Yesterday was Veterans Day. Traditionally it is a day when people are encouraged to think about the sacrifices veterans have made in their service to their country and about the outstanding courage and moral character the men and women in the military demonstrate.

Unfortunately for the past several decades, Veterans Day has also been a day filled with stories about the issue of the very high numbers of low-income and homeless veterans.

Several local media outlets covered these types of stories:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1576841/WBFO.News/Legislation.Proposed.to.Help.Unemployed.and.Homeless.Veterans.

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/Homeless_veterans_stay_at_City_Mission_20091112

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wned/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1576776/WNED-AM.970.NEWS/Remembering.the.Needs.of.Veterans

The national media outlets did too:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/25078/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/opinion/11wed4.html

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/11/13-of-homeless-today-are-veterans.html

This issue, low-income and homeless veterans, should challenge the way we think about poverty. On a day like Veterans Day we celebrate and honor our veterans; praise them for their values and hard work. How do we make sense of the fact that so many veterans are homeless?

Usually when people discuss those living below the poverty threshold, it is a discussion focusing on how lazy and irresponsible those people are. How their poor judgment and poor moral character are the reason they are poor. How it is prudent and just for our society to stop trying to assist them. How they’re a burden on the respectable taxpayers. How it would be appropriate to sterilize, imprison, or otherwise remove those people who are incapable and non-productive elements of society.

Is this how we talk about our veterans who are living in poverty? Would we dare say these kinds of things about homeless veterans on Veterans Day?

There seems to be some disconnect. What makes the homeless veteran different from the person struggling to get by? Are there some veterans who deserve our praise and others who don’t? Certainly there are few people who would be willing to make those kinds of distinctions, especially just a couple days away from Veterans Day.

Veterans, individuals that we generally agree have solid moral character, can be impoverished and become homeless just as easily as any other person. The market economy does not care how “good” or “bad” a person you may be.

The homeless veteran should remind us that income in no way dictates moral character. To believe that it does would mean having a confusing and bitter view of the world.

Friends,

A number of local organizations are hosting free Thanksgiving dinners this year.  Below is a link to a full listing of dinners in Erie County.  Please spread the word!

2009 Thanksgiving Dining Room Schedule

-HAWNY

“Mr. Donovan, tear down this house. And this one. And this one. And that one over there. That’s the message federal Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan should take with him from his visit to Buffalo last week.”

So begins a recent Buffalo News editorial on HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan’s visit to Buffalo. Demolishing vacant housing seems to be the preferred policy for resolving Buffalo’s housing crisis.

However, vacant housing isn’t Buffalo’s only housing crisis. Nearly 2,000 individuals and families in Buffalo cannot afford housing and as a result are currently homeless. This number does not reflect the many more that may be doubled and tripled up with friends and family or who are otherwise precariously housed and may be in danger of losing their homes.

It is a paradoxical situation: increasing housing vacancy rates along with increasing numbers of homeless individuals. How did Buffalo get here?

This graph from the Western Regional Advocacy Project’s report Without Housing tells part of the story:

Beginning with the Reagan Administration and continuing to the present, HUD’s subsidized housing budget has been slashed yearly. Thousands of units of affordable housing have been lost.

These cuts correspond to the dramatic increase in the number of homeless individuals in the 1980’s and the steady increases in homelessness since then.

Mr. Donovan must hear about both sides of Buffalo’s housing crisis: the vacancy as well as the homelessness.

He must hear that plans to revitalize or restore Buffalo’s housing stock must make the development and preservation of affordable housing a central priority. Otherwise this twisted paradox of a housing crisis will continue to hinder any attempt to revitalize this city.

Developer Mark Croce will be receiving a $1.35 million hand-out from New York State tax payers to turn a vacant downtown building into an “upscale boutique hotel at Franklin and West Huron streets.” Croce is “convinced there’s a market for an upscale boutique hotel that offers larger rooms with some unique amenities.”

This handout is coming in the form of a Restore NY grant which is intended to “stabilize neighborhoods and revitalize urban areas.”

Which neighborhood is being stabilized here?

Who will benefit from this kind of urban revitalization? The “upscale” market Croce is convinced is out there–we’ll say those households making more than $150,000/year–accounts for about 3% of households in Buffalo.

In other words, $1.35 million of public money will be used to provide a tiny part of the community with presidential suites, pent-houses, and “unique amenities.”

This is money that could be used to stabilize or revitalize the neighborhoods of the 30.3% of people living in poverty in Buffalo, still the third poorest city in the country. This money could even be used to provide basic housing to the hundreds of individuals and families that are homeless on any given day in Buffalo.

Instead this public money will be used to help a wealthy developer provide upscale hotel suites for wealthy travelers and community members.

