Streets That Speak

Since foreclosure mess, homeless advocates report rise in encampments

In hard times, tent cities rise across the country
msnbc.com
AP

In hard times, tent cities rise across the country

RENO, Nev. - A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.

Then others appeared — people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.

Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a "tent city" — an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.

From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.

Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.

"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition. "The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."

Caught by surprise
The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up.

"What you're seeing is encampments that I haven't seen since the 80s," said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an umbrella group for homeless advocacy organizations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Seattle.

The relatively tony city of Santa Barbara has given over a parking lot to people who sleep in cars and vans.

The city of Fresno, Calif., is trying to manage several proliferating tent cities, including an encampment where people have made shelters out of scrap wood.

Photo: Scott Sady / AP

Homeless encampments are springing up
around the country, including this one next
to the homeless shelter in downtown Reno, Nev.

Photo: Scott Sady / AP

Sylvia Flynn, 51, stands outside her tent at
the tent city that sprung up next to the homeless
shelter in downtown Reno, Nev., Wednesday, June
25, 2008. Flynn has been homeless off and on for
nearly 31 years she said.

Photo: Scott Sady / AP

Mack Martinez, 19, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
smokes in front of his tent at the tent city
that sprung up next to the homeless shelter
in downtown Reno, Nev., Wednesday, June
25, 2008. Martinez, who says he has never
been more than two weeks without work, had a run of bad luck in Las Vegas before moving
to Reno to look for work. He recently got a job
with a traveling carnival group. From Seattle to
Athens, Georgia, homeless advocacy groups
and city agencies are reporting the most visible
rise in homeless encampments in a generation.

In Portland, Ore., and Seattle, homeless advocacy groups have paired with nonprofits or faith-based groups to manage tent cities as outdoor shelters.

Other cities where tent cities have either appeared or expanded include include Chattanooga, Tenn., San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently reported a 12 percent drop in homelessness nationally in two years, from about 754,000 in January 2005 to 666,000 in January 2007. But the 2007 numbers omitted people who previously had been considered homeless — such as those staying with relatives or friends or living in campgrounds or motel rooms for more than a week.

Photo: Scott Sady / AP

Robert Scott Cook, originally from Alaska, sits with one of his dogs, Zoey, at the tent city that sprung up next to the homeless shelter in Reno, Nev.

In addition, the housing and economic crisis began soon after HUD's most recent data was ...

Homeless have different faces in rural areas

Homeless have different faces in rural areas
Princeton Daily Clarion, IN
By TRAVIS NEFF

EVANSVILLE-The plight of the homeless in Southern Indiana is not always understood by the public, said Kay Isbell, education specialist with Aurora Inc., a Vanderburgh County organization that provides services for people who lose their homes.

“When you have people living in more rural communities, you have a different type of homelessness than the common view of what kinds of situations people are in who lose their home,” she said.

Few of the homeless people her organization helps have drug or alcohol problems, Isbell added, but rather are families who have fallen on hard times. Many of the people have difficulty paying bills and are forced to live with relatives or are put up in motels, she said.

Some people wind up losing their homes after foreclosure or simply run into high medical bills due to an accident, illness, or other economic factors, Isbell said.

In Gibson County, the Community Action Program maintains a duplex where families can stay for up to 45 days, said Debbie French, Gibson County Area Rehabilitation life skills director. But that facility is usually full and there are no homeless shelters in the county, she added. French then tries to find families long-term assisted living in Evansville.

There are a few shelters in Evansville that allow families to stay for up to ...

Homeless count reaches all kinds

Homeless count reaches all kinds
Nevada Appeal, NV
by F.T. Norton
Appeal Staff Writer, ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com

Department of Housing and Urban Development uses the numbers to allot funding for programs

Curlie Williams said he isn't looking for a handout, he's looking for a hand up.

BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal
Phillip walks down Carson Street just after 6 a.m. asking for change.
Phillip said that he wasn't homeless but claimed to have slept on a bench the night before.

Since his arrival in Carson City two weeks ago, the 46-year-old North Carolina native has been working as a bricklayer with Labor Finders on Long Street and sleeping at the city's only men's homeless shelter.

About 5:30 a.m. on Friday, Williams waited outside the temporary employment service's front door, sipping coffee and smiling easily and often as he talked to volunteers taking part in the Point in Time homeless count.

The morning chill was a reminder of what fall in the desert can feel like, and Williams admitted he's not big on cold weather. But when he left Fayetteville after catching his wife with another man, he wasn't looking for anyplace in particular.

"I just ran," he said.

He ended up in Oakland, Calif., then moved on to Reno and a job in concrete.

One day as he was forming up a curb and gutter, he said his employer told him, "No black men do construction here in Nevada," and Williams was let go.

He said he could tell the boss was expecting him to flip out.

"But I prayed for him, and just sat down and waited for my friend to come get me," he said.

Following that incident, Williams came to Carson City and ...

