No Mind, No Business

Technical Difficulties

2011-01-07T14:54:00.002-05:00

This time, I have been away from the blog for almost two months. The reason for that is: technical difficulties. First of all, I had problems with my Internet connection -- and still do. That compelled me to use my work computer only, which gave me almost no time for personal blogging. Then, as if to make sure that I did not compose anything for publication, in an overhaul of the computers at work, my hard drive was replaced, thereby taking from me all the files that I had created, even those that I used in my work, as well as the software that I had been accustomed to using. Now I am having to reconstruct everything from scratch, which takes a considerable amount of time.

It may take me a while before I'm up and running again, but it is my intention to continue here.

Where Do We Go from Here?

2010-11-16T14:04:00.001-05:00

For many of us, the outcome of the 2010 election was an anti-climax. Everybody knew that the economy was suffering, that unemployment remains high, that the huge deficit yawns before us – in short, all the gloom and doom that has beset the United States for years now. The polls predicted that Democrats would lose many seats in the election; the media sang that song as if it were at the top of the charts. So nobody was really surprised to see the results. Maybe some gamblers lost some money trying to predict precise numbers, but the basic message was clear: the people were growing impatient with the economic miseries and wanted change.

The problem with wanting “change” is that the word does not really specify what change will happen. We all remember that President Obama campaigned around the message that he would work to bring change to Washington; whether or not he delivered on that promise is the subject for another discussion. Now the voting public had spoken in the only manner possible for them, and they expressed that they were not happy with the direction the country was pursuing. The only real choice they had was to make changes in the Congress personnel through an election.

The limitation of this voting option is that the choices of candidates are pretty much limited to candidates from the two major parties, Democratic and Republican. If the polls are an accurate indication of the mood of the public, the voters were not really happy with either party’s platform and had little confidence in the parties’ ability to make the changes that they wanted. But what does a voter do when neither side inspires confidence? The option of not voting at all is not very responsible. Independent candidates, as well as candidates from the smaller parties, do exist, but without the backing of a major party, the chances of being elected are much slimmer as a rule. So in worst-case scenarios, a flip of a coin may make the decision. Was this the case in the election? It seems doubtful, but the information gathered indicated that discontent was high and trust in elected officials was low.

Now comes the question: what sort of changes can we expect? The Republican Party has already pledged to repeal the health care law; one Republican stated outright that their goal is to prevent Obama from being re-elected in 2012. That does not change the fact that Obama is the President now and still has the power of veto if the Republicans try to undo the things that the Obama Administration has succeeded in creating in the past two years. Knowing that he has less than a favorable Congress to deal with, Obama may be exercising that veto power much more often than he has to date. If he does, the result will be stagnation.

Will that be the fate of the United States? To remain in limbo because a party is hell bent on ousting the President and undoing everything he has done? Stagnation in government is something the people of the United States can ill afford. So, in essence, what have we done? Nothing positive, it would seem. The United States needs a functional government to come out of its current quandary, and from the looks of things, that’s something the United States does not have now.

It is folly to expect the parties to modify their platforms. Compromise and cooperation are words that seem to have little meaning, if indeed the elected officials even know the meaning of the words – something that is indeed questionable. Bipartisanship seems like a pipe dream at best.

So where will all this end? Sorry, there’s no crystal ball here to help us see what the future may hold. What is clear, however, is that the public is in need of some positive signs that matters of the economy and employment will improve. But will the parties work together on these matters or continue to do battle with one another at the expense of the public? The answer is something that the public deserves to know.

Back After a Long Break

2010-10-01T17:03:00.002-04:00

When I last posted to the blog in 2007, I felt that there was little point in continuing as my readership was abysmally low. Gaps in one's life usually require explaining, but I do not pretend to justify the absence other than to say that it was a low point for me. It is now October 1, 2010, and I am resuming after an absence both online and in print. Even if my readership stays low, I'll be posting from time to time.

My struggles have not ended. On October 4, I will be facing my ex in a dispute over the amount of child support I can pay. My income is limited to Social Security Disability Income, and even that is garnished at 60 percent, so I don't see how I can be expected to pay more, but I have little faith in the ability of courts to dispense justice as I have seen too often how it has not happened. Even King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes about wickedness in the place of justice, so it's not a new concept.

So here goes, another try at blogging. It may not be for mass consumption, but I won't let that worry me this time around. I'll be doing it for myself.

For the Homeless, a Playful Reprieve

2007-09-07T15:30:00.000-04:00

When a co-worker at Arts and Education first approached me with the idea of participating in a street soccer team, I could only laugh. I felt I had as much chance of winning the lottery as I had in playing on a soccer team of any sort. However, my co-worker was persistent, and in the end, I decided to give it a try. Not having played soccer for 39 years – since my sophomore year of high school, to be precise – I had no illusions about my level of ability, and I was more than aware that it was going to be an embarrassing experience, to say the least. It was with this mindset that I went to my first practice.

To describe the way things progressed for me, I would have to tell the story of how my high school band director instructed us when we first started marching band. He said to us, “To do the high-knee step, you must lift your legs high to be parallel with the ground before setting your feet down onto the ground with each step. At first you will feel and look ridiculous. After a while, the feeling will pass. Then you will only look ridiculous.” That statement pretty much sums up my experience as I started out playing with the team. Still, I did not let that stop me. Seeing that I was playing the position of goal keeper, I wasn’t expecting to look particularly elegant, especially when a ball smacked me in the face at 90 miles an hour, as it did in one of the games; that one I’m not likely to forget any time soon.

On July 19, the team traveled with the coaches and some other involved persons to Charlotte, North Carolina for a conference where we played against other teams comprised of homeless individuals. On July 20, there was a series of lectures designed to help various communities who want to begin street soccer teams of their own, as well as for representatives from cities that want to start street newspapers of their own.

The camaraderie that existed among the players during the conference was a world apart from the dog-eat-dog world of the street that is the reality of homelessness in an everyday life situation. There was something about the way that playing together generated a chemistry that offset the predatory nature of homelessness for the participants. I am usually very cynical about such things, but I couldn’t ignore what I saw.

The theme that was often repeated during the four days that I was in Charlotte was that street soccer is a great tool for giving a face to homelessness different from the traditional stereotype and helps the participants to rebuild their lives. In the film that we saw on July 20, persons from countries around the world testified as to what a difference participation in street soccer had made in their lives. Guest speakers appeared to speak of the positive impact that the program has on the community. And, of course, there is also the game itself and the skills that the players acquire while playing, which poses an ongoing challenge as the players strive to achieve higher levels of prowess in soccer.

