For thousands of Zimbabweans who flee their troubled country, the Methodist church in downtown Johannesburg is the only home they know. After five years with up to 2000 people a night sleeping on pews, floors and stairwells, the church is now overcrowded, filthy and reeking due to inadequate…
Similar conditions could crop up across the country this winter as foreclosures climb for large rental-unit buildings. In the first three quarters of 2009, 475 foreclosure proceedings were begun against multifamily rental or cooperative homes in the District, according to NeighborhoodInfo DC, a partnership between the Urban Institute and the D.C. Local Initiatives Support Corp. That figure already eclipses the 458 foreclosures for all of 2008.
In Chicago’s Cook County, 328 multifamily rental buildings were in foreclosure by the second quarter of this year, compared with 185 last year, according to a yet-unreleased study by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University.
In Los Angeles, foreclosures for buildings with five or more units totaled 78 — encompassing 1,344 units — in the first three quarters of 2009, compared with 49 buildings and 432 units over the same period last year, and 13 buildings and 239 units in the same period of 2007, according to the city’s housing department.
In New York, housing analysts estimate that the number of apartment units in buildings at risk of default because of upside-down loans — in which the property is worth less than is owed on the loan — could range from 50,000 to 100,000. And through the first nine months of this year, across the country, Fannie Mae had 74 foreclosed multifamily properties on the books, compared with 25 through the first nine months of last year.
All this aside, the true revelation in this article was the following quote:
“I don’t know what crystal meth is, sir,” said Henry A. Alvarez III, the agency’s executive director.
Come again? Wait a minute. Let’s get this straight. The Executive Director of the SFHA, the agency responsible for putting roofs over the heads of the San Francisco’s poors and downtroddens, has never heard of a drug that has been the scourge of the city for over a decade? Hasn’t he seen the public health campaigns against meth that feature bad neo-constructivist art/sexy cartoon characters/meth-addled porn stars who keep falling off the wagon? Didn’t he get an orientation pep talk on the city’s woes when he landed this gig? You know, something with a sassy, gum-smacking, street-smart social worker who talks the hep jive of today’s youth and says things like “Meth is (insert snappy negative rhyming word here),” like in an episode of “The White Shadow.”
For those of you generous enough of spirit to wonder whether this fella was misquoted, take note. The author of this piece, Scott James, wrote a follow up blog post, describing himself as stunned when Mr. Alvarez made the above pronouncement not just once, but three times during their interview!
Crystal Meth? What’s That? Asks Executive Director of the City’s Housing Authority - SFist (via passingplaces) BOGGLE/somehow not surprised (via abbyjean)
About one-third of all adult homeless men are veterans, and an average night finds an estimated 131,000 of them from five decades bedding down on streets and in charity sanctuaries. About 3 in 100 of them are back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The problem of homelessness for Vietnam veterans is, shamefully, well known. But the men and women in this growing cohort took just 18 months to find rock bottom, compared with the five years-plus of the previous generation’s veterans.
Editorial - Homeless on Veterans Day - NYTimes.com (via abbyjean)
the united way of greater los angeles recently performed a homeless cost study (pdf) to do an in-depth analysis and comparison of people who were chronically homeless before and after being placed in permanent supportive housing. the study tracked the social services used by the group before and after housing placement to determine the cost-effectiveness of housing the homeless.
people who are chronically homelss often consume a high dollar value of social services such as emergeny rooms, substance abuse treatment facilities, and jail. in two years, the four homeless individuals studied had 19 ER visits, two resulting in hospitalizations. all four had been arrested and spent time in jail, for criminal justice costs of $23,361. the total public service costs for the four over the two years were $187,288.
then the four were placed in permanent supportive housing, with access to services including case management, mental health and substance abuse treatment, medication monitoring, and education classes. ER vists dropped dramatically and there were no arrests or jail/prison time. the only area where costs increased were mental health. the total public service costs for the four over the two years in permanent supportive housing were $107,032 - a savings of $80,256 or almost 43%.
so - our societal costs would decrease overall if we were willing to provide permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless. it also means that the individuals see a significant increase in quality of life and can become re-integrated into and contributing to society as a whole. but that would mean that we were giving housing to people who might be drug addicts, or otherwise considered “undeserving” of that kind of assistance. and we would rather pay higher costs than admit that these people are deserving of compassion and assistance.
Alexander Tsesis | Balkinization
The homeless population has increased during this extended economic recession, but the concern for their plight remains inadequate given their level of destitution. Currently there are few vocational training programs designed to help the homeless get off and stay off the streets. What’s more, no federal grants directly fund adult job and skills training programs.
Foreclosures and increased unemployment have exacerbated an already grave problem. In the United States, on any given night roughly 3 million people are homeless; although, their exact number is difficult to get at because it varies daily. Throughout the country the demand for homeless services has increased during the recession. In the Richmond, Virginia area, the number of homeless has increased by 7.2 percent in the past year, and emergency shelters are encountering a 26 percent increase there. The homeless population in Dane County, Wisconsin increased by about 17 percent in 2007. The Supervisor for Marin County, California reports that the need for homeless services has grown by 26 percent in 2008. The Palm Beach County Florida homeless population over the last year rose by about 20 percent. A one night homeless study in South King County, Washington, conducted on January 30, 2009, showed a dramatic increase of 68 percent from the year before.
Among the people living in homelessness, 67.5% are single male and about 8.5% single female. Among those homeless people who are members of a household with children 65% are female and 35% male. Ethnically, 42% of the homeless are about black, 39% white, 13% Latino, 4% Native American, and 2% Asian. Roughly a quarter of the women who are homeless escaped from domestic violence.
