Shelters, motels bulging at the seams with no end in sight

Today was just incredibly hectic at Arise (not that this is unusual). We talked with four currently homeless families, all calling from the Springfield or Holyoke welfare offices, and all being told they're not eligible for shelter, and one homeless woman with two kids who is placed at the Econolodge in Chicopee in a room that has bedbugs.

• One quite pregnant 18 year old was told she needed proof of pregnancy.  Liz took care of her by providing a list of places that would do same-day pregnancy tests.  You'd think the Dept. of Housing and Community Development (the actual providers of shelter in Massachusetts, but housed at the Dept. of  Transitional Assistance offices)would have a list like this together by now.
• I talked to a man who has custody of his 16 month old son but he was being denied shelter because he and the child's mother were in a homeless shelter for the month of January.  We got Community Legal Aid and Mass Justice Project involved in his case, but it doesn't look good.
• Another woman and her one child left North Carolina (she had friends up here) after three incidents of being battered by her husband and having the police called made management decide not to renew her lease.  Doesn't look good for her, either-- she should have stayed in her apartment post-lease and forced her landlord to evict her, so she wouldn't fall in the category of having "abandoned" her housing, but how was she to know?  She's coming to the office tomorrow so she can have police reports faxed to Arise.
• The one I feel worst about (at the moment) is a woman with three kids who probably is eligible for shelter, but the documentation DHCD is asking for is lengthy, and hard to gather when you have 3 kids, no car, and four suitcases to lug around.  I was going to tell her to ask for "presumptive placement" but didn't write down her phone number because by that point I was too utterly disorganized.  She didn't call me back. 

Why was I disorganized?  It shouldn't have happened but our senior aide was out today so when the phone rang, I just answered it.  I could have called one of the three very kind members/volunteer advocates or asked Jackie, Terrette or Tina,  who were trained by us a few weeks ago to do intakes and who were working on collating our next homeless newsletter, but I forgot!  And of course as it gets later in the afternoon, the window is closing on being able to get folks into shelter for that night, so you just tend to try to act fast.  I'll do better tomorrow.

The rest of my day, and much of Liz's day,  was taken up with figuring out if we were going to have a demonstration tomorrow at the Econolodge and in trying to reach the "policy people" who can answer some essential questions if they would only choose to do so.  More on that part later.

Last week a woman called me from the Econolodge, one of DHCD's motels for homeless families, saying she was overrun with mice in her room.  I told her to call the Chicopee Board of Health, which she did ; the BOH contacted the motel, and they moved her into another room-- but this morning she and her daughter had numerous "bites" which she could only assume were bedbugs. 

I told her maybe it was time for us to go picket the Econolodge (if that was OK with her) but that we needed to do some research first and I'd call her back.  So Liz called the Chicopee Board of Health and I called MJP to doublecheck on the number of "noncompliances" a motel resident can have before being terminated-- it's one, with termination on the second (you get one more chance in a shelter) and to make sure that participating in a First Amendment activity wouldn't count as noncompliance for motel residents (should be OK). The Board of Health had some interesting things to say.  Apparently they act quickly on complaints and ask for written proof the complaint has been resolved.  Seems like the Econolodge is certainly no worse than many other "welfare motels" and is better than some.

I talked to my contact at the motel again and she mentioned how Econolodge employees provide a shuttle van a few times a day which drops people at the Springfield bus terminal so they can look for work!  This is NOT required by its contract with DHCD as far as I know.  (This doesn't help my friend; one child leaves for school at 9 am, another at 1 pm, and then the first one gets home from school at 3 pm, so she has exactly a two hour window to be out looking for work.  Motel and shelter residents are not allowed to babysit for each other.)

"Look," I told her, "in this case, the problem is not the motel-- the problem is that there's not enough shelter and not enough affordable housing.  We can still come picket, but let's make DHCD the target."

So looks like we'll be doing this on Thursday..  I'll post on Facebook and email the time.

As of Monday night, there were 2,122 families in Massachusetts being sheltered in motels.  Add the number of families actually in shelter, and we're over 4,000 homeless families being sheltered.

I wonder if religious communities in each town where families are in motels could mobilize to help them meet some of their basic needs?  I wish I could say Arise has the resources to organize this.

Meanwhile, homeless single people are also much on our minds.

We've been worrying about Carl, a homeless STCC student who has been sheltering himself under a bridge.  Haven't seen him in a week.  And we're worried about Lisa, who was sexually assaulted on the streets last year, and who we haven't seen since last Wednesday.  I know she was trying to get to Westfield, and last Friday, a news article said a woman had been sexually assaulted by a man who had offered her a ride home.  Was it her?

I have been trying to get a list of people both permanently banned and banned for a year from Worthington St. Shelter for the last three weeks.  I asked the director, Bill Miller, to let me know the numbers (not the names) so we could get a sense of who's out in the community and unsheltered.  But apparently he has no intention of doing so.  I asked two of his board members if they could get the numbers, and Bill said he would provide them, but he still hasn't done so.  (I did hear that he will provide names of banned people to Gerry McCafferty, Office for Housing, so they can be prioritized  for Housing First-- and I know that wouldn't have happened without our badgering.) 

This is no academic exercise.  We hear that Juan Rivera, who was crushed to death last month while sleeping in a dumpster, was on the list of banned individuals.  How many people are sleeping out on the street?  While the "banned" numbers will not exactly correlate with street homelessness, it gives us a ballpark.  And seeing as we know of two rooming houses, housing more than 100 people, were recently closed in Springfield, we know that the availability of affordable housing in Springfield is NOT increasing.

I've been calling Rose Evans, Associate Director for the Division of Housing Stabilization at DHCD, twice a day for the last seven business days.  She can get this information for us if she ever chooses to return my call.  (UPDATE: I decided to call her before 9 am just now, and she actually picked up the phone.  She says she will get back to me by the end of the day.)

Just what are we to do about this insane situation? Unless you're in the low-income community, you just have no idea who unstable our whole community has become.

I want to thank those people who said they'd be willing to assist with a building takeover (I'll get back to you all personally later today).  But we're definitely looking for the right place!  I've been talking to Catholic Charities about church-owned property that is vacant-- there's a LOT of it!  WHY isn't it being pressed into service for homeless people.