The County is also looking to tear down buildings in downtown Buffalo. In an effort to avoid being held responsible to Constitutional standards for jails and prisons, the county wants to build a new multimillion dollar county lockup downtown.

Hotels for the wealthy, expensive jails for the rest of us.

Is this how the people of Buffalo and Erie County want their money spent?

Does this benefit the whole or even very much of the community?

Or does it continue to subsidize wealthy developers and their clients while a third of the city lives in poverty?

With school starting up for most kids in the next couple weeks, we thought we would take some time to address the rising incidence of homelessness in families and some of the very devastating effects this has on the children in these families.

***

In America’s Youngest Outcasts, the National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH) reports that since its last report in 1999, child homelessness worsened, especially since the onset of the Subprime/Foreclosure Crisis and accompanying recession. Roughly 1 of every 50 children in America will experience homelessness. Additionally, they found that:

-Children without homes are twice as likely to experience hunger as other children. Two-thirds worry they won’t have enough to eat. More than one-third of homeless children report being forced to skip meals.

-Homelessness makes children sick. Children who experience homelessness are more than twice as likely as middle class children to have moderate to severe acute and chronic health problems.

-Homeless children are twice as likely as other children to repeat a grade in school, to be expelled or suspended, or to drop out of high school. At the end of high school, few homeless students are proficient in reading and math – and their estimated graduation rate is below 25%.

Here in Erie County nearly a third of the homeless population are homeless families. In 2008, 64.9% of families were experiencing homelessness for the first time and the most commonly cited reason for homelessness was eviction, evidence that the Subprime/Foreclosure Crises and Recession are hitting Western New York hard.

The average income for homeless families in the area was $497.90/month and 39.2% of families reported not having any source of income. Only 6.1% reported having an income over $20,000/year.

Further, a third of all women in homeless families have experienced domestic violence.

(all data from our “2008 Buffalo and Erie County Annual Homelessness Profile”, which can be found at www.wnyhomeless.org)

***

There will be hundreds (possibly thousands) of children attending school in Western New York this year that will not have a steady place to come home to. As stated above, homelessness will have profoundly harmful effects on these childrens’ development.

Already born into a situation that affords few privileges and numerous challenges, these children and their parents will have to struggle especially hard for the next several years to find shelter due to an abusive housing market that places profit above human need. Some may be able to overcome these inequalities (with a little outside help from family or friends) but many of these children and families will be condemned to minimum wage jobs and unaffordable rents, ensuring that their housing situation will be precarious at best.

The struggle to end poverty and homelessness in Western New York must place as a high priority the healthy development of all children, regardless of income. Facing enormous economic and social inequalities, these children and families need all the help they can get.

This article from a few weeks ago does a nice job demonstrating how mass media sources (conservative and liberal alike) neglect to cover structural inequalities, instead focusing on issues of individual responsibility.  Here at HAWNY we hope to provide an alternative understanding of poverty and policy/action related to poverty which focuses on the root economic/social inequalties that impoverish vast numbers of people here in Western New York and throughout the country.

News Not Fit to Print?

Structural Inequality

By DEDRICK MUHAMMAD

Last week President Obama spoke boldly about persistent racial discrimination and criticized the “structural inequality” that presents “the steepest barrier” to African American equality in the 21st century.

Speaking before a crowd at the centennial convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, he highlighted the need for government action to help tear down these barriers.

So it was a surprise to see this headline on the New York Times story covering the event: “Obama Tells Fellow Blacks: ‘No Excuses’ for Failure.”

Somehow the Times saw fit to dismiss Obama’s meaningful acknowledgement of continued discrimination and, instead, portray his speech as a dose of “tough love” to black America.

The Times was not alone, though. The Huffington Post, a purportedly more liberal outlet, titled its article “Your destiny is in your hands … ‘No excuses.’”

It is true that President Obama borrowed a page from the book of black leaders as diverse as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Rev. Al Sharpton and Minister Louis Farrakhan in outlining the need for black self-empowerment. But it was a damaging oversight to ignore the president’s recognition of systemic inequality and the policy solutions he laid out to reform these systems.

By addressing the living legacy of white supremacy, African-American socio-economic disenfranchisement, President Obama advanced the discussion of racial inequality.

The president pointed out that the African American community still suffers from discrimination and is disproportionately hurt by a recession and the boom/bust economy that has broadened economic inequality throughout the country. He included policy proposals ranging from changes to tax policy, health care, education and housing to improve the condition of African Americans.

One of the most repeated themes in Obama’s address was that the nation’s racial inequality is not an African-American problem, but rather a problem of our entire nation. Yet if you read the New York Times, you’d think the president was simply scolding African Americans for failing to live up to their potential.

