Mobile Loaves & Fishes Blog

Should the disabled #homeless be fined for sitting down?

Richard Troxell is the President and Founder of House the Homeless in Austin, Texas. First and foremost he is an advocate for the rights and dignity of the homeless.  Today as this blog posts the Health and Human Services Committee of the City of Austin is debating whether to amend the no sit/no lying down ordinance to exclude people with verifiable known disabilities.  Incredulously there is a lot of opposition.  Here is Richard's point of view.  We would welcome other points of view and would gladly post.  Needless to say I support Richard's efforts to amend the ordinance.

 Between 2008 and 2010, House the Homeless (HTH) conducted several surveys and gathered others conducted by both the City of Austin and the City of Houston that demonstrated that a majority of people experiencing homelessness want to work. To that end, we have been collaborating with Mobile Loaves and Fishes in our "Let's Get to Work" Jobs Initiative.   A more recent survey conducted in 2010 by House the Homeless shows that 48%, or about half of those experiencing homelessness, are suffering debilitating health problems that are so severe that they are rendered incapable of working.

472 of the 501 people surveyed in this most recent survey felt that they periodically needed to sit down and rest from time to time, but 94% said they were unable to do so as they could not find a bench.  Compounding the situation, there exists a "Quality of Life" ordinance in Austin that prevents people from sitting or lying down making them subject to fines of up to $500.  This ordinance contains only one medical exception and that's for people already sitting in a wheel chair.  There aren't even exceptions for people on crutches or using orthopedic leg braces.   With health concerns ranging from Degenerative Heart Disease to Parkinson's Disease to Degenerative Rheumatoid Arthritis, half of the homeless population is in need of exceptions to the ordinance.

We are now promoting 19 possible exceptions that range from Disability Award letters from the Social Security Administration or the Veterans Administration to participant letters in the David Powell-AIDS Program to people standing in line at a health clinic and so on. Two city-wide stakeholder meetings resulted in two additional recommended exemptions: evidence of taking psychiatric medications or when the heat index hits 100 degrees or more.

House the Homeless has met with all members of City Council and received  favorable support.  We pointed out that if exceptions are granted (as they should be) then people will be sitting down all over the city.  We do not feel that people suffering disabilities should be sitting on the sidewalks etc. House the Homeless took 350 signatures of people requesting benches to the Mayor.  We think that as we encourage people to be more "Green" and to leave their automobiles to create a "world class city" we should provide an ample number of benches to accommodate all citizens. This should include pregnant women, people with Christmas packages and those suffering disabilities.  In response, Mayor Lee Leffingwell has directed the City Council Health and Human Services Committee to review the 19 "exemptions" requested by HTH and consider benches as part of the mitigation response.

Some social service providers have been opposed to benches suggesting their use may lead to illegal drug sales.  HTH contends that drugs can be sold in either a sitting or standing position and in any event, this is a question  of enforcement.  The benches that House the Homeless recommends  have center dividers so as to deter lying down.

The "Stakeholders" who attended the two meetings consisted of the Downtown Austin Alliance, The Austin Chamber of Commerce, about 10 uniformed police officers, their attorney, an attorney for Travis County, Downtown Community Court, City Staffers, a representative from the Omni and the Driscoll Hotels, downtown neighbors, representatives from the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, ARCH and a representative from Caritas.  They were all joined in opposition and led by Charles Betts from the Downtown Austin Alliance.  As a group and to the last person, they opposed any exceptions or any additional benches intended to be a response to this issue.  Really? A doctor working for the United States Government, determines that a person is disabled after a process that often takes up to 15 months to complete its findings is somehow unacceptable to this group? Or finding of a disability of a Military Medical Review Team for a person willing to sacrifice a leg in Afghanistan  is unworthy of either an exception or a bench?

Today, HTH continues to look toward the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, as possible legal recourse to provide the health relief associated with this issue. 