Christina has been holding homeless committee meetings at the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen, 35 Chestnut St.  The next meeting is tomorrow at 1 pm, and the meeting after that is Wednesday, November 20.  But you don't have to wait that long to get involved.  Call Arise at 734-4948.

HOMES FOR ALL- Launch Wed March 13, 2013

Springfield plans tour to focus on housing crisis

By The Associated PressThe Associated Press
on March 11, 2013 at 7:22 AM

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www.homesforall.org 413-734-4948

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A coalition of housing advocates in Springfield will host a city-wide tour to call attention to the housing crisis in the city.
The tour is part of a national campaign to be launched Wednesday in at least a dozen cities around the country. The campaign, called "Homes For All: Defend, Reclaim, Rebuild Our Communities," seeks to focus attention on the housing crisis.
Springfield-area residents who have been directly affected by evictions, homelessness, public housing destruction and foreclosure will lead elected officials and community leaders on the tour. Stops will include vacant, foreclosed property, city neighborhoods that have been hard hit by foreclosures, a homeless shelter and tenant-owned cooperative housing.
The campaign will call on the federal government to invest new resources to created affordable, accessible and safe homes.

www.homesforall.org

HOMES FOR ALL March 13, 2013 Launch

Ruben Santiago Vice President Arise for Social Justice
URGENT!
On March 13th, 2013 Arise for Social Justice and Springfield No One Leaves, working as the Springfield Right to the City Alliance will  be launching a New National Campaign. Homes For All, Defending, Reclaiming and Rebuilding our Communities. www.homesforall.org
 Springfield Massachusetts along with nine other cities across the United States will be holding various actions to bring attention to the crisis that has been paralyzing our country for far to long. HOUSING!  We will attempt to show our elected officials and concerned residents the reality of what our city has become and some ideas of what can be done about it.
If you are concerned about Homelessness, racial disparities, displaced families, shelter regulations, unfit living conditions, gentrification and Foreclosures come and join us on March 13th. Your voice is important. We can make a difference.
 You will be standing with thousands of other concerned folks across the country.
 We will get the attention of The White House, H.U.D, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, our City and our State. Letting them know that People need stable Homes that they can afford. Letting them know that our neighborhoods are disappearing. The fabric of our families and our diverse cultures are in jeopardy by the fracturing of our communities.
With all of the bickering in Washington over budget cuts and tax increases, we cannot let the urgent cry for housing get diluted and lost in the D.C. Shuffle.
We need you!
Join us.
Details of the day's schedule and locations will be released within the coming week.
For more information on the national actions visit www.homesforall.org
Please feel free to call Arise to volunteer to help with arrangements for March 13th.
The Homes For All campaign, can change the way we address Housing in Springfield. In Massachusetts. In The United States of America, for generations to come.
URGENT!
GET INVOLVED.

Calling all people of compassion

Rainy and cold this morning and I'm wondering how my young homeless couple fared last night.  They've been sleeping outside while their year old son stays sometimes with her sister, sometimes with his mother, both extremely tenuous situations that could end at any time because .  I've been trying to get them into shelter all week, but no luck so far.  They are "to blame" for their homelessness because a month ago, when the mom was living with her mom in Connecticut, they were evicted from private housing. I won't even try to explain all the hoops this family has been jumping through, trying to get qualified for shelter.  But in my last conversation with a DHCD worker yesterday, the worker said the Gram had been working 32 hours a week and the mom receiving cash assistance from welfare and they still couldn't pay the rent of $750!  Well, I'm calculating that at minimum wage, Gram was taking home about $700 a month, and mom's cash benefits were about $500, leaving them about $450 a month to pay all other utilities, transportation, clothing, etc. Maybe some families could have pulled this off, but my family couldn't; they gradually fell behind.    (Gram had 2 other children in the household, also.)  So it's their fault they were evicted, and they are therefore ineligible for shelter.

But what does it matter?  They are no less homeless.  Every morning my couple goes and picks up their son from whatever house he's been sleeping at the night before (both her sister and his mother work two jobs each) and then they wander the street.  But according to the DHCD worker, as long as the child has a place to sleep at night, that's all that matters.  And if the situation falls apart, and the child is out on the street with them, they still won't be eligible for shelter-- but most likely they will then lose their child to the custody of the Dept. of Children and Families.

More bad news for my couple-- when I told them that at least they, themselves, could get beds at Worthington St. Shelter, I found out that the shelter has changed its policy from taking all comers to the development of a waiting list.  You have to call at 9 am. and 5 pm. each day to see if a bed has opened up.  (There are only 36 beds for single homeless women in all of Springfield.)

This is scarcely the worst case of shelter denial I've heard in the last six weeks, since DHCD's new regulations went into effect.  Not surprisingly (to us, anyway), many housing and shelter providers choose to say these regs are good for the families, that shelter is a bad place, and what they have to offer, instead, is a housing benefit with a $4,000 maximum.  You can use it for first month's rent and a security deposit, but if my family can even find an apartment that is less than their monthly income (which is zero, at the moment), how far will $4,000 take them?  The thinking on DHCD's part, such as it is, is that before the $4,000 runs out, families will be able to increase their income and stabilize their lives to be able to carry the burden of market rate housing on their own-- at a time when market rate rents have never been higher, when there's a ten year waiting list for public housing, and when most jobs are part-time and low-paying.

I could go on, but let me come to the point of this blog post:  I am asking readers for two things:

First, who would be willing to open their homes and take a family in for a couple of days at a time?  We promise to send you only families who literally have nowhere else to go, and who are not eligible for shelter or are still jumping through hoops.  This is a very short-term solution, I know-- sort of like evacuating survivors from a war-torn country-- but it's all we can think of at the moment.  We've been trying to get the attention of the Greater Springfield Council of Churches and Catholic Charities, but they've shown a remarkable lack of interest in the issue of homelessness so far. 

Second, we know there are some other solutions that are possible-- and I won't describe them here-- but we need more people resources. Can you help us strategize and bring these solutions to reality? 

Let me end by saying that we are really over the top here at Arise with the number of families who come to us needing help..  I even had a (now shameful) moment yesterday when I hung up the phone after talking with another homeless family and shouted to the ceiling, :"God help me!"    But it's not me that needs help-- except help helping others.  What can you do to help?

