AUSTIN ADVOCATE |
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131 Deaths On Our Streets
Photos by Sylvia Troxell
Homeless No More
By Richard R. Troxell
On Sunday November 11th, on a crisp, cool morning. We gathered at sunrise for the 15th year and sadly read the names of our fallen brother and sisters! We met on Auditorium Shores at the House the Homeless Tree of Remembrance and Memorial Plaque and embraced the memory of our friends. The Salvation Army ensemble, consisting of Raul Munoz and his family, filled the air with sweet music. In the background was the constant tap, tap, tap as the nine pound sledge hammer drove 131 wooden stakes into the dry crusty earth. The stakes represented each of our fallen citizens. A knit hat was then placed on each stake symbolizing the needs of the homeless for warm winter clothing.
Frank Duetch, from the Austin Baptist Chapel (Angle House) was the keynote speaker. He suggested that we needed to embrace the concept of community in a broader, more meaningful sense. Our friends, Kacy Crowly and Time Deschner, soothed us over and over with their beautiful songs. Tom Wukasch sobered us with his life-on-the-street perspective as he saluted fellow homeless veterans. The House the homeless Curtis Ray Wilson Award was given to Juan Gonzalez, Jr. for his heroic effort to save the life of Marla Wooten at extreme risk to his own life.
Our long time friend and past aide to City Council Member Danny Thomas, Sandra Frazier, led us in prayer. As Stuart Wakely, Valerie Romness, and Alan Graham read the names, the breeze stopped. The air grew heavy as we took turns gently laying carnations for each lost soul on the memorial plaque.
The harrowing sounds of “Taps” by Geoffrey Palmer drifted across the far field past the rows of stakes, coming to rest on our chests. The weight seemed immense.
I shared a broader perspective about homelessness generally, and Colleen Troxell, my amazing daughter and our host for the ceremony, closed the service. She launched the 8th annual House the Homeless Thermal Underwear Drive in hopes of reducing the number of names to be read next year.
We went to the Fanny Davis Gazebo where my lovely wife, Sylvia, served breakfast Tacos donated by the Hyatt Regency hotel and served coffee and breakfast treats organized by Joanne Koepke. There we laughed, ate, and met new and old friends. We celebrated the fact that our friends whose memories that we had just embraced, were homeless no more...thy kingdom come...
If you would like to contribute to the HTH Thermal Underwear Drive, send your tax deductible donation to: House the Homeless P.O. Box 2312 Austin, TX 78768
Anti-solicitation Ordinances Tabled
By Clif Taylor
AUSTIN- December 6, 2007
The Austin City Council tabled a proposed city-wide solicitation ban. The Council asked the city staff to study the issues surrounding panhandling and passed a resolution that calls for the City Manager to prioritize funding for social services for the homeless and improve Austin's day labor centers.
Two anti-solicitation ordinances were proposed by Council Members Jennifer Kim and Brewster McCracken in september. These ordinances would have made a host of activities illegal, including the poor asking for food, charitable organizations asking for contributions, day laborers seeking work as well as car washes and even hailing a cab. Similar ordinances have been found to be unconstitutional in cities across the country.
After the ordinances had been tabled, House the Homeless' Richard Troxell was given six minutes to speak about the proposed panhandling study. Mr. Troxell made it clear that he was going to deliver the speech that he had planned. He signed up to speak earlier in the morning with two people donating time to him, for a total of nine minutes. Mr. Troxell gave the presentation that he had prepared even though Mayor Will Wynn threatend to cut off his mic and go to the next item on the agenda.
"We are pleased that Council Members Kim and McCracken revered their course and are willing to take a closer look at the issue and seek practical solutions to the issues facing our community," said Emily Timm of Workers Defense Project. "It is our hope that we can continue to work together to seek creative, community based solutions."
City Staff Abandons Flawed Panhandling Study
By Kirk Becker
The Public Debate over the “Solicitation Ordinance” was officially renewed with a staff presentation City Council and the public on September 27, 2007. The Presentation was delivered by incoming Police Chief Art Acevedo.
The staff report tried to link “roadside solicitation” with traffic accidents and traffic jams by noting that panhandling, traffic accidents, and traffic jams all occurred at major intersections. However, there was no support in the data gathered to blame traffic accidents involving motor vehicles on pedestrians not driving the motor vehicles.
Not did the data support a conclusion that standing in the medians within a roadway was any more dangerous than walking on a sidewalk adjacent to the roadway. A careful review of recent pedestrian fatalities by the local ACLU found that absolutely none of the fatalities occurred while the victim was panhandling at the time of the accident.
