NEWSCULTURE OF POVERTY

The battle continues in Gainesville, Florida to overturn an inhumane 130-meal-limit at local soup kitchens. Advocates have been fighting for months and show no signs of backing down until this ordinance is abolished.

One local group that has been very active in this cause is the Coalition to End the Meal Limit Now! They recently organized a protest outside the mayor's annual State-of-the-City speech event and they presented city officials with a mock-Oscar award for "Best Fantasy." Now that's creative activism!

Change.org members have also come out in large numbers in support of this cause. We continue to tell Gainesville officials that this is inhumane and just plain wrong. To date, the petition has close to 6,000 signatures.

While the meal limit remains in place, it seems some local political hopefuls are gaining sympathy for the cause. Three city commission seats are up for grabs in a March 15 election. Thirteen people are vying for the positions, and four of them have spoken out against the meal limit.

She sat in my office, light reflecting from her rippling jet black hair, her dark eyes shining  with tears dripping incessantly over the chiseled planes of her face.

She told me the history associated with each scar and injury: this one from a stabbing, this one from a gunshot, this one from a beating by her man. It was easier for her to tell me those stories than to recount what brought her to my office that day. Finally she told me of the concussion, the broken jaw, the bleeding from her ears, and the reconstructive surgery she needed "down there."

She and her 11 year old son had accepted help from a man whom she didn't know well. He kidnapped her and shoved her son out of the car. He went to the police station, but she was not found until three days later. Fortunately, the kidnappers neighbor saw her emerge naked and bleeding from his apartment, and called the police. Her assailant had finally fallen asleep and she was able to untie herself and flee, shaking in fear that he would wake up and use the gun he had threatened her with so often.

We're were in rural, rebel flag country over the weekend, where razor ribbon, re-po joints and roadkill adorn these flat Georgia highways.

After waking up in a parking lot to the bang of garbage trucks doing their job, Pat LaMarche and I finished our posts (hers can be found at Huffington Post). We left our "camping" spot in Georgia Southern University's parking lot and headed to Tallahassee, rolling diagonally across the Peach State.

Speaking with folks at our GA Southern event the previous night confirmed what we've seen so far on this 2,000 mile, 8-state journey: rampant poverty and hidden homelessness take the "shine" off bucolic rural life. A school social worker, obviously stressed by her day-to-day challenges, begged for information about how to start a shelter for the desperate families in her community.

Earlier this month Washington, D.C. got a new mayor, Vincent Gray, and he’s already getting off to a poor start.

At a recent D.C. City Council meeting, a plan was approved that would cut off direct public assistance to recipients who are in the program longer than five years. Mayor Gray claims the reason for the cuts is financial.

The plan will cut and over time eliminate benefits to city residents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits for over five years.

What makes this plan most frustrating for those of us organizing around poverty issues is that it is coming from someone who has worked with families in need as the former Director of D.C.'s Department of Human Services. One would think with those years of experience he would understand what families are going through - especially during this recession time.

“Clearly Mr. Gray knows what the harm will be to families," said Judith Sandalow, Executive Director of the Children’s Law Center. "He has a lifetime of experience of working with low-income families, so I don't understand why he felt a need to do this."

When we first started hearing about the latest viral video, we were confused. So Ted Williams has a great voice. OK, that's nice. But what's all the fuss about?

Maybe it's because we've worked with thousands of homeless people - all of them remarkable, talented and inspiring in their own way.

Wasn't there a major motion picture about a talented homeless person recently? Oh yeah ... the beautiful film The Soloist that told the story of Nathaniel Ayers - a gifted musician whose schizophrenia overwhelmed him and he wound up street homeless. Tragically many of the people we work with are like Nathaniel Ayers and like Ted Williams - amazing people with significant obstacles in their lives that keep them from being productive members of society. Mental illness, addiction, physical illness and other challenges bring them to the fringes of our society.

"Not in my backyard!" Yes, NIMBYism has struck again. Last time we wrote about this issue, the neighborhood was Chelsea in Manhattan. This time, it's the northeast Bronx.

Shelters in New York City are full. More beds are necessary for the extreme need occurring during this recession. There is an Army Reserve Center in the Bronx that will soon be vacant. Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to turn this space into a homeless shelter. But Bronx leaders are saying no way.