Zinnias, butterflies, wheelchairs, wanderers

A man calls who is in a wheelchair and needs an electrical breathing apparatus at night.  He's moved into an apartment but can't get the electricity turned on because someone has fraudulently used his name at a residence where he's never lived.  Doesn't look like he can get this resolved until Monday at least.

A woman comes in looking for an efficiency apartment.  She'd been staying at a church-run "home" but was kicked out because she went to a relative's funeral instead of a house meeting.  We'll meet again Monday; we might have a few leads for her.  After she leaves, our senior aide says she knows two other people abruptly kicked out of the same facility, after turning over most of their money.

A woman emails me who has gradually become disabled and is now in a wheelchair.  She's single, has been bouncing from friend to friend, is on every waiting list for a handicapped apartment but is being told she's years away from getting one.  I don't know if there's any w3ay we can speed up the process.

Another woman calls-- her brother is incarcerated, is sick, in fear of his life, and is being transferred to a maximum security prison even though he only has a year of his short sentence left to serve..  Ellen talks to her; Ellen has already tried to reach advocates in eastern Mass on her behalf without success.

A man comes in who wants to know why he received an eviction notice even though he's paid his rent.  (This was an easy one.)

Ruth from Mass Law Reform Institute,  Liz and I get on the phone to plan our strategies around the homeless families being turned away from shelter.  We have some ideas. I start designing a flyer in my head that we can pass out at Welfare.  This is a war against the poor, well underway, while we're still rallying the troops.  (Too bad there's no way to "draft" the people who are supposed to care but are too busy to help.)  The good news is, we totally understand the battle strategies of the enemy: empty the shelters, and bar most everyone else from entering.  They count on the apathy of the people, and we have to find a way to prove them wrong.

Our semi-office cat comes in from the heat.  John stops over and takes a photo of a butterfly which has landed on the zinnias we've planted at our back door.  All in all, we've had worse days.

"Most Serious Attack on Poor People In 25 Years"

Forty voices filled with frustration. From all areas of our community. A vicious attack on us by the state government was underway. The guidelines for determining homelessness were revised. Under these new revisions , you could even sleep in a car and NOT be considered homeless The legislation crossed our governors desk, and HE SIGNED IT.
     
      We showed up on Thursday July 26th at 12:00 noon. The employees that worked in the Mass State building located on Dwight st in Springfield were forewarned as they arrived for work that morning. They knew we were coming. We arrived carrying sings and organizing chants. Mad, worried and determined, we stood on the walk in front of the building. Cars honked, folks yelled out windows in support. Michaelann Bewsee E.D of Arise, said that it was the worst attack on poor people she had seen in 25 years. This statement got allot of attention. Arise for Social Justice has been a advocate of the poor folks in our city for decades. Michaelann has seen it all. Alone we are easy targets for the oppressors. That is why we have to come out and stand together on attacks like these. We have strength in numbers. They cant ignore us. And anyone who knows Michaelann, knows it is close to impossible to ignore her.

      We entered the State building and marched up three flights of Stairs to Governor Devall Patricks office. We carried a protest sign with the signatures of all that were there that day.Outside of the Governors office door, we were meant by Elizabeth a staffer in the Devall Patrick administration.
She told us that she wanted to hear what we all had to say. She also told us that she has been a fan of Arise for a long time. She was cordial and invited all of us (30 +) into a large board meeting room. She introduced herself and her colleague's and stated that she felt this new legislation was a sensitive issue. Michaelann explained in clear and concise language that we wanted the revision changed and not left to the discretion of the agency or government officials whimsical or literal interpretations. Plainly she stated  "That if you were living in a bus station on Friday you were considered homeless, and therefore eligible for shelter. However on Saturday when the revision was instituted, under the same bus station roof as Friday, you would no longer be considered homeless and thus, NOT ELIGIBLE FOR SHELTER."
 


    This is the ATTACK Michaelann was referring to. Cuts in exactly the wrong place. On the most indefensible population of the state .And not just the state, but our country. You have to wonder who is responsible for this unforgivable, heartless piece of legislation? Well folks,I hate to think that the Governor fully realized the potential impact that this change would have on us. Did someone explain the "Bus Station Example" to him? Did he get it? Elizabeth, the staffer could not offer any relief beyond promising that Devall Patrick would be made aware of our protest and our visit. Oh, and our Protest sign with all of our signatures.

     We ended our 30 minute visit with Elizabeth and staff abruptly, Michaelann making it clear we were not happy or satisfied in any way. So what do we do now? Did you call your state rep? Senator? Congressmen? Are you as mad as we are?  This is just wrong on so many levels.
  
      Please get involved. A phone call to your elected officials office in a presidential election year carries a little more weight than non election years. We must all at least do that. Call Arise, ask what you can do .Better yet, visit us at 467 State street in Springfield Massachusetts. We love visitors. We need you to help support our campaigns. If you want to help, but cant come down,please contribute. Drop a check in the mail. Your financial support helps insure the grassroots work that we mobilize on. It cost us money and we are poor folks also. Collectively we do make a difference. We need your help. Times are tough. We are experiencing extreme hardship. Please insure the integrity of our work.

Two important vigils to stop foreclosure evictions

From Springfield No One Leaves:

"END ALL NO FAULT EVICTIONS AFTER FORECLOSURE!" 

 

 For six years we've been making this demand across Massachusetts and backing it up by being ready to resist bank attempts to evict families for no reason at all! Last night at our weekly Bank Tenant Association meeting we discussed the possibility of two of our members (the Mendez Family & the Tucker Family) facing evictions as early as August 3rd. Both families have move-out dates scheduled for July 31st. The BTA voted to use civil disobedience if necessary to block the evictions of the Mendez Family and/or Tucker family from their home. 

Both the Mendez Family and Tucker Family are making demands long made by our movement - we are demanding that Aurora Bank & Deutsche Bank, respectively, stop No-Fault Evictions after foreclosure. Instead, we have a simple solution: 

• ACCEPT RENT & MARKET THE PROPERTY OCCUPIED OR...
• SELL BACK AT THE CURRENT MARKET VALUE - THE SAME PRICE ANYONE ELSE WOULD BUY FOR! 

