Archive for Homelessness

| September 4, 2010
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Susan Madden Lankford Interviewed by Poverty Insights

Our very own Susan Madden Lankford was recently interviewed on Poverty Insights. For those unfamiliar with the website, here is a synopsis from its history page:

On September 21st, 2004, PATH Partners CEO Joel John Roberts founded LA’s Homeless Blog, the first blog to offer commentary solely focused on homelessness issues as they unfolded locally and nationally. Five years later, his blog has reached over 700,000 unique readers, has been featured in national media such as AOL/Netscape and Affordable Housing magazine and was ranked as one of the top homelessness blogs by The Daily Reviewer.

That was the first phase of the website’s evolution. Having experienced such amazing success, Roberts decided to expand the operation and extend the conversation:

To encourage more extensive dialogue around the issues of housing, poverty and homelessness, LA’s Homeless Blog has expanded to become Poverty Insights. The new format still features regular commentary from Joel John Roberts, but now also includes the perspectives of experts and community members throughout the United States. Our contributors’ diverse insights promote discussion, debate and the creation of new tactics to end homelessness.

Cali Zimmerman, the Communications Coordinator for PATH Partners, penned the article which ran in Poverty Insights on September 2. Her exploration of Lankford’s work begins with a mention of a tragic accident that has occurred almost two decades ago:

Four local teenage boys got high and were involved a terrible car accident right outside her family’s property in San Diego. All of the boys were students at her daughters’ high school. One of the boys died in the accident.’It was a harsh reality as a young mother with three girls. This was their high school,’ Lankford said. ‘It took me into very sharp focus internally.’

This change in mindset was followed by an unexpected event that has influenced the course of Lankford’s work to this day:

At the time, Lankford was a commercial photographer. Not long after the accident, she went to an old, empty jail with the thought that she might use it for some commercial shots. To her surprise, several homeless people followed her into the jail. Remembering her decision to get more involved with the issues in her community, Lankford struck up a conversation with her unexpected visitors.

‘They wanted to know if I was working in the jail,” she said. ‘I let them take me to the streets, and I ended up spending three and a half years photographing and interviewing homeless people.’

And quite a three and a half years it was. Lankford hired a guide from amongst the homeless, a man named Jed, who showed her the vastly different character that the well-known street corners can adopt in the small hours of the morning. Her path has led her through streets and shelters, at all hours of the day and night, until reaching a culmination point in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

The article gives a solid synopsis of the events and experiences that have led to the publishing of downTownUSA: A Personal Journey with the Homeless and her subsequent work (available on our main website). Zimmerman also notes one crucial distinction that Lankford’s work lays claim to. When the issue of homelessness comes up, the almost universal response is “shelter.” It seems logical and sensible, but is it really the most effective starting point? Lankford’s time amongst the homeless indicates otherwise:

During the time she spent putting the book [downtTown USA] together, a huge percentage of the people Lankford interviewed repeatedly entered and exited jail, yet many could not be convinced to enter shelter. That fascinated Lankford, and was a major source of her desire to continue conducting interviews and complete her book.

‘That’s really where my interest lies,’ she said. ‘We need to tap into all types of homeless individuals. How do we do that? There’s a lot more to it than just providing a shelter.’

Please take a look at the article. Not only will it give you more insight into the work of our esteemed photographer, but it will also introduce a wonderful website into the bargain.

Source: “Humane Exposures: Susan Madden Lankford Adjusts the Focus on Homelessness,” Poverty Insights, 09/02/10
Image copyright Susan Madden Lankford, from the book “downTown USA: A Personal Journey with the Homeless.” Used with permission.
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Category: downTown U.S.A., Homelessness, Humane Exposures, Photography, Poverty | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
| September 3, 2010
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Veterans Make Up 35% of the San Diego Homeless

Homeless and coldAs you walk through the streets of San Diego, or any other American city, you will see the homeless. People living rough in the urban landscape. Each one is somebody’s brother, mother, son, cousin, or spouse. In addition, many of them had fought for our country.

Dylan Mann, a contributor to Voice of San Diego, says it well:

You see them in the medians at intersections and at the bottom of freeway off-ramps. Suntanned and weary in camouflage pants, they hold magic-markered signs announcing: ‘HOMELESS VET — ANYTHING HELPS — GOD BLESS.’ And you feel empathy for them, don’t you? No matter what you think of our nation’s military campaigns, it’s undeniable that here before you is a person that once served our country, but now he sleeps outside and isn’t sure when he’ll eat next.