While there was some data indicating that persons with criminal records find it difficult to find jobs and have to resort to panhandling, there was no data gathered to determine whether persons arrested for more serious crimes had ever tried panhandling. No was there any data gathered to indicate whether or not persons ticketed for solicitation (or being in the roadway) were concurrently selling drugs or alcohol.
The Council ended it's deliberations by instructing staff to come up with a plan to develop a valid study of roadside solicitors within 90 days. On another agenda item, the Council vowed to prioritize the funding of homeless services, gather more data about the homeless, increase marketing of the day labor centers, and seek more shelter funds from the state and federal governments.
In the meantime, the Advocate asks the Police Department to cease its so-far unjustified harassment of Advocate Vendors, and will assist its vendors in filing any complaints over police harassment, including unlawful tickets for lawful solicitation and nonsensical or inappropriate jaywalking tickets, with the Police Monitor (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/opm/default.htm).
We’re All Neighbors!
By Val Romness
I met Debbie (Zebra) in 1991. She moved into an apartment where I was living on W. 6 Street. Her son was 7 years old. She is old Austin. Her family lived here along time.
Debbie saw my work for the Homeless and wanted to help. She’d come over with dishes full of food for me to serve at my dinners. I’ve served the Homeless who are unwelcome in shelters, since the early 1990’s. She’s a good cook! Chocolate cake and all! We were physically neighbors for 9 years.
Now I see Debbie at 500 E. 7th Street (A.R.C.H.) “Hi neighbor” we say, when we see each other. It’s been 16 years that we’ve been neighbors now. I still consider her my neighbor.
The roller-coaster growth of Austin put Debbie on the streets. Her 6th Street downtown apartment became too expensive. She still lives nearby but without walls or a roof.
It hasn’t affected her creativity though. She’s been in the Art from the Streets Show for 4 years now. The money she makes allows her to live with dignity for a little while. Art gives her a creative source of communication. Her special little monkeys are always up and climbing around in the trees of life. The monkeys show no ill respect to anyone; homeless or not. This year giraffes were the theme of her art, along with Willy and surfing on the ocean.
Sadly her favorite tree where she lives is being torn down. She’s been very worried about it. May I liken it to someone coming into your house and taking one of your favorite pieces of furniture?
So now Zebra and her man are moving to it’s not known yet… The new parking garage and light rail depot will now evict one of our good neighbors! How can we do this to our neighbors? We’re all spiritually neighbors!
Feeding Intolerance:
Prohibitions on Sharing Food with People
Experiencing Homelessness
A Report by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
and The National Coalition for the Homeless
November 2007
The criminalization of homelessness in the United States remains a severe problem. Through measures ranging from anti-camping laws to selective enforcement of public intoxication laws, cities continue to implement measures that criminalize being homeless. In the past few years, many cities have adopted a new tactic – one that targets not only homeless persons but also individual citizens and groups who attempt to share food with them.
Types of Food Sharing Restrictions
Cities use a wide variety of ordinances, policies, and tactics to discourage individuals and groups from sharing food with homeless and other poor persons. Over the past year and a half:
• The Las Vegas city council passed an ordinance that bans “the providing of food or meals to the indigent for free or for a nominal fee” in city parks;1
• The City of Wilmington, N.C., passed an ordinance that prohibits the sharing of food on city streets and sidewalks;2
• The Orlando, Fla., city council passed an ordinance that prohibits sharing food with more than 25 people in city parks without a permit and limits groups to doing so to two times a year;3
Even as they pursue measures to target groups that share food with homeless people, most cities do not have adequate shelter or food resources to meet the need. According to the US Conference of Mayor’s 2006 Hunger and Homelessness Survey, an average of 23% of overall emergency shelter requests went unmet, while 29% of shelter requests by homeless families went unmet.4 The Mayor’s Survey also reported an average increase of 7% in the overall requests for emergency food assistance, with 74% of surveyed cities reporting an increase. In addition, 23% of the requests for emergency food assistance went unmet and 18% of requests made by families went unmet.5
Hunger is a severe problem for poor Americans, and especially for those who are homeless. A study published by the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness6 surveyed homeless people nationally and found:
• 28% sometimes or often do not get enough to eat, compared with 12% of poor American adults.
• 20% eat one meal a day or less.
• 40% went one or more days in the last 30 days without anything to eat because they could not afford food, compared with 3% of poor Americans.