I would be amiss if I did not mention the coaches and other involved persons that accompanied us on the trip who formed a team of their own in the mini-tournament. Billed as the Advocates, they gave a very impressive performance, especially Street Sense’s own Laura Osuri, who earned for herself the nickname “the Wall” from the commentator at the games for her outstanding execution as the team’s goal keeper. She faced a task far more daunting than the one I faced playing the same position, and she carried it off with finesse. One of the coaches, Philip Ruzycki, took a large number of photographs to preserve the memories of our experiences at the conference, which he posted on the Internet for the rest of us to view.

It was an enjoyable change of pace and scenery for all of us. From the warm hospitality we received down to the final ceremony, the conference was an event that was well worth the effort. The DC team walked away with the Fair Play Award, which was a pleasant ending for a most pleasant reprieve from the world of homelessness.

A Solemn Occasion

2007-06-15T12:18:00.000-04:00

In an earlier editorial, I wrote about having the option of family to go home to as a solution to homelessness. In that editorial, I mentioned that my own family indicated to me that coming home was “not an option” for me. The reason for that statement was not because of my father, who would have welcomed me had he been the one calling the shots. In early May, my father passed away. I boarded a bus and traveled all night, getting not a wink of sleep, in order to arrive to his funeral in North Carolina. When I went to his funeral, it could not have been made clearer to me that I had no home to return to than it was at that funeral.

When I arrived at the funeral site, my stepmother acknowledged me only for a fleeting moment. I was in a state of confusion anyway, as I met relatives and friends of the family that I had not seen in 20 to 30 years. I had to deal with the visual shock of how they had aged. It was at the memorial service that I saw how I had become little more than an unwanted stepchild. The clergyman speaking there did not know me, and he spoke only about what a successful second marriage my father had with my stepmother. He spent a long time praising their marriage and how much my father loved her, almost ignoring the fact that my father had been married to my mother for a longer period and that they had raised a family together. The only mention he made of me was how my father had “loved his boys with unconditional love,” for whatever that was worth. It was as if my mother, my brother and I were a mere afterthought in this ceremony.

I knew that I was persona non grata in my stepmother’s house, so there was no place for me to go for the mourning after the ceremony. Fortunately, the cousin who had stayed in touch with me and who had informed me of my father’s death had come with her daughter, and they took me around at a time when I definitely did not need to be left alone. It would not have been good for me to go back to a hotel room to sit by myself. My cousin paid for the hotel room, I must add, which was a very nice gesture on her part. Even though I no longer had a home to call my own any more, it was nice to know that I still had some family that cared.

As for my father, I know he is no longer suffering and has moved on to the next world. He suffered enough from the ravages of Alzheimer’s, and even though he was good humored about it, the disease ultimately took his life regardless. I devote this column to his memory, may it be blessed.

An Administrative Error

2007-05-15T12:44:00.000-04:00

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, it was probably too much to expect that I would finally find housing after all this time. I had seen apartments available in a property that appeared in the housing list published by the DC Department of Mental Health in an area that was very desirable. I wasted no time in contacting my case manager to make an appointment to see the apartments. Soon we made the visit to the property and saw the apartments. They definitely met with my approval. The next step was to go to the office of the property management to fill out the application form and to pay the application fee. My case manager and I made an appointment to go and do just that, and we made the trip out to Rockville for that purpose. So we made the trip, I filled out the form, paid the fee and – then something just had to go wrong, and it did.

The next step was that my case manager had to fax to the property management the confirmation of my DMH housing subsidy, which was a mandatory element in my securing the housing. It was at this point that it was discovered that the paperwork for my subsidy was missing from my personal file, even though I had filed new paperwork at the beginning of 2007 as the Department of Mental Health requires of all subsidy holders. Then there was the mystery: where did the paperwork go? Because of the missing paperwork, I lost the opportunity to obtain the housing for which I had made the efforts and paid the application fee. I don’t even begin to talk about the disappointment that I felt, which goes without saying.

Someone asked me the question, “Did you make copies of the paperwork that you filed?” The answer to that question would obviously be no, simply because I don’t have a copy machine at my disposal, which is the case for most people. Even if I had made copies, that would not have processed the paperwork for the subsidy, which is what was required, and I still have no idea if the paperwork had been processed or not. Because of an administrative error, I remain without housing; that is the long and short of the story.

It won’t help now to find someone to blame; the damage has already been done. I’ve lost my chance at that housing opportunity. Opportunities like that are very rare; I have seen precious few like it in the four years that I have been looking. I hardly need any words to attempt to explain the situation or to console me, as futile as they would be; I need suitable housing, as I have needed from the outset. If a bureaucratic snag has prevented me from getting it, I can’t be the one who has to manage all the facets of all the paper trail that has to take place in obtaining housing when there are other people who are paid salaries to do just that. Somewhere the channels have gotten clogged – am I supposed to be the one to troubleshoot and resolve the problem here? I should be receiving a salary if so!

If I weren’t already taking anti-depressants, I would need them now. Years of stagnation are continuing only because somewhere someone misplaced some papers that related to my case. I have every reason to feel more than a bit down about that.

A Meeting with a Friend

2007-04-15T14:04:00.000-04:00

Not long ago, I met with a friend whom I had known from years ago, long before I became homeless. The meeting became a measuring stick that told me just how much things have changed in my life in the interim. The two of us have quite a lot in common. We are middle aged men who both lived in Israel for an extended period of time. We both are fathers of five children. We both have worked as technical writers for a number of years. Both of us are out of work at present, and both of us are writing novels that we are trying to have published, so there was no problem in finding topics of conversation in the meeting.

Because we had not seen each other in years, I had forwarded to him the photograph that appears with my column so that he could identify me when we met. As he readily told me, I look exactly as I do in the photograph. Yet he also said to me, “You don’t look happy.” Some things I could not hide, namely the melancholy that goes with being homeless and wondering if my situation will ever improve. It was very hard for me to sound upbeat in the conversation when there is so little for me to sound upbeat about in my life. It was very much like trying to make an ugly bride pretty for the photographs: a very difficult and frustrating task indeed.

Thanks to the Wildtech project currently under way at CCNV in which I am very much involved as a writer of curriculum and instructor, I could honestly say that I am working on a project that is keeping me quite busy and that I have opportunity to keep my skills as a technical writer sharp as I put together documentation for the persons learning in the Microsoft Word course that I teach. I also had opportunity to express my frustrations regarding working with Word 2007 and its Web-dependent features. I realized that I had not totally lost touch with the outside world, largely thanks to Wildtech and the work that I do at Arts and Education, for which I felt very grateful.

