Janet Valente Pape, executive director of Catholic Charities, told The Eagle editorial board Wednesday that she thinks the plan released by the city-county Taskforce to End Chronic Homelessness is a “big step forward.â€
But she pointed to what she considers two missing pieces:
A community housing trust fund is needed, she said, to ensure sustainable operating dollars for the “housing first†part of the plan, which places the chronically homeless in their own apartment units.
And the one-stop center “really needs to be 24 hours,†she said, and it needs some beds. Otherwise, she believes, some homeless will continue to fall through the cracks.
The plan “just doesn’t go far enough,†she said, echoing the view of some other homeless providers.
36 Comments
I think this needs to be a co-effort between the community and the churches. The public programs have the networking capabilities to oversee and operate “one-stop” center to assist the homeless and to point them to the correct providers they require.
The housing first initiative could be set up on a program (like ours) where the local churches and civic organizations could sign up to purchase, and operate a home for the program. Homeless folks could be “adopted” into a home and helped and mentored by the sponsoring church or organization. No tax dollars.. just free will offerings of love and compassion from those who really care.
It will take a grass roots effort to accomplish this. We already attempted to contact over 100 churches in the area to set up such a program with ZERO response. I guess Wichita does not take us seriously… but I can tell you that our program is working on a small scale. All we lack is support.
I was required to pass a drug test before I was deemed worthy for employment. Employment that pays a lot of taxes for such humanitarian efforts.
Yet, the beneficiaries of my tax dollars are not expected to pass any type of drug test. It is time to end this enabling behavior. Anyone applying for any type of public benefits must pass a drug test. Otherwise, we are encouraging continuing drug abuse.
Nunya…you make a lot of sense. Why should we enable people to stay addicted by taking care of their every need so they don’t have to?
When addicts get uncomfortable with their lifestyle, thats when they start to make changes, and not before.
I’ve always thought that anyone receiving government assistance should have to pass a drug test on a regular basis and that they should have to contribute in some way to society. “Even a person in a wheelchair can answer a phone”…Bill Clinton.
My clients who are disabled are much happier when they have sense of purpose. One smashes aluminum cans at MHA, and another packs and passes out food in a food bank. Many of my clients are involved with Breakthrough Club, where they get involved in all sorts of community projects..not only are they happier when involved in a worthwhile activity, they have much more self esteem than my clients who do nothing but expect someone else to provide for them.
Well maybe it is just me.
I don’t judge on people who are hurting. I just try to help them out any way I can. All the time folks come up to me asking a dollar “for gas” or “for the bus” or “to get home”. I’m pretty sure it’s a scam. But if these poor folks are lowered to the place of having to ask I figure I can spare a dollar or two. It could just as easy be me in that place.
It could just as easy be any of us these days.
Walking distance from me is a duplex rental property. I bet there are more than a hundred apartments. Only about a third of them with anyone living there.
For the last several years.
Surely there must be a way to match up homeless folks with uninhabited properties. I mean without filling the pockets of slumlord real estate companies. A larger role for Habitat for Humanity maybe in rehablilitating neglected properties.
JR…
Habitat isn’t the only ones that can fix up old properties. That’s exactly what we did. And if you get the homeless involved, you can provide them work, as well as buying into the program with sweat equity.
For the drug test people, don’t think for a minute that this housing is just an opportunity for a pad to go do drugs. No, we don’t expect people to be totally free of addictive behaviors before we provide housing, but they are required to make an attempt to get their lives in order. Yes, we have only been doing this since Nov ‘06, but so far only 1 person has chosen to leave because of an addiction. We have another that has been off the street and employed for about 4 months. We will soon help him with his deposits, etc. and he will move into an apartment where he works. Some may be enabled by housing, but most see it as an opportunity to turn things around so they don’t have to return to the street life.
This is what happens when the government runs housing projects:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini_Green
Econ101..
Section 8 Housing is another example. Look up the houses available for Section 8 applicants and you will find hunreds of available houses. Yet, it takes 2-3 years to work your way to the top of the list, and then, if you are homeless and they can’t contact you, you move BACK to the bottom of the list.
