HomelessNess

nonprofit offers homeless people one-on-one attention

2004-12-31T08:48:00.000+10:30

Thursday, December 30, 2004

They're an eclectic group of people. Some are from Needham, others from closer to the city. Some are Unitarian Universalist. At least one is Roman Catholic. At least one of them has experienced homelessness. A few of them have tried to go out to the Boston Common with a can to collect change - just to see what it is like to be homeless.
"Most people will give you money," said John Mark Thomas of Lawton Road in Needham, who has tried collecting. "Some people will look you in the eye and say, 'Get a job.' Other people will just look the other way."
They are volunteers for Generic Ministry Inc., a nonprofit organization just over a year old that serves homeless people. Volunteer William Stuart of Quincy came up with the name to reflect the diverse faiths of the people in the group, which does not officially promote any one religious view.
"We're different," Thomas said of the group, which has just eight core volunteers and others who help on a less regular basis. Other organizations that help the homeless provide services such as shelter or food to large groups of people.
"We find one person and we stay with them," Thomas said. "We'll stop and mess around with one person for a half an hour." Just last week, Thomas called 911 for one man and helped another woman, who refused to go to a shelter, into an ATM foyer for the night.
The group, he explained, travels throughout the city two nights a week and passes out food, clothing and blankets to the homeless.
But Thomas said, "The most important thing we do ... is to talk to people. We talk to them and we say right up front, 'What can I do to help you get off the street?' "
On Tuesday nights, the group parks its van at the Park Street MBTA station and works from there. Some people from the homeless community have learned to recognize the members and will come to them for food or clothing on their own. That sort of service has been provided to homeless people before.
"I used to go to a van when I was homeless," Stuart remembered.
But Generic Ministry takes things even further.
On Wednesday nights, the group seeks out people who are even more desperate than those who come to the van on their own. They are the ones who are huddled in doorways or on benches who are too sick or frail to find the van. They are the people who may have been turned away from shelters after having misbehaved.
"These are the people who have been rejected by society, by their families and by the institutions that are supposed to help them," Thomas said. It's possible, he said, for the volunteers to find a boy, as young as 19, homeless in the streets, to call up his family and tell of his plight and to have the family tell them they want nothing to do with the boy.
Talking with homeless people helps Generic Ministry volunteers to form relationships with them. Occasionally, a homeless person will trust them enough to accept the long-term help that they have to offer.
"Some of the folks on the street suffer from drug addiction or alcoholism. Some are also mentally ill," Thomas said. If a homeless person is willing, the volunteers will take them to a shelter, pick them up in the morning, get them the professional help they need and, over the long term, help them get a job and housing.
"You take them to a detox and you go visit them, and you tell them you care about them and you'll be there for them when they come out," Thomas said. "And we keep our promises."
Though Generic Ministry has been around for less than two years, the concept of it was born more than a decade ago, when volunteer Susan Gallagher of Weymouth used to do something similar on her own.
"I started out with one particular person," Gallagher said. She was going to church in Boston while her regular church in the suburbs underwent renovation when she noticed two people on a blanket next to the church. It looked like a picnic, Gallagher said. But the people were there when she came out and continued to be there week after week even as the weather got colder. She knew she had to do something.
"I was thinking, how can I go to Mass when there are people who need my help?" Gallagher said. Over the course of a decade, she worked with the same two people, trying to get them into a detox program and off the street, she said.
One of those people was Stuart. But Stuart said that the day he went to a detox program, he made the decision on his own and he went on his own. Gallagher, however, visited him there.
It was in that detox facility that both Stuart and Gallagher met Thomas, who, having retired from a job in software, was working there as a counselor. Thomas, knowing that Stuart had no home to go to after finishing the program, helped him to find housing and a job and even provided him with temporary shelter in his own home for a few weeks.
Thomas, Stuart and Gallagher never lost touch and ultimately came together to form Generic Ministry. They were soon joined by Sharon Colley of Quincy, a friend of Stuart's, and Beverly Johannesen and her husband, Will Totton of Needham, who knew Thomas because all three go to church at First Parish in Needham.
"I heard him say something about it, and I thought, 'Jeepers, could you use some help,' " Johannsen remembered.
A retired nurse, Johannesen spends much of her time helping to gather food and clothing for Generic Ministry services. She shows up at Sudbury Farms, which donates much of the food to the group, at closing time and loads up several carts with leftovers. She and Totton go to discount stores and flea markets to buy clothing and other supplies that homeless people need.
A retired nurse, Johannesen also speaks with some of the homeless women the volunteers encounter on the street, although Thomas said most of the homeless people on the street are men.
For the most part, the volunteers find their work to be very satisfying.
"We have a good time when we go out," Stuart said.
Thomas said when he first started doing the work, he worried that he wasn't really helping. But that feeling went away.
"You build relationships," he said, "and you realize that you really can do some good."

Youth Ministry Resources

2004-12-31T08:42:00.000+10:30

This page lists youth ministry resources supplied weekly and several reflections for youth ministry groups. The page is featured in a directory: youth ministry resources and has almost 100 reflections in it. Please add to this resource by emailing in any contributions you have.

City's homeless crisis a disgrace

2004-10-31T08:36:00.000+10:30

The results of the 2004 Edmonton homeless count have yet to be tabulated, but ask anyone who works with the city's poor and disenfranchised and they'll tell you the outcome is a no-brainer.

The only question remaining is, exactly how much has the number of adults and children living on our streets increased in the last two years?

"Certainly, most community agencies (that deal with the homeless) are reporting that more people are trying to access their services," said John Beke, executive director of the Edmonton Joint Planning Committee on Housing, which conducted the count on Oct. 19.

The committee plans to release the final tally on Nov. 14.

Two years ago, the committee counted 1,915 people, including 267 children, a staggering increase over the 1999 count, which recorded 836 homeless.

Part of the reason for the dramatic hike is that with each count, the committee gets better at figuring out where the homeless are finding shelter, and 2004 is no exception. This year the scope of the count has expanded beyond the inner city and neighbourhoods around the downtown core.

Volunteer surveyors also canvassed the west end, notably a truck stop at the Yellowhead Freeway and 170 Street, where people looking for work have been known to live in their cars because they can't find a place with affordable rent.

Because of this, and coupled with the fact that most of surveyors doing this year's count are new at it and can't compare what they saw with the 2002 count, Beke was reluctant to even hazard a guess at what the final numbers will be.

"We expect to see an increase, but the numbers might not be up as much as you'd think," he said optimistically. He pointed to several new housing projects that have opened in recent years to address the need for more emergency shelter beds, transitional housing for people getting back on their feet and supportive housing for people who will always need a little help.

In fact, the newest project will have its grand opening this weekend. The Hope Mission will unveil its $5.2-million expansion, which will provide another 230 spaces - 70 spots for people who are intoxicated and need a place for the night, 100 more emergency shelter spaces, 41 beds for transitional housing and 19 self-contained suites for long-term supportive housing.

Eighty per cent of the project's funding came from the Edmonton Housing Trust Fund, which since 2000 has pumped $34 million into affordable housing projects around the city, helping to create 1,100 new spaces for people who can't afford to pay market prices for rent.

You'd think with all this being done, homelessness would be decreasing in Edmonton. But it seems for every person who manages to get off the streets and into safe housing, more just keep turning up at shelter doors.

Simply building housing does not address the reasons why people are out on the streets in the first place.

Edmonton's economy is booming, and this is drawing people who think the city will provide their ticket out of poverty. Problem is, many can only qualify for jobs that pay the minimum wage, which at $5.90 per hour is nothing short of Dickensian, seemingly calculated to keep people poor.

Then there are other social issues, such as substance abuse. According to the housing trust fund, 66% of all homeless are battling some form of addiction.

And then there are the people with physical and mental health problems. Many homeless are on the streets because they're trying to scrape by on government disability pensions, which aren't even keeping up with inflation.

In a province with as much wealth as Alberta, Edmonton's homeless crisis is not only a tragedy, it's a disgrace. Nobody should be living on the streets.

Beatings of homeless stun most TR North students

2004-10-31T08:29:00.000+10:30

DOVER TOWNSHIP -- It hasn't been a very good week at Toms River High School North.

On Wednesday, Dover Township police announced that five North seniors had been arrested and charged with assaulting three homeless men and a homeless woman in separate incidents that started in late June.

On Thursday, media outlets from around the tri-state area descended on North, which with 2,400 students is the largest high school in the Toms River Regional district.

Yesterday, three North student leaders said the actions of the five students are an aberration, and not at all representative of their school.

"In light of the situation, our school has been completely misrepresented," said Karla Rinaldi, 17, who is North's senior class president. "There are so many good things that happen here every day."
Taylor Sardoni, 16, junior class president, agreed that the five students' actions and the resulting media coverage have left North students angry and frustrated.

"It's totally outrageous, what these kids were doing," Sardoni said. "I had never heard anything about this happening. I was as surprised as anyone else to hear about it."

Student Council Treasurer Chris McGowan, 16, said he is disappointed that people rarely hear about the good things that happen regularly at North, including the fund-raising drives and community service frequently undertaken by students.

"It's just a shame we're not in the news for all the good things we do," McGowan said. "So many students are involved in so many positive things."

High School North's principal, Jim Hauenstein, who started that job in September, said Student Council President Jaclyn Schiller approached him Thursday to suggest that North students do something to help the homeless and the less fortunate in Dover Township.

"The whole situation has people embarrassed and angry," Hauenstein said. "It's really been devastating for the school community."

Hauenstein said students plan to start a clothing drive to collect coats, hats, gloves and scarves for less-fortunate residents and also hope to hold a food drive sometime soon.

"We are beginning plans to start, in a week or two, a jacket drive," Hauenstein said. "We would like to make sure something positive can come out of something so terrible."

Late Tuesday afternoon, the five North seniors were arrested and charged with aggravated assault in connection with the attacks on the homeless. The students, who may have been imitating a controversial video series called "Bum Fights," apparently called their activities "bum hunting" and boasted about it later at school, police have said.

Police have estimated there are between 10 and 20 homeless people living in Dover Township, mostly camping in wooded areas off Route 37 or near the Garden State Parkway.

During the assaults, the suspects used weapons, including baseball bats, a golf club, metal rods, bricks and hockey pucks to attack their victims. One victim, 50-year-old Larry Radomski, suffered five broken ribs, a punctured lung and a fractured right arm.

A 42-year-old female victim suffered facial lacerations when bricks were thrown at her tent, and a 44-year-old man suffered injuries to his face, arms and shoulders when he was struck with a golf club and fists.

One of the suspects has been identified by police as Frank Novak, 18, of Bowling Green Drive, who is free on $50,000 bail.

The other four male teenagers are 17; their names have not been released by police because they are juveniles. Two were being held in the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center, while the other two were released to their parents' custody.

School Superintendent Michael J. Ritacco said the school district is prohibited by law from suspending the students involved in the assaults because the crimes did not happen on school property and were not connected to the school in any way.

He said the students arrested had never previously been charged with any violent incidents, but there has been previous disciplinary action against them.

At a pep rally held yesterday at North only hours before the North vs. Toms River High School South football game, marching band members played while cheerleaders exhorted the crowd.

McGowan said before the pep rally that almost all students are angry about the attacks because of the bad light cast on their school.

"It's not just the Student Council officers," he said. "It's everyone that you talk to. Everyone is upset about this."

My 2 cents:

The students are very lucky they picked the right group of homeless people to attack. Otherwise the headline would have read 'Students killed by local homeless.' None of the students from that school should feel safe walking the streets now. They have no idea what a violent and unforgiving would the streets are.

The Homeless Guy

2004-10-31T08:23:00.000+10:30

One of the most interesting and useful voices on homelessness is Kevin or The Homeless Guy. His blog has been going for some years and is a very interesting for anyone wanting to learn more about homeless people or homelessness. Check it out: The Homeless Guy. I noticed he recently added his Christmas Wish List to amazon so you can make a selection and send him something for Christmas too.

Vets for Animal Welfare

2004-10-24T11:50:00.000+09:30

Have a squiz at this blog... Vets for Animal Welfare, written by a student who will one day be a brilliant vet. I don't know the first thing about Animal welfare, but I found her blog very interesting and inspiring.

Check it out.

Runaways, pose special problems for police

2004-10-21T20:14:00.000+09:30

When Laura Hatch first disappeared after an Oct. 2 party in the Redmond Ridge development, her family called the police.

The King County Sheriff's Office opened an investigation into the missing 17-year-old from Redmond, assigned a detective to the case and began to interview family and friends. Until Hatch was found in her wrecked car a week ago today, the police considered her a runaway.

``People have accused us of stigmatizing the girl by putting that label on her,'' said Sgt. John Urquhart, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

Whether to classify someone as a runway or just missing is up to the investigating officers and a dose of common sense.

