New York City’s official government page says that when the temperature is more than 10 degrees above the “average high temperature for the region,” or the heat lasts for “prolonged periods” and is accompanied by high humidity, that is extreme heat. Since New York is made of asphalt, concrete, and metal, it traps heat like an oven, and might easily be 10 degrees hotter than the outlying areas.

While the heat wave is an inconvenience for many New Yorkers, it can pose significant dangers for the thousands of homeless people living on the streets or in shelters without air-conditioning… It is important to note that homeless individuals and families always have a right to shelter in New York City regardless of the weather, but there are expanded outreach and intake rules when Code Red is in effect.

So wrote Jacquelyn Simone for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where summer weather started a bit early this year. Code Red is of course the condition of heat danger, the opposite of Code Blue which is the freezing hazard in winter.

She notes that under extreme heat conditions, the City has cooling centers in air-conditioned public places, found by calling 311 or going on the Web to Cooling Center Finder. Many of the locations are wheelchair-accessible, and the site advises checking in advance each time, because not all are open every day.

Elsewhere

In Albany, New York, the Capital City Rescue Mission is equipped with central air conditioning, two large ice machines, and a freezer full of ice cream and popsicles. The director, Perry Jones, related how the winter had brought the “code blue” condition many times, and expects the summer to bring many “code red” days.

People who were present when a reporter visited, spoke of being hospitalized for heat exhaustion, and of the rare relief of finding shade under a tree or a bridge, and of volunteering to spread the word about the Mission’s cool refuge.

In Newark, New Jersey, people experiencing homelessness tend to congregate in the rail station, public library, and two city parks. The Central Ward shelter that helped with their needs ran out of money and had to close, earlier this month, displacing about 180 residents. Thanks to the generosity of corporate donors it was able to reopen almost immediately, and the donation will keep the facility going until the end of this month.

What you can do

During that closure in Newark, Facebook spread the word, and local people came around to donate water and snacks at a nearby park. Disseminating such information through social media is something that a person can do even if unable to do anything else.

And informing yourself is very helpful, too. Become cognizant of what kind of aid is available in your city. Work with local authorities and organizations to create better facilities. Do you even know where people experiencing homelessness can get free water, or take a shower? You might even print up little slips of paper with useful information, to give out.

If you see a person who seems to be in distress from the heat, (if it seems safe) ask the person if they are all right, if they need help, or if they have somewhere to go. Maybe even just a gift of bus fare would help, if the buses are air-conditioned. On a rare occasion you might see the need to call 911 for emergency assistance.

Get personal, and find out what this particular individual needs. Maybe in their unique survival situation, the thing that would help most is an umbrella to keep the sun off. You don’t know until you ask.

Of course, there is the obvious. Buy a bottle or a case of water to distribute, and don’t forget, people might have pets who need water too. Give out cups or bags of ice. Distribute sunscreen to prevent sunburn, or aloe vera lotion to sooth it. One of the aggravations of having limited access to water is the difficulty of washing sticky hands, or removing spills onto clothing. Distribute individually packaged wet wipes.

In Austin, Texas, House the Homeless is giving out baseball-style caps with sunflaps to protect vulnerable necks from sun damage. This is a great idea that more cities and groups could adopt, along with other measures to prevent heat stroke, heat exhaustion, skin cancer, and dehydration. And of course, and most helpfully, we can all do more to end homelessness and make this a non-problem.

Reactions?

Source: “Extreme Heat,” NYC.gov
Source: “Help Homeless New Yorkers Stay Safe During the Heat,” CoalitionForTheHomeless.org, 06/18/18
Source: “Local shelters getting ready to help the homeless beat the heat,” News10.com, 06/29/18
Source: “Homeless shelter that closed in sweltering heat reopens (for now),” NJ.com, 07/05/18
Photo credit: Marco Verch (wuestenigel) on Visualhunt/CC BY

When conditions of deprivation in third-world countries are discussed, one familiar trope is the procession of women carrying vessels on their heads, who walk miles every day just to get some water. And yet, in most of the world’s allegedly advanced metropolitan capitals, people can’t get water.