Because of good weather and a high cost of living, San Diego has a lot of homeless people. There are 8,500 homeless people [PDF] in the county and 35 percent of them (3,000) are veterans. The relatively high proportion of veterans among San Diego’s homeless is probably due to our proximity to military bases.

Among the homeless nationwide, veterans comprise 20-25%. Now, it is no secret that the strain of combat can create a wide variety of mental ailments. From “shell shock,” to “battle fatigue,” to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — the name has changed repeatedly while the ailment itself has remained a constant backbeat to our international conflicts. Is this the prime cause behind the number of veterans on the streets? Maybe not. Mann continues:

But, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, only a third of homeless veterans were ever stationed in a combat zone. So, why are the other two-thirds on the streets? Unfortunately, nobody knows for sure.

While there may not be certainty about the cause, there are at least some possibilities:

The Rosenheck-Fontana study of Vietnam veterans shows various correlations, but its takeaways are not entirely clear. The study’s major finding was that if upon returning to civilian life, veterans had low levels of social support, non-PTSD psychological disorders, substance abuse, or were unmarried, they were significantly more likely than their peers to be homeless.

The factors should look familiar if you have been following our work. They are circumstances that crop up repeatedly in our examination of homelessness and other social justice issues. Likewise, Mann cites additional factors that are, again, familiar to us from our prior research:

Additionally, it identified several factors that predisposed soldiers to homelessness. If vets had been foster children or had significant childhood trauma (e.g. physical, sexual, etc.) before entering the military, they were more likely to be homeless, whether or not they saw combat while in the service. These results could suggest that strong emotional development in childhood is necessary for soldiers to reintegrate into civilian society. Alternatively, they might mean that troubled youth are more likely than their peers to join the military. But, in the end, we can’t definitively say why so many non-combat veterans end up being homeless. The more important question, of course, is ‘How do we get them off the streets and back to normal, productive lives?’

And that, indeed, is the crux of the matter — how to reintegrate these people into the everyday society they have left behind? Switching our emphasis from retribution to rehabilitation is one approach that seems to consistently yield greater and more lasting results when encountered in practice. Mann spends almost half of his column on examining the Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD). It seems like a very interesting project, one of the few that works in conjunction with — rather than in opposition to — the Veterans Administration.  Just click the link under the Sources (below) to read more.

Source: “Why So Many Homeless Vets in San Diego?,” San Diego Voice, 08/25/10
Image by Ed Yourdon, used under its Creative Commons license.

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Category: Homeless Veterans, Homelessness, Humane Exposures | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
| August 25, 2010
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The Man and His Birds

PigeonHUMANE EXPOSURES offers a penetrating look at society’s disenfranchised, questioning how long we can ignore the broken segments of our population, and at what cost. To aid in that endeavor, we have now launched our new YouTube channel, on which we will be sharing a wide variety of film clips and resources.

In The Fisher King, there is a scene with Tom Waits playing a disabled and homeless veteran. As he sits in his wheelchair, tin cup extended, he explains to Jeff Bridges’ character that “they’re paying so they don’t have to look.” It is a scene that really makes you think about how many things pass through your field of vision every day that you just don’t see. How many times have we assuaged your conscience with a few well-placed coins, and put it out of your mind? Probably so often that it escapes our notice that it’s not an object but a fellow human being that we’re “not seeing.”

Take a moment to recapture these escaped visions, look through the window we present to see a whole new world that exists uneasily in the same space as the one we walk through every day. For instance, how many people that walk past this man have actually noticed his amazing affinity for birds?

Video is a powerful tool for education. Seeing actual people and hearing their words often has a far greater impact than reading plain text. One proponent of this approach is Mark Horvath, whose work was featured this last Sunday on the front page of Google (as reported by The Huffington Post):

Activist and frequent HuffPost blogger Mark Horvath has dedicated years of his life to telling stories of the homeless through video (and an active twitter account @hardlynormal).

Despite an active following, Horvath’s message hasn’t quite made it into the mainstream. That’ll change this Sunday, when Horvath will be taking over YouTube’s homepage ‘with videos that smash stereotypes about America’s most forgotten citizens.’

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how many is a video worth?

Source: “YouTube Dedicates Homepage To Homelessness On Sunday, August 22,” The Huffington Post, 08/20/10
Image by OliBac, used under its Creative Commons license.