Finally, City staff members have reported that, "the Ordinance is working."  Really? For whom?  In reviewing COA No Sit/No Lying Down ord. citations secured under the Open Records Act, the Community Court  showed 2,729 tickets were issued between January 2009 through December 31st 2009. 70 tickets were subsequently dismissed with 708 convictions.  So while the HTH Survey indicated 48% of these folks had major disabilities, only 2.6% were dismissed on the basis of disability through the court.  At the same time, it has been observed by advocates that this ordinance has been used indiscriminately to sweep areas of people regardless of their disabilities.  Using the Community Court as a filtering mechanism in this instance, has proven unduly burdensome on this disabled population and ineffective. It would seem more humane and more cost effective to properly train police officers in an amended ordinance that clearly  states specific exceptions.

While it is recommended that a strict list of exemptions be identified by Council, it is none-the-less the belief of HTH that the best common sense, practical response to the issue in a city seeking to attain world class stature, would be for us to simply  provide an ample supply of benches available to all citizens.

At one point in time, it seemed ok to value other people in this country as 3/5ths of that of other people.  Almost everyone lined up behind that concept...but not everyone.

Richard R. Troxell

President House The Homeless

Author of the soon to be released book on Ending Homelessness:

Looking Up at the Bottom Line

URGENT Call to Action for the #Homeless! Please Help Mobile Loaves & Fishes Now!

Mobile Loaves & Fishes needs your help now to advocate on our behalf to the Austin City Council for a resolution that is coming before the Council this Thursday June 24th.  We need you to email, call or communicate NOW to the Council in support of the pending resolution.  The fastest most immediate way is to send one email that will reach the Mayor and each Council Member by clicking on the following link:

Email Mayor & Council Members NOW

This resolution will instruct City Staff to work with Mobile Loaves & Fishes on either gaining approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use a tract of land out by the airport or to find another suitable tract of land for us for our groundbreaking Habitat on Wheels RV Community housing model.  This is currently item # 83 on the morning Council Agenda.

You could email something like this:

Dear Mayor and Council Members:

I am writing in support of Item # 83 on the June 24th, 2010 City Council Agenda.  This resolution on behalf of Mobile Loaves & Fishes will place a very powerful tool into the continuum of care tool box by providing permanent, supportive and affordable housing to those that find themselves chronically homeless.

Thank you,

Your Name

You can learn all about our Habitat on Wheels  model by clicking on the link below:

Habitat on Wheels RV Community Model

For over five years Mobile Loaves & Fishes has been lifting chronically homeless brothers & sisters off of the streets of Austin into affordable and permanent RV's and Park Model Homes.  Today we own about 45 of these RV's that house over 55 people.  Many of our residents have been with us since its inception and over 85% have maintained stable housing for well over a year.  We are asking the City to merely provide us with a tract of land suitable for our purposes and we will raise all of the capital necessary to build and operate the community.

Thank you for your attention to this very important issue.  The community needs your help now.  Your voice (and emails!) make a big difference and are heard.

-Alan

Get the official windfall numbers here for the "I Am Here" Texting Campaign #iamhere

1,373

That's right...1,373 texts.  Let me spell that out for you so there is no misunderstanding.  One thousand three hundred seventy three!!  At $10 a pop that adds up to $13,730!  That is a mere $1,730 above our goal of $12,000 to get Danny & Maggie off the streets.  Not quite the windfall some are erroneously reporting.

As many of you recall we had this powerful campaign in April where we put Danny a homeless guy up on a billboard and asked people to text "Danny" to 20222 to donate $10 to help us get he and his wife Maggie into a home.  Go check out the I Am Here website to get a full description of what we accomplished.

For those wondering what we did with all the money we hauled in...well, we got Danny & Maggie into a home. For those reporting we hauled in $100,000 please correct your dis-information.

-Alan

Ending #Homelessness from a Socio-economic Perspective

Ending Homelessness from a Socio-economic Perspective
Guest blogger -  Richard R. Troxell
President House the Homeless
Livable Incomes Coordinator
National Coalition for the Homeless

Richard is a personal friend of mine and one of the strongest advocates for the homeless I have ever met.

-Alan

News Flash; If you think that we can just put homeless people back into a broken socio-economic system ...think again.

