"It is a similar pattern to what's seen in patients with strokes that have led to lesions in their prefrontal cortex,"

If nothing else motivates us to begin shifting our priorities, this ought to....


Study: Poverty dramatically affects children's brains  
Updated 12/10/2008 11:20 AM

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

 

A new study finds that certain brain functions of some low-income 9- and 10-year-olds pale in comparison with those of wealthy children and that the difference is almost equivalent to the damage from a stroke.

 

"It is a similar pattern to what's seen in patients with strokes that have led to lesions in their prefrontal cortex," which controls higher-order thinking and problem solving, says lead researcher Mark Kishiyama, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley. "It suggests that in these kids, prefrontal function is reduced or disrupted in some way."

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that shows how poverty afflicts children's brains. Researchers have long pointed to the ravages of malnutrition, stress, illiteracy and toxic environments in low-income children's lives. Research has shown that the neural systems of poor children develop differently from those of middle-class children, affecting language development and "executive function," or the ability to plan, remember details and pay attention in school.

Such deficiencies are reversible through intensive intervention such as focused lessons and games that encourage children to think out loud or use executive function.

"It's really important for neuroscientists to start to think about the effects of people's experiences on their brain function, and specifically about the effect of people's socioeconomic status," says Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

Among the most studied: differences in language acquisition between low- and middle-income children. The most famous study, from 1995, transcribed conversation between parents and children and found that by age 3, middle-class children had working vocabularies roughly twice the size of poor children's.

For the new study, researchers used an electroencephalograph (EEG) to measure brain function of 26 children while they watched images flashing on a computer. The children pressed a button when a tilted triangle appeared.

The researchers found a huge difference in the low-income children's ability to detect the tilted triangles and block out distractions — a key function of the prefrontal cortex.

"It's just not functioning as efficiently as it could be, or as it should be," Kishiyama says.

Though the effects of poverty are reversible, children need "incredibly intensive interventions to overcome this kind of difficulty," says Susan Neuman, an education professor at the University of Michigan.

The study appears online in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and will be published early next year.

"...poor women who want reproductive health care and contraception are both “pork” and a “distraction.” Is this the change we have dreamed about?"

Rocket science it isn't.  When a woman, or for that matter, any human being, can make informed choices about contraception and has options available to them when they may have have erred on the side of unrestrained and unprotected passion, those individuals remain in at least partial control of their own destiny.

Take away those choices and we help plot the trajectory of that destiny, and we've clearly  seen what happens to so many when we take those choices away from them. 

It wasn't but a few days ago I listened to a snippet of a speech by Obama in which he said that government has a responsibility to help her citizens excel and succeed in their lives.  

Providing the funding for family planning seems, at least to me, to be one of the most important components of assistance a government can provide to her citizens, since the economic impact - or benefit - of every new individual born in this country will dictate how government is going to have to spend its revenues over time. 

An ounce of prevention, dontchakno......

Women Are Not 'Pork'

By Ruth Rosen, Religion Dispatches. Posted January 30, 2009.

Dems struck a family planning provision from the stimulus bill. What happens to the economy when a woman has a child without the means to support it? 

 

Responding to President Obama’s request, House Democrats cut a provision from the stimulus package that would expand contraceptive family planning for Medicaid patients -- usually poor women and girls.

Why did this happen?

For years, reproductive justice activists have argued that the religious right’s real agenda is not just to eliminate abortion, but to end the historic rupture between sex and reproduction that took place in the 20th century.

I understand why that rupture is unsettling. Ironically, I was on my way to lecture about Margaret Sanger in my history course at UC Berkeley when I heard the news. Sanger was vilified for wanting to give women the choice of when or whether to bear children. In short, she challenged all of human history by proposing an historic rupture between sexuality and the goal of reproduction. But if reproduction ceased to be the goal, sexuality might become yoked to pleasure.

That is the legacy the religious right has fought against, and it’s that agenda that cut funding for family planning.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, “How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?”

Well, here’s the answer. Consider the teenage girl who’s sexually active. What happens to the economy when she bears a child without the means to support it? Conversely, what happens when she finishes her education, enters the labor force, earns a salary, and pays taxes? Do we want an unemployed poor woman to have more children than she can already feed, or do we want her to have access to contraception, get her life back on track, and hopefully find work instead of raising another child she cannot afford at this time?

The Congressional Budget Office also reported that by the third year of implementation, the measure would actually save $200 million over five years by preventing unwanted pregnancies and avoiding the Medicaid cost of delivering and then caring for these babies. The same CBO report found the House version of the stimulus would have a “noticeable impact on economic growth and employment in the next few years, with much of the mandatory spending for Medicaid and other programs likely to occur in the next 19 to 20 months.” During the first three years, the CBO report said, the cost and savings are negligible.

This decision was an unnecessary political capitulation to Republicans. According to the AP and the Austin American-Statesman, the president was “courting Republican critics of the legislation” who had argued that contraception is not about stimulus or growth. Unfortunately, too many people have uncritically accepted that argument. But many others have noted that the package is filled with provisions for health care, which certainly includes family planning. Many other provisions, moreover, are also not growth-oriented, and yet it was poor women’s bodies that Democrats bartered for the approval and votes from Republicans that they don’t need and will seldom get.

That same morning, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert asked “Why anyone listens to [Republicans]?” Why, indeed. They want the Democrats to fail. They want the new president to fail. And so they described women’s bodies as “pork” and asked that the funding be cut for contraception.

Women’s groups are legitimately outraged at what has happened. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America called the measure a “victim of misleading attacks and partisan politics.” Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said: “Family planners are devastated that President Obama and Congress have decided to take funding for critical family planning services out of the stimulus. Their willingness to abandon the millions of families across the country who are in need is devastating.”

“The Medicaid Family Planning State Option fully belonged in the economic recovery package,” said Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center. “The Republican leadership opposition to the provision shows how out of touch they are with what it takes to ensure the economic survival of working women and their families.”

While Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) defended the measure as recently as last Sunday, President Barack Obama and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, bowed to Republican pressure and agreed to drop the measure. And although the Senate has not yet voted, it’s unlikely that funding for expanded family planning will be approved. In short, the Democrats decided it just wasn’t worth fighting about. According to the Washington Wire, one House Democratic aide said, “It ended up being a distraction and it will be removed.”

So, poor women who want reproductive health care and contraception are both “pork” and a “distraction.” Is this the change we have dreamed about?

President Obama certainly believes in contraception for poor women and girls on Medicaid. He won the election, as he recently pointed out. He doesn’t have to cave in to Republican demands to restrict women’s choices and health care.

The best way he and Democrats can handle this terribly misguided decision is to pass legislation to fund expanded family planning as soon as possible, before half the population wakes up and realizes that once again, women have been treated as expendable, and that their bodies have been bartered for political expediency.

“if the right level of concessions are made, we can find a way to make this work.”

Sure they can.  Just lower the autoworker's wage to $6 bucks, eliminate all the benefits, divert the retirement for all those bonues the CEO and senior management will stea....errrr deserve, and by golly, it ought to work just fine as far as management is concerned.

I don't think the majority of Americans are going to look too favorably on concessions being made by the "workers" any longer, although there are still plenty of folks who continue to swallow the noxious swill of the hard- right.

And please don't start tossing the legacy costs and high price of benefits out as something that has taken up all the money.  It's a large share, to be sure, but when the CEO earns 50 times what the typical hourly worker earns, there's a problem of balance and equity here.....

I've been watching the gutting of American workers for damned near half a century now.  It's way past time - at least in my marble-sized mind - for the big bosses to start conceding a skosh or three. 

 The UAW needs to not just get off the "concession train," they need to run that train headlong into the wall of management greed, obstinancy and gluttony......

