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Sunday, March 21, 2010
The homeless shelter bed calamity
by Tom Armstrong, published on November 20, 2009 at 3:26PM
Storyline: winter shelter 2009-2010
Community Tags: homeless winter shelter
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The Mayor's Winter Shelter Task Force announced on October 23 that they had $500,000 to spend on shelter beds and had succeeded in finding a magnificent 269 slots for the 4 1/2-month chilly period.
In the midst of our Grand Recession, with money tight and the need at its greatest ever for chilly-season safety from the elements, a committee had come through for homeless folk, finding means and ways to stave off misery. So it was thought.
It's nearly a month later, and its now known that the task force, instead of doing grade A+ work did grade F work. There never were 269 slots; only a paltry few. And that is all we have now as a major storm descends.
Mr. Mayor, please show some grit. Make things happen NOW such that bed space is found. That must include adding new people to the task force and subtracting a few. And a couple good people should be found to determine how things went so very very wrong; they should write a report and its findings should be disseminated. The same level of ineptitude on the winter shelter task force this year must not repeat next year. Frankly, it seems that dependence on homeless-help-industry executives to implement homeless-help government planning is the core mistake.
The lack of beds isn't the only problem. Of the chilly-season beds that are now being used, numbering perhaps sixty, all of them are given to people who have full use of them until the end of March. AND, "insiders" -- that is, homeless friends of the agents that provided them -- are the people who were given first access to the beds, NOT those most in need and who would suffer the most from being left outside in sub-40-degree night temperatures.
Also, those given the beds are in overwhelming number single men, not women or families.
In the past, quite appropriately, there was some "churning" that occured. A few people were always leaving a shelter [due to having capped out on the maximum of time that was provided in a stay; or left to visit family or sleep at a friend's house for a night, e.g] to be replaced by others needing a shelter. Now, with space so very very tight, and no 'stay cap,' homeless people will NOT be visiting their familes or staying at a friend's house. They will stay in place at any shelter they're at for the full span of time they have. Thus, while in the past, misery was shared by the homeless community, NOW some people will be warm and dry all winter, while others, who would have been the most capable to stay warm on the streets, will be cosy for the full of winter.
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As for my last sentence, the numbers work thus: The safe ground group of between 20 and 25 got guaranteed beds for the whole of the chilly season. See Mayor Johnson's blogpost, here: http://www.kevinjohnsonformayor.com/kjfm/?p=161 The good majority of those people are solo men who have camping equipment and experience and few, if any, are mentally ill, disabled or particularly old.
Another 32 homeless people are getting beds that are not stay-capped at the detox center. I *believe* the great majority are solo men.
Otherwise, there are no winter shelter beds being provided.
I am further informed that things are happening, and that some people and families are finding shelter -- but it's not being announced as yet.
The "not being announced as yet" part presents a problem, of course. People who need shelter don't know where to go to get it. It also only adds to the circumstance where 'insiders' are getting beds, while those that don't know their way around the bureaucracy aren't.
Thus, maybe 80 beds [~25 +32+20] are identified as winter shelter beds. We just had a storm, that turned out not to be very bad, which followed a night with below-freezing temperatures.
Hey, I think that would work! Both basketball fans and homeless people are used to nachos and hotdogs. The fans can eat 'em when they're fresh, the homeless at late night when some staleness has set in.
At the mission, they have been giving out coats they've been receiving in goodly quantities to people who attend services there. At Salvation Army there is a coat give-away today. This afternoon people will be bussed from the Salvation Army to a church to receive clothes and a meal.
The numbers of approximately 80 winter shelter beds give the impression that there are 80 homeless people in our community. The Salvation Army shelter alone has a very long waiting list for bed space, often more than 80 people. I noticed in the article that solo men and other disadvantaged individuals are the primary recipients’ of the winter shelter beds. My question then, is where are the single dad’s and mom’s and families with children going to for winter shelter?
Additionally, I profoundly agree that shelters, and other non-profits, not announcing their services creates a tremendous barrier to the people who need help the most. There is no excuse for shelters or any other community-based program not to announce their services. From my experience, the reason the programs do not announce their services are because the programs are interested in meeting their grantees guidelines, rather than genuinely helping people.
Victor Stark, CSW
Sacramento Community Family Resources