THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS Issue 1
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SPONSORED BY: THE CREATIVE CHANGE PROJECT
HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE
Welcome!
By: Us
The Voice, a newsletter by the homeless voices of our community.
We thank you for your ongoing support
and commitment to change.
The purpose of this newsletter is to raise awareness and educate the general public on real homeless issues and the truth about living homeless.
Our hope is that we can persuade readers to facilitate or attend a Cultural Competency Presentation which will profoundly change the way you view homelessness.
We hope you enjoy our work!
the Homeless.
Special Thanks
Step-Up
Did you know?
Working a full-time job at minimum wages is not enough for housing?
Charting the Way
Wages needed in Indiana
Story:
My Homeless Experience
Homeless Graphic Art
Next Cultural Competency
Upcoming Event: Walk a Mi
Who do we call to help the Homeless?
My Homeless Experience
“A District’s right-to-Shelter- policy” THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS | Issue 1 2
“A homeless family needed shelter. D.C. gave them bus tickets to North Carolina.”
By: Jennifer Jenkins
April, 2016 – The Washington Post
The nation’s capital is one of the few places in the country that guarantee homeless families a right to shelter. So when Chanda Davis faced eviction last winter from the apartment in Southeast Washington she shared with her four children, she thought she could count on D.C.’s Department of Human Services for help.
Davis got help she wasn’t expecting.
Instead of putting a roof over her family’s head, the city put bus tickets in their hands — and sent them on a one-way trip to North Carolina.
Davis, a 28-year-old Giant Food clerk, was one of 4,605 people — or 78 percent of applicants — rejected for family shelter last year in the District. Her case offers a front-line view of the hurdles homeless parents and children face in a system that promises shelter as a universal right but routinely turns away those who seek it.
The District’s shelter admission rate of 22 percent trailed those in comparable right-to-shelter jurisdictions, an analysis by The Washington Post found. New York City admitted 50 percent of family shelter applicants last year, and Massachusetts 44 percent.
D.C. officials say the number of rejections is largely attributable to a policy success: By weeding out families that aren’t eligible and finding alternative ways to help those that are — such as financial assistance or brokering ad hoc living arrangements with applicants’ relatives — they say they are preserving shelter as a true last resort.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is now pushing legislation that would further tighten shelter eligibility requirements, a move she says is necessary to ease the strain on a system coping with a population of homeless families that has nearly doubled over the past decade — and may be further swelled by people THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS | Issue 1 3
traveling from Maryland and Virginia to take advantage of the District’s right-to-shelter policy.
Already, the city is spending $80,000 a night on hotel rooms for families crowded out of the main shelter at D.C. General, officials say. They also assert that a quarter of the rooms rented by the city are not consistently used, suggesting that some people have other housing options despite claims of homelessness.
“We need to be able to hold that line if we’re going to make shelter available to the people who really need it,” said Laura Zeilinger, who heads the human services department. Distinguishing true need in the onslaught of demand is a “very difficult job,” she said.
District officials said they rarely direct homeless families to other cities or states, a widely discredited practice that homeless advocates mockingly call “bus-ticket therapy.” They said Davis, Melvin Wellington Sr., 29, and their children were one of only two families sent on long- distance bus trips in the past six months.
But several other parents who have battled shelter rejections over the past year said they have also been detoured into questionable housing arrangements.
One said she was denied shelter and advised to illegally stay in her mother’s public housing unit; another that she was told to go back to the home where she said she had been attacked by an abusive husband who was under a restraining order.
Their accounts suggest that what city officials call an overly permissive screening process can look very different to those on the outside trying to get in.
Davis said her own family’s story shows how efforts to triage shelter applicants, however well-intentioned, can go wrong.
Once she and her children arrived in North Carolina, District social workers’ plan for them to move in with an estranged relative unraveled. Within days they were on the street — and 300 miles away from the job and school they had left behind.
After they returned to the District with financial help from parents in her daughter’s D.C. Girl Scouts troop, Davis found a lawyer and successfully appealed her shelter determination.
The family was placed in a motel, but she said she is still angry about a bureaucracy she thinks went to extremes to keep her family off the shelter rolls.
“I cried in front of these people. I pled my case in front of them. They didn’t care,” Davis said. “They didn’t bat an eye when I told them how reluctant I was to go to another city when I was established here.”
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901 Shelby Street, Suite B300
Indianapolis, Indiana 46203
(317) 217 – 1271
Mission Statement The Immigrant Welcome Center empowers immigrants by connecting them to the people, places, and resources that enable them to build successful lives and enrich our community. Vision Diversity is one of Indianapolis’ strengths. We believe if all Indianapolis residents feel empowered and valued, it will result in more new businesses stabilizing our local economy, a flourishing arts community, new voices and leadership at community meetings, and creative approaches to addressing our city’s challenges.
For more information contact:
https://www.immigrantwelcomecenter.org/
THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS | Issue 1 5
“Who Do We Call When a Homeless Person Needs help”
By: Mark Horvath
A lot can happen in 15 years: You attend college. You get a new job. You rent your first apartment. You get married, start a family, buy a house. For Jossalyn, little has happened. She has spent the past 15 years homeless.
Like many others I meet on the streets, Jossalyn has fallen through the gaps in the safety net. She is surviving now, but how long will it be before Jossalyn becomes critically vulnerable?