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| August 20, 2010
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Common Ground: Housing the Most Vulnerable

downTown U.S.A.: A Personal Journey with the Homeless

So, what is Common Ground doing? How is it providing a roof to some of the most vulnerable homeless on the streets?

Kara A. Mergl, Director of Research and Evaluation at Common Ground, writes the following on the 100,000 Homes blog:

I guess you can say it all began back in 2003 when Common Ground began piloting its Street-to-Home method. West Midtown Manhattan and the Times Square area of NYC certainly did not look the same back then as they do now.  The program’s major strides were made between 2005, when Becky Kanis made her first NPR appearance, and 2007, when the number of homeless in Times Square decreased by 87%; from 55 street homeless down to just 7. Today, there is only one remaining homeless individual still sleeping on the streets. New York City’s Department of Homeless Services recognized the success of this method and in 2007 deployed it across all five boroughs. The question remained, however, if this method would succeed outside of New York City.

The ability to replicate results is important. Common Ground’s expanded efforts yeilded tangible and positive results in a variety of urban areas, including Los Angeles County:

Other communities, such as Denver, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., began to take notice. One of the first partnerships around this method was with Los Angeles County and Project 50. Project 50, championed by supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, brought together 24 public and private agencies with the shared goal of identifying and housing the 50 most vulnerable homeless individuals living on the streets of Skid Row. At the one-year anniversary of the initial registry, by all measures, Project 50 was a success; 49 individuals housed and an 88% retention rate.

The LA effort proceeded one person at a time. Maurice Lewis was the first people to be handed a key through the program. Aged 54, Lewis had been living on the streets for about a year when he was approached. He said he had spent years “drinkin’ and druggin’,” and also he had heard voices periodically.

The LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard did a great four-part series on these efforts, from which we glean the rundown — in plain English — on how the program works from the standpoint of someone being aided by it:

The terms of Project 50 were explained to him: We have a room for you, your very own. You don’t have to see a shrink. You don’t have to attend substance abuse counseling. All that’s required is that 30% of your income — in Lewis’ case, a $221 monthly general relief check from the county — go toward rent.

The effort is far from over. As the next stage begins, teams of volunteer with be registering the homeless in San Diego. Applying the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, prepared by the United Way in 2006, is the next step. Training sessions will be held for almost 150 members of the community and civic leaders during the week of September 19.

This training will prepare them for the three consecutive days of pre-dawn excursions onto the streets, during which they will survey and talk with the homeless. The data collected will be used to ID the most vulnerable of that population and get them into housing over the weeks or months following the survey.

If you are interested in more information or in volunteering to assist with the survey, you can check out the San Diego Clean and Safe website.

Source: “Project 50: Four walls and a bed,” LA Times, 08/01-07/10
Image copyright Susan Madden Lankford, from the book “downTown USA: A Personal Journey with the Homeless.” Used with permission.
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| August 18, 2010
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Addressing Homeless Issues: IDignity Assists With Identification Woes

HomelessThere are many social obstacles for the homeless. Things that we take for granted in our day-to-day lives may suddenly become seemingly insurmountable problems. In many cases, it can turn out to be something no one thinks of.

One example is the issue of identification. Most of us, at one point or another, have had to replace a lost ID. It is never a fun process. Now imagine how much worse it would be if you did not have a home or copies of the paperwork required to get a new ID. Suddenly, the possibility of a job is out of reach, the ability to cash a check is lost, and so many other aspects of modern society become inaccessible.

As we watch the numbers of the homeless swell during the nation’s economic woes, we are also seeing some interesting responses to their plight. Since modern society makes carrying ID essential for conducting one’s normal day-to-day affairs, the idea of an ID Clinic seems almost inevitable.

The first instance of an effort to assist the homeless with the paperwork required for daily life is the brainchild of Jacqueline Dowd, who founded IDignity in Central Florida. The project aims at navigating the paper trail along with the homeless, making sure that the correct forms are filled, and providing advice and guidance through the process.

Here’s a partial description of the program from the IDignity website:

Volunteers will serve in a wide variety of roles including: introducing the process to clients, filling out forms for clients, assisting agencies or shepherding clients through the process. Interestingly, most of the volunteers leave these events feeling that they have been served themselves and regularly return with a desire to do more. It is estimated that in order to continue the program through 2010 it will cost an average of $12,000 per event.