In Hatch's case, there were no indications of foul play, Urquhart said. Secondly, he said, ``there were indications she was most likely one of the runaways.'' Those indications would be based on what was going on in her life at the time. He didn't provide specifics, and Hatch's family disputes the notion that there was anything going on to make her want to leave.

Hatch is now recovering in Harborview Medical Center. She was listed in serious condition Saturday in the intensive care unit.

The police went out and searched along Novelty Hill Road, a likely route home from the party, but had no clues indicating where she might be.

It turned out later Hatch had taken an alternate route home and gone off the road into a heavily wooded ravine. A family friend eventually found her, but only after several hundred volunteers had gone out the previous day to search for her.

In most cases, runaways present a particular problem for police.

``There is not a whole lot you can do,'' Urquhart said. ``Basically you can talk to people, as we did in this case.''

Urquhart was unable to provide the number of runaway cases the department takes up in a year, but it is a lot.

In 2003, the Bellevue Police Department recorded 160 runaway cases, said Officer Michael Chiu. Teens aged 13-18 were the subjects in 152 of them.

A runaway's family is often the key to finding them, Chiu said.

``The people who are most effective at getting runaways are the parents,'' Chiu said. ``They know who they hang out with, the cars, which houses.''

If police find a runaway, there is little they can do if the runaway is an adult and does not want to return, Chiu said. If the runaways are under 18, the parents will be called, but even then that isn't a definitive ending to the scenario. A lot of it depends on how at-risk the kid is.

``A lot of times they voluntarily allow us to drive them home,'' Chiu said. Sometimes the kid will instead be turned over to the state Department of Social and Health Services. In some cases, a young person can be sent to Youth Services for the night until further instructions are received.

``Sometimes we notify the parents and they say `Just let the kid go,' and we release them on the street,'' Chiu said. ``The more dysfunctional the family, the more difficult it is for us to help them.''

``There are many places a family should go for help before a child runs away,'' Chiu said.

The standard operating procedure when a runaway or missing teen is reported is to put out a bulletin to all officers and other police and fire departments. The subject is entered into a statewide computer network as a runaway or missing. After 30 days, dental records will be obtained and the entire case will be forwarded to the State Patrol.

``The vast majority of the time we don't hear anything,'' said Kent police spokesman Paul Petersen. ``They come back. Sometimes the family calls us, sometimes the family does not.''

``After 30 days, we call the family, and they tell us `Oh, she came back two weeks ago,''' Petersen said.

Petersen said that at the Kent Police Department, maybe one case in 50 gets sent up to the state level.

The difference between a runaway and someone who is just missing depends on a lot of external factors.

``We would need an indication from reporting people or family that this person was of a mind to run away,'' Petersen said.

In Laura Hatch's case, she just disappeared. Her family did not believe she had run off. Laura had been at the party with her twin sister Karen that evening, and Karen had all of Laura's identification and debit cards. Laura Hatch had also never run away before.

Police need at least some kind of tip before they know where to look.

Petersen recalled the case of Gregory Milner, a 41-year-old Kent man who disappeared Dec. 30, 2002, somewhere along a long drive from Minnesota back to Kent. The police traced his last cell phone call to Circle, Mont., some distance from Milner's usual route along Interstate 94.

Milner's family eventually rented a plane and flew over his route. Seven days later, they found his truck down a deep ravine in eastern Montana. Milner was already dead.

``When we have reason to believe that there may have been an accident like (Hatch) had, then we would be out there searching,'' Petersen said.

Study reports 52,000 homeless in Britain

2004-10-12T15:50:00.000+09:30

London, England, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A study by a British charity published Monday said at least 52,000 young people are homeless in England, the Daily Mirror reported.

Working for the charity Centrepoint, researchers at York University used statistics from all local authorities to calculate the number of 16 to 24 year olds homeless in 2003.

The study counted young people as homeless if they had nowhere to live, were based in temporary accommodation, could not stay at home because of violence or if they were living in unfit housing.

The study found there were more young women than men, and the charity's chief executive, Anthony Lawton said he fears the true number is higher, as thousands of people do not appear in any official figures.

As many as 6,700 -- or one in eight homeless youths have had recent experience of sleeping on the street, the newspaper said.

Rosies Youth Mission

2004-10-12T15:47:00.000+09:30

General Cosgrove to Launch Tapestry Fund for Rosies Youth Mission

General Peter Cosgrove is going to launch the Rosies Youth Mission Tapestry Fund at the Queensland Irish Association on Friday 22nd of October. The brunch, which starts at 10:00am is $45 per person, will feature an address by General Cosgrove as he launches the fund in memory of Teresa and Greg Jackson who passed away tragically at the start of the year.

If you would like to purchase tickets for the launch or would like to make a donation to the Tapestry Fund, please e-mail admin@rosies.org.au or call 1300 ROSIES (fixed line only).

If you live in Brisbane I encourage you to support this event.

Australian Idol

2004-10-03T18:07:00.000+09:30

Follow the progress of Australian Idol performers online today. Australian Idol is on again, vote now for your winner of Australian Idol in this online poll.

Homelessness for rent

2004-10-02T22:40:00.000+09:30

TOWNSVILLE is suffering a rental crisis which places the city high on the list for the greatest number of homeless people in the country.

Tenant Advice and Advocacy Service principal Shaun Watson said yesterday the homeless in Townsville were not confined to drunks in parks but families including children under 12.
Some families were living in cars.
Mr Watson's concern for the city's situation has prompted a pre-election forum on affordable rental housing on Saturday at 3pm at The Strand Amphitheatre in Gregory St, North Ward.
Mr Watson said it was "a bit difficult to ascertain the Townsville figure for homelessness" but maintained there were 1300 households on the long-term waiting list for public housing.
"But of those in public and private rental housing there are at least 3000 families in financial stress because they are paying more than 30 per cent of their income in rent."
Mr Watson said there needed to be a multi-government co-ordinated strategy to overcome such a situation and the Federal Government needed to take the lead following a 54 per cent decline in its contributions to public housing in the past 10 years.
"The Commonwealth is just not supporting the lower socio-economic sector in housing.
"The facts speak for themselves and without further assistance from the Commonwealth the situation will continue to get worse."
Mr Watson said people in housing crisis shelters, living on the floor at friends' homes or prostituting themselves for a roof over their heads were included in the homeless figures.
"In 2001 there were 100,000 homeless people across Australia.
"Of those, 10,000 were under the age of 12 and a staggering 26,000 were aged 12 to 18 years.
"There needs to be a co-ordinated effort with the Federal Government nominating a federal housing minister to work with State and local governments in a bid to address this problem."
Mr Watson said in the 2001-02 census there were 943,000 people receiving rental assistance and since then about 35 per cent of those had had rent increases of at least 30 per cent.
About 9 per cent were now spending up to 50 per cent of their income on rent even after receiving rent assistance.
"This shows that rental assistance as a sole housing strategy has failed and has the potential of ballooning out even further."

Cycling to help homeless people

2004-10-02T22:38:00.001+09:30

SLEEPING in doorways and scavaging in bins for food was a big fall from grace for a man accustomed to driving a Porsche and wearing Armani suits, but Paul Mack says he is richer for the experience.
A self-made millionaire, Mr Mack said he spent six months on the streets in Sydney's Pennith Hill in 1999 after drinking away his savings.
Five years on he has devoted his life to helping other homeless people and is more than 2000km into a charity ride around Australia.
"I'm much richer today, I'm spiritually rich, money's not my goal, I go out and help the homeless and give them my love," Mr Mack said yesterday after arriving in Port Campbell lugging 125kg of supplies.
Along the way he is appealing to the public to donate or sponsor blankets for people living on the street. He wants to establish a national appeal day for homeless people.

Mr Mack said he had dedicated his trip to his best mate Lenny, a homeless man who died in 1999.
The 43-year-old, who has two homes, in Avoca and Byron Bay, said the turning point in his life came when a priest gave him his last rites in 1999.
He decided to get himself out of his dismal situation and set about helping others rebuild their lives.
"This is not about money, it's about bringing awareness to the Australian public about homelessness, it's about love," he explained.
Mr Mack said there were more than 100,000 homeless people in Australia and said his ultimate aim was to open a large rehabilitation centre for homeless people on the NSW/Victorian border.
He said most homeless people needed to be rehabilitated and said their six-week stay at the centre would be followed by a one-week stint on the streets helping other people.
Mr Mack said he had offered support to about 6000 homeless people since his ride started in Gosford, NSW, on May 15 and has also collected more than 1000 blankets and has secured the support of 2000 businesses.
He is also making a movie about his experience and posts weekly accounts of his adventures on his website.
Mr Mack will pedal into Warrnambool about 4pm today and said he planned to stay in the city for several days before continuing his journey which will end in Byron Bay on New Year's Eve 2005.

Vinnies names first National CEO

2004-10-02T22:38:00.000+09:30

150 years after its Australian founding, the St Vincent de Paul Society has broken new ground by appointing a Sydney businesswoman as its first ever national chief executive.

The Society has appointed Helen Cameron, a company director and former finance executive, to the new position.

National Council President John Meahan said Ms Cameron's appointment is part of the Society's National Council review of its management team and organisational structure "to improve its effectiveness in helping Australia's disadvantaged".

"We chose Helen because of her extensive background in business, her experience with Foodbank and in dealing with government," he said. "The St Vincent de Paul Society is at a pivotal time in its long history in this country and needs to meet the changing needs and increasing demands of the community."

Mr Meahan said that as Australia faces a massive increase in the gap between the rich and the poor, Vinnies needs to "harness [its] energies to work towards innovative solutions".

The St Vincent de Paul Society has 38,000 members and volunteers in Australia, with over 2200 staff. It helped nearly one and a half million Australians last year. The Society is well known for its retail chain of 600 "Vinnies" stores. It is a major provider of services in aged care, to migrants & refugees, and to the homeless, through places such as the Matthew Talbot Hostel.

Ms Cameron has extensive business experience, with a background in finance as a director of a major global bank, senior management roles in two multinational consumer food organisations and as a director of a number of publicly listed companies and government organisations.

She was on the board of Foodbank NSW for nearly five years where she was Deputy Chairman. During that time she fostered a number of relationships with both corporations and the NSW government to help support that organisation.

Ms Cameron is keen to develop the Society's national strategy to enhance its ability to support its services to the community. "I am very much looking forward to contributing to the great variety of different activities the Society conducts in helping many Australians each year from different walks of life. As the needs of the Australian community evolve, the Society needs to remain flexible and adapt its activities to meet the changing demands of the community", she said.

The end of the line before homelessness

2004-10-02T22:37:00.000+09:30

When George Franks moved into the Half Moon caravan park, in the shadow of the Westgate Bridge, he expected to stay for three months. Eight years later he says a combination of factors, including a downturn in the industry and illness in the family, prolonged his stay.
Mr Franks, 60, is one of about 22,000 Australians living in caravan parks, part of an underclass the Victorian Council to Homeless Persons says often lives on the verge of homelessness.
"A key issue is the low level of public housing stock. People are forced to live in caravan parks, which is not a reasonable long-term option," said chief executive Deb Tsobaris.
About 100,000 Australians were homeless at the last census in 2001, and caravan parks, accommodating 3400 Victorians, were "the end of the line" before homelessness, said Ms Tsobaris.
"It is insufficient to expect the private sector to meet the needs of the most vulnerable Australians. We want the major political parties to address the issue of affordable housing in the election campaign. The Federal Government needs to commit to a public housing strategy for people living on the margins so they can live stable lives," he says.
The council and six other Victorian welfare agencies - Anglicare Victoria, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Good Shepherd, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, VCOSS and the Salvation Army - hope to fire a discussion of social justice during the election campaign. "The main parties have highlighted truth and integrity as key issues of this campaign," said Anglicare Victoria chief executive Ray Cleary yesterday. "But the plight of the most vulnerable members of our society seems to be missing from the election debate so far. The biggest challenge facing the incoming federal government will be returning Australia to a just and decent society."
Council to Homeless Persons policy officer Michelle Marven said caravans generally cost between $120 and $250 a week, an amount largely unsustainable for a person on welfare benefits.
While people were often referred to caravan parks as a matter of last resort byagencies, they were far from ideal.
And while people were often referred to caravan parks as a matter of last resort by agencies, they were far from ideal, especially for families.
Mr Franks, with about $250 left to live on each fortnight after paying rent, has seen it all - drugs, alcohol and violence. "There are problems in every park. You get all forms of life here. I tend to keep to myself," he said.
Some do a "moonlight flit", leaving under cover of darkness to avoid paying rent. Mr Franks plans to move into a house or unit by Christmas, but says the stigma of living in a caravan can derail such plans for residents without contacts.
As for the election campaign, it means little to him: "I don't take any notice. I've seen it all before. They talk a lot and then they do nothing," he says.

