Monthly Archives: December 2010

My New Year’s Resolution: More at Home

Posted on December 29, 2010
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Last week, I spent the holidays in Kansas with my family. We spent a lot of time in the house: playing with the dogs, making dinner, challenging one another in board game matches, unwrapping gifts. As poet Margaret Elizabeth Sangster says, “There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.”

The warmth of family, paired with the warm security of “home” made this a wonderful holiday. But as I enjoyed my time with them, my thoughts continually returned to my homeless neighbors.

Unfortunately, also last week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report that confirmed what homeless advocates have been saying all year. Homelessness is on the rise. Family homelessness, especially. That means more children slept in emergency shelters, in cars, and on unfamiliar couches.

The report demonstrated a nine percent increase in family homelessness – and that’s almost certainly an undercount.  As Maria Foscarinis, the Law Center’s executive director, explained in a Christmas Day interview on NPR, the report’s counts are “limited by existing shelter capacity, which we know is grossly insufficient to meet the need. The national estimate is that only about half of all homeless people are actually sheltered, and that’s due to lack of shelter capacity.”

The report garnered a lot of media attention. In addition to the NPR interview, the Law Center’s comments on the increase in homelessness appeared on Minnesota Public Radio, United Press International (UPI), the Huffington Post, and the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch.  Behind each of the families who experienced homelessness this year, there is a story, and there is hope.

There are just three days left in 2010. My resolution for 2011 is to work to see a dramatic decline in homelessness.  In what remains of this year, please consider making a financial contribution to support the battle to end homelessness in the year to come. Together, we can make sure that more families spend the holidays at home next year.

DONATE NOW

-Whitney Gent, Development & Communications Director

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Journey to Alaska? You Betcha!

Posted on December 17, 2010
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I recently had the privilege of taking what might be the longest domestic trip ever undertaken by a Law Center staff member – a pilgrimage to Anchorage, Alaska to participate in the annual conference of the Alaska Coalition on Housing & Homelessness.  I was warmly welcomed by the dynamic and hard-working conference organizers, Kris Duncan with the State of Alaska and Suzi Pearson who runs a nonprofit focusing on domestic violence, and by their colleagues – really in all ways, except by the zero degree temperatures.

Why did I accept the invitation?   I wanted to find out what homelessness was like in Alaska.  Would it be different than down here in the “lower 48?”  What were the challenges of addressing homelessness in a state where weather conditions can be brutal all year round?  I learned the answers to these questions and others.

In some ways, Alaska has it tough.  Many people have a frontier mentality – a belief that everyone should get by on their own.  This causes some people in need to not seek assistance, and it results in many citizens not being supportive of government investment to help end homelessness.  And as a state with many low population cities, Alaska sometimes struggles to provide even temporary shelter to homeless people. Due to lack of volunteer staff resources, the cold weather shelter in Nome only opens when the temperature dips lower than ten below zero – in a community where anyone sleeping outside in the winter risks death.  Plus there are transportation concerns – one Alaska school district transports homeless children four hours a day.  That’s a lot of time for anyone to spend on a bus, and it’s logistically challenging for the school district.

But Alaska’s also got a lot of advantages – it’s got wonderful and caring people who work on this issue, like Kris and Suzi, and like Dave Mayo-Kiely and Barb Dexter in the Anchorage public schools.  And as a low population state, where “everyone knows everyone,” collaboration can be easier.  Plus, thanks to high oil prices and a good amount of federal government largesse (Alaska gets back nearly two dollars for every tax dollar it sends to Washington), Alaska is one of the few states that currently has a budget surplus.  Unfortunately, so far the state hasn’t expressed interest in devoting significant new resources to this issue – but with hard work from the Coalition, maybe that will change.

I did go to visit one Alaskan with a big huge house, and a great deal of money – former governor Sarah Palin.  I even took a picture (above)!  It was cloudy when I drove to Wasilla, so I couldn’t see Russia.  And I didn’t see the former governor either.  But if I had I would have challenged her – Alaska’s got a lot of money and a lot of land – couldn’t she help put those things together and make sure that all Alaskans have a safe place to live?  My answer?  You betcha!

-Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director

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Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!

Posted on December 15, 2010
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“Just remember this, Mr. Potter – that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community,” George Bailey said.  “Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?  Anyway, my father didn’t think so.  People were human beings to him.”

We live in a time when vehemence has displaced substance.  If a politician or a bank claims something loud enough and long enough, public scrutiny will eventually fade.

By the end of this year, the United States Congress will vote to extend tax breaks for the millionaires and billionaires who already possess most of our country’s wealth.  And across the nation, banks continue to sign off on foreclosures they haven’t even examined – kicking countless families out of their homes without verifying their legal right to do so.

“You sit around here and you spin your little webs, and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money.  Well, it doesn’t, Mr. Potter.”

Jimmy Stewart had a way of finding the thing we like about ourselves, usually when it was idle, and jarring it to life.

