Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "tim brown"

Volunteers count homeless on cold night

2011-01-29T00:40:56Z

Mike Morris wore a headlamp late Thursday night as he searched for homeless people in McKinley Park and areas around the freeway at 29th Street.

Morris, with two other volunteers and a law enforcement officer, interviewed two homeless individuals Thursday night as part of the Homeless Street Count event organized by the Sacramento Steps Forward group. A third homeless person declined to be interviewed. The Sacramento Press shadowed the group.

About 400 volunteers turned out on a cold and foggy Thursday night to count the homeless living in Sacramento County. The count is done every other year to comply with the federal Housing and Urban Development Agency.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” Morris said. “I didn’t even know this (count) existed, and I work for the Department of Human Assistance.”

The federal Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD) awards about $14 million annually to Sacramento County for services and housing for formerly homeless people, according to Lucinda Serynek, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Assistance (DHA). HUD mandates that Sacramento County carry out the homeless counts, Serynek said.

While Sacramento Steps Forward managed the count, the data will be used by DHA, said Tim Brown, director of Sacramento Steps Forward, a group that address regional homelessness.

The 400 volunteers who participated in Thursday’s count were split up into small groups and sent to areas within Sacramento County, as well as parts of the county’s unincorporated area.

Morris was part of a volunteer interview team with two of his colleagues from the information technology unit at DHA. An armed law enforcement officer from the fraud investigation unit at DHA accompanied the volunteers as they searched areas near freeways and other remote spots.

“I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was,” Morris said, referring to the count. “It’s a pretty big effort.”

Teams did their searches as temperatures dropped into the 30s. Lt. Lori Babbage, the law enforcement member of the team, said it’s better to count homeless people at night because they won’t be moving around as much.

Homeless people move from spot to spot during the day, responding to various groups who don’t want them around, Babbage said. “We know they’re going to hunker down for the night.”

The teams asked homeless people a variety of personal questions. Kelly Newell, who was part of Morris’ team, said interviews included questions about mental health issues, substance abuse, disabilities, domestic violence and HIV.

Newell interviewed a cooperative homeless man who was sleeping near a tree in Midtown. “We won’t ask you your name,” she told the man, who answered her questions.

Another homeless man approached the volunteers. He listened as Newell explained the interview questions, but then walked away. Later that evening, the volunteers spotted him at 29th and E streets. This time around, he readily talked with Morris and Todd Dunbar, another volunteer in the group.

The man appeared to be more willing to talk when Babbage, who was wearing a vest printed with the word “Police,” was not near him.

The team fanned out at McKinley Park and searched the grounds and bathrooms thoroughly. A few joggers were doing laps around the park, but the only other people inside the park at 9:30 p.m. were a young couple sharing a blanket.

Brown said he thinks homeless people might not be sleeping at McKinley Park because law enforcement officers drive around the park and tell people to leave.

Isleton was the only part of the county that wasn’t included in the count, said John Culbert, GIS lead for the project. Areas were selected with input from many groups, including law enforcement agencies, park rangers, homeless people, citizen groups and homeless outreach workers, according to Culbert and Brown.

The count began around 8 p.m. and ended at midnight. Some groups finished their walks before midnight.

Numerous area law enforcement agencies participated in the event. Brown said there were no public safety issues with Thursday’s count.

In an interview Friday morning, Brown said he hopes to have a report on the new data from Thursday night’s walk in March. The report will be handled by the MKS Consulting firm.

County Supervisor Phil Serna joined the volunteers Thursday night.

“I think it’s important for local, elected leaders to see for themselves the extent of this challenge,” he said.

The public will be able to read the results of the count online in March, according to Serynek.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Homeless shelter program seeks $50K

2010-12-21T02:31:19Z

A local group that combats homelessness is asking the public for $50,000 to shelter the poor during the winter season. Sacramento Steps Forward needs the funding to continue its new Winter Sanctuary program, which allows homeless people to sleep overnight at certain churches, according to the group’s director, Tim Brown.

Volunteers of America is partnering with Sacramento Steps Forward on the program, which started Dec. 1, Brown said. The two groups have raised about $40,000, which will allow the program to run until the end of January, he said. Another $50,000 is needed to continue the program through the end of March, which is the goal.

