4 10 291 https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/eeb603a892a23f4b0cc230dfdf524623.pdf 74fe47996510ea6dd1ff9324deef5276 PDF Text Text Hope, Health Care, Sloppy Joes School Bored Page 6 ‘Homeless’ Millionaire Page 10 Page 3 STREETVIBES $1 August 15-31, 2009 • Advocating Justice, Building Community • Issue 159 Celebrating This Thing We Do Street-paper conference shares ideas for improvement and growth 1 ‘Streetvibes’ staff and volunteers along with representatives from 20 other street papers in North America attended the 2009 NASNA Conference in Denver, Colo. Photo courtesy of NASNA. Staff report Denver, Colo. – The North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) held its annual conference July 30-Aug. 2 at the University of Denver. Forty-two people from 18 different organiza­ tions attended. The conference, hosted by the Denver VOICE, was both a celebration of the burgeoning street-paper very poor and movement “It is very gratifying to have this story the wider pub­ and an op­ recognized in this way because it goes lic by helping portunity for to the very heart of what we do – we who people to un­ participants work for street newspapers and care about derstand the to share ideas people who are homeless, marginalized, issues and the for improving disenfranchised and so often despised.” personal sto­ their editorial - Gregory Flannery ries of those content, ven­ on the lowest dor programs rung of the and fundraising. ing the conversation around economic ladder,” said Andy “Street newspapers across poverty and homelessness by Freeze, executive director of North America are chang­ building a bridge between the NASNA. Freeze is the former education coordinator for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. The coalition, which pub­ lishes Streetvibes, sent four staff members and contrib­ uting writer Margo Pierce to the conference. Pierce, a 2009 Peter Jennings Fellow, was one of two presenters at a workshop on the theme, “The See Celebrate, p. 9 First the Banks, Now the Rest of Us Federal Reserve officials hear victims of housing crisis By Dave ScharfenBerger Contributing Writer Last year, in a plan de­ signed by the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve, the federal govern­ ment, bailed out major banks in this country. Yet home fore­ closures are still rising and communities are reporting more vacant properties Federal Reserve officials came to Cincinnati July 21 for a meeting sponsored by Work­ ing in Neighborhoods (WIN) and Communities United for Action. Community leaders and homeowners packed the room to get answers about their mortgages and the va­ cant houses that blight their neighborhoods. Mary Bridges of Kennedy Heights was one of the resi­ dents who went to the hear­ ing looking for answers. When she and her husband refinanced their home several years ago, they ended up with an adjustable-rate mortgage. Her mortgage payment has jumped from $824 to $1,500 a month. Last year her husband died, and Bridges lost her job. She is now facing foreclosure and is asking for a plan to help her keep the home where she has lived for 19 years “I think that my mortgage company can do better,” she said at the hearing. “I like my home and my neighborhood. There has to be some hope out there. I cannot get my mortgage company to work with me.” Bridges was one of many who attended the meeting with Fed officials to tell their stories of the horrors of lend­ ing practices and the effects of foreclosures. Others complained about the number of foreclosed, vacant properties in their neighborhood. “The house next door to me is vacant,” said Pat Hendricks of North College Hill. “Behind me is a vacant house. Two doors up from me is vacant, the corner house is vacant and the house around the See Banks, p. 5 Marilyn Evans, executive director of CUFA, talks to Federal Reserve officials about expanding the Community Reinvestment Act. Photo by Rev. Joe Fozenlogen. �2 The Vibe By The Numbers Streetwise By gregory flannery editor 8,000 the number of police hours spent enforcing the city’s marijuana ordinance (See page 13.) 10 the number of community meetings called by the Federal Reserve (See page 1.) 6,373 Freecycle’s Cincinnati membership (See page 8.) 13 the number of years Jason Haap has been teaching (See page 6.) 300 the size of Grailville’s acreage (See page 14.) 6 the size in ounces of terrorist toothpaste (See page 2.) 18 the number of years Anthony volunteered at the Over-the-Rhine Kitchen (See page 4.) 175 the number of vendors selling the Denver VOICE (See page 5.) 116:8 James Brown’s favorite verse in Psalms (See page 6.) 6 the hour at which Dan La Botz had breakfast in Sacramento (See page 11.) 1989 the year Rick Barnes started working in downtown Denver. (See page 2.) Keeping Us Safe from Terrorist Toothpaste I was packing a six-ounce tube of Close Up toothpaste when I tried to board a flight at Day­ ton International Airport July 30. But the vigilant staff of the U.S. Department of Fatherland Se­ curity was on to me. They knew exactly what I was up to, and they disarmed me. Lest we forget, we live under an orange terrorism alert; and no liquids, aerosols or gels in quantities greater than three ounces may be transported in carry-on luggage on commercial airlines. It is well established that terrorists need at least four ounces of toothpaste to take down a jetliner. Five people from Streetvibes attended the annual conference of the North American Street Newspaper Association in Denver, and our experiences with airline security point to the inan­ ity of the rules that now govern air travel: • One of my colleagues forgot that she had a canister of pepper spray in her carry-on bag. The X-ray machine at the Dayton Airport failed to detect it. All her dentifrices, however, were within the rules, and we landed safely. • Another colleague had illegal contact-lens solution in her carry-on bag. Bad enough that it was a four-ounce container. More shocking still was the fact that she had placed the liquid in a gallon-size plastic bag, even though the rules clearly specify quart-size bags. Fatherland Security, however, waved her right onto the plane. • In May, I boarded a plane in Cincinnati, stopped in the Detroit International Airport, then in Amsterdam on my way to Bergen, Norway. The flight home took me the same route. At each checkpoint, I took from my pants pocket a Zippo lighter given me by my son several years ago. No problem. In Dayton, however, Fatherland Security decided that the very same lighter was as dangerous as my toothpaste and confiscated it. When I asked if I could retrieve the keepsake upon my return from Denver, I was informed that I had lost it forever. That little business of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law” – seems to have fallen by the wayside. Not to worry, though. Another colleague, a savvier traveler than I, told me how to fool the system. Having bought a disposable lighter in Denver, I stuck it inside a shoe in my carry-on bag. The X-ray machine in Denver didn’t catch it. Using this method, I could have bought a huge tube of toothpaste and smuggled it home, but I made my point by not brushing my teeth for several days. I figured the Fatherland Security staff had earned the bad breath to which I exposed them before boarding the flight home. The Streets – and the Law – Are Unforgiving In recent weeks two Streetvibes vendors encountered the cruel reality of homelessness in Cincinnati. One man found himself in need of a toilet late one night. With no public facilities available, he did what any human being would do: he urinated in an alley. Cincinnati Police caught him, cited him and he had to pay a $104 fine. Streetvibes vendors make 75 cents for each copy of Streetvibes that they sell. This infraction meant he had to sell 138 copies of the paper just to relieve himself. Kenneth Stonitsch had a more serious run-in with the law. He was sleeping on the third floor of an abandoned building on Wade Street when the police showed up July 24. “They were trying to get my attention but I couldn’t hear them,” Stonitsch says. “I’m almost deaf, and I was on the third floor. The next thing I knew, I woke up and a dog was in the room. There were four cops in there. They said something, and the dog bit me several times on the right leg. I was in pain pretty bad. All they had to do was tell me to get up and leave. They didn’t have to put the dog on me. It was pretty painful – humiliating, too.” Next thing he knew, Stonitsch was facing a felony charge of burglary and the prospect of a prison sentence. “You’re going to put a felony on me for being homeless?” he says. “Now I’m looking at one to five years in the penitentiary.” A Hamilton County grand jury fortunately saw the issue in a different light, passing over the burglary charge and indicting him instead on the misdemeanor charge of trespassing. The case is still pending. Letter To The Editor To the editor: I was shocked recently on a Sunday in July after coming back from a Poor People’s Confer­ ence in Louisville and needing an emergency bathroom stop because of a stomach virus. My friend John drove me to the Drop Inn Center after getting back to Cincinnati, and a staff person that afternoon refused to allow me to use the bathroom at the Drop. I barely made it to the White castle on Central Parkway to use their bathroom, and thanks to John. I am in complete support that agencies and businesses should allow people to use the bathroom with dignity. Right on, Lynne Ausman! (See “Justice, Toilets and Bill Cunningham,” issue of Aug. 1-14.) A Former Homeless Person in Cincinnati (Editor’s note: The Drop Inn Center now requires all non-resident visitors to show identification. This could explain the writer’s difficulty during his visit.) STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@ yahoo.com Website: www. cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes. wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Art Director Lynne Ausman Vendor Coordinator Jeni Jenkins Contributing Writers Lew Moores, Dave Scharfenberger, Margo Pierce, Paul Kopp, Jeremy Flannery, Michael Henson, David Heitfield, Alecia Lott, Larry Gross, Stephanie Dunlap, Angela Pancella, Will Kirschner, Ariana Shahandeh, Elizabeth Heath, Dan LaBotz, Jason Haap Photography/Artwork Aimie Willhoite, Lynne Ausman, George Ellis, Jeni Jenkins, Rev. Joe Folzenlogen, Jim Montgomery, Anthony Williams, Berta Lambert Proofreaders Jennifer Blalock Ranjit Rege The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes. We are members of: �STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Column 3 Eight Minutes with a ‘Homeless’ Millionaire How a finance guy befriended the homeless and gave them a newspaper and hope By Margo pierce Contributing Writer were politicians, and Barnes was appalled. “All of these city ordinance started getting passed about no feedings, can’t sleep out, to urinate in public was a sex of­ fence. At the same time Mayor (John W.) Hickenlooper won an award – all mayors nation­ wide were up for it – for his homeless campaign. The first thing that came to my mind was the hypocrisy: He wins this award and they’re pass­ ing all these ordinances that make it illegal to be home­ less. The amount of hypoc­ risy is just disgusting. People going to church every Sunday but not practicing what’s be­ ing preached to them – I just wonder if people go to church and hear anything. “About 80 percent of the panhandlers were wheelchair-bound. What I found out was that these were all people on disability, but that disability doesn’t pay your bills. When you’re on dis­ ability, you can make other income; but if your other in­ come exceeds a certain level, then you lose your disability. It’s a crock, a catch 22.” Barnes was fired up and happy to support the original Denver VOICE with a month­ ly donation when the paper fell on hard times. But after 10 years, the paper closed its doors in 2006. Described as “a grassroots newspaper cre­ ated in large part by homeless people for homeless people” by the paper’s Web site, the Denver VOICE got a second chance from Barnes, who took it over in 2007. The guy holding the door wore a yellow baseball cap with a cowboy riding a horse stitched on it, a lime-green T-shirt, cargo shorts and flipflops. People were trickling in and he just stood there, hold­ ing the door. It was a beauti­ ful Saturday afternoon and he was in no hurry. He seemed content to stand there all day if asked. There was no hint of arrogance or impatience, the tell-tale signs most people equate with a millionaire, and I had no idea I just walked past the man who rescued the Denver VOICE from oblivion. Rick Barnes is the guy oth­ ers will hold the door for in hopes of getting a few mo­ ments of his time. As the pres­ ident and CEO of six financial companies hired by likes of Merrill Lynch and Citi Group Rick Barnes is the publisher of the Denver VOICE and on the board of the North to sell some of their “mort­ American Street Newspaper Association. Photo by Lynne Ausman. gage platforms,” he’s the kind of man who could easily ig­ City Hall hasn’t panned out can get by having a homeless tion, I don’t believe people nore the homeless woman in the way he anticipated. The paper versus just handing out have to be taught to take care the wheelchair on the corner new Denver VOICE, which put 20s all day long on the street of their neighbor, especially in favor of the eager suits fol­ out its first edition in August corner, the impact on the if somebody is really, really, lowing in his wake. But he 2007, focuses on arts and hu­ consequences are so much really fortunate,” he said. “So doesn’t. man-interest better.” why does somebody who’s “I’m born features that With the rise of laws tar­ really, really fortunate have and raised “I’m the type of guy who will throw 20s out to aren’t printed geting homeless people, it’s to be taught that they should in Denver, a panhandler. I don’t care if they go shoot it. I a n y w h e r e difficult to understand how take care of the guy that’s less so I have don’t care if they go drink it. I don’t care if they else, but not a person in a business that fortunate? That part will al­ w o rk e d go eat it or go buy a pair of socks, whatever.” a c t i v i s m . trades heavily on reputation ways confuse me. downtown - Rick Barnes That’s OK would take the risk of getting “Looking at it from a pure since 1989,” with Barnes involved with such an un­ business perspective, I think he said. “I’m because the popular cause. Barnes offered I can completely remove my­ the type of guy who will throw “I get this paper … then it economic impact for the a simple explanation. self from any contributions 20s out to a panhandler. I dawned on me that I didn’t vendors is where he sees the “Because it’s right,” he said. to the paper after the 36th don’t care if they go shoot it. know one person that had biggest bang for his philan­ “In my heart I feel like you’re month. I don’t care if they go drink it. any journalism background,” thropic buck. supposed to take care of the “To me that seems like a I don’t care if they go eat it or he said. “I had no idea how “In the month of August homeless, and you’re sup­ pretty simple model; if peo­ go buy a pair of socks, what­ to secure funding for it, and 2008, the Democratic Nation­ posed to take care of the poor ple can’t find beauty in that ever. From a spiritual per­ the answer is there is no way. al Convention was in Denver and you’re supposed to feed model from a business per­ spective, I felt like it was none There’s no one out there that … we sold 17,000 copies,” he the hungry and you’re sup­ spective, then you can’t find of my business. If somebody wants to back a paper for the said. “And this is when I start­ posed to clothe the naked. I beauty in a field of flowers. was asking for help, I’d extend homeless. I wasn’t in a posi­ ed looking for feedback. Most just believe it.” You can’t tell me that the city a helping hand. tion to afford it, so I borrowed vendors average $2 a paper. Barnes is convinced others of Cincinnati doesn’t have “After a while I’d just stop $50,000 from my 401K. That That’s $35,000 that we just know what’s right, too. any one of 50,000 people who and talk with them. Some of was the seed capital. And then put into the poor communi­ “Do you believe that people could cough up that money them became friends and I all of a sudden my businesses ty’s pockets. have to be taught that hunger and never even miss it.” helped some of them to get started booming. I never once “The last three consecutive is a crime? With that ques­ into housing. Sometimes, if thought about giving home­ months we’ve sold between they were in a jam, I’d help less people a job through this 16,000 and 17,000 papers, so them out of a jam. But all of project – my main intention we’ve been putting between Many people work hard to make a difference for the less privileged in the Queen City. “Eight Minutes” is an a sudden all of my friends was always to be an activist $30,000 and $35,000 into opportunity to learn who those people are and what started disappearing because and to challenge head on the the pockets of the poor and motivates them to be a positive influence. they were getting run off.” city government.” homeless community. I’m a Those doing the chasing His intention to take on businessman; the mileage I �4 Community News STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Walking and Imaginary Chats & Smoking Real Compassion A few random encounters Soup kitchen offers unexpected opportunities By angela pancella Contributing Writer Smokers have a community of their own that is centered around their ‘cancer sticks.’ Photo by George Ellis. By larry groSS Contributing Writer Take a cigarette out of your pack, light it, then take a walk in downtown Cincinnati. You might have a few odd encounters and experiences along the way. I’ve seen this guy for years downtown, mostly on Race Street. He’s older and of­ ten well dressed. He’s come to know I’m a smoker and whenever I pass him, without fail, he asks for a cigarette – sometimes two. Lately, when he asks for two, I tell him he’s lucky that he’s getting one. This woman I pass on Vine Street on occasion could be a prostitute. Smiling, she’ll ask for a smoke and a light. As I light her cigarette, she usually puts her arms down my back, stroking it. If she were pret­ tier, I might want to take this to another level. When I think this, I often wonder what that says about me. The other day, while walk­ ing down Elm Street, a home­ less man asked for one of my Camel Lights. In a plastic bag, he had a pair of shoes he wanted to sell me for only five bucks. They weren’t bad look­ ing shoes, but they weren’t my size. Coming out of the down­ town library one day, a man in a wheelchair asked me for a cigarette. After he took it, he had a question: “Do insects sleep?” It was a good ques­ tion, and I didn’t have an an­ swer. When I got home, I did a Google search. You can do the same. In front of the CVS Phar­ macy on Seventh Street, a young woman walking down the sidewalk, laughing and talking with another young woman, saw me smoking and said, “Hey, dad, give me a cig­ arette.” “I’m not your dad,” I replied as I kept walking. Her approach to “asking” pissed me off. Another time, also in front of CVS, a young woman wanted a smoke. After I lit it for her, she looked at me and said, “Oh, I love your hair!” The next day I got a haircut. There’s a homeless man who’s usually standing on the corner of Sixth and Main. He’s always holding a cardboard sign that’s too faded for me to read. He always has a back­ pack planted next to him on the sidewalk, with an old pa­ perback book on top. I always stop, give him a cigarette and a buck if I have it and we talk for a little bit about what he’s reading. He’s always anxious to fill me in, sometimes want­ ing to talk too long about his book. I sometimes want to ask him what went wrong, why is he homeless, but so far I haven’t. Once I was at Government Square, smoking and pac­ ing, waiting for a bus to take me to Clifton. When the bus pulled up, my cigarette was only about half smoked, but I decided to drop it on the cement at my feet and put it out. A guy runs up to me and says, “Hey, hey! I’ll finish it for you.” Some weeks back, a guy stopped me on Eighth Street wanting a cigarette. After I gave it to him, he then want­ ed money to help out with bus fare. I gave him a dollar. He then waned to know if I had a car and could take him across the river to Newport. I told the guy I was busing it. It occurred to me to ask him if he had any household chores he wanted me to do, but I kept my mouth shut. Standing at the corner of Sixth and Vine, waiting for the light to change so I could cross the street, an older woman was standing with me. I was smoking. She looked at me in disgust and started waving her arms around, signaling that the cigarette smoke was bothering her. Proud of my­ self, I resisted the temptation to put the cigarette out. As the old bag crossed the street, I thought to myself, “What a bitch.” I was also proud of myself that I didn’t say those words out loud. See what you’re missing? If you’re not walking and smok­ ing, try it. Pat Wakim is executive di­ rector of the Over-the-Rhine Kitchen and the Walnut Hills Kitchen and Pantry. For about 18 years a gentleman named Anthony offered his assis­ tance at the Over-the-Rhine Kitchen as volunteers and staff prepared noon meals at this, the oldest soup kitchen in Cincinnati. “He passed away recently, God rest his soul,” Wakim says. “He was schizophrenic. He was often talking to sev­ eral people at the same time. When volunteers came, I would explain to them, ‘Now, he’s going to talk to himself, but he’s harmless.’ ” One day Wakim and An­ thony were working by them­ selves. As was his custom, Anthony was carrying on conversations. Wakim wasn’t listening all that closely until she heard him say, “She’s all right. She has a good heart.” “Are you talking about me to somebody?” Wakim asked. He wouldn't answer directly; Anthony, who recently passed away, was he just laughed as Wakim a longtime volunteer at the Over-the-Rhine mock-warned, “You bet­ Kitchen. Photo courtesy of Over-the-Rhine ter not be talking about me and Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry. again” Few situations are compa­ Hills and opened a kitchen cause I was supposed to rable in value to overhearing and pantry there. He also make amends. Nothing was someone talk about you to founded Tom Geiger Guest right, and then I came in and the voices in his head. But House, now a number of learned that it’s not all about at places like the Over-the- houses offering transitional me. I enjoyed being tested to Rhine Kitchen, these situ­ and permanent housing for get things done quickly. I just ations become learned to come the norm of dayout of myself.’ to-day life, not Few situations are comparable in value If the kids are the exception. to overhearing someone talk about you lucky, they do get And now there is to the voices in his head. But at places a lot out of it.” an opportunity like the Over-the-Rhine Kitchen, these As will the perto step into this situations become the norm of day-toson who will be world: Wakim is day life, not the exception. manager at the on the lookout for Over-the-Rhine a new manager at Kitchen. The the kitchen; the current man­ battered and homeless wom­ atmosphere is established ager is retiring. en and children or homeless at the door, where staff and The Over-the-Rhine Kitch­ individuals and families with volunteers welcome guests en is easy to spot on Vine disabilities. Geiger, now de­ and tell them, “Thank you Street across from St. Francis ceased, was a volunteer in for coming.” Wakim, who is Seraph Church; it's the build­ the earliest days who lived in Lebanese, says the culture of ing with cornucopias painted the back room of the kitchen. hospitality in her heritage in­ on the doors. Local author The place is still often called spires her to welcome guests and professor Rev. Thomas “Tom’s Kitchen.” “just as if my mother was wel­ Bokenkotter founded it in “A staff of five runs three fa­ coming them into her home 1976 with the help of his cilities,” Wakim says. “It takes to eat.” mother Gertrude and with all of us to make this happen, “The people are the fo­ his sisters helping to cook the and the volunteers are the key cus,” she says. “We get a lot meals. to everything. We get volun­ of elderly folks here. They’re Inspired by a visit to Doro­ teers when somebody gets a just looking for a good smile. thy Day’s House of Hospitality tug on their heart from above, (They'll tell us,) ‘Show your in New York City, Bokenkotter and they can get involved teeth!’ ” came back asking, “Who is with the meals, with painting The new manager will have helping the poor in Cincin­ a wall, with building some­ to have “a heart for the poor,” nati?” Once Over-the-Rhine thing. ... We’ve had so many Wakim says. “If you don’t, it’s Kitchen was established, Bo­ young people. One young not going to be worth it. But kenkotter saw the great need man wrote us the nicest let­ it’s the best job you could that also existed in Walnut ter. He said, ‘I came in be- ever have.” Applicants can contact Wakim at aposervice@juno.com or 513-961-1983. �STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Community News Street Papers Grow Across USA Circulation keeps growing as larger newspapers struggle By april DuDaSh Contributing Writer Three men with three diffi­ cult pasts stand in the streets. One didn’t have enough mon­ ey to pay rent, and he couldn’t afford to find a place to sleep at night. A second struggled to find housing while he received money for his disabil­ ity, but it wasn’t enough to get by. The third has been homeless for nearly five years. He was in a crash on his Harley, tore up his shoulder and destroyed his ability to find decent work. Despite having different stories, these men all share a similar struggle with homelessness, and they have all found work as vendors selling street newspapers. Street newspapers, which provide an income for homeless people and spread awareness of homelessness, are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. The papers publish news articles, poetry and advice, and vendors who are homeless or formerly homeless make a profit by selling them in the streets. “I’m not homeless no more,” says Carlos Valdez, a vendor for the Denver VOICE. “I feel like I can contribute because they’ve done a lot for me.” Staff members of street papers hope to provide opportunities and resources to vendors so they can find housing and income. Dale Harbour, a 52-year-old vendor with the Denver VOICE, has been homeless for about five years Many cities in North America have street newspapers. Photo by Lynne Ausman. after losing his job due to in- Cincinnati, Ohio. “We’ve sold Flannery’s 28 years of jourjuries from a motorcycle ac- out two months in a row and nalism experience has shaped cident. had to increase our print run. Streetvibes into a publication “I do well enough to get by It’s really unusual in that a lot that focuses on civil rights for now,” he says. “I feel some- of newspapers are going out and pinpoints poverty issues where I’ve got to keep going, of business right now.” and success stories. and it’s a day-by-day thing A year ago, Flannery says, “This little street newspamost of the time. Eventually, Streetvibes printed 5,000 cop- per put out by a small nonI’ll recover from it all.” ies per month and sold out profit exemplifies what I Street newsthink journalism papers genis really about, erally rely on “This little street newspaper put out telling the stosubscriptions, by a small non-profit exemplifies what ries of everyday grants or donaI think journalism is really about, tellpeople and their tions to keep ing the stories of everyday people and struggles and publishing. At a their struggles and their successes in a their successes majority of the world that can often be very cruel.” in a world that papers, vendors - Gregory Flannery can often be very pay 25 cents for cruel,” Flannery an issue and sell says. it for $1. They keep what they of papers. It has now begun The paper has published earn. bi-weekly publishing, print- stories that reveal the exing 4,000 copies every two ploitation of Puerto Rican Rising circulation weeks. workers when they arrive to “A lot of the success in the Cincinnati as well as the city Despite the struggling U.S. paper is due to generosity,” council’s motives to drive economy, street newspapers he says. “People know the homeless people out of the have been thriving. The num- vendors are homeless. They downtown area. ber of papers sold has in- buy the paper just as an act “When you’ve got nothcreased across the nation. of kindness. I’m hoping that ing at all and you’re desper“It’s been pretty astonish- people are now starting to ate just to survive, it can be a ing, really,” says Greg Flan- buy the paper because they pretty cruel world,” Flannery nery, editor of Streetvibes in want to read it.” says, “especially in Cincin- 5 nati.” Other newspapers are also triumphing during the economic crisis. Vendors of the Denver VOICE sold 3,000 newspapers in January, and they were selling up to 16,000 only three months later. “Our vendor numbers have gone up, and I think that’s a direct correlation to the economy,” says Gretchen Crowe, vendor program director for the Denver VOICE. The paper has about 175 vendors selling the paper each month. Street Speech in Columbus, Ohio, was selling about 600 papers in August 2008. Now, the paper is selling around 4,000 copies per month, according to Shea Davis, Ameri­ Corps VISTA and Street Speech coordinator. “Most of them (the home­ less vendors) really believe in the mission of the paper and they want to get the word out,” Davis says. “They’re happy to feel that they have a voice in the media and that they have a way to share their stories.” Street Speech has given the homeless new opportunities, such as jobs in the communi­ ty. A local restaurant was hir­ ing, and the owner decided to employ one of their vendors, Davis says. “The owner had seen him standing out there in terrible weather,” she says. “He just saw his perseverance and dedication and work ethic and realized he would be a great employee to have.” All of these street news­ papers are members of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA), an organization that supports self-sustaining street news­ papers around the country. About 25 U.S. street papers are members. “The news, the informa­ See Papers, p. 10 First the Banks, Now the Rest of Us (Continued from page 1) 1 corner is vacant. These vacant properties are in a constant state of deterioration and I feel like no one cares how my neighborhood is affected.” “We told the Federal Reserve that they needed to hear from homeowners and community leaders who were feeling the effects of foreclosures,” said Marilyn Evans, executive director of Communities United For Action (CUFA). “We know that they are hearing from the banks, but they also need to hear from us. We told them they needed to expand and modernize the Community Reinvestment Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.” The meeting in Cincinnati was one of 10 meetings that Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke agreed to hold around the country. Representing the Fed were Joseph Firschein, assistant director and com­ munity affairs officer, and Anna Alvarez Boyd, asso­ ciate director of analysis and communications. If Federal Reserve officials wanted stories, they heard plenty in Cincinnati. “Your stories really put a face on what this crisis is about,” Boyd said. She and Firschein promised to take the stories and issues raised by WIN and CUFA back to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. “When you’re talking to us, you’re really talking to them,” Boyd said. Other public officials who attended were State Rep. Denise Driehaus, Hamilton County Commis­ sioner David Pepper and Cincinnati City Council members Roxanne Qualls and Cecil Thomas. Also in attendance were representatives from U.S. Bank, Fifth Third Bank, PNC Bank and Spirit of America. The recommendations that community leaders presented were: • updating the Community Reinvestment Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to in­ clude all mortgage institutions; • access to good mortgage loan products, in­ cluding 30 year fixed rates, without prepay­ ment penalties, yield-spread premiums and high closing costs; • requiring lenders to make affordability modi­ fications to loans or to prove why they can’t; • maintaining vacant properties and encour­ aging lenders to give or sell them at reduced prices to neighborhood development corpo­ rations; • and developing banking fees and small loan products to provide an alternative to preda­ tory lending. WIN and CUFA representatives along with Na­ tional Peoples’ Action plan to meet with Bernanke at the conclusion of the 10 meetings to discuss the results of the hearings and possible action to ad­ dress issues raised. CUFA President Roger Davis is looking for re­ sults. “They saw and heard what is going on because of foreclosures and how people are hurting,” he said. “Now we will see what the Federal Reserve will do.” �6 STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Guest Column No Media Buzz for Textbooks But the school-board race affects all of us Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here are not to be perceived as an endorsement or reflecting the views of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, which publishes Streetvibes. By JaSon haap guest Columnist board seem nearly invisible. The candidates pull fewer campaign stunts and so end up with less news coverage. News readers talk less. The buzz doesn't generate. Can­ didates spend less money on races. All this means less vis­ ibility. Still, this year, the Hamil­ ton County GOP has decided to turn the school board race into a partisan affair – endors­ ing candidates and a plat­ form opposed both to school levies, as well as what they call the bad leadership of the Democrats they say have oc­ cupied the board for too long. Given the state of the econ­ omy, I'd bet the Republicans Is that the school board or the school bored? Do you pay attention to the school board race? I'm going out on a limb and guess you do not. I know I've never given the school board much thought – at least not until recently. The political landscape is so flooded with controversies ev­ erywhere: Maybe you've been debating Obama's health care plan with friends over coffee Jason Haap is running for Cincinnati School Board. Photo courtesy of or beer; maybe you have an Jason Haap Campaign. opinion on Strickland's plan for education reform; maybe Public Schools’ (CPS) budget ties already issued endorse­ protected by the pyramidal you've been writing City Hall is unstable. If faced with cuts, ments before I pulled my first power structure that shields as they have threatened once what kinds of policies should petition. I want more people the interests of those at the again to the district to pay attention to the race, top. If the district must cut, cut human adopt to put and I want to advance policy the people at the top can dic­ services If ever the district must make cuts to services kids first? concepts that protect our stu­ tate cuts from on high, taking first. that affect kids, those cuts should be reflected How can we dents and our schools from things away from kids – such But at proportionally in the budgets of the high-paid make sure divisive partisanship. I have as busing or extracurricular the level administrators who make such decisions. the interests ideas that can work, ground­ activities or arts and music of critical of students ed in the actual roles and re­ programs. But nothing re­ mass – in are placed sponsibilities of the school quires these decision-makers terms of what gets covered by are banking on the general ahead of partisan games and board – and my hallmark to share in the cuts them­ the daily papers, the televised population not wanting to political showmanship? plan is something I call “Pro­ selves! That's why I want to news, the frenzy of bloggers think about tax increases. That's why I entered the portional Cuts.” adopt a policy for “Proporcommenting on hot items Board members have al­ race, even though the ticket Typically, high-paid cen­ See Media, p. 7 – races like those for school ready claimed the Cincinnati is full and both major par- tral-office administrators are Stay Motivated, Keep Selling ‘Streetvibes’ vendor is also a community volunteer By JereMy flannery Contributing Writer Motivation must be diffi­ cult to find when you’re un­ employed and homeless. But James Brown is now neither. He has stable housing in Bud­ dy’s Place at 1300 Vine St. and sells Streetvibes to earn an income while seeking steady employment. “It’s the first time I have my own place in a long time,” he says. Brown has been unem­ ployed from a steady job since January 2008. Though he has been applying for work, he has been denied employment prospects because of his past drug convictions, he says. Brown, 38, moved to Cin­ cinnati from Detroit, Mich., with his wife in 2002 when she was hired at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. While in Detroit, Brown worked part time for the Chrysler Corp. “(Cincinnati) is slower than Detroit,” Brown says. “Cin­ cinnati could do better things with its construction and vendor for three months and the police. They need to give most often sells the newspa­ people second chances with per around 13th Street and felonies to get jobs and stay Vine streets. off the streets selling drugs. “I sell to businesses around Change the negative into a there and to people walking positive.” by on the street,” he says. “I Brown stayed at the Drop have a lot of regular customInn Center from October 2008 ers there now, and they seem to February to really 2009 and love the pa­ would like “It’s a blessing to per. I do get to return wake up every day some good there to and be motivated sales. I volunteer. to live life and keep even made “I used going, because you $20 after to sell ciga­ don’t know what might a couple rettes and happen tomorrow.” of hours washing - James Brown once. But, bottles at you know, the Dropthere are Inn Center – that’s how I some people that just walk made my living,” he says. “I’d right past you. like to go back and volunteer “It’s amazing how the pa­ there to help the people there per gets people to come back to get up and get motivated to to the vendors. People say find work and have hope. It’s a the articles are good and it blessing to wake up every day tells the truth about home­ and be motivated to live life lessness. People talk about and keep going, because you homelessness, but you don’t don’t know what might hap­ really know it without the pen tomorrow. They need to firsthand experience. Streethelp people who are really ill vibes could do more articles and help people get a change on homelessness, and I know of clothes.” they’re doing that now, but it Brown volunteers for Our would be great to see more of Daily Bread, a food and hos­ it because it’s important.” pitality ministry in Over-theBrown says he attends Rhine, assisting the organiza­ church on Sundays to keep tion with mailings, he says. himself motivated. He would He has been a Streetvibes also like to write poems for James Brown has been a Streetvibes vendor for three months. Photo by George Ellis. Streetvibes, he says. He quotes Psalm 116:8 from the Bible: “He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.” Brown says the passage inspires and motivates him. “It’s a passage about life and helps keep me going,” he says. �STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Local News Dear Uncle Jimmy, My Friend 7 Remembering an editor who turned his life around visit with my mom, she would try to bite me. You would yell at her but it wouldn’t do any good. I asked you what D.D. meant and you said, laugh­ ing, “Dumb Dog.” Your brown eyes lit up when you laughed, and your laughter was conta­ gious. By elizaBeth heath I never knew you were an Contributing Writer alcoholic until later on in my life. I always wondered why I'm sitting here trying to we didn’t see you much any­ write something for Street- more. You became a distant vibes, but all I can do is think relative. You spent less and about you. Send me some­ less time with us and more thing, Jimmy. Send me some­ and more time drinking. I thing good. This might be the missed you. I tried to find you. only time I None of our get to see my family knew words in print. You picked me where you I do it for you, up out of the car were. in memory of and spun me I was 17 you, a man I around before when you put loved so much pulling me close yourself in but barely and squeezing me. the hospital. knew. “My little Bethie,” You tried to Most of my you said. drink yourself memories of to death at you are when I Aunt Janeen’s was a child. I remember your house. The first time I came black TransAm with T-tops. I to the hospital to see you, think you had the first mobile you slept the whole time. The phone ever made. You came second time you cussed at all to visit us when you first got of us and told us to get out. it. None of us did. The third time You yelled to my mom, I came to visit, when I walked “Hey, Jane, come check out into your room, you said, “My my mobile phone!” I ran out little Bethie,” with tears in the door as fast as I could, your eyes. I just hugged you right past you and into your as tightly as I could. It had car to check out the mobile been so long since I saw you. phone. I had never seen any­ You didn’t remember me be­ thing like it before. I picked ing there before that day. The up this thing that was bigger drinking had taken its toll on than my head. It was attached you. You looked older than to a black box about triple the you were. You looked like an size of the actual phone. old man lying in that hospital You picked me up out of bed. It made me so sad. the car and spun me around After you got out of the before pulling me close and hospital you went right back squeezing me. “My little to drinking. None of us saw Bethie,” you said. I giggled you once again. You stayed and squirmed until you put away for years. Why did you me down and went on to talk do that, Jimmy? Was it the and laugh with my mom, booze? Was it shame? Did my your sister. mom keep you away? I asked We would go to Grandpa’s about you all the time, and all to visit. I remember you be­ I ever got was, “I don’t know.” ing there a lot, you and your You didn’t get to see my beau­ poodle named D.D. I didn’t tiful daughter. You didn't like that dog. She was mean know that, despite my diffi­ to me. Every time I came to cult life and getting pregnant Jimmy Heath was the editor of Streetvibes until his death in December 2007. Photo by Jim Montgomery when I was still a child myself, I finished high school and went on to college. There was so much of my life I wanted you to be a part of. I missed your warm brown eyes, sweet smile and contagious laugh­ ter. I missed you spinning me around before the big hug. The next time I saw you, you were in the hospital again. You had not been drinking in years, but it still made you sick. I walked into the room and straight to your bedside. I leaned over and whispered in your ear, “I love No Media Buzz tional Cuts.” It's a simple concept: If ever the district must make cuts to services that affect kids, those cuts should be reflected proportionally in the budgets of the high-paid administrators who make such decisions. In other words, these administrators should never be able to take away from kids without also taking away from themselves. I've discovered this concept has broad appeal across the political spectrum. When the Green Party endorsed me, they liked the concept. As I've been out on the street collect- ing signatures, everyone with whom I’ve spoken said they liked the idea. My Republican friends and my Democratic friends like the idea. It rings with the independents, too. I believe this is a commonsense solution for uncommon economic times. It might not solve all our economic woes, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. OK, so I guess it won't generate the same kind of buzz as Jeff Berding’s disgusting campaign stunt when he wanted to require our most desperate citizens to pay a “panhandling tax,” while forcing them you, Jimmy.” I fully expected to hear, “I love you, too, my little Bethie.” I heard nothing. I felt like a child again, like I always did in your presence. You had the ability to make me feel that way although I was almost 30. All I could do was cry. Your warm eyes and sweet smile are only in my mind now. You are gone and I don’t have any answers to why you stopped coming around. You were a great man, Jimmy. You did good in the world. You helped people. You left me feeling like I missed out and wishing I would have known you better. I still see your warm eyes and sweet smile. Every day I will always remember you fondly, my sweet uncle Jim­ my: your laughter, your hugs, your amazing ability to turn your life around. I wish I could have spent more time with you as an adult, but I know you are watching over me. Smiling as I write. I love you. I miss you. Jimmy Heath, former editor of Streetvibes, died in 2007. (continued from page 6) 1 to hold city-issued signs stating how much money the city spends on human services. That sounds more like North Korea than Cincinnati, but unfortunately is the kind of thing that gets public attention on a large scale. Nevertheless, we must continue to advocate for our schools, and one way to do so is to raise the general awareness of the school-board race. School-board members can make decisions concerning the acquisition of materials and approving courses of study. On the one hand, it sounds like boring stuff. How excited can anyone get over the prospect of approving textbook purchases? But if you are a parent or a prospective parent and know about the long lines and waiting lists at certain magnet-school programs, then maybe you should think about what kinds of new programs the district adopts. The school board has the abil­ ity to direct the district in such regards. I love that CPS has Montessori programs in some magnet schools. I’d like to see more creativity, like a Waldorf-methods public high school, for example. The edu­ cational establishment has grown increasingly aware of the Waldorf method over re­ cent years, and the growing research is persuasive. Would changes like this improve our system and by extension our city? I think so, and that’s why I'm running. I have new ideas that are not just sound bites, but the kinds of things upon which the board could actually act. I live in Mt. Airy with my wife of 10 years and our two sons. I have been teaching for 13 years, and my platform arises from those experiences. �8 STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Local News Don’t Dump it; Freecyle it Sharing unwanted items helps to save the environment By paul Kopp Contributing Writer Green and frugal This rule is indicative of the initial idea behind Freecyle. Freecyle has three groups Rather than operating as a Sometimes it seems that, in Cincinnati, corresponding forum for people to get free in our consumer-based cul- to the city’s neighborhoods: stuff, Freecyle is at its core an ture, we have forgotten how west side, east side and cen- environmental and humani­ to share. People seem to be tral. The central group, which tarian effort. constantly buying new items includes areas within the city Frequently offered items to replace older ones, and of- limits, has 6,373 members. include baby and children’s ten those things end up in the Don Freeland, one of the accessories, clothing, furni­ garbage when someone else group’s five moderators, says ture and household items. could still use them. the membership has nearly The central Cincinnati group Now there is a doesn’t allow system that might pets to be postoffer a solution, “The majority of people offer items that ed, because helping people others need. It keeps them out of our animals aren’t share while at the landfill, and it is a deterrent to more something same time benespending for those items. However, that would go fiting themselves it also points out our obsession with into a landfill, and the environ‘new.’ Many people offer items that and including ment as well. are working well, serviceable and in them wouldn’t Freecyle.org is good condition just because they are fit with the a non-profit comredecorating, or are bored with the item. group’s goals. munity network At least those items are getting used to The decision that was created the end of their life span, and that’s an on whether to as a forum for important function of Freecycle.” include pets people to give and - Laura Hasenstab is decided rereceive things for gionally. free. Founded in In Cincin2003 in Tempe, Ariz., to pro- doubled in the five years nati, two different cultures mote waste reduction and since he joined. make up the city‘s Freecyle lessen desert-landfill usage, it Freeland, who lives in base, according to Kim Dye, has quickly become an inter- Hamilton, found out about the Central Cincinnati modnational movement. the group through word of erator. There are now 3,500 mouth. As a moderator, one “There is a green group Freecycle groups throughout of his duties is to review new and a frugal group, and they the world, administered by members’ posts to make sure have kind of come together,” local volunteers from each they understand and are fol- she says. group’s area. Membership is lowing the guidelines. Because society is becomfree. Each group has an on“One of the things that we ing greener in general, people line forum for posting items are very particular about is have become more conscienthat members want to give that the subject lines of the tious about putting things in away and items they’d like postings are consistent,” the landfills, Dye says. They, to receive. No money is in- Freeland says. “These would along with people who can’t volved, and each group has be ‘wanted,’ ‘taken,’ ‘offer,’ afford to buy new things, moderators to make sure that ‘received,’ ” he says. need to save money or want members follow the group’s Another key rule is that to help someone in need, are guidelines. there must be a 2-to-1 ratio of finding Freecyle a simple so“offer” to “wanted” postings. lution. “Some people are more on the environmental side, some feel it’s right to give things away to those who have the need for it and some are just out there because they want to get something for free,” Freeland says. “It’s a pretty wide spectrum, but the majority of people are probably a combination of all of those. Nobody does it for any one specific reason.” Jess O’Rourke, a nurse who has been a member for two years, gives examples. “I cleaned out my friend’s basement last year, and he told me to just throw everything away,” O’Rourke says. “Instead, I used Freecyle, and nothing was thrown away at all, at least by me. That was a lot of stuff! When I moved, I really needed moving boxes. I put up a ‘wanted’ post and I received moving boxes galore, packing paper, bubble wrap, etc. When I was done with them, I used Freecyle for everything I had received. It was great.” Help for non-profits Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless acquired two boxes of old editions of ‘Time’ magazine from Freecycle, to be used by high school students in creating photo books documenting urban poverty and social justice issues. Photo by Lynne Ausman. ! ? t a h W y a Most participants arrange to pick up items at the donor’s home, usually left on a front porch. That way participants don’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts. “When I go to pick something up, it always gives me that Christmas feeling, to have a little gift with your name on it,” Freeland says. Using Freecyle is beneficial for families who have no way to take items somewhere to donate, Dye says. Non-profit organiza­ tions have also made use of Freecycle. Dye, who is the hu­ man-resources manager for a non-profit agency that works with inner-city youth in the Cincinnati Public Schools, says she has received expen­ sive graphing calculators for students through Freecyle. Organizations that donate items are also able to receive a receipt for tax purposes. Laura Hasenstab, a Freecyle member and retired high­ school English and specialeducation teacher, says the movement says both good and bad things about society: “The majority of people offer items that others need,” she says. “It keeps them out of our landfill, and it is a de­ terrent to more spending for those items. However, it also points out our obsession with ‘new.’ Many people offer items that are working well, serviceable and in good condition just because they are redecorating, or are bored with the item. At least those items are getting used to the end of their life span, and that's an important function of Freecycle.” Though the group’s mem­ bership seems to be steadily growing Dye thinks there is still much work to be done. “If you are driving down the street and still see things sitting out for the trash, then we’ve not done our job good,” she says. “As long as you see useable things on the curb, the group has not got its mission out to people yet.” “Overcoming poverty is not a question of charity. It is an act of justice.” - Nelson Mandela S _____________________ �STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Community News Celebrating This Thing We Do 9 (Continued from page 1) Challenges of Advocacy Journalism without Preaching to the Choir.” The workshop featured a spirited discussion on jour­ nalistic ethics and practice. A highlight of the conference was the second annual North American Street Paper Awards. Streetvibes Editor Gregory Flan­ nery received the Best Feature Story Award for “We Are Their Slaves,” published in 2008, which documented the exploita­ tion of Latino workers in Greater Cincinnati. “It is very gratifying to have this story recognized in this way because it goes to the very heart of what we do – we who work for street newspapers and care about people who are home­ less, marginalized, disenfranchised and so often despised,” Flannery said. The story included information about the maltreatment of workers at a meatpacking plant that processes pork for the Kroger Co. When the Denver VOICE reprinted the story ear­ lier this year, its vendors were barred from selling the paper at King Soopers stores, a subsidiary of Kroger. Other awards were: • Best Interview – “Revolution,” by Israel Bayer of Street Roots, Portland, Ore.; • Best Series – “The Man Who Stood on the Bridge,” Real Change, Seattle, Wash.; • Best Vendor Essay – “Welcome Home – A Transitional Tale,” The Contributor, Nashville, Tenn.; • Best Cover Design – What’s Up Magazine, St. Louis, Mo.; and • Most Improved Newspaper – Street Sights, Providence, R.I. NASNA, launched in 1997, now has 27 member organiza­ tions in 14 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. NAS­ NA members have a combined monthly circulation of over 287,000, according to Freeze. The organization is likely to con­ tinue growing. Among the participants at the conference was Amanda Faith Moore, who is about to begin publishing Toledo Streets. “Street newspapers have for the most part avoided drops in circulation as other print media have seen,” Freeze said. “In fact, street newspapers are bucking the trends and are increas­ ing circulation, increasing the frequency of publication and being recognized for their quality content.” For more reports on the NASNA conference and the street-paper movement, see “Eight Minutes with a ‘Homeless’ Millionaire” on page 3 and “Street Papers USA” on page 5. Andy Freeze (left), executive director of NASNA, with Gregory Flannery, editor of Streetvibes. Streetvibes won NASNA’s “Best Feature Story” award for Flannery’s article ‘We Are Their Slaves’ about exploited Puerto Rican workers in suburban Cincinnati. Photo by Lynne Ausman. Vendors’ Artwork Artwork By Anthony Williams Berta’s Art Corner Photo by Berta Lambert “Ronald McDonald and My Shadow,” South Fairmount, Cincinnati, Ohio �10 Community News STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Street Papers Grow Across USA (Continued from page 5) tion that is being covered by our papers, is not being cov­ ered by other media outlets,” says Andy Freeze, NASNA’s executive director. Street newspapers gen­ erally focus on poverty and homelessness, Freeze says, whereas big media outlets tend to focus on these issues only when triggered by a larg­ er event. The content and location of a newspaper can also affect the amount of papers sold. “If you have a quality prod­ uct, people will buy a quality product,” Freeze says. “What makes some cities more suc­ cessful than others is a large downtown and a large walk­ ing population.” The business model of street newspapers, allow­ ing the homeless or former­ ly homeless to sell copies, makes people feel “empow­ ered,” he says. “They are their own boss,” Freeze says. “They can choose their own hours.” ‘Changed their mind’ Other papers have a dif­ ferent approach. Making Change, a street paper in Santa Monica, Calif., relies on homeless or formerly home­ less individuals to publish is­ sues. “We haven’t published reg­ ularly and that’s because I’m not homeless and I’m not the voice of homelessness,” said Moira LaMountain, business manager of Making Change. “Unless the newspaper is published by someone who’s homeless or formerly home­ less, it doesn’t get published.” A street newspaper gives the homeless credibility and a sense of validation by hav­ ing them take part in a busi­ ness, according to Jennafer Yellowhorse, editor of Making Change. She also can relate to the people she has worked with. “I started the paper in the back of my truck when I was living in my truck,” she says. Besides continuously look­ ing for contributors and vol­ unteers, some papers have to work with a tight monthly budget. “We don’t know month to month if that money is go­ ing to be there,” says Tasha French, director of The Contributor in Nashville. “My im­ mediate goal is that we get our non-profit status and get some grants so that this pa­ per is sustainable. This paper becomes sustainable where it’s going to stay around, re­ gardless of whether $100 is there or not.” Papers also take the time to train vendors before they sell in the streets. Training includes teaching policies on etiquette, showing vendors where they can sell and ex­ plaining how to interact with police officers. One of the main goals for street newspapers is to stim­ ulate conversations between vendors and pedestrians. “There are some people that walk right by you and act like you’re a ghost, that you don’t exist,” says Valdez, the vendor with the Denver VOICE. Many people, however, have walked by and have giv­ en him multiple donations, he says “I hear from customers where they didn’t want to give this person a chance,” says French, of The Contributor. “Once they read the pa­ per, they changed their mind about this whole interaction. Those are huge moments.” About once a month, French hears from a cus­ tomer about how the paper positively changed his or her cynical opinion of the home­ less vendor. That simple interaction is sometimes considered more important than actually read­ ing the content of the news­ paper. Tom Wills, director of vending for The Contributor, says that whether people read the paper or not, they get the experience of conversing with a homeless person. “You really can’t get to know homelessness without getting to know homeless people,” Wills says. “You can’t really get to know poverty if you don’t know someone ex­ periencing it or experiencing it yourself.” People who volunteer at street papers also tend to volunteer at local homeless coalitions and shelters. Pam Cordray, who works at the Salt Lake City Mission, is also working to put together the first issues of the Salt Lake Street News. She hopes that people will treat homeless people in Salt Lake City dif­ ferently once this paper is published. “They treat them (the homeless) less than human,” she says. “That breaks my heart, too. People are people. We are all God’s children.” Hope, Health Care, Sloppy Joes Anthony House helps homeless youths find homes By Will KirSchner Contributing Writer Six teenagers sit in the liv­ ing room of a home chatting, browsing Facebook and eating sloppy Joes. What breaks the normality is when Tom Curran, who manages Antho­ ny House, a drop-in center for homeless teens and young adults, enters the room and tells the teens that the clinic upstairs will offer free HIV tests. Kevin Finn of the Health Resource Center of Cincin­ nati founded Anthony House seven years ago. It serves as a place for homeless young people, up to the age of 24, to hang out, have their medical needs taken care of and get a warm meal. Six years ago it came under the auspices of Lighthouse Youth Services. Anthony House serves young people who are “couch-surfing,” traveling between the homes of friends and sleeping indoors when they can, sometimes squatting in abandoned houses. These young adults often go uncounted in surveys of homeless people. Among the services provided by Anthony house is providing homeless certificates. These cards, which certify that a person has spent the night at an emergency shelter, allows the holder to apply for transitional and permanent housing. Anthony House helps create a support system for these Tom Curran, manager of Anthony House. Photo by Jeni Jenkins. young adults. “They do not know how to get up with an alarm everyday necessarily,” Curran says. “They do not know how to do their own laundry a lot of times. We have to go over those life skills. They do not know how to make a budget or plan for a savings account.” Anthony House uses a variety of methods to help homeless young people. One is harm-reduction services. These include bleach kits and condoms. Bleach kits allow users of intravenous drugs, who might not have the re- sources to get their own needles, to clean a needle and share it. “We understand that people are making mistakes and people are choosing to continue their use and continue to have sex for that matter,” Curran says. “The idea behind that is in the future they will come to us to get these kits, and then when they are ready to move on with their lives and do something different, they will know who to come to.” Anthony House also provides laundry facilities and access to the Internet. Though its clients are homeless, the says. He was also robbed of Internet plays a large part in the $500 needed for rent, he their lives. By giving them a says. tool to network with friends Anthony’s experience and family, it allows them to points to the fact that homecoordinate with whatever lessness can affect anyone, support system they might even a college graduate. He still have in is a graduate place. It also of Ohio State allows them to “They have a lot University search online of hope, which with a degree for job openis a lot of time in psychology ings. different from the and a minor Anthony homeless adult in journalism. House uses the population. They His experiInternet to atstill have a lot ences led him tract homeless of friends and to advocate young people acquaintances. A for homeand inform lot of that is the less youths. them of what imperviousness He is now the is going on at of youth.” president of the house or - Tom Curran the Cincinnati where their chapter of the outreach vans Youth Empow­ will be. The agency’s Web site erment Program and credits includes the events that are Anthony House with helping going on that day. him get back on his feet. The Anthony (a pseudonym), Youth Empowerment Pro­ now too old for the services gram, or YEP, is a statewide provided by Anthony House, council of homeless youths became homeless as the re- ages 12 to 21 that advocates sult of a bad decision and a for all children. series of unfortunate events. Curran says the biggest He decided to allow some difference between homepeople he describes as “crack less young people and older heads” to stay in his place for homeless adults is their dif30 days. They took advantage ferent perspectives. of his hospitality and used “They have a lot of hope, his house for questionable which is a lot of time differactivities, he says. At the end ent from the homeless adult of the month, he put their be- population,” he says. “They longings out onto the street, still have a lot of friends and except for their valuable acquaintances. A lot of that electronics. When Anthony is the imperviousness of returned home, his guests youth.” had called the police, and he was charged with robbery, he �STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Editorial The Iraq War Still Goes On, Now With Corporate Sponsorship 11 So does homelessness in U.S. cities By Dan la Botz Contributing Writer and religion, robbery of the land, famine and starvation, exploitation of labor, massacres and more masIn early June I flew to Sacramento sacres of the Irish by the English and for an interview with the Argentine the struggle to build a movement to Discovery Channel. They’re doing resist and fight back. a documentary on César Chávez, After a good night’s sleep, I awoke, about whom I wrote a biography. It still on Cincinnati time, at 5:30 a.m., was on their dime, and I thought it had breakfast at 6:00, and by 7:00 had would be fun, though it turned out gone for a walk down to the bridge to be less entertaining than I had near where the American River joins expected. The flight home became the Sacramento River. A few fishera series of delays and missed conmen were out on the river. It was a nections leading me on a circuitous beautiful morning. Walking along the journey from Sacramento, to San river, I passed here and there homeFrancisco, to Chicago, and finally less men, wrapped in their blankets home to Cincinnati a day later than and still asleep. Sacramento, you I expected. But it was, in the end, may remember, achieved some noeducational. I learned on this trip toriety recently for its Hooverville — that not only does the war goes on, we should say Bushville, I suppose but so does the corporate sponsor­ — a tent city of the homeless. After ship. the national news media featured As I boarded the United flight the village, California Governor Arfrom Cincinnati to Chicago, I no­ nold Schwarzenegger and Sacra­ ticed four rather serious looking mento Mayor Kevin Johnson took young men with short-cropped hair quick action to provide temporary dressed in military camouflage uni­ shelter for the homeless. forms. I always feel like going up Well, that was then and now many and saying, “Don’t let them send of them are back sleeping out-of­ you there.” I was, however, unpre­ doors, some down by the river walk pared to offer them the name of a where the bicyclists and joggers pass local anti-war counselor of consci­ them, ignoring or unaware of the entious objectors, and they looked human bundles in the bushes along worried enough as it was without the path. me haranguing them. I continued to walk down the bank I was not the only one who had of the Sacramento River for a mile or noticed them. When the plane land- President Obama ordered that Stephen Colbert’s head be shaved while he was in so to the California State Railroad ed in Chicago, the captain came on Iraq entertaining active-duty soldiers. Museum, where a few of the doand told the passengers, “We want cents were busy polishing up one of to thanks the troops on board for advertisement encouraged tipplers In the lobby was a display of Af- the locomotives, getting ready for the their service to our country” and for to “Raise a glass” in support of the rican art, and a poster announced day’s series of short railroad tours. Be­ “defending our freedoms.” Perhaps a troops. Some inside were already rais- that June was dedicated to gay and hind the museum loomed up the old third of the plane applauded vigorous- ing glasses well before lunch, though lesbian rights, and buildings, some of them ly, though I don’t know if both of those made dating back to the 1860s, of others eiit was patrio- me think about the Well, that the Sacramento Locomo­ ther didn’t Had it not been for the Africantism that mo- impact of the movewas then and tive Works of the Southern hear or igAmerican civil rights movement tivated them. ments whose most now many Pacific Railroad. Once the nored the and the Mexican-American farm Some had public figures were of them are largest industrial complex c a p t a i n ’s workers movement, we might that perma- Martin Luther King, back sleeping in the West, employing encomium. never have had the anti-war, nent sunburn Jr. and César Chávez. out-of-doors, 7,000 people — and even as I have to women’s or GLBTQ movements. p r o d u c e d Had it not been for the some down late as the 1950s more than say — naby the fierce African-American civil by the river 4,000 people labored there ïve as this glare of a rights movement and walk where — today it is a collection might sound — that I was somewhat whiskey bottle. the Mexican-American the bicyclists of enormous abandoned surprised by the captain’s remarks. Later while waiting at the termi- farm workers moveand joggers buildings awaiting some Hadn’t we had a national election just nal gate with its ubiquitous televi- ment, we might never pass them, post-modern future. eight months ago, which was a kind of sion screens and inescapable noise, have had the anti-war, ignoring or If you are walking along referendum on the war? Hadn’t much I noticed CNN broadcasting the cer- women’s or GLBTQ unaware of the river, just after you pass of the public expressed its opposition emonies commemorating the D-Day movements. the human the museum, you come to to the war, and among those who vot- landing in Europe. Commentators Well, the crew of half bundles in the Old Sacramento, some hised weren’t there many who knew quite naturally linked the allied landing to a dozen 20-something bushes along toric buildings preserved well that our troops abroad don’t fight other American wars and “heroes.” I Argentines met up with the path. to create a typical town “defending our freedoms,” but on the wondered, are the guys in New Jer- me and under the glare of the old West for tourcontrary carry out a mission aimed at sey or Nebraska or wherever they are of their lights and the ists, its wooden sidewalks taking away the freedom of others? watching the screens and playing prompting of the young interviewer, leading to mock nineteenth century No. The war goes on. Obama con- with the joystick that commands the we made the tape. I went back to the shops filled with twenty-first century tinues the war in Iraq and promises drone also "heroes"? hotel and got back into the book I’m cuisine and what passes out there for to leave tens of thousands of troops reading. I like memoirs and this has a haute couture. I stop to watch what there as an occupying army if the conThe Sacramento River long title: Rossa’s Recollections, 1838 to looks like a scene out of a 1930s mov­ flict should ever end. He has also sent 1898; Childhood, Boyhood, Manhood; ie, a man in uniform, either a sheriff and the homeless more troops to Afghanistan. And he Customs, Habits and Manners of the or park ranger, I’m not sure which, sends U.S. drones to bomb Pakistan. Let me make a kind of aside here Irish People; Erinach and Sassenach— brings a bindlestiff, sand still in his The war goes on and on. And though from my discussion of the war to Catholic and Protestant—Englishman eyes, into the donut shop and buys a few months ago it seemed the touch on another issue. In Sacra- and Irishman—English Religion— him a cup of coffee. American public had turned against mento, after checking into my hotel, Irish Plunder; Social Life and Prison the war, the corporations continued I took a cab to the Sacramento Pub- Life; The Fenian Movement; Travels in Obama’s clown to produce commercials for it at every lic Library where the interview was to Ireland, England, Scotland and Ameropportunity. be done in the beautiful Sacramento ica by O’Donovan Rossa (1898). The next morning I read student I walked through the Chicago air- Room, a classic reference and reading The story of the Irish reads like the essays — quite good the lot of them port to catch the flight to Sacramen- room saved from the old library when story of the Guatemalans: foreign conto, passing a bar where a Jim Beam it was remodeled. quest, suppression of the language See War, p. 12 �12 Editorial STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 The Iraq War Still Goes On (continued from page 11) — and then in the afternoon go out to the airport to catch my plane to Denver. The board says, “delayed,” so my itinerary is changed to San Francisco, then to Chicago, where finally I ar­ rive near midnight to be put up at the Doubletree Hotel (the one where they give you the chocolate chip cookie with your room key). At the registration desk there is a sign on the counter ask­ ing us to “Support Our Troops.” I sleep restlessly for five hours, shower, dress and leave my room just as a man is dropping a copy of USA Today on the threshold. Going downstairs to wait for the shuttle, I read the headline: “Live from Iraq: co­ median Colbert delivers laughs to American troops.” Speaking to a crowd of 300 U.S. servicemen and women, Colbert tells them, “By the power vested in me by basic cable, I officially declare we have won the Iraq war!” General Ray Odierno tells him that his declaration of victory might be premature. When the general notices that Colbert’s hair is too long, President Obama appears on the big screen TV and tells the general to give him a haircut, which he does. Colbert, whose show car­ ried out a scathing criticism of Bush, has now, it appears, be­ come Obama’s clown. In the end, the trip to Sacramento to do the interview was probably not worth the time and effort — except for the beau­ tiful river walk — but it was educational. I learned that the war goes on in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and via drone bombers in Pak­ istan, with commercials from United Airlines and Jim Beam, and from CNN, the Comedy Network, and the Doubletree Ho­ tel. I also learned that even in today's America, occasionally a man in uniform will buy a cup of coffee for a fellow without a job or a home. Dan La Botz is a Cincinnati-based writer, teacher and activist. Read the Streetvibes blog for stories between issues at streetvibes.wordpress.com Crossword Sudoku acroSS 1. Examine thoroughly 4. Brushes 6. Inhabitant of Saudi Arabia 9. Self-confidence 10. Overturn 11. On the top 15. Become firm 16. Clenched hand 19. Easy stride 20. Social insects 21. Irish county 22. Friendship 23. Synchronize 25. Female name 27. Bouquet 28. Soft food for infants 30. Three at cards 31. Island in the Bay of Naples 33. Irregularly operated court 34. Rigid 35. Approaches 36. Destroy by immersion DoWn 1. Pertaining to the post office 2. Son of Isaac and Rebekah 3. Former county in SE England 4. Grime 5. Perfumes Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each 3-by-3 block contain all of the digits 1 through 9. 7. Serpents 8. Musical composition for two 12. Capital of Japan 13. Unfolds 14. Male name 16. Lacking brightness 17. Bury 18. Genre 23. Oral 24. U.S. gangster 26. California town 28. Whittle 29. Career golfers 31. Felines 32. Chilled The fundamental goal of a Sudoku puzzle is to use the provid­ ed numbers, or givens, to discover which numbers logically fill in the empty squares. The only rule of Sudoku is that each of the nine rows, each of the nine columns, and each of the nine 3x3 subsections must contain all of the numbers from one to nine, and each number consequently can occur in each row, column and subsection only once. Solutions on Page 15 �STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 Local News Teacher, Parent, Independent 13 Anitra Brockman wants to make a difference on city council By ariana ShahanDeh Contributing Writer Anitra Brockman, a teach­ er at Southwestern College, is running for Cincinnati City Council as an Independent candidate. She recently sat down for an interview with Streetvibes. Q: What inspired your decision to run? Brockman: I see that there are so many people in the community that need as­ sistance, whether it’s single parents or veterans or di­ vorced or widowed. There are so many residents that need help. It’s really funny. My friend and I were on our Anitra Brockman is running for Cincinnati City Council. way to a meeting and we were Photo courtesy of the Anitra Brockman Campaign. just talking about running for council, and I said, “I think I’ll are very intelligent and very ber that has theft felony and wait.” She said, “Well, we are capable, but they can’t (get they can’t get a job. What’s driving right past the board hired) because of that blem­ frustrating is that I know that of elections. We can go right ish on their record. So I’d like family member can do excel­ in.” Something possessed me to implement a program sim­ lent in the workforce, so I’m to get out of the car definitely in sup­ and I went in, and port of programs once I did it I was I’m definitely in support of programs that help get peo­ like, “Oh Goodness, that help get people get geared in ple get geared in did I just do that?” I the right direction so that they can the right direc­ don’t have a political start making a livable wage and get tion so that they background, but I’m back on their feet. can start making willing to represent a livable wage the residents of the and get back on city and make a difference in ilar to Mayor Mallory’s Young their feet. the community. Professionals Program for exQ: In an interview with the Q: Are you making any felons to get them the train­ Cincinnati Beacon, you dispromises right now? ing and skills they need (for) cussed the city’s marijuana Brockman: I’m not coming a successful rehabilitation. ordinance. What led to your right out and saying when I Q: Streetvibes has published modified response? get into office I’m going to do pieces profiling the struggles Brockman: Well, I say now this. What I’m doing instead former sex offenders experi- take it off the books until we is outlining some things ence through rehabilitation, come up with something bet­ that I would like to see take how they are labeled and ter. My previous position was place. For example, I’d like they don’t really get to move “Keep it on the books but to promote a second-chance on. What is your position on come up with something bet­ program for non-violent ex- that? ter.” I knew it wasn’t working, felons. That’s something that Brockman: I support any but I don’t think at that time I deal with at Southwestern initiative that helps people I was prepared to say, “Take College. A lot of the students succeed. You know, I realize it off the books,” because I’m had one or two incidents in that people make mistakes, completely anti-drugs. I was life that were non-violent and I support helping anyone very strong on that position and it blemished their record, that is trying to better them­ initially. Then when I met with so they can’t get a job. They selves. I have a family mem­ (Paul Green) from Prioritize Only purchase Streetvibes from BADGED vendors. Vendors wear their WHITE badges while they sell the paper. Cincinnati, he brought sta- I put education on the back tistics to me showing that the burner. (Brockman is now police are actaking cours­ tually spendes online for ing triple the her doctor“My senior year time making ate.) It’s just in high school, we arrests. So a struggle stayed in a hotel 8,000 hours every day to or motel.” of the police make ends - Anitra Brockman force time are (meet) with spent makmy kids. I’m ing arrests. The ordinance paycheck to paycheck; I’m doesn’t let them say, “I’m just not going to hide that. going to give you a ticket.” Q: How do you want to be (Officers) have to write the remembered? ticket, take them in and book Brockman: I’d like to be rethem. So it essentially takes membered as someone who about an hour to get back on is genuine, someone who patrol. That’s just too much, makes an effort to support especially with the budget the residents and the city. I cuts. I don’t see the city justi- just want people to say, “She’s fied in spending the money one of us. She’s not someone for an ordinance that really who thinks she’s better than isn’t generating any revenue us.” I love Cincinnati, and I for the city, and we are cut- just want to see it flourish. I ting 200 plus police jobs. want to see people come back Q: In previous interviews, to Cincinnati. I want to see you mention you’ve been people walking in Over-the­ through some struggles. What Rhine. We had our Stop the were some of those circum- Violence rally in Washington stances? Park and a lot of my friends Brockman: I lived in a two- were like, “I don’t know if parent household. My father I’m coming.” I said, “That’s had a gambling issue so we your choice; I’m not chang­ moved around a lot. My se- ing the location.” The reason nior year in high school, we I wanted to have it there was stayed in a hotel or motel to show people I don’t care (due to foreclosure). My mom where you are from. I don’t wanted me to go to a private care what your background high school, but (we) couldn’t is, what your color is. I wasn’t afford it, so I ended up work- raised like that. ... That’s what ing at the convent with the makes it so great ... living in nuns. Being a single parent the United States. … a lot of people think that Q: You’re trying so hard not you made the choice. I didn’t to be corny. choose overnight to become Brockman: I am! I just want a single parent. But the one people to know that I’m not thing that I think I can relate running for any type of perto with some of the residents sonal gain. I’m not running in the city that may be sin- for a power trip or anything gle parents as well (is) that I like that. I’m running because struggled with trying to figure I want to make a difference. I out what I wanted to do with really do. my life. Once I had kids, I Editor’s Note: This is part just said I need to work, don’t of a series of interviews with need to do anything else but candidates for Cincinnati City work and take care of my kids. Council. Interested in volunteering with Streetvibes? Contact Greg Flannery at 513-421-7803 x 12 or by e-mail at streetvibes2@ yahoo.com �14 What’s Happenin’ STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 neW eventS garden Volunteer day Learn about gardening while volunteering Saturday, Aug. 29, at Grailville, a retreat and program center on an organic farm in Loveland. Learn vari­ ous aspects of growing vegetables that you can apply in your own backyard. Participants will plant fall crops and clean garlic with expert gardener Mary Lu Lageman. The program is from 9 a.m.-noon. Grailville Garden Volunteer days are the last Saturday of each month through October. Volunteers work in Grailville’s kitchen and herb gardens. To reserve a spot or for more infor­ mation, call 513-683-2340 or visit www.grailville.org. Cleo’s Joke Corner neW outlet for Visual artists Visual artists seeking experience working with live figure models can en­ hance their craft in a comfortable creative environment at the Northside Art District, 4015 Cherry Street, Studio 451. Artists working in sketching and painting can work with other artists seeking to take their talents to a new level. Classes meet from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Additional days or spe­ cial sessions can be arranged. Guided instruction for students new to figure drawing is available. For fee schedules and other information, contact Car­ men at 513-205-8673 or 513-931-4355. Do you know why criminals do not like the subject of grammar? They don’t like to complete their prison sentences. a Weekend of integral eCology Grailville Retreat and Program Center in Loveland, in collaboration with Imago and the Michigan Grail, hosts Sustaining Spirit/Sustaining Earth: A Weekend of Integral Ecology from Aug. 21-23. Activities include medita­ tion and reflective inquiry, group-process work, inspiration from cuttingedge ecological movements, open-space conversations to help move theory into action and opportunities to explore Grailville’s 300 acres of woodlands, pastures and organic gardens. Tuition is $300 for single occupancy, $250 for double occupancy and $200 for commuters. Limited scholarships are available. Contact 513-683-2340 or visit www.grailville.org for more infor­ mation. Healing emotions: bridging east and West Gaden Samdrupling Buddhist Monastery hosts a conversation between a Buddhist monk and a western psychiatrist to explore the integration of East and West in emotional healing. The program is at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, with a suggested donation of $10. The monastery is at 3046 Pavlova Drive, Col­ erain Township. The suggested donation is $10. For more information, call 513-385-7116. out of tHe attiC art sale Do you have a piece of artwork that you don't have the right spot for and just can't throw away? Donate your unwanted art to Clifton’s “Out of the Attic” art sale. This event for rescued art will be Sept. 26th and 27th at the Clif­ ton Cultural Arts Center. Donations, which are tax-deductible, will benefit the center and the Clifton Community Fund. Donations can be dropped off from noon-6 p.m. Wednesdays and other times by appointment at the arts center, 3711 Clifton Ave. For more information, call Jinny Berten 513-961-6762 or Mary Schwetschenau t 513-348-8226. musiC Grammy-Award Winning Charles Ford Singers. August 23. 4pm. at St. Mark Christian Fellowship 820 Ezzard Charles Dr. art Green Spaces: Small Garden Communities of Dresden, Germa­ ny. Photographys by Ardine Nelson. Weston Art Gallery. Through August 30. Trace: Recent Sculpture and Drawings by Carmel Buckley. Weston Art Gallery. Through August 30. ongoing eventS tuesdays Acoustic Lunch Series. Piatt Park. 11:45am-1:45pm. 2nd tuesdays Cincinnati-Ohioans to Stop Execution Meeting. IJPC Peaslee Center (215 E. 14th Street, OTR). 7-8pm. 3rd Wednesdays IJPC General Peace Committee. Peaslee Neighborhood Center. 7-9pm. 1st tHursdays Benefits Rights Advocacy Group. Contact Center (1212 Vine St. OTR). Noon-1:30pm. Northern Kentucky Peace and Justice Group. Mother of God Church (119 W. 6th St. Covington). 7pm. 2nd tHursdays CeaseFire Cincinnati. Church of the Living God (430 Forest Ave). 9:30am. Become a Fan of Streetvibes on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/streetvibescincinnati �STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 15 Resources Need Help or Want to Help? Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter Churches Active in Northside 381-SAFE 768-6907 557-2873 681-2365 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 3600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 St. Vincent de Paul 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Charlie’s 3/4 House 661-4620 Crossroad Health Center 241-1064 Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic 562-8841 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 DIC Live In Program Prospect House 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 Starting Over 784-1853 721-0643 921-1613 961-2256 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 961-4080 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John First Step Home 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 961-4663 Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 351-0422 381-6672 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 AA Hotline CCAT Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 471-1100 221-3350 Hamilton County ADAS Board Recovery Health Access Center Sober Living Talbert House 946-4888 281-7422 681-0324 641-4300 Hamilton/Middletown 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 Northern Kentucky 721-4700 421-7803 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 721-8666 961-4555 751-0643 381-1954 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 621-5300 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 621-6364 535-2719 Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS 579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry Brighton Center 799 Ann St. Newport, KY 381-0111 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 351-7921 631-1114 211 977-5541 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 859-491-8303 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Health Center for Respite Care People Working Cooperatively The Caring Place United Way Women Helping Women 241-2600 241-2563 621-5514 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House Treatment: Both 558-8888 981-5800 Other Resources 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Treatment: Women 357-4602 352-2902 352-6363 458-6670 977-4489 NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach Peaslee Neighborhood Center Shelter: Both Anthony House (Youth) 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 872-9259 241-5525 591-2246 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 Treatment: Men Justice Watch 241-0490 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 Mt. Airy Shelter FreeStore/FoodBank 762-5660 Shelter: Men City Gospel Mission 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 621-1868 Puzzle Solutions Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226 �16 Double Take STREETVIBES August 15 - 31, 2009 What time was this special session of Cincinnati City Council? ‘Streetvibes’ Needs Your Help As print media production across the county continues to decrease, Streetvibes is thriving. In the past year we have sold out of copies four times and in­ creased our print run from 4,000 copies to 6,000 copies. Most recently, we have become a bi-weekly publication (formerly monthly). We are purchasing 4,000 copies every two weeks on the first and 15th of every month! One might assume that we are making these changes to meet the demands of our readers, and frankly, that’s part of it. But mostly, we are making these changes to provide our vendors – individuals who have been or are homeless – with a product that will not only sell, but will sell well. A product that they can be proud of, a product that will help them make ends meet each month – or rather every two weeks. Perhaps the greatest public success for Streetvibes this year was winning the International Network of Street Newspapers’ Best Feature Story, award fol­ lowed by a similar award from the North American Street Newspaper Associa­ tion. The winning article was an investigative piece about the exploitation of Puerto Rican workers in Cincinnati. The article helped to spark an FBI investi­ gation of illegal labor practices and justice for workers who deserve better. This is the kind of story Streetvibes tries to tell – people struggling against poverty and oppression, community groups organizing against injustice. Streetvibes is the activist newspaper, advocating justice, building community. Then there are also the daily successes: The vendor who just passed his/ her personal best in monthly sales. The new vendors who are so excited to begin selling because they know that the money they earn will truly be earned through honest, hard work. The veteran vendor who successfully recruited a new vendor and help to train him/her. The vendor who got a job at a local busi­ ness making slightly above minimum wage because the manager saw his/her work ethic while selling Streetvibes. Ultimately, Streetvibes would not be successful without our vendors, the writers and photographers who donate so much of their time and talents to Streetvibes, and you, our supporters and readers. Your support has made these changes and successes possible. Here’s what you can do: • $50 to cover the cost of orientation and material for new vendors. (Includes a one-hour orientation, badge, 10 papers to get the new ven­ dor started and ongoing support and guidance) • $150 to cover the cost of delivery of one edition from the printer • $250 to cover the internal production costs. (Includes large format paper, toner, CDs, software and other computer equipment and maintenance) • $500 to pay for the cost of printing one issue • $1,500 to pay all production costs for two issues • $5,000 to purchase Streetvibes bags and/or T-shirts to give to our vendors. Please consider giving to Streetvibes. All donations are tax-deductible. 75 cents of all paper sales goes directly to the vendor who sold you the pa­ per. Vendors purchase the paper from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless for 25 cents. Please make checks payable to “Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless,” 117 E. 12th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. You can also donate online at http://www.cincihomeless.org � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2009 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 15-31, 2009 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Celebrating This Thing We Do First the Banks, Now the Rest of Us Pg 2: The Vibe Pg 3: Eight Minutes with a ‘Homeless’ Millionaire Pg 4: Walking and Smoking Imaginary Chats & Real Compassion Pg 5: Street Papers Grow Across USA Pg 6: No Media Buzz for Textbooks Pg 7: Dear Uncle Jimmy, My Friend Pg 8: Don’t Dump It; Freecycle It Pg 9: Celebrating This Thing We Do Pg 10: Street Papers Grow Across USA Pg 11: The Ira War Still Goes On, How with Corporate Sponsorship Pg 12: The Iraq War Still Goes On Pg 13: Teacher, Parent, Independent Pg 14: What’s Happenin’ Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 15-31, 2009 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gregory Flannery Lynne Ausman Jeni Jenkins Lew Moores Dave Scharfenberger Margo Pierce Paul Kopp Jeremy Flannery Michael Henson David Heitfield Alecia Lott Larry Gross Stephanie Dunlap Angela Pancella Will Kirschner Ariana Shahandeh Elizabeth Heath Dan LaBotz Jason Haap Aimie Willhoite George Ellis Jeni Jenkins Rev. Joe Folzenlogen Jim Montgomery Anthony Williams Berta Lambert Jennifer Blalock Ranjit Rege Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Aimie Willhoite Alecia Lott Angela Pancella Anitra Brockman Anthony House Anthony Williams Ariana Shahandeh Berta Lambert Cincinnati city council Dan LaBotz Dave Scharfenberger David Heitfield Elizabeth Heath Environment Federal Reserve George Ellis Gregory Flannery health care Iraq Jason Haap Jeni Jenkins Jennifer Blalock Jeremy Flannery Jim Montgomery Jimmy Heath Larry Gross Lew Moores Lynne Ausman Margo Pierce Media Michael Henson Paul Kopp Ranjit Rege Rev. Joe Folzenlogen School Board Soup Kitchen Stephanie Dunlap Street Paper Conference street papers War Will Kirschner https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/b03c82680a3419f47838503f8c560ace.pdf 5fc4794c74ee14286b6ec5e31ab5e79c PDF Text Text A Historical Look R EECuisine T V IB E S at ST Hobo August Breakfast Recipe New Arts Contests that’s Healthier & Calendar Sneak1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 than it Looks Peak PG 6 PG 9 PG 16 A U G U S T 1 9 T H - S E P T E M B E R 1 S T 2 0 11 ISSUE 206 1 ADVOCATING JUSTICE • BUILDING COMMUNITY Cincinnati Prays to Save Historical Homeless Shelter A crowd of nearly a hundred people gathered outside the courthouse to share prayers, sing songs and make their voices heard in defense of the Anna Louise Inn. The affordable housing landmark that has spanned three centuries now finds itself under attack from insurance giant Western & Southern. JASON DEAN Streetvibes Editor W ednesday, August 10 saw a beautiful morning stretching across Cincinnati. The sky was blue and the air was cool; the kind of summer day that we always wish for but rarely get. It was a perfect climate for the near hundred people who gathered on Main Street at the steps of the Hamilton County Courthouse for the 9:30 a.m. prayer vigil. Later that morning was the court hearing in which Cincinnati Union Bethel (CUB) and the City of Cincinnati had to present a legal defense against the lawsuit filed by Western & Southern. The crowd was a diverse mix of people (see page 8 for more pictures), but the leaders of the vigil were mostly women of the cloth. Reverend Susan Bryan of Mount Auburn Presbyterian was the key organizer of the rally and all around were several different female pastors representing the different churches in the non-profit a long legal battle would effectively drain the nonprofit’s resources and sabotage the renovation that is posed to begin union that runs the Inn. Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls was one of the first to address the crowd with strong words of support for the Anna Louise Inn. Qualls shared that she in fact has lived within blocks of the Inn for the past four years and each day walks her dog in the park in front of Anna Louise. She emphasized that the residents of the Inn were good neighbors and nothing like the defamatory claims made by Western & Southern. Falls stated boldly that this was a clear case of a “force sale” from a business that did not like to be told “No!” The crowd erupted into applause at her precise and well delivered speech. The songs were loud and joyful. Christian Miller, also Loud Main Street traffic rolls by as reverends from various Cincinnati churches lead Anna Louise Inn from Mount Auburn Presbysupporters in calm prayers. Photo: Catie Dargue terian, played his guitar as he for its residence. So CUB spent the in tax credits that CUB has poised for led the crowd through simple songs last two years raising $10 million in action, the credits have an expiration singing praises to God and charity. tax credits and have recently been date and can only be used on the Unfortunately most of the reverends awarded $2.6 million in affordable Anna Louise Inn building itself. Even that stood to make their speeches housing (HOME loan) dollars. During if CUB had accepted the Brackett and share prayers were not heard as those two years Western & Southern Village property, another undervalued well. Those inexperienced with a bullhad no communication with CUB, offer from Western & Southern, the horn battled against the roar of buses but now that the Anna Louise Inn awarded credits would be nontranson Main Street, but even though the potentially has $12.6 million to work ferable. words may have been lost, the meswith, the insurance giant has made 11:00 a.m. that morning was sage was clear: let the Anna Louise the scheduled hearing before Judge its move by filing a grievance in the Inn continue to do the good work it’s Norbert A. Nadel. The court room Hamilton County Courts against the done for the past 102 years! was filled with supporters of the Anna City of Cincinnati decision to help the The lawsuit is the latest step Louise Inn, sitting on every available non-profit. in Western & Southern’s campaign chair, lining the walls, and even sitting The Anna Louise Inn only “potento purchase the Anna Louise Inn on the floor in the isle. The hearing tially” has the money for the renovaproperty for its realty development tion project. The tax credits have been was specifically for Cincinnati Union projects. Back in 2005 when CUB Bethel’s motion that the lawsuit be awarded and CUB can use them to was considering its financial options, dismissed. With legal support from the raise funds with the frequent practice selling and moving was one of many Cincinnati City’s Solicitor’s office, the of selling the credits to businesses choices. During 2005-2009 Western defense’s team of lawyers presented that need to balance their charitable & Southern offered CUB $1.75 million their central argument that this case contributions against their earnings. and then $1.8 million for the prime should not even be appearing in the Most people are unfamiliar with this real estate. Like any person offered a Hamilton County Courts, politely obprocess, including Judge Nadel who price woefully under the value of the is presiding over this case; lawyers for serving that the matter was not in the property CUB declined. Instead CUB jurisdiction of the courts. The defense the defense had to explain it to him decided to renovate Anna Louise and and at one point a laugh was raised in illustrated that Western & Southern convert three of its five floors from had failed to exhaust all of its opcourt when the judge seemed almost dormitory styles single rooms into eager to purchase some credits modern efficiency apartments that See Anna Louise, page 5 himself. Despite the generous award would offer a better standard of living See Anna Louise Inn’s Supporters in Action PG 8 facebook.com/streetvibes cincinnati Back to School Pluses & Minuses PG 4&5 twitter.com/streetvibesnews Interview with a Local Sideshow Freak PG 13 streetvibes.wordpress.com �Editorials 2 Confessions of a Bleeding Heart J udging from the front covers of two of Cincinnati’s popular free weekly papers there’s a buzz of excitement in the air, it would appear that Western & Southern are hosting a multimillion dollar tennis tournament in one of the wealthy suburbs north of 275. Growing up in England, Wimbledon was the tennis mania each summer, but I never really was quite able to get into it despite one summer actually purchasing a cheap racquet and playing (or rather losing against) friends. There’s a subtle skill to hitting that little green ball with all that force and yet all that precision; I was good at the former, but failed to master the latter. Even though I don’t care for tennis I can appreciate that people get a thrill from watching two near equally matched opponents battle it out on the court. But would the game be as fun to watch if one player had all the skill and the equipment and the other had next to nothing? That’s the other Western & Southern match that I got to watch last Wednesday. It was not a court in Mason, no, this court was downtown in Room 560 of the Hamilton County Courthouse; Judge Nadel was the umpire. Those other papers didn’t mention this contest in their coverage of the Western & Southern Open, but it packed out Judge Nadel’s courtroom with an audience on the edge of their seats (those not standing or sitting on the floor) waiting to see the underdog prevail. I read that there’s $5.2 million in combined prize money at the Western & Southern Open, but that’s not even half of what the Anna Louise Inn stands to lose if Western & Southern wins this match. Jason Dean (Editor) ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 From the Director Fear and Budgeting in Cincinnati B udgets. Lately there has been a lot of talk about budgets all the way down from the federal level to the state level to the city level. But what is a budget meant to do really? From all the kind of talk (and banter) we have been hearing one might think a budget is just meant to be a platform for politicians and media queens (often one in the same) to act dramatic, passionate and generally try to convince voters they are strong, indignant when needed and fighting for us. In fact, a budget is to be a financial plan meant to meet needs and accomplish needed goals. For example, if you or your family creates an annual budget for your household you first figure out how much money will come in. Then you determine how much money must go out for necessities. Once you ensure that your needed expenses can be paid, you likely determine certain goals for growth. These may include saving for retirement, purchasing a needed new car, making certain donations, paying off back bills, etc. Then you create a full plan to make all of this happen within the initial income number- a budget. Instead of doing this, “our representatives” use budgeting for political grandstanding and smoke screens. For example, if you are a city council person and you don’t like Human Services- dollars that help people in need of necessities, the annual budget gives you a chance to work to cut Human Service without having to directly say you just don’t like it. You can simply claim that, “Well, we have a large deficit and we have some tough decisions to make and while I believe Human Services is important, the money is just no longer there, so I have to vote to cut it.” You, however certainly won’t mention, for example, that you are also against taxing the millions of dollars in salaries big-whig ceos receive in stock options- a change to local law that would generate millions of dollars- you simply say the money does not exist. If you are such a politician and you want an even more convincing story, you don’t only say the money does not exist, you claim that if we fund everything else, we will have to cut police people and fire people and we will then all be on death’s door step. You divide and conquer. Sadly these smoke screens and this grandstanding deceive a lot of citizens. We look at strong words coming from politician’s mouths and believe they are actually fighting for us. Much of the problem is that we don’t pay attention the other many days of the year when those same politicians are saying things and making decisions that show their real intentions. Soon Cincinnati city council will pass a new budget- start paying attention now. Start reading what decisions politicians made over the past year and determine for yourself if their budget arguments are actually smoke screens. Then in November, before we pass a budget- vote and vote according to what you have figured out. Vote for those that actually practice and fight for what is right, not those that attempt to capitalize on fear and budgets- tell others to do the same- share your knowledge. Josh Spring (Executive Director) Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 Website: www.cincihomeless.org Blog: Streetvibes.wordpress.com Email: Streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Staff Editor, Design & Layout Jason Dean Executive Director Josh Spring Director of Development & Operations Catie Dargue Director of Education & Outreach, Layout Assistance, Streetvibes Distributor Program Manager Jeni Jenkins Staff Writer Susan Lakes Civil Rights Outreach Coordinator Riccardo Taylor Reception & Office Administration Georgia Bohannon, Karen Chatman, Stephen Gentry, Rubye Goode, Della Woolens. Summer Interns Journalism, Media & PR Mark Grauhuis Research Alisa Balestra Education & Outreach Harrison Lott Development Corey Luthringer Save the Date Anna Louise Inn Ice Cream Social Thursday, August 25 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. Lytle Park Contributing Writers This Issue: Laura Osborn-Coffey, Jesse Call, Jason A. Haap, Susan Lakes, Jeni Jenkins, Catie Dargue, Willa Denise Jones, E.Hayden, Jim Luken, Lee McCoy, Jessica Hopsicker, Josh Spring, A. Mann, Make Cincinnati Weird, Steve Sunderland, Riccardo Taylor, Corey Luthringer, Joe Nolan. Photography/Artwork This Issue: Susan Lakes, Jeni Jenkins, Catie Dargue, Josh Spring,Girish Balsavar, A.Mann, Kevin LeMaster, Dorothy Dark. �ST R EE T V IB E S A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 Distributor Program STREETVIBES IS DISTRIBUTED BY INDIVIDUALS WHO PURCHASE THE PAPER FOR 25 CENTS PER COPY AND SELL IT FOR A $1 DONATION, KEEPING THE PROFIT THEY HAVE EARNED. BECOMING A DISTRIBUTOR IS A GREAT WAY FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE FINANCIALLY POOR TO GET BACK ON (OR STAY ON) THEIR FEET. THIS PROGRAM PROVIDES SUPPLEMENTAL INCOME FOR THOSE UNABLE TO SECURE OTHER EMPLOYMENT. MONEY EARNED HELPS MEET BASIC HOUSING, FOOD AND HEALTH CARE NEEDS. THE PROGRAM IS A HAND UP FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE OFTEN IN A PLACE OF GETTING ONLY A HAND OUT, OR EVEN NO HAND AT ALL. ALL DISTRIBUTORS WEAR A BADGE AND CAN BE FOUND SELLING THE PAPER IN DOWNTOWN CINCINNATI, CLIFTON, NORTHERN KENTUCKY AND AREA CHURCHES. CURRENT DISTRIBUTORS ALFRED BRANDON NELSON WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 SINCE 4/2008 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DAVID TOUGH 3/2011 3 My Distributor Is… Many Streetvibes readers buy their copy of the paper from the person they consider to be their regular distributor. Every two weeks you walk by that same spot and look out for that friendly smile announcing that the latest issue of Streetvibes has arrived. We would like to hear from you and publish your positive thoughts about the person from whom you pick up your copy of this paper. We invite you to write a line or two, starting with the phrase “My distributor is,” that describes your Streetvibes distributor. Please email your observations to streetvibes@cincihomeless.org DELESA HENDERSON NEW 5/2011 ELISA HILL SINCE 9/2010 GRADY COOK SINCE 8/2007 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES BYBEE SINCE 9/2010 I can't remember the date but it was Friday, my day at Findley Market, I met Larry Brown selling Streetvibes. What a Great way to start a friendship!! We talk about different things each week. We both like to talk what's going in OTR & the city and how many of the same people we know!! So much in common. JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2003 JAMES MOORE SINCE 11/2010 JERRY DAVIS SINCE 5/2011 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 What a blessing to have this wonderful person as my friend and a good paper to read,too. Kathy Cox JULIE WALKER SINCE 6/2007 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 KIM GREEN SINCE 1/2010 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 My distributor [James Davis] is friendly, outgoing and full of life. I love seeing him every Monday. Not only do I get some great news, but a nice chat each week. Bravo to his pride of workmanship. Danny Cohn LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARK DAUGHTERY NEW 3/2011 MARK ANTHONY SHEARS SINCE 12/2007 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 Five Extra Ways to Support Streetvibes Distributors. (Concept borrowed from our sister paper Streetroots in Portland, Oregon). PAMELA TAYLOR NEW 6/2011 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAY BREWER NEW 5/2011 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY LUNDY NEW 5/2011 1. Traveling out of town? Buy extra copies of Streetvibes for the road. Who knows. Someone might notice the paper at the airport, bus station or on the road trip and strike up a great conversation. 2. Let out of town friends and family know about Streetvibes and the concept behind it. Let them know how it helps homeless and formerly homeless distributors pay for some basics. RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 TOMMY THOMPSON SINCE 2/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 SHANNON MOATS NEW 3/2011 TERRY RANSON SINCE10/2008 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 3. Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate. Consider asking your distributor is they would like a bottle of cold water. Water helps keep the hydrated and strong. 4. Buy additional copies of Streetvibes and introduce the organization to at least one friend or Cincinnati newcomer. You can help spread the word and also raise awareness of progressive issues in Cincinnati. VICTORIA MINOR NEW 3/2011 WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WILLIAM BURDINE SINCE 8/2009 W. KENNETH BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 5. Stop and talk to your neighborhood Streetvibes distributor. Introduce yourself and let her/ him know what you like and don’t like about the paper. This helps build community throughout the city, but more importantly, helps build what could become a lasting friendship. � 4 Local News ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 No Back to School for Hundreds of Unemployed Teachers. JASON A. HAAP Contributing Writer U ntil this past March, the specter of unemployment was an abstraction (and I think it an abstraction for most Americans – something we think about without experiencing.) I knew the unemployment statistics, and I supported those policies and politicians who offered aid to our city's safety net. But I had never lost a job. I had worked consistently since age 16, when I became a bagger at the North College Hill Thriftway (and I left as a grocery clerk several years later, two weeks before I began my first teaching job – 14 years ago). Then, bad Republican policies and Gov. Kasich’s apparent hatred of public schools culminated for the Princeton City School District into a massive budget deficit. The district tried to deal with its sudden funding loss, but it had to reduce the instructional staff by twenty percent. I had been teaching high school English for 14 years, but only at Princeton for three. Like many others, I got cut on the basis of seniority. Princeton lost tons of quality teachers. And so, it seemed, did everyone else. I remember, at one job interview, hearing there had been 147 applicants. There were, I think, only about 15 English positions available this hiring season. (And that is probably an overestimate!) Some of us were seasoned veterans, and others of us fresh out of college – but we found ourselves in the same situation, looking for scarce jobs in a market flooded with qualified applicants. Then, of course, consider all the other disciplines – math, science, and social studies. Were there about 150 math, 150 science, and 150 social studies teachers, all looking for work? That equals 600 core content high school teachers in our area, and probably not more than 50 jobs available. Also consider the elective teachers (like art, foreign language, and so forth), and then the elementary teachers. I thought this was a staggering number of teachers to have unemployed in Greater Cincinnati, all before. Sure, some of those teachers found jobs outside their chosen field. But I'm sure they all didn't. There are more workers than jobs right now. I realize how it feels to lose a job – the depression, the disorientation, the lack of control. I came close. I finished one school year nearly unemployed, but I got a new job before the next school year began. I experienced no lapse in pay, and no lapse in insurance coverage. But what about due to a bad economy and legislation from Republican politicians who seem to hate public education. So there it was: the specter of unemployment. Very real. Very large. It hovered over my consciousness every moment, every day. It wasn't until July that I secured my new gig. But what about the 146 other English teachers who had been looking for work? And what about everyone else? Suddenly, the unemployment statistics meant something concrete. The guy downtown – with a sign reading "Laid off. Please help." – haunted me in a manner he never would have everyone else? What about the families who lose their insurance? How can you cover $1,000 monthly COBRA payments on unemployment? Just think about that, and then consider Cincinnati City Council putting public health clinics on the chopping block. It's disgusting. Unemployment might cover, if you are lucky, around half of your former salary for its relatively short duration. What if you can't afford your bills on that amount? How would you pay them? How would you eat? If you lost your house, where would you sleep at night? Think about all these things, and then consider the war some have waged against downtown social service providers. These wealthy young professionals claim it unjust to over-concentrate services downtown, apparently because it brings too many "undesirables" into an area some want to gentrify in the name of progress. Not that I'm against progress – but I really started to think about it: having no money, no insurance, nowhere to stay, and then trying to catch buses to the far reaches of the city to get help, all because someone wanted to "de-concentrate" social services to improve the property values of redevelopment projects? It's sickening. I'm lucky. I found a job. But I came close. I tasted unemployment, and it left me changed. I realize now, more than ever, how important it is to make sure those among us with the least still have a place to go for food, for sleep, for medical care. And if it means I have to pay a few extra bucks per year in city taxes, then this is an investment well worth the price. Those of us fortunate enough to afford a few extra bucks in taxes owe it to those of us who have fallen on tough times, through no fault of their own. We have a duty to one another to be there for each other. And this basic sense of human decency and connectivity should not be subjected to the gross politics of anti-tax activists who want people with jobs to feel like they can't afford to help those the system has left behind. Jason A. Haap, also known to many as The Dean of Cincinnati, is also co-editor of the politically progressive website Cincinnati Beacon, www.cincinnatibeacon.com Act Now: Speak Out on Cuts to Healthcare SUSAN LAKES Streetvibes Staff Writer H ealth care, including city health centers and school nurse programs, might be on the budget chopping block, and you can speak out against additional cuts at the fourth in a series of budget hearings. There’s one more chance to attend one of the four budget hearing. That chance is 6 p.m. Wednesday, August 31 at the MSD Administration Building, 1081 Woodrow Street in Lower Price Hill. Similar hearing took place earlier this month in Hartwell, Avondale and South Cumminsville. “Attend a budget hearing,” urges the City of Cincinnati Board of Health/ Primary Care Board,” in an important message flyer. “In December, City Council voted to cut funding for city health centers by 25%. A $33.6-million deficit looms and additional cuts are being discussed RIGHT NOW.” In its call for action, the primary care board is asking people to show up and tell stories to help save health clinics services provided to school children by school nurses. Cutting services might pull the health safety nets out from under We serve as a creative outlet for women in need to uncover their talents and build relationships while making and selling jewelry, quilts, and other handcrafted items. We provide a welcoming environment and continuous support-our women do the rest. They are our voice. They are our mission. They are our Sarah Center. Artists receive 50 % from the sale of their items, while the rest goes towards materials and other support. Sarah Center HELPING WOMEN HELP THEMSELVES 1618 Vine Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 For more information visit www.sfoutreach.org many working class people and a huge chunk of students that live in households that fall below poverty levels. In December the City Council voted to cut funding for city health centers by 25%. Any more cuts could jeopardize the health of thousands of working class people and school children. The City of Cincinnati Board of Health/ Primary Care Board is issuing a call to action. For the disturbing 75% of poor students in city schools, a school nurse provides the only access to health services, according to information released by the board. The program provides services at elementary schools including screening, chronic disease management, immunizations, dental screenings, medication administering and more. Advocates of school health programs believe it’s more cost effective in the long run because the current system uses a public/private partnership with hundreds of community volunteers. In addition to school health programs, the budget hearings will provide a way to voice objections to more cuts to city operated health centers that provide medical and dental care to 35,000 patients annually. Healthcare providers handle 135,000 visits annually. The centers serve the working class, or the people who are not eligible for Medicaid, have no insurance coverage and have nowhere to turn to but emergency rooms. “Closing even one center is not an option,” says the board in its information release. “There are waiting lists of 3 – 6 weeks for new patients at all centers.” Cutting off healthcare could be a life and death decision. “Loss of services means medically indigent city resident will become sicker and put their lives at risk,” the information says. Attend a budget hearing to protect healthcare funding levels. It’s happening at 6 p.m., Wednesday August 31 at MSD Admin Building, Lower Price Hill. To speak out, please fill out a yellow card when you arrive. �ST R EE T V IB E S A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 Local News 5 Cincinnati Public Schools Get a Long Overdue Upgrade COREY LUTHRINGER Streetvibes Intern W ith the start of a new school year, Cincinnati students and their parents have something new to look forward to. Recess extended an hour longer? No. Calculus classes for first graders? Not that either. New computers? Maybe. Salad bars in the cafeteria? Oh yes! With the support from the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools Initiative, Jessica Shelly, Cincinnati Public Schools Food Service Director, embarked on a challenging journey to provide salad bars to all 53 Cincinnati Public Schools. Achieving great success, all 34,000 Cincinnati Public School students will now have access to a salad bar at lunch stocked with a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Jessica’s journey began in early 2010 when the Cincinnati Public Schools received funding from Chiquita and United Fresh Produce Association Foundation for their first four salad bars. Since then, grants from Whole Foods Market, Molina Healthcare, Xavier University, the American Dairy Association’s Fuel Up to Play 60, and Castellini Company have worked with Cincinnati Public Schools to provide the remaining 49 salad bars, just in time for the start of the fall school term. What’s the big deal about salad bars? Think back for a moment about your school lunch experience. If it was anything like mine, it was filled with memories of lunch ladies spooning out items from huge pots onto a plate. Items like mystery meat, covered by lumpy mystery sauce, with a side of vegetable goo – at least we thought it was vegetables anyway. And I do recall a fun game we used to play, something along the lines of mixing together these ingredients and daring Anna Louise Continued from page 1 tions to file a complaint against the City of Cincinnati’s choice to award the grant and permits to Anna Louise through the regular administrative channels of handling such disputes. More recently Western & Southern’s lawyers have filed the legitimate forms with the city’s zoning boards, but not until after trying to bypass the established process and jump straight to court. The defense delicately observed, with careful deference to Judge Nadel, that Western & Southern had timed the filing of the lawsuit for purposes of “judgeshopping” in an effort to find a judge whose track record might favor their case; the plaintiffs dismissed this. Western & Southern’s legal representative Francis Barrett, also dismissed the emotional appeal of the defense’s case and insisted that this case was about “The Rule of Law,” a phrase that he repeated several times throughout his argument. The plaintiffs are contesting the zoning permits that were recently awarded for the renovation of Anna Louise by claiming that the non-profit’s operations go beyond what the each other to eat the now colorful Students are also offering suggesconcoction. With salad bars and other tions for their favorite produce items healthy options in schools, we can’t they want to see in the salad bars. really complain about kids daring each This school year, the Cincinnati Public other to eat cherry tomatoes or mixing Schools will pilot a program called a salad con“Mentorcoction. On ing Meals the contrary, Mondays” now we can as part of encourage it. the Healthy ChildMonday hood obeCampaign sity is on the launched in Cincinrise, tripling nati this past over the May. “Menpast three toring Meals decades. Mondays” And no one will encourknows this age teachers better than CPS believe that a healthy diet leads to a healthy brain. to become First Lady Photo: Courtesy of Cincinnati Public Schools good role Michelle models, sitting with their students at Obama, architect of the Let’s Move! lunch and eating from the salad bar or Initiative, dedicated to solving the bringing a healthy lunch from home. childhood obesity epidemic within a On top of the nutritional benefits, generation. For many children, the students are also feeling more trusted food served at school may be the and respected, and like their salad bar only meals they regularly eat, making is a special privilege. One student has healthier food options in schools more even exclaimed that he is “just like his important than ever. friend going to that fancy school” now But salad bars are not the only that he can also visit the salad bar for new things in Cincinnati Public Schools. Starting this fall, all of the schools will also have multiple entrée choices, non-meat alternatives, healthier turkey-based meat alternatives, low-fat dairy products, and whole grain products, among other innovations. Jessica Shelly comments that “We want to be the premier provider of nutritious, low-cost, delicious meals so that students don’t feel they have to eat school lunch, but that they want to eat school lunch.” Benefits to the students are already far-reaching in schools where salad bars have become staple cafeteria items this past year. Students are now being tempted to try new fruits and vegetables because they see their friends and teachers doing the same. permits allow. In previous hearings, Western & Southern has painted a picture of Anna Louise that confuses the services provided by the historic shelter with those of other facilities that provide housing and emergency services. The campaign is being built on shocking the public into thinking that Anna Louise is a threat to the Anna Louise’s actual neighbors are filing complaints, just a developer trying to force a sale. Barrett, however, actually stated that the plaintiffs were not trying to take the building; it is just a matter of “The rule of law” as though Western & Southern’s attempt to block the work of Anna Louise was somehow a legal public service The historic and much coveted Anna Louise Inn . Photo: Kevin LeMaster neighborhood, but in the courtroom it kept coming back to “The Rule of Law.” There is an irony that none of of keeping things fair. In a sarcastic tone Barrett argued that CUB was abusing the zoning process with the lunch every day. Thanks to Jessica Shelly and her determination in securing salad bars for the Cincinnati Public Schools, childhood obesity has the potential to become a thing of the past and the City of Cincinnati has the potential to become a leader and model for school districts nationwide - something all Cincinnatians should be proud of. Let’s Move! Initiative – www. letsmove.gov Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools Initiative – www.saladbars2schools.org Cincinnati Public Schools Food Service – www.cps-k12.org/ menu/menu.htm The Monday Campaigns – www.mondaycampaigns.org Author Tid-Bit: Corey Luthringer is a global health blogger and activist who volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House and in the Development Office of the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. attitude of “we’re entitled to do this because we’re doing good.” Despite Western & Southern’s history of wanting the Anna Louise building, the plaintiff’s case kept revolving around the nebulous “rule of law” and tried to deny that this was an attack. The defense’s closing argument had a strong emotional undercurrent by respectfully accusing Western & Southern of employing a delay tactic by tying Anna Louise up in stretched out and expensive legal proceedings. It was observed that, unlike Western & Southern, Anna Louise does not have much money, so a long legal battle would effectively drain the non-profit’s resources and sabotage the renovation that is posed to begin. Judge Nadel had appeared stolid throughout much of the hearing but it was clear that the crowd was on the edge of its seats waiting to hear him dismiss the case. Instead Judge Nadel stated that he had yet to decide and requested written reports from both sides for him to review. He vaguely asked if about a week was long enough; the defense accepted with deference but was quick to pin down that “about a week” would be Wednesday, August 17. So Anna Louise, the City of Cincinnati, and all of CUB’s supporters must wait to find out the fate of this historic charity. �6 National & International The Hobo Cookbook ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 The American homeless communities contribution to modern American cooking may be unknown to most, but in this interesting article, Joe Nolan discusses the history of the culinary odyssey of the campfire kitchen and gives some helpful cooking tips for those currently living on the street. JOE NOLAN The Contributor (USA) www.streetnewsservice.org T he golden age of the American hobo dawned during the last decade of the 19th century. As the Industrial Revolution began its techno-cultural transformation of work and life in the United States-and the world-a number of wandering workers abandoned the security of home, family and steady employment for a self-reliant, vagabond existence, living by the hobo code to "decide your own life." Today, the image of a train-hopping hobo carrying a bindle stick-a cloth containing one's belongings, tied to a stick-is a part of the country's collective consciousness. Indeed, some itinerant workers still live the lifestyle today: the National Hobo Convention is celebrating its 111-year anniversary in Britt, Iowa this August. The convention kicks off with a parade and serves as a diverse celebration of the traveling worker under the motto: "Some in rags, some in tags, some in velvet gowns." Today, the word hobo may be seen in a derogatory light, but this understanding is incorrect. Although the origins of the word "hobo" are hard to trace, writers and etymologists have revealed possible meanings that also shed more light on the hobo's day-today life. In his book Made in America, Bill Bryson suggests that the term evolved from a railroad greeting, "Ho, beau!" or that it was an abbreviation that stood for homeward bound. Both of these interpretations imply the life of a wandering worker, not simply a beggar or an itinerant ne'er do well. In The American Language, H.L. Mencken points out that "[a] hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but soon or late he returns to work." Again we see that while the hobos valued their freedom, it was a freedom that was won through self-reliance and shared values within the greater hobo community. Along with a code of ethics and a system of written symbols that allowed wandering hobos to leave messages for one another on their travels, American hobos developed a unique spoken vocabulary that took on a particular flourish when it came to addressing one of a hobo's persistent concerns: his next meal. A hobo seeking "bullets" for his "banjo" was looking to put beans in his cooking pan. A wandering worker new to a town might "call in" on a fellow hobo, hoping to cook up his "gump." In other words, he wanted to share a campfire in order to prepare a scrap of meat. Hobo cookery tells a lot about the hobo life and the men who lived-and continue to live it. It is also an outdoor, camping, culinary tradition with a long history that still finds echoes among outdoor enthusiasts, contemporary hobos and homeless people in America today. Many Americans start the day with a hot cup of coffee, and after a long night of camping out, the hobos of yesteryear and the homeless men and women on our streets today love the brew too. In these days of paying more than a few dollars for a daily dose of the gourmet good stuff, affording one's morning coffee can present more than a challenge for someone living on the street. In addition, trying to pull together your own brew without the benefit of a kitchen can be just as daunting. During the days of the hobo, our vagabond heroes took a page from their Western brothers, brewing up a camp side cup with a technique borrowed from cowhands camping out with their herds. The beauty of the recipe is that it dispenses with hard-to-find coffee filters, boiling the brew down to its most basic components: coffee, water, heat. After adding coarse-ground coffee and water to a pot, a pan or even a coffee can, the resourceful hobo would bring his brew to a boil and then take it off the heat to simply let it sit. Once the agitated grounds had settled to the bottom of the brew, one could pour the dark, delicious stuff off the top and enjoy a great wake-up before greeting the adventure of a new day. Today the recipe is still popular with people who live on Nashville's streets. "It's called cowboy coffee," explains Jim Bo-a homeless man in Nashville who knows all about the challenges of improvising a meal on the streets or in an urban camping environment. According to Bo, simplicity is the key to a camp wake-up: "Build a fire and get a pot of water and some coffee." But just because the hobos of the past were independent vagabonds doesn't mean that they didn't enjoy options. In fact, in the hobo mindset, a life of free-wandering and self-reliance created expectations of more freedom and options than domesticity and wage-slavery could offer. So, hobos who didn't have a taste for coffee often opted for a fragrant tea whipped up from plentiful pine needles. Lessons on how to cook food with an empty pot. Photo Dorothy Dark Pine Needle Tea Pine needle clusters One quart of boiling water Lemon juice Maple syrup as desired 1. Chop needles using pocket knife 2. Add needles and lemon to boil ing water 3. Cover and steep 4. Sweeten and sip While no hobo could live on bread alone, a long day of riding the rails was certainly helped along by a simple mouthful of Bannock Bread. This elemental recipe was brought to the states by fur traders from Scotland in the early 1800s. A similarly itinerant subculture, traders needed a hearty bread that could travel well-offering both important calories as well as flexible preparations. Consisting of just flour, baking powder, oil, water and a pinch of salt, the simple dough could be scooped into a pan to make small cakes or-in a pinch-it could be squeezed around the end of a whittled stick and held over hot coals to bake. Once the bread had browned it could be pulled from the stick to make room for another round or simply eaten like a starchy lollipop right off the stick. For Nashvillians like Bo, baking bread is a low priority when it comes to procuring a day's worth of nutrition. "If I'm camping or traveling, I eat a lot of cold chili out of the can-or beans," he said. "If it's wintertime, I'll make a fire and cook some hamburger and make some burritos." However, whipping up a hot meal is not without its risks. "When people see fire and smoke they come and investigate." Bo's camp-cooked burritos offer up a tasty, healthy, affordable meal that also suits a life on the move. "Tortillas are more packable than bread. They're already smashed flat." Accessible, convenient ingredients were also important to the original hobos, and plentiful, wild herbs like stinging nettles found their way into most well-traveled camping pots. While picking fresh stinging nettles can be a painful experience for the uninitiated, the prickly plants are the key ingredient for a classic hobo recipe: Nettle Soup. Nettles are easily found in a number of varieties all over the United States. Most of these varieties are perennial herbaceous plants and while it's wise to use caution when harvesting them, they are a safe, delicious ingredient in a number of recipes around the world. Being careful to wear gloves or other protection when picking the leaves, all one needed was a pan of water and a salt shaker to have a delicious-and highly nutritious-meal. Nettle Soup One pound of washed chopped/ torn nettles A quart of water Salt to taste Simply boil all the ingredients together until the nettles go soft and the stinging hairs are rendered harmless. The soft, green leaves are left floating in a delicate, earthy broth jammed with iron, serotonin and vitamins just begging to be made into a Mulligan Stew! Mulligan Stew was a communal, potluck recipe that consisted of anything a hobo or a group of hobos might have been able to pull from their bindles. The concoction was really an improvised Irish Stew, the term "Mulligan" being commonly applied to any Irish-American in the early 1900s. Ideally, the recipe would include some type of meat and a few potatoes along with anything else that could find its way into the pot. The Appalachian Burgoo was a Southeastern variety of the dish that often incorporated a handy squirrel or an opossum when lady luck smiled upon a hobo. Of all the challenges that a wandering worker or any homeless person must face, gathering up one's daily bread is one of the most difficult and the most crucial. In the heyday of the American hobo, it was a challenge met with ingenuity, originality and tasty, invigorating results. Utilizing improvised techniques and unlikely ingredients, America's original wandering workers kept their bellies full and their spirits high, and their contribution to the American cookbook still informs the fireside meals of everyone from contemporary campers to Nashville's homeless population today. The secret ingredient in all of these recipes is the sense of accomplishment that is embedded in every simple bite that has been passed down from the original hobos. A tasty meal by a fire provided actual sustenance, but it also served as a testament to the hobo worldview that an independent man left to his own devices could turn his back on modern society and not only survive, but thrive in a life shot-through with dynamic, moving freedom. Bon appetit! Find out more about the hobos through this great read: The Hobo Handbook: A Guide to Living by Your Own Rules (Adams Media, 2011) by Joshua Mack Find out more about the National Hobo Convention here: http:// www.brittiowa.com/hobo/events. htm �ST R EE T V IB E S A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 7 National & International International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples LAURA OSBORN-COFFEY Contributing Writer A ugust 9th was the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples - a day that is meant to honor ethnic groups around the world who are native to a particular land or region. The US Congress has recently come under pressure to cut the deficit and drastically reduce spending. Native communities here in the USA could be left without the necessary resources to fight the epidemic of rape and sexual violence perpetrated against Native women and girls. This week, Amnesty International urged all governments in the Americas to stop prioritizing development projects at the expense of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. “The ongoing human rights violations against tens of millions of indigenous people across the Americas are alarming,” said Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International. “After centuries of abuse and discrimination, their cultural and physical survival is at stake because there is insufficient political will to acknowledge, respect and protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights when these rights are seen as obstacles to economic growth.” This call came ahead of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People on 9 August. One of Amnesty’s most historic victories last year was when President Obama signed the US Tribal Law and Order Act into law. The Tribal Law and Order Act begins to empower tribal governments, address jurisdictional challenges and improve the agencies, programs and policies that have failed to protect, prevent and respond to Native American and Alaskan Native women survivors of sexual and domestic violence. This was a hard-fought battle championed by tribal leaders, Native advocates, and Amnesty activists across the country. The UN “Declaration of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples” was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly during its 62nd session in New York City on 13 September 2007. “Although this ‘declaration’ is not a le- gally binding document, it does represent the development of international norms and reflects the commitment of the UN Members and countries to move in a certain direction”, according to an UN press release. Among other things, the “Declaration of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples” sets out standards for individual and collective rights, and it helps indigenous peoples to maintain their own identities and cultures. The document sets the standard for international treatment of indigenous peoples, which can lead toward the goal of ending human rights violations against the 370 million indigenous peoples worldwide. It can also help them to address such issues as discrimination and marginalization. This UN declaration took over 25 years to develop. Some member states were against its goals of protecting the rights to self determination, and control over natural resources existing on indigenous people’s traditional lands. Originally the General Assembly’s document was rejected by Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, while other countries such as Africa and Bolivia celebrated the success of its adoption. The United States criticized the document as its definition of indigenous peoples was unclear. However, in December 2010 during the Second White House Tribal Conference, President Obama declared that the United States would be the last nation to drop its opposition to this document and sign it. The three other nations who originally held out against signing the document had since signed, leaving the United States as the lone holdout. There are over 565 Indian tribes in the United States; many had representatives at the White House, who applauded the announcement. According to national statistics, Native American and Alaska Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women in the USA. Some Indigenous women interviewed by Amnesty International in the report “Maze of Injustice” said they didn't know anyone in their community who had not experienced sexual violence. Nearly 86% of the perpetrators listed were non-native men. With the current climate in Washington, budget cuts and talks of more cuts, the necessary programs which provide funding to the Native and Alaskan Native women needing services may also be reduced or eliminated. It is the lifelines of the chronically underfunded agencies and programs tasked with ensuring the safety and well-being of tribal communities which Congress is threatening to cut. In honor of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Amnesty International is asking its members across the United States and worldwide to take action on this issue. You can take action by going to www.AmnestyUSA.org. Look up ‘women’s rights’ and ‘Take Action Now!’ Laura Osborn-Coffey is the Amnesty International coordinator for Cincinnati (Group 86) and human rights contributing writer to Streetvibes. 5 National News Stories to Catch Up On JESSE CALL Contributing Writer 1 The teens charged with beating and then running over and killing a man in an alleged raciallymotivated hate crime caught on camera in Jackson, Mississippi may also be linked to attacks on people experiencing homelessness, the NAACP told ABC News. James Anderson was killed after being run over by a pickup truck allegedly driven by Deryl Dedmon, age 18. Police are investigating reports that Dedmond and the same group of teenagers suspected of attacking Anderson were seen harassing and attacking AfricanAmericans experiencing homelessness in Jackson prior to the attack on Anderson. Dedmond is behind bars on a $800,000 bond. John Rice, another teen involved in Anderson’s beating has only been charged with simple assault and released on bail. 2 Parents of Kelly Thomas, the man who was experiencing homelessness when he was killed in an altercation with Fullerton, California police, have filed a lawsuit against the City of Fullerton and the Fullerton Police Department, according to the Orange County Register. The lawsuit includes charges of negligence, conspiracy, unlawful customs and practices, and violating the civil rights of Thomas. The Fullerton City Council also plans to hire an additional independent investigator experienced with cases involving law enforcement to ascertain what happened. Police say Thomas resisted in a ‘significant’ struggle with them, but some witnesses say the officer’s response that led to his death involved excessive force. Thomas was unarmed at the time of the incident and died of head and neck injuries five days after the beating. 3 A church group that has been feeding breakfast to people experiencing homelessness for the last six years in Tampa, Florida had their operation brought to a halt by Tampa Police because the operation failed to have a “special use permit” to feed people. The move comes as more people have been complaining to the police and parks and recreation departments of the “swelling” of homeless people in downtown Tampa, according to the Tampa Tribune. Some believe Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s office may be attempting to “clean up” downtown in advance of next year’s scheduled Republican National Convention, a claim his office denies. Other outreach agencies expressed nervousness they too will be targeted. 4 The planned low-income housing development that will offer 67 beds to veterans experiencing homelessness on the campus of the VA Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio will cost at least $6.5 million to complete, the Dayton Daily News reports. Funding for the project is expected from grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to work towards meeting the goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015. A recent report published that 28 percent of people experiencing homelessness in Dayton are veterans. 5 Rutgers University in New Jersey graduated 40 students this summer from a program that provides year-round housing and education to people aging out of foster care that might otherwise become homeless. The program lines these students up with summer internships in the community paid for by the state Department of Children and Families, MyCentralJersey reports. Life-skills training, financial literacy, computer training and nutrition courses are also offered. �8 In the Picture ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 Anna Louise Inn Prayer Vigil Wednesday, August. 10th Hamilton Co. Courthouse Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls loudly states the city’s support for the Anna Louise Inn. Photo: Catie Dargue Christian Miller of Mount Auburn Presbyterian leads the crowd in songs of prayer. Photo: Catie Dargue (Top) Catie Dargue, Jeni Jenkins, Jerry Davis and other members of the Streetvibes team show their support for the Anna Louise Inn. Photo: Jason Dean (Left and Left Top) The crowd of supporters was diverse in many ways, but the prominent show of support was from the various female reverends of the Association of Unity Churches. Photos: Catie Dargue. From the far left to the far right of the courtroom, Judge Nadel’s view of Anna Louise Inn supporters. Photos: Jason Dean �Recipe ST R EE T V IB E S 9 A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 OUR... LONG! M Y E S E HT INS FEED M LL NIG JENI JENK A E M Y B FEED The title of this column is taken from the 1986 film “Little Shop of Horrors,” where a plant keeper must meet the demands of a ravenous plant that feeds on humans. Instead of plants that feed on people, this column is for people who feed on plants!! Spruce up y our m BANANA WALNUT PANCAKES WITH STRAWBERRY SAUCE On the weekends, I delight myself by waking up and preparing a big hearty breakfast for my family and often my neighborhood friends. I especially find pleasure in waking up before everyone else, sneaking into the kitchen and quietly concocting an array of yummy food that is sure to waft past my sleeping children’s noses. Sure enough, without fail around 30 minutes into cooking, I know my tactic has worked when they stumble into the kitchen all sleepy eyed but smiling, reaching for a fork. This is a recipe I created on a Saturday morning when I was looking for something to spruce up our taste buds. I had bananas, strawberries and walnuts on hand so I thought, “let’s see what I can do.” Sure enough it was a hit. I hope you enjoy waking up your loved ones with an aroma kin to freshly baked banana bread. • Combine mashed bananas and batter in a bowl and mix Ingredients: LOREM Praesent molestie lorem Etiam ac libero until smooth. Gently fold crushed walnuts into batter Pancakes: and stir until blended well. 4 cups prepared pancake IPSUM batter Sed turpis • Heat a large skillet or griddle on medium high heat. 2 rip bananas, mashed • Spray cooking spray or lightly coat with butter 1 cup walnuts, crushed • Pour 1/8 cup of pancake batter for each pancake • When pancakes start to bubble and the edges begin to Strawberry sauce: set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with the remainder of 2 cups sliced strawberries, stems the batter removed • For sauce, in a sauce pan combine strawberries, ½ cup orange juice orange juice and vanilla. Heat over medium heat until 2 tablespoons vanilla simmering. Smother over prepared pancakes. • Voila, FEED! orn in g ! PainterTeam:Layout 1 6/15/2011 4:43 PM Page 1 Say What? “Poverty is the mother of crime.” ~Marcus Aurelius Buying or selling . . . The Painter Team “Hunger makes a thief of any man.” ~Pearl S. Buck “The poor are poor because the rich are rich.” ~Author Unknown For all your real estate needs, call: Michael D. Painter, e-Pro, REOS, SFR 513.348.7999 Candace Kadivnik Painter, CRS, ABR 513.266.1025 Painting the town sold . . . 513.474.9100 �10 Street Voice Meet Up: “I yam what I yam.” ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 Meet Phil Jones. Age 50. An honest man. Asked to name one word that would define him for the Streetvibes readers. He thinks for a moment. “Alcoholic.” JIM LUKEN Contributing Writer I n the old cartoon shows, most of us have heard Popeye describe himself, succinctly and often. “I yam what I yam,” he said, many times over. I have met few people in my life where that existential description fits as well as it does on Jimmy Heath House resident Phil Jones. He doesn’t apologize for himself, nor—in any way—does he brag. Phil finds himself lucky to be living at the Jimmy Heath House these days. He had been on the streets a long time. He needed some stability in his life. It took him a year to convince the right people to accept him into this kind of continuum of care program, one that permits alcoholics to continue drinking, as their lives become more stable, and hopefully more focused on recovery. “I practically gave up on getting into the program,” he says. “I was denied. That’s the process with them.” The reason they gave, one of them, was that he hadn’t spent enough time in the Drop Inn Center. In fact, he points out that he usually only spent the night there, now and then, “… when I was too intoxicated to make it to where I was going.” Phil moved into the Jimmy Heath House in January. His drinking has continued, but his problems have significantly decreased. “Before I came here, I had tickets all the time, and arrests. Nothing major.” But no fun either. Although he once worked as a carpenter, Phil Jones now just makes do. He has bad arthritis in his shoulder and left elbow. He is hoping to secure disability insurance. When I ask him how he pays for his habit, he shrugs. “I got a female. I know a lot of people. I get Food Stamps.” Jones grew up in a middle class family in Avondale. His father had a lifetime job at American Linen. Neither of his parents were alcoholics. He grew up along with a sister and a younger brother. Both are dead, he says without emotion. His sister, of breast cancer. And his brother? “I don’t know. He died…he got sick.” After graduating high school at Withrow, Phil ended up in the Job Corps, training at a site in Hot Springs, Arkansas. “It was good. I learned a trade (carpentry). We fought forest fires.” He tells me the government would fly the corpsmen and women anywhere from Arizona to Kentucky to help in the firefighting efforts. Sometimes they all got on buses to fight fires in nearby Oklahoma. But the good things that he found in the program didn’t last. “I got kicked out. I went into the service after that. I got kicked out of that too. Everything I ever did I got kicked out of.” Phil’s stint in military service ended with a five year sentence at Leavenworth. He was never convicted of a crime, so with the help of “friends,” he was released after a year and a half. His crime? A kind of black-market gun-running. “They said I sold guns [belonging to the military] on the street. They couldn’t prove it…but I did it. I sold ‘em.” I stare at him, looking directly into his eyes. Finally, I say. “You know, Phil, you don’t look like a bad guy.” He looks back at me with a sweet smile. “Well, I’m bad,” he pauses, “but I’m good. But I’m bad, and I’m good, and I’m bad…and I’m good.” It was perhaps the clearest explanation of character I had ever heard. With those words, I thought, he had described everyone else in the world as well. I couldn’t help probing him a bit further. “How did you get that way? You came from a good home. You were taken care of.” Phil Jones returns my stare. “I was f##ked up as a kid. I was a thief and a drug dealer. My oldest kid is 38. I was thirteen when I had him. She was seventeen.” He explains that his parents had split up when he was young, and that his mother had a job. “I didn’t have no real male model in my life. I didn’t stay home nights. My mother had to work. She couldn’t watch me all the time.” After prison, Jones said he got A wisdom for life? “Stay focused on whatever you’re doing,” Phil Jones. Photo: Jim Luken a job as a journeyman carpenter. He worked in Louisville and Chicago. “Then I got hurt on the job. A female dropped a box of nails on my back. It put things on hold for a while. I was still working some. I was doing light duty.” So Phil ended up back in Cincinnati in the eighties. He would marry briefly. Six years. “I f##ked that up too,” he says with a laugh. “I did it for financial reasons. I knew that it wasn’t going to last.” Then, more seriously, he adds, “She lost two kids to miscarriages. That’s part of the reason.” During these years, Phil Jones would father nine more children. “Nine boys in all, and one girl.” They are all grown now, and doing fairly well, he believes. “None of them are locked up. They are fine. I don’t see them too much.” I look for some sign of guilt. I see none. “I probably got more kids. I been all over the country. Quite a few females say they got pregnant by me. I don’t know.” As he adds these details, I can see, once again, that he is neither proud nor ashamed of what he is telling me. After all, I had come into his home and asked him to tell me his story. This is his story. Some of Phil’s ten children, his eight grand children, and his six great grandchildren come to visit him at the Jimmy Heath House, he says, but only on Father’s Day. “I don’t want to be bothered. They know it. So that’s the only time they come.” Phil’s life is more laid-back now that he has a home to come home to. His explanation? “I got older, and I cut back on all the bulls##t. I can’t do all that s##t I used to do.” Another reason for the change…a ladyfriend that he is serious about. “I’m thinking about re-marrying. I’m working on getting a job. It’s going to be a while.” And the drinking? “I drink because I like to drink. I don’t drink as much as I used to, but I’m still that person. I’m not consuming as much as I once did. I’m comfortable.” Finally I tell him that he seems like a very smart person, which he clearly is. I ask him for some words of wisdom. A wry smile comes over his face, as if I had asked him to reveal the meaning of life. Finally he says. “Stay focused on whatever you’re doing, your goals…if you’ve got any goals.” Phil Jones: a man without pretense. Like Popeye, he is who he is. Meetup is meant to tell people’s stories in their own words. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the interviewee and not those of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Streetvibes or the staff, volunteers and board members. Urban Oasis: Updated Success of the Community Bowel Movement CATIE DARGUE Streetvibes Staff Writer I n the early morning of Monday August 8th two port-o-potty’s were dropped off on the corner of 14th and Race Street in Over-the-Rhine. After months of asking 3CDC to honor their commitment to replace the public bathrooms that were closed when Washington Park shut down for construction, letters to local businesses, one public event and one demonstration all led to these two lovely new additions in the neighborhood. A welcome sight for business owners, residents and people who work in Over-the-Rhine who have noticed an increase of public defecation and urination as a result of there being no public bathrooms in the vicinity. After hearing the plea of the people for the need of somewhere dignified to go to the bathroom Nast Trinity United Methodist Church opened their doors for a month to have people come in to use their toilets. They were overwhelmed by visitors and the need for a more permanent solution was imminent. In the end, Nast Trinity United Methodist Church and Hyde Park United Methodist ended up footing half of the bill for the Port-o-potty’s and donating the land they now sit upon. 3CDC has come through to pay the other half of the expense and just like that, we have toilets. They are unlocked every morning at 7:30am and locked back up at 7:30pm seven days a week until winter. They will close until the spring months where then they will be operational again until the park reopens in summer 2012. This comes as wonderful news after all the effort put in to make the community aware of this issue, its solution and having people that care about this neighborhood rally together to get what was needed. We are thankful to Nast Trinity United Methodist Church, Hyde Park United Methodist and 3CDC for paying for this much needed facility which will restore many people’s dignity and in return help keep the neighborhood Photo: Catie Dargue safe and clean. The Homeless Congress will make an effort to keep the area as clean as possible making everyone feel welcome. So next time you’re in the 14th and Race area and you need to use the potty, think about what a special potty it is and how many fought to get it there. �Street Voice ST R EE T V IB E S 11 A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 Compassionate Action as a Form of Healthy Grief STEVE SUNDERLAND Contributing Writer “First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” T hese famous words were spoken by Pastor Martin Niemoller in relationship to the spreading reality of the World War II. When I read them, I think of the long term unemployed in our country. Their voices are getting weaker. The dreams of young and old without work or the prospect of work are fading and being replaced by an anger, despair, and hopelessness. Helping to sort food at the FreeStore Food Bank and participating in the FreeStore Memorial Day Hunger Walk has reminded me that many are trying to speak out in support. There is a surreal element in working at the FreeStore and participating in the "hunger walk." The faces of those engaged are largely happy ones, either students completing a service activity or citizens helping to support their local pantries by taking part in an early stroll along the Ohio. Perhaps tragedy needs a happy face at times. The stories of the unemployed, hungry, and confused may be too difficult to hear, to see, and to bear. When psychological depression is the healthy response to an economic depression, can we keep a "happy face?" Or, perhaps our faces are a defiance of the expected resignation into depression and other distractions. Happily, we are called to make a difference, one issue at a time. The more I see the young people coming to help at the FreeStore, the more I see future politicians, judges, teachers, and parents who have had the experience of sustaining a feeling of hope. Resignation, anger, and bitterness are healthy responses to the grief of being unemployed or threatened with the loss of a house, or being on edge about losing a job. Withdrawal into deep grief is a regular way of coping with the barrage of bad news from our media or from the daily experience of hearing about another firing, lay off, or closing that shuts out people. Recognizing that there are times when protest feels too difficult does not mean that this is a permanent condition. Recently, a long term jobless elder expressed her frustration when she said: "I am just tired of waking up to no work. I have worked at any one of a number of part time jobs for almost no pay and with no benefits. I cannot go on with this constant uncertainty." I respect her pain and do not try and talk her out of her feelings. Before the end of the discussion, she also says: 'I am ready to volunteer to repeal Senate Bill 5. Is there a place for me?" We smile at our desire to activate her citizenship as a way of building the kind of society that is good for the general public. The public's desire to improve our society goes beyond students and into many citizens in our community. A tornado happens in a way that cannot be ignored and groups and individuals step up for participation in the helping process. No pay or recognition need be given. A child is missing in a community for a day and a half and hundreds of "strangers" show up to work together to find the lost one. Simple acts of compassion make up the lives of many people, even people in a crisis themselves. For the past 60 years that I have been in the peace movement I have witnessed direct and compassionate action to change segregated schools, and, to end wars, and to feed our hungry in our neighborhoods, and to provide jobs to those who are one step away from complete desperation. The compassionate soul of citizens acts without full knowledge and without any need for applause. Instead, the soul of the compassionate servant is rewarded by the smile of child getting a can of food and a toy; or, the hug of an elder on a food line at a pantry; or, in gathering together to search through the wake of destruction in order to find a person alive. The journey of compassionate action is bolted to the acts of service. Together, in ways that seem magical, the spirit of everyday citizens rises and removes whatever seemed to be causing apathy. We will need to applaud this spirit in our coming days and find ways of continuing to work together for the common good. That Dreaded Day RICCARDO TAYLOR Staff Writer I suppose I shouldn’t sound discouraged or fearful of that dreaded day which for me is my goodbye to a year of pleasure, frustration, learning, and commitment. August 20, 2011 is my service end date for volunteering with Americorp Vista. For the past year I have had the honor of working with a group of dedicated and informed individuals who make up the staff working for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. I could not have more praise for the work that these individuals have done and continue to do in their devotion towards improving the lives of others. And having the opportunity to be a part of such a dedicated group was again a great pleasure. The wrangling that goes on at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition’s office in defense of homeless peoples’ rights is an experience of immense reward, as I had the chance to be exposed to realities which I would not have ever knew existed! Being a part of the decision making process of which fights we were best equipped to engage was a life long learning tool that I had the honor of gaining from those experiences and a great tool which I can take with me for furtherance of my newly found life work. Often I’ve talked about life’s miseries, or perhaps the miseries of life in accordance with the life of the street, only I failed to mention that in many cases those miseries are self -imposed! Ah! The imposition of life, the one thing we can blame on everyone and everything else refusing to see our part in it! Well, I can say that part of the great experience I have had with working in this position is that I have come to a new found realization that for many of us we decline to accept the responsibility for our plight. Still, some of it is beyond our capacity to control or change, yet, there is that part for which we can. This is where my frustration comes to play. Over this last year I have had the opportunity to give others opportunity, and at each turn I have discovered that many of us simple will not take on the responsibility that’s needed to make the changes we seek. Now, I also realize that for some there is just not the capacity to take on that sense of responsibility, but it befuddles me that those of us who can, simply will not! It’s as if we are trapped in a mindset that we have total dependence on. “If it’s not free, I don’t want it.” Well, I suppose I am guilty in the sense that I should not allow that to bother or hamper me, yet it is so frustrating for me! That is perhaps the greatest thing I have learned during this tenure. Allowing people to be where they are! You see I have come to realize that sometimes we just have to allow people to be where they are, or we find ourselves in uncertainty! The uncertainty of what our purpose is or where do we make a difference. So, this brings me to the last of the tools, which I need to take me further in this concentration of life’s Great Books! visit www.cincybooks.com Riccardo Taylor. Photo: GCCH purpose and that is the commitment of my time and energy toward service to others while helping to create change in their lives while enhancing my own. So, my dreaded end to the year ends with hope for the future of us all. �12 Arts & Culture ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 The Other Landmarks of the Queen City: The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge A. MANN Contributing Writer A sked to contribute historical background towards landmarks around Cincinnati the various choices turned from focusing on the prominent to recognizing the inconspicuous. Reflecting upon the importance of both, prompted the formation of a revolving article that proposes to convey an intersecting attention around the larger import involved in the past construction or passed development that contributed to any fundamental formation with individual respect upon unique features that each present as lasting structures and enduring symbols to the surrounding region. Deciding upon a starting point from which to emphasize the intertwining connection involved in the construction of a cities shared monument, this primary impartment- though acknowledging the given bronze statuary casting a certain presence toward a crowning symbol of the Queen Citychooses to entrain at this foremost junction upon the overarching embodiment extensively connecting Cincinnati-‘The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge’. The venerable viaduct aspires as a visible byword to a virtual- if not strictly veritable- gateway from the South to the North and vice versa, standing as a striven accomplishment of a collective achievement for two cities that almost did not come to pass. While possible to measure the actual breadth and height of this engineering feat, it is nigh inconceivable to equate the sheer blood, sweat, and tears poured into this creation by Roebling or- of equal determination- wholly account the individual people throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky who were crucially involved in the structures challenging constitution. Spanning an immense divide is at the best of times a dangerous operation, and the financial collapse of the Covington-Cincinnati Bridge Company from the ‘Panic of 1857’, followed by the explosive turmoil of the Civil War in 1861, halted the production halfway when all planned accords fell to pieces; seemingly dooming the suspicious suspended structure of ever being carried to a cooperative completion. Through willful acts of recovery building resumed in 1863 with entwined steelwire cables utilized instead of chain supports, and in 1866 the ‘Covington-Cincinnati Bridge’ was opened to pedestrians, with vehicular passage permitted the ensuing year. In the great flood of 1937 the sturdy bridge was the sole overpass over the Ohio River- from Stubenville to Cairo, Illinois- arising as a further testament to its integral conveyance for vital intercity passage across a turbulent channel. Kentucky purchased the bridge in 1954 with it being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Designated a National Historic Engineering Landmark in 1983 it was renamed in honor of its indomitable engineer -the ‘John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge’. Connecting North and South. Photo: A. Mann Standing todaymidway- upon this separately rendered and to be fully exvibrant passageway that is also called pressed should be experienced in their the ‘singing bridge’, listing to those extensive surrounds. Not quickly run reverberating intones; crosscurrent by, reduced to a graphic reproduction, hymns or susurrus concatenations or glimpsed at a safe distance. One continually conducting all that borne must take up a closer position to begin weight? The concerted effect overto absorb the totality of their immense whelms this native son of Cincinnati, relation. Occasionally these memorials who if born in past times being of dual transmit more than incised inscriptions Southern descent would very well and acute figurations; they further afhave been caught in that conflict. ford the passable ability to be physiThere are monuments that are in cally transported and travel outside of their sweeping expanse unable to be our settled insular state. Cincinnati Firsts • 1835 First bag of airmail. (sent by a hot air balloon to Toledo) • 1849 First city in the U.S. to hold a municipal song festival Saengerfest. • 1850 First city in the U.S. to establish a Jewish hospital. • 1850 First city in the U.S. to publish greeting cards. (Gibson Greeting Card Company) • 1853 First practical steam fire engine. • 1853 First city to establish a municipal fire department and first firemen’s pole. • 1869 First city to establish a weather bureau. • 1869 First professional baseball team. (the Cincinnati Red Stockings) • 1870 First city in the U.S. to establish a municipal university. (University of Cincinnati) • 1870 First city to hold annual industrial expositions. • 1875 First city to establish a Jewish theological college. (Hebrew Union College) • 1880 First city in which a woman, Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, began and operated a large manufacturing operation. (Rookwood Pottery) • 1880 First and only city to build and own a major railroad. • 1902 First concrete skyscraper built in the U.S. (the Ingalls Building) • 1905 Daniel Carter Beard founded the Sons of Daniel Boone, later known as the Boy Scouts of America. • 1906 First university to offer cooperative education. (University of Cincinnati) • 1935 First night baseball game played under lights. (Reds beat Phillies 2-1) • 1952 First heart lung machine makes open heart surgery possible. (Developed at Children’s Hospital Medical Center) • 1954 First city to have a licensed Public television station. (WCET TV) Reproduced by permission of Jake Gerth. See more strange and wonderful things about the Queen City on www.makecincinnatiweird.com �ST R EE T V IB E S A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 Arts & Culture 13 Outside the Loop - Pickled Brothers: Family Values JESSICA HOPSICKER Contributing Writer The Pickled Brother Circus lights up the night at Loveland Castle. Photo: Girish Balsavar and flaming object at his brother to juggle. They knew what they were getting into. ravis Fessler has been performIt is, however, Travis who ends up ing in the sideshow for over a doing the most dangerous stuff, like decade. He is a third of the act the fire-eating and sword swallowing, that makes up the Pickled Brothers or laying on the bed of nails with the Circus. Onstage alongside him is his largest guy in the audience on top of wife Susan and his younger brother him. There are a lot of comedy bits Erik. The name came from an old where everyone gets a share of the carnie term for two headed babies in a danger. With Erik or Susan, the worst jar called “Pickled Punks.” He thought that can happen is a cut or a whip it would neat to say he and his brother burn. But a sword could seriously kill were Siamese twins at birth. It's quite him, especially when a random audiobvious they aren't, Erik is 18 years younger. They hail from Florence Ken- ence member is selected to pull it out tucky and perform all over the Midwest of his gullet. For that trick, his secret is he tends toward someone that looks states. like a mother; someone less likely Roughly estimated, the three of to screw around and deliberately try them perform a hundred days out the to hurt him. A teenager, especially year doing death defying stunts like a teenage boy, or an older man that fire-eating, sword swallowing, human might show off blockhead, mental and actually hurt floss, juggling the geek. “Mothand the bed of ers are more nails. Performmindful of not ing feats such as hurting someone, these for such an they are caretakextended period ers you know.” of time takes a Travis got his saintly amount of start performing patience, determimagic for kids nation, trust and Travis Fessler holds the World record for number parties and was of course revenge. of live Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches held in admittedly not any The routine is the mouth, but ironically he’s a strict vegetarian. good at it. With also a comedic Photo courtesy of Pickled Brothers Circus. some advice and act where Travis the tutelage of a man named Tom Fessler makes a show of throwing his Frank, magic shop owner in Downfamily members under the bus. His town Cincinnati, Fessler made the wife is a whip target and he throws lateral career move. It started with the machetes and other dangerous pointy T Be Inspired JOSH SPRING GCCH Director R ecently, Donald Whitehead held a fundraiser, book signing at the Drop Inn Center. Donald is promoting his first autobiographical book, Most Unlikely to Succeed. The signing had an air of reunion about it. That is because Donald, the former Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless is homegrown. Like so many people in Cincinnati, Donald experienced fire eating and the human blockhead and the show just snowballed from there. Being a sideshow freak wasn't always a family business. His first partner was man named Frack, but the two of them had a lot of professional differences of opinion. Frack wasn't much a of a freak show person, he didn't like to wear costumes; although he had a couple of the little jokes he used he didn't like to do the comedy. He seemed to Travis to want to be the guy at the party that could do weird things, and that was all. Whereas the Pickled Brothers themselves, they want to put to put on a show. Admittedly, he'll never be the technical best at any of these stunts like swallow the most swords, (one guy did about forty,) or blow the largest fireball. It is a show that is just about as much about the comedy as it is about the more dangerous exploits. That hasn't stopped the two of them from breaking World records of their own. Erik alone broke the Upside-Down Juggling record three times. The first was for an event and the other Guinness Book of World records flew him in for such a purpose. Travis is included in a largest group of sword swallowers to swallow the most swords. Another record is having eleven Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches in his mouth at one time. It is challenging at times, working with a brother that is roughly eighteen years his junior. People tend to think they are a father and son team, which annoys Susan to no end. In high school, Travis was the band and homelessness. This brought him to the Drop Inn Center. Donald is also a survivor of addiction, a disease that afflicts some people, including leading some people to homelessness. At the Drop Donald completed a recovery program. From there he gained more balance at Over-the-Rhine Community Housing’s Recovery Hotel. Donald became a strong part of the local Movement to end homelessness and took on the role of Executive Director for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. From here, Donald went on to lead the National Coalition in the struggle against homelessness. It is clear from the book signing that Donald Whitehead serves as a friend, comrade and inspiration for many in our area. To learn more about Donald’s path, purchase a copy of Most Unlikely to Succeed at www.iuniverse.com. drama geek, Erik was more like the athletic and popular one. So there are some personality clashes like screaming at his twenty-one year old brother to get out bed and get ready for the show. Naturally there was a lot of resistance with his mother, when two of her sons turned out to be freaks. When Erik was still underage she's try to ground him from performing, but Travis likened it to grounding someone from working at McDonalds. That was his job. Erik was also afraid to tell him mom when he started swallowing swords, in fear that she worried that Child Protective Services would be called. Since then she has warmed up to the notion that her boys are The Pickled Brothers, and even sends friends along to catch the show. She's also attends every world record her sons break. Currently the Pickled Brothers Circus is doing a couple of gigs at Loveland Castle and then going out of town to perform at the Illinois Renaissance Festival. Starting in September, for five weeks, they can be found at the Old West Fest in Williamsburg, Ohio. It’s like a Renaissance festival set in Dodge City in 1878. You can always check them out at www.pickledbrothers.com or facebook or twitter. “Just search for pickled brothers and find us there.” �14 Arts & Culture ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 The Prediction WILLA DENISE JONES Contributing Writer & Distributor What would you do if you could predict your every tomorrow? Remembering that tomorrow never comes, it’s always today, now that can bring some sorrow Thinking of the changes that the people of the world are being subjected to Remembering the day of the past is what I’ll always cherish for thinking today can be awe so cruel Today there is a complete new set of words we as a people must learn Words like: Shut em down, unemployment’s rising, evictions and homelessness, now I’m concerned So do you believe that we could make a change in this world if we could predict our future? Believe me being either a democrat, a republican or a socialist we all come up a loser Believe that this is God’s world, somehow the world seems to have forgotten Believe if we as mankind don’t come back to God we’ll all be lost, burned up and then turn rotten To be able to predict tomorrow or for me to be a psychic honestly is not my choice Now predict the readings of the bible about God’s return I believe it’s time for the politicians to heed to God’s voice!!! Soldiers of the Poverty Line E HAYDEN Contributing Writer Hold strong soldiers, hold strong. We are the solider of the poverty line. While few and far have broken free to find warmth within four strong walls. We hold the line... Bags upon Bags of possession weigh our backs down, bags with memories and our identify growing around us like roots, holding firm on the concrete streets. Memories that talk back in the mind of happier days gone by... Yes, we are the soldiers of the poverty line. Hold on soldiers. Hold on. Reinforcements are coming - from government and politics. Only God has seen the coming of the poor. We are a nation on our own?? Day after day that turns into weeks, walking around downtown . In and out of social services buildings, trying to explain, how we got in to this situation and that situation. Wondering, praying and crying to get out of a situation. Pushing and pulling to get a better situation. Case workers nodding their heads, while handing you a referral to some other places to try, rather than be bothered themselves. Hold that line... reinforcements are coming. Our fearless leaders said so.... Yes, soldiers, I know the soles of your shoes are worn thin... go on soldiers go forward... Yes, soldiers, I know you’d rather drink the water than bath in it. Go on soldiers go forward... Yes, soldiers, I know you are hungry and I know you are tried… But remember, we hold the front line for all the poor... Yes, soldiers, I heard the nasty comments they say to you that shouldn't be said to any human being ... Go on soldiers go forward… Hold that line Hold that line... Don't you fall to death's sweet peaceful call... Remember we are the soldiers of the poverty line. I Am What I Am LEE McCOY Contributing Writer & Distributor I can make you stay out all night in all kind of weather. I can make you empty your bank account, your life savings, even your last dollar. I can make you neglect your wife or husband, children, mother, father. I can take away your automobile, your home, your apartment. I can make you a thief, a killer, a robber, a prostitute, a con man, and the greatest beggar. I can make you lie to everyone at the drop of the hat; I can get you to lie to yourself and you don’t even know you’re lying. I can steal your selfesteem. I can make you do some of the craziest things just to get your hands on me. I can be gone in a few seconds, but you’ll find a way to come back for some more. I can take away your last penny and make you justify your own madness. I can make you believe I am your best friend but you can best believe I am not your friend. When you are broke I’ll make others laugh at you and call you a fool. I won’t even miss you when run out of cheese because someone else is in the very chair you just left but I’ll be here when you’re up your pockets and just like hocus-pocus I’ll empty them again and with the greatest of ease before you leave I’ll have you crawling on the floor looking for more; peeking out the window because you think someone out there looking in never thinking about you on the fifth floor and there is no ledge let alone a fire escape. Who’s out there? It must be Spiderman. With just one pull of me I’ll make you feel like you are the greatest lover and then I’ll take away your sex drive. When you think you need it the most I’ll make you chase me hoping and praying it will be like the first time. Chase me all you want but you’ll never even get close. I am no hero by any means but if you have an ounce of sense you will truly call me a villain. I have no feet or legs, no brains let alone a cape, but I can be found in any neighborhood, on almost any corner. Once you taste me I can make you pick me up quicker than your heart can beat. I can also make you a promise: if you mess with me I’ll put you in jail, hospital, or a grave even quicker. I can also make you this promise if you leave me and get lonely for my company, all you have to do is pick me up because I’ll wait for you. If you don’t know me by now, my name’s Crack Cocaine. �Resources ST R EE T V IB E S A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 Shelter: Women and Children Central Access Point 381-SAFE Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 15 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Bethany House 557-2873 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 4600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224 Salvation Army 762-5660 131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Treatment: Men Shelter: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Prospect House 921-1613 2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mt. Airy Shelter 661-4620 Shelter: Both 961-4080 1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth) 471-1100 221-3350 3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220 Housing: CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services 751-0643 Volunteers of America 381-1954 Anna Louise Inn 421-5211 Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry 621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 PainterStreetNew:Layout 1 4/22/2011 1:33 PM Page 1 558-8888 981-5800 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Other Resources Center Independent Living Options 241-2600 Emmanuel Community Center 241-2563 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 214 E. 14th St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Treatment: Women Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 First Step Home 961-4663 Goodwill industries 771-4800 Healing Connections 751-0600 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Treatment: Both 1223 Main St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John 1308 Race St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Starting Over 961-2256 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Anthony House (Youth) 5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 NAMI of Hamilton County 458-6670 PATH Outreach 977-4489 1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 Justice Watch 241-0490 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Hamilton County ADAS Board 946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 641-4300 Advocacy Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 Faces Without Places 363-3300 Stop AIDS 421-2437 Health Center for Respite Care 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229 Compliments of Judge Mark Painter United Nations Appeals Tribunal 2009– Ohio Court of Appeals 1995–2009 Hamilton County Municipal Court 1982– Judging strictly on merit for 30 years www.judgepainter.org Paid for by the Judge Painter Cte., Paul Gaffney, CPA, Treas., 5086 Wooster Road · Cincinnati, OH 45226 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton/Middletown St. Raephaels 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY ECHO/Hosea House 859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission 859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth 859-581-1111 Mathews House 859-261-8009 Homeless & Housing Coalition 859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen 859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic 859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 �16 ST R EET VIBES A u g u s t 1 9 - S e p t e m b e r 1 , 2 0 11 STREETVIBES ANNUAL VISUAL AND LITERARY ART CONTEST: As part of Streetvibes’ commitment to building community and advocating justice we are expanding our reach to the local arts community, seeking their artistic voice and vision. Beginning SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2011 Streetvibes will begin accepting submissions for our first annual visual and literary art contest. There are three distinct categories 1. StreetVision 2. StreetVoice and 3.StreetVagary. All submissions will be considered however, preference will go to work produced by local artists and writers from the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area and for work that embraces human rights and social justice. Submissions are reviewed on an on-going basis. Submissions are $5 per entry and there is no limit to the number of entries each artist or writer submits. Submission fees will fund a pot of prize money that will be given to the top entries bi-annually. Prizes are awarded to the top three entries in all three categories. CATEGORIES: 1 StreetVision: This category is for visual art that will be published on the back cover of Streetvibes. The back cover is a full color page, however black and white images will be considered. All artwork not accepted will be ready for pick up 30 days from submission date. Work not picked up after 90 days will be auctioned at the Coalition for the Homeless Annual Dinner. SNEAK PEAK: On October 1, 2011, the Coalition for the Homeless and Prairie Inc. will host the release party for the 2012 Day By Day Calendar at Prairie Gallery. Day by Day is an annual calendar which includes photographs and writing by homeless and formerly homeless individuals in Cincinnati and is distributed by Streetvibes Distributors. The calendar provides distributors with an additional income source. Distributors purchase the calendars for $3.00 and distribute them on the street for $6.00 keeping the $3.00 profit. The image below is a sample of what’s to come. Guidelines: Art must be no larger than 11x17 -OR- if larger than 11x17 bring in original piece and include a digital version. All mediums accepted. To submit your artwork bring it to the Streetvibes office at 117 E. 12th Street on Tuesdays between 9AM and 5PM. Include name, phone number, email and address on back of each entry. This cat2 StreetVoice: egory is a fiction writing contest. With this contest we are looking for original short stories. Winning entries will be published in Streetvibes. Preference will be given to stories that incorporate themes that address social justice, discrimination, oppression and/or the causes and consequences of inequality. Guidelines: Stories should not exceed 3,000 words (shorter lengths are welcome.) No handwritten entries. Include your name, address, email address and phone number on each entry. Streetvibes will publish the winning stories as they are received. Mail or drop off your entries and fee at the Streetvibes office at 117 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45223. Please do not send cash via snail mail. Submissions will not be returned unless a SASE is included with each entry. This is an editorial cartoon/illustration contest. 3 StreetVagary: StreetVagary is open to aspiring or professional cartoonists of any age. Winning entries will be published in Streetvibes. Preference will be given to political cartoons that incorporate commentary on current events. Riccardo Taylor experience allowed me to get outside of myself, taking "Thea look at the world around me. The reality that things are not always what they seem and in fact present a reality other than the one of first impression, allows me to be more aware of the world around me. " Guidelines: Submit single panel or strip cartoon entries. Include your name, address, email address and phone number on each entry. Streetvibes will publish the winning cartoons as they are received. Mail or drop off your entry and fee at the Streetvibes office at 117 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45223. Please do not send cash via snail mail. Submissions will not be returned unless a SASE is included with each entry. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2011 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 19-September 1, 2011 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cincinnati Prays to Save Historical Homeless Shelter Pg 2: From the Director Pg 3: Distributor Program Pg 4: No Back to School for Hundreds of Unemployed Teachers Act Now Pg 5: Cincinnati Public Schools Get a Long Overdue Upgrade Pg 6: The Hobo Cookbook Pg 7: International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Pg 8: In the Picture Pg 9: Recipe Pg 10: Meet Up: “I Yam What I Yam.” Pg 11: That Dreaded Day Pg 12: The Other Landmarks of the Queen City Pg 13: Outside the Loop-Pickled Brothers Pg 14: Arts & Culture Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 19-September 1, 2011 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Dean Josh Spring Catie Dargue Jeni Jenkins Susan Lakes Riccardo Taylor Georgia Bohannon Karen Chatman Stephen Gentry Rubye Goode Della Woolens Mark Grauhuis Alisa Balestra Harrison Lott Corey Luthringer Laura Osborn-Coffey Jesse Call Jason A. Haap Catie Dargue Willa Denise Jones E.Hayden Jim Luken Lee McCoy Jessica Hopsicker A. Mann Make Cincinnati Weird Steve Sunderland, Riccardo Taylor Corey Luthringer Joe Nolan Girish Balsavar Kevin LeMaster Dorothy Dark Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF A. Mann Alisa Balestra Anna Louis Inn Catie Dargue Cincinnati Corey Luthringer Della Woolens Dorothy Dark E.Hayden Georgia Bohannon Girish Balsavar Harrison Lott Jason A. Haap Jason Dean Jeni Jenkins Jesse Call Jessica Hopsicker Jim Luken Joe Nolan Josh Spring Karen Chatman Kevin LeMaster Laura Osborn-Coffey Lee McCoy Make Cincinnati Weird Mark Grauhuis Phil Jones Photography Pickled Brothers Public Schools Queen City Riccardo Taylor Roebling Suspension Bridge Rubye Goode Schools Soldiers Stephen Gentry Steve Sunderland Susan Lakes Teachers unemployment Willa Denise Jones Worlds Indigenous People https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/46dfb2aafa3521911388ffa6df93677e.pdf 8adf6ecc1406db7266561dd8a76e97ee PDF Text Text ---­ Study Finds A Major Affordable Housing Gap in Ohio; Nationwide Shortage Of Affordable Housing At Record Level Submitted by Coalition on Homelessness and Housingin Ohio Ohio faces a serious lack of affordable housing, according to a study released by the W ashington DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Pr iorities. The study found that the shortage of low-cost housing versus low-income renters in Ohio's major cities has reached an enormous disparity. In Cincinnati, there are approximately 59,000 low­ income renters and only 52,000 low-rent housing units, resulting in 19,000, or 48 percent, of Cincinnati's poor renters spending more than half of their income on shelter. In Cleveland, there are 84,000 low-income renters for 50,000 units, resulting in 31,000 or 66 percent of low-inc~me renters spending more than half of their income on shelter. In Columbus, 53,000 low-income renters are competing for 33,000 low-income units. This results in I 5,000 or SO percent of Columbus' poor renters paying more than half of their income for shelter. Throughout the United States the number of low-cost apartments was 4.4 million fewer than the number of low-income renters needing affordable housing, resulting in the widest housing affordability gap on record. The report on affordable housing conditions nationally and in 45 metropolitan areas is based on data for the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey. The study found the stock of low-rent units in the private market dropped 43 percent between 1973 and 1995, from 4.9 million units to 2.8 million. During the same period, the number of low-income renters rose, as poverty rates have remained at relatively high levels even in periods of economic Continued on page 12 Submitted by The Contact Center The Ohio Empowerment Coalition, our statewide welfare rights organization, has successfully influenced Ohio House legislators to introduce a bill, The Welfare Corrections Bill, that will soften Ohio Works First sanction policy. (Ohio Works First is Ohio's welfare law which took effect on October l, I 997.) We are requesting your endorsement of The Welfare Corrections Bill. It also includes the following sanction policy changes: * A $50 cut in cash assistance instead of harshly cutting the full cash be nefit. Contents Cleveland News Portman Plan Welfare News Visible Homeless Hope VI Arts & Poetry Nationwide News Housing Conference Prisoners News San Diego Sleep-In Teen Role Model letters & Editorials Crossword & Games Azerbaf/an Update TB Information Vendor Profile ACTION ALERT Page2 Page3 Page4 Pages Pages Page6 Page 7 Page 7 Page Page9 Page9 Page10 Page11 Page 12 Page 13 Page16 a Current law eliminates the entire cash assistance of a family under sanction. This punishment will not help families.become "self-sufficient" when they lose their entire benefit cash assistance to pay for basic necessities of rent & utilities. * When a family is sanctioned, food stamps should not be reduced (which is aJlowable under Federal law.) Current law cuts the "adult portion".of food stamps. * Child care subsidies should not be include d as part of the sanction. Current law makes the sanctioned household ineligible for a child care subsidy. This is counter productive to helping recipients retain employment and fulfill the OWF work requirement. * A sanction should e nd as soon as a recipient complies. Federal law does not dictate length of sanction. Recipients should not continue to be punished after they comply. * Due to the harshness of sanctions and the high rate of caseworker errors, we call for a moratorium on all sanctions being issued in Ohio until legislators reconvene to revise sanction policy. In addition to the sanction policy changes, the bill also included the following amendments: * Allow Ohio to request the food stamp waiver for single adults without children. This waiver would exempt this population from being denied food stamps in a high unemployment area. Currently the federal law allows these adults food stamps for only 3 months out of every 36 months unless they are working. Authorize Ohio to request the Federal money available for work training programs for this population. * Require a wage match between the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services and the Ohio Department of Human Services. This requirement will provide data on whether or riot recipients are employed after leaving welfare, and provide informa­ tion on the salaries provided by these jobs. * Allot $40 million fqr the following: $20 millibn for non-profit organizations to do outreach to recipients and for training of Department of Human Services caseworkers . . The other $20 million will go to substance abuse programs. Please contact The Contact Center at l 64 l Vine Street, Cin~innati, Ohio or call The Contact Center at (5 l 3) 38 l -4242. �STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine STREETVIBES HAYESTRY The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine Streetvibes, the Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine, is a newspaper written by, for and about the homeless. It is compiled by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Home­ less. Vendors buy the paper for 20 cents and then sell it for a dollar donation to get back on their feet. All vendors sign a code of conduct before being given a badge. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organiz­ ing. The Streetvibes Committee meets monthly to plan our issues and increase circulation. If you are interested in helping or have a comment, please call 421-7803. Staff Donald Whitehead, Director Jimmy Heath, Coordinator Brett Zwolinski, Vendor Support Ron Carter, Vendor Support James Hobbs, Vendor Support Photo2rapher Jimmy Heath Writers Te' Tro Amaru Maryann Bravo Dan Cahill Ron Carter Pat Clifford Denise Crew Brian Davis Dan Gibbons Jimmy Heath James Ho~bs Lynn Ki lbane Paul Linden Judith Mendriski Steven Michael Aaron Pitchford James W. Pryor Steven M. Rutherford Mark Salter Donald Whitehead Lynn Williams Sonny Williams Brett Zwolinski Editorial Polley: Streetvibes accepts all letters, poems, com­ ments or editorials. We will print every­ thing we have room for, giving preference to those who are homeless or vendors. Please send all material to the following address: Streetvibes c/o Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 (513) 421 -7803 fax (513) 421-7813 e-mail: homecoal@primax.net http://cinci.com/gcch Quote of the Month: "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. " Mark Twain by Thomas Hayes My first contact with The Homeless Grapevine newspaper was of secondary, even tertiary impor­ tance to what I was doing at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) at the time. In 1995, I was an Americorps*VISTA (Volun­ teers in Service to America) sponsored by the Corporation for National Service, .a nd was being tran_sferred from a backwater outpost in Chillicothe, O H, to Cleveland. The transition, I knew, would be startling- from Appalachian poverty to inner city poverty: the conditions, surroundings, and finally, the actual people--one must admit to having different images of a poor rural Southern Ohioan and a poor urban Northern Ohioan. However, one thing remained constant at least: poverty. Poverty is poverty wherever rou go. and the intangible, soulful feel of it-and the facial expressions of those squashed under its weight are uniquely alike. Being one who likes to be prepared for a situation, I took time in reading various materials on homelessness-an oversized photographic work from Los Angeles, ·v-,:hich sought to capture the homel~ss in some Diana Arbusian style; as well, I had some essay by Andrew Cuomo, then deeply immersed in New York City's homeless problems. But strangely, the objective photographic viewpoints and the raw statistics shoveled at me by Cuomo gave me, as a reader, no real sense of any personal element-that is, what it feels like to be homeless. In Chillicothe, I had worked with an adult li~eracy program. Through various writing experi­ ments, as well as the close, proximate experience tutoring provides, I was able to get a feeling for and understanding of the Appalachian experience of poverty-but it was not homelessness. In C:.:hillicothe, one got the mother who was paid by the state to get her GEO, who went home e.very night to an out-of­ work husband who called her "stupid" or "useless.'' This, in order to keep her self-esteem low, out of the belief that she would leave him as soon as she was educated-a not unwise assumption, no doubt. In Cleveland, I read for the first time about the usband hwo called his wife "stupid': and "useless" and then beat her senseless, until finally she fled home. I learned that there were colonies of women in this situation, huddled together in shelters for the pur­ pose-a communal society built on fear and anxiety. For me, The Homeless Grapevine newspaper was my first intimate experience with homelessness­ far more so than any of the booRs-pictures or not­ 1 had seen previously. And this, I guess, is the first realization I have made-the singular opportunity that the Grapevine provides ~o its reC\ders: the view of life on and from the streets. As I settled in to work at the Coalition, I noted that beyond all other duties I would have, one set was recurrent; dealing with the Grapevine's vendors-and I do mean dealing. For anyone who has had any extensive interaction with the homeless, one learns quickly that, in general, these people are far from stupid. That may seem a rather dull way of putting it, but the homeless men and women I worked with knew the position they were in keenly, knew what they needed to get along, how to get it, and what they were up against daily. Let me put it this way, a person in the shelter once talked with me about the homeless gathered in the meal sites and shelter systems. They were described to me, largely as a group which had given up. In the "system" they languished. They knew where their meals were and when, where the shelters were, their staying rotation (that is, a homeless person may only stay a given amount of time-a week, say-and then must move on) and that this was all the majority cared about. He said they had given up any hope for a better life, these homeless men and women, and were content As some contrast, the vendors of The Homeless Grapevine were filled with energy; and more than anything else, took an active role in their own lives­ the first step of which was going out on the streets everyday and earning money on which to live. Even more, the nature of the business required skills of Page 2 which society approved: budgeting, planning, looking toward future goals, and affective manners that showed a respect for the customer. To be a success­ ful vendor required participation in the community; to make money, one had to sell- to me, and to all of you who are reading this. So my second realization was, in an idealistic sense, that the Grapevine serves as a bridge between two very different communities occupying the same city- the paper, in essence, forces a dialog between people, a conversation. Eventually. I began working on the paper myself. I had in the past some rudimentary experi­ ence with journalistic writing, and had an under graduate degree in writing and English. At Chillicothe, I had improv~d on a newsletter that the· literacy program issued using a desktop publishing program and some simple graphics. Here, however, the process increased in complexity, not just in the software used, but in the layout and design, as well as the generation of copy. The articles in the Grapevine were, at once, more serious and elevated. Beyond the recipes and insipid biographies that were gener-. ated for the newsletter consistently in a predictable order and format, the Grapevine included autobio­ graphical stories, displaying the subjective lives of its homeless associates; it examined local funding issues and priorities-how federal moneys were allocated, distributed, and spent; the Grapevine studied how people in need of housing gained entrance to metro­ politan housing, and how the law regards metropoli­ tan housing tenants differently than it does housed persons; the newspaper challenged local organiza­ tions, such as We Share, and how their administra­ tors abused aid to the poor for personal profit; in some of its toughest battles, the Grapevine took issue with local shelter providers in their policies-such as distribution of homeless money whether a certain location for a shelter was in the best interests of the homeless people who would have to travel there. From the location of check cashing operations next to bars and liquor stores, to the profit gouging tactics of Helth Maintenance Organizations (HMO's), The Homeless Grapevine has balked at produdng the cliche story and angle and ignored the repetition inherent in today's media. And so my third re,alization is the integrity of The. Grapevine its dedication under the editorship of Brian Davis to pulling out realities and jolting the willing reader out of the grey journalism clouding all of our heads today. Finally, it is best to mention the obvious and by far the most important gap filled by the Grapevine: its providing a voice to the thousands of homeless men and women who, out of fear or torpor or lack of access to a system they did not create and which doesn't represent them, cannot be heard. This is one of the key reasons for the existence of The Homeless Gra~evine, and a reason it needs to keep on existing. The Grapevine has cctme a long way since its· birth in 1913 as a photocopy paper. Its distribution has grow to over 11.000 readers. but its commitment to its mission of providing a voice to the voiceless and an income to the incomeless has not changed. With a bit of luck, support, and with the continuation of the strong guidance it has right now, in ten years or more these most important of goals still will be a constant. FACTS ABOUT HOMELESSNESS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: *A recent study by the National Coalition for the Homeless showed that 13.5 million people across the count!}' lived in shelters or on the street at some time in their lives. *The United States Census Bureau made a poor atf!Jmpt at estimating homelessness that even the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development won 't use. �STREETVIBES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine BANC ONE TO LEAVE OHIO WITH NO COMMITMENTS FOR THE FUTURE Submitted by COALITION on HOMELESSNESS and HOUSING in Ohio Banc One, who is in the process of merging with First Chicago/NBD Bank, has refused to commit to future community development projects for Ohio's low and moderate income consumers. In addition, while Banc One prepares for the largest Midwest bank merger in history. their existing practices hurt low-and moderate income and minority Ohioans, according to the Ohio Community Reinvestment Project (OCRP). . OCRP made an official protest with the Federal Reserve Bank yesterday to oppose the merger and called on the Federal Reserve to delay the merger and to hold a public hearing in Ohio to assess the potential impact this merger could have on Ohio consumers This proposed merger could have dramatic consequences for financial services consumers throughout the State of Ohio since the corporate headquarters of Banc One (currently based in Columbus) will move to Chicago. This merger could result in substantial disinvestment in Ohio communi­ ties," said Bill Faith. executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and a OCRP steering committee member. The Ohio Community Reinvestment Project (OCRP) is made up of organizations representing hundreds of non-profit organizations throughout the state who are concerned with fair lending, community development, affordable housing development, community reinvestment and economic development issues to build healthy, strong communities. Members from OCRP began meeting with representatives from Banc One Corporation several months ago to address their concerns over the impact the merger would have for low-and moderate income Ohioans, as well as minorities. The primary concerns were focused on securing commitments from the bank to continue and build upon some of the positive community development initiatives Banc One has provided in Ohio in the past. OCRP also sought commitments from the bank to offer products to meet the credit needs of low and moderate-income Ohioans that they currently have failed to offer. Although Banc One is one of the largest banks in the state, it provides almost no home purchase loans to assist first time home buyers. The bank has sold their mortgage servicing operations, which further indicates their intent to disengage in the home purchase business. OCRP has concerns that this disinvestment in Ohio will only continue to grow once the merger occurs as the Banc One headquarters move to Chicago. After several meetings with Banc One, the bank recently ceased discussing the possibility of making any specific commitment for Ohio. "This is simply unfair to Ohio's consumers" said Bill Faith. "Banc One has committed to honoring agreements in Chicago and Detroit, but refuses to be accountable to the community it has called home for years." Not only does Banc One refuse to make commitments to Ohio, it also has several aspects o f its banking that hurts minorities and low and moder­ ate-income citizens. According to OCRP, there is Page 3 . LOANS ORIGINATED BY OHIO MAJOR MARKET AREAS Banc One Mortgage Company Banc One Financial Ser-rices While Blacks fili1e Black Akron 164 7 14D 27 Cincinna ti 196 21 190 46 Clevela nd 367 40 273 133 Colu mbus 6 18 47 \w~ J<o Dayton 328 33 151 4-1 This chart clearly demonstrates that the predatory lending practices of Banc One Financial Services h as a negative Impact on African American borrowers. As you can see, Banc Ohio Mortgage Company denies African Americans at a higher rate than Banc One Financial Services which disproportionately targets African Americans for higher Interest rate credit. In some Ohio markets, Banc One Financial Services almost exclusively targets African Americans while Banc One Mortagage Company disproportionately targets whites. disparate treatment of African Americans in accessing credit for mortgage loans from Banc One, low and moderate-income consumers are denied access to mortgage loans more frequently than by other major lenders, and Banc One lacks aggressive marketing efforts to African American and low and moderate­ income applicants particularly by the bank affiliates and Banc One Mortgage Company. While Banc One Mortgage Company does not have an aggressive lending record to minorities and low and moderate-income applicants, Banc One Financial Services (a B and C lender), which charges customers with higher interest rate loans compared to rates offered by Banc One Mortgage Company, is engaged in extremely aggressive marking practices throughout direct mail and phone solicitation which targets low and moderate-income and minority census tracts. A chart is attached that details the number of loans originated by the Banc One Mort­ gage Company and Banc One Financial Services by minority status. Other areas where Banc One may be shirking their responsibility include community development efforts which are likely to see a dramatic decrease in funding following the merger and the abandonment of branches in many communities. Within the last two years, Banc One has closed or sold over I00 branches hitting hard in rural communities and low and moderate-income areas. OCRP believes Banc One works to discourage the participation of low-income customers in engaging in a relationship with the Bank. Banc One's policy around casing government checks certainly causes concern. The bank normally charges up to $8.00 for both customers and non-customers to cash govern­ ment checks. OCRP arguers that this is a policy which hurts low-income customers disproportion­ ately. In addition, the Basic One chei:king account from Banc One disproportionately impacts elderly and disabled consumers who often require assistance by a teller by charging a financial penalty anytime a customer is assisted by a teller to do a transaction that could be completed at the ATM. According to OCRP, Banc One is already neglecting some of Ohio's lending and se.rvice needs, particularly for low and moderate-income consumers. The proposed merger could make this neglect mor:e pronounced. "There are no safeguards in place to prevent potential disinvestment from Banc One," said Bill Faith, COHHIO director. "W e asked the Bank to make some basic commitments to minimize the potential negative impacts and after dragging us along for several months, they refused despite the fact that they are planning to honor similar commitments to the communities of Chicago and Detroit where they are expanding their presence. This is simply unfair to Ohio's consumers" Faith said. OCRP works on issues covered by the commu­ nity Reinvestment Act which requires financial service institutions to provide lending, services and invest­ ments particularly for low and moderate-income consumers within the bank's areas. OCRP's concern is focused on the service area of Ohio. Members of the OCRP steering committee included representa­ tives of numerous organizations including: The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, Columbus Housing Partnership, Columbus Urban League, Community Action Agency of Scioto County, Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Metropolitan Strategy Group-Cleveland, Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies, Ohio CDC Association, Ohio Fair Housing Congress, Ohio NAACP State Confe rence, Ohio Regional Develop-· ment Corporation, Ohio State Legal Services Associa­ tion, Rural Opportunities, and the Toledo Fair Housing Center. Subscribe to Streetvlbes Subscriptions to Streetvibes ~an be pur­ chased for $12 per year. Please send a check to the be low address and the pa pe r will be maile d to you each issue. Streetvibes I506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 Please make che cks payable to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless--Streetvibes. If you have any questions, call 421-7803. �STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine STREETVIBES Welfare News SAVE THE SAFETY NET! STOP WELFARE ·REFORM! ACTION WEEK AUGUST 16-22, 1998. By Logan Martln11z and Tim Burc111 Miami Valley Full Employment Councll In St. Louis, Welfare Rights groups have compared welfare reform to being on the USA Titanic with the women and children being thrown overboard without a lifeboat. On August 22, 1996, Bill Clinton put his signature on the new Welfare Reform Bill, in his memorable words "ending welfare as we know it." This is indeed th'e most signficant change affecting low income families in 30 years. Over 4 million people have left or have been off welfare. A small percentage have found good jobs with a real future, but all the indications are that most people affected by Clinton's women-children­ first- into-the-sea-policy are faring badly. Welfare rights groups are planning activities in cities across the country the Week of August 16-22 with the aim to bring to the public attention t he true impact of welfare reform and the need for a new safety net. The People's Network For A New Safety Net is made up of local groups fighting welfare reform and grew out of a conference call among these groups. We have agreed to organize a week of events August 16-22. The network is calling on groups to I) sponsor news conferences with local organizations demanding an end to welfare reform, 2) have a town meeting and panel discussions on the impact of welfare reform, and 3) to stage a public.demonstra­ tion/rally to protest its impact on low income families on August 22. The network is also asking for input from other groups into an outline for a national bill to be introduced in Congress; a new improved welfare safety net that will help raise people out of proverty. We feel it is very important that all groups work towards a unified bill. The impact is being felt coast to coast from Ohio where 18,000 families have been sanctioned by being cut off, to a. few counties of Wisconsin and Florida where time limits are in effect. This month, July 1998, time limits come into effect in all of North Carolina. In all, 19 states will have time limits kicking in over the next 2 years. Three myths have been fostered in the public's p_e rception to gain support for this reactionary reform. I) There are jobs for everyone. 2) The U.S. economy is recession proof. 3) The States can be trusted with the care for their poor, uninsured, unemployed, and indigent. Even at a time of comparative boom there are large portions of our population who are unem­ ployed in inner cities and in rural counties all across America. It is simply not probable that the economy will grow enough to provide jobs for all the 3.7 million jobless adults on welfare and the 6.4 million "officially" unemployed. (Only during the first two years of World War I I did that happen.) The safety net, with benefits at its core is a pillar o f and a major legacy from the FDR's New Deal response to the Great Depression.· The Ne..; Deal has been a social contract between the American people and the government. W elfare reform is ~ key plank of the "Replubican Contract With America," a new social contract replacing New Deal with the support of Bill Clinton and the majority of Democrats. The New Democrats and Old Republicans have formed an unholy alliance on the decks above, while below welfare recipients are being forced to work as indentured servants at union displacing jobs as thousands are being thrown overboard. Groups involved so far: The Welfare Reform Network, New York; Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, Pittsburgh; Welfare Warriors/Welfare Mothers Voice, Milwaukee; Hospitality House. Hinckley, Maine; South Side Welfare Rights Organi­ zation, St. Louis; Welfare Rights Coalition/Contact Center, Cincinnati; Miami Valley Full Employment Council, Dayton; Empowerment Center of Greater Cleveland; Coalition of California Welfare Rights; San Diego Welfare Warriors; Independent Progres­ sive Politis Network; Jobs for All Coalition, USA. For more information, call Logan Martinez at 937-274­ 7003. PATIENTS BILL OF RIGHTS By Lynn Williams The young mother rushed her small child to the emergency room_ He was bleeding heavily from a gash near his eye. It looked like his eye had been cut out! There was no time to stop, make a call and get a referral from the doctor. She ended up being socked with an emergency room bill, punished because she had done the right thing. Another mother took her 2 year old to the doctor. The 2 year old had a prolonged high fever of I04 degrees. The doctor looked the child over briefly, did no throat culture tests, and sent the child home without even an antibiotic! Furious at the lack of treatment or a referral, the concerned parent took the listless child to the emergency room for treat­ ment. (Diagnosis: strep throat). She promptly received the $300 bill in the mail. These situations actually happened, along with many, many other similar ones in Hamilton County alone! Now there is a bill in Congress that offers some hope for fair treatment. It's about time! The Patient Bill of Rights legislation was introduced in Congress this last March. Now both the Democrats and Republicans are wo rking out a compromise. Both parties agree that the bill should: * give women direct access to an obstetrician and gynecologist * not penalize consumers if they need emergency room services and don't have a referral from their doctor * keep health records confidential * allow doct?rs to discuss the full range of treatment options without "gagging" them * provide the right to appeal a managed-care decision by going to an outsider In addition, the Democrats' plan would: * allow st.ates to let patients sue health plans for improperly denying coverage * give patients access to specialists * assure that patients will be treated even if their doctor leaves the plan * mandate that coverage be provided for reconstruc­ tive breast surgery after a mastectomy The Republican Plan includes: * capping the amount that doctors can be sued for medical malpractice * expands medical savings accounts, tax-deductible savings plans to encourage people to save for their ow n coverage * encourages the growth of health care supermarkets, "HealthMarts," for people to shop for their insurance If you have been denied health care in any way, now is the time to get your story to the U.S. Representatives and Senators who represent you. A spokesperson for Rep. Chabot stated that his office did not think a Pat.ient Bill of Rights was an impor­ tant issue because they had received few letters or calls about health care abuses. · Even though many in the U.S. Congress appear to be supportive of a Bill. all of us who are con­ cerned should encourage people to get their stories in the public eye. We do n't want this issue to just be a ploy to get votes, only to fade away after the elections without any real commitment to a Patients Page 4 Bill of Rights. If you or family members hav!? ever been denied care, socked with an emergency room bill, etc.. ., now is the time to share your story! DISABLED OWF .RECIPIENTS FIGHTING BACK By Carla Plts/ng11r Dear Newsletter Readers & Members of the Ohio Empowerment Coalition, I have realized that welfare reform sanctions can have damaging effects even months later, not only to myself and others but agencies and organizations. I was finally put on Alternatives Work in late May. However, I am being required to pay back my assistance money for Jan uary and February. If you lose a state hearing you have to pay back the amount they gave you until your hearing decision. I am still being punished for not doing my "ten days of compliance" (Montgomery County's welfare policy) because the ten days were,not in a row. The welfare department is not consistent to recipients with this rule. Sometimes caseworkers will honor missed hours or days with verification, and other times they won't. In my case, my caseworker, when my daughter was sick, said I could make up that day by working on another day. Likewise, with a day when my husband was sick. So I feel misled and lied to by my caseworker and the Department and the State Hearing officer! I felt that I had burdened my family enough with trying to do compliance. I had bent over backwards (the Department had not!) I cannot do compliance on my worker's terms or the Department's terms. I had worked over 60 hours doing compliance, only to be told I had to start over again and not get credit for those hours. This has affected my family's health (stress related mental and physital well being) and my children's education (school attendance and perfor­ mance levels.) An employer does not take away your entire paycheck for missing a day with justified verifi.cation, but the Department of Human Services can and does take away your whole month's benefits for missing a day, even with justifiable verification. Sincerely, Carla Pitsinger MISTER WEL FARE By Beverly A. Kidd Welfare was formed out of the Depression o f 1920. World War II proceeded this New Deal Act. 0r idea, to help survivors get back on their feet, Many families were devastated or throw n into poverty, struggling to make the best out of a bad situation; pulling ¢emselves up by thier own bootstraps was the given solution, of the ones that owned boots, never counting the ones who were bootless. Seventy-eight years later , the problem still exists. The name has changed, it is now called "Welfare Reform," the notion remains the same , the helpless or have-nots have only themselve s to blame in America,"the land of the free, the home of the brave." �STREE.TVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine The Vlslble Homeless... Page s the same effort to find minority people for higher­ level jobs. "There ought to be a basic assumption that black people, Latinos, Asians, native Americans and women, for that matter, can do something other than carry bags, make beds and wash dishes," Mfume said. The NAACP said Cendant Corp. included Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Super 8 Motel, Travel Lodge, Villager Lodge and Wingate Inn hotels. Promus Corp. included Doubletree, Guest Suites & Resorts, Embassy Suites. Hampton Inn & Suites, Homewood Suites, and Club Hotels by Doubletree. "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground; they want rain w ithout thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the awful roar of its mighty waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand!" -Frederick Douglass Tactics· By Robsrl Fl'tlklnl Closi~g The Wage Gap by Winton Pitcoff Though there is talk in Congress of raising the federal minimum wage again, for many low-income families and individuals even a two-dollar an hour increase would not be enough to meet all their basic needs. Where minimum wage workers in 1968 earned 11 I percent of the federal poverty level, in 1998 chose earnings measure up to only 78 percent of the amount the government says a family of three needs merely to survive-$13,650. Today's federal minimum wage of- $5.15 per hour - has 20 percent less purchasing power than the minimum wage of $1 .60 did in 1968. It would have to be $7.21 today to keep pace with inflation. To address this gap. coalitions of community groups. labor unions, and some local government officials in cities around the country are campaigning together to pass living--wage ordinances requiring companies that do business with or recieve subsidies from the city to fix a higher minimum wage for their employees. often one tied to an annual salary equal to the federal poverty line. The 1996 campaign led by BUILD in Baltimore is one of many campaigns either underway or that have already had sucess. More than 20 municipalities and counties have such laws on the books. And coalitions in at least another 35 locations are working toward such measures. Countering the Critics Chambers of Commerce and other business associations have opposed measures and argued that they stifle competition and cause businesses to relocate to cities w ithout such requirements. Advocates maintain that the investment living wage laws create within the city actually strengthens the economic base, and makes the climate better for businesses to thrive. Based upon the example of Baltimore, where the law has been on the books since 1995, there's no evidence to support any such concerns. Portions of this article were reprinted by the permission of the editer of Shelterforce Magazine. A subsciption can be purchased at a cost of $18. NAACP ANNOUNCES BOYCOII OE~~ THREE HOTEL GROUP.S Submitted By John C. Lindsay WASHINGTON (Reuters)- The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said Monday it would boycott three hotel chains that had failed to provide enough business opportunities to blacks. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said at a news conference that Omni Hotels, Adam's Mark and Best Western chains had received D grades for their performance. Omni is privately held, Adam's Mark is subsidiary of HBE Corp. and Best Western Hotels are operated by several lodging companies. "We will take every opportunity to inform consumers of our decision and urge them to make similar decisions to boycott those hotels who take their money but refuse to provide them economic opportunities," Mfume said. To be sure, the second d NAACP annual report on the lodging industry showed some chains had improved their scores. Cendant Corp. and Promus Hotel Corp. were the best of I 4 companies reviewed with B grades, and both showed progress on their 1997 scores ­ up from C and D grades, respectively. Marriott International Inc.. Still at a C grade, but rated last year's best chain was also cited by Mfume as making a credible effort co offer advance­ ment to blacks. Asians, Latinos, and women. .The report rates hotel companies on how closely black participation in management, franchis­ ing, and supply of materials matches the 13 percent that African-America11s represent of the total population. "We believe, quite frankly. that our corporate friends ought to be rewarded with our business," Mfume said of NAACP's conference and convention planning. He also said the hotel industry should make We are getting squeezed. Those with money. power. and friends in high places want our land, our building, our neighborhood. and our dignity. It is time to take the gloves off. It is time to get personal. It is time to let the displacers. the develop­ ers, the demolition men and those who dream of palaces at the expense of the poor to pay a price. I say: move the battle to their turf. We must attack with pamphlets, mass demonstrations , and pickets where they live, where they work, where they go to church, where they eat, where they golf. We must investigate. Its not against the law to find out what kind of car someone drives. Likewise, it is not against the law if I spot one of our enemies driving if I decide to change my plans and go where he or she is going. I find out, make a note, and file it. We must investigate. Let our enemies know that every time they walk out of their church, we might be there. We will be vocal. We will be passing out fliers that detail what a scum bag attends their church. We will strip away their squeaky clean reputation. Their family will be ashamed. Our. enemy will be off balance. The enemy will no longer have his safe suburban life. Our enemy will never know what to expect. Eventually, our enemy might tire of the battle and decide to leave. Even if our enemy wins, we must vow to never let them rest. We don't have their money, power, or influnce, but we have the People Power and the time to make them miserable. Take the battle to where they live, eat, drink, play, worship. If they want to take from us, they must pay a very personal price. They don't want us to live in their neighborhood. Yet, they want to push us out of ours. Put away the softbaUs-its time to play HARDBALL!!! �\ STREETVIBES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine Page 6 COMMUNITYSHARES AN ECLECTIC AM ERi CORPS POEM MESSAGE FROM A BLACK MAN 3RDANNUAL Change creates the opportunity For serendipitous events. While the fluctuation of events Passes us passers-by, We, ourselves can know Only one thought... featuring: D«UMS FOR PEACE. MUSE by Sir Charles Bailey AND SISfER FIUENDS Who am I presently? To all my brothers and sisters Who use drugs & crack & shit How can you get what you want When you won't quit using it You blame the white man for all the Things he did and did not do But you put the drugs in your body And it is making a fool out of you I'm a black man And my life is filled with nothing but hope I might be able to achieve whatever I want Because my body is not filled with dope But you want to sell this dope to the Brothers and Sisters Because you say you have no shame You let them put it in their systems And now you are destroying your Brothers and Sisters brain So...Please Quit It!!!!!!! MT. AUBURN PRESBYTERIA.'l, 103 W'~t HO\l/A:RD TAFT RD. time: 8:00P,\t date: SAT. AUGUST 29TH Then, the next thought... Who am I about to become? TICKET L'ffO: CALL THE DROP L'i~ CE.;VTER AT 721 ·0643 I sit.and turn into a stone And eventually the stone splits And a flower grows from the crevice, The flower of my incipient being. The evanescence of our existence Becomes the bane of our present reality When once we resolve to stop listening And follow the mercurial nature of the wind. "MARY" FORGOTTEN, YOU ARE NOT! by Sir Charles Bailey 4 DAYS TO MISSISSIPPI The Devil sent one of his followers and Took you Mary awayBut you will never be forgotten In the hearts of millions Each day. by Denise Crew COMEDY CORNER Though Mary your life Here on Earth was cut so very Short- and it put Tears in so many eyes­ But you are really Protected now that you are standing By Jesus' side Tossing and turning Waiting and yearning Popping aspirin like pez calms the pain in my head The only pleasure to seek In the food I eat I can't wait for the day When pain goes away I feel so weird, so strange A little deranged Almost insane I don't understand why My heart's in my hand After all, he's just a man And from all of us who love you little Mary­ Spread your Wings and take to The sky- You may be gone But we who love you will Never say Goodbye.......... . STREETVIBES Sweatand T-Shirts! The Judge And Mr. Jones By Ron Carter Mr. Jones went to court. The Judge asked him, why did you do what you did Mr. Jones? He replied, because of this and that. The Judge: Where do you live? Mr. Jones: Here and there. The Judge: Do you work? Mr. Jones: Some­ times I do and sometimes I don't. The Judge: How old are you? Mr. Jones: 45 or 46. The Judge: How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty? Mr. Jones: One or the other. The Judge: Well Mr. Jones I find you guilty as charged. Mr. Jones: But why Judge? The Judge: Because of this and that and the other, I sentence you to time in jail. Mr. Jones: Your honor, how much time in jail? The Judge: Ohhhhh, I don't know. Mr. Jones: Can you give me a hint? The Judge: Maybe or maybe not. Mr. Jones: Please Your Honor? The Judge: Probably in a few months or so. Mr. Jones: But Your Honor when will I get out? The Judge: Sooner or later. Only $5 for T's, $10 for Sweats. HAIKU by Brett Zwolinski STREETVIBES The Tri State's An unrhymed Japane se verse form of Homeless Grapevine three l ines cont aining usually 5,7,5 (or 7,5,7) ~yll abl es res pectively . Please submit y our suggestions for monthly Ha iku to Brett Zwolinski at STREETVIBES . Now, Matt 'Mitchell's Haiku: when you are not here only the walls look at me they do not smile back 100% White Cotton Shirts and long Sleeve Sweat Shirts Xl Purple logo T-shirts and Sweat Shirts are available at our office at 1506 Elm Street. Please stop by and see us. �- STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine News From Seattle by Anitra Freeman Ted Shirley, the last of the people arrested Monday at the Seattle homeless encampment known as Tent City 2. was released tonight with all charges dismissed. Judge Judith M. Hightower said (as quoted by SHARE/WHEEL members who were there). "The City of Seattle can start prosecuting people for being homeless when it starts providing shelter for all of them." Yeeee-hah! age further development of the encampment idea or encourage Mayor Schell to lock us all up and throw away the key so we won't come back to Beacon Hill. We of SHARE/WHEEL went prepared to answer a number of hostile questions that had been emailed to us ahead of time, questions like, " Isn't it true that your strategy was to annoy the neighbors so much that they would pester the Mayor to give you more shelters and get you out of our hair?" Instead, most of the pointed questions were directed at the representative of the Mayor's office from neighborhood residents who are incensed that the Mayor's office is dragging its feet when a low­ cost solution to the dangerous encampments in the Jungle has been handed to the City by people who are highly motivated to make it work. Several residents extended open invitations to SHARE/ WHEEL to move back to the Reservoir. Several took up our arguments for us, saying that develop­ ing new shelters takes time and that emergency exists with people outside and at risk tonight. They exclaimed, something must be done now! Even Roger Pence, the person who had been our most vocal opponent - because we violated process which is the worst thing you can do in Seattle ­ was arguing several points in our favor. When another Council member brought up a recent battle to "prevent" farmers from housing migrant workers in tent cities, Roger pointed out that in this case it is the homeless themselves who are organiz­ ing their own Tent City, not the Man. (Yes, he said The Man.) Tuesday night is the nex.t regular meeting of the Community Council. They already have other urgent items on their agenda - we will be men­ tioned but there won't be much time for discussion that night. However, the Community Council plans to schedule a special meeting within a week (or at most two) to move forward on getting together a proposal from the Beacon Hill Community to the Mayor and City Council, stating Beacon Hill's stand on organized encampments and proposing action. · Exactly what that stand and that action will be is still iffy. There is strong feeling for an encamp­ ment, but there is also strong feeling out there against it that may become more active as a move toward a sanctioned encampment becomes more organized. But we definitely took a big jump forward tonight. I'll keep you .posted... North American Street Newspaper Association: Light at the End Advertise In StreetvlbesI ·of the Tunnel byAnltraFreeman, 7/ 13/98 The North Beacon Hill Neighborhood council held a special forum tonight on the homeless encampment recently put up by SHARE/WHEEL and basically, on whether the community should encour- Subscribe to Streetvlbes Subscriptions to Streetvibes can be purchased for $12 per year. Please send a check to the belo w addr e ss ~nd the pa pe r will be m a ile d t o you each jssue. Streetvibe s . I 506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 Plea se m a ke checks paya ble to the Great e r Cincinnati C oali­ tion for the H o m e le ss-­ Streetvib<.5. If you have a ny questio ns, call 421-7803. Advertising in Streetvibes is a chance for businesses to help a good cause while promoting themselves to 4,000 concerned people each month. The rates are shown below. ***Business Card Size 2" x 3 I /2" $10 per month ***Two Business Card Size 4" x 3 I /2" $20 per month A check or money order must accompany the ad copy. We reserve the r ight to deny any ad, especially those which promote alcohol or tobacco products. You will receive a full refund should your ad be denied. For larger ads, call the number below. Ads are due by the 20th of each .month. If you need assistance in preparing your ad or have any other questions, call the Home­ less Coalition at 421-7803 . Mail ads with payment to: Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 452 10 , . -; Page 7 WILLIAM R. WA.L~CE, D.O.S. 5258 MONTGOMERY RO. NORWOOD. OH 45212 Telephone 1513) 531 -2338 ANOTHER CLASS PRODCCTJOX Disc-Jockey Service CLIFFORD JONES (513) 761·3464 (513) 230·6353 payroll and human resource management TRANSCON EMPLOYMENT COMPANY Angle E . Strunk, CEO 1-888·841-7900 P.O. Box 12545 (513) 841-5550 Cincinnati, Ohio 45212 Fax: (513) 841-5545 angie_strunk@msn.com Friends and Neighbors of Over-the-Rhine An Organization See king Justice for People in Cincinnati's Most Endangered Community Subscribe to STREETVIBESI For only $12 per year you can have STREETVIBES delivered to your home every month. National and local Stories on Issues regarding homelessness and the poor. News, Information, Personal _ S tories and more, written every month by homeless and formerly homeless· persons••. Send Check or Money Order for $12 to: Streetvlbes C/ O Greater Cincinnati Coalltlon for the Homeless 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45210 �STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine INFORMAL COMPLAINT RESOLUTION Dear... I am writing this letter in regards to the poor conditions at the New State Super Max here in Youngstown, Ohio. I am one of the 12 inmates who has been transferred here to The Ohio State Penitentiary from Mansfield's Death Row. My name is Bi&!ohn Stojetz, one of the first 12 inmates who has opened the doors here at the New Super Max since may the 7th. Myself and others have been denied access to our legal work and our property such as law books, case laws and religious materials. Also, the Hospital Administrator named Miss Sandoor has denied me medical treatment. As my medical file has written inside by a podiatrist doctor that I have my gym shoes because of medical problems that I have with my foot, I filed an informal complaint to the hospital administrator Miss Sandoor. She answered and said, well, try some insoles when she should have hon­ ored my medical file as the order from Mansfield's podiatrist doctor is only? months old and she should know that any doctor's order from prison to prison is known as a pre-existing condition in a medical file. Still at this date and time I still have a problem with this medical administrator. I also spoke to the Dept. Warden Mr. Ode\ Woods on this date 5-20-98 . about the conditions here at The Ohio State Penitentiary such as not issuing state issue T-shirts, socks, tooth brushes, they have 3 battery operated razors for the whole B-Block which is 8 cell blocks with 3 Razors. I spoke to him about getting my legal books out of my property. I spoke with him about the medical problems that I am having with my foot and some of the same problems of other inmates. There is also no hot water in the cells. I've asked the staff about it and they said they ·couldn't do anything about this. And the food trays the food portions are so small that a 5 year-old boy couldn't get full . I also filed an informal complaint on the food portions also, and all the other issues. And still at this date 5-26-98 we don't have any T-shirts, socks. or our legal books form are property, as I am trying to assist my appeal lawyers in my death penalty case. Also, I still have this medical problem with my foot. This is cruel and unusual punishment. I am hoping and praying that some o ne will print this letter in the newspaper and get in contact with a Mr. Peter Davis, Executive Director of the General Assembly Committee in Columbus, Ohio. Phone N umber: ((>14) 466-1 990. fa><: (61 4) 466­ 201 4. Also, I have no problems with this being printed. I pray that it does get put in the newspaper. Thank you for any and all help, take care Respectfully. Big John Stojetz A255365 Ohio State Penitentiary 878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd Youngstown, OH 44505-4635 Jimmy Heath Photography Cincinnati - (SU) S64-98S6 E-Mail - jimmy_heath @juno .com By John Perotti Submitted to: Cheryl Jorgenson-Martinex, Chieflnspector, 5/ 19/ 98 I have been charged $3.00 for a medical co­ payment in violation of Administrative law in that AR 5120-5-13 dealing with this does not specify the amount of the payment to be taken from prisoners, nor has it been filed with, or approved by the Joint Committee On Agency Rule Review QCARR) as required by Ohio Administrative Law thus this administrative regulation (5120-5-13) is n.ot yet law and confiscation of my funds in violation of state and federal law confiscated from my account must be reinstated with interest. this covers medical , dental and psychiatric care. This has been ve rified by counsel, and the director of JCARR that the Administrative Regulation must be filed and approved by them before it can be enforced, thus I request my money be reimbursed with interest immediately. cd Atty Lynds Alphonse A Gerhardstein, Atty JCARR Dayton AFSC, Criminal Justice Program CllC Page 8 Dan Cahill #251-641 . P.O. Box511 Columbus, Ohio ·43216 July I0, 1998 Sonny, Hey Bro! Received your letter and it's good to hear from you. Also, Received the issue of STREETVIBES. Thanks, Bro! I appreciate it. Well. they raised my security status from Minimum II to Medium II this week. My Unit Manager, Richardson, has been dogging me out, and having me shook-down every chance he gets. But, I'm trying to ride it out. I'm use to being dogged out and harassed. I saw Martha Zanetis of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee yesterday, and talked to her about the failure of the grievance procedure, not being able to get a decision from the warden on an RIB appeal which I filed in November of last year. I told her about my security status being raised without any explanation, and the lack o f meaningful programs here... Take care and keep in touch. In the Struggle, D. LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE I CINCINNATI'S HOTTEST COMEDIANS FOLLOWED BY A DANCE FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 1998 8: 00 PM TO1 :00 PM CHABAD HO USE BINGO HALL 1750 SEYMOUR AVE: $10.00 AT THE DOOR FOOD, LAUGHTER , DANCING All proceeds benefit The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless �--STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine Federal Government Pays Associates to Teach Reading Skills forHomeless Children in Cincinnati Submittedby Genevieve Sanzi, Project Connect On an average, homeless children are two to t hree years behind in school; often they have become the innocent victims of difficult situa­ tions. It's a sad reality, but true. Genevieve Sanzi and Shelley Rothenbusch are two young teachers working with Project Connect in order to make a difference in the lives of these innocent victims. They are dedicating a year of their lives to serve asAmeriCorps*VISTA members. Currently. Project Connect has ·seven America Reads summer asso ciates. They work throughout a nine week program at local homeless shelters and at community centers. Five of the asso ciates are AmeriCorps*YISTA's. They are as follows; Kristin McNa[Tlara. LaToshia Pratt, Jeffrey Sanders, Kristine Schellhous, and Blake W illiams. In addition, we are also grateful to have two interns from Miami Ur:iiversity: Co lleen Phillips and Elisabeth Wilson. They are participating in the "Urban Leadership Intern­ ship Program." All of our associates are giving nine weeks of their summer to work with Cincinnati's homeless children. AmeriCor ps*VISTA is a federally run program that is similar to the Peace Corps and stands for Volunteers In Service ToAmerica. AmeriCorps*VISTA members have a long tradition of providing services to thousands of low-income communities across the nation. Each member is given the goal to help their community by planting a seed. This means they are to bring about awareness and encourage the public to voluntarily participate in and carry on community development long after the year of service has ended. Project Connect is Cincinnati's only program that addresses and strives to eliminate the educational barriers for homeless children and youth. This is accomplished by providing transportation, food service, enrollment and tutoring opportunities for these children. The direct and supportive services offered are essential to reduce the traumas experienced by homeless children. Project Connect provides equal access to educational opportunities to the faceless victims who fall through the cracks of the traditional educational system. · The team ofAmeriCorps*VISTA's and interns agree that having this experience with Project Connect is a once in a lifetime opportu­ nity. Many of the team members wanted to work with "at risk" children in an urban setting. They found this to be a very rewarding chal­ lenge.. LaToshia expressed that, "Reading is fundamental to ones survival in an informational society such as this." That is why the AmeriCorps*YISTA's and interns work so hard to teach young individuals to read. Several of the summer associated and the Children Jeamabout frogs, enjoyanoutlngatlnwoodPark. year long AmeriCorps*VISTA's are in the field of educa­ tion. Actually, Shelley Rothenbush will complete her one year as an AmeriCorps*YISTA in August and she will pursue an elementary education position. She is certified to teach from grades one through eight. This experience has helped all of the future educators. Some of tlie summer programs highlights have been the recent picnic that Project Connect had at Inwood Park. Donatos was very kind to donate pizza for every­ one that attended. The children-were excited to see and touch the live animals that Erin brought. She is a naturalist from Cincinnati Parks and Recreation. Other highlights include the trips to the water park and pools. Beth find s it rewarding, "knowing that the children really look forward to seeing me each day and that our program is often the best par~ of their day." On the other hand, Blake is excited by watching the children's interest in reading grow. If you o r so meone you know wo uld like to volun­ teer to tutor some of Cincinnati's 3,053 (survey taken in 1994) Homeless children or donate some supplies, please call Genevieve Sanzi at Project Connect, (513)357-5720. Stop to take the time to make a difference in a child's life, give a homeless child a chance to see a brighter future. THIRD ANNUAL AMER.ICORPS ALL MEMBER GATHERING ATHENS, OHIO1998 ByBrettZwolinski . From July I5-17, 1998 there was an Ohio AllMemeber Americorps Gathering. In attendance from Over The Rhine were Americorps members Emmanuel Green, George Niles,Tammy Nettles, and Brett Zwolinski. The gathering was held on the campus of Ohio Univer­ sity where lodging was also provided. Members interactivly engaged in ecclectic workshops throughout the gathering's endeavors. In addition, there existed two service projects in which Americorps volunteers worked to turn limited resources into unlimited success for Page 9 PhotobyJimmyHeath Athen's surrounding community. The service projects entailed a playground refurbishing as well as a creek sweep clean-up. All Ohio Americorps members received a certificate from Governor George.V.Voinovich honoring our time and service to The State Of Ohio. NA"ONAl SERVICEIN THE21st CENTURY: What do you think? During the Third Annual Amcricorps All Member Gathering last month in Athens, Ohio an important discussion was broached concerning the progeny of America. The topic was entitled National Service in the 21st Century: What do you think? Ensuing, a soliloquy was spawned within my own mind that said to me, "Hold on!" This soliloquy represented itself as a dichotomy between the messages we.America, are sending our youth. Hello America, we are sending out mixed messages! On one hand, we are educating our youth in a competitive manner which tells them to only look out for "number one." And then, we go on to incorporate them into a capitalistic society which further strengthens the message to be a self-seeking competitor: According to Webster, capitalism is "an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods and by prices, production, and' distribution of goods that are ~etermined mainly by competition in a free market." This is competition in a free market where the determination of the market is anything but free to the masses. Greed and avarice are deeply engrained into our lives, so deep it essentially keeps our economy growing. Without competition we are taught that the production, distribution, and quality of goods would not improve. Indeed it is competi­ tion that drives people to crank out better quality goods. We are encouraged from our childhood that it is favorable to have more and better goods than our peers. And our eductaional system can be seen as a reflection of our American capitalistic system. Throughout elementary, high school, and college we "are taught to achieve the highest grades by compet­ ing for superiority with our classmates. The ones who advance and receive scholarships, grants, and jobs are those who have out competed the rest. We are being taught from our inception to indulge in ourselves at the expense of others. The focus has become the competition, rather than education itself for the betterment of humanity. Competition is engrained in our culture, in fact, dishonest competit.ion coupled with greed and Support Your Local Vendor... Tell A Friend About Streetvibes! Continued on Page14 �-STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine the first immigrants of this country. I read this quote the other day - "Today, if there is a dominant culture, it is border culture. And those who still haven't crossed a border will do it very soon. All Americans (from the vast Continent America) were, are, or will be border crossers ... " (GuiUermoGomez-Pena) Ialso Mexican read that for the last month, iIleual . . b 1mm1grants have died about one a day from the heat, trying to cross the border. But that number isn't included in the national death toll. Their deaths don'tcount to the United States. They don't count as people... (Excerpts of a letter from a UP!. .. from the friend In Texas streets: The to a Streetvl/Jes Voice of the staffer) -Colleen Melange Stanton Today I received a copy of Streetvibes and Citybeat sent by my father. The image on the cover of Citybeat looked quite familiar...[Ed. Note: Recent Citybeat cover story on the repeal of the anti­ panhandling law, a pair of cupped hands.] I wonder if it was influenced by anything in particular. Their implied meaning of the hands in that position seems to contaminate the purity of the act of giving and receiving, (something that should come naturally to human beings, don't you think?) Cincinnati now associates such an image with begging? and with the typical attitudes of the upper class elite all worried about their own damn self-interests, of course the theme of the article is that panhandling is a hin­ drance to their schedule. that they rarely give money because it is not their problem, and -a warning to be careful of panhandlers because 'you never know, they might be dangerous'. I find such conversation to be superficial, not getting at the root of the problem, instead perpetuating fee lings of animosity or worry. "How do you deal with those people?" Well s#@&, why's the problem there in the first place? Why don't we ever deal with issues of poverty? There is a staggering unequal distribution of wealth in this country, in the whole world. Wealth and resources are finite, so long as ce,rtain individuals horde unnecessary amounts of money, property, etc., others will go without. It's about balance and this country hasn't figured that out yet. And I'm scared to think what it will take to wake everybody up: I feel like writing that stupid newspa­ per a letter. What was the reaction in OTR, in Streetvibes? Streetvibes directly contradicts the main underlying points of that article. 1feel clear here: Strong in what I believe. Inspired to act, to.educat~, to be ed~cated, to work for change. It 1s alarming to realtze the extent that this country not on ly perpetuates slavery not only throughout the Third World but in its own fields its ow~ c?rporations. I~ does this by keeping ' the maJonty ofthe workmg class "illegal," easy to exploit. Not even considered to be human beings but rather"''aliens." Laws are changing, the border is tightening so that less and less immigrants can become legal and those that are already citizens are permanently deported if they are even accused of a crime. It is a racist systematic approach to maintain a specific ' percentage of the population which is al ways desperate for work, but willing, no matter what t~e conditions or how low the pay, because it is either that or starve. As is typical of our si lent history, our silent present - no one even thinks about the serious abuses that continue to plague the workers in this country - rarely do they even r~cogni.ze who the workers are, that they have nghts. The descendants of the native peoples of this continent are forbidden to move freely across this land, this continent. And the people who mandate that power are all descendants of Homeless of Santa Barbara County Hello Donald; My name is John Gibbs and I am starting a new homeless newspaper in Santa Barbara, CA I previously edited a homeless newspaper in Eugene, Oregon, called "Oikos." I also attended last year's NASNA convention in Seattle, Washington. I am presently preparing for some upcoming fund-raising presentations and have an urgent need for samples of homeless newspapers in other cities. If it is at all possible. could you please send me some back issues of "STREETVIBES'?" Our first issue will hit the streets of Santa Barbara the first week of August. I would like to initiate a monthly "swap" with your newspaper, so I can keep up on the latest issues in your city. I will send an issue of "UP!...from the streets" when it is printed. Thanks to your example, I feel confident that our newspaper will succeed here, where the home­ less have had little voice in the past. I look forward to a constructive relationship with you and your staff. Thank you, John Gibbs, Editor "Up!...form the streets" ONE DREAM CAME TRUE Page 10 OVER-THE­ RH INE STEEL DRUM BAND · GEARS UP FOR SUMMER FUN And Buckles Down For 10th Anniversary Celebration Submitted By Peaslee Neighborhood Center The Over-The-Rhine (OTR) Steel Drum Band gears up for summer fun with their unique blend of Caribbean, pop, jazz, and classical music. Saturday, August I, there is a performance at the Over-The­ Rhine Community Festival in Washington Park. Come to the festival for a family fun-filled day of games, entertainment, food and-newly added this year-the arts! Ther'll be art displays by neighbor­ hood artists, art activities for the kids. drama and music. All activities are low-cost. and many are free. The festivities begin at 12 noon and culminate with a high-energy performance by the steel drum band beginning at 5 p.m. The band has a special finale planned that will have audience members dancing and adding their own musical talents. This is a new work entitled Can You Picture Yourself, written by local composer David Kisor, arid will be a collabora­ tion with Drums For Peace, The Bucket Boyz, and Bi­ Okoto African Drum and Dance Ensemble. The arts portion of the festival is made possible with a donation form the Sisters of Charity Ministry. Wednesday, August 12, The OTR Steel Drum band goes to Greenhills to perform a concert at 7:30 p.m. as part of their summer concert series and then to Bellefontaine, Ohio on Sunday, August 16 to play at 7:00 p.m. for their Concerts in the Park series. After their busy summer fun concert schedule. the Band buckles down for s0me intense practicing as they prepare for their I0th Anniversary concerts Saturday, September 26 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 27 at 3:00 p.m. at the School for Creative and Performing Arts. Both concerts will be re­ corded, and CD's and cassettes will be available by the holidays! Tickets for the concerts may be purchased for$ I0 at Peaslee Neighborhood Center. 215 E. 14th Street in Over-The-Rhine, Monday­ Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 621-5514 for further information. The music programs of Peaslee Neighborhood Center are supported in part by The Ohio Arts Council; The Community Arts Fund; Cincinnati Bell; The Cinergy Foundation; The Dater Foundation; The Martha McGee Charitable Trust, Fifth Third Bank Trustee; The Jack J. Smith, Jr. Charitable T ru~t. PNC Bank and James S. Wachs. Co-Trustees; and The Keyboard Club. Help Wanted by Maryann Bravo I had so many dreams in the past couple of years. I was so busy doing for others and not doing for myself. But I have changed all of that. I started doing more for myself and that's why one of my dreams came true and that's going back to school and getting my GED. Once I get my GED, I will go from there. My Higher Power is telling me I can. I can do it. I am going to work hard and do the best I can. I have a very good friend. His name is Ron. I could not ask for a better friend than Ron. He is so sweet and kind. Somew here down the line the rest of my dreams will come true. I will just take it one day at a time. The first thing I am going to do is finish school. Now Hiring Floor Staff and Maintenance Drop by or Call Drop Inn Center Shelterhouse 217 West 12th Street Over-The-Rhine 721-0843 �- STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine st·reetvlbes Crossword by Paul Linden Page 11 Scram bI e by Ron Carter Try to unscramble these related words: TRMAK EANELSWGR REKOGR WYHTIRFTA VREOC SASER N NYPES SESYPLA MWTARAL MSSA Answers on page 15. Across 1. in the crowd 6. capital Is Port-au-Prince 11 . animal doctor 14. Brazilian city 15. in baseball, a pitchers quality rating 16. Beanlown 19. Spanish response 20. mental picture 21 . phone device for the Deaf 23. desert illusion 24. crime stoppers(abbr) 26. western college, the Huskies(abbr) 27. bathroom 2&. domolitlon 33. writer cumming<l 34. adequate amount 35. satisfactory 39. capital of Poland 41 . national newswire(abbr) 42. what they call you 44 . car for hire 45. farm vehicle 46.appendage 48. positive response 50. harvest product 53. equal 54. froglike amphibians 57. shelled reptile 58.weare 60. type of street(abbr) 61 . second planet from lhe Sun 62 . really wide shoe 63. filled pasta 66. Canadian territory(abbr) 67. group of workers 69. to slowly take from 71 . hospital department 72 . pledge 75. ripped 76. sauce for fish 78. lecture stand 80. college in Berlln(abbr) 81. tree cutter 82. famous clow 84.season 86. list 90. spring formal 91 . two in cards 93. negative answer 94. African country 95. 2000 lbs is a short one of these 31 . fearful person 32. 'heart of it all' 35. seperate 36. i think therefore 37. major car company(abbr) 38. paradise 40. honesl name 43. freedom 47. to show again 49. scattered 50. to desire 51. 1ype ol margarine 52 . gym class(abbf) 53. female sheep 55. present age 56. male Ct:1N 57. _ _ isfairplay 59. speak to a class 60. woodland animal 61 . type bridge(pl) 64. Iridium (symbol) 65. unattached 68. mechanical person 69. candle material 70. Aslatine(symbol) 73. progression or events 74. low murmur 76. large Atlantic fish 77. unchangeable computer memory 79. males 83.smell 85. spoiled 87. tear severely 88. formal clothing item(men) 89. a long, long time 90. 'city oflighf 92. fathefs brother to you 95.speak 97. Chromium (symbol) 102. to accompli.s h 103. either_ 96. affection(abbr) 9$. city in Nevada 99. snitch 100. a spark or bolt electricity 101 . respectful term 102. female deer 104. southern state{abbr) 105. give a command 106. not Mrs. but 107.joint nearfoot-­ 108. paradise or or Down 1. method of being cooked 2. to direct 3. warm clothing(pl) 4. to look 5. prosecutor 6. type of fever 7. computer company 8. to labor, work hard 9. Jewish nation 10. robe of ancient Rome 12. spirit 13. clean and orderly 17. restaurant or pub 18. a trap or snare 21. ballet dancer garb 22. small branch 25. of the moon 29. Bronco leader 30. to stop working Subscribe to Streetvlbes Subscriptions to Streetvibes can be purchased for $12 per year. Please send a check to the below address and the paper will be mailed to yo u each issue. Streetvibes I 506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 Please make che cks pay­ able to the ·Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Home less-­ Streetvibes. If you have any questions, call 421 -7803. Community Celebration. !I live Music! Every Sunday -6PM Free of Charge Nast-Trinity United Methodist Church 1320 Race St. Cincinnati 721-7339 Advertise In Streetvlbesl Advertising in Streetvibes is a chance for businesses co help a good cause while promoting themselves co 4,000 concerned people each month. The races are shown below. • I 111c.rdsa. rx1112"' Sl8pa11w•1 ......... ,,.. . . 5 . . . . . . . . . 4""xl 112"' A check or money order muse accompany the ad copy. We reserve the right to deny any ad, especially chose which promote alcohol or tobacco produces. You will receive a full refund should your ad be denied. For larger ads, call the number below. Ads are due by the 20th of each month. If you need assistance in preparing your ad or have any other questions, call the Homeless Coali­ tion ac 421-7803. Mail ads with payment to: Screecvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 LOST & FOUND By James Hobbs Several years ago, after I retired, I was lost. After twenty years of marriage; I was lost after having raised six children. I became depressed and started drinking and chasing women. At one time, I was living in the Drop-Inn Center which is a place for the homeless. At this point, I had reached the bottom of the pit. Then I started going to AA meetings regularly and began reading the Bible and good literature. I started going to church and met my present wife. Being homeless is really a terrible situation co be in after living at home for twenty years. It's a bad situation. But you want to know something...this is when I found out about the different places that feed individuals. Thank God for people like Buddy Gray and the ocher people that run the Drop-Inn Center! �~- ......--..-----------~----~~~-----------------------.........._._________________ ~~ ~- ------~~--~~--~~~-------- STREETVIBES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine "Study..." from page 1 growth. As a result, subsidized housing has .become a vital source of affordable housing, however, families seeking housing assistance often wait two years or more before a subsidy becomes available. "It is unfortunate that at a time when the economy is booming, the need for affordable housing is greater than ever," said Bill Faith of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO). "It is clear that economic growth will not solve our nation's affordable housing problems." In light of these findings, COHHIO expressed hope that Congress would enact proposals to fund new housing subsidies for families making the transition from welfare to work and for homeless families. President Clinton proposed in his budget to Congress for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to receive money that would be earmarked for new resources for housing assistance to low-income working families. COHHIO also expressed concern about legislation now moving through Congress that would move in the other direction and limit access to housing assistance for working families with severe housing problems. Social Service Worker. Help wanted. Only people who want to help others need to apply. Applicant needs to be able to work flexible hours, some weekends. Must be a team player. Honest, hard-working, and fair. Strong organizational and interpersonal skills needed. Fair wages. High school diploma/GED required. Send resume to: Bethany House Services/ 1841 Fairmount Ave./ Cincinnati, OH 45214/ Attn: Darlene. FRIENDS FEST '98 Submltt11d by Community Shat'lls It is that time of year again. Saturday night, August 29th, Community Shares is sponsoring the 3rd annual Friends Fest and this year it is the biggest than ever. Starting at 8:00pm Mt. Auburn Presbyte­ rian, 103 William Howard Taft. Community shares will kick off the full campaign with musical groups MUSE. Sister Friends and Drums for Peace. Inspired by a chance meeting at a percussion instrument making workshop, the idea of an interactive concert between the three groups came into being. The concert, innovative in itself, promotes the Commu­ nity Shares focus on diversity and cooperation. All 17 organizations will be represented Saturday night and information and opportunities will be as readily available as the great music! Dr. Catherine Roma and Lois Shagag. director and assistant director of MUSE, are coordinating the program. Mary McCoy. Community Shares director, is coordinating the event. The years of dedication to social change and rights for all found within the careers of these women is seen clearly in the interactive program and its progressive music. Community Shares volunteers a~d supporters have doubled at this event in the last two years, and 300 people are expected this year. Food and door prizes will be coupled with the music to create an environ­ ment that is relaxing and fun. This is so important because Friends Fest is a unique opportunity to foster relationships and further understanding of each other and of our service organizations. MUSE, Sister Friends and Drums for Peace attract a broad spectrum <?f people, from all walks of life. Friends Fest continues to reflect Community Shares growth and outreach as the member organization move forward in their individual efforts to create ground breaking solutions to difficult problems. Our Community is for the vision we share for a better future. Come and join us August 29th, for good music, food and good people! For ticket information please call MUSE @ 221-1118 Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority Looking for a place to call home? Call the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority Affordable rent that never exceeds 30°/o of your income ... Many bulldlngs equipped with security systems ... Units located on buslines and near stores, schools, hospitals, banks Page 12 Rental units are available in these family and senior communities: Avondale Hopple Street/Fairmount West End Winton Place For more information, call 421-8190 today. Jimmy Heath Photo by Brett Zwolinski JIMMY HEATH EXHIBIT: THE BROKEN CITY By BrettZwolinski STREETVIBES photographer Jimmy Heath has humbly remained out of the spotlight for some time. He has been working to uncover the "mystery" of homelessness through his refined photographic techniques ... he's a behind the scenes type of guy. However, his ethereal existence is now going to be materializing only to grace our presence at upcoming North Americ.an.Su:e~ spaper Association (NASNA) Conference. The conference will be held in Montreal from August 6th through the 9th, 1998, where Jimmy Heath will conduct a workshop on the utilization of photographic tech­ nique and style within the context of street newspa­ pers. . Jimmy Heath has been a photographer for STREETVIBES since its inception and has played a central role in the development and stabalization of the paper. Jimmy has endured the trying times and circumstances that ineluctably surround a non-profit organization backed street newspaper. Accolades and approbations for Jimmy Heath. And don't miss the Jimmy Heath Ex hibit The Broken City, at Xavier University's annual Shantytown Eve nt where his photographic artwork will be on display. The exhibit will take place in the University Center on Xavier's main carrpus from September 20th through the 26th. This will be his opportunity to share with you, through his photo's, what he has been doing to bring about awareness of homelessness and poverty in the Greater Cincinnati Area and beyond. Jimmy's work has been featured in numerous local mainstream publications as well as many national and worldwide publications. He endeavors to create aw~reness of homelessness and engages in activism by means of his unaffected photography which has a voice of its own. DON' T MISS THE JIMMY HEATH EXHIBIT: THE BROKEN CITY!1! �STREETVIBES I The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine Page 13 News From Cleveland's Grapevine "WORK FARE" Submitted By Northeastern Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) I thought you might be interested in how Work Fare implementation is going out here in the trenches. I spoke with the man in charge of impos­ ing sanctions at our local Human Services Depart­ ment again today. After mentioning the words "state hearing" and implying that I probably wouldn't to be jumping to come in and sign their compliance form stating that any "further infringements" would result in more sanctions. he said that there might be an "alternative." He spoke with his supervisor and they agreed that if I was to get statem~nts from all my instructors verifying my attendance and that they saw and signed my time sheet that they would be willing to take those statements into consideration for good cause. He also told me that he had checked with their financial person and verified that I had indeed sent her a check for which she had written me a receipt for 4/3/98 which means that chances are I did send in my time sheet in on the same day and on time. It looks like my sanction should be dropped after I turn in my instructors statement. I am a welfare recipient who recently went up against the Ohio Department of Human Services in an attempt to get them to. comply with Minimum Wage Laws and the Fair Labor Standards Act. When it was all said and done the state did decide to comply before we got to the point of class action. Unfortunately for me they weren't very happy with me for making them look bad. W ell they finally found a way to get even! I got a sanction letter in the mail today out of the blue saying that I am going to be sanctioned from cash assistance for the month of May three days before I am supposed to get a check! I should have known better but I mailed my time sheets to them this month instead of dropping them off in person and getting a receipt so that I had proof I turned them in. I complied with every Work Fare hour and school hour I was required to do but because my time sheet for school was conveniently lost in the mail and they supposedly didn't receive it by the 7th we lose over $400. I called the jobs supervisor to ask him what was going on and told him that I had mailed it to my caseworker. He hadn't even checked with her to see if she had seen it. He just looked in my case and it wasn't there, so even though I have never had a time sheet even late in 24 months, I lose 2/3 of our income for now ,he says, the month f June. They can't even get their dates r ight on their own paper­ work, but I have to make sure I get every piece of paper to them on time. W ho is going to sanction all of them for the mistake on my paperwork making me think that in three days we won't be getting a check. These people should at least have to call you to see why they don't have your time sheet when this has never happened before! Some democracy. I suppose I'll have to file for another state hearing. I can't just let this go without a fight. IT ISN'T FAIR!! Are they so perfett? I could see if I had missed hours, but I didn't. So much for. a case by case basis!!!!! Good news, bad news. I finally received a letter from the Sandusky County Department of Human Services on Saturday voiding my sanction. guess they just wanted to let me sweat a little since my reap was today. The bad news is they were able to assign me to an additional 39 hours per month when I s·igned my new contract today. Since my daughter's father isn't keeping up on his child support, the new minimum wage calculation we got them to comply with came out to 9 hours more per week t han I was doing. Just when I was trying to get ahead some in schoolwork because my daughter is going to need another ear surgery. I think it's pretty bad t hat when we as mothers don't "do what we're supposed to," we get nailed, but when the father don't do what THEIR supposed to, we get nailed as well. I got a thought... why not make the fathers do the extra Work Fare hours when they don't pay instead of us. · It's something to think about. MANAGED CARE by Brian Davis Managed care gets bad reviews from customers for placing a dollar figure on health care and warring about the bottom line before the life line, but how does managed care impact the homeless? Imagine havine a breast removed, and told to change the bandages in a sh~lter. Imagine walking around with AIDS looking for a shelter that will allow for all day bed rest. Imagine being turned away from a stay in the hospital with only a one day prescription because your condition was not serious enough for admittance and then being turned away from the shelters because your condition was too serious to risk infection the other customers. This is managed care for homeless people. Those who exist on the steets and the shelters cannot recuperate in their homes. They do not have the luxury of bed rest, and cannot expect help from shelter staff to change dredding or assit with other bodily functions for those barely able to walk. Officals at Harbor Light shelter in Cleveland said"They (hospitals) just want people out." They use shelters as a dumping ground. They are releasing a lot of people too early without a lot of medication. A Harbor Light staff preson r eported that one client fell down the stairs and had to go to the hospital. Instead of putting in a rod in his elbow and attempting to reconstruct the bone, the doctors decided that it would be cheaper to remove the bone so the individual had only half the strenght in his arm. Another person at Harbor Light w.as burnt. He received a minimum level of care at the hospital and was released with some Tylenol aspirin. And before the law was changed a women delivered cesareanand was released within twenty four hours. This staff member who did not want to give his name said,"Homeless people are not treated the same. It is not like it is on TV." A Harbor Light officals reported that social Worker oft.en lie about a patients condition to g~t­ them out of the hospital. He said, "We don't even deal with St. Luke's. They aren't straight with you. Officials from St. Luke's said,"Harbor Light is accepting referrals from us. In February, we placed someone in Harbor Light for Detox and we put someone in there in the last two weeks. They may question us more, but it would not be accurate to say that they are not accepting our referrals. West Side Catholic in Cleveland, a women's shelter, said that they arw usually full so have a hard time accepting customers from area hospitals. Thay recently had a women who had brest cancer and needed a room to recover. They allowed the women to stay two weeks and she got to know shelter staff and residents as her only family. Aggie Hoskins, Director of West Side Catholic, said,"lt is a real dilemma for sheltres and services on the whole." We are not extend the hospital stay for homeless people who cannot take care of them­ selves." Both St. Vincent Hospital and St. Luke"s co nfirmed that there are no special rules with regard to admitting or keepinng homeless people fo r extened stays. A spokespreson from St. Vincent emphasized that each preson is treated I individually, but there are no special rules for homeless people. "Our mission is to take care of peaple no matter their ability to pay. We do not extend the hospital stay for homeless people," St. Luke's said we do not differentiate between someone who is homeless and someone who is not homeless. A St. Luke's offical said homeless people can be referred to residential care or a skilled nursing facility, but they cannot stay at St. Lukes. They confirmed that there are stringent guidelines for being admitted to the hospital at the emergency room, and housing does not play a role. Because there are no special protocols for homeless people, organizations like Cleveland Health care for the Homeless get people with full blown AIDS who are discharged and told to medicate and take care of themselves through CHCH. They saw that managed care is a serious problem that is forcing shelters to provide health care to people with serious illnesses. He characterized the problem as a increasing othe the past year. He says that without the proper recovery time people have a relapse and are back in the hospital or at the clinics operated by CHCH. There is also the possiblity of developing an infection, which could lead to losing a body part or death. In Cleveland, there is one hospital left, MetroHealth Medical Facility. Despite their pubilc mission they do not offer any longer stays or better care for homeless poeple. Hilinski said,"they don't operate any different than the other hospitals." After one week of trying, no one from Metro Health returned repeated requests for comment. Hilinski did not fault the doctors who he said were as "frustrated as the rest of us," He laid the blame squarely on the managed care system. He said, "I think it would be optimun to allow homeless . peopole to be exempt from the rules. Ti is my opinion that manages care drove this process. Let people providing health care do their job." There was a proposal on the table to pro vide care to homeless people who are discharged from a hospital and who need some health care. The Sisters of Charity decided to put together a program called Joseph's Home to serve homeless refugees of Continued on next Page Answers to Streetvlbes Crossword from Page 11... �STREETVIBES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine Page /4 "Managed Care" IMPORTANT CANCER INFORMATION FOR MEN from Page 13 the Managed Care system. They surveyed homeless service providers in the area with twenty five organizations responding. All twenty five said that a shelter for homeless people to recover was neces­ sary. The services reported between two and sixty people needing an augmented health care shelter each month. Sister Joan Gallagher of the Sisters of Charity said that they found that a lot of homeless people were not admitted to the hospital, but were given medication ana told to come back later. She said, "The shelters could not handle these people especially those with respiratory problems because they were contagious." When asked how this situation developed, Gallagher laid the blame squarely on the changes in the managed care system. Gallagher said, "In the past, the hosp_itals would admit these individuals. They had more funds to cover it. They cannot handle these situations (with homeless people). Hospitals these days really have no plans for people without homes." The project sought fereral funds, but was turned down due to the regulations regarding the use of Hosing Funde. The Sisters intend to put the project on hold for one year, and refocus the program to be more of a transitional facility to accommodate Federal requirements. Hilinski summed it up by saying, "It is my belief that we qre not saving aany money (under managed care). We are paying twice, three times because thet didn't fix the condition correctly in the first place." "Third Annual Americorps... from Page 9 11 avarice is what America was founded upon. When once our forefathers took it upon themselves to claim these lands from the native peoples by insidious means, the formation of our capitalistic society was conceived. Competition for the land and all the byproducts thereof has been the source of our wealth and our present superpower status. And upon this foundation our present existance rests with all of its concomitant problems. A house built upon an unsturdy foundaton will not stand. In effect, we have established a society of competitors who are vying to gain superiority with each other, rather than working together for the betterment of all. Finally, the brunt of this self-seeking competitveness is experienced by the majority of people who have low-incomes and who are increas­ ingly becoming homeless. On the other hand, our government is sending out the message to become involved in national service which raises the question: What inspires individuals to devote themselves to national service? When we dig deep for the answer to this question we cannot help but stumble upon the cornerstone and foundation which our country was built upon. Logic tells us that a demolition and reconstruction of our societal framework is in order if we are to synchronize America's dichotomous messages. To care for others is to first care for yourself. If we are not caring for others, then we must not be caring for ourselves because our future depends upon the care of everyone. The future of our lives.upon the earth is a result of all people playing their unique roles to insure the collective growth and survival of human­ ity. SubmittedBy Mike Shryock, Health Counselor Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in America today. Every three minutes, a new prostate cancer is diagnosed. Every 13 minutes, another American man dies of prostate cancer. In fact, this second-leading cause of cancer death in men has already singled out and attacked more than 334,000. And it has caused an estimated 40,000 deaths annually. As with any type of cancer, the origins and causes still remain a mystery. However, researchers continue to narrow the possibilities every day. We do know that age, race and genetics play a part in contracting prostate cancer, but little scientific research can explain why. As you grow older, the chance of being diagnosed with prostate cancer increases. About 80 percent of all prostate cancer patients are over the age of 6S. In addition to age, the race of an individual significantly increases the chances of prostate cancer. African-American men have the highest prostate cancer incidence rates in the world. An individual's genetic makeup or family history also increases the chance of prostate cancer. There is a great deal of circumstantial evidence that supports the idea that diet and environmental conditions are key to avoiding prostate cancer. However, nothing has been scientifically proven. What this does mean is that African­ American men, those over the age of 40 and those with a fami ly history of prostate cancer should make a point to have regular checkups. Every man over the age of 40 should have a digital rectal exam as part of his regular annual physical. In addition, the American Cancer Society recommends that men age· SO and over have an annual prostate-specific antigen blood test (PSA). The PSA tells the doctor the level of prostate­ specific antigen in the blood, just like a cholesterol test can tell how much cholesterol is in the blood. An average SO year-old male is generally believed to have four nanograms per milliliter, one of which is prostate cancer. The good news is that S8 percent of all prostate cancers are discovered while they are still localized, and the five-year survival rate for patients with tumors diagnosed a this stage is 99 percent. Over the past 30 years, the survival rate for all stages has increased from SO percent to 87 percent. There are no clear symptoms of prostate cancer which an individual can easily assess- such as with breast self-examinations for cancer. These include: frequent urination (especially at night), inability to urinate, trouble starting to urinate or holding back urination, pain during ejaculation, a weak or interrupted urine flow, pain or burning during urination, blood in the semen or in the urine, and frequent pain or stiffness in the lower back, hips, or upper thighs. If you experience any of these symptoms, be sure to schedule an appointment with your primary care physician. Only a physician can accurately tell you whether these symptoms are, in fact, associated with the possibility of prostate cancer. Subscribe to Streetvlbes Subscariptions to Streetvib es ca n b;purc~ for $12 per year. Please send a check to the below address and t he p a pe r will be m ailed to you each issue. Streetvibes I 506 Elm Street _Cincinnat•' Please make che cks payable to the Greater Cin­ cinnati Coalition for the Homeless--Streetvibes. If you have any questio ns, call 421­ 7803. "Don't worry. It won't get far." �STREETVI BES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine ANNOUNCING A new Group at A VOC ..