We blog\/post recent and relevant local, national and international homelessness news items every few weeks, as we can. \u00a0Please send in any articles or activities of interest for posting.<\/p>\n
Week of February 3, 2020 Minn. pilot program offers rent subsidy for families<\/a> Redding\u2019s Homeless Ride a Wave of Very Tough Love<\/a> Trump wants California cops to evict homeless people<\/a> ACEH Governance Change Announcement! Week of October 7, 2019 The Anchorage CoC Collaborative Application<\/a> and Priority Listing<\/a> have been completed and are available by CLICKING HERE<\/a>. \u00a0The Coalition welcomes public comment on the application and process to tdonovan@anchoragehomeless.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018We intend to succeed\u2019: $40M investment pledged to reduce homelessness in Anchorage<\/a> The “housing first” model and why it’s so beneficial for veterans<\/a> Survey: Homeless in Ore. city don’t want police response in most cases<\/a> How This Campus Ministry is Tackling Student Homelessness (by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil)<\/a> This Church Found a Brilliant Way To Help Homeless People, and It All Starts With a Mailbox<\/a> This Yellow Bus Isn’t Taking Children To School \u2014 It’s Taking Families Off Of Streets<\/a> Homeless services in Alaska face uncertain future as state cuts back<\/a> Can residents and the municipality reach common ground on illegal camps and homelessness?<\/a> Trump\u2019s Vague Plans on Homelessness<\/a> Trump Cuts Emissions Standards While Accusing Homeless People of “Polluting”<\/a> And Now We Rise<\/em><\/strong> What would happen if we gave everybody someplace to live?<\/strong><\/em>
<\/strong>Trump\u2019s Homelessness Czar Seeks to Further Criminalize the Homeless<\/a>
When Robert Marbut Jr. \u2014 a self-described \u201chomelessness consultant\u201d \u2014 was named by President Trump to head the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) in mid-December, homeless activists and their supporters shuddered, and for good reason. Marbut believes that providing people with shelter without first tackling mental or physical health challenges amounts to coddling.\u00a0He has a similar opinion about providing food to people experiencing homelessness and has urged localities to stop \u201cenabling\u201d the homeless by providing free meals on city streets. Furthermore, he supports making it illegal to sleep in public spaces, from parks to streets. Instead, Marbut has urged a focus on policing to address homelessness. Truthout.org<\/em><\/p>\n
A pilot project at seven schools in St. Paul, Minn., will give subsidies to families at risk of housing insecurity that they can apply toward rent. “It does make everything just a lot more stressful if you have to choose between medication and rent and transportation and rent,” said Anne McInerney, the district’s advocate for homeless students. KARE11.com<\/em><\/p>\n
California Gov. Gavin Newsom calls homelessness an emergency akin to a major earthquake, but his proposals do not prevent cities from sweeping people off the streets. As the number of homeless in Redding has grown, advocates say attitudes against unhoused people have grown progressively more hostile, with \u201ccriminalization, scorn and vigilantism.\u201d \u00a0Capitalandmain.com<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/span>They don\u2019t want that \u2018dirty\u2019 job job is it to evict homeless people from encampments, if anybody\u2019s? Answering that can prove contentious, as Sonoma County learned. Political leaders are calling for actions that could make cops more responsible for managing tens of thousands of people. But many cops say they can\u2019t be both social workers and enforcers, and top brass say they aren\u2019t equipped to be the front line of the crisis. LA Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness (ACEH) would like to introduce its new governance structure and governing body members. In addition to the ACEH Board of Directors, the governing representation will now include a second layer of governance, the Anchorage Homeless Response System Advisory Council.\u00a0The Advisory Council will oversee the health of the Anchorage Homeless Response System including Continuum of Care design and support, the annual Anchorage community needs prioritization (Gaps Analysis), Coordinated Entry redesign, Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) governance, in addition to Built for Zero and Anchored Home initiatives. The ACEH Board of Directors will oversee the ACEH organizational overall governance, financial management, strategic planning, advocacy, and the Homeless Response System funding advocacy.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>News from Anchorage Coalition\u00a0to End Homelessness
Upcoming Events:\u00a0
– Anchorage Coalition\u00a0to End Homelessness Board Meeting
Friday, October 11, 2019 – 9:00 am-11:00 am
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (4300 Boniface Pkwy.- Main Conference Room)\u00a0