We then got onto the topic of writing novels, and here I actually found myself taking the lead, as I have approached more publishers and agents than my friend has. He asked me how does a person make a submission to an agent or publisher, and I was able to share with him my experience, which has taught me that while each company has its own way of doing things, in general, most companies will want to see no more than a first chapter in an initial correspondence. He asked me how to submit the chapter, and I told him that most places ask to copy and paste it into the e-mail content instead of attaching it because companies wish to avoid possible viruses that could come in through attachments.

Then the subject drifted to more personal matters, and that was when my friend discovered the reason that I do not look happy. It’s not easy to be happy when the future looks questionable and the present is so unpleasant. I had also received disturbing news from my son not long ago regarding his own living situation, and that was weighing on me as well; the thought that he could become homeless as well was worse than depressing to me.

When we parted company, my friend said, “If I don’t find a job, we’ll be meeting again soon.” I left with an odd feeling. On the one hand, I had held my own in the meeting, but on the other hand, I realized that he and I were in totally different worlds now. That disturbed me more than anything. I once belonged to the middle class quite comfortably; I am now alienated from it by almost four years of being homeless. That’s sufficient reason to be sad.

"Don't You Have Family?"

2007-03-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

A monitor who worked with me in Arts and Education had taken a vacation during the Christmas holiday to visit his parents in North Carolina. During that visit, a number of unforeseen incidents took place that prolonged his visit beyond the time that he expected to be absent from the shelter. When he returned, he discovered that he had lost his bed. He accepted the fact and sought alternative shelter. He then called his family again to tell them what had happened. His parents offered to him to come back home to live. The ending was that he lost his bed but ceased to be homeless as a result.

The monitor commented to me about the situation, “There’s no way that I can feel like a man to be in my thirties and be living with my parents.” I could only wonder how living as a homeless man in a shelter could make him feel like more of a man. I know he had some ideological differences with his parents, and no doubt those differences will be felt as he lives under their roof on a day-to-day basis. However, as he related, time had passed and his parents had reached the point that they missed him, so perhaps these problems will not be so pronounced. Only time will tell.

Not all of us are so fortunate to have families that will help us out. My family made it very clear to me that coming home to live was “not an option,’ and there was no room for further discussion. Of course, this revelation came as no surprise to me; after all, when my brother was dying, he was also turned away, so it only stood to reason that I would be as well when I wasn’t.

Too often I have heard people ask the question, “Don’t you have family?” Family is not always a magical solution for all problems. It would be nice if families did indeed look out after their own family members, but there is neither guarantee nor law that ensures that such will be the case. There are also cases in which families are unable to be of help even when the good will is present, so the end result is the same. Often enough family ties are not what can save a person from homelessness, so the argument that families and private charities alone can end the problem falls flat.

In the case of the monitor, he found his solution, at least for now, and I certainly wish him all the best. His family was willing and able to end his homelessness for him, and it is a true ending, not a mere doubling up in someone’s home in which he would have to sleep on a sofa or the like and then to wander the streets during the day wondering how long he would be able to survive in a makeshift arrangement. Just how often does anyone hear stories that end well like this one? It certainly raises a lot of questions about the so-called family values that one hears being trumpeted all over the nation when a story like this one has to be regarded as an exception and not the rule. Then again, the very fact of homelessness also poses a lot of difficult questions, most of which continue to go unanswered. The monitor found his way out of an existence plagued with so many questions; he is indeed most fortunate in that, and he has his family to thank for it. I hope it works out for him.

As Winter Arrives

2007-02-15T13:17:00.000-05:00

For a while, it was looking as if we would be spared the ravages of winter this year. People were still clad in summer attire well into January. News commentators reported that the unseasonably warm weather was a result of El Niño and not global warming; they also remarked that businesses that depended on the winter season were suffering as a result. Obviously they spoke too soon, because the characteristic winter cold eventually did hit us and with a vengeance. The entire region was plunged from a springlike warmth right into the midst of hypothermia cold with no transition whatsoever.

The onset of hypothermia season always has grim significance for the homeless. This year the homeless face a particularly difficult situation during hypothermia season, as the hypothermia shelter at CCNV, the largest in the District, is unavailable because of the renovations being done in the facility. In an attempt to offset the problem created by the renovations, CCNV has chosen to continue to do intakes during the hypothermia season to fill the available beds that remain in the shelter.

The real question is if a long-term solution can be found so that the homeless can find permanent housing. The trend that seems to be evolving in the District makes that possibility look very bleak. Very little effort seems to be made toward creating affordable housing. Instead, buildings of condominium apartments seem to be springing up like mushrooms after spring rain all over the District, perhaps with the intention of “cleaning up” poor neighborhoods but with the end result of leaving low-income persons with nowhere to go. If that trend continues, many people now in the District may well be experiencing winters out in the cold in the future.

Somehow when plans are made, the poor and the homeless are always overlooked. The former mayor made it clear in no uncertain terms: homelessness was not a priority under his administration. The problems that create homelessness do not go away, however, and homelessness will not vanish until those problems are addressed. Affordable housing is increasingly growing into a pipe dream in the DC area as gentrification becomes the reality that governs the region. More and more low-income persons will be put in impossible situations when it comes to housing unless something changes in their favor.

Even persons with moderate incomes are feeling the pinch. One of my friends who has lived in Adams Morgan for years has complained that he may soon be forced to relocate as rental prices continue to soar beyond his ability to pay. He is not the only person who I have heard complain of the rising costs in the District putting them into a tight squeeze that has them facing a difficult situation regarding housing.

As Mayor Fenty launches his plans to make Washington into a city of an international standard, many people are hoping that these plans will include ways to make the city more liveable for them rather than ways to drive them out. Time will tell if their hopes were well justified. Let us hope that more and more people will not find themselves out in the cold.

Keeping the Homeless Occupied

2007-01-15T16:36:00.000-05:00

A phenomenon that received attention in a lead article in the previous issue of Street Sense is that the homeless have made the libraries a shelter of sorts for the daytime hours. The libraries do provide a significant number of activities that can be of interest to persons that have an entire day yawning before them until they must seek shelter for the night, with one of those activities being the use of computers that are hooked up to the Internet. Blogs written by homeless authors and user groups created by homeless group leaders have sprung up as a result.

With the majority of shelters being night shelters only, the homeless are left to wander through the streets of the city during the day. There are many problems in this situation, one of which is finding something constructive to do with the time that will not be regarded as loitering. The libraries offer an alternative that can be used constructively, as the blogs and user groups have shown. The argument will arise that the homeless should be looking for work, and that is also true, but a job search does not go on forever; being a person who helps people in their job searches on a daily basis, I am aware that after a person has created a résumé and cover letter, has searched for job openings and has applied for them, the only thing that’s left to do is to hurry up and wait, and that leaves idle time that can be especially nerve wracking. At that point, having something constructive to do is invaluable.