As we look at the socio-economic condition of homelessness, we recognize that we can view homelessness into two major categories, those who can work and those who cannot work. 

Hard working people are falling out of our work force. They are ending up homeless on our streets.  We see these people as broken individuals standing on our street corners, painfully visible and asking for help; some call it begging, others know it as panhandling.  In any event, they are no longer seen as members of a family that they once were.  Now, she lives in a shelter and he stands on a street corner...broken and pleading for help from his fellow human beings.

We respond as best we know how.  We, “the community,” brush these individuals off, detoxify, them, teach them the art of resume writing and interview talking and place them into jobs and point them to the general housing market.  Well done!  Bravo!  Everyone pitched in to help.  The entire community rallied behind our needy...our homeless.  But what has really occurred?  Who knows?  Without follow-up evaluation one year later, we won’t learn if the minimum wage job or even the $10.00 per hour job into which they were placed was or wasn’t enough to sustain them through the economic bumps ahead.  However, we do know that the minimum dollar amount needed to sustain them can be simply stated with the phrase: “Living Wage.”   A “Living Wage” is the base amount necessary for a person to afford basic food, clothing and shelter...no more no less.  This is the same vision and understanding embraced by the U.S. Congress following the Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression in the 1930s.  Then, in 1938, in response to the wage problem, the U.S. Congress created the Federal Minimum Wage.  This worked fairly well until the 1980s when because the wage was not indexed to the cost of living, or anything for that matter, our nation’s housing rents outstripped the wage being earned.  So now we must “reset” the wage just like a clock and index the wage to the local cost of housing throughout the entire United States.  Therefore, that is what we have done.  Using existing Government Guidelines, we have devised a single national formula that ensures that if a person works 40 hours in a week, they will be able to afford basic food, clothing, and shelter (including utilities).  In other words, a roof over their heads...other than a bridge.

But in further examining the idea of simply putting people back into the work force, we must explore what that looks like. Minimum wage workers work 5-6 days a week, fifty-two weeks a year.  They are only assured (hopefully) of a day off to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. Additionally, the rigorous demands of daily work are ever accelerating and continue to expand exponentially.  Think about the technological advances in the last ten years alone that range from desk top computers to laptops, cell phones, camera phones, Blackberries and i-phones with Apps.  Think of the world as a merry-go-round full of a dozen kids spinning like crazy and holding on for dear life.  As the merry-go-round accelerates, regardless of the strength of their white knuckle grips, some can’t hold on and they go flying off as the speed continues to increase.  It’s the same in the work place.  Minimum wage workers don’t get two weeks paid vacation.  They don’t get vacation time, personal time or even the luxury of getting sick.  Minimum wage workers are subject to endless stress.  As the stress demands increase, so does the pressure on the individual worker.  They must show up day in and day out regardless of their problems at home, their energy levels, or routine bouts of depression.  The instant they say, “I can’t go in tomorrow, I’m calling in sick,” they get replaced. They spin off the merry go-round of life and end up homeless on the streets of America.

It makes little or no difference what kind of worker you’ve been.  To the employer, what matters is that you show up day in and day out...no matter what.  Failure to show up every single day will get the minimum wage worker the instant boot.  Someone else is waiting in the wings who is desperate to fill the worker’s vacant slot.  Clearly, the employer must have workers present everyday to accomplish what needs to be done to advance the business.

But, what if we start “thinking outside the box with both employer and employee’s welfare in mind?  Example:  Employer with financial means purchases production equipment beyond the means of the individual workers such as a $5,000 hot dog stand.  The employer leases the use of the equipment to an individual worker or workers.  The worker operates the equipment on a daily basis as one would expect.  However, to address the employee needs for time-off, another (swing) worker is tapped to come to work and fill in the vacant times so that the equipment is used to its fullest. This is referred to as “flex” work  (please see www.mlfnow.org/Jobs fo learn about about micro economic business model to employ the homeless). In this fashion, both the employer and the employee attain what they need and want: job stability and economic growth.  This is one simple example of the kind of change and flexibility needed to enhance our chances of successfully ending homelessness for workers. 