Struggle to handle flood of homeless

2004-10-02T22:35:00.000+09:30

HELEN KEMPTON reports on a real need. IT IS A CRUEL irony. Thousands of dollars and man- hours are spent each year looking for people lost and exposed to the elements in the bush.

Yet every night people are sleeping in doorways in Devonport's shopping district and society turns a blind eye.

Along the North-West Coast more than 2500 people are without a home and while most manage to cram in with friends or relatives or access emergency accommodation, on any given night about 200 are sleeping rough.

At a soup and sandwich service in Ulverstone's Apex Park at least 20 of the people coming for food also need shelter.

And last week a Burnie crisis centre was forced to turn away a mother with seven children because they could not be accommodated.

The latest official statistics were prepared three years ago - before Tasmania's upgraded passenger-ferry service brought in a wave of people looking to escape poverty on the mainland and investors looking to snap up rental properties.

At a North-West Social Justice Network forum in Forth this week, representatives from Anglicare, St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army, Housing Tasmania and the Warrawee Women's Shelter said welfare agencies along the coast could not meet demands for shelter.

"If you go down to Devonport's CBD at 2am on any night, every doorway has someone sleeping in it," a woman told the forum.

Housing Tasmania said a new development similar to one in Launceston where a hotel was being refurbished into hostel rooms would happen in Burnie soon to ease the situation.

"But again, it will not be enough," she said.

A North-West Social Justice Network spokesman said it was perceived that a lot of the region's crisis housing was being used to accommodate the influx of homeless people arriving on the Spirit of Tasmania rather than locals in need.

A lot of those arriving in Devonport by sea with nowhere to go, head straight to St Vincent de Paul in East Devonport.

"Volunteers arrive to open the office and people who have been there since the ships docked are waiting," a volunteer said.

"They have to be told no, that nothing is available." Emergency hostels are solidly booked.

If there is no hope of slotting them into the region's crisis accommodation network some are helped with ship fares back to the mainland.

Others are sent by bus to Hobart's Bethlehem House.

"We can help people with food or emergency money but we don't have houses," the volunteer said.

Anglicare has offices in Devonport and Burnie and last financial year it assisted 640 clients.

"Most of the people we see have been evicted," an Anglicare representative said.

"Houses they were renting have been bought and when they are evicted there is nowhere else to rent.

"We are seeing people from all walks of life and people who have never been to Anglicare before."

When there are no emergency beds available, Anglicare will buy motel or caravan nights for its clients. But the tourism bonanza means these rooms are already gone.

At Burnie's Oakleigh House, 100 people looking for shelter had to be turned away last month.

"It doesn't take that much for people to fall out of independent living. Since January we have provided 6000 bed-nights and 5000 meals," a spokeswoman said.

The mayors of Devonport, Latrobe and Central Coast were at the forum and they too have seen an increase in housing problems over the past few years.

Central Coast Mayor Mike Downie said more people had been knocking on his door looking for help with housing.

"One young girl was living in her car," he said.

Latrobe Mayor Mike Gaffney said transients were often seen wandering around town for two or three days before they were steered in the direction of crisis services.

Devonport Mayor Peter Hollister said he had noticed people sitting in Devonport's mall with all their belongings.

Youth and Family Focus spokesman Wayne Gaffney said homelessness was not a new problem but the dynamics of society were changing.

"Children used to go to extended family when parents were going through a rough patch. That extended network is just not there anymore," he said.

Last year the Devonport youth shelter provided 1200 bed nights to 200 people.

Mr Gaffney said the shelter's clients were made up of two main groups - a transient group and local kids who need support to live independently or to help them get back home.

Ulverstone's Warrawee Women's Shelter has helped 135 women and 129 children this year.

"We see single mums, single women or those who have been married for years and decide to escape violence when the kids grow up," a spokeswoman said.

"Sadly for some it is too hard and they go back to abusive situations or stay with friends and family and wear out their welcome."

The manager of Housing Tasmania in Burnie said there were 12,000 public housing properties in the State and moves were afoot to increase that number.

High profile conviction highlights homelessness problem

2004-10-02T22:34:00.000+09:30

The conviction of former Wollongong ALP official Neville Hilton on child prostitution charges has exposed the problem of youth homelessness in the area.
A Sydney District Court jury yesterday found Hilton guilty of 19 offences.
The charges relate to the employment of two girls, aged 13 and 14, at the Port Kembla brothel Hilton part owned.
It emerged in court the girls went to the brothel looking for work because they were homeless and thought, as sex workers, they could support themselves.
Sheryl Wiffen coordinates a local church-based health service.
She says there a too many homeless young people facing similar circumstances.
"Know we have to eat, anybody had to eat and people will do whatever they have to do to make that happen," she said.
Ms Wiffen says despite the publicity the case has attracted, some homeless sex workers in Port Kembla still live in cardboard boxes.

Happy Valley work nearly finished

2004-10-02T22:33:00.000+09:30

The $500,000 of redevelopment at Townsville's Happy Valley is almost complete.
The area has been upgraded and expanded as part of the Queensland Government's commitment to addressing the problems of public drunkenness and homelessness in the city.
The Minister for Aboriginal and Islander Policy, Liddy Clark, says Happy Valley residents have been involved in the work to build three new shelters, showers and toilets, barbecues and a laundry.
She says the remaining work should be finished by the end of the year.
"There's going to be a facility for visiting consultations from doctors and health workers and drug and alcohol counsellors and that's all been redesigned following consultation with the health workers and that, in fact, should be completed by November," she said.

One churchman's view of a nation in crisis

2004-10-02T22:32:00.000+09:30

There is a sense of despair among many people about the direction Australia is taking, writes Peter Watson.
If the church is truly to fulfil its mission, it must speak prophetically to and understand the life and culture of the nation. Here is my reading on how the nation of Australia stands at this time.
Democracy. How does this nation express its membership of the international community? We have until recently been known as a friendly country that welcomed refugees and migrants. But this trait has been seriously questioned worldwide ever since the children overboard controversy and the Tampa affair. The fact is that most of those on the Tampa and other boats were, in the end, determined to be genuine refugees. Excising islands and placing boat people in New Guinea and Nauru, and so removing them from access to Australia's legal system, was too clever and inhuman. Have we no sense of shame as a nation?
Iraq. It was not right for Australia to join in the war against Iraq. Indeed, I believe in just a short time Australia will look back, as we did on our involvement in the Vietnam War, and say it was a mistake.
And we know it is time to be alarmed when 43 former military chiefs, diplomats and public servants decide to write an open letter calling for "truth in government" after the misleading of the Australian people over the chief reason given for the pre-emptive strike.
Federal Election. An election time is a good period to talk about truth in politics. Unfortunately, most Australians have stopped believing what politicians say. Truth seems to be the first casualty in elections. Tony Fitzgerald, QC, was right to warn about the danger to democracy this represents. If a healthy democracy is to be maintained, then politicians must tell the truth and governments must be made accountable by open debate, in which a properly informed public can engage without cynicism or "a sense of futility".
It will also be a very sad day for this country if those who advocate a "fair, tolerant and compassionate society" are to be derided as "unAustralian" or a "bleeding-heart elite", to quote Mr Fitzgerald.
A habit is also developing of politicians making promises to spend public funds as if it were their own money and for electoral advantage, rather than acknowledging government expenditure as an act of stewardship on behalf of all citizens for the common good.
We hope the day never arrives in Australia when church agencies and non-government charities are deprived of government funds because they have questioned government policy. An enlightened view of government is that it should govern for the common good, not for partisan or sectional interests and certainly not for the benefit of one or other of the major political parties.
What are people worried about? The issues of health, education, public safety, affordability of home ownership, public housing and mental illness, especially depression and suicide.
On health, people worry whether we are inadvertently developing a health system like the American - with two levels, one for those who can afford private health insurance, and a lower level of care with long waiting lists for the rest. This would be a very unfortunate breakdown of the Australian commitment to equality.
On education, young people and their parents worry that the cost of tertiary education is getting beyond their reach. The HECS debt will be such that thousands of young people will be asking if they will ever own a house of their own. The great Australian dream is shrinking.
The spiralling house prices have also led to a sense of despair among many who are now resigned to never owning their own property. Tax advantages through negative gearing of investment property need urgent review. We all have a vested interest in an educated, healthy, well-housed Australia.
The other side of the housing crisis is the reduced amount of public housing, which is a great concern to the welfare sector and to the churches. A lucky country such as ours should not have an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 homeless on the streets every night. And we all believe that providing public housing for families, and especially lone-parent families, is a public duty.
Environment. Undoubtedly, one reason for despair among the young is the perceived indifference by those holding influence and power to saving the planet. Our mindsets and economies seem dismally and unimaginatively locked into burning fossil fuels, with all the pollutants and greenhouse gases they produce.
Governments must actively promote and encourage the development of alternative and clean energy sources if the human race is to have a future.
There has also been much debate about the logging of our old-growth forests. Many of these ancient and magnificent trees are woodchipped for very small economic return to the community at large. Often there is a depressing failure of imagination and political will to preserve what is beautiful and worth preserving for its own sake, and at the same time to develop alternative sources of employment.
Indigenous Community. Another area of unfinished business in the nation is the state of our indigenous population. Now that Government funding to ATSIC has ceased and funding for indigenous welfare and education is being "mainstreamed", we look for assurances that indigenous people will have a say in their own affairs, and that there will be measurably better results in their educational levels, in their health, in family welfare and education, and in a healthy lifestyle. This was their lucky country before 1788. They have a moral right to a share in the good things most of us take for granted.

Homeless studied

2004-10-02T22:30:00.000+09:30

Survey to determine extent of problem
A NEW study is set to find out why the North East has one of the highest rates of homelessness in Victoria and how to curb it.
From September 7 to 15 The Hume Region Homelessness Network will conduct five day-long community consultations inviting the homeless, people at risk of becoming homeless and support organisations, to tell their story.
Network co-ordinator Ms Jan Armstrong said Wodonga, Wangaratta, Benalla, Shepparton and Seymour would be surveyed.
“One of the things we want to do is get a more accurate picture of what is happening in the area,” she said.
“This is one of the only chances weve got to see how it really is.”
Ms Armstrong said the study follows this months release of the Victorian Counting the Homeless 2001 Census Regional Report which showed alarming rates of homelessness in the North East.
She said in the Ovens-Murray District, which takes in Wodonga, Wangaratta and the Alpine and Towong shires, 693 people were recorded as homeless on the night the census was conducted.
“About 35 per cent of those were in Wodonga and 38 per cent were in the East Ovens-Murray district at towns such as Bright, Myrtleford and Mt Beauty,” Ms Armstrong said.
“Across the district homelessness increased by about 52 per cent on 1996 figures including a 12 per cent increase in Wodonga.
“Based on that and the 2001 rates I think we can confidently say those rates are higher now.”
The report showed that 20,305 Victorians were homeless in 2001, an increase of 13.8 per cent since 1996, while 99,900 Australians were homeless.
Ms Armstrong said the community consultations hoped to identify who was homeless, why, what services they needed, what was not being provided, how the gap between service needs and what was available could be closed.
She said there were many reasons such as unemployment, mental illness and drug, alcohol and gambling addiction for homelessness.
Ms Armstrong said bookings for the consultations were mandatory and sessions could be conducted in small groups or one-on-one to prevent embarrassment and maintain confidentiality.

Recognition found for 'forgotten Australians'

2004-10-02T22:28:00.000+09:30

Between 1920 and the 1970s about 500,000 Australian children were raised in institutions.
Abuse and assault was widespread, and many children lacked basic care.
Now The Forgotten Australians report calls for the simplest of reparations - an apology.
And Australian senators are vowing children abused in institutional care will have justice.

