of Iowa’s largest industries. There are still around 150,000 Iowans without health insurance or about 4.7% of the population, and one in four women in Iowa are previous victim of domestic violence.  So it seems like there are plenty of problems to address while the legislature and executive branch are distracted with solving problems that do not exist.  

There Are Some Good Ideas Coming Out of Iowa

One of the advancements in Iowa that could be replicated throughout the United States is their policies and practices in Des Moines around getting the long term homeless into housing and keeping them there.  The Department of Housing and Urban Development has over the last 12 years forced the local communities to go to a Central Intake model and prioritize those who have many barriers to housing.  They have focused resources on Permanent Supportive Housing which in many communities is neither permanent nor in many communities is it supportive.  There is very little guidance on how to make these programs successful and not turn into a revolving door for the most difficult to serve.  Some communities have constructed housing blacklists of people who they evicted and have no possibility of returning to supportive housing or they make the screening criteria so difficult that Dick Van Dyke and Michelle Obama are pretty much the only people who qualify.  Des Moines has completely revamped its system to strip away all barriers to entry into their housing with services programs.   Any program that wants public, and some private, funding must agree to accept clients only through the centralized intake.

The most important innovation is the desire to keep people in the housing so they do not show back up in the system a couple of months down the line.  The Continuum of Care wants to significantly reduce evictions and the quiet eviction of just forcing residents to leave these programs.  They have worked with all the groups to go through a restorative justice type approach to infractions of the rules.  Instead of using the codes of conduct included in leases as a way to discharge someone from housing, they work with the individual to show them the consequences of their actions. Programs are required to have operating policies that recognize relapse is part of recovery and cannot make the punishment for working through the behavioral health issues associated with addiction being forced to live on the streets for a time. Des Moines continuum has put in place a policy that requires providers to allow a household facing expulsion from the housing program to appeal the decision to someone other than their case manager.  It is meant to be such a high bar that very few providers will option for that course of action, and it has been remarkably successful. Anawim Housing, the continuum’s permanent supportive housing provider, incorporates into their appeal process a volunteer moderator from outside the agency.  They use the appeal process as an opportunity to “reset” not to evict. They also bring together on a weekly basis, the program residents to learn from each other.  For example, they show that having a guest over has an impact with noise and other problems for their immediate next door neighbor. They are one of the few communities to dramatically reduce the recidivism rate among those who have long histories of homelessness.  

It takes a toll on an advocate’s mental well-being when they work every day to try to provide a hand up to those struggling in a conservative state and there is someone from government working to beat people with a stick.  At the end of the day, this only creates new avenues for people to fall further away from the American dream. It is tough going to into the ornate state capitals to talk about solutions to poverty and all the person across the table wants to talk about is punishing people for bad behavior.   When did solving problems drop out of the description of any legislator and instead they are solely focused on raising campaign dollars? What are they campaigning for except to keep a job?  It is sad when an advocate puts in long hours getting proof of housing to funders and they meet with an elected official who have these glazed look in their eyes when as the advocates begin talking about housing or poverty.  They seem to be responsive to those who can deliver campaign cash and everyone else is just there for the show. It just makes the advocate feel like they are taking fire from all sides and have a mountain to overcome. 

Has the Federal Emergency Unemployment Insurance contributed to vacant jobs being unfulfilled? Depending upon who you talk to, the response will be different. One thing we do know, unemployment benefits are temporary and does not provide long term stability compared to employment. Millions of jobs are left unfilled, and here are a few reasons why:

The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour since 2009. That rate has not kept up with the pace of inflation while corporation revenue increase drastically. An employee at a Missouri hospital received a $6 coupon after surviving COVID. The CEO of the firm that owns the hospital received $30 million. CEOs of public U.S. firms earn 320 times as much as workers. Even some CEOS say the gap is too big. (nbcnews.com)

In this capitalistic society, money does not trickle from the bottom upward. It doesn’t even trickle down from the top in some cases. COVID has opened the eyes of the poor like nothing ever seen in this lifetime. Income, housing, health care, civil rights, and education are all issues that let America know, you are either sitting at the table, or you are part of the menu. Time for all of us to bring our own chairs, pull up, and break bread together in the spirit of reconciliation. Here’s how we can achieve that and close the wealth gap:

See also a previous post on the state governors who are ending federal unemployment benefits early for their residents. Email Kelvin Lassiter, Policy Analyst at klassiter@nationalhomeless.org for more details.