Further, according to a 2000 report by the General Accounting Office:
• Most homeless people are probably eligible to receive food stamps, but only 37% receive them. Punishment for violating food sharing restrictions can be extreme:
• In Orlando, police arrested a man who served food to 30 people in a public park for violating a city ordinance that prohibits sharing food with more than 25 people without a permit. He faced a penalty of up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail for violating this law.
• In Dallas, anyone caught sharing food with a homeless person without a permit may be fined up to $2,000 and/or jailed for up to six months.7
Constructive Alternatives to Food Sharing Restrictions
As some cities take steps to punish, restrict, and discourage efforts to share food with homeless persons, other cities have explored novel ways to facilitate these efforts.
• The City of Cleveland contracted with the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless to bring religious congregations, Food Not Bombs, and individuals who serve food to homeless people together to improve and coordinate outdoor food programs.
• In Oregon, after first implementing an extended year-round free lunch program for children, the Coos Bay Public Schools have begun offering the meals to adults as well for the price of $1.
• San Francisco has taken advantage of a provision of the Food Stamp Program that allows authorized restaurants to accept food stamps from homeless individuals.
Recommendations
• Instead of penalizing them, cities should collaborate with food sharing groups to effectively address the problems of hunger and homelessness.
• Cities should help bring homeless persons into existing programs by reaching out to food sharing groups that have already established relationships with homeless individuals and are thus best positioned to facilitate goals of city programs.
• Cities should work with advocates and service providers to press Congress to increase food stamp benefits and restore eligibility for non-disabled homeless adults between 18- 50 who cannot meet minimum work requirements.
• Cities should help address the problems of hunger and homelessness by working with advocates and providers to improve access to food stamps and other food resources for homeless persons.
• Cities and the federal government should comply with globally recognized human rights norms by removing food sharing restrictions and ensuring access to food stamps for homeless people.
• Cities should work with advocates at the state and federal level to ensure the basic needs of homeless persons are met, including housing and health care.
1 Las Vegas, Nev., Code of Ordinances, ch. 13.36, art. I, § 13.36.055 (2007).
2 Wilmington, N.C., Code of Ordinances ch. 11, art. III, § 11-47 (2007).
3 Orlando, Fla., Code of Ordinances, ch. 18A, § 18A.01 (2007).
4 U.S. Conference of Mayors, Hunger and Homelessness Survey: A Status Report on Hunger & Homelessness in America’s Cities – a 23-City Survey 4 (2006).
5 Id. at 3.
6 U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve – Findings of the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients 7-1 (1999).
7 Dallas City Code § 17-10.2.
Public Perceptions Don’t Match Reality (Street Sense, USA)
By Melanie Lidman
The American public’s ideas about homelessness often fall short of actual realities, according to a recent survey that explores public perceptions of homelessness. Conducted by Gallup on behalf of Fannie Mae, the survey’s findings are based on interviews with 5,000 Americans across the country about their attitudes and knowledge about the homeless community in America.
Fannie Mae is a federally chartered company created by Congress that aims to expand affordable housing. Its survey will help organizations tailor their public outreach programs in an effort to solve homelessness with public support, a Fannie Mae spokeswoman said.
Americans’ perceptions of the causes of homelessness were among the most surprising findings. A mere 4% of Americans thought that lack of affordable housing was the primary cause of homelessness in the nation.
Many studies have highlighted the lack of affordable housing as the top reason for homelessness, said Michael Stoops, the acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homelessness.
“Homelessness is a housing issue. Unless we deal with housing, homelessness will continue to grow unabated in this country,” he said.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development figures show that federal support for low-income housing was slashed by almost 50% between 1980 and 2003. In 1995, there was a shortage of more than 4.4 million low income housing units, according to the Institute for Children and Poverty.
Eighty-five percent of survey participants said drug and alcohol abuse was a major reason for homelessness. While addiction is something many homeless people struggle with, it is not usually the initial cause of homelessness.
“Americans who believe wrongly that homeless people are on streets because of alcohol and drugs are further reinforcing stereotypes, and we need to work on changing that,” Stoops said. Americans also listed domestic violence and changes in family, including divorce or death, at the bottom of their list of major reasons for homelessness, the study found. A tiny fraction, 3%, believes the primary cause of homelessness is laziness.