It was an emotional day, both for the senators who conducted the Forgotten Australians inquiry, and the victims who told them their stories.
"You can tell by the way that we have dealt with this material that it will change our lives forever," tearful inquiry chair Jan Lucas said.
The Senate inquiry has travelled the country, hearing from more than 600 victims placed in care from 1920 until the 1970s, when policies changed.
Committee member Senator Andrew Murray, of the Democrats, grew up in institutional care.
He says the report tells of "fear, neglect and the longing for love".
"It records siblings being torn and kept apart," he said.
"It records the withholding of letters to and from loved ones. It records being stripped of all personal belongings and dignity, it records being deprived of sufficient nourishment, education and basic health."
No excuses
Mr Murray says that argument that that treatment was thought to be best at the time "holds little sway".
"Denial is shorthand for the abdication of responsibility," he said.
"The report records adult lives plagued with mental health problems, alcoholism, drug dependence, homelessness, welfare dependency, failed relationships, prison terms, premature deaths due to suicide and the longing and searching for identities and family members."
"The argument of this is how it was done back then holds little sway."
Liberal Senator and committee deputy chair Sue Knowles says children were demeaned and demoralised.
"To think the children were placed in institutions for care and yet they didn't even receive the basics of what any reasonable person would consider care, is beyond belief," Ms Knowles said.
"To have taken on arrival everything that was in any way special to them – a teddy, a doll, clothes, jewellery, shoes and other treasures – was further demeaning and demoralising."
Healing wounds
But the report has already gone some way toward healing those wounds.
"From the bottom of my heart I just want to thank the Senators," a victim said to cheers from others gathered at the report's launch.
Among the report's 39 recommendations is a call for a formal apology from the Commonwealth, the states and church and welfare agencies that have not already done so.
Joanna Penglase, who grew up in a home and is now the co-founder of the Care Leavers of Australia network, says the apology is important.
"An apology represents the first step in acknowledging that this happened, that these things happened," she said.
"It's easy to say sorry, it's much, much harder to say sorry and do something about being sorry.
"We're glad there's an apology's been recommended, both by the Commonwealth Government, by the state governments, the churches and all the agencies, formal statements, as they say, acknowledging their role in what happened.
"But that is the very first step, and unless it's backed by actual substantial support service and understanding and recognition, then it isn't worth anything."
"It's easy to say sorry, it's much, much harder to... do something about being sorry."
The inquiry also wants the Commonwealth to establish a national reparations fund for victims, with contributions from governments, churches and agencies.
No dollar figure is specified.
"I couldn't possibly put a figure on it except to say it's millions and it's money that has to be found," Ms Penglase said.
"You could look at it as money that wasn't spent on us as children.
"Now many years later it has to be spent to clear up the mess."

Suspect arrested in rape of homeless woman

2004-09-30T16:46:00.000+09:30

FORT WORTH - A homeless man who asked a police officer for money is suspected of raping a woman after the officer noticed that he matched the attacker's description.

Police say Travoris Bennett, 24, approached Cpl. M.D. Green about 2 a.m. Saturday while walking in the roadway not far from the area where a 56-year-old homeless woman had been raped the previous morning.

Bennett asked the officer for $3, stating that he was hungry, according to a police report.

Green told the man he could not give him money and ordered him to step off the roadway and back on to the sidewalk in the 3900 block of East Lancaster Avenue. The officer then noticed the man matched the physical description of a suspect involved in the Friday rape, Sgt. Paul Ware said.

Police said a woman had been sitting at a bus stop in the 4100 block of East Lancaster about 3 a.m. Friday when she was approached from behind by a man wielding a knife. The man forced the woman to walk to a vacant house across the street, where he raped her on a side porch, police said.

Bennett was arrested Saturday on suspicion of loitering and walking in a roadway.

Police added an additional complaint of aggravated sexual assault on Sunday after the rape victim was shown a photo spread and picked Travoris as her attacker, Ware said.

Bennett was in Mansfield Jail on Monday with bail set at $25,000.

Homeless woman held in fatal stabbing of shelter worker

2004-09-30T16:43:00.000+09:30

A woman fatally stabbed a worker at a homeless shelter, police said.

Elaine Waller, 44, was being treated at Detroit Receiving Hospital's crisis center following Sunday's slaying of Fernando Garcia, 49. Wayne County prosecutors will consider charges after Waller is treated at the hospital.

Police and witnesses said Waller, who has a history of mental problems, entered the walk-in shelter at 9 a.m. She sat down for a moment, then took a 6-inch knife from her purse and stabbed Garcia several times in the back in a crowded room.

Garcia died at Detroit Receiving Hospital. Residents and staff members at the shelter, operated by the nonprofit Neighborhood Service Organization, disarmed Waller and held her until police arrived.

"As far as what prompted it, nobody seems to know," Inspector William Rice, head of the Detroit Police Department's major crimes section, told the Detroit Free Press.

Rice said he wasn't sure where Waller obtained the knife and whether she had spoken with Garcia, a counselor trainee for the NSO who had worked about six months for the agency.

Homeless fundraiser nets just £15.38

2004-09-30T16:40:00.000+09:30

ALONE and helpless, the plight of those who are genuinely homeless touches all but the hardest of hearts.

However today a nurse who spent all day fundraising in Ipswich for the destitute said when it came to counting the cash raised it amounted to little more than £15.

This paltry total was made all the more embarrassing as £5 of it was donated by a refugee whom the Ipswich PCT homeless team had previously helped to find food and shelter.

The team had manned a stall in the town's Buttermarket to help raise awareness and much-needed cash.

But while many homeless people turned up for help and information, donations were few and far between from shoppers, a far cry from previous fundraisers.

Kathy Cubitt, the health outreach project's team leader and nurse practitioner, said: "We raised a grand total of £15.38 – and £5 was from a refugee whom we had helped get on his feet.

"We didn't shake collection boxes at people. People looked, saw we were for the homeless, and walked on by."

Mrs Cubitt, 46, emphasised the team is "very grateful for every penny of donation and every support given" and pointed out that the team's previous fund-raising event – a sponsored sleep-out in July – was very successful.

But Mrs Cubitt is disappointed more money was not raised.

Fighting back the tears, she said: "It is obvious that homelessness is not very high on people's agenda. People don't realise there is a problem in Ipswich.

"But if you help people who are homeless, they won't be drawn to drugs and shoplifting and the whole society will benefit.

"People could help by donating food parcels or if they see some socks going for almost nothing, they could pop it into their basket. Something like that would really make a difference.

"Otherwise homeless people have to resort to survival tactics – and resort to drink or drugs - because they are so desperate and because they don't have the support mechanisms we have."

The team has also had difficulty in recruiting.

Mrs Cubitt said: "We have been advertising for a full-time GP on an off since last year - our sessional GP – Dr Christopher Squire – is retired and comes in for two-and-a-half hours a week. But we have had minimal response and nobody suitable.

"Over the last month we have been advertising for a part-time nurse, because we can't afford a full-time one, but we have had no applications so far."

Mrs Cubitt said there are around 15 to 20 people sleeping rough in Ipswich – and many more who are sofa surfers or stay in hostels.

Pointing out that people often become homeless after a "breakdown in relationships", she said: "If we can pick them up within the first four weeks of being homeless there is a chance they can get back into society.

"But if we miss that first four weeks – especially as they can't register with a GP and often don't have family support – many people turn to drink and drugs."

A spokesman for Shelter said there are 238 individuals or families who are homeless in Ipswich, and 2,133 in Suffolk as a whole.

He added: "Most people are concerned about rising house prices or home improvement yet don't realise that this country is facing a housing crisis.

"It's not currently at the forefront of people's minds, unlike health or education - yet there are nearly 200 thousand homeless households languishing in temporary accommodation and millions more in bad housing.

"We need to wake up to the fact that people are suffering and that bad housing is destroying children's futures."

Nobody sees us as people, say the homeless

2004-09-30T16:37:00.000+09:30

"We are left to die," says Tabiso, a homeless man.

He is just one of the homeless in Johannesburg who was not surprised that emergency medics allegedly left a vagrant to die in a city street because he was "too dirty" to take to hospital.

"If I ask somebody in the street for the time, they look at me as if I'm crazy," the 21-year-old said, walking with a pile of cardboard boxes on his head on Monday. "They don't see us as people. It's how people treat us - not only ambulance people, but all people."

Tabiso said he feared the worst if he became ill - "I think I will also be left to die".

'They are rude and don't mind if we die'
Temba Mathebula is a 37-year-old who became homeless four years ago when he lost his carpentry job.

"In October I got burned on my face. Some people phoned the ambulance and told them about me. They said they didn't come for street people."

He said that if he had been in a critical condition, he would have died.

He was walking in Newtown on Monday, a stone's throw from the spot where the vagrant - who has yet to be identified - was found dead on Wednesday.

Two Joburg Emergency Management Services paramedics have been suspended pending an internal investigation into the man's death.

'I pick up cardboards and pray to God'
The paramedics were called to the scene after the man collapsed in the gutter last Tuesday. They allegedly refused to put him into the ambulance because he was dirty and stank.

Video footage shows the medics propping the man against a wall. The next morning he was found dead where he had been left.

According to security guards patrolling the area, the man had been living in the area for about four months and spent his days begging with about 50 others at Mary Fitzgerald Square.

Police, who submitted the man's fingerprints to the dpartment of home affairs in an attempt to establish his identity, said the man was in his mid-30s, 1,6m-tall and weighed 65kg.

Sandile, 30, another homeless person, said at night he climbed through a broken window and slept inside the council's transport workshop yard, near where the unidentified man died.

"No one cares for us," he said. "They are rude and don't mind if we die."

He had been living on the street ever since he could remember.

"I pick up cardboards and pray to God," he said, continuing down the street, past the dead man's belongings - two pairs of trousers, an old belt, two packets of crisps and a bun - still scattered along the pavement almost a week after his body was found.

Feuding over homeless

2004-09-30T16:33:00.000+09:30

Mayor accuses New Milford of providing bus tickets to Danbury

In New Milford, some homeless people have been given a ticket to ride. And Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton wants to put the brakes on the practice.
On Tuesday, Boughton sent a letter to New Milford Mayor Pat Murphy demanding that New Milford social service agencies stop giving homeless people free bus tickets to Danbury.

Danbury has two permanent homeless shelters, while New Milford residents and officials are now debating whether to open one.

"In the future, if individuals come to our shelter with a ticket from New Milford, our social services department will issue a return ticket back to your community on the next available bus," Boughton wrote. "I believe that it is unfair for Danbury to shoulder the entire burden of the region's homeless population."

Peg Molina, New Milford's social services director, has confirmed that the town has provided bus tickets for homeless people to Danbury, Torrington and other towns with shelters. It provides about 20 tickets a month to Danbury, although those can be used for medical appointments and other things in addition to the shelters.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Murphy said she had not heard of the practice. She said she received Boughton's letter after the social service office closed. She will research the situation today.

The ticket-giving "didn't happen while I was mayor, but what happened before that, I don't know," said Murphy, who was elected in November 2003. "Once in a while wouldn't surprise me."

Murphy did say, however, that sometimes the situation has been reversed. She said last year, when Danbury's shelters were full, Danbury social service providers sent people to New Milford, which for two years has had has a rotating shelter system that makes use of the town's churches.

When New Milford's shelter network shuts down at the end of the winter, Danbury shelters and agencies see an increase in the numbers of homeless people. It's hard to tell how many come on New Milford-issued bus tickets. Officials from Housatonic Area Rapid Transit, the region's bus company, could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

The issue of New Milford's homeless arose again this week when the New Milford Shelter Coalition called for a permanent homeless shelter in town. New Milford advocates for the homeless presented the idea to the Town Council on Monday, but the group was so large, the hearing continued Tuesday night.

The town hasn't settled two key issues. Murphy and others say they are unsure whether the town should have a permanent shelter at all. They doubt there are large numbers of homeless and are concerned that a permanent shelter could attract the homeless from out of town. Secondly, there is debate over where a permanent shelter would be.

There is no debate that the homeless situation has gotten worse in Danbury in recent years, with shelters often packed and non-profit agencies straining to meet the demand.

Danbury Welfare Director Deborah MacKenzie said a number of nearby towns
contribute to Danbury's homeless population.

"Whether or not they're giving them bus passes, I don't know," she said. "In a typical year, we see more New Milford people in the summer than we do in the winter."

Boughton said the city has enough problems with its own homeless without neighboring towns adding to it by buying bus tickets to send their homeless to Danbury.

"The basic problem here is one community is pushing its problems onto Danbury," he said. "We're not responsible for the region's homeless population."

Hostel for homeless is planned

2004-09-30T16:31:00.000+09:30

A £740,000 hostel for the homeless is to be built in Wilmslow.

The home, with eight flats for single people who would otherwise be living on the streets, will replace Anderson House at Colshaw Farm estate which is to be demolished.

The plan includes redevelopment of the vacant plot and 14 new "affordable homes" for the less well heeled in Wilmslow will be built.

Planning permission was granted to Alderley Edge firm Jones Homes and the English Churches Housing Group after approval from borough planners.

Jones Homes is currently building around 100 private homes around Colshaw estate, which was originally built 30 years ago by Manchester City Council but transferred in recent years to Riverside Housing Association.

The developer will build a new Anderson House and, in return, get the old site for affordable homes, which will later be sold to a housing association.

On Thursday September 30, members of Macclesfield Borough Council’s cabinet are being asked to approve £190,000 towards the project.

If approved the cash will come from a pot of money paid to the council by builders and developers, for schemes benefitting the community.

Anderson House currently has eight self-contained flats located in three former terraced houses.

English Church Housing Group says relocation will enhance its services for clients, who can include former offenders, help reduce crime, and boost the neighbourhood’s appearance.

Spokesman Susan Littlemoor said: "It will still be a small unit with eight flats for single, homeless people and 24-hour staffing. We offer a general range of supported-housing accommodation and our clients come a variety of backgrounds.

"Some are homeless people referred to us by the council’s housing department, some come from social services, and one or two could be referred by the probation service.

