No Picnic in the Park

Don’t Even Think About Having a Picnic in the Park, by Michael Stoops, Director of Community Organizing

We are facing a moral crisis. Cities pursuing higher tourism revenues and greater economic development have declared a war on their poor residents. Unfortunately, it is perceived that those who are living without homes effectively “taint” the scenic vistas and make visitors uncomfortable. More than ever, tourism hot-spots are targeting people who are homeless by passing laws that force them to the outskirts of town or into jails. Popular destinations often treat these individuals like riff-raff and criminals, arresting them for menial crimes in an effort to keep them from unconsciously photo-bombing a couple’s photo of their trip.

When the economy is so reliant on tourism dollars, it is natural for a local government or tourism board to take complaints seriously. Often times, tourists complain that they feel unsafe or uncomfortable around homeless individuals. The reputation of a destination can be tarnished so quickly, it is almost remarkable to see how agile governments can be in responding to economic threats. They generally first introduce bans to keep people from sleeping in the most visited parts of town. Sometimes they will open up a resource center far from the center of town to try to lure homeless people away from the hot spots. Sadly, more often they will enact numerous so-called “quality of life” laws that they can use to round up and jail homeless individuals in periodic sweeps. Some examples of laws that are in place are bans on sitting on a sidewalk or sleeping in a park, bans on begging or panhandling, and prohibition of the use of blankets, chairs, tents, pillows, etc.

We all know the detrimental impacts a criminal record can have on the futures of low-income individuals. Being locked-up can preclude a homeless individual from ever being able to find future employment or stable housing, leaving them exposed and likely to get swept up in this broken system all over again.

These efforts even extend to those who are trying to help. 39 US cities actively punish individuals and groups that operate food-sharing programs, trying to offer their homeless neighbors basic sustenance. In Fort Lauderdale, Arnold Abbott, a 91-year-old World War 2 Veteran who has been running a food-sharing program twice a week for 24 years, has been wrapped up in these issues for years. Despite a court victory in the 1990s, protecting his religious freedom to feed those in need, he has received three court summons since the passage of the City’s latest anti-homeless law in October. With the threat of $1,500 in fines and up to 180 days in jail, he continues to support his homeless neighbors, acknowledging the importance of a consistent program that meets them where they are to minimize the challenges associated with receiving proper nutrition. He maintains that he has the constitutional right to continue preparing meals and will continue to do so despite any personal consequences.

When showing compassion becomes illegal, we know we have a serious problem to tackle. The perception of poverty in places like Fort Lauderdale is so tainted with generalizations and assumptions that almost no person who is down on his/her luck has a chance. Communities that pass these inhumane laws are not apt to take proactive solutions and give people a chance. They react to bad stigmas and punish people for trying to survive. If we cannot appeal to them on a human level, we must take a broader stance and try to communicate just how little we stand for this type of injustice. We must make these cities feel the consequences of these inhumane actions.

Students Promoting Fairness

We at the National Coalition for the Homeless are calling on all conscientious citizens to pledge that they will not invest in this kind of discrimination. Our expectations of poverty-free clean beaches are unrealistic and encourage unjust practices. Recently, we have seen increased interest in eco-tourism and other forms of environmentally sustainable travel; the time has come to support conscious consumers who elect to travel to respectful and compassionate destinations. As tourists, we must all put people first and consider the human consequences of our decisions.

Fort Lauderdale has been one of the most egregious culprits. The city rapidly passed the largest number of bans in one year that I have ever seen, culminating with its infamous food-sharing restrictions. In the uproar, following the City’s decision to essentially ban compassion, thousands of individuals have stepped up and taken action. College students have pledged to not spend their spring breaks in this town that mistreats its do-gooders and its vulnerable citizens. They are committed to selecting destinations with more moral integrity. We hope that companies too will vow not to host meetings in a place that has arrested a ninety-one year old on multiple occasions for sharing food with the homeless population. We will all choose fairness over everything!

Join our pledge!

To my classmates,

Spring Break is right around the corner and it is on all of our minds. Will you join your peers and flock to warmer climates and sandy beaches? We all deserve some time off to relax and turn off our brains. But while I’m still studying away, I’ve been thinking about how my decisions as a consumer impact the town I’m visiting and the people who live there. I’m willing to drop a cool $100 for a view of the beach, but at what human cost?