The documents that IDignity provides are required to apply for employment or school, obtain access to most shelters, vote, seek help from many social service programs, open a bank account or cash a check, secure housing or overcome many other obstacles to becoming self-sufficient.

Below is a short video interview with Jaqueline Dowd conducted by Mark Horvath. If you are unfamiliar with Horvath, he, formerly homeless himself, has developed InvisiblePeople.tv to give a face to the issue of homelessness. Horvath also writes regularly for The Huffington Post on the subject.

The lack of identification can be like a brick wall, confining a person to the areas outside of normal society. Effectively imprisoned, these people cannot interact with our communities in most of the ways needed for them to pull themselves back into mainstream culture. With more people becoming homeless at a frightening rate, in this increasingly documentation-oriented age, ideas like this need to be explored.

Does it prove effective? The Mayor of Orlando thinks so (from the IDignity website):

‘One of the biggest challenges for the homeless is lack of a personal identification card. The IDignity program is helping more than 200 people per month gain that ID which links them to critical services. It’s been so successful other Florida communities are borrowing our model.’ — Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyers State of the City address on February 18, 2010.

What are your thoughts? Had this aspect of the homeless condition escaped you until reading this? Let us know!

Source: “Without Identification, People Can’t get off the Streets,” The Huffington Post, 08/15/10
Image by pedrosimoes7, used under its Creative Commons license.

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| August 17, 2010
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The LA Homeless Shelters Now Must Accept Service Animals

Guard Dog

Joel John Roberts is the CEO of PATH Partners (an alliance of agencies that deal with homelessness), as well as the author of the book titled How To Increase Homelessness. He is also the publisher of Poverty Insights, a national online journal on homelessness, housing, and poverty, and he covers the “LA Homelessness” beat for Examiner.com.

Roberts brings us news of the results of a lawsuit that’s been filed in mid-July of 2009. The suit was brought by the Housing Rights Center (HRC), and presented under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the  Fair Housing Act.

The issue? The ability of the disabled homeless to bring their service animals into shelters.

Roberts reports on Examiner.com:

‘It’s a serious and systemic problem,’ commented Michelle Uzeta, Director of Litigation for HRC. ‘These shelters put people with disabilities in the impossible position of having to choose between the service animals that provide them with needed disability-related assistance and the ability to access emergency shelter services.’

Recently, a settlement occurred with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the joint city and county authority on homelessness that directs all LAHSA-funded agencies to provide reasonable modifications to their policies and facilities for homeless people with service animals.

While the critics cite a variety of objections to this mandate — including disruption of the shelter environment — from a legal standpoint, is seems that the issue is settled. There is a disproportionate percentage of the homeless that are physically or mentally disadvantaged, and a number of them rely on service animals to function on a daily basis.

What do you think? Seeing-eye dogs are allowed on public transportation, so should they be allowed into homeless shelters? Should other service animals have a place in these environments?

Source: “Los Angeles homeless agencies mandated to take in service animals,” Examiner.com, 07/30/10
Image by libookperson, used under its Creative Commons license.

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Category: Homelessness, Humane Exposures, Mental Health | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
| August 6, 2010
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“Tent City,” a Documentary Film from the Oprah Winfrey Network

OWN LogoOprah Winfrey has a new cable network debuting next January, and that means a need for programming. In an interesting move, Winfrey has announced a new series of documentaries co-produced with some of her celebrity friends.

Richard Huff, The Daily TV News Editor of the New York Daily News, reports:

OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network is scheduled to launch next year, and will replace Discovery Health on cable systems around the country. That network is now in 80 million homes, although its reach could grow by the time the network — which has been delayed by a year — gets started.

Julia Roberts, Forest Whitaker, Goldie Hawn, Gabriel Byrne and Mariel Hemingway were all announced in the recent press release as participants, along with the details of their respective projects, all of which are produced for the network’s monthly “Documentary Film Club.”

