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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

25 Nov - Basic Necessities | Shelter

Cover of "Homeless"Cover of Homeless

The Audacity of "Home"

If there were ever a time for the Obama Administration to fulfill its promise of restoring Hope for America, re-prioritizing the promise of "a Home for all" is the ideal start. The sum of our devastating housing and economic crisis, combined with the recent findings from the international human rights community, prove that there is no better time to move housing to the top of the federal policy agenda.

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      Arrested for Housing the Homeless

      by Shannon Moriarty
      categories: criminalization, Housing, News
      Published November 23, 2009 @ 07:30PM PT
      For eight years, Dan de Vaul has operated a residential sobriety program on his sprawling 72-acre ranch in San Luis Obispo. While many formerly homeless addicts credit de Vaul with their sobriety, he was arrested today for building code violations that violated the terms of his probation. Should de Vaul be praised for his efforts to house the homeless or punished for doing so illegally? Pictured after the jump, the residential facilities on de Vaul's ranch were a mix of trailers, tents, garden sheds, and old converted houses and barns. The LA Times reported that De Vaul has received numerous orders to shut down the center, kick out the residents, and clean up his property. Yet, as soon as the authorities go away, he lets the sober-living clients back in. Call it a blatant disregard for the law? Or an unapologetic desire to do what he believes is right?
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      Kids Could Get Axed in Washington State Budget Cuts

      by Noah Jennings
      categories: Advocacy, Government, recession, youth
      Published November 23, 2009 @ 08:21AM PT
      Debates on budget shortfalls are taking a turn for the worse in Washington state this week. Who's on the chopping block? Homeless kids. Human services officials are hurting to find programs to cut and plan to phase out sheltering and outreach for homeless minors in months to come. Bad idea. Two things are flawed about this proposal. The premise to start with. Though a combination of cuts and tax hikes are necessary when legislators find themselves toeing the edge of a yawning revenue chasm, it's curious that the hole is all too often filled with food and cash taken from the mouths and hands of the poor. Erring is usually on the minus rather than the plus side. And if you argue that raising taxes ultimately hurts everyone by, um, probably, in the future you see, leading to job cuts, talk to the director of the Washington Sate Budget and Policy Center, Remy Trupin. In a recent story concerning the budget crisis, he cites evidence that "tax increases can be less harmful to families and state economies than deep cuts to services." That a strong safety net leads to greater stability is self-evident. Why force the helping professions to choose who suffers?
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      London On Track to End Rough Sleeping by 2012

      by Shannon Moriarty
      categories: Government, Housing, Human Rights, International
      Published November 22, 2009 @ 02:12PM PT
      In February, London Mayor Boris Johnson announced a bold plan to end rough sleeping in London by 2012. Today, just six months after unveiling his plan, two-thirds of the city's rough sleepers are off the streets and in housing. This begs the question: if London can end homelessness, why can't the U.S.? Rough sleepers are to London as chronically homeless are to the U.S. According to Capital City News, these individuals "have typically been homeless for at least five years, have refused or have been failed by repeated interventions to help them off the streets, and are often affected by a complex set of problems, including drug addiction and mental health issues." But unlike the U.S., the impetus for the targeted outreach to these individuals in London was not to save money or political face - at least according to the comments of Mayor Johnson. He said in a statement, "It is completely unacceptable for anyone to end up with only the street for a home in 21st century London." This was the zeal driving the quick removal of 138 long-term rough sleepers from the street in just six months. Given this early success, many believe the city will have no problem transitioning the remaining 67 homeless individuals into housing by 2012. This plan to end homelessness in London is not unlike the plethora of 10-Year Plans to End Homelessness that exist in over 230 cities and states across the U.S. Similar to London's plan, they are bold, targeted, and have a timeline for success. So why has this approach working in London and not in the States? Is 10 years too long to feel urgent? Are we trying to end homelessness for penny pinching or human rights reasons? Perhaps the new head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness could benefit from a chat over tea with Mayor Johnson. Clearly, he has some ideas that are worth spreading. Image: Capital City News