The May edition of the House the Homeless newsletter foretold the coming of the hot season, and now North America is in the thick of it. Well over half a million Americans experience homelessness on any given night or — more to the point in summertime — on any given day. The newsletter included a note from HtH Content Director Steve O’Keefe reminding us that in some places, animal cruelty statutes are more protective of non-human species than they are of human beings. The Humane Society says,

Animal neglect situations are those in which the animal’s caretaker or owner fails to provide food, water, shelter, or veterinary care sufficient for survival…. Many states have a provision specifically addressing animal neglect written into their animal cruelty laws…

And yet the United States contains millions of people who don’t have enough food, water, shelter or medical care to survive. Humans suffer and die every day from the lack of those things. When law enforcement officials encounter neglected and abused animals, the surrounding humans are held responsible and blamed. When law enforcement officers encounter neglected and abused humans, they themselves are blamed, and often end up in even worse circumstances and with criminal records.

For an example of extreme protest against this reality, see an essay written by Cheryl Jones, founder of the American Homeless Families Foundation, titled “US Government Treats Our Wounded Homeless Veterans Worse Than Animals!”

The science

The human body is 60% water; the brain is between 70% and 80% water, depending on who answers the question. Water has several exit routes from the body, and needs to be constantly replaced. Medical authorities recommend drinking a liter or two every day. Most people don’t drink enough of it even when they have the opportunity.

Sufficient advice is available on how to avoid heat-related death, but people are not always in a position to follow good advice. While the happily housed and cheerfully oblivious are urged to stimulate their desire for water by brewing exotic unsweetened teas, or adding costly little flasks of natural flavor, unhoused people don’t need to whet their appetite for water. The thirst and the genuine medical need are present. Too often, the water is not.

Exposure-related problems include heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Some “rough sleepers” stay awake and alert at night for safety reasons, but fall asleep in open areas during the day, and add sunburn to their list of ailments. Overexposure to the sun is a well-known cause of cancer.

Dehydration and health destruction

Ongoing dehydration has scary and expensive health consequences, including digestive and metabolic problems, blood clots, seizures, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, immune deficiency, high blood pressure, joint pain, susceptibility to asthma and allergies, and bad breath.

In the short term, it affects mood and cognition. Alertness, concentration, and short-term memory can be disrupted. Dehydration can cause confusion and fogginess, inability to mentally focus, muscle cramps, weakness, chills and fever, headache, depression, and fatigue.

Here is an important and compassionate thing to remember: When a person is forced to survive in public, she or he might appear to be drunk or drugged, when the real problem severe and chronic dehydration.

What is the answer? The charitable giving of bottled water must have its limits. Citizens already scream about the amount of trash that accumulates in homeless camps. Every disposable container contributes toward the death of the oceans. Handing out plastic bottles is far from the best answer. People need containers they can hang on to, and sources to fill those containers.

Drinking water needs to be available to the public at all times and in many locations. It matters not what architectural landmarks a city boasts, or how many operas and ballets it supports. If the people don’t have access to water, the single most necessary element of life, the place can’t really be considered fit for human habitation.

Many countries share the shame

In Great Britain, which supposedly has been civilized for centuries, there was a commotion just last month in the city of Birmingham. A group of volunteers distributed water which, reportedly, the recipients literally fought over. A detail that adds insult to injury is that Birmingham had numerous public fountains in the past.

Many cities, behaving disgracefully, have shut down public water sources. The journalists who compiled this story quoted a woman named Sarah:

If I go into a shop or cafe and try and ask for a glass of water, they always say no. If people think you’re homeless, they just won’t help you. If someone who didn’t look homeless went in and asked for water, they’d get it. It’s so frustrating.

Security guards are always on the look-out for you. They think you’re scum. They’ll make sure you’re not in their place for too long, or just boot you out straight away so it’s hard to find shade for a long time. Even in parks and that there’s always someone to tell you to move on.

Suppose that, by some incredible stroke of luck, an unhoused person has access to a dependable source of clean drinking water, enough to drink a health-compatible amount. And what if there is no nearby location where it is legal to perform nature’s other functions? Cosmic jokes to play on people experiencing homelessness — the Universe never runs out of them.

Reactions?

Source: “The Dangers of Chronic Dehydration,” NuuvoHealth.com, 08/11/17
Source: “Heatwave leaves homeless ‘fighting’ over water,” BBC.com. 06/29/18
Source: “Animal Neglect,” humanesociety.org
Source: “US Government Treats Our Wounded Homeless Veterans Worse Than Animals!,” linkedin.com, 10/05/14
Photo credit: International Livestock Research Institute on Visualhunt/CC BY-SA

Q: What do you call an 800-pound gorilla in your living room?
A: Sir.