Obviously a library isn’t a shelter, and it shouldn’t have to serve as one. If some complaints are being raised that the homeless are using the libraries as if they were shelters, it is a sign that the real needs are not being addressed. The shelters that turn all their residents out into the streets every morning at 7:00am or thereabouts generate the problem by creating a void during the hours between the hour of discharge until the hour at which they do their evening intake, usually 7:00pm. Some sort of daily structured activity would be a positive development, and the fact that some homeless persons have used their time in the libraries to create sites in cyberspace indicates that much could be done with structured activity.

With recovery an ultimate goal, the need for productive day programs remains paramount. Because the population being served is incredibly diverse, the programs needed must target a wide spectrum of goals. If programs such as these are put into action, the chances that homelessness can be reduced are far greater than if the homeless are left to fend for themselves in the streets for twelve hours every day.Ultimately, homelessness should be eliminated completely so that the problem of finding ways to keep the homeless occupied would no longer be a problem. I know I’ve said this line many times before, and I still believe in it. Only if someone has an interest in keeping a segment of the population homeless – and that possibility does exist, I fear – can there be an excuse for not resolving the problem. The question still remains: will this problem be resolved?

Once More, the Holidays

2006-12-15T16:34:00.000-05:00

Once again, we enter the holiday season, and it is a time of good cheer, or so it is supposed to be, at least. For the homeless, it is rather difficult to be very cheery at a time of year in which home and family are so important when all too often both home and family are sorely missing from their lives. The holidays can be lonely times for many persons, not just the homeless, who lack family units with whom they can spend the holidays. It is a sad reality, but it is a reality none the less.

However, on a brighter note, the spirit of giving and charity is definitely present at this time of year as many persons and groups make a concerted effort to reach out to those persons less fortunate than themselves. As I went on record saying in the past, the number of free meals made available on Thanksgiving to the homeless in the District are so numerous that no homeless person need go hungry on Thanksgiving Day; instead, subscribing to Weight Watchers might be necessary from the abundance of good food that is available. The same charitable spirit continues throughout the Christmas season as well.

Is all the charity a substitute for having a home? No. There should not be any confusion about that. The homeless remain homeless and in need even with all the charitable deeds done on their behalf, and that remains a cold, hard fact. Yet it would be wrong to ignore the wonderful efforts made by so many organizations and individuals to make the holiday season special for people who might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten.

I know that it is not easy for me to enter into the season knowing that it is my fourth since becoming homeless, and that brings a certain gloom into the air for me. I am only reminded of the years past and wonder how much longer it will be before I see a change in my situation. I know that I am not the only one who has these feelings; many others I know have similar feelings. It certainly helps to receive the charitable attention that comes our way at this time of year, but it does not relieve completely the gloomy feelings that come with knowing that yet another year has gone by with no progress toward recovery.

There is no question that I, like the others, appreciate the efforts made to make the holiday season a happy time. It is very reassuring to know that there are still people who care enough to go out of their way to help others. It almost seems wrong to show any feelings of sadness when these people are doing their utmost to bring cheer to a deprived population. It is only when this good will reaches legislative levels that the homeless will feel any long-term reason for rejoicing. It can be achieved; the signs of hope are out there. When that day comes, then the cheer will not be confined to the holidays alone; it will be for all time.So it is with mixed emotions that we enter the holiday season, wishing and wanting that the holiday cheer will last beyond the holiday season but realizing that it might just be for the short term and nothing more. We are grateful for the help so generously bestowed upon us and can only be thankful that people do indeed care; we only wish that people higher up cared as much and would continue the efforts so that homelessness would vanish from our midst. It isn’t an unrealistic request; it can be done. It’s just a matter of doing it.

The Motivating Factor

2006-11-15T13:01:00.000-05:00

It has not always been easy to continually churn out editorials for this column. There is always the risk of having the column sound like an endless series of complaints, because there are so many things that are obviously wrong that have generated a problem of homelessness in the United States, and the problem should not exist at all. I have had quite a few people approach me with their private problems who have asked me to write about them in my column; not only is it not so easy for me to do so, but it would also turn the column into a complaint department, and that is not its purpose.

So what is the purpose of this column? The answer is a lot simpler than it may seem. For the readers who are themselves homeless, I doubt that I can tell them a lot that they do not already know; they already live the experience of being homeless day in and day out, and reading a treatise about what it means to be homeless certainly offers them nothing. The key here is targeting awareness for those many persons who are in the habit of walking by on the street and pretending that homelessness is non-existent or that “someone” is taking care of the homeless; those persons need to be jostled out of their reveries and brought into the reality that homeless people face, one in which nobody cares what becomes of them and nobody is taking care of them at all, because that is the true reality of homelessness.

As I said, I need not tell the homeless any of these things; they have already learned these lessons the hard way and live with them every day. But what of the people who live comfortably in the suburbs, who watch their plasma TVs, play with their playstations, and for whom a financial crisis is when they have to cut back on entertainment because the funds are needed for other ongoing expenses? To them, homelessness is an alien world, one that speaks an alien tongue, and the only way to bridge the gap is to explain the realities of the homeless world in terms that they can best understand. It may not be easy to describe to these people the feelings of desperation and despair that the homeless live with nor the fear that comes with the struggle for survival on the streets, but at least an attempt must be made if these people are ever to feel any empathy for the homeless and to realize that homelessness is not a chosen way of life for an overwhelming majority of the persons who end up in that situation.

Anybody can end up homeless, and if the people who think it could never happen to them suddenly find themselves homeless, they will surely remember my words. My hope is, of course, that somehow my words will be able to generate some sort of a reaction that might benefit the homeless in the long run. The only way I can see that happening is if the public is aware of what it means to be homeless.

Am I being too optimistic? That’s an accusation that few people who know me well would level against me. Certainly others have written books about homelessness as a topic, but not a lot has been written about what it means to live the homeless experience, probably because the topic is not particularly attractive. Living it is definitely not attractive; that any homeless person can readily confirm. Generating awareness is the greatest hope the homeless have for resolving their plight, and that is my hope in writing: that I will be able to draw attention to the realities that the homeless face every day to those persons for whom those realities are unknown. Awareness is ultimately the key to ending the problem.

Signs of Change

2006-10-15T14:30:00.000-04:00

In the past month, I have witnessed a number of changes, some of which are on a personal level but not all. At CCNV, the internal exile finally ended; I was able to leave my temporary quarters that I had assumed since June 1 and was able to move back up to the floor where the staff members reside. As it turned out, I was eligible to enter into one of the available rooms, so I consider myself most fortunate.