      Wikipedia Founder Creates Site for Homeless

      by Shannon Moriarty
      categories: case management, Government, innovation, mobile homeless, new media, nonprofit, People doing good things, Trends
      Published November 21, 2009 @ 01:51PM PT
      The Wikipedia model isn't just for pop culture research anymore. Wikis for homeless services information are popping up from coast to coast, proving that when web innovators apply their theories and skills to ease the delivery of social services, everybody wins. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was recently in Tampa Bay to launch TampaBayHomeless.wikia.com, a site that aims to serve as online "hub" for homeless services in the city. The city isn't the first to have such a site, similar wikis are already being used in larger cities, like New York and LA. The site - Tampa Bay Homeless - is rooted in the Wikipedia theory of collaboration. The design is user-friendly and easy to navigate, making it easy to find needed information. Information is organized by needs - such as shelter, legal services, food, veterans, etc. - and allows anyone to log-in and edit information. The collaborative model allows shelters to easily update ever-changing information about their shelters, allowing those in need of services to rest assured that the information they need is current. Part of the reason the idea of a Homeless Wiki is so exciting is it will allow for user feedback. I can envision shelter reviews, personal testimonies that expose snags in the system, information from the streets to aid outreach workers. The concept of service providers and recipients collaborating online is exciting, because it has the potential to ultimately improve the delivery of services. Collaboration can be tough to accomplish in homeless services. But perhaps wikis are just the thing to provide streamlined services and information to those who need them. It's encouraging to see trailblazing web innovators like Wales applying their concepts to the delivery of social services. Anything to make the "user experience" more streamlined and information more accessible is a win-win for everyone.

      Veterans Day

      Monday, November 12th, 2007 http://truthserumblog.iamapeacekeeper.com/?tag=homeless-veterans
      Yesterday, Sunday November 11th, was Veterans Day. A few days earlier a story ran in the New York Times that shows that we need to do more for our veterans than have a day that honors them. “Surge Seen in Number of Homeless Veterans” highlighted not only how veterans of past make up a disproportionate amount of homeless people but veterans from the current war are becoming homeless faster than years past.
      For men, much of the homelessness is due to spiraling-out-of-control behavior through substance abuse. Women are facing many of the same problems that male vets are yet there is another factor that affects women at a higher rate than men; sexual abuse in the military. The New York Times states that nearly 40% of the homeless female veterans report sexual assault at the hands of other service members.    
       No matter what your political affiliation or stance on the war is there are I know that you will agree that this must be addressed.
      Here are some things that we can all do to bring attention to this issue.
      -Volunteering your time or make donations to homeless shelters, sexual assault/domestic violence shelters and veterans organizations that are targeting these problems is a great place to start. -Becoming familiar with the issues that service members face is another. -Building a peaceful world where people are not sexually abused and do not need to turn to substances to numb them is a long term goal that we all can put some work into achieving.  
      There are veterans who need our help everyday, not just on November 11th.
      And, as PeaceKeepers, we need to offer our help…!
      Read the NYT article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/us/08vets.html
      Peace,
      Jen
      Former SGT, US ARNG 2000-2005
        