Auto layoffs continue as new round of givebacks begin
By Martha Grevatt
Published Jan 31, 2009 7:45 AM.
On Dec. 22 Chrysler LLC took the unprecedented step of shutting down every plant in the corporation for four to six weeks to reduce inventory. As production resumes, however, many workers are hopeful about the new deal that gives Italian car maker Fiat a 35 percent ownership in exchange for access to small car technology. The perception is that Chrysler will use the existing Fiat platform to build fuel-efficient subcompact and mini cars in the United States.

With the threat of bankruptcy hanging over their heads every day, the workers are understandably positive about the arrangement with Fiat. Many would be willing to make additional concessions to facilitate a deal that would seemingly protect or even expand jobs at Chrysler.

This fear factor plays into the hands of Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, who has stated that “if the right level of concessions are made, we can find a way to make this work.” (Detroit News, Jan. 22) Fiat’s push for givebacks from the United Auto Workers follows the trend set by the Treasury Department. Government loans to Chrysler and General Motors are contingent on the union granting previously unthinkable concessions.

On Jan. 23, workers on indefinite or permanent layoff learned it was the last day of the “controversial” jobs bank. The jobs bank allowed workers to collect a paycheck even after their plant jobs were eliminated by technology or outsourcing. Some worked for charities and received 40 hours’ pay, while others not placed in a “nontraditional” job were paid 85 percent of that.

Hundreds of workers are now on “enhanced layoff” with no advance notice. They receive Supplemental Unemployment Benefits on top of state unemployment insurance. How long they will collect SUB remains to be seen, as the loan terms call for SUB to be eliminated.

Another big question affects not only the workers who were in the jobs bank but thousands who were supposed to be placed in the bank after a maximum 48 weeks of layoff. What happens now after the 48 weeks? UAW officials have yet to answer that question.

Are workers worrying needlessly? Should they assume the crisis is only temporary and will soon be alleviated when they start cranking out the minis? Chrysler will have the new small cars in the showrooms within two years. The catch, however, is that “details such as which Fiat model, how it would be badged or where it would be built have not been determined.” (Detroit News, Jan. 22)

The Fiat-Chrysler partnership could prove detrimental to workers on both sides of the Atlantic in the long run. Marchionne’s expressed strategy—and he is articulating the long-range perspective of every auto boss in Europe, Asia, and North America—is to exploit the present downturn to foster a permanent restructuring of the industry. “Viability” is to be achieved by paying less and less money to fewer and fewer workers.
“The Chrysler arrangement is a first step in this direction,” Marchionne said. “By far, it’s not the last.” (Detroit News, Jan. 22)

Meanwhile, GM has announced another round of layoffs. Another whole shift will be cut at the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant, which went from three shifts to two in 2008. Talks are in progress for the jobs bank to end at GM, with the expectation that Ford will also expect the UAW to follow the pattern.

The corporate media routinely characterize the jobs bank as “controversial.” During the bailout hearings the southern Republican senators whined repeatedly about paying workers—laid off through no fault of their own—not to work.

But isn’t that what profit is all about? Consider the billions of dollars in profits the automakers made before the current downturn. If labor costs are roughly 10 percent of a vehicle cost, and a sport utility vehicle—popular before the recent spike in gasoline prices—was being sold for $30,000, the cost of labor came to around $3,000. Profits on those vehicles, however, averaged close to $10,000. So weren’t the profiteers being paid not to work? Worse, they were paid for work done by someone else.

Consider also the example of interest. How much labor on the part of a lender is involved in closing a mortgage? Maybe 40 hours or less. Yet on a 30-year mortgage a bank might collect as much as three times the value of a home in mortgage payments. Aren’t finance capitalists paid for not working, as they exploit the fact that working-class home buyers aren’t paid enough for their labor power to afford to pay cash for a modest home?

UAW needs to get off the concession train

It is time for the UAW to recognize the obvious: Concessions do not save jobs. No matter how big, givebacks are no guarantee against bankruptcy in the future.

Delphi UAW workers have already learned this painful lesson. After they granted major concessions the company declared bankruptcy, closed most plants, and slashed wages and benefits even further. Delphi is still in bankruptcy and may never emerge.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee is using the Fiat-Chrysler agreement to argue that Chrysler is now a foreign company and must pay back the loan immediately.

It would be worthwhile for auto workers to study Italian labor history. In the 1920s workers at Fiat and Alfa Romeo (now owned by Fiat) took over the plants. They showed they could build cars without bosses, and raised the demand for workers’ control.

The UAW rank and file can provide ample proof of managerial ineptitude, and can easily demonstrate its capacity to run a “viable” company. It’s time the union leadership advance the slogan of workers’ control. Let the government forget about bailing out the bosses—give the money to the workers with no strings attached.

Bosses: What are they good for? Absolutely nothing.

"I would think the community would want to know he's in a protected environment instead of just roaming the street,"

It seems a pretty high price for something the man did almost twenty years ago and no matter how you may feel about sex offenders, no one deserves to freeze to death like this.  Furthermore, because an individual can be convicted and forced to register as a "sex" offender simply by urinating in public (people are often arrested under a "lewd and lascivious" conduct law for this), you can't really be sure whether the the person has done something that truly constitutes what I would consider a sex offense. 


Getting caught whizzing in public is not a sex offense in my mind and if it is, I, along with about every other man I know - and quite a few women, too - are just as guilty as those registering at the local sheriff's department.....

Sex Offender Dies in Cold After Being Denied From Shelter

Thomas Pauli Found Dead in Cold; Social Workers Say His Sex Offender Status Kept Him out of Shelters

By SCOTT MICHELS

Jan. 30, 2009—


A homeless man found dead in the cold earlier this week in Michigan had been denied a place to stay in local homeless shelters because he was a sex offender, social workers said.

The body of Thomas Pauli, 52, was found in the snow in an auto body salvage shop in Grand Rapids Monday. The results of an autopsy were not yet available.

Homeless service staffers who have worked with Pauli said he has been denied a spot at local shelters because of a state law that bars sex offenders from staying within 1,000 feet of a school. It was not immediately clear whether Pauli had tried to stay in a shelter the night he died; shelter directors said they don't keep records of people who are denied beds.

"It is such a tragedy that I can hardly even speak about it, thinking of this poor man who froze to death because of a law that the missions had to enforce," said Marge Palmerlee, the director of the Degage Ministries. "As a community, we need to do something about this. Change has to take place."

About 20 states and dozens of cities have passed laws that restrict where sex offenders can live, banning them from areas near schools and parks.Those laws have, in some cases, forced sex offenders out of their homes or into so-called cluster communities.

At least eight people have died from cold-related deaths in Michigan this month as storms swept the state, according to news reports. Earlier this month, a 93-year-old Bay City man froze to death inside his house after a municipal power company restricted his power use because of unpaid bills.

Pauli, who was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in 1991, told several people he was having difficulty finding a place to stay, said Lori King, the supervisor of the Degage Ministries Life Enrichment Center, who had worked with the man.

Pauli struggled with substance abuse after his 2003 release from prison, said King.

"He was a very quiet, gentle man. He had impeccable manners," said King. "He wasn't at all what society would label him to be."

Homeless Man Turned Away from Shelter

Palmerlee said people had seen Pauli at local missions in the past few weeks. Officials at two local shelters said they could not confirm that Pauli had tried to stay with them on the night he died, but said they had been told he had tried to stay there in the past. They acknowledged that they would have turned him away because of the state's sex offender law.


"I would think the community would want to know he's in a protected environment instead of just roaming the street," said Bill Shaffer of Guiding Light Ministries. "I think there really should be some concessions for the type of offense and the gravity of it. Until then, I don't know what we're going to be able to do for these people."

King said Pauli wanted people to realize that he wasn't "a monster."

"January 31st, 2007, is the two year anniversary of Molly Ivins' Death...She made us feel like we weren't alone.""