“The churches have really stepped up to open their doors,” he said.

Eight churches are currently participating in the program, and another nine have pledged to participate later this winter, according to Sacramento Steps Forward. Not all of the religious centers are churches – one of the nine religious centers that has pledged to help is SALAM, a Sacramento mosque.

About 90 homeless people have used the overnight program since Dec. 1, according to Sacramento Steps Forward.

The bulk of the $50,000 would pay for bus expenses and staff, Brown said. The program buses the homeless from Loaves and Fishes to the churches at night, and back to Loaves and Fishes in the morning, he said. Volunteers of America staffers assist the churches with the overnight guests, he said, explaining the staffing costs.

Sacramento County runs a homeless program, but it did not have adequate funding this year to provide winter shelter for homeless individuals, he said. The county and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency received funding to house 100 homeless families, Brown said.

Tracie Rice-Bailey, an advocate who was formerly homeless, said the cold winter weather makes the Winter Sanctuary program necessary. “The river’s rising, the ground’s getting wet,” she said.

Sacramento Steps Forward is accepting donations for Winter Sanctuary through its website.

Religious centers that have participated in Winter Sanctuary:
St. John’s Lutheran Church
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in partnership with Atonement Lutheran
St. Paul’s Baptist Church
Capital Christian Center
Trinity Cathedral
Lutheran Church of the Master
First Covenant Church

Religious centers that have pledged to participate:
St. Mark’s United Methodist
Trinity Life Center
SALAM
Seventh Day Adventist
Arcade Church
Sun River Church
Living Stones Christian Reformed Church in partnership with City Life Church
Mars Hill Church

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor's group, other agencies house 1,168 families

2010-08-25T02:23:26Z

A group he formed to address homelessness surpassed its target to work with agencies and provide housing for 800 families this year, Mayor Kevin Johnson told the media Tuesday morning.

The group, Sacramento Steps Forward, formed last November and worked with other agencies to set up housing for 1,168 families this year.

“We’re making a difference in people’s lives,” Johnson said.

By 2012, Sacramento Steps Forward hopes to work with its partnering agencies to house 2,400 families.

Sacramento Steps Forward works with Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing of Sacramento County (HPRP). The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency administers HPRP, which is a federal stimulus program.

Additional groups affiliated with Sacramento Steps Forward include the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and the Sierra Health Foundation.

Kyomi Jones told the media that the HPRP helped her when she nearly became homeless.

“They helped me find a job,” Jones said. “I was able to keep my home, able to keep my kids. And I just thank God for them and everyone that helped me.”

Private citizens and religious groups gave $400,000 during a “One Day to End Homelessness” effort held in March. The effort successfully brought $1.6 million in federal funding to Sacramento County’s HPRP.

A press release from the mayor’s office noted that $4 from the federal government were matched to each local dollar, totaling $1.6 million.

Johnson praised religious groups for their involvement in the fundraising effort. “You have to give the faith community a round of applause,” he said.

In response to a question after the press conference, Tim Brown, director of Sacramento Steps Forward, said there are still waiting lists at local shelters, but the lists “have gone down somewhat” because of the HPRP program.

Sacramento County has 2,800 homeless people, according to the most recent statistics, which were calculated in January 2009, Brown said.

Of the 2,800 homeless people, 1,200 people are living on the streets, he said. The remaining people are living in shelters or transitional housing, he said.

The next count of the county’s homeless will be in January 2011, he said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

2010 Homeless Connect provides jobs, health and housing resources for homeless

2010-05-19T02:21:50Z

The homeless will find easy access to all the services they need in one location Saturday, as the third annual Sacramento Homeless Connect returns. The event, held at Sacramento City College, will run from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., offering a variety of resources including free haircuts, bicycle and wheelchair repair, California identification cards, job preparedness and even a barbecue lunch.

"Last year we saw 700 people and had 400 volunteers," said Tim Brown, executive director of Sacramento Steps Forward. This year, Brown said he expects to see 800 homeless and about 500 volunteers, due mostly to the increased percentage of homeless.