      Homeless Veterans http://www.warnewsradio.org/read-more/homeless-veterans
       
      This piece first aired in July, 2009, as part of the show, “Up in the Air.” Listen here.       HOST: Over half of America’s estimated 300,000 homeless veterans are from the Vietnam Era. But a combination of factors, including the economy, high levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, and a backlog of 1 million unprocessed claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs, means an increasing number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are finding themselves homeless. Caitlin Jennings has the story.       CAITLIN JENNINGS: Ethan Kreutzer joined the Army in 2002, when he was 17 years old.           ETHAN KREUTZER: I was more or less going nowhere I suppose, even though I was so young. I - I was really panicked as to what I was going to do once I turned 18. It seemed like a good career opportunity at the time. At least a good entry-level career.       CAITLIN JENNINGS: After training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he was sent to Afghanistan, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He worked providing security for humanitarian aid operations.       After 5 months Kreutzer suffered a mental breakdown and was honorably discharged. But transitioning back to civilian life was difficult. Originally from Sacramento, California he started wandering up and down the West Coast of the United States.       Kreutzer was homeless, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and ineligible to receive benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA. In order to qualify for compensation, he needed to have served on active duty for 24 consecutive months.           ETHAN KREUTZER: I really don’t think the Army - I should say the military - worries too much about - about what happens when people discharge, be it honorably or whatnot, it’s not really their problem. They spent some of us upward of six months to a year teaching us how to become soldiers and our jobs. They had something called ACAP, Army Career and Alumni Program, that was supposed to help us transition. It was a class that they gave us right before we were about to be discharged. It was four hours long. So you can clearly see the discrepancy there.       CAITLIN JENNINGS: In 2005, at age 20, Kreutzer started working and going to college in Sacremento, but stability didn’t last. He started abusing oxycontin, a prescription pain reliever and narcotic. Once again, he found himself homeless, now chemically dependent and still suffering from PTSD.       The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that there are about 3,000 homeless veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Kreutzer contacted Swords to Plowshares, a community-based organization in San Francisco that provides support services and advocacy for homeless and low-income veterans. He was accepted into their residential treatment facility.       Leon Winston, Chief Operating Officer of Swords to Plowshares, says there are many factors that contribute to homelessness among veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.           LEON WINSTON: The multiple deployments are a huge factor. But most importantly, PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Traumatic Brain Injury, are the signature wounds - hidden wounds - of this conflict. We know from our experience with Vietnam veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, that unless it’s adequately addressed, it’s sort of a long, not necessarily slow slide into dysfunction. There’s the very common aspect of self-medication with alcohol or other drugs.       CAITLIN JENNINGS: A Vietnam-era veteran, Winston was homeless himself in the early 1990s. Swords to Plowshares helped him get back on his feet. With Vietnam-veterans there was, on average, a 12 year gap between the end of their military service and the beginning of their homelessness.       But there is a much faster transition to homelessness being seen among veterans of the current conflicts. Winston says that the state of the economy, along with the difficulty in translating military skills into civilian jobs, is playing a major role.       Earlier this year, President Obama announced a Zero Tolerance policy for homelessness among the country’s veterans. At the same time, General Shinseki,the US Secretary of Veterans Affairs, proposed a goal of eliminating homelessness among veterans in five years.       Winston is optimistic.           LEON WINSTON: And all this bodes well for these vets coming back, because it means putting systems in place that are also prevention. We’re looking at prevention efforts. How can we prevent this human tragedy from happening again? Of course, it’s going to happen for some, but hopefully we won’t have the wholesale neglect that we had for 30 years with the Vietnam vets.       CAITLIN JENNINGS: But Kreutzer is more cautious. He now receives disability from the Department of Veteran Affairs, but he had to depend on a team of lawyers from Swords to Plowshares to fight for his claim.           ETHAN KREUTZER: You know, I mean, this is great what they’re doing, it’s been a long time coming. However, we are just - we are just the new generation. There are still three more generations of veterans out there that are still suffering right now—Vietnam, post-Vietnam, Gulf War era. It’s a very Byzantine system negotiating the VA. There is no immediate relief ever.       CAITLIN JENNINGS. Kreutzer’s frustration with the system is echoed by Herold Noel, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Noel was homeless for a year after returning from Iraq.           