Death hangs heavy in the air around me today and in that vein, I didn't realize it until moments ago, but one of my all-time favorite writers passed away two years ago tomorrow so it seems fitting that I post what I found regarding the anniversary of Molly Ivins death here today too. 

If you don't know or remember who Molly Ivins was, my heart goes out to ya because you missed some of the finest, funniest and often frankest political writing available to my generation.  


It's too bad she didn't live to see Obama elected; her comments on the whole shebang may have turned out to be some of her best column ever, had she gotten a chance to write it.... 

"Yes, he should run. He's the only Democrat with any Elvis to him."

Betsy Moon: What Would Molly Ivins Think?

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 01/30/2009 - 4:02am. Guest Contribution

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Betsy Moon

JANUARY 31, 2007, IS THE TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF MOLLY IVINS' DEATH. THE FOLLOWING COLUMN WAS WRITTEN BY MOLLY IVINS' FORMER ASSISTANT AND "CHIEF OF STUFF" FROM 2001 TO 2007, BETSY MOON. Betsy sent it personally to us for posting on  BuzzFlash. 

AUSTIN, Texas -- The question I have been asked most often during the last two years is, "What would Molly think about this?" Molly Ivins would have loved this election. She would have loved the beautiful sight of "We the People" finally stepping up to become the real deciders. She would have loved the drama, the comedy and the characters.

We miss her regular twice-weekly comments and insights, and want to hear her dissect, slice and dice, and make fun of the events and revelations of the week. No one could do it like she did. She made us feel like we weren't alone. She made us want to be our better selves and stand up and use our power. She would be so proud that we finally woke up and worked to make this happen.

In many of her lectures, she would exhort her audience to believe in their power. She'd say: "I hear people whine: 'I can't do anything. I'm just one person.'" Then she'd lift her head high and quote from the Declaration of Independence in her Barbara Jordan voice and remind them, "As a U.S. citizen, you have more political power than most humans who've ever lived on this earth."

In fact, we know how she would have felt, because she was as prescient about this election before her death two years ago as she was about all the other tragedies of the Bush years. 

Carlton Carl, CEO/publisher at Molly's beloved Texas Observer,recalls her saying after Obama's 2004 speech at the Democratic convention, "You know ... that young man could be president some day."

Before Barack Obama announced his candidacy, Chicago Magazine asked a number of luminaries if they thought he should run. Opinions varied. Molly was succinct and direct, and with her usual wit and certainty said: "Yes, he should run. He's the only Democrat with any Elvis to him."

And, in her column on Jan. 20, 2006, she said: "It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief. If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator ... with the guts to do it." She was speaking about Gene McCarthy then, but it might as well have been Barack Obama.

She'd be so happy that her beloved Constitution (she donated one speech a month to groups working to preserve and maintain the First Amendment) is in safer hands -- that some of the worst things ever done in our name are over. She'd love that Barack Obama began his community organizing knowing that power lies in all of us united, and that he continues to remind us that we are the deciders.

I saw and heard many interviews after Nov. 4 and during inaugural celebrations with people who all said they wished their mother or father or grandmother or friend had been here to witness this history in the making. Tens of thousands of us wished that Molly could have been here to see it.

I choose to believe she and all of them did see it because they live on in our hearts, minds and actions. Molly is honored with awards, lectures and scholarships in her name. Many of her readers formed "Pots & Pans" Brigades, following the advice in her final two columns to take to the streets and demand an end to the Iraq war. She always signed her books and her letters with, "Raise more hell," and you can make her live on by doing just that.

She lives in everyone who took courage in who they are and what they thought when they read her columns and books, and knew they weren't alone and they weren't crazy. She lives on in The Texas Observer (Texasobserver.org) and the ACLU (aclu.org), to whom she left a large portion of her estate.

In a letter for the ACLU, she says: "Every time someone down the line is irreverent about authority, I'll have my monument. Every time some kid who was born a nigger, a kike, a wop, a Polack, a gook, a gimp, a fag, or just a plain maverick lifts up her head and dares anyone to stop her, I'll have my monument. Every time they peaceably assemble to petition their government for redress of a grievance, I'll be there. Whenever they worship as they please (or not at all), I'll be there. Whenever they speak up and speak out and raise hell, I'll be there. And every time some blue-bellied, full-blooded nincompoop who holds elected office is called to the floor for deciding to keep us safe by rewriting the Constitution, or by suspending due process and holding a citizen indefinitely without legal representation, I'll be there. Now that is immortality. I don't have any children, so I've decided to claim all the future freedom-fighters and hell-raisers as my kin. I figure freedom and justice beat having my name in marble any day. Besides, if there is another life after this one, think how much we'll get to laugh watching it all."

Ken Bunting, an old friend of Molly's who's now associate publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said of Molly on Election Day, "I'm not much of a believer, but I think our friend is looking down and smiling right along with Barack's grandma." You know, I think he is right.

COPYRIGHT 2009 BETSY MOON

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

^{Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Utah}

Selections from the BuzzFlash archives on or by Molly Ivins:

Molly Ivins: Stand Up Against the Surge (1/11/07--her last column)

Obama and Patriotism Bullies -- With Molly Ivins In Obama's Corner -- A BuzzFlash News Analysis

Molly Ivins is Winner of This Week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award. She's a Firebrand Angel of Wit and Decency from Texas. Molly is Gravely Ill With Cancer, But We Need Her More Than Ever.  Molly Ivins' Last Book (Just Released Posthumously) "Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights" (Hardcover) By Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose 

Molly Ivins: Not. backing. Hillary. (1/20/06)

BuzzFlash Interview with Molly Ivins from July 10, 2003.

Molly Ivins Interview with BuzzFlash About "Who Let the Dogs In?" From August 11, 2004. 

2002 Molly Ivins Commentary on Phil Gramm 7/13

Molly Ivins, Elvis and Obama 3/1

The safety net is not only tattered; it is nearly obsolete.

Anyone who has ever spent time on the bottom rungs of America's socioeconomic ladder knows first-hand that the safety net is really not much more than a figment of the imagination of those who haven't had to try and access some of the "services" that are supposed to be available...

Let's Bail Out America's Tattered Safety Net

By Randy Albelda, Dollars and Sense. Posted January 29, 2009.

With the economic meltdown, more and more households are falling toward the social safety net.


Even before the financial crisis and the recession, a substantial proportion of working families were not making it in America. In 2007, 20% of the population in a family with a breadwinner -- that's 41 million people -- did not have enough income, including any Food Stamps, Medicaid, housing and child care subsidies, or other public support they received, to pay their basic living expenses.

The good news for this bottom 20%: in the current crisis, their plight of working hard but not making enough to pay the bills is becoming much more common, so the pressure to address this problem should be growing too. The bad news, of course, is the recession itself. The hardships these families face are growing by the day. More and more households are falling toward the social safety net.

And what about that safety net? In the 1990s, the Clinton administration ended "welfare as we know it," but at the same time promised work supports as low-wage workers moved up the ladder. Since then, employment rates for poor and low-income mothers have indeed soared, and so has the demand for affordable housing and child care assistance. But funding for them has not, with long waiting lists for both. 

As a result, by the early 2000s, these government work supports helped only 10% of the population in working families that couldn't meet their basic needs to actually meet them. Despite expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit and public health insurance for children in the 1990s, the public support programs for low-income families provide inadequate help,and even that to only a fraction of those who need it. And for workers who lose their jobs, only about a third of all unemployed workers receive unemployment benefits today.

The safety net is not only tattered; it is nearly obsolete.

Rising unemployment is beginning to take its toll, as are draconian state budget cuts. Congress and President Obama appear ready to enact a large stimulus package to spur the economy and create jobs. Their focus so far is mostly on infrastructure, on "rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools ... building wind farms and solar panels," as Obama has said.