Sacramento Steps Forward is an initiative started to combat Sacramento homelessness by empowering the homeless and assist them in finding permanent housing. The Homeless Connect event is modeled after San Francisco's project of the same name.

"We're trying to bring community volunteers face to face with the homeless," Brown said. "We want to break through myths of the homeless, raise awareness and show they're not so different from us."

New for 2010, Homeless Connect will be offering more employment resources in response to requests from prior years' events. Programs such as Women's Empowerment and Crossroads Employment Services will be on hand to assist the homeless with workshops such as interview skills, resume critiques, interpersonal communication and dressing for success.

Brown said approximately 60 organizations will contribute efforts toward services Saturday, from local businesses and nonprofits to public-funded programs.

Shuttle services, funded by Sacramento Steps Forward, will be provided every 15 minutes throughout the day, stopping at locations such as Loaves and Fishes between B and C streets, the Salvation Army between Dos Rios and Ahern streets and the Capitol Health Clinic at 1500 C St.

The main goal of the event is to increase access to a wider variety of resources in one spot. "We're trying to make it easier to access many different services all in one day," Brown said. Typically, he said, it can take one full day to access just one of these resources.

Sacramento Steps Forward still needs 20 volunteers for the 2010 Homeless Connect. To sign up, or for further information, visit sacramentostepsforward.com. To view the entire schedule of the event's workshop, click here.

Photos from 2009 Homeless Connect courtesy of Tim Brown, Sacramento Steps Forward

More than 100 winter shelter beds not available

2009-11-24T06:03:10Z

The number of beds available for the homeless in the Sacramento region during the cold-weather season is lower this Thanksgiving week than it was last year, according to Tim Brown, director of the Ending Homelessness Initiative. In addition, a Rancho Cordova city official expressed skepticism Monday about a plan to provide beds for 105 homeless people in that city.

However, a multiagency task force still plans to achieve its goal of providing 269 winter shelter beds, Brown said in an interview.

As of Friday, 52 winter shelter beds were available for the homeless. This week, the task force expects to offer 82 beds because 30 motel vouchers are available, Brown said.

Still, at this time last year, there were 150 winter shelter beds, according to Brown’s figures.

He noted that the task force is creating a new winter shelter system; it is not using Cal/Expo this year.

Brown addressed the delays in a letter sent Monday to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. “We have faced implementation challenges, but that is to be expected any time an effort is made to do innovative work across several organizations and jurisdictions in a short period of time,” he wrote.

Mayor Kevin Johnson asked the task force earlier this fall to create a plan for winter shelter in about a month-and-a-half.

The task force plans to have 164 beds ready for the homeless by next week, Brown said. “By Dec. 1, we’ll have more than the beds we had last year.”

Tom Armstrong, a Sacramento resident who is homeless, criticized the task force in a Nov. 20 article in The Sacramento Press, arguing that the task force’s work deserves an “F.”

But the task force maintains its goal of 269 beds. Brown said the group hopes to open some beds at a Rancho Cordova site before Christmas. The task force and city of Rancho Cordova staff are working on the issue. Rancho Cordova’s City Council must approve the plan.

One Rancho Cordova city official said there are many problems with the panel's plan to transform old bungalows into winter shelter. The bungalows need many repairs in order to be used for shelter, said Curt Haven, director of economic development and neighborhood services for Rancho Cordova. There are problems with lead paint, mold and broken windows, he said, adding, “It’s a mess."

The bungalows are near the Mather Community Campus, which provides services for 362 homeless people, Haven said.

He said he did not know of any available funding to bring the same kind of services to the a new group of 105 homeless people. The result could be that there will be one group of homeless people with many services at Mather Community Campus, and then 105 homeless people housed in the nearby bungalows without comparable services. “I feel like we’re setting this up to be a failure and set up a second class of homeless,” Haven said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sacramento Steps Forward initiative announced

2009-11-06T04:36:58Z

Thursday morning, journalist Lisa Ling, members of the City Council and the homeless and formerly-homeless community joined Mayor Kevin Johnson in launching the "Sacramento Steps Forward" initiative. A crowd of several hundred waved blue initiative flags and cheered as Johnson announced his goal "to end homelessness and focus on permanent housing."