• For Heterosexuals living With Aids FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS by Sonny WI/I/ams Early this year 27th, hundreds marched in front of the White House to demand the freedom of political prisoners in the United States. We have two political prisoner's in the Ohio Prison System that should be supported: Dan Cahill at Orient 'Prison and John Perotti at Lucasville Prison, If you are interested in writing these prisoners, write to: Ohio Prisoner's Rights Union P.O. Box 1746 Cincinnati, Ohio 45201-1746 Are you looking for a broader knowledge of the challenge ofliving with HIV/AIDS? Would you like to meet people who share similar experiences and hear their coping strategies? Are you /ooklngfor peers with whom 'OU can discuss and plan for the future? Where: AVOC "Gray Room" When: 1st and 3rd Thursdays 6:30 PM to B:PM More information: Susan or Judy 421-2437 for sale N ative A merican cookies: orders being accepted: R. C. Janus, (Fax) 891-8663. position wanted Office worker seeks 20­ 30 hour sit down job on bus line, within 2 miles of the river in either Kentucky or Ohio: non-medical terminology, non-filing cabinet office work social services, sales, public information. crafts. and other background, some computer experience: contact Box 2, Streecvibes, 1506 Elm St., Cincinnati. 45210. Laborer Looking for a laborer? Has worked at Riverfront. Is willing to do any kind of work. Call Sonia Craig at the Drop Inn Center, 721­ 0643. Elderly or Children Looking for a community oriented job dealing with elderly or children. 3 year ourteach worker/ counselor aide at YMCA. 13 years typing. Computer and cashier experience including Windows, Lotus, Any Word Processor. Call Anjail Madyun at the Drop Inn Center. 721 -0643. Degreed, successful grants administrator/writer seeks commissioned, free lance position as same; ten percent commission per award. Contact J. Janus, Jr. (Fax) 891-8663. N ative American-Hispanic female seeks sit down. slow­ paced industrial FACTORY position; physically challenged. (Fax) 891 -8663. Scramble Answers from page 11. .. K-Mart Walgreens Kroger Thrlftway Revco Sears Pennys Payless Walmart Sams STREETVIBES provides Classified Ads free to low income job seekers. Others may place ads for only $I per line. Ca/1421-7803 for info. Streetvlbes Vendor Code of Conduct Each vendor has to sign the following code to be able to sell the paper. I. Streetvibes will be distributed for a $1 voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for donations more than $1 . I also understand that I will be able to keep 80 cents of each dollar collected. Future issues of Streetvibes will be purchased from the Homeless Coalition for 20 cents. 2. I agree that I will never distribute Streetvibes while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 3. I agree that I will not ask for donations after 12 midnight. 4. I agree to treat others with respect. I will not use abusive language or force someone to give a donation. I will not give a "hard sell" or make someone feel threatened. 5. I agree that I will not supply copies of In Memory of 11 Mac 11 Who Believed In Human Rights For Everyone & Who Founded Justice Watch ••• Because 'Everyone' includes Prisoners and Former Prisoners. COME MEET WITH US STARTING ON2/5/98 Band Lookjne for Work Streetvibes (the band). We like co party. R&B. Oldies, Blues/Jazz Reggae. Helping the homeless to help themselves through free enterprize. Call 421-7803. Streecvibes is now accepting Classified Ads for items such as Help Wanted, Items for Sale, Apart­ ments for Rent and other non-personal items . .The rate is only $1 per line, approximately four words per line. Classified· ads are due by the 20th of the month. People below the poverty level will be allowed five free lines for six months to adv!rtJs.~ their skills or products to our readers. Otherwise, payment must be received before the ad will run. No refunds will be made. Also, if there is an error, notify us after the first printing. You will be given an extra month of ad time. Mail the ad copy to: Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 or fax it to 421-7813 Page 15 Streetvibes to persons who are not registered distributors. 6. I agree not to deceive the public by saying that I am collecting for a not-for-profit charity or . that ,...am collecting for the "homeless" in general. I will be honest in stating that all the profits from the sale of Streetvibes will go to the if'!dividual vendor. 7. I agree that I will not contest-territories with other distributors. 8. I understand that Streetvibes strives to be a self supporting paper created by people who are homeless or formerly homeless. To help in this effort, I will try to spread the word and write stories if possible. 9. I understand that the failure to comply with any of the above statements will result in me no longer being able to distribute Streetvibes. Sales· Representatjye Looking for position as sales representative or management. Has good bookkeeping, typing and supervisory skills. Has experience in retail management, customer service and sales. Is available to work immediately. Call Dea Harris at S52-935 I. Restaura n t Work Responsible older man able to work any shi~ Would prefer work as a busser at a restaurant as well as work as a dishwasher or cook. Is very dependable and available immediately. Please contact Wiley Powell at 831-8404. Baby Sitter Need a babysit.ter? Former child-care worker with day­ care experience. Call Mary Ann at 665-4375 or pager at 610-8527 · Contineency Fee ~ Not afraid of Catholic Church or PUCO. Send office hours and name of law school on letterhead paper to I 11 I Elm Street. No. 432, Cincinnati, OH 45210. Streetvlbes Radio Hour On WAIF 88.3 fm The Homeless Coalition has a live radio program which can be heard on WAIF radio on the second Saturday of each month at noon. The show is co-hosted by Mary Burke, Donald Whitehead and other monthly guest hosts. The show mixes talk focusing on the stories in this paper and eclectic musical selections. Here are the next show dates; WAIF 88.3 fm Saturday, July 11th, 1998, noon to I pm Advertise In Streetvlbes I Advertising in Streetvibes is a chance for businesses to help a good cause while promoting themselves to 4,000 concerned people each month. The rates are shown below. ***Business Card Size 2" x 3 1/2" $10 per month ***Two Business C ard Size 4" x 3 I /2" $20 per month A check or money order 111ust accompany the ad copy. We reserve the right to deny any ad, especially those which promote alcohol or tobacco products. You will receive a full refund should your ad be denied. For larger ads, call the number below. Ads are due by the 20th of each month. If you need assistance in preparing your ad or have any other questions, call the Homeless Coali­ tion at 421-7803. Mail ads with payment to: Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 �' STREETVIBES The Tri State's Homeless Grapevine VENDOR PROFILE: Streetvlbes TV The Streetvibes TV Show is produced at the facilities of Cincinnati Community Video. Some viewers might not see the show appear at the right • channel or time during the next couple months as Warner Cable changes programming and channels. Streetvibes TVJuly Schedule Rodney Sutton Sr. He came to Cincinnati in March of 1993, and was homeless because he was paroled. Having no place to go, the Arrington House gave him a chance to get back on his feet. He soon had an apartment of his own and was able to attend Cincinnati Bible College and graduated with a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Bible in May 1996. Furthermore, he was one of the first graduates of the Build Your Own Business (BYOB) program sponsored by the Over­ The-Rhine Cooperative Fiscal Services. He was given many chances by the grace of God and because of these chances he is now developing A.W.O.L. Ministries to help others have a chance to overcome homelessness, chemical dependency, domestic violence, etc. which bind us and keep us captive. Page 16 This month's LIVE SHOW will feature a panel discussion on tenants rights. Guests will include long time tenant organizers, reps from legal aid, and tenants. Tune in to learn about your rights as a tenant. Channe l 7 LIVE CALL-IN SHOW. Auiust 17th at 7PM. Rebroadcast Dates for Show on Channel 10: Saturday, August I, 1998. 4 PM Friday, August 4, 1998, I I am Friday, August 21 , 1998, I I AM Monday, August 24, 1998, I 0 PM Saturday, August 22, 1998, 4 PM Broadcast sche dules a re subject to change - consult your local TV directo r y. If you have any ideas for f~ture STREETVIBES TV shows please contact o ur office at 421 -7803. We always enjoy hearing from our veiwing audience. Ideas should address subjects related to ho meless­ ness and poverty in our city. We are always inter­ ested in viewer ideas, so please give us a call... Streetvlbes Wish List Streetvibes is published monthly on a shoe­ string budget. We depend heavily on the goodwill of many volunteers and donors. If you can help out with some of the items on our wish list please give us a call... >Adobe Photoshop Software for IBM to save scanning costs > 35 MM Film fo r Streetvibes photo's >Laser Printer >VCR to Show Streetvibes TV Show Episodes to Groups and Vendo rs >Advertise rs to help support the paper Where Your , Vendor: 80 cents Dollar~ > Fax Machine ----- >Office Supp ies >Supplies for Vendors e tc.) Goes Printing and Production: 20 cents ' -­ Streetvibes has a minimal overhead cost so that the vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. If anyone selling Streetvibes claims to be collecting for a private charity, please call our office at 421-7803. Thanks for your support. - - - -!!!!! !!!!! !!!J !!!!! !!!J !! !! !! !!!!! - I!!! I!! !!!! Need Help or Want to Help? If for some reason you find yourself homeless, contact a Coalition Member Agency for Shelter, Treatment, Housing or Services. If you have any questions, feel free to call the Homeless Coalition at 421 -7803. SHELTERS: Women and Children Alice Paul House (abuse) 241-2757 YWCA Transitional Living Prog. 281-5770 557-2873 Bethany House 762-5660 Salvati.o n Army Welcome House 431-8717 ....__ SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission Garden Street House Joseph House (veterans) St. Francis- St. Joseph House Mt. Airy Center Volunteers of America 241-5525 241-0490 241-2965 381-4941 661-4620 381-1954 SHELTER: Both Caracole (AIDS) Chabad House Drop Inn Center (singles) Friars Club Haven House (Hamilton) 761-1480 821-5100 72 1-0643 381-5432 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center St. John's Temporary Housing HOUSING CMHA Excel Development Miami Purchase OTR Housing Network ReSTOC Tender Mercies (Mental Ill) Tom Geiger House TREATMENT: Women O.D.AA.T First Step Home TREATMENT: Men Charlie's 3/4 House Prospect House Starting Over TREATMENT: Both NA Hopeline A.A Hotline C.C.A.T. Talbert House Transitions, Inc. VA Domiciliary OTHER SERVICES AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati Appalachian Identity Center 244-7226 961-4080 651-6446 721-4580 632-7149 241-0504 369-0004 381 -0954 721-8666 961-4555 241-7343 921 -7324 784-1853 921-1613 751-3260 820-2947 861-9966 381-6660 684-7956 491-4435 559-5011 421-2437 621-5991 Beech Acres 23 1-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 24 1-2600 591-2246 Churches Active in Northside 961-0600 Cincinnati Health Network 569-1840 Community Action Agency Contact Center 381-4242 241-2563 Emanuel Community Center 241-1064 Freestore/Foodbank Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Hamilton Co.Mental Health Bd. 621-7149 632-7186 Hamilton Co. TB Control 357-4602 Health Resource Center 352-2902 Homeless Mobile Health Van House of Refuge Mission 22 1-3679 241-9400 Legal Aid Society Madisonville Ed. & Assistance Ctr. 271-550 I 721-4.811 Mary Magdalen House 621-0248 Oral Health Council 621-6364 Our Daily Bread 621-5514 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 721-7660 Travelers Aid 721-7900 United Way 559-6656 VA Homeless Program Women's Crisis Center 491-3335 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1998 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 1998 Vol 2, issue 19 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg. 1: Study Finds A Major Affordable Housing Gap in Ohio; Nationwide Shortage Of Affordable Housing At Record Level Pg 2: Cleveland News Pg 3: Portman Plan Pg 4: Welfare News Pg 5: Visible Homeless Hope VI Pg 6: Arts & Poetry Pg 7: Nationwide News Housing Conference Pg 8: Prisoners News Pg 9: San Diego Sleep-In Teen Role Model Pg 10: Letters & Editorials Pg 12: Azerbaijan Update Pg 13: TB Information Pg 16: Vendor Profile Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project (curated by Katelyn Lusher) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 1998 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Te' Tro Amaru Maryann Bravo Dan Cahill Ron Carter Pat Clifford Denise Crew Brian Davis Dan Gibbons Jimmy Heath James Hobs Lynn Kilbane Paul Linden Judith Mendriski Steven Michael Aaron Pitchford James W. Pryor Steven M. Rutherford Mark Salter Donald Whitehead Lynn Williams Sonny Williams Brett Zwolinski Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This work is licensed under a<span> </span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>. Aaron Pitchford affordable housing Brett Zwolinski Brian Davis Dan Cahill Dan Gibbons Denise Crew disability Donald Whitehead James Hobs James W. Pryor Jimmy Heath Judith Mendriski labor rights Lynn Kilbane Lynn Williams Mark Salter Maryann Bravo Pat Clifford Paul Linden Ron Carter Sonny Williams Steven M. Rutherford Steven Michael Te' Tro Amaru vendor profile visible homeless welfare welfare reform https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/4622c18cfddc5726e1f700f096d6f6f9.pdf 13eb595ca0a6368bb39e0e23ec5d4810 PDF Text Text HOMELESS POPULATION CONTINUES TO INCREASE IN AMERICA'S RURAL AREAS HOMELSSNESS NOT JUST AN URBAN CONCERN by Jimmy Heath Many people associate the problems of homelessness and poverty with big city !ife ­ soup kitchens and shelters, homeless people begging ror change or pushing a shopping cart on downtown sidewalks, people sleeping on park benches or huddled in doorways - these are the visible city-bound stereotypes that everyone is familiar with. Most people are aware of the homeless problem in this country only because of these observable examples on our downtown city streets. However, the problems of homelessness and poverty-related issues also exist out of sight in this country's poor and rural areas. Millions of persons, including families, find themselves in desperate situations in America's small towns and rural areas. The Center for Community Change, a Washington DC based community-grassroots development organization, reports that poverty is actually more prevalent in rural areas. Rural areas have lower incomes, lower employment levels and somewhat higher poverty levels than metropolitan areas. Understanding rural homelessness re­ quires a more flexible definition of homelessness. According to information from the National Coalition for the Homeless, "there are far fewer shelters in rural areas; therefore, people experiencing homelessness are more , c: :,+,:"fY.O:J~ ~ i ~ 2 0 ~K!:.~~~~~£&1~~il!ii111ml& Campbell County, Kentucky and individuals seeking help must travel, sometimes with great difficulty, to urban areas when seeking help, whether for jobs, housing, or public assistance. For example, opportunities for employment for rural families is affected by the recent phenomena of business clustering, where industries and suppliers locate in strategic groupings adjacent to one another. These groupings are often located in the same city or region, near urban airports and infrastructures. likely to live in a car or camper, or with relatives in overcrowded or substandard housing. Re­ stricting definitions of homelessness to include only those who are literally homeless - that is, on the streets or in the shelters - does not fit well with the rural reality..." A lack of resources, a shortage of jobs and affordable housing in America's heartland, paint a grave picture of 20th century life for the rural homeless. The problems for the rural homeless are further compounded by isolation. Families 'RURAL' cont. on page 5 NORTH AMERICAN STREET NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION (NASNA) CONFERENCE HELD IN by Gina Miller, Greater Cincinnati 4TH ANNUAL STREET NEWSPAPER CLEVELAND Coalition for the Homeless SYMPOSIUM HAILED AS A SUCCESS . .\ BY CONFERENCE ATTENDEES ~. :ll',h.l As a staff person of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, I VfaS granted the opportunity to attend the 4th annual North American Street Newspaper Association confer­ ence. July 22-25, held on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. I had no idea that so many people around the continent were participating in the street news­ paper movement. As it turns out, almost every major city in the U. S. , including 'cities in Eu­ rope, Canada and Nova Scotia use street newspapers as empowerment and alternative tools for the voice of the underprivileged. The kickoff for this conference consisted of poetry readings, dinner, and informal discus­ sions with fellow newspaper staff. The following day, I was inspired by the words of a formerly homeless Congressman named Dennis 'NASNA' cont.on page 3 The Executive Board of the North American Street Newspaper Association - - -. ....... - - - '- --.._ ~- - .-. _ ..... - - -.. - '- ..:;._ ~ \......; - - ~ - - ~ - - - -- .... - ,.,....._ ,,,,.... .r- - . - - ,..... ,,,,... .. : ,... ,,., '---' - - - '---" - - - - - -.:::,_ - - '-.,,../ ...._; -.:::,_ - - - - -..._./ - - - .._; - .. - ,... I"""- - - ,.. ,,... ...... ........ ~ ~ - - - .::::; - - ..__,,, - - - c - c::::,, ::::,, �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Streetvibes, the Tri-State's Home­ less Grapevine, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless, social justice and poverty related issues. It is published once a month, 12 issues a year, by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Vendors buy the paper for 20 cents (to cover printing costs) and then sell the paper for a dollar donation. The vendor keeps the profits. The Streetvibes Vendor Program gives our vendors an opportunity to get back on their feet. All Streetvibes vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a badge. A case file is developed on each vendor so that we may track and help facilitate the vendors' move from poverty to self­ sufficiency. The Streetvibes Newspaper Plan­ ning Committee meets monthly to plan our issues and increase circulation. If you are interested in helping or have a com­ ment, story or editorial that you would like published please call 421-7803. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. filfilt Donald Whitehead, Director Jimmy Heath, Coordinator Ron Carter, Vendor Support Gina Miller, Rapid Exit Program Photographer Jimmy Heath Writers Malik Amilcar Tom Billman Ron Carter Sheila Crowley Lettie Davis Jimmy Heath Beverly Keller Amy Krings Sheperd Andrew Martin Gina Miller John Perotti Kay Stinnett Ray Sullivan Donald Whitehead Lynn Williams Editorial Policy: Streetvibes accepts all letters, poems, comments or editorials. We will print everything we have room for, giving preference to those who are homeless or vendors. Please send all material to the following address: Streetvibes c/o Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 (513) 421-7803 fax (513) 421-7813 e-mail: homecoal@primax.net web page: http://cinci.com/gcch The Traveler by Donald Whitehead Ironically the traveler hasn't been about traveling in several months. Its seems that there have been so many other big issue's to write about that hearing about my travels might not be that interesting to Streetvibes reader's. This month I got a chance to travel to a travelers gather­ ing. I have made this trip for the last three years. Travelers come from all across the conti­ nent. The event, The North American Streetnewspaper Association (NASNA) Conference is much more than just a confer­ ence. The conference, in its fourth year, was extremely inspiring. The first three years of the conference where like the first three years of a child's life - like a baby or any other·new organization, growing pains are inevitable. NASNA seems on the verge of substantial growth as a movement, perhaps rivaling the underground newspa­ per movement of past decades. The 1999 NASNA conference was a well organized event, thanks to the excellent work of the staff of the Nbrtheast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. The cont erence offered an opening address by Representa­ tive Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland. Rep. Kucinich offered an inspiring speech that touched on issue's that range from the tax cut for the well-to-do in this country. He also talked about the struggles in his own per­ sonal life. Hearing a member of the United States Congress say that he was a formerly homeless person is more than enough evidence that anyone can be homeless. Knowing that it's possible to rise from pov­ erty, offers hope that there is still a small measure of the American dream. The congressman also touched on the impor­ tance of keeping in touch with your repre­ sentatives in Washington . Congressman Kucinich was able to get funding renewed for an important project in Cleveland. Norma Green of C9lumbia College gave a very interesting talk about the history of the street newsp.aper movement. In my own personal opinion, the most expiring talk came from Lee Stringer, author of Grand Central Winter. Mr. Stringer shared a per­ sonal glimpse into the internal workings of his life and into Streetnews, widely regarded as the first street newspaper by today's definition. Aside from his keynote address I spent a great deal of time sharing in lively conversation with this very insightful man. The conference was more than speeches, it also offered a series of very informational workshops, panel discussions and networking sessions along with time set aside for picnics, poetry readings and socializing. I am always empowered by the conference because of the enormous amount of information provided. Even more important than the information is the net­ working opportunities. At times it's easy to fall into the mind-set that y<1U are in a battle Page 2 alone. Knowing that you have allies all over North America is an extremely comforting feeling. The downside of networking is finding out that the same inhumane tactics are used by people all over the continent. A trolley tour of Cleveland provided a sort of eerie sneak preview into the future. The City of Cleveland has a lot of recent devel­ opment. The visible homeless population is large. We were told that a homeless camp under one of the many bridges in Cleveland was a year round camp regardless of the fact that Cleveland winters are notorious for their severity. It is hard to put in words the excitement generated by this conference. Without a doubt this movement has a tremendous opportunity to shift consciousness in America. The opportunity to really see and understand what is going on in America is only offered by this media source. Main­ stream media sources rarely touch the true issues that create economic hardship in this country. I truly believe this conference was the beginning of the larger mission of wak­ ing America from its informational slumber. A trance induced by fairy tales of prosperity and fables about balanced budgets. The movement has the ability to revitalize those suffering from compassion fatigue, and identify those suffering from intrinsic greed. Once again America's underground journal­ ists must embark on a mission to stop a war. Only this time the war is a secret war, not waged against the .enemy from the east, or some madman. This war is waged on family, children, disabled, and the disenfran­ chised. As the death toll mounts we can only hope that just as the pen is mightier that the sword, it's also mightier than the dollar. I guess the best part of being a traveler is that there's always time to dream. To all the other travelers: please continue to dream because that's what movements are made of - dreamers and travelers. Better Life Heart House The Broken City Arts & Poetry Comedy Corner National News Prison News Cooling Centers NA SNA Tax Breaks Welfare News Scramble Sharing Christmas SK Walk& Run Letters & Editorials Streetvibes Etc. Homeless Art Labor Camps Classified Ads Streetvibes Radio TV Schedule Page3 Page4 Pages Page 6 Page 6 Pagel Page B Page9 Page 9 Page9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 11 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 14 Page 15 Page 15 Page 16 �STRE BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Page 3 about him: "He's a real good worker, real respon­ ment, is government subsidized housing for sible. If we decide to keep him until his contract those who qualify, and the apartments must meet with Pri-Pak runs out, he will be hired perma­ certain government standards. But according to nently. He would get a 25-cent-an-hour raise, up Randy Hildebrand, director of Dearborn ~ounty to $6.50, and another 25-cent raise after 30 Division of Families and Children, there 1s a two­ days." The last time there were layoffs, Ray was to three·year waiting list for HUD housing in Dearborn County. kept on the job. He said there just isn't enough HUD hous­ Michele said she is planning to apply for a ing. Since there is such a demand for r~ntal Medicaid card because of her pregnancy but has property, landlords don't need to get their prop­ put it off because she's embarrassed. Mean­ while, she has gotten on with the Women, erty approved for HUD funds. A story of hope for a rural homeless For example, Lawrenceburg Village Apart­ Infants, and Children program, a state-run family. ments which is designed for low-income families program that provides milk, juice, baby food and and is' rent subsidized, is 100 percent full, said some staples. by Michele Stegman The Richards want to wait until they have a supervisor Terry Stovall. The Dearborn County Register The Richards had to move from the effi­ • place of their own before applying f.or fo?d ciency apartment they were sharing with stamps. Because they are living wit~ Michel~ s They came to Indiana hoping for a better Michele's mother, so they moved into Jimel mother they have to include her Social Security life, better jobs, and to be near her family; but Motel in Lawrenceburg. income with theirs. Stimett said she helped Michele clean the what Ray and Michele Richards found are hard Once they are on their own, paying rent, apartment before the Richards could move in. and without her mother's Social security income times, disillusionment and problems. In October, the Richards moved from She said they worked all day washing walls and to add in, they will probably have a better chance Kentucky and began looking for jobs and a place cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. but that the to qualify for food stamps. especial~y when to stay while living temporarily with Michele's gas stove did not work properly and they were Michele has to quit her job, they said. They are still trying to find a place to st~y mother, Kay Stimett. afraid to use it. Things seemed promising. Argosy and They said it was not the best place to be and time is running out. There also are Medical because there were fights there, it was not clean, bills. Their daughter, Lacy, just had scarlet fever Hyatt were hiring, the Richards are y~ung and healthy, and have high school educations. and there were mice. The apartments were and has asthma. made by cutting a door between two rooms and Michele said she is ready to move back to Michele Richards has two years of business college and Ray Richards has experience as an Kentucky, where she said a person who needs making one of the bathrooms into a kitchen. But electrician's helper, mechanic, and has worked help can get it. And Ray's former employer at $120 a week. it was the only place the Richards could find that they could afford, they wants him back. with horses. Both are willing to work. Ray Richards But their children want to stay here. They said. already had a job in Lexington. a good job. But Jim Wind and his wife Melonie are the are settled in at Central Elementary School, owners of Jimel Motel. Wind said that the rooms Law renceburg, where they both are on the honor because he wants to support his family, he are cleaned between occupants; and his cleaning ref used to quit his job in Kentucky until he found roll, said Michele. another one. That meant a commute of over an Ray said he wants to stay here, too. lady. Betty Lucas, agreed. As Ray said in a note: "Bottom line. all we hour each way every day. Michele applied for a job with Hyatt's Grand need is chance, a chance to prove ourselves: BAD NEWS Victoria riverboat in Rising Sun, and started a job I'm a Damn good worker. I learn well and qu1c.k. It was near the end of December that the as a waitress at Frisch's Restaurant in Richards' serious problems started. On Sunday, I'm always on time. We are good people, but it Lawrenceburg. Ray was finding it more difficult seems like no one will give us a chance. I love Dec. 22, Ray was laid off. Michele said he was to l\nd a job. Although he has a good work my family and it just drives me crazy that no one off for the same time the kids were off for record - never late, never missing - he stutters. is willing to give us a chance. And we're not school. His speech problem is so bad that, in the pres­ On Christmas Day, Michele got her first slow. ence of strangers, he finds it hard to talk at all, "My speech problem just embarrasses me paycheck from Hyatt. It was on that day tha.t she sometimes resorting to notes to have his say. and makes me self-conscious. We moved here confirmed, with a home testing kit, that she is Job interviews are difficult and his wife goes for a fresh start and to have a better life. So far, pregnant. On New Year's Eve, she was in the along to help him answer questions. it hasn't happened. We just need a chance." hospital with problems from the pregnancy and SEARCHING FORA BETTER LIFE HOLIDAYS APPROACHING By December, Ray still was commuting to his job in Lexington and beginning to worry about driving as winter approached. He went to CBS Personnel Services, a temporary job placement agency at 696 Eads Parkway, U. S. 50, Lawrenceburg (IN). According to Lisa Cupito at CBS, there are more jobs available than there are qualified people to fill them. But most .of them are low paying and wages are lower in Dearborn County than in Ohio and Kentucky. But CBS had a job for Ray. The next day. he went to work for Pri-Pak, a bottling company in Schenley Place. Greendale, and he quit his job in Lexing­ ton. At $6.25 an hour, he took a substantial pay cut. Michele got a job as a pit clerk with Hyatt. The Richards were looking hard for a place to stay because her mother's apartment is small, just a two-room efficiency. Too small f?r Kay , Stimett, the Richards and two of the Richards children, Lacy, 7, and Andy, 6. A third child, Joshua, 11 , is Ray's from a previous marriage. Joshua has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Because of his disorder and the high cost of his medication, Joshua is living in Ken­ tucky in the Barbourville Pentecostal Children's Home. But inexpensive rental property is hard to find in Dearborn County. And rents are going up. According to Jan Fehrman of Fehrman Realty. Lawrenceburg. there is a huge demand for rental property and the monthly rental amo~nt has increased substantially, at least 25% in recent months. Most complexes also require a month's rent as a deposit. Nevertheless, the Richards needed cheap housing. HUD, or Housing and Urban Develop- she quit her job with Hyatt. Unable to pay their rent, they looked for help. Lawrenceburg Township Trustee Tony ~ibb paid for two weeks and St, Vincent DePaul paid another $50 for them. But on Thursday, Jan. 9, they were asked to leave Jimel. As Wind said, "You don't pay, you don't stay." He said that when the Richards left, the room was a mess, with food left in the refrigera­ tor and spilled on the floor. About the mice he said, "When you feed 'em you're going to have 'em." Michele said that she may have left a mess but that they had to get out right then. She sai? they packed up and left in 20 minute~. Sh~ s?1d she hated leaving a messy floor, but iust d1dn t have time to clean it. She said she left food in the refrigerator because it was good and she hoped someone could use it. . . So the Richards moved back 1n with Micheles mother in the two-room efficiency. Ray was working again at Pri·Pak, but not making enough to meet their needs and certainly not enough to get an apartment. . At that point, they had exhausted all their resources except welfare. The Richards had been on Welfare once when they were first married but managed to get off. They didn't want , to go back on it. "It's a pride thing., I never thought that we d have to go down to that level again,: said Michele. Despite doctor's orders, ~i~hele returned to work at Frisch's and plans to work as long as she continues to make minimum wage. Ray says he is willing to work a second job but can't find on~. Ray, however, is getting more hours at Pn­ Pak where his supervisor, Jenny Block, says 'NASNA' cont. from front page Kucinich. According to the Congressman, "street newspapers are vehicles for social justi~e." Norma Green, a historian from Columbia Col­ lege, stated that "archives from th~ stre~t news­ paper movement are being established in Wisconsin." I learned a lot from attending the following workshops during the conferen_ce: Getting Homeless People into Leadership Positions; Civil Rights of Homeless Pe~~le; and Recruitingffraining Vendors. As a part1c1pant, I also gained a lot from attending panel discus­ sions and business meetings. Updates were provided by representatives from various newspapers. According to confer­ ence participants. "some of these papers are struggling while others are advancing." One participant stated that "she is looking to start a street newspaper in Providence, Al". It was interesting to lind out that a newspaper in Bos­ ton, called "Spare Change" (along with many others) offers writers' workshops and computer classes. I also found out about an investigative journalism training program which is offered by a street newspaper in San Francisco called "St reet Spirit." By the end of the conference, members of NASNA made a commitment to work towards several goals in order to strengthen the organiza­ tion and the street newspaper movement in ~orth America. �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Hom~/ess Grapevine Page 4 HEART HOUSE SHELTER PROJECT BRINGS HOPE TO -RURAL HOMELESS by Kay Stinnett Co-founder, President of Heart House £ ~ :::.... ~ .S .9 0 ~..._-------~-----" -a_ Kay Stinnett, co-founder and president of the Heart House Shelter, Aurora, Indiana . . HOMELESS­ NESS: THE CAUSES AND FACTS Who are the Homeless? 22% of homeless people are veterans. There are more homeless veterans today than U. S. soldiers who died in Vietnam. The average age of a homeless person in the United States is 9 years old. Heart House, a local grassroots organiza­ tion, is in the process 9f creating a homeless shelter for families in the Dearborn County, Indiana area. [ed. note: Dearborn County is a semi-rural area located in southeastern Indiana, just west of Cincinnati,Ohio.] The idea of creating and the need for creating a homeless shelter had been talked about in the communi­ ties of Aurora and Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Of course, I did not know these discussions were taking place - all I knew at the time was that my daughter, son-in-law and their three children had become homeless. In the middle of the night I gave a call to Pastor Glen Eisenbery, president of the area Ministerial Association. I was crying, not knowing what to do to help them. They had become homeless on the day of the first ice storm in 1996. Of course, they could stay with me for a little while only, because my landlord was concerned about health regulations. Pastor Eisenbery (having had experience in starting a homeless shelter), Reverend Perry Richards, Doug Garner, Marilyn Faber, Betty 151,000 households in the Chicagoland area have incomes at less than 50% of area median income and either pay more than half their income in rent or live in severely substan­ dard housing. Of those households, 106,000 are in the city of Chicago. In Illinois, 40'?'o of all households cannot afford a market-rate two-bedroom apartment, and 33% cannot afford a market-rate one­ bedroom apartment. This ranks the state 12th worst in the nation in the gap between income and rental coats. The affordable housing crisis, once con­ centrated in the cities, has spread to the sub­ urbs. The number of suburban households in Chicago, for example, with critical housing needs jumped by 146,000 from 1991 to 1995 - a 9% increase. In the US, 29% of homeless families that have ever receiveq TANF (welfare) reported having their benefits cut or reduced in the last 6 months. Nationally, 10.5 million renters compete for 6.1 million low-income units. This gap leaves 4.4 million people unable to find an affordable pla9e to live. In Chicago, 22% of homeless people are currently employed. 25% have been unem­ ployed for more than one year. 33% have never been employed. More than 1 million families nationwide are on waiting lists for assistance from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop­ ment. In Chicago, there are 61,567 households on the waiting list. 16% of homeless people spent time in foster care, group homes, shelters or welfare hotels before they were 18. In Chicago, 47% of homeless families have been homeless more than once. As many as 25-40% of homeless people work full- or part-time, but cannot afford to pay rent. CAUSE: LACK OF AFFORDABLE HOUS:{·JG ln Chicago, 245,000 potential lov.-1.1come renters 'those households making ltJbS t'lan $12,00r per year) corr pet .; 1 ~~ C au..: " able rental units. As a result. 130,000 renters ca:-ii':; ~;'1d affordable 1-- .i"·"' ~ ·v Nationally, requests for housing assistance have increased by 74% in the last year. Only 27% of eligible low-income households currently receive housing assistance. 18 ,000 units of public housing in Chicago are slated for demolition, displacing 42,000 people. In 1998, 44% of families nationwide Jived doi.;b!ed or tripled up with family or friend::; prior tc 21~e i'lg :- o:Tieless shelter:... C,.":JSE: LACK ';F LIVING VIAGE JOBS In 1997, almost 30% of all U.S. worl\ers ·· enp1oy.:: • 1 p .. ,:me ur te• ,.. . 1 positions, even though many of these Tyler along with Manetta Glenn of the Dearborn County Mental Health Association offered their help in starting a homeless shelter project. We sent out invitations to all of the area Ministerial Association members, residents, local agencies and government officials. We invited Michael Stoops, of the National Coalition for the Home­ less and Barbara Anderson of the National Coalition and the state board for our first brain­ storming meeting. With the help of everyone involved we received our non-profit status and our Community Housing Development Organiza­ tion certification and start-up money for our office. Presently, we are looking for funding sources and a site to locate our shelter building here in Aurora, Indiana. I hoP.e this will give you some insight into the hard work that is going on here and all the dedication of those who have been here to help establish Heart House. FClr more information contact the Heart House, PO Box 479, 325 Second Street, Aurora, IN 47001. Phone ­ (812) 926-4890 workersactively sought full-time work. A person must work full-time and earn at least $8.29/hour to reach the federal poverty level for a family of four ($16,588). According to the most recent Census Bureau report, 2.3 million people worked full-time in 1997 yet were below the poverty line. A full-time worker at the minimum wage of $5.15/hour earns an annual income of $10,300 before taxes. Minimum-wage jobs generally provide no benefits such as health insurance or daycare, nor do they provide opportunity for advancement. · Between 1980 and 1998, the average pay of working people increased just 68%, while CEO compensation grew by 1 ,596%. The average CEO of a ·major corporation made $10.6 million in 1998, 419 times more than an average blue-collar worker. A 1998 welfare grant for a family of three was $377. The buying power of a 1998 welfare grant was less than 44% of a grant in 1973. IMPACT OF HOMELESSNESS ON CHILDREN 50% of all children in shelters show signs of anxiety and depression. Children in shelters show as high as a 70% rate of delay in immunizations, compared to 22% among low-income children who are housed. 66% of students who missed 20 or more school days during first, second or third grade will drop o ut of school. 1-amilies w1tt1 er 111oren are the fastest grow·ng segment of the homeless population. -rs" trom . . . . . . . . . "~ rJ·H.., Coalition f<Jr tIle · t;mcago ,. · the Homeless. �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine The Broken City... by Jimmy Heath ~'""':".""~~~--- American Stereotype... CINCINNATI'S GRASSROOTS ~-COMMUNITY PROMOTES PROGRESS by Ray Sullivan, Xavier University Student In the July 71h Post editorial entitled "Progress in Over-the-Rhine," the editors touch on a series of critical issues facing Over-the­ Rhine. Although very informative, the views presented do not paint the complete picture of what has happened, is happening, and could continue to happen in Over-the-Rhine. Development-the focal issue-has long been a hotbed of debate in the Over-the-Rhine community. Here's why. On one hand, for-profit development forces, whether within or outside of the community, have worked for what they believe is the betterment of the community and their own interests. On the other hand, non­ profit, community-based organizations have strived to improve the quality of life of many of the existing community by securing tow-income housing. Both sides believe that Over-the­ Rhine's revitalization is crucial for its own well­ being and as a resource to downtown Cincinnati. The Drop Inn Center Shelterhouse and its off­ shoot grassroots housing cooperative ReSTOC are anchors of non-profit development in Over­ the-Rhine. This past June, ReSTOC opened "buddy's place'', an apartment complex consist­ ing of twenty units of permanent housing for the homeless. Last year, the Over the Rhine Housing Network completed a similar project for low-income people, Sharp Village. Last week's article portrayed this grassroots continuum as the Mentrenched opposition" to development and as the "biggest impediment" to the revival of Over-the-Rhine. However. this portrayal belies both the scope of development in Over-the­ Rhine and the stance of these organizations. It is accurate, however, to assert that opposition to certain development exists among the grassroots community. This opposition is based on the reality that poor people are losing their homes because of incomplete develop­ ment. As neighborhood properties improve and property values increase, landlords and devel­ opers have difficulty building and maintaining low marl<et rate housing. Unable to afford it, low-income residents are forced out. Earlier this decade, Main Street experienced significant renovations that gentrified a well-established community. In just a five-block span from 12111 Street to Liberty, over 200 units of low-income housing were lost. Without the benefit of enforceable Anti-Displacement or rent control laws, displacement will continue. Displacement happens when a landlord allows building(s) deteriorate to the point of being unlivable, indirectly forcing out the tenants, when a landlord raises rents following area renovation, and most prominently when a landlord sells buildings to developers who evict the tenants, refurbish the buildings for marl<et rate or tear them down for parking. Another issue facing Over-the-Rhine is defining and encouraging the creation of a mixed-income community. The Over-the-Rhine community supports income diversity where "mixed" includes low-income and does not displace the poor from their community. How­ ever, what Mmixed income" currently means to the Over-the-Rhine community is too often not just the influx of wealthier neighbors; but the displacement of existing neighbors. The Milner Hotel, once a low-income rooming house, was tom down for the construction of Greenwich Village, a market rate complex for higher­ income people. While the village provides comfortable living for some, it displaced many low-income people who resided at Milner. The adjacent West End community is experiencing the demolition of two housing projects, Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court, as part of the HUD program Hope VI which grants cities federal money to rebuild old projects. When completed, Lincoln Court will consist of 500 housing units, 250 of which will be reserved for public housing. Approximately 100 units will be available for homeownership, 50 of which for low-income. The remaining 150 will be set at market rate. The numbers appear to present a mixed-income community with 60% reserved for tow-income. But by this net loss of 356 tow­ income units (856 to 500), hundreds of people Page s will be displaced with nowhere to relocate. As compensation, the city is offering these resi­ dents some job training and Section 8 vouchers to be redeemed by certain landowners who participate in federal subsidy programs. How­ ever, many of the 2000 Section 8 units up for renewal in Over-the-Rhine and the West End will be converted to marl<et rate as landlords opt out of this program within the next two years. For low-income people, this is a frightening realization as the low-income housing marl<et is becoming tighter by the minute and the shelters are already full. Truly, the grassroots community in Over­ the-Rhine is "deeply entrenched" because of the deeply entrenched needs of the homeless and low-income that will exist as long as the poor and the Over-the-Rhine community are ne­ glected and denied the right to self-determina­ tion. With a need for low-income housing that already outstrips the supply, public redevelop­ ment projects and private development continu­ ally contribute to the leading cause of homelessness: lack of affordable housing. It has been the public's-not the grassroots community's-inferior policy of constant gentrification that accounts for the "perpetual ghetto" in Over-the-Rhine. This lack of commu­ nity stability and individual control over their futures (and those of their children)- accompa­ nied with negative stereotypes - has profound adverse affects on the poor and homeless. T his grassroots community anchored by the Drop Inn Center does not facilitate homelessness. It was founded to respond to the needs of people who were neglected and mistreated by both inferior public policy and society itself. Rather than perpetuating an already existent "ghetto," the Drop Inn Center and many others strive to eradicate this "ghetto" and revitalize Over-the­ Rhine. By assisting individuals and families to obtain decent, affordable housing, by taking steps toward recovery and self-esteem, by establishing financial independence through work, and by worl<ing with organizations to encourage higher-income people to live in our diverse, safe, and caring community: this is true progress in Over-the-Rhine. 'RURAL' from front page ... These businesses rarely locate in isolated rural areas creating a vacuum of opportunities for poor families. Families on the move, looking for greener pastures, are America's homeless nomads. "One of the other problems of the rural homeless are that programs designed to allevi­ ate homelessness are targeted to urban areas and basically ignore the same conditions in rural America, resulting in a woeful lack of funding resources for rural communities," says Donald Whitehead, director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. "One of the solu­ tions is to get more of the rural communities involved in the HUD Continuum of Care applica­ tion and funding process. The Coalition for Housing and Homelessness in Ohio (COHHIO) is one of many organizations working to bring more of these rural communities into the process." The HUD Continuum of Care pro­ gram targets federal funding dollars to homeless programs. Efforts to end rural homelessness, accord­ ing to the National Coalition for the Homeless, are complicated by isolation. lack of awareness, and lack of resources. Helpful initiatives would include broadening the definition of homelessness to include those in temporary and/or dilapidated facilities, increasing outreach to isolated areas, and increasing networking and awareness on a national level. Ultimately, however, ending homelessness in rural areas requires jobs that pay a living wage, adequate income support for those who cannot work. affordable housing, access to health care, and transportation. �STREETVIBES The Tri-State•s Homeless Grapevine WORD ON THE TORY by Beverly Keller STREET Arts & Poetry LOVE HURTS Tory died so we could live All she knew was how to give. Through her death she gave us life Through her trials and her strife. She gave us something through her death To savor every lasting breath .. An angel sent from God above An angel who taught us love. TO SUBMIT YOUR POETRY OR WRITINGS TO STREETVIBES, CONTACT THE OFFICE OF THE GREATER CINCINNATI COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS, 1506 ELM STREET, CINCINNA Tl, OHIO 45210 (OR CALL 513-421-7803) JESUS LIVES AND WORKS TODAY! by Ron Carter Was he loved? I don't think so. I had a friend who came home from school one day to find out that his parents had moved. They left a note that read; "Dear what's your name, we went back to sleep after you left for school this morning. We both had the same dream. We dreamed that you had left town and was never coming back, so we moved. After we realized that we had only been dreaming, it was too late, we had already moved to our new house. Sorry about that, whatever your name is. A that point my friend had nowhere to go. So he quit school, lied about his age, and joined the army. He never received any mail tor a year. Finally, one day he did receive a letter and it was from his mother. It read as follows: "Dear son, now we remember who you are. How are you? We have really been having a ball since you left. When you get your furlough don't waste it by coming to see us. Because we won't be home anyway. When are you going to get you furlough? I need to know. So your father and I can arrange to be on our vacation. Write back soon so we will know what to do. Our address is PO Box 123, Forget Us, USA. Well, that's all I have to say son. Goodbye forever, Mom. PS: I was going to send you some money, but I already sealed the envelope. Sorry." PS: This is a fictional story, just thought you needed a laugh ... bySML . Wanderin, thinkin, tryin to find my soul a home, Where water is not thirsty and bread loaf is not stone. I've come to this conclusion and it chills me to the bone, Nobody, but nobody can cut it here alone. Sometimes I wish the world would open and swallow me whole. I can feel the hurt, not just on the surface, but down to my soul. I can feel the eyes watching me, but no­ clues there. I can feel the arms holding me, but they don't really care. by Lettie Davis Joseph had a Baby! Mary wuz sore Pregnant. Light of day shown at nite- Lord brought him forth with all of Mary's might. EMAIL: STREETVIBES@JUNO.COM COMEDY CORNER ALL ALONE I've spent many-a days just walkin down by the shore, I've cried tears of pain so much, that I can't cry no-more. by Beverly Keller When people are in love today It hurts when they go away. They break your heart in every way They take your soul and run away. You give your love with heart and soul your heart and soul, they have stole. When people are in love today It hurts when they go away. Page 6 Can't we see that we are saved today? Can't we admit that that Love of God is what saves us today? That love of God is our wit. Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can make it here alone. DAMIEN'S BIRTHDAY GIFT by Amy Krings WHY WE SUFFER by Malik Ami/car Why must we Suffer this Taxation without Representation. Although you have The funds for Corporate bailouts And other foreign nations. A vision with No unity With no Vision. That's until The Day I made my Decision. Do for self. Wisdom With no Money, and Money with No wisdom Got me and Mine broke, Naked, outdoors, and Dependent On the System. Do for Self. This summer I met one of the most spiritual, gentle, and humble men that I know. met him on the skywalk outside of Saks Fifth Avenue in downtown Cincinnati. When I first saw him, he was sleeping. He held a sign in one hand and a cup in the other. Me and my co-worker from the Drop Inn Center sat down next to him. As the rain fell outside and many curious downtown workers passed, we sat and talked about God and life. A few weeks later, I was celebrating the birthday of my 9-year-old friend, Damien. His family had recently gone through some tough times because his mother lost her job. This meant that Damien did not get any presents, a party, not even a cake. His only gift had been $4 from his aunt. I invited him and his brother up to Xavier University for the day and arranged to pick up a cake for him at the store. During the day, Damien acted up. It was an emotional day, and he was easily upset. When it came time to stop at the store on the way home, I was feeling tired and frustrated. We pulled into the parking lot and passed a homeless man with a sign In one hand and a cup in the other. As I began to park, Damien said, "Can you drive around a minute, there is something I need to do." I heard him digging for the change in his pocket. Damien asked me to stop in front of the homeless man and he put about $1 of his change - all that was left from his aunt's birthday gift - into the man's cup. The man smiled humbly and said, "God bless you," - it was the same man that I met outside of Saks. Damien nodded and I drove away. All I said was, "Damien, I am ~ proud of you." �STREElVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine STREETVIBES Nationwide The strain on family lite and the perilp to the educational achievement of children are obvi­ ous. What these families need first is stable, affordable housing, in short supply in their community. That requires more low income housing assistance. In addition to the economic development initiatives the President introduced this week, investment in basic housing - that is, more housing vouchers - must be a priority. A voucher is the means to a stable home. A voucher can help free up income to buy a car to travel to a better job, and to provide better food and nutrition for children. A voucher helps keep children secure in their homes so they can learn in school. A voucher helps a worker live close enough to a job so she's not dependent on three bus transfers to travel to work, increasing her chances of finding and keeping a job. If economic development is a priority, then so must be housing vouchers. If the people left behind are to live with the rest of us, they must live in secure homes. The way to do that now is to find the money for new vouchers. Point of View Capitol Hill by Sheila Crowley Appropriations Mark Up Anyone who cares about economic in­ equality and persistent poverty in the United States has to applaud the President for his high profile tour this week of the places that have been "left behind" In this period of spectacular prosperity, and his New Markets Initiative. Of course, we would have preferred more empha­ sis on improving the social and economic well­ being of poor people earlier in his tenure. Left unsaid in the fanfare is that income disparity is a deeper structural problem than motivating business to invest in low-income communities alone can solve. Nonetheless, the public discourse that is generated in the context of this kind of event, and the images of poverty that poke and prod at the consciousness of the better-off, are ex­ tremely important. They offer a more complex and less demonizing explanation for poverty than has been the dominant perception in this era of welfare "reform and heightened individu­ alism. Implicit in the definition of the problem, as people and communities who have been left behind, is their connectedness to the rest of us who have left them behind, and our responsibil­ ity to bring them along. This is the time for public attention to those who have been left behind in our own communities. A three part series last week in the Fredericksburg, Va. , Free Lance-Star, a small town local paper, explored in depth the lives of families who live in the aging motels on U.S. Route 1. The motels are left over from the days when Route 1 was the major North-South thoroughfare, left behind when the interstate highway absorbed the lion's share of transport and commerce. The people featured in the articles have all been left behind in the eco­ nomic boom of t he late 1990s. Most are em= ployed. They are day laborers, waitresses, fast food workers, many supporting families. The newspaper account is one of people who are, by and large, good neighbors, people who care about their surroundings, and who want to raise their children well. They are left out of the housing market because of low wages; inability to accumulate the money needed to get into an apartment, and the poor credit that comes from years of eco­ nomic marginality. Meanwhile, even though an apartment is often less expensive, they must pay most of what they earn to stay from week to week in one room, getting further in the hole. As reported in a previous Memo, both the House and Senate VA-HUD-Independent Agencies Subcommittees are planning to mark up FY2000appropriations bills in July. The rumor mill reports that the Senate may not mark up until September, but Subcommittee staff can't confirm this H.R. 202 Hearing The House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity will hold a hearing on H.R. 202, the Preserving Affordable Housing for Senior Citizens into the 21st Century Act, on Wednesday, July 14th, 1999 at 2:30 p.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building. A segment of the testimony includes a technical description of the finance conversion process introduced in H.R. 202. The bill is part of the blizzard of housing-related legislation introduced this session. 0 I Lending to Minority-Owned Businesses The Wall Street Journal reported this week that black applicants for small-business financ­ ing are denied credit twice as often as whites with similar creditworthiness, citing a study sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Bureau's study found small business loan-denial rates of 27% for whites and 66% for blacks (go to http://nberws.nber.org/ papers/w6840). The newspaper also reports that the Federal Reserve Board will be posting a collection of the latest research on small busi­ ness financing on its web site later this month (http://www.bog.frb.fed.us). Data collected as part of the Fed's 1993 Survey of Small Business Finances forms the basis for several recent studies. (Go to http:// www.bog.frb.fed.us/ssbf/ for the survey and related material.) Fed researcher Glen Canner presented his findings at the central bank's March 9 conference on Business Access to Capital and Credit in Arlington, Va. He con­ cluded, among other things, that compared to predominately white neighborhoods, predomi­ nately minority neighborhoods receive a some­ what smaller share of the business loans and loan dollars than might be expected based solely on the distribution of the number of businesses and population across areas. How­ ever, he also noted that while the number of small business loans tends to fall somewhat with Page 7 increases in neighborhood minority composition, the amount of lending measured in loan dollars increases. Other researchers have stressed the importance of examining individual markets, not just national trends. For example, Community Reinvestment Act expert Gregory Squires observed at the same conference that a similar Fed study, concluding that loan distribution reflected population distribution, had failed to note substantial gaps between lending activity in low and upper income areas. As the Journal points out, "this is hardly the first time researchers have concluded that blacks lack equal access to credit." What distinguishes some of the recent work in the field is its reliance upon the Fed's 1993 survey, a sophisticated body of data. The Fed surveys small business finances every five years, and is currently working on the 1998 survey. Earlier this year, in a survey of minority­ owned businesses and their banking relation­ ships, the Boston-based Organization for a New Equality found that 89% of the minority businesses it surveyed had applied tor bank credit products, but only 43% had ever received a product. Overall, only 38% of respondents had obtained bank credit. The work to be posted on the Fed web site was presented at the Arlington conference. For a report on Fed Chair Alan Greenspan's re· marks on CRA there, see Memo 3/12/99, at http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm4-1 O.htm. To obtain a copy of the survey, contact Organiza­ tion for a New Equality, 617/424-6631. Administration Reiterates CRA Pledge Separately, Comptroller of the Currency Jerry Hawke, in a meeting with community organizations, reiterated the Administration's commitment to the Community Reinvestment Act, saying the President would not support a bank bill that weakens CRA. See previous editions of Memo for accounts of the recently passed bank reform bill. Political Giving: Financial Services The Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign-finance reform group, has analyzed political giving by the financial services industry. Since 1993, CRP finds, banks, securities brokers, and insurance agents have made nearly $190 million in soft money, Political Action Committee, and individual contributions to federal parties and candidates, predominantly f'1voring Republicans. Of the total, more than $86 million was given during the 1997-98 election cycle. Loose Change: The Debate over Banking Reform can be found at http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/ v5/alertv5_22.htm (For a related story, see Memo 1/29/99, "Influencing the House Banking Committee, an Economic Analysis," at http://www.nlihc.org/ mtm/mtm4-4. him} Field Notes Connecticut The 1999 legislative session saw an increase in the housing tax credit to $5 million annually, the first expansion of the program since it was created in 1987 at the $1 million 'VIEW' continued on page 10... E-MAIL STREETVIBES: STREETVIBES@JUNO.COM I �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Hom~less Grapevine Page a STREETVIBES LETTER DENOUNCES PRISON Prisoner's News GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE f' \ \ \ \ \ I ' ··' R R I I MADNESS AT THE SUPERMAX by John Perotti • Hey, well. It's been sort of stupid up here again. I was moved upstairs to another cell. The cell had a TV in it, but that night, I had gotten a paper saying I was made a level 2. Next morning through a guard by the name of Lt. Adams came with a team, confiscated the TV set, tore my cell up, then put me back in the cell. They took my eyeglasses and the level 2 paperwork as well. A couple hours later, they came again. This time he tells me they are moving me to 8-5 which is where they have 3/4's of the psyche patients, who are constantly babbling and rambling incoherently. Plus a whole group of others who are here for having alte~cations against the same first shift guards as I do. The guards have done a lot of dirt and set up a lot people up here. At the same time all this happens, the guard tells me I have a piece of legal mail and to sign my name in the mail log. Well, he has my eyeglasses and I can't even read who it is from, so I ask for the glasses before I sign. He tells me "just sign it at the X." I don't, so he says "he refused, take him to 8-5." Then I am given my eyeglasses and <he leaves with my legal mail. So here I sit in 8-5, being played like I am a level 1, when, in fact, I am a level 2. I am just trying -to figure out what it is that has caused all this madness in the past two weeks. Mr. Guard, the unit manager, said I was/ am on a level 2 and he will check it out as to why the others are doing this. Well, we will see . Dear Streetvibes Staff, Hello! I hope that this -letter find all in the best of health. Things here are going really well, as I should be released on parole here in the next week or so. I will be returning to the Miami County, Ohio area and would ·like to help increase the subscribers in that area. Will you please send me the information on how to do this, and other assistance I may provide. Your answer will be appreciated! Please remember that I may only be here until July 7th, 1999! Sincerely, James W. Pryor Dear Ms. Paxton, [Director, Prisoner Rights Advocacy Center] I read your article in CURE-Ohio's newslet­ ter, (May/June 1999), about the prison griev­ ance procedure. I feel your article lends cred­ ibility to a grievance procedure which prisoners know first hand almost never works to resolve legitimate grievances. Prisoners are aware that prison officials allowed PRAC to win a few grievances to make it appear the grievance procedure works. Your article undermines all the work prisoners have done in the past decades documenting the fact that the griev­ ance procedure doesn't work. You clearly state the grievance procedure works, but the odds of a prisoner winning a legitimate grievance is about as good as hitting the 'Super Lotto'. By implying that it works without a statistical analyses or without an evaluation of how ineffective it is, you are giving it credibility. You made no mention of the fact that many prisoners have suffered reprisals in the past for using the grievance procedure, and you encourage prisoners to use it without warning them what the consequences might be. You should warn prisoners that they may suffer reprisals for using it! You claim PRAC is w0rking for grievance reform. What reform are you advocating: what changes do you recommend, and why? How are you going about reforming the grievance procedure? The Ohio Prisoner Manual by PRAC was removed from the law library by the librarian, and often the Administrative Code and DORC Policies we need to file grievances are missing from the library. Prisoners have been struggling with the· grievance procedure for more than 25 years! What you should tell the public and legislators is how ineffective the grievance procedure is, and how likely prisoners are to suffer reprisals for using it! Don't tell us, (prisoners) how to use it, tell the public what's wrong with it, and what needs to be changed! Anything short of that ids just maintaining the status quo with prison officials. I would really like to know what PRAC is doing to reform the grievance procedure? Sincerely, Ron Parrish (wHY DO WE NEED ALL THESE NEW ? PRISO~ \ ' I Now that we've cut all the social programs, prisons are the new answer to unemployment, drug addiction, homel~ssness and underfunded public schools. They've\ \ also become a convenient source of cheap, confined \~abor. ~~~~~~~~~~~ STREETVIBES PRISONERS NEWS IS THE WRITINGS OF PERSONS INCARCERATED IN OUR NATIONS JAILS AND PRISONS. SEND YOUR COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS TO: >STREETVIBES @JUNO.COM or mail to: >STREETVIBES 1506 ELM STREET CINCINNATI, OHIO 45210 or fax to: >(513) 421-7813 Subscribe to Streetvibes Subsc;riptions to Streetvibes can be purchased for $12 per year. Please send a check to the below address and the paper will be mailed to you each issue. Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 4521 O Please make checks payable to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless- Streetvibes. If you h~ve any questions, call 421-7803. �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine COOLING CENTER IDEA "FANTASTIC," TORONTOS LAYTON SAYS By Catherine Dunphy Toronto Star Feature Writer Toronto's mayor got hot under the collar yesterday at the idea of Metro Hall and other city buildings becoming Chicago-style "cooling centres" for the poor and homeless during heat waves. With the temperature expected to hit 30C tomorrow, Councillor Jack Layton (Don River) wants Mel Lastman to throw open at least four of the former municipal city halls for the hot and homeless. He also wants Lastman to start a heat watch and air pollution warning system, and operate it Irom his office like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Chicago's cooling centers were introduced after the 1995 heat wave. In every neighbor­ hood some public buildings with air conditioning have been designated as places where resi­ dents can stay during a heat emergency. The system is triggered whenever the U.S. National Weather Service declares a heat watch or warning. When the humidex is more than 43C, the full heat warning system is activated. Everyone in Chicago gets involved in a hot weather alert, Layton said. "The hot weather alerts involve the whole community, from housing authorities and cable companies who tell seniors to go to cooling centres, to transit authorities who put on free buses to take them there, to libraries which stay open 24 hours to house them," he said. "It's fantastic." The mayor is not as enthusiastic. "t don't care what they do in Chicago, they do all kinds of things in Chicago," Lastman sputtered. He said he'd consider taking some kind of action if the temperature climbs over 32C but only as a temporary measure and never on a daily basis. Lastman also said he's getting a staff health report on a heat response plan for the city's homeless population today. Liz Janzen, regional director of the Toronto Board of Health, said the board hasn't identified a specific temperature at which the city should launch a hot weather emergency response. "It is difficult to find the health evidence to support the temperature at which to say a full emergency exists," she told the city's homeless advisory committee yesterday. Janzen said many drop-in centers are air­ conditioned, and parks and recreation staff don't remove people from sitting in tt'ie shade in parks as long as they are not drinking, using drugs or being aggressive. A just-released Toronto public health fact sheet called "How To Beat The Heat" recom­ mends people drink lots of water, avoid going out in the sun or heat, take advantage of air­ conditioned places and take cool baths in the heat. But people using shelters must leave them in the mornings and can't return until evening. "They are released from the hostels into the worst part of the day," said John Andras, a founder of Project Warmth. Andras has just started Project Water, which has distributed more than 80,000 donated bottles of water to front-line agencies such as Shout Clinic, Street Health, the Native Men's Residence Street Help bus and the Wellesley Hospital's health bus. "People are just scooping up the water," said Michelle Coutu, who works on Wellesley's health bus. The heat is still taking its toll on the homeless. "We had a terrible experience in Parkdale during the holiday weekend," said Victor Willis, executive director of Parkdale Area Recre­ atio.nal Centre. Temperatures soared over the 30C mark and some homeless people suffered seizures, he said. NORTH AMERICAN STREET NEWSPAPER CONFERENCE JULY 24 - 28 thursday through sunday. I was in Cleveland as a representative of StreetVibes, away from Cincinnati for 4 days, revelling in the newness of an unfamiliar town. Friday was a day of sumptuous feasting on the wisdom of formerly/ presently/homeless people from all over the continent, who de­ scribed their experiences running street newspa­ pers in their own cities. In the evening, we all took a trolley tour of Cleveland. It began with the usual tourist's grand tour - the grand mansions, the grand public buildings, the grand boulevards, parks and public works, the indus­ trial valley lush with factories (many now converted to offices and condominiums). But our driver was gracious enough to also take us on a side trip to see where the homeless of Cleveland hang out - in other words, on a tour of the real Cleveland (the real America). We drove under bridges, past old churches with meal programs, past overflowing shelters, past parks from which homeless people have been ejected to sterilize the atmosphere for local redevelopment. We shouted and waved to homeless people as we rode by.... it must have been unclear to them whether they were being harassed or honored. On the way back to Case Western Univer­ sity, where the conference was held, I noticed one old abandoned hotel slated for either development or demolition, and wondered what those people we saw - lying on sidewalks, sitting on benches and church steps, huddling under bridges - could do with a building such as that, together with even a tiny percentage of the public development money spent on the down­ town commercial projects we had just driven through. ... Later that night I had a more poignant reminder of what homelessness is all about. I suddenly found myself alone outside a locked dormitory, waiting for a ride back to the place I was sleeping, unintentionally abandoned, or so it felt. This was definitely a reassuring turn of Page · 9 events. How could a conference of homeless street papers be complete for me, without reliving the experience of homelessness? Had I been hanging out in a nice air conditioned hotel lounge at a typical convention, my body may have been comfortable, but my conscience would have been restless. I was alone in a strange city. After the wave of self pity came and went (after all, I am accustomed ta an environment under my control), I reluctantly ventured down the street to find my appointed shelter for the night. I could not help but remember times in the past when I wandered late at night through public and semi-public spaces, in search of a soft, safe place to lay my head. In the light, these grand edifices are proud monuments to man's ability to put boundaries around empty space and labels on the undefin­ able. But In the dark, for the tired and hungry wanderer, all these grand displays of man's creativity are just walls of separation, monu­ ments to the dead and to the death of human compassion. , • 22 t billmgq TAX CUT BENEFITS WEALTHY, CUTS DOMESTIC PROGRAMS A $792 billion ten-year tax cut bill passed the House on July 22. The bill, H.R. 2488 is a scaled down version of an earlier $864 billion tax cut bill, by far benefits wealthy individu­ als and corporations would ultimately be paid for by cuts to domestic d iscretionary programs such as housing and community development programs. The bill contains a five year phase-in of an increase to the low income housing tax credit, and then an indexing of this tax credit to inflation, as well as increases in the current cap on tax-exempt bonds. The Senate's version of the tax cut bill also cuts taxes a whopping $792 billion over ten years. This bill also Includes a five-year phase in of a tax credit cap increase. However, the Senate's tax bill does not then index the credit to inflation. The Senate bill includes a cap increase for tax-exempt private activity bonds through a five year phase­ in. The current bond cap per state is $50 per resident or $150 million per state, whichever is greater. By 2005, when the phase-in is com­ pleted, the cap would rise to $75 per resident or $225 million per state, whichever is greater. The full Senate is expected to take up their tax bill the week of July 26. Balking at such massive tax cuts, the White House and many Democrats are support­ ing ten year tax cut bills totaling $250 billion. This amount is still far above the most conser­ vative surplus estimates and thus cuts into domestic spending as well. By putting forth the $250 billion figure, the White House has set the lowest parameter of debate on how large a tax bill might be. �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine STREETVIBES Welfare News Other agencies will now be able to do intake and process child care applications and recertifica­ tions. Applicants will be able to recertify by phone. Medicaid Issues In addition to the one year of transitional Medicaid recipients are currently eligible for once they transition off of welfare into a paid job, recipients will be eligible for another year of Medicaid If they have earnings at or below 100% of the rederal poverty level. Expands the Children's Health Insurance Program to 200% of the federal poverty level, effective January 1, 2000. Streamlines and simplifies the intake & recertification process ror Medicaid. Cash Benefits STATEWIDE VICTORIES FOR RECIPIENTS. by Lynn Williams All the hard work of the Ohio Empower­ ment Coalition has been worthwhile. The state operating budget bill, which has now been signed into law by Governor Taft, includes the rollowing beneficial changes ror Ohio's poorest ramilies: Sanctions Issues: Child Care subsidies and other support services will be restored to families under sanction if recipients are doing the work requirement. A letter warning a recipient that she is about to be sanctioned will be sent from the caseworker, before the recipient is actually sanctioned. The letter will notify the recipient that she has 1O days from the date of the letter to request a meeting with the department before a sanction can be imposed. If she requests a meeting, she cannot be sanctioned until the meeting is held. Requires each welfare department around the state to have an ombudsperson to resolve sanction issues between rec1p1ent and case­ worker. PRC (Emergency Assistance for Families): Makes pregnant women eligible for PRC. Earned Income Disregard: The limit on number of months a recipient can count the earned income disregard is dropped. The earned income disregard does not count a percentage of income in calculating the amount of the OWF benefit check. $250 and 1/2 of the remaining amount of earnings from a job are not counted in determining how much money a recipient is earning in a job. For low-paying jobs, a recipient can continue to receive benefit checks while working. However, Ohio's 3-year time limit still applies and each month of even a partial cash assistance counts toward the time limit. This change in law is a mixed "bag• of good points and bad. Child Care Issues: Expands child care subsidy eligibility up to 200% of the federal poverty level, effective July 1, 2000. Simplifies the eligibility and recertification process for applying for child care subsidies. Up to 3% increase in cash assistance amounts. Representative Catherine Barrett of Cincinnati had introduced an amendment in the House Finance & Appropriations Committee that would have restored cash assistance to children in a sanctioned household. Senator C.J. Prentiss of Cleveland likewise introduced a similar amendment on the Senate Floor. Both amendments to the operating budget bill did not pass. However, we are optimistic that the same policy, restoring cash assistance to children in a sanctioned household, will be introduced as a bill when the Ohio Assembly re-convenes in October. Members of the OEC around the state worked hard to educate their legislators about the effects of sanctions on families. In this respect, we made positive gains forward in bringing awareness of sanctions to the public, and legislators, in particular. Many of the legislators had to be re-educated about the law they had passed • they did not know what sanctions were or the severity of them. Many legislators were unaware of the cash amounts that recipients receive and how far below poverty level they are already living at before the sanctions take effect. The cash benefits equal approximately 33% of the federal poverty level. W ELFARE­ ROLL DRUG TESTS DEBATED Michigan plan requires applicants to submit or forfeit benefits ROBYN MEREDITH, New York Times Page 10 dropped from the welfare rolls. Against a tide of opposition from civil libertarians and welfare experts and mixed reaction from recipients, Gov. John Engler said the program would help those who needed drug treatment to get it and to obtain jobs. "The idea is that workplace testing today is so common," Engler said. "This is a tool that will help identify some of the problems that need to be treated." Michigan was one of the early leaders nationwide in the effort to end the decades-long system of guaranteed welfare benefits and to replace it with time limits and other changes intended to force those on welfare to work. Since October 1992, when Michigan's welfare changes began, the state's caseload has dropped about 60 percent, to 89,866 families from 225,359. With many of those most-able to find jobs already working, Michigan is trying a new approach on welfare. The mandatory drug tests, which other states have considered but rejected, are just one indication of its new direction. Other states have considered similar drug testing programs but have backed away. New York and Maryland planned to require drug tests but found that other types of screening, like questionnaires, were cheaper and more effec­ tive. Four other states - New Jersey, Minne­ sota , South Carolina and Wisconsin - ran­ domly test welfare recipients with felony drug convictions. The Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is considering suing the state to challenge the program on constitutional grounds, arguing that the mandatory drug test violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. But Douglas Howard, the new director of the state welfare agency, defends his plans. "We're rn an economy now where 1ob placement isn't as tough as it was 1o years ago," he said. "The challenge is in job retention." Subscribe to Streetvibes! Subscriptions to Streetvibes can be purchased for $12 per year for 12 issues. Please send a check to the below address and the paper will be mailed to you each month. Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 4521 o Please make checks pay­ able to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless-­ Streetvibes. If you have any questions, call 421-7803. DETROIT- In a controversial and unusual effort to move more welfare recipients Into the work force, Michigan plans a pilot program that would require thousands of those applying for aid to take drug tests to qualify for ben­ efits. Starting in October, Michigan welfare applicants under 65 in three locations yet to be chosen will be required to take drug tests or forfeit their benefits. Those already receiving benefits would be randomly tested. Those who test positive ANOTHER CLA S PRODUCTI ON for illegal drugs would be required to get Disc-Jockey Service treatment to collect welfare money, and those who ref use treatment would be CUFFORD JONES (513) 761-3464 (513) 230-6353 �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine 'VIEW' continued from page 7 ... level. A business which contributes to a non­ profit housing developer receives a dollar-for­ dollar credit on its state tax obligations. The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority awards the credits through a competitive application process. The maximwm award per nonprofit is $400,000, and the maximum credit per business is $75,000. In addition, the legislature created a new Historic Home Tax Credit at $3 million per year, with a $30,000 per unit cap. Quote of the Week "In the Bronx, where I grew up, only 1,400 new units of housing were built in 1997 for a community of over 1 million people, despite a severe shortage of affordable housing. Mean­ while, in Manhattan, with approximately the same population, over 5,000 new units of housing were built. Could that be because so many people on Wall Street and corporate boardrooms are from Manhattan and so few are from the Bronx?" John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO. SHARING LAST CHRISTMAS WITH THE TEENAGE BOYS AT A LOCAL ORPHANAGE were currently living there. Shortly after this, I went to visit the boys in order to get to know them personally. I bought each of them a bible with their names engraved on them . We studied Luke 2:1-14. The boys were so happy to have us come. I noticed that they ran to the door as soon as we got there for bible study. It was truly beautiful, and our Bible studies were full of many sincere questions and much joy. It was truly one of the most joyful moments of my life because God sent me back to this orphanage as a shepherd for these teenage boys were I once lived as a troubled youth. Though their lives were filled with many troubles, and some have even lived on the streets, they were very open to learn the bible. After our bible studies, I asked if they would like to actively participate in our Christ­ mas worship service. Most of the boys memo­ rized the words to "O Holy Night" and we held music practice with them in the gym. Though they struggles to learn the riglit notes, it was one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard from a group of teenage boys. These boys who were definitely full of troubles gave their whole hearts to worship God. My father-in-law who came to help with the music practice was in tears as he watched these boys give their hearts to God. . Our Christmas. worship service became most joyful because of the work of God revealed in the hearts of these young teenage boys. Truly, God brought them to reveal to us the joy and blessing of sharing our lives with others Page 11 around us. May God continue to bless his work in them. I am currently working as a nurse and a campus shepherd at the University Bible Fellowship. My father, Joseph E. Martin is a vendor for Streetvibes and shares his life with the homeless. God bless you!!! Scramble by Ron Carter Try to unscramble these re­ lated words: LCETRABE NTWAC CLKENCAE RAEQNJR NGRI KNATLE MIMNDOA Answers on.page 15. DROP INN CENTER HOSTS FIRST ANNUAL SK WALK AND .RUN by Shepherd Andrew Martin Last year, we decided at our church that we wanted to share our Christmas worship service with someone other than those that belong to our church. It was about a month before Christmas and we held our usual Monday prayer meeting at 6:30 PM. We all got together but none seemed to have any idea who we should invite to share Christmas. After much silence, I spol<e up and said, "Why don't we invite the teenagers from a local orphanage to come and share with us?" I have always wanted to teach the Bible to the young boys at the orphanage because I was a former resident there myself and wanted to give something back. Most of all, I understood them, since I was once a resident there. Immediately after the prayer meeting, I called the supervisor to tell her of our desire to share Christmas with the boys at the orphanage. She was so happy that we wanted to share our Christmas with them. She attended our Sunday worship service the following week and gave us the names and ages of each of the boys that At the start of the Drop Inn Center SK Run and Walk.•. . On Sunday, July 18th, the Drop Inn Center hosted its first annual SK walk and run in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Nearly 200 persons participated in the fund­ raising event. John Aerni won first place for male runners, completing the course in 15 minutes, 48 seconds. Crystal Park won first place for female runners, completing the run in 20 minutes, 14 seconds. Long-time Drop Inn photo byJimmy Heath Center employee, Tom Lee received first place in the 50-59 years of age, walking category. Many other Drop Inn Center employees and volunteers successfully participated in this years' event. At the end of the event, partici­ pants gathered in nearby Washington Park for the awards ceremony, speech making and refreshments. J �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Letters are still coming in concerning the Greater Cincinnati Art's and Education Center board plan to relocate the Drop Inn Center, Cincinnati's largest homeless shelter, in order to make way for an expanded arts campus. STREETVIBES encourages all concerned citizens to write to Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops Conductor and the driving force behind the plan and voice your concerns about the impact that this will have on Cincinnati's defenseless homeless community and the Drop Inn Center. Please write in support of the Drop Inn Center's right to not be moved from its present location. Write to: Erich Kunzel 1241 Elm Street Cincinnati, Ohio 4521 O Send Copies of your letter to: Drop Inn Center Attn: Pat Clifford 217 West 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45210 and injustices do not occur. For this reason, the members wrote the enclosed letters to express their beliefs that injustices will occur if this plan is realized. It was the general opinion of the students that discrimination based upon economic standing was taking place, thus perpetuating an incorrect generalization about the homeless. As volunteers at the Drop Inn Center and ReSTOC, they wrote to express their disgust that their friends in Over-the-Rhine are being regarded as nothing more than a movable commodity. While the city sees only a homeless shelter, these volunteers, including myself, see indi­ vidual people and families that are part of a large network of activism working to solve the problems together, not just moving the problems to where they will not disturb the image of a community. As citizens of greater Cincionati, these students wrote to express their objections to more potential broken promises. Countless schools in Over-the-Rhine have been closed with the promise of building a better one. Not one of those schools have been built yet. We cannot let this happen to the Drop Inn Center. Erich Kunzel has been quoted as saying, "This will not displace one family." To him we say, "The Drop Inn Center is a family, one that shares its victories and triumphs. It doesn't just provide foQd, it provides medical care, counsel­ ing, shelter and compassion. The Drop Inn Center is a home; it is a place to cherish, not to discard." The drop Inn Center cannot be moved, or else our city, rather than flourish with fine arts, will die by giving in to profit and gentrification at the expense of family and a means to a solution. Please protect the Ameri­ can ideals of the individual and activism, rather than succumbing to the power and the money of the elite, and the motives of image and greed. Save the Drop Inn Center, please. It is more than just a building. Very truly yours, Melissa J. King Urgent Action Coordinator, Amnesty International Page 12 DEAR SIR, When I heard that there was a movement to force the Drop Inn Center to relocate I was very much troubled. The Drop Inn Center is a beautiful facility that provides a service to this community by providing food and shelter to those who are outside the system. In my opinion the Drop Inn Center should be a source of pride to our city. It says that we are a city which has a heart for the outcast of our society. I believe if the powers that be continue with their plans to remove the Drop Inn Center, it will become a scandal that will draw national attention. This could greatly damage the image of Cincinnati and especially the arts and educa­ tion community in this city. There must be a better way to deal with this issue! Sincerely, Chris E. Johnson Contact Us, Write Us! We welcome input from our readers. Send your letters and editorial comments to: STREETVIBES: 1506 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45210 FAX: ATTENTION STREETVIBES (513) 421-7813 -------- EMAIL: STREETVIBES@JUNO.COM Please include your name, address and daytime phone number with all correspondence. Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, Ohio 4521 O Dear Cincinnati City Council, I tried hiring former welfare recipients ..... .~~ But they kept making the most unreasonable demands The enclosed letters are from students at Finneytown High School. At a recent meeting of our chapter of Amnesty International, I pre­ sented the issues surrounding the relocation of the Drop Inn Center and the creation of a "fine arts boulevard" to these students. As members of Amnesty International, many of whom volunteer in the Over-the-Rhine area, they were shocked. Amnesty International works through letter writing campaigns, thoughout the world commu­ nity, to ensure that human rights are not violated I E-MAIL STREETVIBES: STREETVIBES@JUNO.COM ...... 0­ I �I , STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine STREETVIBES Etcetera ... Gimme Shelter El Pomar cuts check for new homeless mall by Cara DeGette Colorado Springs Independent El Pomar wants a one-stop shopping mall for the homeless people of Colorado Springs. And what El Pomar wants, El Pomar gets. The local nonpro fit foundation has written a blank check to renovate the Michael Garman owned building at the corner of Wahsatch Avenue and Costilla Street southeast of the downtown core. The concept is simple - to consolidate many of the services currently scattered in different facilities, mostly downtown - into one superstore of sorts for the homeless. In addition to a new Red Cross shelter, an expanded Drop-in Center and a new Marian House soup kitchen , Catholic Community Services and other providers of services to the poor and homeless will be housed at "The Center," as it is being called. The cost is currently estimated at $3 million. The move will effectively move the home­ less away from the downtown core and from Confluence Park, an area business and commu­ nity leaders have long envisioned as the site for a convention center. In the works for nearly two years, the decisions to move and consolidate services for the homeless have mostly gone on behind closed doors. Amid their secret negotiations, El Pomar and the providers who will use The Center facilities apparently forgot to notify the Hillside Neighborhood on whose border The Center will be built. . And once they got wind of the plan, Hillside residents responded in fury. "We hadn't heard anything, we weren't invited or welcomed into the planning process," said Jason Gaulden, director of the Hillside Neighborhood Association. "Now that we finally got word of it, we were invited in after the tact." The El Pomar Foundation is headed by Bill Hybl, a former state lawmaker and current chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee. His sidekick is foundation president Thayer Tutt Jr., grandson of the famous man who endowed his fortune to the cause of the continuing better­ ment of Colorado Springs. For decades, El Pomar funds have been used to help shape the institutions of Colorado Springs, including Colorado College and the Fine Arts Center. A few years ago, El Pomar became the primary benefactor of the Colorado Springs World Arena when it pitched in $27 million to help boost disappointing early fund-raising efforts. (Hybl and Tutt are apparently pleased with that brainchild - the two were recently spotted boogeying down in front-row center seats is the $85 per t icket section of the Bob Dylan and Paul Simon concert.) El Pomar has also been a longtime financier for philanthroo1c causes, including service providers w hO will benefit from the new center. Cu rently, services are scattered in various locauons, 11ostly do~ntown. After years of jOWI vN• "19rChar1t -..°Omp J,f l.> abOUt hl ne9$S a11d mentally 111 pevple scaring awa ~ their ustomers, me f' ~ h . 1. _ _.;. >e!Y mov icif t segment of society out of the downtown core. Service providers have already put earnest money down on the building. Yet the seemingly secret way of doing business stuns some people - including those who will likely use The Center's services. "In Colorado Springs, they do anything they want," said Amanda Terrell, a formerly homeless Colorado Springs resident who still eats occasionally at the soup kitchen. "I don't know how things get done around here. It's a puzzlement to me. "There should have been big signs posted and meetings held where the town comes together and says yea or nay to the plan," she said. "In Santa Fe, for example, you don't even move a bus stop without telling the community. "It's very strange here." Tutt said that it makes more sense to consolidate services, and that "it won't get done unless El Pomar takes a major part in it." "Putting it all in one place is far more efficient than having [services] scattered all over," he said. "Clearly, we' re the catalyst for getting this process moving, but it won't happen without support from the city and others." Hillside Neighborhood Organization director Jason Gaulden believes his All-Ameri­ can award-winning neighborhood has worked too hard to improve their community be saddled with the homeless shopping mall. It's no secret that some downtown b usi­ ness owners and shoppers have long com­ plained about homeless people cluttering up the booming yuppie sector and making them nervous with their unpredictable behavior. But Beth Spokas, executive director of Downtown Partnerships, Inc. which advocates for business owners, doesn't like to talk about that kind of stuff. In fact, Spokas got downright testy when asked twice whether removing the homeless from downtown was part of the motivation for the new site. Spokas served on the initial organizing committee. "If what you' re suggesting is true, we never would have looked at downtown sites as well," she said. Of three sites that were considered by The Center's site selection committee, two w.ere closer to downtown. But, according to the committee's June 1998 recommendation, of the other two sites that were considered - the spot where the Marian Soup Kitchen now stands and the Metro Tech Center on East Costilla - neither were deemed compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods. The committee deemed the Wahsatch site compatible with the neighborhood. Trouble is, they didn't check with the surrounding neighbors - in this case, the Hillside Neighborhood Organi­ zation - to see how agreeable the new neigh­ bors were to the idea of moving the one-stop homeless service center into their neighbor­ hood. When Hillside neighbors found out. they were less than pleased. Just two years ago, the neighborhood in southeast-central Colorado Springs, was honored as an "All-American city." The prestigious national awar,d was presented after the communitty labored for years to clean up the urban blight and crime that had over­ taken their racially mixed neighborhood. Now, they don't want to become a dumping ground for the homeless. "Hillside Neighborhood, both as individual neighbors and as a collective community, has worked too long and too hard in our efforts to better the quality of living in this area to have an unwelcome project be forced upon us contrary to our interests," the association stated in a letter ot protest dated May 2i . 'At mis time, due to lack of information, unanswered questions, and un-addressed concerns we DO NOT welcome this project and WILL NC allow it to go forward against the will of U·~ • ::J ,:orhood resider·~ • Tt e association 1s currently circulating a pen"' , Jo!"ts to keep lri::: project from Page 13 moving forward. Gaulden said of 1,400 house­ holds in the Hillside community, he knows of only one that approves the plan. Tutt, however, poo-poos the neighbors' claims that they should have been notified early in the planning process that The Center would be built in their back yard. "Until a site was selected and the nonprofits [involved] had reached agreement, there was nothing to show the neighbors," he said. "I think it's been an excellent effort." Cyndy Kulp, the outspoken head of the Housing Advocacy Coalition, is critical of ­ though not surprised by - the "sneaky way" that El Pomar and other city leaders went about planning The Center. "If they really want to make a city that people can enjoy, they should build housing, not just remove [the homeless] to another part of town," said Kulp, whose organization agitates for affordable housing for those with low incomes. "You can't hide the homeless problem by pushing them to the side." There is another reason why critics, including the homeless and soup kitchen patrons are questioning the perceived secretive­ ness over the new site. Some are wondering whether the expensive new digs are even necessary. "We' re certainly sympathetic and under­ stand the need to serve [the homeless], but as tar as this facility, we don't see it as an asset to our community, and we haven't seen much information that it would be an asset to the community it's supposed to serve," Gaulden said. Only two years ago, again with El Pomar money, the local Red Cross shelter got a $350,000 renovation. But now, shelter Director Debbie Mitguard said the facility in its current location at Sierra Madre was always meant to be temporary. Like Kulp, Hillside's Gaulden sees no real benefit in simply moving the homeless popula­ tion from one place to another. "Not to speak offensively or defensively of the population we're talking about, it's the reality of the situation," Gaulden said. "And the reality is that what we see in the northwest part of downtown with the problem of homeless [people] sleeping under the bridge and holding signs for help will just be moved here. "Those same issues exist there, what's to say it won't be here?" Nothing suggests it won't be there. And, as low-income, affordable housing stocks continue to dry up at an alarming rate while wages don't keep pace, the problem of homelessness is only going to get worse. Tutt doesn't discount that El Pomar could one day help in efforts to offer long-range solutions to housing that would take people off the streets for good. But, he points out, the responsible agencies, including those of the city of Colorado Springs and the federal government have to take the lead. Mitguard, who will be The Center's new director, said the problem is more complex. "Certainly, affordable housing is a piece, but it's not the only piece - 1wish it were that simple," she said. "So many people need help with job and budgeting skills. Child care and transportation are huge issues in this town. There are so many factors, so that's why we' re concentrating our efforts in one place. Let's just get them all together." Tutt maintains that El Pomar's focus is in the right place when asked whether the nonprofit foundation has considered helping out with a more permanent solution, that is, giving money to help build needed low-income housing. "These people have a long way to go before they can afford housing," he said. "Our focus is improving the infrastructure for the 'POMAR' cont. on next page ... �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine 1 POMER 1 cont. from previous page ... really down and out. "We've always had a bias toward serving the needs of the low income. Affordable hous­ ing is an important issue, it's just not the issue here," he said. But, according to advocates for the home­ less, providing low-income, affordable housing is the only real, long-term solution. During the annual Colorado Coalition for the Homeless meeting held early this month in Denver, CCH chairman Jack Real wryly noted that when the group formed 12 years ago, they thought it was for the short-term. They would solve the problem, and it would go away. The federal government's commitment to subsidized housing has shriveled. In the 1970's, when Jimmy Carter was in office, the department of Housing and Urban Developement was a $33 billion machine. During Ronald Reagan's time in the White House, HUD was slashed to $7 billion. Those resources have never been replaced. However, the homeless problem has only gotten worse. And, for the poor, the future looks bleak. The gully between the rich and the poor continues to widen, and in an era of growing conservatism, poor peoples' civil rights are often eroding while their income declines and access to health care shrivels. "We're losing ground rather than gaining ground," Real said. Colorado is in the midst of an economic boom, but the prosperity has not made the state a benevolent patron to the poor. In fact, Colorado's wealth has had the opposite effect on the homeless and working poor. The average price of a new home in Colorado is now $220,000. That's equal to 20 times what a minimum-wage worker will earn in a full year, or 38 times what someone living on Social Secu­ rity will take in. With housing costs skyrocketing, wages have not increased. Now, minimum-wage workers have to work 92 hours a week to afford a place to live. People living on Social Security have to pay their entire month's income to rent for an average one­ bedroom apartment. People living on disability still receive $229 a month - not even sufficient to pay the cost of an average rent. The amount hasn't increased for nearly 20 years. "It's a tragedy that the state thinks people wf11J are alone or disabled can live on this,• Real said. "I don't think the governor or legislators would accept this kind of freeze [on their sala­ ries]." . Further compounding the problem, begin­ ning last year, Section 8 affordable-housing vo 1chers began to expire and many landlords opted not to renew them. The result has been an ven more dramatic paucity of affordable ho •qing. After rattling off these facts and figures, R 1 paused for a minute. "No wonder we have to _.pen more shelters," he said. In Colorado Springs, the Red Cross' Mitguard said that the current number of occu­ pants hovers at around 200. The shelter's capacity is 260. Contrary to people's idea that more people come for help during the cold of winter, summer generally brings an influx, particularly of families who move when their kids are out of school. Also, landlords tend to ev .:t more often during the summer, and the higher summer rates burrip many out of motels they otherwise live in and on to the streets. Of course, not everyone stays in a shelter when they become homeless. Taking into account people who live in their cars or under bridges or are crashing temporarily with friends and family, there is no clear number of how many people in Colorado Springs are currently homeless. Kulp estimates as many as 1,500 people have no place to call home. Page 14 AURORA, INDIANA FIR~T IN MIDWEST TO HOST ART EXHIBIT ON HOMELESSNESS by Chandra L Mattingly Lawrenceburg, Indiana Aurora hosted the first showing in the Midwest of Images of Homelessness, an art exhibit of the National Coalition for the Home­ less by artist Tammy DeGruchy. In addition to viewing paintings of homeless people inter­ viewed and painted by the artist, those attending will be able to experience, for a donation, a mock soup kitchen much like the many soup kitchens which feed the homeless. Heart House, Inc., Aurora, Indiana, is hosting the show to raise money for a Dearborn County homeless shelter and to increase awareness of the plight of the homeless, said Heart House Director Kay Stinnett. Heart House closed its block of Second Street for the show and the accompanying activities, said Stinnett. 'We hope to make it a real nice thing for the State of Indiana," said Stinnett prior to the event. .. ' The largest oil painting exhibit on homelessness, this collection of 20 paintings was created by artist Tammy OeGruchy over two years of interviewing and painting people who are homeless. The exhibit has been displayed in Washington, D. C. and Wheeling, W. Va. only, said Stinnett. Heart House is almost halfway to raising the matching money it needs to get funds from the Indiana Housing Finance Authority to establish a homeless shelter. The Heart House has raised $20,500 toward the $50,000 match it needs before applying for $500,000 from the IHFA. she said. "In a rural setting, it's really hard for people to realize the plighrof the homeless because you don't see it out on the street like you do in an urban setting," said Stinnett. Michael Stoops, executive director of organizing projects in the field for the National Coalition for the Homeless, spoke at the event. Sheltered Reality, a band f rorn Iowa, provided the music and the Heart House raffled off prints of some of DeGruchy's paintings. ... / ·- ~ .. ~ One of the paintings by artist Tammy DeGruchy, on display at the Heart House fund-raiser, July 16th and 17th, Aurora, Indiana. The art exhibit, presented by the National Coalition for the Homeless, is on tour throughout the Midwest. WORKERS CALL FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO LABOR CAMP AND WORKING CONDITIONS Workers at Kraemer Farms have written a letter, signed by 32 of the field workers, that outlines specific changes they want to see in the camp and in the fields in which they labor. Workers have been taking their complaints public ever since they began organizing. Since their first letter to grower and camp-owner Ken Kraemer, some of the requests have been made but the changes are still insufficient. Some of the camp requests include improvements to inad­ . equate and substandard food, sanitary services, and overall improvements to living conditions and amenities. On July 13th, the workers gave a delegation of more than 25 religious leaders and laity a tour of their living conditions in the "trailer." They showed the supporters the improvements: four new sinks, three new shower heads, cages over lights, two replaced doors, and four replaced beds. Supporters, both locally on delegations and nationally, have responded to previous workers' calls for support in letters and calls to the Kraemers. This support has been instrumental in pressuring the Kraemers to respect the workers' requests. However, the changes at the camp are slow, and workers point out that most of their complaints have not been addressed. While the workers were encouraged to see new doors put in on the day that the news cameras arrived, they demand more than superficial changes. Workers remain dedicated to their original requests for more significant changes, and again ·ihey are calling for national support for their organizing. �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine STREETVIBES Announcements Live.Studio Audience Wanted SECOND MONDAY OF EACH MONTH AND IS BROADCAST FROM THE STUDIOS OF CINCINNATI COMMUNITY VIDEO, 2 114 READING ROAD, FROM 7 TO BPM. STREETVIBES TV COVERS NEWS ON POVERTY, HOMELESSNESS AND RELATED ISSUES. CALL US AT THE GREATER CINCINNATI COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS IF YOU STREETVIBES TV WOULD LIKE TO BE A PART OF OUR LIVE STUDIO SHOW­ AUDIENCE. FOR MORE wouLD YOU LIKE TO BE A PART INFORMATION - 421-7803 OF OUR LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE? Page 1s Volunteers Needed! Streetvibes newspaper is lookil'.lQ for volunteer writers and editors interested in serving on the Streetvibes Editorial Board. For more information, please call the office at 421-7803 SHOW IS TAPED LIVE ON THE STREETVIBES Classified Ads music Band Looking for Work Streetvibes (the band). We like to party. R&B, Oldies, Blues/ Jazz, Reggae. Helping the homeless to help themselves through free enterprize. Call 421-7803. LIVE IN NANNY NEEDED For 3 children, ages are 7 years, 29 months, and 28 months. Call Mamie L Brown at 481-1183 for more infomation. Streetvibes is now accepting Classi­ fied Ads· for items such as Help Wanted, Items for Sale, Apartments for Rent and other non-personal items. The rate is only $1 per line, approximately ten words per line. Classified ads are due by the 20th of the month. People below the poverty level will be allowed five free lines for six months to advertise their skills or products to our readers. · Otherwise, payment must be re­ ceived before the ad wii'I run. No refunds will be made. Also, if there is an error, notify us after the first printing. You will be given an extra month of ad time. Mail the ad copy to: Street vibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 4521 O or fax it to 421 -7813 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• STREETVIBES provides Classified Ads free to low income job seekers. Others may place ads for only $1 per line. Call 42 1· 7803 for info. Scramble Answers from page 11 ... BRACELET WATCH NECKLACE EARRING ANKLET DIAMOND Streetvibes Radio Hour Please "Tune In " To. WAIF 88.3 fm! Support Your Local Vendor... Tell A Friend About The Homeless Coalition has a live radio program which can be heard on WAIF radio on the second Saturday of each month at noon. The show is co-hosted ·by Mary Burke, Donald Whitehead and other monthly guest hosts. The show mixes talk focusing on the stories in this paper and eclectic musical selections. Here are the next show dates; WAIF 88.3 FM Saturday, September 12th; 1999, Noon to 1 PM Streetvibes! Advertise in Streetvibes! Streetv ibes Ven·d or Code of Conduct Each vendor has to sign the following code to be able to sell the paper. 1. Streetvibes will be distributed for a $1 voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for donations more than $1. I also understand that I will be able to keep 80 cents of each dollar collected. Future issues of Streetvibes will be purchased from the Homeless Coalition for 20 cents. 2. I agree that I will never distribute Streetvibes while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 3. I agree that I will not ask for donations after 12 midnight. 4. I agree to treat others with respect. I will not use abusive language or force someone to give a donation. I will not give a "hard sell" or make someone feel t hreatened. 5. I agree that I will not supply copies of Streetvibes to persons who are not registered distributors. 6. I agree not to deceive the public by saying that I am collecting for a not-for-profit charity or that I am collecting for the "homeless" in general. I will be honest in stating that all the profits from the sale of Streetvibes will go to the individual vendor. 7. I agree that I will not contest territories · with other dist~ibutors. 8. I understand that Streetvibes strives to be a self-supporting paper created by people who ar.e homeless or formerly homeless. To help in this effort, I will t ry to spread the word and write stories if possible. 9. I understand that failure to comply with any of the above statements will result in me no longer being able to distribute Streetvibes. f, ~·.:t .i-.~ ~' I Advertising in Streetvibes is a chance for businesses to help a good cause while promoting themselves to over 5,000 concerned people each month. The rates are shown below. -***Business Card Size 2" x 3 1/2" $10 per month ***Two Business Card Size 4" x 3 1/2" $20 per month A check or money order must accompany the ad copy. We reserve the right to deny any ad, especially those which promote alcohol or tobacco products. You will receive a full refund should your ad be denied. For larger ads, call the number below. Ads are due by the 20th of each month. If you need assistance in preparing your ad or have any other questions, call the Homeless Coalition at 421-7803. · Mail ads with payment to: Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 �STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine House Manager Position Open St. Francis-St. Joseph Catholic Worker House The Catholic Worker House, a small shelter for homeless men, is searching for a House Manager, whose responsibilities include the daily operations of the House, conducting the administrative and clerical operations, acting as a public face, and setting goals for the House. The ideal candidate will have experience with the homeless or in another human service field and show a commitment to others. Please send resume and cover letter to Catholic Worker House, PO Box 10118, Cincinnati, Ohio 45210 Page 16 STREETVIBES Streetvibes TV TV Schedule The Streetvibes TV Show is produced at the facilities of Cincinnati Community Video, 2114 Reading Road, Cincinnati Ohio. If you would like to be a part of our live studio audience please call the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at 421-7803 for more information. Streetvibes TV SEPTEMBER Schedule September's Live TV show will begin at 7PM, Monday, September 13th, and will be broadcast from the Reading Road Studio. The new show format includes a studio audience along with a guest panel discussion. Channel 24. LIVE CALL-IN SHOW. MONDAY. September 6th at ZPM. Rebroadcast Dates for Show on Chan­ nel 4: (Please check your schedule) Saturday, September 4, 1999, 4 PM Friday, September 10, 1999, 11 AM Friday, September 17, 1999, 11 AM Monday, September 27, 1999, 10 PM Saturday, September 25, 1999, 4 PM Broadcast schedules are subject to chan e - consult our local TV directory. If you have any ideas for future STAEETVIBES TV shows please contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless office at 421-7803. We always enjoy hearing from our viewing audience. Ideas should ad­ dress subjects related to homelessness and poverty in our city. We are always interested in viewer ideas, so please give us a call. .. Streetvibes Wish List Streetvibes newspaper is published monthly on a shoe-string budget from the offices of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. We depend heavily on the goodwill of many volunteers and donors. If you can help out with some of the items on our wish list please give us a call... >35 MM Film for Streetvibes photo's >laser Printer >Advertisers to help support the paper >Good used or new Xerox machine >Office Supplies Vendor: 80 cents Where Your Dollar Goes Streetvibes has a minimal overhead cost so that the vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. If anyone selling Streetvibes claims to be collect­ ing tor a private charity, please call our office at 421-7803. Thanks for your support. >Supplies for Vendors Lounge (coffee, cups, etc.) >Computer for Streetvibes layout and writing >Subscribers --~ --­ Call the Greater Cincinnati oalition for the Homeless at 421-7803 if you can help! Need Help or Want to Help? If for some reason you find yourself homeless, contact a Coalition Member Agency for Shelter, Treatment, Housing or Services. If you have any questions, feel free to call the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Womens Shelter 872-9259 !-888-872-9259 (Toll Free) 281-5770 YWCA Transitional Living Prog. 557-2873 Bethany House 762-5660 Salvation Army 431-8717 Welcome House SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission Garden Street House Joseph House (Veterans) Mt. Airy Center Volunteers of America 241-5525 241-0490 241-2965 661-4620 381-1954 SHELTER : Both Caracole (AIDS) Chabad House Drop Inn Center (Singles) Friars Club Haven House (HamUton) Interfaith Hospitality Network 761-1480 821-5100 721-0643 381-5432 863-8866 244-7226 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) St. John's Temporary Housing HOUSING CMHA Excel Development Miami Purchase OTA Housing Network ReSTOC Tender Mercies Tom Geiger House TREATMENT: Women O.D.A.A.T First Step Home TREATMENT: Men Charlie's 3/4 House Prospect House St. Francis- St. Joseph House Starting Over TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline A.A. Hotline C.C.A.T. Talbert House Transitions, Inc. VA Domiciliary OTHER SERVICES AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati Appalachian Identity Center 961-4080 651-6446 721-4580 632-7149 241-0504 369·0004 381-0954 639-7056 961-4555 241-7343 921-7324 784-1853 921-1613 381·4941 751-3260 820-2947 861-9966 381-6660 684-7956 491-4435 559-5011 421-2437 621-5991 231·6630 Beech Acres Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 591-2246 Churches Active in Northside 961·0600 Cincinnati Health Network 569-1840 Community Action Agency 381-4242 Contact Center 241-2563 Emanuel Community Center 241-1064 Freestore/Foodbank 771 -4800 Goodwill Industries 621 -7 149 Hamilton Co.Mental Health Bd. 632·7186 Hamilton Co. TB Control 357-4602 Health Resource Center 352-2902 Homeless Mobile Health Van 221-3679 House of Refuge Mission 241-9400 Legal Aid Society Madisonville Ed. & Assistance Ctr. 271-5501 721-4811 Mary Magdalen House 621-0248 Oral Health Council 621-6364 Our Daily Bread 621-5514 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 721-7660 Travelers Aid 721-7900 United Way 559·6656 VA Homeless Program 491-3335 Women's Crisis Center � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1999 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 1999 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Homeless Population Continues to Increase in America’s Rural Areas Pg 2: The Traveler Pg 3: Searching for a Better Life Pg 4: Heart House Shelter Project Brings Hope to Rural Homeless Pg 5: The Broken City Pg 6: Arts & Poetry Pg 7: Nationwide News Pg 8: Prisoner’s News Pg 9: Cooling Center Idea North American Street Newspaper Conference Tax Cut Benefits Wealthy, Cuts Domestic Programs Pg 10: Welfare News Pg 11: Dropp Inn Center Hosts First Annual 5K Walk and Run Pg 12: Editorials & Letters Pg 13: Etcetera Pg 14: Aurora, Indiana First in Midwest to Host Art Exhibit on Homelessness Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 1999 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Donald Whitehead Jimmy Heath Ron Carter Gina Miller Malik Amilcar Tom Billman Sheila Crowley Lettie Davis Beverly Keller Amy Krings Sheperd Andrew Martin John Perotti Kay Stinnett Ray Sullivan Lynn Williams Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF 5k Walk Amy Krings Arts & Poetry Beverly Keller Donald Whitehead Drop Inn Center Drug Tests Gina Miller Grassroots community Heart House Shelter Indiana Jimmy Heath John Perotti Kay Stinnett Lettie Davis Lynn Williams Malik Amilcar Midwest NASNA nationwide news prisoners news Ray Sullivan Ron Carter Rural Areas Sheila Crowley Shepard Andrew Martin Tax Cut the broken city The Traveler Tom Billman welfare welfare news https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/f7e10f8d7bd0a911585fad1648e718fe.pdf 76fdd53e219ff8dc4b0cea520014198e PDF Text Text #_}\. ~-~~ %,~~~~~ ~~~ ~ · The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine August 2000 - - - - - - - - ­ Council Votes to Reject $4.3 Million for .Housing City Council Deadlock Jeopardizes Millions in Private Investment by John Halpin round managed by the Department of Neighborhood Services, was recommended for $700,000 of HOME funds that are allocated by the city, amounting to 14% of the total funding for the Vine Street project. ·HOME funds are federal monies that can be spent only on low-income housing. Without this funding from the city, ReSTOC will likely not be able to implement the project, and the $4 million dollars in private money will be lost to Cincinnati. In February, certified letters were sent to all members ofCity Council, the Hamilton County Commissioners, and Senators and Representatives from Cincinnati and Hamilton County to solicit opinions on the project. Catherine Barret, Mark Mallory, Steve Chabot, Charlie Luken, and several community organizations wrote letters in support of the project. No opposition was raised until the June 27 meeting of City Council's 1301-5 Vine Street, one ofeight buildings in the project Finance Committee when On June 28, Cincinnati City Council deadlocked on a vote to approve funds for a development project by ReSTOC, a non-profit low-income housing developer in Over-the­ Rhine. The project, primarily on Vine Street, would have developed 8 vacant buildings into 45 units ofhousing, many ofwhich were designed for working families. In early June, the Race Street Tenant Organization Cooperative (ReSTOC) was awarded a housing tax credit amounting to over $4 million dollars. Tax credits represent the best funding available for low-income housing development and come exclusively from private money. Out of sixty-five applications for tax credits in the state of Ohio, the Vine Street project ranked third. ReSTOC, through a competitive housing Councilmembers Jim Tarbell, Phil Heimlich, and Pat DeWine questioned how beneficial the project would be to the community. Decrying years of investment in low-income housing in Over-the-Rhine, they asserted that high concentrations oflow-income housing have "If I Can Do It, You Can Do It" Ed Deering s Homeless Success Story by Greg LeSaint You can easily tell by his firm handshake and his intimidating size that Ed Deering is a man who does not back down to a challenge. He's been challenging individuals to conquer their addictions for over five years. He became a staff worker at the Drop Inn Center in 1994. In 1996 he relocated to the Droege House, a center for chemically dependent individuals in Dayton, Kentucky. He began work there as a Night Councilor Aid and is now the Program Director. However, Ed Deering did not always have the direction that he has today. Even as a college graduate, he found himself homeless and chemically dependent. He initially spent nights at the Drop Inn Centerjust so he could have a warm place to stay, but in the spring of 1994 he entered the Drop Inn Center's 6 month program. It was at the Drop that he met Buddy Gray and discovered his true passion for helping others defeat their Ed Deering takes a break at the Droege House addictions. Gray was instrumental in having Deering serve as the first homeless person on the COHIO board. Gray also introduced Deering to trapped people in poverty. During public testimony on the issue, Bob Schneider, president ofthe Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce said, "When25-35% of housing units are low income you send that area into irrevocable decline.....Living conditions are below acceptable for everyone liv ing in the area." ''ffever in my twenty-five years working with City Council have I seen a group come with nearly four million dollars for development, the bulidings under their own control, the architects already involved, the project brought through the city administration, and then turned down by Council. " - Dr. Gene Beaupre, PhD Professor ofPolitical Science Xavier University Chris Frutkin, vice president of the OTR Chamber of Commerce, spoke against the ReSTOC project, citing the fact that there is currently no market-rate development on Vine Street. Both he and developer Fred Burger asserted that putting more low-income housing on Vine would prevent market-rate development from taking place. Burger spoke of a market-rate loft project he planned but did not implement at 1220 Vine qecause of its proximity to Recovery Hotel, a residence for See.ReSTOC, page 10 city politics by lobbying for such things as the Recovery Hotel. "Before I met Buddy Gray, I would have never imagined myself at City Hall lobbying for issues like these." Today Ed Deering continues his work as Program Director at the Droege House and continues his political support ofhomeless issues. Currently, he and others are lobbying for the Transitions Life Center, a homeless day center set for groundbreaking later this year in Covington, Kentucky. When it comes to dealing with those who are chemically dependent it is hardest to see them give up. Deering's motto is "Ifl can do it, you can do it." He pushes for full circle treatment for homeless individuals, not just a warm meal or . even a house. His immediate goal is to get the Life Center up and moving and save more lives . .He also serves as inspiration to those who are chemically dependent. He claims that everything he bas today is the result ofthe people at the Drop Inn Center, Buddy Gray in particular. "The Drop Inn Center changed my life. If not for them I don't know if I'd be alive today." [ Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless ) �ST REE TV I BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Page 2 On the Plane to Alberta Streetvibes, the Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine, Is a newspaper written by, for~ and about homelessness, social justice,,. and poverty,.related issues. It is pwblished once a month, 12. is~sues a year, by the Greater Cincinr:iati CGal{tion for the Homeless. Vendors buy tt-le paper for ?O .cents (to coyer printing cosls) .and then sell the paper for a dollar donation: The vendor keeps 'the profits. " · · Beco'niing a Streetvibes Vendor is a great'way 'tor homeless and other low- ·· income·people to get back on (or stay-on) their feet. Streetvibes 'lendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes vendor badge. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeles$ is a group of shelters, agen­ cies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordi­ nating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. Staff Alicia Beck Director Susan Knight Administrative Coordinator Editor Tom Billman John Halpin Assistant Editor Streetvibes Intern Dan Marschner Ron Carter Outreach Coordinator Warren Perkins Tenant Organizing Pat Mitchell Oµtreach Volunteer Jamaal Coleman GCCH Intern Regept(oryist Mary A· .Ga,ffi;iey Sonny Williams Volunteer Reporter Writers Mr. Lee Tom Billman Rodney Sutton Ron Carter Sharon Weiss Patrick Mosoff Dan Marschner Frank Lienhart Staugton Lynd Kevin Finn Kunta Kenyatta Steve Elliott Susan Huesken William Johnson Grady Cook Sonny Williams Pat Mitchell Alanna Maloney Jamaal Coleman John Halpin Warren Perkins Greg LeSaint Marsha Ramsey Rick Freeman Booger Love Steve Schumacher Jayn Meinhardt Graphics Photographs by Berta Lambert, Grady Cook, Tom Bittman, Sonny Williams..... ·I q 11 l1 illJ. !J. Streetvibes accepts letters, poems~ , stories, essays, original graphics, photos.... We will print everything we have room for, giving preference to those who are home­ less or vendors. Subscriptions to .Streetvibes can be purchased for $15 per year. (Please make checks payable to GCCH) Please send all material to the following address: Streetvibes c/o Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 (5 13) 421-7803 fax (513) 421-7813; e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com (text-only) or homecoal@primax.net (attached files) web page: http://cinci.com/gcch Voice Your Opinion, Vote! ·. ,. by Jamaal Coleman Even though the government may say and do things that we don't agree w ith, people don't seem to understand that we give them the power to do so. In actuality, the government is not run by politicians, but by the people. We give politicans the power to run it by voting them into 9ffice. This is the main basis of voting and what makes it so good is that the majority rules. If you get a lot of people to agree with you on a certain issue, you can petition the government to do something about it. However, while knowing this, people still refuse to get up and register to vote or do something about these problems that they face. Those of us that are trying to make a difference can't do it alone. It takes several people standing together with an attitude saying that we want a change and we want it now! In this past Hamilton County election, did you know that only 176,860 people voted and there are a total of 560,959 registered voters. This statistic is saying that only 32% of the people voice their opinion on how and who should run the government and that 68% of registered voters don't even vote. Another thing that people fail to realize is that the majority of that percentage of voters is from upper class communities. After knowing all this, it's safe to say that the reason why low income communities don't get their way is because they don't do anything about it. I know that some people can't register to vote because you liave to have an address of the house in which you Jive in and some simply don't. However, there is now a way to register even if you don't have a place to call home. As long as you write down an address of a place that you stay near you are allowed to register to vote. Ho,wever if for some reason you feel uncomfortable doing this, we at the Greater Cinc;iAAa~ti Cqa!ition for !~e ~omel (fss <:J.r,e1ir the PlfOGe.ss of cqnducting a yo,ting campaign. What we will attempt to do is .register people so they can become eligible to vote in the upcomjng election. What we hope to accomplish is to have the majority of voters made up by the p eople from low income communities. We are also hoping that this will change our communities for the better. So if you're reading this and haven't registered to vote yet, get to the Board of Elections or come to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and register yourself to vote in the upcoming election. by Ron Carter I have a Brother-in-law. His name is Floyd Brogden. I had been unable to work for about fourteen years because of medical problems. Floyd was a supervisor for a local cleaning service. He knew what I could do and also what I could not do as far as work is concerned. He got me hired-and-working with him. Floyd would give me the easy stuffto do and he did the hard work. I thought that was great. Even though I was claimed to working hard. Thanks to Floyd I finally got back into the work force because I found something I could physically do! After working with Floyd for a while, I was intorduced to the A.A.R.P., a Senior employment program. I then applied for assistance with them. Immediately they sent me to the Homeless Coalition Office. I was interviewed by two great guys - Pat Clifford and Don Whitehead. (OK, guys, don't forget to put my check in them.ail for saying that) They accepted me for the job. After working at the Coalition office for three years under the AARP, with perfect evaluation scores all the way through (not bragging, ofcourse... Yeah, right, Ron), I was hired on as the paid employee ofthe Coalition itself, and then became the Outreach Coordinator. I really like this job because I have the opportunity to take anyone that \¥ants to speak on homelessness and also tell their own stories to different organizations ­ churches, schools, etc. , to educate the public on homeless issues. I have met a lot ofpeople doing this - me and my partner and assistant, Pat Mitchell. It really makes us feel good when we read the evaluation sheets that we have our audience fill out, to find out we did a good job speaking. Right now I am on a plane beading for Canada for the No1th American Street Newspaper Association conference. We will be there four days. I'll tell you about how it went in the September issue ofStreetvibes. Today is also my birthday, so I'm getting a nice birthday present going to Canada. I'm closing for now so I can relax and enjoy the rest of my flight. ............ Ron 1---------- - - - - - - - - - ­ An Approach to Questions ofSocial Justice by Frank Lienhart "For some people, God is simply the name ofthe aesthetic pleasure they feel when they contemplate the Moral -Grandeur of the existing social order and their satisfaction with their place in it. " -­ Ji>. II. •[II I !fl Harry Klytis ;J;t , To·mark th~ ct ~ath ofone ·o f its inhabitants,, a medieval village would toll its church bell. "Ask not," said the l 7 1h century poet John Donne, "for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee!" Donne's thought, ofcourse, was that due to the brotherhood ofman, the loss of any one ofus diminished each of the rest of us. Life in medieval Europe was notably corporate. The guild to which an individual belonged regulated not only the terms of his work and the quality of the products he sold, but even helped him express his religious feelings by staging Mystery plays. The guild structured his life, but also provided for his welfare. If See Social Justice, page 6 . Streetvibes exists as a forum for the expression of the views and opinions ofour readers and supporters. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those ofthe Streetvibes staffor the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. 1 �STREETVIBES The Tri-State ~s Homeless Grapevine Page 3 Hart Realty Opts out of Section 8 Housing Serving A Purpose, or Just Supply ofLow Income Housing Dwindles Further by Warren J. Perkins One of Cincinnati's biggest owners of low-income housing is Hart Realty. Residents in Hart's low-income buildings pay 30% oftheir income towards the rent. In an agreement with Hart Realty and other landlords nation-wide, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) pays the difference ofthe apartments' market rate. These contracts are all expiring within the next three years. HUD feels that the rents they have been paying for these apartment units are too high. Taking the opportunity of the contracts expiring HUD now wants to lower the amount of rent they pay over the life of the next contract. Hart Realty feels that the amount of money HUD is offering is to low so they have given their preliminary intention to opt-out or leave the Section 8 program together on most oftbe 1800 or so low income units that Hart owns through out Cincinn~ti. At this point Hart Realty must also send out letters telling residents in these buildings about their options. Residents are told that they will receive Section 8 Vouchers that will help them pay the rent in their unit or another unit should they choose to move. Most residents seem to have an overall positive view of the vouchers. For those residents wishing to move the preliminary opt out notice was welcome. This "Opt-out notice" is preliminary because Hart Realty can change their stance on opting-out at any time. Residents are often given notice of this conversion only to find out later that their contracts have been renewed. This has See Hart Opt-Out, page 10 Residents were informed oftheir options at this tenant meeting. EAST END Historical Rehab Plans Smashed by City of Cincinnati by Tom Billman Mike Cleary, who has been into rehabbing abandoned buildings for years, is just the kind ofperson we need in this world to preserve the best of the past and slow down our rapid evolution into rows and rows of houses, "and they're all made of ticky-tacky and they all look the same." [Kate Wo(f]. In the early 70's, Mike took many abandoned old buildings at the end of Ohio Street and turned them into proud reminders of Cincinnati 's past. ln 1998, he bought the building at 4028 Eastern Ave. It was on the Federal Register ofHistoric Buildings, and Mike fully intended to rehab it according to all proper historical criteria. Not long after; an accident s'everely curtailed his plans. He slipped off the building and broke ribs, punctured a lung, and sustained considerable damage to his spine and nervous system. Yet the city, who had already developed plans with a builder to turn the entire area into condominiums, refused to give Mike an extension on his building permit, and refused to issue him a new one when he 'recovered enough to resume maintenance on the building. The building was condemned, and one day Mike woke up to bulldozers at his door. 4028 Eastern Avenue is now a vacant lot. Mike is now homeless. But you can write to him at Mike Cleary, clo H ealth Resource Center 112 East Liberty Sl Cincinnati OH 45210 Live Studio Audience Warited ·~ ·~ ' Serving Time? By Robert Howard, Prisoner of the Drug War It has been almost four years since I entered the federal pris·on syste m. I was sentenced to 15 I months (over 12 years) plus ten years probation for my first-time nonviolent drug offense involving nine ounces of methamphetamine. As one ofthe million prisoners of the d.fug war, I'm aslcing my fe llow prisoners for your help in a very. worthwhile cause. I believe we are in a unique position to initiate som·e positive changes in America's most serious social and political epidemic: the return offailed prohibition, riow called the drug war. After spending a couple of years at the federal correctional institution in Lompoc, California, I was a llowed to transfer to the federal prison camp in Sheridan, Oregon, which is considerably closer to my hom e in Seattle. Upon arriving, I was surprised to learn that one of the inmates was a Cathol ic priest. This kind and caring person, Father Bixel, was here in prison because he had broken federal law while protesting the School of the Americas (SOA) in Georgia. This special Fort Benning military academy has'trained nice folks like Manuel Noriega and many other military officers who have been implicated in South American death squads and numerous atrocities. Father Bixel and others were arrested and sentenced to prison for trespassing on federal property during a large, public demonstration against the SOA in 1997. After seeing the many letters of support they received, then reading articles from the press about their cause and plight, I began realizing there can be more to be ing in prison than simply "doing time." By coming to prison, these men were able to galvanize support for their political cause, and their voices multiplied a hundredfold. Brothers and sisters, as prisoners, I know how easy it is to believe we.have been reduced to insignificance. Like so much dust swept under a rug, we have been assigned numbers and warehoused away, out of sight and out of mind. But, as it turns out, being in prison can be politically expedient. Think about it! If only two men can help generate a significant amount of action and support for a cause by coming to pri$on; what do you suppose we can do with a million nonviolent drug war prisoners behind bars, calling on their friends and family and with their own voices as well. That would be one LOUD voice calling for an end to the drug war. Most of the world has a distinct notion that something is seriously wrong in America thanks, in part, to our presence on these compounds. Something must come from all of this suffering. We must take our part in informing the world about what is happening. And I don 't mean we should complain about the lousy food or the wonderful treatment we get ­ the people ~ho care about us personally are worried enough as it is. What the world needs to know is how all of this is affecting .him .or her personally. The good citizens better believe that this is an issue for them because See November Coalition, page 5 �ST REET VI BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine - Findlay Market: Serving it up for the Co1nmunity ...... by Pat M itchell Findlay Market, in partnership with the City ofCinci nnati, downtown businesses, and with the managing ofTom Jackson and the site managing of Marty Milligan, deserve a standi ng ovation for their work done in the community at the Fi ndlay Market with our youth and the support they have given our Streetvibes vendors at the Coalition for the Homeless. Our vendors Pat, Earlene, and Grady like to show our appreciation by acknowledging the good work done by Findlay with our newspapers. Earlene and Grady have been supported by Marty Milligan for three years. They have been allowed to sell papers, and he always makes sure that our vendors are wearing a badge and conducting themselves properly. But not until we interviewed Marty did we learn about all this good work being done with our Over-the-Rhine kids, our voice of tomorrow. Over-the-Rhine Community Council, and the Over-the-Rhine Chamber ofCommerce started IMPACT Over-the-Rhine, with the help of then Vice-Mayor Peter Strauss and Clean Cincinnati, lnc. The full-time director began work with teenagers in June of that year. From 1994 to L999, IMPACT OTR was a self-sustaining project of the OTR Foundation, whose focus, like IMPACT OTR's, is rooted in Over-the-Rhine. On January I, I999.IMPACT OTR became a public, charitable, non-profit History organization governed by tbe Board of ln 1991 , a group of concerned citizens Trustees. from the Rothenberg improvement Committee, Goals for our youth with the OTR program Calvary Pentecostal Ministries at Mt. Airy Shelter: The Will of God At A ny Cost ....by Mr. Lee Every Friday, 3 or 4 men faithfully come to Mt. Airy Shelter, a county operated facility for homeless men, to bring a . message of hope~ spiritual restoratio"' ,, God's love. From 5:30·6:30prq, ... ~ bible study, spiced with practical life ,,,,, experiences ofa spiritual reborn former addict, is led by Brother Lonnie Lewis. Brother Lonnie was "saved" through the A.C.T.S. ministry. This committed brother willingly shares his experience, strength and hope with a message that is difficult to carry given the audience and the times we live in. From 6:30-7:00 p.m. the Alcohol and Chemical Treatment Series (A.C.T.S.) is led by ACTS coordinator Brother Clive G. Tribble and hi s associate, Brotl1er Pete Barnett. This seemingly odd couple ofa 50+ year old Welsh man and 40+ year old African American man born inlndianapolis,·Indiana, bring a strong commitmentto a niittis~~for which they personally offer testimony,to it's ability to save lives and souls. With .his charming and unique accent, Clive brings a strong experience based message of hope, salvation, understanding and faith found throughout the Word of God. Brother Pete, the quiet member of this team, carries his message as much in his Christian walk as he does in his testimony. Brother Pete rarely speaks but when he does, it is heartfelt, and I believe God inspired. Quiet and humble, Pete usually leaves it to Clive to bring the message or lesson. When moved to speak he usually offer. direct, heartfelt and practical observations based upon his life experience. On occasion other members of Calvary Pentacostal Church accompany Brother Clive to share in this ministry. Calvary Pentacostal Church, led by Pastor Norman R. Paslay II, is a 32 year old church operating out of their newly constructed church located on a 26 acre lot at 11970 Kenn Rd in the communf • f Springdale. While Calvary hM a~,~t supported ministries internationally ovet;t e years, they have committed considerable ene:rgy and resources to this valuable urban ministry over the past seven years. None of tb.~se christian gentleman is inclined to be "preachy" in their delivery. They are honest, direct and often bring their message in a heartfelt and humorous.manner. They frequently illustrate their message with honest statements from their own experiences. On Thursdays, Brother Lonnie and Brother Clive minister to youth at 2020 Auburn Avenue. This is a secure detention facility for youth operated by the County. They are assisted in this ministry to men by Brother Alex Mo~n.o, and to the female youth by Sisters Micki Penny, Loretta Buie and Johnnie Grant. ~ Every Sunday, Brother Clive and' Brother Ed Flader fai thfu1ly come to the shelter at around 5:OOpm to offer a ride to church to anyone who has the desire to go. Not only those men actively attending the ACTS meetings and the bible study, but anyone who desires to attend worship service. I have personally attended the evening service at Calvary Pentacostal Church. I had the pleasure of meeting Clive's wife who passed several weeks back. She was his partner in this ministry for seven years and was a dynamic woman of God in her service to the community. No article about this ministry would Page 4 are as follows: I . Oppo1tunity to learn and complete high school 2. Remain drug free and out ofour court systems 3. Develop self­ respcct by teaming skills like cleani ng, painting, beautify ing our sidewalks, and vacant lots, along with small gardens and Findlay Market faci lities 4. Encourage Over­ the-Rhine businesses to hire and train our youth ofOTR. As a resu lt, for the last three years 45 teenagers have been employed, from ages 14- 19. Nine have graduated from high school, fi ve have gone to college, and 2 l younger kids, ages 8-13, are active participants. We certainly didn 't know all this good work was being supported by Findlay Market. It is very uplifting to be able to recognize some of the positive things going on in our city. Instead ofalways reading the negative about our teenage kids, especially in our Over-the­ Rhine area, we also like to give credits to the ources that support these kids. Thanks Marty and Tom! • • • be accurate without mention of the contributions of Sister Tribble, Clive's life partner and his co-worker in this ministry. Althou gh I have heard Brother Clives' testimony many times, I continue to attend the ACTS meetings. He is for me an inspi ration and a Christian role model. Even though my path to rccove1y may take a slightly different course than that followed by Clive> Lonnie and Pete, our basic goal remains the same: to do God 's wiII in every area of our lives. They teach me much in pursuit of this \ goal but mostly by th.cir "walk" not just their "talk". The simple fact is that for me there is no conflict between their Pentecostal based Christian ministry ofspiritual restoration and the pursuit of recovery and spiritual restoration though AA . They may contact him at (513) 674- • 9600. Leave a message and he will give them a return call as soon as possible. Mt. Airy Men's Shelter is operated under the Hamilton County Department of Human Services, there are many unmet needs at the Shelter. For example, the County considers shaving cream to be a "cosmetic" and therefore does not provide it to the men. Such items as alcohol free mouth wash, board games, sheets(full, double and twin),pillQ\Y , cases, towels, face cloths, shower shoes, , underwear, men 's clothing and shoes are always needed since the county primarily uses donations to provide these particular items. Anyone interested in donating any of these much needed items, can contact the Shelter at 661-4620. Givca the thousands ofmen who have been assisted by this shelter over the past 50 plus years it would seem that there would be many who would want to give something back, where they or a loved one has been assisted. Peace. �STREETVIBE.S _ The Tri-State ~s Homeless Grapevine A Success Story From Tender Mercies Serving Homeless Teens in Cincinnati: by Marsha Ramsey by Kevin Finn Health Resource Center Helps Out A few months back I wrote an article called "How Do You Become Homeless." About 2 years ago, the Health Well, I' m writing to show those of you who Resource Center, a free nurse managed are still struggli ng that patience and persistence medical and psychiatric clinic began prov iding pay off. services targeted toward young homeless Please, it would feel good if each and people. HRC, which is located inside the every one of you would take a little time to Freestore/ Foodbank bui lding, tries to help think things through and read between the lines these young homeless people (28 and under) of conversation, and if you don' t understand, with everything from find ing shelter to medical ask questions. Life is full of mountains to care. c limb and it may feel like you have the world What the HRC staff has found is that on your s houlders. You also may feel that these home less youth fall into two categories: you've had a lot of heartache and pain, and you those over 18 w ho are eligible to enter do n't want to face a new day with more. Cincinnati's homeless shelters, and those who D on ' t stop because like myself you've come a are under or around 18 who live on the streets, long way and if you hang in there, you just in abandoned buildings, etc. Many of the might find yourself back on top in the end. members of the latter group live in Corryville That 's what's happened to me and Clifton, in the area around Vine Street. Thanks to Rod Ewing, a staff person at ln some ways, these homeless youth Tender Mercies, l am pleased to report that are Cincinnati's best kept secret, because many l 'm now on my own. 1ndependencc is a great people in Cincinnati do not want to see them. fee ling. I have a car, an apa1tment, and a These youth manage to live in some very telephone. These were my goals that I set interesti ng and creative ways. At times they when l first came to Tender mercies. With have lived out-doors, developing elaborate Rod's help, I got my S.S.I. and now I can live " living quarters" in overgrown fields complete fairly comfortable. Of course 1 have my own with couches, coffee tables, and primitive budget, but l was used to liv ing on one sanitation. More often one person manages to anyway. I still have my medica l issues, but rent a small apartment, and six or even friends because of Rod and Dr. Spears, I'm dealing who do not have housing come to live w ith with them. The best part is that I'm welcomed them. They all help with food and rent when to visit Tender Mercies whenever I like. Even they can. Such arrangements tend to last for a though I could see that at times Rod looked few months until they do not have enough too worn out to lift up his head, he left his income to pay the rent, or the landlord learns personal issues at home and stuck with how many people are in the apartment, and whatever the agenda was for the day. And they are evicted. Once the apartment is lost, that's called Professionalis m. some w ill find residence with another person l want to thank all the staff for not only who just got an apartment, and the cyc le starts listening to me, but also hearing me, even if again. At times such arrangements go to an they didn 't always understand. My specia l extreme; HRC staff have fou nd a one-bedroom thanks goes to Rod Ewing - Thanks fo r being apartment occupied w ith 22 youth, all suffering there. with scab ies. The businesses around Short Vine have bad different reactions to the homeless youth in their neighborhood, and different feelings regarding HRC 's outreach work with them. The Streetvibes TV Show is Some business owners have been supportive; produced at the facilities of others have o ffered solutions such as "G ive Media Bridges (Cincinnati them all a Cyanide pill" as a possible solution Community Video), 2114 to thei r problems: Reading Road, -Cincinnati Ohio. A survey was conducted w ith these If you would like to be a part of homeless-youth in which access to medical care our live studio was identified as their primary need. HRC has audience please call the Greater received a grant from the Health Foundation of Cincinnati to open a second clinic in the Cincinnati Coalition for the Home­ Corryville/Cl ifton areas, so as to better meet less at 421-7803 the needs of these homeless youth. Staff are cmTently looking for an appropriate location. August Schedule lfyou know of any homeless youth Broadcast Dates for (age 26 and younger) who need he lp, please July's Show on Channel 24: contact Kev in Finn, HRC Director of Social (Please check your schedule) Services, at (513) 357-4602. Saturday, August 5, at 5 PM Tuesday, August 8, at 10 PM Saturday, August 19, at 5 PM Tuesday, August 22, at 10 AM Thursday, Sept. 7, at 10 AM Page s November Coalition, continued from page 3 our imprisonment is merely an indicator of the greater damage being done by the policies that put us here. Prohibition, the drug war, is nothing s hort of a national disaster, an international d isas ter to be sure. It has been djrectly responsible for the decl ine of inner c ity neighborhoods, simply guaranteeing that more and more children wi ll be exposed to drugs and prohibition related violence. Like me, you may have come to regret your prior involvement in drugs, or your contribution to the "drug problem," and I also realize that our imprisonment is part of a much larger problem that is making the drug problem worse. We owe ourselves, our country, and those who w ill be in the new prisons being built at this very moment, to speak up and help stop the insanity. Consider this: Because we have come to prison, everyone in our family and many friends have become very aware of at least one tragic aspect of the drug war. Folks who might otherwise have paid little, if any, attention to this issue were forced to sit helplessly by as we were ripped out of their lives and shipped off to prison. Of those peopl e, how many do you think would hesitate to write a letter, in their own words, ask ing for an end to the drug war? Would they send copies to all of out elected officials, those seeking election? Even at this basic level, with a simple request by you for a simple and stra ig htfo rward action, can you imagine how many times your message could be multiplied? l think it is a grave err.o r for any of us to underestimate our significance in this. As individuals, you or I alone would probab ly be unable to take on the whole grinding system wh ich has swallowed us, but that is not our job. It is our job to enlighten our one little part of the world as best we can and ask for a little action on our behalf. The more the better, surely, but as we have seen in Father Bixel and his friends, significant things can be done with a little time and effort. Remember, there are millions of us now, every action is significant, and I wou ld venture to say that The November Coali tion could probably suggest effective actions fo r any level ofcommitment. Doing our time in silence is a lot like winking in the dark. Noth ing is seen. So what are we going to do, simply serve our time, or serve a purpose? Reprinted by permission of The November Coalition. The November Coalition is ·· a growing body ofcitizens whose lives have been gravely a.ffected by our governments present drug policy. Our members/tip consists ofthe causalities ofAmerica :s War on Drugs. We are prisoners, their loved ones, and others who know that mass imprisonment is no the answer to the drug problem." For more information see •vww.novembe1:org; call (509) 684-1550; or write to 795 South CedOI; Colville, WA 99114. Advertise Extra! Extra! Support Streetvibes by Advertising to Socially Conscious Readers! Rates: about 2 bucks per square inch Broadcast schedules are subject to change - consult your local TV directory. \. �ST REE TV I BES The Tri-State's Homeless Gr~PB'(.~r.~ . . Mt. Airy Shelter: For Every Problem There is a Solution by Pat Mitchell Mt. Airy Shelter is a member of the Coalition for the Homeless and certified by the Coalition. It is located 10 minutes from downtown on 6 acres in Mt. Airy Forest. I think it is a very unique program because it is a program that provides structure. After talking with Steve Knight, the Administrative Director presiding 6 years, this statement came to light. A homeless person not only needs shelter but a place that provides structure that will enable that . person to lead a productive life. Can you imagine that 40% of those leaving the shelter are no longer homeless? · 65 men on average stay 4 to 5 weeks. Of those residents, the percentage is 90% tltug.and alcohol abuse; 90% have criminal justice involvement related to drugs or alcohol; 65% have a high school education, a plus to succeed; and 36% are Veterans. Some of the highlights oftbeis prQgrarn are Transitional housing (drug and alcohol recovery); Caracole house (for people living with AIDS); Council on Aging (for individuals in need ofa supervised living situation); Veterans Adminjstration (Homeless program); and most important: Ohio Bureau ofEmployment Services and Job Plus (with employment leads and services.) • Men who go there experience problems such as unemployment, chronic drug and alcohol alfose, lack of family support (which is one of the t~ls we need to help prevent homelessness), and physical and mental incapacity. Once they enter the program, a plan is developed by staff within 24 hours of admission. This enables them to resolve their homelessness because with every problems there is a solution. Referrals are made to adult protective services for elderly men and victims of abuse, neglect or exploitation. They get medical services such as Medical Van, general medical care, foot clinic (podiatry volunteers), dental, classes on smoking cessation, nutrition, and wellness . Psychological assessments and other referrals are also available ifnecessary. Physicians see an average of 140 individuals each month, with an estimated cost of $40 per visit. Community donated medical services provide a "cost" saving of $5,600 per month. · Gardening, yardwork, assisting in maintenance tasks and cooking offer the men new skills or a chance to use existing skills neglected while living on the street. No wonder it is a program of success. As a volunteer staff person at the Coalition, I have set a goal to learn more about area shelters so I could give a more efficient refen-al to the people we serve on a daily bas i's. T myself have been homeless not once but twice. And as I think back on it now, some of the tools I used were structure, consistency, a job and motivation. What I lacked was a roof over my head. I am so glad that I have taken the time out to find out· about these shelters. This has been very educational for me. And I hope it will be a plus for whoever comes to the Coalition for help. Thank you, Steve, for enlightening me, because surely this is a good place to go. Page 6 Social Justice, continued from page 2 necessary, it would accompany an unlucky member to the scaffold, should he face execution! Perhaps because largely impractical in an age ofsingle room cottages and inns where travelers slept several to the bed, privacy seemed a luxury seldom found. But a lso, curiously, little missed. In short, hungry, diseased, and unfree as it may have been, the Middle Ages knew nothing of alienation. And thus, John Donne's observation that "No man is an island" may have found expression just as its truth was passing. Perhaps the bell simply mourns the death of affective wannth in the Age of Modernity.. To over-simplify, one can divide human associations into "societies" and "communities." The 19th century German sociologist Tennies spoke of "Gessellschaft" and "Gemeinschaft" "Gessellschaft" is characteristic of the modern age; it suggests a collection of separate atoms, bound together for a common, sometimes trivial, purpose such as waiting at a bus stop. Each person is self-contained, without relationship or interchange with his/her fellows, a collection one modem writer has called the "Lonely Crowd." "Gem1einschaft" , on the other hand, is more of an organic social unity, typically found in pre-modem fanning villages or small, non-technological tribes. Everybody knew everybody; people inter­ related each to all the others in many ways and on many levels. Life was in some ways richer, but in other ways less free. Where everybody had a "place," the individual was under a lot of social pressure to "stay in bis place." For Plato, society ideally divided into · clearly separate ranks. The Philosopher-Kings or Guardians composed the top rank. Next came the Warriors, and finally, the Workers. Plato 's concept of social justice reflected an idealized harmony obtained when there is a "place for everyone" and "everyone stays in bis place." Confucian philosophy employed a similar taxonomy, giving particular importance to the role of peasants. The modern sociologist Tafcott Parsons espoused a social theory called structural­ functionalism. It emphasized the tendency of society to maintain social equilibrium, a concept called " homeostasis." Derived from a Calvinist background, Parsons was familiar with the notions both that economic vocation ~oul_~ ~~ a sacred Gallfog, aha' tli:a.t 'er Mah"$ job 1 d~t\fiea li.ihl ~hti 1iisr~1~b~ 'in~sbtiefy. !s6dieij,' 1 in turn, could be defined as the interrelated sum of all the vocations of its m embers. Parsons felt particular horror at the problem of unemployment. He found disturbing not only the suffering caused by economic deprivation, but perhaps even more, the definitional confusion caused by large numbers of people without jobs or "callings." They had " no pace. I I" The pre-eminent characteristic of "Gesellschaft" is the modern concept of the market, where goods, capital and workers are each alJocated to their application of maximum utility, "as ifby an invisible hand." But what of the people " left out?" What of those who have " no place," no jobs? What, in short, of the people living at the margins of the social order? Next Month: Part 2 �WHY FOCC.:S 0,'i Tl/£ GOJ .ERXOR.S:' Governors have signijicanL political power and c:ontroi over the American people. They lilerally make life-and death decisions, directly affecting society through education, welfare, environmental, and law enforcemenl initiatives. Unlike f ederal mandates, which can take significantly longer to trickle down through the bureaucratic system, governors can impose immediate changes necessary to serve the people. Our governors have become unaccountable to the public. They use tax .' • ·.;;.. - ""1e. breaks and 21 · >-~- - . .~~- "~ incentives as "- J ' -" ~ · ~i.. well as reduced environmental standards, to attract corporations to their ' - .$ _,. ~1... states. This causes displaced f amiltes and environmental destruction, as well as increased unemployment in areas abandoned by these businesses. Our so-called "leaders" manipulate the public to get elected, and then proceed to ser ve corporate interests. Lastly, an article printed last month in Z Magazine by Cynthia Peters, entitled War at Home/War Abroad, brought home how oppressive our global systems really are. The article demonstrates how poor people all over the world are being " structurally adjusted" out of a means of survival by national and international neoliberal economic policies. She draws parallels between welfare " reform", which forces people into low-wage rsrwelfare News National Campaign Targets Governors by Sharon Weiss " National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support slams nation s Governors for neglecting needy families, says states are withholding food stamps, Medicaid, children s health and child care support." This was the topic of a press release issued to the public on July 8, at the National Governor's Association (NGA) Convention at State College, PA. The subject of the governor 's convention was "the new economy" and the promotion of big business. The de legates were greeted by demonstrators organized by the nation's largest anti-poverty coalition, demanding that states move more aggressively to end poverty by spending the 7.3 billion Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) dollars being horded by states. Deepak Bhrgave, director of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, urged states to use TANF fund s only to support poor families, to disclose information on how TANF funds are being used, to track families leaving welfare to make sure they' re getting support and jobs, and to oppose cuts in CHIP, the medical insurance fund for children, and TANF funds. Thirteen people from Cincinnati joined Philadelphia ACORN (a welfare rights group), Mothers on the Move (MOM) and demonstrators from as far away as Chicago to make their point. After a briefing and sign making session, the Cincinnati contingent drove out to the protest site only to find FBI men and city police directing us to a very obscure area off the highway some 300 feet from the Marriott entrance where the State Governors were to assemble. This would not do for Philadelphia ACORN, who loudly voiced that they could not be seen by the media and the governors that we were targeting. We moved 100 feet closer to the highway entrance and started our rally. The police were not in riot gear, but there certainly f4f ~ef~ epoµg_h, ?f t~11P: ! ?·~e) vo}~t ~he.re i l ( ~ were fi9tty qfjjcers .s_u-d:rrQun~m1r ,an cf an<;>tfl~r ,l 1 t . • I l I ) > I • 1 '1 U$ l > I f •, •I nine officers mounte on horse back. However, this did not detour the protestors in the least as we got on with our message, while the media mingled with the crowd and interviewed many protestors. Later on, some of us walked to Penn State University for Redirection 2000, a three day gathering of students and concerned citizens calling for true democracy and domestic and global justice. There intent was to raise awareness among the partic ipants of the National Governors' Convention on issues of concern to the people, not corporations. The Redirection 2000 Jiteratw-e reminds us all of the power state governors really have espec ia lly since the NGA endorsed the destructive globalization policies of the CMF, World Bank. and WTO. The fo llowing is a quote from their literature: ·/J .. jobs, \\hich strci~gthc·1 corporations bott<'lll line, <ind qructun1l adjustm...· nt policic;:; in otht:· countries, which also take away ex isting safety-nets, strip social services and hurt the poor while benefiting wealthy corporations. She want on to state that a mother offi ve, who had spent several years on welfare, was accused of lying in order to get benefi ts. Their question was: how could she possibly be surviving on what they paid her? The authorities concluded that she must be cheating the system because she and ber children would have starved to death by now. This is an example ofeconomic policies that exploit human labor, rob people oftheir dignity and means of survival and livelihood, and then criminalize them for surviving. The message is clear: If you do everything the state asked of you and somehow survive, even minimally, you are a cheat and a criminal. Abroad, U.S. policies are such that Colombian farmers can only depend on coca as a dependable cash crop. Meanwhile, US drug laws make sure that the flow of cocaine into the U .S. will disproportionately penalize and incarcerate poor people and people of color. Daily, hundreds of Mexicans making three dollars a week are literally dying in order to work in the U.S. for six dollars an hour - a wage we in the U.S. call poverty. The point of her article, fo r organizers and activist alike, is that rac ism and economic exploitation define the corporate agenda with little regard for human and environmental justice. Millio ns of lives have been destroyed at home and abroad by the structural adjustment by corporate backed IMF and World Bank pol icies. With governors having so much power, we must demand that they are accountable to the people and remain independent of corporate greed. • • • I >' r (I .::.~-=:::~ _. . . .- . .-~·- - -' C'4~- . _ SUA".,,- -gr~_ /5:0C?_p-nL- f :OO~n.. ~-l- tiiJSa.J: .5~ oc_1r.,... .-2: o oGW'>'L ~--- ~ ~'lt4 !::JC.L_~"'-..a ~ ~~ �INTERNATIONAL NEWS Demonstrators March for Tibet's Independence Tibetans' Concerns Included World Bank Loan and BPI Amoco Project by JohJ1 Halpin WASHINGTON, D.C.- The first weekend in July was a significant moment for Tibetan exiles living in the United States. As the Supporters gathered for a rally at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, before the march annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall highlighted the vibrancy of Tibetan culture in exiled communities around these concerns, Tibetans and several guests, Upon completion, that report strongly the world, Tibetans celebrated their religious including Thai Buddhist leader and organizer recommended the Bank not approve the loan, heritage with a visit by His Holiness the Dalai Sulak Sivarska and Irish Nobel laureate finding seven World Bank policy violations Mariead MacGuire, spoke about two current Lama and organized politically to work for that would result. These violations included independence and human rights in their issues: a World Bank loan to China and BP/ an inadequate environmental assessment of Amoco's plans to work with PetroChina to homeland. the proj ect, little consultation with Tibetans in On July 1, Tibetans and their extract Tibet's o il and natural gas resources. the area, and a "climate of fear" in the area. supporters - over a thousand in number ­ There were concerns that the Bank 's disregard Controversial World Bank Loan marched from the White House, past the ofconfidentiality when conducting interviews The World Bank Joan, a source of headquarters of the World Bank, to the with the local population put people at risk. controversy and extreme criticism since its Chinese Embassy. Their concerns were Additionally, the Inspection Panel critic ized inception, was criticized because it would addressed at a rally in Lafayette Park before the World Bank for not examining alternatives have funded the p9pulation transfer of 58,000 the parade. to the project, as the Bank's policies dictate. Han Chinese and Hui Muslim farmers into The primary concerns of the Tibetans since the Chinese annexation ofTibet in the Dulan County, West Qinghai, displacing 4,000 China Withdraws Application for Loan 1950's have been the suppression of Tibetan Tibetan and Mongolian people. The loan was On July 7, China withdrew its approved in June, 1999, but was delayed until Buddhism, the torture of political prisoners, application for this controversial loan, as a and many other violations of human rights in a World Bank Inspection Panel cou ld make a majority of the Bank's board members did not Tibet. At the July 1 protest, in addition to report. support the project in its cutTent state, and China was unprepared to accept changes to tl;te project. Ch inese Executive Director Zhu Xian , in a statement to fellow Board members, said " It is unacceptable to my and non-governmental organizations called by John Halpin authorities that other Bank shareholders upon the United States to provide the After President Clinton threatened a would insist on imposing additional conditions necessary funds for meaningful debt relief. veto of any foreign aid bill not meeting his on (the] Management 's recommendations, Without the United States' contribution, requests for debt relief to impoverished namely coming back to the Board for many feared that funds for relief from the third world nations, the House of approval again for a proj ect that was already IMF and regional lenders would run out ne~t Representatives passed an amendment July approved last year." China will now conduct year. 13 to increase the level of debt relief from the project on its own. The debt reliefplan calIs for the $69.4 million to $225 million. TM> meets "This is a stunning victory, for we avings to be spent on education, the President's ·request for fiscal year 2001, · have prevented China from getting an vaccinationst \ural development, and otbe~ but it falls short of the supplemental international stamp of approval for its policy programs. Twenty-eight countries could be appropriation ofS2 l 0 mill ion he requested of population transfer into Tibet," said Alison el igible, aiding some ofthe I,2 billion people for 2000. Reynolds, Director of the Free Tibet living on less than $1 a day. The amendment, offered by Maxine "But the story isn't over. The Campaign. The House bill will now go to the Water ( D-CA), passed narrowly 216-21 1. World Bank will continue to face acute House-Senate conference committee where The funds allocated to debt re lief will be in its dealings with China, and we wi ll scrutiny the substantial differences in re lief Levels will drawn from foreign military aid accounts. continue to campaign on behalf of the people be ironed out. The Senate version of the bill "This is a ·huge victory for nations around of Dulan who still have to face the prospect of provides only $75 million for debt relief. the world struggling to break out of the their lands being taken over by Chinese and Local Representative Steve Chabot cycle of extreme povc1ty," said Democratic Musli m settlers." voted against the Water amendment. Todd Representative Nita Lowey of New York. Lindgrem, an aide to Mr. Chabot said that he One year ago, President Clinton and BP Amoco Teams Up With PetroClti11a feels Mr. Chabot voted against the other world leaders promised to write off In April of this year, PetroChina, a amendment because using taxpayer dollars 550 billio11 in debt owed by poor nations. subsidiary of the state-owned China National from "hardworking Cincinnati families" for Recently, the United States has been the Petroleum Company, was made available on the relief of other nations' debts was not subject of criticism in the international the New York and Hong Kong stock appropriate. "Mr. Chabot feels it is in the community for failing to meet its portion of exchanges. Due caution investing in Chinese best interest of the US and countries involved the promised relief. Various officials, such to live up to the original agreements," he as Gennan Finance Minister Hans Eichel, See Tibet, page 18 said. House of Represent~frves Boosts B~fit Rellef �STREETVI BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine INS Prisoner on Hunger Strike Viewing Children As Victims, Not Offenders by Michelle Kitchen We have all watched media coverage about the deaths of young children to chi ld abuse or neglect. But what happens to the survivors of these stories? The babies abandoned in hospitals or restaurants, chi ldren left unattended for weeks without food in filthy roach-infested apartments, or even worse, the children are brntally abused. What about the children whose parents are incarcerated? The bridge between early childhood victims and later delinquent behavior needs to be addressed prior to these children appearing in distressing newspaper stories like the case of 16 year-old David Newbury and Mark Rea in Milwaukee, who sexually assaulted and clubbed to death a classmate. David's court record revealed a childhood history of beatings, cruel words and indifference. Before being sentenced to life in prison, David told a probation officer, "I lived like I was treated." Childhood victimization clearly increases a person's risk of arrest. To place this in " perspective," the odds are almost two times higher that an abused or neglected child will be arrested as an unruly juvenile for a violent crime than a child that has not experienced victimization. "Perspective" on crime, as on any other bwnan problem concerns, in the most general sense of the tenn, is how we perceive or view something. Viewing children as victims not offenders is what our policy makers fail to define. Senate Bill 179, introduced August 24, 1999 by Senator Latta specifies the eligibi lity for criminal persecution for adjudicated delinquent children, and bases the criteria on the child's age ... any age from ten to seventeen years at the time of the act. At ten years old the child may be tried as an adult. I I 1 ' Sena1e Bill l 81, introduced August 3 l . 1999 by Senator Spada expands the definition of "delinquent child," to include any child who is a " habitual truant." ln addition, this bill modifies the ex is~ingjuven il e record sealing and expunge~ent law in respect that a youthful offender act may haunt the child into his/her adult life. ln the ease ofchi ld victims today, the "justice system" get the failures ofany other attempt at intervention. Lawmakers w ith their "get tough on crime" policies are punishing victims, chi ldren, as offenders. I don't pretend to have all the answers but "locking up" children at the age of ten and "throwing away the key" should definitely be re-evaluated. Children are able to change given the chance and a little help. Deprivation of fundamental needs in early childhood is a place to start. Prison is not! Michelle Kitchen 394400.R. W. 1479 Collins Ave; Arn-4 Marysville, 9h 43040 My name is Mahmoud El-Khatib and I have made the decision to go on a non-violent hunger strike that l started o n June 21, 2000. This hunger s trike w ill continu e until the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) releases me and gives me back my freedom. The INS took me into custody on February 23, 1999 and I have been detained by them ever since. l am at the Maple Heights Jail in Maple Heights, Ohio. On Friday, June 23'd, it was my 35L11 birthday and this makes the second birthday that l have spent in ~jail cell. 1 refuse to spend another year in here. I have been locked up for the past 17 months for a non-violent crime that I committed in 1984 in which l served NO JAIL TIME. I have been denied medical and de.ntal privileges since the INS has detained me. This hunger strike is for My Freedom. I am doing this for 3 American born children, my fam ily. I was manied to an American citizen fo r I 0 years and we share 3 children, Alexandra Rae, age ~ 0, H ana Marie, age 6, and Said Gabriel, age 3. My children need me to help support them and g ive them the things that they need in life and to be their father. My children think that I am at work and they have asked me to talk to ~y boss and tell him that I need a day off so I can come home. I came to this country in 1984 in search ofFreedom. I have always worked hard everyday and paid my fair share of taxes since I came to America. My mother, brothers and sisters came to the United States in 1990 during the invasion ofKuwait, and they are in the process ofbecoming American citizens. 1 have a brother in the Page 9 American Anny that is stationed in Korea and my youngest brother is attending college. I am the oldest son and my mother's health isn't very good and J want to be w ith her and help her as much as I can. I want my freedom so that l can work and help my ex-wife support our children. I have been kept away from my children, mother, brother and sisters for the past 17 months . My children are my flesh and blood and I need them as much as they need me. Since the Immigration Law was passed in l 996 it has destroyed a lot of families and cost the tax payers approximately $40,000 in the past 17 months for the lNS to hold me in jail. I am not the only one that the INS is wrongfu lly holding in the Un ited States, so the INS and th e government is wasting a lot of tax payers money every day that they keep us in jail. The 91h Circu it Court ofAppeals recently ruled that immigrants accused of crimes in the U.S. could not be held indefinitely. The ruling stated that aliens must be released within 90 days after final deportation order and must remain free under INS supervision until their home country reaches an agreement with the United States to accept deportees. My country of Kuwait will not take me back and the INS knows this. l came to the U.S. w ith a Palestine refugee pa&sport and I had a green card so WHY am I still being held like a hostage? I refuse to eat until the INS releases me and gives me back my Freedorri so I can be a father to my 3 children. I love them so much and these past 17 months without them has been a living bell for me. Everyday that I am away from them seems like an eternity. I will not eat until I am released even if it means my death. I want to go home. • • • r--::--:------=---:-----------------------------­ even bead off in the wrong direction. But for Prisoner Seeks Community Support .....• Rick. Freeman . Seeking outside support from family, friends, pen-pals, ministers, pastors, community leaders and strong organizations to help support strong, intelligent, intellectual and caring brothers who are trying to be part of the solution, to bring happiness, peace, love, and non-violence for years to come. Because nothing can ever for us the victory we seek except a recapture of our own minds. Qur very survival depends upon our ability and willingness to change for the better, for ourselves, our families and our communities. Everyone gets sidetracked, and some ofus e_very action, there is an equal but opposite reaction, and the bottom line is that we are still human and have feelings along with needs (i.e., love and support). It seems like the world turns its back on you once you are locked up. No one seems to care anymore. But prisoners need love too! So please, write that father, brother, uncle, nephew, boyfriend, husband, son, friend, mother, sister, wife, etc. and show them they are not alone. As organizer and president ofAnti-Racist Prisoners, I will assist you and set up arrangements for you to meet strong, positive people who meet your criteria and need your friendship and support. So show someone that you care. For contact information, call the GCCH at 421-7803. S1llfDl/IBIS PrisoncTS News contains news about the justice system and the writings of persons incarcerated in our nation's jails and prisons. PEN PAL WANTED Lee E. Crum, #239589, OCI, P.O. Box 511, Columbus, OH, 43216 Subscribers wit hin the walls receive Streetvibes free. If you want to support us in this effort, please sponsor someone on the inside by sending us $1 S for a year's subscription Sendyour comments and questions to streetvibes@juno.com mail : STREETVIBES, 7506 Elm Street Cincinnati, Ohio 452 7O �STREETVIBE.S The Tri-State's HomelessGrapevin~ Death Penalty Moratorium Picks Up Steam Hamilton County Justice System Shows Racial Bias by Da11 Marscltner Movements across the country to have a death penalty moratorium are gaining momentum as evidence against the death penalty continues to surface. The debate aboi1t the use of the death penalty has become a hot topic due to Texas Governor George W. Bush's Presidential candidacy. Texas has been the leader in executions since the death penalty's reinstatement in 1976. However, the death penalty's legitimacy has been questioned: research indicates that tl1e death penalty is biased against poor people aud people of color. Advocates against the death penalty argue that it is a racist, classist tool that should be suspended and ultimately discarded. The most common evidence cited to discredit the fairness of the death penalty shows that poor people and people of color are much more likely to receive it. The evidence is quite alarming, and sho,~·s a histo1y ofdisctiminatory use of the death penalty. For instance, approximately 90% of people on death row cannot afford their own attorney. Also, none of the 38 states tnat allow the death penalty ha\'e met the standards developed by the American' Bar Association for appointment. perfom1ance and compensation ofcouncil for poor people. The record of the death penalty against people ofcolor is even more disturbing. Since ReSTOC. continued from page 1 men having completed a six-month substance abuse recovery program. 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court, African-Americans have been unjustly targeted. Although th.ey make u~ only 13-% ofthe population, 35% ofdeath row mmates executed were African-Americans; 43% of the cun-ent death row population in U.S. states are African-American; and 67% ofthe federal death row population is African-American. Afocan­ Americans who are convicted ofkilhng · Caucasians are the most likely people to receive the death penalty. In the last 34 years, J I Caucasians have been executed for the killing an African-American while 144·African-Americans have been executed for kiJling a Caucasian. T)1e Supreme Comi bas also handed down a series of rulings that expedite the appeals process. These rulings restrict the rights of death row inmates to appeal their rulings, even in cases where the mmate may have compeU ing evidence oftheir innocence. Thus, the process is getting faster v:h1le the death penalty's credibility is seriously questioned. The Ohio death row population mirrors national trends. Of the 200 inmates. 53% arc people of color, 49% of whom are African­ American, 69% of Ohio death row inmates are convicted of killing a Caucasian, while only 25% are convicted ofkilling a person of color. Locally. Hamilton County leads all buildings are too expensive to rehabilitate. Hauck stated that because the buildings are so expensive to rehabilitate, the ReSTOC project, which obtained the nccessa1y funding. should Page 10 . ~ counties in Ohio in de~th row inmates. Currently, Ohio houses 200 inmates on death row, 49 of whom are Hamilton County residents. Although Hamilton County residents made up 7.5% of the state population as of July 1999, 24.4% of current death row inmates come from the area. The number of Hamilton County inmates equals the number of inmates of the two larger counties in Ohio (Cuyahoga and Franklin) combined. As a response to the discriminatory use of tbe death penalty, several Congress members have proposed a national moratoril.1m on the death penalty. Senators Feingol~ (D-WI) and Levin (D-MI) proposed a bill 011 April 26, 2000 that would declare a nationaJ morat01ium until a commission could be formed to study the issue. The c01m11ission would be composed of members who are prosecutors, attorneys, judges. law enforcement officers, and · knowledgeable member.s ofthe general public. The commission's task would be to determine a less discriminat01y use ofthe death penalty. One state. Jllinois, already has suspended tts death penalty until it can be studied further. People who a.re interested in learning more about the death penalty moratorium movement are encouraged to contact Eunice Timoney Ravenna at rhe lntercommunity .Justice and Peace Center. Their phone number is 579­ 8547. Special thanks w Eunice Timone_i• Ravenna.for providing the resources.for this article. Hart Opt-Out, co11ti1111edji·om page 3 happened in the first round of expiration thac went into processing thi~ July 14 through Au1rust Speaking of the ReSTOC proJ-_ ·ec_ _l._______ Dik~ctoi· --...,----------------! of Neighborhood Services 1. This can be very confusing to many residents On June 26 and 27, HUD held some Cheryl Meadows said. '·We arc informational meeting to help mfonn residents of not precluding anyone who The majority of the money for ReSTOC's Vine Str~ct this process. fa en as HUD was send mg flyers to wants to do market rate housing Commumty Project is from privarc sources. The Cuy of infonn residents of meetings about vouchers from doing it." She stated that Cinci1mati's expected share was $700.000, or 16% of the about haJ f ofthose tenants would actually be put the city had sent out requests for total funding. The dollars from the city are actually Federal on hold for vouchers until HUD continued talks proposals of market-rate I IOME dollars, to be spent exclpsively on low-income with Hart. Severa I people who found out they projects on Vine Street and had housing, thatthc·city has the responsibility ofallocating. were not receiving vouchers were angry enough received no responses. She that they left the meetings. Most tenants were indicated the city would work Source Amount confused about how an owner could opt out and with market-rate projects. as Housing Tax Credits (Private Equity) $4,954,630 then negotiate a.new contract in a fow days. well. provided developers came State of Ohio $300,000 COT-fHlO (Coalition on Homelessness forward with proposals. City of Cincinnati $700.,000 and Housing in Ohio) staff in Cincinnati then John Hauck, a supporter of $10,000 Cincinnati Development Fund went to work on following up on tenanl Vine Street development and $35,000 CNBDU (Vine Street Fa9adeProgram) concerns. Those tenants in buildings not opted president of the Abandoned out ofwere promised help dealing with Total $5,095.630 Buildings Company (ABC), conditions in the buildings. Residents in which owns six vacant buildings on the street, be supported. buildings that actually were opting out.were spoke in favor of the ReSTOC proposal. He The June. 28 Council vote was tied 4-4, offered help in dealing with the v_oucher process. said ABC spends thousands each year to with Councilman Charlie Winburn absent. The road to getting a voucher for those maintain their vacant buildings, and no one has Voting in favor offonding ReSTOC were Hart tenants started with attending another approached them with market rate or low­ meetirnz with CMHA (Cincinnati Metropolitan Vicemayor Minette Cooper, Alicia Reece, income development projects because the Housi;g Authority). At this meeting tenants Paul Booth, and Todd P01tune. Opposed to would have to prove income verification and the funding were James Tarbell, Phil identity. Tenants who qualified would be given Heimlich, PatDeWine, and Mayor Charlie fonns to take back to their culTent landlord or Luken. could use in the another property that wou ld Dr. Gene Beaupre, professor of political accept the voucher. science at Xavier University, has worked The process seemed to run smoothly for closely with Council for the past twenty-five years. Noting that ReSTOC had a. plan and. a residents that had little baniers to housing. Residents wh~ could not understand the developer ready, Beaupre stated, ""Never rn paperwork (because ofliteracy and/or problems my twenty-five years working with City associated with aging) have had difficulties. Council have I seen a group come with nearly COHHIO staff worked on outreach to these 4 million dollars for development, the tenants. At Press time 14 out of 146 low income bulidings under tbeir own control, the families and individuals have not been reached. architects already involved, the project These residents are in extreme danger ofbeing brought through the city administration. and evicted from their apa1tments if they are not - - - · then turned down by Council."." 14-16 West 13th Street, two of. the project Without the City's support, the project will reached by September I, 2000. buildings that will stay vacant without funding not be possible. THE FUNDING �ST RE ETV IBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grape-vine Page 11 _=] ·'" The Lucasville Trials: Five Men Unfairly Sentenced to Die ..... by Staughton Lynd On April 21 , 1993, 407 prisoners who for eleven days had occupied the L cell block at the Southern Ohio Correctional facil ity (SOCF) in Lucasville, Ohio, surrendered to authorities. Nine prisoners and one guard had been killed. The 21-point surrender agreement included the following: "Administrative discipline and criminal proceedings will be fairly and impartially administered without bias against individuals or groups." "There will be no retaliating actions taken toward any inmate or groups of inmates or their property." The authorities bro ught 40 inmates to trial. They obtained 47 guilty findings or guilty please. Five men were sentenced to death. The authorities achieved these results by systematic and intentional violation of the su n ender agreemen t. Disparity ef Resources The American Bar Association g uidelines for the appointment and performance 9f counsel in death penalty cases state that attorneys in capital cases should receive a '·reasonable rate of hourly compensation which reflects the extraordinary responsibilities inherent in death penalty litigation." Counsel should also be provided w ith the time and funding necessary for proper investigations. expe11 witnesses, and other support services, accord ing to the ABA. Ohio does not meet these standards. In the words of an Ohio Supreme CourtJask ·. force. fee schedules for defend ing capital cases m Ohio "are similar to those used in states where constitutional challenges have been successful." In the Lucasville cases - both those that sought the death penalty and those that did not- the disparity of resources between prosecution and defense was extreme. Attorney Niki Schwartz, w ho helped the prisoners in L block to negotiate the 21 -point settlement, testified abo ut this in the trial of Jason Robb. Schwa11z stated that the Ohio legislature appropriated millions of dollars for special prosecutors. Prosecutors were paid between $60 and $125 per hour, and were able to pract ice without the overhead expenses and costs borne by defense attorneys. By contrast, for defr.nd; t. 0 .~ man on six counts of Aggravated Murder and four cou nts of Kidnapping, defense attorney Jeffrey Kelleher was pa id $50 per hour for 310 hours in court and $40 per hour for 1,513 hems out of court. Moreover, defense counsel could not seek compensation until after each such case was completed. The legislature also allocated additional and special resources to the·prosecu tion but not to the defense. According to Reginald Wilkinson, Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC), over 1,250 interviews and 4,000 items of ev idence were stored in a prosecution computer program using over 1,000 megabytes of memo1y. The disparity of resources between prosecution and defense is public know ledge. The. Columbus Dispatch report ed on Apri l 16, 1997, that a total of $2.7million had been made available to the prosecution and a total 0£$892,000 to the defense. ' Interference with Right to Counsel After the sun-ender, Attorney Schwartz arranged for Public Defenders and counsel associated with the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to interview each prisoner who surrendered. Prisoners were told that they had the right to remain silent and the right to insist upon having a lawyer present during interrogation. · Attorney Schwartz then made arrangements with the Ohio State Highway Patrol to convene a meeting of top State offi cials to consider ways and means of providing Lucasville p risoners w ith effective assistance of counsel. According to Schwaitz's sworn testimony, the meeting was abo1ied by the newly-appointed Special Prosecutor, Mark Piepmeier. Piepmeier. Schwartz has w1itten to the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Courl, told Schwaiiz that he did not want p1isoners to have counsel p1ior to indictment because then they would not incriminate themselves. At Schwartz's request, the President of the Ohio State Bar Association thereupon sent out a call for volunteer attorneys to serve pro bono. Hundreds of lawyers, including many of Ohio's top criminal; defense lawyers, volunteered to represent prisoners.Prior to indictment wi th no compensation, and if qualified and desired by p risoners, to accept appointment after inpictrnent. Piepmeie1 informed volunteer attorneys that they would be appointed to represent their clients after indictment only if they cooperated by atTanging a plea. The first indictments were issued in December 1993 . Judge Thomas Mitchell announced that he would handle all aITaignments. According to Schwartz, throughout February and March 1994 Judge Mitchell refused to appoint any requested volunteers who did not have Piepmeier's approval as a result of negotiating a guilty plea. Only after Schwartz appealed to Chief Justice Moyer were some volunteers grudgingly appointed as trial cotmsel for Lucasville defendants. More often the trial judge simp ly imposed on the·defendant new counsel chosen by the Court . Selective prosecution and reliance on snitch testimony The authorities' assurance to the surrendering prisoners that "there will be no retaliating actions taken toward any inmate" lasted less than twenty-four hours. On the night of the sunender, the Ohio State Highway Patrol began to interv iew a prjsoner who reported his experience, under oath, as follows : "The troopers knew already who they wanted to prosecute, even though I was on the first inmates they spoke with . They specifically wanted me to make statements against (spokespersons for the prisoners named) George Skatzes, Hasan Sanders, and Lavelle. They made it clear to me that they wanted these pa11icular individuals, and that they d id not care about any others. l asked, ''You all do n't care what we say, just as long as it's against one of the inmates .you want, no matter if it's tme or not," and was told, "that's right." These officers said, "We want Skatzes. We want Lavelle. We want Hasan." They also said, " We know they were leaders. We want to burn their ass. We want to put them in the electric chair for murdering Officer Vallandingham." Director Wilkinson himselfconfirms that the prosecution strategy was to concentrate on these presumed leaders until one of them broke. In an article published in CotTections Management Quarterly, Wilkinson states that Piepmeier 's_staff" targeted a few gang leaders and conv inced them to accept plea bargains. Thi11een months into the invest igation, a primary riot provocateur (Lavelle ) agreed to talk about Officer Vallandingham 's death. He later received a sentence of7 to 25 years after pleadi ng guilty to conspiracy to comm it murder. His testimony led to death sentences for riot leaders Carlos Sanders, Jason Robb, Geon!e .... Skatzes, and James Were. After that ' fellow gang members began to seek deals of their own. ln the capital trials of those who had served as spokespersons for the rebelling prisoners, prosecutors conceded that they had l ittle or no physical evidence connecting any defendant with any death . All that they had was snitch testimony from other prisoners who had cut deals. The result can be illustrated by the case of prisoner Earl Elder, killed during the first hours of the rebellion. Affidavits of eyewitnesses name the prisoner who went into cell L-6-60 and finished Elder off. That man, who testified agamsr a riot spokesperson, 1s now out of prison. The 1iot spokesperson who (so say the witnes~es) never went into Elders cell was sentenced to death for Eider's murder. Prosecution tactics deserve a trial themselves. The prisoner quoted earlier describes pa1t of the process: "I and other winesses were offered incentives and specia l treatment to testify. The officers told me l was go ing home. On Apri l 28, 1994, I was put into the Witness Protection P rogram ;md sent lo the Oakwood Correctional Institution. At Oakwood. I and other inmates who had provided infor mation to the Ohio Highway Patrol and Depa1tment of Con-ection against inmates invo lved in the SOCF riot were housed together. The inmates there included (names seven persons beside himself). The Highway Patrol told thoses of us at O akwood to talk w ith each other to get our stori es in synch... The Highway Patrol had parties with us at Oakwood. They gave us chicken, popcorn, cake, movies . It was made clear that if we didn 't say what they wanted, then we would be punished or our safety ignored." 111esecond part of ''Th~ Lucasville Trials: Rive Men Unfairly Sentenced to Die" will appear in next month's edition b f Streetvibes. �ST REE TV I BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Saving a Historic Community letters and Editorials These letters were written in response to several staffeditorials in the Cincinnati Enquirer. To date, Peter Strauss' letter has not been published by the Enquirer. Former Councilmember Questions the Enquirer Seeing the two articles (7I11/00 and 7I 12/00) on housing in Cincinnati almost takes my breath away. The Enquirer, like any other public or quasi public communicator, has an obligation to tell the truth. Your editorials did not meet even the threshold of what one expects of a newspaper to do or be in searching for the truth. There are times (like these) when I wonder whether this newspaper even tries very hard to find the truth. l was Chairman of the City Council's Neighborhood Housing and Development Committee for a number of years and I can safely say that any semblance of what came before this committee and what the Enquirer contends came before this committee are totally coin~idental. Perhaps the most outrageous contention in the two editorials deals with RESTOC. This housing group, (as difficult as they could be at that time) never went to the _ "public trough" except for federal roofing dollars. Their efforts were strictly volunteer, and on weekends (including my two sons when they were home on vacation from college). The Enquirer fails to state the irony of this when in the most recent housing round, RESTOC was turned down by a majority of Council Members after it was encouraged and practically guaranteed $700,000 for its tax credit housing. This constant reference to "wanting millions of dollars on housing in OTR and the West End" isn't even in the ball park of credulity (more on ball parks and credulity Page 12 below). Where are the Enquirer plaudits for the City of Cincinnati: Western Southern Bracken Woods project in OTR, all the units oflow-moderate income housing built by Miami Purchase in the West End or this admittedly more controversial public housing in Lincoln Court, Laurel Homes being done by CMHA, the City and HUD, or historic Betts Longworth? Were the Enquirer to spend even a drop in ink discussing the wasted millions ($45 million in cost overruns on the Bengals' Stadium by the County as of 7/ 12/00), I'm not holding my breath as to the next "audit" done by the County on the Bengals' stadium. Nor am I holding my·breath as to the coming "hands off' policy undertaken by Phil Heimlich especially in light ofthe heavy handedness exhibited by former Assistant County Prosecutor Heimlich on his witch hunt after Genesis Redevelopment Corp., whose peccadillos are yet to be proven. Even if these alleged scandalous activities ofcertain neighborhood development groups were to be proven correct, $12,000 or even $50,000 is far short of$45 million. I am saddened that a good public official (Cheryl Meadows) who has never had any political agenda, to my knowledge, has to succumb to the Enquirer's vitriol while the real rip-off scandal, tax give away, call it what you will, goes on unabated. I'm even more saddened that City Manager Shirey has his fingerprints on this action. It is time for the Enquirer to again seek the truth, stop listening to certain Council Members who know nothing about housing, audits, investigations or running a city and even less about the civil and consitutional rights oforganizations having business and contracts with the city. A number of articles and editorials over the past several weeks, in both major newspapers, have strongly criticized investing more money in low-income housing in OTR. Ev.e rybody, in cluding City Council, the Planning Commission and the Media, is jumping on the bandwagon against ReSTOC and its efforts to develop 45 housing units in the vicinity of Vine Street. The reality is that the number of habitable housing units in OTR has steadily decreased to below 5,520 in the last few decades. The number res idents in the community has shrunk from 25,000 to less than 10,000. At least 250 buildings are on a permanently vacant VBML) or condemned list. The percentage of residents under the poverty line is close to 90%. Rents are low, and housing conditions are poor. Furthermore, the cost of renovating a typical building in OTR is at least $90,000 per unit. Are private investors flocking to OTR to invest? No! Only on Main Street, and the vicinity, where a flourishing bar­ restaurant business presents a different economic picture. Low-income tax credit projects, designed within historic guidelines, are the only way to rehabilitate most ofOTR in a cost efficient manner. ReSTOC wants to develop 45 units near Vine Street for $5.2 million. Three of its buildings are actually on Vine Street, and the others are on adjoining streets. Accordin1$ to City records there are currently 23 buildings on Vine Street that are permanently vacant or condemned. Assuming . each building contains at least 4 housing units, it would cost at le ast $8.2 million to rehabilitate these buildings alone. It is not feasible for the private market developers to do so at this time, without significant public assistance. Neither is it feasible for private market developers to renovate the more than 200 other buildings on the VBML list. A Master Planning effort is to begin shortly in OTR. It will formally be announced very soon. Is it wise to tum down $5 .2 million in housing investments in the meantime? Especially when the market is low-income, and there are no other means to renovate these Sincerely, Peter J. Strauss, Esq Formj!r Council Member I bui~djJilgS! I< J t ,! 1 , ' I Everybody in OTR, even the poor, want "mixed income development," so long as their homes are protected. To proclaim such a goal is meaningless. 'the issue is economics. Don't whine and complain about OTR if you are not willing to put your money where your mouth is. Try investing some time. Ask yourself if City Council is willing to put $5 .2 million into the community. The community needs at least $50 million. It is called "gap financing." By making such a financial commitment to the community, City Council, the Planning Commission and the Media might be in a better position to understand the . situation. Otherwise, low-income tax credit projects are one of the few ways to save this historic community. Very Truly Yours, John W. Hauck Attorney At Law �STREETVIBES Elite Conference Comes to Cincinnati by Steve Schumacher The City of Cincinnati and the Chamber of Commerce have landed an "elite conference." The Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) is 9oming to Cincinnati. "So what!" you say. The TABD keeps a running list of worker, consumer, and environmental laws it wants to weaken or defeat. They directly hand to top government officials their scorecards on bow well they've achieved this program of eroding our protections. And these officials listen with both ears since the Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue is made up of the top 100 CEOs in Europe and the United States. The TABD works to force countries to accept suspect or defective products by undermining oversight in individual countries. Many oftheir members suppo1t what is called a mutual recognition agreement, which the TABD describes as "approved once, accepted everywhere." So if, say, a poor, desperate, and/or corrupt government accepts dangerous or defective heart valves for healthcare or growth hormones for their.food supply, then the rest of us have to as well. In global economic double talk, this is what's known as eliminating a non-tariff trade barrier. This approach to global economics threatens not only consumer protection ·but wage laws, the right to organize a union, job safety and health, clean water supplies, and just about anything else you can think of that a global Editorial: ReSTOC INVESTING IN PEOPLE by Steve Elliott This approaching school year will be my thirty-fifth year of teaching, and I must admit that the most effective classroom setting has been the ReSTOC work crews on Saturday mornings. For the past fifteen years, I have been fortunate to spend countless hours with energetic students from Finneytown High School where we have helped, along with many others, to rehab ReSTOC owned buildings in the Wasliington Park area of Over-the-Rhine'. The physical labor involved in rehab work can be exhausting, tiring, time­ consuming and rewarding. Work crews do as much de-habbing as re-habbing. We clean out, clean up, remove ceilings, paint. ..every Saturday brings a new adventure and challenge to over sixty ReSTOC volunteers, who come from al l over Cincinnati. But, the rewards come not only in watching the buildings take on a new look. The reward is in knowing that we are helping to improve a community ...a community of people, not just buildings. The concept of working together to achieve a common goal is very evident through the ReSTOC work crew experiences, and what a great lesson ! Most volunteer work crews are diverse in their The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Page 73 ·world Trade Organization "We k7l01'V a number ofinternational companies who are hiring. Can you pass for under 12? " corporation might try to foist on us. The TABD is the "most influential business group advising government on US­ EU commercial relations," according to Commerce Secretary Bill Daley. They have been th.e re for every major economic summit since 1995 when the TABD was founded. Their influence sets much of the agenda for the World Trade Organization. And lest you think that the unions, church people and environmentalists who demonstrated in Seattle should have equal influence, here's what TABD member and former director of the WTO, Peter Sutherland, said, ''I don't believe that those who demonstrated in Seattle represented somebody with a legitimate stake ... We have to be very careful on engaging in this debate, as those NGO's (non-governmental organizations) should not have a say with government." Sutherland is head ofthe investme.n t bank Goldman Sachs, UK. Whatever happened to government of the people .. . ? Local organizations are-getting ready to raise these and other issues concerning democracy and economics with the TABD when in convenes in mid-November at the Omni Netherland. To help out, contact the lntercommunity Justice and Peace Center at 579-8547. More details on this will appear in the next Streetvibes. structure, including volunteers ofall races, incomes, and ages. You will find residents of the Drop Inn Center, ReSTOC tenants, church groups, and high school and college students all focused on the goal ofReSTOC: provide decent affor d able housing in Over-the­ Rhine. However, the most important lesson my students have learned over the years is the political process of the city of Cincinnati. The most recent example being the status of the ReSTOC Vine Street Community Project, which is currently in the hands of Cincinnati City Council. This project is a positive step for 45 additional units of affordable housing ~or,rprlq~& yl1 ~ss_fam1~e.s_ qf f hich.the Cif:y~ Consol\datycJ ,PL~n say.s.o/e n~ed 1 ~0,000 µ~ts, The city money in question amounts to 14% of the project ($700,000), as the other 86% will come from other sources. In paiticular, over $4,000,000 from Housing Tax Credits (private equity), where ReSTOC's Vine Street Project ranked #3 (out of 65 applicants) in Ohio in competition for tax credit funding. l t is somewhat ironic that when ReSTOC has earned the opportunity to develop housing in eight building~ at one time, a past criticism being that we "stockpiled" buildings, it is our critics that are making it difficult for this project to be a reality. The Vine Street Community Project is worthy of funding by the City of Cincinnati. In addition to the recent awards given for their housing development work by the Department ofHousing and Urban Development ("Best Practices Award") and the NDC Association ofCincinnati ("OutstandingAffordable Housing Development"), ReSTOC invests in people, not profit. ReSTOC has had a great influence on many Finneytown students, many of whom have gqne on to be ReSTOC interns, employees of the Drop Inn Center, or majored in Urban Planning at college. The most important lesson that their ReSTOC experience has given them is the importance of community-based housing and the dignity of housing for everyone. For more information about the Vine Street Proj ect and/or a tour of the ReSTOC buildings, 1. 1 J?~~~s.e; call 38i~-lll/• . �Interview with a Caged Warrior : Leonard Peltier (Pa t I) .....Interviewed by Ben Corbett (abridged fi'om original transcript) Ben Corbett: How did the Robideau-Butler trial differ from yours? Leonard Peltier : They were allowed lv bring out a lot of the stuff about the terror and the killings, all the poverty and everything else going on a Pine Ridge. And they were acquitted and found not­ guilty by self-defense. Unfortunately for me, by powers that are unknown to us, someone took my case out of Cedar Rapids and went shopping for judges. We know who it was: it was the Justice Department. But we don' t know who it was in the J ustice Department. Probably the directors. A lot of judges refused, but Judge Benson agreed to work with the government and get a conviction. BC: And that was your first trial? LP: That was my first trial. I bad a jury of 50, 60, 70 year-old white American North Dakota citizens, who had been raised all their lives believing Todians were all drunks and lazy and worthless. I just had to be guilty, you know, because the FBI wouldn ' t have arrested me if l weren ' t. Plus, we 're all drunks. That was my jury in a nutshell. I wasn't allowed to do anything in defense. The government was allowed to put in five weeks of testimony. They were able to create a murder weapon. The were allowed to illegally accuse me of owning that weapon. And f was only allowed a day and a half of testimony. Everything else was ruled irrelevant. I'd call a witness, the judge would call it irrelevant. Myrtle Poor Bear was the woman they used to sign affidavits to extradite me from Canada. We had Poor Bear's father on the witness list, and her sister. They were both going to testify that she was mentally retarded, that she was a liar, that she was nowhere near me, and never did know me in her life. Her sister did get up and testify to that, without the presence of the jury, of course. Later, Myrtle came to us and told us what happened to her. She told us that her life bad been threatened. That she had been terrorized by the U.S. marshals and the FBI to cooperate with them and testify against me. BC : Why did the FBI need to fabricate the evidence in the first place, for the first trial? justice. They will not use those tactics against high-caliber attorneys. Public defenders, they don ' t khow how to fight these types of things. Poor people don ' t know how to fight against this system. The United States government can indict you on something, and now you've got to prove your innocence. And that's not the Constitution of the United States. But that's what's happening with the right-wing facist conservative bull that's going on in this country. People don't realize, or don ' t want to wake up and see what's really happening. This is the same thing that the Nazi • party did during their taking control of Germany. They started with their judiciary system, and nobody in Germany believed it could happen there, either. BC: Why do you think it's happening here? LP: Big business. Control. They want more control. More power. It's world domination. The United States government has been a very vengeful government. We know they' ve committed atrocities since the beginning of their existence. During the First World War, the Second World War, Vietnam, Korea, there's numerous massacres. Of course, if you want to go into the American Indian history, there 's numerous you. You see them shooting [someone] 19 times. They shoot another guy 41 times! And they still try to say, " Oh, we ll , they were justified." You know these cops will get off lightly. BC: Many people call you a political prisoner. Do you consider yourself a political prisoner? LP: Yeah. Certainly. I am a political prisoner. I'm a political activist. I've fought in a war that was waged against my people that's existed for over 200 years. And I'll continue. I have my enemies. I have my enemies both in and out of people. J have some of my own people that are just as bad as the enemy. Not all Indian people are good people. We' ve had Indian people that were scouts that led the enemy into villages, killing women and children. Their own people. BC: Do you feel that all poor and minority prisoners are political prisoners? LP : Well, I wouldn ' t go as far as to say that, because some of these people did commit serious crimes. My idea of a political prisoner is someone who is out fighting for bis or her people's rights and freedom and is imprisoned for that alone. Some people have different opinions about that. BC: And in your case, American Indian nations are separate nations from the United Sta tes? LP: Yeah, separate nations. We' re fightin g nation against nation. Sovereign against sovereign. But back to the other issue. Some people consider others who got a bad deal or got railroaded into prison political prisoners. l believe there's an injustice there. And I believe it's political to some extent. . . We11 for prosecutors it's a great extent, because the more convictions they get, the further up the ladder they climb. But I dou't believe that everyone's a political prisoner. It's hard for me to call somebody a political prisoner who's been selling drugs on the streets and then got railroaded into prison. But if the guy received some injustices that should have been corrected, or treated unequally in the justice system, then he should be given a new trial. I believe that. BC: During your imprisonment, you 've risen to a symbol representing all Indigenous people being oppressed by their governments. How does that feel? LP: Why? To put the entire weight of the United States government to get a conviction. They massacres clear across this country, wellwanted to get their man. In 1985, the 8th Circuit LP: I hear that ... I don't know ... I hear that. It's documented. And whenever they got defeated like Court of Appeals - on my second appeal ­ quite a pedestal to be put on. Especia11y when in Little Big Hom, they've wanted vengeance for released a two page opinion. In this opinion they the next 200 years, and you're not trying or wanting something like this to it's still going on with us. found thaf'drere was a withholding ofexculpatory soldiers getting They still want revenge for their happen to you. I j ust hope that I'm not a evidence, which could have exonerated me if it had killed. 1 • • 1 ' • 1 ~ • • • • • • 1 ; • l t , , , r 1 • 1 , 1 df.appointment to. 01y~peqp.le iU'm ever released. I . not been withheld, with was the murder weapon. h pe I never disre~~t that:hP,not.) i receive a lot It's t!te sam.e w~y in the j ustice system. Perjucy:by government.witnesses·.. fBI.., . , , , , • ' YJu~l:l 'havt1b'be'a totat moron not to befieve ' ; ' ' If o letters fromtpeople ..:. ,i nlhe Boulder area in fact. misconduct. And the judge erred in his rufi ngs, some of the things I' m saying about the justice Some Indian women have told me that when I'm which prevented me from putting up a defense. We know that there's been numerous released, they're already setting up organizations system. Those are four constitutional issues. But because scandals going on in Philadelphia and they're with the police. gonna make me "Chief of Chiefs." ' of the political pressure by the FBI and their We know that there's numerous scandals going on (Laughs) You know, it's quite an honor. But I overwhelming control of the courts, they quoted with the Los Angeles police. The Massachusetts don' t feel any different than the Leonard Peltier the Bagley decision - a Supreme Court decision police, Michigan ... I mean, you just name the city that came in here 24 years ago. I don't act any called Bagley [which weighs possibility against and ":e know the different. And I hope I can continue to say that for ~o.lice have been setting up and probably] - to deny me my trial. In some cases killing them. of my life. I hope that the status they' ve the rest sendm.g people to Jail. What's so ironic about this and supports What given me will be a benefit to my people. Otherwise is so hard to believe about this? Unless you what I just said,about the FBl's influence of the it wasn't worth it. s0mehow subconsciously believe that they're courts, is that there was a case almost identical to doing right, and that they should continue this war mine just prior to my case. They ruled the For more information, contact: on poverty and elimination of minorities and poor opposite. TotaJly opposite. And they released the people in this country. And that's what they're People Against Racist Terror (PAR T) guy using the Bagley decision. Then in my case, doing. PO Box 1055 which was -the next case, they did a complete in There are now two million people Culver City CA 90232 reversal. So I am sitting in prison again on another prison. Two million. I've read some cases of Tel.: 310-495-0299 technicality. The courts have now set it up so that convictions that are astonishing, where they've E-mail: part200 l@usa.net URL: it's impossible for you to not only receive a fai1: even tampered with the jury. The federal http://pcople.we. mcdiaone. net/pa1t2001 / index .html trial, but they're now saying you have to prove government. But people out there, they' re so your innocence. In a case like mine, how do you Repri111ed by permission ji-0111 braim, ashed. You've gotta be a moron to prove your innocence? It's impossible. It's set up "'Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action. continue to bel ieve it. You sec it right in front of .)!1}b ~--c~OY.!'l1Y.SJ~U1~~!:?2qr.. pcop)e ~a 1~1~ot receive Research & Education ·· �STREETVIBES The Tri-Staie 's Homeless Grapevine there had been violence between our races ­ but then. sitting there we were together for a time, integrated. Pathetic Justice by Kunta Kenyatta, OSP, Youngstown My feelings of alienation cannot be expressed, for I am a prisoner, so perhaps this is best. But one day I will be released to face the ultimate test. Can I make it in society or will I make a mess? I've always been treated like an ani~al, constantly locked in a cage, tormented by my captors, who knowingly set the stage. For I'll. eventually return to you~ commumty on a potential murderous rampage. Today I'm in a Supermax prison, so for' now you'll be just fine. Why should you care about me? After all, I did commit a crime. So you could turn your back on all prisoners and don't pay us no mind, but for every action there's a reaction It's only a matter of time. ·Race The day came, a gray day with rolling clouds becoming a bit darker J ' ' lboking1o'>lenmyplaa:a.>1 1 ' r ' I , • Many hands graced this building from the day it rose to the day I came to stay here. Yet buddy's touch lingered in my mind. Perhaps it was the gray tower standing over my place. Rain broke out rolling in waves and blowing hard pouring down outside people yelled to get to cover. Down the stairs to feel it myself stumbling out the door on boys, almost children staying out of the rain. We fumbled for words ­ The Homeless for the Homeless by Booger Love ••••• It helps, every now and then, When someone needs a home today They will get down and they will pray In their hearts you will see In a home is what they an need to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. They had trouble in the past But to get back in a house is all they ask . All hopes that were gone That they would never have another home That they call their own We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction ofthe magnificent enterprise that is God's work. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense ofliberation in realizing that This enables us to do something and do it verywell. .BERTA'SARTCORNER • 1: i I Title space·where I• sat' . . ; . 1 • 1 was touched by buddy. • Streetvibes . -:_. c/o GCCH (Greater ·- Cincinnati Coalition for -- the Homeless), 1506 Elm St., Cincinnati 45210 Phone - 513-421-7803, E-mail (text): to streetvibes@iuno.com, E-mail (attached files, graphics): to homecoal@primax.net Then. they went their way, and I mine, up the stairs where gray once passed past the gray tower still standing and then going to the window feeling faith that there would be love as a rainbow appeared over the hills in the East. But for now they live on the streets and roam Hope someday they will find a home As of now they have nowhere to go, They go day by day T~ ey don't know what to say But they still get down and pray To keep their hopes from going away Hoping someday they will get a place to stay And that their troubles will go away Here is what they say Is the serenity prayer. . Archbishop Oscar Romero · San Salvador How to tell the sweetness of that trust? and out the window 11• stood the gray tower • , ; ' : : } " '\ •.\, 1.1 _:: They were the background as my mind drifted in the rain back to love deep and pure love and the faith of God's gift. Who to love became less important in the peace, the short time out sitting with the children out of the rain. . We are workers, notmasterbuilders, ministers, notmessiahs. We are prophets ofa future not our own. that day I came to have faith that there would be love for me God's role in the love to be in my life appeared to me. 11 Send your poetry, writings or artwork to We may neversee the end results but that is the difference between the Ma.ster Builder and the worker. by Tree Mosolf ,. r· J ~ • > , t, rl ~ ~ r - .. '< 3 A. l - -) ~ ; I • ! r s We Need Your Creativity! It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along theway, an opportunity forthe Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. Gray Tower at 1S th and Page 1 .~ ' ' ' ' ' God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change '· Courage to change the things that I can And the wisdom . to know the difference Amen. ;: p• l " JJ Jll ~'-l : 1 tl' l.l ! ,, . 'i ll q t • < <I . ; ·The Clockfaces,onthe St Francis Seraph towerswereh!rrioved tn Jury,antl'giveh: . awayto whatever passersbywere shrewd enough to collect a piece ofCincinnati 1 History. The oldvitrolyte faceswere made in Gennanyover a hundred years ago. Newfaces made outof plastic, and brand new clockworks, will replace theseworn artifacts. �ST REET VI BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Words from the Evangelist On June 7 in Camp Washington, God's children were being fed in a major way. The Bible Study which I began back in March had six people in attendance on this particular evening, one ofwhich was 83 year old Grace. This was Grace's first Bible Study with us, and she came with her heart filled with worry and fear over the nitro patch her doctor had just prescribed. It just so happened when she arrived we were discussing John l 0:1Oand how Jesus said He came to give us abundant life, but in order to receive this free gift we must trust in Him and His power to deliver us from aU things. This includes casting our cares upon Him (I Peter 5 :7) and not allowing the devil to steal our joy, peace, or health with worry and fear. Grace received the Word and its practical application to her present situation. Her face began to shine with the smile we were all accustomed to seeing. The devil had been de°feated, and we had our fill ofGod's Word for this evening. Now it was time to enjoy a family style meal as part ofthe Kid's Cafe program, and this particular evening was special because ConAgra and the FreeStore/Food Bank were on hand to pledge their full support to this program. This Kid's Cafe is only <;>ne ofthree in the Cincinnati area, and it feeds between 20 to 40 children a sitting and often as many adults. ll is dependent on volunteers to prepare and serve the food which is provided by the FreeStore/ Food Bank. This is a major hurdle in the fight againstbunger, and a step Page 16 The Oasis of Main Street their support of Streetvibes. · On a cold day they bring us coffee ._.. by Grady Cook outside. On hot days they bring us water. And My friends here at the they always come out to talk with us and see Coalition asked me to write how we're doing. They 're always concerned· a story about my favorite with how we are. I'd like to thank the workers place to sell Streetvibes. and the regular Kaldi 's customers. Ifl had to T hat wasn 't a hard task give Kaldi's a rating, I'd give them a five-star because my favorite place is - award for being the best coffeehouse in an oasis called Kaldi 's Cincinnati. Coffee House and So to all the readers, if you haven't Bookstore, located on Main been to Kaldi's, you better get there soon! Street. The reason I say Kaldi's is an oasis is because it's a place that one should visit if they've never been there. I've met a lot of very nice people there in the past two years and have made a lot of new friends. Kaldi's is the type.of place that anyone would like to get with old friends and meet new friends. Sonya McDonnell and David Miller are the proud owners of this oasis. Their wa1m hospitality bas made me feel welcome and part of the . family. What else makes Kaldi's so welcoming? The food , the coffee, spirits, music, the amazing people that work at Kaldi 's. I'd like to thank all of the people who have made my g irlfriend and me feel so welcome and to thank them for ODAAT/Dana House First Annual Fundraiser ..... by Mr.Lee forward in feeding our cllildren better. When kitchen renovations began in the autumn of 1999, I do not think Pastor John Wierwille or the members ofWashington United Church of Christ could have foreseen this day and the overwhelming response from the kids and their community. The unique thing about the Kid's Cafe at Washington United Church ofChrist is that the volunteers join in the family style dinner and there is fellowship and sharing. I have watched this ministry grow and for certain God is not through yet. By including those who come as a part ofthe workcamp in the weekly Bible Study, we have increased our numbers to as many as 20 souls some weeks. With Pastor John facilitating some weeks, we add fun and variety; so come on out and join us at 5 pm on Wednesday evenings for the meat ofGod's Word followed by a family-style diJ!ner with the Kid's Cafe. IfA.W.0.L. Ministries can assist you in any way, orifyou wouJd like to give a contribution call 210-418 1 or write P.O. Box 36065, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. rsend a warm thanks out to all ofmy prayer partners, and l encourage you to continue your prayers for this ministry. ln His Service, Rodney L. S11tto11, Sr. On Satw-day July 22th, 2000, Dana Transitlonal Bridge Services, Inc., a transitional housing program for men and the One Day At A Time (ODAAT) house, a transitional program for women recovery in from alcohol and drug addiction; sponsored their first joint fund-raiser. As they say on the society page, a good time was had by all. As in the tradition of most programs sponsored by groups or organizations, the fun portion was preceded by the recovery part of the program. The ''jam" was preceded by leads from Harry M. (10 years) and Moe S. (17 years) ofcontinuous sobriety. The affair was held in the Clara Bowers Fellowship Hal1 at the corner ofWalters and Altoona. The spiritual irony of a social affajr where members ofNarcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous come toa0 ether to celebrate life without drugs and alcohol in an area know for a 24 hour dmg trafficking was not lost on this writer. Approximately 200+ recovering alcoholics, addicts and children in recovery were in the room at the time 1 began writing this article. The speakers both delivered strong messages ofhope, serenity, spiritual growth, struggle and the blessing ofa daily reprieve from alcohol and drngs based upon a program of spiritual maintenance. What was important about this event from the perspective of an advocacy publication for the homeless, is that probably 60-75% ofthe audience have been or were homeless (including the children) at some point in their active addiction and/or recovery. As is the case with alcoholism and addiction, homelessness is only a symptom of the deep underlying problem(s), not the principle issue. While homelessness is a demoralizing state and condition, subjecting the sufferer to aJ I sorts of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual trauma, the. state ofhomelessness is not . the preciQitating __,­ event. Finding hou_sing that is suppo111ve to one's recovery is often difficult for people who are early in the recovery process. These two organizations are dedicated to.providing clean, affordable, safe recovery-friendly housing to men and women who need the benefit of this type ofhousing to support their recovery. The event's purpose was two-fold. (1) To raise funds for these two organiza~ioos both of whom are 50 I c3, and (2) to provide a social gathering that celebrates and honors sobriety. Minister Robert Richardson, founder and Executive Director ofDana House, and Ms. Nona Davis, Housing Manager of ODAAT, provided the leadership to pull this event off successfully. During the eve11ing approximately 500 recovering alcoholics, recovering addicts and their children were in attendance. Between the two organizations, th.ere are approximately 50 beds for men and women in recovery. Neither ofthese organizations have received or sought much in the way of foundation suppmi for their operating expenses. They have each evolved from tbe vision of their founders recovering indivi du~ls themselves who ' . saw the need for the type ofhousing they provide. If anyone is interested in helping, there is always a need for donations of men's/women's clothing, food, bed linens, towel~, coats, etc. Financial assistance also allows the organizations to meet operating expenses or maintenance expenses that will often tax their limited budgets. Anyone interested in assisting the Dana Transitional Bridge Services, Inc. , may" contact Minister Robe1t Richardson at 751-9797. Ms. Nona Adams can be reached at ODAAT at the phone number 221-693 7. �STREETVIBES WEB The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine VIBES conservation group. The over one million members ofThe Nature Conservatory have saved over ll million acres of acres of U.S. habitat and nearly 60 million acres in Canada, Latin America, and the Pacific. The organization manages 1,340 preserves, the by Dan Marschner largest system of private nature sanctuaries "'- worldwide. . A new site on the Internet called f Rainforest Site, www.therainforestsite.co, ~ .· , ;; attempts to save the world 's rainforest frorlf' destruction. A map of the world that shows the loss of rainforest area since 1990 with a caption proclaiming "Almost two acres of tropical rainforest disappear every second" greets visitors to the site. This inap illustrates the alanning rate at which rainforest worldwide is being demolished. All a vi.sitor has to do is click on a button labeled "Donate Land - Free" and he or she (DONA 't LANO • >RH has just helped to save part of the world's -+ Clid !·"rt ._ extremely valuable rainforest. Since its founding on May l, 2000, the site has save4 over 550,000 acres of rainforest in Latin The Rainforest Site also provide~ ,America and the Caribbean. The best about the site is that sponsors pay 9f infonnation about the iinpo donations in exchange for advertisiti , e world's rainforest. The rain.fores ovides an incredible diversity ofplantan Visitors can only donate once per day,_ are encouraged to visit frequeutly. .ilnal life. For instance, land half the size o An organization called The Nafufe San Francisco contains 545 different kinds o birds, l 00 species ofdragon flies, and 729 Conservatory distributes all ofthe donations to The Rainforest Site. Founded in 1951 , it is types of butterflies. Tn one acre of mountain the world's leading private, international habitat, over l 00 different species of trees www.therainforestsite.com Help Save the Rainforest With Just One Click fo ' Going Veggie Is A Win, Win, Win Proposi~ion! By Susan Hueske11 & Jay11 Mei11hardt Going " veg" saves the animals, the environment, provides more food for the nation's hungry, reduces the risk of food-born illnesses and is less expensive than a meat based diet. (There are also many other benefits that you will find out about in future columns of " Veggie Vibes.") There have been numerous TV reports on how people are dying, and thousands of others are getting sick fro m eating meat contaminated with e­ coli, salmonella,and listeria, campylobacter, etc .. Many commun.ities around the country are well aware of the problems that are caused by the enormous quantities of animal waste produced by these factory farms and that are released into the air and waterways. We've all read about how abusive today's "factory farms" and slaughterhouses are to the animals; there are also several documentaries that explain why raising animals to get protein is the least e fficient food production method. By cycling our grain through livestock, we waste 90% of its protein and 96% of its calories. Over hal f the total amount ofwater consumed in the U.S. goes to irrigate land growing feed and fodder for livestock. But the good news is that you can help eliminate some of the problems caused by meat production and at the same time maintain excellent health by obtaining all the essential nutr ients you need (Yes, even protein!) by eating a vegetarian diet. Beans, grains, vegetables and nuts will provide the carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber you need - the key is to eat a wide variety of these foods as each one contains different nutrients. An added bonus is that the cost of beans and grains, which arc the main staples for the majority of the people on our planet, are a lot easier on your wallet than meat. There are so many .delicious kinds of beans and grains · available. They all have different tastes and textures. The following are some tasty bean and grain dishes inspired by different countries across the world. Go to the Public Library and look through the over 400 vegetarian books and cookbooks available. I nm sure you can find hundreds ofrecipes that you will find delicious and satisfyin g. Middle Eastern- Hummus and taboulli , Muduhara-lentil, onions and rice with spices, Falafel°served on Pitta Mexican - Bean Burrito, tortilla, beans and rice, tofu faj itas Indian- Chick Pea or lentil curries over rice Italian - Tofu (Made from soybeans) lasagna, Pasta E Fageoli, Tofu Cacciatore African - Peanut Stew over rice (recipe given below) C hinese - Vegetable Stir fry with tofu over rice M oroccan- Moroccan Stew with Page 1 7 may exist. The rainforest is also an important source offreshwater: the Amazon Basin stores over two-thirds of the world's freshwater supply. Rainforest also has provided several medical advancements: tropical raiuforest provides between 7-5% and 40% ofall pharmaceutical products. Also, three thousand plants have anticancer _properties; of these, 70% i nha.bi t the >;rainforest. The rainforest contains such a ~ide variety of life that humans have been unable to classify all of it. The most alarmjng fact about the vanishing rainforest is that many species are becoming extinct before their existence is even recorded. Sponsors make the free land donations possible on the site. Each sponsor pays for 2.4 square feet of land per donation, in exchange for advertisement on the site. The money donated by the sponsors provides critical rainforest acquisition and management funds. By donating money to The Rainforest Site, sponsors not only commit to purchase lands; they also commit funds to finance vital 1 ecti~n programs. Companies who "~· The Rainforest Site reach. social1~"', L-: :·'·. -.;.- . .ous people and provide valuable ftll)dstf'~: ~onse:rvation. The Rainforest Site is-~ · ~:, utck and easy way to save valuable rainforclt area for generations to come. ~ ·seon ~ ·-~-,;~ The Rainforest Site provided all the statistics for this article. chickpeas over couscous American -VeggieChili, baked beans with veggie hot dogs, sloppy Joes For more in formation about being a vegetarian in Cincinnati or for locations to pick up a free copy of our 72 page outreach book, write to CVRG (Cincinnati Vegetarian Resource Group) at P.O. Box 3 1455 C incinnati, Ohio 45231. For nutritio. nal information about vegetarian diets go to The American Dietetic Associations web page at www.eatright.org/adap 1197.html. n Vegetarian Recipe PEANUT STEW OVER BROWN RICE - West Africa 4 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and diced 2 green peppers cut in long, slim strips 2 medium onions cut mnngs 2 carrots, shredded or grated 2 Toil 1 6oz can tomato paste 3/4 cup peanut butter 3 cups vegetable stock 1 tsp. liquid hot sauce Salt & pepper to taste 4 cups cooked rice Saute onions, peppers and carrots in 2 Toil. Blend tomato paste with peanut butter, then stir in vegetable stock. Add seasonings. Add to sauteed vegetable. Stir potatoes in gently. Stir over medium heat until heated through. Serve over rice. �ST REE TV I BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Homeless and ... A Teenager ..... by Mr. Lee I folt like a real doofus! Here I am scheduled to speak to a group of teenagers on behalf of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, and the lightbulb goes on! I'm ;:: preaching to the choir! The irony was that these young people don 't think ofthemselves as being homeless. They were tired and sleepy. As is usually the case in a shelter or group home fac ility for teens, someone had acted out, this time in the middle ofthe night, and they had little sleep. What they don't realize is that their problem of lost sleep is compounded by depression. Sleepy, depressed and ~nhappy ­ this .was a tough audience. Their blank stares and lack of emotion were very disturbing. Sad . .. troubling. A clinician (my big word for the month) or professional in the field would describe them as having a "flat affectation". They showed no emotion, no hint of a smi!e, they were almost lifeless. They ranged in age from 11 to 17. Most were African American, with one being a 13 year old caucasian female with braces on her teeth, but no smile on her lips. They were almost equally divided between male and .._ female. Some were short, some were tall. Some had carefully styled hairdo's or haircuts. Others were less well groomed, but all were clean. Several were dressed in stylish casual wear, the name brands favored by today's youth. Others were not so well dressed. They are all currently staying at Lighthouse Youth Shelter. This is not their home and today, at this.... they are homeless. Some are headed to foster care. Others to group homes. One or two will be eventually reunited with their families. A 17 year old male will be going into his own apartment. He called it "Independent Living" (where did he get this term?) None of these young people was happy where they came from; likewise they are not happy where they are. Unfortunately,, most are not looking forward to going where they will be sent to from the shelter. I don 't believe that God ever intended children to live in "programs" with professional staff acting as surrogate parents. Thank God for them, but it is not the most desired experience for a teenager in this critical period of their young lives. Each of these young people have several things in common. Their lives are in tuqnoil., Tht:;)j are np} enl:{eqc;hed in the nufturing. envi,ronment of a .home with parent(s), siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, you know, family! .. . feel me? They are all to some extent caught in "the system". As pre­ adults, they have relatively little say about their future. Others, usually not parents and relatives, will make important decisions that may affect their emotional and mental health for years, decades, and maybe even their entire lives. That's deep, ain't it? Right now, at this very point in space and time, they are all homeless. They may not think of themselves in that way, but they are. From their comments when asked ~y Ron Carter to describe what they think of when they think of a homeless person, they don't see themselves in that light. In denial, na"ive or just distracted, I don 't know. But I am sorry for real. They are. It won't change when they wake up. This is not - a dream or a movie. Ifs just life. And as most of us realize, life ain't always fair, but it is always real! When had come to tell them about homelessness. They already knew much. They also knew a lot about powerlessness and their lives were unmanageable, so someone else, some other people were paid to help them manage their lives. What were their stories? So young, so ... vulnerable. What about him? He's such a little guy! What did he do? Worse, what was done to him? What are their secrets? Who knows their pain! It's scary, but I can feel it. I can feel their pain. I recognize that emotional numbness. It's a way of protecting yourself when you've felt so much pain, and the systems are overloading. A defense mechanism they call it. It makes you want to reach out and hug each one. Tell them you understand, and that things will get better. Tell them that they are loved. Reassure them that where they are going will be better than the place from which they came. To love them until they get where they are confident that the people who care for them love them in a healthy and positive way. Protect them, nurture them. Each one deserves a warm, protective, nurturing environment. No sense lyfog. I can't give them any of the stuff listed above. They are not going to wake up tomorrow in Forest Park or Mariemont. Not even in a town-house in Mt. Auburn. No, it's not a dream. It's real. How can I convince them of the Father's love? Sometimes I doubt it myself How can I get them to love themselves until someone else does? l'm not certain I can do that. It breaks your heart. What can you do? Stay tuned, more w ill be revealed. They.call me Mr. Lee Tibet, continued from page 8 •stock and to pressure from a coalition of non­ governmental organizations concerned with human rights abuses, only $3 billion dollars were raised from the float, instead of the expected $7-10 billion. BP then stepped in and agreed to purchase 20% of the stock offer, possibly at a value of $600 million. Tibetans oppose BP's investment in PetroChina for several reasons. Because of Chinese population transfer policies, Tibetans are now outnumbered by Chinese in their own nation. This project would result in tens of thousands more Chinese workers moving into Tibet. Those displaced, in the area in which the oil will be extracted, would most lif ely be 1 Tibetan a:Qd M~pgdltan nom~ds. Tbjs i t • ' displacement would destroy their cultures and livelihoods. PetroChina plans to construct a 4,200 km pipeline to transport the oil from Western China to Shanghai. The oil w ill be used for mainland China 's needs. not Tibet's, and the presence of the pipeline adds to environmental concerns, as China's other oil extracting projects in the region have been damagi ng to the environment. Tibetans also are opposed to the investment because by investing in PetroChina, BP is giving supp01t to China National Petroleum Company, which the Free Tibet Campaign reports was implicated in the deaths of2 million Sudanese and the persecution and displacement ofmillions more. The Free Tibet Campaign contributed to this article. For more information see www.freetibet.Orf! Page 1a �STREETVI BES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine SUeeiscopes By Alanna Maloney: the UrbanAstroloaer Page 19 improvements to your living space - be creative and make your room, apartment, or home a beautiful showplace. Roocs - a feeling ofhome is so predominant for you this month that homeless Taurus may find this is the type of year where something finally comes together. It could also be a good time to mend fences with your father.. Sagittarius Happy Birthday LEO! Happy Birthday Leo! Your family is still knocking down your door; it is up to you whether you are ready for more after the emotional turmoil of July. This is your month to revamp your appearance and your approach. Make yourself over, get a • different hair cut color, new ball cap, whatever reflects you. Create a new outfit · or plan a new dress for success strategy. Romance can be found in any unfamiliar environment. Take action on new endeavors and always make the first move this month. Express yourself find the core ofyour identity and show offyour stuff. Call up your acquaintance network and your buds - there are exciting career opponunities developing there. Virgo August may well be your most challenging month of any year. Now is the time when all that you have tried to hide from yourself since last yea.rs birthday have come back to say HI! Work, family and even your furry litde· pets (and yes I know you are allergic but the litde guy w a s homeless what else wefe you going to do?) may not be able to console you. In a perfect world this would be a good time ofyear for you to go off to a retreat center or ashram or take a train-hopping trip alone. Everything you do to try to avoid fundamental truths about yourself will melt through your fingers. I recommend journaling, spiritual pursuits, goofing off and movies until the 22"d or so. Do make tim.e to be with your politico-, eco-, diet:iry, or spiritual group. There are fun times to be had there. Career opportunities are zinging around but if you find your hearr is not in your work they will still be there in September. Libra You are in a long period where those of you of a spiritual or religious bent would benefit tremendously from a daily period of heartfelt prayer, and those of you of an agnostic or atheistic bent would benefit from a daily self-hypnosis or affirmation session. In past months I have stressed rhat this is a decade where you can change the world with your communication abilities- now I am seeing how you can use those same abilities to affect wondrous change on yourself'! This is a time for you to network with your groups clubs and cliques - take your business card (I don't care if you dig ditches for a living- make some!) to the picnics, barbecues and lodge meetings. This month you can really perform and show offyour stuff. In career areas look to weeding out family patterns and Mom issues that hold you back at work. Think abou~ taking classes or educating yourself this year. .Jt also may be a great time for you to visit foreign shores and faraway places. Is ! r.i . ~ I ~ ( ~ e r I , : I i : . I • I I ' ( ~orv,•,o I , > r. i) 1 , l ' · ·­ You are in a long period where earnings and self-esteem are of vital importance. Scarps in traditional employment must educate themselves about 40 l K's and IRA's. $corps on the fly need a penny jar and a long hard think about how they earn and spend money. Don't be afraid co learn it all over from scratch. Jupiter, planet of opportunity and expansion, has just entered your 'house of inheritance settlements and claims. A neato windfall could be coming.your way sometime this year, that or your brother could finally pay back what he owes you. Continue to be open to educational and travel opportunities also think about what you have ro teach the world. Now is a good time to communicate what you know. It's a great month to be appreciated in your career and on the job. Don't hesitate to be aggressive about your creative ideas and new initiatives: love could also strike on the work front. At any rate love and be loved on the job or take time to pursue work where your organizational and leadership abilities will be valued. Love or marriage may find you this year. If you have ever wanted to marry someone smart, tall or rich the time could be now. Look for the one with the deep belly laugh. You may suddenly find more buddies than you can shake a stick at. The focus in your chart has just come off of busy work onto love and the arts. Psychic communication may still be coming fast and furious keep that dream journal handy. You can really strut it this month in the travel and sch?larly pursuits. You might find love at a mountain climbing club or in the stacks of a university library. Capricorn. This is a period to revolutionize your self-esteem .and the way_you invest in your dream. Sock away those pennies for your goat farm or your fishing trip in Alaska or whatever your think you want to do someday. New jop opportunities may overwhelm you this year. You will have so many things you could pursue that you may become confused and overwhelmed. Don't hesitate to seek alternative healing for your self or as a possible profession. Love letters and • romantic communication should still be a pri9rity this month. You may not have such wonderful opportunities to communicate your feelings to family and friends for a while. This may be your most clairvoyant time of the year. It's a great time for dreams that foretell the future. Aquarius Turn off your computer; put down your Renaissantalce repldica musical !~~trumeklnt, • . your crys s, an your anart:n1st wee y. This is your month for romance! Partnership and friendship are all .highlighted now. You can begin a relationship, make a new start with a current one, or tie the .knot. If you feel you are too evolved to engage in any of the frivolous biological shenanigans of romantic love then at least spend some extra time with your best pal in the world, recoµnting old civil war re-enacrmerit battles or sci-fi conventions past. Speak up at work. Your ideas are wortl1while- do beware of moody vibes and hurt feelings slinking around rhe job. Pisces Jupiter enters your house of roots, home, family and father this month. You might feel a sudden urge to join the peace corps or add a room to your house or get a bigger apartment and if you are really well off this would be the year t© get off your duff and buy that summer house your have always dreamed of. You need to have a creative outlet at home and this is the month for it. Pursue • gi~sr in 'performing 'or creative ans or . tprb~ose ah1ihno.Jaiiie plah>c~nh~ boss: ~ Watch out, a cuue may walk onto your job site his month. Out of work Pisceans would find a really cool job this month. A friend, favorite or sport is still a good way ~o communicate. , I 1te Aries Opporcuniry can strike this year & this ·month communicates short trips and relationships with siblings. Make final adjustmencs to your pad this month as the urge to straighten up ... This is the time of year when your most colorful childlike side is easily accessed. Go out of your way to start or maintain a love affair - play all night card games with friends or go co a ballgame. Creativity can really run - yo u will find yourself super motivated. Taurus Money may really start flowing in this month. At your least you are beginning a year where you could expect your income <lfld your opportunities for more income. The time has come to make all those • Gemini Feel like suddenly your have too much.on youf p,late ·r) ( Gemini? It's cause you do, and Jupiter is going fo continue to expand your horizons and options throughout the year. Get a good calendar and a way to organize your plans, thought5, ideas, friends & projeccs cause.you're a going to need it. Jump into new enterprises especially those that have high levels ofself-expression and communication. In fact this month will be such a jump-start for your creativiry that you really feel energized and self confident enough to engage in us a whole new level. A pager or a cell phone could really come in handy caus5 you'll really find yourself on the road through m~st of A~gust. 'l Cancer Did I remember to tell you last month that it could be your stingiest, most anxious nionth of ctie year? You may be all too aware that mi~summer can bring forth your worst security nightmares. The good news is that this month you can fill your wallet through ]llany innovative and artistic pursuits. Did you ever feel that you are your bank account (piggy bank, sock drawer or wherever you keep your scrill?) It's because • . . . astrologically a part ofyou feels that way. Start being as respectful of your money (or · ' your lack there of) as you would respect · . · yourself or someone you love. I am not saying·you need to become a rank materialist and fall in love witl1 money. You just need to take into account that you have special needs in the money department, and that it is hard for you co separate your self-esteem from your bottom line. So, pay attention to both this month and you will be feeling better than you have in ~ long time. Ask an Astrological question! Ask SrreetScopes a question. Send a question ai1d your date of binh to Alanna at Psi chic@hotmail.com and it may be answered right here. Other comments and questions are also welcomed. Readings with Alanna: Tarot Readings • Fridays from 8-11 PM at Mul/.ane's on Race Street. Astrology, Tarot, and Reiki Consultations and training are avail.able by . appointment through E-mail at psi_chic@hotmail.com. I Classified PLA?E ~p~r help want~?~ for rent, for '· 1 sale 1tems1 rn' 1Streetvibes ~las$ified. 1 ' Rate is only $1/ line, free for 6 mo. if you're below the poverty line. Streetvibes Live Radio Hour Tune in to WAIF 88.3 fm! on the second Saturday of each month at 12:00 noon for The Homeless Coalition's Live radio program. The show is co-hosted by Mary Burke, Donald Whitehead and other monthly guest hosts . The show mixes ta lk focusing on. the stories in this paper and eclectic musical selections. �: STREETVIB:ES 1 Th.e Tri-State s Homeless ·G rapevine Page 20 Where Your DollaF Goes Sbeetvlbes has a minimal ovedtead cost so that 1he vendors can keep as much of the pro­ ceeds as possible.. •m.,ae--.Slleehibes cllimsto bec>OlleciiliglDl"a prilale ~pleaecallourdlir:e all421-1801 \.• · Wish List Stnetvlbes newspaper Is published monthlv on ·a shoe-string budget from the offices of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. We depend heavllv on the goodwill of manv volunteers and donors. If vou can help out with some of the items·on our wish list, please give us a call... 0 Advertisers -Classified and unclassified 0 Bicycles for vendors 0 Supplies for vendor's lounge (coffee, tea, paper towels, cream and sugar, cookies, etc.) Congratulations to GCCH staff member Pat 0 Mitchell on the birth of her seventh grandchild! ·Mya Lynsha Jackson was born at 0 Christ Hospital on July 25, 2000. She weighed 8 pounds at birth and she is the second child of Pat's son Martin Jackson and his wife Yolanda. We hope for the best for the newest member of the ·0 GCCH extended family! Sell Streetvibes! . Are you homeless a homeless person or do you need some extra income? If so, try selling Streetvibes! Stop by the Homeless Coalition office at 1506 Elm Street, and ask for Pat or Ron. PhotograP.hY Help - film, developing, a digital camera... Pentium or fast 486 Computers/compo­ nents (monitors, hard drives, etc.), for story-writing, editing, research, and home­ less computer lab Anew van If vou can help!, contact us ot: Streetvlbes, c/o Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 ph: (513) 421-7803, fax (513) 421-7813 e-mail: streetvibu@juno.com Being homeless, like so many other homeless people, it becomes hard for me living in a homeless shelter. But by the love that God puts in so many people, it gives me a lot of hope and a chance at life again. Selling Streetvibes helps me to help · myself, t makes my life better. So I would like to say tua.Li.n:t>...Jl.U you, for your help, and to the Coalition for the Homeless for letting me sell your paper. / ---------~--JWi/liam Johnson Editors Note: William was one ofour top vendors last month! He sold more than 300 copies ofJulys edition. Keep up ihe good work, William! OTHER SERVICES: Need Help or Want -o Help? If for some reason you find yourself home­ less. contact a Coalition Member' /v;Jency for Shelter. Treatrnen~ Housing or SeMces. If you have any questions. feet free lo caD the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. SHELTERS: Women . . . Children YWCA Battered Womens Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 Welcome House 431-8717 SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission Garden Street House Joseph House (Veterans) St. Francis- St. Joseph House Mt. Airy Center Volunteers of America 241-5525 241-0490 241-2965 381-4941 661-4620 381-1954 .SHELTER: Both Caracole (AIDS) Chabad House Drop Inn Center {Singles) Friars Club Haven House (Hamilton) Interfaith Hospitality Network 761-1480 821-5100 721-0643 381-5432 863-8866 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 961-4080 651-6446 St. John's Temporary Housing HOUSING: CMHA Excel Development Miami Purchase OTA Housing Network ReSTOC Tender Mercies Tom Geiger House 721-4580 632-7149 241-0504 369-0004 381-1171 639-7056 961-4555 TREATMENT: Women O.D.A.A.T First Step Home 241-7343 • 961-4663 TREATMENT: Men Charlie's 3/4 House Prospect House Starting Over 784-1853 921-1613 751-3260 TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline A.A. Hotline C.C.A.T. Talbert House Transitions, Inc. VA Domiciliary 820-2947 861-9966 381-6660 684-7956 491-4435 559-5011 AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati 421-2437 Appalachian Identity Center. 621-5991 Beech Acres 231-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Emanuel Community Center 241-2563 241-1064 Freestore/Foodbank 771-4800 Goodwill Industries Greater Cinti. Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co.Mental Health Bd. 621-7149 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-7186 Health Resource Center 357-4602 352-2902 Homeless Mobile Health Van House of Refuge Mission 221-3Q19 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assistance Ctr. 271-5501 721-4811 Mary Magdalen House 621-0248 Oral Health Council • 621-6364 Our Daily Bread 621-5514 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Project Connect- Homeless Kids 357-5720 471-4357 The Emergency Food Center 721-7660 Travelers Aid 721-7900 United Way 572-6226 VA Homeless Program 491-3335 Women's Crisis Center Women Helping Women 872-9259 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2000 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 2000 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Council Votes to Reject $4.3 Million for Housing Pg 2: Voice Your Opinion, Vote! On the Plane to Alberts Pg 3: Hart Realty Opts Out of Section 8 Housing Pg 4: Findlay Market: Serving It Up for the Community Pg 5: A Success Story from Tender Mercies Serving Homeless Teens in Cincinnati Pg 6: Mt. Airy Shelter: For Every Problem There is a Solution Pg 7: Welfare News Pg 8: International News Pg 9: Prisoners’ News Pg 10: Prisoners’ News Continued: Death Penalty Moratorium Picks Up Steam Pg 11: The Lucasville Trials: Five Men Unfairly Sentences to Die Pg 12: Editorials & Letters Pg 13: Elite Conference Comes to Cincinnati Pg 14: Interview with a Caged Warrior: Leonard Peltier Pg 15: Poetry & Art Pg 16: The Oasis of Main Street Pg 17: Going Veggie Is a Win, Win, Win Proposition! Pg 18: Homeless and…A Teenager Continued Pg 19: Street Scopes Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 2000 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Alicia Beck Susan Knight Tom Billman John Halpin Dan Marschner Ron Carter Warren Perkins Pat Mitchell Jamaal Coleman Mary A. Gaffney Sonny Williams Mr. Lee Rodney Sutton Lynn Williams Sharon Weiss Patrick Mosolf Frank Lienhart Staughton Lynd Kevin Finn Kunta Kenyatta Steve Elliott Susan Huesken William Johnson Grady Cook Alanna Maloney Greg LeSaint Marsha Ramsey Rick Freeman Booger Love Steve Schumacher Jayn Meinhardt Berta Lambert Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Alanna Maloney Arts & Poetry Berta Lambert Booger Love campaign city council Dan Marschner Death Penalty Debt Relief Editorials & Letters Enquirer Evangelist Findlay Market Frank Lienhart Fundraiser Grady Cook Greg LeSaint Hunger Strike International news Jamaal Coleman Jayn Meinhardt John Halpin Kevin Finn Kunta Kenyatta Leonard Peltier licia Beck Lynn Williams Main Street Marsha Ramsey Mary A. Gaffney Mr. Lee Mt. Airy Pat Mitchell Patrick Mosolf prisoners news Protests Rehab Rick Freeman Rodney Sutton Ron Carter Sharon Weiss Social Justice Sonny Williams Staughton Lynd Steve Elliott Steve Schumacher Street Scope Susan Huesken Susan Knight Teens Tom Billman Vote Warren Perkins welfare news William Johnson https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/ae268c9a14166a885a49f160b2d82104.pdf 5f571e25dd48e53bf6695f2f3efea0fc PDF Text Text $1 Donation ST tEET IBE5 THE -S ATE'S HO £L£SS 6RAP£VINE BuY FROM BAD6£D \fENDORS ONLl' AUGUST 2001 , f ~ GREATER CINCINNATl COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS �E'l JGji L ~. . . };L . -----------------~--R· AU6UST2001 --------.....