Both the Mendez & Tucker Family's can afford their home after foreclosure, or can afford rent. In both cases they've offered to buy back at current value - and would even agree to share any equity appreciation in future. The Tucker family has secured financing from a non-profit to buy at current value in cash. But in both struggles, Aurora Bank and Deutsche bank are refusing to negotiate, instead continuing the banks practice of evicting families for no reason at all. 

WHY EVICT A FAMILY THAT CAN PAY RENT?

We'll be ready to block these evictions, but we refuse to sit on the sidelines and simply wait for the bank to evict!. We're going on the offensive. 

On MONDAY JULY 30TH & TUESDAY JULY 31ST we will hold back-to-back candlelight vigils to highlight the immorality of Aurora & Deutsche Bank's actions, make our demands clear, and send out a notice that Springfield will not allow for no-fault evictions of our neighbors! We'll be canvassing neighborhoods, reaching out to local elected representatives, building with ally organizations and getting media attention to spotlight the truly evil and unjust actions of the banks. 

MONDAY JULY 30TH - 7:00 PM

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL VS. AURORA BANK

Mendez Family Home - 27 Talmadge Drive, Springfield, MA

TUESDAY JULY 31ST - 7:00 PM (in place of our SBTA meeting)

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL VS. DEUTSCHE BANK 

Tucker Family Home - 53 Palo Alto Road, Springfield, MA

Please save the date - more details to come in the next 2 weeks! 

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/247909318645911/ 

Peace and Solidarity, 

Springfield No One Leaves/Nadie Se Mude

National Alliance Of HUD Tennants Washington, DC June 26, 2012

I was privileged to stand with NAHT this past week in DC. NAHT and MAHT (Mass Alliance of HUD tenants) work tirelessly on behalf of those in danger of losing section 8 housing. Attending the conference were members of NAHT from all over the US. The fight to preserve low income housing is difficult. Workshops on organizing tenants associations and HUD regulations as well as what litigation is presently being considered, were explored in great detail during this 2012 conference. Members of HUD sat on a panel and listened to us and provided some insight as to where they stood on certain housing issues. In addition we meant with government officials in the Senate building who addressed housing. This trip was very inspiring and very enlightening. The housing issue in Springfield has the same challenges as it does in many parts of the US. Please watch this short video as we marched on the MLK memorial in DC. We were stopped at the entrance. We held our protest at the entrance. Please leave questions and comments.
John Morris

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=db0_1340748532&comments=1

RIGHT TO EXIST-WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!



Add caption

April 2nd, 2012- Almost 100 of us came out in support.

Many of us spoke on the Homelessness in our city. We were right across the street from you Mr. Mayor. We were angry. Couldn’t you hear us? We signed petitions. We addressed with great clarity how serious our problem is. We requested a meeting with you Mr. Mayor, to discuss the travesty that only gets worse as you ignore it. You had to have heard us THEN, didn’t you Mr. Mayor?

We stood at your doorstep and called for action. Our Great Warriors marched up your grand marble staircase and hand delivered a letter to your office. You weren’t available Mr. Mayor. You must have had something more important to do than housing the poor of Springfield. It seems you may think we are easy to ignore. We are not going away Mr. Mayor.

 We decided to come to your office, with hope of a meeting to discuss the urgent need of Housing. We showed up with our own beautiful oriental carpet, lighting, music, magazines and entertainment. Hell, we even bought lunch. You called the police.

 You smiled as you tried to walk by us Mr. Mayor. You got about 10 feet away, and you couldn’t help yourself. You turned around and came back for the last word. You did this three times. You pointed your finger, you talked down to us, and you showed us arrogance. In the face of a homeless mother, in tears, you showed NO compassion. You walked away.        

We are not going away Mr. Mayor.

We now  demand a Housing Task Force, made up of at least 50% low or moderate income members. We are not going away!

 Finally, Mr. Mayor, On the 1 year anniversary of the tornado, you invited all of your supporters in city and state government, for a time of self-congratulatory frivolity, 50 of your supporters came to the First Church, a far cry from the thousands  you claim to have been involved in the Rebuilding Springfield Effort. We were there Mr. Mayor. You walked right by us. We had signs- “What About Us?” You pretended not to see us once again. You smiled as you walked past the 6 year old who looked directly at you, asking for help. Can’t you see why we are Angry Mr. Mayor? You have kept us out of the Rebuilding Springfield plan. We have repeatedly tried to be involved. We have real ideas, with real poor people, with real needs. A real difference could be made here Mr. Mayor with input from those who desperately need help. But, you choose to ignore us. Can’t you see why we are Angry Mr. Mayor? We are not going away.

You indiscriminately demolished housing after the tornado without Due Process. Without professional opinion stating whether or not the structure could be saved, and then you charged the owner for the demolition cost.  Many more families needlessly homeless because of a decision that could have been avoided if we had a Housing Task Force in place. A task Force of the People to give voice to their needs. Given the millions of dollars being appropriated to housing in Springfield, supposedly, to help those most devastated by the tornado, it would make perfect sense to listen to those individuals. THE HOUSING TASK FORCE.  You will not even meet with us on this issue Mr. Mayor. You choose to ignore us. Can’t you see why we are ANGRY?

We, the voices of THE VOTERS, THE FAMILIES, THE CHILDREN, THE POOR, THE HOMELESS, Need a Housing Task Force in Springfield.

WE ARE ANGRY AND WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY.            

By John Morris

Ariseforsocialjustice.blogspot.com

Dear Homeless Couple: Yes, there IS something you can do for me!

This is a longish story that leads to exactly where it needs to go, so bear with me.

Yesterday afternoon we get a call from a guy in a panic-- he and his wife have been renting a room in a friend's house and that morning, the city showed up, boarded up the house, and told him and his wife they had an hour to get out!  Could we help?  Where should they go?  How could this happen? His wife was three months pregnant and he didn't want to be out on the street.


Fortunately for them, they'd found a way back into the house and were going to spend the night there, but he knew it was only good for that night.

I ask the guy-- let's call him Mike--  a couple of questions.  Are they legal tenants?  Well, they've been paying $100 a week to their friend, who isn't around much, but they have rent receipts.  Is the house in bad shape?  Had it been condemned for conditions?  Well,  some broken windows, and the utilities got turned off last week, but their friend said he'd be getting them turned back on in somebody else's name.  My heart sinks a bit on that one, knowing that just the fact of a house being without utilities is enough to get a placed condemned, if only temporarily.