"Jones Homes will build the new centre for us and, in return, get the old site. And £190,000 of funding will hopefully come from the local authority."

Alan White, managing director of Jones Homes, said around 100 homes are being built across the Colshaw area with 14 affordable homes earmarked for the old Anderson House site.

"We’ve had discussions with three housing associations and hope to complete negotiations as soon as possible. It will be up to them to choose whether the homes are for sale or rent.

"They’ll probably be for rent, but this does not preclude a subsidised sale. The housing association will do what it thinks is appropriate."

The proportion of affordable homes built compared to full-market priced homes varied according to local authority housing needs and planning priorities. A higher proportion is planned for Colshaw.

In general, he said the majority of new housing schemes were on previously developed brownfield sites, reflecting government priorities to stop urban sprawl.

Wilmslow Coun Jim Crockatt said Anderson House was named after a former local magistrate who had a passion for helping people back into mainstream society. He supports the relocation plan and hopes the borough cabinet will approve the £190,000 payment.

He said: "Kids coming out of social service or council-care need somewhere to live. Although Anderson House was the right sort of scheme, it was in the wrong location."

Colshaw Residents’ Association secretary Harry Town said Riverside Housing Association had initially expressed interest in the new homes but withdrew after learning small apartments and homes were planned, rather than larger family houses.

"There are also concerns about the density of homes here. Thirty years ago, Manchester City Council wanted 1,000 properties. Now, there are about 800 homes and we’re concerned about a increasing density."

Read the journal of one of our residents

2004-09-07T02:28:00.000+09:30

Here is Gish's Journal. He has been working on it since he moved in (some months ago).

As he mentions, he was in foster care from age 0 to 6, then homeless from age 6 to 26.

Personally I've known him about 10 out of those 20 years he was on the street, and four months ago he accepted an invitation to move off the streets and in with us.

Homeless deserve help, even those reluctant to receive it

2004-09-06T16:46:00.000+09:30

It’s hard to imagine that in a city as affluent as Portsmouth, in a region as well-off as the Seacoast, that a small number of men and women are living in cardboard boxes in the woods. But there they are, just out of sight behind Lafayette Plaza on Route 1.

Many who read our interviews with these men and women were unsympathetic. They mocked one homeless person’s call for more affordable housing. As one observer put it, if you are drunk and unwilling to work, it doesn’t matter how inexpensive housing is, you are never going to be able to afford it.

While we understand this sentiment, we strongly disagree with it.

We ignore the plight of our homeless brothers and sisters at our own risk.

Instead we urge our readers to remember the proverb, "There but for the grace of God go I."

Jay Couture, director of Seacoast Mental Health, is all too familiar with the plight of those unable to help themselves in a society that seems less and less interested in caring for its most troubled members.

She reminds us that substance abuse and mental illness, often the causes of homelessness, are not restricted to those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Many of our nation’s homeless were, at a previous point in their lives, not dramatically different from everyone else. They had jobs, homes, families, responsibilities. Then a triggering event changed everything. Perhaps a job was lost. Perhaps a rent was raised beyond reason. Stability disappeared. Mental problems held in check gained momentum.

If we are lucky, we have family and friends and the means to care for ourselves and help ourselves back on our feet.

If we are not so lucky, we find ourselves in shelters, and then possibly, without the proper care, barred from shelters for unacceptable behavior.

Then where are we?

In the woods.

The homeless men and women we spoke with behind Lafayette Plaza are not particularly sympathetic characters. When asked why he had been refused a bed at Cross Roads House, one of the men explained, "I refused to go to alcoholic treatment."

Why should we help someone who refuses to help himself?

The answer is simple: because he needs it. Some people simply can’t help themselves. We refuse to believe that society’s answer to these people is that they should live and die in the woods.

Chris Sterndale, executive director at Cross Roads House, said there are men and women all across the region who once bit the hands extended to help them but later emerged, following treatment, to live good, independent lives in their own homes, often with new families and supported by paychecks they earn themselves.

There are no disposable people.

While the homeless population in the region has held steady over the past few years, social-service providers are fearful of a projected state deficit and indications by Gov. Craig Benson that he will seek to further cut state spending in 2005.

As the budget battle unfolds, bear in mind that the first area where cuts tend to be made is the social-service sector. The homeless, the mentally ill or incapable, the sick and addicted don’t carry much political clout.

Should the governor force the cuts he has proposed on our most vulnerable residents, we guarantee that our homeless population will dramatically increase.

Homeless men to be welcomed as guests

2004-09-06T16:44:00.000+09:30

Kelly Svec was not enthused when she was asked last winter to coordinate her church's participation in a pilot project for Room in the Inn, a ministry that serves homeless men.

She had just quit work and had a baby. She also was once robbed by a homeless man.

"I was actually a little nervous," Svec said. "Part of me thought, 'this isn't really something that I'm interested in.'"

But she prayed about it, and agreed to help because she knew she had the organizational skills, if not the passion.

Passion quickly followed.

"I was really surprised at how much I found out I cared about these people," she said. "They're just men."

Now, she and other volunteers are gearing up for the program's first official season of providing overnight shelter for small groups of homeless men at local churches.

Lots of discussion took place this week, while Room in the Inn's founder was in town sharing the story of the mission and tips for implementing it here.

Four churches -- The Rock/La Roca United Methodist Church, First United Methodist, Centenary United Methodist and Bedford Acres Christian Church -- participated in the pilot project from January to March.

Three nights a week for 11 weeks, the churches took turns providing an evening meal and shelter for about a dozen men each night. The Rock provided support services. During that time, 325 men were served.

Those four churches and four others have committed to participate this winter, and several more congregations are considering it.

Starting in November and ending in March, each church will house up to 12 people one night a week. The program will operate seven days a week this year.

Each night at 7 p.m., the "guests," as the program refers to them, gather at the Lexington Rescue Mission on North Limestone.

There, Room in the Inn volunteers administer a breathalyzer test and make sure they have no weapons.

Then the guests get on a church bus and are transported to one of the participating churches, where they sit down to a home-cooked dinner with families who attend there.

Later, there's time for fellowship, movies and games. When the men retire to cots or air mattresses, they find fresh linens and a mint on their pillow.

"We treat them as (though) they were honored guests in our home," said Freeland Davis, director of Lexington's Room in the Inn program and the coordinator for the program at Centenary.

In the morning, volunteers serve a simple breakfast and give the men a sack lunch for the road, then drop them back off at the rescue mission.

The program's launch is a victory for the Rev. Wes Olds, minister at The Rock, which had its homeless shelter shut down by the city in January 2003 after neighborhood complaints of panhandling.

The city later said it had erred in closing The Rock's shelter.

Neighborhood concerns should not be an issue with this ministry, Olds said, because the men being sheltered will get off each church's bus and go directly into its building. They are not supposed to leave until the next morning, when the bus returns them to the Lexington Rescue Mission.

"There's minimal visibility in the community," Olds said. "The key for us is to grow this slowly and do it right."

Before a homeless person can sign up to participate in Room in the Inn, he must be screened for hepatitis and agree to follow the rules of the program, which include not exhibiting violent behavior or using violent language.

"It's a policy of mutual respect," Olds said. "We had no -- zero -- behavior problems last year."

A board of eight "innkeepers" directs the program locally.

The program is modeled after the Nashville-based Room in the Inn ministry, started in 1986 by Charles Strobel, who spoke Wednesday and Thursday at Centenary United Methodist Church.

He started Room in the Inn with the help of four congregations, and today more than 150 participate in Nashville. There are also Room in the Inn programs in Chattanooga; Charlotte, N.C.; Long Island, N.Y., and in the Canadian city of Calgary.

Strobel said in an interview Thursday that the program is named from the biblical account of Jesus' birth, which says that the Christ child was born in a Bethlehem stable because there was no room for the family in the inn.

"We can't go back 2,000 years and change that story, but we can change the story tonight in Lexington," he said.

David Kilburn, a member at Immanuel Baptist Church, is helping his church get organized to participate this winter, and more than 70 people have already volunteered to help.

"There's just no doubt in my mind that God's in the middle of this," he said.

While the program has been on hiatus during the warmer months, Svec, of First United Methodist Church, has kept in touch through e-mail and letters with some of the men she met last spring.

Each month this summer, her church has also hosted a potluck dinner for the men, who are invited to bring a friend with them.

"A lot of people in our church didn't know what to expect," she said, but the program "opened their eyes and gave them empathy like they have never had before."

Struggle to handle flood of homeless

2004-09-06T16:41:00.000+09:30

Crisis: Welfare agencies are having problems coping with the numbers of homeless people. Picture: Peter Lord

IT IS A CRUEL irony. Thousands of dollars and man- hours are spent each year looking for people lost and exposed to the elements in the bush.

Yet every night people are sleeping in doorways in Devonport's shopping district and society turns a blind eye.

Along the North-West Coast more than 2500 people are without a home and while most manage to cram in with friends or relatives or access emergency accommodation, on any given night about 200 are sleeping rough.

At a soup and sandwich service in Ulverstone's Apex Park at least 20 of the people coming for food also need shelter.

And last week a Burnie crisis centre was forced to turn away a mother with seven children because they could not be accommodated.

The latest official statistics were prepared three years ago - before Tasmania's upgraded passenger-ferry service brought in a wave of people looking to escape poverty on the mainland and investors looking to snap up rental properties.

At a North-West Social Justice Network forum in Forth this week, representatives from Anglicare, St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army, Housing Tasmania and the Warrawee Women's Shelter said welfare agencies along the coast could not meet demands for shelter.

"If you go down to Devonport's CBD at 2am on any night, every doorway has someone sleeping in it," a woman told the forum.

Housing Tasmania said a new development similar to one in Launceston where a hotel was being refurbished into hostel rooms would happen in Burnie soon to ease the situation.

"But again, it will not be enough," she said.

A North-West Social Justice Network spokesman said it was perceived that a lot of the region's crisis housing was being used to accommodate the influx of homeless people arriving on the Spirit of Tasmania rather than locals in need.

A lot of those arriving in Devonport by sea with nowhere to go, head straight to St Vincent de Paul in East Devonport.

"Volunteers arrive to open the office and people who have been there since the ships docked are waiting," a volunteer said.

"They have to be told no, that nothing is available." Emergency hostels are solidly booked.

If there is no hope of slotting them into the region's crisis accommodation network some are helped with ship fares back to the mainland.

Others are sent by bus to Hobart's Bethlehem House.

"We can help people with food or emergency money but we don't have houses," the volunteer said.

Anglicare has offices in Devonport and Burnie and last financial year it assisted 640 clients.

"Most of the people we see have been evicted," an Anglicare representative said.

"Houses they were renting have been bought and when they are evicted there is nowhere else to rent.

"We are seeing people from all walks of life and people who have never been to Anglicare before."

When there are no emergency beds available, Anglicare will buy motel or caravan nights for its clients. But the tourism bonanza means these rooms are already gone.

At Burnie's Oakleigh House, 100 people looking for shelter had to be turned away last month.

"It doesn't take that much for people to fall out of independent living. Since January we have provided 6000 bed-nights and 5000 meals," a spokeswoman said.

The mayors of Devonport, Latrobe and Central Coast were at the forum and they too have seen an increase in housing problems over the past few years.

Central Coast Mayor Mike Downie said more people had been knocking on his door looking for help with housing.

"One young girl was living in her car," he said.

Latrobe Mayor Mike Gaffney said transients were often seen wandering around town for two or three days before they were steered in the direction of crisis services.

Devonport Mayor Peter Hollister said he had noticed people sitting in Devonport's mall with all their belongings.

Youth and Family Focus spokesman Wayne Gaffney said homelessness was not a new problem but the dynamics of society were changing.

"Children used to go to extended family when parents were going through a rough patch. That extended network is just not there anymore," he said.

Last year the Devonport youth shelter provided 1200 bed nights to 200 people.

Mr Gaffney said the shelter's clients were made up of two main groups - a transient group and local kids who need support to live independently or to help them get back home.

Ulverstone's Warrawee Women's Shelter has helped 135 women and 129 children this year.

"We see single mums, single women or those who have been married for years and decide to escape violence when the kids grow up," a spokeswoman said.

"Sadly for some it is too hard and they go back to abusive situations or stay with friends and family and wear out their welcome."

The manager of Housing Tasmania in Burnie said there were 12,000 public housing properties in the State and moves were afoot to increase that number.

City, county clear homeless camps

2004-09-06T16:39:00.000+09:30

Suitcases packed and camping stove in hand, Paul Doering spent Friday preparing to leave the camp near Corralitos Creek, where he has squatted for 10 years.

Doering is one of more than 20 people believed to live on both sides of Corralitos Creek off Airport Boulevard, in an area the county sheriff's office targeted for a full-scale cleaning operation Friday.