Charities Thrive With Online Volunteers

Charities Thrive With Online Volunteers
Forbes Online
By ANICK JESDANUN

When it comes to volunteering, Caitrin Murphy finds satisfaction in spending 10 months helping Tijuana orphans or a Saturday building low-income homes outside Washington, D.C.

But onsite projects aren't always feasible, so Murphy instead turned to the Internet and, with two co-workers, remotely created a Web site for an organization that helps farmers in the West African country of Cameroon.

"It's an adequate alternative," Murphy said. "I would prefer a hands-on, physical experience at the site. At the same time, ... by doing a project virtually we could affect the lives of people we would never think of meeting."

Online volunteering is growing as Internet access improves worldwide, particularly among African and Latin American organizations needing assistance.

VolunteerMatch, a San Francisco group that helps volunteers learn about onsite and online projects, said 14 percent of its volunteer opportunities last year were virtual, compared with 1 percent in 1998.

Instead of building homes, volunteers like Murphy can build Web sites.

Or translate documents. Or ...

First Ever Homeless Youth Count in Clark County

First Ever Homeless Youth Count in Clark County (Las Vegas, NV USA)
KLAS-TV, NV

The results for the first ever Homeless Youth Count in Clark County are now out.

According to the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, one of the agencies behind the study, nearly 400 kids are living on the streets of Clark County on any given day.

Kathleen Boutin is the Director of the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. She oversees the drop-in center on Maryland Parkway and Tropicana, provides homeless kids with a place to shower, eat, study or just relax.

The Homeless Youth Street count revealed 385 kids between the ages of 12 to 20 years old are living on the streets without any parent or guardian.

Boutin says the majority of the kids are minorities with 60 percent identified as African American.

"We have a lot of homeless youth in this community and even more complicated there are very few people in the community aware of the issue because the are invisible because they look like regular teenagers," said Boutin.

The study also identified more than 3,500 kids enrolled in the Clark County school district and transportation as a major obstacle for kids getting to school.

The drop in center is always taking food, clothing and school supply donations if you would like to help out.

The study was funded by several local homeless service providers.

Click here to read the results of the Clark County homeless youth study.

Children fill Congo streets

Children fill Congo streets
Cape Cod Times, MA
By ANJAN SUNDARAM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KINSHASA, Congo - Colonial rule, rapacious dictatorship and civil war have so ravaged Congo's economy and society that the streets of its cities swarm with homeless young people who numb their misery with drugs and alcohol.

Sixteen-year-old Baruti Ilanga ran away from home four years ago and now lives in the rusty brown shell of a Toyota, discarded in a cemetery-turned-garbage dump in Kinshasa. Even though there's too many mosquitoes at night and he often goes hungry, he believes he's better off than most of his countryman.

''Everyone in Kinshasa is poor and hungry. At least we are happy,'' the boy shrugged, a half-empty bottle of pale yellow French Pastis beside him. ''It is good in the street. I am free. I do what I want, when I want.''

No one knows how many children and teenagers call the streets their home in Congo. Aid workers estimate between 25,000 and 40,000 children are homeless in Kinshasa alone, and tens of thousands more are said to live in the vast Central African country's other cities.

Next month, the U.N. Children's Fund is holding the first census of Kinshasa's street children since the end of Congo's 1998-2002 war, which killed nearly 4 million and destroyed the country's infrastructure.

Many Kinshasa households are too poor to feed their children. Aid workers say many times only one child is fed on a given day - a desperate solution to the problem of distributing precious food. Other households chose instead to abandon their children, some under pretexts like witchcraft or sorcery.

''My aunt treated me very badly, she would scold me and not feed me. That's why I came here. I feel safe here, with other children like me,'' said Esther Okudi, 14, an orphan who has lived on the street for seven years. Her current home is a wreck of a car near Baruti's.

As evening falls on the Congolese capital, Ilanga and his friends are busy rolling marijuana between their palms. They take swigs of pastis. A group of young street girls appears.

Boys chase the girls playfully, dashing between upright car frames silhouetted against the twilight sky. But their games are hardly innocent. Aid workers say most of the girls, also abandoned children living on the street, are prostitutes.

''They earn a living through prostitution. Some are only 10 years old,'' said Guy Milongo, who works with a local organization to help street children. ''But these children will tell you they are having a good time. There is no one to control them.''

A new generation of children is being born and abandoned by destitute street parents. Without help, these newborns will ...

Hip social worker helps kids

Hip social worker helps kids
South Bend Tribune, IN
TERRI FINCH HAMILTON
The Grand Rapids Press

Lenair Correll, a social worker for the DA Blodgett for Children is shown in Grand Rapids. Correll works with delinquent teens who are in foster care to help them get ready to live on their own at age 18.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AP Photo/ LORI NIEDENFUER COOL

WAYLAND, Mich. (AP) -- Lenair Correll hops out of her silver convertible and flip-flops into a Wayland foster home in her woven straw sandals.