He applauded permanent housing shelters such as Mercy Housing, Turning Point and Martin Luther King Jr. Village, 3900 47th Avenue, where the launch was held.

Johnson said the goal of Sacramento Steps Forward is to provide 2,400 "decent and affordable" permanent housing units over the next three years. That would nearly quadruple the amount of permanent housing units created in the city over the last two years.

The mayor asked the Sacramento residents to advocate for the homeless, educate others about services needed to end homelessness, and to help find public, corporate and nonprofit funding.

"The homeless do not need a handout, they need a hand up," Johnson said. "They want to be empowered."

Johnson is chairman of a multiagency task force, part of the Policy Board to End Homelessness, that found funding for 269 winter shelter beds last month. This came despite an 84 percent cut in county funding for homelessness and the elimination of funding for winter shelters in September.

Tim Brown, director of the Sacramento Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative, said last week that federal stimulus money will house 150 people who are now in shelters, freeing up 150 shelter beds over the next few months.

With an expected 419 beds, the city and county intend to provide 151 more beds this year than last year's 268 beds. According to the 2009 Homeless Count Summary Report, there are about 2,800 homeless people in Sacramento, including 711 in emergency shelters, 895 in transitional housing and 1,194 who have no shelter.

After Johnson thanked Brown, Sister Libby Fernandez and Joan Burke, both of of Loaves and Fishes, he introduced Sacramento-native Ling, the host of National Geographic Explorer. Earlier this year, as a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show, she reported on Sacramento's "tent city," which brought other media outlets to the site.

"Your mayor, so many members of the homeless advocacy community, members of the city and county rose to the occasion and decided to tackle (homelessness) head on," Ling said. "I'm so proud of the way so many members of this community have come together (and) if Sacramento is successful (housing the homeless), it could be a model for the rest of the country."

County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, St. John's Shelter director, Michelle Steeb, and City Council member Rob Fong also spoke. Fong explained the Faith and Families initiative that he helped create.

"We're asking the faith communities to see if they would be willing through their congregation to make a commitment for one year to help house a homeless family," he said. "In the last year we've housed 10 homeless families (and) we're hoping to get a dozen more housed before the holidays."

Three formerly homeless people spoke about their experiences. They credited programs such as Serna Village, St. John's Shelter and Lutheran Social Services with changing their lives and giving them hope.

"It was absolutely marvelous," Fernandez of Loaves and Fishes said about the city's effort. "In one year, this mayor has talked more about the issue of homelessness than any mayor ever has. He spends time with the homeless, policymakers and advocates."

Although she applauded the push for transitional and permanent housing, she noted the nine-month waiting period to get into Quinn Cottages, a transitional housing shelter. This means that homeless need somewhere to go in the meantime, Fernandez said.

"It takes too long for the next step. (Creating a) 'safe ground' is just an added piece to get to the final goal, which is permanent housing."

Mayor Kevin Johnson addresses homelessness

2009-09-23T04:02:45Z

Tuesday morning, Mayor Kevin Johnson was joined by a handful of Safe Ground supporters for a weekly press conference inside City Hall. After reiterating his goal to end homelessness in Sacramento, he invited Sister Libby Fernandez and Greg Bunker, the respective executive directors of Loaves and Fishes and Francis house, as well as a homeless man named Thomas Jackson Ashmore III, to speak.

Johnson spoke about his meeting over the weekend with campers at the recently vacated 1220 C St. campground owned by Mark Merin. At the camp site, Merin had also been involved in a property dispute over the land with the neighboring Pedro and Gracilla Hernandez residence.

Johnson mentioned that a comprehensive plan to end homelessness would be launched in October, but also that two immediate issues are the most pressing: creating a legal "safe ground" called Stepping Stone; and helping finda location for winter shelters as they are set to open in mid November.

Johnson has created a task force for both issues, but it will take up to three to six months to create Stepping Stone, he said. Some key factors the task force is looking at for Stepping Stone include size, location, resident selection criteria, governance, security and services.