But bridge repair and even green jobs are not enough. Our physical infrastructure needs work, but so does our social infrastructure. And it's not just the safety net. Quality care for children and long-term care for disabled and elderly people are in short supply -- and unaffordably expensive for many families. Moreover, women are disproportionately employed in these sectors, many at low wages that barely enable them to support their own families. In contrast, the construction and green-energy jobs that often pay decent wages with benefits are overwhelmingly filled by men.

So let's enact a bold recovery plan that promotes employment but also reconstructs the safety net and jumpstarts the process of upgrading our social infrastructure. Here are four suggestions:

First, provide federal funding to states to prevent reductions in essential services. Now is not the time to reduce public health investments, stop transportation projects, cut higher education or lay off K–12 and early-education teachers.

Second, recreate our housing infrastructure. In exchange for buying up bad loans, secure foreclosed properties and develop an affordable housing stock.

Third, expand help for families who are struggling to pay for care for children and elders. Doing so will not only help the families struggling to care for their loved ones. It will also provide the job-creation stimulus for women workers that bridge-repair funding will provide for men.

Fourth, replace our outdated and arbitrary poverty measure with a realistic measure of what it takes to afford basic needs and participate fully in society. This measure should be used to gauge whether the eventual economic recovery is reaching all Americans.

Economic recovery will require bold, public action. Such action isn't limited to reforming our financial system or to traditional stimulus spending. It also means upgrading our social infrastructure in ways that ensure our economy works for all.

Where Did All The Counters Go?

As some of you might have appropriately noticed, Nashville did not perform the annual "point in time" homeless count this year on its designated day. This is because we were under a winter storm warning for that evening. Since most of the folks participating in the count aren't accustomed to locating people experiencing homelessness on a typical day, sending them out in the wee hours of o'dark-hundred is difficult enough. But expecting them to do a thorough and diligent count of folks who may be sleeping in bushes, under boxes, in dark alleys and in homeless camps while n an ice storm turns the city into a humongous scating rink is asking a bit much, and we owe Suzie T at MDHA a debt of gratitude for recognizing this and rescheduling the effort for a later date. So we've postponed the count here in our fair city and we will be out in force next week as we try to determine whether the economic meltdown and/or the housing crisis has conspired to drive the numbers of homeless into the stratosphere, as some of us think may be the case. I think we'll easily surpass last year's total count number (2,271, or something close to that, if memory serves me) but what that final number actually is will, at least for some time, be nothing but an educated guess, regardless of how good our hmis street data collection might be. I will say that MDHA's hmis guru Michelle continues to impress me with the use of the data she has collected; there was a question about the number of non -homeless folks who accessed services at the recent Project Homeless Connect and she was able to run the registrants with the hmis database info and determined that the overall percentage of new names was relatively low, indicating that most of the folks at the event were indeed homeless. Pretty cool, Michelle; kudos to you for such a great use of the data. Anyway, we'll be out in the early hours next week performing the count and it's probably safe to assume that in that short of timespan, Nashville will not have seen a huge influx of folks who've already been counted once elsewhere. The numbers should be pretty reflective of the "native" population, although I encourage anyone who sees the final tally to at least double it, triple it if you'd like to know what is probably the most accurate, and at least quadruple it if you'ld like to know what the actual potential is for the number of homeless folks on the street here this year..... Volunteers join national effort to count homeless By DINESH RAMDE Associated Press Writer 5:33 PM CST, January 29, 2009 MILWAUKEE - About 75 volunteers fanned out across Milwaukee County this week to count homeless people, part of a national effort to understand how deep the problem is and whether the struggling economy and mounting job losses are making it worse. The count was organized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. To qualify for future grants from HUD, local organizations had to show they tried to count as many homeless people as they could. The volunteers in southeast Wisconsin worked under direction of the Milwaukee Continuum of Care, a group that includes nonprofit agencies, homeless providers and faith-based organizations. The group determines how to spend HUD funds, which totaled more than $9 million last year for Milwaukee County, said Janice Wilberg, a consultant with the group. Wilberg said early results from the tally wouldn't be available for several days Some volunteers went out in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, rousing people from under bridges and other places where they slept, Continuum staffer Jessica Shriver said. Other volunteers talked to homeless people in the morning at libraries, meal sites and on the street. HUD only requires that groups count the homeless, but it encourages groups to take advantage of the contact by asking about their living conditions and assessing the effectiveness of outreach programs. On Wednesday afternoon, about 15 volunteers visited St. Benedict the Moor parish in downtown Milwaukee, where about 300 indigent people gathered for a meal that included Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes. Most diners seemed comfortable answering the 22 survey questions. John Hines, 36, told a survey taker he had been homeless for about a year, unable to find a job since he was released from prison seven years ago for auto theft. He said he coped with the recent stretch of brutal cold with "blankets, man, plenty of blankets." "You try to find the warmest spot you can, a heated vent, under something," he said. Steve West, a 47-year-old painter, said he became homeless three months ago when he lost his job and his wife kicked him out of the house. He coped with the cold by sleeping at a rescue mission at night and dressing in layers during the day. "It's hard to find work. With the economy no one's doing any painting," he said. "I'm hoping that when it starts warming up I'll be back on my feet." While most visitors to the soup kitchen were willing to answer questions, a number declined or avoided eye contact with volunteers as they left, leaving it uncertain if they were indigent but not homeless. MacCanon Brown, the executive director of Milwaukee daytime shelter Repairers of the Breach, applauded the effort but said the final count of homelessness likely will be low. "There are countless people sleeping in unheated places like abandoned buildings, bushes, vehicles. We don't see them," Brown said. "This census is a good idea, but the real numbers are going to be much huger than what the census will produce." Abraham Tate, 53, told a survey taker he had been homeless for so long he couldn't remember how many years he had lived on the street. In and out of jail for about 15 years, Tate said Milwaukee winters are so unbearable he once lied to a police officer about having drugs so he could go to a warm cell. "I've dreamed about having a job, having a place of my own but it ain't never going to be," said Tate, who used to operate heavy equipment. "Ain't no work." Fifty-two-year-old Robert Love said he used to drive a school bus but lost his job and his savings two years ago when he became addicted to crack cocaine. He stays at a rescue shelter in Milwaukee so he never had to deal with frigid nights, but he said he yearns to return to a life of normalcy. "I want to be a drug counselor," he said firmly. "In about a year and a half, two years, be a drug counselor, help people get off the stuff. Get me back to where I used to be." Wilberg said the local Continuum of Care hoped to use the information to end homelessness in 10 years.

Do you thin the soup, or shorten the line?"

Ah, to be in a utopia, where, when the economy heads south, the services for the poor would ramp up. 

But we don't live in no utpoia, no way, no how, and if you think that's the way it is here in the land of the free, home of the brave, you'd definitely be thinking wrong - righteously, for sure - but wrong, way wrong. 

  

The bummer is that when times get tough the first thing that most folks cut out of their budgets is charitable donations.  

So it's no surprise to see soup kitchens, homeless shelters and non-profits that assist the poor and homeless begin to tighten their own belts.  

How one tightens a belt further after 8 years of increasingly progressive tension  is beyond me; at this point any additional tightening serves only as a tourniquet; something is almost certainly going to be starved of some vital flow of something, no doubt about it.  Whether it's food, shelter, clothing, medicine, or health care, lotsa folks are about to see their meager rations of ____________(look! another fill in the blank!)get even meagerer, and lordy, it's pretty bad when ya gotta make up a word to fit the conditions they'll be facing..... 