For those who cannot work, the U.S. Congress established a government based financial support system, Supplemental Security Income, SSI, designed to provide a small monthly monetary stipend.  This is presently set at $674 nationwide.

However, ours is a nation of thousands of local economies ranging from poverty in Clay, West Virginia to the opulence of New York City. And yet, the current approach is to award a single uniform dollar amount to every individual with disabilities no matter where they live throughout America. Clearly, this “one size fits all” approach is an illogical response that has the result of leaving millions of recipients susceptible to the economic forces of homelessness.

This solution is simple.  We must index this stipend to the local cost of housing throughout the United States.  As with the Universal Living Wage, we can use the Housing and Urban Development, HUD, Section 8 Fair Market Rents to ensure that we properly index the SSI stipend to local economies across America.  This will ensure that whether someone is working forty hours in a week or struggling with disabilities, they will be able to afford the basics of life: food, clothing, shelter (utilities included) and have access to the emergency room.  And finally, if others are working by utilizing  flex work days of an unlimited nature, they will be able to re-enter the work force in a calm, productive, stress free manner, that provides them a living and the employer the work performance required for a successful business. 

We are committed to creating the systemic and attitudinal changes necessary to prevent and end homelessness.

I Got Chickens In My Backyard! How to Feed and Employ the Formerly #Homeless.

Mobile Loaves & Fishes has implemented a sustainable food project called Korpophoreo (Bearing Fruit in Every Good Work). You can see our entire concept at http://www.mlfnow.org/kp. One element of Korpophoreo is we (MLF staff and the formerly homeless now living in http://www.mlfnow.org/HOW) come to your home and build gardens in your backyard. If desired a chicken coop with chickens too!! You pay for the expense for the install and like your yard man (will be your food man) we come weekly to help you manage your sustainable food endeavors. We split the harvest 50/50. From this powerful things happen; for you you get to consume the best food on the planet and/or share the best food on the planet with your friends and family and/or all that and let our folks have more of the harvest so they can do what you do plus perhaps sell some of theirs at the local farmers markets. So our formerly homeless brothers and sisters get the highest level of nutrition available on the planet and are able to earn a little money and get connected to our creator through small farming projects. Check out the video below of our beta project in my backyard and contact us.

-Alan

Societal Honey- What the #Homeless Have in Common with the Honey Bee

My daughter Taylor wrote this as a paper for one of her classes at Mount St. Mary's University.  Her daddy is proud and I thought you would enjoy.

-Alan

I pass them everyday. They are always there, without fail. Usually I just walk around and don’t even give them the time of day; sometimes they get in my face from out of nowhere, and I flinch, as to avoid fully encountering their presence. Today, however, I broke my pattern. Today I stopped and let them charm me with their story.

People see bees as two things: a popular Halloween costume and a pesky insect, buzzing in the ear, relentlessly seeking the nectar that surrounds us. The bees tell me otherwise. As I watch them, swarming the trashcan like electrons to the nucleus of an atom, my rhythm syncs with theirs. 

I dive into their world and suddenly feel isolated, unwanted. People walk by and don’t even look at me. The buzz of thought fills my head, and I wonder where they came from. Surely the campus trashcans are not their natural habitat. Have they been abandoned by their colonies, left to survive in the man-made wild? Do they have a family or a life away from the Mount? Empathy for the bees inundates me. I feel their pain, rejected by the world, misunderstood. Nobody wants them. They stick together as rejects of the world, thriving off the company of kindred souls.

The sting of a bee is undesirable at best. It has always annoyed me, subsequently having to deal with the throbbing, the itching, the piercing pain, until alas it dissipates. This sting defines the bees, but now I see that that characterization is perhaps unjust. The bee stings defensively, not offensively. They do not swarm around in search of their next victim, but rather only sting when intruded upon. They are not evil and malicious, but rather guarded and protective. Their desire is not to harm, and passersby remain hassle-free. 