It’s the oldest joke in the book, and not so funny when, as in Seattle, several gorillas (with names like Amazon, Tableau, Microsoft, Google, Expedia, Facebook, and LinkedIn) are lounging around on the parlor sofas with their feet up on the coffee table. What happens when mega corporations take over a city? They pretty much have to be called “Sir,” and, in civic matters, they tend to get their way.

As we discussed, the homeless population of Seattle has increased by 4% in the past year. Of all U.S. cities, Seattle contains the third largest group of people experiencing homelessness — not by proportion, but by actual count.

Amazingly, Amazon owns more office space in the city than the total owned by all of the next 40 largest employers combined. Even though this is commercial real estate rather than living space, Amazon’s near-monopoly is seen as contributing to homelessness in the area.

Jonathan O’Connell cautions the cities who strive to become Amazon’s HQ2, cities where officials want the luring of Amazon to be an item on their resume. They are tempted to offer all kinds of enticements and exceptions and treats, as well as forgiveness for sins not yet committed. O’Connell wrote:

In Seattle, that meant rehabbing an area of more than 350 acres at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars in ongoing transportation and infrastructure upgrades expanding public transit, road networks, parks and utilities.

Rents in King County have more than doubled in the past 20 years, and gone up 65 percent since 2009. Seattle spends more than $60 million annually to address homelessness, up from $39 million four years ago.

On an average day, Seattle gains almost 60 people. Landlords openly advertise the favors they are willing to do, but only for those employed by Amazon, Google, or Microsoft. Low-income workers with jobs in the city have had to move farther and farther away, costing them additional gas and other transportation fees. Also, with more cars driving more miles every day, air pollution increases.

Bellwether Housing, a nonprofit that manages 2,000 affordable housing units, cites a vacancy rate that hovers around 1%. There is a glimmer of light. O’Connell says:

As Amazon’s boom has continued, the city approved a rule this year requiring landlords to accept the first viable renter who applies — rather than cherry-picking a tech worker. The government also adopted an inclusionary zoning policy requiring developers to set aside some new units at below-market rates or pay into a fund to develop other affordable units.

Late last year, journalist Drew Atkins wrote:

In over eight years of meetings with voters, Seattle city councilmember Mike O’Brien has never heard a nice story about Amazon. O’Brien has listened to the company get linked to nearly every major problem facing the city.

Amazon’s negative reputation in Seattle has roots in its philanthropy. Or its lack thereof.

Currently, Amazon lists 70 local charities that it has supported, but the giant corporation had to be shamed into it. Until the light of public scrutiny was cast in their direction, Amazon was not even supporting United Way. Even now, and unlike similar corporations, they don’t reveal the size of their gifts. For all anybody knows, they gave 70 charities $10 apiece.

In a comprehensive and very digestible article about the Seattle situation, April Glaser quotes Rachel Fyall, professor of public policy and an expert on housing, who defines Amazon as the biggest player in the housing market crisis, and goes on to suggest the potential helpfulness of involving the financial big dogs in municipal planning processes.

This would be in return for paying some taxes once in a while, a civic duty that corporations are loath to perform. Glaser says the contribution to urban planning could include…

[…] supporting different kinds of housing initiatives for people who are at risk of being displaced or policies that would help those currently in Seattle from being forced to leave, or enter homelessness, while zoning and construction catch up.

 

Or, it could be a total train wreck. In too many places, and under too many circumstances, letting corporations pay to play has turned out to be a poor choice. Give them an inch, they take a mile. The more breaks and exemptions they get, the more they want. The opportunity for corruption is dazzling, and the outcomes can range from dismal to abysmal.