This is the Very reason that we pulled our properties off of the Section 8 list and turned them into shelters for those who have no place to go while they are waiting for government housing. It is also the Cey reason that our Ministry is promoting non-public support and management of these homes or apartments.
why can’t I spell Very correctly twice in one paragraph? Sorry…
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime!
It is, actually, very damaging to simply give cash to alcoholics and drug addicts.
I frequently offer to buy a hamburger for those who ask for “food money” — they usually decline.
They can not barter a Big Mac for a bottle of Thunderbird Wine, or their next fix, so they are not interested.
It takes more time to work with them, scold them, ask questions and help steer their choices.
Passing them cash only makes you an enabler.
The “Chronic Homeless” have mental and/or substance abuse problems. They should be force into a treatment program before we give them any assistance.
—-
If you had a neighbor, in a rental, who did not bath, did not clean, the dwelling smelled bad, drugs were being sold openly in the area, animals were running wild, from that unit — the owner would be liable to the other tenants.
Dog bites, drug dealing, DUI in the parking lot, shootings, health hazards, domestic violence, these things happen in “public housing” — to the extend that “Cabrini Green” in Chicago was completely taken over by criminals. Police were even affraid to go there.
If you rent or lease space from private property owners, those property owners should be protected from lawsuits, and their other tenants should be protected from the mentally unstable tenants.
There are very, very few mentally competent people who ever become “homeless” in America.
It your efforts to make yourselves feel better, you will only cause mroe problems.
We already have HUD Tax Credits for low income housing. The tax credit attracts investors.
We have many welfare and assistance programs, already.
The law that prevents us from treating, medically, those who refuse treatment, is the primary source of the “homeless” problem.
Sursam
Our posts crossed.
I have been involved in Section 8 housing investments before.
They usually work best with “mixed property” in my experience.
If the entire complex is low income, you are just asking for trouble.
>The law that prevents us from treating, medically, those who refuse treatment, is the primary source of the “homeless” problem.<
This is a very true statement. I don’t know what the Task Force has in mind with their version of the “housing first” program, but this is the very problem that Programs such as “Pathways to Housing” in NYC has been successfully addressing. See the link to Pathways on my web site by clicking on my name. There is some very interesting reading about homelessness on their site.
“I frequently offer to buy a hamburger for those who ask for “food money” — they usually decline.”
I’ve done this in Waikiki and have gotten responses varying from “F— you, C—” to “I haven’t eaten in days, thanks”.
I’ve done a little thought experiment to figure out exactly how to get from living on the streets to having an apartment and steady income.
1), You need access to showers and decent clean clothing. No one’s going to hire a smelly bum.
2) You need an address and a phone number where you can be contacted. The Women’s shelter here has a good system, they let all their clients use one phone number, answer the phone with a simple “hello?” and take a message for the client. The number rotates periodically IIRC so that it’s not obvious that the employer is calling a shelter.
3) You need interview skills. The shelters can probably take care of this.
4) You need a steady place to stay while you wait for your first paycheck, within walking distance. Remember, you don’t have a car or a DL.
5) Finally, you need TIME to save up enough to begin being financially independent.
The car thing is a little tricky. Having transportation in Wichita would greatly increase your chances of getting a better job since there is no effective bus system. But to get a DL, you need a car. To get/use a car, you need a title and license plates, both of which require a DL. Unless you can borrow a car, you’re out of luck. I don’t know how to fix this, except maybe having all of the DMV’s having a “loaner car” for the sole purpose of taking the driver test.
I’ve thought about this a lot. All of this applies, of course, to those who aren’t mentally ill or disabled, that’s a whole ‘nother story.
Oh, I forgot one important thing. To get a job, you need proof of identity and ability to work. The average homeless person doesn’t carry have a birth certificate or photo ID or SS card. They would need a lot of assistance getting these documents together. Anyone know the process of establishing identity when starting from scratch?
Tara – that ID issue is of real concern to people in the faith community I know who are working on the issue. They have homeless who have no ‘papers’ of any kind and the agencies – including the military who used them up and spit them out – are of zero help. These are native born American citizens; and frequently our veterans. But, I guess once a soldier has done his job and ’stopped a bullet’ he just doesn’t matter any more.