More than three quarters of the survey participants perceived homeless people as adult individuals, the survey reported. But in 2003, children under the age of 18 accounted for almost 40% of the homeless population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
In fact, the U.S. Conference of Mayors reported that families with children are the fastest growing section of the homeless community. “When Americans think of the homelessness, the image that comes to mind is the bearded man rattling a cup in front of CVS pharmacy or on a freeway ramp,” Stoops said. “That’s the tip of the iceberg – for every homeless person you see, there are nine people you don’t see, children and families and elderly.”
The disparities show the public needs more information about the solutions to homelessness and the reasons people become homeless, Fannie Mae spokeswoman Chrissie McHenry said. But she believes the information in the survey will be helpful to organizations who work with the homeless. “Understanding how Americans think is crucial to solving homelessness,” she said.
“There were a couple of areas where we felt very optimistic,” McHenry said. One of the positive findings in the survey was that four out of every five adults said they would be willing to volunteer their time at an organization that assists homeless people, and nearly nine in 10 said they would make donations to these types of organizations.
Reprinted from Street Sense
© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org
15th Annual Art From the Streets Show and Sale
Art From the Streets (AFTS) wishes to thank the Austin community for helping make it’s 15th Annual Show and Sale of Art by People Who Are Homeless such a great success! The show raised $72,000 from art sales and admission donations. Art sales directly benefit the participating artists, while donation money defrays the cost of art supplies and materials for the AFTS program.
The Annual Show and Sale, the culmination of twice-weekly art classes attended by people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, drew 1,200 people to the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH) on November 3 and 4 and for a special four-hour-only After-The-Show Sale on Sunday, November 18.
“We’re grateful to everyone who came out to look at and purchase this wonderful art, and to the dozens and dozens of volunteers who made everything run so smoothly.” said Bill Jeffers, one of the co-directors of AFTS, “The artists worked really hard all year and created some beautiful work. They’ve truly earned this success.”
http://www.artfromthestreets.com/
Southside Johnny Gomez
11/10/1960 - 10/29/2007
death at the sally
the sound of life leaving a body makes
sounds like years of pain and heartaches
pained expressions on our faces
there is nothing we can do but mourn
death is silent
life is vibrant
life, for us, will go on
your kids you've abandoned for brown
you hate yourself and continue to down
until you get it, that the body on the floor
is only you, in another form
then they carried him into the hall
he who's death made no sense at all
Fighting Out Of Homelessness
When I became homeless it put me in check,
I realized my life had become a wreck.
I felt ashamed when I looked at me
And I asked myself how could this be.
Being homeless brought me a lot of pain,
Because I lost everything I worked to gain.
There was no one to blame, no one but me.
I'm not blind, I can very well see.
I started living my life in a reckless way.
Now, being homeless is the price I pay.
But I won't surrender, I won't be beat.
I know with God I'll get back on my feet.
I'll just take it one day at a time
And pray to the Lord and stay on my (grine).
Fighting out of homelessness can be real tough.
But that's the harder I'll fight because I'm rough.
This is one of the hardest fights I've been in.
This is the one I'm determined to win.
When it's over, all said and done,
I'll say to myself that's a fight I won.
I'll pray that others win the fight too.
I'll pray being homeless never happens to you.
By Gregory Donseroaux
Dedicated to:
Johanna Green
Case Manager
Community Support Program
Caritas of Austin
Thanks To All You Austinites
Thanks to all you Austinites
For welcoming me to Austin and treating me nice.
When I came here I was called an evacuee
But you all treated me special like family.
You all felt my pain and knew my loss,
And was willing to help at any cost.
Willing to go that extra mile for me,
There was no better placean evacuee could be.
And when I had a problem and things wasn't right,
God always sent me a helpful Austinite.
You always listened with caring ears,
And you all helped me overcome my greatest fears.
Compasionate people that's what you all are.
You made this stranger feel welcome who came from afar.
You Austinites showed me people still care,
And you all set an example for folks everywher.
So to all the helpful Austinites let me just say,
In my heart forever you will always stay.
By Gregory Donseroaux
a Katrina evacuee
(512) 782-8929
(512) 494-6591
Dedicated to all the volunteers at the convention center.
Special thanks to the staff at the ARCH, Caritas and MHMR.
To stop panhandling is the truth. Morning, I look up and see concealed Monet. Stop top houses, husband tried then scared or do not just be nice. To Austin Advocate way to stop...Panhandling...
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Homeless No More Anti-solicitation City Staff Abandons Flawed Panhandling Study We're All Neighbors! Feeding Intolerance: Public Perceptions Don't 15th Annual Southside Johnny Gomez Poetry death at the sally Fighting Out Of Homelessness Thanks To All You Austinites ART |