Glaser suggests that too often it’s all about public relations or optics, rather than “a thoughtful approach to philanthropic giving.” She winds up with a ironic or possibly snarky reference to an Amazon-backed shelter project that has had problems:

Well-paid tech employees moving to Seattle will continue to require housing, prices will continue to rise, and more families and individuals who aren’t a part of the city’s white-collar workforce are likely to end up on the street. A few of the relatively lucky ones may even find a bed at Mary’s Place.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “What would happen if Amazon brought 50,000 workers to your city? Ask Seattle,” WashingtonPost.com, 10/19/17
Source: “How Amazon earned Seattle’s scorn — and whether it’s deserved,” Crosscut.com, 10/29/17
Source: “We’d Spend Hours Each Week Unpacking and Throwing the Food Away,” Slate.com, 05/22/18
Photo credit: Joe Wolf (JoeInSouthernCA) on Visualhunt/CC BY-ND

Austin, Texas, where House the Homeless is located, has something in common with 18 other American cities and Toronto, Canada. All are finalists in a competition where victory could result in chaos and misery.

Last September, the marketing behemoth known as Amazon revealed its intention to establish a second headquarters. More than 200 cities originally applied for consideration.

Amazon said it would spend at least $5 billion to construct its palace of commerce, and would potentially employ around 50,000 people. What’s not to like? As it turns out, plenty.

Every city in the running already has unhoused people, and what happens when an extra 50,000 either arrive from elsewhere, or suddenly get jobs that enable them to afford pricier housing? Chances are, before too long a lot of people can no longer afford to live there at all.

Dire predictions

The real estate website Zillow projected the likely rent increases in several cities. Nashville rents would probably rise 3.3% per year. That may not sound like much, but it would amount to an average rise of $400 per month within 10 years. Boston and Los Angeles would be even worse, while Denver, where rents have already grown alarmingly in the recent past, would probably escalate close to 6% each year.

Journalist Marco della Cava points out that, paradoxically, the smaller candidates like Raleigh and Columbus would be better equipped than the larger cities to cope with an influx of 50,000 Amazon workers. In Indianapolis, for instance, Zillow would expect the effect on rents to range from negligible to nonexistent.

On the other hand, real estate speculators are always panting to jump into the flip game, buying and selling lots, houses, condos, and apartment buildings with the carefree abandon of kids playing a video game. In neighborhoods, rapid gentrification extracts a huge toll. Lower-income families are squeezed into doubling up, inhabiting inferior quarters like garages, becoming homeless, or leaving the area.

In Boston, a spokesperson reminded newspaper readers that, even with Amazon not in the picture, the city is projected to need at least 160,000 housing units before the year 2030. Apparently, the federal government puts obstacles in the way of letting cities figure out how to raise funds for new housing.

Reluctance and objections

In many cities, commuter traffic is already nightmarish. In terms of highways and public transit systems, their infrastructures are not prepared to handle any increase. The prospect of school overcrowding is not attractive to parents. Utilities can’t keep up, and at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, the need for services takes a sudden leap.

In Seattle, Amazon is said to have been very stingy with philanthropic donations to local charities until a public shaming campaign was mounted. Rumor has it that Amazon gives back grudgingly, and doesn’t want to talk about it.

Pushback occurs here and there. Virginia produced a group called Our Revolution Arlington, which works to prevent the possibility of Amazon relocating in its borders. Depending on who tells the story, the Coalition for Nashville Neighborhoods is either presenting obstacles or protecting the city.

For USA Today, Elizabeth Weise quoted Matthew Gardner, of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy:

It seems pretty clear now that whoever “wins” the HQ2 battle is very likely going to be giving Amazon a free pass on a wide variety of state and local taxes for some period of time.

Come hither

Amazon chose Seattle for its first headquarters for compelling financial reasons. According to federal law (which may soon change) a mail-order company would only pay sales tax in states where they had actual physical buildings. Also, Washington charges no personal state income tax, which approximates a pay raise for employees, without the corporation needing to give out an extra dime.

From whichever city wins its contest, Amazon is looking for a cushy deal. When 238 cities asked for the chance, Danny Westneat wrote that the responses…

[…] amply demonstrate our capitulation to corporate influence in politics… Some City Halls seem willing to go beyond just throwing money at Amazon. They’re turning over the keys to the democracy.

 

Chula Vista offered to donate $100 million worth of land, and forego property taxes for three decades, which would save the corporation around $300 million. Fresno was willing to “put Amazon inside the government” by letting it mold the city to its liking.

Tax would be paid to the city, but Amazon would get to decide how the money was spent. A new fire truck, or a sculpture for a courtyard frequented by executives? Amazon would decide. Chicago offered to let the workers pay their projected $1.32 billion worth of income taxes directly to Amazon, and Newark somehow cast a bold $7 billion lure. (Chicago, Newark, Nashville and Boston are still in the running.)