"The guy from the city said that the city owned the house! And we had no notice-- didn't know this was happening."

"Hate to say it, but your friend-- if he's really the owner-- has probably gotten plenty of notices.  He's been taking your money knowing this was coming.  And if he's not the owner, he's just been robbing you."
I get the address of the property, and the owner's name, then ask Mike guy if I can call him back-- want to try to reach a lawyer..

"The last time I called the Office for Housing about a condemnation, they said they didn't have any money to help tenants,  but let me check on that, too," I say.

I reach Bernie Cohen in his office, describe the situation, and Bernie says that the city is obligated to give notice to legal tenants.

"OK, that might help," I say.  Then I call the Office for Housing, and hear the same sad story as before: gee, sorry, no money to help with relocation.


I call Mike back.

"Look," I say, "I think your best shot is going to Housing Court tomorrow morning, going before the judge, and telling the judge your story.  Maybe there's some legal angle I don't know."

"We've got what we could take of our stuff with us."  (I just picture them trying to get through the courthouse metal detectors with all their bags.)  "My wife Peg is tired."

"She can come and hang out here while you go to Housing Court," I say.

So this morning, Peg comes in.  She is a slight, slender woman with sandy hair.

"Is Mike at Housing Court?" I ask her.

"No, not yet, he's a recycler, and he's bringing his scrap metal to Chicopee first so we have some money."

Later, we're trying to scrape some money together so one of our members, Jackie, who is volunteering for the day, can get a dollar item from the Burger King menu.  We find $4.55 in various drawers and pockets.

"Want to get a sandwich?" I say to Peg.

"No, that's OK, you don't have to give me any money."  But Jackie takes her in hand.

"Come on, let's walk over together," she says, and finally Peg goes with her.

Mike comes back.

"Are you going to Housing Court next?"

"Will it do any good?"  He doesn't outright say no, but I can tell he is scared.

"I don't know," I say.  "but it's worth a try.  Look-- let me try to see if I can get a lawyer to help you," I say, knowing it will be almost impossible.

I call Joel Feldman, and he's too busy, but he tells me there's a state law that requires the city to provide relocation funds, and he cites me Chapter and Section of the Mass General Laws.  I call Marion at Community Legal Aid, and get a little more of the picture, but they can't take the case on, either.  Finally I call Bernie back.

"Bernie, is there any chance at all you can help out this couple?  They're scared to go to Housing Court."

"Actually, I have two cases down there this afternoon, and if they come down, I can talk to them."

"Oh, My God, thank you so much," I say, and then I tell Mike and Peg.  Their faces light up; I describe Bernie so they can find him, and they immediately set out.

I call the Office for Housing back.

"I've been looking into the situation for you," the woman says, "and you should talk to the chief housing inspector.  He says the place has been condemned for months, the water was turned off months ago, and your couple aren't legal tenants but squatters."

"Well, they certainly thought they were legal tenants," I say.  "And look-- I just found out that the city is legally required to provide relocation benefits for families displaced because of condemnation."

 "Yes, but the city has no money."

"Well, I don't care if the Mayor has to take a pay cut," I say, and we both laugh, "the next time the city condemns a building you'd better be ready to help the tenants, or I'll take it to court."  I'm trying to be cordial and dead serious at the same time.

I call the building inspector, who seems to be expecting me.  He has the weary attitude of a cop who's been on the street too long.  He explains the situation of their house to me, says the house was boarded up once before, and that my couple are not legal tenants.

"But where are they to go?  They're very poor. And there's not much out there.  So much housing has come off the market since the tornado, and even before, and nothing's coming back on. What are people like them supposed to do?"

"Relocate," he says. " Have they looked in Westfield? South Hadley?  Chicopee?  Housing is cheaper there."

So we go on like this for a while, not really getting anywhere, me talking about the Rainville, 44 units of affordable housing for formerly homeless people, and him talking about the River Inn, where people lived in squalor and which he happily condemned, him talking about the elderly people who cleaned debris from their homes after the tornado instead of waiting for people to help them, me talking about tenants who don't have that option.
  .
"Look," he says, "it's only going to get worse.  I've condemned 31 properties just since the first of the year, and what with foreclosures, I've got a lot more planned.  What am I supposed to do?  Let some homeless drug addicts burn themselves to death in a building with no heat, maybe killing some kids?  Remember the eight fire fighters in Worcester who died?

"You just don't know what I see.  I see whole families sleeping in basements, children right next to the boiler.  people in attics. People living without water, without heat and lights.  Addicts taking over buildings."

"I do know what you see," I say, my eyes closed, visualizing the children in the basement. "I see the same thing, only from the other end, when people come here to Arise."
 ----------------------
Mike comes back from Housing Court to pick up his bags, and his eyes are smiling..

"We've got a week in the Bel-Air Motel in West Springfield," he says, "after that we're on our own. My wife's down at the bus station waiting for me.  We have to be there by six."

"That's what the judge said?"

"No, we never even got to the judge, Bernie and this lawyer from the city worked it out with us in mediation.  The city lawyer, she was really unfriendly."

"About my age, with long gray hair?"

'Yes."

"I know who you mean," I say.

He starts to leave then turns back and gives me an awkward hug.

"Thank you so much," he says.  "I can't believe how much you've helped us.  I'll be back tomorrow, but I just want you to know, if there's anything I can ever do for Arise, ever, I will."  He runs to catch his bus and I'm alone for the first time in a long day.

Now I can be as pissed off as I want, without feeling like I might scare Mike and Peg away.  I think about the city's de facto housing plan-- relocation?-- and the Governor's plan to limit access to family shelter even more.  I think about the brutal cuts in HUD funding looming over our heads.  And now I know exactly what I want Mike and Peg to do for Arise-- and for themselves.

I want them to get angry.

On Monday, April 2, we're having a rally against the criminalization of homelessness and poverty.  We'll be joining dozens of cities in the U.S. and Canada in the National Day of Action for the Right to Exist.  I want hundred of Mikes and Pegs to stand up and say, Enough is enough!  If the city and the state don't have the will to find solutions, then the people will.  There is no answer to anything that plagues us without housing.