Are drinks by the pool and tickets to concerts the only cost of spring break?

Many vacation and spring break destinations compete for our business. For them, reputation is everything, and unfortunately being nice to homeless people isn’t exactly a trait we tourists are often looking for. For that reason, cities introduce ordinances to keep the streets clean of all visible reminders that poverty exists. They don’t want us to share food with the homeless people near our hotels, beaches and restaurants. They don’t want us to see a man sleeping on the park bench or a mother and her child asking for money on the public transportation system. Public lands near our vacation hot spots are no longer a place of rest for the homeless. New laws passed by cities throughout the country ban sleeping outside, asking for money and prohibit private citizens from sharing food with the homeless. These ordinances make criminals out of people who are homeless.

The most outrageous thing is that they are even punishing the people who are trying to help the homeless! Fort Lauderdale is one mean city that continuously threatens people with massive fines and jail-time for feeding others in public spaces. The city wants them to move indoors and out of sight, not considering how difficult it is for the homeless people to get around the city to all the many places they must go to try to get help.

Do you really want to go to a beach that only allows people who can afford a $14 daiquiri to enjoy the view? I don’t – and I know what I am going to do about it. I won’t give them my business! I will not condone a city starving its most vulnerable residents for my sake. I will not visit Fort Lauderdale until they repeal the cruel food-sharing ban. Instead, I pledge to support cities that work to end homelessness by creating affordable housing, job training programs, access to affordable health care and an increase in the availability in public assistance.

Students Promoting Fairness

Be a Student Promoting Fairness! Pledge #SPF15 this spring break and make your week mean something! Don’t let cities profit from discrimination and criminalization of the homeless!

Deirdre Walsh

Student Activist

2015 is a year to take action!

2015_Poem

A Poem by Linda Meyer

In my life I’ve been sad to hear, 
those that don’t care about others, their message is clear. 
“Pick yourself up by your bootstraps” I hear them exclaim,
they care naught for my circumstances, I cannot; It’s my pain.

When you’ve no money, no address, no phone,
no one will hire you, you’re out on your own. 
In this time of high technology, when most businesses hire from online,
having no computer, I can’t put in applications. I haven’t got a dime. 

No transportation to go to a job, no housing, no address, leaves me in a lurch.
So I sit here, and you watch me with wary eyes from your perch,
You assume I committing a crime, just by sitting on a bench.
You assume I’m an addict due to my aromatic stench.

I don’t have a home, no shower, no clean clothes,
For it is I and those who are like me that you do your best to loathe.
Your unwanted assumptions are my cross to bear,
I wonder if you really see me, if you could really care.

Humanity needs to come full circle, to care about each other,
It wasn’t that long ago you see, but now no one wants to bother.
The tribes of the past, used to share and make sure all were taken care of,
No one went hungry, or unsheltered, or unloved.

A lesson for humanity should be given once again on the range,
the ones who are oppressed are the ones who can make change,
but only if we all stick together, regardless of our lot.
We only have each other, and that is all that we’ve got.

So fight for all humanity, against the hoarded greed,
With kindness and fairness, we can all be freed
from this giant rat race, we can live together, and amend
and let the planet heal from our wars on each other, and be better humans once again.

Top 5 Moments for NCH in 2014

  • Actress Susan Sarandon spoke out against violence towards people experiencing homelessness. Ms. Sarandon voiced her support of our work protecting homeless individuals from hate crimes at a Congressional briefing in June, which followed the release of our annual Hate Crimes report.

 

  • The international media joined the conversation about food-sharing laws following the publication of our new report on food-sharing restrictions. We were able to use this attention to target Fort Lauderdale, the most recent city to pass a ban on food-sharing in public. We worked with Arnold Abbott,  the world-renowned homeless advocate, to mount a petition that has gathered more than 100,000 signatures opposing the city’s interference with groups feeding the hungry.

 

  • The National Campaign for Youth Shelter was officially launched. In June, nearly a thousand  advocates and homeless youths gathered in NYC’s Washington Square Park to rally for additional resources for young people. To date, more than 75 partner organizations have joined on to support this work.

 

  • We had our most successful Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week ever. Working with 450 schools, student groups, faith-based organizations, and community groups, we coordinated more than 1,000 events that offered opportunities for an estimated 65,000 people to get involved in the fight against poverty.