For the satirical McSweeney’s.net, Michael Maiello envisions the letter that Satan might write to Amazon big boss Jeff Bezos. He favorably compares Hell to Philadelphia, which is one of the actual candidates, and asserts that Hell’s labor statutes are business-friendly. Among other enticements, he promises no taxes, and throws in a free building with living gargoyles perched along the roofline.

Hell can easily accommodate a structure housing 8 million square feet of Class A office space. We can even build it for you for free, using the labors of the legion of the damned, whose numbers total in the hundreds of billions.

For Amazon’s delivery service, the imaginary ruler of Hell suggests using not drones, but demons:

I know you’re worried about access to airports. Good news: every airport in the world, especially those in the United States, serve as gateways to Hell… Who do you think trains TSA workers?

The Father of Lies ends his invitational letter with a poignant plea:

You know deep down in your dark heart that Amazon belongs in Hell. It’s time to come home, Jeff.

Reactions?

Source: “What Amazon’s HQ2 could mean for winning city’s rents,” SeattleTimes.com, 04/25/18
Source: “Amazon headquarters finalists: Some say winning would come at too high a price,” USAToday.com, 01/25/18
Source: “After losing fight to levy ‘Amazon tax,’ Seattle is back to square one on helping homeless,” USAToday.com, 06/17/18
Source: “This City Hall, brought to you by Amazon,” SeattleTimes.com, 11/24/17
Source: “Satan Makes His Pitch to Amazon.com,” McSweeneys.net, 09/14/17
Photo credit: kiewic via Flickr

Speaking of public spaces and big doings, too often the official response to such events can be “excluding and abusive” says Richard R. Troxell, House the Homeless president and co-founder. “This is no longer the America that I hold in my heart and in my mind.”

In the past, wiser empires chose to extend public celebrations to even the most indigent subjects, with bread and circuses for all. Such generosity helps to stave off revolutions.

Windsor, site of the recent wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, is one of the most affluent towns in the United Kingdom. As in so many other places, the number of people experiencing homelessness has grown. So how did the rough sleepers of Windsor fare, in the run-up to the royal wedding and during the festival itself?

Way back at the beginning of the year, the local council leader made news by writing a letter to the local police, demanding that the streets be cleared of homeless people, well before the spectacle commenced. Some accused him of a heartless focus on prettifying the town for tourists and media, at the expense of the locals. Journalist Harriet Sherwood mentioned that, after making this first demand to the police, the conservative politician continued his campaign through social media, from his own temporary location at a U.S. ski resort.

Some benefits for Windsor’s homeless

The Windsor Homeless Project teamed up with a greeting card company to create memorabilia for the street people to vend directly to tourists. It also produced more substantial commemorative merchandise to be sold in shops, with part of the profit earmarked for the Project.

Meanwhile, individuals “on the ground” pessimistically predicted that they would be involuntarily relocated. A bus belonging to Christians Against Homelessness, which had been providing a venue for 10 people to sleep each night, was seized by the police.

At the same time, a Thames Valley police superintendent told the BBC that his department would take a very compassionate approach, saying, “This is a public event, so everyone is welcome.” A council spokesperson said the area’s customary street people were offered somewhere else to stay during the commotion, and/or a place to store their belongings safely.

In another article, the BBC seemed say two different contradictory things at the same time. The story is titled, “Royal wedding: Thousands sign ‘begging ban’ petition.” Did the headline writer craft a purposely inflammatory, or perhaps intentionally ambiguous headline? Because the first line says,

More than 300,000 people have signed a petition to stop Windsor council from “removing rough sleepers” before the royal wedding.

KRDO.com described the people experiencing homelessness as “in the spotlight.” Social media lit up with protests from sympathetic housed people on behalf of the people whose property was being removed from them. The reporter wrote,

Some questioned how rough sleepers who had given up their sleeping bags and personal items would cope in the days and nights until Monday. Others pointed out the apparent double standard as royal fans arrived in Windsor armed with sleeping bags, backpacks and bunting and prepared to camp out overnight in the hopes of spotting the royal couple’s procession. They are setting up camp on the same streets where rough sleepers have bagged up their belongings and handed them over to the authorities.