HEROLD NOEL: We fought for our country and our country has to fight for us to put us in jobs, so we can show our kids that it is good to join the military, and come back to your community and become somebody. We can’t show our community that we join the military and come out and we end up on the streets and we become drunks and drug addicts and stuff like that. We can’t show our community that. I’m trying to change the view of how people look at veterans when they come home.       CAITLIN JENNINGS: Now, Noel works as an advocate for veterans through an organization called Urban Neighborhoods in Coney Island, Brooklyn. He says that change needs to come from the people who control the money–Congress and the Senate.       Noel has been lobbying for homeless veterans in Washington, DC since 2004. It’s been a long, slow process, but Congress is finally acknowledging the needs of homeless veterans through the Homes for Heroes Act of 2009. The bill provides veterans with greater access to subsidized housing through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and also provides funding for community-based organizations.       Representative Mike Michaud of Maine, who was a cosponsor of the bill, estimates that it will help 130,000 veterans.           MIKE MICHAUD: It looks at those who are currently homeless and tried to address those needs. It also looks at those who are on the verge of becoming homeless and actually provide resources to prevent them from becoming homeless, but it also focuses on local public housing agencies, to develop a plan to address the needs. We’re not going to solve the problem overnight, but the good news is that this is a positive first step.       CAITLIN JENNINGS: Now the bill awaits a vote in the Senate. As the US withdrawal from Iraq continues and veterans are returning home to a weak economy and high unemployment, the number of veterans at risk for homelessness will continue to grow.       For War News Radio, I’m Caitlin Jennings. Oldtimer Speaks Out http://oldtimer.wordpress.com
      Invisible Wounds of War Report Available for Download  208. New Era of Responsibility? http://wanderingvets.com Back in January Wanderingvets posted news of retired General Eric Shinseki taking the office as Secretary of Veterans Affairs .(Real Changes Ahead for Veterans Affairs?) With the confirmation of General Shinseki there was great hope that the VA would be revamped to better serve the needs of our growing veteran population. This week General Shinseki addressed Congress with a “State of the VA Message” that is the result of 9 months of assessments within the VA.
      Out of my discussions with Veterans, three concerns keep coming through — access, the backlog, and homeless Veterans.
      It would seem that General Shimseki has a very accurate pulse on the shortcomings that have been demonstrated with the current VA system. From medical negligence to a long backlog of disability claims for veterans,the layers of improvements needed for treating our veterans with the services they deserve seems to have been identified. It’s very encouraging to see the needs of our homeless veterans being acknowledged and addressed by the VA. With 25% of all homeless Americans being veterans this is an area that has been put on the back burner for too long. The current VA system does little to reduce the burden of homelessness for veterans and historically has let community organization bear the burden of providing for homeless veterans. Sadly, in this current economic climate community resources aren’t able to meet the growing needs of all homeless citizens and many of our veterans remain on the streets without shelter.A survey by the National Coalition for The Homeless shows that shelters for the homeless only provide shelter for less than 40% of people in need of basic services.  A previous statistic by the VA estimated 154,000 veterans (male and female) are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experince homelessness at some point during the course of a year. The VA claims this number is being reduced despite the overall rise in the homeless population in the US and the need for expanded VA services due to returning military from Iraq.
      Veterans lead the Nation in homelessness, depression, substance abuse, and suicides. We now estimate that 131,000 Veterans live on the streets of this wealthiest and most powerful Nation in the world, down from 195,000 six years ago. Some of those homeless are here in Washington, D.C. — men and women, young and old, fully functioning and disabled, from every war generation, even the current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will invest $3.2 billion next year to prevent and reduce homelessness among Veterans — $2.7 billion on medical services and $500 million on specific homeless housing programs. With 85 percent of homelessness funding going to health care, it means that homelessness is a significant health care issue, heavily burdened with depression and substance abuse. We think we have the right partners, the right plans, and the right programs in place on safe housing. We’ll monitor and adjust the balance as required to continue increasing our gains in eliminating Veteran homelessness. We are moving in the right direction to remove this blot on our consciences, but we have more work to do.
      The men and women of the armed forces have been made a promise that if they defend our country in military service, we will provide them with the benefits they have earned. Sadly, the VA has fallen short on this promise to our Veterans on many accounts. Does this recent report to Congress mark a new era of responsibility  to our Veterans or will we continue to have the “blot” of  unkept promises on our consciences? Only time will tell.