These human tragedies continue to receive inadequate federal agency attention. Talk about helping the homeless usually centers on sheltering the population. That indeed is the immediate need, but it does not adequately get at the underlying problem. Many discussions of homelessness, including those on the Department of Health and Human Services’s website, ignore how providing educational experiences for the homeless can positively affect their lives. The Department of Health and Human Services grant assistance programs emphasize the need for mental illness and addiction services.
This focus overlooks the critical need of education and training for the population. Moreover, it perpetuates the image of the homeless as being primarily a population with psychological disorders or drug problems. Mental illness and addiction disproportionately impacts that population, but there is a much larger segment of those who are chronically homeless because of the inadequacy of the minimum wage, high housing costs, family conflicts, and the inadequacy or lack of support networks.
More…bolding mine.
1. Homelessness is not a recession-induced phenomenon. Remember the 90s, when the economy was booming? Real estate was on the up and up and it seemed everybody was profiting off of something, right? Well, not really. Homelessness has been a consistent presence in the U.S. since the 1980s. The 1980s is when the gap between the rich and the not-so-rich began to steadily widen. So while chronically homeless people were more noticeable on our streets thanks to de-institutionalization, income inequality and persistent poverty have been major — and silent — causes of homelessness since the Reagan years.
2. To end homelessness, we need more affordable housing. Today, there is no county in America where a person earning minimum wage can afford the median cost of housing. This lack of affordable housing stock means people who already have trouble making ends meet must use a larger portion of their income to pay for housing. Until the creation of decent, affordable housing becomes a priority at the federal and community levels, it is likely that more households will be “house poor” and thus vulnerable to falling into homelessness.
3. We need both sandwiches and solutions. Amid the global recession, more and more people are in need of food, shelter, and assistance. We cannot allow the basic needs of people in need to go unmet. Efforts to provide shelter beds, warm meals, clothing, short-term rental assistance, and other “band-aid” solutions are critical for those who are struggling to survive. But remember: sandwiches alone will not solve anything. If you regularly participate in street outreach or volunteer at a homeless shelter, consider taking your involvement a step further by becoming involved in advocacy efforts. We will not achieve the system-wide changes necessary to end homelessness by continuing to focus on band-aid solutions, necessary though they may be.
4. Stereotypes are wrong - most homeless people fly under the radar. If the word “homeless” brings to mind a scruffy man with layers of clothing sitting on piece of cardboard, panhandling, then you need a reality check. This stereotypical image is not always inaccurate, but in no way does it represent the vast majority of homeless people in America. In fact, families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, most of these families are led by a single mother with 2-3 children. One study found that 1 in 50 children in America will face homelessness.
5. You can get involved by getting mad. Mad enough to do something. Do you think it’s unacceptable that we live in a country where people are forced to sleep on the streets, scrape to make ends meet, and choose between medical care and paying rent? Then congratulations, you are now a homeless advocate! To get you started in this new role, take a look at 10 actions you can take to end homelessness.
(condensed by me)
Mayor Bloomberg’s solution to New York City’s homeless problem is to make families hit the road. The Guardian reports that under a new initiative by the Mayor’s administration, hundreds of New York City families have received vouchers for plane, rail, and bus tickets, as well as for gas, to help them leave the city. All a homeless family needs to qualify for the vouchers is a relative outside the city who is willing to house them. The city has defended the plan as a cost-cutting measure; it costs taxpayers $36,000 to house a family in a city shelter, but a mere $6,332 to fly them to their relative’s house in Paris, as a family of five recently did. The head of the New York advocacy group Partnership for the Homeless called the move “cosmetic” and said it passed “the problem of homelessness to another city.”
Even the homeless can’t escape the high price of a night in New York City.
City officials this month began charging rent to working families staying in public homeless shelters.
The policy stems from a 1997 state law that hasn’t been enforced until now. Under that law, shelter managers started to require families to pay a portion of their income, depending on the shelter and family size, according to The New York Times. Residents could be expected to pay up to half their earnings.
California caterers, hotels and restaurants throw out roughly 1.5 million tons of perfectly good food every year, according to the state Integrated Waste Management Board. (latimes)
the food that gets thrown out is leftovers, extra ingredients, things that will go bad soon - all of it goes straight into the garbage. in the past, restaurant owners worried about potential liability for food donations - if someone got sick from eating the food, for example - but a 1996 federal good samaritan law protects companies who donate food from legal liability.
so the only real reason this food is going to waste is logistics.
“It’s not the liability that caterers are worried about,” said Michael Flood, chief exec of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. “It’s the logistics.” Simply put, it’s often too much hassle for caterers and hotels to arrange for leftover food to be given to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. So they toss it in the trash. (latimes)
in CA, a state senator worked on legislation that would have required only that catering companies inform clients of their option to require that leftover food be donated. “That bill, SB 1443, was shot down by the California Restaurant Assn., which argued that any such requirement would be troublesome for its members.”
i read recently about an effort to address this technologically, by creating “an online tool that will match non-profits feeding low-income individuals with the produce from groceries, markets, and farms that would otherwise go to waste. Imagine online dating meets your neighborhood produce section. “Food need profiles” will match up information fields including produce type, amount, geographical location, refrigerator storage space and availability of transportation for pick ups, notifying organizations with the greatest need when there is food available for donation.”
it sounds clever, but unless the people who have the extra food agree to participate, it won’t work. and it sounds like those people in CA are dead set against cooperating.
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