I had hoped for more from the leading newspaper in the country. Not only should the Times have reported on what Obama actually said, but as is done concerning other important policy matters, it should have also examined whether Obama’s prescriptions were adequate for the ongoing racial economic divide.

As someone who studies the racial economic divide, particularly between African-Americans and whites, my strongest criticism of the address is that Obama’s policy solutions are not strong enough to overcome the structural inequality suffered by African Americans. African Americans have only 10 percent of the wealth of white Americans and they are segregated into the most disenfranchised communities. On top of that, their job loss rate has been far higher than the rest of American’s during our current economic crisis.

When I first read President Obama’s address to the NAACP, I had a mixed reaction. I was glad to have a president who saw government responsibility for the structural inequality developed through decades of discrimination. At the same time, I found myself disappointed that he did not advocate for stronger measures, like an equity assessment of all future federal spending to ensure that government funds do not solidify the racial economic divide.

Yet after reading news coverage of President Obama’s address, I realized that his discussion of structural inequality is beyond what most Americans are prepared to deal with, or at least beyond what The New York Times sees as news that’s fit to print.

Dedrick Muhammad is the senior organizer and research associate for the Inequality and Common Good Project of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. – www.ips-dc.org

http://www.counterpunch.org/muhammad07222009.html

An interesting article with useful links…

Ten Things You Need to Know to Live on the Streets

This article appeared in the August 3, 2009 edition of The Nation.

July 15, 2009

For millions of Americans, the housing crisis began well before last year’s front-page collapse. Bigotry and criminalization by an unjust system of policing and incarceration, combined with economic privation, have kept even the meager privilege of a subprime mortgage or slumlord lease out of reach for many. As the crisis unfolds, the number of homeless will grow.

Picture the Homeless, a social justice organization founded and led by homeless people in New York City, has joined The Nation to come up with a list of things you need to know to live on the street–and ways we can all build movements to challenge the stigma of homelessness and put forward an alternative vision of community.

1 Be prepared to be blamed for your circumstances, no matter how much they may be beyond your control. Think of ways to disabuse the public of common misconceptions. Don’t internalize cruelty or condescension. Let go of your pride–but hold on to your dignity.

2 There is no private space to which you may retreat. You are on display 24/7. Learn to travel light. Store valuables in a safe place, only carrying around what you really need: ID and documents for accessing services, a pen, etc. You can check e-mail and read at the library. You can get a post office box for a fee or use general delivery (free).

3 Learn the best bathroom options, where you won’t be rushed, turned away or harassed. Find restrooms where it’s clean enough to put your stuff down, the stalls are big enough to change in and there’s hot water so you can wash up. If you’re in New York City go to Restrooms in New York.

4 It’s difficult to have much control over when, where and what you eat, so learn soup kitchen schedules and menus. Carry with you nuts, peanut butter or other foods high in protein. Click here to find a list of soup kitchens by state.

5 Food and clothing are easier to find than a safe place to sleep–the first truth of homelessness is sleep deprivation. Always have a blanket. Whenever possible, sleep in groups with staggered schedules, so you can look out for one another, prioritizing children’s needs over those of adults.

6 Know your rights! Knowing constitutional amendments, legal precedents and human rights provisions can help you, even if they’re routinely violated. In New York, for example, a 2003 court-ordered settlement strictly forbids selective enforcement of the law against the homeless. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement offers another resource, and the ACLU has cards, brochures, fact sheets and films.

7 Learn police patterns and practices. Be polite and calm to cops, even when they don’t give the same respect. Support initiatives demanding independent police accountability. Link with groups from overlapping populations of nonhomeless and homeless people (i.e., black, Latino, LGBT groups) that are fighting police brutality and building nonpolice safety projects, like the Audre Lorde Project’s Safe OUTside the System in Brooklyn. Organize your own CopWatch–and photograph, videotape and publicize instances of police abuse. Consider and support models like the Los Angeles Community Action Network or the People’s Self Defense Campaign of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in Brooklyn.

8 The First Amendment protects your right to solicit aid (panhandling), especially if your pitch or sign is a statement rather than a request. To succeed, be creative, funny, engaging (“I didn’t get a bailout!”). Find good, high-traffic spots where the police won’t bother you.

9 Housing is a human right! Squat. Forge coalitions with nonhomeless but potentially displaced people in this era of mass foreclosures. Support United Workers in Baltimore, the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, the Nashville Homeless Power Project. Learn about campaigns against homelessness in other nations, including the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil and the Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa.

10 Don’t go it alone! Always be part of an informal network of trust and mutual aid. Start your own organization, with homeless people themselves shaping the fight for a better life and world. Check out the Picture the Homeless Blog for news, updates and reports on homelessness in NY.

CONCEIVED by WALTER MOSLEY with research by Rae Gomes

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090803/ten_things