AUSTIN ADVOCATE |
 |
Art From the Streets
More than 1,700 people attended this year's Art From the Streets Show & Sale held at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH) on November 11th and 12th. The show featured over 3,000 pieces of artwork created by more than 100 homeless and formerly homeless artists.
The 14th Annual Art From the Streets Show & Sale was the most successful event in the program's history. More than $90,000 was raised through art sales, calendar sales and admission donations. Money raised by the sale of art goes directly to the participating artists, while the money raised through donations and calendar sales helps defry the cost of art supplies.
To date more than 500 homeless artists have participated in the program earning more than $400,000 through the sale of their artwork.
For more information on the Art From the Streets program, please visit: http://www.artfromthestreets.org
Photos by Sam Cole
Hospital Patients Routinely Discharged into Homelessness
By Peter Cohn
In Washington, D.C., approximately 18 people per day end up in shelters or on the street after leaving hospitals, according to a D.C. government-sponsored report. Thus, between 10% and 20% of people in District-funded emergency shelters have arrived after leaving a health institution.
Many of these individuals arrive with bad legs, a sore back, gaping wounds, or other aliments that shelters are not equipped to deal with, according to shelter staff and advocates.
At one DC shelter, a man with a broken leg arrived, according to a senior staff member. “He had the iron rods on the outside [of his leg], and I said ‘you shouldn’t be here like that’ because you could see where the screw went into his leg and everything, and he said he was just ‘gonna be here overnight.’” The shelter employee added that the man was put in the front of the facility, where he could be watched, although he should not have been at the shelter in such poor condition.
“One guy had just had surgery, I think on his appendix or something,” said the senior staffer, “and he was bent over. He was still bleeding from the operation, and he said the hospital put him out.”
Sometimes the hospital calls in advance to make arrangements and give a heads-up to the shelter, but “other times the hospital will have them dropped off in taxicabs—any kind of ride they can get—leave them at the shelter and keep going,” said the shelter staff member.
“We've had some come here with colostomy bags, or various open wounds that need to be cleaned on a daily basis,” the staffer said. “They still need medical attention, and this is not a medical shelter, this is an emergency shelter.”
Due to liability concerns, shelter personnel are not allowed to assist residents who are unable to care for themselves. But individuals arriving from hospitals have nowhere else to go. “We’re not going to let anybody stay out on the street—that’s not what we do,” said Abdul Nuradeen, acting executive director at the CCNV shelter.
A committee of advocates and government officials is trying to come up with answers to alleviate the problem facing shelters struggling to help individuals needing medical care. The group has created a plan and developed best practices for discharging patients from public hospitals.
This committee, called the Discharge Planning Task Force, was established after Mayor Williams’ January 2005 release of Homelessness No More, the District’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. The Task Force developed a document, A Comprehensive Public Sector Discharge Planning Policy to Prevent Homelessness in the District of Columbia, which proposes a hospital discharge plan. The document applies only to public institutions, not private hospitals.
The recommended process calls for hospitals to fully analyze patients’ situations to ensure that they have stable housing and proper planning for employment and post-hospital care after discharge. It requires a follow-up evaluation no more than 30 days after release and again six months later. Referring a patient to the local homeless coalition for placement in a shelter must be only a last resort.
The Task Force is also recommending that another facility similar to Christ House, be created, recognizing that hospitals cannot be expected to hold homeless individuals for an extended period of time when there are no available facilities for placement, according to Steve Cleghorn, chief policy analyst for Community Partnership. Christ House is a 33-bed healthcare facility for the homeless where many men are often discharged to, as a step-down placement for homeless people too sick to go to a shelter after hospital release “There’s nothing wrong with the report, it’s just a matter of implementing it,” added Cleghorn, who was also a convener of the Discharge Planning Task Force.
The regulations have been mapped out, and the next step is having the Interagency Council on Homelessness (IACH) adopt the policy and find a way to pull together information and resources to be shared by all involved agencies, according to Cleghorn.
A similar discharge policy (the Model Resident Transfer and Discharge Policy for Nursing Homes and Community Residence Facilities) is already in effect in Washington for individuals under care of nursing homes and community residence facilities. That plan was legally mandated under the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Law. There is no similar law governing hospital discharge.