----------­ Street View STANDDQWN, An Urban Oasis By Riccardo M. Taylor By. Alicia Beck Taking a walk down the lanes of "the life" we encounter the usual scenario. People, sleeping on the streets, shouting obscenities, wearing angry faces, looking hopeless. Not seeming to have any place to go or to be. Wasting away the day in the grips of some type of suppressant or other escape valve which allows them to get past the misery which is their own lives. Counting the time in amounts of how much one can consume in a session of drinking. Waiting for the next round of confusion, giving one's all to be counted in the chaos. Help comes in many forms. For the homeless, help may be a new blanket, a warm coat, or help may be the case manager or the chance to move into a new apartment. Providers discuss service options with clients at Standdown Often times, however, to receive these many different services, homeless men and women must travel to a dozen different locations across our city. The prospect of spending one's day forgiqg the way through the urban l{lldsc~pe to make an appointment, -0nly to be required to come back at a later time, c~n be tiring, costly, This is the way of the and time consuming. Frustration everyday life, in which most of the can set in as you are told that you street people fin.d themselves. l)ay do not have the correct in day out the same scenario, never documentation, the correct seeming to change or to get better. appointment time, or you don' t So common that one believes that qualify for services. this is how it's supposed to be. A life without hopes for change, living from day to day, days without hope or dreams. Ah, so this is the view from the street, one which is instilled in the sight of If you turned on your radfo the street person. A seemingly never ending catch all of confusion or your television during the month of July, you probably heard and problems. Where every facet advertisers chattering about of life brings back the misery Christmas in July. Smooth voices which repeats itself at every turn. booming from the speakers, Watching the days begin as they promising no payments until 2002 end. Living a sense of hopeless on a new washer and dryer. Or despair. Longing for yesteryear perhaps they enticed you with a when things were normal. These guarantee of Christmas time interactions are a constant happiness jf you purchased a new reminder of where one wants to vacuum cleaner at a drastically be. Trying to find the way back to reduced price. a sense of the normal world. A As echoes of Christmas in world in which everyday events July bounce through the airwaves, lead to a sense of tranquillity, or at our city's homeless continues to least comfort. In order to wonder- Where's our Christmas in understand the effect of these July? Alicia Beck, Director of the things one must first understand Greater Cincinnati Coalition for what it is like to live on the street when all you have is your wits and the Homeless, says that agencies serving the homeless experience a drastic decrease in the numbers of volunteers and donations during Continued on page 3 Free haircuts are provided to clients at Stand.down On September 20, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is sponsoring the 2001 Standdown, an annual event connecting the homeless of our community with medical services, housing providers, social services, job services, and veteran's services. Homeless individuals will have the opportunity to access dozens of needed services in Washington Park during the one­ day event. Standdown has taken on different shapes over its long history, from a one-day event in Washington Park to multiple day events in other regional parks, but the integrity of the event has remained the same. Standdown continues to provide a fertile opportunity for the homeless to make appointments, c0mplete applications, and receive referrals without the frustrations of running all across the city. Cover Story - Shelters face lean Standdown started over 10 years ago as an event aimed at engaging homeless veterans and connecting them with services of all kinds. Standdown comes from a military term used to indicate a time of regrouping. Over the years, it has grown to address the needs of all of our city's homeless, but maintains its roots in service to veterans with special access to veteran's services. This year's Standdown will be a one-day event that includes both services to veterans, as well as the rest of the homeless population. If you would like to donate to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless to help with the costs of Standdown, including supplies, lunch, and equipment, please mail your check made out to GCCH to 1506 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45210. Medical services at Standdown and the holidays, most people really have the giving spirit. But during the spr~ng we have to ration out supplies just to get through the summer." During the summer, schools and churches that normally provide volunteers and food drives are on breaks. "If groups could come together during the summer months, especially while school is out, we could really use the assistance to run our programs," says Hutzel. times during summer months Street View... the summer months. Beck states, "People are very generous during winter months and for this agencies are extremely grateful. But unfortunately, homelessness doesn't retreat with the winter winds. Cincinnatians experience homelessness all year long." Many shelters and feeding programs in Cincinnati worry about the summer months because donations and food drives drop dramatically. The same agencies that experienced overwhelming generosity during the holidays, may look forward to meager summer months, Beck explained. Andy Hutzel of the Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine states that "90% of our monetary and non-monetary donations occur between the fall and winter months. With the cold weather Inside Streetvibes NCH News Reader 1\·1ail Local News Civil Rights Recovery Ne·ws Prisoners News iV1ental Health Feature Section Editorial Page Art & Poetrv " Page 2 Page4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page9 Page 10 Page 12 Page 14 GREATER CINCINNATI COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS �F~·:::l'~•r·.:r.,.·, STREE T VIB ES Aug ust 2001 . The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine Streetvibes, the Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine, is a newspa­ per written by, for, and about homelessness, social justice, and poverty-related issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Becoming a Streetvibes Vendar is a great way for home­ less and other low-income people to get back on (or stay on) their feet. Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a cooe of conduq before being given a Streetvibes :Vendor badge. The Greater Cinciiiliati · Coalitionfor the Honi~iess is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed lo ·ending • homelessness Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. · in GCCHStaft' Alida Beck Executive Director Susan Knight '· Administrative Goordinator Mary Gaffney Receptionist M~ Taylor Receptionist Molly Lyons Americorps* Vista JMD-~ ..._._ ~_ . ...;::::--·..-~-~ ...- · -. --·. ~ Keeping the best as new Editor community as a place for real alternative news reporting. Even the technology for producing the paper has changed and improved. The vendor base bas grown considerably with many people using the program to assist them in finding their way out of desperate situations. Much of the mainstream local media now recognizes Streetvibes as a force of its own. I never would have thought that Streetvjbes would rise to this level after its very After a lengthy absence, humble beg~nnings five years ago. August will mark my return as Streetvibes Editor. I left the It is amazing to see this growth, in Greater Cincinnati Coalition for Streetvibes and the Greater the Hom'efess nearly two'years · Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. I have some big shoes ago to pursue oilier projects and I have found on my retu~· a lot of to fill as the new editor. new faces 'atid lot of changes'. There -is an inclination for including the look and quality of · s0meone just starting.to have grand ideas of what a·thing should Streetvibes. It's exciting to come be and what should be changed or back to all of these positive changes and new challenge~. made "better." .I bri'ng my own personal experience and ideas into Streetvibes has grown in size and this mix but I hope to k:eep intact · circulation. More eolor pages all of the good things that · have been added. There is more diversity and the quality of.the Streetvibes has·become. I don' t ' writing is much better. In have big plans for major changes. addition, the paper has taken on Many people have worked hard an identity all its own, recogillzed over the years to bring.Streetvibes to where it is today and I will . by many in the activist a ~Visfa · Senny Williams Prison News Editor H. Lee Bowen Recovery Editor . _Mental Realth Editor . ~-,,,,.- Streehibes Staff Jimmy Heath Editor TBA Vendor Support Solll)y Williams Ptison News Editor H. \,ee Bowen Recovery, Mental Health Editor. Writers Alicia Beck Riccardo ·T aylor Kim Renay Dumas Mr. Lee Jinm)y Heath Molly Lyons John Halpin Pbotomtpheis Jill'lllly Heath • HenryBryant Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, photos.... We will give prefer~ ence to those who are homeless or vendors. Subscriptions to Streetvibes can be purchased for $15 per year. c/o Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45210 (513) 421-7803 fax (513) 421-7813; e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web page: http://cinci.comlgcc;h News From the National Coali.tio~ __ .,. P age 2 respect their hard work. I realize too that I'll never be able to do this work alone. I'll continue to depend on all kinds of input to guide Streetvibes towards excellence. I hope that under my watchful eye, and with the help of our many contributors and volunteers, we will continue to develop and improve the paper for our vendors and readers. This could mean a lot of things; encouraging stories that are compelling for our readership, creating more access to writing opportunities for our vendors and just keeping Streetvibes clean and honest. I hope to bring more photographs and other art into the paper, including work by local youth. The next few months will determine how I will measure up to all of these tasks and how well I can carry on this tradition. Let me know ,h o.w you think we are doing. Write ·or call me and tell me what you would like to see or made improved. Streetvibes will continue to offer.news that you won' t find 'i n the mainstream m~ia. )~the meai;itime I'll contiriue"i9 carcy on the tradition of those who have worked so hard to make Streetvibes what it is today. ~';it~ for t~e Homeless, Wash. DC Section 8 Downpayment Assistance Regulation Proposed See Federal Register, 6-13-01, pp. 32197-202, or www.hudclips.org. Contact Gerald J. Benoit, HUD, 202-708-0477. HUD hopes to implement a Downpayment Assistance program in FY 2002, allowing public housing agencies .to provide one-time downpayment grants. Monthly homeownership · assistance is already permitted. Comments on the proposed rule are-due August 13, 2001. New HAC Report Examines Links Between Rural Housing and Welfare.Refonn . -~~·.,._..,..,.. GCCH- NEWS - f_ ~ STREETVIBES ......;o-.... Case Studies on Rural Housing and Welfare Reform·are available for $7.00 (including postage and handling) from Luz Rosas, RAC, 202-842-8600, luz@ruralhome.org. The HAC News will announce when it is posted on HAC's website; www.ruralhome.org For more information about the National CoaJition for the Homeless and NCH Projects visit t.tie website: http:nationalhomeless.org ' Streetvibes .Vendo r. Code Each vendor has.to sign the following code to be able to sell the paper. 1. Streetvibes will be dis~ributed for a$ I voluntary 6. donation. I agree not to ask for donations more than $I. I also understand that I ~l be", able to k~ep 80 cents of each dollar collected. Future issues of Streetvibes will be purchased from the Homeless Coalition for 20 cents. 2. I agree that I will never distribute Streetvibes 7. while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 3. I agree that I will not ask for donations after 12 8. midnight. 4. I agree to treat ochers with respect. I will not use abusive language or force someone to give ,a donation. I will not give a "hard sell" or make someone feel threatened. 9. I 5. agree that I will not supply copies of Streetvibes to persons who are not registered distributors. I agree not to de~eive the pu~li~~y'saying that I am collecting for a not-~oi;-profic charicy- or that I am collecting for the '~homeless" iri general. I will be honest in stating that all the profi~ from the .sale ef Streetvibes will go to the individual vendor. ·. I agree that I will not contest territories with other distributors. I understand that Streetvibes strives to be a self­ supporting paper created by people who are homeless or formerly homeless,. To help in this effort, I will try to spread the word and write stories if P,Ossible. I understand that failure to comply with any of the above statements will result in me no longer being able to distri~ute Streetvibes. �Page 3 STREETVIBES August 2001 Donald Whitehead joins the National Coalition for the Homeless as Executive Direct Reported by Jimmy Heath Donald Whitehead has joined the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) as the newly appointed Execu­ tive·Director. Formerly, Mr. White­ head has served as a program supervi­ sor at Goodwill Industries and as Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Home!ess. Mr. Whitehead will step down from his position as Board President of the National Coalition for the Homeless to assume his new role as NCH Executive Director. A Cincinnati native, Whitehead is breakinK new ground by becoming the first African­ American and first formerly homeless Board President, and now Executive Director of the NCH. The National Coalition for the Homeless is the oldest homeless advooacy group in the nation. NCH coordinates a network of over ·3 00 state and local homeless organizations. Its governing board represents 35 states including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. ~'NCH has a strong record in advocacy for the homeless, from the McKinney . Act to the Community Investment Housing Trust Fund. NCH has continuously steered America towards real solutions to this necess itates. Often the street person just continues not caring or even attempti ng to make change feeling that their plight is set. A life of hardship, seemingly with no way out, only with hopes that tomorrow will bring some relief. There is no remedy, or immediate solution that I can offer that would change the fate of many, however there is the possibility that things can change or be different, so there is hope. Perhaps not for all who are in the throes of the street world, but as I have said time and time again there are those who can be reached. Of course I can 't put enough emphasis on the fact that each individual has to put some effort forward on their behalf. Still I am a firm believer that society as a whole must and has to be a part of the effort if there is to be any lasting and effective result in changing the lives of so many. The responsibility lies with us all and we as a community can make a difference if we pull together and do our part. Lets just hope that we can make some difference in the lives of some of the less fortunate by giving of ourselves what we can. Perhaps that will be just what's needed to create a better community for us all. Street View... from front page nerve to survive. Eating when you can, sleeping where you can, not knowing if tomorrow is coming or even if it's worth the effort. Often using others or being used. Doing what one has to do to survive. Shopping at the Freestore in piles of donated clothing for attire In order to accommodate the need for clean clothes or replacement for worn articles. Sometimes I feel the need to just take a break from the routine and actions which sustain me. Often I take a late night walk, and as I walk down the streets that I usually travel in my waking hours I know where to look for the spots that those who country's biggest failure," live the life bed down for the Whitehead said. Whitehead will night. Every park bench is filled. direct four focus areas; housing, Taking a walk down Central income, health and civil rights for Parkway I find every doorway the homeless. Whitehead hopes to from Plum to Findlay occupied by lead a real grassroots effort to end some street person huddled up homelessness. "I'll bring empathy under whatever they have for to my work at NCH," says warmth or comfort as it might be. Whitehead. "I know what it took Moving along in the night I come to end my own homelessness." across others hanging out trying to Whitehead will begin his new catch a lick or waiting for daylight position August 1, and pledges to so that they can begin the routine work to continue NCH's that their daily survival impressive track record. . • For t4e last 6 years Whitehead has worked in the SUPPORT TH£ GR£AT£R community as an activist and an . CINCINNATI COALITION FOR TH£ advocate for homeless persons. When asked how he felt about HOM£1£ SS AT WILD OATS leaving Cincinnati to work in MARKET 5% DAYI Washington, Whitehead said, "I' ve received so much support from so TH£ WILD OATS MARKET AT ROOKWOOD many people and groups here, from the Drop Inn Center, COMMONS Will DONAT£ 5% OF TH£ ReSTOC, and many others. I have DAY' S N£T PROC£ £DS TO TH£ GCCH ON a great deal of gratitude and I have AUGUST 8, 10011 mixed feelings abo-ut leaving too. It's going to be tough. I've had a real healing relationship with all of SHOP AT WILD OATS MARKET AND DO­ my family here in Cincinnati. I NAT£ TO TH£ GCCHI hope to develop a more inclusive environment for homeless people to get involved in their own WILD OATS MARk£T advocacy." ROOkWOOD COMMONS 1693 EDMONDSON RD CINCINNATI, OHIO 45109 Social Security/SSI Denied? Call John M. Keegan FOR MOR£ INFORMATION, CONTACT TH£ GCCH AT (513) 411-7803. Attor ney at Law P ractice concentrated in Social Security/SSI Disability Law D I SC JOCKEY C l i££o rd J o n.es NO FEE UNLESS WE WI N ~ (513) 651-9222 ~ (5 1 3) .230-6353 (S 1 3) 761-3464 e-_'nail: F REE INITIAL C O NSULT ATION SEl~VICE Office :uo\.n e jonesac~ t. • ~-c· Voicem ail ~<-.14 _ c:F ~"'ticxchange- �STREETVIBES August 2001 Readers Respond .... David Mitchell 's article (Cincinnati's Conspiracy, page 3, July) suggests, incorrectly a con­ versation about local officials maintaining lists of political activists. As I recall our conversa­ tion outside of the Justice Center it centered on wether lists were maintained of those who had been arrested during the riots and the related curfew enforcement and of individuals who remained incarcer­ ated. The questioning nature of my comment was due to surprise that citizens had to engage in painstak­ ing record review to piece together a list of those who had been ar­ rested and who remained behind bars, and that such information was neither readily available or imme­ diately obtainable. Make no mistake about it, there is much about the unequal enforce­ ment of the laws and unequal administration of justice in Hamilton County that I oppose and believe both personally and profes­ sionally must be addressed. I just don' t think my comments could be viewed, much less reported, as official "confirmation" that lists of political activists are maintained. Sincerely, Todd Portune (Hamilton County Commissioner) Streetvibes prides itself in being an open forum for the disenfranchised, to voice their opinions, concerns, and stories of struggle. Due to the nature ofthe open forum process, editing articles appropriately is often a difficult-task. Streetvibes makes every attempt to provide guidance and input to the authors ofthe articles in our monthly issues. We maintain a nuetral stance on the articles printed in our forum and articles do not necessary reflect the opinions and official stance of the organizati(Jn. However, we do not wish to misrepresent the statements made by individuals quoted within the paper. We apologize to Mr. Todd Portune for any confusion that may have occurred as a result ofthe misrepresentation ofhis responses, as written by David Mitchell, in MAIL the article entitled Cincinnati Conspiracy in the July 2001 issue ofStreetvibes. Sincerely, Alicia M. Beck Executive Director Temp Services and the Homeless: The Real Deal I read with much interest the article Work Force Blues: Examining Temporary Labor and Homelessness, (June 2001) a well written piece by Riccardo Taylor, a regular contributor to Streetvibes and a frequent vendor. Reading Riccardo's article motivated me to reread A Field Guide to Temping in North America-Urban Edition, a well written article by Bill Policy. Two very different articles, approaching the same subject from entirely different perspectives. As one who has done the temp service thing, I carefully reflected upon my experience in comparison to the perspective offered by my . fellow amateur writers. Not to Page 4 contradict my fellow writers, but I have different thoughts ~t seem most important from my experience. Temporary Services as a rule are not bad business. They fill a niche in the business world. Their are many, thousands who got their permanent benefited positions through a temp job and for them it worked. The question is what is the experience for the homeless worker who goes to the temp service. I believe it is an entirely different experience for most. His primary reason for using this temp service is he/she needs the money today, not next Friday. It is not about career opportunities, benefits or permanent placement. It's about the check. The temp service is just getting a ''body" out to the site. It is unskilled , frequently demanding labor. Usua11y j obs that no one else wants. The service is just about the placement. They don 't care about the worker. They (the Response .... Cont. Page 18 OHIO BICENTENNIAL RIVER NOTE CARDS THE GREATER CINCINNATI COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE OHIO NATURAL HERITAGE RIVER SYSTEM DESIGNEES, INDEPENDENT RIVER/ WATERSHED PROTECTION ORGANIZATIONS AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES THROUGHOUT OHIO, AND RIVERS UNLIMITED PROUDLY PRESENTS A SPECIAL BICENTENNIAL PROJECT H IGHLIGHTING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RIVERS AND STREAMS IN OUR STATE~ HIST ORY. BY ORDERING THROUGH THE COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS, SO% O J? YOUR CONT RIBUTION WILL GO TO ASSIST OUR WORK! r I . FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE CARDS OR WHERE TO PURCHASE THFM LOCALLY, CALL THE GREATER CINCINNATI COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS AT (S13) 421-7803 OR RIVERS UNLIM1TED AT (SI3) .891-4592. �STREETVIBES August 2001 Page 5 Mary Ann Lederer is serious about making the world a better·place for bad guys to blame when V{e should be giving hugs. Police brutality, racism, the death penalty, they all have to go and be replaced with hugs:" Ms. Lederer practices what she preaches. She's a vegetarian of long standing and an avid organic gardener who relies on friends to help out. She donates paintings to any group with a cause she likes. She's a member of several human rights organizations, and though she can't man the picket line, she still helps. Recently, she photo by Jimmy Heath painted 40 picket signs 1 On July 8 \ dozens of for a protest march. people gathered at Mary Ann Mary Ann Lederer feels lucky. Never mind that she has Lederer's recent showing of her used a wheelchair 24 years, ever paintings at Mullane's Cafe in since an intruder shot her in the Downtown Cincinnati. Displayed were about 25 stylized paintings by spine. Never mind that she has the artist depicting folksy scenes of "absolutely horrid health problems" and almost died twice. brightly colored gardens and people and places. She's also serious about "I paint the world as I want making the world a better place, it to be - sustainable," she says. "I and for her, that begins with kids: want it kind. I see the world as a Every Christmas, she collects upwards of 700 books for the vegetable garden with people neighbor kids in her low-income, holding hands around the earth. I'm for kindness. We too often look predominately African-American The GCCH would like to thank this Starbucks location for their generous donation of coffee and pastries. 3366 Erie Avenue East Hyde Park (5 13) 5 3 3-3402 apartment complex - ~'becau se · they should read," she says. "They need~ to read; but they don 't always have the opportunity. Our complex (Fay Apartments), usually you only hear about it when there's a police run. "I hire the kids, too. Small jobs like taking out the garbage or running to the store or picking up garbage from my garden. Sometimes, just to reach something on a top shelf. And they love it. Don't let anyone tell you kids don ' t want to work." The kids return the favor: "I did three Big Pig Gig pigs. Can you see them in this tiny apartment and me maneuvering a wheelchair around? But the kids helped. They came in and moved them around when I needed to change their positions." Sometimes the kids return the favor iri a bigger way. "The reason I don' t go out alone anymore is because I'm too brittle. Not long ago, I was alone getting out of my car and into my chair. I fell and wedged myself between the chair and the car. If the kids hadn't come along and lifted me into my chair, I'd have been there a long time." She says it again: "I was lucky. See what I mean?" Lederer's pai nti ngs will be on display through August 4m_ For more information contact Mullane's Cafe at 38 1-133 1. Portions ofthis report were excerpted from a Cincinnati Enquirer feature article. Tom Paxton to perform benefit concert for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.... On September 6, 2001, Tom Paxton will perform at the 20th Century The­ ater in Oakley. The concert is a joint fundraiser for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and Riv­ ers U nlirnited. Mr. Paxton's songs are known and lov ed aro und th e world and have been recorded by hun­ dreds of artists as di­ verse as Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson and Placido Domingo. "Ramblin ' Boy," "The Last Thing on my Mind," "Bottle of Wine," "Goin' to the Zoo," and "Mar­ velous Boy" are just a few of his planned for Ohio this September to benefit state and local environmen­ ;:::.========================~ songs to have been absorbed into the oral tradition. Nanci Griffith has tal and social programs. Perfor­ said, "I think we are all born sing­ mance dates are: Cincinnati, Sep­ ing Tom Paxton songs." For young tember 6; Columbus, September 7; listeners, Tom has recorded several and Cleveland, September 8. Advertise to Socially The Cleveland concert will be albums of his own songs and sold held at Kiva Auditorium at the Kent his sixteenth book to Morrow Jun­ Conscious Readers! ior Books: "The Story of the Sand­ State University Center (WKSU). man". The concert is cosponsored by Earth Call 421-7803 for more As part of the event, the Greater Shares of Ohio, the Earth Day Coa­ Cincinnati Coalition for the Home­ lition, Rivers Unlimited and WKSU information about how less will showcase art produced by - Public Radio. advertising in Streetvibes will work For information about tickets homeless and formerly homeless in­ for your business call Rivers Unlimited at (513) 761­ dividuals in Greater Cincinnati. Mr. Paxton ' s performance is 4003 or the Greater Cincinnati Coa­ part of a three-city concert tour lition for the Homeless at Custom Sizes Available! (513) 421-7803. �STRE ETV I BES Augu st 2001 Civil Rights in Cincinnati by Molly Lyons and John Halpin Throughout the country there bas been an increase in the systematic violations of the basic civil rights of homeless people. As homelessness becomes more visible, cities have attempted to push the homeless out of sight rather than deal with the root causes of the problem. This phenomenon of criminalizing the homeless has resulted in the arrest, discrimination and brutalization of homeless people throughout the country. As a result many advocacy groups have joined the National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP), coordinated by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH). Around the nation some of the ways that homeless are discriminated against include a list of life sustaining conduct crimes. These include such things as being in a park after hours, public nudity when necessary to bathe or use the bathroom, obstructing sidewalks, or any other act that people would prefer to do in their home if they had one. In different cities many of these laws, when enforced against the homeless, are being overturned because they violate the eighth amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Other ways that cities attempt to criminalize homelessness are to enact legislation that specifically targets homeless people. For example, a 1995 law was passed in Cincinnati that restricted when and where homeless people could ask for money. The courts struck down this law in 1998 because it placed "undue restrictions on a homeless person's right to free speech." Our goals with this project are to identify ways that homeless people are discriminated against in Cincinnati, to educate homeless people on their Civil Rights, and to implement a system to help homeless people successfully advocate for their rights within the criminal justice system. Our first task toward these goals is to publish a "know your rights" brochure. This brochure, created with the input of homeless people and service providers, should be available by October. Nationally, the goal of this project is to collect data from around the country showing that discrimination against homeless people and low-income people is systemic and widespread. Thus there is need to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide protected class status to homeless and low income Americans. If you or anyone you know has been discriminated against or brutalized because they are homeless please contact John Halpin or Molly Lyons at The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 421-7803. John and Molly would also be happy to conduct presentations on homelessness and Civil Rights for school and community groups. Call for Young Writers and Artists Peaslee Neighborhood Center is seeking young people from the Cincinnati area, first grade through young adults (under age 25), who would like to do c r eative writing or reporting for STREETVIBES on issues such as hom elessne ss, peac e and justice, school, programs for youth, etc . A.page will be devoted to making your voices heard. Visual images are welcome as well. Any youth who are interested should contact Brenda Zechmeister at Peaslee, 621·5514. P age 6 Know Your Rights by Molly Lyons and John Halpin Every month we will be highlighting a law or ordinance that affects homeless people in Cincinnati. This column does not replace sound legal advice from an accredited lawyer, but seeks to empower and educate people in dealing with the criminal justice system and their lawyers. Aggressive Panhandling No person shall recklessly interfere with pedestrian or vehicular traffic in a public place. "Interfere with pedestrian or vehicular" as used in this section means to do any of the following: a) Walk, stand) sit, lie, or grab, touch or approach another person, in a public place, so as to block, inte1fere with, or impede the passage ofany person or any vehicle, or to cause any person or any driver of any vehicle to alter his or her intended direction of travel; or b) Make a request, solicitation or demand for money or other thing of value, in a manner which would alarm, intimidate, threaten, menace, harass, or coerce a reasonable person; or c) Force oneself upon the company ofanother by continuing to communicate a request, solicitation, or demand for money or other thing of value, to another person after the person gives notice or demonstrates by word or action that such communication is offensive, unwelcome, or should cease. "Public place" as used in this section includes streets, sidewalks, parks, plazas, parking lots, driveways, public or private buildings open to the public and doorways and entrances to buildings or dwellings. Whoever violates this section is guilty ofa misdemeanor ofthe fourth degree. (Cincinnati Municipal Code,§ 910-13) The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, when upholding a challenge to this law, stated "the ordinance, however, is written and enforced so as to discourage only reckless interference with pedestrian or vehicular traffic in public places, not begging or soliciting in general." In other words, panhandling is legal as long as it does not violate any of the above code. Should one be convicted of violating this law, the maximum sentence (because it is a misdemeanor of the fourth degree) is thirty days injail and $1000 fine. Because this sentence carries jail time, one charged has the right to a trial by a jury of their peers. Remember that anyone charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If you are arrested for panhandling, contact Molly or John at the Coalition for the Homeless at 421-7803. �STREETVIBES August 2001 "We are all angels with but one wing, all we need to do to fly is simply to embrace." relaxing bubble bath, a walk in the woods, a quiet moment listening to music you enjoy. These are the luxuries survivors of incest frequently deny themselves, while being open to caring for others needs. Take time for yourself-you deserve it and can enjoy it if you allow yourself to do so. 8. TA.KE A COURSE ON "ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING." Too many survivors are afraid or don' t know how to state their needs appropriately. These classes can help you learn to do so. 9. INVOLVE YOURSELF IN OCCASIONAL CHILDISH ACTIVITIES. Survivors are forced into adult roles at early ages and miss out on a lot of enjoyable activities in their childhood. This involvement in childish activities can make it easier to go back to your necessary daily responsibilities with a fresh outlook. Note from one survivor, "I learned to play 'jacks' and find it a great distraction from every day stress. It is some- thing I was never allowed to do as a child." Recovering from Abuse During the last week I had conversations with two women who are incest survivors. One who had been through therapy and one who had not. Both were alcoholic/addicts and both probably have mental health problems whether they are diagnosed or not. Over the years I have met a few women who have shared about this very painful, and often difficult to discuss experience. It is obviously one of the "recovery necessary" issues that this column is designed to discuss and highlight. 12 Tips From Survivors Who Have Learned What Helps 1. READ all you can get your hands on regarding incest. This will help to stop the feelings of isolation when you see that others have experienced the same. 2. A SURVIVORS GROUP EXPERIENCE. This helps you to see you are not alone, and give you support, understanding and acceptance from other survivors. 3. INDIVDUAL THERAPY. This helps you to be able to identify specific issues you have which is the result of incest. 4. TALKING TO FRIENDS you can trust about the incest. This helps you see how others care for you and encourage you to further trust others. S. Take the time to REVIEW YOUR CHILDHOOD now, through the eyes of the adult you are. With the help of a therapist or group, you'll be able to see that your situation was sick, not you! 6. LEARN TO DO SOMETHING you've always wanted to do. This helps build your self-confide nce, which has been destroyed or never allowed to develop as a result of the .incest. Examples: Learning to play a musical instrument, learning a particular sport, or taking a class in something that interests you. 7. ALLOW YOURSELF TO ENJOY A LUXURY you never seem to get around to: a warm, I 10. HAVE A GOOD CRY! There's lots of hurt and anger in all survivors. A good cry can really clear the air. Note from one survivor: "About once a month, I run the shower hot and full force, then cry my eyes out while showering. I feel like the weight of the world is lifted from my shoulders afterwards." 11. DONT BLAME YOURSELF. Don't blame yourself for the event of the abuse; but take responsibility to heal. 12.CHAOTIC FEELINGS ARE PART OF THE HEALING PROCESS. Find a bal ance between expressing your fe~ling and discovering healthy forms of self-soothing. Responses and Suggestions on What Helps contributed by the members of S.I.G.H., a therapy group sponsored by Karen Lison, M.A., Park Ridge, Illinois, and the Board of Directors for Voices in Action, Inc. Voices in Action, Inc., P.O. Box 148309, Chicago, IL. 60614-8309. �STREETVIBES August 2001 Page 8 that anyone who can read and understand can see how the Dear Streetvibes Staff, judge was helping the prosecution every step of the contains news about the justice system and the I am incarcerated at a prison here way. writings of persons incarcerated Can you explain to me how in the State of Texas. I am a 37 year old homeless male with no to start a Justice for Samuel in our nation's ja~ls and prisons. children or a Samuel and never married. I Fields organization Subscribers within the walls receive Streetvibes free. Fields Freedom Ministry Inc., suffer from two mental disorders: If you would like to support us in this effort, please program? I have a substantial Manic Depression and Post Trau­ sponsor someone on the inside. A year's subscription costs $15. amount of fund s to start this matic Stress Disorder with Anxi­ program, and if a civil lawsuit ety. I am interested in learning follows my release from prison I Send your comments and questions to streetvibes @juno.com will donate 90% to the homeless more about the Streetvibes news­ mail : STREETVIBES, 1506 Elm Street organization Streetvibes to paper and how I can qualify for further the cause. Cincinnati, Ohio 45210 shelter arid treatment upon my My mother passed away release, 1119/2004. Please mail me recently and I have no brothers a subscription of the paper every or sisters to speak out for me on Dear Streetvibes, the streets. How much would it month if possible. I would like a I just finished reading the cost me to get enough space in 2002 calendar if available. Thank June issue of STREETVIBES and your newspaper to put my story so you for caring for people like me. was very impressed. I have never that I can get some help from the seen or heard of this newspaper Also , I want to become a distribu­ outside world? before, and I am from Cincinnati tor of the Streetvibes paper be­ I be),jeve that once the What really caught my evidence is public, that I have, cause I meet all code requirements. attention was the article in then they will have no choice but I will distribute upon my release to Prisoners' News about William to give me justice. I will even people who want to know how it Whenever a parent fails to chastise Jonathan Mayo. My situation is settle for a new trial because I kind of feels to be lonely and homeless. its child for wrong acts, the child know they similar to My parents are in heaven and my will continue with those acts. It won 't be his sees the action or acts as able to get brothers and sisters don't write or because pennissible. In this case, the away with send me money at alJ/ But with parents are the wrongdoers, not the ID my the same you all and God I'm not alone. So case the child. When a chi ld is hurt, jn i1lega1 police please mail me the Streetvibes need of medical attention, the --~..... tactics. were paper. It is very helpful to my parents make sure the child AJso, other looking receives the proper care and people will disorder and wish to learn more on for a treatment. If the parent fails to do know what how I can get help when released. male so, it's guilty of neglect. The tq look for Thank you and may god bless all white parent's behavior must be when they of you, and reformed in the pursuit of the go to court black team. My co­ male Ronnie. betterment of the child. so that they are not railroaded. defendant and myself are both Cincinnati's city Council and Thank you for your time black and were never identified by and consideration in this matter, if judicial courts are parents of the Editors Note: We will be sending any witness. Cincinnati Police Department. more info is needed please contact Ronnie a subscription for The police falsely arrested The courts fine and convict blacks me at once. us and to avoid a lawsuit they Streetvibes courtesy ofan at an alarming rate in Cincinnati. Samuel Fields planted and falsified evidence and annonymous donation. Blacks receive higher fines and PO Box 1436 paid a witness $24 1. I have proof longer sentences. Their White Youngstown, Ohio 44501 of all the illegal things that counterparts receive lessor­ happened during my trial, with the imposed fines, sentences and prosecutor and judge collaborating convictions for the very same or with the police to make sure of a more offensive violations of the I also have sworn conviction. law. The CPD is acting in from people who affidavits response to the Courts and City John Perotti Caroll Pless witnessed these illegal acts, but no Council. We only have to look at one will take the time to review last years Jazz Festival. Some my paperwork. businesses are closed and others OSP I need to find a way to raised their prices. City Council how the Courts in publicize and the Courts allowed s uch 878 Coitsville­ P.O. Cincinnati collaborate with the uncivil business practices. police to get convictions in order In order to solve any problem one Hubbard Road Lucasville, Ohio to hide their wrongdoing. must have the complete equation. My situation is this; I have In calling the US Justice Youngstown, Ohio the evidence to prove ALL the Department to investigate the CPD illegal things they did during my they will be handicapped to solve trial, which is the only way I was or form a formula to solve the found guilty. But, since I was problem, without the whole convicted nobody cares. Nobody equation, which includes; the why C incinnati has one questions While we make e.very effort to provide a forum for those Courts, which allows the vicious of the highest conviction rates in without a voice, STREETVIBES and the staff of THE GREATER and malicious prosecution of the country. Blacks. The Courts of Cincinnati CI NCINNATI COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS, is not respon­ Society doesn' t know that continuously allows the sible for statements, and do not endorse the opinions of the once you are arrested the police prosecution to misconduct prisoners who's writings are represented here. charge you with crimes they know themselves in trials; which is a you did not commit so that you constitutional violation. You can will plead guilty to just one not blame the hand alone for the Then they will tell you charge. theft. The hand is a part of the ·they will dismiss the other body that's controlled by the mind. charges; this way you get a The City Council which simply you plead conviction because takes the Three Monkeys stance; guilty and they get a conviction hear no evil, speak no evil , see no guilty and they because you plead evil. Such "stand still" neglect get to write the other charges off always leads to erosion of an as crimes solved. individual, a group, a city and a I was fortunate to get all nation. concerning my trial the transcripts Leonard Walker, 276-103 go over them myself. The and Ohio State Penitentiary tactics used against my Co­ 878Coitsville-Hubbard Road defendant and me were so blatant Youngstown, Ohio 44505 Prisoners News The City as an Errant Child PRISON PENPAL WANTED #A 167712 .#252-991 SOCF Box 45699 45699 44505 Best Wishes, Denise Gill-Roflow, RN, FNP Thanks for your years of service to those who have been homeless in Cincinnati! �STREETVIBES Au ust 2001 The Mental Health Crisis In Black America chronically ill homeless people­ can often return to productive lives and relationships with the right course of treatment. According to Satcher one availability in minority of the most important things he by Lee Bowen, Mental Health communities, leaving a greater hopes will come out of this report, News Editor percentage of Black individuals "is that number one, we will feelings trapped in the pain and provide parity of access for mental There is a general suffering of their conditions. illness, we will develop programs agreement among many The effects of untreated that eliminate stigma. And we will professionals that there is a real mental illness in the Black get people who need treatment the crisis in the African-American community are obvious. Many, for treatment as early as possible (fat community. The phenomena of example, believe that a large chance under George W. 's excessive stigma and lack of percentage of the homeless people administration). awareness about mental illness is a walking the streets in urban long-standing problem among communities are mentally ill Many, for example, people of color. Fortunately, there individuals who have fallen believe that a large is a growing grassroots national through the social service cracks. movement to heighten awareness percentage of IJ,omeless There is a correlation between the and eradicate stigma. The degree of homelessness we see in people walking the challenge is to get the problem of many communities and the lack of mental illness out of the closet in streets in urban mental health services, says the black community. Gregory John, executive director communities are mentally of the greater Milwaukee chapter ill individuals who have The phenomena of of the National Alliance for the fallen through the social Mentally Ill. excessive stigma and Similarly, the rise in lack ofawareness about suicide among Black teenagers-the service cracks. bulk of them urban males-is linked Several barriers stand in mental illness is a long­ not only to the rise of violence in the way of efforts to address Black standing problem among the culture, but also to a lack of America's mental health needs. people of color. awareness about the nature of First, there is the general suspicion depression and the absence of that Black Americans have for the counselors who are culturally field of psychiatry. It is a That effort has gained sensitive enough to recognize momentum and exposure of late, suspicion rooted in the "legacy of depression in young Black men. racism" in the field of medicine in thanks to the release of two Let's move from the broad national general and in the psychiatry in important reports on mental health released by U.S. Surgeon General perspective ofthis article, particular, says Dr. Carl Bell, originally in Ebony, July 2000, David Satcher. The focus of both president and CEO of the reports was the mental health of and narrow the focus for a moment Community Mental Health to Cincinnati, April 2001. It is the general population. Each Council in Chicago, and a clinical obvious to many the potential for contained key passages addressing professor of psychiatry at the the unrest, riot if I may, that major mental health concerns of University of Illinois School of occurred in many communities, specific interest to Black America Medicine. has existedfor many yeqrs. The and other minority communities. That racism had taken the potential has existed for The first report noted that form of research projects-most generations. What was needed suicide rates for African­ infamously, the Tuskeegee syphilis and provided by the accidental Americans 10-19 years of age had study in which African Americans death ofTimothy Thomas was the more than doubled fro m 2.1 per were unwittingly subjects of 100,000 in 1980 to 4.5 per 100,000 spark. There probably is a rise medical experiments. Compound andfall ofthe level ofanger, in 1995. those incidents with the racist frustration and yes depression, to In a second, equally utterings and writings of many of provide the fuel for the type of lengthy report on the nation's psychiatry's towering sense of mental health released in public unrest that occurred two distrust that you can't chalk to months ago. This phenomenon December 1999, the Surgeon mere paranoia. General's team of experts noted occurs in other cities in many Furthermore, Dr. Bell says, nations across the world. Keep that 1 in 5 Americans-roughly 50 the fact that psychiatric treatment abusing or mishandling any group and psychiatric training is based million people-suffers from some ofpeople with sufficient frequency on Euro-American models form of mental illness, ranging and intensity and you will create from dementia to depression. exacerbates the disconnection an angry volatile group ofpeople. While the incidence of mental between mental health Satcher says that what illness in Black communities is no professionals and the African­ greater than it is in the general makes these phenomena so American patients "And so when alarming is the fact that the causes, population (a fact that I personally African-American people go for like 80-90 percent of all mental disagree with) a tremendous gap treatment, they don't have a sense exists between the need for mental disorders, are treatable, meaning of welcoming," Dr. Bell says. health services and their the sufferers-including the Cultural factors within the community can thwart even the most sincere efforts to extend mental health services to African­ American communities. First and foremost among them is the stigma attached to mental illness. "Were still gathering data about this," says Dr. Steven Hyman, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, "but one of the things we seem to find in African-American communities is that the spirit of self-reliance, which is good, is sometimes combined with a sense of shame about mental symptoms and a belief that you should be able to shake off these symptoms by . · yourself. That kind of thinking leads to people getting into treatment too late." ''There is a lot of shame associated with having a family member who is mentally ill. It's considered a weakness, not an illness. So instead of going to a professional who can help, people tum inward or they tum to faith to help them through." Improving access to mental health professionals and facilities will help. With too few psychiatrists and psychologists serving Black communities, delivering treatment even to those who want it is difficult. "We have to close a fa irly significant gap between the institutions and leadership in mental health and the underserved communities that need those services," says Dr. Bell, who is serving on a task force established by the surgeon general that will issue a report on the mental health needs of minority communities. " It's a matter of connecting the dots between these entities and creating an infrastructure to support them. When we do that, we will have better mental health treatment for Black America." As time allows, I intend to read that study. The information covered in this article only substantiates a lifetime of experience. The mentally ill, were locked away. Kept out of sight, only allowed out for minimum medical and dental treatment, holidays and funerals. I am not an expert on mental illness, but clearly, most of us don't understand enough about mental illness, and need to know more. It's, painful, too often ignored and is having a profound affect upon much, maybe all of our community. �P age 10 STRE ETVIB E S Augus t 2001 In their Own Words .... Peaslee Neighborhood Center Kids write about the uprising Through the Peace Project at Peaslee Neighborhood Center in Over­ the-Rhine, children share their thoughts about the April uprising in Cincinnati. Many of the kids were glad to talk about the situation when given the opportunity. Peaslee prides itself in providing a peaceful place for neighborhood residents, especially children, and continues this philosophy in all of its programming. Peace symbols made by the kids will be used on a peace banner and a t-shirt design. PEOPLE WITH R U BBER BULLETS. l, f �Page 11 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati, Ohio 452lO (513) 621-5514 �EDITORIAL SECTION STREETVIBES August 2001 The Global Costs of Police Brutality in the US May 3 conference on racial profiling in Washington, D.C. It was the advent of the war on drugs that exacerbated the tradi­ conclusions that also will be by Salim Muwak.kil tionally tense relationship be­ As a nation, we've become ignored-until another explosion, tween African-Americans and the that is. rather casual about the issue of police and resulted in historic The beat goes on until police brutality. Unless the numbers of African-Americans America is beaten down. incident triggers an explosion, as becoming entangled in the crimi­ it did last month in Cincinnati, or Charges of police brutality nal justice system. involves extremes, like the 41­ echo from virtually every Ameri­ Study after study has con­ bullet slaying of Am_adou Diallo can city with a significant black firmed the disparate treatment population, yet official America in New York City, Americans are African-Americans receive in the seems deaf to the din. Many not likely to spend much time criminal justice system. The most African-American activists, on pondering the racial profile of recent, released April 19 by police brutality. That's a major the other hand, are expressing Building Block For Youth, re:­ mistake. Reactions to abusive fears that Cincinnati may be a vealed African-Americans are police have provoked major distressing portent. 85.5 percent of youth automati­ urban riots. "We have to remember that cally transferred to ~dult court for almost every [racial] uprising in Commis~ions foqned to drug crimes in IDinois though this country since 1965 has been investigate the causes of these they are just 15.5-percent of the caused by police misconduct," disturbances have often found state's youth population. This said the Rev. Paul Jakes Jr. Jakes that police brutality, or perceived disparity is true, the study notes, . brutality, was a trigger. is president of the Chicago-based despite the fact "white y~uth seli Most of these commissions Christian Council for Urban and use drugs at t,he same; or Affairs, and a consistent critic of were announced with great higher rates than youth of color." · fanfare and promise. They abusive police. He is worried These kinds of racial dispari­ about the explosive potential of recommended we make a bold ties have debilitating effeets on the increasingly rancorous rela­ commitment to eliminate the the African-American community. tionship between cops and black racial disparities bequeathed to As soldiers in the' drug war, police us by our racist past, and that we youth. And he's not alone. departments are in the front line take serious steps to reform The National Organization of of this biased treatment.. Some rogue police practices. Ulti­ Black Law Enforcement Execu­ officers see black youth as the mately, of course, their recom­ tives recently released a report enemy, and in any war, the enemy warning that many American mendations were ignored. eventually fights back. cities are in danger of exploding Cincinnati Mayor Charles Despite the serious dangers Luken announced that he, too, into violence. "There are numer­ involved in this issue, few in ous cities throughout the nation in will form a commission to national leadership seem con­ investigate the unrest that shook crisis-powder kegs waiting to be cerned. There is a growing his city in April, following the ignited by a single incident," concern elsewhere, however. police killing of an unarmed noted the 33-page report, which The international human­ was widely distributed to federal black man. It's likely that rights groups Amnesty Interna­ agencies and lawmakers during a Luken 's commission will reach tional and Human Rights Watch Wish have authored studies that se­ verely condemn some police Streetvibes newspaper is published monthly: on a shoe-string practices in the U.S., particularly budget from the offices of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for as they pertain to the treatment of the Homeless. We depend heavily on the goodwili of many racial minorities. The European volunteers and C:Lonors. Some of the more pertinent needs of Union also has become increas­ ingly vocal in its condemnation of the GCCH include: racial biases in death-penalty o Advertisers -Classified and unclassified cases. This growing global interest o Supplies for vendor's lounge (paper towels, cream and sugar, also is prompting African-Ameri­ snacks, etc.) can activists to look outside the o Office and eleaning Supplies country for assistance in their struggle against biased policing. o Photography Help - film (400, 800, 1600), developing Several U.S. advocacy groups are help, digital and/or film camera(s). preparing to present their case against police brutality at the o Computers/components for Streetvibes story-writing, upcoming UN World Conference editing, resear:ch. Against Racism to be held Aug. o Free standi~g metal or wooden shelving 31 to Sept.7 in Durban, South Africa. Unfortunately, we need all If you can help!~ contact us at: , the help we can get. S~e'tVibes, do Greater Cin.c innati Coalition for the Homeless, Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor 1506 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45210 at In These Times. Published on ph: (513) 421-7803, fax (513) 421-7813 Monday, May 28, 2001 in the Chicago Tribune e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com List Page 12 The War Against Women Madhu, the government of Afghanistan, is waging a war upon women. Since the Taliban took power in 1996, women have had to wear burqua and have been beaten and stoned in public for not having the proper attire, even if this means simply not having the mesh covering in front of their eyes. One woman was beaten to death by an angry mob of funda­ mentalists for accidentally exposing her arm(!) while she was driving. Another was stoned to death for trying to leave the country with a man that was not a relative. Women are not allowed to work or even go out in public without a male .relative; professional women such as professors, translators, doctors, lawyers, artists and writers have been forced from their jobs and restricted to their homes. One woman was beaten to death by an angry mob of fundamentalists for acci­ dentally exposing her arm.... Homes where a woman is present must have their win­ dows painted so that she can never be seen by outsiders. They must wear silent shoes so that they are never heard. Women live in fear of their lives for the slightest misbehavior. Because they cannot work, those without male relatives or husbands are either starving to death or begging in the street, even if they hold Ph.D. 's. Depression is becoming so widespread that it has reached emergency levels. There is no way in such an extreme Islamic society to know the suicide rate with certainty, but relief work­ ers are estimating that the suicide rate among women must be extraordinarily high: those War.... Cont. on page 19 • Streetvibes exists as a forum for the expression of'the .views and opinions ofour readers and supporters. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those ofthe Streetvibes staff or the Greater Cincinnati Coalition .for the Homeless. �STREETVIBES August 2001 What's in a name? A people's dignity.... by Allan Lichtman The Indians are comil).g. The Indians are coming. No, this isn' t some trite line from a Grade B western. It's the new reality in the United States today. Native Americans, once out of sight and mind for us later -immigrants - except for wildly inaccurate movies and TV shows - are on the rise in the United States today. Native Americans are expanding their presence in this country demographically, economically, politically and culturally. And there are some things that they' re just not going to take anymore. Native Americans are expanding their presence in this country demographically, economically, politically and culturally. All of us who believe in the American promise of equal treatment ought to sit up and take notice of what native Americans are saying. In Maryland and elsewhere, native Americans are demanding the elimination from our schools of names of sports teams and mascots that are demeaning to Indians - names like Redskins, Braves, Indians, etc. It's a small matter with large implications. Native Americans are asking that we accord to their traditions and culture the same respect achieved by other groups in this pluralist society. I am not suggesting that people who admire and love their team's Indian name or mascot are in any way racist. But I am saying that we have a large cultural blind spot when it comes to native Americans. Imagine the outrage if an all-white baseball team from an area with a history of racial conflict called themselves the "Fighting Zulus," and its fans cheered them on by thrusting their arms forward in the motion of throwing a spear. Yet Americans long tolerated a team from Atlanta calling themselves the "Braves," which was applauded by fans doing the " tomahawk chop." l s calling a team the Redskins - a profoundly derogatory name that referred not to skin color but to the bloody Indian scalps taken in for bounty - different than calling a team anyone of numerous unmentionable slurs on other ethnic groups? Native Americans are asking that we accord to their traditions and culture the same respect achieved by other groups in this pluralist society. As demonstrated in a recent New York Times special report, beyond team names and mascots, racial stereotypes are also a barrier to the participation . by native Americans in college athletic programs. The report also notes that Native American's communal culture and distrust of white culture can be a barrier to the emergence of Indian athletes in an athletic world dominated by white coaches and managers. We tend not even to notice the debasing of Indian culture: as expressed by the double-dealing FBI agent in the movie "Thunderheart," "Indians are a conquered people," culturally and militarily. From the bloody colonial wars, through the Indian removal policies of Presidents Jefferson and Jackson, and the Indian wars of the post-Civil W'?f era, white settlers mainly viewed Are you a dedicated indMdual with a desire to educate the public about homelessness? Volunteer at Streeb/ibesf We need writers, photograpers, editors, webpage updators, any help you can provide. Call 421-7803 for more information. Page 13 Indians as obstacles to progress, to be removed by any means necessary. By the early 20th century, America's· so-cal led "Indian problem" was solved. With native Americans populations reduced, their war-making capacity destroyed, their status as independent nations eliminated, native Americans could be shunted aside on land disdained by the most desperate of white settlers. We tend not even to notice the debasing ofIndian culture: as expressed by the double-dealing FBI agent in the movie "Thunderheart..." Even sympathetic whites often viewed native Americans as from a strictly European perspective. Indians become foils for Wild West shows and movies, the subjects of paternalistic photography and painting. Even Indian bones were routinely shipped off to Washington to be studied and displayed like the remains of some extinct species. Since the rise of the Indian rights movement some 30 years ago, native Americans have sought to reclaim their cultural integrity in the United States. They are now developing the power - and that's what it takes in this country - to make their voices heard. Even Indian bones were routinely shipped offto Washington to be studied and displayed like the remains ofsome extinct species. The American Indian population, down to less than one million in 1970, has since soared to about 2.4 million, making native Americans the fastest growing racial group in the United States. Indians are even beginnii:ig to r~populate their former homelands in the Great Plains, especially in counties losing white population. In the years following the formation of the Nati ve American Rights Fund in 1970, Indians have won important battles in the courts and in Congress. These victories have expanded greatly the ability of native Americans to control their own desti ny and to improve the.ir health, education and personal well being. The federal courts have even required the Interior Department to reform the notoriously mismanaged trust funa it maintains for some 300,000 native Americans. In 1988, federal law confirmed the right of Indian tribes to own and operate casinos on their own lands. Gaming and spin off businesses have vastly expanded the income and wealth of native Americans, greatly improving the quality of life on many tribal lands. Money and votes have also given native Americans the political clout they've lacked in the past. In 1988, federal law confirmed the right of Indian tribes to own and operate casinos on their own lands. Gaming and spin off businesses have vastly expanded the income and wealth ofnative Americans... As demonstrated by Dartmouth College, which changed its nickname from the Fighting Indians to the Fighting Green, schools can eliminate offensive names without losing school tradition or fan support. Maryland bas long been a model for the nation in respecting human rights and dignity. State officials should now do whatever it takes to work with local communities to eliminate names and mascots offensive to native Americans. Think, too, of how this process would offer school children the opportunity to understand Indian culture from the Indian's perspective. Allan J. Lichtman is a Gazette columnist and chairman of the History Department at American University buddy's place Permanent Housing for formerly homeless individuals at 1300 Vine Street. For more information, call Connie Martina or Agnes Mack at (51~) 784~0800 �STREETVIBES August 2001 · Right to fly Walk with your head up, don't look down, the paths that you must travel are no longer forbidden, you have the right to fly-make a sound, Open you eyes see who you are, a work of rut, firmly structured with a strong mind and heart and the abilities to achieve, if something becomes a challenge, don't turn away­ believe in yourself and all that you can do, stand your ground, you have the right to fly-make a sound, reach for new heights, don't allow obstacles to bind you down, spread your wings and fly­ make a sound, if you have something on your mind, one step forward is all it takes, say what you want to say-for the darkness of you shall prosper some day, learn and earn, build yourself a future, plant some seeds and nurture them well and a healthy garden will prevail, no one can hinder what's meant to be, right to fly-right to be free, no matter where you're from or who you are-courage and hard work will bring you far, let the pride of you shine, "because you already have the best weapon to fight with, your mind-no one can take what's truly yours or hold you down, let your talents glow-for the power that you possess comes from within you, it's your right to fly-make a sound. None of us asked f,or or purchased the handicaps that we bare, so the refore we shall not be held back. by Kim Renay Dumas Street Life by Tyrus Humphrey, age 14 Homeless man walking down the street, I hope you find something good to.eat. I don't know what you're going through, but I wish I only knew. You are so courageous and brave. I hope you find a home some bright sunny day. Life is ... by Earl Peeples Life is like a race. . If you're determined, you'll wm. Life is like an obstacle course. In order to finish, you have challenges to overcome, barriers to cross, hurdles to jump over. Life is like a swim. In order to reach land, you have to cross the river. Life is like a jail. Locked up in life with no way out but to succeed in it. Life is like a game, Play like the rules, and you' ll end up on top. BUTT PRINTS IN THE SAND One night I had a wondrous dream, One set of footprints there were seen, The footprints of my · " precious Lord, But mine were not along the shore . . But then some stranger prints appeared, And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?" Those prints are large and round and neat, ''But Lord, they are too big for feet." "My child," He said in somber tones, "For miles I carried you alone. I challenged you to walk in faith, But you refused and made me wait." "You disobeyed, you would not grow, The walk of faith, you would not know, So I got tired, I got fed up, And there I dropped you on your butt." "Because in life, there comes a time, When one must fight, and one must climb, When one must rise and take a stand, Or leave their butt prints in the sand." Author Unknown Submitted by Mr. Lee ART & POETRY P age 14 Senior Moment (Dedicated to Unnie and Sis) Having a senior moment is good. If only we all could! Cause it is so hard for the young to do. Especially if they live in a world that is blue. I guess it just comes with age. Finally being set free from that awful cage. Loving' again is not so bad. Thinking' I'd give all the love I had. Occasionally the young at heart can experience a senior moment. Cause from the good Lord it was sent. Having a senior moment feels so good. If only all the young could! Since life is so tough. And for most it is very rough. So a true senior moment reasons. That real love grows with all the seasons. In a senior moment we realize the world can be cruel and hard. Machines so very tired. Thus taken for granted true love could be. That's awful as far as I can see. Coming to grips with the past. Knowing our present and future is good and will last! Caring for each other is the main thing. And him being as regal as a king.t Yes, it is a good life. For both husband and wife. For us it al worked out for the best. Finally putting all the old feelings to rest. So, to call a spade a spade. It seems as if our destiny has been made. And it is such a good destiny. At long last being happy and forever free! To call a spade a spade means right to .the point in context. Copyright@2001 by Sandy Weber Then, one can imagine Life is so much Bigger than one can 1magme Even though I see, taste, smell, hear, feel and travel while thinking what's happening Am I one who still imagines? And does one who imagines have the a?ility of will, to consume In the confinement of decision making Slip second judgments, one must be fine tuned walking paths that are narrow keeping my eyes on the sparrow The eyes behind my back is Yahweh's Angels Keeping me from the arrows Got love like cupid Information, I group it Don't do nothing stupid then excuse it, like you know I had to do it Fluent. I'm President and CEO of my mental establishment transcend information like the life of a fossil my time will cost you. Air space in ya' mind or wages from your work give you something different you'd think it was a perk Nothing new, News Life is so much bigger than one can imagine Dante L. Carr I Survive by Shavonda Washington, age 14 How can you survive with no food? How can you survive with no water? How can you survive with no place to sleep? That's what people say to me, but I look up in their faces and say I'm surviving. �STREETVIBES August 2001 ART & POETRY NOT OUT LOUD Holy Mercy Not out loud no one can know the anger within you that causes you to lose control, nobody knows of the wrongs you've done, a man is dead-shot by you with a gun, hidden evidence, guilty on the run. But out loud, no one knows the money you collect for your car, shoes and clothes comes from intravenously robbing desperate people of their souls, you thrive on the fact that they' re addicted to the venomous drugs you sell, the light of luxury, as you walk blindly towards hell, "Not out loud quiet and quick never mind who you've just hit, Careless behind the wheel, and alcoholic is too numb to feel ' Wake up! We're Madd! Drunk driving kills ! Not out loud he's so dedicated and she's so helpful and sweet, but are these the ones that you should be warned about before you meet, or did you hear "that sometimes the people that you've been taught to trust are the ones that you should be warned about before you meet," or did you hear "that sometimes the people that you've been taught to trust are the ones you should fear, Not out loud" a child is abducted­ nowhere to be found, In the news and on the radio broadcasters announce ' pictures posted state to state, town to town-soon forgotten, blank visions on a milk carton tossed on the ground. "Not out loud." No! One will believe you when you say I told him no! But he did it anyway, violated in the bright of day, not out loud crimes are committed time after time, out of sight, out of mind, when you stand accused of these senseless acts, guilty as charged. Not this time, temporary insanity is the plea, "It wasn't me" a mis-education ofjustice for all, together we stand­ divided we fall. by Kim R. Dumas The Life By Riccardo Taylor Ah! Now this is the life. Headaches, heartaches, high without worries, life on the edge, no sanity. No problem. Keeping up with the game, waiting for the next hit! Yeah, well today I think I'll take a break. I'll just take a stroll down to the bar and see what's up. Sit around, shoot the breeze. Yeah, think I'll have just one beer. That won't hurt. Ah! That was good! Think I'll have another. Catch a little buzz. Guess I'll take a walk down to the spot, see who's out. Yeah, I got half on it. Let's get a little hit. Um! Man, that was OK. I could use another, can't hurt anything. Day slipping away, what can I say? Did you get your break today? Oh well, there's always tomorrow. I'll take a break then, needed a break from taking a break today, so what can I say? Yeah, this is the life, never have to think twice, just do what you can do. Ah, this is the life, this is what you can call sanity. by Ronald Leroy English Blessed creation of miracles of heaven, on earth Christ thy son OfGod in the Holy Name Though I pray in the world of salvation Of sin and temptation Of doing evil things Salvation I renew your faith Of one feeling Happiness and Peace of Page 15 mostly all their hope. Being poor to some people may be nationality, but most people don't realize that personality is reality. Just because a person may not look like you or wear the same clothes as you do, doesn't mean that they don't have feelings and emotions too. Until you realize that to some people, being poor is a nationality, y0u won't realize that every personality is a reality. mind To find respect I say, repent From alcohol and drugs Of thy blood of Jesus Christ Our redeemer Out of the gates of heaven That we all came from the creation Of love and peace and joy Personality is Reality by Ciara Lindsey, age 12 Some people these days don't understand what it's like to be a homeless man or woman. They taunt and tease these people so that sometimes they lose their faith, and Old Sweater by Lorenzo Massey, age 13 I wear you like an old sweater, arms around me ' warmth and comfort, the worn places I overlook, the tears I hold together. Threads broken at the seams, we hang on, still able to keep the cold from seeping through. The color has faded, but I expect nothing more than the familiar feel, the smell of you. You need not be more than that, I can't expect you to be more. You've always been there as you are, as you always will be, nothing more, but that's enough for me. �STREETVIBES August 2001 · Page 16 One Less Homeless Person in Las Vegas. ) by Stephen of Dayton, OH It was an unusual night in Vegas. I'm an architect and I had flown in from Ohio to see this city and was staying at the Stratosphere casino. But, now it was getting late and I was hanging out at the Stardust listening to a band. But, it was time to think about getting back to the hotel. I walked out in front of the Stardust and I started wondering where a couple of other tourist attractions were. I stopped and asked a young man for directions. He asked if I was visiting the city and if I was staying on the Strip. I said "yes" and then he asked if he could come over to my hotel room and take a shower. He said that he was living at the bus stop in front of the Stardust. He said that he could wash his clothes at a laundry but he usually had to find someone to let him take a shower at their place. He looked like a nice kid. Even though he was 33 years old, he seemed like a kid and looked something like a young version of myself. I told him that he could take a shower at my hotel room. I had flown in to Las Vegas a couple of nights earlier during a strong wind storm that took the heat away. And here it was 65 degrees and still very windy. And Pat acted like he was going to freeze to death. Pat...looked like a nice kid. Even though he was 33 years old, he seemed like a kid and looked some­ thing like a young version ofmyself. Being from Las Vegas he wasn't prepared for such a wind chill in the middle of June. So, back he came to the hotel with me and he went in to the bathroom and took a long hot bath. While he was in the bathroom, I locked my valuables in the room safe and decided that I might just as well let Pat sleep in the other bed for the night. I couldn't see myself throwing him back out onto the street in the middle of the night. Pat told me on the way back to the hotel that he was a compulsive gambler. He said that usually every cent that he got he gambled away. When be could find an odd job or bum some money from someone on the street or pawn something he would go straight to a casino and bet it until it was gone. He seemed to remember every time that he ever won or lost any amount of money. He went over and over the circumstances of the winning and losing in his head. He was consumed by it. He said that if someone gave him enough money for a hamburger, he would bet the money and lose it before he could get to a restaurant. So, he was used to going without food. Sometimes when he lost close to $100 he would get mad and a casino manager would photo by Henry Bryant give him a free pass to the buffet. But he had grown to hate buffets and the thought of all that food just sitting out. He told me everything about his life and even insisted on going with me to the place where he usually lived. Pat grew up with alcoholic parents. He said that there was rarely mot-e than a can ofbeans in the house.... .Jt was a bus stop on Charleston near Decateur. I just couldn't understand at the time why he wanted me to visit that bus stop. But, he had spent a lot of time there. He said that living at a bus stop on the Strip was risky because the police patrolled that area too much and he could have gotten into trouble. He didn't know why he was living there the night that I met him. I have my own compulsions and understand the prob­ lem of addiction. I have a problem with food also. I eat too much. Almost always. And I can be a compulsive shopper. I probably own about 500 shirts and dozens of pairs of pants. The trouble is that with the compulsive eating, ' most of the clothes don't fit me. But, I wasn't always a compulsive eater. At one time I was a compulsive dieter. I stopped dieting when I looked at myself in the mirror one time and could see every rib. I didn 't starve myself. I just watched every bite that I ate and never ate any sugar or fat. So, I had studied up on compulsions and the cycle of addiction. And, I had even lectured on addictions to church and civic groups. So, I knew more about Pat than he could tell me. Pat grew up with alcoholic parents. He said that there was rarely more than a can of beans in the house. I asked him if anyone had ever asked him to try drugs and he said "yes, his mother." It was a real dysfunctional family. He was raped at five years of age by his cousin. And he had been seduced as a teenager by his mother's sister and they had a sexual relationship until his mother found out about it. Pat wanted to talk on and on about gam­ bling. I was quite bored by the ~ubj ect. I thought that he would never shut up and go to sleep. He was quite amazed that a stranger who didn't w~nt to have sex with him would actually help him out. He told me that he liked girls but sometimes he did have sex with men for money. Anyway, I sent him on his way in the morning and he said that he was going to the convention center to pick up a check for two days work. I told him that I was spending the day with another architect that I knew in town sight-seeing. But that he could show me around some of the Strip after dinner. Besides gambling, he seemed to know just about everything about the history of each casino. And he sounded like a great tour guide. He was quite amazed that a stranger who didn't want to have sex with him would actually help him out. Well, he went and picked up his check for $65 at the convention center and cashed it and went for a ride on the roller coaster at the Sahara and went gambling and by the time that I caught up with him in the lobby of the Stratosphere after dinner, he was broke again and had nothing to show for it. I think that he might have had the money long enough to get himself something at McDonalds. So, I let him stay at my hotel room again that night and I told him that he needed to get the hell out of Nevada. But he had nowhere to go and no money to get there with. He told me that he went to gambler's anonymous fairly regularly and he understood his problem and was eager to make a change. I told him that he could come back to Ohio and get a job and rent a room from me. That would get him into a world where there wasn't a gam­ bling temptation everywhere you turned. I was getting ready to fly back and I bought him a ticket and took him back with me. In a way he was kind of a project of mine. I wondered if a geographic change in this case would really work. Usually addicts �STREETVIBES August 2001 think that they can run away from their problems but the problem comes right along with them. But, in this case, there were no casinos in Ohio and the Ohio lottery just doesn't seem to interest him since you usu­ ally have to wait hours or days for the results. But, back he came to my house and at first I thought that I was going to go crazy with his constant chatter about the value of Beanie-Babies and football cards. And if it wasn't that, it was girls and sex or food, especially his passion for candy. Well, his work history in Nevada was just awful. He' d been fired or quit from so many places that it was ridiculous. But, Ohio didn' t really need to know much about what went on in Ne­ vada. I had been going to an Italian restaurant every week with about ten friends for almost fifteen years. I had a little bit of influence in that restaurant and knew most of the people that worked there. They needed a busser and I told them that they needed to hire Pat. They did. That was in July of 2000 and he is still working there and one of their best employees. I live close to the downtown and Pat walks to work and out to clubs after work. And he walks around downtown and goes to the adult movies too much. But, all of the walking keeps the weight off which is good because he still eats too much and loves candy and ice cream. Well, his,.,work history in Nevada was just awful. He'd been}ired or quit from so many places that it was ridiculous. And he paid me back for his ticket to Ohio. And he has paid me rent every two weeks when he gets paid. And with working almost forty hours per week and making about $10 per hour with tips, Pat is doing pretty good. He paid me back for the two winter coats that I bought him Last fall. And he paid me back for ta.king him to the doctor to take care of his atbelete's foot and his ear wax problem. And, I took him to the dentist and started him on proper tooth care. Which was a new concept for him, as was going to the doctor for health problems. But, he doesn' t want anything to do with his family in Las Vegas. I think that he is afraid that they will try to get him to move back there. And he knows that he doesn't want that. He's been a great help for me. He goes out and mows the lawn and shovels the snow and cleans the cat boxes and never asks me for a cent in return. And be keeps real good track of any money that he has bor­ rowed from me for anything and he pays me back as soon as he can. He needed some shirts and he would get real happy when I would get him one. Well , in the last year I have bought him around one hundred shirts. Does that prove my compulsive shopping? Hey, they were all on sale! I told him that he will have to buy his own pants and under­ wear. But I used to lend him the money to get those. I did get rather upset at the restau­ Page 17 rant where he works. They told him that be a little homesick. I had dinner with my could wear black pants and a black t-shirt to friend and he told me that his firm needed to bus the tables. So, we got him a couple of hire experienced architects. pairs of black jeans and three black t-shirts. Not small money for someone earning $10 Pat thinks that I am one ofthe smart­ per hour minus taxes. Then the restaurant est people that he has ever met and he' decided that he should wear black dres·s worships the ground that I walk on. · pants and black shirts that button. i got rather upset and took him to fjnd the dress pants and the kind of shirts that they wanted. I took my eyes off of Pat for a couple· of hours and he went to Caesars Palace and And, finding the right type of black shirts was a problem. And, I thought what would a quickly lost every cent that he had and person making minimum wage do without a emptied all of the money out of his bank friend for help. He would have had to take account with his teller machine card. He the bus all over town and just happen to have told me the next day that he didn't deserve about $100 in his pocket to meet the boss's to eat because he didn' t have any money. I immediate requirements. told him that even people without money deserve to eat. So, off we went to the restau­ Usually addicts think that they can run rant. Pat thinks that I am one of the smartest away from their problems but the prob­ people that he has ever met and he worships the ground that I walk on. He is like another lem comes right along with them. brother to me or a son. And, almost every time that we talk on the phone he tells me Well, I took an incentive to leave the Air that he doesn't know where he would be if it Force and Pat took care of the house and cats weren't for me. And I think that I really while I went to California for the Democratic don't know why I stopped and asked him Convention and while I went on a two week directions so late that night or why I let him tour of Europe. I happened to talk to a hotel come back to my hotel room to clean up. clerk in Amsterdam and he had managed to For some reason he kind of scared me. But, get out of Bosnia. I told him about bringing he turned out to be one of the most harmless Pat back from Las Vegas. He said that Pat and interesting people that I have ever met. was probably back in Ohio selling every­ Well, I got the job working for the archi­ thing that I owned while I was in Europe. I tecture firm in Las Vegas and Pat is working told him that Pat was so happy to have a in Ohio and doing just fine. And with him house to live in and a good bed to sleep in taking care of my house on Ohio and paying and regular meals and a job and a washing me rent I was able to move to Las Vegas in a machine and dryer to use and his own bath­ heartbeat to take this new job. He is flying room that he could hardly stand it. out to Las Vegas to spend a week on the 1st Also, Pat is consumed by watching of July. It's his second Las Vegas vacation videos, especially ones about Las Vegas and this year. Pat is a jetsetter. Not bad for when he's not doing that he is usually chas­ someone living at a bus stop a year ago. ing women on the internet. So, Pat has it too And, when he gets here, we are going to go good to risk being homeless again. And out to dinner at the Venetian just like I back in January of this year, I brought him promised him. back to Vegas for a vacation since be seemed �STREETVIBES August 2001 . World News Page 18 Indigenous Leaders Lambast World Bank, IMF By Kintto Lucas, PANAMA CITY communities, and it has proven to be the most controversial matter The policies of the World Bank since the meeting began on Mon­ and the International Monetary day. Fund (IMF) harm indigenous "These organizations lack communities around the world and methods that draw on the indig­ enous world view," with its essen­ are -a new form of colonization, charge native leaders meeting this tial aspects of respect for nature week in the Panamanian capital. and all forms of coexistence, The social programs targeting "which turns them into agents that indigenous communities that are undermine our cultures," stated sponsored by the IMF, the World Biadilla Lino, a delegate of the Bank and by certain non-govern­ Nicaraguan Association of mental organizations (NGOs) are Mayangnas Women. implemented without taking into Louis Macas, representing account the cultural reality of these Ecuador's Scientific Institute of societies, said delegates to the First Indigenous Cultures, said the Millennium Conference of Indig­ World Bank has adapted its dis­ course to the new global reality, enous Peoples, Wednesday. The conference, organized by with a rhetoric that highlights the Panama's Napguana ("core of the leadership of new social actors, earth", in the Kuna language) especially native peoples. "The Association, and sponsored by the World Bank, faced with the criti­ Netherlands Centre for Indigenous cisms of environmental activists and indigenous communities, has Peoples (NCIV-Nederlands Cen­ trum Voor Inheemse Volken), is to added the notion of sustainable conclude Friday with the signing · development to its liberalization strategy and generated a new of the " Panama Declaration" . Approximately 200 indigenous 'ethno-development' discourse," representatives, as well as United he explained. Macas, who is also rector of the Quito-based Interna­ Nations experts and representa­ tives from several international aid tional University of Indigenous Peoples, pointed to the wording of originations and agencies, have spent this week in Panama debat­ the World Bank's policies in ing issues related to native rights setting up a development project that focuses on Ecuador's native and culture. communities. The indigenous leaders have In addition, a study presented dedicated long hours of discussion to the Conference by the UK-based to the impact of the multilateral . Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), institutions' policies on their emphasized the need to pressure the World Bank to improve com­ pliance with its own social and environmental protection policies. "It is crucial that the World Bank include new mechanisms · that facilitate indigenous participa­ tion in the follow-up and evalua­ tion of projects and programs," says the report. The PPP also asks that native peoples, NGOs and the World Bank itself study ways to modify the development param­ eters established by the multilat­ eral financial institution. Stan­ dards must be set in accordance with international law and, if they are violated, the World Bank must be held responsible, states the FPP document. Represented at the Panama conference are indigenous groups from Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Bhutan, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Ecua­ dor, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Mexico, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rwanda, Russia, Sudan and the United States, among others: The proposals that native presenters and delegates have made this week will be included in the conference's final document known as the "Panama Declaration." Gilberto Arias, chief of Panama's Kuna Yala indigenous region, said the Mireya Moscoso government did not provide sup­ ...... port for the Conference of Indig­ enous Peoples underway here, and Do you find yourself on the outside of the that it had even imposed imrnigra­ tion hurdles for many of the job market, looking In? delegates arriving in the country for the meeting, and prevented Do you want a self-motl"ated, low-pressure some from participating. "Panama's national government Job? often speaks of its Indians at ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--~~~ Sell Streetvibesl Tiie monthly newspaper with news from the street: homelessness, poor people's Issues, poetry, prose, and articles with their feet on the sround. international forums, but has shown little interest in supporting the Panamanian indigenous move­ ment," he said, "and we have now seen how many of our brothers and sisters had problems entering the country." Arias also stressed that an important legacy of this native leaders summit is the recognition of the common characteristics that have kept them strong in the face of external pressures: their ances­ tral sense of solidarity and unity. "If we look at the resolutions of the different indigenous confer­ ences held at the global level and compare them, we will surely find that the governments have never really taken the needs of our peoples into account," stated the Kuna chief. Response from pg. 4 service counselor) talk to them (po' unemployed worker) any kind of way they want. They herd them into unpleasant waiting areas like cattle. Yet, it is about the dependable ones. Usually preference is given to the dependable, regulars. The ones who are for whatever reason locked into this temp work, pay daily, cycle. Men and women who for what ever reason can somewhat manage their lives enough, to be fairly dependable. It ain't enough money. That's a fact. The reality is the situation sucks. Most people don't have a clue as to what this sweatshop industry is really like. It works well for the temp service, adequately for the employer and is like a drug for far to many of the workers. This ain't living, its existing. Working for these temp services is as bad as it gets. That's for real. Quotations from women about women . . . . Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse. The hardest years in life are those -Lily Tomlin between ten and seven.ty. I refuse to think ofthem as chin -Helen Hayes (at 73) hairs. I think ofthem as stray Old age ain't no p lace for sissies. eyebrows. -Janette Barber -Bette Davis Vendors buy the paper for 20 cents and sell It for a $1 donation. First 10 copies free to new vendors/ Come In today to sign upl The Great er Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 1.506 Elm Street Clnclnnatl, Ohio 45210 (513) 421-7803 "Georgie-e-e... ifyou want that cool new missile defense system, you 're going 10 have 10 make some room on your toy shelf:" �t STREETVIBES August 2001 War... from page 12 who cannot find proper medica­ tion and treatment for severe depression would rather take their lives than live in such conditions. At one of the rare hospitals for women, a reporter found still , nearly lifeless bodies lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their burqua, un­ willing to speak, eat, or do anything, but slowly wasting away. Others have gone mad and were seen crouched in comers, perpetually rocking or crying, most of them in fear. It is at the point where the term "human rights violations" has become an understatement. Husbands have the power Of life and death over their women relatives, especially their wives, but an angry mob has just as much right' to stone or beat a woman, often to death, for exposing an inch of flesh or offending them in the slightest way. Women enjoyed relative freedom to work, to dress generally as they wanted, and to drive and 'aj:>~ar in public alone until 1996. The rapidity of this transition is the main reason for the depression and suicide; Women who were.once educators or doctors, or simply used to basic human freedoms are now severely restricted and treated as subhuman in the name of right-wing fundamen­ talist Islam. It is not their tradition or 'culture', but it is alien to them, and it is extreme even for those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule. Everyone has a right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are women in a Muslim country. If we can threaten military force in Kosovo in the name of human rights for the '/ '.\)\\\• ;": sake of ethnic Albanians, citizens of the world can cer­ tainly express peaceful outrage at the oppression, murder and injustice committed against women by the Taliban. Women's Rights is not a small issue anywhere, and it is UNACCEPTABLE for women in 2001 to be treated as subhu­ man and as so much property. Equality and human decency is a fundamental RIGHT, not a freedom to be granted, whether one lives in Afghanistan or elsewhere. ~ .- .. ~ ><-. -·. ' • ~. ~ •• • - - ­ World News Page 19 Denver Grand Jury Targets and Jails Anti­ Sweatshop Solidarity Activists During the year 2000, there were several hundred leafleting actions at Kohl 's department stores in support of Nicaragua.a sweatshop workers. As a part of this series of actions, in December 2000, the Denver Justice and Peace Committee organized a peaceful leafleting action at a local Kohl 's outlet. During the action, four people dressed as Santa Claus entered the store and spray painted some of the merchandise. Despite their eye-catching costumes, the Santas were not apprehended by security guards or police. On December 15, police entered the DJPC office ·with a searGh ;w.~al)t.. They seized the organization's comput~r disks, donor and membership records, and thoroughly body-searched the only person-of-color present at the time. In the attempt to find the four Santas by disrupting Denver's local activist community, investigators intervit::wed at least 50 financial and activist supporters of PJPC-.sowing fear and discord among activists and virtually destroying the local committee. Now, in what may be part of a national strategy to target anti­ corporate globalization activists, or the action of an overzealous local prosecutor, a grand jury has been convened to determine criminal charges in this case. One activist, Doug ~ohm, was jailed on May 17 for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury, meaning that be has refused to testify in this case. Former DJPC Executive Director David Martin, i~ also expecting that he will be imprisoned for his stance of non-cooperation. The grand jury next meets on Thursday, May 31. The grand jury system is a fundamentally undemocratic tool of the government used to persecute minorities and adherents of unpopular ideologie$. Only the government can present evidence to a grand jury. And witnesses. who invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to testify, as in the Denver case, can have that right taken away by a grand jury by being ordered to testify anyway. Failure to obey the court order to testify .can result in up to a six-month sentence, even though the grand jury may ultimately bring no charges in the case. If the DJPC activists are prosecuted in this case, the implications will be far reaching and may affect the ability and willingness of activists across the country to be in solidarity with sweatshop workers as they attempt to organize unions. The possible international impacts of this case are simply too important to ignore. Denver activists have asked for our solidarity and action-just as Chentex workers did last year. We must show the Denver authorities that we are aware of the tactics they are using against activists who demonstrated, simultaneous to many of you,, at Kohl's. If the repressive actions of the Colorado authorities deter communities from supporting the organizing efforts of workers around the world, then those actions can be seen as an indirect assault on union organizing efforts. A group called the Free Speech Defense Committee has been set up to coordinate support for the Denver activists targete~ in the case. Contact Luis Espinosa­ Organista at 303-864-9303 or lespinos@ouray.cudenver.edu for further information on the case and on ways to support the Denver­ bastfd labor rights activists. ...HAS KEPT HIS PROMISE OF ~I PARTISANSHIP. Streefvibefl'. A proud member of the North Amerit.an 'i>trut Ne\tlspaper Assot.iation tz..ep,resenting over 50 strut ne~spaper& throughout the United 45tates and t:-anada "'"'"'.speakeas~. orglnasna �Need Help or Want to Help? If for some reason you find yourself homeless, contact a Coalition Member Agency for Shelter, Treatment, Hous.ing or Services. If you have any questions, feel free to call the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. HOUSING: CMHA Excel Development Miami Purchase 721-4580 632-7149 241-0504 OTA Housing Network 369-0004 TREATMENT: Men Charlie's 3/4 House Prospect House Starting Over 784-1853 9?1-1613 751-3260 TREATMENT: Both 820-2947 861-9966 381-6660 684-7956 859-491-4435 421-2437 SHELTER: Both Caracole (AIDS) 761-1480 Chabad House 821-5650 Friars Club 381-5432 Drop Inn Center(Singles) 721-0643 Haven House (Hamilton) 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality Ntwk 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 961-4080 St. John's Temp Housing 651-6446 Community Action Agency 381-1171 639-7056 961-4555 ReSTOC Tender Mercies Tom Geiger House TREATMENT: Women 221-6937 961-4663 O.D.A.A.T First Step Home ROHS HARDWARE . Helo is Just Around the Corner 0-' 73 Qt. Storage Tote with SnaP:On Lid 9.:> ~ ·~ ~ $4 ~ ~<f$~ Q:;qj §' ~~ 0 1403 Vine Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45210 (513) 421-0700 Gal. Bug Stop Home Pest Repellent $6 Digital Alarm Clock/Radio $7 . . • . , .. . . . . . ... • ·•!T• ­ 569-1840 381-4242 Contact Center 241-2563 Emanuel Comm. Center 241-1064 Freestore/Foodbank 771-4800 Goodwill Industries 421-7803 G.C. Coalition for the Homeless Hamilton Co. Mental Health Board 621-7149 632-7186 Hamilton Co. TB Control Health Resource Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 221-3619 House of Refuge Mission 241-9400 Legal Aid Society Madisonville Ed. & 271-5501 Assistance Center 721-4811 Mary Magdalen House 621-0248 Oral Health Council 621-6364 Our Daily Bread 621-5514 Peaslee Neighborhood Center Project Connect -­ 357-5720 Homeless Kids 562-8841 St. Vincent De Paul 471-4357 The Emergency Food Center Travelers Aid 721 -7660 721-7900 United Way VA Homeless Program 859-572-6226 Women's Crisis Center 859-491-3335 Women Helping Women 872-9259 Thank you for your support• � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 2001 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Standdown, An Aurban Oasis Shelters Face Lean Times During Summer Months Pg 2: Keeping the Best as New Editor Pg 3: Donald Whitehead Joins the National Coalition for the Homeless as Executive Director Pg 4: Readers Respond Pg 5: Mary Ann Lederer is Serious About Making the World as Better Place Pg 6: Civil Rights in Cincinnati Pg 7: Recovering from Abuse Pg 8: Prisoners’ News Pg 9: The Mental Health Crisis in Black America Pg 10: In Their Own Words… Peaslee Neighborhood Center Kids Write About the Uprising Pg 11: In Their Own Words… Peaslee Neighborhood Center Kids Write About the Uprising Continued Pg 12: Editorials Pg 13: What’s in a Name? A People’s Dignity… Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Pg 15: Arts & Poetry Continued Pg 16: One Less Homeless Person in Las Vegas Pg 17: One Less Homeless Person in Las Vegas Continued Pg 18: Indigenous Leaders Lambast World Bank, IMF Pg 19: Denver Grand Jury Targets and Jails Anti-Sweatshop Solidarity Activists Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 2001 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Alicia Beck Susan Knight Mary A. Gaffney Mary Taylor Molly Lyons John Halpin Sonny Williams H. Lee Bowen Jimmy Heath Riccardo Taylor Kim Renay Dumas Mr. Lee Molly Lyons Henry Bryant Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Abuse Activists Alicia Beck Arts & Poetry Black America Cincinnati civil rights Denver Donald Whitehead Editorials GCCH H. Lee Bowen Henry Bryant IMF Indigenous Leaders Jimmy Heath John Halpin Kim Renay Dumas Las Vegas Mary A. Gaffney Mary Ann Lederer Mary Taylor mental health Molly Lyons Mr. Lee National Coalition for the Homeless National News police brutality prisoners news Riccardo Taylor Sonny Williams Street Views Susan Knight Women World Bank https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/5c558afb5a28dab5df512ebb244945e6.pdf 1235d235abeeac069dd650710354da4a PDF Text Text . ... . - --·· ---..- ..--...... ··- -··--·--- -.....____...__-...___... -.---. $I Do. is.lion• ree v1 Your Progressive News Source August 2003 BUY FROM BADGED VENDORS ONLy •. Greater Cincinnatr Coalition for the Homeless . �• August2003 Sweeping of camps halted by the homeless policy, custom, and practice of the City of Cincinnati to engage in a pattern of depriving the constitutional rights of homeless individuals." The city went to great lengths in their attempt to remove camps from underneath downtown bridges. In June, a meeting between the Mayor's office, police officials, the Governor's office, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Downtown Cincinnati, Inc. took place to come up with a plan-to remove camps from under bridges. The meeting ended after the representative from ODOT insisted that, despite the fact these people were camping on ODOT property, ODOT had no legal right to remove them. But the city was determined, and finally got ODOT's permission to do what it wa ted with the camps underneath the bridges. City officials often invoke "quality of life issues" or the "broken windows" theory when Don Henry speaks to Homeless Coalition representative Andy Erickson. , by Andy Erickson, photos by Jimmy Heath A little over a year ago, Don lost his job, his three-bedroom house, his two cars, and then ife and his kid. "I lost everything that ever "Don't hide the homeless. Help them." They then called on people to join them for a 24-hour vigil ending at 1 pm on Fri ay - the time that the they talk about camps like Don's. The "broken windows" theory states that if we fix broken windows, clean up litter, erase graffiti, and remove the visible homeless, like Don, from public sight, the quality of life in the City will order to vacate would take affect. tum for the better. impromptu protest would bring. Supporters isn't a piece of litter. He's not a broken window, Don didn't realize what kind of effect his ·honked as they meant nything to drove by, delivered me," he said. donations, stopped That's when Don started to talk, and carried sleeping under a picket signs. Social bridge. service workers The problem with this theory is that Dg and he's not graffiti. He's a person who has lost his home and is living in public. He obviously shouldn't be treated the same way we would deal with a broken window. The theory makes Don a scapegoat for the City's problems. Don knows this. "Why are people met with Don and messing with me when they could be having a first moved under others at his camp, this bridge," Don placing some of problem? Or how we could stop people from says, "I begged for them into services trash bags from a they needed. And "Whenl city building. I at 1 :00 on Friday - wanted the place to when the police look half-decent. I were supposed to filled 1 3 garbage arrive - Don's bags. J didn't want lawyer arrived to be an eyesore." instead with a But temporary "eyesore" is exactly what the city labeled Don's restraining order against the police and a lawsuit camp when they threatened him with eviction. against the city. On July 15, police officers arrived at Don's Don happily signed the camp to post "No Trespassing" signs. The necessary papers. The lawsuit officers took pictures of the people who lived in could possibly overturn many the camp and told them to be out within_ 72 of the actions that the city has hours or be charged with criminal trespass. "What is the issue with the public seeing me here?" Don asked. "I guess they drive by panhandling Ofdinances be say that I'm a distraction, but someone could be declared unconstitutional, and distracted by the new stadium. Should we tear that the city be barred from by four-foot sign facing the busy intersection where his camp is located. The sign read, When the city attempts to treat people experiencing homelessness as if they were broken windows, they are not solving any problems, except perhaps the "cleaning up" of an overpass - until someone moves back in. Homeless Save Camps .... Cont. on Page 1 O Don rolls is own.... The filed complaint thinking. But I'm not bothering anyone. They Don and his fellow bridgemates killing each other in Over-the-Rhine?" he asks. the last two years. asks that the new and old responded to the order by erecting an eight-foot meeting about how we could solve the drug taken against the homeless in and see that I'm a disgust to their ways of that down?" ri performing weeps of homeless camps. The complaint also states that the panhandling laws and the threat of sweeps resulted from the official Greater Cincinnati Coalition for , the, Homeless �STREETVIBES August, 2003 Editorial Page 2 City Attacks Bridge Homes by Jimmy Heath, Streetvibes Editor Duringthe summer months, l are horrendous. Yet we see the city continues to wage against the focusing on the people who are think about how the hot weather homeless doesn't take a vacation quietly living under bridges, looking affects the people living on the streets either. for ways to be left alone. Why such Because most of the outdoor of Cincinnati, under bridges or in animosity for the poorest of the makeshift camps along the river, or homeless camps are located on State poor? Is it because comfortable other hidden away places. property the City has had its hands people see themselves in the faces of tied trying to figure ways to deal the homeless, an unpleasant Donations go down at homeless shelters because the season with the "problem." But City reminder of what can happen to of giving, Thanksgiving and officials, the police and state officials them or anyone? Is it because the began meeting to find out ways to . folks on the street are easy targets, evict the homeless. The last time the easy to blame for all the City's ills? Christmas, is far away in people's · minds. But the shelters remain busy, r broken into again. Crime statistics other camps. The war that the City especially if it gets really hot. The Drop Inn Center functions as a · city raided a public homeless camp, state workers threw away personal In the most recent move against the outdoor camps, public neighborhood cool center when belongings. The people just moved opinion and awareness brought temperatures rise into the danger elsewhere. Civil liberty attorneys hundreds of citizens and social zone. The homeless, many rallied to help the people whose service agencies to the aid of the neighborhood seniors and others seek refuge at the Drop Inn Center wh n rights had been violated by the so­ people who want to exercise their called sweeps and things died down right to live outdoors. Hours before the temperatures get unbearable for a while. the Cincinnati police moved in to outside. But Now Mayor remove the campers, a law firm Luken and others voluntarily stepped in and filed a folk decide to are talking again motion to block the illegal evictions. take up residence about how these The campers rose up and decided outdoors anyway that they weren't going to be moved, rather than stay in camps offend · tourists who see the shelters and them when they Thanks to public opinion and resolve some homeless led by fellow camper Don Henry. deal with curfews drive into the city. on the part of the campers, the little and crowds. Even the guy won this one, for now. We will . Governor of Ohio Summer see how this plays out in federal is not the "slow has gotten into the court. Meanwhile the press and the season" for the discussion. A talk shows are having a field day homeless. There radio talk-show with the issue. The public is no slow season suggested the discussion heard has been both for people removal of "tlrese- sympatlietic without homes. people" because Homelessness they are smelly does not take a and might end,·but the little guy got his frighten little moment to tell the story. Don children. Another Henry, bridge resident talked about tying leader o vacation. Living outdoors in the . summer can be Don Henry [ ads a sidewalk protest The City may win out in the them up, just as dangerous ting. At least people are talking about it. uctant me ess protesters said what anyone would say if their as during the winter. The park bench throwing them into the back of a home was threatened, "They will is just as hard, the weather just as truck and hauling them away. have to handcuff me and carry me The irony of this is not lost challenging and cruel, the life just as out of here. This is my home." In Cincinnati, there seems to forgotten,-and the City. continues to on me. We are living in a city with a be as ruthless as ever. national reputation for segregation be a home for you only if you look and racial discord. My street in or act a certain way, spend money a decided to take up arms against Over-the-Rhine is a blatant open-air certain way, and live by standards homeless campers living on public drug market. The schools are that leave no room for the less property. They are threatening and crumbling. People are fleeing the fortunate. I continue to be amazed harassing the people who live city in record numbers. The by the resolve of homeless folk, and Homeless Coalition office was disgusted by the ways of the City. Once again th City has outside, under bridge overpasses and Vendor: 80 cents * Printing and Production: 20 cents her our ollar oes The Streetvibes program maintains a minimal overhead cost so that our vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. Please call our office at 421-7803 for more informa­ tion about the program. Many thanks for your support. �STREETVIBES Page 3 August, 2003 ON A SCALE OF- ONE TO A HUNDRED, HOW MUCH DO YOU DISAGREE WITH THE CITY'S TREATMENT OF CINCINNATI'S HOMELESS? ----------------------- 1 w111 0111E: --------, []] I s21 I- I S4• I I s11 I I s11-I ls111I He's only 18 months old and already he's trapped in the cycle of homelessness in Cincinnati. His mother needs an affordable place to live and a job with a living wage as she escapes a life of domestic violence. The current treatment of homeless individuals in our city means that he may never be able to live in a home of his own. There are 25,000 people in Cincinnati that experience homelessness each year. More than one-third of those are women and children. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless believes that by addres ing the root causes of the problem through education, advocacy and coordination of services, we ·can end homelessness in our city. The more support we have from the community, the further our efforts reach. Please cut the coupon and pick a box. It could mean that one less child will have to live in one. Send your donations to Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Greater Cincinnati Coc;dition For The Homeless L------------------------------------- I I �STREETVIBES August, 2003 next day... she didn't show up! ... imagine that. Could it be that it is easier to beg for money than to put . in a honest days work? You remember that phrase don't you? We would like to hear from you - please address letters and comments to; "Honest days work".... Even the Salvation Army just rings _a bell ... they don't confront you for a contribution. Streetvibes, 1506 Elm Street, Why should these individuals be (or) email to: only place these "unmotivated" permitted to act any differently? Cincinnati Ohio 45202 As far as I'm concerned the. Streetvibes@juno.com individuals should beg is in front of Readers respond to homeless evictions .... Dear Ms. Getty, You are wrong. I read your cotnments in an article regarding the eviction of homeless people your building every time you are entering or exiting it. If you had . your head on straight you would be counseling these folks in what it takes to get them back on their feet. .. not encouraging them to continue to be involved in this self from under the overpasses. I, humiliation! Your not part of the being a Cincinnati resident, am for . problem! You should be ashamed removing them. I know there are shelters and other places they could solution, you're part of the of yourself! Page 4 Waiting for City to Decide by Elaine Coffey In waiting for the city to decide exactly what the heck they are doing I'm finding out that most .citizens are not aware of any of the panhandling issues or what they reall.x_ are. Issue # 1. Panhandling became the city's problem when our brilliant Councilmembers decided to take all of the activities from downtown and build the Riverfront area up. Well we don't want to place all the blame on you Charlie, but here it goes! town. There was an excellent individual has a right to free speech . , at my personal expense no matter what their personal situation is at the time!! I have personally offered to give a beggar a job· at my plant in Memphis ... and guess what... the Georgine Getty with our Quality of Life, Safety and stayed open all night, a porno film Welfare, VOTE. While being a good citizen, I registered for the CINCINNATI PANHANDLERS We had Morgana, that LICENSE, with the City of would jump out from the crowd Cincinnati seal. Look close. It and chase Johnny Bench around really says; CITY OF the field, and added attractions CINCINNATI REGISTRATION were that both teams (Red/ Bengals) were very-well organized. They brought the fans downtown. FOR SOLICITATION - OOPS! xplain to me this meaning of solicitation. This registration does So many more people not provide for any ty spoke to each other. They were ocial services, employment, education, gainf11lly eJ.Ilployed. Try speaking housing, or medical plans. The to someone in this town. Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the "HELLO?" - no response, it is Homeless made a suggestion almost like pulling teeth. If you city for place don't feeling like speaking, just ocial Services WORKER to provide this smile. Your faces will not fall off. and DCI (Downtown Cincinnati Inc.) is willing to provide $25,000. How do you expect visitors to come to Cincinnati and they are Why is that the city not will to not feeling welcomed? There is match this sum? At lease give it just nothing for the people here to one try. There are some wonderful do. Even the police shut down - people that are homeless, willing to try to get a car to come after 2:30 p.m. I don't care what community you are in. I am seeing no work, educated and dependable, only needing affordable housing· and employment to maintain. investment in the children or the Some, with treatment, are available seniors of this town. The flowers and will work. Come on citizens, and the tree get more attention yes, it is rough for a lot of people. than the people that paid for them But am I my Brother's (Bicentennial Commons and Sawyer Point). Yes, I would like office that will make dangerous decisions for us, and all year, adult book shop that Fountain had many fans.. That's a hassle!!! And no who we place i parlor that stayed open all night Georgine Getty Responds.... Thank confront you asking for moriey ! change. We have to take charge of shows, the Skywalk, the ice cream dangerous and restricted areas. I · to explain that everything must remember at least three movie house, The Playboy Club, and the you for your comments and con­ cerns about this issue. The social that have that purpose. If we allow services of Cincinnati are-wonder­ . people to camp out anywhere they ful. However, two points remain: like, you might as well set up tents 1. There is not enough outreach on Fountain Square. Instead of being conducted to engage with criticizing the actions of the city, people who are not already benefit­ why don't you go down there and ing from the system. This is why we help these people find someplace to asked the City of Cincinnati to o.. Seems that would be a better commit money to an outreach use of your time. program that targeted panhan­ Jeffrey dlers. We were turned down in favor of their punitive, money­ Georgine, wasting registration program. Saw you on Hannity (Fox 2. People have a constitutional TV) last nite. · Just want you to right to live under the bridge, be in know you are a real piece of work. public, address people, and walk And I don't mean that in a around like any other American complimentary way. It gets tiring, citizen. They are not causing any listening to the same old liberal harm except to those people who comments by left wing trash like are profoundly troubled by looking you. Why is it, that you could not poverty directly in the face. And answer Sean Hannity's questions? my message to these folks is to help Any tiine you liberals cannot or will us end homelessness rather than not answer a question, you always hide it away. try to deflect off to a different Self-determination does not subject. The regular (normal) encourage "self-humiliation" as people of society have had enough Mr. Page suggests. I encourage of the people you purport to each of us to look within our hearts defend. Why don't you get a real and find patience, concern and .job? most of all compassion until this Don Salamon situation can be resolved for the benefit of everyone involved. Ms. Getty, And as for Mr. Salamon, the I read a quote from you on work we perform at the Greater the Fox website portraying the Cincinnati Coalition for the Home­ registering of the homeless as "this less is the most important work added hassle" and a infringement there is; we help restore dignity on the rights of free speech. and end homelessness everyday. I I'll tell you what a hassle is, consider that the most "real" job having one of these individ11als anyone could ever hope to have. In this article I am hoping quality of life in Cincinnati. I Jim Page and volunteered for organizations Elaine Coffey In 1974, I moved to this be rather than on public property in know this because I have donated · keeper? Y ES I AM! Needing your · to know where that $200,000 came from and where is it going to be placed? Just a thought, if there is any left over, would the city spend that money against DCI? Yes the. people are coming downtown and going across the river enjoying life. feedback: E-mail me at elainecoffy@yahoo.com Until next time. If you can't be a part of the soultion, don't be a part of the problem! See ya, for now. �STREETVIBES Page 5 August, 2003 . The Homeless Made My Day condition they were in. There are by Mrs. Mary Gaffney I was sitting at my desk one day and thinking about something that had happened unexpectedly. I was very happy and surprised by it. T o formerly homeless guys I had met three years ago had stopped by the Homeless Coalition office one ways to speak to people without being harsh or bitter. As the old saying goes; you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. On the recent day when I got to see and greet my two homeless friends who had not forgotten me, and I remembered them, I recalled afternoon this week where I now how you never know what is in work. These guys had been making their home under the 1-4 7 1 bridge that time long ago. I grew store for you in the life you have to share with your fellow man. As we travel the road of life remember, it is no harm to to know them speak to someone and they were with a tone of very polite to Do you have a favorite Stre_etvibes Vendor that you would like to tell us about? . Send us your Storie$ or comments to: Streetvibes@juno.com or Streetvibes 1506 Elm Street Cincinnati. Ohio 45202 gentleness, or me. During bad take time to say weather, they 'hello" or to would be at reach out to help Court and a person in need Walnut Streets, or give a-kind and where I'd be, gentle word or getting off one smile or a little bus to transfer to advice. I say another in order today to my two to get to the office, and they DEAR READERS! Send us your Vendor Stories Miss Mary Gaffney would be there saying, "How are you, Ms. Mary?" When they came into the homeless friends who I once knew as the homeless are on their way to a better life. No more underpasses or bridges will they have to call office they would share with me their personal stories or sometimes about problems that occurred in home. To my friends, Bob and Dave, I say to you, God bless you. Because I always told you many the streets. Yesterday, after three times regardless of what came up years, I got off my bus at Court and Walnut Streets and someone or what ever problem, remember,. called out my name. Then there you are somebody. These words I were two voices, "Ms. Mary!" At will always share with you. first it startled me but when I Remember them and.keep them. looked, I didn't recognize them These are my friends and if I can without the rugged beards and long say a kind word of encouragement hair. I recognized the smiles or a smile then I'll have a beautiful though;. these were my two day, shared with my homeless friends. Good luck Bob and Dave. homeless friends. Now they were casually dressed, with hair cuts, but I still · recognized them. My first question was to ask them where had they been these past years. They said that they no longer lived in Cincinnati, and now have good jobs. They talked about their jobs and the company they worked for. One of them was about to get married, and he promised to let me know when. No, I hadn't fussed or preached at them anytime they had come into the office those many years ago, regardless of the Privatizing the budget surplus. �STREETVIBES August, 2003 Page 6 _ The Peace Village by Dr. Steve Sunderland The decisions of the Supreme Court this week in reaffirming affirmative action and the privacy rights of homosexual couples ·are welcome events that reverberate in the Peace Village. Racial justice and civil rights for all are basic goals for the Peace Village. Doing posters with team member and multi-talented artist, Amos Hopkins, and a dozen youth artists at a site that was part of our riots two years ago; Findlay Market, brought home just how different the inner city world is. from the rest of our city and region. Amos' program, "Arts in the Market," is helping to design a mural, made from these posters by inner city kids, to .be placed in our large inner city market. The· · mural will be displayed in a totally rebuilt meat and vegetable market that is surrounded by one of the worst looking ghettos in Cincinnati. Buildings that are burnt out shells, along with some of the city's oldest housing structures are in every view from -- the restored and almost completely opened market. We sat outside of the I market, under a walkway, making posters on a table thrown together with a slat of wood of a supporting structure, in a bright and warming sun. The youth had stories to say and draw, concerns that ranged the gamut from drugs,· murder, guns, to facing the reality that people, no matter what is invading their lives, need hope. Our posters, hanging from the poles that held the market up, on fragile duct tape, spoke of this abiding hope. These youth, really children, wanted an affirmative action city and neighborhood, a place where the old ravages of urban abandonment, planned urban destruction through overcrowding, and ineffective policing, co _ uld be replaced by physical spaces of safety, compassion, and just plain neighborliness. "There need to be jobs," one beautiful poster shouted out,. affirmative jobs for all those people surrounding the market who had no place to go and nothing to do on a early and beautiful Summer day except dream of what isn't. We needed affirmative actions of beauty, places in our neighborhood that were allocations of caring and compassion. "Why not a mural and a community of love?," another poster beckoned to us. . The artist, a very young, very shy, and very beautiful little one, by Terrence McNally, "Corpus makes it dangerous to both teach Christi," that recently came and making that moment a shining example of affirmation. For moments, we were affirmative viewpoint. I felt the play and serious retelling of the strengthened our ability to tolerate Passion Play, that asked if Jesus action. We redrew our city, placed would have accepted gays, including himself if gay, brol).gh ' t in a minimum quota of softness, gende acts of compassion. We had that conversation about the magical way a city could be colored so that the and tolerate the different just left. The play, a delightful our own madness for tolerance, / gave us the joy of laughing, at times, at ourselves, and I returned · trem ndous protest to the ,outside to the powerful point of finding of the theater by local and the capacity to continue to support Pennsylvania group_s seeking to this wonderful idea of difference. I would have loved to do rainbows in each posters with the audience and the person could shine out protesters outside and to see if we of the window, onto the could share our perspectives after streets and into the seeing this play. I brought some families that embraced cardboard into the play and did them and the children. some drawings that I hope to A breeze blew through share with the director and cast. the market, lifting the posters ever so The opportunity to deepen our education continues, now, without _ delightfully in a kind of the benefit of this extraordinary dance of cardboard. performance. Clearly, the play We laughed as they unleashed so. many feelings for seemed to flap and those of us who were there in any wave at us, at the form. But, where can we find a market, and at our pretend. forum to discuss our differences, Dr. Steve Sunderland hear the pain on all sides, and Amos helped struggle together for mutual me bring the materials back to my car and we felt that we had started a day of affirmative action on a . street that cried out for some change. 'This program may die after this Summer;" Amos said as linger in our ears as we hugged abut the direct cost of prejudice in strong and difficult task facing our society and in education in peace keepers who are working particular? What the Supreme Court decision rem o c . play wer.e asking for a rethinking race prejudice is one of the glues of whether one idea of Jesus the lines of the youth we worked dedicated this morning to a belief that this program and the hope it represents for us will continue. The Supreme Court's decision to allow homosexuals privacy rights falls on Cincinnati like _a gentle Summer rain. Seeds of struggling for rights to be married, to hold ceremonies that honor gays and lesbians, along with rights to just be .able. to express feelings about difference have been planted in our Spring of conflict. Just last month, a local should be the only one portrayed changed, melted, and refo into a learning-eK-p expelled for wanting to go on with honoring marriages and holding discussing amongst themselves at mostly all white civic the wrong headed position that organizations, schools, many of us represented. Other neighborhoods, and churches in protesters were prepared to fight, our community and see the to curse, to raise the level of consequences in terms of conflict so that their point could additional hurdles added to those be driven home. I wondered how safe Stef, the supporters, and the color, I feel that this decision is of us of color just because of cast and I were at these moments. too little and too late. Yet, the The cast seemed totally unaffected American door stays open a little by the stress and conflict outside while longer, and the children of the theater (a stage, ironically, in a our city, looking ahead to college church basement). Their and jobs, will have this decision performance was a gem: the to study and implement. There can be a mural, I glistening and suggestive of the think, that stretches across our beauty in this difficult story. city, of the dreams of our community, our entire community. I left the theater asking the marriages for homosexuals. Hearings that sounded like medieval drama were held to try the minister as hundreds of that can strengthen everyone. When I look · points they made were sharp, Presbyterian minister was at of our society that needs to be in any form. Many of the protesters were civil, praying and with were drawn, and we question about how love can be We are drawing this mural in the so brutally turned into hate, all in Peace Village, one poster and one the name of love. Each religion community at a time. seems to cry out for one approach parishioners walked outside the to love and, then, twisted to church holding posters of protest. Grief and anger ensue. Yet, there was hope and beauty captured in Dr. Steve Sunderland, professor supporting a kirid of faith that is of Social Work at the University violent, at times. Beneath all of of Cincinnati, is the Director of The Peace Village, a group of the "drama" outside the theater, the annual Cincinnati Pride March indivitJ.uals from the national and and in the play, were fundamental as thousands marched in support international community questions that are as relevant to of diversity and especially the committed to examining all issues Cincinnati as they are to Israel, right to be gay. Right in the of Peace in the world. Dr. Argentina, or Nigeria. We middle of the march, a gigantic Sunderland also heads up educators are faced with a rain storm came and we marched reception to the controversial play seemingly dangerous viewpoints support the play, I again felt the many know and still cannot face: mural, the call for another view, Not so happy was the Jesus. Standing in a protest to difference. Those protesting the and hoped for a miracle. The on, soaked and delighted. respect for different and toward some form of tolerance for we put the. markers and cardboard in my car. We let this sentence s op the play because it "insulted" Posters-for-Peace which engages difficult task of making the many · points clear and encouraging tolerance for difference, even though our culture of violence · people in expressing their visions of Peace, in their own words, through the creation of posters. �STREETVIBES .l'agc 7 August, 2003 true change. More information on the initiative can be found at www.carenotcash.org. .A second person has been charged in the murder of Gregory Biggs , a homeless man who was hit by a car and left Compiled by Molly Rhodes Seizing on the chance to make a statement about homelessness the whole world will see and hear, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty plans to take over an abandoned building in Toronto to coincide with a visit by the Pope the end of July. The Pope Squat, as it's known, is designed to harness the socially active energy of the many Catholic organizations that are expected to descend on Ontario, to start making real progress towards the creation of enough affordable housing to house everyone who needs it. According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Toronto Social Housing Connections had 60,870 stuck in the windshield until he housing, then we will!" over how to best serve their to reaching the November ballot. Earlier this month, Supervisor Gavin Newsom submitted s"ignatures to City Hall for his Care . Not Cash initiative, which would take the money that is currently been given directly to homeless people to more or less use as they please - between $320 and $395 per person on average -. and redirect it into specific programs to provide services and support for these people. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the proposed initiative has support among people Squatters intend to form a self­ individuals who have no intention center, and to keep it going for as long as the world's spotlight as too tempting for families and of using the money to do anything but feed habits, such as using drugs and alcohol, that only keep them prevents the Toronto police from homeless. Yet critics doubt that the visit as an opportunity to literally created the current homeless crisis evicting them. "We see the Papal get our foot in the door," reads the Coalition's website, www.ocap.ca. "If the city won't build social same city officials who have will be able to put together the kind of programs needed to help people put their lives back together. The only things that these two groups do agree in is that, despite throwing more than KTB AMKlltCAH Street Newspaper· A880()lATlON . $ 1 00 million towards the homeless problem every year, the city is not doing nearly enough to bring about 12) Clete Jackson was indicted for evidence tampering for removing Biggs from the clients has come one step closer who see the current cash give away managed house and community page Francisco homeless advocates applications for affordable housing in May to fill 337 vacancies. died. (See complete story on T he fight between San windshield after he died and · dumping his body in a park, in an apparent attempt to cover up the hit and run by his friend, Chante Mallard, the driver of the car. Mallard was indicted for murder in April, and is awaiting trial in jail on $250,000 bail. Loss of airline traffic could be a gain for homeless families living in the vicinity of John F. Kennedy airport in New York, where a Manhattan federal bankruptcy judge has order the owners of a closed airport hotel to reopen the space as a shelter for homeless families. According to Newsday, the shelter will be run by the Salvation Army through the end of September and will provide a home for at least 10 families as they seek permanent housing. The owner of the hotel has also begun negotiations to perhaps extend the shelter lease beyond September, but business owners near the Queens airport don't like the idea of a shelter in the middle of a prosperous strip of real estate. "While we are concerned about the plight of homeless families," said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall in a press release, "we cannot stand by and watch them warehoused in a totally inappropriate site that is near the epicenter of an economic development renaissance." Streetvibes Vendor Code Each vendor must sign and agree to abide by the following code of conduct ... 1. Streetvibes will be distributed for a $ 1 the sale of Streehlibes will go to the individual voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for donations of vendor. Falsely stating intent or otherwise mis­ able to keep 80 cents of each dollar collected. may be cause for arrest. more than $ 1 . I also understand that I will be 2. Streetvibes may only be purchased from the representing is a vio ation of a city ordinance and 8. (GCCH). Purchasing or selling unauthorized papers, or from other vendors, will result in . termination from the program. 3. I agree that I will not ask for donations or attempt 4. I agree to treat others with respect - other ven­ 5. to vend after 1 2 midnight. I will always present my badge when purchasing papers, and I will display my badge at all times Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 9. while vending. Replacement badges are $5 each. There are no.territories. I agree that I will not contest territories with other distriQutors. I will not sell on private property without permission. 10. I understand that Streetvibes strives to be a self­ supporting paper created by people who are . dors, customers, and GCCH personnel. homeless or formerly homeless. To help in this I will not sell Streetvibes while under the influence effort, I will of drugs or alcohol. 6. I will not give a "hard sell" or make someone feel 7. I agree not to deceive the public by saying that I threatened. am collecting for a not-for-profit charity or that I am collecting for the "homeless" in general. I will be honest in stating that all the profits from try to spread the word and write stories if possible. 11. I understand that failure to comply with any of the above statements will result in termination from the Streetvibes vendor program. GCCH reserves the right to terminate a vendor at any time as deemed appropriate. · �STREETVIBES Au . gust; 2003 The Stench of Poverty downtown to be panhandled in the . by Amy Allen · I recently watched with fascimition the Fox News national first place? But'perhaps this statement coverage of Cincinnati1s new has some merit. After all, ordinance for the registration of shouldn't we be afraid of the panhandlers. One of the homeless? Couldn't we, safe for enlightened hosts (I never could the moment in middle class distinguish who was who, other complacency, become homeless at than to discern that one was any time? One ill-timed layoff, one moderately conservative while the devastating medical bill, one other was rabidly so), said, escape from an abusive "Frankly, a lot of people see relationship, or just a string of homeless people and they1re afraid. could be out on the streets. Will with children and they see we then ha.ve the tenacity to be homeless people that have old dirty seen begging for the money to clothes, they1re afraid of them." survive? Or will we stay safely He later stated that when "families hidden from the people who might . be afraid of us? with children" encountered the homeless, who also "perhaps have some body odor," it was "a very of "mothers and fathers with children" who have the right not to smelly people in dirty clothes. assumptions behind them can shed What families with children are Perhaps it will make the children of "non-lethal violence" in that question why they have so much same time period. These hate and others have so little. Or perhaps they will question why a lot of people are afraid of these crimes were motivated, mostly, by the simple fact of the victims poverty. Indeed, we should people in dirty old clothes with definitely find panhandling a very body odor issues. All in all, I can threatening experience. So the national coverage of understand why this situation could be frightening to many parents. ·Finally, let1s look at panhandling itself as a "very threatening experience." · According to the National Coalition for the Homeless (www.nationalhomeless.org), the number of homeless people killed . between 1 999 and 2001 by "housed the Cincinnati issue was indeed an eye opening experience for me. Next time I encounter a threatening and dirty person who asks me for change, I will be sure to call the nearest police officer to protect myself and any nearby children from the stench of poverty. these? Are they the 40% of the behind Cincinnati's criminalization national homeless population that of poverty. is made up of families? Are they First of all, I wonder who homeless people experienced acts be threatened and intimidated by profound statements to see if the more light on the assumptions people" was 110. Meanwhile, 1 40 difficult questions of their parents. Next, let1s examine the idea threatening experience'." Let1s unpack these clothes" may make children ask ·unfortunate events., and we too If you have mothers and fathers Page 8 Editorial the families who live next to the the "a lot of' people are who are drug dealers that Cincinnati1s afraid of the homeless. In her police force is too overworked to statement on the show, the director for the Greater Cincinnati get off the streets? Are they part 0 of the 52% of homeless families Coalition for the Homeless, who were turned away from very eompetitive rat lack of facilities? Are these . per month. ···· ··· . am volu11te < . OurW-t! . {\idlltl be'.a seri dti Georgine Getty, stated that 65% of Cincinnati's population opposed the new panhandling ordinance. If . 