Nine volunteer inmates assisted the clean-up effort, along with three Watsonville Public Works employees, who removed approximately 60 yards of trash to be sorted, recycled and eventually sent to the Buena Vista Landfill. County public workers were expected to pick up the garbage.

One camp visited last week by the Register-Pajaronian is now completely absent of garbage, although workers did not disrupt belongings of one resident, known as John, who said he would return for them.

McDonald's franchise owner Tila Guerrero offered workers a free lunch, clean-up organizer and Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Sgt. Christine Swannack said. Swannack was also impressed by the hard work of inmates and city and county teamwork to rid the ravines and neighboring farms of garbage.

"Between the city and the county, we're going to be done by noon," she said.

Doering was warned of efforts to clean up the area this week, he said, but was unhappy about being forced to leave the creek, where he said he scattered his former wife's ashes and used to pick cucumbers, "before the road and the hospital were built."

Doering, the cousin of Mayor Judy Doering-Nielsen, said he was now moving to a free motor home "in the mountains."

"They put all this low-income housing here, well, where's our apartment?" Doering asked, gesturing to the new Corralitos Creek housing complex under construction near the encampments.

According to the Santa Cruz County Homeless 2000 Census and Needs Assessment, designed by Applied Survey Research, 1.8 percent, or 4,665 people, had been homeless in the past year. Fifty percent had been homeless for more than a year, while 17 percent lived outdoors and 32.6 percent were employed.

Ex-resident sues homeless shelter

2004-09-06T16:36:00.000+09:30

SPRINGFIELD - A man who was homeless and maintains he lost his left eye after being attacked at the Friends of the Homeless shelter in Springfield is suing the agency for $213,000, arguing that the shelter failed to provide reasonable security.

Osvaldo Ruiz now lives in Homestead, Fla., according to a lawsuit filed last week in Hampden Superior Court, which stated that Ruiz was at 769 Worthington St. Aug. 24, 2001. Ruiz was asleep at about 11 p.m. "in an open setting," when without warning, an unidentified assailant began to hit him in the face with a cane, according to the lawsuit. Ruiz stated that he awoke, but was unable to identify his attacker. Ruiz was transported to Baystate Medical Center, where he was treated for lacerations to his left eye and face. Ruiz also underwent surgery, but his eye could not be saved, the lawsuit states.

The shelter's director, Francis G. Keough III, wouldn't comment specifically on the lawsuit, but maintained that the Friends of the Homeless runs a safe men's shelter at 769 Worthington St., where Ruiz said the incident occurred. "We have cameras throughout our entire facility, and there is security," Keough said yesterday. "We have people on staff 24 hours a day who do rounds through the building ... the shelter is safe, we have very few incidents of violent behavior."

According to court documents, Ruiz suffered "tremendous and excruciating pain," as a result of the assault, which has left him "permanently and irreparably disfigured." Ruiz now wears a prosthetic eye.

A women's Homeless shelter operates at 501 Worthington St.

Keough said that anyone receiving an injury at the shelters is regrettable. "When you put a large number of people in an open setting, disputes are bound to occur," he said. Nonetheless, Keough said the shelters have an "excellent track record with a challenging population."

At times, there are 90 to 100 people staying in a space meant for 38, Keough said.

The lawsuit says that despite frequent violent incidents at 769 Worthington St., no security was provided.

According to the lawsuit, from Jan. 1, 1999, until Aug. 24, 2001, police had been called to respond to violent incidents at the shelter on 118 occasions.

Keough called those figures inaccurate and said that police are called to the shelters for a multitude of reasons.

In 2001, a police officer was stationed at the shelter for four to five hours each day, Keough said.

Ruiz is suing for negligence, arguing that the shelter, by voluntarily providing care for the homeless, assumed a duty to protect residents. He is also suing for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The Friends of the Homeless recently returned $14,000 to the Springfield Housing Authority after auditors found that two rooms at the Worthington House shelter were used for storage rather than housing during an 18-month period.

Keough has not been charged with any crimes but has been targeted by a corruption probe, in which federal agents raided the shelter's offices and Keough's homes in Springfield and Charlestown.

Mayor Charles V. Ryan recently blocked a plan for a $7 million shelter expansion.

Homeless California dreaming of a Kerry victory

2004-09-06T16:34:00.000+09:30

AS SOON as the traffic lights turn red on the long road into San Francisco from the airport, a platoon of beggars converges on drivers. Without any pretence about washing car windows, they had written out a novel pitch for cash: "Hungry, Homeless, Bush Out."

This is a fairly accurate welcome to the political climate of the city. I had come to write a portrait of an America which was evenly and agonisingly split between George Bush and John Kerry - and had started in the wrong place.

From homeless to hoi-polloi, the city seems united in its loathing for the president. The first Californian I stopped to ask about his voting intentions responded by reaching inside his shirt and producing a dog-tag engraved with his choice: Kerry-Edwards 2004. "Do you see this? I work with 200 men; we’re all wearing one," said Stephen Schwartz. "And do you know why? Because George Bush is the anti-Christ. He’s in cahoots with big business, he’s started a war on a damned lie, and we’re going to crucify him."

Mr Schwartz works for Amtrak, a railway company he believes Mr Bush intends to privatise.

His colleagues are preparing for battle and bracing their friends, family and distant cousins for operation Eject Bush 2004.

"I am so fired up," he says. "I haven’t felt this way for years. We’re going to take our country back again. It’s time for the people."

But only a certain type of people, and this, it transpires, is what the United States presidential election is all about.

Mr Schwartz, a trade union leader, has a clear idea of his enemy: Hicksville allied with Wall Street. "There are these, these," he struggles to find the word, "Christians. Mad, mad Christians. And they vote for Bush because they’re just like him."

Along the Californian coast, the analysis was almost identical. "Bush is run by businesses, starting wars so they can profit," said Joe Marshall, a student in Santa Cruz. "My generation has woken up to this, we’re all supporting John Kerry."

Car stickers said "Bush Go To Hell" - one car in Santa Cruz had "Dick Cheney (the vice president) f**k you" sprayed on to the window in the way couples write "just married". Such anger in a state where only 44 per cent bothered to vote last time.

So why the anger? Partly because Mr Bush’s narrow margin of victory - 570 votes in Florida, which swung the balance of power after a recount was banned by the supreme court. From that moment, Mr Bush’s enemies have been in a rage.

The Iraq war drove them into a fit of pique. When Iraq contracts were handed to Halliburton, a firm Mr Cheney used to run, they grew apoplectic. Mr Bush’s proposed ban on gay marriage has tipped the anger beyond a measurable scale.

But California recently elected Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as its governor by a huge majority. Four years ago, two in every five Californian voters went for Mr Bush. Where were they hiding?

The first sign of life came via the radio, when I detected unusual lyrics in the music I’d been listening to in the car. "Don’t give up/ don’t give in/ His son died for our sins." I had hit on the conservative wavelength: a kind of God FM.

On the hour, a "family news" bulletin relayed dispatches about court rulings on gay marriage in various American states. San Francisco, according to one survey, had now turned so gay that pet dogs now outnumber children.

This was not a sect broadcasting from a beach house. The US has some 1,600 Christian radio stations which claim 90 million listeners. It is a first sign of the other life form that wants to give Mr Bush a second term.

Labels are put on each side: the "metro" like to sip caffe lattes, have gay friends, and are deeply suspicious of big companies and favour higher tax and oppose the Iraq war.

This is, broadly speaking, the "liberal" camp, which most of Europe would fit into. The flip side are dubbed "retro", or conservatives. They emphasise family values, are suspicious of government meddling, are fiercely protective of their rights to bear arms and are usually Christian.

After decades of peaceful co-existence, these two cultures are clashing and it is hard to tell who fired the first shot. San Francisco, for example, authorised gay marriage last year, causing uproar and leading the Californian Supreme Court to annul 4,000 same-sex marriages it sanctioned.

To evangelical Christians, who believe the United States was founded on the Bible, the "liberals" are attempting something of a coup d’état, enforcing their will on others.

Each side senses that the other is trying to take over America - hence the battle for the soul and identity of the country is being waged in the courts, bookshops and, now, the presidential election.

I found Jake Scott in Starbucks. He claims he is the only Republican left in the state. His major concern is San Francisco’s homeless.

"Go out after 9pm and it’s like City of the Dead," he complains. The city pays the homeless $400 (£225) in cash each month, which he claims has trebled its begging population in five years. "When liberals fight poverty, poverty wins," he said.

The stereotypes never work completely - caffe latte drinkers go to church, gays vote for Mr Bush. But the election is forcing Americans to make a choice.

This is what makes United States elections so explosive - they are about culture, migration, economy and ways of life. And infuriatingly for the elites on either side of the US coast, it will be decided by about 15 of the so-called "flyover" states - as they are named by those who only ever see them when peering from an aircraft window.

California may be an economic and cultural engine for the US, home to Silicon Valley, Hollywood and more voters than any other state. But it is painted blue, the colour for the Democrats. Kansas, Kentucky or Wyoming are all painted deep Bush red. So I head next for Arizona, a neighbouring state which is - on paper at least - an even mosaic of both.

City faces potential homeless crisis

2004-09-06T16:29:00.000+09:30

Numbers increase while help decreases

The signs, some more subtle than others, are everywhere in Duluth, Minn.: small fire rings beneath the pedestrian bridge at Leif Ericson Park; discarded clothes in the bushes at Lake Place Park; empty bottles and blankets under abandoned buildings in the Central Hillside.

There's the increasing number of people who seek shelter in St. Louis County, those who hang out at the Holiday Center and on First Street between First Avenue West and Third Avenue East, the list of people seeking housing subsidies — a list that is currently frozen.

Next are the invisible homeless: those who work by day but sleep in the woods and parks around Duluth, in their cars or on friends' couches.

As underscored by Mayor Herb Bergson's homelessness summit in mid-June, many say Duluth is facing a potential crisis. With federal housing subsidies already cut and a state budget deficit forecast in 2005-06, homeless advocates and county planners consider the situation in Duluth dire.

"We have an emergency on our hands," said Lisa Potswald, St. Louis County human services planner.

Also looming is the closure of state mental hospitals in Brainerd and Walker in the next three years. That could result in 50 to 100 people returning to Duluth and possibly ending up on the streets or in shelters, Potswald said. Exacerbating the problem are the persistent issues of prison releases and other cuts to public assistance.

"We're already jammed up at the shelters and transitional housing," Potswald said. "We don't have enough affordable housing."

The federal government defines housing as affordable if it costs less than 30 percent of a household's income. According to St. Louis County's 2003 State of Housing report, 41.5 percent of Duluth renters paid more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. While the minimum wage has stayed at $5.15 since 1996, rental rates have continued to rise.

Due to county budget cuts, the availability of family emergency assistance crisis money was reduced in January 2003 from once every 12 months to once in an 18-month period. Shelley Saukko, St. Louis County director of financial assistance, doesn't expect a shift back in the next fiscal year.

At the county level, there are no more social services to cut, Potswald said. The next move is to start laying off people, she said.

For homelessness expert Steve O'Neil, what's happening in Duluth is similar to what's happening around the country — the loss of affordable housing. In addition, the federal government, for the most part, stopped building public housing in the 1980s.

"Historically, you have to go back to the Depression to see the amount of homelessness in our society today," O'Neil said. "There are a lot of people in need, not much (affordable housing) is out there and not much is being built."

The weather in Duluth might not be the most inviting, but the city has a reputation for being warm to those in need, many advocates acknowledge.

While Wisconsin allows people to remain on welfare for only two years, Minnesota lets recipients stay on the rolls for five. Duluth's reputation for being a compassionate place is a point of pride for advocates and homeless alike.

"I'm going to say it's good for us," said Stan Kaitfors, executive director of Community Action Duluth, which is working to help 25 families. "If it brings elements of big-city problems — drugs, crime — I'm sorry to see that, but to say we won't tolerate it — these people are coming for a better life."

Others believe Duluth is too generous, particularly when it comes to those who know how to work the system.

Although Saukko said that county studies indicate Duluth in particular and Minnesota in general are no more generous in terms of its welfare system, people continue to come to Duluth looking for a better quality of life with less crime.

Some are escaping past mistakes or misdeeds. Others are fleeing abusive relationships. A few may choose to be homeless, but most are battling something, be it mental illness, poverty or addiction.

It can be a revolving door: get welfare checks at the beginning of the month, spend the money in a matter of days or weeks and be back on the street before the next check arrives.

Some people see this as a choice, but as Duluth police officer Laura Napurski said, the situation gets so out of control it isn't a choice anymore.

For police officers such as Napurski and David Drozdowski, it's a constant struggle to deal with homelessness issues: public intoxication, panhandling, loitering or causing disturbances.

Many tend to gravitate toward downtown, with its Section 8 housing and the numerous service providers such as CHUM, the county social services at the Government Center and the Damiano Center, Napurski said. But homeless people are all over the city.