The nursing home discharge policy requires a full assessment of the resident’s physical, mental and psychological status before the resident’s release from the facility, in addition to aiding in locating alternative placements and facilitating the move.
Although the nursing home law does not specifically state that homeless shelters are not acceptable placement, it requires a safe and orderly transfer upon discharge, and that would preclude shelters, according to Jerry Kasunic, director of DC Long Term Care Ombudsman Program.
“Homeless shelters are not safe and orderly transfers,” Kasunic said.
After the proposed discharge planning policy is presented to IACH and approved, implementation documents will need to be created and followed by all District public-funded institutions.
For now, shelters are forced to deal with whatever injuries individuals may arrive with. “Ambulances bring by people who have been referred on a stretcher or in a wheel chair,” said Nuradeen. But discharged patients continue to arrive on a regular basis, forcing Nuradeen and other DC shelter staff to accommodate them. “[I do] whatever I can possibly do,” said Nuradeen.
By Peter Cohn
Reprinted from Street Sense
© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org
Bridge the Economic Gap
By Richard R. Troxell
National Chairman
Universal Living Wage Campaign
Incredible. For the 2nd year in a row, Living Wage Warriors got on the Bridges of America in every state in the Union and called for a Universal Living Wage!
In some states, we got on multiple bridges. For example, in Wyoming we flew banners in Cheyenne, Casper, and Laramie. In Texas, we were on bridges in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and Corpus Christi. In Austin, we got on the 11th and 12th Street bridges over IH 35. Over MoPac, we stood on the Barton Skyway overpass. We waved our huge 10 foot banners from the South 1st Street bridge over Ben White Ave. as well as from the Congress Street bridge. We were joined by members from the Austin NAACP, CWA Local 1632, The Clip Joint,Code Pink, House the Homeless, and the Texas AFL-CIO. Enthusiastic motorists greeted our rain soaked warriors with toots, honks, and air horn blasts as tens of thousands of them greeted us on their way to work during the early morning rush hour. At 9:00 am, we gathered at the Zachary Scott Theatre where Sara Hickman sang sweet sons to us, Mobile Loaves and Fishes nourished us, and I shared some thoughts about how amazing it was that folks across the United States were all doing the same thing many during the afternoon rush hour.
In the end, we were wet and tired, but it was the good kind of tired that comes from the feeling that you're making a difference. We had flown our banners for economic justice. And once again. we called on the United States Congress to fix the federal minimum wage.
Our national press release/Podcast has pulled in 54,000+ web hits. We are getting our moral message out: If a person works 40 hours in a week then they should be paid a "fair wage for a fair days work." A minimum wage worker should be able to afford basic rental housing wherever that work is done throughout the United States. Who can argue with that?
Stand Down 2006
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Photos by Sam Cole
An estimated 600 houseless people attended the seventh annual Stand Down Austin held at the Pan American Recreation center in East Austin.
The event was held primarily to match up the houseless population with existing service providers. Stand Down provided access to basic health, leagal, financial, housing, employment, training, social sevices and veteran's benefits.
T.V. Reality On the Streets
There's a lot of ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT on the streets. From all the gossip, drama and of course comedy there could be some good soap opera material for a situation comedy. And it's all so natural and very entertaining.
Let's start with the comedy. So many individuals that could make you split your gut with laughter. I have heard that laughter is very healthy and makes hard times easier to tolerate.
Move over Katie Couric because there are the individuals who know and keep up with all the world news. Real informative and usually have all the details.
I don't want to exclude those on the streets with musical talents like playing guitar, singing and even writing their own material. Now that's a gift from above. I applaud those individuals because I really like music. Listening to music lifts my spirits when I'm down in the dumps.
Oh yeah, history is being made every day. Just because you are living life this way doesn't mean your life has ceased. Everyone has good and bad days. But REMEMBER it's your life and what you make of it. You ONLY have "One Life to Live". I could say "Let me live it as a blonde".
I have made a great discovery and that is who I am. I don't know where I'm going from here, but I do know where I've been.
To the city of Austin - Tune into the STREET PEOPLE CHANNEL! You will be amazed at how entertained you will be. By the way, this channel comes on every day outside on the streets of Austin.