The month of September was also the month for the Democratic primaries. As the results showed, Adrian Fenty was elected as the Democratic candidate for mayor. For the homeless, this choice certainly comes as good news, as he has repeatedly been a figure who has shown concern for the plight of the homeless in the District of Columbia as evidenced through the Public Roundtable Committees and through his activity in authoring the Homeless Services Reform Act.

At the same time, there are some grim realities that the homeless must face, and that is the fact that hypothermia this year will leave many persons with no alternatives for shelter, as the ongoing renovations at CCNV will keep the drop-in closed to intake for hypothermia there. Because of the renovations at CCNV, many of the male residents have been issued exit notices and have been transferred to the Franklin School shelter, thereby filling that facility. The Gales School shelter will not be ready for occupancy in the coming year, so those persons who do not find available bed space during hypothermia season will simply be out of luck; it’s as simple as that. No alternative shelters are being opened. There’s nothing pretty about that reality.

Clearly while some changes are taking place, more changes are needed. The lack of available shelters during hypothermia season should be regarded as a crisis, but so far, no signs of any action being taken are on the horizon. It is only October now; the question is if some alternatives can or will be found in the interim. By the time the November elections are held, it will be too late to implement any significant changes; action is needed now to be effective.

Repeatedly I have heard the refrain uttered that under the current city administration, homelessness is not a priority. I still remember in the years before my becoming homeless that a friend of mine told me that there was no need for anybody to be on the street in the District of Columbia, that the city government would provide shelter for anybody in need. Once his words would have been true back in the Eighties when the Right to Shelter Act was in force, but those days are ancient history by now.

The words of my friend still ring in my ears; he also believed that a resident in the District could not be evicted. Apparently he was living in Fools’ Paradise while he was living here and I shudder to think what became of him. He truly believed that homelessness was not possible in the District of Columbia; how he could have believed that with the largest shelter for the homeless in the nation existing in the District is beyond me.

I know that he left the area to go to a job in San Francisco, and he complained that there he had to relocate every so often so as to avoid establishing residence there. In the last communication before I lost contact with him, he said that he was “about to give up,” but he did not indicate where he would go from there. If he truly believed that the District of Columbia was a Shangri-La where homelessness was impossible, would logic not dictate that he would have returned? If he had, he would have discovered just how wrong he was for sure.

A Puzzlement

2006-09-15T13:11:00.000-04:00

It has been very difficult for me to keep my mind on writing in recent times because I have adult children living in Israel. Anyone who has followed the news knows how problematic that part of the world has been, and having one child who was drafted into the war effort over there was more than enough reason for me to be distracted. The cease fire that is now in effect is a rather fragile one, and while it gives some respite, it does not completely take away the worry that I have felt.

In the hopes of getting myself back on an even keel, I have involved myself in writing poems and taking part in discussions with others who do the same. All these things are mere diversionary tactics designed to take my mind off the many problems that I face, because taking them all on at once is just too much for me to handle. On that, those persons who work on my team of support services are in total agreement; I would not be able to take on the entire load at once.

I am not alone in what I do. Many persons who are homeless face a staggering load of problems and do not know what to do first. Coping with such situations can be devastating. A large number will turn to drugs and/or alcohol as a means of escaping the stress of a problem overload. While drugs and alcohol never solve problems – they only create more problems – it is easy to understand why a person might fall into such a trap. Then knowing how to turn for help with the added problem of substance abuse is yet another problem added to the already long list.

What I have found odd, however, is that many times I have been penalized for not having a substance abuse problem when it comes to placement for housing. Many programs exist for persons with substance abuse issues, but a person with no such record is excluded. It hardly seems sensible to encourage persons to develop substance abuse problems in order to become eligible for housing, but that is precisely what these programs do. Granted, housing for persons with substance abuse problems involves attending meetings, living under supervision and curfews, all with restrictions that I would not particularly appreciate, seeing as how I really do not need any of these impositions on my life, but the people are still awarded housing, which is already a step higher than a person who is not, and there is little to argue about there.

I have somehow managed to survive as long as I have through a lot of good fortune; that is the best way that I can sum it up. However, it has been surviving, not living. When it comes to moving on to another phase that would include permanent housing, I am not optimistic because I have seen already how the programs for obtaining subsidized housing are administered. The attitude of “just move somewhere and if you don’t like it, you can always move later” has been thrust upon me more than once when I was urged to move into high-crime areas in which my life would be in danger without question. As a Hebrew proverb says, a pessimist is an optimist with experience, and I already have sufficient experience to be more than a bit pessimistic.

It is not as if things have to be this way. They could be quite different. I am left wondering why it is so difficult to grant housing for a person with no background of substance abuse when persons who have such backgrounds are given such allotments. It is a reverse logic that is most baffling and makes no sense at all. Then again, does logic really play a part in the thinking in these programs?

The Long Hot Summer

2006-08-15T13:02:00.000-04:00

By now, the heat of the summer has worn its welcome out, and most people are looking for some form of respite. The heat waves that have swept across the United States have been incredibly brutal. Temperatures hovering in the high nineties and hundreds have left everybody seeking refuge in cooler locations, wherever they may be.

I, for one, am sick of the heat already and am already looking forward to the first frost. Hyperthermia is no more welcome than hypothermia and is just as severe. For those who are unaware of their existence, there are cooling centers throughout the District to give respite to people from the heat. When temperatures soar well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, heat related disorders can easily result, and that’s not a laughing matter, nor are the fatalities that have occurred.

For the homeless, far fewer long-term options for respite exist than for the rest of the population. Those persons who are in shelters are given some minimal level of comfort, thanks to the terms of the Homeless Services Reform Act that require temperature control. Those persons who are not fortunate enough to be in a shelter must suffer the terror of the elements, whatever they may be, with the mosquitoes and all else that go with them. Those persons remain at high risk for heat-related health conditions and diseases.

There is only one real solution to the problem, and that is to house the homeless in long-term, affordable housing. That solution remains the answer, despite any argument to the contrary. Providing affordable housing to low-income persons continues to be a major problem in most urban areas, certainly in the DC metropolitan area, and as long as affordable housing remains unavailable, homelessness will continue to exist and with it, all the problems that accompany it.

The solution is not new. It has been discussed many times before. The problem is in its implementation. Voucher programs have been one suggested solution, but then arises the problem of finding property owners who are willing to accept vouchers as a means of payment. As I have seen myself, often rental subsidies that are awarded are good only for properties in neighborhoods with a high crime rate. Such subsidies are not real solutions at all; they may give the appearance of getting homeless persons off the streets, but they only create more problems in the end when those persons almost inevitably become crime victims in their transplanted surroundings.