I’m reminded of a question Nancy Lublin and her daughter asked me repeatedly on a recent tour of Skid Row. Besides 911, who can people call when they see a homeless person needing
help? And there are people in dire need of homeless services everywhere.
An elderly gentleman lies on a park bench with a head injury. You ask if he is alright; he slurs that he is fine and waves you on. It becomes clear that he is intoxicated, most likely homeless and in need of medical help.
In another city, a man asks if you can spare some money. You notice he has severe, deep sores on his arms that require medical attention.
Using cardboard as flooring, a woman sits on a city street. You can clearly see a large tumor growing on her abdomen as she struggles. She needs urgent help.
These are actual people suffering in cities across the country. Any decent person wants to call a professional to help. But who do you call?
Some municipalities have homeless response teams providing outreach to those in need. In Philadelphia, for example, the city partners with Project Home offering a 24-Hour Homeless THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS | Issue 1 6
Outreach Hotline and an emergency response team will be dispatched.
In Pittsburgh, one can call Jim Withers, a doctor that goes out on the streets to help homeless people.
The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program is another amazing service. Of course, Massachusetts has healthcare funding for chronic homeless.
In LA, they have started C3 teams in different areas of the city that have mental health, nurses, housing and other stakeholders going out on the streets together. This is a huge step in the right direction, but services still need to be expanded significantly.
In other cities, emergency response numbers are provided for people to call. But the cities lack resources to send an outreach team to help. You can call the number, but no help will be provided. Not to mention an outreach worker is powerless without support services to plug people into.
Most cities don’t offer emergency response at all. There is simply not enough money to provide needed support for homeless people in cities big and small. More funding is needed for homeless services.
Existing services also need to be extended. Many homeless services only operate from 9a to 5p Monday through Friday. However, the majority of homeless crises happen at night.
I support the shift over the last few years of targeting the most vulnerable with the limited resources available. But if we are ever going to truly end homelessness, we need to figure out how to get everyone off the streets.
The longer a person remains homeless, the more vulnerable they become. This leads to a greater need, which far outweighs the resources.
Real Solutions Needed for People Like Jossalyn
I have been in a few conversations trying to find a solution for Jossalyn.
While she receives general relief (welfare), which is not enough to pay any rent, she most likely does not qualify for supportive housing. Rapid Rehousing funds, if available, are only temporary. And, the theory behind Rapid Rehousing programs is a person will be able to support themselves in a given amount of time.
Jossalyn is smart and articulate; she is not on drugs, she is not disabled or on SSI, nor does she have a visible mental illness. She does have a felony on her record and therefore has run into obstacles trying to get a job. In addition, she is a senior and she is black. She has also lived in the streets far too long.
I believe she’d be a great worker after a little time and healing, but who is going to hire her with a wage that she can support herself?
In every community, we need an emergency response for people to call when they see a homeless person who needs help. We also need better programs for people like Jossalyn to get everyone off the streets before they become vulnerable. Nationwide, we need real solutions to homelessness, not more shelter programs. We need housing and support services.
THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS Issue 1
CHARTING THE WAY:
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Homeless Experience:
Alumni - Norma
You have to give something up or it is not a sacrifice… Giving up certain foods with no increased prayer and reflection… that’s a diet. Giving up a warm bed and comforts without inner reflection…that’s just minor inconvenience. My goal on this homeless experience was to see, feel and understand as well as possible during this short period how it feels to be homeless. In summary there are four words representing what I learned.
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FREE HEALTH INSURANCE
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There are fewer places for poor people to rent than before. According to the *NLCHP, one eighth of the nation’s supply of low-income housing has been permanently lost since 2001. The U.S. needs at least 7 million more affordable apartments for low-income families, and as a result, millions of families spend more than half of their monthly income on rent.
*(National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty)
Cities are increasingly making homelessness a crime. A 2014 survey of 187 cities by the NLCHP found that 24 percent of cities make it a city-wide crime to beg in public, 33 percent make it illegal to stand around or loiter anyplace in the city, 18 percent make it a crime to sleep anywhere in public, 43 percent make it illegal to sleep in your car, and 53 percent make it illegal to sit or lie down in particular public places. And the number of cities criminalizing homelessness is steadily increasing.
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https://www.facebook.com/The-Creative-Change-Project-303593586466151/
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DATE: TO BE ANNOUNCED (tba)
TIME: 5pm Friday (Begin) – 2pm Sunday (End)
LOCATION: Downtown Indianapolis
Have you ever wondered what it’s really like to be homeless and live out on the streets? Come see firsthand the situations that homeless individuals face daily by “Walking a Mile in my Shoes.” This new program will allow you to:
1. Engage with the homeless of our community
2. Meet those who serve the homeless community
3. Acquire knowledge regarding the growing crisis of homelessness and
4. Become aware of the public’s attitudes towards people who are homeless
Space is limited, so visit our website to sign up for this rare experience. A general itinerary is listed on our website for preview. THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS | Issue 1 14
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http://indy26aug.wix.com/hand-of-hope
THE VOICE INDIANAPOLIS | Issue 1 21
Over the past 25 years, cities across the country have penalized people who are forced to carryout life-sustaining activities on the street and in public spaces; despite the fact these communities lack adequate affordable housing and shelter space. Many of these measures are designed to move homeless persons out of sight, and at times out of a given city.
The Voice Indianapolis Downtown Indy Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
CreativeChangeProject.com