Homeless: Throw Them Out With the Trash

We don't usually post entire articles on our blog, but the following article is so important, I wanted the whole thing.  So many people are homeless in Springfield, or about to be homeless, and, as Ehrenreich sums up, 70% of us are headed toward homelessness if our revolution does not succeed.

Throw Them Out With the Trash
Why Homelessness Is Becoming an Occupy Wall Street Issue
By Barbara Ehrenreich
As anyone knows who has ever had to set up a military encampment or build a village from the ground up, occupations pose staggering logistical problems. Large numbers of people must be fed and kept reasonably warm and dry. Trash has to be removed; medical care and rudimentary security provided -- to which ends a dozen or more committees may toil night and day. But for the individual occupier, one problem often overshadows everything else, including job loss, the destruction of the middle class, and the reign of the 1%. And that is the single question: Where am I going to pee?
Some of the Occupy Wall Street encampments now spreading across the U.S. have access to Port-o-Potties (Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.) or, better yet, restrooms with sinks and running water (Fort Wayne, Indiana). Others require their residents to forage on their own. At Zuccotti Park, just blocks from Wall Street, this means long waits for the restroom at a nearby Burger King or somewhat shorter ones at a Starbucks a block away. At McPherson Square in D.C., a twenty-something occupier showed me the pizza parlor where she can cop a pee during the hours it’s open, as well as the alley where she crouches late at night. Anyone with restroom-related issues -- arising from age, pregnancy, prostate problems, or irritable bowel syndrome -- should prepare to join the revolution in diapers.

Of course, political protesters do not face the challenges of urban camping alone. Homeless people confront the same issues every day: how to scrape together meals, keep warm at night by covering themselves with cardboard or tarp, and relieve themselves without committing a crime. Public restrooms are sparse in American cities -- "as if the need to go to the bathroom does not exist," travel expert Arthur Frommer once observed.  And yet to yield to bladder pressure is to risk arrest. A report entitled “Criminalizing Crisis,” to be released later this month by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, recounts the following story from Wenatchee, Washington:

"Toward the end of 2010, a family of two parents and three children that had been experiencing homelessness for a year and a half applied for a 2-bedroom apartment. The day before a scheduled meeting with the apartment manager during the final stages of acquiring the lease, the father of the family was arrested for public urination. The arrest occurred at an hour when no public restrooms were available for use. Due to the arrest, the father was unable to make the appointment with the apartment manager and the property was rented out to another person. As of March 2011, the family was still homeless and searching for housing."

What the Occupy Wall Streeters are beginning to discover, and homeless people have known all along, is that most ordinary, biologically necessary activities are illegal when performed in American streets -- not just peeing, but sitting, lying down, and sleeping. While the laws vary from city to city, one of the harshest is in Sarasota, Florida, which passed an ordinance in 2005 that makes it illegal to “engage in digging or earth-breaking activities” -- that is, to build a latrine -- cook, make a fire, or be asleep and “when awakened state that he or she has no other place to live.”
It is illegal, in other words, to be homeless or live outdoors for any other reason. It should be noted, though, that there are no laws requiring cities to provide food, shelter, or restrooms for their indigent citizens.
The current prohibition on homelessness began to take shape in the 1980s, along with the ferocious growth of the financial industry (Wall Street and all its tributaries throughout the nation). That was also the era in which we stopped being a nation that manufactured much beyond weightless, invisible “financial products,” leaving the old industrial working class to carve out a livelihood at places like Wal-Mart.
As it turned out, the captains of the new “casino economy” -- the stock brokers and investment bankers -- were highly sensitive, one might say finicky, individuals, easily offended by having to step over the homeless in the streets or bypass them in commuter train stations. In an economy where a centimillionaire could turn into a billionaire overnight, the poor and unwashed were a major buzzkill. Starting with Mayor Rudy Giuliani in New York, city after city passed “broken windows” or “quality of life” ordinances making it dangerous for the homeless to loiter or, in some cases, even look “indigent,” in public spaces.
No one has yet tallied all the suffering occasioned by this crackdown -- the deaths from cold and exposure -- but “Criminalizing Crisis” offers this story about a homeless pregnant woman in Columbia, South Carolina:

"During daytime hours, when she could not be inside of a shelter, she attempted to spend time in a museum and was told to leave. She then attempted to sit on a bench outside the museum and was again told to relocate. In several other instances, still during her pregnancy, the woman was told that she could not sit in a local park during the day because she would be ‘squatting.’ In early 2011, about six months into her pregnancy, the homeless woman began to feel unwell, went to a hospital, and delivered a stillborn child."

Well before Tahrir Square was a twinkle in anyone’s eye, and even before the recent recession, homeless Americans had begun to act in their own defense, creating organized encampments, usually tent cities, in vacant lots or wooded areas. These communities often feature various elementary forms of self-governance: food from local charities has to be distributed, latrines dug, rules -- such as no drugs, weapons, or violence -- enforced. With all due credit to the Egyptian democracy movement, the Spanish indignados, and rebels all over the world, tent cities are the domestic progenitors of the American occupation movement.
There is nothing “political” about these settlements of the homeless -- no signs denouncing greed or visits from leftwing luminaries -- but they have been treated with far less official forbearance than the occupation encampments of the “American autumn.” LA’s Skid Row endures constant police harassment, for example, but when it rained, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had ponchos distributed to nearby Occupy LA.
All over the country, in the last few years, police have moved in on the tent cities of the homeless, one by one, from Seattle to Wooster, Sacramento to Providence, in raids that often leave the former occupants without even their minimal possessions. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, last summer, a charity outreach worker explained the forcible dispersion of a local tent city by saying, “The city will not tolerate a tent city. That’s been made very clear to us. The camps have to be out of sight.”
What occupiers from all walks of life are discovering, at least every time they contemplate taking a leak, is that to be homeless in America is to live like a fugitive. The destitute are our own native-born “illegals,” facing prohibitions on the most basic activities of survival. They are not supposed to soil public space with their urine, their feces, or their exhausted bodies. Nor are they supposed to spoil the landscape with their unusual wardrobe choices or body odors. They are, in fact, supposed to die, and preferably to do so without leaving a corpse for the dwindling public sector to transport, process, and burn.
But the occupiers are not from all walks of life, just from those walks that slope downwards -- from debt, joblessness, and foreclosure -- leading eventually to pauperism and the streets. Some of the present occupiers were homeless to start with, attracted to the occupation encampments by the prospect of free food and at least temporary shelter from police harassment. Many others are drawn from the borderline-homeless “nouveau poor,” and normally encamp on friends’ couches or parents’ folding beds.
In Portland, Austin, and Philadelphia, the Occupy Wall Street movement is taking up the cause of the homeless as its own, which of course it is. Homelessness is not a side issue unconnected to plutocracy and greed. It’s where we’re all eventually headed -- the 99%, or at least the 70%, of us, every debt-loaded college grad, out-of-work school teacher, and impoverished senior -- unless this revolution succeeds.
Barbara Ehrenreich, TomDispatch regular, is the author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (now in a 10th anniversary edition with a new afterword).