Homelessness Surges as Funding Falters


Providers to the poor try to stretch meager resources to meet growing need
by Kari Huus

SEATTLE - As snowstorms blew into this Northwest city and the economy iced over in December, the occupants of a shelter nestled among industrial buildings on the north side prayed for divine intervention.
"We were hoping for the Christmas miracle," says Glen Dennis, 41, who was working his way through a residential drug-treatment program at the CityTeam Ministries shelter. Dennis and the other 11 guys in the long-term program -dubbed the "disciples" - also worked each day to prepare for some 50 to 60 overnight shelter guests, and dish up free hot meals to about 100 people. "We kept doing what we were doing, and hoped someone would come by and drop off a big check."

But the check did not come - even after a coalition of other shelters, nonprofits and local churches tried to pull together a rescue package to keep the shelter open. On Dec. 27, CityTeam Ministries, based in San Jose, Calif., closed the Seattle facility - leaving scores of people to seek food, shelter and sobriety elsewhere. For Dennis, who had been free of crack cocaine for nearly 11 months, the upheaval led to another painful relapse out on the streets.

"It's a real loss," says Herb Pfifner, executive director of the Union Gospel Mission shelter in downtown Seattle. "We're all scrambling to try to handle the growth of homelessness because of the economic situation ... and then the closing of another mission adds more pressure."

The CityTeam closure is a piece in the expanding problem of homelessness across the nation: Shelters and related services for the homeless are facing funding shortfalls as the downturn takes its toll on state budgets and corporate donations. And while individual donors in many cases are keeping up gifts - or even digging a little deeper for charities that help with urgent needs like food and shelter - the service providers say they are faced with a rapidly growing demand from people losing jobs and homes in the economic crisis.

"A downturn in (overall) funding in this case is accompanied by a surge in demand, so a homeless shelter, food pantry, or job-training program is going to feel it first," says Chuck Bean, executive director of Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, in the District of Columbia. "Even if they have 100 percent of their budget compared to last year, they now see a 50 percent surge in demand. Then (they) get into the tough decisions: Do you thin the soup, or shorten the line?"

Even as census-takers fan out in cities across the country this week in an attempt to count homeless populations, advocates and experts point to a bevy of evidence that homelessness is rising and will continue to, most notably among families with children.

Shelters across the country report that more people are seeking emergency shelter and more are being turned away. In a report published in December, 330 school districts identified the same number or more homeless students in the first few months of the school year than they identified in the entire previous year. Meantime, demand is sharply up at soup kitchens, an indication of deepening hardship and potential homelessness.


"Everything we are seeing is indicating an increase," says Laurel Weir, policy director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. "And homelessness tends to lag the economy. So we're probably seeing the tip of the iceberg here."

In the foreclosure crisis, the people being displaced from homes won't likely be on the street immediately, explains Michael Stoops, director of National Coalition for the Homeless.

"The people who have lost homes or tenants in homes that were foreclosed ... have downsized, and if that doesn't work they will move in with family and friends," says Stoops. "After a while, they will move into their RV in a state campground. The next step is a car. And the worst nightmare for a working, middle-class person or even a wealthy person who has never experienced homelessness is knocking on a shelter door."
Services teeter on brink

As the case of Seattle's CityTeam shelter illustrates, many nonprofits serving the poor are working on a shoestring, even in better times. Seattle-area donations to the shelter had to be supplemented from general funds, said Jeff Cherniss, chief financial officer of CityTeam, which operates shelters and food programs in five other U.S. cities.

"We were hoping (the Seattle shelter) could become self-sustaining," says Cherniss. CityTeam Ministries, a Christian organization funded by donations from individuals, corporations and churches, kept the Seattle facility afloat with help from its general fund for most of a decade, but the 2008 crisis prompted them to retrench.

Every major source of funding is under pressure in the current environment: Charitable foundations - which rely on corporate profits for their seed money and investments to preserve and build those funds - have been forced to pull back grants after taking a massive hit as corporate earnings faltered and stocks plunged. The National Council of Foundations recently estimated that philanthropic foundation endowments have lost $200 billion in value during the economic crisis.

A few of the largest foundations have, despite losses, promised to maintain or give at higher levels in the face of the crisis. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this week said it would increase its giving to 7 percent of its assets from 5 percent. And the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced three gifts totaling $34 million to help homeowners in Chicago avoid foreclosure and keep renters in homes.

Still, the casualties are mounting. Among them: Atlanta nonprofit Nicholas House, which closed a shelter for families in mid-January so it could safely keep other housing services open. Nearly all corporate donors gave to the organization at lower levels this year, says Dennis Bowman, executive director of the 26-year-old agency. The final straw came when a corporate donation ended, and was not renewed.

"It was directly because of the economy - the business has suffered in this economy, and so can't provide the funding, which was well over $100,000 a year," says Bowman.

The organization is scrambling to find other options for the 12 families - 45 people in all - who lived there, by squeezing them into other parts of its own programs or openings with other nonprofit programs.
Shaky foundations, difficult choices

Arguably, no single event in the economic crisis has caused a greater ripple of concern among advocates for the homeless than the government takeover of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in September. In 2007 alone, charitable giving through the Freddie Mac Foundation and the Fannie Mae philanthropic division topped $47 million - the bulk of which goes to programs that shelter and feed homeless Americans, and establish affordable housing.

In Washington, D.C., where Fannie and Freddie had been the largest corporate donors, dozens of organizations were up in the air as government auditors reviewed the corporations' records, including their charity operations.

Linda Dunphy, executive director of Doorways for Women and Families, a shelter program that has been receiving funding from Freddie Mac since 1996, says the takeover of the mortgage company threw a promised $300,000 grant into limbo.

Meantime, Doorways watched other substantial corporate donations drain away - including some $50,000 that had been coming through an annual walkathon from financial companies Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.

Fortunately, when the review of Fannie and Freddie's charitable operations ended in late December, the Freddie Mac grant came through for Doorways, averting the need to shut down a family shelter - for the next six months, at least. "But then we face a whole new fiscal year, and our concerns about what is going to happen at (Freddie Mac Foundation) and whether they can continue to keep giving at the level they have been giving," says Dunphy.

The Alternative House for homeless mothers in northern Virginia was not as lucky. Freddie Mac had been giving $35,000 to $60,000 a year to this nonprofit. The Freddie Mac money was spent on providing developmental assistance for the babies, who are often behind because of their chaotic beginnings. Last week, Judith Dittman, who runs the program, got word that the funding was cut.
States awash in red ink

Up to now, another major source of funding for nonprofits providing homeless services came from state budgets. But entering 2009, at least 45 states faced budget deficits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which estimates combined state budget gaps for the remainder of this fiscal year and state fiscal years 2010 and 2011 at more than $350 billion. The trend bodes very badly for programs that benefit the poor and homeless. The leading example of state budget problems is California, which has eliminated funding for emergency housing assistance this year as it struggles to pare its $40 billion deficit.

In Ventura County just north of Los Angeles, the cut of about $60,000 delivered an immediate blow to three homeless operations. The largest, a winter shelter run by St. Vincent de Paul that provides beds for 100 people, was forced to cut 30 nights from its schedule.

"Because they operate on a shoestring, it's a significant hit to them," says Karen Schulkin, program coordinator for homeless services in the county. "The winter shelter at the National Guard Armory can only stay open for the number of days they have funding for."

Local government funding often provides seed money for nonprofits, who leverage it to drum up foundation money and other donations. So, according to Bean of the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, the local deficit - about $1.5 billion in the case of D.C. and surrounding areas - could present an even bigger problem than the uncertainty over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Foundation.

"This will put a huge strain on the ability to invest in the safety net. ...The challenge for a lot of nonprofits is that local government support will be down, foundations will be down," says Bean. "The question will be what happens with individual donations."