      Full Story

      Jimison Taylor Hutchinson is a member of the Michigan Army National Guard. An Air-Force veteran, Jimison joined the National Guard last year after completing his degree at the University of Michigan, deciding to postpone pursuing professional education to serve his country as an Officer. Enlisting in May 2006, Jimison was assigned to the 1171st until the next Office Candidate School (OCS) class was to begin in June 2006. In August, having not been sent to OCS yet, Jimison attended annual training in Grayling, Michigan. His performance there earned him an Army Achievement Medal, awarded by Major General Canon. The next OCS cycle came and went, and Jimison had still not been cleared to attend. This was in part due to not having a full clothing and equipment issue, and in part because a training instructor felt that a prior service Air Force vet would have trouble in Army OCS without having attended Army Basic Training. In February 2007, Jimison was informed that he was to be sent to Warrior Transition Course - a training intended for individuals with prior service in the military, to learn “the Army way.” While this was not a part of his contract, Jimison was strongly encouraged, if not coerced into this training, to learn Army protocol and rank structure. On 14 February 2007, Jimison departed for New Mexico, bound for the Warrior Transition Course. In-processing was held at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in abysmal conditions (The students stayed in the hospital that Geronimo died in). For the first few days there, Jimison and the other students were left standing outside in the cold, in 30-degree temperatures for hours on end wearing only Army sweat-suits (marshmallows) with no coats. Jimison fell ill with a high fever in the 100s, but tried to get through the two weeks he was at Fort Sill. He was encouraged to tough it out, with instructors informing students on a regular basis that if you get sent to sick hall, they would be recycled (which is the equivalent of being held back). Jimison did tough it out and when he arrived in New Mexico to begin training, he collapsed in the field with a 105F degree temperature. Jimison’s uniform had to be packed with ice to try to bring his temperature down, and he was taken to the ER. While there was he told that he could have suffered serious brain damage, or even died had this fever been left to go on any longer. Upon his return from the ER, he was sent to the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Platoon (PTRP) and subsequently recycled. PTRP lasted two weeks and Jimison was encouraged to try to get back into training so that he could return home sooner, as opposed to being stuck in PTRP for an extended period of time. After his first week at WTC, still not having fully recovered, Jimison was in a banquet hall with about 250 other students attending a class. An instructor ordered all of the students, and all of their gear, out of the hall in ten seconds – else they face some sort of punishment. 250 trainees rushed to sling their gear and exit the hall. Jimison slung his rucksack and his weapon over his shoulder, and in the process was hit from the front and behind by other students also trying to sling their gear and get out of the hall. It was at this time that Jimison felt a pop in his back and pain radiating down his right leg. Worried about being PTRP’d again, Jimison tried to tough it out and make it through the last two weeks of training. However the symptoms didn’t get any better, so he went to the medic. The medic felt that he didn’t have the necessary staff to address the symptoms Jimison was describing, so he was sent to a civilian doctor. The civilian doctor ordered an MRI and various pain medications. When Jimison went to have his scripts filled, he learned that his orders had expired and TriCare no longer covered him. Jimison went back to the base and told them what had happened. Cadre said they would try to take care of the orders and also get his scripts filled. The medic suggested that Jimison wait until he got to White Sands to see an Army staff doctor. When Jimison arrived at White Sands, he went to sick hall and saw an Army doctor, who was an doctor of Osteopathy (DO). The DO ignored the civilian doctor’s recommendation to get an MRI and didn’t do any type of diagnostic testing. Rather, the DO punched the symptoms into WebMD and went with the least severe diagnosis – a pulled muscle. The DO gave Jimison Naproxen (a weak anti-inflammatory), a running waiver, and an order to do more crunches. As had been constant during the entire training, he was told that the quickest way to get out of WTC was to just pass the course. He was