As I have said, there is nothing new in anything that I am saying. The problem is old, and the solution is not new, either. The question is why the problem continues to exist and nothing gets done about it. The problem is not going away on its own. Just as I am tired of the oppressive heat, I am also tired of the way that the homeless problem is not being addressed and not being resolved successfully by the government. It will take intervention on the government level to solve the problem; that much remains clear. How long will it take until something finally gets done?

Beware of False Friends

2006-07-16T12:58:00.000-04:00

From the moment a person becomes homeless, trusting others becomes extremely difficult to do. The vulnerability of being homeless leaves a person in a state of constant distrust of everything and everybody. Whenever assistance is offered, it has to be accepted with a certain amount of hesitation. Sometimes the assistance is not really assistance but a trap or perhaps a sick joke meant to humiliate the homeless even further, something that happens often enough. Other times the assistance comes with conditions that are more than suspect. Still other times the assistance is so ill directed as to do more harm than good. It is for that reason that the homeless have to be on guard all the time against false friends, as they seem to be everywhere.

It is not inaccurate to say that true friendships are a rarity in the homeless world. Friendships require a certain level of security in order to thrive, and that security is conspicuously absent among the homeless. When people are fighting for their very survival, friendships are often a commodity that is unaffordable, one that gets discarded when needs become too great. False friendships, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen in any society. It is only that among the homeless, desperation often makes these false friendships look very attractive, too attractive for comfort.

These friendships may manifest themselves in the form of persons who are willing to offer help in exchange for sexual favors or for the social benefits a homeless person may receive. Food and drink may be offered that are laced with drugs, poison, or other substances intended to cause harm. All these bogus do-gooders manage to do these nefarious deeds without getting caught; were anyone to try to file a police report, it would be one homeless person’s word against the word of someone who was allegedly trying to do a kindness, and who would be believed in the end?

Organized charities themselves are sometimes less than blameless in terms of the way they administer their help. Charities are, after all, organizations run by human beings with human failings; it is quite possible for a group to do wrong just as one person would do wrong. The homeless cannot necessarily let their guard down just because a charitable organization sponsors assistance.

Before you accept help from someone, stop and consider the implications of your actions. Trusting the occasional Good Samaritan who comes along has considerable risks that cannot be ignored. Is the person truly to be trusted or is the person just another false friend? The risk is entirely yours; you have been duly warned.

Yes, my words sound very cynical. Cynicism goes with the territory once a person becomes homeless. Altruism is a word in a dictionary that has no practical meaning when it comes to homelessness. Referring to the proverb that says that a pessimist is an optimist with experience, I can state that bitterest experience has taught me that when it comes to friendships among the homeless, more often than most, alliances prove to be too costly to sustain for very long.

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir

2006-06-16T12:49:00.000-04:00

Nick Flynn’s memoir centers largely around his relationship with his absentee father Jonathan. Jonathan is an alcoholic and ex-con who is homeless; Flynn crosses paths with his father when he goes to work in Boston’s Pine Street shelter. Flynn is unsure what to make of their relationship, which weaves in and out during the course of the book as he turns to alcohol and drugs himself and comes close to meeting the same fate as his father as he tries to escape his own pain. His father continually speaks of his own writing talent and the book that he plans to write, but it is Flynn who produces the memorable work that offers a smorgasbord of styles.

The memoir skips around somewhat, citing dates to guide the reader as to the chronology of events that take place. The book begins in 1989 and then jumps back to 1956 before it jumps forward to 1984, so the reader is left to piece together the puzzle. By doing so, however, Flynn is able to give necessary background information that makes the memoir in the present comprehensible. He tells of how his parents came to know one another, how his mother came to state that it was better that he never know his father and how his paternal grandfather died without his father attending his funeral in many such flashback chapters.

At times, the book breaks into some very innovative modes. One chapter, “Same Again,” is four pages of expressions describing drunkenness. Another chapter, “Santa Lear,” contains a play involving three daughters, one businessman and five Santas outside an urban donut shop during the Christmas season. Flynn ends the book with questions he has been asked and some answers he has proposed to them. All make for very entertaining reading.

The book deals with depressing subjects; it is hardly a cheery story. Flynn has broken it into short chapters, however, which makes it easier to digest. The language of the book is sharp, terse and evocative, and the writing is vivid and well written. Flynn deals with the subject of homelessness in a very matter-of-fact manner as an outsider who has dealt with the homeless closely rather than as a person who was homeless himself. For the reader who wants a good, thoughtful introduction into the world of homelessness, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is highly recommended reading.

The Trauma of Displacement

2006-06-15T16:29:00.000-04:00

As I write this month’s editorial, I am working in overload, as the staff members at CCNV who reside in the 3-North section of the Federal City Shelter building have been required to relocate for the next 60 days for the sake of renovations. That has meant packing away my belongings that I will not need into storage and going to live elsewhere within the complex. As much as that may sound like a minor operation, it most assuredly is not. It is a major upheaval for me, especially because I have health conditions that must be addressed in such a move. Since my arrival at CCNV, I have been displaced three times. Two of those displacements were done in such a manner that was rather abrupt, so reliving the trauma does not bring back fond memories for me. I must be fair in saying that the powers that be at CCNV have done their utmost to cushion the blow as much as possible during this current displacement and have made every effort to accommodate wherever possible. Even in the best of conditions, however, displacement is traumatic at best for anyone who must undergo it.

It’s not easy to be displaced. Every homeless person knows the trauma of being displaced and wears it like an open sore that never really heals. Many homeless persons wander the streets of Washington each day with their belongings, wondering where they will end up spending the night, hoping that they will find a spot in one of the city’s day shelters. CCNV is the only shelter in the city that actually gives homeless persons an address that they can call a residence during their stay there; residents are spared the need to be displaced every morning at 7:00am together with all their belongings and, therefore, do not need to relive the trauma of displacement on a daily basis. Those persons not fortunate enough to find lodging at CCNV are forced to wander like vagabonds with everything they own every day and carry the trauma of doing so with them.

It would be safe to say that most homeless people suffer on some level from a traumatic disorder from having been displaced. The more often the displacement, the more severe the trauma. Those persons who have to roll out of a shelter every day suffer a daily trauma. Those persons who live on the streets live in perpetual trauma. The only way to eliminate the trauma is to reinstate some level of stability into the lives of the homeless by providing them with stable environments. Ideally, this would mean providing permanent housing, but even transitional housing is better than being forced to live like vagabonds all the time.