"A lot of times the only ones we come in contact with are the troublemakers," Drozdowski said. "Are all of them troublemakers? That's kind of a broad statement."

Some come to Duluth because they can get government assistance faster than in some other states. Most come because of family or friends, or because they've lived here before, Saukko said. A few are here because they know how to work the welfare system, Napurski said.

"If you or I were in the same spot, we'd probably do the same thing," she said. But "it's frustrating for the police because people keep coming and coming."

Napurski said the face of Duluth is changing. Her impression is that more homeless people are coming from larger metropolitan areas and that the streets are getting more violent.

Kerri Hauser, client service manager at Union Gospel Mission, sees more and more families in need.

"I've seen more new people now than in four years I've been here," Hauser said. "We could have a lot more coming up in this direction because we won't leave anyone out in the cold."

Scores of homeless refuse shelter offers

2004-09-06T16:26:00.000+09:30

While most South Floridians sought shelter in fortified homes, many of the homeless rode it out where they live -- on the streets.

If he could, Calvin would outrun the storm. Running is what he does. Ten miles a day, across the causeways that connect Miami and Miami Beach, up and down the streets.

He runs because it clears his mind, frees the demons within. Besides, he has nothing else to do. He's homeless.

For Calvin and hundreds of others like him who call the streets of South Florida home, Frances was merely another hurdle, one of hundreds they weather daily. Many chose to ignore offers of shelter.

''I have no worries with this storm,'' said Calvin, a tall, sinewy man dubbed ''the trainer'' by the women of the Beach's Rivo Alto neighborhood who see him on their morning jogs. Calvin -- that's all he goes by -- spent a stormy day wandering streets, looking for food and warmth when he took shelter under bridges he said he has run across for 20 years. Besides, he said, ``Let me ask you this. If I disappeared during this storm, who would care?''

SCANT BELONGINGS

While homeowners installed metal shutters or affixed plywood, the homeless wrapped themselves with cardboard or plastic covers. They hugged scant belongings close or used them as pillows to wait out the storm.

While families on coastal islands heeded mandatory evacuations, the homeless just hunkered down in alleys or in storefront nooks. This storm would not interrupt their routine.

''If you don't mind,'' said Dave, a wisp of a man who has lived among the storefronts of Lincoln Road for 15 years, ``I would like to get back to doing nothing.''

For those who try to help the homeless, an impending natural disaster like Frances only underlined the difficulty of their job.

These are men and women who have ignored offers of shelter for much of their lives. Even with the threat of a hurricane, it's tough to persuade them to accept it, said Maria Ruiz, Miami Beach's homeless outreach coordinator.

''They're used to living and surviving this way, used to dealing with whatever comes their way,'' she said.

FLIERS DISTRIBUTED

Ruiz and five other outreach workers spent five days urging the homeless to seek shelter from the storm at various shelters throughout Miami-Dade County. In Broward County, workers did the same, distributing fliers and sending buses to predetermined locations for pickups.

Broward's outreach shelters in Pompano Beach and Hollywood have had about 200 newcomers arrive since Thursday, the Salvation Army in Fort Lauderdale reported an additional 70.

On the Beach, Ruiz said, only two of the scores of homeless people they encountered said they would consider the offer. Ruiz hoped others would eventually seek shelter if the storm increased intensity: ``By law, we cannot force them to leave.''

The city has long grappled with growing numbers of the homeless, spending an unprecedented half a million dollars so far this year.

There has been some measured success, Ruiz said. The city has gotten a handful of people off the street into some form of housing.

MEALS FROM GARBAGE

But they continue to come, including the mentally ill or drug addicted who often reject outreach programs. Places like the Beach are attractive. They target tourists or wealthy residents when panhandling and scrounge meals from the garbage cans of fine restaurants, Ruiz said.

''We've been spat upon, cursed, but it's a problem that has a solution,'' she said. ``We're determined to help them.''

But some just don't want the help. To them, a shelter means walls, structure, rules, even reminders of their lowly status in the world.

''When you go to a shelter, they make you feel more homeless,'' said Ponce De Leon Everette, 49, a recovering addict who has been homeless for three months, the latest tumble of a life spent shuttling among Miami, Atlanta and the Virgin Islands.

Everette spends his days riding around the city with his most valuable possession, a rust-covered bicycle he found near a Dumpster, doing odd jobs for different store owners.

''It's the ultimate form of disrespect,'' he said. ``A lot us would rather take our chances in the streets.''

Herald staff writer Hector Florin contributed to this report.

Finance Resources

2004-08-25T11:55:00.000+09:30

If you are looking for Business Finance or Personal Loans here are a few links that may be helpful, also information about Credit Card Application and Debt Consolidation and a Business Finance Directory

More homeless news soon.

HTML Tutorial

2004-08-22T13:25:00.000+09:30

Personally I use a program that does some of this for you, but that leaves me short of knowledge when I get it wrong. So this html turotial has come in handy from time to time. Check it out.

Time Sheet Software and Project Time Tracking Software

2004-08-13T14:53:00.000+09:30

Anyone looking for Project Time Tracking Software or software that helps you manage timesheets - http://www.timesheetsmts.com/
should check out this Time Sheet Software that helps you to work on your business more than in your business.

We manage many volunteer hours so are lucky not to have the frustration of timesheets or need Time Sheet Software but I am looking more seriously at the Project Time Tracking Software Mark has on offer here.

It doesn't cost a mint and saves you time by using more effective business management systems.

Bling

2004-08-12T16:20:00.000+09:30

About a friend's site:

ThinkBling is a provider of free, open source PHP programs as well an open unbiased forum for discussing related issues.
Currently ThinkBling primarily deals with interfacing an Amazon Product Feed. This is a free affiliation provided by Amazon.com. It is quick and easy to join with no commitments.

An Amazon Associate may provide item links or an online store, where customers may purchase Amazon.com items. For those familiar with drop-shipping, being an Amazon.com associate is often thought of as a much better idea because there is less overhead and never a need to support customers as you are strictly a salesperson.

The best way for contact ThinkBling is by the forums.

Homeless protest outside court

2004-08-12T15:59:00.000+09:30

A group of homeless people who live in containers at the Haven Night Shelter in Wynberg in the Cape Peninsula are protesting outside local Magistrate's court as the case against their eviction is being heard.

The 29 families say they have been staying in the Night Shelter grounds for about a year and they do not want to move. They are holding placards saying homeless people have rights too. The Homeless People Crisis Committee is assisting them in opposing the eviction. The committee alleges that in June the Haven Night Shelter brought a court application to have the people removed as they needed the containers for a skills training project.

The committee says it is opposing the case on the grounds that the application was flawed. They say the 29 respondents were not summoned and the city council which owns the land was not sited as a respondent. The case continues.

COST OF HOUSING THE HOMELESS

2004-08-12T15:55:00.000+09:30

City council bosses say new statistics show they are winning the battle against the cost of housing the homeless in bed and breakfasts. New figures reveal the cost of putting people up in B &Bs fell below the £1m mark over the last year.

Financial records obtained by the Echo show the B &B bill to the council amounted to £846,336 from April 2003 to April 2004.

This compares with the £1m cost of B &Bs faced by the authority the year before.

Housing officials argue the figures prove that the raft of measures they brought in to tackle the problem are working.

The main reason for the fall in the use of B &Bs is that the authority is housing more people in temporary rented accommodation.

In addition, the council has introduced a homelessness strategy, with more manpower and resources targeted at preventative work.

Private sector landlords are also being encouraged to rent out their properties to the homeless.

Exeter City Council's Head of Housing, Rod Lock, said: "I am totally confident that we have turned the corner. The homeless strategy is working and as a result we are using bed and breakfasts less and less.

"We are also carrying out more preventative work. The lower bill is good news for the council tax payer. It is also good news for homeless people who are benefiting from better accommodation.

"I am hoping that the figure will continue to fall this year and in future years."

In 1999/2000, the authority's B &B bill was £192,000. It then doubled to £403,714 a year later and then increased to £731,835 in 2001/02.

The council says one reason for the cost increase was because it was given extra duties to look after more people.

Extra responsibility was given to local councils to house 16 and 17-year-olds, ex-prison offenders, single people and ex-servicemen.

At the same time the city council has faced tough Government targets to reduce their reliance on B &Bs.

In April it became unlawful for local councils to house families with children in a bed and breakfast for longer than six weeks.

Under the new regulations, families have the power to take authorities to court if they are not re-housed before the deadline. According to the council, it has fully met this target.

As part of the authority's homeless strategy it has set up a new advice and prevention team. The team helps to negotiate with landlords and mediates with parents to help young people avoid becoming homeless.

Other initiatives include the fast-tracking of housing benefit claims, expanding affordable housing schemes and providing interest-free loans to homeless people for deposits for accommodation.

Mayor reverses decision on homeless meal program

2004-08-12T15:52:00.000+09:30

In an abrupt turnaround, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels dropped his plan to shut down evening feeding programs for the homeless near City Hall. Instead, the programs will move back to a plaza outside the city's old Public Safety Building.
Nickels announced the change this afternoon in a brief statement, saying the plaza, near the corner of 4th Avenue and Cherry Street "has worked safely for several years."

Last month, the city moved the food programs to nearby City Hall Park because the vacant Public Safety Building was scheduled for demolition next month. Nickels said the demolition schedule was changed to allow the food programs to return to the plaza for a few months.

He stressed that the plaza is "only a short-term location." He said the city would work with non-profit provider groups to come up with a permanent solution.

Tonight, City Council members Jean Godden, Peter Steinbrueck and Tom Rasmussen plan to serve meals to the homeless at City Hall Park. Providers also called for a public protest at the park to rally against the mayor's policy.

"We are going to find a solution to the mayor's concerns, but people shouldn't go hungry while the city figures out what needs to be done," said Rasmussen, chair of the council's Health and Human Services Committee, in a statement released this morning.

"While I don't like disobeying the law," Godden added, "sometimes civil disobedience is called for to draw attention to the needs of the poor. We can-and must-do better to help these organizations serve meals to our homeless."

Nickels created a furor earlier this week, when he said that food programs at City Hall Park could not serve after 4 p.m. He cited mounting violence, including fistfights and a knife fight, as the reason for restricting the programs. "The mayor's goal was safety first. If people are getting beat up they can't eat," said his spokesman Casey Corr.

The move back to the plaza could be complete by tomorrow, Corr said, meaning tonight might be the last supper at the park.

She Shelters the Homeless to find Her Daughter

2004-08-10T11:03:00.000+09:30

For Nanay Meding, filling up her shanty with voices of people she could care for is small consolation for that voice she misses most-that of her daughter Nelda. In 1994, Nelda, then 18, left home and never returned. She is closest to her heart, says this grieving mother. Not only was Nelda her youngest and prettiest daughter, she also suffered complications from meningitis that made her less than mentally competent. In that state, Nelda was raped in her teen years, a crime that was never brought to justice.

Now in tears, Nanay Meding relives the pain of seeing her darling daughter sprawled on a grassy lot, bloodied and violated. Police efforts did not yield any suspect and the case was conveniently forgotten. But that wound was nothing compared to the pain of losing her daughter.

"One morning, we woke up and Nelda was gone," she says. "We looked for her everywhere, but she had vanished. Parang bula (Like a soap bubble)." She adds: "When I hear of an unidentified corpse, Nida and I go off to check if it's Nelda. But I know in my heart my daughter is still alive."

Sobbing, Nanay Meding confesses," I want to see my daughter before I die. This is the reason I don't tire doing good for others, this is why I don't count the cost. I want to reap my reward someday-to see my daughter again. That is the only reward I want. Lord, have mercy on me. Give me back my daughter!"

For Nanay Meding's sake, one hopes that good deeds are indeed multiplied in the eyes of heaven and rewarded justly.

Homeless program no longer homeless

2004-08-10T11:00:00.000+09:30

After being homeless for several months, StandUp for Kids will soon have a new home helping homeless children in Oceanside.

After losing its home in April because the city's redevelopment code wouldn't allow them a new permit for a location downtown, the nonprofit agency has a new center at Apple Street in Oceanside that it will move into on Oct. 1.

"We're getting a new center," said Debe Busch, director of StandUp's Oceanside center. "We haven't been gone. We have been feeding the kids at the beach."

StandUp for Kids is a national foundation supporting at-risk and homeless youth that is headquartered in San Diego, with a chapter in Oceanside. It is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization that relies on volunteers and donations.

The group opened a center in the city's redevelopment area in 2002 that focused on giving homeless children a hot meal three nights a week, along with providing them clothing, hygiene kits, and cold food packs, Busch said.

In addition, the group helps children with other needs, including procuring identification cards, jobs services, health care referrals, securing payments from government programs, and finding children drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, she said.