Shelter in Danville re-opens for business

To be sure, out of the crisis come tales of inspired giving as communities scramble to raise new funding. The town of Danville in southern Virginia rallied to reopen a shelter that closed at the end of December after 15 years in operation. A drive prompted a $20,000 anonymous gift, which was more than matched by dozens of other local contributions. By Jan. 22, the money and a new director were in place to reopen the 20-bed shelter-offering some reprieve, at least, in a town with an estimated 150 homeless.

"The people of Danville ... opened up their hearts and pocketbooks with $23,100 in matching funds," reports Pastor Donnie Anderson of the Riveroak Church of God, who spearheaded the fundraising. "We are so grateful! The shelter is open as House of Hope and is ready for any who may need a warm place to stay and hot meals to eat."

On Capitol Hill, as part of the $819 billion economic stimulus package, Congress included a boost in funding for emergency shelters. The $1.5 billion provision doubles the annual federal funding for alleviating homelessness. In addition, the bill includes $200 million to help people who are behind on mortgage or rent payments.

The bill, now being debated in the Senate, is "a good step forward," says Maria Foscarinis, executive director of National Law Center on Poverty and Homelessness. But the organization is also calling for the federal government to renew its commitment to affordable housing, which she says ended with large cuts for low-income housing in the 1980s. The NLCPH calls for Congress to make a large infusion of funding to the National Housing Trust Fund, tasked with building affordable housing.

"The growing gap between wages and housing costs has long been hard for low-income people," says Foscarinis. "Now we're seeing people who are middle-income who are being squeezed."

While that debate continues, local churches and homeless activists are still trying to revive the CityTeam shelter, though hope for a breakthrough is dwindling.

Glen Dennis was lucky. His former CityTeam friends dusted him off after his relapse and helped him get into a rehab program at Bread of Life Ministry in downtown Seattle. He is starting over again.

Charles Capizano, who lives with three other graduates of the rehab program in a house secured for them by Bread of Life, is cautiously planning his future, but worries about the many people who scattered when the shelter closed.

"Once you lose everything, it's very hard to get back to the surface again," he says. "You get a good lead on a job and you think, 'how am I going to get there, how can I dress for work?' Not having a place to cycle out of that is really tough."

R.I.P Terri Lynn Anderson

Terri passed away tonite at 1130pm after a 17 month battle with cancer. It began with breast cancer, metasticized into brain cancer and ultimately took her life after a long and often ugly progression.

Terri went into hospice last Monday. She fought like a sonofabitch through the entire time and even tonite, she didn't want to go until the last second.

She died surrounded by family and close friends and she is going to be missed more than most of us can imagine.

Thanks to everyone who supported us through this time.

Special thanks to Clifton Harris, Anne and Howard Allen, Big Dennis Huey, Jeannie Alexander, Laurie Green, Barbara Quinn, WillyC, Bones, Wendell, Mikey, Diane, Danny, Ms Toi and the brothers and sisters at Tent City and Stiener-Lift camps.

The funeral is Monday and I'll be returning to the street on Tuesday.

Murder in Motown is a definite possibility

My friend and colleague Jeannie sent this out as an email link today and after  I read it I whizzed back in time to one of my days on the streets of dee-troaht...

*swirling mist interlude*

I was 17 at the time, hair in a ginormous ponytail,  running like a wild animal  with my best friend Richard around Clark Park on a hot, sunny  Friday afternoon .  We were  waiting forRichie's  brother Chuckie  to end his shift at a convenience store on the corner so we could leave the city and travel up north for the weekend.   

We'd spent the morning stoned and boxing the homeboys in  the park.   The McKinstry St gang were hammering on everyone, including us, until Chuckie took a lunch break and came out to join us.  

Chuckie had had the luxury of remaining straight due to his job and after lacing up his gloves, proceeded to give "Beachball," a large and very fast Latino brother, a serious ass whipping.

Beachball, who'd been up to that point basking in the glory of an undefeated morning record, took the loss badly and strode off cursing Chuckie in a way only those who've spent time on the streets of Detroit can do.

Chuckie shed his gloves and went back to work while we decided we'd had enough of the punching and headed off ourselves to nurse our punchdrunkeness with some more cannabis.

At about 320 that afternoon we situated ourselves across the street on one of the benches and waited for Chuckie to leave the store and join us. 

A few minutes passed and then Richard noticed Beachball walking into the store. 

Another few minutes passed and Chuckie came outside, followed closely by Beachball. 

Then, in ridiculously fast slow motion, we watched Beachball pull a gun out of his shirt, place it against Chuckie's head and pull the trigger three times.

Chuckie went down against the building wall, blood smearing the brick red as he slid to the ground.

We ran across the street, screamig for help as Beachball took a couple of quick shots at us and then ran at top speed into the alley. 

Chuckie died right there in front of dozens of people, all of whom walked around us like we didn't exist as we called for help.  Richard held his brother in his arms, half Chuckie's brains spilled out onto his lap, and that is how their mother found them when she walked out of the store to find out what was happening.

Still no one had stopped, bothered to ask us if we could use a cop or an ambulance, barely noticed we were sprawled on the ground, crying and hugging a child who'd just had his goddam head blown off by an angry and embarrassed punk.

They eventually caught Beachball and he was sent to Jackson's walled pen, where he was later killed for a couple of Camels, or so we were told by Richard's older brother, Spider, who also happened to be in Jackson at the time of Beachball's death.

So nothing I read about Detriot surprises me, and I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the things that happened to me during my years in that city. 

It ain't no place for the weak of heart or soul and a few months on the streets there will change you forever, trust me.....


Life goes on around body found frozen in vacant Detroit warehouse


Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News

Related Content

Photos: Frozen body left abandoned in Detroit building
DETROIT -- This city has not always been a gentle place, but a series of events over the past few, frigid days causes one to wonder how cold the collective heart has grown.

It starts with a phone call made by a man who said his friend found a dead body in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building on the city's west side.
"He's encased in ice, except his legs, which are sticking out like Popsicle sticks," the caller phoned to tell this reporter.

Why didn't your friend call the police?"

"He was trespassing and didn't want to get in trouble," the caller replied. As it happens, the caller's friend is an urban explorer who gets thrills rummaging through and photographing the ruins of Detroit. It turns out that this explorer last week was playing hockey with a group of other explorers on the frozen waters that had collected in the basement of the building. None of the men called the police, the explorer said. They, in fact, continued their hockey game.

Before calling the police, this reporter went to check on the tip, skeptical of a hoax. Sure enough, in the well of the cargo elevator, two feet jutted out above the ice. Closer inspection revealed that the rest of the body was encased in 2-3 feet of ice, the body prostrate, suspended into the ice like a porpoising walrus.

The hem of a beige jacket could be made out, as could the cuffs of blue jeans. The socks were relatively clean and white. The left shoe was worn at the heel but carried fresh laces. Adding to the macabre and incongruous scene was a pillow that gently propped up the left foot of the corpse. It looked almost peaceful.
What happened to this person, one wonders? Murder in Motown is a definite possibility. Perhaps it was death by alcoholic stupor. Perhaps the person was crawling around in the elevator shaft trying to retrieve some metal that he could sell at a scrap yard. In any event, there the person was. Stone-cold dead.
A symbol of decay

The building is known as the Roosevelt Warehouse, once belonging to the Detroit Public Schools as a book repository. Located near 14th Street and Michigan Avenue, the warehouse burned in 1987 and caused something of a scandal as thousands of books, scissors, footballs and crayons were left to rot while Detroit schoolchildren -- some of the poorest children in the country -- went without supplies.

The building was eventually sold to Matty Moroun, the trucking and real estate mogul who is worth billions of dollars and is the largest private property owner in the state of Michigan. Among other properties, Moroun owns the decrepit Michigan Central Rail Depot that squats directly next to the warehouse. The train station has become the symbol of Detroit's decay. Like much of his property in southwestern Detroit, Moroun's warehouse and the train station are gaping sores.