His seminal character, It’s a Wonderful Life’s George Bailey, wasn’t a perfect man.  He thought of abandoning Uncle Billy, felt envy for his brother Harry, and yelled at dear Zuzu in a moment of desperation.  But through it all, that basic thread of human decency endured.  When he acted, it was with the belief that he was serving a greater good.

The Bailey Bros. Building and Loan is an artifact of a dead system.  In one of the film’s most famous scenes, the depositors make a run on the bank.  George desperately explains to them: “You’re thinking of this place all wrong, as if I had the money back in the safe.  The money’s not here.  Your money’s in Joe’s house – that’s right next to yours.  And in the Kennedy house and Mrs. Macklin’s house and a hundred others.”

Nowadays, those loans would have been cut up and sold, each piece packaged together with pieces from other people’s loans to form a mortgage-backed security.  Today, George wouldn’t have a clue where their money was.

And we certainly wouldn’t hear these words coming out of a banker’s mouth in 2010: “Ed, remember last year, when things weren’t going so well – you couldn’t make your payments?  Well, you didn’t lose your house, did you?  We can get through this thing all right.  But we’ve gotta stick together.”

 

For too long now, our political and economic institutions have forsaken the two things most basic to the American psychology: fairness and compassion.  As noted on our blog in September, we have banks across the country – many of whom accepted federal bailout money – removing families from their homes at a rate of one foreclosure per minute.  What this means practically is that families’ cases aren’t even being reviewed.  Their lives are being ripped away from them, and banks won’t even bother reading the responsible documents.

And as social safety-nets continue to decay, denying homeless and poor people vital services, Congress is about to give the Mr. Potters of the nation a Christmas bonus: $82 billion in tax cuts.  The mere suggestion deserves our contempt.  If the last ten years taught us anything, it’s that kick-backs for the rich do nothing for our economy, but ebb away at the American ideals Frank Capra once captured.

People experiencing poverty and homelessness are getting a raw deal in this country.  And if George Bailey were around, I’m betting he’d scrunch up his face and agree with me.

- Andy Beres, Grant Writer & Communications Assistant

Photo credit: Julie Falk
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Holiday Frustrations

Posted on December 13, 2010
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As I sit in our warm and comfortable office this holiday season, I don’t feel like celebrating. I’m angry and frustrated – frustrated that in a time where people are struggling, our government seems to be looking at how it can be meaner to the growing number of people in need, not more compassionate. Just look at what we’ve seen in the public policy arena in recent weeks:

First, the City Council of the District of Columbia considered legislation that would require homeless persons to provide proof of residency before being allowed to access a shelter. And the law’s backers, in promoting their bill, declared explicitly that it was intended to prevent homeless people from flooding DC shelters during hypothermia season, when it is too cold to sleep and live outdoors. This bill passed on its first reading, with jingoist councilmembers demanding that DC resources be reserved for DC residents, and ignoring the reality that low income people move constantly between the District, Maryland, and Virginia. Given the first vote, it won’t be surprising if the bill is approved a second time and signed into law. If it is, we can expect more people to die on our city’s streets this winter.

And Washington isn’t the only city deciding to punish poor people in tough times. Word broke last week that the City of New York is conducting an experiment to test its homelessness prevention program.  What’s the experiment? They’re accepting some eligible applicants and denying others, when money is available, just to examine whether helping people prevent homelessness really works. How dare we study people in need as if they were sub-human lab rats? What re-examination of the obvious is next? Next time it rains should we give ten people umbrellas and let ten go without, and see who gets wetter? Perhaps, as many commenters recommended on the New York Times website, we should divide up the wealthy Americans about to receive a great big tax cut. We’ll give half the cut and see whether they create more jobs than the other half, who will be taxed at higher rates so they can serve as a control group.

Speaking of taxes, before President Obama and Congressional Republicans struck a deal last week, tax provisions to benefit corporations had been linked all year with a billion dollars for the National Housing Trust Fund – designed to produce new units of badly needed affordable housing. But when the final deal was struck – the tax changes stayed, while the housing money was nowhere to be found. It will be quite a holiday – as long as you work for a bank that’s foreclosing on homeowners, and aren’t a low wage employee struggling to maintain a job and a place to live.

So what’s most frustrating about this? Perhaps it’s the feeling that our public officials just don’t seem troubled by all of this. Except maybe for one – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In an extraordinary display, Senator Sanders took the Senate floor last Friday and held it for more than eight hours.  He spoke passionately about the struggles of working families and other low income Americans, and appealed to our better angels during this holiday season. Thank you, Senator Sanders, for giving a voice to everything I’ve been thinking. I just hope President Obama, Congressional leaders, and local government officials were listening. If they were, perhaps we can look forward to a positive 2011 policy agenda that offers compassionate and fair solutions to difficult social problems.

-Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director

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Not a “Glee”ful Holiday for Many Students

Posted on December 8, 2010
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Last night on the Christmas edition of the television show, “Glee,” the Glee Club decided to go caroling to raise money for presents for homeless students who participate in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Program.  The episode revolves around the conflict between the Grinchy Sue Sylvester, who stole the presents, and the Glee Club, who went on to sing and sing again to ensure they could make the season brighter for the homeless students.