 

  • The voices of those who have experienced homelessness were heard! Our Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau has spoken 265 times in the past year, reaching a combined audience of 16,600 people. We believe that individuals living in poverty are some of the best advocates and deserve to have a leadership role in any organizing effort on their behalf.

Living in a Storage Unit: How Common Is It? by Elizabeth Whalen,  Guest Writer from Sparefoot.com

Living in a self-storage unit is neither safe nor legal, but it does occur – for a variety of reasons. According to a SpareFoot survey of nonprofits that help the homeless, it’s unusual but not unheard of.

“Being homeless, according to a friend, is like being a turtle,” said Michael Stoops, director of community organizing for the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless. “You’re carrying everything you own on your back.”

Homeless people typically rent storage units to keep their most precious belongings safe and to preserve what they can of their former life, according to Stoops.

For the survey, SpareFoot contacted 100 homeless services organizations in the country’s 50 most populated metro areas. SpareFoot received 41 responses from nonprofits in 30 of those metro areas. The organizations that responded to the survey serve more than 120,000 people a year. Most provide emergency shelter, and many also provide transitional and long-term services, such as job training and health care.

The survey results: Five organizations (12 percent) responded that current or recent clients had lived in a storage unit and reported 14 such cases within the past three years. Five more responded they’d heard about people doing this, but had no specific reports from current or recent clients. The remaining 31 (76 percent) had not heard of people living in storage units.

“The majority of homeless folks are just like you and I,” Stoops said. “They’re chronically normal. All they need is a place they can afford to live in, a job that pays a decent wage and health care.”

To read the entire blog post, visit Sparefoot.com.

YouthHomelessness

 

There are nearly half a million unaccompanied young people in this country who experience homelessness each year. They are on their own, without parental or institutional support, trying to navigate a complicated system at a time in their lives when everything is already uncertain and often difficult.

Stability is fundamental for proper mental and physical development and for the chance to receive a decent education. We cannot abide the current youth homelessness crisis. We, at NCH, are spearheading the National Campaign for Youth Shelter, along with the Ali Forney Center in NYC, to demand that every young person in America has access to safe shelter.

You can do your part by joining the National Campaign for Youth Shelter and fighting for homeless youths in your community!

Growing Crisis Takes Over D.C. – Auburn Trotter, NCH Intern

When I moved to DC to intern with NCH, I knew that I would gain a new perspective on the housing policies in America, but never did I think that the nation’s capitol would be suffering from such a crisis. In January 2014, a Point-in-Time count showed that a total of 7,748 people experienced homelessness  in the District of Columbia. This number increased 12.9%  from the previous year’s count. While cities surrounding the metropolitan area have decreased their homeless populations, the District has not seen much change. In fact, D.C.’s homeless population continues to rise at an alarming rate.

It’s important to first recognize that there are city officials who have fought hard to push forward possible solutions to this issue. It wouldn’t be fair to say that our officials haven’t done anything to try and curb this issue. Legislation has been introduced and passed. Plans to transition families from shelters to permanent homes are being strategized. Our leaders have the will to address the issue but even with these efforts the problem has continued to spiral out of control. So the lingering question becomes, why does homelessness continue to exist at a crisis level in the nation’s capital? The answer is two simple words: affordable housing!

There are many reasons that people find themselves homeless, but the lack of affordable housing remains one of the leading causes. With rents rising all around the city, what are people left to do? Some would say “go live with friends or relatives,” but a majority of the time families do not have room to accommodate others in their living space. So the next natural answer would be to report to the Public Housing Authority (PHA) and seek assistance. Thanks to the 2013 sequester and budget cuts, this has become a dead-end option. With funds being cut by 5%, PHAs across the country encounter difficulties trying to serve those in need. In fact, DC’s housing authority closed its Section 8 voucher wait list, which contained 70,000 people at the time, in April of 2013 and has not re-opened since.

After being told “NO” on several instances, the next and last resort for many people is a shelter. Many of the residents at D.C. General emergency shelter, the area’s largest family shelter, will tell you that they are thankful for the shelter and for having a roof over their heads, but it is not a place where they want to be raising a family. Many have jobs where they work long hours, just to receive a poverty level income. City officials want them to apply for assistance programs where, after their time in the program has ended, they face a rent payment of $900-$1200 depending on the size of the apartment.