The police, however, insisted that no one was forced to place their gear in storage. But if they toted their belongings around they could expect to be searched, and quite possibly have things confiscated. Any unattended baggage might be viewed as a disguised bomb, and treated accordingly.

Complain, complain, complain

Not surprisingly, some Brits astutely pointed out that, for the price of the royal wedding, all the rough sleepers in the area could have been housed, not temporarily, but permanently. Sadly, that is not how governments comport themselves. Instead, some throw fancy weddings; others hold self-aggrandizing military parades.

Reactions?
Source: “I’ll be asked to clear out’: how Harry and Meghan’s wedding affects Windsor’s homeless,” TheGuardian.com, 05/15/18
Source: “Royal wedding: Homeless in Windsor ‘will not be moved on’,” BBC.com, 05/15/18
Source: “Royal wedding: Thousands sign ‘begging ban’ petition,” BBC.com, 02/17/18
Source: “Windsor’s homeless are giving up their belongings before the royal wedding,” KRDO.com, 05/17/18
Photo credit: Stuart Chalmers on Visualhunt/CC BY-ND

When the Super Bowl took place in Minneapolis earlier this year, the city seems to have made an effort to minimize the trauma experienced by people experiencing homelessness. Officials explained that street people were steered away from the central festivities — not to hide their existence, but because the massive crowds and heavy law enforcement presence could be problematic for them. The police and the event’s 10,000 volunteers received training on how to direct needy people to resources.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, in the heart of the affected area, opened a space for people to store their belongings in the daytime, and served coffee and a bag lunches. Over the weekend, shelters for single adults expanded their hours.

Some train lines required possession of a Super Bowl ticket to ride, and indoor public spaces were made unavailable. The routes people customarily take from Point A to Point B are the fastest, most direct routes, to avoid being out in the cold any longer than necessary. But changes in transit routes, and the closing off of downtown areas, made it extra difficult for street people to get around.

Journalist Solvejg Wastvedt wrote:

For Minnesotans with the fewest resources, a Super Bowl in subzero weather can be more than a minor disruption. Some of downtown Minneapolis’ homeless residents say the changes there are straining their coping skills.

Because the hotel rates increased so much, the public money that usually shelters some families was not enough to keep them under a roof. Raz Robinson wrote:

Many of the 2,000 homeless children in the St. Paul public school system had to sleep with their families in tents, cars, or simply outside on the street.

Still, the city did not engage in the sort of mass displacement tactics that had characterized the preparation for the big game in San Francisco two years before. In the past, Minnesota has not been so tolerant. Reporter Kelly Smith recalled how the police had swept away homeless camps for an all-star baseball game in 2014 and for the Republican National Convention in 2008.

Brotherly love

In the summer of 2016, highway construction and park renovation caused about 50 people to wind up sleeping on the grounds of Philadelphia’s Convention Center, with the Democratic National Convention coming up. At the time, the city had around 14,000 units of emergency and long-term housing, with the permanent housing always full, shelters and safe havens generally 90% full, and about 700 people routinely on the streets.

It must be admitted that some people are unable or unwilling to enter shelters, and that’s just how things are. Still, there is always need, and the city budgeted around $60,000 for 100 extra temporary beds during the convention.

“Most Cities Evict Their Homeless Before Big Events. Philly Is Trying Something New,” read the ThinkProgress.org headline for a story by Bryce Covert. He wrote:

When San Francisco hosted the Super Bowl in February, it relocated homeless people from particular areas, with some homeless people reporting that their belongings were confiscated, and while it said it would give them slots at a shelter, the shelter already had a huge waiting list.

When the Pope came to visit New York City, the city swept nearby homeless encampments and threatened to ticket and arrest anyone who didn’t leave. Before hosting the Republican National Convention last week, Cleveland, Ohio enacted new restrictions that effectively criminalized being homeless near the convention center.

In anticipation of the convention, Philadelphia reverted to its own, more compassionate and satisfactory Pope visit plan, concentrating on outreach efforts, and those 110 (or 110) additional beds.

A permanent feature that was created for the occasion but remains active and extremely helpful is Food Connect, an app that garnered about 7,000 meals for people experiencing homelessness, from the bounteous amount of food unused during the convention events.

Reactions?