The warehouse is so easily accessible, a person in a wheelchair could get in with little effort. There are holes in the fence and in the side entrance. The elevator shaft is wide open. It appears no one has ever tried to close the bay doors.

A colony of homeless men live in the warehouse. Wednesday morning a few fires were burning inside oil drums. Scott Ruben, 38, huddled under filthy blankets not 20 paces from the elevator shaft.
"Yeah, I seen him," Ruben said. The snow outside howled. The heat from the can warped the landscape of rotting buildings and razor wire.

Did he know who the dead person was?

"I don't recognize him from his shoes."

Did he call the police?

"No, I figured someone else did," he said.

"There's lots of people coming through here with cameras and cell phones. I don't got no phone. I don't got no quarter. Things is tight around here."

His shack mate, Kenneth Williams, 47, returned at that point with an armload of wood.

"Yeah, he's been down there since last month at least."

He was asked if he called the police.

"No, I thought it was a dummy myself," he said unconvincingly. Besides, Williams said, there were more pressing issues like keeping warm and finding something to eat.

"You got a couple bucks?" he asked.

Waiting for a response

There are at least 19,000 homeless people in Detroit, by some estimates. Put another way, more than 1 in 50 people here are homeless.

The human problem is so bad, and the beds so few, that some shelters in the city provide only a chair. The chair is yours as long as you sit in it. Once you leave, the chair is reassigned.

Thousands of down-on-their-luck adults do nothing more with their day than clutch onto a chair. This passes for normal in some quarters of the city.

"I hate that musical chair game," Ruben said. He said he'd rather live next to a corpse.

Convinced that it was indeed a body, this reporter made a discreet call to a police officer.

"Aw, just give 911 a call," the cop said. "We'll be called eventually."

A call was placed to 911. A woman answered. She was told it was a reporter calling. The operator tried to follow, but seemed confused. "Where is this building?"

She promised to contact the appropriate authorities.

Twenty minutes or so went by when 911 called the newsroom. This time it was a man.
"Where's this building?"

It was explained to him, as was the elevator shaft and the tomb of ice.

"Bring a jack-hammer," this reporter suggested.

"That's what we do," he said.

Nearly 24 hours went by. The elevator shaft was still a gaping wound. There was no crime scene tape. The homeless continued to burn their fires. City schoolchildren still do not have the necessary books to learn. The train station continues to crumble. Too many homicides still go unsolved.

After another two calls to 911 on Wednesday afternoon (one of which was disconnected), the Detroit Fire Department called and agreed to meet nearby.

Capt. Emma McDonald was on the scene.

"Every time I think I've seen it all, I see this," she said.

And with that they went about the work of recovering a person who might otherwise be waiting for the warm winds of spring.

You can reach Charlie LeDuff at (313) 222-2620 or charlie@detnews.com.

Waiting for the end....

We left for Louisiana at 4am this morning when we got word that Terry, my wife's sister, has begun to show lividity in areas on her body that are indicative of an imminent death.

My wife sits by her sister's bedside at the moment, waiting for Terry to leave this plane and head elsewhere. 

Wherever that might be, I know it's got to be better than to be laying in that bed, waiting for the reaper to arrive....

So I'll be out of touch for a while as we all grieve yet another visit by the darkness.

Father Elias Does Nashville

Yesterday I spent the day on the street with my friend and 2nd "assistant" Dennis Huey as we wandered the camps and streets of Nashville, spreading the news of my job change from outreach to Disability Advocacy.     
  Accompanying us throughout the entire day was one Father Elias, a Catholic priest from Bombay, India. 

Father Elias works in the poorest sections of Bombay dealing with basically the "Harijan" and migrating workers, whose living conditions make our most impoverished conditions look positively opulent by comparison.  

Father Elias is here in Nashville for the next month, gathering information on the way America deals - or doesn't - with our own issues of social justice.

I apologize here for the lack of photos.  I had a battery disaster with my camera yesterday and was unable to shoot anything at all, which was a real bummer, to say the least.

Anyway, we adapted and overcame, as is the norm on the street, and journeyed off to talk to some of my good brothers under the freeway in East Nashville.  

I really want to personally thank camp residents Bobby, Al and Jay for being so kind to Father Elias.  The guys were most gracious in accepting a new face into their midst and while I usually get that response from folks when I bring someone of faith into their camps, yesterday's welcome was about as....well, welcoming as it can get!

We spent about an hour with the guys around the fire and they were able to fill Father Elias in on what life on the street is like for them here in Nashville.  Of special interest to the Father - and it was really his main theme throughout the day - was whether Nasvhille had ways of "teaching a man to fish" rather than simply giving the man a "fish for the day."  

From there we headed over to my old stomping grounds at the Community Care Fellowship to visit with Ms. Toi and the gang there at "Ken and Carols," as it's still called by many of the old tramps. 

I was of course immediately innundated with requests for help when I walked through the door and I think Father Elias was surprised to see so much need converging upon us in what I've long since accepted as the traditional barrage or, as many of my clients call it, the "bum-rush" of folks trying to get to me.

We did what we could for the folks but one situation nagged at all of us long after we left.

A young woman had approached me with a request for immediate housing as she and her 8 y/o son were going to be forcibly evicted on the 28th (today).  She had been unable to pay her rent in public housing after her boyfriend abandonded her and like anything else, no money, no ____________ (feel free to fill in the blank with just about anything you can think of; it's damned near all applicable).

This caused some significant consternation for the Father, but more so for my volunteer Dennis, who still doesn't understand how it is that our society can allow a woman with a child to be tossed into the street. 

His point is a valid one too; whatever the problems of the mother and father, it isn't the child's fault, so why should the child suffer because of it?

But I've learned long ago that we pay a lot of lip service to "protecting the children."  Frankly, it seems like we only protect the children when there's money to somehow be made in the process.

I directed the woman to the appropriate resources but as I walked away I had the distinct impression that she wasn't interested in the options I'd offered, and who can blame her?  Nashville has some great people working damned near round the clock to assist folks with their problems but the resources aren't available.

All the outreach workers and case managers in the world aren't a bit of good if there isn't a house or an apartment available to place the woman in, and even then if the person has no income to speak of, it's going to be an uphill battle to keep the person housed for any length of time. 

Then, if the person ends up subsequently being evicted for non-payment of rent, typically she/has now violated a lease agreement, gotten a credit ding and has lost any deposit they might have had coming back to rent another place with.  Now when she applies for another apartment, well, it isn't hard to figure out what they tell her.  It is a vicious circle, let me tell you. 

Worse, if the woman has made some mistakes in her past, it becomes almost impossible to overcome them from the street and while most service workers strive to assist them far above and beyond the call of duty, it's hard to repair or jump the hurdles that may have been put in place by prior behavior. 

Dennis was outraged that we can't do more; I told him to join the crowd.  Most advocates are outraged  at the hand tying we encounter on a daily basis. 

Anyway, we then met w MDHA's one and only Clifton Harris and toured a couple of abandoned motels that hold some serious potential for respite care and perhaps a housing first unit for families and single women. I don''t yet want to give out the names of the properties but  I'll be writing a story for the Contributor this issue that will provide alll the details, so it's coming, it's coming!

We finished the day with a stop at Tent City, where Father Elias was able to visit with some folks from the camp. 

It was day well spent and I hope that everyone we came in contact with is better off because of it. 

Father Elias will be presenting his work on Feb 10th; as soon as I have the appropriate information, I'll post it here.

"The canine cast is a true representation of the animal population at large, made up of mostly mixed breeds with a few purebreds, and two-thirds of the dogs are rescues."

This is going to be one of those "must see" movies of 2009 for those of us who care and/or work with homelessness in any way, shape of form.....