One of these projects makes this news pertinent to our readership: Tent City, produced by Gabriel Byrne. Here is a brief description from the press release:

Executive producers Gabriel Byrne and Leora Rosenberg, producer/director Steven Cantor and Stick Figure Productions present TENT CITY, a documentary exploring homelessness in Nashville, Tenn. With the economic recession, a growing number of people are finding themselves in a position they never imagined, homeless. TENT CITY explores a community of nearly 100 homeless individuals who live under a downtown bridge. The group is self-sustained and self-governed. They work to stay together after a devastating flood destroys their land and forces them to evacuate. As a result of the disaster, for the first time in Nashville history, the municipally run Homeless Commission has opened one seat on its council to a resident of Tent City. This opportunity will allow the winning Tent City individual the chance to spearhead the search for a new location. TENT CITY will follow the four candidates as they vie for election and the process of moving the camp and keeping the community together.  ‘Shelter and home are the most basic human and fundamental human rights, yet increasingly in one of the world’s wealthiest societies, more and more of us are losing our homes. How we address this social epidemic may very well determine our future. This isn’t an abstract concept but a reality millions of Americans confront every day. Our sons, our daughters, our fathers and mothers are the homeless,’ says executive producer Gabriel Byrne.

This community is reminiscent of the encampments known as Hoovervilles during the Great Depression. The really interesting point is the enfranchisement of this usually neglected demographic by offering its representative a seat on the Homeless Commission council.

As more and more Americans find their resources dwindling, and the prospect of homelessness looming, these issues become a lot closer to home. What do you think? Here at HUMANE EXPOSURES, we are interested in your thoughts and views, please share them with us in the comments section, or on Facebook.

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Source: “Julia Roberts, Forest Whitaker, Goldie Hawn, Gabriel Byrne and Mariel Hemingway Sign On for OWN: THE OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK Original Documentaries,” PR Newswire, 07/26/10
Source: “Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn, Forest Whitaker among stars to make films for Oprah’s new network OWN,” New York Daily News, 07/27/10
Image of Oprah Winfrey Network via PR Newswire, Fair Use: Reporting.
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| August 2, 2010
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HUD Funds Five Homeless Shelters for Veterans

Humane Exposures: HUD Funds Five Homeless Shelters for Veterans
Many do not realize it, but a disproportionate number of the homeless faces one sees on American streets are military service veterans. After serving their term, many former members of the military find themselves amongst the dispossessed of our nation, lost in the very society they had defended.

In an attempt to take care of these homeless soldiers, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced $15 million in grants for five cities, including San Diego. The money is earmarked for development of permanent housing for homeless veterans. Camp Pendleton in San Diego is one of the five. The others are: MacDill Air Force Base (Tampa, Florida), Fort Hood (Killeen, Texas), Fort Drum (Watertown, New York), and Joint Base Lewis-McChord (Tacoma, Washington).

HUD states that veteran homelessness has been on the rise due to the escalation of conflicts in the Middle East. Kimberly Dvorak, who covers San Diego County Political Buzz for Examiner.com, notes that each of these communities will receive two million to combat veteran homelessness.  She then goes on to tell us a bit more more about the program:

HUD also announced that the VA medical centers will also receive $1 million in grant money for other veteran needs. The Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration (VHPD) program, through HUD, can provide a ‘continuums of care’ for needy veterans who might be living on the streets or in homeless shelters.

‘The men and women who serve our nation deserve better than a life on the streets when they return home,’  said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. ‘These grants represent a first step toward designing the best interventions possible so that we can prevent homelessness for those heroes who sacrificed so much for us.’

The effort will focus on a triad of homeless issues: housing, health care, and employment services. The last of these are handled through the U.S. Department of Labor. HUD estimates it will take approximately 90 days to identify which veterans and their families are in need, and to render assistance.

More housing seems a great idea, doesn’t it? Still, HUMANE EXPOSURES has discovered that many of the homeless refuse to live inside shelters. Many are addicted to controlled substances and need treatment before they can be accepted into shelters. Others need mental health treatment, including medications, before they would feel comfortable in a shelter environment. Others prefer life on the street.

To quote from interviews conducted by Susan Madden Lankford for the book, downTown U.S.A.: A Personal Journey with the Homeless: “I can’t live with 400 people around me,” “I can’t follow the rules and regulations required inside shelters,” “Something is wrong with me, I do better on the street that I do inside,” “I want to sleep on the pavement.”

Shelters are part of a solution; treatment is a more holistic approach: providing homeless veterans the support to come off the streets if they choose, including proper intake, case analysis, and referrals. There is only one continuum of care; the fact that HUD sees multiple “continuums of care” means it still isn’t treating the whole problem.

Source: “Homeless veterans in 5 cities will get relief housing,” Examiner.com, 07/28/10
Source: Downtown USA: A Personal Journey with the Homeless.
Image by Humane Exposures Publishing, copyright retained; used with permission.
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