65% of Cincinnati's population is opposed to the registration of the 100 or so homeless people who actually panhandle in Cincinnati, is children part of the 1 . 35 million " 39% of the total United States Cincinnati c u En r the Homeless homeless population? But we should be worried that children might _be exposed to who are afraid when they see poverty, especially with mothers majority of citizens ever venture . who are homeless every year, the the other 45 % the "a lot" of people homelessness? If so, will this vast tliiit: r¢a.clis aHt)µt ,l'S €),{}O peopi emergency shelter in 2001 due to and fathers in tow. The sight, or smell, of a panhandler in "dirty, old ··· H_elp build a powerful, resident led organizationl Thefe fif. iluifz iblis income residents in Over-the-Rhine and they are going strong. Block clubs .are forming in e . !m8m; or apization. . Thi could 11 lude asKing your friends and f(l.mily for donations t? res7(1.rchiJig an w t ng grants for ()Ur excellent programs. · ' The Streetvibes . l ays, 11. · neetl of people interested ill . c:onnecting;):Vith the vendors and th <ifeater Ci fi natfi Coalition. . for the: Homeless. We;are h lping th willing (o work with each poetry, or personal stqries. 9l i · c "' n 'rtJi ervice · . tsng lit.ior opportunity t . ' i the . The fozli ing are.a few .... . fun opportunities Jor ollinteers at i Clubs are fig hting for the rights of low- volunteer that would like to ll J¥ 1?a1? rg.w ject · The Repu blic Street & Vine Street Block v-m<l · y f;;. ··hthe rite . ed.h Pm . the v····i .;. !i . . · 'aftemo6ris anhe front tlesk: \ an erihgp ones an(ihandlin .. reetvifA f tip ) ;: Ventlors: . · ill · ad<iress th F hfr ; othe . r parts of the neigh borhood, too. ic es on so.ci.al justice/poverty-iss.ues, ' Call the Contact Center at 381-4242 or stop by 1227 Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine to a 'Yays nee .,. for elp witti bulk niaijings. learn more about how you can get involved i .M with these resident led organizations. ,ngs! repqrt, qu 9 .tij ·. p,11ual,. , , iy news,letter, arid v<µi.ous C(l.p tol c mpaigns. While we make every effort to provide a forum for those without a voice, STREETVIBES and the staff of THE GREATER CINCINNATI COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS, is not responsible for statements, and do not necessarily endorse the opinions of the people whose writings are represented here. If yo°ii are ihtet sted in o en ·e,?uf' . ·• \ .· t · Stree yibes prqgram, we are searcipng for vp!unteef; to solicit . ·advertisements from local busirie e . If your business or a .. busiJ?. ss you know of would like to ad. f!ise irrpnr pap r, we offer voiunteering at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, please contact the office at 421 -7803, a visit us at 1 50(') Elm Street in,Over-the- Rhili.e =\+ · , �STREETVIBES Page 9 August, 2003 Poets Against the War Sam Hamill, Artistic Director, poetsagainstthewar.org "All I ask is that, in the midst of a murderous worl.d, we Poets Against the War. Our accomplishments have been bold has been accomplished because_ poets gave their art and hearts and money to make it work. The war, however, has only and vivid, subtle and modest. just begun. The Bush policies have Both the electronic anthology of been somewhat reinforced, at least agree to reflect on murder and to 1 3,000 poems and the now best­ for the short run, thanks to make a choice. After that, we. can selling print selection from it have manipulative, flag-waving media. distinguish those who accept the made history. Our actions in Poets Against the War will remain consequences of being murderers creating national and international an active organization opposing themselves or the accomplices of days of poetry readings against new and continuing wars and new murderers, and those who refuse to war have also been historical "patriotic acts." Now it is time for Dante put the defilers of language into the seventh circle of his Hell. Our liberties are defined by a few " clear, simple words The history of poetry is filled with advocacy, private and public. It is our privilege to draw on that history and to educate our friends and neighbors - and ourselyes - to extend the vast pleasures and wisdom of poetry as peaceful world together. .Jn long-range - ..a force and being. planning. For that Since this terrible reason, the Board telling the story, in singing the dividing line does of Directors has actually exist, it will appointed Andy be a gain if it be Himes to the clearly marked. position of Over the expanse of Executive five continents Director. I will throughout the continue to serve do so with all their · · coming years an on the board between violence aided by an and friendly Advisory persuasion, a Committee of struggle which, poets to be named within the month. has a thousand firsts. We have established a to extend our message and provide worldwide network for poets valuab e information, as well as , always hel.d that, if he who bases opposed to George Bush's threat opening a forum where poets may his hopes on human nature is a of worldwide "pre-emptive" war explore strategies and propose fool, he who gives up in the face of circumstances is a coward. And and his creation of a United States actions. We have drawn our line in the sand. Our tools are everyone's henceforth, the only honorable nation. We have joined with other tools : the simple words we use course will be to stake everything anti-war and human rights almost thoughtlessly every day, but Only a few well-chosen words can make peace. And even then, only when we are willing to fully inhabit those words. To live by them. Sometime within the month, poetsagainstthewar. org will once again begin publishing new poetry on our web site. May we all find those few right words we can live by. use in our art with scrupulous on a formidable gamble: that organizations to broaden and words are more powerful than deepen our opposition to this honesty and precision. I am munitions. " Albert Camus administration's policies as more Confocian enough to believe that and more people become ·aware of "All wisdom is rooted in learning the terrible consequences we all to call things by the right name,. " face. All of this, and much more, And we poets understand why SIR. AS A MORALE OOSTER FOR THE EMPLOYEES... damage done by inappropriate deceptive misnomer. We will continue founder-and primary spokesman of come to understand the terrible metaphor and deliberately granted, the former has been my privilege to serve as sooner we shall understand the consequences of our actions. The better our poetry, the better we . Artistic Director, For the past six months, it beautiful and the deceitful. The through the deliberately warped going to be pursued that is in fact and deed a rogue behind the words, both the language of this administration, the while acting as than does the latter. But I have song, there is always the poetry more peop_le learn to see clearly endless struggle is times more chances of success ...YOU MIGHT CONSIOER A VOLUNTARY PAY COT. · we explore ideas, working to make 1 Peas lee Neighborhood Center 2 1 5 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhi ne Ci nci nnati , Oh i o 45202 (513) 621-5514 WHICH OF THE EMPLOYEES SHOULD I VOLUNTEER? Empoweri ng our neighborhood chi ldren through peace , art and educati on �STREETVIBES August, 2003 Page 10 · Homeless Save Camps.... Cont from Page · 1 The City's approach does nothing_ to prevent homelessness or lessen poverty. The City rarely shows any desire to attack the root causes of homelessness - like rising unemployment or rising housing costs. They just want to move people from under bridges. When camps are swept, the people who lived there move somewhere less visible, and then the City is happy because the homeless are out of sight and out of mind. Social service agen_cies in the area are trying a different . approach. Outreach workers stress the need to first build a relationship with people, earn their trust, and then help them get into the services they need. This approach works, ril}fre but it takes time. Uncompassionate approaches like the sweeps of hoµieless camps (and the recently passed legislation that helps the city put more panhandlers behind bars) only make matters worse. Don says he knows the people of Cincinnati are generally . compassionate people. "There's a minister who comes down to talk Some of the campers under the 3rd Street b · ' wants to make sure people see that. He's earning that right. And he citizens in the futur . Especially other homeless_people. "I' m not really doing this for me," Don explains. "I' m doing this to help all the people who live out here." .· So far things are working / . out. On July 2 1 si, Judge Dlott r extended the restraining orde to me every Sunday," he says. "I . 20 days. On August 1 1 th, an9ther hearing will be held to dete,rhrine tell him not to give up on me. One the fate of the bridge sw9ips, the day I'IJ get out of here " Don plans to stay under his . panhandling ordinance ihnd the way the city will t ea s homeless bridge for a little while anyway. The Restraining Order ·/ r,Jo - "Wolf' leads protestors at the intersection near the 3rd Street bridge The news media had a field day �Au gust, 2003 STREETVIBES The Homeless Man Page 11 ' It was a cold winter 's day that Sunday. The pafking lot to the church was filling up quickly. I noticed as I got out of my car that fellow churc_h members were whispering among themselves as they walked to · the church. As I got closer I saw a man leaned up against the wal outside the church. He was almost lying down as if he was asleep. He had on a long trench coat that was almost in shreds and a hat topped his head, pulled down so you could not see his face. He wore shoes that looked 30 years old, too small for his feet with holes all over them, his toes stuck Th rou g h · u r Eyes Reflect!ons on Horne1essness out. I assumed this man was homeless, and asleep, so I walked on by through the doors of the church. People snickered and gossiped but no one bothered to ask him to come in, including me. A few moments later church began. We all waited for the Preacher to take his place and to give us the Word, when the doors to the church opened. In came the homeless man walking down the aisle with his head down. People gasped and whispered and made faces. He made his way down the aisle and up on to the pulpit he took off his hat and coat. My heart sank. Jhere stood our preacher. . .he was the "homeless man." No one said a word. The preacher took his Bible and laid it on the stand. "Folks, I don't think I have to tell you what I am preaching about today. If I can help somebody as I pass along. If I can cheer somebody with_ a word or song. If l can show somebody that he's traveling wrong. Then my living shall not be in vain." Commun ity f,l source Cards ...,....·. / / / . F'f¢tf g/1flu1{MtipY!ni 'lr t:i!11iruN1.IJ Ml./kr fMti't ,_ ' HiJ.h .�JJInni tire �IP CiJlo"nafi �ilu� for t'iie 1'}{!htdMJ. A The book, Th rough Our Eyes, a collaboration of Cincinnati '.s Mother of Mercy High School and the Greater Cincinnati Coali­ tion for the Homeless.... Through Our Eyes: Reflections on Homelessness takes you on a experiential journey of learning by high - Rockdale Temple has announced the release of the latest in its series of Community Resource Cards. The new one, printed in Spanish, is customized for school _students as they leave their subm;ban comfort zones to explore the world of the inner-city homeless of Cincinnati. A collaboration of Cincinnati's Mother of the needs of Cincinnati's rapidly growing Hispanic/ Mercy High School and the Greater Cincinnati Coali­ Latino population. tion for the Homeless, The tri-fold, plastic cards are funded by the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati as a project , of Rockdale Temple, in consultation with Bienstar, Su Casa and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. In addition to the Hispanic Resource Card, the Resource · Card Project has also produced cards for senior citizens, the ho eless, and public school and Catholic school students covering the Tri-state area. Cards can be ordered from: cc 5300 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio · 45224 #2 10 Proofreader/Copy Editor Strata-G Communications and formerly homeless individuals, reflections, art­ the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless for $10 each, plus $3 shipping and handling. 506 Elm Street, Cincinnati Ohio 45202. more information call (513) 421-7803 Homeless, For SOLUTION S pastries : · 11379 Montgomery (513) 469-1111 Road , 3366 Erie Avenue East Hyde Park (513) 533-3402 51 3/381 -8855 7896 Montgomery (513) 891- 7740 51 3/381 -0385 (fax) Make checks payable to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the 250 W. Court Street Suite 400W Cincinnati, OH 45202 - work and photography. The books are available from generous donation of coffee and S T R A T A - G f mrnmunfcatfons Brad Crawford munity about homelessness through stories of homeless these Starbucks locations for their (5 13) 541-0099 MARKETING educate other high school students and the larger com­ The GCCH would like to thank or send a fax request to: i N T E G R AT E D Through Our Eyes attempts to Road · / �Page 12 · August, 2003 .S TREETVIBES Woman Gets 50 Years for Windshield Death by Angela K. Brown, Associated Press Writer comment afterward. A jury sentenced a former nurse's aide to 50 years in prison counseled Mallard in jail as part of "My heart is heavy truly heavy," said Norma Carethers, who a chaplain program. t took the jury less than an hour to convict Mallard, who after a night of drinking and using drugs last month for leaving an accident victim to die a slow death while lodged in the broken windshield of struck Biggs, 37, with her car about her car. 3 a.m. on Oct. 26, 200 1 . She drove Chante Mallard, 27, could . have receivecf anywhere from five : . home with the man crurilpied in the years probation to life in prison for windshield and left him in her murdering Gregory Biggs. She and her family cried after the . garage to die. Medical experts testified that Biggs was alive for one or two hours after being hit and probably would have survived had he sentence was read. ''There's no winners in a case like this. Just as we all lost Greg, you all will be losing your daughter," Biggs' son, Brandon, told Mallard's family in a received medical help. Defense attorney Jeff statement he read in court after the sentence was announced. Brandon Biggs told Mallard he accepted the apology she tearfully offered on the witness stand, "but in return I hope that you will accept my forgiveness and I hope you will accept the forgiveness of Jesus Christ." Both families declined to Kearney said he was disappointed with the length of the sentence, which was announced after jurors deliberated about 2 1 /2 hours. He said an appeal is planned. "We certainly knew it would be a significant prison sentence · based on all the evidence but we were hoping it would be somewhat lighter," he said. Mallard told the jury Thursday that she was sorry, for a couple of years after loaning adding that she didn't call for help because she was scared and didn't know what to do. But prosecutor girlfriend money and then losing his truck and horrie. Biggs' battered body was found in a park the day after he Richard Alpert said Friday that the case "is all about selfishness." "Some people lack the moral fiber to do the right thing," was hit. Authorities had no leads in the death untilfour months later, when one of Mallard's he said. "A man is lying in her car acquaintances called police and said she had talked about the accident at a party. moaning and bleeding and she needs someone to telf her. what to do? Any decent person would call for help." Officers went to Mallard's house and found the bloodstained, dented car. , They also found the . passenger seat burned in the back yard. Before her trial began Monday, Mallard pleaded guilty to t pering with evidence by burning Kearney told jurors that Mallard would not have left the man to die if she hadn't been under the influence of alcohol, marijuana and Ecstasy. Alpert, who had told jurors that Mallard deserved life in prison, said he was pleased with the sentence. "We just wanted.to point the bloody car seat. On that charge she was sentenced to 1 0 years in prison, to be served concurrently with the murder sentence. A friend of Mallard's and his cousin pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence by dumping the body. Clete Jackson and Herbert Cleveland received prison sentences of 1 0 years and nine years, respectively. out that this was a serious case and it needed a serious punishment," he said. Brandon Biggs testified earlier in the week that his father took medication for bipolar disorder and mild schizophrenia. He said Biggs had been homeless Homelessness Doesn't Discri minate, but People Do His heart and compassion is great with a sweet smile that seems to always exist on his face. He has by Patti McKenzie . Since I was young, I had always had a heart for the homeless, poor and needy. My husband, Geoff and I moved to Williamsburg, VA in October for tried to get help from our local . organizations, including our · personal reasons. I had done work in the town we moved from for over six years, and I wanted to continue the work here in Williamsburg. It took awhile to get started because many of the hom.eless and working poor aren't noticeable. They dress nice, keep clean and there's no shelter here, where they can go or anyone who Community Service Board, but because he lost his ID; he falls through the crack. But since we have been working with him, he is learning to slowly cut back on his drinking, in order for tis to help him get a job and with his desire to have a normal life again, he is now beginning to reach out to God for help. Another gentleman has suffered through a drug problem She has 3 young adult boys, with She wants him to finish out this year before she moves to an area ki s, keep a motel room as shelter help from service organizations, but kept being told move away right. We love these people as they are and what we see within them. family struggled to get out of living be or what we think they should do with their life. Everything is in couldn't match a place to live. Last week their daughter had to weeks ago he was given a chance as a bus boy in a local restaurant get shelter. They reached out to a church who put them into a weekly week of our ministry. The . struggles, trials, tribulations and attitudes have been great. In the beginning, the biggest struggle was to get the trust of those we wanted to reach out to. Any test you think they· could put you through, I passed. Slowly they told me their stories. One gentleman ended up ilivorced due to his alcohol problem. Because his family had and moved into a Weekly motel. We offer him help to manage his they can call home. These are just a few an inexpensive motel, the husband weren't willing to reach out any bottle. He is actually our favorite and we have become best friends. license and stable life. longer until he would give lip the motel so their daughter could recuperate. Although they can pay into the other week is a couple was a victim of identity fraud. He fights the courts to prove the tried several times to help; they signature .isn't his that made them lose their credit, job, vehicle, patience. And this is what God asks all of us to do; reach out to · have surgery, which forced them to for some of the weekly cost, the hotels in our area increased the with children and although they finally got the opportunity to live in their time, not ours. To reach out to somebody also means to show both work, their paychecks money and to find a place he can afford to live. As of right now, he· still maintains his job with the hope of having stability in his life. An unusual situation we ran Not for how we think they should · from here. A sweet, hard working services here, but none saw him to be worth the effort. Finally, three best interest, not because you won't help." In many ways they are and give her son a chance at ari education. She also tried to get tried to get help through the · say no when you know 'it is for our struggles t.P get to work, feed her to live, get back on their feet, a friend to fellowship with and a vision of hope. We are now in our 1 2th much respect as you would like us to treat you. Yo!J are human. You cost of living. Until then, she now we have a goal; to get a nobody could reach him. He also need you. You treat us with as . where the pay wages match the in their car and find a place to live. Although the husband and wife shelter for those who need a place different to you in regards to getting help? You are our friend. You are there no matter when we the youngest still in high school. that put him on: the street. He also has family here, but once again, wants to do volunteer work. So and a job. Their stories all vary but their desires remain the same. We have asked _them, "What makes us A lady we work with, has a decent job, but it is located 40 miles from where she once lived. cost due to tourism season. We still help them get contributions for their living until we can find a place examples of the people we try to reach out to, because we have over 20 right now we work with; some literally on the streets and some in weekly ro ms awaiting their chance. The three most common dreams they all share: hope, a home · the poor and needy. Our most recent struggle has been the discrimination we suffer within the neighborhood we live in. We don't have any bi-laws or regulations, but our neighbors are trying to set forth rules for us to adhere to. Although they all claim "This is a just and noble cause you do, we don't want it here in our neighborhood affecting us." We have never stated we wanted the shelter on this street, nor do we intend to establish a Discrim i nate . . . . cont._ next page . - �Page 13 August, 2003 ST REETVl BES Victory For Parents Med icai d Coverage D iscri m i nate . . . . . by Lynn Williams from previous page The Ohio Empowerment shelter in this area. It is too remote and would be hard for those needing help to travel to our area. Coalition, in collaboration with other groups across Ohio, succeeded in convincing state legislators to restore Parents They don't want us doing laundry services at our house because we are all on well systems and we will Medicaid Coverage in the State affect the water supply for all. means that parents who are because we didn't check with the neighbors first. I didn' t think we poverty level or.below will be able They felt like they lost trust in me needed their permission to have friends over, and besides, they have never asked us if it was ok to have visitors at their house. But, we did take fliers around to each house, which included olir intentions for our ministry and request for old clothing, bedding and empty milk JUgs. Because we only rent and don't own the property we live in, we don't have a vested interest in this neighborhood. But does that mean we don't care about where we live or our personal property? These are j ust a few of our neighbors complaints. What caused this uproar within the Budget for 2003 - 2005. This working in low-wage jobs at to continue receiving Medicaid coverage in Ohio. (Poverty level for a family of three is officially set at $ 1 5 ,260.) Approximately 50,000 working parents are currently affected by this decision. In addition, during the course of our campaign, we found parents who were unaware of their eligibility for the program. The campaign served to educate them on what was available for their press conference in Columbus that care subsidies to be restored to health care bills. I would have antibiotic couple of homeless men and brought them to our house one day to grill out, fish and later to have Bible Study. Because we offered the lady with the 3 sons to stay a few nights while we tried to find her a place to live. Oh wait. The neighbors didn't have a problem with that ! Why? Because it was a white family. You see all the others they have complained about were black. My husband and I grew up didn't give me a chance to answer their questions. Since our meeting two weeks ago, our landlords are now trying to evict us with lease violations, that don't exist in our lease. With new added rules such as: nobody can visit or stay more than three days a month and only licensed/insured people can cut our grass or help to clean our house. Will this stop us? NO ! Oh and by the way, my husband, when I met him, was homeless. and added her own "Broken promises, with the high cost of child care. Everyone receiving child care vouchers is expected to pay a co­ payment, with the amount increasing based on income levet. · broken Without any assistance from couldn't lives" when expense." disabled subsidies, child care costs can she saw our · easily eat up a family's budget. afford the Medicaid Child care costs can be similar to dolls who paying for a college education ! bearing the higher the costs are. Yet The younger the child, usually were coverage means adeq ate child care is a main signs much deterrninant of whether parents reading more than just can continue working and stay "Save Parents Health Care." She commented, "All the promises of off the welfare cash assistance "package" that includes dental welfare reform, that their lives will be have used up their three years of services, vision care, and mental health counseling services. One better when they are working eligibility for welfare cash assistance in Ohio, there is no woman who worked on the the high cost of health care and child medical coverage. It is a comprehensive health care • Empowerment Coalition. to alleviate their fears? No, the income level would receive help was very sympathetic to our cause sick. I just Coalition also pushed for child 1 85% of poverty level so that parents working at or below this received supportive coverage by a Columbus TV Station. The anchor when I was really clean clothing, Bible study, Was anything resolved with the neighbors when we had a meeting Ohio Empowerment Coalition held a comments, campaign in the Fairborn area fellowship, fun and a normal life? On June 1 8th, a day before to get an color-blind. But even in the end, don't the homeless deserve food, "swing" votes. the work of the Family Coverage Coalition of Have A Heart Ohio us, "I wish I would have'lm ow the house weekly, in return for money/clothes/food/reading grass and maintain our yard. Because we made friends with a Empowerment Coalition thanks was launched, pinpointing the members who were determined to be the conference committee vote, the attending college at the time, told been able homeless man to weekly cut. our Action. In addition the Ohio pass. A last ditch effort to save it County, who was working and · neighborhood? Because I hired a homeless girl to come help me at lessons. Because I hired a the OEC in the Press Conference/ told the chances were slim it would for their work on this issue. The Ohio Empowerment families. Margaret in Adams about this program. All this time I could have received help with my . The OEC in Columbus wrote back to thank the Ohio "Because of the work of the Ohio Empowerment Coalition, I have my benefits. This really helps my family." Parents Medicaid coverage came extremely close to being terminated. In February the Governor had presented his budget proposal to cut costs by eliminating the program. Likewise the Ohio House of Representatives voted to terminate it. A last ditch effort was launched to save it in the Ohio Senate. After receiving hundreds . because they w!ll receive help with supports are being taken away from them. At least on welfare, their to support their families. For health care needs were covered.' We most of these parents, child care couldn't have said it better. The dolls were then delivered is an essential slice of the household budget "pie", as members, as well as Speaker of the essential as paying rent. Although the Governor Governor. Joe Clark, aide to Rep. child care eligibility to 1 50% of to the six conference committee House, Senate President and the · Larry Householder, received the doll on behalf of Householder. "Rep. Householder is well aware of the need for health care for low-income people in his district. His counties consist of workers struggling in very low wage jobs," Mr. Clark of phone calls and mail, the Senate looked dim when the conference Columbus NOW and Greater committee convened and we were choice to go back on welfare. They must hold down jobs in order to have income coming in care, are being broken. Now these responded. voted to restore it. However, hope rolls. For those parents who and the Hovse were for limiting poverty level, the final vote of the Ohio Assembly mirrored the Senate version and restored child care to 1 65% of poverty. This is only a partial victory; but it will makdife better for thousands of working parents across the state. For more information, Members of UHCAN-Ohio, contact the Ohio Empowerment Columbus Jobs With Justice joined 5 1 3/38 1 -4242. Coalition at 1 -877-862-5 1 69 or �. Art & Poetry STREETVIBES . Au g ust, ioo3 White Boy by steven shockley Page 14 Remember Us I ha 1en' t been harassed for the colour of my skin since sixth grade. But I guess I kinda feel the same thing today, that I felt back then. The same uneasy humidity, the same mouths spitting the words that pass past my eyes like knives into the heat waves that rise l!P tearing through my chest, strangling the head-held-high that I always try to hold when I ' m equally scared of every footstep that I have to take as those I ' ve already taken. I look from side to side, trying to catch a glimpse of the gauntlet around rrie in the creeping LeSabre reflections and the small storefront mim;>rs; "WHITE BOY !" drips off of me in ten steps until the next "What you need?" I need a break, I need lunch, I need nothin' that you wanna give me. I need to sit down because I ' ve walked down twenty miles and eight years in the past five blocks, and I ' m not afraid of you, I'm afraid for you. I ' m afraid that your struggle to prove that you are a man will kill the beauty in you and your children. I ' m afraid that your daughter will never get to be a little girl because she's surrounded by ten year old dope boys that see your guns and want to play cowboy in this cobweb of broken bottles and family trees, half smoked blunts, gold teeth, and crack pipe exploitative marketing schemes. But I'm not afraid anymore, because you can only be afraid of the blade before it rips through your skin, and I've never been afraid of bk>0d, especia1ly not now,,and especially not mine, because I bleed the same red struggle as you. My head slammed into the wall and I clenched me fist and looked into your eyes before I looked across the street at KUJO, ROB, and R.I.P. Timothy Thomas and below that I saw the promise of another mind enveloped by violence. I saw your eyes and found no peace, and no rest, and in all of your screaming • by Chris Whitler remember us i am unseen but i am not nameless. · i live pretty close to you. my life is chaos but i don't really know it, as chaos is all i' ve ever known. i am not an alcoholic. i have never taken drugs. i am not irresponsible. i didn't make a choice. i live in a tent. i live in a dirty motel. i am surrounded by prostitution, alcohol and drugs. i am surrounded by violence. i am constantly hearing harsh and vulgar language. i am not encouraged. i am not edµcated. i do not have a dentist. i rarely have a hot meal. there is no one in a kitchen making anything for me. i get by. i am dirty. where i live is dirty. i use the bathroom in the park. i never leave this town. i do not think about the future. my life is today. i am 1 , i am 5 , i am 1 2. i am a homeless child. A piece written by Chris Whitler for the April Issue of Curbside News. , I found a man with his head resting between his palms in a dark room by himself; screaming to the voices in his head for silence. Then a voice cut through the gelatin thick air, "Whatchy' all doin' to that white boy !" and that was it. One more voice in your head froze you in the heat of your rage, and let me go, · and I stood there unable to walk away. Berta 's Art Corner Th is Sti n ks byjh Don't yell, it's unbecoming . . . . Garbage o n the ground, and you are just standing in it. Alley calls you, dark and distant, smells like urine when the-wind is right. Why are you here? You're in the street again, flagging cars. . . . Your clothes are clean, and you wipe down the car, you don't care about anything, this all stinks . . . . The old woman walks by head down, trying to hide, from you. You've broken the gate to her hall, down for making Deals, cause you don't care 'bout nothin' . Yet, you still stink. Detail, Ceramic Wall Collage, Doerr Alley, rear of Scotti s Italian Restaurant, 919 Vine Street, Downtown Cincinnati Bal lade by Robert Demalvilain If I knew the answer to your shady grace imp disposition tranquil certainty and to your clear days, whatever · notes in sequence adagio I would probably ask you to accompany me just like that with the quickness an overture sounding · a gesture sibylline a glance to the impatient horizon over a few hills to a river and then a city of lights we could just ask ourselves questions and decide a few things a duet perhaps, reverie for flute and oboe vivace As it is I don't know you well do I, but I do know you see me as I am taken with your dusky charms, the mischief in your eyes dancing as you pass you touch the unstruck chords of my being, yes you_do like a very fey pianist which is a mystery like magnetism and chance intention how you will'answer me · what you will say how it will go when you give me that look when you meet me there and we slide into bed as if into a pool sliding into you our tongues playing like ardent otters and everything suddenly applauds, everything breaks into laughter graz1oso Reprinted from Real Change �STREETVIBES Au g ust, 2003 Art & Poe try Arise B lack Woman You Are G reat · It All Came Tu mbling Down by Cindy Carlson They say that he watched over NH From 2 million years back. They made him famous Profiled him .on currency, Postcards and crap. Friday he died. with a rumble Sliding down like Jack In a great tumble Ironic I think Since responsibilities of his watch Most recently lack. No funding for schools No insurance for workers Housing cost soar Budget cuts hit hardest The ·elderly and poor Suddenly a Governor's iask force formed For this one dead Meanwhile the rest of us, Dealing with dread What will it cost? How much to spend? Special cash for this lost? Where will it end? Rebuild it? Memorialize it? Its just rocks! What about the people Living the hard knocks? · Manchester, NH by Bro. Khalfani Malik Kha/dun (#874304 Leonard McQuay, Wabasjh Valley Correctional Facility, Carlisle, Indiana Your significance is of great importance, to the world and Humankind as a whole; Without your existence your world would be, unbalanced, gruesome and cold; arise Black Woman You are Great. . . . Without your understanding and love, most of us wouldn't be able to reach above, · Your loving touch, your gentle smile, makes our struggle worth that extra mile . . . . arise Black Woman You are Great... You are the mother, which gives life To many nations of men and women, Boys and beautiful little girls that gives color to the Black and White unexplained issues Of this ugly world . . . arise B lack Womari You are Great.... It was woman like you who gave us great man and women such as Malcolm X, Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, Assata Shakur, Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, and Bell Hooks, George Jacksori, and still we continue to Rise, Rise, Rise. arise Black Woman You are Great.... You have been wronged but You Remain Strong You are Strong minded, Strong willed, Strong bodied crafted by a Great God . Awaken Yourself - because it is best for your Health. When you do finally Rise and act more aware - we can reach that Final Stair. . . . Respect fo r and To The Black Woman means freedom for our Nation as a whole and still we rise . . . . arise Black Woman You are God's Gift to Humanity. . . . Shutter Speed Sidewalk Art Boulder Pag e 15 of Big Busi ness by Laura E. Clisbee Let us move the stone gentleman to the toadstool wood where they may benefit. Their granite shoulders, a resting spot for the creatures of flight; their soles of rock, a roof to the burrowing kind. There amongst the fallen branches, atop the moss laden floor, the craggy corporate aristocrats will cohabitate with creation. Instinctively coalescing, tickled by the breeze, smelling the mud. Let us move the stone gentlemen to the toadstool wood where they may be reborn. Deliver them back to nature, that they may live again. Reprinted from Whats Up, Boston by Jimmy Heath �STREETVIBES Au g ust, 2003 News & Editorial · Page 16 Solving the World-'s Prob l-e ms from my Couch . . . that "Things should be different. by Leigh Coats Look at the.m ; they don't even try to help themselves." ):'et, I wore a fake badge of honor, and well­ neighborhood. She pointed to all the boarded up windows around, everyone else that complains about all the world's problems from their couches. Yes, I might have been and dilapidated buildings. She then told me "God bless you, and what helping people. But, it was the being instead of using II1Y energy you are trying to do; but you - people that I wanted to help; not and resources to be a part of the the people that-needed my help. should just pack up and go home. solution. "But, how could I help?" Now, if I saw that faceless There is no hope for this place." It For, ·one l could rip off my fake \Vas the first time I heard someone lady again, she would have a nt?W badge, and make sure what I do speak so bluntly. And honestly it message to read in my eyes . . . It is a and say is sincere. I could make was hard for me to hear; because message of renewal, hope, and was not excited -about it at all. sure that the citizens of Over-the­ that is exactly how I felt At that love. "I don't know your name, But, l did trust AmeriCorps Rhine saw hope in my eyes, instead moment I tried to get that out of ­ but now I see you. I see everyone NCCC-Capital Region that they - of defeat and disgust. my head. I realized that l have had researched; and I would be like you. I am here to help." I saw so much defeat. I was been lying to myself my whole life. completely safe. Thank you, Over-the-Rhine for offered drugs so many times; I saw A one-minute conversation I had helping me realize my mistakes. I AmeriCorpsNCCC is a 10 month a prostitute sell herself for $4; and with a stranger told me everything just regret that I did not help your residential, team-based program saw so many panhandlers. But, community wholeheartedly all of I didn't want to realize about that serves in five states in our what I learned was they all Wyre our stay. But, you have taught me , myself. I was content with being regio . The NCCC is part of comfortable. Comfort isn't where I the greatest lesson; and I am AmeriCorps, a network of national just trying to make it in life Everyone was just trying to should be. If I have vowed to help thankful that I did not continue to service programs created to those in need; that means everyone. ignore it. Yet, I was uncomfortable improve the environment, enhance survive. I was constantly walking around the neighborhood "half' not just those I feel comfortable almost my entire stay. This was the education, increase public safety, helping. So, on ou.r last week of most vital project we have done provide disaster relief, and address breathing; because the stench of human waste was so overwhelming our project my attitude towards this year; because it opened my unmet human needs. this community and its' people eyes and heart fully. I will not be Truthfully, I hated this project to my middle-class lungs. And, I so selfish again. Now, I am truly changed drastically. For so many from the minute we drove into our was going to try to ignore this travesty. years I have been lying to myself, just a humble servant; willing to go temporary neighborhood. I was On our fourth week of being my friends, and family. For ANYWHERE and help ANYONE terrified. I have never been to a goodness sakes, they pretty much ­ here an elderly woman stopped me that needs me. I now leave you place like this before. I was as I was walking to work. She thought I was a saint. For so many with a quote from Margaret Mead _terrified to look, talk, walk, or years I have been doing COI!1ffiunity that sums everything !IP . . . breathe wrong. I started seeing so must have seen the disgust I had service, coordinating all these big "Never doubt that much that I and society try so hard for this community on my face. projects to help the "needy." She asked me if I was a part of a small group of thoughtful, not to see. For five of the six "Project Hope." I told her that I Mostly, I just helped from a weeks that we lived here I chose committed citizens can change distance. For the first time I wasn't; and tried to explain to her the world. Indeed it is the only to close my eyes; ana fie part of that I was in AmeriCorpsNCCC, realized that I am nothing but a the problem. I was caught up in thing that ever has." and what we are doing in her "POSER." I am no better than using all my energy complaining As I drove into Over-the­ Rhine I already gave up hope. We were sent from Washington DC to work with ReSTOC ; painting "buddy's place." This was my last project of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps; and I · _ "Okay. Your 're se lf:employed and you hate your boss. Go on . . . . " Streetvibes exists as a forum for the exp,ression of the views and opinions of o·ur readers and_supporters. The opinions expressed· herein·are not necessarily those of the Streetvibes staff or the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. �Au g ust, 2003 STREETVIBES News & Editorial Page 17 Santa. Cru.z Police Arrest Political Organ ization Leaders. Performer Tom Noddy was recently arrested and held for twelve hours under this new law. From a Press Statement Steve Argue and Matt Hartogh were arrested on Sunday, While being filmed by July 6th for distributing literature fellow activists, both Steve Argue on Pacific Avenue. Both had their _and Matt Hartogh refused to move literature tables, signs, and their political table and refused to literature confiscated by the police . sign a ticket when asked to do so. and taken in as evidence of their Steve Argue instead cited the right supposed crime. Steve Argue was to free speech under the First also arrested on June 23rd under Amendment to the Constitution and the same law. pointed out that the Santa Cruz City The law they were arrested Council and the arresting officers under is a new law passed by the were the ones who were actuallyin supposedly "progressive" Santa violation of the law. Cruz City Council. It is a law that As a large supportive crowd makes it illegal to keep a political gathered they told the many cops table up for more than an hour who were also gathering that they without moving along (5.43 .020 would not stop distributing SC). This law is only selectively literature and that they would not enforced against activists that are take the table down. They said they particularly disliked by the Santa would not back down voluntarily Cruz City Council, while those and pointed out that the only way organizations that do not expose they would be temporarily stopped the fake leftists on the City Council would be if the police arrested have so far been generally left them and took the table down alone. The political tables targeted themselves. After officers waited for by the police were joint tables of Sgt. Butchy Baker to arrive, the the Revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg police then arrested the two and Club of the Peace and Freedom took the table and flyers into Party (RRLC - PFP) and Homeless evidence. United for Peace and Freedom Sgt. Baker is a cop that is (HUFF). Both organizations have assigned to deal with political been outspoken in our opposition cases. On Monday, June 30th, Sgt. to the anti-poor and. anti-working Baker closed down a video class policies and laws of the Santa showing of Steve Argue's earlier Cruz City Council as well as in arrest and cited activists Robert opposing this new law that violates Norse and Jim Ross for "audio the basic free speech rights of the amplification without a permit". people of Santa Cruz. This is the first time such a charge Other new laws that both organizations have opposed include has been used against a video display by aCtivists. Baker also one that makes juggling illegal. · · cited another qian for "sitting on the planter railing" ·after that man had helped in carrying video equipment for the showing. It was also Sgt. Baker who arrested Steve Argue on Labor Day last year for jaywalking and Baker has cited Robert Norse for this same "offense". The Labor Day arrest of Argue prevented him from making it to a Labor Day picnic where he was scheduled to promote his campaign to be elected to City Council. In addition, Baker was accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault by 9 different women that he held in custody a few years back. Soon after these accusations had blown up and had been absolved y the police department, Baker was named officer of the year and was promoted. As bad as Sgt. Butchy Baker is, his activities are not those of some rogue cop. They represent the laws, policies, and intentions of his fake leftist bosses that comprise the entire Santa Cruz City Council. this is why the Citizen's Police Review Board, appointed by the City Council, was almost entirely useless. And after the Board took an independent stand opposing the selective enforcement of the Santa Cruz Police the City Council abolished the body. Steve Argue is no stranger to being arrested for free speech. In 1 998 he was arrested by the Santa Cruz Police for selling a noncorporate newspaper. _During that arrest, and while he was being held in custody, he was brutalized by the police and deputies and held for four days. That arrest, another violation of the First Amendment to the constitution, backfired for the police with the publicity the case received and the outrage it provoked. After that arrest the Santa Cruz Police became very timid about violating freedom of press, although they did issue a couple citations again last year. In addition to the publicity Argue's 1 998 arrest received, he also won a ruling in the court of Federal District Judge Ware stating that not only do the Santa Cruz olice violate constitutional rights, but the way city lawyers were trying to defend the police proves that it is city policy to violate those rights. As Steve Argue has stated, "In the traditions of the IWW who successfully defended free speech rights at the tum of the last century, Steve Argue has vowed to continue violating this city law until free speech rights are restored in Santa Cruz and I urge others in .Santa Cruz to join me." The homepage for Liberation News, the mouthpiece of the Revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg Club of the Peace andw Freedom Party, can be found at: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/ -.rf• liberation_news People may subscribe to Liberation News on the internet for free by sending email to: liberation_news­ subscribe @ lists.riseup.net · U .S. News Won 't Retract Fiction Presented as . Fact by F.AIR-L (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) Media analysis, critiques and activism In a June 1 6 editorial, U.S. News & World Report editor Mort Zuckerman provided anecdotes to make the point that nowadays "anyone . . . can haul anybody into court for j ust about anything." But Zuckerman's facts turned out to be fiction- and now U.S. News is refusing to issue a correction. Zuckerman claimed: "A woman throws a soft drink at her boyfriend at a restaurant, then slips on the floor she wet and breaks her tailbone. She sues. Bingo-a j ry says the restaurant owes her $ 1 00,000! A woman tries to sneak· through a restroom window at a nightclub to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She falls, knocks out two front teeth, and sues. A jury awards her $1 2,000 for dental expenses." Zuckerman offered these incidents as proof that society is "rewarding cynical opportunists" and "punishing innocent people, like the owners of the restaurant folks familiar with urban legends." and the nightclub." But in fact, all they prove is that U.S. News needs Silopes.com also said that to be more careful in checking its the bogus list of lawsuits (sans facts. As Washington Post media poodle) had,been reprinted in June reporter Howard Kurtz pointed out . 2002 by the New York Daily News, in a June 23 column, the spilled . which "presented it solely as an e­ drink lawsuit and the nightclub. mail it had received, makingno cheater lawsuit are long-discredited statements as to its likeliness to be . real or detailing any attempts that myths. The myth-debunking publication might have made to website Snopes.com, which Kurtz verify any of the entries." (The cited, traces the bogus lawsuit Daily News is owned by Mort anecdotes back to a piece of Zuckerman.) . Internet spam from 200 1 , which It's customary for a news listed six separate supposedly outlet to offer a correction when it has offered fictional material as outrageous legal awards. . "All of • · the entries in the list are fabrications- a search for news stories about each of these cases failed to tum up anything, as did a search for each law case," the website reported last year (7/02). The original list, Snopes said, included a seventh example involving a microwaved poodle, which the site suggested had been dropped because "its inclusion would have immediately called into question the truthfulness of the other six cases for any number_of fact. But that was not U.S. News & World Report's response to the discovery that its cor:porate chair and editor-in-chief had cited Internet hoaxes as key evidence in · his editorial. Instead, the magazine ran a letter to the editor (7/30/03) from Mary Alexander, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers, calling the anecdotes "urban myths"- leaving readers to decide whether to believe the magazine's editor or the head of an interested lobbying group about the stories' veracity. A spokesperson for Zuckerman, Ken Frydman, gave the Washington Post two rationales for why the magazine would not run a retraction: First, "These cases were reported in a variety of other reputable publications, such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the London Telegraph." And: "Few Americans would disagree with the proposition that there are far too many frivolous lawsuits filed." So if a falsehood has been reported elsewhere, and you still believe your argument is true, then corrections aren' t necessary? That's a novel interpretation of journalistic responsibility. Please ask U.S. News & World Report to issue a correction in line with normal journalistic standai;ds, and to check facts more carefully in the future. U.S. News & World Report Phone: 202-955-2000 mailto:letteis @ usnews.com · �SUMMER FOOD PROGRAM FRAC News Solutions, June 26, 2003) The Program, the Administration on Food Service Program fed 40% fewer low-income children last su er than it did in the summer _ The weekly Food Research and of 200 1 , according to a report by Digest highlights what 's new on the Food Research and Action hunger, nutrition and poverty Center. Local advocates have issues at FRAC, at the U.S. . been u;ging the State Education Office (SEO), the City agency that Department of Agricultur'!, around the network of national, administers the program, to state and local anti-poverty and recruit additional community­ anti-hunger organizations, and in the media. The Digest will alert you to trends, reports, news items and resources and, when available, pr.ovide a link directly to- them. based organizations to feed children during summer · enrichment programs. Several community-based organizations VACATION: SUMMER REPORT (FRAC Report, June 26, 2003) Only one in five of the Perry, Director of D.C. Hunger for the SEO to provide assistance to smaller community-based by federal nutrition programs during the summer, according to Research and Action Center (FRAC). In July 2002, on an average weekday, 3 .25 million hildren from low-income recreation centers, schools, parks ARE FUNDED BELOW Girls Clubs and other sites REQUESTED LEVELS IN through either the Summer Food HOUSE AGRICULTURE Service Program (SFSP) or the APP:J{OPRIATIONS BILL National School Lunch Program (FRAC Alert, June 26, 2003) On (NSLP). FRAC's report ranks June 25th, the House states by assessing their Appropriations Committee performance in reaching needy approved fiscal year 2004 funding for nutrition and other programs youngsters with either SFSP or NSLP summer meals, compared administered by the U.S. to regular school year meals. The Richard Lugar-(R-IN) and then state pilot program that simplifies FRACsummer2003.pdf (Full Report; Adobe PDF) THOUSANDS OF NEEDY CHILDREN MAY BE LEFT UNSERVED BY THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA'S . · Older Americans Act Fact Sheet: PDF) schooi finishes, bring lunches to more sites). Children .are already . beginning to-show up at some feeding sites and recreation directors are scrambling to find ways to feed them. http://www.examiner.com/news/ defaultjsp?story=n.schoollunch.0625w SEVERAL BILLS BEING CONSIDERED BY OREGON'S TAX RELIEF FOR 6.5 LEGISLATURE WILL BOOST MILLION LOW-INCOME FUNDING FOR NUTRIT ION FAMILIES WITH CIULDREN PROGRAMS (Statesman SEPT EMBER (New York million low-income families with children, relief for those families, who were left out of an earlier tax cut bill, is unlikely to be resolved before the July 4th recess. Both the Senate and the House bills Journal, Salem, OR, June 24, 2003) Three Senate bills in the Oregon legislature will boost funding for nutrition programs in the state. The first bill, Senate Bill 287, requires the state Department of Education to redirect $49,000 toward schools with 85 percent or more of the students receiving free and reduced-price lunches to bolster smµmer lunch programs. . ,The second bill, Senate Bill 500, would appropriate $49,000 to extend the child tax credit to low­ provide fruits and vegetables from what else is included in the participants. The third bill, Senate financed. The House $82 billion farmers market nutrition program income families, but differ in farmers markets to WIC Program package and h,ow the bills are Bill 50 1 , provides funding for a bill over 10 years would add to for senior citizens. The bills are $ 1 0 billion version is financed governor. Tina Kotek, policy Congressional committees that Oregon praised the bipartisan compromise between the bill is a smart investment that through increased customs fees. director for Children First for. funding for the Women, Infants would meet to come up with a support for Senate Bill 287. "This disparate versions will not address will . . . help provide greater access and Children program (WIC) and cost accounting and paperwork Release) http://www.frac.org/pdf/ Sheet: http://www.frac.org/pdf/ eligible children with meals (e.g., bill -falls $ 1 80 million short of President Bush's request for approved by Congress, is a 1 3 ­ http://www.frac.org/html/news/ 062603summerFood.htm (Press contact eligible families before Administration on Aging and the . expected to be signed by the House Agriculture Appropriations originally proposed by Senator states declined 4 percent. legislation authorizes the . summer. Ash said that the mayor's the projected defi.cit; the Senate Department of Agriculture. The '"Lugar Pilot," a program than 200 1 , while total meals served in the SFSP by all other office should do more to connect The Older Americans Act Times, June 25 , 2003) Due to large differences between the bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate that would extend tax cuts to 6.5 WIC PROGRAM AND TEFAP departments, Churches, Boys and of 2002 was 1 2 percent greater care, and other senior services. become successful summer food sites for children in need." http:// families received meals at pilot states offered in the surrimer to 80 for 2003 from 1 00 last health, including nutrition, health DELAY ED UNTIL AT LEAST w w.frac.org/html/news/ 062603summerDC.htm program. Some low-income with issues related to senior organizations, and help them work through the red tape and this report from the Food number of SFSP meals Lugar number of feeding sites dropped , feeding sites available. The http://www.frac.org/pdf/ AoAOAAfactsheet.PDF (Adobe · meal reimbursement rates. The and Human Services and deals only reaches 35 percent of of the U.S. Department of Health . feeding sites could leave . thousands of low-income children Solutions, said "There is still time and allows for modestly higher neighborhoods do not have any · Administration on Aging and the regular school year are served · Administration on Aging is a unit assistance from the SEO. Noting free or reduced priced school · children who qualify for the home-delivered meals. The ENPfactsheet.PDF (Adobe PDF) without summer meals, Kimberly the city's summer lunch program Program includes congregate and by inadequate detail arid technical 1 5 .5 million children who receive Francisco Food Bank criticized -saying that it is inefficient and Act. The Elderly Nutrition Elderly Nutrition Program Elderly Nutrition Program Fact that serious problems in recruiting NUTRITION STATUS Francisco, CA, June 26, 2003) - Paul Ash; director of the San Aging, and the Older Americans report their ability to participate in the program has been undermined HUNGER DOESN'T TAKE A 1 about the Elderly Nutrition District of Columbia's Summer Action Center (FRAC) News June 25 , 2003) These FRAC fact sheets outline basic information (News Release, DC Hunger Digest lunches on a typical day during Pag e 18 Au g ust, 2003 STREETVIBES $ 1 0 million below the amount America's Second Harvest requested for administrative the legislation until mid-July, after child credit refund checks have to summer meals for kids in the future and bring more federal Assistance Program (TEFAP). For http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/ http://news.mysanantonio.com/ funding in The Emergency Food a complete look at funding levels in the Administration's budget, the House Appropriations been sent to middle-class families. 25/national/25TAX.html (free registration required) dollars into the state," she said. stay.cfin l For a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report on the To subscribe t o the weekly below. Check the FRAC website likely harm to low-income /capwiz .com/frac/mlm/ issue. http://www.frac.org/pdf/ www.cbpp.org/6- 1 1 -03tax.htm Food Research and Action Committee and FRAC's _ recommendations, see the link regularly for updated alerts on this agappropschart.PDF (Adobe PDF) House Child Tax Credit Bill's Center SAN FRANCISCO FOOD TWO NEW FACT SHEETS ON MAY OR TO IMPROVE FEDERAL NUTRITION SUMMER MEAL PROGRAM ELDERLY (FRAC Fact Sheets, FRAC News Digest go to : http:/ children (June 23, 2003):http:// BANK CHALLENGES PROGRAMS FOR T HE _ PARTICIPATION . (San Francisco Examiner, San . 1875 · Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 540 Washington, DC 20009 (202) 986-2200 x3019 phone (202) 986-2525 fax Email: bwinter @frac.org �STREETV I B ES Page 19 Au g ust, 2003 Federal utrition rograms Update RAC During the week of June 23rd, the House Appropriations Committee approved the Agriculture and Labor-HHS­ Education FY 2004 spending bills; the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee rriarke_d up its FY 2004 spending bill; and immigrant advocates beat back (on a vote of 65 to 33) an amendment by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) that would have stripped from the Senate prescription drug bill a restoration of health benefits for lawfully present immigrant children and pregnant women. (For more on the Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act $ 1 ,709,524) will develop an on­ line "Cus_tomer Service Toolbox" (with a self-screening program, full and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) (S. 1022). Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) has endorsed both S . application for food stamps and other programs, form for applicants to make changes to and 1 02 1 and S . 1 022. See http :// gsmith.senate.gov/press/2003/06­ 05-03.htm. Action Needed: Seek Additional Republican Cosponsors for the Kohf Bills. A temporary extension of funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families reauthorization of the Child Nutrition and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. On June 25th, the full House Appropriations Committee voted out both the Agriculture and - Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bills. The House Agriculture Appropriations bill comes $ 1 80 million below the President's request for WIC funding and $ 1 0 million below the amount FRAC and America's Second Harvest requested for (TANF) Program is expected to continue the program while lawmakers work on reauthorizing _ it. A House passed bill (H.R. 4) severely stiffens work requirements, fails to adequately invest in families, allows a new - administrative funding in TEFAP. The House bill also fails to provide sufficient funds for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). The House Labor-HHS­ Education Appropriations bill . zeroed out funding for the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP), the only federal funding for state and local anti­ hunger groups. Also on June 25th, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill that funds CFNP at $7 .28 1 million. The executive branch could drop protections in the Food Stamp and other programs, and permits five _ Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee will begin marking up their legislation after the July 4th recess. Senator-Herb Kohl (D-WI) has offered three bills to improve federal child nutrition programs: Scpool Breakfast (S. · 1 020); Summer Food (S. 1 02 1 ) ; and Child submit queries about status of their applications) and use sites for testing the on-line system and encouraging its use; 3) New Jersey program expansion, including those that Congress should consider during reauthorization of the (funded at $848,570) will implement a statewide web-and­ telephone based application process that includes an on-line interview and answers to applicant questions in up to 1 0 languages on Solutions, a Project of FRAC, challenged the District of Columbia federal child nutrition programs. Kimberly Perry of D .C. Hunger to take steps to improve the situation for children this summer. See http://www.frac.org/html/news/ 062603summerDC.htm Press and Polls - "Barely one in five of the students fed free lunches at school are getting the lunches they' re entitled to during the sunimer, an implement an oh-line pre­ screening and application system that provides access to all _ governmental and private nutrition states to opt for Food Stamp Program block grants. A Senate support services in the state; and 5 ) Rhode Island Department of anti-hunger group said Thursday. According to the Food Researc and Action Center, 3.25 million _ Human Services (funded at $785 ,000) will rei;iesign the state Agency Action: Food Stamp Program Access Grants an 9n-line applicatjon system with scanner technology for entering verification documents into the system. For more details, check http://www.usda.gov/news/ releases/2003/06/0236.htm children who received free or reduced-price lunches during the 200 1 -2002 school year, FRAC said. ' In a time of rising unemployment, falling wages and millions more families struggling to feed their children well, reaching only one,in five needy children is unacceptable," FRAC Preside�b.Jim Web Watch: FRAC Summer Food Report Only one in five -of the 1 5 .5 million children who receive free or reduced priced school lunches on a typical day during the regular school year are served by federal nutrition programs during the summer, according to the new _ innovative technology, will improve the food stamp application process and work to identify and eliminate barriers to participation: 1 ) University of Oklahoma/Oklahoma Department of Human Services (funded at $843,075) will systematically analyze barriers to participation, produce a set of alternatives for removing them, and develop a Continuous Quality Improvement model to help Oklahoma update its application processing in the future; 2) Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (funded at report, "Hunger Doesn't Take A Vacation," that FRAC posted on . June 26th. See http:// www.frac.org/html/news/ 062603summerFood.htm _ - In July 2002, on an average weekday, 3 .25 million children from low-income families received meals through either the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) or the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). "In a time of rising unemployment,­ falling wages and millions more families struggling to feed their children well, reaching only, one in five needy children is unacceptable," said FRAC President Jim Weill. "We already know that millions of the nation's neediest children have been refused a child credit refund check by Congress this summer. What this report shows is that millions of - them also won't get the help they desperately need from the summer food program." FRAC estimates how many more low-income childfen could be served and how many more federal dollars could _ children were served in two federal rri;eal programs last summer. That is 21 percent of the 1 5 .5 million agency's application and develop the White House (202-456- 1 4 1 4) , and Members of Congress (202­ 225-3 121) to urge enactment of the Senate Child Tax Credit legislation. application process. The 2003 grantees, through the use of also identifies strategies for a 24 hour basis; 4) Virginia Department .of Social Services (funded at . $8 1 3,83 1 ) will waiver process through which the On June 26th, USDA Secretary Ann Veneman announced a total of $5 million in grants to agencies in OK, WI, NJ, VA, RI to improve access to and awareness of the Food Stamp Program· for low-income households. "Providing nutrition assistance to eligible families is a top priority for the Bush Administration," said Veneman. "Partnerships with state governments will help give families needed nutrition assistance."' The 2002 Farm Bill authorized USDA to award grants to test different approaches to simplifying the school lunc during the school year were served summer meals. FRAC Department of Human Services (ICHIA), see web site of National Finance Committee markup is Immigration Law Center - expected in July. Action Needed: (www.nilc.org). Also, USDA Urge Senators to reject the House­ announced a total of $5 million in passed TANF bill (l:{.R. 4), oppose Food Stamp Program access grants any attempts to we<\ken the Food_ to agencies in RI, NJ, VA, OK, and Stamp Program, and instead WI; FRAC released its annual strengthen supports for low­ report on the Summer Food income people. Program. Members of Congress Messages and Action on were home for the July 4th recess Child Tax Credit Needed: Contact period, providing anti-hunger advocates and allies opportunities to educate them about priorities for be drawn down in each state if the even just 40 out of the 1 00 children who receive a free or reduced price Weill said. One of the two programs serves meals throug)l schools, while the other reimburses local governments, nonprofits and others who serve meals. Both are overseen by the Agriculture Department. In some cases, schools remain open to serve the lunches; in others, local authorities serve the lunches through community centers. . . .FRAC blames copious and confusing paperwork, the difficulty of serving rural children and the low federal reimbursement rate for the lack of summer lunch service. In 2003, the average reimbursement rate is $2.55 per lunch, although some rural areas aie entitled to slightly moreJ FRAC spokeswoman Crystal FitzSimons said. The Washfogton-based group estimated that 3 . 8 million more children could be reached if every state performed as well as the top states." (Source: "Many Miss Out on Free Lunch in Summer," by Dee-Ann Durbin, AP, Rocky Mount (NC) Telegram, 6/26/03) Prepared by Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) 1875 Conn. Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009; 202-986-2200 (www.frac.org) �' Need Help or Want to Help? Mt. Airy Center If you need help or would like to help SHELTER: Both please call one of the Coalition for the Homeless members listed below. 761 -1 480 Friars Club 381 -5432 Drop Inn Center 72 1 -0643 Haven House 863-8866 471 -1 1 00 Lighthouse Youth Center 861 -1 1 1 1 (Teens) St. John's Housing 651 -6446 872-9259 1 -888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-'5660 HOUSING: CMHA 721 -4580 Excel Development 632-71 49 . Welcome House 859-431 -87 1 7 Women's Crisis Center 357-4602 Hospitality YWCA Battered (Toll Free) (Youth) Caracole (AIDS) I nterfaith HELTERS: Women and _hildren 859-491 -3335 SHELTER: Men Miami Purchase 241 -0504 OTR Housing Net. 369-0004 ReSTOC 381 - 1 1 71 639-7056 ' Tom Geiger House 961 -4555 Tender Mercies City Gospel Mission 241 -5525 Garden St. House 241 -0490 TREATMENT: Women 241 -2965 Full Circle Program 721 -0643 First Step Home Joseph House (Veterans) St. Francis/St.Joseph TREATMENT: Both member groups serve the homeless througf'J emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social Cincinnati is an inclusive community, · citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Clfle·iAAOtf, CoqtitiO,n tta rne. 1 ; . , / 351 -0422 C.C.A.T. 381 -6660 684-7956 859-559-501 1- DIC Live-In · an active role in ensuring that ... A.A. Hotline VA Domiciliary The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take r- 820-2947 Transitions, Inc 859-491 -4435 health/addiction services. Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 N.A. Hopeline Talbert House services, soup kitchens, and mental at (5 13) 42 1 - 7803, 1506 Elm Street 961 -2256 Starting Over is a membership organization. Our meeting the needs of all of its 921 -1 61 3 Prospect House Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless . 784- 1 853 Charlie's 3/4 House Formed in 1984, The Greater &eater 961 -4663 TREATMENT: Men 381 -4941 House Program 721 -0643 241 -2563 Freestore/ 24 - 1 064 Fransiscan Haircuts 651 -6468 Goodwill I ndustries 771 -4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421 -7803 Hamilton Co. Mental 946-8600 Health Board Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-71 86 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 22 1 -36 1 9 Legal Aid Society 241 -9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis. Center 271 -5501 · Mary Magdalen House . 721 -48 1 1 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621 -6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center · 62 1 -551 4 Project Connect Homeless Kids 357-5720 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471 -4357 Travelers Aid 721 -7660 United Way 721 -7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259 MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) Cincinnati St. Raphaels A I DS Volunteers of 421 -2437 Appalachian Identity Center · Beech Acres 621 -5991 231 -6630 Center for I ndependent Living Options 241 -2600 Churches Active in Northside 591 -2246 961 -0600 ,. 381 -4242 Emanuel Center OTHER SERVICES: Cincinnati Health Network * Contact Center Foodbank Anthony House Greater Cincinnati Women's Shelter 661 -4620 Volunteers of Amer. 381 -1 954 Community Action Agency 569-1 840 (Food Bank/Soup Kitchen) Salvation Army 863-31 84 863-1 445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 New Life Baptist Mission (Soup Kitchen) 896-9800 Hope House (Homeless Families/Siflgles) 423-4673 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2003 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 2003 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Sweeping of Camps Halted by the Homeless Pg 2: Story by Jimmy Heath Pg 3: GCHC Pg 4: Reader Mail Waiting for City to Decide Pg 5: The Homeless Made My Day Pg 6: The Peace Village Pg 7: Homeless News Digest Pg 8: The Stench of Poverty Pg 9: Poets Against the War Pg 10: Sweeping of Camps Halted by the Homeless Continued Pg 11: The Homeless Man Pg 12: Woman Gets 50 Years for Windshield Death Homelessness Doesn’t Discriminate, but People Do Pg 13: Victory for Parents Medicaid Coverage Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Pg 15: Arts & Poetry Continued Pg 16: Solving the World’s Problems from my Couch… Pg 17: Santa Cruz Police Arrest Political Organization Leaders Pg 18: FRAC News Digest Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 2003 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Georgine Getty Andy Erickson Brendan Goodwin Steve Shockley Mary Gaffney Elaine Coffy Jimmy Heath Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Andy Erickson Brendan Goodwin Camps Elaine Coffy FRAC Georgine Getty Homeless News Digest Jimmy Heath Mary Gaffney Medicaid Peace Village Poets Santa Cruz Steve Shockley https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/cc7f630cf802000d3101c4794820618d.pdf 636c4ce26d806e2868393d4765ae3bd4 PDF Text Text August, 2004 STREETVIBES National Voter Registration Day Held at Drop Inn Center Last month, the Drop Inn Center shelter in Over-theRhine, along with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and volunteers from the Community of Good Shepard participated in National Homeless Voter Registration Day. Ohio and 16 other states participated in the national event. Volunteers conducted the registration drive at the Drop Inn Center for clients and anyone else who needed to register to vote. With nearly 800,000 without a home on any given night nationwide, organizers are hoping to register tens of thousands. In the 2000 election it only took several hundred votes to affect the outcome in Florida. “With Ohio gaining attention in the national media as a major swing state this election year, it is important that homeless individuals, and other disenfranchised groups of people register and go out to vote on election day,” said a representative of the Homeless Coalition. “We hope that efforts such as this registration drive will help keep Ohio from becoming the ‘Florida’ of the 2004 election.” It is a common Mary Harrington (right) completes voter assumption that individuals without a permanent Whether a person is a minority, is poor, or does not have a address are restricted from voting, but under home, as an American citizen, the United States he or she has the right to vote. A voting residence is a Constitution, place that an individual returns every American citizen - without to on a regular basis. This can be a shelter that a resident stays regard to at frequently (even if it is only personal several days out of the month), property - has the right to vote. transitional housing, or an outside area (under a bridge). Many homeless Many homeless people, however, individuals who have felony while qualified records are also told that they to vote, are unable to register cannot vote. Only convicted felons who are in jail cannot due to the many vote. Those who have served policy and legal their sentences must simply rebarriers placed register to be allowed to vote. before them. registration card Georgine Getty, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless stated that, “A lot of times people think that you need a home to vote. This is simply not the case – voting is the right and duty of all citizens. This year more than ever people need to know that their voice counts, especially in this election, especially in this city.” There was an election type atmosphere at the shelter with bunting, balloons, and snacks for participants. The last day for registering for the upcoming presidential election is October 4th. by Jimmy Heath Artists, curators and critics argue that all art is political - the status quo is either reinforced, rejected or rendered invisible. Despite the current administration’s dismissal of the anti-war movement, more and more Americans are choosing to publicly declare their opposition to government policies. As American civil rights and basic freedoms come under increasing attack from within all levels of government, artists are raising their collective and individual voices. Artists are coming out with their own visions of dissent. In the old Mockbee Building on Central Parkway, over 100 artists gathered to display their art and speak to their truth about the war in Iraq, racism and violence in an art show first organized last year by Dr. Saad Ghosn, a professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati and artist Eric Triantafillou. The 2003 SOS art show was such a success that they decided to make it an annual event. The show last summer featured almost 60 local artists. The Patriot Act, Cincinnati’s unresolved civil unrest and decreasing tolerance for dissent made Ghosn and Triantafillou want to continue to encourage artists’ social commentary. In addition to visual art, the programs included poetry reading, a panel discussion, music, plays, videos and movies. “Just the number of artists participating this year says something,” says Ghosn. Also an accomplished artist, Ghosn has several pieces featured in the show. “A true artist is someone who can see beyond the immediate. They can see in a pure way. Most schools don’t teach that, most galleries don’t let you do that.” photos by Jimmy Heath Art Examines Politics Triantafillou is familiar with the danger in making challenges that Dr. Saad Ghosn are political in nature. Last year banners were torn down. he displayed a banner on the “How do we keep it Essex Art Studio in Walnut going – this work – this Hills protesting suppression of spreading of ideas? Art civil liberties. An unidentified connects people and encourages person tore the banner down. them to participate. We need Triantafillou hung the banner people to put their heads up again, along with a second together in this way, for peace banner featuring an image of and justice,” said Dr. Ghosn. President Bush. Again, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless �Streetvibes Streetvibes, the Tri­ State’s alternative news source, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless and contains relevant discussions of social justice, and poverty issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Becoming a Streetvibes Vendor is a great way for homeless and other low-income people to get back on (or stay on) their feet. Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes Vendor badge. All profits go directly to the vendor. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Allison Leeuw - Administrative Coordinator Andy Erickson - Education Coordinator Elizabeth Linville - Civil Rights Coordinator Janice Faulkner - Receptionist Mary Gaffney - Receptionist Streetvibes Jimmy Heath - Editor, Layout and Design Photographers Jimmy Heath, Berta Lambert Cover Donna Gordon (left) completes her voter registration Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or vendors. Subscriptions to Streetvibes, delivered to your home each month, can be purchased for $25 per year. Address mail to: Streetvibes Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web: http://homeless.cinci.com Page 2 Shaking the Money Tree by Jimmy Heath mean the bums down at City In spite of everything Hall? Was he making reference being closed on the Monday to the vagabonds in Cincinnati following July 4th, including government who try to squeeze the government, the banks, and every dime out of the public? most of downtown, the City of Did he mean the sophisticated Cincinnati decided to keep the panhandlers in suits who run downtown parking meters open our City? for business. Parking at The radio listening downtown meters is normally public fell for this stupid drivel; free on Sundays and holidays. all you had to do was take note What happened? of the remarks from callers to I don’t want it to seem the live broadcast. The attitude like I’m nitpicking here, and towards Cincinnati’s poor is not this isn’t really about some confined to the boardroom and lousy downtown parking government office or radio meters. For me, it is just station. It makes itself affirms the greed and apparent when the public misplaced priorities of a is provided an City government who opportunity to blame routinely turns a blind someone. (I’m sure if eye to poverty and the Wally’s tirade was homeless, but somehow Jimmy Heath directed toward city always manages to find a government instead of way to shake the money tree. the hapless “bums,” the But it got worse on that listening public would have Monday, July 5th. I made the jumped on that bandwagon mistake of turning on the radio too.) in my car, looking for the news I find it tedious and lame on the way to work. to blame everything wrong A local conservative under the sun on poor people. radio station spent nearly an Most of this nonsense is wornhour and a half spewing hate out and untrue, like the old about “bums” and panhandlers “welfare-Cadillac” fable. You in downtown Cincinnati. Wally, know the story - it’s where dirt the host of the show, was poor people take their meager perturbed by all the “rich bums” public assistance checks and making $80 a day begging from buy Cadillacs instead of taking the unlucky and fearful public. care of business. The irony was not lost on me. We have heard this Cincinnati city government sickening radio prattle before continues to be the biggest too; the same station last year panhandler around; bilking tax­ spent a week on a pretend paying citizens out of millions homeless round-up, with all the of dollars by subsidizing “hilarious” variations on the nefarious market-rate theme including luring “bums” development projects, parking with “40 ounce beers” and a garages and a billion dollar free one-way bus trip to the riverfront development. This is edge of the county. Outraged the same local government that citizens who called the station digs for quarters from parking were ridiculed and hung up on. meter revenues on a holiday Too bad those callers didn’t weekend. realize how much their Wally included in his indignation added entertainment low-brow tirade a description value to a cruel radio show of his recent trip down Main prank. Sadly, most of the Street and how desolate it was callers on both these occasions on a Saturday night with bars supported “eradication” of the empty and storefronts vacant. “bums.” That’s because people are sick So who do we blame for of all the bums, he said. Did he the City’s wretched disregard of the poor and the cruel public attitude toward the underprivileged? Is poverty simply the downside of capitalist policy and practice? Is this disregard a symptom of police brutality and racism? Is it ignorance, meanness or greed? Is it all of these things? No one wants to take care of the poor. It can be an ugly and depressing business. People who work in shelters and other places serving the poor are not getting rich on their career choice, and the work can sometimes be frustrating. But there are great joys in this work too, and that is why people give up their lives to it. The so-called “bums” are human beings, rich in life, character and spirit – we have much to learn from each other. As long as we degrade other human beings in order to feel better about ourselves or look for someone to blame for society’s ills we will never reach our potential as a human culture. It takes guts in this City to speak out for the poor, even if it is simply a matter of human decency. The City continues its quest to deny the existence of the poor. Yet many of the City’s ills are born from the mistreatment of the lessfortunate, trapped by poverty and a scornful popular media. Cincinnati was named one of the meanest cities in the country for its mistreatment of the poor and the homeless. No one who works close to the street is surprised by this characterization. Plans for a “vibrant” downtown have no room for poor people. The City struggles with a dying downtown. Many plans have come and gone over the years, with little thought given for the reasons why the City is a ghost town on weekends. I have to stop writing now so I can go feed the parking meter. I’d rather not pay the $14 parking ticket, but I will give the City their lousy quarter. Help STREETVIBES Celebrate 100 Issues! How has STREETVIBES touched your life? Streetvibes will soon be celebrating its 100th issue and nearly 10 years of publishing in Greater Cincinnati. Do you have a Vendor story or thoughts on this milestone that we could share with our readers? Do you have a favorite story from a previous issue? Please contact us at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 117 East 12th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 - or send us an email. We would love to hear from you! Streetvibes �36% of Cincinnati’s homeless once served our nation Who are the Homeless? Why are so many of our honored veterans on the streets? What can YOU do to help? I WILL DONATE: $20 $40 $60 $80 $100 $150 There are 25,000 people in Cincinnati that experience homelessness each year. Who are these individuals? 36% of the homeless on the streets of our community are veterans, yet only 13% of Ohio’s population are veterans. Why are so many of our past veterans living with no home? Here at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless we are working to end homelessness for ALL individuals through education, advocacy and coordination of services. We are looking to find systemic solutions and real change that goes farther than the generous services our kitchens and shelters provide. This summer we are honoring past heroes, celebrating our freedom, and hoping for an end to the struggle overseas; let us not forget those who struggle here in our community this very day. Please consider a tax deductible contribution today and help create positive change in your city. Send your donations to Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Streetvibes Page 3 �We Showed Up At The Table But It Felt Like We Were In The Wrong Room 3CDC Presentation of Plans for Washington Park at Over-theRhine Community Council, June 28, 2000 moved over and disregarded. We always see projects that serve the more affluent get more attention. The specifics of implementation are drawn up and seen on the page, money is found, and people in positions of power say, “Go by Bonnie Neumeier with our blessings.” Our Long Time Washington Park vision gets lost on the page. Resident of Over-the-Rhine It’s always hard to find When City Council resources and programs to abolished the Planning serve the poor and working Department of the City of class people, and especially Cincinnati it took away a public now at a time when our space and process to hear government is waging war in neighborhood concerns IRAQ. Bonnie Neumeier (center) at Cincinnati Public School Board meeting regarding neighborhood plans, We showed up at the at least a place we can publicly table, but it feels like we were there will be in their time, on broader area of Over-the-Rhine. voice challenges and concerns in the wrong room. We were You can’t just decide from on and hope for reconsideration. not in the room where decisions this planet, a time when they too can sit at the councils of high that something’s got to go Many residents and are being made about our choosing.” to make way for your plans neighborhood organizations neighborhood. The 3CDC has been busy without the people involved at again showed up at the table to I was fortunate to hear planning in rooms where we the “councils of choosing”. wrestle with developing a Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, a have not been invited. And we We need the continuum comprehensive plan for our long time activist and historian now are last on the list of of care from shelter to community, even though we had from the Civil Rights public bodies 3CDC has been permanent affordable housing a good plan of l985 that never Movement, founder of Sweet approaching to get approval of to be intact in this reached implementation. We Honey in the Rock on a Friday their plans for Washington Park neighborhood. If we believe in pour our hearts out and speak night (June 25th, 2004) when area, the sites for SCPA and diversity; both racial and with a diverse voice EVERY Cincinnati Women’s MUSE economic diversity, then we TIME, AGAIN AND AGAIN Choir sang her Liberty or Death Washington Park School, and about what we dream about and Suite for their spirituals concert designs for housing in the area. need to work harder at finding It feels like a template is ways that people in all our envision for our neighborhood COME STEPPIN’ IN already worked out and the grid diversities can co-exist. That (jobs with livable wages, FREEDOM’S NAME. We affordable housing is secure and schools with solid educational definitely need some steppin’ in is dropped on us from on high. And you come to us on the neighborhood organizations are programs, housing; both rental freedom’s name. The last song same night that the fate of not sacrificed for a vision that and alternative home ownership of the suite was entitled Rothenberg and Washington disregards their importance or models that we can afford, WHEN? WHEN? WHEN? Park neighborhood schools are disrupts their painstaking years green spaces that we can enjoy, Within her composer notes Dr. of commitment and service to neighborhood serving Bernice Johnson Reagon writes being decided upon at the Cincinnati School Board our neighborhood. We need businesses that we can work for about this song: “This is the meeting. I want to believe and concrete drawings and and shop in, services that we’ve question that is for all time resources for the low-income worked hard to develop and and any time you find yourself imagine a time when people in this city, particularly those housing piece of our that meet our needs and treat us a part of a society or a struggling at the bottom of the neighborhood plan. A lot has with dignity and respect.) community, but because of changed in the housing picture It always comes down to some bias or stigma, you watch economic ladder, are seen, are respected, are valued, are not in this neighborhood since City POWER, THE INEQUITIES as others take steps and move blamed for poverty and Council passed it June 26 th of OF POWER. Who has the through doors that are closed oppression. When will we be 2002. Market rate developers power to set an agenda and get to you. Even as we exercise seen as assets? need to be challenged to do the resources to support it? our right to choose, there are The beauty, the strength, affordable housing as well as The little people always get so many people waiting and the fierce determination to keep partner with groups who do stepped on, pushed out, and struggling and wondering if on keepin’ on in spite of affordable housing so that obstacles is astounding to me. affordable housing is not lost in There has been much work and the planning. Neighborhood development going on here over people need to witness progress the 30 plus years I’ve lived here on the affordable housing side through grassroots efforts. You of the equation. We need our cannot only hold up Music Hall public schools, Washington as the cultural anchor. Park and Rothenberg, to get as Neighborhood people identify much attention as SCPA. with many peoples’ Steppin’ in freedom’s name in organizations as anchors. You this neighborhood means justice cannot discount those needs to be had for the people organizations and decide their who’ve called this home for fate. We are fortunate to have years and want to reap the organizations like Drop Inn benefits of development in Center, Tender Mercies, concrete ways that serve our Emmanuel, ReSTOC in the interests as well. WHEN? Washington Park area, and WHEN? WHEN? WILL WE Jaylyn’s mother and sisters and brothers would like to thank everyone many other associations and SIT AT THE COUNCILS OF for all their prayers, gifts and all the nice things they have said. Thank people’s organizations in the CHOOSING? you! - Mr. Jaylyn Dudley, submitted by Julie Walker, Streetvibes Vendor Page 4 Streetvibes �Independence From Homelessness As I sit here at my desk by Mary Gaffney thinking about the meaning of Hi there, my Streetvibes Independence Day, celebrated readers and friends of the Homeless Coalition. Hope you with parades and picnics, I wonder what these words mean had an enjoyable Independence Day. I want to thank all of you to the homeless. Sitting here I saw the look on who purchased some of their Streetvibes last faces, of month. The disappointment program really when the job they helps our were so grateful vendors; it gives to have was taken then something away from them. of their own. One of my There are visitors lost his still some people job and on top of out there who that his pay has insult our been delayed. For vendors with Miss Mary Gaffney some reason he nasty remarks, didn’t even get but to those who are kind, I paid. You would be surprised thank you and may God bless at some of the personal you. problems my friends are confronted with and at times they feel they are at the end of their rope, and some don’t care anymore. I find time to talk with them, regardless of their problems. I have been asked why I always speak about my homeless friends in my column. They answer, I’m proud to say, is that I‘m around them five days a week. Even if they have had a rough time, a bad day, they always treat me with respect and courteousness. If you render kindness, you receive kindness. But to answer the question, I say, will always say, that these are my friends regardless of their circumstances. You cannot judge a book by its cover, and you may have to look more than one time. Still, you may have to stop and study what you read. It could be history, science, or whatever! It really made my day when I recently ran into three of my friends who I hadn’t seen in two years. They ran up to me calling my name! Ms. Mary! They told me they were working now. I had known them when they were homeless. At that time, they didn’t have a cigarette or anything! They had to sleep at the Drop Inn Center or Washington Park. Remember, it doesn’t cost anything to recognize someone, to smile at a stranger on the street. May God bless each and every one of you. Columbus Loses Major Shelter pressure building on The Open by Elizabeth Linville, Shelter, the shelter’s board Civil Rights Coordinator researched options for On Friday, July 1, relocation and other ways to Columbus, Ohio’s The Open continue providing services to Shelter closed to residents for homeless men. In May of 2000, the last time. According to its they were lucky to receive a website, The Open Shelter was donation of $450,000 that “the only ‘24-hour emergency allowed them to purchase the walk-in shelter’ for men in building located Central Ohio.” The on the Sciota shelter had been Peninsula which, open since 1983 and the board hoped, was unique in would provide Columbus for more stability and having no admission keep the shelter requirements for its open. residents. Unfortunately, Since the late The Open Shelter, nineties, The Open Elizabeth Linville like many non­ Shelter has profits, has faced financial struggled to keep its doors difficulties during the past few open. According to The Open years. Two years ago, it lost a Shelter’s website, in 1998 the majority of its funding and was City of Columbus created the forced to sell the building (to Sciota Peninsula Relocation Task Force to assist in the relocation of The Open Shelter from the Sciota Peninsula area, a prime location for development near the downtown area. With city the city of Columbus), sign a lease with the city, and cut its daytime hours. When the lease ran out last month, the shelter was finally forced to shut down. There is speculation that the prime reason for the loss of city funding which led to the shelter’s closure was the organization’s refusal to relocate to another area of Columbus. The Community Shelter Board (which administers city funding) sited the reason the shelter’s refusal to meet “community standards” as the main reason. These standards include clean bed linens, private areas for meetings between staff and clients, and a good relationship with the surrounding community. It is uncertain whether the shelter could have remained open if they had decided to relocate to another area of the city. The shutting down of this important shelter to central Ohio is a warning for us in Cincinnati. Currently, the development group, 3CDC, is working on a plan for the redevelopment of Washington Park. The Drop Inn Center, located so close to the park, will obviously be affected by this plan, although at the moment it is difficult to tell exactly how. The Open Shelter will remain a presence in Columbus, providing outreach and advocacy services for the homeless community, as it has throughout its existence. Homeless men across the city of Columbus will miss its primary mission: providing shelter Don’t be Squirrelly! Buy Streetvibes! Streetvibes Page 5 �Interview with Ernest Hubbell by Georgine Getty When I first met you, you were under the Clay Wade Bailey bridge (August 2003) with a whole bunch of folks. How have things changed since then? Well the coma. That changed my whole life. People started caring about me. You were in a coma? What happened? I was drinking and with my Diabetes, it caused a sugar back­ up. From sleeping outdoors I had Pneumonia and it all caught up with me. How long were you in the coma? About a week, but I stayed in the hospital for about two months. I had a tracheotomy. It was unusual. In the hospital, I had visions and dreams. I saw Jesus, but I had real bad dreams too. I felt like I was right in the middle of a chapter. Jesus told me he needed a friend. It was, like, real to me. Even when I came out of the coma, I was faced with the problem of “is this real?” The paranoia kicked in and I tried to escape. After I realized it was no longer a dream, I was o.k. But I kept seeing this Jesus guy. I thought I was going to heaven, but Jesus told me to be patient. What happened when you left the hospital? I met Sharon and Curtis (from PATH. PATH is a team of outreach workers who specify in clients with mental health needs – ed. note). They got a hold of Debbie (from Tender Mercies, which provides housing and individualized supportive services to homeless persons with histories of mental illness. – ed. note) and they got me into Tender Mercies within a week. And then I met Arnetta (Case Manager at Tender Mercies) and they welcomed me in and took care of all my needs. . . like clothes. And then there’s Sally. She took care of my hygiene needs. Bob’s been encouraging my rehabilitation and making me exercise. He makes sure I don’t forget appointments and is a personal friend. Ed makes sure we have food. All of the staff is so nice, they’re good people. John makes sure that you’re taken care of. If you have a complaint, he takes care of it. He tolerates everyone. He tolerates me, I’m paranoid, and he comforts me. Marcia (Executive Director) invited me to help get benefits (for Tender Page 6 Mercies) and talk to people and she welcomed me out there. That really made me feel like I was somebody. When I got there, I couldn’t walk, I was short-winded, obesity. They really took care of me. I work for Stacy now at the Commissary (inside Tender Mercies). She took me to the Golden Coral. Then there’s Miss Gales, the psychiatrist. She gets me medicine to help me sleep because of the nightmares and she never scolds me. They really care about me. The volunteers feed me. I’ve never gone hungry there. Ernie Hubbell How’s your health been lately? the Homeless Coalition is always I’m recuperating. It’s been better. I have Diabetes and I take there if I need to buy papers (Ernie is a badged Streetvibes medication for the pain and the vendor – ed.note). They don’t do sleepless nights. I have some mental problems with Depression services or anything, but they and Paranoia. I stopped drinking. were there with us under the I eat better and have a place to Hello My Name Is... sleep. I socialize with a lot of people now and I’m building my ...Ernie Hubbell strength back. Are you from Cincinnati? Half my life. I’m from Michigan originally but I plan to stay here the rest of my life. I love Cincinnati. What do you like about Cincinnati? There are caring people here. It’s friendly. I come from a cold town and the people here are very friendly. I’ve never met anyone in Michigan who would go up under the viaducts and try to bring people to programs like Tender Mercies. What are your hopes for the future? To manage my own life and begin to do things on my own. Hopefully I’ll get a part-time job when my legs heal up. I’ve been going to the Lord’s Gym and working to make my legs strong. The Lord’s Gym (corner of 12th and Race) is very special. I go to church on Thursday night for Bible Study. My preacher is Larry and his wife Carol are like a mother and father to me. If I need something, they always give it. They’re from the Vineyard church. What would you like the readers of Streetvibes to know? That the people at Tender Mercies are very special. If you have physical or mental problems, you can go there. If you need a nice church or anything, you should try the Lord’s Gym. Also bridge and stuck it out through the protest and they represented us in the courts. They spoke really well on our side. Thank you! Originally from Michigan, but a long-time Cincinnatian, Ernie became homeless a little over a year ago when his “money ran out and his job ran out.” He started drinking because his girlfriend left him. At first he lived with a friend, but then his friend got a girlfriend and he had to move out. At that time, he met the people who were living under the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge and joined them. Ernie was present during last summer’s bridge protest and followed the group into court where he observed the proceedings and lent his moral support. Shortly after, Ernie lapsed into a Diabetic coma that lasted a full week. He currently is recuperating and rebuilding his life at Tender Mercies in Over-the-Rhine. Streetvibes Letter... Dear Editor, I could hardly believe my ears! Now we are going to rebuild Fountain Square? Moving the Fountain a few feet to the center of the area? How many millions? The way we have money to blow on insignificant stuff you would think that everyone had a job, housing, ample food, health care, new bridges, enough police, resurfaced roads, etc! Mike Shryock, Madeira Newspapers are unable, seemingly to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. - George Bernard Shaw It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day just exactly fits in the newspaper. - Jerry Seinfield Streetvibes 20 YEARS SERVING THE NEIGHBORHOOD Empowering our neighborhood children through peace, art and education Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513) 621-5514 �A Letter To City Council About The Freedom Center Dear Councilman Smitherman, Thank you so much for extending to me a free invitation to view the Underground Railroad Freedom Center before its opening to the public. It is my understanding that proponents of the facility have already approached you requesting your vote for city funding of this Center. It was wise for you to tour the so-called Freedom Center with certain members of the community before committing to vote in favor of spending tax dollars to keep such a facility running in the future. It also provided me with an opportunity to develop an informed opinion as to whether or not this facility will live up to the expectations of the African American community. Thanks to your invitation, I have come to a reasonable conclusion. That conclusion is that the Underground Railroad Freedom Center is an extreme disappointment that will in no way satisfy our thirst for a building meant to commemorate, celebrate, and memorialize our struggle (and, indeed, continuing struggle) for freedom. The Underground Railroad Freedom Center - as it now stands - makes no effort to tell the whole truth regarding slavery, the racism that would have us slaves still, and the undying resolve of African Americans to fight against such bonds. It is totally devoid of any depiction of the murder, raping, and torture of our people. It leaves out the story of runaway slaves that were killed enroute to freedom, and it gives more than its proper amount of credit to white abolitionists, Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War. An entire half of the museum is used to highlight the plight of freedom struggles other than our own (including mention of suffrage, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the Jewish holocaust, etc). The children’s section of the facility is actually more inspiring than the adult section. The whole thing is just an utter disgrace. It is my opinion that those responsible for what makes up the content of this Center (including and especially Mr. John Pepper) clearly want to present a story that will make white visitors comfortable notwithstanding any denial of the truth or betrayal of the African American community. In short, what has been marketed as a tribute to our struggle is in actuality a sugar-coated, white­ washed version of what we as African Americans have gone through and continue to go through. I personally left out of the Freedom Center more disheartened that when I went in. If African Americans in Cincinnati don’t respond with righteous indignation toward the belittlement of our plight, we are no freer than the original slaves who never dared to travel the Underground Railroad. I, therefore, urge you, Mr. Smitherman, not to spend a penny of City money funding what amounts to an insult and a lie. Yours in the Struggle, Amanda E. Mayes Co-Chair, Coalition for a Just Cincinnati Mr. Smitherman did not respond. The main problem with city funding of the Freedom Center is that whatever funds are earmarked for this facility will have to come at the expense of something else. I seriously doubt that those funds will come from the police budget or from money planned for other development on the Banks. This funding will likely come from the part of the budget set aside for city services in our neighborhoods (and especially those that aid the poor.) - Amanda 3CDC – What Is It? goal of raising $50 million in by Vera Zlatkin private sector capital to help As 3CDC reveals its fund Center City Projects. plans for the developing Over­ 3CDC will also work closely the-Rhine and the Washington with the Cincinnati Park area, more and more people are asking this question; Development Fund, a community development What is it? What is 3CDC? financial institution focused The Cincinnati Center principally on housing.” City Development Corporation The list of the 24 (3CDC) was created in July 2003. It is a private non-profit Board of Directors members of 3CDC reads like a page corporation whose initial focus from the Fortune Five is the implementation of Hundred CEO’s of development projects in three Cincinnati. The members are key areas of downtown, mostly made up of male white Washington Park, Fountain wealthy heads of Cincinnati’s New parking garage being built at Central Parkway and Vine Street Square, and the Banks on the largest corporations, such as riverfront. Company Joseph A. Pichler corporation, which makes it a Proctor and Gamble, Cinergy, The following leads the working group separate entity unto itself. That American Financial Group, and information was taken directly charged with development in means that it is able to make from the 3CDC website - http// The Kroger Company. The Over the Rhine. You will find decisions and to take action Chairman of the Kroger www.3cdc.org/. the entire list of the Board of without first getting the Capital and Operating Directors and their titles at the approval of City Council. How Funding above website. much power does 3CDC really “The city of Cincinnati The above information have? Will the general public has committed to invest $100 calls to mind a number of have any say in plans for the million over five years to questions and concerns, for development of our Downtown support Center City plan example how was this board areas? Will 3CDC continue as a projects. This amount is selected and by whom? corporation after the consistent with its historical Considering that one of the development is completed? If annual capital investment in members of 3CDC’s Board of so, what will their purpose be? City development projects. Directors is also chairman of In the meantime the Funds will primarily come from The Kroger Company which is displacement of disadvantaged Downtown and Over the Rhine receiving millions of dollars people continues and Tax increment Financing (TIF) from the city for the building of privatization; that is, corporate districts. In addition, Over the its Vine Street garage, is it control of public properties and Rhine is eligible for possible that certain city institutions is becoming the Empowerment Zone funds and officials have been making norm. Federal Community backroom deals that will allow The phrase, “Knowledge is Development Block Grants. Big Business to determine Power” may be trite, but it is The private sector will public policy? true. create the Center City Vera Zlatkin 3CDC is a private Development Fund, with the Streetvibes Page 7 �The Peace Village enthusiasm for teaching about peace for disabled people. We did posters in ways that are most unusual in that those who could not speak in any language I could understand made clear to their helpers what they wanted to be written or drawn on the cardboard. Suddenly, it was clear, and powerful, and energizing. “We want our rights, our FULL rights,” each poster said in one form or another. I hope sometime you get to meet Linda and her group. Recently, I have had the good luck to meet with about 50 young people who have agreed to use their summer as interns in the organizations that work with the poor, the hungry, the crazy, and the victimized. We met as part of a “reflection” activity at Xavier by Dr. Steve Sunderland I want to honor some people who are working for peace that is out of the spotlight, out of the glare of television, out of the minds of average citizens who read newspapers and watch television expecting that the reality of our community and world is adequately portrayed. Tracy Kidder, in his latest book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World (2004). Random House, asks Farmer why he continues to make “house calls” in rural and mountainous Haiti when he could be back at Harvard teaching and doing research. Farmer explained: “”...people from our background—like you...like me—we’re used to being on a victory team, and actually what we’re really trying to do...is make common cause with the losers. ...We Dr. Steve Sunderland want to be on the University. The purpose of our winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, meeting was to give each person a chance to draw their most powerful it’s not worth it. So you fight the learning from their first four weeks long defeat.” Haitian people who are very sick matter just as much as of service in our poorest communities. Most of the youth Americans in the upper class, were from area high schools, public Farmer is saying to an audience of and parochial, and from some of small and dedicated people who our colleges. Funded by the continue to work in conditions of Mayerson Foundation and staffed such meager resources as to shock by outstanding teachers, the youth anyone who has a sensibility of met with me to draw and talk. We caring. Why has Haiti been so shared about the reality of our thoroughly abandoned? The city’s profound neglect of the poor questions stares out at us like a and the ways in which each person candle on a desert, a pin prick that learned that simple and vital illuminates such a little part of the actions made a great deal of surrounding darkness about the difference. We saw and heard people and issues somehow about children who were as hungry surviving in the darkness of for food as they were for smiles, courage and anonymity. human contact, and someone to Linda Kunick is president of People First. Linda is one of the play with. We saw posters and heard stories about the need for most articulate peace workers I “patience” in listening to stories know even though she is learning and trying to make sense of them. disabled. She is working for the Stories from the poor indicated rights of people who have serious disabilities from cerebral palsy and some important trust placed in the listeners, a trust that each person other causes. Her organization’s did not want to abuse. “No matter mission statement proudly states: what you have done,” a poster with “We believe that all people with a person sitting in a chair covering disabilities should be treated as their head talking to someone equal and be able to speak up for sitting and listening on the floor, “I what they want. By serving as will respect and love you.” leaders and working together as a The posters were signs of TEAM with all members of the the dying of many Cincinnatians community.” Linda invited me to from the “normal” culprits of do posters with her group of 15 addictions, poverty, little useful people recently based on our parenting, and rejection. No one successful experience at a prior could look at the pictures and not meeting of disabled people. Linda want to ask: “Why do we want to is a peace maker with enormous Page 8 waste the talents of such impressive youth on these people?” Yet, if you could have been there, you would have heard the resolve in these young voices, seen the courage in their eyes, and saw another generation of activists who are on a journey neither their schools or their parents know a lot about. These young people know the victory of small acts of genuine caring. They do not expect anything in return as they know they are not in the “business” of caring. The lesson they have learned about our society is one that is priceless: the celebration of human happiness, caused, witnessed, honored and tenderly accepted, is the special gift, the inoculation of the potion of happiness that may yield the deep understanding of humaneness. There is a moment in the movie, “Gandhi,” when Nehru brings news to the fasting Gandhi that the violence against the police has stopped and that the people are putting garlands of flowers around the necks of the police. Gandhi, starting to cry, turns and says: “Perhaps we have gone overboard.” The humor breaks Nehru and he opens his heart of tears, too. This moment reminds me so much of Saad Ghosn, a Lebanese American peace worker, poet, artist, and professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Looking into Saad’s face is to look deeply into his gentleness and his resolve that peace, like tears, is always ready to surface when the touch is right. Saad organized the second peace exhibit for artists of Cincinnati, encouraging the 100 or more artists to bring their finest work about peace. The art was shown in a semi-converted old factory that is now a series of two exhibit halls. Only minimal repairs have been finished and the art was placed everywhere on these old and hardened walls. Each weekend night and afternoon, poetry readings, musical offerings, and panels on some topic related to peace were offered for free. At the opening, the artists and those who wanted to hear descriptions of the art by the artist, walked the building. About 50-75 of us walked from painting to sculpture to television to hear, see, and welcome what each artist offered. I had come earlier in the day to put up some posters of mine and some posters from different projects I have facilitated plus a very large picture from Israel of a gigantic tank with balloons and flowers emerging from its turret. This picture was completed by six Israeli high schools students who had worked with Rabbi Kelman’s rabbinical students in one of the few Reform Jewish High Schools in Israel. It adorned the wall, fairly Streetvibes shimmering with joy and it was diagonally across from Saad’s harrowing works. It is very hard for me to imagine brutal presentations coming from such a gentle man. Saad has Gandhi’s beautiful open face, large soft eyes, and a voice that rarely is above a whisper. A little smile, impishly, is often on his lips as he shares such deep gratefulness for participating in this event. Yet, Saad knows violence and truth and drives the observer to the point of having to either face his work or turn away in shock and hopelessness. The theme of “innocence” is at the base of his work on display. One picture is split in two with the bottom part being the heads of little dolls hanging, dangling in the space he has let them fall to, while the upper part of the picture, above a platform with toy soldiers in black, he has three figures: Money, Power, and Religion. Seeing the doll heads is very difficult but nothing compared to the next picture. Here, is a large structure, we see the broken bodies of dolls, all painted black, and mixed together in a death pile that is too unbearable for me to look at for long. Saad has titled this work, “Turning Their Bodies Into Oil.” But artists cannot leave the battleground with only despair. There is the humor of the hanging sculpture of Bush riding a bomb like a cowboy riding a bull that leaves us laughing. And, there is the remarkable beauty of so many paintings of the dead that seem to imply that maybe, just maybe they are sleeping a simple and acceptable peace. I find the artist leading me into the picture to see what could have been if violence was not our culture’s choice and then, it is easy to see the beauty in the human form not touched by war, bullets, blood, and danger. The human form becomes an expression of love in all of its colors, now twisting to reveal the shape of the body in play, now showing the body extending a finger or toe to touch a loved one. There is more to life than war even though we are swimming in the polluted waters of it. Dr. Steve Sunderland, professor of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, is the Director of The Peace Village, a group of individuals from the national and international community committed to examining all issues of Peace in the world. Dr. Sunderland also heads up Posters-for-Peace which engages people in expressing their visions of Peace, in their own words, through the creation of posters. �The Fourth Annual Public Forum on Homelessness THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL TAKE A LITTLE WHILE: Living and Acting with HOPE in Difficult Times Wednesday, October 13, 2003 8:30am to 5pm Franklin County Veteran’s Memorial Wayne Brehm Room 300 West Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio Presented by The Columbus Coalition for the Homeless In Partnership with The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Otterbein College, The Columbus Metropolitan Area Church Council & The Interprofessional Commission of Ohio Featuring PAUL LOEB as keynote speaker This forum will focus on advocacy, through the work of volunteers and professionals, for the needs of marginalized people - particularly those who are very poor and often homeless. The attendees will hear presentations by one of the country’s leading proponents of citizens living, acting and working for a more justice and equitable society for all people. “Paul Loeb brings hope for a better world in a time when we so urgently need it.” ­ Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity For more information about Paul, see www.paulloeb.org Poverty – The New Slavery ibe s Streetvibes etv to subvert the possible improvements required by the working class. The vast majority of the upper class donates large amounts of both time and money to superfluous charities that look good on paper, and provide various write-offs, but do not make a valid improvement in anyone’s standard of living except their own. Though it may look good to save the ozone, or protect baby seals, or donate money to save the rain forest, what have you done for society? You donate money to political campaigns that promise to be tough on crime, and end deficit spending. In reality, you mandate a further separation of the classes. Very few rich people deal drugs. If you live in an environment where your only potential way to pay for the necessities of life are either a dead-end minimum wage job, or to break the law by selling drugs, what do you chose? Quite often those who choose the latter do not have an reading. Advertisements prey on the need for acceptance, by getting a new car, name brand appliances, specific soda pops, etc, until those who cannot afford these unnecessary items steal them. The drug trade is a violent world, and survival is a game with no true victors, only victims. Perhaps the time has come to look for a more rational approach in our dealings with each other. How many people subsist on wages that are inadequate? How many people live with no health insurance? How many jobs are being outsourced to foreign countries? How many times have you bought a pirated CD or videotape? Can you look in the mirror and honestly tell yourself it’s OK? Do you really think giving a person 25 to life in prison for a petty crime is justice? Feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts or ideas.... e Str by Gary Hallford, California State Prison Solano 6-140L PO Box 4000 Vacaville, CA 95696-4000 Whether you find yourself struggling to make ends meet on the street, working for a major corporation at minimum wage, or as an enlisted member of the military, one constant remains: it is virtually impossible to pay your rent, afford any form of public transportation, pay for medical care, to obtain competent legal representation in civil or criminal cases. Education above state mandated Minimums? Adequate job training to progress into a better lifestyle? Very unlikely... The sad truth in the matter is that with the exception of the air we breathe, everything costs money. Too many people in the middle and upper-classes consider the working class to be a drain on their continued supremacy, and act both publicly and privately education that provides any opportunity for advancement. This country’s prison system is full of under-educated poor folks that chose instant gratification rather than ethical conduct. Whose fault is it? Partly, it’s due to an education system that is a complete failure to the students, and the taxpayers. Some of the blame rests on the politicians that mandate maximum sentences ­ three-strikes laws - and remove functional programs that might possibly improve a former prisoner’s chance at success after release. Also, you have local political agendas that unfairly distribute tax dollars for the sake of road repairs and other needs, by using the prison system as the county’s population. (Lassen County, California has 30% of its population in prison.) And lastly, part of the problem is a lack of personal responsibility throughout society in general. From the President, down to the local junky, personal responsibility is at an all-time low. The point is, that this country has become totally deluded with the “gimmee, gimmee, gimmee” attitude. Too many young people are more adept at video games than Support Your Vendor Page 9 �More Than Just a Home by Charlotte Ruddy, Peaslee Neighborhood Center Volunteer. Countless times I’ve questioned the life I’m leading and whether I approach my days with the right mindset. It seems too easily that we loose sight of what really matters. Within a materially “privileged” environment I’ve come to realize just how naturally we get trapped in the rhythm of our own rat race. And what is essential to the heart, and to our very livelihood…the raw, wholesome, simple things…like compassion, laughter, and friendship, become overlooked by petty cravings, for bigger and better “things”, that are oh-so­ short-lived in their fulfillment. The “priorities” in my life have been under reconstruction for as long as I can remember. I found myself wavering through the tides of adolescence and the mass media’s misleading influences. However, with every new experience I’d encounter along my soul search, I tried to find a fresh perspective, a new outlook on life that would keep me attuned to the loveliness all around us. Even in our seemingly disoriented existence, I’ve always found it possible to uncover that ‘universal happiness,’ an uncomplicated sense of beauty, wherever I happen to be called upon. On a last minute’s notice this summer, I was blessed by the opportunity to escape from my middle class life, to serve needy Mexican families in a ‘colonia’ bordering Texas (where thousands come empty handed, with the hopes of crossing the border into the U.S.), with my fellow senior high youth group from Friendship United Methodist Church. Our objective was to demonstrate God’s love by providing two families with sturdy structures they could call home. However, going into this trip, not only could I not foresee just how crucial our material resources are needed around the world (that we take for granted and consume so carelessly), but Page 10 even more gravely, could I not imagine how much joy and beauty there was dancing through a community, referred to by many as the “underprivileged”. I’d had experience working within underserved communities before, however as we traveled across the border to Mexico we’d enter into an unfamiliar level of poverty. From first glance one could find the dirt roads, dust whipping through the Photos by Charlotte Ruddy air, undomesticated dogs roaming free, trash layering demonstrated through our the earth’s surface, and the expressions of a deep desire to homes…made of recycled offer our help and for these families to graciously receive it. With the language barrier (Spanish vs. English), we became fully engaged in our universal behaviors…such as smiling, waving, playing with the children, and showing kindness and gratitude. These are essential elements in any environment, in any setting. The two families, whom we were building homes for, were living with minimum resources; i.e. lack of drinking water, no plumbing or electricity, and little access to food. However, these basic needs never appeared to get in their way of the small joys of the day, such as watching their children play and enjoying a tasty plate of beans. My group’s family consisted of a mother, Sara, who was probably in her mid thirties boxes, borrowed wood, and and her 3 year old daughter, truck tops. It could be hard to Celina. Celina, who was find beauty in land that looked rambunctious and friendly, with so hungry for life, like trying to her twinkling eyes, lift hopes in a war zone. was the force However, this drawing the youth disheartening perception was group and her radically revitalized as soon as family together. we came in contact with the While we worked people; saw their smiling faces, on their new home, their loving embrace for family, Sara stood at the and their appreciation for door frame of their everything life offered them…a temporary shelter joyfulness unknown to me. It and attentively, was so beautifully simple, like patiently watched life was intended to be. With us, while her tender, open arms, they accepted daughter, Celina, us into their community, even would tease us and though we were foreign in their play, just as any humble eyes. And so, with each other high spirited, day of straining physical labor cheerful child. also came an emotionally, Most of our day intimate time of building was spent relationships. hammering nails Although we came from into boards to practically worlds apart…the create the walls of core of our existence was their home. As the faithfully the same. This was week progressed, Streetvibes not only did we see the house take shape but also we saw an unspoken bond between the volunteers and this family. It’s hard to explain how you can be so attached to people we’d only known for one week. Even though in the end, this simple structure we built for this family was just sturdy walls, a tar roof and a linoleum floor…what was created was much, much more. What I learned from this experience was that what we considered some of the “essentials” of life are not always necessary to finding joy in a day. Meals shared with the family, a piggy back ride for Celina, a smile shared with Sara all made us celebrate the human spirit and our brief time together. I hope that I continue to carry their passion for life in my heart. This life lesson they gave to me was just as great, if not greater, than what we left for them, the permanent shelter they now call home. �Homeless News Digest Compiled by Patty Lane The Salvation Army in Flatbush, New York, wants to help house the homeless by building them a place to live. According to the New York Times, the Army wants to build a nine-story, 117-unit shelter but residents groups have been protesting the project for months. Their biggest argument: the facility is too big for the area and fear it would unfairly tax local resources. “There isn’t a ninestory building in the community. So the largest building in our community is going to be a homeless shelter,” State Senator Kevin Parker tells the Times. He says he has received hundreds of letters from angry residents. In June he sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg to oppose the shelter. Alfred Peck, the Salvation Army’s director, describes Flatbush as an ideal location for the shelter. “The reality is that this is a family shelter, providing services for other New Yorkers who have fallen on hard times,” he says. The plan calls for the Salvation Army to occupy the shelter under a nine-year lease. Opponents are calling for a moratorium on shelter construction and a focus on lowincome housing. Police and homeless advocates are hitting the streets and back alleys of Oakland, California after a series of vicious beatings of local homeless people, one fatal on those living on the streets. KTVU reports a 52-year-old victim died after a weekend beating. He may have been sleeping when a group of unidentified men assaulted him at a makeshift campsite. Other homeless people witnessed the attack. “It is pretty cowardly for a group of people to viciously attack an obviously defenseless person,” Sgt. Bruce Brock tells KTVU. “He was a completely innocent victim.” The man died from a blunt force trauma. Two weeks ago, three local teenagers were arrested for severely beating a homeless man with a board. At least two other victims have been hospitalized from recent attacks. Witnesses told police that the suspects in the most recent death were between 16 and 20 years old and did not live at the encampment. As the city of Calgary grows, so does the number of people living on its streets. An indepth survey of the Canadian city revealed a total of 127 people on the street. Research shows overall growth is at 49-percent (for a total of 2,597 people). Of those, 77 percent were male, 23 percent female, and there were more than 100 families. Lack of affordable housing is a problem, and so is government funding cuts, according to Alderman Bob Hawkesworth. “The fact that the province canceled housing programs in the early nineties in my view has been a contributing factor to the growth of homelessness,” he tells CFCN. Homeless agencies are calling on the government to step up funding for low-cost housing, increase the assured income program, and raise Alberta’s minimum wage. Commissioner Addie Greene, who led the effort to open the center. But not everyone is convinced this will solve the homeless problem. “It’s not a perfect solution,” says Lisa Lickstein, a volunteer coordinator for the project. “It’s a comprehensive program with broad-based support. It’s a nice start.” Life could get tougher for New York City’s homeless population as the Republican National Convention heads to town in late August. Service providers fear searches and requests for ID will keep many of the city’s homeless from obtaining free food, clothing, and even a place to stay and pray. “They’re basically going to shut us down,” Mary Bivona, case manager with Catholic Charities, tells the weekly City Limits. Planned street closures and security checks will cut off the homeless and low-income clients from essential services. Between West 31st Street and West 33rd, from 7th to 9th Avenues pedestrians will need a “business related purpose to enter,” according to the mayor’s office. Providers have been meeting to discuss the problem. Some solutions include distributing homeless ID cards, providing more shelter beds, or opening up city parks for sleeping. “It’s going to look like pretend, make believe,” a 55-year-old homeless man tells the Weekly. “Like, ‘Oh, we don’t have homeless people here; we take care of our own.’ It’s all bull#*@%.” Lynn Lewis, co-director of the advocacy group Picture the Homeless, says she’s concerned about their rights. “We are primarily concerned about making sure that people’s civil rights and liberties are not trampled on,” she says. “Let’s have some common sense. There are a lot of homeless people here; they’re not going to evaporate.” A new action plan is being drafted in Newark, New Jersey to help find homes for the area’s homeless. The Newark Advocate reports this comes the morning after volunteers conducted a late-night count of the homeless under bridges, at rest stops, and along alleyways. Members of the Licking County Housing Initiative found at least 66 people sleeping in unsheltered areas, like cars, on porches or anywhere they could find a makeshift roof. “This is not a problem that will go away,” housing coordinator Jonda Clemings tells the Advocate. “This is a problem that we will deal with one step at a time.” Time allotted for each person to stay in a shelter is limited, and the cycle of finding a permanent home begins again. Executive Director Debbie Tegtmeyer says they need a more detailed plan to offer to help people gain permanent housing. Advocates drafted plans to help both families who need homes and those who are homeless and have a substance abuse, mental illness, or other debilitating problem. Possible action plans include outreach and emergency, transitional, and permanent supportive housing. New plans, like finding quality childcare for homeless parents who have jobs and need baby sitters, and providing transportation for homeless people who find jobs and need to commute, are also options. Palm Beach County will open a 12-bed assessment center in October allowing homeless people in need of emergency assistance to receive care right away. The emergency assessment plan will provide them with medical care, diagnoses, and referrals to other programs for additional help. Of the estimated 4,000 homeless in Palm Beach County, close to 500 live on the streets and 263 need emergency housing. “It will provide same-day access to a bed,” Sheila Smith, executive director of the Palm Beach County Homeless Coalition, tells the Post. “Oftentimes, it Berta’s Art Corner... takes days to get a Over-the-Rhine waterfall, detail of mural in dead-end alley bed, and by that just off north side of Elder Street, between Race Street and time it’s too late for some people. Goose Alley They get lost.” Members from the group presented their plan to county commissioners recently. “Once the county commission sees the success of it and the county sees the success of it, a lot of people are going to step up to the plate and we’ll be able to build a facility like the one in Miami,” says County Streetvibes Page 11 �Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati All Vendors Sign and Agree to a Code of Conduct Coalition for the Homeless and Report Any Violations to GCCH - 421-7803 1. Streetvibes will be distributed honest in stating that all profits go Streetvibes.... This program has helped for a $1 voluntary donation. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, vendors are allowed to keep that donation. However, vendors must never ask for more than $1 when selling Streetvibes. 2. Each paper purchased from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) costs 30 cents. Papers will not be given out on credit. Old papers cannot be traded in for new papers. 3. Streetvibes may only be purchased from GCCH. Never buy papers from, or sell papers to other vendors. 4. Vendors must not panhandle or sell other items at the same time they are selling Streetvibes. 5. Vendors must treat all other vendors, customers, and GCCH personnel with respect. 6. Vendors must not sell Streetvibes while under the influence. 7. Vendors must not give a “hard sell” or intimidate anyone into purchasing Streetvibes. This includes following customers or continuing to solicit sales after customers have said no. 8. Vendors must never sell doorto-door or on private property, unless given permission from the owner of that property. 