To date, only one shelter in the District of Columbia provides shelter on a residential basis throughout the year. Its residents are able to leave their belongings there from one day to the next, so that if a person wants to go to a job interview, it is not necessary to take one’s belongings along to the interview, something that would surely torpedo any chances of getting the job. One would think that other shelters would follow suit, as the only sensible way to rehabilitate the homeless is to provide them with a stable environment that will enable them to rebuild their lives without reliving the trauma of displacement constantly. Yet so far, none of the other providers in the city have seen fit to do so.

For the moment, while CCNV undergoes renovations, its doors will be closed to new intakes. For those newly homeless persons seeking to escape the cycle of trauma, it is a significant loss indeed. There’s nothing trifling about the need to be located in one stable residence; any person who has been displaced can confirm that. The need for more residential shelters is grave and immediate. The time for action has never been more pressing than it is now.

Crazy Google Ads

2006-06-12T15:37:00.000-04:00

For readers who want a change of pace, I recommend the blog Crazy Google Ads. It's definitely different and you are sure to find something there to entertain you.

The Sound of Silence

2006-05-03T15:29:00.000-04:00

As is indicated with my column each month, I have written a novel that I am currently trying to have published. I am in the process of sending out queries to agents and publishers. So far, the responses have been mostly, “It doesn’t sound right for us.” The reason? I can only assume it’s the same reason that most people give when dealing with the topic of homelessness: the It-Can’t-Happen-to-Me-So-Leave-Me-Alone Syndrome. The novel tells the story of a middle class man from the suburbs who finds himself homeless on the streets of the inner city (am I talking about myself?), and while most people would like to believe it can’t happen to them, the novel makes it quite clear that it could easily happen to far too many people now living in relative comfort and security. The publishers and agents seem to be reacting very much like the people who pass by on the streets and do not know how to react to the sight of homeless people. The topic makes them uncomfortable, and it’s just easier to pass by without taking further notice.

Not all the agents and publishers have passed over me, I must mention. However, at least one person showed enough daring to tell me in plain, simple language that although he admired my attitude, he felt that for the most part, people had an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality about homelessness, that as long as they keep turning away, the problem will not exist, at least for them. That seems to be true about the vast majority of the population. If homelessness does not affect the people themselves, they show little or no interest in dealing with the problem.

We have seen the same sort of mentality here in the District of Columbia. While on the one hand, the Homeless Services Reform Act has brought a new era of dealing with homelessness to the District, the current administration has stated clearly that homelessness is not a priority. Clearly homelessness is not a topic that would give politicians a lot of pleasure because it points out failings of the system, but ignoring the problem does not make it go away.

As the person who expressed his opinion to me said, maybe it would be better if more people could get more verbal and start a movement to get “in the faces of ignorants” (sic). I did not write a novel to start a movement, but the initial reactions have made me wonder if the book would meet with the same sort of reaction as a homeless person on the street. Would a reader glance at it and pass by without looking further just because the story was about a homeless guy?

Whatever the case may be, the novel is written and I will be seeking to have it published regardless. If that means that I’ll be initiating some sort of movement as a result of having it published, so be it. It was not my intention, but I’m not above doing it if it gives some attention to the plight of the homeless in the United States. As the novel tells the story, it’s no fun to be homeless, and the list of broken promises, betrayals and disappointments seems endless as a person hopes to rebuild a life that was shattered. The struggle to rebuild a life is an uphill struggle as well, as too often the case managers and other persons who are supposed to be helping assume that any person who has ended up homeless is too stupid to know what is needed to rebuild his/her life, and so these people turn a deaf ear to any pleas or protests the homeless person may make. The result is quite often less than productive, with the homeless person losing big time.

Maybe a movement is what is needed, but my concern is just to have a novel published. Another book that has been published that I have not yet read but have been told that very effectively captures the essence of the homeless experience is Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir, by the poet Nick Flynn, published by W. W. Norton and Company, that tells the story of Flynn’s homeless father on the streets of Boston. Perhaps if more books of this genre make it into print, public awareness will be increased enough to generate positive results. It’s something to hope for at least.

Passover Passes Over

2006-04-19T15:02:00.000-04:00

Passover has never been a particularly easy holiday for me. This year it has certainly not been easy. I've missed being with my children. As much as their mother always fumed that Judaism in the United States was "phony," until I met her, her family really didn't do much of anything for Passover, and I was the one who kept the traditions for the children. I went to Chabad in Washington so that I would be able to observe the Sedarim on the first two nights, and that turned out not to be so bad; I did spend my time with fairly pleasant people. Still, I was very much aware of the absence of my children, and I could see that the others were wondering how it was that I was there without them.

I keep wondering if it will always be this way. I have not one good reason to be forgiving toward the Jewish community for what was done to me and every reason to bear a grudge. I can already hear the Bible-thumping Christians preaching to me, but they didn't end up in the streets, so they can just shut up; it's not as if I'm in their camp, anyway. I don't need to hear the false Fundies with their line of BS when they have nothing to offer me but hot air. Empty rhetoric does me no good. If it's not concrete, tangible help, I don't want it; it's that simple.

Not a Daily Blog Here

2006-04-07T13:50:00.000-04:00

I have gotten some questions from persons who have read this blog as to why I post only on a monthly basis for the most part. The reason is simple: I keep this blog largely as a means of recording my editorials and little more than that. I tried for a while to keep a daily blog on MSN Spaces but found it not so rewarding; it's not as if I have that much to report or that many topics upon which I can make comments to keep me going on such a frequent basis. So I shall keep my monthly format with a few additions at times. Sometimes saying less means a lot more in the final analysis.

Taking a Closer Look

2006-04-06T13:00:00.000-04:00

A tourist once asked me if I ever get out to see the sights of the city. I replied that most of them usually come to me. That ended our discussion rather quickly, with the tourist probably assuming that I meant it as some sort of a snide remark, but I was quite sincere in what I said. The people I encounter in a day’s time are most often far more entertaining than inanimate objects that I could see from a tour bus because they make up the dynamics of what is happening today in the United States.

The world of the homeless is incredibly diverse. It includes persons of various ethnic and national backgrounds as well as persons of varying educational levels. Assuming that every homeless person is poor, uneducated and an ex-criminal or drug addict is very wrong and does not explain the persons from middle-class families with college degrees who found themselves homeless for one reason or another, and there are more such persons around than one might imagine.

One thing that I keep hearing from the groups of volunteers that come to CCNV is the overcoming of negative stereotypes, which is surely an objective for the young people who come to reside at the shelter as volunteers. I know that such negative stereotypes have made it very difficult for me to find a publisher or agent for my novel; the topic of homelessness apparently has negative appeal for most readers, or so the publishers and agents seem to believe, as many shy away from the topic quite readily.