What kind of Springfield do YOU want to live in?

OK, so the following is a press release, and as cynical as I feel sometimes, I do believe it's absolutely urgent to participate in this process to Rebuild Springfield.  if our voices are not heard, at least we know we did not remain silent, and we can go from there.  Sign up for the online discussion, and go to the meetings! 

Springfield Residents Urged to Show up and Be Heard at Neighborhood and Citywide MeetingsRebuild Springfield Planning Meetings begin week of October 11
Springfield, Mass., October 6, 2011—Rebuild Springfield, an initiative of DevelopSpringfield and the Springfield Redevelopment Authority, kicks into high gear with the first series of three neighborhood meetings during the week of October 10th, followed by a citywide meeting on Saturday morning, October 15th. Residents and stakeholders are asked to help create a vision for Springfield that will ultimately help form the master plan for both the tornado-impacted and related areas of the City of Springfield.

According to Bobbie Hill of Concordia, the firm retained to lead the master planning effort, “These meetings are critical to the planning process. We need to hear, firsthand, from a diverse array of residents from the impacted neighborhoods as well as the City at large. A successful plan is one that meets the needs and hopes of the city’s residents and stakeholders.”

Concordia is a 28-year old firm at the forefront of research and best practices related to planning for disaster recovery. They have applied their model to facilitate the collaborative design of neighborhoods and buildings for cities, most recently post-Katrina New Orleans.

The first round of neighborhood meetings will be held next week:

Sixteen Acres, East Forest Park
Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 6:30pm-9:00pm
Holy Cross Gymnasium, 221 Plumtree Road

Six Corners, Upper Hill, Old Hill, Forest Park
Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 6:30pm-9:00pm
J.C. Williams Center, 116 Florence Street

Metro Center (Downtown) & South End
Thursday, October 13, 2011, 6:30pm-9:00pm
Gentile Apartments Community Room, 85 William Street

The week will end with a city-wide meeting—all residents and stakeholders are encouraged to attend—on Saturday, October 15 from 8:30am-11:30am at the MassMutual Center. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss issues and opportunities that affect the city as a whole.

Residents are also encouraged to learn about Rebuild Springfield and to submit their ideas at the online conversation at http://www.rebuildspringfield.com. For information, residents can call 413-209-8808.

There are two more rounds of meetings planned in November and December respectively, the dates and times are to be announced. The final meeting in January will be the presentation of the master plan for Springfield, incorporating the ideas and needs of the residents and stakeholders.

Nick Fyntrilakis, Chairman of DevelopSpringfield stressed the importance of community engagement. “Working together, we have an opportunity to create a vision for a stronger Springfield that builds upon our rich history while focusing on our future.”

Mandatory mediation before foreclosure! Encourage Springfield City Council

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING ON ANTI-FORECLOSURE ORDINANCES

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 10TH @ 5PM 

Springfield City Hall (36 Court Street) -- Room 200

(we will gather at 4:30 PM outside City Hall)

Next wednesday August 10th at 5PM, the Springfield City Council will hold a subcommittee hearing to finalize the details of the mandatory mediation and the securing & maintaining foreclosed homes ordinances that unanimously passed first step on July 18th. There is growing noise that some banks, including the big banks, may be in attendance, possibly to lobby against this strong legislation. 

We plan to be there to support the city council's efforts to hold the banks accountable for the crisis they created, mitigate the impacts of the foreclosure crisis, keep Springfield residents in their homes and keep communities safe. 

Please join us to support the efforts to pass this ordinance and ensure that Springfield stands on the side of the PEOPLE not the BANKS! 

For more information on the Springfield Anti-Foreclosure Ordinances see www.springfieldnooneleaves.org 

Peace and Respect

Springfield No One Leaves & Springfield Bank Tenants Association

Another perspective on the Dallas "riot"

Dear Friends and Allies:

On July 21^st, several news channels in Dallas covered what they referred to as a “riot” or, better yet, a “stampede” for rental assistance vouchers.  Estimates ranged from hundreds to thousands of people running desperately once the local housing office was open simply for the chance to fill out an application.  Prominent were images of this mass of running people and interviews with those who had been injured.  “Rental assistance at what price?” asks Ron Corning of Dallas, Texas’ WFAA News 8. What story is the mainstream media telling?  With words like “riot” and “stampede,” one might think they were talking about a violent, crazed and criminal group.  The reality involved poor and hard working family desperate to keep or put a roof of their heads.  Criminalizing people simply because they are poor is not new, however, in media or in policy.  Families that receive rental assistance live under the constant threat of “one-strike” rules and are required to do monthly community service, whereas wealthier families that receive “rental assistance” through the mortgage interest tax deduction (“MID”) do not).
This is the first time in 5 years that the City of Dallas has opened its Section 8 rental assistance vouchers wait list.  15,000 families were expected to apply for roughly 3,500 newly available vouchers.  Yes, families.  40-50% of recipients of rental assistance are families with children; 15% are seniors; 19% disabled.  While budgets are slashed on the backs of working and middle-class people, and banks get bailed out in the trillions, people who are in need of rental assistance are set against one another in the struggle to survive with only enough assistance to house 1 in 4 of them, and that’s IF they are eligible based on an ever-narrowing set of criteria.
Put another way, we have one of the most severe human rights crisis in many decades, particularly around the human right to housing, and our government stands by mutely while families are forced to participate in a foot race for ever shrinking resources.  Yet, this is not an issue of resources; it is an issue of values and whether we are committed to being an equitable society.  Low-income housing programs receive less than $4 billion, while subsidies for wealthier homeowners, such as the MID, cost the government over $150 billion.  Simply through equitable reforms of federal housing finance policy, rental assistance for those who need it most could be available as an entitlement and we would be one large step closer to protecting housing as a human right.  Rather than forcing families to race in desperation, we should be racing to create human rights based solutions that are equitable and ensure the dignity of all our communities.