Source: “Super Bowl disruptions more than just annoyance for Mpls. homeless residents,” MPRNews.org, 02/04/18
Source: “Super Bowl Fans Accidentally Put Homeless Minnesota Kids on the Street,” Fatherly.com, 02/05/18
Source: “Where did the homeless go in Minneapolis during Super Bowl week?,” StarTribune.com, 02/01/18
Source: “Uh-oh! Company’s coming. Get those Philly homeless out of sight,” Philly.com, 07/03/16
Source: “Most Cities Evict Their Homeless Before Big Events. Philly Is Trying Something New,” ThinkProgress.org, 07/25/16
Source: “New Beds for Homeless, Food Rescue App Ensure Lasting Impact of DNC on City’s Most Vulnerable,” NBCPhiladelphia.com, 07/28/16
Photo credit: Leif Kurth (26.3andBeyond) on Visualhunt/CC BY

In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made public the amounts that homeless assistance programs would receive in each state. HUD Secretary Ben Carson spoke of the “array of interventions” supplied by the department’s Continuum of Care grant funding.

Throughout the state of Texas, $88,239,025 is to be distributed to 205 organizations. Compared to last year’s round of grants, that’s a $2 million growth. For some, the result is even better than it sounds, because this year, there are fewer organizations to divide it among.

Narrowing this down, Austin/Travis County (home of House the Homeless) receives $5,935,642. Locally, 15 agencies were determined to be effective enough to receive the federal funds. Ann Howard, executive director of ECHO (Ending Community Homelessness Coalition), says that local supportive housing programs “have a 93 percent success rate at helping people secure and maintain housing.”

Weeks later, The Huffington Post published a leaked internal memo from the housing bureaucracy, suggesting that its mission statement would be changed to support the virtue of “self-sufficiency” and that language warning against discriminatory behavior would be removed. This surprised no one, since Carson has become rather notorious for his contrarian notions.

In public utterances, he has proposed that poverty is a state of mind, that public housing should not be “too comfortable,” and that individuals kidnapped from Africa and brought to America against their will were no different from voluntary immigrants. Shortly, Carson sent a memo around the department to make the claim that…

[…] suggesting HUD will cede its role in anti-discriminatory housing as “patently false,” adding that “the notion that any new mission statement would reflect a lack of commitment to fair housing is nonsense.”

 

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC),

The Fair Housing Task Force (FHTF) […] submitted a letter to Dr. Carson signed by 573 organizations and individuals — 164 national organizations and 409 state or local groups and individuals — condemning HUD’s decision to drop the anti-discrimination language.

NLIHC President Diane Yentel told the reporter that present-day segregated communities were created and caused by federal housing policy in the past, and governments at every level have an obligation to reverse that grave error by promoting fair housing at every opportunity. She points out that a mission statement does not have the force of law, but the law does, and should be obeyed.

Journalist Jeff Andrews notes that the role of a mission statement is largely symbolic, it does reflect accurately the reality that since Carson took control, HUD has worked diligently to roll back, erase, negate, and disregard many rules that were put in place to combat discrimination and segregation. One of these ignored mandates is the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, or AFFH, rule, which was designed to have communities use HUD data and methodology to shine a spotlight on segregation-prone problem areas.

On May 8, Elizabeth Findell reported for the Austin American-Statesman:

Local nonprofits sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Tuesday, trying to force the agency to continue recently launched enforcement of some fair housing rules. The requirement that local entities use federal housing money to “affirmatively further” fair housing policies has been part of the Fair Housing Act since its inception in 1968, but the provision only began to be enforced starting in 2015.

It took that long for HUD to insist that communities report to the agency on those efforts to “affirmatively further” fair housing. And now, HUD has halted the requirement until 2020 and, as Jeff Andrews points out, “because of the way the program works, it’s actually a delay until 2024.”

In Austin, Texas Appleseed and Texas Housers joined the National Fair Housing Alliance in bringing suit against Carson, because suspending this rule gives communities the impression that they can continue to segregate and discriminate without being held accountable. They will still continue to receive federal funds, and that’s definitely not right.

While Austin and Travis County can usually be counted on to act in a civilized manner, there could be a problem in the part of the state that is still trying to recover from Hurricane Harvey, where…

[…] the nonprofits fear that local and state agencies will not be held to the standards requiring them to move people to safer ground fairly and locate new housing in a way that reduces segregation.