The charge is being led by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. "Mayor Bloomberg, you and your deputy mayors who are trying to make this decision and you don't live in our borough, you need to stop. Enough is enough," he said at a recent rally at City Hall.

These NIMBY situations always start the same: "Oh, we believe in helping people, but ..." Borough President Diaz stepped on the NIMBYism bandwagon by starting out the first quote in his press release with: “We understand that we must help the least fortunate among us. With that said, ..." Blah, blah, blah. We've all heard it before, and we'll hear it again and again unless something changes. Community leaders have to stand up and say: "We want to help those in our community who need it. We want to empower our residents. We want our residents to feel welcomed, and not be ashamed for what they are going through!"

What makes this so incredible is that some Bronx residents are only one paycheck away from homelessness. Don't they see the irony? Anyone can become homeless. You can't fight for a cause only when it's convenient to you.

Join us in calling on Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. to turn NIMBYism into empathy and help the homeless, not shun them away!

Photo Credit: Rich Lombino

You've heard of halfway houses, right? Halfway to independence is the claim. These residences are designed to assist individuals who are recently released from prison, substance abuse, and/or mental health in-patient facilities and other institutionalized settings to make a smoother transition back to independent living. In theory, they are essential boarding houses that maximize successful independent living and minimize the chances of recidivism back to institutional living. Yet, the reality often does not match the mission.

In New York City we also have three-quarter houses. The name would imply even more support and a smoother transition, yet this is not the case. These "residences" have illegally subdivided apartments with a dozen or more people sleeping on bunk beds in each small apartment. The buildings usually have hundreds of housing code violations. Shelters would claim these were housing placements, even though many of the residents would end up leaving these inhumane conditions to go back to shelters or the streets. In addition, many of the homeless shelter residents placed in these three-quarter houses suffer from severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. There are no supportive services on site, which are critical for these vulnerable New Yorkers.

We need more lawyers!

What? Who said that? Must be a lawyer who said that. Well, actually, it is. The Chief Justice of New York State's highest court, saying there is a "crisis of the unrepresented," is calling on the New York State Legislature and the Governor to significantly increase the funding for attorneys who represent those living in poverty in civil cases.

Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman noted "we cannot succeed in the years ahead if we allow the indigent in our state to fall off the cliff." Rich is also a lawyer, and we echo this sentiment, and ask that you sign the petition.

From watching countless films and television programs over the years, most of us know our Miranda rights, including "you have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you." Except that this is only in the case of criminal actions where jail time is a possibility.

I confess to recently thinking about hunkering down and waiting for that eternal force to come bolting through the sky to make all things right. Me, the stout-of-heart, confessing to wanting a bolt of lightning...that's how crazy things have gotten....

In my 60 years, with the last 25 in service to my "homies," more respectfully referred to as homeless sisters and brothers, I'd never thought I'd long for what we considered, at the time, to be varying forms of Armageddon -- the days of Ronald Reagan, George I, Bill Clinton, and, gasp, even Little George, the shrub.

With the speed of light, vengeance, hatred and doom seem to be hitting the weakest among us. Emboldened lawmakers, many proclaiming Christianity, are figuring out how to make the rich richer and the desperately poor more miserable. I'm afraid we ain't seen nothing yet.

But my faint hope lies in the fact that December 21st is right around the corner. The longest night of the year, my favorite holiday. It means things will start getting brighter. The days will inch their way into brightness, indiscernible at first.

Millions of vulnerable adults, teens and children in America suffer from a serious, largely untreatable, 21^st century malady: Equipment Deficit Disorder (EDD).

Equipment - anything needed to survive: street-smarts, good credit, a high school or college diploma, good judgment, money, functional transportation, a safe/affordable place to call home, phone, computer, and access to physical and mental health services, among other essentials.

Deficit - a crisis — health problem, car repair, job loss, fight with a spouse/partner — exacerbated by a lack of a safety net.

Disorder - how this condition affects the people directly involved and the ripple effect on the quality of life of the community.

Thankfully, some still have a safety net, typically family or friends to ease eventual crises. Their community may have limited resources available, but with the ongoing fiscal deterioration of states and localities, and with burgeoning requests for emergency assistance, resources are as scarce as phone booths.