When the group's lease was up earlier this year, and the group moved out of its location downtown, the city would not give the group a permit to relocate in the redevelopment area. The group was prevented from renewing its permit from the city because redevelopment law will not allow any additional permits for social services in the redevelopment area.

The redevelopment area's western boundary is the beach and its northern boundary is the harbor. The remaining boundary runs along Interstate 5 until it reaches Mission Avenue, where it then runs southwest along Horne Street, Seagaze Drive, Cleveland Street and Wisconsin Avenue, where it heads west to the beach.

Since then, the group found its new home on Apple Street at Greenbrier Drive and near the California Highway Patrol office on Oceanside Boulevard.

To help raise money for the group, the Hill Street Cafe will hold its second annual concert called "Showcase for StandUp." The concert ---- featuring eight different acts from the San Diego County area ---- will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 29 at the Hill Street Cafe and the Fish Joint on 524 S. Coast Highway.

The concert will be held in the patio between the two buildings, and is free, although those attending are urged to make a donation to StandUp. The first "Showcase for StandUp" in May 2003 raised $1,000 for the group.

Busch said all the money goes to the Oceanside chapter. The concert will also feature the group Subject to Change, a band that includes Patrick Harmon, a 19-year-old guitar player and singer who said StandUp for Kids helped get him off the street.

Homeless, advocates worry about convention

2004-08-10T10:58:00.000+09:30

NEW YORK -- J.W. Ballantine, a 77-year-old homeless man, already sleeps most nights in Penn Station and eats many of his meals in neighborhood soup kitchens. But Ballantine's life is about to get much harder now that the Republican National Convention is coming to Madison Square Garden, directly on top of the train station where he usually sleeps.

Ballantine, and hundreds of other homeless people like him, will be moved out from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 so the convention can take place.

"They think homeless people are eyesores," Ballantine said. "They want to hide them so tourists don't see them."

Security is already high in New York City, and homeless people worry that even tougher convention security will force them to the city's fringes - far from the outreach workers trying to help them.

"When you lose people and they become fearful, you're not going to see them again," said Arnold S. Cohen, president and CEO of Partnership for the Homeless.

It's hard to say precisely how many homeless people sleep in midtown Manhattan, but a food pantry on West 31st Street serves 500 people a week. The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen on West 28th Street serves roughly 1,200 people every day.

But beginning the week of the convention, police will close down much of the area around the convention site, allowing pedestrians only if they can prove they have business in the area.

"There is going to be extraordinary security around the Republican Convention, as there was around the Democratic Convention," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

The Bread of Life Program, a food pantry on West 31st Street, has already announced that it will close during the convention. The center serves about 500 people every Wednesday, but it will not open on Sept. 1, the Wednesday of the convention. The pantry instead will provide its clients with extra food the week before.

Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, the largest in the city, will remain open, and Rev. Elizabeth Maxwell of Holy Apostles Church said she will issue identification cards to volunteers and homeless people.

Maxwell echoes the homeless people's concern that the city will attempt to "make the city pretty for the visitors and sweep the homeless people away."

"These are people, they're not a problem," she said.

Convention organizers said they have met with city and police officials to discuss the homeless population.

"Everyone understands the concerns that advocates have and that's that all the people in the community be treated with dignity and respect," convention spokesman Paul Elliott said.

Enough talk: Homeless must become priority

2004-08-10T10:55:00.000+09:30

Paul Martin put it best in his 1990 Liberal task force report Finding Room: "All Canadians have the right to decent housing in decent surroundings at affordable prices ... there is currently a vacuum in federal policy ... Only the national government has the financial resources to address the full dimensions of the needs of this country."

That long-ago Liberal task force was co-chaired by Martin and Joe Fontana, recently appointed Canada's new Minister of Labour and Housing. In the upcoming minority Parliament, Martin and Fontana will have the chance to do what they so urgently advocated 14 years ago.

Minority governments, in fact, have been important in establishing a national housing policy.

The Trudeau minority in 1972-74 gave life to the ministry of state for urban affairs, and social housing was the main focus of its hard-driving minister, Ron Basford of Vancouver.

Under Basford's direction, Canada Mortgage and Housing signed agreements with provinces, municipalities and the not-for-profit sector to construct thousands of units of co-op housing. One-time grants for starter homes were part of the policy.

One group prepared a detailed rent supplement program to assist low-income Canadians in reducing their monthly shelter costs. Alas, this critical component of an anti-poverty strategy fell victim to budgetary pressures.

Yet, the foundations laid in the early 1970s were good ones and annually Canada added 10,000 to 12,000 social units to the housing base.

This affirmation of the centrality of shelter was thrown away in the neo-conservative mania that swept Canada starting in the mid-1980s.

Its nadir was reached in 1995 when Mike Harris cut social assistance by 22 per cent and then froze the rates at this low level as taxes were cut for everyone else.

Investment in social housing virtually ceased until the Chrétien government gingerly re-entered the field in 2000.

The result of this federal retreat was a calamity.

Nationally, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates that a million Canadians need housing assistance. In Toronto, 73,000 people are on a waiting list for subsidized housing and more than 100,000 Torontonians pay more than 50 per cent of their income for shelter.

The FCM has drawn up a plan that draws on the earlier Trudeau national housing policy — construction of 20,000 new social units and rehabilitation of 10,000 existing units to provide 30,000 units a year. Over a decade, this would provide decent shelter to 600,000 to 700,000 Canadians in need. The annual costs of such a program would be $1.5 billion.

Fontana doesn't have $1.5 billion annually: He has $1.5 billion over five years, according to the promises of the 2004 Liberal platform. But it is a start.

I have advocated that, over time, the $5 billion proceeds of the federal gas tax go into an infrastructure fund that would invest in transportation, the environment and housing. If this were to happen, we could reach the housing goals of the FCM. But for now, where should Fontana place his emphasis?

We should help first those who need help most: This requires that we end the blight of homelessness.

Just about the time the federal government withdrew from poverty reduction, Canadians began to notice desperate men and women sleeping on grates. Toronto had one emergency shelter in the 1980s, now the city spends $125 million to provide transitional shelter to the poorest of the poor.

Bill Phipps, former moderator of the United Church, writes about Calgary that 50 congregations have come together in a voluntary program, "In from the Cold." In 1999, they filled 9,200 beds, in 2003-04, 20,000. Children sleep in different church basements every night.

Every moral fibre in our being cries out that this must stop.

The famous Anne Golden Report On The Homeless in 1999 pinpointed the causes — poverty, lack of affordable housing, poor discharge planning from institutions, and social factors leading to personal maladies.

The homeless need a team approach to services but most of all they need a home.

John Sewell, former mayor of Toronto, in a stimulating report called A New City Agenda, makes the point that emergency shelters are a necessity but not a solution. We need permanent housing for the 7,000 in shelters.

Fontana should use his budget to assist cities in moving people from shelters to homes.

A million Canadians are in housing need, but thousands are in desperate need with nowhere to go. Start with the homeless and move from there to create a broad national housing policy.

The best way for Martin and Fontana to redeem their pledges of 1990 would be to get the children out of the church basements.

Homeless advocates to hold vigil on Statehouse lawn

2004-08-10T10:53:00.000+09:30

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Advocates for those without homes are creating a tent city on the Statehouse lawn tonight, to draw attention to the problem of homelessness.

The overnight vigil is designed to raise awareness about the lack of affordable housing. It's also to lobby for better conditions at homeless shelters.

George Gaffett of the "People to End Homelessness" says the shelter at Harrington Hall in Cranston doesn't have enough cots for the 40 to 60 men who sleep there nightly. That means many have to sleep on the floor. There also have been complaints about the shelters' cleanliness.

Family shelters are at capacity in the state. Children under 18 make up 30 percent of those who are homeless.

The group will be on the lawn from three this afternoon through tomorrow morning.

Homeless man nabs alleged purse snatcher

2004-08-10T10:51:00.000+09:30

UPPER DARBY, Pa. -- A homeless man is being hailed as a hero after chasing down an alleged purse snatcher, tackling him and holding him down until police arrived.

Loretta Ferraro, 68, was in the Chef's Spot restaurant waiting for a friend when she said a man tried to grab the handbag out of her lap. The two engaged in a tug-of-war, but the man prevailed and bolted out the door.

The suspect ended up fleeing right past a homeless shelter where Kevin Runkle had just stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. Runkle said he noticed the commotion and took off after the man, identified by police as Hyo Lee.

``Finally he stopped, shoved the purse up under his shirt and he turned around to face me,'' Runkle, 38, said Thursday. ``He punched me twice in the face - not that hard, because you know, I stayed standing. ... So I hit him and wrestled him to the ground, and then I held him.''

Runkle, who walked 80 miles to Philadelphia from York several months ago, said he has a history of drug addiction and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. He and his caseworker at the shelter, however, said he is working hard to turn his life around.

Nobody needs to tell that to Ferraro, whose son first found out Runkle was homeless when he asked where he could send a thank-you note.

``I think God sent me an angel,'' Ferraro said. ``I really do.''

Study revels more homeless families

2004-08-06T09:34:00.000+09:30

San Diego - About a quarter of San Diego County's homeless population is made up of families, and another quarter consists of farmworkers living in fields, according to a new study. The study by the Regional Task Force on the Homeless found that families were among the largest growing categories of homeless because of a lack of affordable housing, according to the study, whose findings were reported today by the North County Times.

The task force estimated that 759 families, comprising 2,373 adults and children, are homeless in San Diego County. The number of homeless farmworkers was about the same. There were an estimated 9,700 homeless in the county, down 35 percent from a 1999 high of 15,100, according to the report. The task force derived its numbers from January data from shelters, social service agencies and law enforcement. The task force then boosted the total by 40 percent to account for a "hidden" homeless population not seen by authorities.

Street Kids at increased drug, suicide risk

2004-08-06T09:26:00.000+09:30

Washington
A new study, published in the August 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, has revealed that children who take to the streets at an early age are more likely to die of drug overdose and suicides, rather than children from proper homes.

According to the study, these youngsters frequently engage in high-risk behaviours such as prostitution and substance abuse, including injection drug use, and they are increasingly being recognized as people at risk of a wide range of physical and mental health problems.

During the course of the study, researchers from Direction de Sante Publique de Montreal, Canada, and colleagues recruited 1,013 youth and interviewed them twice a year, for five years.
The researchers observed that the most prevalent causes of death were suicide (13), overdose (8), unintentional injury (2), fulminant hepatitis A (1) and heart disease, respectively.

Researchers are now hoping that after the study, strategies that move street youth off the street will be developed to further reduce mortality, including services that connect youth with trustworthy adults and a responsive community. Support of youth development and opportunities for youth service, leadership and open opportunities for skill development, should also be provided.

"In conclusion, mortality is high in the street youth population. Treatment of addiction and mental health problems should represent public health priorities to prevent deaths in these young people. Additional studies providing a better understanding of the role of other factors such as HIV infection and homelessness are also needed to support the development of appropriate health and social services for these vulnerable youth," the researchers wrote in their study.

Cop on trial for refusing homeless arrest

2004-08-06T09:23:00.000+09:30

NEW YORK -- An officer on trial for refusing to arrest a homeless man took the stand Thursday, saying he was punished for trying to help needy people instead of locking them up.

Officer Eduardo Delacruz could be kicked off the police force if an administrative judge finds him guilty of failing to obey a lawful order. He refused to arrest a homeless man who had been sleeping in a Manhattan parking garage in 2002.

"I'm not going to do it," Delacruz recalled telling a sergeant who had handcuffed the man and told the officer to make the arrest. "I'm not going to lock up a homeless man."

Delacruz, 39, has drawn support from homeless advocates who portray him as a conscientious objector to a crackdown on the city's dispossessed. The officer, who has a clean disciplinary record, suggested he was motivated by religion.

"God is in control," the 10-year veteran said during the departmental hearing when asked what he was thinking at the time.

In closing arguments, New York Police Department lawyer David Green argued that a law enforcement organization relies on a strict chain of command.

Clearing Delacruz would send the message that "any police officer could choose to follow whatever order he wants - a very dangerous position to take," Green said.

In 1997, Delacruz volunteered for a homeless outreach unit charged with directing homeless people to city shelters. But in 2002, police shifted to a zero-tolerance stance on trespassing and other minor crimes committed by vagrants found on streets or in the subway system.

"We had been trying to help and protect these people," Delacruz said. "Now we were going after them."

Delacruz claimed his superiors sought to impose a one-arrest-per-week quota. They warned that if he didn't "collar up" - slang for making arrests - he could be transferred to a distant command, or worse.

Green recommended that if Delacruz is found guilty, he should receive a 30-day suspension without pay - a penalty he's already served. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who has the final say, would still have the authority to dismiss him.

A decision is not expected for several weeks.

Welcome to the HomelessNess Blog

2004-08-06T09:04:00.000+09:30

More information on homeless people and homelessness to follow.