9. Vendors must not deceive customers while selling Streetvibes. Vendors must be to the individual vendor. Vendors must not tell customers that the money they receive will go to GCCH or any other organization or charity. Also, vendors must not say that they are collecting for “the homeless” in general. 10. Vendors must not sell papers without their badge. Vendors must present their badge when purchasing papers from GCCH. Lost badges cost $2.00 to replace. Broken or worn badges will be replaced for free, but only if the old badge is returned to GCCH. 11. Streetvibes vendor meetings are held on the first weekday of the month at 1pm. The month’s paper will be released at this meeting. If a vendor cannot attend the meeting, he or she should let us know in advance. If a vendor does not call in advance and does not show up, that vendor will not be allowed to purchase papers on the day of the meeting or the following day. Five free papers will be given to those who do attend. 12. Failure to comply with these Rules and Regulations may result in termination from the Streetvibes vendor program. GCCH reserves the right to terminate any vendor at any time as deemed appropriate. Badges and Streetvibes papers are property of GCCH, and must be surrendered upon demand. The mission of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) is to support a street newspaper movement that creates and upholds journalistic and ethical standards while promoting self-help and empowerment among people living in poverty. NASNA papers support homeless and very low-income people in more than 35 cities across the United States and Canada. Streetvibes Vendor: 70 cents Printing and Production: 30 cents Page 12 The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) was formed in May of 1984 for one purpose: the eradication of homelessness in Cincinnati. What started out as a coalition of 15 volunteers meeting weekly in an unheated church basement has since grown into a Coalition of over 45 agencies and hundreds of volunteers dedicated to improving services for homeless individuals, educating the public about homelessness and empowering homeless individuals to advocate for their civil rights and housing needs. Streetvibes is a tool of GCCH used to help us achieve our goal of ending homelessness. On the one hand it is a self-sufficiency program geared towards the homeless and marginally housed individuals who are our vendors. Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 30 cents per copy and sell it for a suggested one-dollar donation, keeping the profit that they have earned. hundreds of people find and maintain housing. The vendors also sign a code of conduct stating that they will behave responsibly and professionally and they proudly display their official Streetvibes badge while selling the paper. Our vendors put a face on “the homeless” of Cincinnati and form lasting friendships with their customers. On the other hand, Streetvibes is an award-winning alternative newspaper and part of the international street newspaper movement. Focusing on homelessness and social justice issues, Streetvibes reports the often-invisible story of poverty in our community. Streetvibes is also proud to include creative writing, poetry, articles, photography and interviews written by homeless and formerly homeless individuals. Streetvibes enjoys a loyal reader base that respects the honest portrayal of the joys, sorrows, and challenges facing the people of Cincinnati. Streetvibes is a member of the: The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) unites street papers sold by homeless and people living in poverty from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organisation, which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers and advises on the setting up of new street papers and support initiatives for marginalised people. Where Your Dollar Goes... The Streetvibes program maintains a minimal overhead cost so that our vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. Please call our office at 421-7803 for more information about the program. Many thanks for your support. Streetvibes Help STREETVIBES Celebrate 100 Issues! How has STREETVIBES touched your life? Streetvibes will soon be celebrating its 100th issue and nearly 10 years of publishing in Greater Cincinnati. Do you have a Vendor story or thoughts on this milestone that we could share with our readers? Do you have a favorite story from a previous issue? Please contact us at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 117East12th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 - or send us an email. We would love to hear from you! �Peaslee’s 20th Anniversary, December 14th, 2004 by Bonnie Neumeier It was a dream-filled day, December 14th, 1984. Everlene Leary and Kathleen Prudence (two of several mothers of children at Peaslee when it closed as an elementary school in spring of l982) stood on the porch of Peaslee surrounded by community supporters, and handed over a check to buy the former school so that the neighborhood could keep Peaslee as an educational resource in Over-the-Rhine. Three years before, the community had fought to keep Peaslee as a neighborhood school. We lost that fight, but these women and their supporters had turned defeat into victory. The Board of Education finally sold the building to the Peaslee coalition to develop it for the community. We finally had the keys of hope in our hands. When anniversaries come around, it’s important to lift up and honor the valiant effort that women with the support of the Over-the-Rhine community and a broad based coalition from around this city waged in order to liberate Peaslee for the people’s use. It’s important to remember our strong roots and continue with that spirit and resolve. Each new dawn we wake up and commit ourselves to breathing life into the programs and possibilities that Peaslee holds for our neighborhood. We carry on by respecting and understanding deeply the story of our roots. This spirit needs to live in our bones. On this journey we need to learn how to integrate new challenges, energy, and possibilities, never forgetting the founding story and what neighborhood women made possible and why. We were clear from the very beginning that Peaslee would approach education differently and that Jerry Lawson, school board member, handing over the keys to Kathleen neighborhood persons would Henson - board member Everlene Leary is on the Peaslee porch also. always be a part of the glad that we are celebrating the got my identity here.” decision making. We want This sense of power 20th anniversary. When I think programs that encourage and within contributes to the back, I never thought about support people to claim their possibility that people beauty, their strength, and their having a 20th anniversary. We collectively can claim their made it! We are still serving voice. We believe we can be sense of shared power here in the neighborhood. That’s actors and creators of our own important because we fought so Over-the-Rhine. With this history. We do not have to be shared power we can dream big hard to get Peaslee. This was victims to poverty and my first time getting involved in and spread our sense of truth, oppression. We want Peaslee peace and justice, not only in always to be about finding ways anything. I stay involved our own neighborhood, but because I like what we are to support people in building beyond into the world. their own sense of pride, power doing here. Sometimes when THANKS FOR you go to Peaslee and see the and accomplishments. I asked children’s faces, those faces Everlene Leary about this STANDING WITH US make you want to keep on upcoming importance of OVER THE YEARS… going. I found my voice here at Peaslee’s 20th birthday. She IN SOLIDARITY WE Peaslee. I was always proudly declared: ALL CAN TAKE PRIDE somebody’s Mom, Danny’s “We are continuing to IN OUR UPCOMING wife, and I found my self here serve children and at Peaslee. I got a name now. I 20th ANNIVERSARY. neighborhood people. I’m just CBS Slants the Voucher Debate by FAIR-L (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting - Media analysis, critiques and activism) http://www.fair.org/activism/ cbs-vouchers.html On its June 28 broadcast, CBS Evening News debuted a new campaign feature called “What Does It Mean To You?,” an attempt to contrast John Kerry and George W. Bush’s positions on major issues. But the first installment’s discussion of public school vouchers presented a slanted view on a very controversial topic. The report began by profiling Catherine Hill, a grandmother raising her brother’s seven-year-old twins. As correspondent Byron Pitts explained, “For three generations, she believed in public education, raising her children, grandchildren and a host of relatives’ children in the same neighborhood school where she volunteered. But times have changed.” Pitts explained that Hill is now taking part in a voucher program in Washington, D.C. that “would give some 1,600 public school students the opportunity to go to a private school on a $7,500 voucher.” He continued: “But the future of any federally funded voucher program will depend on who voters choose in November.” As Pitts explained, Bush favors such vouchers programs, while Kerry does not. CBS then aired brief comments from a public school principal in support of increasing public funding for schools. The report made little effort to be balanced, giving significantly more airtime to the voucher-supporting grandmother (nine sound bites) than to the anti-voucher principal (two sound bites). But worse, the CBS report presented no real information about voucher programs. Instead, viewers were left with a choice: either vote for Bush and support a grandmother who wants better for the children in her care, or side with Kerry and the school administrator. As Pitts put it at the close of the report, “As for Mrs. Hill, she says the voucher program won’t just give her children a choice... It will give them a chance.” In place of such emotional appeals, CBS might have included evidence on the academic benefits of vouchers— benefits that research show have been mixed, as a 2001 General Accounting Office survey concluded (Associated Press, 10/1/01). CBS might also have looked more seriously into D.C.’s voucher program. As the Washington Post reported earlier in the month (6/11/04), “The D.C. voucher program did not receive enough applicants from public schools to fill all the slots available, and some of the children who will receive the federally funded tuition grants already attend private school, officials said yesterday.” Surely there are substantive questions to be Streetvibes raised about a program that is attracting few applicants among its intended population. Pitt’s suggestion that public school students could go to private school “on a $7,500 voucher” is misleading. According to the liberal group People for the American Way, half of D.C.’s private schools cost $10,800 or more per year. With a maximum voucher amount of $7,500, private school attendance would still be out of the reach of many lowincome families. (For more, see: http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/ dfiles/file_230.pdf) It is refreshing to see CBS devote attention to serious campaign issues that separate Kerry and Bush. But if they really intend to show viewers “what it means to you,” they will need to be more informative and even-handed. CONTACT: CBS Evening News Phone: 212-975-3691 email to:evening@cbsnews.com Page 13 �The Other Side of the Desk HOPE Free Troy Pitts & Michelle Whyte Life is becoming short and by Anonymous hard, Have you ever thought just a nights are cold and long. wee little bit, No where to go, no where to Of how it would seem to be a sleep, misfit, And how you would feel if you I’m feeling death beneath me. Crying out for help, had to sit, but no one’s around. On the other side of the desk? Sad and alone.I feel like going home. Have you ever looked at the Will someone Hear, Listen, man who seemed a bum, As he sat before you, nervous— Open up their Heart Cause living on the streets is dumb— tearing me apart. And thought of the courage it Finally I hear a Voice come took to come, from Above, To the other side of the desk? Telling me to Stay positive and Have you thought of his dreams that I’m Loved! Reaching out for his Hand, that went astray, right then, I have to take a Of the hard, real facts of his stand. every day Before I sleep I say my Prayer, Of the things in his life that Hold my head up high: make him stay, On the other side of the desk? I Pray to God to let Me live because I ‘ve got to stay Did you make him feel that he positive was full of greed, I Pray to God to let me Stay Make him ashamed of his race Strong, or creed, Ask for forgiveness for what Or did you reach out to him in I’ve done wrong. his need, I Pray to God for Better Days, To the other side of the desk? cause now I see the Err of my Ways. May God give us wisdom and Look Up, Stay Focused, lots of it, Be Strong and of Good And much compassion and Courage! plenty of grit, Blessings and Peace be upon So that we may be kinder to You those who sit and All People You Reach. ON-THE-OTHER-SIDE-OF­ THE-DESK. I was deep into bondage, And the master was me. I sought out destruction, And from this world to be free. I was ruled by my fear, And I ran from the pain. The pain of existence, In a world that’s insane. I covered my feelings, I chose to forget. I was numbing myself, With a drug that was wet. I fell deeper and deeper Into an abyss, a black hole. I was quenching my spirit, And I was selling my soul. But then I hit bottom, And in the mire I was stuck. I was all out of excuses I had run out of luck So I bowed down my head, And I tried hard to pray. But my mind was blank, I knew not what to say. And then I cried out, From the depths of my soul. Oh dear God up in heaven, I now surrender it all. Then He answered me gently, With a tear in his eye. I have been waiting so long, From your heart, to me cry. Now He wakes me each morning, And He guides me each day. If I yield to Him all, And don’t stand in His way. Sands of Time My Inspiration by Jeff Branham by Jeff Branham Remember how so all alone, we always used to feel. With the lights all on, but no one at home, when the torment was much to real. We always said that we didn’t care, that we were slowly dying. But when the pain was just too much to bear, We realized that we were lying. We took ourselves to the ultimate low, where we can stay no longer. And after the emotional flood had had its flow, we knew that we must get stronger. But now a brand new happiness, can be both yours and mine. And all the things we can afford to miss, will be lost in the sands of time. The things of which I write about, are the things within my life. From the joyfulness that makes me want to shout, to the pain that cuts like a knife. From the love that is void and unrequited, to the love both sure and true. From being overwhelmingly excited, to the morbidity of feeling blue. Things such as the way things used to be, and things that have touched my soul. These are the things that are dear to me, in this way, my story is told. This is the way that I feel a part, as I write without reservation. I write down what is inside of my heart, for this is my inspiration. Page 14 by Bob Jones He has given me directions, And a reason to be. I’m blessed with a spirit That’s happy, joyous and free. Now each morning I kneel Thanking Him from my heart. For the salvation He’s given A re-birth, a new start. And each night I look back, And I speak to His Son Saying: Thank you Dear Lord, For another day that is done. SLOW DANCE Have you ever watched kids On a merry-go-round Or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You better slow down Don’t dance so fast Time is short The music won’t last. Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask “How are you?” Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, Do you lie in your bed With the next hundred chores running through your head? You’d better slow down Don’t dance so fast Time is short The music won’t last. Ever told your child, We’ll do it tomorrow And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die ‘Cause you never had time To call and say “Hi”? You’d better slow down Don’t dance so fast Time is short The music won’t last. When you run so fast to get somewhere You miss half the fun of getting there. When you worry and hurry through your day, It is like an unopened gift.... Thrown away... Life is not a race. Do take it slower Hear the music Before the song is over. I seek only the knowledge, Of His divine Will for me. And the power to carry it out, To help others and be free. Streetvibes Writers! Submit your Poetry to STREETVIBES ­ Streetvibes@juno.com �Against Culture Unfinished Business Will the new advances in technology that herald the new millennium bring with them greater understanding? Did the Microwave oven herald the end of world hunger? Have they found a pill that will uplift the human heart? No, the miracle that always saves mankind is the one described in the miracle of the loaves and fishes from the Bible. In these times when greed is, indeed, not only justified, but celebrated, it is even a greater miracle when people find it in their hearts to share. In those times, we discover that our true wealth is that heart which, when we open it up, we find, is limitless. And our true poverty, is, certainly, our endless clutching at those things which will disappear before our very eyes, those things which, at the time of our last breath, will reveal themselves as being, truly, without substance. The Bullet I tried to domesticate the bullet, To take her with me to school, To teach her the alphabet And have her speak. But she is made of black clay And stuffed with canned blood. I tried to domesticate the bullet, To take her to the water-spring, To the fields of dew. But she has consumptive lips That love to kiss the lips of death To rummage our wreck And blow ashes in our eyes by Warren Perkins You are not who you listen to You are more than your issues Your skin color is not who you are You are more than your genes. More than the sum of your parts More than part of a whole Time changes 1/4 and 2/5 have no power Everything is the same 1/4 of something is a whole upon itself You are complete You are more than your race You’re more than your ethnicity You have a ship You are the Captain Heed the Call by Robert Manassa Hush – Someone’s calling your name If you don’t listen, then who’s to blame? The fault is yours and yours alone. He’s been calling since the day you’ve been born. It’s not the voice of a neighbor or next door It’s the voice you’ve heard before Why won’t you hear? Could it be ‘cause of the word, fear? Can’t Go Home KNOW THY SELF Jewel D. Wilks A person who knows not And knows not that they know not Is foolish—disregard them A person who knows not And knows that they know not Is simple—teach them A person who knows not And believes that they know Is dangerous—avoid them A person who knows And know not that they know Is asleep—awaken them A person who knows And knows that they know Is wise—follow them All of these persons reside in you Know Thy Self And to yourself be true. You don’t have to suffer anymore By now we should know Someone died on the old rugged cross That someone is Jesus He settled the score Heed the Call. Shutter Speed by Mecello Barrar Lord, why am I walking your streets at night? Did you know that homeless days started with a homeless night. Rain pouring down on my head, but where can I go? I know one place where I cannot go, and that’s home for sure. Cause for some reason they wanted me gone. Will tomorrow be a better turn? Cause I can’t go home. This homeless life can’t be true. Whatever happened to my life? How did it ever come to this? Wasn’t poor nor either rich. I be down on my knees just asking the Lord to please give me a place to sleep. People looking at me like I’m dirty because I’m all on the street. Living in boxes and buildings make what I can to feed the children. Wife die 2 years ago. Hard to explain to my baby boy that mama won’t be back No more, And we can’t find a place to call home Can’t find a job And we forced to be gone. Lord, all I ask of you is to open the hearts of all your children. Make them help one another. Stop looking down at my kind, and give just a little change. Before it’s somebody in their lives living this homeless life... by Jimmy Heath I tried to domesticate the bullet, To lead her to the truth, To wash her copper with perfumes And replace her gun powder with sweets. But she refused to be unlocked, And remained dripping pus, With poison in her breath. Iraqi poet Owl in the City, downtown Cincinnati Streetvibes Page 15 �Surge in Homeless Families Sets Off Debate by Leslie Kaufman In small cities like this one and big ones like Kansas City, Mo. and New York, families are knocking on the doors of homeless shelters in growing numbers. Inside a faded yellow-brick Victorian on a block near downtown here, dozens of families know of the increase firsthand. Behind the front door, the 11 rooms of the Landon House Shelter are packed with homeless parents and their children, often exceeding the 48-bed capacity and requiring the staff to roll out cots. In the communal kitchen, someone is always cooking, and the refrigerator has eight different gallons of milk. Children wander in and out screaming for peanut butter and jelly bars and fruit punch boxes. Behind the house is a courtyard where mothers gather to smoke while the children run in circles. “We are always full,” said Darlene Johnson, executive director of the shelter. “Pretty much bursting out of the seams.” With its rents near record highs and wages stagnant, this wind-swept Plains city of 60,000 about 60 miles northwest of Minneapolis has seen the number of families requesting shelter climb by 45 percent in the last decade, to an average of 124 families a night. The number of homeless families in Minnesota tripled to 1,341 in 2003 a night from 434 in 1991, when the state first started conducting surveys every three years, and most of the last increase came in rural areas like this one. And Minnesota is not alone. It is hard to count homeless families, because by their very nature they drift from relatives to shelters to friends’ homes. The nationwide count most often cited comes from the Urban Institute, a research group in Washington that surveyed homeless assistance providers in 1996. It found that at least 1.4 million children and 2 million adults were homeless, but that number has surely grown as cities like Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; St. Louis; and New York have all reported surges at their homeless shelters for the last two or three years. Some experts on homelessness say the numbers are growing because of the widening gap between low pay and high rents. But others say the federally built homeless shelter system, which helped pay for welcoming surroundings like the Landon House Shelter, has become too attractive for poor families to resist. Federal officials, who do not dispute the national growth in homeless families, say both theories appear to have merit. But they say the lack of consensus on the precise cause makes it hard to deal with the increase. “In places where good data is kept, it is clear that the numbers of homeless families are increasing,” said Phil Mangano, executive director of the White House Interagency Council on Homelessness, the federal agency that coordinates government programs related to the homeless. But a lack of hard research, Mr. Mangano said, has prevented the Bush administration from advocating any solution, even as the government has begun efforts to reduce chronic homelessness among single men. “It is an urgent problem,’’ he said, “but we have learned that an ad hoc reaction may make it worse.” Family homelessness first emerged as a national problem in the mid-1980’s. After a public outcry over the wretched conditions endured by many such families living in crumbling converted hotels, President Ronald Reagan in 1987 signed the McKinney Act, which gave states money to build emergency shelters and help such families. In the years since, billions in federal dollars have financed an explosion in the number of such shelters. In 2003 alone, the federal government spent $1.3 billion on more than 3,700 local programs that run shelters. Yet the demand for such beds has hardly slaked. Some liberals have expressed concern that these shelters have done little more than hide a shameful epidemic from public view, while conservatives have argued that they have become an expensive magnet for poor families who are unhappy with their living situations and are seeking government help. Yet, almost everyone agrees that the number of families knocking on their doors continues to swell. Kato, Street Newspaper Vendor (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Kato has been a vendor of Hecho en Beunos Aires for about six months. I’ve been living on the streets for seven years now, after losing my automobile spare parts business, which went under when the system began to punish the pockets of ordinary workers. First, people couldn’t afford cars for going to work and ended up using bikes and then the same worker was in turn replaced by a machine and ended up unemployed or on the streets. No one sells anything to anyone any more. This year there will probably be 15-20% more people on the streets as this present political system is awful. The socio-economic system destroys you as you have nothing basic - no flat, no job, no partner. Last year, I had a partner but the booze - cheap litre boxes of wine - always led to arguments. Drink and drugs do your head in and of course you become violent. The magazine has helped pull me away from booze, which I’ve been drinking since I was very young and left my family. The police used to be dangerous but now they’re better. In the old days they would take you from the plaza and stick you away for 24 hours, to hide you Page 16 from the public. Now the dangers on the street vary. In Buenos Aires there are lots of races and attitudes and it’s a place with little prejudice, but there are still problems of marginalization and aggression. People let themselves be sucked in to being excluded as they have no culture that tells them otherwise. The only culture they get is through media but the mass media are leading readers and viewers towards a kind of cult of ignorance and irresponsibility. What I see is that where there is culture, there is space for people to be accepted. But where it is missing, whether the person in question is a lawyer, doctor or street cleaner, people ignore you completely. Selling the mag is like when I had my own business as it lets me affirm something about myself. You can get a bag of food once a Streetvibes month- rice, pasta, beans, lentils, oil and nothing else. But to be honest food isn’t the main problem in Buenos Aires. The fast food places throw loads of food away and we collect it. Selling the magazine gives me more than just food and that is important. For more information, email Patricia Merkin at pmerkin@hechoenbsas.com. �Iraq Insurgency Larger Than Thought Contrary to U.S. government claims, the insurgency in Iraq is led by well-armed Sunnis angry about losing power, not foreign fighters, and is far larger than previously thought, American military officials say. That number is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas previously thought to be at the insurgency’s core. And some insurgents are highly specialized - one Baghdad cell, for instance, has two leaders, one assassin, and two groups of bomb-makers. Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, the insurgency is believed to include dozens of regional cells, often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams. The developing intelligence picture of the insurgency contrasts with the commonly stated view in the Bush administration that the fighting is fueled by foreign warrior’s intent on creating an Islamic state. “We’re not at the forefront of a jihadist war here,” said a U.S. military official in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity. The military official, who has logged thousands of miles driving around Iraq to meet with insurgents or their representatives, said a skillful Iraqi government could co-opt some of the guerrillas and reconcile with the leaders instead of fighting them. Even as Iraqi leaders wrangle over the contentious issue of offering a broad amnesty to guerrilla fighters, the new Iraqi military and intelligence corps have begun gathering and sharing information on the insurgents with the U.S. military, providing a sharper picture of a complex insurgency. “Nobody knows about Iraqis and all the subtleties in culture, appearance, religion and so forth better than Iraqis themselves,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Baggio, a military numbers squared with his spokesman at Multinational Corps headquarters in Baghdad. findings in a study of the insurgency completed in Iraq. “We’re very optimistic about One hint that the number the Iraqis’ use of their own is larger is the sheer volume of human intelligence to help root suspected insurgents - 22,000 ­ out these insurgents.” who have cycled through U.S.­ The intelligence boost run prisons. Most have been has allowed American pilots to released. And in April alone, bomb suspected insurgent safe U.S. forces killed as many as houses over the past two 4,000 people, the military weeks, with Iraqi Prime official said, including Sunni Minister Iyad Allawi saying insurgents and Iraqis supplied information “Nobody knows about Iraqis Shiite militiamen for at least and all the subtleties in fighting under one of those air strikes. culture, appearance, religion the banner of a radical But the better and so forth better than cleric. view of the Iraqis themselves,” said U.S. Guerrilla insurgency also Army Lt. Col. Daniel Baggio, leaders come from various contradicts a military spokesman at corners of much of the Multinational Corps Saddam’s popular Baath Party, wisdom about headquarters in Baghdad. including it. “We’re very optimistic about lawyers’ the Iraqis’ use of their own groups, Estimates of prominent the insurgents’ human intelligence to help families and manpower root out these insurgents.” especially tend to be too from his low. Last Military Bureau, an internal month, a former coalition security arm used to purge official said 4,000 to 5,000 enemies. They’ve formed Baathists form the core of the dozens of cells. insurgency, with other attacks Most of the insurgents committed by a couple hundred supporters of Jordanian militant are fighting for a bigger role in a secular society, not a TalibanAbu Musab al-Zarqawi and like Islamic state, the military hundreds of other foreign official said. Almost all the fighters. guerrillas are Iraqis, even those Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq analyst with the Center for launching some of the devastating car bombings Strategic and International Studies, said the figure of 5,000 normally blamed on foreigners ­ usually al-Zarqawi. insurgents “was never more The official said many than a wag and is now clearly car bombings bore the ridiculous.” “Part-timers are difficult “tradecraft” of Saddam’s former secret police and were aimed at to count, but almost all insurgent movements depend on intimidating Iraq’s new security services. cadres that are part-time and Many in the U.S. that can blend back into the intelligence community have population,” he said. been making similar points, but U.S. military analysts have encountered political disagree over the size of the opposition from the Bush insurgency, with estimates administration, a State running as high as 20,000 Department official in fighters when part-timers are Washington said, also speaking added. on condition of anonymity. Ahmed Hashim, a Civilian analysts professor at the U.S. Naval War generally agreed, saying U.S. College, said the higher and Iraqi officials have long overemphasized the roles of foreign fighters and Muslim extremists. Such positions support the Bush administration’s view that the insurgency is linked to the war on terror. A closer examination paints most insurgents as secular Iraqis angry at the presence of U.S. and other foreign troops. Many guerrillas are motivated by Islam in the same way religion motivates American soldiers, who also tend to pray more when they’re at war, the U.S. military official said. He said he met last month with four tribal sheiks from Ramadi who “made very clear” that they had no desire for an Islamic state, even though mosques are used as insurgent sanctuaries and funding centers. “‘We’re not a bunch of Talibans,”’ Anthony Cordesman paraphrased the sheiks as saying. At the orders of Gen. John Abizaid, the U.S. commander of Mideast operations, Army analysts looked closely for evidence that Iraq’s insurgency was adopting extreme Islamist goals, the official said. Analysts learned that ridding Iraq of U.S. troops was the motivator for most insurgents, not the formation of an Islamic state. The officer said Iraq’s insurgents have a big advantage over guerrillas elsewhere: plenty of arms, money, and training. Iraq’s lack of a national identity card system ­ and guerrillas’ refusal to plan attacks by easily intercepted telephone calls - makes them difficult to track. “They have learned a great deal over the last year, and with far more continuity than the rotating U.S. forces and Iraqi security forces,” Cordesman said of the guerrillas. “They have learned to react very quickly and in ways our sensors and standard tactics cannot easily deal with.” Death Toll of U.S. Forces in Iraq Reaches 900 Last month a roadside bomb exploded north of Baghdad, killing one U.S. 1st Infantry Division soldier and bringing to 900 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the beginning of military operations in March 2003. Major Neal O’Brien of the 1st Infantry Division said the most recent soldier killed was on patrol in a Bradley fighting vehicle in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, when the bomb detonated shortly after midnight in late July. On the previous day, two U.S. Marines and two U.S. soldiers were killed in action in Anbar Province, a Sunni- dominated area west of Baghdad. A count by The Associated Press put the number of American soldiers killed since the war began at 900. Counts of the number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq vary, with some already exceeding the 900 figure. Streetvibes The Pentagon’s latest casualty update, put the death toll at 893 service members, plus two civilian Defense Department employees. There have been five military personnel reported killed since the last Pentagon update. Page 17 �FRAC News Child Care Subsidies, Poor Families, Face Uncertain Futures (“Child Care, Up in Smoke,” New York Times, July 8, 2004) The TANF reauthorization bill has stalled in Congress and along with it, provisions expanding child care assistance. Currently only 15 percent of eligible children receive federal child care assistance. Without child care help, low-income parents are at greater risk of losing their jobs and returning to welfare. The U.S. House of Representatives proposed only $1 billion in new money for child care in its welfare bill, which would have made the backlog worse by the end of the decade. But U.S. Senator Snowe of Maine got the Senate to raise the figure to $6 billion over the next five years. However, the bill is unlikely to move this year. States have already started dismantling their child care programs due to budget shortfalls and inadequate federal subsidies, turning away eligible children and cutting payments to child care providers. Public’s Opinion on Food Pyramid Sought (U.S. Department of Agriculture, July 2004) U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venemen announced that the public is invited to comment on the configuration of the new food pyramid, strategies to improve awareness about the food pyramid, methods to help consumers personalize the system, strategies to improve educational messages, interactive tools to illustrate the messages, and communication media for delivering the message. A public meeting is slated for August 19. The food pyramid is being revised along with the Dietary Guidelines. The final release of the new food pyramid and related customer material is set for early 2005. Medicare Calls Obesity an Illness and Opens Door for Coverage (“HHS Announces Revised Medicare Obesity Coverage Policy; Policy Opens Door to coverage Based on Evidence,” U.S. Newswire, July 15, 2004) In a change in Medicare policy, barriers to obtaining Medicare coverage for anti-obesity treatments have been lowered, announced HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. The new Medicare policy classifies obesity as an illness. By law, Medicare covers “medically necessary services for illness and injury,” and prior policy specifically said obesity was not Page 18 an illness. The announcement allows the public to request Medicare to review scientific evidence to determine if a treatment related to obesity could be covered. program participation had increased 300% in the pilot schools. Approximately 80 percent of teachers reported fewer complaints of hunger from students in the pilot program. High Gas Prices Hit Poor Workers Hard (“For many lowincome workers, high gasoline prices take a toll,” Motorway News, July 12, 2004) With gas prices averaging $1.89 per gallon nationally, low-income workers are particularly feeling the effect. Poor workers often live farther from new jobs due to the location of affordable housing, have little access to public transit, and drive older, less fuel-efficient cars. Denise Quenneville drives 30 miles each way to earn $7 an hour, but must spend $23 in gas every two days to get there. For the working poor like Quenneville, the gas price hike amounts to “a palpable pay cut.” South Carolina: Church and State Link Raises Concern (“Government, churches work together,” Charleston Post and Courier, July 13, 2004) The government is recruiting churches for the fight against hunger in South Carolina. The state’s Department of Social Services (DSS), which administers the state’s food stamp program, established a Faith-Based and Community Initiatives office last year to enlist more churches to open food pantries and afterschool snack programs, or provide transportation to welfare­ to-work participants. DSS has turned to churches because budget cuts have left the agency with too few social workers. The Low Country Food Bank receives some of its food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and distributes food to scores of churches. In turn, the churches often offer spiritual guidance. Critics are concerned about linking services and religious messages and say government should not cut funds to trained social service professionals. Summer Camps Offering Healthier Menus (“Kids’ summer camps clean up menus,” The State, July 12, 2004) Meals are getting healthier at summer camps. “Honestly, it’s better than the food I get at home,” said 15­ year old camper Gabe Wolff as he dug into a salad. Camps are responding to pressure from parents and public health officials who are concerned about childhood obesity. “Ten years ago a camp with a salad bar was an anomaly. Today it’s really the norm,” said Jeffrey Solomon, executive director of the National Camp Association. The move toward healthier menus helps camps stay competitive. As many as one quarter of campers demand vegetarian options. Camp counselors see a difference when children consume less sugar and caffeine. New York: School Breakfast Participation Up 300% in Pilot Program (“Academics & Breakfast Connection Pilot: Interim Report on New York’s Classroom Breakfast Project,” Nutrition Consortium of New York State, June 2004) A pilot program that serves free breakfast to children in their classrooms has been found to increase participation in the School Breakfast Program, and decrease student absenteeism, tardiness, visits to the school nurse, and disciplinary referrals. The Academics & Breakfast Connection Pilot (ABC) program was implemented at the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year in 19 schools in upstate New York by the Nutrition Consortium of New York State. The interim report on ABC found breakfast Minnesota: Economic Recovery not Affecting Growing Food Lines (“No summer vacation for hunger in Minnesota,” Workday Minnesota, July 13, 2004) Sue Kainz, a top official of Minnesota FoodShare, says that despite the claims of a growing economy, food shelf usage is still increasing around the state, mainly in suburban areas. Many working families with children are having a tougher time making ends meet, contributing to a fifteen percent increase over last year’s shelf usage. The demand is intensified during the summer because school breakfast and lunch programs are not available. Kainz remarks the end of school causes children to lose their “food safety nets.” San Francisco: Restaurants Accept Food Stamps (“Restaurants on food-stamp menu,” Sacramento Bee, July 4, 2004) Elderly and disabled food stamp participants who are unable to cook for themselves may now use their Electronic Benefits Cards (EBT) at participating eateries in the San Francisco restaurant meal program. In one recent month, San Francisco restaurants had 11,000 foodstamp transactions totaling roughly $58,000 in federal Streetvibes benefits. The program is the first of its kind in California, which now joins 18 other states with restaurant programs for seniors, disabled or homeless persons. Food stamp advocates support the program but also have concerns. “We’d hope you’d be able to get culturally appropriate foods,” said George ManaloLeClair, legislative director at California Food Policy Advocates. He also worries that, if people see food stamps used at fast-food eateries, it would reinforce a misconception that food stamp recipients are buying junk food. Rhode Island: Summer Food Demand Outstripping Food Bank’s Supply (“Low in the food chain,” Providence Journal, July 7, 2004) “We’re running out of food,” says Bernie Beaudreau, executive director of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which distributes food to 435 member agencies across the state. The Food Bank hit a record the past year, giving out 7.9 million pounds of food, an increase of 1 million pounds over the previous year. “I’m tired of eating cat food,” said one elderly man who asked for assistance at a food bank in Olneyville. The food shortage is partly caused by reduced donations from large supermarket chains. Working Poor Emerge as New Class (“Inside Story: America’s New Class,” Times Record News, June 27, 2004) A new class of American workers is emerging — what economists call the “working poor.” For the working poor, expenses caused by illness or a car repair can leave nothing to buy food, even with a full-time job. People are working more, but higher-paying jobs have been cut due to a poor economy. The expected new jobs are mostly low-paying. In Texas, one in two children live in or on the edge of poverty. They are not “poor like you see in the movies,” because they have electricity, water and food. But they may have gone without them the month before or the food may have come from a food bank. To subscribe to the weekly FRAC News Digest go to: http:/ /capwiz.com/frac/mlm/ For questions, comments, and news tips, please contact: Helen Yuen Food Research and Action Center 1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 540 Washington, DC 20009 (202) 986-2200 x3019 Email: hyuen@frac.org �Mass. Elderly Homeless Rate Jumps by Samuel J. Scott, BIGnews The number of elderly homeless people in the state has increased by 9 percent over the past four years, according to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA). The survey, which was conducted in February and released recently, found 1,077 elderly people living in emergency shelters, transitional housing and hospitals throughout Massachusetts. A 2000 study counted 938 people. “We need to expend every effort to ensure that no one’s ‘golden years’ have to be spent within the dependence and impoverishment of a homeless shelter,” said MHSA Executive Director Joe Finn in a statement. “The models to appropriately house these homeless elders exist. Let’s just do what it will take to make it happen.” MHSA’s survey found that 775, or 72 percent, of the homeless elders in Massachusetts live in the Greater Boston area. In addition, 38 percent of the elders counted in the survey are veterans; 7 percent were older than 70; 17 percent were women; 64 percent had a physical disability; and 51 percent suffered from a mental illness or disability. Je’Lesia Jones, a Politics vs. People by R.V. Murphy The two Americas that political pundits talk about both converged on downtown Seattle July 19-21. The National Governors Association held its annual meeting at the Westin Hotel. Corporate sponsors such as Microsoft, Nextel and Armgen picked up the $150,000 tab for the three-day event. Another America that included disabled and elderly people searching for better health care, political advocates, labor leaders, the homeless and the disenfranchised were meeting only a few blocks away at Westlake Park and Steinbrueck Park. Inside the Westin, speakers included former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Homeland Security head Tom Ridge. Those outside could hear Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, one of the few Congressmen to vote against the US invasion of Iraq, The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees’ Gerald McEntee, and John Boonstra of the Washington Association of Churches. On Friday night, interested parties could cough up $5,000 to share a steak dinner with six Republican governors at the El Gaucho. On Saturday morning, about 100 young people, some not even in college yet, gathered at Seattle Central Community College and marched down Capitol Hill to Westlake Park. Thirteen Seattle police escorted them on motorcycles, making a ratio of about one cop for every nine marchers. “We heard about [this march] on the Internet,” said one recent high school graduate, who didn’t want to give his name. “With what’s going on in Iraq, young people have to become spokesperson for the state’s Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA), said “the report is disturbing because the elderly are our most vulnerable people.” “We are dismayed that homelessness is on the rise among the elderly,” she added. Jones said the reported increase came during a time when the state legislature had cut an EOEA program that helped find elderly people places to live. “Governor Romney requested full funding of the Elder Residential Assessment and Placement Program [for this fiscal year], but the state legislature refused his request,” said Jones. However, Charles Rasmussen, a spokesperson for House of Representatives Speaker Thomas Finneran, dismissed the charge. “I think it’s somewhat shortsighted to put all the blame on us like that because of a cut to one program,” he said. “We can’t spend money we don’t have.” In addition, Finneran is working on improving the economy and the availability of housing in Massachusetts, according to Rasmussen. Despite the budget cut, however, EOEA is still doing what it can to help homeless elderly people, according to Jones. “We will certainly do everything we can to come to their aid,” she said. The National Governors Association Annual Meeting active.” show his support). Those students joined The NGA Convention isn’t about 2,000 other activists at open to the public. Seattle Police Westlake Park. That group blanketed the block around the marched another half-mile, with Westin all weekend and all whoops, hollers and chants as marchers moved through preset they circled routes. NGA behind the spokesperson There was a large sign, Westin Hotel Christine on 6th LaPaille told “Billionaires for Bush, the best Avenue. The the Portlandparade based website president money can buy.” included indymedia.org dozens of that “NGA Another young lady dressed as events are AFSCME members in closed to the bright green t- if she were dining at Bill public because shirts, antiof security Gates’ private reception later George Bush concerns and signs almost because the that day held a sign reading, two numerous association is to count, and a private “Corporations are People assorted other organization colorful that exists to Too.” As she walked along she costumes. advocate Some exclaimed, “I’m a corporation. policy of the positions.” marchers’ While the Thank you for paying all my observations NGA admits dripped with other media, income tax.” irony. There Real Change was a large was turned sign, “Billionaires for Bush, the down for a press pass because it best president money can buy.” is an “advocacy newspaper” in Another young lady dressed as if the words of NGA press secretary she were dining at Bill Gates’ Jason Feuchtwanger. private reception later that day Organizations like indymedia held a sign reading, question the influence corporate “Corporations are People Too.” sponsors like Microsoft and As she walked along she Starbucks CEO Orin Smith, one exclaimed, “I’m a corporation. of the featured speakers, have Thank you for paying all my over the governors. income tax.” After the march, the scene The refrain of “Put People at Westlake was reminiscent of a First” (which happened to be the high school pep rally the night event’s sponsor) was often heard before the big game — though and pleas for a governor, any the “big game,” for many, will be governor, to come meet with the the November election. marchers went unheeded. (On Delivering the mantra that the Sunday, there was a breakthrough average person’s voice counts, in that regard as Pennsylvania Kucinich exclaimed, “You’re the governor Edward Rendell came state, you make it real. You make out to meet with members of it feel. You’re the people that Americans Disabled for Attendant build the roads.” Almost on cue, Program Today (ADAPT) and two people arrived wearing Streetvibes George Bush and Dick Cheney masks, wearing prison uniforms and a ball and chain attached to their feet. At times like this, the governors located just a few blocks away were practically forgotten. “I came down here looking for some literature on how to get rid of Bush,” said Joanne Brown, a Seattle resident. “I was looking for some literature about what’s really going on. Not what the media portrays.” In 1991, when the first George Bush was in office, Brown had two jobs including one as a hostess in a Smith Tower restaurant. Until recently, she’d been homeless. She has grown to be highly skeptical of those in power. “Bush said that Iraq wasn’t going to be another Viet Nam,” she said, holding a sign that read “Bush Must Go.” “I never thought it would be until he said it. She said she plans to become more politically active. After the Westlake affair began to wind down, about 400 members of ADAPT, many in wheelchairs, headed to Steinbrueck Park for a rally. ADAPT was lobbying for governors to sign a resolution favoring home care for the disabled and elderly rather than forced institutionalization. Some ADAPT members camped across the street from the Westin on Sunday and others blocked the street with chants for the governors to sign their resolution. On Saturday night, the 30­ odd governors who came to this year’s convention attended a private reception at Bill and Melinda Gates’ home, culminating in a moonlight boat ride on Lake Washington. Reprinted from the July 22, 2004 edition of Real Change, Seattle, WA. Page 19 �TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline 820-2947 A.A. Hotline 351-0422 C.C.A.T. 381-6672 Talbert House 684-7956 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 DIC Live-In Program 721-0643 TREATMENT: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Prospect House 921-1613 Starting Over 961-2256 TREATMENT: Women First Step Home 961-4663 Full Circle Program 721-0643 HOUSING: CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 Miami Purchase 241-0504 OTR Housing Net. 369-0004 ReSTOC 381-1171 Tender Mercies 721-8666 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services, Inc 751-9797 Caracole (AIDS) 761-1480 Friars Club 381-5432 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Haven House 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 961-4080 St. John’s Housing 651-6446 Need Help or Want to Help? If you need help or would like to help please call one of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless members listed below. SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 357-4602 SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 St. Francis/St.Joseph House 381-4941 Mt. Airy Center 661-4620 Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954 SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth) Formed in 1984, The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a membership organization. Our member groups serve the homeless through emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social services, soup kitchens, and mental health/addiction services. The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take an active role in ensuring that Cincinnati is an inclusive community, meeting the needs of all of its citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at (513) 421-7803, 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati 421-2437 Appalachian Identity Center 621-5991 Beech Acres 231-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 381-4242 241-2563 Contact Center Emanuel Center Freestore/ Foodbank 241-1064 Fransiscan Haircuts 651-6468 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental Health Board 946-8600 Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-7186 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis. Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids 357-5720 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471-4357 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259 MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) St. Raphaels (Food Bank/Soup Kitchen) 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 New Life Baptist Mission (Soup Kitchen) 896-9800 Hope House (Homeless Families/Singles) 423-4673 $1 Donation August, 2004 STREETVIBES BUY FROM BADGED VENDORS ONLY Cover Story Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless You Don’t Need a Home to Vote... Serial Number � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2004 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 2004 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: National Voter Registration Day Held at Drop Inn Center Pg 2: Shaking the Money Tree Pg 3: GCHC Pg 4: We Showed Up at the Table But it Felt Like We Were in the Wrong Room Pg 5: Independence from Homelessness Columbus Loses Major Shelter Pg 6: Interview with Ernest Hubbell Pg 7: A Letter to City Council About The Freedom Center Pg 8: The Peace Village Pg 9: Poverty-The New Slavery Pg 10: More Than Just a Home Pg 11: Homeless News Digest Pg 12: Vendors Pg 13: Peaslee’s 20th Anniversary, December 14th, 2004 Pg 14: Art & Poetry Pg 15: Art & Poetry Continued Pg 16: Surge in Homeless Families Sets Off Debate Pg 17: Iraq Insurgency Larger Than Thought Pg 18: FRAC News Pg 19: Mass. Elderly Homeless Rate Jumps Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Georgine Getty Allison Leeuw Andy Erickson Elizabeth Linville Janice Faulkner Mary Gaffney Jimmy Heath Berta Lambert Donna Gordon Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF 3CDC Allison Leeuw Andy Erickson Art Arts & Poetry Berta Lambert CBS Columbus Donna Gordon Drop Inn Center Elizabeth Linville Ernest Hubbell FRAC Freedom Center Georgine Getty Homeless News Digest Iraq Janice Faulkner Jimmy Heath Mary Gaffney poverty Slavery The Peace Village Voting https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/5885c09ee5e55de5954c9973c141f4d5.pdf 11f3771b83486313a9c3d0683d1dc780 PDF Text Text August 2005 STREETVIBES “Outsider Art” Provides a Voice Ron English, a resident artist of downtown Cincinnati, knows the power of his craft and the effect it has on people who view it. “My hand just starts to move and I don’t know if I am in control of it. It’s like a dream” says 50 year-old English. Ron, a Streetvibes vendor and talented artist, is like many low-income artists in Cincinnati who struggle to find an outlet for their voice and art, while making some spare change on the side. Ron collects scraps of cardboard and paper to create his portraits with pencil and pastel. The drawings he creates are stunning images of the way he sees the faces of people. (see cover) The development and recognition of so-called “naïve” art has a long and quirky history, populated by interesting and sometimes startling characters. Most of these artists are untrained in conventional art forms and use the tools of art as a way to sound their voice and experience. Some of these so-called “outsider” artists express themselves as musicians, spokenword poets, writers and painters. Peaslee Neighborhood Center, in downtown Over-the-Rhine, collaborates with musicians and artists in order to bring art to local lowincome people and children. Peaslee has worked with a professional artist from the Cincinnati Art Academy to create mosaics for public display, and there is a current project to involve aspiring neighborhood artists and children on mural projects. Also in Cincinnati, Vulcan’s Forge, a project of the Recovery Initiative, focuses on the positive and creative aspects of individuals and is a support system and a source of inspiration for low-income and mentally challenged people. The Recovery Initiative believes not only in Vulcan’s Forge but also that the process of recovery is closely linked to artistic expression. A number of studies have indicated a higher incidence of artistic expression among persons with mental illness when compared with the general population. Due to society’s marginalization of certain groups and the stigma Ron English associated with mental illness, clients of these programs have few ways to express themselves. Vulcan’s Forge and other programs represent a rare Dr. Hans Prinzhorn collected thousands of works by psychiatric opportunity for participants to not only enhance their own individual recovery patients and his book, “Bildernerei der Geisteskranken” (Artistry of the but dispel public misconceptions about persons with mental illness. Mentally Ill), published in 1922 became an influential work amongst Surrealist The list of programs in Cincinnati goes on. Yet this “outsider” art and other artists of the time. remains ‘out’ of mainstream art circles. The development of the awareness of forms of creative expression that exist outside accepted cultural norms, or the realm of “fine art,” began “Art” Cont. on Page 2 with the researches of psychiatrists early in the 20th century. Lessons from London Bombings show right was right all along, pundits say Many pundits insisted that “partisanship” should play no part in the discussion of the July 7 terrorist attacks in London. But it seemed like business as usual in the right-wing media—as commentators used the attacks to score political points for their side and promote their pet agendas. On Fox News Channel’s Special Report (7/7/05), Jeff Birnbaum seemed hopeful that the attacks would mean a rise in the polls for George W. Bush: “I think that there has been a plunging poll rating for Bush’s policies in Iraq and even for the president’s job performance overall, in part because the American people forgot that there really is a war on terror, or they didn’t believe Bush’s oft-repeated reminders from the stump that, in fact, we were in war and we had to act that way. I think this will—it takes away all of the credibility problems that the president has been having. And popular support, I think, will begin to rise for him again.” Birnbaum’s co-panelist, Bill Sammon of the Washington Times, agreed: “I think the entire conversation changes now. You know, we were talking about Gitmo and whether the prisoners had sufficient comforts.... That debate is obliterated. And now we’re back to, guess what? Good and evil. I mean, this is what Tony Blair, and Jack Straw, and all these people were talking about. They’re talking about using words like wicked and evil, the words that Bush was mocked for using by his detractors when 9/11 happened. But that’s where the conversation’s back to. We’re not talking about global warming. We’re not talking about Gitmo. We’re back to the basics. We are at war.” Oddly, Birnbaum’s response to that was to predict a dip in partisanship: “I think, in fact, partisanship, at least in the short run, will be diminished.” That would be true if one were defining partisanship merely as criticism of Bush, since praising Bush and criticizing his “detractors” is apparently not partisan. Fox panelist Fred Barnes made that point even clearer by noting an exception to the non-partisan trend: “Not for Jane Harman,” Barnes interjected— referring to the Democratic Congresswoman who had suggested that the war in Iraq was not making the U.S. or its allies safer. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough seemed to declare (7/7/05) any and all criticism of the White House unacceptable: “Earlier today, you had Hillary Clinton, senator for New York, coming out and actually criticizing George Bush, criticizing our government, saying that we’re just not spending enough money on counterterrorism.” The clip that followed was a dry recitation of federal domestic security budgets cuts— hardly an unimaginable topic for discussion after the London attacks. Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity also lamented that the left had dared to criticize the Bush administration (7/7/05): “I have felt at almost every step of the way from the very beginning, they have often undermined the president’s war on terror. And they have accused him of targeting civilians for assassination, accused him of starting a war for political gain, accusing him of being responsible for torture policies when no such thing came true. It seems like they’ve always looked to politicize it, which has hurt our effort to unite and combat this.” “Lessons” Cont. on page 5 Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless �Streetvibes Streetvibes, the Tri­ State’s alternative news source, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless and contains relevant discussions of social justice, and poverty issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Becoming a Streetvibes Vendor is a great way for homeless and other low-income people to get back on (or stay on) their feet. Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes Vendor badge. Vendors are private contractors who DO NOT work for, or represent, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homleess. All profits go directly to the vendor. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Allison Leeuw -Administrative Coordinator Andy Erickson - Education Coordinator Rachel Lawson - Civil Rights VISTA Kate McManus - Civil Rights VISTA Mary Gaffney - Reception Melvin Williams - Reception Susan Smith - Volunteer Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photographer Jimmy Heath Cover Mural by Ron English, on display at the Contact Center, Over-theRhine Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or vendors. Subscriptions to Streetvibes, delivered to your home each month, can be purchased for $25 per year. Address mail to: Streetvibes Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web: http://cincihomeless.org Page 2 The Atomic City of Cincinnati by Martha Stevens We will remember for a long time the deaths of innocent Londoners on July 9, victims of the Iraq war. Some Americans also remember each August 6 the attacks on innocent civilians by our own country. This August marks the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The U. S. targeted city streets, and many thousands were instantly incinerated. Counting the deaths from the lethal fallout on the outskirts, over 200,000 were lost. We have not had an atomic bomb dropped on Cincinnati — exactly — and yet we have the distinction, among U. S. cities, of having fellow citizens die from atomic fallout. In the 60’s a basement chamber in our teaching hospital was turned into an effectual bomb site. Radiation was beamed at “Art” Cont. from Page 1 One artist who was particularly affected by the works Prinzhorn presented was Jean Dubuffet. Together with others, including Andre Breton, he formed the Compagnie de l’Art Brut in 1948 and strove to seek out and collect works of extreme individuality and inventiveness by creators who were not only untrained artists but often had little concept of an art gallery or even any other forms of art other than their own. Raymond Thunder-Sky, who displayed his work art BASE Gallery in Over-the-Rhine, was already famous, at least from one side of Cincinnati. Few knew his name, but he was a familiar figure to most persons employed downtown in the past 30 years. He was a shy, quiet, rotund man carrying a toolbox, wearing a hardhat, dressed in what seemed to be an endless array of outlandish clown costumes, each with a proper ruffled Elizabethan collar. Some called him the construction clown. You could see the construction clown wherever a new building was going up or an old one was coming down. Wherever the city’s skyline was changing, the construction clown would be there. It turned out he was making detailed drawings of what he was seeing, vividly depicting cranes and beams and riveted joints with bright markers he carried in his toolbox, adding captions to explain what was being demolished and what, exactly, would take its place. Raymond’s work epitomized Dubuffet’s concept of Art Brut, or “Raw Art.” His art was in its “raw” state, uncooked by cultural and low-income cancer patients by the U. C. College of Medicine with funds from the U. S. military. Of the 90 patients exposed, over their whole bodies or sometimes half their bodies, 21 died within about a month. Doctors wanted to find out whether troops caught on the edges of a nuclear blast could fight on, whether a pilot could still fly a plane. Death from radiation is not easy. Those who died vomited up their insides for up to 48 hours, felt like their skin was on fire, became mentally confused. Their immune systems were destroyed, and “they went steadily downhill,” as the doctors often put it, and succumbed in the end to infection. Certain patients were already in a dying state when exposed and were the most abject victims of all. An African-American woman named Katie Dennis lived only seven days after her radiation. She was 52 with four daughters still at home. The nurses on her floor wrote that before radiation, she was weak and lethargic, mostly sleeping when pain was not too severe. When they rolled her into the radiation chamber, she was so frightened of the huge machine there that she was administered shock treatment before her radiation could take place. Afterwards, her pain continued and she bled from the rectum; the next day she vomited “thick dark brown material” and complained all night of pain in her leg. On day seven she had a fever and constant pain. “Her eyes roll back in her head,” they wrote, and she could barely respond to her name. Later that day Katie Dennis died. Surely we don’t want to set off a nuclear war. Yet we read that our government is not reducing its arms but busy creating new, more “usable” nuclear weapons. Why is it, we must ask ourselves, that the U. S. does not cooperate in arms control. artistic influences. Dubuffet’ built up a vast collection of thousands of works - works which bore no relation to developments in contemporary art and yet were the innovative and powerful expression of a wide range of individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Today the increased awareness of all these forms of expression has led to a network of small organizations in both Europe, the United States and Cincinnati, devoted to the preservation of such works and the support of their creators. The diverse influence of all these forms is now apparent in the work of an increasing number of “trained “ artists who have turned their back on changing trends and fashions to try and form a truly singular reality for themselves. Michel Theo, Curator of the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, France has written the following: ‘“Art Brut”, or “outsider art”, consists of works produced by people who for various reasons have not been culturally indoctrinated or socially conditioned. They are all kinds of dwellers on the fringes of society; homeless, low-income, or otherwise displaced by “conventional” society Working outside of the fine art “system” (schools, galleries, museums and so on), these people have produced, from the depths of their own personalities and for themselves and no one else, works of outstanding originality in concept, subject and techniques. They are works which owe nothing to tradition or fashion.” A firm distinction should be made between “art brut” and what is known as “naif art”. The “naif” or primitive painters remain within the mainstream of painting proper, even if they fail to practice its style. However, they accept the subject and even its values, because they hope for public, if not official recognition. “Art brut” artists, on the other hand, make up their own techniques, often with new means and materials and they create their works for their own use, as a kind of private theatre, like Cincinnati’s Ron English, who gathers his art materials and ideas from the street. These artists choose subjects which are often enigmatic and they do not care about the good opinion of others, even keeping their work secret. People have come to use the phrase Outsider Art to refer to the creative work of artists who are selftaught and/or those who, for a variety of reasons, are what would be considered impervious to being taught how to make art. The innocent, the self-taught, the visionary, the intuitive, the eccentric; the schizophrenic, the developmentally disabled, the psychotic, the obsessive, the compulsive. No matter how powerful and true an artwork might be, if concern for fame, cleverness, or creativity is as important a motivation for creating the work as is personal discovery and expression, then the work will be contaminated with a kind of cultural poisoning and it will not be Outsider Art. Now, as we recognize and lionize the creative individuals who are making this body of work we call Outsider Art, we run the great risk of turning what is so wonderfully outside into just another segment of the mainstream inside. Streetvibes exists as a forum for the expression of the views and opinions of our readers and supporters. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Streetvibes staff or the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Streetvibes �Homeless News Digest illnesses while trying to cross the desert are counted separately. In North New Jersey, Stella Souhlakis, before she was committed to Bergen Regional Medical Center in February, she used magic marker for eye liner. Compiled by Jimmy Heath She wet her pants. She has a child “I daydream a lot, she never sees. Some homeless worrying,” Reg said during an In Tucson, James Huggins, 59, facilities won’t accept her. “If interview at the Uptown Salvation spends his days in city parks. she [goes] to the Bergen CAP Army shelter where he’s been His cart carries mostly old food Shelter on Kansas Street [in staying with his mother and two and a bag of aluminum cans, Hackensack], they’ll put her out siblings for the last month. “I was which he sells. within a day or so, for bedwetting,” worried about getting a home and At least two local shelters said Robin Reilly, a longtime coming back with my family.” are bending the rules to keep the homeless advocate. For two years, suburban more vulnerable homeless out of the Souhlakis is among the homeless families have had Project hard-core homeless, as some call blistering sun. REACH to fight for their children’s them. Many suffer from mental Marlene Moreno, outreach education. worker for Travelers Aid Society, illness or addiction. In Director Diane Nilan and drives a truck into washes in the Hackensack, the number is growing her small staff would contest school - just as the region’s overcrowded early mornings bringing water and districts that denied enrollment to sunscreen to the homeless. services become less available. homeless students based on The heat is “more Four of these people, in permanent residency requirements. fact, have died this year. After years dangerous than last year” for Last month, the Illinois State in the streets, many of the homeless homeless people, she said, because Board of Education killed the “it has been so hot for so long,” have deteriorated to the point Aurora-based program supported referring to 36 straight days of where they can no longer sustain by federal funds. Oversight was 100+ heat in Tucson. The streak themselves. transferred to regional education likely will last, according to the It’s no longer just a offices. National Weather Service. problem, some say. It’s a crisis. “We had great cooperation Not all vulnerable homeless people Public officials and mental from the huge majority of are willing to go indoors, however. health advocates and professionals superintendents and school On Jan. 31, 2000, the city are wrestling with the question: districts, but there were also made it illegal to sell or give away What are we going to do about superintendents who were not food in city parks without a permit Souhlakis and the growing number happy that the law forces them to from the city Parks & Recreation of New Jersey homeless just like accept these students,” Nilan said. Department and approval of the her? Last year, Project REACH Pima County Health Department. “I don’t want to do another helped 350 homeless children with The ordinance makes it more funeral,” said Reilly, who gave the families, and 20 homeless teens, get eulogy for William “Magoo” difficult for church groups and others who want to give food to the into schools. Schmidt in April, saluting the city’s homeless who congregate in the so-called mayor of the homeless. In Phoenix, a record heat parks. Food now must be wave so far has led to the deaths “prepackaged by the In Philadelphia a of 18 people, most of them manufacturer.” Reenie Ochoa, a homeless naked man who homeless, leaving officials parks & recreation administrator, commandeered a police car and scrambling to provide water and crashed it on Market Street said neighborhood groups shelter to the city’s transient complained that homeless people during a Tuesday afternoon rush population. brought trash, debris and “some hour has died For the first time in years, criminal activity” to city parks. The There are homeless people city also modified drinking fountains homeless shelters opened their in Philadelphia who think that so the homeless can’t wash clothes doors during the day to offer incident is giving them a bad respite from the blistering sun, in them anymore, she said. reputation, and they say there are a which has delivered above-average lot of homeless people who are not Huggins said he hopped a ride on a freight train and arrived in temperatures every day since June bad people, they’re just down on 29. Police began passing out Tucson four years ago. He lives a their luck. Robert Anderson was thousands of water bottles donated eating dinner at Chosen 300 vagabond life even though he has by grocery stores, and city officials Ministries. It’s an organization that lung disease and has to use an set up tents for shade downtown. inhaler to help him breathe. provides prayer and meals for “I don’t know why I’m not During the hottest part of people, mostly men, with no homes. burnt to pieces,” said Chris Cruse, the day, he sleeps under a tree in a Anderson says he slipped 48, after taking refuge in a shelter. city park, he says. into drug addiction and while he’s Fourteen of the victims now clean, establishing himself is In Chicago, almost 9,000 were thought to be homeless. difficult: “I made some wrong “Most of us just run from students are homeless. For choices — and the choices I made air-conditioned box to airmuch of the last two years, Reg have affected me greatly.” Benton, a soft-spoken 12-year-old, conditioned box, so it’s hard to Brian Jenkins is executive imagine how omnipresent the heat bounced among his grandmother’s director of Chosen 300: “The only really is for the homeless here,” said difference between us and them is house, his dad’s place and two Phoenix police Sgt. Randy Force. homeless shelters with his mother. that we’re about one and a half In all of last year, the state Few people knew he was paychecks away from being homeless — his clothes were clean, Department of Health Services homeless ourselves.” documented 34 heat-related deaths his hair groomed. But the signs This man who asked to among Arizona residents. were there. His grades slipped. remain anonymous says a domestic The number of illegal He stormed out of class one day. situation put him in the street. But immigrants killed by heat-related He even threw a chair in anger. you wouldn’t know it by looking at Streetvibes him: “I got a teamster’s job, so I’m not your average run-of-the-mill don’t-wanna-do-nothing type of individual.” Now he’s struggling to save for his first and last month’s rent and a security deposit: “I just looked at an apartment. It’s a thousand dollars a month.” For decades, panhandling and homelessness have been as much a part of the San Francisco landscape as the bridges and fog. But now the nation’s “Homeless Czar” is looking toward the Bay Area for possible solutions to America’s homelessness problem. In 2002, an estimated 8,640 homeless people were residing in San Francisco, often living in such decrepit conditions that their existence threatened the city’s tourism industry. However, the situation has improved. According to a study conducted by the city earlier this year, the number of homeless in San Francisco dropped by around 28 percent. City officials have attributed the reduction to a series of new programs. “Historically, [San Francisco] had the worst street homelessness problem in our country,” said Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “But it’s had some of the most innovative ideas.” The city replaced welfare handouts with initiatives such as the controversial “Care not Cash” program, which provides housing and other support services; and “Project Homeless Connect,” which enlists corporate volunteers to help the homeless find jobs. The greater involvement of the business community and the public is one of the challenges around our country,” said Mangano, a former music agent who was appointed by President Bush in 2002. That’s why ‘Project Connect’ is so important. It brings the business community and the public into that larger partnership with government to get the job done.” “It’s not only the individuals we’re serving, it’s the people that are helping serve those individuals whose lives are changing because thousands of them now feel empowered and part of the solution,” said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Mangano said that he has begun putting together an interagency council from several local, state and federal agencies to study success stories like San Francisco to help develop a national strategy to combat homelessness. Page 3 �Kansas: School-age Children Line Up in Bread Lines Hungry school-age children stand in bread lines every week in Wichita, KS, in what has become “a tradition of summer.” “You see more and more every year,” observed Wendy Glick, who runs the Lord’s Diner, which offers free supper to all who need it. “Families come in. You can tell they’ve never done this kind of thing before.” Glick says hundreds of children show up. Poor children, who stop receiving their two free school meals per day in summer, look elsewhere for food. Clinton Moss, the new director of the Bread of Life food pantry, reported that when she “drove to the pantry at 7:30 this morning, we already had families standing in line.” The pantry opens at 10:00 a.m. .But while summer food sites in neighborhoods can be more convenient than a pantry, participation is low. The Wichita school district gave out a total of only 41,000 breakfasts and 61,000 lunches over the entire 2004 summer, while 26,426 Wichita children a day qualify for free school meals. New York: Encouraging Future Success of Homeless Children Show your The Parent-Child Home Program of Eastern Suffolk BOCES has the nation’s first mobile early childhood outreach program to serve homeless families who live in shelters and other emergency housing arrangements. The first strategy the program uses for children in at-risk families is to reduce hunger and improve access to health care. The program, serving 5,000 children in 145 support! Get your STREETVIBES sites nationwide, is designed to prepare T-Shirt Today! children for school and help them overcome language and literacy barriers. Lack of Affordable Housing and Shel­ ter Demand is Major Homeless Problem in Ver­ mont (Back shown here. Shirt not actual size) Only $15 We will send your Streetvibes T-shirt to your door ­ All proceeds benefit the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and the Streetvibes newspaper. Call 513.421.7803 x 16, or come in to our office at 117 E 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine Page 4 Streetvibes In Rutland, Vermont, homeless shelters are experiencing an unusually high demand this summer. Occupancy usually declines in the warmer months when homeless people move to campgrounds and other outdoor areas to live. The Open Door mission in Rutland and Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter has been full for more than a month. Officials are reviewing their records to see what is driving the increased need. Rita Markley, head of the Committee on Temporary Shelter, says she’s seen a rise in the number of women who are homeless. She also has noticed a trend in the number of people who have been laid off from full-time jobs. A shortage of affordable housing also is the major problem �Two Homeless Men Burned in Prague by Jarmila Pribylova Prague, Czech Republic – Two homeless men were recently set on fire and severely burned while sleeping in public. On a night in early June, an unknown person poured oil over a homeless man sleeping on a bench and set fire to him. The victim tried to run and find people to ask for help before he collapsed. He suffered third-degree burns on most of his body. His injuries were so severe he has not yet been identified. His health state is critical. One day later, an unknown person doused and set fire to another homeless man, a former vendor of the street paper Novy Prostor who fell asleep in a tram. The tram driver used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire and called an ambulance and the police. The driver said he noticed a person run away when the tram stopped. The victim is now hospitalized with severe burns covering 20 to 25% of his body, including his left hand, belly, back, face and neck. Although the crimes are nearly identical and were committed within 24 hours of each other, police are not certain if these cases are connected. The Czech Police have recently recorded an increase in attacks against homeless people. In some cases, offenders threw flammable bottles into shacks or shelters where homeless people were sleeping. Last year groups of muscular young men routinely attacked homeless people with baseball bats. Jakub Chudomel, a therapist who works with Novy Prostor, sees these new attacks as an extension of a disturbing trend: “Violence against unarmed, defenseless people (i.e. a sleeping homeless person) is an expression of pathological violence. Verbal attacks against the homeless can be explained by a hidden fear of getting into a similar situation. Harassment and attacks by skinheads always act together, in group.” But Chudomel sees these current cases as something different, more disturbing: “Pouring a flammable liquid onto a sleeping person is something else. The offender is most probably a sadist who is also timid and introverted.” Chudomel speculates that this attack suggests cowardice, quiet aggression, and possibly sexually explained pyromaniacal tendencies. “The offender,” he said, “is a monster dangerous to his surrounding.” Chudomel predicts that if the offender or offenders are not caught, similar attacks will likely follow. Since the attacks, homeless people living in Prague are frightened and cluster together at night so that some of them can always stay awake and guard the others. Edited by Paula Mathieu, Spare Change News, Boston Reprinted from Novy Prostor instead of fighting the war of our lifetime. But, while the rock stars preach, our enemies scheme. While movie stars practice politics, suicide bombers plan on how to kill the most innocent people with a single blast. You know, our leaders may ignore antiterrorism at G8 conferences these days, but, of course, that suddenly changes when the first reports of explosions come in. Then, suddenly, that idiot Bush starts looking a little bit better than the likes of the Chiracs and the Schroeders standing next to him. And Tony Blair, well, he suddenly seems to have a more realistic grasp on global realities than, say, Bob Geldof.” Scarborough added: “We’re not a serious people. Some concern themselves more with terrorists’ rights than civilization’s future. Reporters work overtime demeaning the very troops who protect our land. And rock stars replace grim Cassandras, like Bush and Churchill, as the prophets of pop cultures. The results are almost always disastrous.” This lecture comes from a cable news host who has devoted much of his program in recent weeks to the search for Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager missing in Aruba. “Lessons” cont. from page 1 While Hannity was lamenting such “politicization,” he was also practicing it: “And doesn’t events like this actually prove that the president is actually right, inasmuch as we knew Saddam used chemical weapons and biological weapons against his on his own people. We knew he wouldn’t abide by the cease-fire agreement or the U.N. resolutions.” Other outlets found it an opportune time to promote White House policies. The Washington Times editorialized (7/8/05): “The London attacks, like the train bombings last year in Madrid, required a high degree of coordination and detail, suggesting a plot planned well in advance. And yet here we are arguing whether to dismantle key provisions in the Patriot Act.” On the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page (7/8/05), Daniel Henninger seized the moment to back the White House’s candidate for U.N. ambassador: “If the U.S. Senate wanted to send a signal of resolve and seriousness to whoever bombed London, Democrats would join with Republicans their first day back to dispatch proven anti-terror warrior John Bolton straight to the U.N. They won’t. They’ll keep playing political fiddles while London burns.” Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly was more hopeful that the London killings would change the minds of those he disagrees with. “My first thought was AlQaeda trying to disrupt the G-8 summit in Scotland,” explained O’Reilly (7/7/05). “My second thought was now maybe Europe will wise up. The terrorists are the evildoers, not the USA.” (In contrast, Fox’s Brit Hume said his “first thought” when he heard about the attack was: “Hmmm, time to buy” stock market futures—Media Matters, 7/7/05.) When O’Reilly wasn’t criticizing the governments of France and Germany for being soft on terrorism, he was blaming the press: “The anti-American press both here and in Europe is actually helping the terrorists by diminishing their threat.” To make his point even clearer, O’Reilly asked one guest, “Have you read The Guardian lately? I mean, it might be edited by Osama bin Laden. I mean, that’s how bad that paper is.” O’Reilly seemed to almost be blaming the victims, wondering why Islamist terrorists would even bother attacking Europe: “What good does it do to Al-Qaeda to alienate Europe when Europe has basically been, not on their side but certainly putting the U.S. as the big villain and de-emphasizing, as I say sanitizing, what Al-Qaeda has done. What good does it do AlQaeda to alienate, you know, the BBC and all of these major organizations that have basically not dealt with the threat in a realistic way?” O’Reilly’s guest, Steven Emerson, expanded on that: “In certain respects, BBC almost operates as a foreign registered agent of Hezbollah and some of the other jihadist groups.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough similarly lamented the lack of seriousness about terrorism: “We stop listening to the warnings of the Churchills and the Bushes and, instead, we focus on speeches by rock stars and by Hollywood actors. When our world leaders get together, they focus on global warming and the causes of the moment, Streetvibes Page 5 �Firecats Review movie. It looks terrible with the Legally Blond lady, but Napoleon Dynamite! Fire Cat Magenta: I read the book, it was cute. Fire Cat Blue to Fire Cat Clear: You’re going to see March of the Penguins, aren’t you? Fire Cat Clear: I probably will. So disappointing. Fire Cat Magenta: It looks good. Fire Cat Magenta: He used to Summer Movies make good romantic comedies. Fire Cat Chameleon: Plus you Fire Cat Blue: I so want to see can listen to Morgan Freeman for The Devil’s Rejects – scary, scary. Fire Cat Blue: No such thing! two hours. Fire Cat Chameleon: High I also want to see Charlie and the Fire Cat Black: Morgan Freeman Fidelity. Chocolate Factory. Johnny is pretty sweet. He was in Fire Cat Lavender: I’d like to Depp’s big shiny teeth – scary, retract my recommendation for Batman. He’s been doing some scary. real duds lately but Batman was Fire Cat Magenta: The rest of the Must love Dogs. good. Fire Cat Blue: No going back summer looks like crap. Fire Cat Magenta: He said he now - and High Fidelity sucked! Fire Cat Clear: What about The only did it because he got a lot of Maybe I’m too old. March of the Penguins? Fire Cat ?: I saw Barton Fink last money. Fire Cat Blue: No! Fire Cat Black: Oh, I wish I night. Fire Cat Chameleon: I want to Fire Cat Blue: I love that movie! didn’t know that. Hey! This is see the new Batman movie but I Were you so not expecting that one random, but people are boycotting read, you know, literature. Spielberg and War off the Worlds scene? I wasn’t. Fire Cat Magenta: You can do because Tom Cruise is so psycho. Fire Cat Black: What is that? both, I do both. Fire Cat Lavender: How is he Fire Cat ?: It’s those brothers. Fire Cat Chameleon: But I’m a psycho? Fire Cat Blue: The Cohen snob. Fire Cat Black: He’s just so Brothers. Fire Cat Black: It’s too much Fire Cat Lavender: Can we note psycho – he’s against all drugs. work to be a snob. something in the review about Fire Fire Cat Lavender: We should Fire Cat Lavender: Must Love make our own Fire Cat religion. Cat Chameleon’s weakness as his Dogs, but I’m so kidding. It’s a Fire Cat Clear: Wait, so we OCD disorder? romantic comedy. boycott Spielberg until he stops Fire Cat Black: Oh my god! Fire Cat Black: With John using Tom Cruise in his movies? Napoleon Dynamite is in some new Cusack? Fire Cat Black: I guess so. Fire Cat Clear: I can do that. Conclusion: 7 out of 8 Fire Cats agree – go see Devil’s Rejects 20 YEARS SERVING THE NEIGHBORHOOD Empowering our neighborhood children through peace, art and education Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513) 621-5514 Thanks to a Volunteer Bush’s War Machine Must Be Held Accountable by Ms. Mary Gaffney To my Streetvibes friends, who each month are so kind and thoughtful by buying the paper that helps support low-income people and homeless individuals and families, thank you again. And to a most gracious and beautiful person by the name of Susan Smith, thank you. As a volunteer Miss Mary Gaffney here at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Each Wednesday, she brings in food and pastries to serve to our guests here at the office. As a tradition, people patiently wait for her arrival at the office. She brings in not only pastries, but full dinners and beverages for everyone who visits. The staff and everyone want to thank Susan Smith for her generosity and concern for her fellowman. by Sierra Black The Downing Street Memo tells us only what we already know: that the Bush administration planned, well in advance of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, to invade that sovereign nation and overthrow its legitimate government in the interests of “regime change” – otherwise known as the desire to see a friendlier leader controlling the vast oil resources of Iraq. What makes it so special then? Why all the fuss and bother? Why are we hearing the word “impeachment” and the word “Bush” in the same sentence now when other damning testimony has failed to elicit such a strong response? Many critics of the Iraq war have pointed to the Downing Street Memo as the “smoking gun” in the increasingly damning case against the Bush administration and the lies it told this country in the run-up to war. The key phrase seems to be, “The intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neill have both been lambasted in the media for asserting what the Downing Street Memo proves: that the Bush administration had made a firm decision to attack Iraq and forcibly remove Saddam Hussein from the seat of power by flexing the military might of the world’s one remaining superpower. The memo explicitly states that at the time of the writing, in July 2002, “military action was now seen as inevitable.” Susan Smith Page 6 The memo goes on, famously now, to discuss the plans being made to sell this war to the world. A military coalition had to be built to share the costs and casualties, and a legal excuse had to be created for the sake of the world court, of which Britain is a member. The United States, having disdained the world court, was much less concerned about the legal basis of its actions. It seems that in our modern age, there’s an obsession with the paper trail. These pieces of paper replace the reality of civic action and a tough press corps willing to follow not only hard leads but also hunches. The Downing Street Memo merely confirms what the American public has known all along. If the memo itself was a secret, the policy certainly wasn’t. It was clear all along that the Bush administration and hawks in Congress wanted war, and they were willing to go unusual and probably illegal lengths to get it. The press played nice with an administration, seen as sacrosanct after the horror of 9/11, and the public went along for the ride. As the Minneapolis Star Tribune stated in an editorial following the revelation of the Downing Street memo, “President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes. Perhaps it happened because Americans, understandably, don’t expect untruths from those in power.” It’s an explanation the administration is perfectly happy with. While failing to respond to John Streetvibes Conyers’ demand, backed up by the signatures of 100 of his congressional colleagues and over half a million American citizens, for a formal explanation of the memo and it’s implications for America’s foreign relations disaster around Iraq, the Bush administration has blithely suggested to reporters that the memo is simply business as usual. They know what we know, that there’s nothing new to see here, and that they won’t be called to account for it because we are too afraid to confront our political leaders during wartime. This war will not end, however, until the criminals who started it are forced to account for their actions, in a court with more authority than the informal court of world opinion, where Bush and his cronies have long since seen their reputations hung for their offenses against not only the accepted standards of legal behavior of one country toward another, but their simple disrespect for the intelligence of the people they lie to on a regular basis. Only when we truly hold this war machine accountable for its actions can we hope to see a significant change in policy and a return to peace. Sierra Black is a Spare Change street newspaper columnist and a regular contributor to “What’s Left,” a weekly radio program on WMBR 88.1 FM. Her website is www.sierrablack.com. © Street News Service: www.street­ papers.org �They Died for Their Country by Paul Rogat Loeb “They died for their country,” read the white granite memorial in the Concord, Massachusetts town square, honoring local men who died in the Civil War. Newer headstones mourned Concord men who gave their lives in other wars — practically every war America has fought — belying the recent baiting of quintessentially blue-state Massachusetts as a place whose citizens lack patriotism. I was in town, on the first anniversary of Sept 11, speaking at a local church that had lost one of its most active members on a hijacked plane, a man named Al Filipov. It was clear then — and clearer now — that these honored dead would not be our nation’s last. I thought of Concord when George Bush urged us, this past Memorial Day, to redeem the sacrifices of our soldiers in Iraq by “completing the mission for which they gave their lives.” But what if this mission (which will, of course, claim more lives) itself is questionable, and founded on a basis of lies? Forty-eight Concord men died in the Civil War, which the memorial called “the War of the Rebellion.” They indeed died for their country, turning the tide at battles like Gettysburg and helping end the brutal oppression of slavery. The World War II vets, listed on a nearby plaque, helped preserve the freedom of America — and the world. We owe a profound debt to the farmers and artisans who won our freedom in America’s Revolution, and whose sacrifices were marked, a few miles away, with an exhibit on the battles of Lexington and Concord. It’s easy for those who have lived through too many dubious wars to forget the power of their sacrifices. But not all the Concord deaths served such lofty purposes. Three Concord men died “in the service of their country” during the Spanish-American war. This war of empire took 600,000 lives alone in our subsequent occupation of the Philippines and our suppression of the first Asian republic, prompting Mark Twain to suggest that the Filipinos adopt a modified version of our flag “with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.” Five Concord men died in Vietnam joining 58,000 other Americans, one to two million Vietnamese, and four million who died after we overthrew a longneutral Cambodian government and paved the way for Pol Pot. One died in our 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic, which helped prevent the return of a democratically elected president and installed a corrupt oligarch who would rule for nearly three decades. The American soldiers who died in these wars were as brave as their compatriots in the Civil War or World War II. They undoubtedly had as much integrity in their personal lives. But their courage and sacrifice made the world neither safer nor freer. Since my visit to Concord, the memorial has added another name, a 25-year-old first lieutenant, killed a month after our forces rolled into Iraq in March of 2003, around the time that Bush spoke under that “mission accomplished” banner on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln It’s tempting to assume that all the sacrifices of our soldiers are worthwhile. But mere courage guarantees no inherent moral rightness: German and Japanese soldiers fought bravely in World War II. The September 11 hijackers were willing to surrender their lives to murder 3,000 innocent people, including Al Filipov, whose widow would initiate the peace and justice lecture series where I spoke. Even when we’re told our soldiers are fighting for freedom, we have to look at the broadest consequences of their actions. For instance, an international Pew Center survey right after our Iraqi invasion found that we’d so embittered the Islamic world that majorities to near-majorities in countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt now said they trusted Osama bin Laden “to do the right thing in world affairs.” They now viewed him as a hero, not a murderer. Unfortunately, those who initiated the Iraq war now use each additional American death to justify the need to stay. If we challenge this war, we’re told we’re being disloyal to the troops, undermining their resolve and disdaining their sacrifices. We heard this as well during Vietnam, after which the media rewrote the history of the antiwar movement to imply, through images like protestors spitting on soldiers, that those working to bring the troops home were their enemies. By time the first Gulf War began, these images were omnipresent. Even young anti-war activists told me, “We won’t spit on the soldiers this time.” Yet when sociologists Jerry Starr and Richard Flacks, who worked extensively with Vietnam vets, tried to track down the story, they couldn’t find a single incident of a vet who said he was actually spat upon. And when syndicated columnist Bob Greene invited responses on the subject in a column that reached 200 papers, he found only a handful. The power of such useful myths may erode as military families and veterans play an increasingly visible role in the current antiwar movement, though veterans and families played a key part in the Vietnam-era peace movement as well. Every time I’ve marched against this war, I’ve ended up next to someone carrying a picture of a relative in uniform, a son or brother, husband, nephew, or niece, often someone facing the involuntary servitude of being unable to leave the military long after his or her original service term had expired. But unless we can convince our fellow citizens to separate the lives of the soldiers from the policies that place them in harm’s way, they’ll continue to be held hostage to the choices of leaders who are insulated from the human costs So let’s remember the debt we owe to those who have died for freedom as well as those who risk and sacrifice in the name of protecting us all. But not all wartime deaths advance human dignity, and not all sacrifices are worthwhile. If those who die for a worthy cause are indeed heroes to be honored, those who send our brave young men and women to die in wars of empire and dominion squander their courage, their trust, and ultimately their lives. To use their losses to justify further needless deaths is to betray the best of what the soldiers enlist to protect. For not all of America’s wars have been worth dying in, nor are those we now fight. Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, winner of the Nautilus Award for best social change book of last year. He’s also the author of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time and three other books. This piece originated on www.TomDispatch.com See http://www.theimpossible.htm for more on Paul’s work. Am I the Cause of Homelessness - a personal reflection by Susan Smith I am not an absentee landowner who makes money by profiting from poorly maintained housing and I don’t shop at certain big box retailers known for low prices and low wages. I also tip very well in restaurants. After all, most of us that work get paid whether we’re nice that day or not. Lawyers get paid even if they lose and the client goes to jail. Restaurant staff, however, must depend on there being enough customers who feel generous enough to tip them to make enough to live. I have been wondering lately whether my buying habits contribute to homelessness in this country as well as poverty throughout the world. I like to shop for the bargain stretching my dollars so I can buy more. As I have talked to many of my friends I’ve found they do the same thing. By careful shopping we can have items A, B, C, and D, rather than having to make a choice. These are rarely necessities in life such as food, but perhaps another pair of shoes when I already have a closet full. I am able to do this if the prices are low enough. But careful shopping is not the only component of a bargain. The item must also be produced for a lower cost, and it is this that makes me think I am contributing to the homeless problem. I can remember a time when people looked for the ‘Made In USA’ slogan. Now we manufacture very little in this country and many people seem to believe that products manufactured in other countries are not only cheaper, but better. These American made products seemed to last at least as long as the items we buy today whether they be toasters, refrigerators, shoes, or cars. Many of these manufacturing jobs are now done off-shore, not, I suspect, because they make better products, but because wages are lower. In order for me to get a bargain on that pair of shoes I really don’t NEED, they must be produced cheaper. By my looking for that bargain am I in a sense not willing to pay the wages for someone in this country to manufacture them? I think so. Many of you may counter this with the fact that we are creating jobs in poor undeveloped countries where the cost of living is lower. This may be true, but if the wages paid are so low that these people are kept in poverty, I don’t think I’ve helped them very much. Let’s face it – the reason I want cheap shoes, grapes, bananas, coffee and electronic products is not to help poor people in other countries, it is because I am greedy and want more. I don’ think I should have to take all the blame for my greed, however, because I am bombarded by countless images every day that I not only want these items, but need these items. This product or that product will make me Streetvibes smarter, sexier, happier, and more loved. I don’t suppose it is because these are things one must look inward for instead of outward. This thought may be anti-capitalist. I live surrounded by greed and have been greedy myself. Not only have I contributed to the suffering of others but also to the destruction of the earth. In ‘The Earth As It Is,’ Leonard Buff asks, “Is it possible to live in peace and happiness when you know that twothirds of human beings are suffering, hungry and poor? To be human we have to have compassion. This solidarity is really the defining factor of our humanity and is gradually being lost in a culture of material values. It’s not only the cry of the poor we must listen to but also the cry of the earth. The earth and human beings are both threatened. We must do something to change the situation…” Page 7 �Japan: Vendor Profile He is from Ikeda city in the Mr. Kazuhiro Tomizawa. 46 years old, selling Big Issues in Sakai,Osaka. has been selling them from the first edition, which makes his sales career one of the longest in Osaka. His sales pitch is Nakamozu station, which is at the south end of the Midosuji subway line. He used to sell at the Yodoyabashi business area, but his sales amount was decreasing there because there were many other Big Issue sellers. There are many sellers around Osaka station or around Namba. He thought, “I must go south from Tennoji if I want to sell more.” He decided to take up this sales spot far from central Osaka. He has been selling Big Issues at Nakamozu for six months. His sales pitch is at Nakamozu station the south end of the Osaka subway line where it connects to overland line. During the morning rush hour many office workers hurry by. “They pay me while they are running so that they won’t waste even one second. The customers remember me standing here for a long time. Some customers come within the first three days of the publication date of each issue, “ he said. He says that he sells fifty or sixty copies per day in the first week of the publication dates. north of Osaka Prefecture. He is the first son of a dry cleaning shop owner and he has one younger brother. He inherited his parent’s business and rented it out, but he had to close the shop five years ago because of the bad economic situation. He sold his house three years ago and became homeless. He saw a leaflet about Big Issue sales at Osaka station and he thought, ”I have to do something about my situation.” He decided to become a Big Issue seller. He commented, “I didn’t have any experience of working in another place. I don’t like working under other people and I don’t like having my time controlled by others.” This interviewer was impressed by his well-pressed checked shirt and told him that it suited him. “Well I am the son of a former dry cleaning shop owner,” he laughed. So far he hasn’t found the sales work hard. He says, “It is fortunate that from the first time there have been a lot of customers.” Mr. Tomizawa took care to answer each question sincerely. He said he does not like talking about himself, but he had accepted this interview. “My customers say that they would like to see me on this page (“From The Streets”, a page for a vendor story) soon. I guessed that my turn would come some day so I readily agreed to be interviewed. I hope my customers will be pleased,” he smiled shyly. One of the benefits of selling Big Issue is to meet many kinds of customers. He is happy that he has increasing opportunities to exchange pleasantries with many people. This interviewer asked him how he maintains good relations with his customers. He answered, “I do nothing special except to make sure I receive the money and give the correct change.” This is the essence of good business practice and he carries it out perfectly. Another point is that he has small change prepared. He always prepares thirty one hundred yen coins. There is a convenience store near his sales pitch and he goes there to buy drinks when he has some 1000 yen bills he needs to break. He has no particular plans for his future. “It is quite difficult for me to have a dream…” he murmured. He went on, “I dare to say that I would like to take a leisurely trip somewhere. I don’t like airplanes. I’d like to take a relaxing train journey somewhere in Japan. A hot spring resort would be nice where I could totally unwind.” He sometimes talks to his brother over the phone. ”My mother is somewhere in Osaka. I’d like her to see this page. There have been some good times in my life. The shop which we ran was ranked first or second place in Ikeda. These days the cleaning shop business is facing difficult times.” Now he is planning on saving money but, smiling wryly, he added that that would be difficult to do. He said that many sellers had to quit the work, but he would like to continue it as long as there are customers, “So I will not give it up,” he said. He spoke lightly but his words showed his strong will to continue this work. Reprinted from The Big Issue Japan © Street News Service: www.street-papers.org Got The Vibe? Former Mayor, Qualls again a frontrunner as head of Morning Glory ride She was the president of the by John Zeh With fellow guy and gal pals on the right track, sister and former Mayor Roxanne Qualls will help benefit the region’s Sierra Club chapter at its annual Morning Glory Ride on Sunday, August 7. The popular eco-event will begin at 6 am at Sawyer Point, the Queen City*s downtown riverfront park. Participants will ride a new route after a vegetarian breakfast prepared by Wild Oats Natural Marketplace in Norwood. Qualls was elected to Cincinnati City Council in 1991, and won most votes in the 1993 race, making her mayor. Her involvement in the Queen City and the surrounding area has been quite extensive. OKI Regional Council of Governments, director of the Cincinnati Citizen Action and its Toxic Action Project, owner/manager of Crafters painting and remodeling company, executive director of Women helping Women, director of the Northern Kentucky Rape Crisis Center, community coordinator of the Northern Kentucky Senate on Aging, and honorary chair of the Sister Cities Association. Folks able to volunteer for the ride should contact steve@steverindsberg.com or call him at 513-621-9136. Volunteers get a free breakfast. To register to ride, or to learn more, go to:http:// www.morninggloryride.org National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 homelesscivilrights@yahoo.com Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (513) 421-7803 Page 8 This beautiful, original artwork depicts the vibrant role that Streetvibes plays in downtown Cincinnati and neighboring communities. Created by local artist and activist Mary Ann Lederer in collage form, this colorful 18" X 10" reproduction can be yours to own for only $10. Commemorating Streetvibes 100th issue, proceeds from this limited time offer will go to support the Streetvibes Program and Vendors. Streetvibes �Talbert House’s Turtle Creek Center & Director honored with services that meet and exceed Best Warren. TCC clients begin to Halfway Houses, during the state awards Practice standards. As a re-entry support their families, pay court costs ceremony. “Because of the passion certified program, the Turtle Creek Center is a great place for an offender to begin his journey home, and stay home for good,” said Linda Janes, Chief of the ODRC Bureau of Community Sanctions, during the 13th Annual Clifford Skeen Awards ceremony. Turtle Creek, a 72-bed halfway house, opened in January 2003 as an alternative to incarceration for low-level adult male felony offenders for 15 Southwestern Ohio counties: Adams, Brown, Butler, Clark, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Greene, Highland, Miami, Pike, Preble, Ross, Scioto, and and provide restitution to their victims through employment. WARREN COUNTY—Talbert TCC creates a “step-down” House was honored to receive two from prison so inmates will have a awards from the Ohio Department of greater likelihood of successfully re­ Rehabilitation and Correction entering their community and become (ODRC) at a July 14 awards contributing members of society. ceremony in Columbus. The Turtle From July 2004 to June 2005, 73 Creek Center (TCC), located in percent of TCC clients successfully Lebanon, won the 2005 Clifford completed the program, a rate well Skeen Award in the Halfway House above average for halfway houses. category, and Mary Spottswood, Throughout her 26 years of Talbert House Director of Regional experience, Spottswood, a Maineville Corrections, won a Professional resident, has demonstrated her Achievement Award. commitment to the fields of chemical “In a very short period of dependency and community time, Turtle Creek Center has indeed corrections. Spottswood started at made great strides, providing quality Talbert House in 1990 as the director of the Substance Abuse/Mental Illness (SA/MI) program and has been the Director of Regional Corrections since 1996. She served as president of Ohio Community Corrections Association and has a bachelor’s in Psychology from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in Public Administration from Xavier University. She was named Talbert House Employee of the Year in 1999. “She is the Talbert House accepts the 2005 Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction consummate (ODRC) Clifford Skeen Award in the Halfway House category for its Turtle Creek professional at work,” Center (TCC) and a Professional Achievement Award for Mary pottswood. Pictured said Alicia Handwerk, left to right: Jennifer Burnside, TCC manager; Reginald Wilkinson, ODRC ODRC Deputy director; and Mary Spottswood, Talbert House Director of Regional Corrections. Administrator of Health Care Victories In Ohio State Budget by Lynn Williams, Ohio Empowerment Coalition Organizer The Ohio Empowerment Coalition, united with the Ohio Family Coverage Coalition, is resting briefly after a long & arduous Spring “fighting” to get basic health care programs for Ohio’s low-income adults back in the State Budget. We succeeded in getting a “mixed-bag” of victories. We must remember that all of these programs are just a tip of the health care system that should be available for Ohioans & all America. Just the fact that oftentimes state legislators seemed completely indifferent to the fact that there are people in our Society without basic health care, completely appalls us. Then, too, we were happily surprised by State legislators who were willing to go out “on the limb” to offer amendments on DMA and Parent Coverage, including Sen. Thomas Neihaus, Sen. Joy Padgett and Sen. Robert Spada. Of course some legislators never needed convincing as they already supported health care for the poor. Sen. Mark Mallory and Rep. Catherine Barrett are among these, and many thanks to them. Please bear in mind that the Governor, the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate did not vote to restore the Disability Medical Assistance (DMA) program in the State Budget. It took a small committee of House/Senate leaders, the “the conference committee” to partially restore the Disability Medical Assistance Program. The DMA program is a last thin thread safety net for medication dependent adults with income of $115 or less per month. (We won’t soon forget, Governor Taft, of your plan to cut off health care to the very poor & disabled, while giving millions in tax breaks to the top 1% wealthy!) We asked for $141 million to fund the DMA program; $60 million was approved. Ask yourself whether this is really a victory. Parent Coverage for working parents above 90% of the Federal Poverty Level was definitely not a victory; it was eliminated. So much for all the talk about successes of welfare reform if you make more than $14, 481 a year and have a family size of three. Families who had received welfare and along with welfare, Medicaid coverage for their families, are told they are “doing the right thing” by working, but may become completely destitute if a health care crisis hits and they lack health care insurance. We all know horror stories about this, that sadly, are reality, and directly affect members of the Ohio Empowerment Coalition. The policy as it is now punishes anyone who has earnings above 90% of FPL if they lack health care coverage on their jobs. The Good News is that partial dental and full vision programs for adults on Medicaid were restored in the State Budget. At this point, it looks like only emergency extractions will be covered in dental care. Streetvibes and dedication she has toward advancing community corrections, she is always participating in endless meetings, workgroups and always challenging herself and others to push the boundaries just a little further.” The Clifford Skeen Award is given by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to demonstrate commitment to community corrections as a viable alternative to incarceration. The award was first presented in 1993. The award is given in honor of the late, eight-term Ohio Representative, Clifford Skeen, who sponsored the Community Correction Act passed by the Ohio Legislature in July 1979. The purpose of this act was to reduce the number of non-dangerous offenders being sent to state prisons. Talbert House won its first Clifford Skeen Award in 2000 for its halfway house programs in Hamilton County. “We are honored that Talbert House received both these prestigious awards. Turtle Creek Center and Mary Spottswood are invaluable to our mission and both exemplify why Talbert House continues to be a state and national leader in the area of community corrections,” said Neil Tilow, Talbert House president. Since 1965, Talbert House’s mission is to be a progressive, multi-service, community-based nonprofit agency. Talbert House serves a broad population and develops and delivers services in mental health, community corrections, substance abuse and welfare-to-work. These services have two basic purposes: to improve social behavior and enhance personal recovery and growth. The Governor had proposed completely cutting off these programs to adults on Medicaid. This is not everything we wanted, but it does show the power of people working united together to get health care saved in Ohio. Any look at what the current health care system in America is charging can make a healthy person’s blood pressure soar. Thousands of dollars per year can be charged for life-saving treatments, such as kidney dialysis. A heart attack can cost $25,000 in medical bills, the bill alone enough to bring on a second heart attack. America has the most technologically advanced health care industry in the world and yet we have 45 million uninsured people in the U.S. That is the real immorality. Do we value human life or not? The State Budget is not the end all. For more information or to learn how you can get involved call the Ohio Empowerment Coalition at 1-877-862-5179. Page 9 �Homeless Man Gives to Haiti’s Children by Eric Alan Barton Somewhere down a maze of rutted dirt roads in a rundown Port­ au-Prince neighborhood, past the red gate that keeps out the armed thugs, and through a courtyard of packed gravel, a 23-year-old guy from Broward County, Florida steps through the doorway of the sanctuary he created. Aaron Jackson looks out of place at first. A white kid with a black ski cap, baggy jeans, and oversized white undershirt, he seems a better fit for the Aventura Mall than this concrete home in Haiti. But then he’s overtaken by a swarm of kids. As they tug on his hands, crawl onto his back, and jump into his arms, it suddenly seems as if there’s no place he belongs more. “They love to be picked up,” says Jackson, his eyes as blue as Easter eggs and his brown hair a messy mop that matches an untrimmed beard. “They love any attention you can give them.” He sits down in a folding chair, taking two, then three of the kids onto his lap. They steal his hat, and the boys wrestle for it, the oldest, 7-year-old Ritchy, soon wearing it proudly. The kids pat his hair like they’re petting a dog. “It’s soft,” 5-year-old Rico whispers in Creole. Jackson flips him over to tickle his stomach, and as Rico screams with laughter, Jackson points out the boy’s belly, which looks as bloated as an overfilled balloon. “See?” Jackson says, touching Rico’s belly button, which sticks out like a hitch-hiker’s thumb. “He’s still got this big tummy. The worms do it. Even though they’re gone, it takes months for his stomach to go down.” Eventually, the worms might have killed Rico. Back in January, Rico and his 7-year-old sister, Minouche, were living at a Port-auPrince orphanage. It had run out of food and had no medicine to treat parasites that Haitian children regularly catch from drinking and playing in puddles. When Jackson took the siblings from the orphanage, he gave them a remedy that costs about 5 cents in the United States, a pill that wiped out the worms in one day. Now, Rico has added weight to bones that once showed through his skin, and he’s rarely without a smile across cheeks that have become almost plump for the first time in his life. Rico and Minouche Morena joined five other children who share the three-bedroom home Jackson rents in Port-au-Prince. After traveling to Haiti a half dozen times over the past two years to hand out medicine and food to the poor, Jackson opened the makeshift orphanage in December. He pays for it by scraping together donations from family and friends, and by using almost every dime of money he made as a golf caddy. Jackson’s commitment to the orphanage has cost him nearly everything. He wears secondhand clothes, has a car that no longer runs, and owns almost no personal possessions. Last year, when money G8 – The Basic Facts With words like G8, GCAP and white band floating around the media, it’s little wonder some of us are a little confused about the global events that took place last month. What is the G8? The G8, or the Group Of Eight, is comprised of seven of the world’s leading industrialized nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the USA – and Russia. It began life in the early 1970s when an oil crisis and global economic recession prompted financial officials from France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA to meet to discuss what to do. In 1975 it was agreed that such meetings would be held annually, attended by the heads of states of the six countries. The group was known as the G6. When Canada joined in 1976 it became the G7, and with the addition of Russia, the G8. The G8 has no official headquarters or permanent staff, and the presidency of the group rotates between the member nations annually. What is the G8 Summit? Page 10 The G8 summit is the annual meeting of the group and is used predominantly to discuss providing a stable framework for global economic growth. Topics of discussion at past summits have also included global security, peace in the Middle East, the redevelopment of Iraq, and global warming. Although the G8 can form and suggest policies, it is up to the individual countries whether to adopt them. Why did this year’s G8 Summit take place in Scotland? Each year, a different member of the G8 is president and this year is the turn of the UK. As part of a country’s presidency, it plays host to the summit and Tony Blair decided to hold the UK’s summit in Gleneagles, Scotland from July 6 to 8. What did the G8 discuss? The talks themselves are secret, but we do know that Tony Blair, who headed the summit, wanted to focus on climate change and issues facing Africa. We also know that environment secretary Margaret Beckett, has pledged was tight and he either had to give up the orphanage or his own place, he moved out of his apartment. He now sleeps on the floor of a homeless shelter. Meanwhile, he’s building a school in southern Haiti and has plans to open a health clinic on the northern coast. And even more ambitious, Jackson has handed out 20,000 deworming pills since he began his efforts in Haiti two years ago. “I know it sounds crazy,” Jackson says, “but I want to deworm every person in Haiti.” Few places need the help more. Just a two-hour flight from South Florida, Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, where most get by on $1 a day and only one in five has a job. The seemingly endless political unrest has led to the murder of more than 700 people in the past eight months, and a kidnapping epidemic has escalated to the point where armed thugs snatch up to a dozen people a day. On a recent trip, Jackson traveled the war-torn city of Port-auPrince to hand out medicine and food in the corners of the city where few foreigners venture, where people live in squatter villages built from scraps, and where the strain between residents and thugs seems ready to explode. Those who accept his donations have no idea that, back in America, Jackson is hardly better off himself: homeless and often penniless. Jackson sits on the mattress he sleeps on at a Hollywood, Florida homeless shelter. £50,000 to sustainability projects in Africa to offset the carbon dioxide emissions caused by ministerial motorcades, flights and accommodation. Why is there so much anger and protest surrounding the G8? The countries in the G8 are often seen as acting only in their own interests and those of big business, rather than thinking of the millions of people who are kept in poverty by the trade barriers they set. Campaigners want them to keep issues such as fair trade, global debt and global poverty to the fore when making decisions. What is the Make Poverty History Campaign? Make Poverty History is a global campaign that was launched on January 1 2005 with the aim of eliminating poverty across the world. It is supported and funded by more than 200 charities, campaign groups, religious and faith groups, trade unions, politicians and celebrities – a coalition known as the Global Call To Action Against Poverty. It believes that economic policies, rather than natural factors, are responsible for world poverty, and hopes the UK presidencies of the G8 and the Streetvibes European Union will encourage people in the Western world to take action. How can governments help? Firstly, they can introduce ‘trade justice’ – that is, ending export subsidies that damage the livelihoods of poor rural communities across the world; introducing laws that stop big business profiting at the expense of people and the environment; and fighting for rules that ensure governments, particularly those in poor countries, can choose the best solutions to end poverty and protect the environment, even though these might not always be free trade policies. Secondly, they can drop the debt. GCAP believes the unpayable debts of the world’s poorest countries should be cancelled in full, by fair and transparent means so that poorer countries can instead concentrate on helping their own people. The members of the G8, excluding Russia, have just pledged to cancel the debt of more than 30 countries – but campaigners say this does nothing for at least 40 other countries that also need 100 percent debt relief. �For the eight years that the kids,” says Briski in a hybridised followed her first trip to Calcutta, British-US accent. “I was Briski doled out love and concentrating on my own compassion. Beyond teaching the photography – the women and the children composition, color and depth environment – but the kids were by Ghiti Loebenstein in weekly photography workshops, Zana Briski, director of Born constantly fascinated by my camera, she tended to their welfare and and after the first trip I thought I into Brothels, spent eight years steered many of them away from an would teach them.” teaching, filming and helping to care almost-certain future in prostitution. When she returned to for the children of Indian prostitutes. “The kids are hungry to learn Calcutta, she brought gifts of point­ In the heaving rickshaw of and-shoot cameras. For much of the and share and express themselves. Calcutta’s red-light district rests the They had an awful lot of fun,” she next eight years, the city became her underbelly of India. The dilapidated says. Despite their youth, they also home. “India is a very different place; neighbourhood is cramped with grasped the significance of being able people, but there’s more than just dirt I call it Planet India,” she says. “But to record their lives on film. “Their at the same time, I felt at home there. and decay in her streets. Packed with Living in the red-light district was not pictures have now been seen around a light-fantastic of coloured saris, easy in terms of health, danger, sleep the world, so it’s very empowering spilling water, strewn shoes and the or food but it was also such an honor for the children.” perennial dance of bodies ducking Initially focused on teaching to be included in a world that most and weaving through the day, the photography, people don’t brothel-lined streets are also a Briski started have access to. I photographer’s dream. “Living in the redfilming Born Into This visual maelstrom caught have undying light district was not Brothels soon respect for these the eye of US-based photographer after beginning women and Zana Briski in 1998. She had no easy in terms of her work with the children.” obvious ties to India, and says her health, danger, sleep kids. “I was Born and decision to go there was “karmic… I or food… I have really impressed raised in London, felt called.” Calcutta’s brothels are Briski moved to filled with the children of working undying respect for by them, and I knew I needed to New York 15 women, and it was the bright-eyed these women and document what years ago to wonder of these kids that eventually children.” was going on,” captured her attention. Struck by the study she says. “I had squalor of their circumstances, Briski photography; apart from the time in Calcutta, she never even picked up a video camera spent eight years tutoring them in before, but I went back to the US photography and encouraging them to has lived there ever since. Talking about the comparisons between her and bought [one].” get an education. east and west homes, she quips that Although an amateur Her experience is filmmaker, Briski obviously has a documented in Born Into Brothels, an “New York is just another brothel.” But she sounds decidedly weary. photographer’s eye. Whereas visuals exquisite but heart-wrenching film cousually take second place to content directed by Briski and her compatriot Whether this exhaustion is from the flight she got off just moments before in documentary films, Born Into Ross Kaufmann. Created completely out of circumstance, the film went on our interview, or from the years she’s Brothels is composed of vibrant, vital imagery. It was the only creative devoted to the lives of the Calcutta to win multiple festival accolades children, is hard to say. “It’s affected outlet that Briski allowed herself including awards at Sundance, me in every way. It really took over during the eight-year project, as she Sydney and the 2005 Academy my life, and it wasn’t really anything I all but abandoned her own Award for Best Documentary. “I planned to do, I’m just recovering.”. photography. “There was no way I never really thought of working with The Angels of Calcutta could teach the kids, take care of them and [still do] all the rest of it, so now I’m really dying to get back to [photography]. Really, that’s what I do and who I am.” Determined to help redirect the course of the children’s lives, Briski threw herself into finding schools for them – a difficult task considering most schools refused to admit prostitutes’ children. Despite Briski’s near-perfect success rate, by the film’s end all but two of the children had voluntarily left or been taken out of school. Briski’s work has continued since the film’s release. The two kids that stayed in school are now both fluent in English and one of them will soon be attending high school in the US. Briski is planning to build a school in Calcutta and now presides over Kids With Cameras, an organisation set up to empower underprivileged children from all over the world by teaching them photography. In light of her exuberant commitment to a cause that she stumbled upon, it’s hard to discount Briski’s allusions to a fated calling. “On my second trip to India I was introduced to the red-light district, and that was that,” she says. “I had a very personal response to it, as if I recognised the place. I usually say I was an Indian prostitute in a former life…” If that’s the case, Born Into Brothels is a gallant demonstration of karmic duty. For more info on Kids with Cameras, visit www.kids-with­ cameras.org Reprinted from The Big Issue Australia. Selling Spare Change in a Heatwave by Edward Larsen I’m a vendor and now current writer for Spare Change Street Newspaper. I am happy to say it’s finally summertime and also one of the best times of the year for vendors to sell papers – unless of course, the weather gets too hot. Today I would like to share with you what it’s like to sell SCN. It is a full-time job for myself – and perhaps other vendors as well. On average, I work about 40 to 50 hour per week, and to be honest it’s the best job I have ever had. On an average day, I travel about 30 minutes to an hour on the T, depending if the T is running on time, to buy papers from the SCN office on Mass. Av e. just outside of Harvard Square, in Boston I have to get there at some point during my selling day, but certainly before the offices close at 5 p.m., but I normally try to get there between 2 and 3 p.m. I usually buy about 100 papers for 25 cents a piece, and that number usually lasts me about two to three days. On a typical day, I can sell around 60 newspapers. From June 10 to 12 was the first official heat wave of the summer, with temperatures well into the 90s and high humidity. I’m a very pale person, which means I really feel the heat and humidity like most people do, plus I get easily burned by the sun. I also have a chronic medical disability – Chrone’s disease and colitis, as well as an ostomy. On Saturday, despite the heat, I went to work. Sales were slow because of the transition in temperature, and people were hot and irritated. I went to one of my usual spots, the corner island of Cambridge Street, across from the MBTA near the medical complex. Very few people stopped to talk to me. Everyone was in a rush to get inside the favors of air conditioning. I had been selling the paper for more than two hours and had maybe sold, if lucky, 10 newspapers. The heat was starting to make me dizzy, so I decided to take a break, hoping for a better time later. I decided to ride the T, hoping for some air conditioning and a place to sit for a few hours. When I got on the Red Line to ride between Braintree and Alewife, I was disappointed that the temperature in the train was barely any cooler than outside. The AC was on but just not working well, and all the hot bodies soaked it up pretty quickly. But at least I was sitting for a bit. I pulled out my Walkman from my bag and tried to listen to the radio. I like to listen to Air America or the college music stations. I never listen when I sell – that would be disrespectful – only when I’m resting. Many people on the train looked unhappy and hot – small kids fussing, families with irritated looks, people coming to or from work, looking hot and tired. At one point the AC vent from above dripped some runoff water onto my head and the heads of a few other passengers. The others seemed disgusted, but for me that day, the dirty water was the coolest and best blessing. I savored it. Getting restless, I went back to my spot to try to sell for a few more hours. I pulled out all the stops. I refer to men who walk by as “young fella” and the women as “kiddo.” I think these are friendly terms, but still respectful. A lot of Streetvibes older people like to be called young or kiddo. I worked for several more hours but sold only another 10 papers. Despite the poor sales, I decided enough was enough and to call it quits around 8 p.m. By this time I was dehydrated, felling intoxicated by the sunburn. It was too hot to eat. I divorced myself that day from my typical appendage, a bottle of coke or Pepsi, and opted for Gatorade, water and juice. I walked down to the Charles River (on the Boston side) and drank my liquids while sitting on a bench and watching the evening lights come on. There I crashed my head and tossed and turned from the mugginess and stickiness. Occasionally, spotlights from the police or patrol boats on the river would shine into my eyes. With my jacket for a pillow, I tried to get a few hours sleep and hoped to do better selling papers the next day at the Gay Pride Parade. Edward Larsen is a Spare Change News, Boston vendor. His e-mail address is scnvendor@hotmail.com. Page 11 �Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati All Vendors Sign and Agree to a Code of Conduct Coalition for the Homeless and Report Any Violations to GCCH - 421-7803 Streetvibes.... 1. Streetvibes will be distributed Vendors must not tell customers earned. This program has helped for a $1 voluntary donation. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, vendors are allowed to keep that donation. However, vendors must never ask for more than $1 when selling Streetvibes. 2. Each paper purchased from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) costs 30 cents. Papers will not be given out on credit. Old papers can not be traded in for new papers. 3. Streetvibes may only be purchased from GCCH. Never buy papers from, or sell papers to other vendors. 4. Vendors must not panhandle or sell other items at the same time they are selling Streetvibes. 5. Vendors must treat all other vendors, customers, and GCCH personnel with respect. 6. Vendors must not sell Streetvibes while under the influence. 7. Vendors must not give a “hard sell” or intimidate anyone into purchasing Streetvibes. This includes following customers or continuing to solicit sales after customers have said no. Vendors must also never sell Streetvibes door-to-door. 8. Vendors must not deceive customers while selling Streetvibes. Vendors must be honest in stating that all profits go to the individual vendor. that the money they receive will go to GCCH or any other organization or charity. Also, vendors must not say that they are collecting for “the homeless” in general. 9. Vendors must not sell papers without their badge. Vendors must present their badge when purchasing papers from GCCH. Lost badges cost $2.00 to replace. Broken or worn badges will be replaced for free, but only if the old badge is returned to GCCH. 10. Streetvibes vendor meetings are held on the first weekday of the month at 1pm. The month’s paper will be released at this meeting. If a vendor cannot attend the meeting, he or she should let us know in advance. If a vendor does not call in advance and does not show up, that vendor will not be allowed to purchase papers on the day of the meeting or the following day. Five free papers will be given to those who do attend. 11. Failure to comply with the Code of Conduct may result in termination from the Streetvibes vendor program. GCCH reserves the right to terminate any vendor at any time as deemed appropriate. Badges and Streetvibes papers are property of GCCH, and must be surrendered upon demand. The mission of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) is to support a street newspaper movement that creates and upholds journalistic and ethical standards while promoting self-help and empowerment among people living in poverty. NASNA papers support homeless and very low-income people in more than 35 cities across the United States and Canada. Streetvibes Vendor: 70 Cents (70 cent profit goes directly to the vendor) Homeless Coalition 30 Cents Printing and Production: 30 cents (this cost does not cover expenses) Page 12 The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) was formed in May of 1984 for one purpose: the eradication of homelessness in Cincinnati. What started out as a coalition of 15 volunteers meeting weekly in an unheated church basement has since grown into a Coalition of over 45 agencies and hundreds of volunteers dedicated to improving services for homeless individuals, educating the public about homelessness and empowering homeless individuals to advocate for their civil rights and housing needs. Streetvibes is a tool of GCCH used to help us achieve our goal of ending homelessness. On the one hand it is a selfsufficiency program geared towards the homeless and marginally housed individuals who are our vendors. Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 30 cents per copy and sell it for a suggested one-dollar donation, keeping the profit that they have hundreds of people find and maintain housing. The vendors also sign a code of conduct stating that they will behave responsibly and professionally and they proudly display their official Streetvibes badge while selling the paper. Our vendors put a face on “the homeless” of Cincinnati and form lasting friendships with their customers. On the other hand, Streetvibes is an award-winning alternative newspaper and part of the international street newspaper movement. Focusing on homelessness and social justice issues, Streetvibes reports the often-invisible story of poverty in our community. Streetvibes is also proud to include creative writing, poetry, articles, photography and interviews written by homeless and formerly homeless individuals. Streetvibes enjoys a loyal reader base that respects the honest portrayal of the joys, sorrows, and challenges facing the people of Cincinnati. Streetvibes is a member of the: The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) unites street papers sold by homeless and people living in poverty from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organisation, which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers and advises on the setting up of new street papers and support initiatives for marginalised people. Where Your Dollar Goes... The Streetvibes program maintains a minimal overhead cost so that our vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. Please call our office at 421-7803 for more information about the program. Many thanks for your support. Streetvibes Just how many poor people are there in the world? 852 million people are hungry, up from 842 million a year ago. In the developing world, more than 1.2 billion people currently live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the poorest 48 nations (that is, a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined. The developing world now spends £13 on debt repayment for every £1 it receives in grants. Seven million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis. 40 million people across the world are infected with HIV or AIDS. 104 million children don’t go to primary school, and 860 million adults (most of them women) cannot read or write. �Obese Soldiers Jeopardize National Security (’Military Says Obese Recruits Put Nation at Risk) Overweight recruits are becoming a national security issue. Nearly two out of 10 men and four out of 10 women of recruiting age weigh too much to meetArmy recruiting standards. In addition, those who become soldiers often gain weight, because all branches of the military have many sedentary jobs. AnArmy nutritionist said: “This is quickly becoming a national security issue... We’re going to have a harder time fielding anArmy.” Many already in the military who were required to shed pounds by their supervisors resorted to potentially harmful remedies such as rubber suits, appetite suppressants, laxatives, and induced vomiting. Edible Schoolyard Comes to the Capitol (“Keep These Kids From Eating Veggies? Try.” The New York Times, July 6, 2005) Alice Waters, the “queen of California cuisine,” has declared “all­ out war on the burger-and-soda school lunch.” She initiated her first battle against unhealthy eating in Berkeley, CA by creating a one-acre garden at a local school in 1995. As part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, she planted a vegetable garden on the National Mall, about 80 by 120 feet, to send her antiburger message to legislators, parents, and kids from the nation’s capital. Ms. Water plans to further promote her Edible Schoolyard concept and grow vegetables at 16 more schools in Berkeley, providing nutritious lunches for more than 9, 000 students. She hopes that it will be a pilot for the nation, citing Brillat­ Savarin’s maxim that the destiny of nations is dependent on how they nourish themselves. “We’re going to show a whole generation of kids how to cook and how to eat, and our country will be the beneficiary,” Ms. Waters said. Pennsylvania: Proposed State Budget Would Cut Food Charities Funding by 14 Percent The ACLU Probes FBI on Freedom Issues TheACLU has launched a probe to expose and prevent FBI spying on people and groups simply for speaking out or practicing their faith. As a first step, the ACLU and its affiliates have filed Freedom of InformationAct requests in more than a dozen states. Although the FBI has refused to turn over most of the files, the ACLU has obtained evidence that confirms the FBI and local police, working through Joint Terrorism Task Forces, are spying on political, Cold Homecoming by Cydney Gillis A dirty little secret is finally out: While George W. Bush has (“State considers cutting food aid for been waging war inAfghanistan and Iraq, he’s been cutting medical the hungry,” Post-Gazette.com, July services for the veterans coming 2, 2005) home. ` The state senate adopted a Or, at least, grossly budget plan from the governor that underestimating how many veterans might push more people over the would need — and be entitled to edge into hunger. If approved, the — medical services from the plan will trim $2.4 million from the State Food Purchase Program, which Department of Veterans Affairs. Last month, in a major blooper for translates into a 14-percent cut in the Bush Administration, the VA funding for local food assistance charities. Last March 500 pantries revealed it had budgeted for serving reported a 23-percent increase in 23,553 returning veterans in fiscal people using their services. For 2005 — far short of the 103,000 needy rural areas, where state funding now expected. accounts for nearly half of the food The VA said the number inventory, the proposed plan will was based on figures from 2002, dramatically curtail the frequency of when the U.S. was supposed to be food distribution and the amount that out of Iraq in six months. It’s an is provided. Pennsylvania Hunger error that’s put the VA’s Health Action Center’s Sue Mitchem said: Administration $1 billion short this “Sadly, the last resort for families with year — with estimates it will be hunger is about to be weakened.” $2.7 billion short in fiscal 2006. Last month, led by Washington Democrat Patty Murray, the U.S. Senate voted an emergency supplement of $1.5 billion for VA. The House followed with a bill authorizing $975 million. While the two bills wait to be reconciled — Congress is in recess this week — Sheila Sebron and the veterans she works with continue to wait for services. Sebron is a volunteer advocate with the National Association of Black Veterans. During her service in the Air Force between 1977 and 1984, she was injured in an auto accident — an event that left her knees permanently blown. When she’s in pain, Sebron sometimes suffers flashbacks of the accident — a symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder for which the mother of two says she had to fight the VAfor treatment. Like the Vietnam War, waves of combat vets are now “Don’ t Leave Home Without t...” I Streetvibes environmental, anti-war and faithbased groups. The ACLU thinks the public deserves to know who is being investigated and why. They have sued the FBI and the Department of Justice to get those answers. ACLU clients comprise advocates for causes including the environment, animal rights, labor, religion, NativeAmerican rights, fair trade, grassroots politics, peace, social justice, nuclear disarmament, human rights and civil liberties. When the FBI invades the privacy of political and religious groups in the name of fighting terrorism, theACLU believes that these acts are abuses and threats to our trust and freedom. returning home with PTSD, Sebron says — only to face long waits for help, if they can get any at all. At the Seattle VA, which is $11 million in the hole this year, Sebron says there are currently 18,000 people enrolled. Their wait for an appointment can range from five months to one year, depending on their disability rating. The higher the rating, the quicker the service. Sebron, who’s lower on the list but suffering from depression in the wake of losing a loved one, has had an appointment for a mental consultation she needs bumped back twice in the past two months. And that’s for a veteran with a disability rating. Sebron says anyone not currently in the system is out of luck. A current hiring freeze at the Seattle VA, which is leaving vacant positions open for now, is only making the situation worse, she says. “The reality of an exploding body and the mistakes — that you intended to kill the bad guys and it turned out to be a family in a house. They didn’t have time to process it.” The flashbacks, Sebron says, are like having images of memories superimposed over events happening in the here and now — something she describes as surreal. Despite the reports of long waits for service and care, Megan Streight, a spokeswoman for VA’s Northwest Health Network (which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska) says facilities in the region have actually had a drop in demand over the past few months — and that the VA is mostly meeting its guidelines of providing all eligible veterans with an appointment in 30 days. Reprinted from Real Change News Page 13 �He’s There by Robert Manassa I want to tell you a story - it won’t take long. You may have read about him in a book or even in a song. this man turned water into wine, Get ready people, to share in his glory divine This man was hung on the cross one day Not even one word he had to say He didn’t even fight nor did he fuss To stay there on the cross, that was a must So when your so-called friends let you down just look toward heaven’s way for a true friend Jesus – he will never-ever let you down Remember he won’t fail you – He’s always around Broken Glass by Evanne Fisher I’m so Angry I slam the door The glass breaks. It falls to the floor Like sleet from the sky. Like the shattered pieces of my life, The broken glass lies at my feet As I look down, I see all of my hopes and dreams Splattered there amongst The glistening pieces of glass. I reach down to pick up the pieces of my life, The glass cuts my hands, Blood everywhere Dripping Flowing into the vast darkness They All Asked about You by Michael Henson I went down to the city of lights, they all asked about you. The preachers, the sellers, the man with pale flowers, the police gliding by in their big white cruisers, they all asked. The prostitute sighing her continuous sigh, the girl with one eye bruised, the children of the cobbled alley, the postman with the heavy news, they all asked. They all asked about you. I went down to the city of sea, they all asked about you. The mussels and starfish, the sharks and the barnacles and the otters in their castles of kelp, they all asked. The fishermen winching at their sodden nets, the women stitching at the shore, the cold gulls above them, screening the sands, and the briny things clustered in the scuds of foam, they all asked. They all asked about you. I went down to the city of oblivion, they all asked about you. Someone mumbled through an opium haze. Someone muttered through an alcoholic mist. They all asked. The boy lowered his bag of glue and the crackhead his pipe of dreams. The needle-freak set down his shivering spike and a girl let smoke drift from her mouth. Each addled neuron knew your name. They all asked. They all asked about you. Where I’ve chosen to live. I went down to the city of poets, they all asked about you. In iambics and sestinas and in yawping free verse, they all rhythmically asked. There was one who risked all for seven broken lines, one who stood coughing in an empty tower, one who built pyramids of abstract syllables, and one whose voice was a broken trumpet. All of these and a chorus of lyrical Greeks, they all asked. They all asked about you. Don’t be sad or start to cry. Don’t think to hard or wonder why. Just walk with me for just one mile, and at its end I’m sure you’ll smile. Then I went down to the city of earth, they all asked about you. The ants and the centipedes, the pill bugs and slugs chewed out the words with their loamy mouths. Mute as the mole in their vegetal manner, they all asked. Even the dead, in their earthen cathedrals, lit their dark candles and chanted for you their continuous psalm. They all asked. They all asked about you. I was lying on a torture rack and a friend was lying on one close by. We were trying to carry on a civilized conversation, but it was rather difficult as two employees of the place were giving the two of us their full attention. Their supervisor came in. He cussed them up one side and down the other telling them what a mess the place was, how they were getting blood all over the place and how they weren’t following proper protocol. He told them that if they didn’t straighten up that he’d see about having one of us on the racks switch places with them. I said, “No way! A, these working conditions are deplorable, B, you treat your help like crap, and C, I know damn well you don’t pay union scale. by Jba The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from off the goose. The law demands that we alone When we take things we do not own But leaves the lords and ladies fine Who take things that are yours and mine. The poor and wretched don’t escape If they conspire the law to break; This must be so but they endure Those who conspire to make the law. The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common And geese will still a common lack Till they go and steal it back. —Anonymous Writers! Submit your Poetry to STREETVIBES ­ email your writing to Streetvibes@juno.com Page 14 Streetvibes �One check away Why is there so much month left at the end of the money? James Chionsini twinkling stars cant keep you warm when your sleeping in the park till he break of dawn newspaper pillow and a plastic tarp watching for the pigs that come out after dark lost your job got jacked and robbed your landlord said that’s not my prob doctor bills kill you can’t afford the pills now you’re shaking heart breaking drink as much as you spill waiting on the first to quench your thirst alleviate the discomfort of an asphalt earth trying to find a shelter to get some rest but nowhere seems safe without a knife proof vest by JH Who is the man that staggers in the park? The old man, with gray hair… The poor gentleman that lives in a flea-bag hotel. The man that reminds me of my father, my dad… He’s tall and thin. Had an egg-sandwich for breakfast. In his tiny room, downtown. if you could just get back to square one start to heal the disease that’s got you on the run feeling invisible going insane scowls and nightsticks fall like rain This thin man, this papa, the gray-haired guy, staggers in the park, on a brutal, hot day… The homeless by Don Foran Ten men clamber out of the creaking van, Their sweaty bodies meeting a kiss Of cool night air. They drift, silently, sullenly Toward the darkened church. Mattresses lie, two or three to a room, Along walls decorated with children’s Drawings and almost casual crucifixions. Carl, Eddie, Jake and the others Throw their worn packs and bags Onto the makeshift beds, and John, It’s always John, is first to ask If he can have his sack lunch now, Not in the morning as we had planned. “Sure,” I say, almost as anxious as he To assuage this remediable hunger. Several echo John, and soon all Are feasting on pb and j; apples, celery, And other healthy fare remains on the table, But they’re happier now, even communicative. One thanks me for setting a new pair of white socks On each mattress. Another offers a juice cup To a friend. “Lights out!” Rick calls at ten, And no one argues, no one hesitates. Sleep Knits once more the raveled sleeve of care, Obliterates the hurt, soothes the jangled nerves. Tomorrow will be another day, Another cheerless day embroidered With small triumphs, fragile dreams. Harold Suicide I want to swim with the fish For all eternity Or I could fly with the birds Up in the sky so high I could also go to the doctor And get these pills filled All I would have to do Is take them all I could park my car in the garage And let the carbonmonoxide take me I could huff on house hold cleaners And let the fumes consume me I could overdoes on acid And get a trip before I die I could stand in a pit of fire And smell my burning flesh Or maybe jump off a building With the wind rushing past me I will do it today Or maybe I will wait till next week............... In The Darkness Hiding in the darkness of the night, This is how I’ve been forced to live my life In the blackness I conceal, All my problems that are real Afraid to let my feelings show, Afraid to let anyone know The pain I have been forced to endure, Is not as easily hidden as before As the problems continue to grow, I contemplate just letting go He sits on the bench, with his counterfeit friend, and he falls on the ground, with the heavy limpness of a cruel torture. On the asphalt, in the shade of the trees, this old man falls. The deception of life, and the deny of death. I feel the spirit of this man, myself, on the ground, the hot, cruel asphalt… I want to go home A place where I can be me Where warmth envelopes my soul when I open the door A place where I can be free. I can’t wait for you to love me Lord In a tangible physical way Your arms wrapped around my aching body Taking my pain and grief away I have never felt safe here Never feel like I belong I’m weary and I’m tired but I’ll keep plugging along. I just want to feel a piece of your love here In someone close to my heart but I keep getting disappointed The hurt pierces like a dart I know I’m not perfect Lord but please teach them your grace I’m so tired and weary of falling on my face. Please put it in their heart to share your love with me so I can taste just a little bit of what is meant by “free”. This is a battle I can not win, So why should I bother to post-pone the end Streetvibes Page 15 �357-4602 Formed in 1984, The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a membership organization. Our member groups serve the homeless through emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social services, soup kitchens, and mental health/addiction services. The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take an active role in ensuring that Cincinnati is an inclusive community, meeting the needs of all of its citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at (513) 421-7803, 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth) SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 St. Francis/St.Joseph House 381-4941 Mt. Airy Center 661-4620 Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954 SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 If you need help or would like to help please call one of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless members listed below. OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati 421-2437 Appalachian Identity Center 621-5991 Beech Acres 231-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Emanuel Center 241-2563 TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline 820-2947 A.A. Hotline 351-0422 C.C.A.T. 381-6672 Talbert House 684-7956 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 DIC Live-In Program 721-0643 TREATMENT: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Prospect House 921-1613 Starting Over 961-2256 TREATMENT: Women First Step Home 961-4663 Full Circle Program 721-0643 HOUSING: CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 Miami Purchase 241-0504 OTR Housing Net. 369-0004 ReSTOC 381-1171 Tender Mercies 721-8666 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services, Inc 751-9797 Caracole (AIDS) 761-1480 Friars Club 381-5432 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Haven House 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 961-4080 St. John’s Housing 651-6446 Need Help or Want to Help? MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) St. Raphaels (Food Bank/Soup Kitchen) 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 New Life Baptist Mission (Soup Kitchen) 896-9800 Hope House (Homeless Families/Singles) 423-4673 Freestore/ Foodbank 241-1064 Fransiscan Haircuts 651-6468 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental Health Board 946-8600 Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-7186 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis. Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids 357-5720 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471-4357 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259 Outsider Art Cover Story BUY FROM BADGED VENDORS ONLY August 2005 STREETVIBES $1 Donation � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 2005 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: “Outsider Art” Provides a Voice Pg 2: The Atomic City of Cincinnati Pg 3: Homeless News Digest Pg 4: Vendors Pg 5: Two Homeless Men Burned in Prague Pg 6: Bush’s War Machine Must Be Held Accountable Pg 7: They Died for Their Country Am I The Cause of Homelessness-A Personal Reflection Pg 8: Japan: Vendor Profile Former Mayor, Qualls Again a Frontrunner as Head of Morning Glory Ride Pg 9: Talbert House’s Turtle Creek Center & Director Honored with State Awards Health Care Victories in Ohio State Budget Pg 10: Homeless Man Gives to Haiti’s Children G8- The Basic Facts Pg 11: The Angels of Calcutta Selling Spare Change in a Heatwave Pg 12: Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Streetvibes Pg 13: Obese Soldiers Jeopardize National Security The ACLU Probes FBI on Freedom Issues Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Pg 15: Arts & Poetry Continued Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 2005 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Georgine Getty Alison Leeuw Andy Erickson Rachel Lawson Kate McManus Mary Gaffney Melvin Williams Susan Smith Jimmy Heath Ron English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF ACLU Alison Leeuw Andy Erickson Art Arts & Poetry Bush Cincinnati Georgine Getty Haiti Homeless News Digest Japan Jimmy Heath Kate McManus Mary Gaffney Mayor Melvin Williams Peace Village Pennsylvania Prague Rachel Lawson Ron English Soldiers Susan Smith Talbert House Turtle Creek Center https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/f2a9c9d18c74ed5a77b2e40012e0864f.pdf 8b507949591dd7b32fe121d109232616 PDF Text Text August 2006 STREETVIBES Cover Story Day Labor in Cincinnati: A Portrait of Exploitation They then work until 4:00pm, by Georgine Getty, Executive Director, Greater often with no breaks. Workers Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Day labor halls are this nation’s dirty little are also charged rent on any safety equipment (goggles, secret. Recently, the press has been filled with gloves, hardhats) they use, even if stories exploring the labor and exploitation of day this equipment is provided by the labor workers in such places as Los Angeles and contractor. At 4:00pm they clock New York. Often these discussions center around out and wait for the labor hall the issues of undocumented workers, but more civil rights and labor groups have been focusing their transportation to pick them up. attention on the fact that day laborers perform some They are not reimbursed for this time. Between 5:30 and 6:00pm, of the hardest, dirtiest work in this country for very the workers arrive back at the little pay and with almost none of the protections labor hall. If they are paid daily, that people with regular work enjoy. Across the they may wait several hours for country, groups supporting day labor workers, such as the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, their check. If at any time in this (NDLON) have begun giving a glimmer of hope to process the worker complains, he this invisible section of the workforce. or she may be blacklisted and will In Cincinnati, an estimated 500-600 men not be hired again. There is no and women work at these labor halls each day. Day labor halls are usually located on major roads in grievance procedure for those poorer neighborhoods such as Over-the-Rhine. On who are blacklisted; they are simply never sent out again. The the surface, day labor halls seem fair enough: you next day, they wake up and start show up, they send you out to work, you get paid all over again. 7 days a week, the same day. However the devil is in the detail, people are working 12-14 hour and many labor halls violate both labor laws and days, and ending up with just human rights. To understand labor halls, it is helpful to enough in their pockets to keep them in poverty. It’s no wonder follow a day laborer through his or her day. They wake up at 4:00am and head to work. According to that the labor halls, when they find themselves short of workers, swing by local a 2001 study, Homeless in Cincinnati, an estimated shelters to recruit. 60% of homeless individuals work, often at day Another way to understand day labor is to labor halls; this means that a disproportionate talk directly to the people who work it. Derrick has amount of these workers wake up at a shelter or under a bridge, forgoing both sleep and breakfast to been working day labor for 3 or 4 years while he stays at the Drop Inn Center. He cleans the find work. Around 4:30am they arrive at the labor stadiums after the games, unloads trucks and sorts hall and wait for it to open. At 5:00am, employees garbage. His average day starts at 4 a.m. and goes show up to open the labor hall. Workers add their until 8p.m., when he is name to a list and wait in As a laborer for a temporary labor dropped off back at the the hall. These halls pool, you have certain rights; shelter with between $25 rarely provide bathrooms and $40 in his pocket. for workers, and if they You have the right to be paid a fair Thomas works do, they tend to be filthy wage; full time as a and harbor criminal maintenance manager at activity. At 6:30am, those McDonalds, but has who have shown up early You have a right to a safe workplace; worked day labor for 25 enough are sent out to You have a right not to be years to supplement his available jobs. At this discriminated against; income and keep from point, favoritism is becoming homeless. routinely shown to people You have a right to overtime, if you Thomas keeps a little who are known and liked qualify; notebook with him in by the dispatcher. Even which he interviews his more troubling, workers You have a right to be paid on time; fellow workers and are often selected solely chronicles the injustices based on race or gender. You have a right to workers they face, such as being At 7:00am, the compensation if you are injured on charged for workers arrive at the the job. transportation that never workplace on the arrives to pick them up. substandard bus If you need help in getting what you As he puts it, “if you pay transportation mandated have a right to call John Lavelle at for transportation daily by the labor hall (for 421-7803, ext 16. for a year, that’s a down which the workers are payment for a car. If you charged $6.00 - $7.00, a pay it for 5 years, why, you’ve bought a car!” full hour of wages). They then wait until 8:00am to clock in. They are not paid for any of this time, yet Further, most labor halls keep over 50% of the pay they are required to be there. At 8:00am, they clock offered by the contractors, meaning that Thomas receives half of the money for his labor, and the in and begin work. Contracts vary from industrial work to shipping to picking through trash at a landfill labor hall receives the other half. Randy had a good job with GM Motors to cleaning the baseball stadium after a Red’s game. from 1977 until 1990, when his job was shipped out of the country and he was downsized. Randy’s been working day labor ever since. A certified welder, he’s worked on skyscrapers with workers who made $25 per hour for the same work for which he was paid $6.50 an hour. Unfortunately, Randy can’t work anymore since he was run over by a forklift at a day labor job site and his leg is failing to heal properly. He is currently trying to get disability and find an apartment. A new collaboration of workers and faith and justice groups has formed called the Day Labor Organizing Project (DLOP). This group meets every Wednesday at 9:00am at Our Daily Bread, a local soup kitchen that many day laborers frequent. According to Don Sherman, director of the Cincinnati Interfaith Worker’s Center, this group has three goals, “to educate the public about the abuses of day labors, to pass legislation so that day labor workers are protected by labor laws, and to create a non-profit labor hall so that the money earned by workers goes directly to the workers.” In May, DLOP released its report card of local day labor halls. Volunteers interviewed over 100 day labor workers and asked them to rate the labor halls on issues such as wait times for work, failure to pay, lack of restrooms, unsafe transportation, unnecessary and superfluous fees, wrongful termination, harassment, refusal of permanent employment, and racial discrimination. The highest rating went to CinTemp, who received a C. The lowest rating went to Labor Solutions, who received a D-. “On top of low wages and long hours, day laborers are often subject to poor working conditions, harassment by labor hall staff members, and termination at any time for any reason,” states Don Sherman. “This is an unregulated industry that exploits the most vulnerable of populations.” Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless �Streetvibes Streetvibes, the Tri­ State’s alternative news source, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless and contains relevant discussions of social justice, and poverty issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Becoming a Streetvibes Vendor is a great way for homeless and other low-income people to get back on (or stay on) their feet. Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes Vendor badge. Vendors are private contractors who DO NOT work for, or represent, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homleess. All profits go directly to the vendor. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing. GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Monique Little - Education Coordinator Lynne Ausman - VISTA Gina King - VISTA Andy Freeze - Intern Andy Lawrence - AHA Coordinator John Lavelle - VISTA Melvin Williams - Reception Susan Smith - Volunteer Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photography Jimmy Heath Cover Day Labor Office Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or vendors. Subscriptions to Streetvibes, delivered to your home each month, can be purchased for $25 per year. Address mail to: Streetvibes Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web: http://cincihomeless.org Page 2 Blessing From The Edge by Jimmy Heath It’s a hard lesson to be sure, When we see a person on the imagining yourself without the things we take for granted. But a moment street standing idle, holding a sign or shaking a paper cup for spare change of reflection as we pass this individual what do we see, what do we feel? Is might bring a sense of gratitude for even the simplest things in our lives. it possibly the reality of where our I guess we like “pleasant” lives could be that frightens us? things. Although I’m When we look not sure what that is at the dirty shoes and anymore. A nice meal, the torn clothes are we a home with a white terrified by this picket fence, a individual without a comfortable bed and a name because this could sympathetic social and be us, or are we governmental angered by a perception environment? And that challenges our own Jimmy Heath going to work every wealth and socially day, raising a family – things that are accepted norms – wealth and dignity “normal?” that certainly could be achieved by I think that for most homeless the panhandler if only he would people life is not miserable. Their life shave, dress up, and get a job? is manageable in a different and I think the homeless teach us unfamiliar way. They work together, a valuable lesson. Imagine that lonely, anonymous person shaking the share together and rise up together. But it’s a life that can’t be cup on a downtown corner comfortable or predictable. bestowing on us a kind of miracle? To visit a homeless That we are able to make it through encampment under a bridge or along life safely and with most of the things the river reveals our own we need in order to be comfortable. shortcomings as a sympathetic social Have you ever asked yourself, environment. The man and woman “There but for the Grace of God go who live outside choose the used and I?” Or do you swerve around this worn out barbeque grill as a stove phantom on the corner or cross the and tree limbs as clothes lines, but in street to avoid a lesson that we think our life we recoil in fear and disgust we don’t need or have the time for? at the mere thought of living like that. Sympathy and shame usually comes last, if at all. Most of the time we ignore it. It’s like much of what is missing in modern life. Connection. Recognition. Simple kindness to a stranger. We will hold the door for a stranger and feel good about it, yet cower at the sight of a human we may not fully understand. The homeless are treated like lepers. The homeless remain aliens in a hostile land - hanging on the fringes like 21st century garbage pickers or street urchins. Where did these people come from? What is at the root of their defiance and eccentricity? What happened in their lives that put them on the street? In reality, they are givers of truth to those who pass by, if you step out of yourself for a moment. When I wake up for the day ahead, I take the time to review this truth with gratitude. I thank my brothers and sisters living on the edge for reminding me of the joy in life; their lives, my life and the lives of people close to me. Underneath the concern I have for my friends on the street is remembering the glint in their eyes and the ready laugh. The carefree way in which they share their limited possessions. It is a blessing ­ a sweet sorrow they bring to my heart. I wonder whose life is better. SPCA visit upsets homeless dog-owner Canada - A homeless woman in Halifax is accusing the SPCA of discrimination after getting a visit from an investigator about her dog. Maureen Chapman says the investigator approached her and other homeless people last month and explained the definition of animal cruelty before handing out instructions on how to build a dog house. Chapman, who has lived on the streets for seven years and calls her dog her family, says she was insulted. “He always eats, but I don’t always eat,” Chapman told CBC News while taking a break from cleaning car windows near Halifax’s busy Robie and Quinpool intersection. “You can’t just discriminate against people who live on the streets because you assume they aren’t taking care of their dogs.” Dorothy Patterson, a worker with the Ark Outreach Centre in Halifax, says the homeless people who visit her centre take good care of their dogs, even going so far as to make visits to the veterinarian. “We know that our youth get their dogs shots and are well looked after,” Patterson said. But the Nova Scotia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spokeswoman Judith Gass says her group receives complaints every summer about homeless people and their dogs. Gass says it’s the SPCA’s mandate to investigate accusations of cruelty, and denies Chapman is being unfairly targeted. “We wouldn’t expect other people who are walking their dogs to have water and food with them at all times because they’re probably just out for a short jaunt and are going back home where they’re going to have plenty of water and food,” Gass said. It’s unfair to keep a dog out in the sun all day without shelter, she added. Gass says the SPCA’s investigators will keep making the rounds this summer to make sure that dogs are not mistreated. Obit - Jim Orr John Young, president of the Freestore/Foodbank, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Orr was “considered a champion of individuals in the world for people who needed help. He was a strong force in addiction treatment.” He served on any number of boards and committees, including the Red Cross, Cincinnati Union Bethel, the Children’s Home, the Center for Comprehensive Addictions Treatment (CCAT), and Central Psychiatric Clinic (now the Crossroads Center). As first president of the ADAS Board, he struggled to see that indigent alcoholics and addicts could receive help. But he took a personal, up-close interest as well. He was not afraid to enter the gloomiest tenement or the most wretched abandoned building to reach an addict in need of help. He was especially remembered by the recovering community of the East End where, on Monday, July 17, members of the Home Boys (and Girls) group of Alcoholics Anonymous held a memorial meeting for “Old Man Orr.” One member recalled, “Jim always told us to remember what a great thing we have. He had a great capacity for love, a great capacity for joy. And he expressed that to everyone he met.” Jim Orr, founding member of the Hamilton County Addiction Services board and its first president, died Friday, July 14, in the Beechwood Home in Hyde Park. He was 82. Jim Orr, a combat veteran of World War II, was the heir to a family business, the Potter Shoe Store, and a life-long Jim Orr resident of Hyde Park. He made many contributions to the Cincinnati community, but his deepest commitment, after his family, was to the poor and under-served, especially those who suffered from addiction. Streetvibes �Homeless News Digest Compiled by Jimmy Heath San Francisco. CA - Hamilton Family Center, the foremost organization providing shelter to homeless families in San Francisco, has started a new program designed to give rental assistance to as many as 70 families in the coming year to help them move into permanent housing. The “First Avenues” program will provide each family with subsidies of about $500, as well as in-home counseling for core survival issues such as jobs and finances, said Suzanne Sheedy, Hamilton’s development director. About 60 percent of the program’s $900,000 budget will come from city funding. Private organizations will provide the rest. Mayor Gavin Newsom called the program a valuable new asset in his administration’s effort to provide permanent, counseling-enriched housing to the homeless instead of shelters or other temporary accommodations. Las Vegas, NV - It’s a crackdown on the homeless. Last month, Las Vegas City Marshals again tried to clean up local parks and kick out everyone who has camped out. It’s all part of an effort by the Mayor and City Council to clean up Huntridge Circle and Baker Parks. Mayor Oscar Goodman watched as marshals made several arrests. Three people were arrested for being at city parks before opening time. Five others were cited for trespassing on private property. Marshals have also been training on a new ordinance that requires homeless people with mental illnesses to be hospitalized for three days. Reno. NV - A homeless man died last month when he was hit by a train near the Tracy-Clark exit of Interstate 80. The man was walking along the tracks about 1:30 p.m. south of the highway when the train hit him, the Storey County sheriff’s office said. The man was dead when officials arrived. Fingerprints will be used to identify the man, who carried no identification. Langley, BC - Six homeless people are on the move after their camp was closed by police. The path to the camp was lined with a string of plastic Canadian flags, strung from tree to tree within the dense cedar grove. While the camp itself was a collection of tarps and tents, the inhabitants had tried to add some homey touches. Clocks were attached to poles, plastic and real houseplants stood here and there, and windchimes dangled from poles. Laundry and bedding hung on clotheslines between the ramshackle structures. There were also piles of garbage and discarded items stacked near the trail, including bicycle parts, chainsaws, plastic bags, luggage, children’s toys, a shop vac and propane tanks. It was this garbage and the fires that led Langley RCMP to move in and close down the squatters camp evicting its homeless tenants. “This is just bull—t. This is really hard on somebody. I’m not hurting nobody,” Joanne, one of the camp’s residents said as she packed up her personal belongings under the watchful eyes of police and bylaw officers. Joanne, a 54-year-old who says she has lived in the clearing since last December, broke down in tears over the eviction while speaking to a community police officer. A few moments later, she yelled that she would come back the next day and blow the whole place up with dynamite. The property owner, the Township fire department and nearby residents were all concerned about the squatters living in the woods. Smoke seen coming from the area led to the action, said the Township’s chief bylaw officer, Bill Storie. “It wouldn’t take much for this to go up, it’s so dry,” said Storie. Workers hauled the accumulated debris and garbage to the edge of the property. Joanne, the only one of the six residents present when reporters arrived, was frantically hauling away the things she needs. She said she isn’t sure where she’ll go now, but she won’t go to a shelter. Joanne has been living homeless for between two and a half and three years, she said. “A miserable two and a half years,” she added. Police tried to convince her to move into housing in Vancouver, where she could live with her two kittens, the orange Tigger and black Mishka. Officers offered her a bus ticket to Ontario, where she has family, but she refused that as well. Shawn McSweeney said he and another man visited the camp once, looking for a stolen barbecue. They didn’t find it, and the only person there at the time was a man sitting in a wheelchair, apparently high, McSweeney said. Langley has no homeless shelter, yet the police estimate there are up to 70 people living on the street and in similar camps or squatting in abandoned buildings. The Salvation Army has estimated there are up to 100 homeless people in Langley. In Jackson, MI, twenty homeless people were housed and fed at a gymnasium on the first night of a curfew Mayor Frank Melton ordered for the homeless. A city transit bus picked up the homeless at Union Station in downtown Jackson and took them to the Champion Gymnasium at 1355 Hattiesburg St. There, snacks, pizza, milk and water were offered, and cots were lying against the wall. “Nobody is going to hurt you,” said Melton, who had planned to spend the night at the gym. “We just need to know what to do to get close to you.” Among them were Jonathan Graham, 17, who moved from Texas to Jackson two years ago to take care of his grandmother. After she died, he’s drifted around with no place to call home. “I just want to do something with myself,” said Graham, before boarding the bus at Union Station. “I’m ashamed of being here.” Earlier in the day, Melton predicted about 50 or 60 homeless people would show up. Melton had said he was including a 10 p.m. curfew for the homeless as part of a new state of emergency. The new proclamation also continues the juvenile curfew the mayor established June 22 with his first emergency proclamation. The homeless curfew drew immediate complaint from the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless. Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the group, said Melton’s plan criminalizes homelessness. “If the city of Jackson goes through with this, it will be the first curfew (on homeless people), the first law of its kind in the country,” he said. Melton said those refusing to go to the gym would not be arrested. The mayor said homeless people who refused to go risked being arrested on charges like loitering. Melton said those who agree to spend the night in the gym will be fed and given a cot to sleep on. Social workers from the city’s Youth Services Division will gather basic information about the homeless people, including whether they have alcohol or drug problems or suffer from mental illness, he said. “We are going to try to get to the bottom of this,” he said. Melton maintains that the effort will not cost the city money because he is going to have the homeless people who stay in the gym Streetvibes pick up litter and mow grass on public property. He said teams of workers will begin in the Washington Addition neighborhood. “I don’t believe in a giveaway program,” he said. “People are going to have to earn their keep.” Melton said the impetus for his plan came from his recent encounter with a 17-year-old homeless boy and out of concern from the business community over crimes linked to homeless people. The mayor’s plan drew mixed reaction from some of the city’s homeless. Willie Rogers, a homeless man reeled on a pair of crutches, raised his voice to be heard over the crowd at the Daybreak Shelter on Pascagoula Street near Gallatin Street. “You know if you don’t pick up paper, you are going to be taken to jail,” he said. Mike Thomas, the manager at Daybreak, a daytime shelter for homeless people, said some people are convinced the mayor’s offer is a trap. But he thinks it is a good start to address homelessness in the city. Most shelters in the city require overnight residents to be inside by 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. Thomas said allowing homeless people until 10 p.m. to get to the gym gives some homeless people the flexibility to work a job and still have a place to sleep. “If the men work until 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., they can’t get in there. They are just out here on the street,” he said. Another atypical feature of Melton’s plan is that the Champion Gymnasium will accept men and women. Most homeless shelters are strictly segregated by gender. “There will be both females and males there for supervision, so that’s not going to be a problem,” the mayor said. Ace Knox, a homeless man, said he thinks the city needs more shelter space for women. But he is not sure that the curfew is fair. “It sounds a little bit like discrimination,” he said. “Instead of rounding up homeless people and forcing them into a gym, the city should be tackling the root causes of homelessness and implementing its 10-year plan to end homelessness,” he said. “This curfew will only tarnish the reputation of Jackson as being a caring community.” The details of Melton’s plan were developed in little more than 24 hours following a morning news conference. But Michael Raff, deputy director for the Department of Human and Cultural Services in Jackson, said it fits into the city’s 10­ year plan to end chronic homelessness. “We’re trying to do things differently,” he said. The plan “calls for innovating ways to deal with this problem,” he said. It already is a hit with some local business owners who are fed up with their shops being broken into. Page 3 �Dumfries Regrets Raid on Homeless Dumfries, VA - The tents erected in a tangle of woods were obviously illegal, their occupants no doubt squatters. But Dumfries officials say that although the police chief’s decision to dismantle a homeless camp — and toss out four men’s sparse belongings — may have been legal, it was not right. The chief has been ordered to say he’s sorry. “I don’t know what the ultimate answer is on how we deal with the homeless,” Dumfries Town Manager Dave Whitlow said yesterday. “But it’s not going to be that we just push them out on the street and destroy what little they have.” He told Police Chief Calvin L. Johnson to write a letter of apology and have his force “do whatever it takes” to replace some of the lost items — including birth certificates, military discharge papers and identification. “What I have directed the police department to do is to make these people whole,” Whitlow said. “This is not the way we want to be known. This is not the way we want to act. That’s not to say I condone folks trespassing on private property, but I also believe we need to treat people with dignity and respect.” The police chief was responding to a resident’s complaint last month when he ordered officers and public works employees to tear down the camp, which was hidden on 27 wooded acres near Route 1, Whitlow said. A few of the men might have lived there for more than a year, he added. Whitlow, who was on vacation at the time of the eviction, said his recent call for repentance had the full support of the Town Council. Johnson’s office referred calls for comment to Whitlow. Dumfries, at 1.63 square miles, is a smudge on the map. The town is about 35 miles from the District and just north of Quantico Marine Corps Base. About 5,000 people live there. Already, community members have begun donating items such as a tent and clothes, and yesterday a police department employee ordered a birth certificate for one of the men, Whitlow said. Frances Harris is the program director for Action in the Community Through Service, a Dumfries nonprofit group that the men sometimes have gone to for food. She said they showed up the morning after the camp was dismantled. “They were upset. What bothered them most were the things that kept them in touch with the world, like phones and phone numbers for job opportunities,” she said. “One of the comments one of the gentlemen made was, ‘It’s not easy to live like this, but at this point, it’s the only option Saving A Way Out of Poverty Pitts (R-PA). If signed into law, this bill will allocate $1.2 billion over 10 years towards the creation of Individual Development Account (IDA) programs that will give lower income families and individuals an incentive to save money to put towards education, homeownership, and small businesses enterprises. Many supporters of IDA’s believe (Street Sense, USA) The Savings for Working Families Act (H.R. 4751) was introduced to the House on February 14, 2006 by Representative Joseph Show your support! Get your STEETVIBES T- Shirt Today! we have.’ “ Along with the their belongings, “a piece of their dignity” was also tossed out, Harris said. “When you have so little, everything you have is so important to you,” she said. In the fiscal year that ended in June, about 8,400 people went to the organization — which serves eastern Prince William County — seeking food or financial assistance. Employees estimate that there are more than 500 homeless people countywide. For someone already on the edge, the loss of a small item, such as a driver’s license, can be a heavy blow, Harris said. Some form of identification is needed even to use the organization’s food bank. “If you lose your access to the world, your identification or your cellphone, where people can contact you, it is devastating,” she said. “And just the fact that someone comes in and destroys everything you have — and it was on purpose. It wasn’t the wind, the fire or the rain.” Whitlow said he planned to meet with Johnson today to check on the apology. He has insisted that the apology be written — even if there is no fixed address to send it to. Two of the displaced men have taken shelter at a local trailer park, officials said. The whereabouts of the other two were unknown. that the accounts will help to stabilize families and communities. An IDA is a tax-exempt account into which qualified financial institutions deposit funds that match the savings of an individual or family enrolled in the program dollar for dollar, up to $500 per person per year. Across the country there are around 50,000 IDAs that states and organizations have created to help citizens save money for certain qualified expenses including spending towards a home, a business and education. The $1.2 billion over 10 years that this act would allot to such accounts would make IDA’s available to 900,000 qualified US citizens. Enrolled citizens must be between 18 and 61 years of age, and must have incomes that do not exceed $20,000 for individuals, $30,000 for heads of households, and $40,000 for married couples. The individual holding the account can withdraw funds from the IDA after accumulating the goal amount, and taking an educational finance course. Qualified financial institutions that offer IDA’s will receive a tax credit to cover the administrative costs and matching funds. Crackdown on homeless Only $15 We will send your Streetvibes T-shirt to your door ­ All proceeds benefit the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and the Streetvibes newspaper. Call 513.421.7803 Page 4 Streetvibes Las Vegas - It was a crackdown on the homeless. Last month, Las Vegas City Marshals again tryed to clean up local parks and kick out everyone who has camped out. It’s all part of an effort by the Mayor and City Council to clean up Huntridge Circle and Baker Parks. Mayor Oscar Goodman watched Monday as marshals made several arrests. Three people were arrested for being at city parks before opening time. Five others were cited for trespassing on private property. Marshals have also been training on a new ordinance that requires homeless people with mental illnesses to be hospitalized for three days. �The Firecat Review Firecats are poor. As such, when we take a break from fighting rampant injustice, we know where all the cool cats and kittens go to get their DVD’s: the library. You want to spend 25 bucks for a new release with your honey, pick up a CityBeat. You want the down and dirty on the slightly less-than­ new fares from the best free resource in the ‘nasty? Firecats got you covered. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005 ­ starring Miranda July & John Hawkes) Review by Firecats Blue, Turquoise & Lavendar Irreverent, ironic and real, this movie is a firecat fave. This indie film was funny in a dry way, sweet in a dark way and realistic. The movie had the flavor of such films as American Beauty and judging by the sassy discussion that broke out in the firecat lair about it, it’s well worth seeing with someone you know and like to discuss with. Paperclips (2004 – documentary) Review by Firecat Blue This documentary explores a small, rural town in Tennessee as they try to explain diversity to their children. To accomplish this, they have the kids collect 6 million paperclips to understand how many Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust. This touching documentary sometimes leaped a bit high on the saccharine chart, but frequently captured some very emotional moments. One firecat complaint: not enough interviews with the kids at the heart of this project, which made it seem a bit insincere in its efforts to teach said kids, however infectious the enthusiasm of the adult participants. Where Are We? (1991 documentary – directed by Jeffrey Friedman & Rob Epstein) Review by Firecat Blue This documentary can only be described as bad. Not just bad, offensively bad. Friedman and Epstein, hot off the success of their actually good documentary, “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt” are way out of their element as they travel through small town southern America as selfdescribed “tourists in their own land.” Their condescending approach to the people they meet show in every face on camera as their subjects uncomfortably look off to the side and politely try to get them to go away. Friedman and Epstein ooze the snootiness usually reserved for 19th century anthropologists as they uncover the surface obvious: small town southern America is full of poor people who are homophobic, watch NASCAR, are racist, have babies young, love Elvis, have crappy knick-knacks, etc. Unfortunately, they are too busy kissing their own butts to ever present more than stereotypes as they literally pop in front of people’s faces and ask them idiotic personal questions such as “what’s your greatest fear?” and “how much money do you make?” The only exception to this is when they focus on closeted Marines or people suffering from AIDS, which they portray very well with depth and compassion because they actually took the time to. Apparently the library also has books now, so in salute, a book review. The 48 Laws of Power (written by Robert Greene) Review by Firecat Turquoise This book is a must read for everyone. Actually, those who are power hungry needn’t read the book – no doubt they’re already operating under the Laws. This book offers an understanding of the actions of those in positions of power and those trying to attain it. With laws such as “never outshine the master” and “play the perfect courtier,” The 48 Laws of Power teachers the different tools of manipulation. Coupled with historical anecdotes, this book is sure to delight the Machiavellian megalomaniac in us all. Let’s call the homeless heroes by Brent Bodowsky The parades are over, the fireworks are stilled, and the politicians have finished their July 4 rounds. Why don’t we begin, here and now, the moral equivalent of the Berlin airlift to mobilize support, education, voluntarism and fundraising for causes and groups that serve the homeless veterans of America? Let’s call them the homeless heroes, and to paraphrase President Kennedy, who said that we must do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard, make this pledge: Within 100 days of the inaugural of the next American President resolve that there should not be one homeless or hungry veteran in America and resolve that our commitment moves beyond that day until we banish hunger and homelessness from the land. If we stand for anything, we stand for this, and if we fight for this, we will mobilize old friends and win new friends in every military family and house of worship in America. Let our opponents talk their trash of treason; our real response should be to reach out with our hearts and our help in the spirit of national unity, standing with our young men and women who serve with courage and valor before the parades begin, and after the fireworks end. Every day stories are written about a new generation of homeless vets who return from Iraq, joining hundreds of thousands who are without homes today, from wars fought before. There are stories of disabled vets who don’t get the full support they deserve, or face a benefit structure that is stingy and unworthy. There are new cases of relapse of post traumatic stress disorder, from vets who suffered in previous wars and have their problem re-emerge more acutely with the headlines of news from Iraq. When I refer to a new Berlin airlift, I mean a wholehearted commitment beyond any level that exists today from Congress or the Bush Administration; efforts from entertainers to light the sky with their talent and call to action; new alliances between progressives and the blogosphere with groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Vietnam Veterans and groups serving those who return from Iraq and Afghanistan. When I refer to the “moral equivalent” of a new Berlin Airlift, I propose a reaching out to the great religions and religious leaders throughout America, where progressives, the blogosphere and entertainers cross the great divide of our national divisions and seek reconciliation, unity and reaching out to build There are alliances in common cause. stories of Why not a higher level of hearings in disabled vets Congress and far bolder who don’t get proposals from our political leaders? the full support Why not teach ins and seminars in our they deserve... colleges and universities inviting the vets, groups that support them and religious leaders who stand against homelessness to make their case and issue their call to action? Why not a direct airlift of entertainers, through the USO and to communities across the nation, in a historic industry-wide commitment that builds on good work being done today and rises to higher and higher levels at a time when these vets genuinely need and deserve our help, Streetvibes and a grateful nation will join our efforts with pride? Why not a one week national road show or tour with leading Democratic heroes in war, John Kerry, Jack Murtha, Bob Kerrey, John Glenn, Max Cleland, Daniel Inouye, Wes Clark where they travel by bus or train to the community centers, campuses, churches and synagogues of the nation to stir the conscience and rally the support of an America tired of the politics of anger, bitterness and partisanship? Thomas Paine wrote, we have the power to remake the world. We, here, today, have the power to remake our politics into a united endeavor of shared patriotism and purpose. Let our opponents play their politics of fear and demonization; let our answer be the answer of the countless entertainers who fought the Second World War on the battlefield or toured the world in support of the effort; and let our answer be the answer of the 101st Airborne memorialized so brilliantly by Ambrose in his Band Of Brothers. We should stand by our heroes, because it is right. The American people will stand with us, because they will know that we are right. They are America’s homeless heroes, our neighbors and our cause, and we have the power lift them up, if only we care, and act. With the moral equivalent of an airlift of hope and support to those who serve, we will seek to achieve a long overdue airlift of integrity and honor to our political system, based on the highest ideals and aspirations of our democracy. The parades are over, the fireworks are stilled, and the politicians have finished their July 4 rounds. Why don’t we begin, here and now, the moral equivalent of the Berlin airlift to mobilize support, education, voluntarism and fundraising for causes and groups that serve the homeless veterans of America? Page 5 �Collaboration weaves stronger safety net for city’s homeless Portland, OR - A year and a half ago, the city and county unveiled a 10­ year plan to end homelessness. The loftiness of the goal captured the imagination of Portlanders, even as it also invited skepticism. But as months pass, and more of the city’s homeless move into housing, some of the initial skepticism is fading. One impressive thing about the plan to end homelessness is that it keeps Portlanders focused on housing the homeless in the summer, too, not just in the winter, when most cities traditionally gear up their efforts. For obvious reasons, bad weather may tug on a community’s heartstrings more, but the reality is that many homeless people are more visible and easier to reach in the warm-weather months. So any city serious about ending homelessness has to be actively engaged in that task all year long. One bonus of having a plan is that it requires social service agencies to coordinate their efforts, something many resist doing. The caliber of collaboration achieved under the plan will be on display Tuesday at Memorial Coliseum, where advocates are staging Project Homeless Families Connect, a day of one-stop assistance for homeless families. On any given night, it’s estimated that 600 families, including 870 children, are living in relatives’ basements, cars, campgrounds, garages or somewhere else that doesn’t qualify as a home. In January, advocates staged a similar day of assistance for chronically homeless adults. Volunteers thought they’d be providing eyeglasses, shampoo, socks, dental referrals, diabetic screenings, legal help and lunch to 500 or 600 people. More than 1,000 turned up. Sadly, only 900 could be helped. Those who showed up with their possessions in shopping carts had their photos taken with the cart to reassure them that their things would be returned, once the event was over. What coaxed others into Memorial Coliseum that day was the promise of veterinary care. During the day, 23 dogs and five cats got vaccinations, new collars and leashes, and basic medical treatment. Lessons learned from the event open a sad window on the hazards and humiliations of living on the street. For instance, apples aren’t the best choice for lunch, organizers reported, because so many homeless people have dental problems that make biting down on an apple painful. The pet area in the future needs to have “a stronger crate for pit bulls,” organizers reported. And “we should offer haircuts and wheelchair repair.” But the main lesson distilled from the January event is the one advocates all over the city already knew: Homeless people need help, beginning with decent housing. Thanks to the city-county plan to end homelessness, advocates have never had better data about homelessness, or better results. Since the plan was launched a year and a half ago, 805 chronically homeless people have been placed in housing. In addition, 507 families have been placed. The goal for this year is to move 390 chronically homeless people into housing; 145 had moved in by the end of March. The retention rate is running about 79 percent, which is not too bad, considering the health problems and other vulnerabilities that made some of these individuals homeless in the first place. Some continued skepticism about the city-county plan is in order. But it certainly appears that Portlanders have good reason to be hopeful. In galvanizing advocates, coordinating resources and moving the homeless into housing, the plan is slowly and steadily helping to end homelessness. In Worcester, suit filed over library’s homeless policy Worcester, MA - First the city launched a campaign to stop panhandling, urging residents to give to charities, not the people shaking cups on street corners and sidewalks. Then came a proposal for zoning restrictions to keep homeless shelters out of residential neighborhoods. But when the Worcester Public Library cut the number of books homeless people could borrow to two at a time — as opposed to the 40 books other residents could check out — book lovers in the city’s shelters decided to fight back. Last month, three homeless patrons of the library filed a class action lawsuit in US District Court, alleging that the policy violates their constitutional right to equal access to public services. The plaintiffs include a homeless couple whose 8-year-old daughter seeks out the latest Lemony Snicket adventures, and a woman who fled a home where she was the victim of domestic violence. The lawsuit has struck a nerve in Worcester. Many residents said the policy runs counter to the library’s mission to serve less fortunate readers. Librarians across Massachusetts are also watching the lawsuit: Other public libraries, such as the ones in Springfield and Fitchburg, impose their own limits on the number of books homeless patrons can borrow. “It just goes against the spirit of what our country was founded on and just goes against the spirit of libraries in general,” said Dave McMahon , who runs Dismas House, a transitional shelter in Worcester that houses 13 ex-convicts, including one Page 6 man who volunteered at the city but said the policy had helped curb library. “They were founded as the problem institutions to level society so A towering structure of light everyone could have access to yellow stone, Worcester’s library is materials they wouldn’t otherwise the largest in Central Massachusetts, have, and I worry about our library boasting about 120,000 cardhere in Worcester moving away from carrying members, more than that.” 700,000 visitors a year, and a The city describes the collection of 900,000 books, videos, restrictions as a practical measure to audiocassettes, newspapers, and prevent the loss of library books. magazines. “The Several policy was put “The policy was put in place dozen members in place are homeless, because we’re losing items because we’re Johnson said. losing items to Many come to to people where we could people where cool off in the we could not air-conditioned not track them down,” said track them confines of the Penelope B. Johnson , the down,” said library. Others Penelope B. read in the city’s head librarian. “The Johnson , the stacks or leaf city’s head through library has a fiduciary librarian. “The newspapers. responsibility to make those library has a “They have fiduciary total access to resources available to responsibility to the resources in make those the library, they everyone and the rules we resources can use the set in place are to do that.” available to computers, they everyone and can use all the the rules we set in place are to do resources we have on the shelves, the that.” newspapers, whatever,” Johnson The seeds of Worcester’s said. battle were sewn two years ago, Librarians require everyone when a city librarian noticed that applying for a library card to show a many of the library’s missing books picture ID. If the street address had been loaned to people staying in matches that of a city shelter, the city’s shelters. Unable to find the librarians impose the two-book limit. offenders, the librarian proposed the “It’s certainly a rational two-book limit to the board of response to a non-returned book trustees, which approved the policy. problem,” said the city solicitor, Johnson said she did not have data David M. Moore. on how many books had been lost But earlier this year, Suzette over the years to homeless patrons, Lindgren and David Moyer, who live Streetvibes in a shelter in Worcester with their daughter, Taylor , 8, were “embarrassed” to have their living situation publicly disclosed during a library visit, according to court papers. Aided by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Lindgren and Moyer filed suit, along with a third plaintiff, a victim of domestic violence, named Jane Doe in court papers, who lives in a city shelter. On the streets and in the stacks last month, homeless people and others expressed disdain for the two-book limit for homeless people. Sympathy for the policy was in short supply. “I believe this is just another one of those things people do to get rid of homeless people,” said Lionell Thompson , a volunteer at PIP, a shelter in Worcester. “Today it may be limiting the number of books they get and tomorrow it will be not allowing them in at all.” Bo Bulger, 30, a Worcester computer technician who said he checks out about a dozen books a month to use for home schooling his children, bristled at the rule. “I think it’s totally ridiculous to limit someone because they’re homeless,” he said. “You see signs around the library that panhandling is not allowed. Hopefully they allow an education for the homeless.” Anthony Brown, a homeless man, called the limit unfair. “I come here every day to read, and sometimes I check out a book or two,” Brown said. “And I always return them.” �Selling Big Issue Japan: It reminds me of the Joy of Working (The Big Issue Japan) by Yuko Iijima The interviewer commented “When I talk to Big Issue vendors I sometimes forget that at night they have to go back to their beds on the cold road.” Mr. Eiichi Matsumoto is fifty years old and sleeps in front of a shop near Kawasaki station, where even at night the street lights are so bright that the place is well lit. “Bright places are safer because attacks are less likely to occur, so I am relieved. I don’t feel particularly cold as I’ve quite got used to it,” said Mr. Matsumoto, laughing. Matsumoto became a Big Issue seller about three months ago. He avoids the morning rush hour, preferring to sell from 4.30- 6.30 in the evenings where he targets people around Kawasaki station who are shopping for dinner or businessmen going home. Although he stands there for only a short time every day, he sells as many as fifty or sixty copies a week, because he pinpoints this time for good sales. “A magazine’s front cover is important. When I see the reactions of passersby to the front cover, I can tell whether the sales will be good or bad” he says. Now he has regular customers who buy every issue and there are also passersby who hand him a hot drink. He says that such friendly relations warm his heart. Matsumoto became a Big Issue seller after a member of the Kawasaki Patrol Group who help homeless people in Kawasaki, told him about it. Kawasaki Patrol Group regularly visit homeless people and open their office for homeless people to wash themselves and their clothes. It is also where Big Issues are distributed. The group and the homeless people themselves voluntarily clean up the parks and collect illegally dumped garbage. “When I come to the Patrol Group office I feel reassured because there are co-sellers there. When I have sold out my stock I borrow copies to sell. And we give each other coffee and help each other to sell.” Mr. Matsumoto was born in Omiya city, the last child of a family of six. “I am the last child. My oldest brother was already married when I entered elementary school. When my brothers and sisters bullied me I used to run to my mother. Without asking them for reasons she scolded them. I was Mother’s Pet! “After graduating from Middle School, I got a job at a cardboard box company. I worked in the manufacturing and printing section. But after I had been working there for ten years I wanted to learn a skill that could be recognized anywhere.” After quitting, Masumoto trained himself to be a professional gardener, lodging in his boss’ house. After a while, he decided he did not want to continue with gardening and went to work in his father’s business laying foundations for buildings under construction. “My elder brother, who is a carpenter, took over the business. I stayed in my parents’ house but after they died I felt uncomfortable there so I left the house and started a job as a day laborer which provided me with lodgings. At that time the economy was much better than now. Daily wages were high.” He was dispatched to different sites and his lodgings changed accordingly. He continued like this for more than ten years. After that, the Japanese economic bubble burst and jobs decreased. As he was approaching fifty his physical strength was diminishing so he could not get jobs easily. This is when he found himself on the street. Kawaski city gives out meal tickets to homeless people. Masumoto received some of these tickets which were a help for him. “It was not that I was unwilling to work and if I had had a chance I would have worked. Work makes me move my body.” He said that he is better at listening to other people’s stories than telling his own. When he talks to customers he tends to show a bright Streetvibes attitude and use polite expressions. “After I started to sell Big Issue Japan, the biggest change I made was checking my appearance in the mirror because I am an advertisement for Big Issue. My customers always look at me so I must at least keep myself clean… I keep myself clean shaven.” In the near future Kawasaki city will stop giving out meal tickets but they will provide free lodgings for people on the streets. They also plan on introducing jobs, “This is a time to find a job. I want to work again. Selling Big Issue reminds me of the joy of working and I want to continue to sell the Big Issue,” said Mr. Matsumoto, a big smile appearing behind his glasses. Page 7 �Raising minimum wage provides $1,520 more annually Washington, DC: Raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour over the next 26 months would increase the annual earnings of the average full-time, full-year, minimumwage worker by $1,520, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Last month Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) offered an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill that would increase the minimum wage from the current $5.15 per hour to $7.25. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) offered an amendment to raise the minimum wage in the House Appropriations Committee and it was approved by a vote of 32-27. It is pending in the House now. The federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 50 years. Congress has not raised the minimum wage in a decade. As of December 2006, this will be the longest time Congress has ever gone without raising the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage is only the first step in helping families to make ends meet. The substantial share of minimum wage workers are adults making significant contributions to the total family income. In the early 2000s, fewer than one-in-five minimum wage workers was under the age of 20 and half were between ages 25 and 54. Fewer Middle-Class Neighborhoods as Poor and Rich Neighborhoods Grow floods local markets with new, everUntil last month, Jim and INDIANAPOLIS — Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself. In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released last month. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middleincome neighborhoods in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000. Widening income inequality in the United States has been well documented in recent years, but the Brookings analysis of census data uncovered a much more accelerated decline in communities that house the middle class. It far outpaced the decline of seven percentage points between 1970 and 2000 in the proportion of middle-income families living in and around cities. Middle-income neighborhoods are down 10 percent in the Washington area. It’s happening, too, in this prosperous, mostly white middleincome Midwestern city where unemployment is low and a vibrant downtown has been preserved. As poor and rich neighborhoods proliferate, the share of middleincome neighborhoods in greater Indianapolis has dropped by 21 percent since 1970. “No city in America has gotten more integrated by income in the last 30 years,” said Alan Berube, an urban demographer at Brookings who worked on the report. “It means that if you are not living in one of the well-off areas, you are not going to have access to the same amenities — good schools and safe environment — that you could find 30 years ago,” he said. “This is about upward mobility and class. Until the 1970s, middle-class blacks and other minorities often had little choice about where they could live,” said Kotkin, the author of “The City: A Global History.” He added: “They usually had to live close to lower-income people of their own race. Now, if they can afford it, they can move to higher-income neighborhoods. Dollars trump race. Many choose not to live around poor people.” “We are increasingly being bifurcated on an economic basis,” said Paul Ong, a professor of public affairs at the University of California at Los Angeles. “It has taken a big chunk out of the middle.” In Los Angeles — the most hollowed-out metropolitan area in the country over the past three decades — the share of poor neighborhoods is up 10 percent, rich neighborhoods are up 14 percent and middle-income areas are down by 24 percent. The Brookings study says that increased residential segregation by income can remove a fundamental rung from the nation’s ladder for social mobility: moderate-income neighborhoods with decent schools, nearby jobs, low crime and reliable services. For people who do not want to put up with aging, troubled neighborhoods and have the means to do something about it, escape is remarkably easy — in Indianapolis and across much of the country. The housing industry in the Midwest and the Northeast routinely larger houses. In greater Indianapolis, more than 27,500 houses were constructed between 2000 and 2004, even though the population grew by only 3,000. In the process, older houses and many older neighborhoods — such as McCray’s — have become as disposable as used cars. In a pattern that is the mirror opposite of what is happening in the Midwest and Northeast, there is a chronic undersupply of housing in many cities on the West Coast. But it, too, has contributed to a decline of middle-income neighborhoods, said Berube, the Brookings demographer. He said rapid population growth in cities such as Los Angeles and Seattle combines with rigid geographic and legal restraints on construction to limit housing supply. In Los Angeles, for example, the population grew by 11 percent between 1990 and 2002, but the number of housing units increased by just 5 percent. That has pushed up the price of housing in mixed-income neighborhoods. Gentrification often pushes the poor away to lessdesirable suburbs. In Indianapolis, it is an abundance of housing that lures the middle class out of established neighborhoods. National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 homelesscivilrights@yahoo.com Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (513) 421-7803 Page 8 Streetvibes Lynn Russell lived with their 1-year­ old son, Adam, in a middle-income neighborhood called Irvington on the city’s near east side. The area of restored historic houses is 20 minutes by car from downtown, where they both work as bank executives. But the Russells, who have another baby due in the fall, were worried about mediocre test scores at nearby public schools. They were also concerned about safety. A mass killing — seven people shot in their home — took place this month not far from their former house. Carmel, where the Russells just bought a house, is not a close-in suburb. About 45 minutes north of downtown at rush hour, it is one of the fastest-growing communities in greater Indianapolis. Schools are among the best in Indiana, and housing is abundant and, by national standards, extremely affordable for professional couples. The Russells bought their four-bedroom house on half an acre for $230,000. Urban planners complain that exurbs such as Carmel are bleeding cities of the middle class. But Jim Russell said he and his wife have made “the logical choice” by moving to an upper-income neighborhood that is safe, comfortable and better for their growing family. �NYC moves to break up homeless encampments by Sara Kugler NEW YORK - Hundreds of homeless people living in encampments under highways and bridges and next to train trestles will be aggressively urged to leave the streets, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last month The city’s Department of Homeless Services has found 73 areas — difficult to reach and mostly out of sight — where some 350 homeless people have set up encampments and communities. The majority are in Manhattan. Outreach workers will “humanely, respectfully and firmly” encourage them to stop living on the streets and take advantage of city services like housing assistance, substance treatment programs and shelters, the mayor said. “We’re going to let them know that their days on the streets must come to an end, and we’ll secure and clean up the places where they’ve been bedding down to make sure that they won’t be occupied again,” Bloomberg said in a speech before the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington, D.C the text was given to reporters in New York. The People’s Republic? (Spare Change News, USA) The Cambridge, MA Police Department may have violated a street vendor’s First Amendment rights when they arrested him on June 13 and charged him with obstructing a Massachusetts Avenue sidewalk. Gary Kibler, 54, a formerly homeless man who now lives in Allston, and his associate, Kenneth O’Brien, who is currently homeless, had set up a stand on the sidewalk in front of the Yenching Chinese restaurant and the J. August Company at 1324 Massachusetts Avenue, where, for approximately three hours that day, Kibler had been selling used books for $2 each to passersby. At around 2 p.m., four Cambridge police officers, led by Sgt. Paul Oppedisano, approached the bookstand and told Kibler to dismantle the display. According to Kibler, one of the officers said he could move the stand to Central Square as an alternative location. Kibler refused and was arrested at 2:14 p.m. for allegedly violating Subsection C of Cambridge City Code 12.08.020, according to a police report that was made out by Officer Darin Cromwell and obtained by Spare Change News. Kibler was released later that day on $40 bail, with a court appointment the following day. At his arraignment, Kibler said he attempted to get the charges dismissed with prejudice, on the grounds that his right to free speech had been violated, even though his court-appointed defense lawyer attempted to get him to plead out of the charge. He refused, and was given until a hearing on June 19 to prove that the case should be dismissed. He planned to do extensive research on his case over the weekend, but was apprehensive about his chances. “The burden of proof is on me,” Kibler said. Subsection C, the ordinance under which Kibler was charged, states in part that “no permit shall be granted for encroachment of such merchandise, counter, platform or other apparatus or structure to exceed more than twenty-five percent of the width of the sidewalk.” The table was set up next to a lamppost, directly in front of the street’s curb. According to measurements taken by SCN, the three-foot-wide table on which the books were located encompassed approximately nine percent of the 28­ and-a-half-foot sidewalk on which it stood. The aforementioned charge is a civil violation, but Kibler was also charged with a criminal violation against “good order” under Chapter 272, Section 59 of the Massachusetts General Laws. The law allows police to arrest anyone who is in willful violation of a city or town ordinance without a warrant. Kibler, then, received a criminal violation for committing a civil offense in the city of Cambridge. The second issue at hand, according to the vendor, is an alleged violation of his constitutional rights, under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to sell printed material in public without a permit. Kibler and O’Brien made an arrangement whereby O’Brien procures the books, and Kibler acts as the vendor of the books. Kibler says he agreed to sell the books for O’Brien due to financial reasons. “The basic reason I need extra income right now is for medical An estimated 3,800 people live on New York’s streets and in its subways, according to 2006 figures from the city’s annual homeless head count. Officials say the number dropped from last year’s 4,400, and Bloomberg has set a goal of reducing it to 1,465 by the time he leaves office in 2009. Thousands more homeless people stay in city shelters each night. The most recent count, from a night last month 31,861. Bloomberg aides said this new approach to homeless encampments will not involve law enforcement, which has a controversial history in the city. Bloomberg’s predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, was known for zerotolerance tactics that often involved threatening arrests and sending police to break up homeless communities. The teams of outreach workers will not include police officers or anyone forcefully removing the homeless, mayoral aides said. They will make repeated visits to encampments with the goal of relocating people into assistance programs. expenses, since Mass Medical doesn’t cover dental and I need extensive dental care,” Kibler said. O’Brien, a native and homeless Cantabrigian, also has reasons for setting up the stand. “I’m trying to not have to panhandle anymore, and a book business might be a way out,” he said. Kibler and O’Brien believe the First Amendment protects their right to sell books and other printed material in public without obtaining a permit. “Getting a permit is asking me to suppress my freedom of speech,” Kibler told SCN. There is precedent for this argument in New York City, where so-called “First Amendment vendors” sell merchandise related to the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment on the streets. According to Sean Basinski, director of the Street Vendor Project in New York City, the First Amendment protects the right to distribute printed material such as books, and in New York City specifically, the law does not require “First Amendment vendors” to acquire a permit or license of any kind. The same is true here, according to the Cambridge Licensing Commission. “We tell people that you don’t need anything from us, if you’re selling things that are protected under the First Amendment,” said Elizabeth Lint, the CLC’s executive officer. Jason Weeks, executive director of the Cambridge Arts Council, which licenses street performers and artists, agreed with Lint, and assumed that for a vendor selling books on the street, the only charge he could have brought against him would be for obstruction of a sidewalk. “The understanding I have is that free speech includes books and flowers,” Weeks told SCN. Officer Frank Pasquarello, public information officer for the Cambridge Police Department, was not interested in debating the First Amendment. “We don’t make the laws, we just enforce them,” he told SCN. Amanda Darling, marketing manager for the Harvard Book Store, which is located two blocks from Kibler’s stand, expressed sympathy for his arrest, but concern over future sales rivalries. “If someone does have a permit to sell books on the street and they set up near our store, we are of course concerned about what is essentially new competition,” Darling wrote in an email to SCN. According to O’Brien and Kibler, the vendors, this is a developing issue. As soon as they are able to retrieve their books from the police, they plan to set up the table again – in the exact same location. O’Brien also alluded to an expansion. “There are plans for at least two more tables in [Harvard] Square,” he told SCN. “My book table will be a hodge-podge of coffee table books and signed, first editions – what you would call an upper-end table.” And the Cambridge police will be ready. “We’d be more than happy to arrest him again,” said Officer Pasquarello. Visit the Greater Cincinnati Coaltion for the Homeless website at - http://www.cincihomeless.org Visit the Streevibes archives at - http:// www.cincihomeless.org/content/streetvibes.html Streetvibes Page 9 �Gentrification - It Ain’t What You Think by Jonathan Diskin, Professor and Thomas A. Dutton, Professor and Director, Miami University Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine Any development in OTR will change the neighborhood, but gentrification systematically facilitates a ‘class transition’ that marginalizes current (and recently displaced) residents from decision-making processes, and from defining and capturing a fair share of the benefits of development. Equitable community development, in contrast, focuses on development that, as its first priority, enhances the capabilities of existing residents and local institutions. Such e Equitable development certainly includes developing market-rate housing and homeownership opportunities, among other forms of housing differs in its organizing principle. The key tenet of equitable community development is to foster development that enables current residents to reap benefits they value and to be integrally involved in development decision-making. The focus is on fairness and on a sociallyjust distribution of benefits, supported by democratic involvement of local residents and community-based institutions with long ties to the neighborhood. The problem with gentrification is not that it produces no benefits for low-income residents of OTR but that it does so in a way that fails the test of fairness, despite Not so long ago Thomas Denhart controlled about a 1000 units of subsidized low-income housing in Over-the-Rhine (OTR), far more than all the community based non-profit housing groups in the neighborhood combined. So it was quite ironic to hear Mr. Denhart, in fine form and to great applause at an April 4th public meeting on development at Memorial Hall, extol the virtues of 3CDC’s market-rate housing based development strategy for OTR. It seems we are all for gentrification now. We evoke Mr. Denhart because his comments convey, we believe, a commonsense consensus that market-rate housing and public spending that draws wealthier residents to OTR should be favored above all other forms of investment as the paths to a mixed-income neighborhood. This is a strange moment in Cincinnati, where terms such as “mixed-income housing” and “economic mix” enjoy near-universal purchase across a multitude of competing interests and groups. Yet their meanings are loose and slippery, allowing gentrification to be pursued at all costs as a Over-the-Rhine has the capacity to strategy to address povertystricken communities of color honor the history of its current like Over-the-Rhine, “impacted” by a “concentration” of lowresidents; to stay focused on income housing and social services. defining and distributing benefits Our concern is that a failure to distinguish between of development in ways that help alternative forms of development will lead, by local residents and institutions default, to development via gentrification as services and develop their capacities more fully. subsidies for wealthier inmigrants to OTR squeeze out services and subsidies for current lower-income residents. the intention of those who see it as Already a good amount of policy, the best way to help the poor in investment spending, and marketing OTR. For decades inner-city and planning rhetoric favor neighborhoods in the industrialized development by gentrification. We cityscapes of the United States have our doubts about the presumed suffered from middle-class out congruence between gentrification migration, job loss, segregation, and mixed-income development, and increased homelessness, in-migration argue for a more inclusive and fair of poorer populations zoned and conception and practice of discriminated out of other development in OTR. Fairness and neighborhoods, the fiscal pressures of inclusion are not automatically an aging infrastructure and declining delivered by gentrification. tax bases, and city neglect. Public In general terms, we define and private investments focusing gentrification as development that bringing new, market-rate residents to privileges the interests of new OTR will likely increase amenities residents over those of existing ones and safety for all residents of OTR. by targeting subsidies, public policy These are real benefits, but incentives, public service amenities, the extent to which the poor enjoy and marketing-rhetoric toward them, they are spillover effects of higher-income potential residents and investments and policy changes those who develop market-rate directed principally at new, higher housing. income and higher status residents. They are benefits that only trickle down—what the late John Kenneth Galbraith defined as “feeding the sparrows through the horses.” Because gentrification is, by definition, a strategy focused on providing incentives to new residents and those who facilitate their inmigration, it of necessity directs primary benefits to those new residents and their agents. It does not provide a fair share of benefits to existing residents who receive only general, indirect benefits by virtue of sharing the neighborhood space. They are to consider themselves lucky bystanders to a process that has little to do with them directly. The problem here is not only the distribution of the benefits of new investment, but the types of benefits that are dictated by the needs of new residents. Thus, resources needed by existing residents to improve their lives, to enhance their own development and that of local institutions are forced back in the queue, behind the requirements of those who are positioned as the “right stuff” to lift up the neighborhood. The message to long-time, low-income residents is, you will benefit in the longer run as those who are already more prosperous than you, get direct benefits and subsidies simply because they move to your neighborhood. Gentrification has indeed become the dominant logic of development in OTR though the term itself is not embraced by key players. From Cincinnati’s “Housing Impaction Ordinance” that pressures all new development to be marketrate, to 3CDC’s focus on marketrate development, to the punitive efforts to control and police poverty and homelessness through the Panhandling Licensing process we see that almost all the eggs of public policy, public-private investment, and the rhetoric of development are in the basket of market-rate development. Coupled with the decline in buildingbased Section 8 and the more restrictive environment for producing low-income housing, a clear shift has been effected toward a development by gentrification strategy. Toward More Equity As gentrification becomes more pervasive and property values in OTR rise, there will be marketbased displacement as rents rise. Housing and land markets tend to cluster uses by income, taste, and function. Markets segregate uses in space and thus are very unlikely to produce a mixed-income neighborhood except as a brief transitional form. We are not against private investment and market activity in OTR. But a sustainable mixedincome neighborhood requires that markets and private activity be balanced with public policy, continuing housing subsidies, and a longer range set of mechanisms for equity and mixed-income. Again, prices, in time, will mitigate against an economically diverse OTR and it is incumbent on all who value diversity to plan for diversity even while private market activity is increasing and playing an important role in bringing investment to OTR. If central city land values rise and OTR becomes the ‘bohemian’ or ‘chic’ neighborhood that, development boosters have long envisioned, OTR will be reduced to a few “lifestyle” enclaves for those who like some aspects of urban life, but who want to organize a sanitized public realm and be protected from unpleasant public experiences. Further, we cannot leave questions of equity and fairness to a point later-on in the development process. In the future, there will too many “facts of the ground,” as the Israeli’s say about their developments on occupied territory, too many entrenched interests to change the rules of the game. Finally, it is important to recognize that many, too many, people in the United States cannot afford housing (and other goods) on their income. Thus we should honor, not denigrate mercilessly, the tradition of selforganization and outreach to the least well-off among us in OTR. Markets are powerful incentive directing guides, but an equitable, diverse OTR that honors its recent past must be a mix of market and non-market forms of housing and uses of space. It is important at the outset to pay close attention to what development with equity entails and to build it into the ground rules. Over-the-Rhine has the capacity to honor the history of its current residents; to stay focused on defining and distributing benefits of development in ways that help local residents and institutions develop their capacities more fully. To achieve this rare, worthy outcome, we must have clarity about our intentions as well as specific and thoughtful mechanisms for defining and distributing benefits of development. This requires public and private leadership. This prospect for a sustainable, diverse neighborhood will be lost if we rely on boosting markets alone and simply keep our fingers crossed that everyone’s interests will be served in the end. It is important to recognize that public policy and the state in all its functions operates today in a more global and a more ‘neoliberal’ context than in the past. Today the state, at all levels, is under pressure to privatize assets, and, as geographer Neil Smith argues about national states, to reframe “themselves as purer, territorially rooted economic actors in and of the market, rather than as external complements of it.” The transformation of state and local governments in the above directions does not bode well for areas like Over-the-Rhine. Can cities Cont. Next Page... Page 10 Streetvibes �in today’s global conditions protect mixed-income neighborhood is those most marginalized or who have rooted in this possibility of a plural fallen below the reach of the market? public space not completely managed The evidence does not suggest so. by commercial interests, a space As global forces play themselves out where strangers mix and create in the United States, “urban policy no something unique and unscripted. longer aspires to guide or regulate the This is part of the reason why any direction of economic growth so reasonable strategy for development much as to fit itself to the grooves in OTR should encourage new already established by the market in residents from diverse backgrounds. search of the highest returns, either We would add, however, that the directly or in terms of tax receipts” (Smith). Thus in Cincinnati, like many cities, “real­ estate development becomes a centerpiece of the city’s productive economy” (Smith), facilitated by a new integration of state and corporate powers. This is not a case of the state withering in the face of the market. The state is acting Over-the-Rhine, Winter and asserting benefits of a more diverse OTR, of itself, but according to a market logic itself, resulting in what sociologist publicity, of living in a stimulating, Andrew Barlow calls “the private pluralist place, are benefits equally valuable to existing residents. If investment state.” existing residents and local institutions Such trends make poverty in are squeezed out or culturally and the US intractable, where “poor economically marginalized as the people find themselves cut off from condition for development, their entry-level jobs, stripped of government social services like health interests will have been sacrificed so others can leverage property values. care and housing subsidies, and forced to endure horrific conditions in The Future? In five to ten years we hope crumbling public schools, all under to see in Over-the-Rhine a truly the mounting presence of police and diverse mixture of peoples, cultures, prisons” (Barlow). As these classes, and races, living within conditions worsen, an increased reliance on the use of repressive conventional and alternative forms of property tenure, from market-rate force, such as the military, the police, and prisons will ensue in order “to condos to below-market apartments to cooperatives to renter-equity maintain social order and to manage those without a stake in the global programs, with business and entrepreneurial enterprises that cater economy” (Barlow). The increase in inequality in to a spectrum of incomes and tastes. While we understand the drive for the United States and the use of repressive force indicate, as more market-rate housing and do geographer Don Mitchell notes, a indeed see it as one element of priority for order over the right to be equitable development in OTR, we in public, and that it is a difficult time caution against market-rate development has become an end in to call the state to its more humane, itself. We do not believe that markets inclusive functions. But the will produce the diversity and importance of truly plural public economic mix so widely claimed as a spaces, a precious resource in today’s world, demands it. We hope common goal. We challenge 3CDC and city to avoid what scholar Henry Giroux officials to make equity for all in OTR calls the “corporatization of civil more than rhetoric and to make it the society”, wherein the commons, guiding principle of development public realm, and a democratic strategy, backed by real practices sphere vital for fostering public and programs. Market-rate housing debate are severely diminished by will be part of the package, but must commercialization. not become an end in itself that Ironically, we believe that obscures our focus on defining and part of the appeal of OTR as a allocating benefits of development in a way that enlarges the capacities of local residents and organizations. In order for development to be equitable, we would need an accounting and monitoring system that tracks the rise and fall of property values and demographics in the neighborhood in order to ensure a just distribution of benefits from development and to avoid a strengthening democracy are also first principles here. To that end we can make sure that people have a voice in defining the nature and distribution of benefits that are likely to flow from development, including increased property values. As Policy Link puts it, equitable development connects the quest for full racial inclusion and participation to local, metropolitan, and regional planning and photo by Jimmy Heath patchwork of wealthy, isolated enclaves amid deep poverty in OTR. In addition to a serious effort to gather information to inform decisions, we need to be able to direct some of the benefits of rising property values, local incomes, and investment opportunities to local residents. Policy Link, a nonprofit research and capacity building organization that consulted with the OTR Comprehensive Plan working groups in 2002, has compiled an impressive database on equitable development policies and practices. Their ‘best practices’ focus on multiple forms of land tenure, including land banks, cooperative housing, and public policy that puts teeth into anti-displacement without deterring private investment (www.policylink.org). We must not be shy about advocating for substantial housing subsidies and land that will not circulate on the market. We need a mix of market and non-market, and the creation of a public space that recognizes the contribution and legitimate right to belong for existing residents. This is especially important as substantial numbers of Section 8 buildings are converted to marketrate and the environment for building new low-income housing gets tougher and tougher. The guidelines for a mixed income neighborhood agreed to in OTR Comprehensive Plan are useful in this respect. Increasing transparency and Streetvibes development. It is grounded in four guiding principles: the integration of people and place strategies; reduction of local and regional disparities; promotion of “double bottom line” investments; and inclusion of meaningful community voice, participation, and leadership (http://www.policylink.org/ EquitableDevelopment/default.html#). This is a big challenge, but the possibility exists to guide the market and to create a diverse, plural public space, few of which exist anywhere in the world. The fact that our real-estate market is not subject to the same kind of insane bubble as in other places gives us the hope of proceeding in a more thoughtful way to both encourage the benefits of market development while not allowing market incentives to resegregate the neighborhood along class lines. The older mix that cities used to support is a relic of an economic structure whose time has come and gone. We can work toward a new, 21st century mix. We will only get there if we are clear that we must be inclusive from the beginning and not postpone benefits for long suffering residents of OTR until some future moment when the market has done its work. Buy Streetvibes Page 11 �Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct All Vendors Sign and Agree to a Code of Conduct Report Any Violations to GCCH - 421-7803 1. Streetvibes will be distributed for a $1 voluntary donation. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, vendors are allowed to keep that donation. However, vendors must never ask for more than $1 when selling Streetvibes. 2. Each paper purchased from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) costs 25 cents. Papers will not be given out on credit. Old papers can not be traded in for new papers. 3. Streetvibes may only be purchased from GCCH. Never buy papers from, or sell papers to other vendors. 4. Vendors must not panhandle or sell other items at the same time they are selling Streetvibes. 5. Vendors must treat all other vendors, customers, and GCCH personnel with respect. 6. Vendors must not sell Streetvibes while under the influence. 7. Vendors must not give a “hard sell” or intimidate anyone into purchasing Streetvibes. This includes following customers or continuing to solicit sales after customers have said no. Vendors must also never sell Streetvibes door-to-door. 8. Vendors must not deceive customers while selling Streetvibes. Vendors must be honest in stating that all profits go to the individual vendor. Vendors must not tell customers that the money they receive will go to GCCH or any other organization or charity. Also, vendors must not say that they are collecting for “the homeless” in general. 9. Vendors must not sell papers without their badge. Vendors must present their badge when purchasing papers from GCCH. Lost badges cost $2.00 to replace. Broken or worn badges will be replaced for free, but only if the old badge is returned to GCCH. 10. Streetvibes vendor meetings are held on the first weekday of the month at 1pm. The month’s paper will be released at this meeting. If a vendor cannot attend the meeting, he or she should let us know in advance. If a vendor does not call in advance and does not show up, that vendor will not be allowed to purchase papers on the day of the meeting or the following day. Five free papers will be given to those who do attend. 11. Failure to comply with the Code of Conduct may result in termination from the Streetvibes vendor program. GCCH reserves the right to terminate any vendor at any time as deemed appropriate. Badges and Streetvibes papers are property of GCCH, and must be surrendered upon demand. The mission of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) is to support a street newspaper movement that creates and upholds journalistic and ethical standards while promoting self-help and empowerment among people living in poverty. NASNA papers support homeless and very low-income people in more than 35 cities across the United States and Canada. Streetvibes Vendor: 75 Cents (75 cent profit goes directly to the vendor) Homeless Coalition 25 Cents Printing and Production: 25 cents (this cost does not cover expenses) Page 12 About the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and Streetvibes.... earned. This program has helped The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) was formed in May of 1984 for one purpose: the eradication of homelessness in Cincinnati. What started out as a coalition of 15 volunteers meeting weekly in an unheated church basement has since grown into a Coalition of over 45 agencies and hundreds of volunteers dedicated to improving services for homeless individuals, educating the public about homelessness and empowering homeless individuals to advocate for their civil rights and housing needs. Streetvibes is a tool of GCCH used to help us achieve our goal of ending homelessness. On the one hand it is a selfsufficiency program geared towards the homeless and marginally housed individuals who are our vendors. Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 30 cents per copy and sell it for a suggested one-dollar donation, keeping the profit that they have hundreds of people find and maintain housing. The vendors also sign a code of conduct stating that they will behave responsibly and professionally and they proudly display their official Streetvibes badge while selling the paper. Our vendors put a face on “the homeless” of Cincinnati and form lasting friendships with their customers. On the other hand, Streetvibes is an award-winning alternative newspaper and part of the international street newspaper movement. Focusing on homelessness and social justice issues, Streetvibes reports the often-invisible story of poverty in our community. Streetvibes is also proud to include creative writing, poetry, articles, photography and interviews written by homeless and formerly homeless individuals. Streetvibes enjoys a loyal reader base that respects the honest portrayal of the joys, sorrows, and challenges facing the people of Cincinnati. Streetvibes is a member of the: The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) unites street papers sold by homeless and people living in poverty from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organisation, which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers and advises on the setting up of new street papers and support initiatives for marginalised people. Where Your Dollar Goes... The Streetvibes program maintains a minimal overhead cost so that our vendors can keep as much of the proceeds as possible. Please call our office at 421-7803 for more information about the program. Many thanks for your support. Streetvibes Homeless Man Stabbed Multiple Times Houston, TX - A homeless man was stabbed multiple times in southwest Harris County. Deputies said the 54-year­ old man was attacked under a bridge on Alief Clodine Road near Highway 6 at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Officials said the man walked to a convenience store on Highway 6 near West Bend Drive where he collapsed. The man was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital. Officials said he is in serious condition. No arrests have been made. �Action on the Minimum Wage in the Senate and the House Coalition on Human Needs, Wasington, DC In the Senate. More than 80 percent of Americans favor increasing the minimum wage to $7.15 an hour and a majority live in the 20 states that have raised the minimum wage above the federal $5.15. Despite this overwhelming support, two separate amendments to raise the minimum wage in the Senate were defeated on June 21. Both amendments were offered during consideration of the Defense Authorization bill. According to pre-determined procedures, both would have required 60 votes for passage. The first, proposed by Senator Kennedy (D-MA), was voted down 52-46. The second amendment, proposed by Senator Enzi (R-WY), failed 45-53. The amendment proposed by Senator Kennedy would have raised the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next two years, an increase of $2.10 above the current federal minimum wage of $5.15. Kennedy’s amendment would also have extended the minimum wage requirement to the US territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which is currently exempt from the requirement and has a minimum wage of $3.15. Eight Republicans joined all of the Democrats in supporting the amendment. Senator Enzi’s amendment would have increased the minimum wage only to $6.25, and also included “poison pills” that would undermine worker rights and reduce incomes. The Enzi amendment eroded the Fair Labor Standards Act by ending protections for the 40-hour work week. Employers would be allowed to avoid paying overtime if two weeks of work did not exceed 80 hours, even though employees worked more than 40 hours in one of the weeks. In addition, Enzi’s amendment undermined the minimum wage tip credit. According to Senate reports, Senator Kennedy will try to add his amendment to other legislation moving through the Senate sometime this year. In the House. An amendment to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next two years was added to the House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill in the full committee on June 13. Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) proposed the amendment, which passed by a vote of 32-27 with the support of 7 Republicans. The addition of the minimum wage provision and disputes over funding levels has stalled the bill. On June 22, in an effort to get a minimum wage vote on the House floor, Democrats attempted to add the amendment to another appropriations bill: for Science/State/ Justice/Commerce. This time the Republicans who’d supported the amendment on the earlier bill withdrew their support. The amendment failed, and the bill went to the floor without the minimum wage provision. However, on June 28 when the bill came to the floor, Rep. Obey (D-WI) offered an amendment to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 by January 2009. Obey withdrew the amendment under objections that it violated the House rules for legislating changes on an unrelated spending bill. The strategy of the House Democratic leadership is to continue using appropriations bills and votes on the rules setting the parameters for their consideration as mechanisms for bringing up the minimum wage. In other action related to the minimum wage, during House consideration of the estate tax bill on June 22, House Minority Leader Pelosi (D-CA) raised a procedural issue saying, “It is inappropriate to consider this bill until the Republican leadership schedules a vote on an increase in the minimum wage, which they are now blocking.” A vote was then taken to block proceeding with the estate tax vote. It failed 182­ 236. All but ten of the Democrats present voted for the Pelosi motion. No Republicans voted with her. House Majority Leader Boehner (R-OH), in reversing an earlier statement, said that the minimum wage would come up for a vote in the House this year. The Democratic leaders believe that if a Republican bill does come up it will be similar to the Enzi bill offered in the Senate. For more information, see “Most Americans Now Live in States That Have Raised the Wage Floor” by Michael Dimock, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, April 19, 2006 On the Road: ‘Birmingham Battles’ by August Mallory (Street Sense, USA) (August Mallory, one of Street Sense’s vendors is visiting other cities in the USA. He writes about the homeless situation there and his personal encounters.) As I begin this story from Birmingham, Alabama, I must explain why I focus on issues in the Deep South, where homelessness and poverty rank the highest in the nation. As one gentleman once explained to me, it’s the Jim Crow attitude that is still there, only it is institutionalized now. As much as I try to understand the hardships that the homeless in our nation face, I still cannot believe the hatred and discontent and the insulting behavior and the grudges that the homeless have toward one another. It is early Saturday afternoon and as I make my way to the Jimmie Hale Mission, in downtown Birmingham, I see many homeless men sitting around outside, waiting to check in. So I decided to wait with them, and I have a good conversation with a few of them. I was expecting to hear quite a few rude and arrogant remarks, but believe it or not, these men were quite polite and friendly. But many expressed their anger and frustration at the system that was supposed to assist them but only drove them deeper into the rut they were already in. And it is this matter of red tape and bureaucratic behavior by the city and the federal government, in the Deep South, that triggers the hostile grudge against the system and toward each other. As dinnertime rolls around, I listen to some of the men talk about how they are harassed by the local police, who do body searches. One man was telling how he was just standing talking to two other men and a patrol car pulls up on him and the officer gets out and demands ID because he was wearing military-type fatigues. The officer wanted to find out if he was AWOL. I don’t know where that officer had been the last several years, but the military no longer uses the phrase absent without leave. You are now considered an UA – an unauthorized absentee. Police departments take note of this! Update your information! However, moving on, after dinner we prepared to bed down for the night, and after the lights were out, it is still chatter, chatter, chatter, until a staff person orders us all to keep it quite. Finally, silence. The next morning is Sunday, and I am very anxious to see the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. I make my way to Kelly Ingram Park, and I spot the church. For those who are not familiar with the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, this is the church that was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four young girls died in the bombing. As I was speaking with an older gentleman there, he gave me the details. He saw the whole incident. As I look around the park, I notice a marble and bronze statue Georgia: the three cities in the south of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. I that were the center of attention end my conversation with this man, during the civil rights years. and he directs me back downtown, I am thinking today that to the corner of 19th Avenue North. despite the laws that were passed There was a reason to go there. On during those days and after, why May 14, 1961, civil rights freedom haven’t conditions for the homeless riders were enroute from Washington improved? I guess it still goes back to New Orleans to protest against to institutionalized Jim Crow. To court ruling that decreed that a bury the racist past of Birmingham segregated public transportation was and places elsewhere will take much not unconstitutional, it was ok. They work. For America to become a were met by the Ku Klux Klan and whole Nation will take much work. mobbed, beaten and kicked savagely For America to care for its poor and while the Birmingham police just homeless will take even more work. stood by and watched. American says it a caring nation, and As I am reading a memorial if this is true, then let’s show it. plaque on the site, a woman shouts This is my story from out and says, “I remember that!” I Birmingham. nearly jump out of my skin, and as I turn to face her, I Survey Participants Wanted ask, “do you remember this?” She says that she was You are invited to participate 19 years old when it in a brief survey on hate happened, and she was crimes and violence against proud of all the students. homeless persons. Go to: They stood their ground well. http:// She goes over all the details of that day in 1963. I just www.surveymonkey.com/ take a deep breath and s.asp?u=870921968238Y silently thank those students Your input will help the for their courage. National Coalition for the And I thank that lady for her information, and make Homeless direct our advocacy efforts. The results of this national my way to the Brother Bryan Mission to chat with people survey will be released to general there. But enroute I meet public and media in late August. another homeless gentleman Please contact NCH for information who told me more of the concerning the rising incidents of horrifying events that took hates crimes and violence against place in the 1960s in homeless persons at Birmingham, Montgomery, www.nationalhomeless.org Alabama, and Atlanta, Streetvibes Page 13 �Under The Sun Jonah in Nevada by Bernard Howard He did not go to Nineveh. He went instead to the west. When the bus broke down outside of Reno, he took that for a sign and hitchhiked into the city. Two beers, four beers, he watched the work of the strippers. Six beers, eight, he had become such a curse a pair of bouncers grabbed him at each arm and launched him into the street. Ten beers, a dozen and he was swallowed by oblivion and lay cramped in the belly of amnesia for three days. He woke in the desert with the sun straight above him like a spike. His skull was drumming and his mouth was caked with salt. His backpack had been stolen and some fist had gifted him with bruises above his eye and in the arcades of his ribs. His face and arms were blistered by the withering sun. He stared at the empty road and tried to conjure which way would take him back to where he had derailed. Aching, broke, I hate the sun I love the rain. To soak in water not bake in sweat. I feel the rain when it’s falling down. Despise the heat that you bring around. We have no grounds in common to relate. Your lighted cycle only seems to burn. Like rain drops I have fell in life. Some drops were short and others were long. Seems like you rise when things are bad. To show a hatred or make me sad. But my thoughts are much bigger than you. I can ignore everything you try and prove. Sometimes I fall, but when I rise. It’s not the sun that I despise. I wish our views could share a start. To answer the reason we can’t get along. Beneath the Surface Homeless by Octavia I am hungry and cold I wonder will I get a home I hear my family laughing I see food on the table One check away by James Chionsini twinkling stars can’t keep you warm when you’re sleeping in the park till he break of dawn newspaper pillow and a plastic tarp watching for he pigs that come out after dark I want a nice little home I am hungry and cold I pretend to sleep in a bed lost your job got jacked and robbed your landlord said that’s not my prob doctor bills kill you can’t afford the pills now you’re shaking heart breaking drink as much as you spill I feel warm covers waiting on the first to quench your thirst alleviate the discomfort of an asphalt earth trying to find a shelter to get some rest but nowhere seems safe without a knife proof vest I cry because I don’t have a home if you could just get back to square one start to heal the disease that’s got you on the run feeling invisible going insane scowls and nightsticks fall like rain I touch the bed I lie in I worry will I ever get a home I am hungry and cold I understand I don’t have a home I say I will get a home I dream to have a home I cry because I have don’t have a home I try to visualize a home I hope I get a home I am hungry and cold Page 14 Streetvibes by Renee Hoboken is a city of beauty and at night it is a city of lights. Beneath all the beauty and lights it is a city full of people who are striving to survive, who have lost all hope with the system and only find strength in those who can relate or those who are in the same situation or predicament and find comfort in knowing that they are not alone no matter how lost, lonely or forgotten they may be. Life Story by Cleon (Pee Wee) Hughes I remember when I was young I did some things I should not have done You must understand it was hard for me Cuz there were no presents under my tree. Just bills unpaid, starving for days and My grades were far from A’s Being a thief just to eat What would you do if you were me? Made it to Jr. High, I don’t know how I done that. I guess my teacher didn’t want Me to come back. Shoes was bummy, Shirt was too That’s when I started hangin With a hungry Crew. First it was steal’n Then drug deal’n And in the 10th grade I was mak’n a kill’n Cuz I remember starving at night Now there’s steak With the beans and rice Now there’s Guess Jeans And fresh K-Swiss And being broke, man I do not miss My Mom used to say Have faith in Jesus OK then, Why did Daddy leave us? It’s hard to have faith When you’re stuck in the moment And on top of that My feet kept grow’n Put the drugs down And pick up a book Take a look around I mean take a GOOD look I really think there is something miss’n Cuz don’t nobody look up to a politician How bout the pastor? Going to church, people just laugh at cha Then a man stepped in my life And this man was for real You don’t have to do dirt Cuz you was dealt a raw deal He said you’re just like a puppy You been led astray Here read this book And it will show you the way Now I’m 35 And have new beliefs Jesus paid for my sins And I have the receipt �Understand Walking Through Paradise with a Friend Who Doesn’t Believe by Robert Leech by Leo Luke Marcello It would be so damn cool to live underground Where no liquor store, gun runner or dope dealer can be found No electricity, no sunlight to brighten your day Just the dim lights of candles to show you the way No worrying about gung-ho police, or crossing the street No sense of direction, you just follow your feet No more bullshit government, or the president’s lies You just go from tunnel to tunnel as time flies And what do you do when you come to a dead end? It’s simple, you just turn around and start the same process over again All this sounds weird, and you wonder where it will stop But soon as your ass get hungry, you’ll find your way to the top I guess some people say living underground is real cool But if you think you can do it without coming to the top You are the world’s biggest damn fool. At the end of the path you expect nothing, a clearing perhaps and then pure air, no trace of animal droppings, insect bites, just an opening in the trees, an end of the path cleared before us, a suddenly treeless empty plain, not even the sounds of birds chirping. Here is the story that you desire. There will be no suffering, no cross. Everyone you love will feel good. Around each neck a chain with a rock, instead of that man on a cross. You would celebrate the caves of birth. Naming the Logos by John J. Brugaletta Though trees are ragged, every building’s plumb. We see the world and wish it fit our mind The way a grapefruit’s segments fit their rind, But quarks and toadstools only leave me dumb. The word I most desire will never come. For me, there are rocks and blood, nails and broken bones, but I am not alone in this. We are all within this one suffering body of life, Christ, so long as we breathe, but there is a window, a clearing, an opening in the wall, a way out of the cave. Someone has shown us the opening by passing through it first and now calls us along this way. I will meet you in that clearing, friend. Whatever we go through, we’ll go through. We will sing together in Paradise where we have begun to sing even now. Tell me why earth should intersect with hay. And what have oaks to do with apple trees, Or cactus blossoms with the needful bees? Does thinking know, or does it only play? The phrase I want to say I never say. The homeless by Don Foran The best the world contains is so remote, My hands fit nothing and my lips are dry. I take two breaths, then on the third I die. We’re most precise at what our words connote. The only name I love eludes my throat. Ten men clamber out of the creaking van, Their sweaty bodies meeting a kiss Of cool night air. They drift, silently, sullenly Toward the darkened church. Mattresses lie, two or three to a room, Along walls decorated with children’s Drawings and almost casual crucifixions. Carl, Eddie, Jake and the others Throw their worn packs and bags Onto the makeshift beds, and John, It’s always John, is first to ask If he can have his sack lunch now, Not in the morning as we had planned. “Sure,” I say, almost as anxious as he To assuage this remediable hunger. Several echo John, and soon all Are feasting on pb and j; apples, celery, And other healthy fare remains on the table, But they’re happier now, even communicative. One thanks me for setting a new pair of white socks On each mattress. Another offers a juice cup To a friend. “Lights out!” Rick calls at ten, And no one argues, no one hesitates. Sleep Knits once more the raveled sleeve of care, Obliterates the hurt, soothes the jangled nerves. Tomorrow will be another day, Another cheerless day embroidered With small triumphs, fragile dreams. Streetvibes Page 15 �569-9500 Formed in 1984, The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a membership organization. Our member groups serve the homeless through emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social services, soup kitchens, and mental health/addiction services. The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take an active role in ensuring that Cincinnati is an inclusive community, meeting the needs of all of its citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at (513) 421-7803, 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth) SHELTER: Men City Gospel 241-5525 Mission Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House 324-2321 (Veterans) St. Francis/St.Joseph 381-4941 House 661-4620 Mt. Airy Center Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954 SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 921-1131 Bethany House 762-5660 Salvation Army Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis 859-491-3335 Center Grace Place Catholic Worker 681-2365 House Tom Gieger Guest House 961-4555 If you need help or help please call one of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless members listed below. OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of 421-2437 Cincinnati Appalachian Identity 621-5991 Center 231-6630 Beech Acres Center for Independent Living 241-2600 Options Churches Active in 591-2246 Northside Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840 381-4242 Contact Center Center for Respite Care 621-1868 241-2563 Emanuel Center Freestore/ 241-1064 Foodbank TREATMENT: Both 820-2947 N.A. Hopeline 351-0422 A.A. Hotline 381-6672 C.C.A.T. 684-7956 Talbert House Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 DIC Live-In 721-0643 Program TREATMENT: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 921-1613 Prospect House 961-2256 Starting Over TREATMENT: Women 961-4663 First Step Home Full Circle Program 721-0643 HOUSING: 977-5660 CMHA Excel Development 632-7149 241-0504 Miami Purchase OTR Community Housing 381-1171 721-8666 Tender Mercies Dana Transitional Bridge 751-9797 Services, Inc 761-1480 Caracole (AIDS) 381-5432 Friars Club 721-0643 Drop Inn Center 863-8866 Haven House Interfaith 471-1100 Hospitality Lighthouse Youth Center 961-4080 (Teens) St. John’s Housing 651-6446 or Want to Help? Need Help would like to Fransiscan Haircuts 381--0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental 946-8600 Health Board Mental Health Access 558-8888 Point Hamilton Co. TB Control 946-7601 Healing Connections 751-0600 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile 352-2902 Health Van House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 IJ & Peace Center 579-8547 241-0490 Justice Watch Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis. 271-5501 Center Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 Mercy Fransiscan at St John 981-5841 McMicken Dental 352-6363 Clinic NAMI (Mental Health) 948-3094 621-6364 Our Daily Bread Oral Health Council 621-0248 Over-the-Rhine Soup Kitchen 961-1983 Peaslee Neighborhood 621-5514 Center Project Connect, Homeless 363-1060 Kids People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 Services United For Mothers 487-7862 721-7660 Travelers Aid 721-7900 United Way VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping 872-9259 Women MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) 863-3184 St. Raphaels 863-1445 Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 August 2006 10 Years in Publication! Gentrification - It Ain’t What You Think Page 10 Feature y Labor a D h t i W e l b The Trou in Cincinnati Cover Story BUY FROM BADGED VENDORS ONLY STREETVIBES $1 Donation � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2006 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 2006 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Day Labor in Cincinnati: A Portrait of Exploitation Pg 2: Blessing from the Edge SPCA Visit Upsets Homeless Dog-Owner Pg 3: Homeless News Digest Pg 4: Dumfries Regrets Raid on Homeless Saving a Way Out of Poverty Pg 5: Let’s Call the Homeless Heroes Pg 6: Collaboration Weaves Stronger Safety Net for City’s Homeless In Worcester, Suit Filed Over Library’s Homeless Policy Pg 7: Selling Big Issue Japan Pg 8: Raising Minimum Wage Provides $1,520 More Annually Pg 9: NYC Moves to Break Up Homeless Encampments The People’s Republic? Pg 10: Gentrification- It Ain’t What You Think Pg 11: Gentrification- It Ain’t What You Think Continued Pg 12: Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct About the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Streetvibes Pg 13: Action on the Minimum Wage in the Senate and the House Pg 14: Arts & Poetry Pg 15: Arts & Poetry Continued Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 2006 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Georgine Getty Monique Little Lynne Ausman Gina King Andy Freeze Andy Lawrence John Lavelle Melvin Williams Susan Smith Jimmy Heath Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Andy Freeze Andy Lawrence Birmingham Cincinnati Gentrification Georgine Getty Gina King Homeless News Digest Japan Jimmy Heath John Lavelle Lynne Ausman Melvin Williams Middle-Class Minimum Wage Monique Little New York City Republic Senate SPCA Susan Smith The House of Representative Worcester