While no child would turn down a wrapped present, the biggest gift many schools can give to homeless children is the gift of education.  The McKinney-Vento Act requires schools to designate a homeless liaison to reach out and identify homeless students, many of whom are too embarrassed to seek help for themselves.  The law enables homeless students to stay enrolled at the school they last attended before becoming homeless, or immediately enroll at the new school wherever they move, even if they don’t have all the regular residency documentation.

While many schools do a great job of implementing the law, many others turn a Grinchy blind eye to the struggles of homeless students in their districts.  Just earlier in the day, I was on the phone with parents crying because they had lost their home to foreclosure.  The parents hadn’t identified themselves to the school as homeless, and the school had failed in its duty to pro-actively identify them. The school had instead kicked their kids out and removed their children’s belongings from their desks in front of all the other students.  Despite the fact that they printed out and highlighted a copy of the law from our website, the school refused to re-enroll the children, and they missed two days of school.  With our assistance, they were able to get the children re-enrolled by the end of the day -  but this never should have happened in the first place.

As we go into the holiday season, we can each do a little something to ensure the gift of public education is shared with homeless students who need it most.  Download a fact sheet from our website, make a few copies, and distribute them at local schools, libraries, laundromats, shelters, or budget motels, so parents and children know their rights.  Please also consider donating to support our work to protect homeless students’ educational access. Even if you can’t sing like the Glee Club, you can still spread holiday cheer to homeless families by sharing the gift of empowerment and knowledge of their right to education.

-Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director/Children & Youth Staff Attorney

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Goodbyes and Lessons Learned

Posted on December 6, 2010
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Each semester, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty is privileged to have a number of outstanding interns who dedicate their time and energy to help end homelessness in America. This semester, we extend a HUGE thank you to interns Sean Goodbody, Jennifer Harrold, and Jamie Shields. Here, Sean reflects on his time at the Law Center:

My experience as a legal intern at the Law Center has become an indispensable part of my legal education.  I go forward into my final semester of law school, and eventually into the legal profession, with a different set of skills, beliefs, and perspectives than I had when I arrived in Washington.

Within days of arriving at the Law Center, I was helping callers in Pennsylvania and Arkansas find homeless shelters and food stamp offices.  I helped advocate for a federal homeless hate crimes statute, and critique the ways the FAFSA affects homeless college students.  I watched throughout the fall as government agencies published data on the foreclosure crisis, the alarming poverty rate, and decreased food stability.  I also learned about the creative solutions legal advocates around the country use to support their homeless clients.

The severity of the economic downturn cannot be denied, nor can how much work must be done to alleviate the hardships of homeless people, and to one day eradicate homelessness altogether.  But I watched all semester as the lawyers at the Law Center remained steadfast and committed to the cause.  My experience here confirmed that advocating for and representing low-income clients is the work that resonates with me.

This is the type of work I want to do as a lawyer.  I am going directly back to my community to work as a law student with the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, CA to provide legal services for walk-ins who cannot afford an attorney.  I then hope to become a legal aid attorney upon graduation, and to bring the same committed attitude and enthusiasm to my advocacy as I have seen from the lawyers here.

***

The Law Center is also very grateful for the contributions this fall of Peter Wang, deferred associate from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.

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The Truth About Panhandling

Posted on December 3, 2010
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In today’s Washington Post, executive director Maria Foscarinis weighed in on an important discussion about panhandling, saying:

“Each individual begging for change has his or her own story. Not all are virtuous, not all are truthful. Neither are many people. But what is different is that unlike most of ‘us,’ beggars have very few options or resources…”

To read more of this thought-provoking letter, which appeared on the editorial page, click here.

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Sister Mary Ann Luby: In Memoriam

Posted on December 1, 2010
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All of us at the Law Center were shocked and saddened to learn yesterday that Sister Mary Ann Luby had died suddenly, less than two weeks after receiving a cancer diagnosis.

The suddenness was not the only reason for our shock.  Sister Mary Ann, outreach worker at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, was such an energetic, passionate and persistent advocate that it is almost impossible to imagine her gone. Here in our home community of Washington, D.C., her advocacy has been a major force for change over the past 27 years. Its influence has been felt not only locally, but nationally as well.

I first met Sister Mary soon after my arrival in Washington in late 1985. She was then running Rachel Women’s Center, and she was one of a very small group of social service providers to whom I could turn to connect national advocacy to the real world facts and experiences of homelessness.  I got to know her better when she was at the Legal Clinic, and our work began to intersect more closely.

As a key organizer at the Legal Clinic, Mary Ann regularly mobilized all manner of advocacy aimed at increasing resources and rights for homeless people in the city. I will always remember receiving her emails and calls, urging me to go to a rally or turn out people for a march, to write to the city council, to make the case for the city’s homeless folks to the federal government. She was always prodding, sometimes scolding me to do more—and she was effective. I could rarely say no to her. Read more »

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