 

On the other hand, there is not even a consensus of opinion about how advanced Austin itself is. City Council member Greg Casar is quoted as saying:

We do have a really serious problem in Austin. We’ve been ranked repeatedly as one of the most, if not the most, economically segregated cities in the country.

Of course HUD came up with an excuse for delaying the AFFH requirement: “a data and mapping tool the agency provided to local jurisdictions didn’t work correctly to compile the reports.” And that’s why the delay. Let’s see, that law was made in 1968, so the agency has only had 50 years to figure it out. Sounds reasonable, right?

Reactions?

Source: “Feds grant $88 million to combat homelessness in Texas,” KXAN.com, 01/11/18
Source: “Ben Carson removes anti-discrimination language from HUD’s mission statement,” Curbed.com, 03/08/18
Source: “New Draft HUD Mission Statement Removes Anti-Discrimination Language,” NLIC.org, 03/12/18
Source: “Austin nonprofits sue HUD, Carson after changes to fair housing rules,” MyStatesman.com, 05/08/18
Photo credit: Lomo Cam on Visualhunt/CC BY-SA

Recently a letter to the editor, written by House the Homeless president Richard R. Troxell, was published by the Austin American-Statesman. In it, Richard praised the forward-looking aspirations of mayor Steve Adler, who holds the totally reasonable belief that people who work in a city ought to be able to afford to live in that city.

Richard notes that when Ronald Reagan was president, funding for America’s housing programs was cut by 75 percent. Also, between 1997 and 2007, the federal minimum wage stagnated for an entire decade, and has only crept up a slightly since then.

In Austin and Travis County, the annual homeless count increased again this year. Mayor Adler’s State of the City speech in February enumerated previous successes:

From the time we took office until now, this City has incentivized or co-invested in the construction of more than 2,000 completed income-restricted affordable units — and more than 6,300 are in progress… We are on track to meet our goal of 400 new Permanent Supportive Housing Units by the end of this year… We are among the cities that have achieved effective zero in homeless veterans.

On the downside, the January point-in-time count, according to Nancy Flores …

[…] found a total of 2,147 people experiencing homelessness. During the same period in 2017, the count tallied 2,036 people. The count shows a 23 percent spike in the number of people sleeping on the streets compared with last year while the number of people living in shelters went down by 6 percent. Mayor Steve Adler attributed the decrease to issues such as lack of emergency shelter beds and temporary dips at shelters due to construction.

 

Austin has done an amazing amount, but the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) says that housing programs are already running at capacity, and there are not enough beds, caseworkers, mental health specialists, or a lot of other things. Obviously, society is still creating the need for services. More than ever, attention needs to be paid to the root causes of homelessness, which too often are rapacious greed and insensitivity to the needs and rights of all humans.

Going back to the Mayor’s February speech, Mayor Adler gave a shoutout to the City Council for its “special willingness to try new things and to put new resources behind the mission of housing the homeless.” Among other innovations, it created an Anti-Displacement Task Force to address long-standing abusive practices that have contributed to homelessness. Now it is working on the Downtown Puzzle, which could combine expansion of the city’s convention center with job creation and help for the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.

The conversation about how to tackle homelessness must include the business community. House the Homeless and Mayor Adler are on the same page about that. Even people who are employed full-time, or more than full-time, often cannot afford housing. The way things are now, working taxpayers subsidize the benefits that help people experiencing homelessness to live.

It seems like businesses should pitch in to cover the safety-net costs for the people whose work they profit from. It also seems like businesses could and should do more to prevent homelessness from occurring in the first place.

To find the root causes of homelessness, start with the land itself. Another project underway is the massive revamping of the land development code, in which many civic entities are involved. Mayor Adler says:

Austin has a rare opportunity to lead the way out of this mess. Austin is emerging as a voice offering reason and progress in a world that isn’t getting enough of either these days.

Reactions?

Source: “Letters to the editor: May 4, 2018,” MyStatesman.com, 05/03/18
Source: “Read the text of Mayor Steve Adler’s State of the City address,” Statesman.com, 02/20/18
Source: “City Council approves action plan to end homelessness,” MyStatesman.com, 04/26/18
Photo credit: Arman Jones on Visualhunt/CC BY