"Hotel For Dogs" displays variety of causes for homelessness in pets

January 24, 2:27 PM

by Krista Carlson, LA Shelter Pets Examiner

"Hotel for Dogs," stars Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin as orphaned siblings Andi and Bruce, entering a foster home where their best friend, their dog Friday, is not extended the same welcome that they are.

The situation the pair and their pooch face is one example of how a pet can become homeless. Unable to part, the kids seek out a safe haven for Friday, and come to find the abandoned hotel and its' guardians, the gentle giant Lenny and his tiny counterpart Georgia.

In addition to support from celebrity actors Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon and Don Cheadle, Roberts and Austin share the screen with nearly 70 dogs. The canine cast is a true representation of the animal population at large, made up of mostly mixed breeds with a few purebreds, and two-thirds of the dogs are rescues.

As Andi, Bruce and their friends begin to transform the old hotel into the ideal home for abandoned dogs of all kind, a number of common stories are told that illustrate why and how the dogs became homeless in the first place.

These are the same stories told in shelters and rescue facilities all over. Among them are Jessica, are purebred Husky who spent her life breeding in a puppy mill; Dachsund twins Viola and Sebastian, who were born on the street; the lovable three-legged chelsea, whose owner left her at the vet when he couldn't pay her medical bills; Madison, whose loving family leaves her behind when they move away; the adorable Terrier that gets discarded with the rest of last season's accessories; and the Pug pair Frick and Frack, whose days of being spoiled come to an end when their owner passes away.

The hotel guests are full of playfulness and personality, yet for reasons that real-life dogs and cats face daily, they are left without a place to call home, until being welcomed to the Hotel for Dogs. The film sends a message of truth and hope, embedded in an imaginative and inventive world.

"Advocates stressed that the "return home" program would not solve the homeless crisis in the Islands"

I guess if you're going to be homeless and you can make it to the island, there just doesn't seem to be a better place in the country to sleep outside....



Plan would buy airfare to send Hawaii homeless to Mainland

By Mary Vorsino
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Homeless service providers are supporting a proposed state-funded program that would provide airplane tickets for people who have come to Hawai'i from the Mainland and then find themselves homeless — and stuck.

State Rep. Rida Cabanilla, chairwoman of the Housing Committee, said she plans to ask for $100,000 this legislative session for a pilot program that would fly people who have recently arrived from the Mainland and are now homeless back to where they came from.

Some Mainland critics contend the proposal is a ploy to ship homeless people elsewhere, instead of dealing with the problem. But supporters say the program, which would be modeled on similar efforts in a host of other states, could save the state money at a time when it faces a worsening budget crunch and advocates are seeing increases in the need for services, from food to shelter requests.

Advocates stressed that the "return home" program would not solve the homeless crisis in the Islands, since most homeless statewide are longtime residents or born and raised here.

It's unclear just how many homeless people the program would help, or what percentage of the homeless population statewide are relatively recent Mainland arrivals (within the past year).

A University of Hawai'i survey found that of the 4,387 adults in homeless shelters statewide in fiscal year 2007, about 19 percent — 813 adults -had been in Hawai'i for a year or less. Of those, about 75 percent were U.S. citizens, most of whom presumably came from the Mainland.

Some 17 percent of those in homeless shelters were identified as arrivals under the Compacts of Free Association (from Pacific island nations).

The remainder of recent arrivals were immigrants or U.S. nationals.

Meanwhile, almost 37 percent of homeless adults in shelters were lifetime Hawai'i residents.

The proposal to fund a return home program comes as the state is in the midst of a massive effort to address the homelessness problem in the Islands, including spending more than $40 million over the past several years from the general fund, special funds and grants to help open shelters on O'ahu and the Neighbor Islands.

Darlene Hein, program director for the Waikiki Care-A-Van, which provides homeless people with medical care and links them to services, said many nonprofits statewide already try to help homeless people who want to get back to the Mainland, by providing them with clothes for the flight, giving them transportation to the airport or helping buy the ticket. Her program alone helps about two to three people a month get home.
Most are single, but she has also helped some families.

"They think they're going to come here and it's going to be nice," said Hein, adding that not all homeless recent arrivals were homeless on the Mainland.

At a legislative hearing on homelessness this month, Hein told lawmakers that some people come to Hawai'i with unrealistic images of life here, thinking that they'll be sipping a "mai tai on the beach."

Connecting to help

Across the nation, there are dozens of programs — run by nonprofits or by states — that help homeless people get back where they came from. In recent years, such programs have become controversial, as states accuse other states of shipping off homeless people willy-nilly, sometimes without even making sure they're heading back home.

Hawai'i lawmakers have long had their own suspicions that at least a portion of the homeless people in the state end up here thanks to a one-way plane ticket courtesy of some Mainland city. But Hein and others said they've never heard of any homeless person getting a free ticket to Hawai'i.

Often, they said, recent arrivals end up homeless in the Islands because they don't know how expensive it is here.

Advocates also said many of the accusations against return home programs on the Mainland are unfounded, and that nonprofits that run such programs most times don't get someone on a bus or a plane until they're sure that person has services on the other end.

But, they add, not all programs are problem-free.

"You can't just give them a flight ticket and send them home. I call that the leafblower mentality," said Joel John Roberts, chief executive officer of PATH Partners, a homelessness service agency in Los Angeles, which has a program that provides bus tickets to homeless people to get home.

He said there are some programs that don't do enough to make sure homeless people are linked up with services in another city before they're put on a bus or a plane. He added, though, that by and large such return home programs are helpful in improving people's lives.

"I definitely think it's one of the solutions for Hawai'i," he said.

Not everyone is convinced, though.

In a recent online blog entry at homelessness.change.org, Boston homelessness researcher and advocate Shannon Moriarty questioned the proposed return home program for Hawai'i. "I can't help but be skeptical about the intentions," she wrote, asking for comments from others.

Several people subsequently criticized the plan, saying it would cause problems in other cities and appeared to be a ploy to get rid of the homeless.

Cabanilla countered that the program won't "dump homeless people" on other states, but send them back home - if they're interested -to places where they may have family or established links with service providers.

She also said that though the initial price tag appears steep, paying for plane tickets is cheaper than providing a host of long-term services, from shelter and food to job training. And, she added, no one would be pressured to leave.

Some just stuck here

Carol Strickland, 37, who came to the Islands from New Mexico in September to start a new life and found herself homeless shortly after getting off the plane, said she would jump at the chance to get a free ticket home.

She said her wallet was stolen several months ago, and she hasn't been able to get new identification or save up for a plane ticket. She also isn't able to ask her family for money because they're going through their own tough times.

"I knew it was going to be expensive," said Strickland, standing outside the free soup kitchen at Saint Augustine Church in Waikiki.

She just didn't know how expensive.

"It's hard (to save)," added Strickland, who lives in a friend's van.

But not all recent arrivals from the Mainland who find themselves homeless are interested in going back. Bill Lukasik, 54, came to Hawai'i from Chicago about a year and a half ago and said he is here to stay.

"There's nothing to go back to," said Lukasik, adding that he lost his job in Chicago and found himself homeless before heading to the Islands for a fresh start. As he ate a bowl of rice, veggies and meat from Saint Augustine's soup kitchen, Lukasik said nothing would persuade him to pack up and go back.

"It's so great here," he said.

Hein said some recent arrivals may have been getting housing and other services in their home states that they assume they'll be able to receive here.

She said the proposed "return home" program should link homeless people back to support services in their home state, including to agencies that could provide shelter and other needs as soon as they land.
"It wouldn't be, 'you don't belong here, get off my rock,' " Hein said.

Holly Holowach, chairwoman of Partners in Care, a consortium of homelessness service providers, said she likes the idea of a state-funded return home program. She said the program won't help the bulk of homeless people in Hawai'i. But, she added, it will help some, especially those who come to Hawai'i "looking for a better life" and instead find themselves worse off.
Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.