encouraged, in spite of his injury, to tough it out and finish the training. If he couldn’t tough it, Jimison would face being PTRP’d again, thus extending his stay and ensure that he would miss the next OCS cycle, set to begin in June 2007. Jimison gradudated training two weeks later and was told that an Line of Duty investigation (LOD) would be started before he left White Sands. As instructed by WTC administrators, when Jimison arrived home from training he informed his unit of his return and inquired about the status of the LOD. No one in the 1171st knew if an LOD had been started and seemed unable to find such information. They began the LOD process at the unit level. SSG Louann Grover ordered Jimison not, under any circumstances, to get medical care until the LOD was approved. The reason given was that if he did seek care, SSG Grover would have to do a lot of additional paperwork in order for Jimison to recoup out-of-pocket expenses. Jimison and his wife felt they must seek some sort of medical attention for the injury, even if that meant paying out-of-pocket for some form of pain management while waiting for the LOD to be approved. Several months of paperwork with the unit followed, yielding no results. When Jimison had first returned home, he was experiencing moderate to severe back pain and mild sciatica. As the months were passing, the symptoms were increasing. Pain had spread through his legs and feet. The back pain was increasing and spreading throughout all over his back. He was experiencing increased neurological symptoms including light urinary and bowel incontinence, and sensory and motor impairment in his right leg and foot. Jimison sought care from a local 24-hour urgent care facility. The doctor there ordered an MRI and prescribed pain medication. The MRI indicated that Jimison had a right side broad-based lateral disc herniation effacing an ipsilateral exiting spinal nerve root. When the doctor who ordered the MRI reviewed the results, he said, “Dude, your back is fucked. I’m sorry.” Jimison and his wife contacted Senator Carl Levin and Governor Jennifer Granholm, as well as the local Fox affiliate WJBK, (http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/myfox/), and several other local and national news outlets and television stations (including CBN, NBC, Fox). With little information from his unit and no one to turn to for help, Jimison and his wife contacted the Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline after reading about it on FoxNews.com (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287847,00.html). They began to investigate and eventually put his wife in touch with people in the National Guard. Sarah, Jimison’s wife, was put in touch with Joint Force State Headquarters in Lansing. LTC Michael Lee informed her that the LOD process that had been started by the 1171st was unnecessary – the LOD had been initiated in New Mexico and was not the responsibility of the Michigan Army National Guard. It was a Guard Bureau matter and would be decided by Guard Bureau in Washington DC. LTC Michael Lee told Sarah he would be helping to resolve the matter. In the meantime, Jimison was told to just sit tight and wait. Jimison’s LOD was approved on 10 September 2007, after six months of waiting. With the LOD approved, Jimison was told he would be able to get medical care for his injury. He would also be reimbursed for medical costs incurred to date, as well as be eligible for incapacitation pay and other allowances. SSG Grover indicated that Jimison needed to visit his doctor to get the next steps for treatment and relay that information back to the unit, and seek authorization for the care prescribed. Jimison visited his doctor on 13 September 2007. The next steps prescribed were an epidural, a referral to a pain management clinic, and a neurosurgical consult. The unit has yet to provide authorization for this treatment. Instead, they have provided authorization for three family practice visits and an MRI. When questioning this authorization, Jimison was dressed down for requesting to receive the care that he had told SSG Grover he required, per his doctor’s visit on 13 September 2007. As of this writing, the situation has not been resolved. Jimison is in constant, excruciating pain. He cannot walk without a cane. The doctor he has consulted over the past six months has indicated that because the injury has gone untreated so long the symptoms are permanent. Now unable to serve, as well as unable to work, Jimison is left to do little else than hurry up and wait. Government or media inquires, please contact: Sarah Hutchinson info@thebrokensoldier.com

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