"The county cut 84 percent of their funding for the homeless," Johnson said. "They're talking about making even more cuts; that means there's a disproportionate amount of cuts going to the homeless population."

"This is a moment that we advocates really appreciate," said Fernandez. "This is the first time a city mayor has stepped up to the plate to think not only for the city but also for the county and the region of Sacramento when it deals with homelessness."

"We need to stop the arrests on people being homeless; we need to put a memorandum on enforcement of camping ordinances," said Ashmore, a homeless man, whom Johnson introduced to the crowd by the nickname "Hawk."

"It's a waste of taxpayer money. Every time we are arrested, it costs between $1500 and $2000 to take us all into jail," he added. "Then we're put back eight hours later on the streets, just to be arrested again."

Bunker also applauded Johnson and asked the entire community to join the effort to think of solutions to house the homeless.

Asked if Johnson would do a good job in helping homeless people, Merin said last week, "I think the Mayor is certainly well intentioned. The question is: can he get the majority of the city council to support him? It just depends on him knowing how to get something accomplished."

"The goal is to get people into housing," said Tim Brown, director of the Ending Chronic Homelessness initiative, in a phone call before the press conference on Tuesday. "We're spending so much on keeping them homeless, it's cheaper to provide housing and services in a lot of cases for chronically homeless."

"With federal stimulus money, for the first time, we're going to be able to prevent homelessness," Brown added. About $4.8 million will become available Oct. 1 for homelessness.

"We've housed 350 people in two-and-a-half years," Brown said. "What has made a dent is the switch to permanent housing."

As far as the vacated Safe Ground location at the Merin property (only a pair of port-a-potties remains), the Hernandez family have expressed "gratitude and relief" that the camp is gone, said their lawyer Aldon Bolanos. Their health has been deteriorating since the campers moved behind their property, Bolanos said.

"They're trying to get on with their lives," he added. "They absolutely are traumatized and it's going to be a while if ever before life gets back to normal for them."

"I'm not going to tell you that what [Merin] is trying to do [for the homeless] is wrong," Bolanos said. "This time when he did what he did, it really trampled on the lives of some innocent people; the real civil rights that were violated here were Pedro and Gracilla Hernandez."

Bolanos explained his view of the homeless.

"This whole episode really seems to underscore a leadership problem in this city, where no individual or group is willing to take accountability for what was happening here for over a month. This [homeless] situation is not going to go away, and providing this 'safe ground' outside of the downtown grid is just going to push the problem into someone else's backyard and the city is going to experience sad and difficult times and consequences."

Photographs one, two and three credit Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt. All other photographs credit staff reporter Jonathan Mendick.

Finding homes for the homeless

2009-07-07T03:44:51Z

Religious congregations are assisting homeless families through a new housing program backed by Sacramento City Councilman Robert Fong. In the program, known as the Faith & Homeless Families Initiative, local religious groups find housing for homeless families with children.

The program is emerging as local homeless shelters say they’re turning away families because of limited shelter space, according to Tim Brown, director of the Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative, a local public/private partnership.

“There’s a lot of newer homeless families,” he said.

The program began in February and has linked six families to congregations. The congregations then found housing for the families, Brown said. The program is still working to house a seventh family, he noted.

The program is now connected to the Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative. Fong is currently working to set up the faith program as a nonprofit organization unique from the chronic homelessness effort.

“I thought there was something we could do as human beings,” Fong told The Sacramento Press.

The program, which is still in a pilot phase, plans to connect a new group of homeless families with a new set of congregations by August or September, Brown said. In order for the program to expand, organizers will need to raise money for additional staffers, he noted.

The program works with three local homeless shelters. Case managers at the shelters refer the families to the program, Brown explained. Volunteers from the congregations are trained in a three-hour session by program staff, he added.

In addition to locating housing for the families, the congregations can further help the families with rental assistance, Brown said.

One of the program’s rules is that the congregations cannot require homeless families to attend religious services, Brown said. However, the congregations are allowed to invite the families to services.

The local congregations currently participating in the program are: Spiritual Life Center, All Nations Church of God in Christ, St. John’s Lutheran Church, First United Methodist Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Bayside of South Sacramento.

Information for congregations interested in joining the program is available here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.