I don’t think it a matter of the government not caring about our Vets…most homeless who are not mentally ill are addicted. It doesn’t matter what one’s background is..addiction destoys people’s lives, there is no doubt about that. When our society does something effective about the drug and alcohol problem, and we’ll solve most of the homeless problem. If we don’t address the underlying issue to the problem, the problem won’t go away.
There are many, many agencys, programs, churches, charities, etc. that will help people in need find help and assistance…all one has to do is WANT help. You can lead a horse to water…..
Mary, you are definitely correct about addiction. I think they should make space available for groups like AA in any kind of shelter or other facility. I would not force attendence or anything; however perhaps seeing people in recovery making their lives better might inspire someone to give it a try. If they are just at that ‘want to want to stop’ stage (and my grammer there is deliberate) maybe some will be helped. And, it is free – don’t even have to pay for the coffee.
Ben.. I believe the plan submitted by the Task Force includes a one-stop center, in essence a clearing house for any and all services available for the homeless or others in need. This includes programs and agencies that deal with addictions.
If they pattern the “housing first” program after some of the big city programs, then addiction counseling will be made available to the participants AFTER they are provided a home. Even then, it is not forced, but voluntary. Statistics show that this concept is 80% effective, compared to 15-20% success with the normal programs that force counseling PRIOR to receiving benefits.
You mentioned the homeless vets.. now I feel that is a real problem. Twice I have written editorials to the Eagle on that subject, and they have not felt the need to publish either one of them. I believe the homeless children, women and veterans should receive benefits first.
Sam – we are together on that.
Tara
You are absolutely correct about the shower and laundry issues.
Huge liability there, though. Washing machines can cause flooding. Dryers can cause fires. Drying clothes that were not clean, but simply wet from the rain, causes hygene problems. You also have possible fights, over cloths and use of the machines.
Ben
The idea that we turn our backs on our vets, somehow, is completely bogus.
There are many different VA programs. Anyone who served under the last 3 Presidents would actually qualify for a “Veterans Pension” if disabled and of modest means. This benefit can help with housing, especially Assisted Living or Nursing Home Care. For the truly poverty stricken, Medicaid is a better option. You can do BOTH, but there are program off-sets.
Again, the VA and the SRS are powerless if someone refuses help.
Tara
Document resources:
Kansas Department of Vital Statistics:
http://www.kdheks.gov/vital/
National Archives, Military Personnel Records:
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/index.html
Veterans Administration:
http://www.va.gov/
I still do not believe that the number of homeless Veterans is, in any way, not proportional to the percentage of Veterans in the population!
However, click on “VA Pension” for a means-tested way to help with Nursing Home Care.
By the way, a cousin of mine is very, very involved with Catholic Charities. Most of you would know the name, if I told you. I believe she works on a program that helps people understand family finance.
I hope I am not speaking out of school here, but I think her program takes in a few families, every year, under her wing, and gives them some real guidance on how to get out of poverty.
This, of course, does not help the “homeless” — most government and church programs are for the poverty stricken, who still have a residence, somewhere.
When my kids are all on their feet, I hope I have time to help, in programs that help those with some degree of emotional stability.
Sorry, I am not writing off the homeless. I just want to target my help where it will do the most good. Teaching families with kids to avoid drugs and alcohol, and to take the legally prescribed meds that keep them productive, would keep more people from falling into the homeless trap, to begin with.
In my humble opinion, the courts wrote off the homeless, years ago. The courts made it nearly impossible to put these people into protective custody, of some type, where they belong.
I support the city & county making it easier for non-profit agencies to build shelters & to renovate run down housing. However the city & county should not get into the welfare business.
Janet Pape knows that Catholic Charities, the United Way and the Kansas Health Foundation would have plenty of extra funds if it cut out wasteful spending on corrupt and inefficient programs. The city, county, state & non-profits currenty do not enforce any accountability or transparency in the current programs. Does the Kansas health Foundation really need to be spending $8,000,000 educate leaders or $2,000,000 to fund the WSU journalism department to provide golden parachutes for Eagle editors & publishers Lou Heldman, Buzz Merrit & Randy Brown?