Homelessness and increasing rents are serious issues that need an urgent response.  Ultimately, the homeless crisis will continue to get worse unless the city invests in sustainable, affordable housing for its residents. A strong housing policy could significantly reduce the size of our current homeless population and prevent thousands of others from losing their homes. There is no reason that we cannot decrease homelessness in our city. But we must all take action.

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week has come to a close and it is an opportunity to reflect on the work that has been done and the work that still needs to be completed. This past week, over 450 high schools, universities, faith-based organizations and community groups worked together to host over a thousand events nationwide to bring awareness to the issues of hunger and homelessness. The enthusiasm to learn more about the causes of poverty and how it can be eradicated was inspiring, but the work is far from over.

The eradication of poverty is not a suggestion for the future of the United States, but rather a requirement. If we do not address the issues of affordable housing, equal employment opportunities and funding public assistance inequality will rage on creating a further divide between the rich and poor. The National Coalition for the Homeless is committed to addressing these needs and ensuring the rights and dignity of all those affected by homelessness and poverty.

A home is a right that all Americans, no matter their age should be guaranteed. The National Campaign for Youth Shelter seeks to increase the available shelter beds for the nearly 500,000 unaccompanied homeless youths throughout the country. Despite the staggering number of homeless youths, only 4,000 shelter beds are put aside for them. This harsh reality leads many young, homeless individuals to fend for themselves on the street. For the thousands of families and adults who are at risk of losing their homes or trying to get back on their feet, we must put money back into rental assistance programs and fight to make housing more affordable.

The issues of homelessness and poverty in America must become part of the national and local agendas. Stronger grassroots networks and organizing have the ability to eradicate poverty. Let’s make Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week a catalyst for action in every community. Mass homelessness and mass hunger is a reality in our country and it shouldn’t be. Call attention to and organize against local legislation that criminalizes homelessness, cuts funding for affordable housing and ensures that the issues of the poor and homeless are constituently neglected. Make Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week your community’s catalyst for change and join together to resolve to end poverty!

 

Many thanks,

Jerry Jones
Executive Director
National Coalition for the Homeless

What’s next? Building Hunger and Homelessness Awareness beyond November – Deirdre Walsh

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week brings together high schools, colleges, community groups, and faith-based organizations in the common cause to educate their communities about poverty in America. The issues of hunger and homelessness, however, are more than a week’s worth of problems for many Americans. Veterans return from war suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with little support, which too often can lead them to life on the streets. LGBTQ youth are at risk of being rejected by their families and the general public and make up close to half of all unaccompanied homeless youths in America. Women in domestic violence situations are forced to choose between an abusive home or an unstable life without a home. Families are riddled with debt from the lack of housing assistance and affordable healthcare and must decide which bills to pay or buy food for dinner. Poverty has many different faces and the causes of homelessness are just as varied as the people who endure it. The issues of hunger and homelessness cannot be fully understood or addressed in one week. Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is just the start of what you and your local community can do year round.

How can the actions you took this November be continued year round? There are so many great ways! Make volunteering at a local soup kitchen or shelter a part of your weekly or monthly routine by asking a friend to commit to it with you. Create a community forum or book club with regular meetings meetings focused on understanding the social issues relating to poverty. Challenge different organizations to try to out-do your events each month. Make a regular date to have dinner with someone who faces food insecurity. Whatever you are comfortable with, we hope you will commit to this cause and remain an active advocate for those living in poverty.

Addressing the goals of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week can and should be more than a week’s affair, however, starting dialogue and open discussion in your community is the first step. When people are talking about the lack of affordable housing, the criminalization of homelessness, and the discrimination against LGBT homeless youths you know that they can see past the stereotypes and understand the realities homelessness. Over 3.5 million men, women and children will go without a place to sleep and even more will be unable to feed and sustain themselves. Students, community groups and local organizations can work year round to assist and provide needed resources and have the capabilities to engage local civic leaders and policy makers to remove obstacles for America’s poor. Hunger and Homelessness may be one week in November, but the lessons and programs started can be a year round initiative for all. Bring poverty, its hardships and its causes, to the forefront of social and political discussions to give everyone a home this year. Resolve to fight poverty!