Veterans Day a Reminder That There’s More to Be Done

From the Homelessness Law blog.

Nov. 11, 2011

On this Veterans Day, I thought I’d write about why I think ending homelessness for veterans is so important, and really is achievable.  I am not a veteran.  I don’t have any family members who were veterans.  And most of my friends aren’t veterans either.

And yet, I’m outraged that even a single veteran is homeless tonight, and I’d like our country to keep on the task of doing something about that.  We know a lot about homeless veterans – honestly we’ve probably spent more time studying the issue than we need to.  But let’s throw out the numbers, statistics, and data, and just get right down to some common sense – every veteran who is homeless today, whether they served in wartime or during a period of peace, has served the country.  And each one now needs the country to help them.  So let’s roll up our sleeves and get going.

It might surprise you to learn that we already are.  There are 75,000 homeless veterans today, down from more than 100,000 a few short years ago.  Unlike with other homeless populations, and even with recent wars resulting in more homeless veterans, veterans homelessness is going in the right direction.  We’re giving apartments to 10,000 veterans a year (sometimes including a veteran with a spouse and / or children), and housing thousands more with short term help until they get back on their feet – veterans are very resilient.  And happily, though we aren’t all the way there yet, fewer and fewer new veterans are becoming homeless as prevention efforts ramp up.

While government is stepping up to help homeless veterans, we could do more.  Apartments for 10,000 vets a year?  $75 million.  A drop in the bucket even in this time of concern over deficits.  Why not double that?  Or triple it.  It would probably mean one less missile for the Department of Defense.  But something tells me they’ve got extra.  And after all, they created much of the problem, by discharging a lot of soldiers without making sure they had a safe place to go and a stable path to long term success.  So I’ll enjoy my day off today, but Monday I’ll be right back to work making sure that on future Veteran’s Days I won’t have to walk past a veteran sleeping outdoors on my way to celebrate his service.

- Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director

NYT editorial: Ever More Homeless Families

Published: October 30, 2011

An increase in poverty and rising rents produced a spike in homelessness among families in recent years. With the economy still weak and 14 million people out of work, the situation is bound to get worse.

Without an intensive federal effort to finance housing programs, the burden will fall on states and cities that are already unable to handle growing social needs.

The typical victim of chronic homelessness is a single man who suffers from a disabling condition like mental illness. Thanks to a sustained investment in specialized housing by the federal and state governments, this population has actually declined over the last four years. But the startling report to Congress issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development last June found that the number of homeless families that have turned to shelters jumped by 20 percent, to 567,334 in 2010 from 473,541 in 2007.

Things would no doubt be considerably worse without the $1.5 billion homelessness prevention program that Congress passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. With that money, HUD helped to prevent more than a million people from becoming homeless. It provided them with short- and medium-term rental assistance, moving expenses and other services. It quickly re-housed those who landed in shelters. With most of that recovery money gone, it is important that Congress provide the $2.4 billion in homeless assistance funding that the administration has requested.

Census data showing a big increase in the number of families living doubled up with friends and relatives suggests that another wave of homelessness may be in the offing. With these clear needs, Congress must preserve and strengthen the programs that are aimed at helping the vulnerable. It should also direct more money into a program that builds and renovates affordable housing, which is in increasingly short supply.

UN: Criminalization Laws Violate Human Rights

From the "Homelessness Law Blog"

On October 28, I had the opportunity to participate in a groundbreaking meeting between U.N. officials; leaders of NGOs; and members of the U.S. State Department, Department of Justice (DOJ), and HUD to discuss the criminalization of homelessness and poverty and its human rights implications, as well as strategies for opposing such policies.

The meeting, organized by the Law Center, was in response to a U.N. report documenting how criminalization practices in the U.S. and other countries violate internationally recognized human rights standards.  As the Program for Human Rights and the Global Economy fall fellow at the Law Center, I was thrilled to take part in such an important meeting

The criminalization report, presented to the U.N. in October, identified four major human rights violations:

•          Control of behavior of people in public spaces. For example, the criminalization of panhandling, eating, and sleeping.
•          Discriminatory urban planning and zoning regulations. For example, there is an increasing trend of moving homeless and poor people to the outskirts of cities.
•          Excessive and arbitrary restrictions on qualifying for public benefits. The U.S. has implemented a severe public benefits screening process, with the stated goal of avoiding fraud.
•        The use of detention in punishing homeless and poor people. The criminal justice system has a disproportionate effect on certain communities.

To read the whole story press "ctrl" and click here .

Walk to support Ocean County's homeless

Vans will shuttle walkers from

the Lakewood Community Square

(Clifton Av between Third and Fourth Street)

to Tent City between 5 and 5:30 p.m.

The march will begin at Tent City @ 5:30 p.m.

A candlelight vigil will begin at 6 p.m. outside town hall.

Those unable to march can welcome the walkers at town hall.

Speakers-Clergy-Students-Officials

No one should be without a roof over their head.

We can end homelessness. We have the ways. We need the will.

Updates can be found at the Ocean County Homeless blog:

http://ochomeless.blogspot.com/

Supporting groups include STEPS, HELP, Kiwanis Club of Jackson, and many area churches.

 

March from Tent City, Cedar Bridge Av.

to the Lakewood Municipal Building.

Rain or shine.

East Dover Baptist appeal

Help support East Dover Baptist Church help the homeless with its fourth annual Tinsel Drive.  Tinsel refers to all-weather blankets that th ehomeless use during the winter months.

Checks or donations can be dropped off or mailed to East Dover Baptist Church, 974 Bay Av., Toms River  08753.  Memo:Tinsel blanket.  They can also be dropped off at the Town & Country Diner, Rt. 37.

The congregation of EDBC thanks you for your support.

Pastor Michael M. Mazer

Steve Nagel's comments

Steve Nagel, Executive Director of Info-Line, Middlesex County, addressed the Ocean County Board of Freeholders during our session with them in October.  Here are his notes from his presentation:

The homeless are not the Clem Kliddlehopper of Red Skelton's day, but are:

• recently unemployed
• underemployed and unable to afford housing
• the majority of our homeless are children.  The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates the average age of a  homeless person, nationally, it 6 years old

How many of us are only one or two paychecks away from homelessness?

Middlesex County is addressing this through:

• organizing two years ago a 501 (c) 3 to administer the management of the county's 10-year plan to end homelessness
• implemented the Homeless Trust Fund.  The first round of funding of over $100K is going to non-profits that support the homeless.  (The Middlesex County Clerk wantes me to share with you how tere was very little resistance to implementing the fund, and it has not been an issue to implement or administer it.)
• starting to implement the Housing First model.  Middlesex County is reallocating HUD vouchers to provide to the Continuum of Care to provide housing vouchers to the homeless and precariously housed.
• the engagement of a longitudinal study to see the savings on moving people out of homelessness and into permanent housing.

Court date rescheduled

Jeff Wild writes:

We requested and obtained an additional two weeks to respond to Lakewood's motion.  Accordingly, the hearing on the motion is being moved to Friday, December 2 at 9 a.m.    The hearing will still occur in Judge Foster's courtroom at the Superior Court of New Jersey at 100 Hooper Avenue in Toms River.