Certainly there’s nothing particularly attractive about being homeless, and nobody in his right mind would choose to be homeless. Yet for those persons who do become homeless, the world of the homeless is filled with paradoxes, and the stereotypes that people associate with homelessness become meaningless rather quickly. Anyone can become homeless, and once a person becomes homeless, it is very difficult to come out of that state; it is virtually impossible to do so without help from some outside source. Whether that source be government assistance or private charity is immaterial as long as the assistance is there and it generates a sufficient change in the person’s life to get the person off the streets.

Insofar as the types of people that become homeless go, however, they can be virtually any type imaginable, as anyone can become homeless. They include doctors and lawyers who have also occupied shelters in the past for significant periods of time, so the assertion that only the undereducated types who are incapable of finding or sustaining employment end up homeless falls flat. If only the people who walk by on the streets would stop and get to know the homeless rather than breeze by them without looking at them, they might be quite surprised at what they would discover.

It was the late Mitch Snyder who said, “The next time you see someone on the street, don’t pass them by. Say hello, ask them how they are doing, get them something to eat. Just tell them that you care. Tell them that they are human beings.” If you stop to pay attention to the homeless people, to get to know them instead of passing by them, you may discover things you never expected. Just remember that the homeless are human beings, too. It really is that simple.

Is Recovery Possible?

2006-03-19T14:47:00.000-05:00

One of the questions that I’ve had ever since I became homeless that nobody has ever answered has been: will I ever be able to return to the life I once knew? I was living a comfortable life in the suburbs in an apartment complex. I drove my own car. I worked as a contractor for a government agency and held an interim secret level security clearance. I was fully involved in the lives of my children. All of those things are now ancient history for me. Nobody has even begun to address any of those issues in the years that have passed. Is a recovery even possible? I cannot say that I find the silence at the other end encouraging. Then again, the silence seems to be because there is no system working at the other end. There really is no system working out there to assist in recovery; it’s precisely that sink-or-swim mentality that has made the United States the industrialized country with the highest percentage of poverty.

It would seem to me that my question is not an unreasonable one to ask and merits an answer. I have asked it repeatedly and before any number of organizations who claim to be available for the purpose of helping homeless consumers. I’m doing well to get back a blank stare; that is a lot less demeaning than to be given answers that say a lot of nothing and are meant to tell me not to bother the organizations with my problems when that is why the organizations exist. The existence of so many organizations for the homeless that serve no apparent purpose other than to claim that they help the homeless is certainly a cause for concern, if for no other reason than to spare the homeless the indignity of wasting time with them. Organizations that render assistance in the form of handouts do only a partial service to the homeless, because a better strategy would be to work toward empowering the homeless to be able to fend for themselves; this strategy seems to be pursued only partially when it is pursued at all.

Does the word empowerment confuse people so much that they pretend that it does not exist? Or is the problem the classic “Let the government take care of them” attitude? The government is not taking care of the homeless; let’s get that straight right now. If the government were taking care of the homeless, then there would be an address to which to turn to ask why the numbers of the homeless are not going down. There would then be someone to ask questions that currently go unanswered. There is no government system that cares for the homeless; whatever help that the homeless get they get through various organizations that work to try to obtain for the homeless what entitlements the homeless may be able to acquire and to direct the homeless toward resources that may be able to help them get on the road to recovery, if recovery is indeed possible. The question still remains: is recovery possible?

Often the term case management is tossed around as if it were the panacea to all problems. Case management can make a difference if it is implemented within a supportive framework with ample resources available. Otherwise, case management is as useless as a pork chop in a synagogue; it’s just one more blind alley that the homeless pursue when the case manager has nothing more to offer a homeless consumer than words. Sadly, sometimes that is precisely the case when the resources are not available to render assistance. A case manager is not a magician who can make resources materialize out of thin air.

The question still has no answer for me, and I know that I am not alone in asking it. Can I expect to recover the life I once had, or is that never to return? To me, that is the sign of a successful recovery. Is it possible? The answer I’m not hearing is not very encouraging.

The Request for Applications

2006-02-14T14:57:00.000-05:00

In the month of December 2005, the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness issued a Request for Applications to the providers of homeless services in the District of Columbia for the purpose of assuming control of the Federal City Shelter. Noticeably, the Community Partnership omitted the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) from the list of providers to whom the RFA was issued. The omission could hardly have been unintentional, as CCNV is the largest entity residing in the Federal City Shelter building. What message was the Community Partnership trying to convey in such an act?

A closer look at the Request for Applications reveals that it is based heavily on the Mayor’s Homeless No More plan, which calls for a closure of the Federal City Shelter altogether. It, therefore, creates a sort of doublethink to suggest that providers should be engaged to come in to manage the Federal City Shelter if the building is to be vacated and sold, as the Homeless No More plan suggests. Apparently somewhere along the line, ideas were mutated as the RFA was born, but that was not the only idea that seems to be struggling to survive. When the providers learned the budget being offered for the operation of a case management structure within the Federal City Shelter, their reaction was anything but positive, as the amount was insufficient to operate realistically a case management system. Suddenly dawn began to break; the criticism that had been leveled against CCNV for not having case management started to seem not so justified because CCNV had been asked to manage without even the shoestring budget offered the providers responding to the RFA.

The comment that CCNV does not offer case management to its residents is not totally justified, as CCNV does offer a skeletal case management to the residents with the minimal resources that it has. However, as the saying goes, it’s impossible to get blood from a turnip. A real case management system requires a budget, and CCNV has not been given that budget for years already. The criticism that is leveled might be justified if the money were streaming in and not being used for the intended purpose, but that is not the case.

Insofar as having an outside agency working to provide the necessary case management within CCNV, that idea is not new and would be welcomed by CCNV, provided that the budget is there to support it. Again, the argument reverts back to the question of whether the budget will be available to sustain the effort. If the budget is available, then CCNV will have its case management system as required and the problem will be resolved.

What is more of a problem is the basic assumption made by the Community Partnership that the management of CCNV is incapable of managing its own affairs on any level, which was the reason for the RFA. Nobody can dispute that. The fact that all the providers, including all the other providers residing in the Federal City Shelter building, with the sole exception of CCNV, were issued the RFA was a clear statement to that effect. CCNV is tendering its own application for a good reason: no matter what size the “pot of gold” that sits at the end of the rainbow, CCNV cares enough about the future of CCNV to assume responsibility for its own. That clearly cannot be said about the other providers, who have already indicated their disdain because the money was not to their liking.

In the end, it boils down to caring. For the other providers, it’s an enterprise. For CCNV, it’s a home for the homeless. There seems to be little room for further discussion.