$1.8 million in stimulus money helps locals stave off homelessness

[kentuck]

http://www.gazette.com/articles/people-95711-homelessness-new.html

<snip>
People on the verge of homelessness and those who recently became homeless because they’ve fallen on hard times have a new $1.8 million safety net in town: the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program.

The program, funded with federal stimulus money, provides short- and long-term rental and utilities assistance primarily to those affected by the poor economy. It doesn’t cover mortgage payments, but will help people facing foreclosure to move into an apartment. It also will pay for people to store belongings, provide them with basic credit and legal counseling, and pick up the cost of a motel if they can’t get into an apartment right away.

Those who work with the homeless herald the program because it’s the first locally with a preventive component.

“I think it’s fabulous that we finally get to focus some funds on the prevention of homelessness, or rapidly fixing the problem, rather than having people go to emergency housing,” said Anne Beer, director of Community Information Systems for Pikes Peak United Way. “The longer you stay homeless, the more you are impacted and the harder it is to get out, so the fact that we can put the money toward prevention and rapid rehousing is a great opportunity to turn that around.”

Seven agencies are taking part in the program, and all are required to provide case management. One, Peak Vista, is handling cases in rural El Paso County; the other six are serving Colorado Springs.

..........more

(My wife works with Peak Vista)

[annm4peace]

1. Make sure to follow the money. In Fresno, Ca the $ seems to funnel other places than the homeless

http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/homelessness.htm


Update on the homelessness situation in Fresno.

I took a journalist from the Bay Area on a walking tour of the homeless encampments today. I have to admit that it has been a couple of months since I have done that and I want to tell you about some of the changes I saw.

We started at Santa Clara and E street, where there is a large and developed encampment, which has been there for quite a while. But, I think it is significantly larger now and starting to move around the corner towards Golden State Blvd. The thing that struck me about this encampment is that it is pretty clean and there are 3 portable toilets and a trash bin set up. Everyone I talked to gives credit to Rick and Brandon Morse for these services.

You would think the City of Fresno would be embarrassed to not provide these basic services to the people in this community that need them the most. Not only that, the City of Fresno is relentlessly attacking Rick and Brandon and trying to put them out of business. Rick and Brandon run the only medical marijuana dispensary in Fresno and with their profits they pay for the trash bins and portable toilets. Their business is a nonprofit 501 c 3 and this is the charitable work they do. Their trash bins and portable toilets were at all of the homeless encampments we visited today.

Moving on towards the Rescue Mission, I noticed that the Outdoor Drunk Tank had been moved. It is now on the south side of the mission. For those unfamiliar with what this is about - the police take homeless men (and possibly non homeless men too) to this Outdoor Drunk Tank as a way to avoid booking fees at the jail. They claim it saves the city money. I have a couple of problems with this operation.

1. It is for men only. How can it possibly be legal for the police to enforce public drinking laws one way for men and another way for women? Men get a pass and don’t go to jail. Women are taken to jail and booked. That is just wrong.

2. The staff at the Rescue Mission has no training in how to deal with a person if they are drunk and possibly in a dangerous medical situation because of alcohol poisoning. The tent they are put in can’t be that comfortable. When it is 110 degrees outside it has got to be dangerously uncomfortable. Likewise, when it is freezing, it has got to be uncomfortable. I have not heard about anybody dying there yet, but I can’t say for sure that they haven’t.

3. Larry Arce, the director of the Rescue Mission, told me years ago that he would try to convert people in the drunk tank to his reactionary interpretation of Christianity. So, a man who has been drinking too much in public is taken to the Rescue Mission by the police (it is either that or jail) and then he is subjected to the US version of the Taliban ranting at him? Does anyone else have a problem with this picture?

We then made our way to The Hill which is just packed with tents. There must be over 100 people living on The Hill now. We walked over the overpass and ended up at another encampment at the base of the overpass (on the H street side). This encampment has grown too and now has tents that go around the corner.