P.S. Happy Holidays
Rebecca Jinks
LOCKS
Oh my God!
There are locks
The landlady
After her husband
Was dead
Decided to lock the
Dumpster at our apartment
There is an alley
Where it sits
And sometimes transients
Sit
Each close to the earth
In their own way
A man with no shoes
And threadbare clothes
Came my way
As I was taking out my
Trash
(he looked a lot like my
little brother)
And it was midsummer
I offered him a drink of
Tomato juice
He took it gratefully
I went inside and brought
Out
A large can of tomato
Juice
He looked so gaunt
Forgetting to be sensitive
I remarked that the can
Needs a can opener
He replies he has a can-
Opener
He goes on to say
he even has a house
Just up the street
And my heart cries just a
Little
The lock on the dumpster
Is in place
The landlady has left
Each tenant a key to get in
And to close it back again
She says she does not want
Any "freeloader"
Oh my God!
What kind of heart
Locks out a fellow human
From his food?
I threw the lock
Inside the dumpster
Just today I saw another
Lock
On a piano's keyboard
Is that what they mean
When they say
"The day the music died"?
By Mary King
LAUNDERMAT
I saw her in the park
I saw her in the launermat
She tells me how
She was trained
As a pianist
Years ago
Now she shares
A station wagon
They live in
He goes back to his
First wife
Who lives in a house
The lady sat
Beside me
As I waited for my clothes to wash
She was wringing a nightgown
In her hands
She talks about another man
Who shares his bed with her
I did not understand
Finally she asks if she
Could put her nightgown
In my wash
She wanted a clean nightgown
And it was the only one she had
I was sad
And a little late
But I put her wash in mine
By Mary King
The House
Tall dark and gruesome it stood.
Haunted was the lonesome abode.
Ageless terror lying deep in the woods,
Set-up in an unsightly mode.
In every corner, a lifeless shadow
Where a black widow controls the light.
An endless stairway to evils below,
To a basement of cadaverous life.
Darkness awaits for souls that ponder
On the grounds of sins’ domain.
Death invites to take you way under
The roof of hell the depths of insane.
A goblins Holiday! Halloween front and center
Nothing stirs, not even a mouse.
It’s a ghostly story for those who enter,
Or live to exit “ the House.
Carlton Gilder
1996
Never Alone
I’m in a shelter, no place like home
Merely a place for souls to hide.
Seeking a name, I’m still alone
Even my heart has nowhere to reside.
I’m in the rain, bewildered and wet
Only fond memories to dry my tears.
Bound without love, and many regrets
Hoping not to be lonely for years.
I’m in the sun; it’s shiny; it’s bright!
I’ve been awakened by dreams of yore.
No longer abandoned, I see the light,
For I am love, and homeless no more.
Carlton Gilder
10-2006
Dear Coach Cochise,
I found an arrowhead at my camp. Could you please tell me what buttons to push to unlock the magic in the arrowhead? My sister showed me the buttons on her remote control that unlocks the magic in her television set; but I have precious little use for T.V. Land as it is a vast waste land.
A couple of Peace Officers came out to Camp Russell not too many moons ago. They gave me a ticket for camping. One Officer made the comment: "It sure is peaceful out here." Being a Peace Officer, you'd think he knew what he was talking about when he said "peaceful." I used to think my camp was peaceful, too. Then I started hearing the roar of motor vehicle traffic from a mile away. I am sandwiched between two major thoroughfares, Coach. Each road is about a mile away, but when the traffic is heavy or the atmosphere is thin, then it seems like the metal monsters are breathing right down my neck. No, it is no longer peaceful out here.
When I was in a peaceful place, one of the Elders appeared to me in a night vision. He was so like a god in aspect that I thought to do him homage. He would have none of it, but he did promise to teach me everything he knew.
So, Coach, whether or not you can get through to tell me what buttons to push on this arrowhead, I'll learn it somehow; perhaps from this Elder of whom I speak.
-- Russell Tate
|
|
Hospital Patients Routinely Discharged into Homelessness Bridge the Economic Gap Editorial Cartoon Stand Down 2006 T.V. Reality On the Streets Poetry Locks Laundermat The House Never Alone Dear Coach Cochise, |