-- 
Brittany Scott, Campaign Coordinator, Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights
National Economic & Social Rights Initiative
90 John St., Suite 308 + New York, NY 10038
Tel: 212.253.1710 x318 + Fax: 212.385.6124, restorehousingrights.org,  

Photo from Art Makes Me Smile's photostream at Flickr. 

5,000 Poor Dallas Residents Stampede Each Other In Race For Scarce Housing Vouchers

amond on Jul 16, 2011 at 10:30 am

Thursday morning, 5,000 Dallas residents in need of housing assistance showed up at the Jesse Owens Memorial complex early in the morning, hoping to be one of the lucky few to get a coveted spot on a waiting list for housing vouchers. Only 100 vouchers were available.

Some people had camped out since Wednesday night, and the line was at least a mile long. When hundreds of people suddenly sprinted for the doors, at least eight people were injured, and some say they feel lucky not to have been trampled to death:

When, at 6 a.m., officials said it was time to form a line, a frantic rush ensued — the latest sign of people’s desperation for help in tough times. There were no serious injuries, but video footage of the chaos received national attention.

“Once they said we could go on the property, it was a stampede, a circus,” said Adelia Frierson, a 24-year-old single mother applying for the federally funded assistance.

Zachary Thompson, the county’s director of health and human services, said the turnout once again demonstrates the need for the Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8. By the end of the day, about 5,000 households had applied. [...]

The hard-to-get vouchers pay a portion of the rent based on household income. This was the first time Dallas County had opened its waiting list since 2006, and applicants may have to wait at least two years to actually receive vouchers.

The incident is a sad illustration of lengths people will go to for even the chance of government assistance in such hard times. Health director Thompson acknowledged that, “a lot of times people are shocked there are so many people who are low income and need assistance. That’s just the reality of the economy we are living in.”

The crowd ranged from young single mothers with their children to senior citizens with nothing but a small Social Security income. Many applicants had jobs, but barely earn minimum wage.

Authorities have been pointing the finger of blame at one another since facing a mountain of criticism for letting the situation get out of hand and not having a better plan to accommodate the sheer number of voucher applicants.

Watch the news report here!

Update on the Lennon Family eviction

Take Back the Land is reporting potentially good news for Catherine Lennon and her family.  As you read about the organizing in Rochester, New York, remember that you can get involved in foreclosure prevention right here in Springfield, through the No One Leaves Campaign.  By the way, there'll be a civil disobedience training April 20, Time and place still TBA, for those who want to be involved in or supportive of this work.

In a major victory for those fighting back against the foreclosure crisis, mortgage and foreclosure giant Fannie Mae began talks with Catherine Lennon about the Rochester, NY home from which she was forcibly evicted just one day before. The negotiations, initiated by US congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28), took place after Take Back the Land- Rochester (TBL- Rochester) organized a 2 week long eviction defense of the Lennon home, which ended in dramatic fashion with a SWAT team followed by a phalanx of police and multiple arrests. The goal of the talks is to get Lennon and her family back into their home.

Catherine Lennon lived at 9 Ravenwood Ave. in Rochester for seven years. Economic hard times forced some of her children and grandchildren to move into the home and the family to miss some mortgage payments. Bank of America began foreclosure proceedings shortly after Catherine's husband died of cancer. Fannie Mae, recipient of a $90 billion taxpayer bailout, took over the home and proceeded to evict the extended family of 11.

While the eviction was set for Monday, March 14, 2011, the community had other plans. TBL- Rochester organized a community eviction defense, with neighbors and supporters physically blockading the home for two weeks, preventing the family from being forced out. All that ended on March 28^th as Rochester police brought the SWAT team and an estimated 25 police cars, to forcibly execute the eviction. 7 eviction defenders were arrested, including a 70 year old neighbor still in her pajamas. However, the eviction defense did not end the fight, it only started the second phase.

After a flurry of supporter calls, emails and viral videos of intense media scrutany, the very next day, US congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28) directly intervened, convening a conference call between Catherine and high level Fannie Mae officials, who are now re-reviewing her case. In addition, TBL- Rochester was contacted directly by the offices of Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, both of whom committed to step up efforts to assist the family.

Read more at takebackroc.rocus.org or takebacktheland.org. 

Photo from Michael Moore's site.

What's going to happen to us?

8:00 am.: It's minus 13 degrees outside right now, and I wonder: what's going to happen to us?

President Obama wants to halve the funding for the  Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps eligible families pay for some of their heating costs.  This is only one of the many cuts affecting poor people that we'll be writing about in the next weeks, but one that is much on my mind as I sit by my little electric heater. This is the third year I've decided that I just didn't have enough money to put oil in the tank that provides central heating for my apartment, and instead to get by with my gas stove and space heater.  But this was more or less a choice for me.  Many don't have that choice.

The other issue really on my mind right now is housing.  Yesterday about thirty people from the No One Leaves Campaign stood outside the home of the Diaz family, as we attempted to shame Wells Fargo and potential buyers into calling of the auction of the Diaz family's home.  We didn't succeed yesterday, but the fight is not over.

More than 12,000 homes were foreclosed in Massachusetts last year.  What happens to people forced back into the rental market?  What options do they have?  Not many now, and ever fewer after the Obama and Patrick administrations get done with us.  And Obama and Patrick are supposed to be on our side!  Just keep remembering: none of these cuts would even be necessary if the rich were paying their fair share of taxes, if banks were loaning out the money we, the taxpayers, gave them, if we weren't in a state of perpetual war.Just to get this discussion started, take a look at this great flyer done by WRAP: Sorry that I'm unable to reproduce it fully.