There’s way too many do-gooders, too much elitism and wasteful spending by non-profits in Wichita.
Bill McKean 293-6079 kiakahahaha@yahoo.com
Since the Eagle will not publish my editorials, I am going to put it here because I think it needs to be said before the public gives input back to the Task Force. I think helping the chronically homeless is a noble task, but there are others with just as much need!
VETERANS and HOMELESSNESS
Veteran’s Day is now two months past, the flags were placed away for another year, the parades forgotten, and the memorials have been left lonely and covered with dust. It is good to stop and think about the sacrifices, and sometimes lives given by our modern day American heroes. We take a day and salute, honor, and praise them, but then we go home to our comfortable surroundings and enjoy the freedoms and American way of life that their sacrifices have secured.
We should keep in mind that tonight, nearly 200,000 veterans will sleep under bridges, in alleys and abandoned buildings because they have no home. They are this nation’s forgotten heroes – men and women who once proudly served in a military uniform. Though only 9% of the U.S. population have served in the armed forces, 23% of the homeless people in this country are veterans. Conservatively, one out of every three homeless men who is sleeping in a doorway, alley or box in our cities and rural communities has put on a uniform and served this country. According to the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom, or the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Forty-seven percent of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam Era. More than 67% served our country for at least three years and 33% were stationed in a war zone.
In addition to the complex set of factors affecting all homelessness; extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income, and access to health care, a large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse, compounded by a lack of family and social support networks. What veterans need a coordinated effort that provides secure housing and nutritional meals; essential physical health care, substance abuse aftercare and mental health counseling; and personal development and empowerment. Veterans also need job assessment, training and placement assistance. A top priority is secure, safe, clean housing that offers a supportive environment which is free of drugs and alcohol.
With an estimated 400,000 veterans homeless at some time during the year, the VA reaches 25% of those in need … leaving 300,000 veterans who must seek assistance from local government agencies and service organizations in their communities. A successful local campaign to end and prevent homelessness depends on community partnerships and the compassion and involvement of its citizens. As an individual or as a member of a group or organization, you can make a difference in the lives of America’s former guardians. They answered the call to serve our nation in a way increasingly few Americans ever will, and they deserve the full measure of our support in their greatest hour of need.
(information and statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans)
Sam,
Very good!
Unfortunately, the attitude of our government toward those injured in it’s service hasn’t really changed much since the civil war; maybe they get a poverty-level pension, all too often nothing. This abandonment of our country’s finest is one of our nation’s shameful failures!
Since help costs money, and the government has so many glitzier things to spend it on, the only way this will ever change is for a grass-roots movement of our young men and women to refuse military service until they get an iron-clad guarantee that when they put everything on the line for their country, they will get the best the country has to offer (minus the weasel words) when they are injured in the line of duty. It must be made very clear that they will refuse to serve even if drafted. This nation desrves a military when and only when it takes the responsibility that one entails!
Jed
Are you aware of all of the various Veterans Administration benefits?
The VA Prescription Plan is wonderful, for those who qualify.
VA hospitals offer care for any service-connected injury.
The “Veterans Pension” does not even require that you ever served in combat, only that you served during a time of declared war. (Every Veteran who served under Bill Clinton qualifies, as well as under Bush.)
It is a lie that we do not take care of our Veterans.
Also, Veterans have ALL of the benefits, for the poor or disabled, that any non-Veteran would have, in ADDITION to Veterans benefits.
“VA hospitals offer care for any service-connected injury”
MAYBE. They have played a lot of games claiming ‘pre-existing condition’ when a guy gets screwed up. If it were pre-existing then they never should have sent him to ‘Nam or Oraq in the first place. They also often deny diagnoses for ’stress’ and ‘closed-head’ injuries.
Econ101…
I have a Disabled Veteran living in my duplex. He is compensated approx. $830 per month. Yes, compensation, but I would challenge any of us to live on that. When we picked him up he was living in a park downtown. All he needed to get off the street was a little help. If we took that away, he would be right back out there!
Sam – he is used up. We don’t need him any more.