– Anchorage Assembly Committee on Homelessness
Wednesday,\u00a0October 16,\u00a02019 – 11:00 am-12:30 pm
Anchorage City Hall (632 W 6th Ave –\u00a0Mayor’s Conference Room #830)<\/p>\n
A health care provider, private funder, health insurer and property manager announced a five-year plan on Wednesday to invest $40 million in efforts to combat homelessness in Anchorage.\u00a0Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz described the private investment as momentous and unprecedented for Alaska. The money will fund and expand some programs and initiatives already in place, including housing, and also pay for new projects and strategies to address the complex problem of homelessness in the state\u2019s largest city. ADN<\/em><\/p>\n
President Barack Obama’s focus on veteran homelessness motivated action on the issue but “[t]here’s still a lot more work to do,” says National Coalition for Homeless Veterans CEO Kathryn Monet. The “housing first” model has been successful because it gives veterans a secure base from which to seek employment and other services. \u00a0NASW Social Work Smart Brief<\/em><\/p>\n
A survey of 180 people experiencing homelessness in Portland, Ore., found that most of them wanted mental health professionals and social workers to respond to 911 calls for situations that didn’t involve crimes and wanted police to respond only to criminal situations. The city is creating a pilot project to better handle emergency calls involving the homeless population.
Oregon Public Broadcasting<\/a> NASW Social Work Smart Brief<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
Nearly 11 percent of students across California State University\u00a0experienced homelessness sometime in the past year. Sojourners<\/em><\/p>\n
For people experiencing homelessness, an address can be a gateway to gaining that home. Without an address, an individual can\u2019t receive disability benefits, social security payments or veteran\u2019s benefits. They can\u2019t open a bank account, which is often needed to collect earnings from employers. They can\u2019t receive notifications about newly available affordable housing, messages from their children\u2019s school or correspondence from family members.\u00a0In other words, the resources that homeless people need require an address, but in order to have an address \u2014 a home, apartment or place to sleep \u2014 the individual needs to first obtain those resources.\u00a0This vicious cycle has come to be known as the Postal Paradox \u2014 and leaders at Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose, California, saw an opportunity to disrupt it. NationSwell<\/em><\/p>\n
Vehicles for Changes launched in May 2018 by Julie Atkins, a journalist covering homelessness in Oregon and up and down the West Coast. \u00a0Now its converting school buses into homes for families. \u00a0NationSwell<\/em><\/p>\n
In the freezing and sparsely populated state, safe housing is the key to survival. But what happens when budget cuts make providing such shelter untenable? \u00a0ABC News<\/em><\/p>\n
A fundamental disconnect between Anchorage residents and municipal leaders prevents effective action to address homelessness and the proliferation of illegal camps.\u00a0Residents see illegal camps as enormous public health and safety risks to campers and the community. Our daily experience demonstrates that illegal campers are not a homogenous population of the disadvantaged without alternatives. We know a considerable number choose camping as a lifestyle for various reasons, some that put us all at risk. \u00a0An individuals opinion… \u00a0ADN Op-Ed<\/em><\/p>\n
The president has noticed that people are living on the streets in California. Solutions are unlikely to follow. \u00a0NYT<\/em><\/p>\n
What we are confronted with now is beyond strange. The policy bowl of rancid jellybeans was overflowing again this past week when following a secretive fundraiser in San Francisco, Trump bizarrely announced that the Environmental Protection Agency would issue the city a violation because its homeless population was polluting the oceans by dropping needles in storm drains. Then he announced he was revoking California’s auto emissions standards. Truthout<\/em><\/p>\n
See a portrait of Samuel Johns, a young Athabaskan hip hop artist, founder of Forget Me Not Facebook Group and activist for a cultural renaissance as he heals from his own legacy of historical trauma. \u00a0 See more at https:\/\/affinityfilms.org\/portfolio-item\/and-now-we-rise\/
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A roof and four walls where they could stash their stuff and put up their feet and lose their keys in the couch cushions. Turns out, we can. It\u2019s called Housing First, and it could end homelessness altogether. Once you start to think about it, it seems like a no-brainer. Go ahead, think about it. Take your time. We’ll wait right here.<\/p>\nEverybody Needs a Home<\/a><\/blockquote>