Inside, two teen boys who have seen a lot of trouble will have their weekly chat with their hip social worker with the pierced nose.

One wants to go visit his mom out of state. Sorry, the courts won't allow it, Correll tells him.

"That pisses me off," he says, his fingers drumming on the lace tablecloth in agitation. "That's bull crap."

"It's all on you," she tells him. "You need to make some better decisions."

The two of them have gotten off to a rocky start. Correll knows the drill. It'll be this way for a while.

Soon, chances are, he'll wonder what he ever did without her.

Correll, 34, specializes in helping tough teen boys in foster care. When she gets them, they're often mouthy, disrespectful, troubled by mental illness or learning disorders, in trouble with the law.

With a mix of compassion and tough love, she tries to steer them back to the right path.

She takes them to court hearings. She buys them ice cream sandwiches to celebrate successes. And she confiscates their cell phones when they tick her off.

The teens spend a lot of time in her Volkswagen Cabrio convertible, complaining it's too small. Part of her job is taking them to their court dates, which are often all over the state.

During the first car trip with a teen, she asks silly questions -- what's your favorite color? If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it? If you could be anybody, who would you be?

As she gets to know them, the car questions get deeper.

What's your greatest accomplishment? If you had to tell somebody a deep, dark secret, what would it be? Who in the world knows you best?

Sometimes, their answer to that last question throws her.

More than one kid has answered, "You do."

The boys she helps live ...

Company vying for state contract had problems

Company vying for state contract had problems
South Bend Tribune, IN
By KEN KUSMER
Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS -- A computer company that Indiana's human services chief used to help run stands to profit from a $1 billion contract with the agency despite problems fulfilling similar deals in other states.

That company, Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc., is part of a team negotiating with the Family and Social Services Administration for the 10-year contract. If the state strikes a deal, the team led by IBM Corp. would take over processing applications for food stamps, Medicaid and welfare programs.

Critics of FSSA head Mitch Roob -- a former ACS vice president -- and advocates for the approximately 1 million needy, elderly and disabled Indiana residents who would be affected by the change question whether private, profit-driven companies should determine who qualifies for the vital services.

ACS, like other companies, has struggled to fulfill smaller such contracts in other states.

"It doesn't mean they can't do good work," said Michael Reinke, executive director of the Indiana Coalition of Housing and Homeless Issues. "What it does mean is that the issue of contracting the provision of public benefits is not as easy to get one's hands around as it might appear at first glance."

David Roos, state director of Covering Kids and Families, which promotes participation in Medicaid programs, said no contractor in any state has been able to ...

Clergyman wants hands to join to mark Katrina

Clergyman wants hands to join to mark Katrina
The Olympian, WA
By Jean Prescott

BILOXI, Miss. - Hundreds of events are planned to mark next week's one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, but only one attempts to involve the entire Coast from one end to the other, literally.

South Mississippians are being urged to join Hands Across the Coast at 3 p.m. Sunday to support each other on the first anniversary of the fierce hurricane that left many of us homeless.

Harold Roberts is rector of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Biloxi, and he came up with the idea for this unifying observance, perhaps the only one of its kind to mark the anniversary.

"I was asked where it floated up from - the idea," Roberts said Friday, "and maybe it was Hands Across America."

It's been 20 years since 5 million Americans joined Hands Across America to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.

Roberts recalled that the Episcopal clergy had been talking about what to do for the anniversary, "And no one had come up with an idea everyone could participate in." He has no clue to how many people the idea has reached.

"We've just printed out the (one-page) brochure or forwarded it to anyone we could think of," asking them to forward it along.

Participation in the observance requires only that residents, visitors, volunteers stop what they're doing and walk or drive to the nearest patch of Gulf Coast beach about 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 27. For two minutes, beginning at 3 p.m., everyone at each location will join hands in single line along the beach, "to mourn, to give thanks, to be there with one another.

"One of the real critical issues (since Katrina) is ...

Area still fighting homelessness

Area still fighting homelessness
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN
By Jerry Peterson

Frank Gray’s column, “Need help from 211? Better call on a weekday” (Aug. 10, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette), highlighting the struggle of a woman trying to find housing on a Sunday morning, underscores the reality that there are some vital services that simply do not exist in our community.

Moreover, there are other services that do not have the capacity to help all the people in need.

The demand for emergency assistance and shelter services is on the rise as a result of changes in our local economy and the statewide increase in foreclosures. The regional United Way-funded 211 Information and Referral Call Center reported that homeless inquiries increased by 57 percent between the first quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. Total calls for assistance have increased from 16,000 in 2003 to 25,000 in 2005.

Consistently over the past two years, the top three unmet needs in our community have been transportation, financial assistance for utilities and rent, and emergency shelter.

During the first quarter of 2006, 373 inquires were made to 211 regarding homelessness. A key factor driving shelter to the top three of unmet needs in 2006 is the closing of an emergency shelter that housed women and women with children.

There also is not enough ...