Pall,
Remember Agent Orange? One of my best friends came back from Nam with an unhealthy dose of it. Our dear friends at the VA denied for years that there was anything harmful in AO, and denied him treatment for the resulting cancer. He’s dead of course, and no trouble to the VA anymore, but certainly a loss to me and his family.
A friend’s father, a D-Day veteran in Emporia, couldn’t get the prescription he needed for his heart condition from the VA prescription Plan because there was no generic version. I saw the letters they sent telling him it was denied. He has to pay $289 a month for it out of his pension, which means that he doesn’t get to buy groceries some months. It’s okay, we drive a load up there when we can, but it would be nice if the VA kept it’s promises.
Remember reading about the conditions in Walter Reed, and how injured veterans in other facilities were made to pay for such things as lunches and toilet paper? And having to wait weeks to be seen by doctors? And how the military has been taking lessons from private insurers on how to deny claims by fabricating preexisting conditions?
And do you have any idea how many of those doctors joined the military to weasel out of multiple malpractice suits? When that recruiting sergeant makes promises that the military will be there for injured soldiers, he and the service behind him can no longer be trusted. Until they can demonstrate that he can, my advice to our young people is to avoid him like the plague, or risk ending up in back of McDonald’s, looking through the dumpster for a half-eaten burger.
Exactly, Ben. I’ve counseled with vets who have what are to me “service connected injuries” who have been denied VA benefits on the basis of preexisting conditions. I agree that if the vet was an alcoholic before entering the service (and if s/he was, why was s/he allowed to join?), then self-medicating with alcohol for PTSD should not be compensable. However, given the number of vets from ‘Nam with whom I’ve spoken who had no history of drug or alcohol abuse prior to the entry into service (many of whom were drafted) who are given the runaround for their PTSD claims by the VA, well, I shake my head. One case with which I am familiar; the vet was denied benefits by VA, but was qualified for and received Social Security benefits due to the nature of his PTSD affecting his ability to obtain and keep employment. Something wrong with the system, IMHO. Yes, I know the tests are different for anyone who is just anxiously waiting to point this out; but if it was determined that PTSD is the cause of the disability, and (BTW, this was an enlistee) further the medical records clearly show the same resulted from two tours in ‘Nam, it seems there is a prima facie case for VA benefits. Not that it matters now; he died three years ago from complications of alcoholism, which was related to the PTSD (or so I was told).
VT – I have seen a lot of alcoholism that is just another symptom of PTSD. Self-medicating is not good but when they cannot get care what do they do. Add to that chronic pain from injuries.
I worked with MANY vets when I was at UCLA – they were CONSTANTLY getting shafted by the VA. After all – everyone knew they were worthless dregs; at laest that is how they were treated when they tried to get jobs. And, by the way, this was NOT by us ‘lefties’; this was by good conservative businessmen (sic).
Yeah, Ben, why hire a vet with who knows what kind of problems when hiring someone who never served takes care of that. Too many vets “back then” were draftees who, given the sorry state of the draft, were not exactly the “cream of the crop”. Hate to say that, but that’s been my experience. Many had relatively limited education (I’m talking about those who were being drafted at the time when anyone that could was going to college or otherwise seeking any deferment available), and were not well versed in some of the societal niceties employers wish to have exhibited by their employees. Once the lottery was established, and the 2-S expired for many, I speculate that the pool of draftees improved a bit in quality; at least that’s how it seemed while I was in the USAF (those who enlisted due to the draft seemed to be overall better “troops” than those who came to active duty once the all volunteer military began). I’m sure it is much different today; well, except for those whose choice post high school was a MacDonald’s uniform or a military one.
VT,
I was born a couple years too early to be drafted for Viet Nam. The Army wanted 18yr-olds first (apparently they’re more pliable, and more likely to engage in risk-taking), and since this area had an endless supply of 18yr-olds, I was never drafted. I had an S-2 for two years, but the demand for artists in the military seemed to be for some reason severely limited. My number came up twice after I left school, but I was never even called in for the physical. Unless you had a degree they could use, the military preferred the younger and less educated. They were much less trouble!
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Jack…
Thanks, I recently started my own business so this type of post is of great interest to me. Keep it up :)…
Jack…
Geat post. I added you to my blog roll!…
Haifa Wahbi…
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low income housing…
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