But still, people cannot stand them. It seems like such juxtaposition that something as sweet as honey can come from this seemingly vile insect. If we just got rid of them, people say, then they would not bother us any more. No more bee stings. No more swarming around our trashcans. HELLO!!! ATTENTION: WORLD! If we killed off all the bees, then who would pollinate our plants? The existence of our vegetative food supply lies in their ability to pollinate, and do not even get me started on a world with out honey!

We are so quick, as a human race, to judge solely based on the qualities that bother us. Bees are so helpful, yet we write them off because they could potentially sting us. Your neighbors could be the nicest people in the world, but because of the way they dress, you won’t talk to them. We are unable to see far enough beyond the traits that we deem undesirable to find the person within. 

I drive past them everyday. They are always there, without fail. Usually I just drive on by and don’t even give them the time of day; sometimes they come to my window, and I look away, as to avoid fully encountering their presence. Today, however, is a new day. Today I stop, and their story captivates me.

Society sees homeless people as two things: lazy and addicted. The homeless tell me otherwise. I watch them in the park, swarming around the truck that has just come to bring them food, like bees to a trashcan. Their humanity enthralls me.

I try to immerse myself into their foreign world, but something blocks me. They are too… human. They are not some animal or insect; they are human beings, just like me, made of the same fabric. Where are they from? Where is their family? Why have they been abandoned? They have been rejected by the world. Unwanted. Misunderstood. They form a family on the streets, united not by what they have in common, but by what they are all lacking – Home. I feel the sting of loneliness, of hopelessness, in their hearts. It pains me to try to imagine a life so void of love, but even my attempts fall short of their reality. This sting does not dissipate; it does not fade over time. It is not temporary. 

Every day people pass the homeless by and act as if they do not exist. Why do we fear them? They will not bother us unless we are bothersome to them. Homeless people are not generally aggressive; in fact, I have met the most big-hearted, caring and generous people out on the streets. 

In Vancouver there is a huge homeless population. For the 2010 Olympics, in an effort to make the city clean, pretty, and presentable to the nations of the world, the British Colombian government has decided to give the homeless people a one-way bus ticket out of the city. WHERE ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GO??? Homeless people are human beings. Like the bees, they cannot simply be shipped off, exterminated from their habitat. And like bees we rely on the homeless. Mother Teresa has a great saying, “When we all get to heaven we are going to owe a great debt of gratitude to the poor for having brought us closer to God”. They pollinate our relationship to God and to each other. The hospitality of merely offering a meal connects one heart to the other. 

The state of homelessness, not the people, is transitory if we allow it to be. For this is not a question of should they stay or should they go. It is a question of how we, as a society, can create a world in which nobody is forced into living on the streets. It is not acceptable for them to be pushed out of their natural habitat and forced to swarm where the food is. 

What makes the rest of us so much better than the panhandler on the street? Where do we get the idea that we deserve more or better than they do? There exists this false sense of superiority because we do not understand their story. We cannot understand what they have been through. However, if we remove the blinding judgment and approach them with love and compassion, we have the ability to transform the quality of their lives. We can get them off the streets and give them another chance at life. 

For it is not merely in their existence, but in their ability to be a part of society, that they find their purpose, and when they find it, when they realize what they have truly been made for, they produce a honey sweeter and richer than all the bees’ honey in the world.

-Taylor

"Draw Close" Music Video on the #Homeless & Mobile Loaves & Fishes

Draw Close from Kristopher Rutherford on Vimeo.

Life may not seem easy, But the solution is simple

I met Gary several years ago on a street corner.  He was panhandling to support his heroin addiction.  Coming up on a year he has been sober from this debilitating disease.  He now lives in one of our RV's that is part of our Habitat on Wheels program (www.mlfnow.org/HOW).  He is a guest blogger and he too is transforming the world one human at a time.

-Alan

   My name is Gary and I am a very grateful recovered Heroin addict. It is only by the Grace of a loving and forgiving God that I can say ‘that’ today, because left to my own decisions and free will I would still be suffering in the disease of addiction by using or no longer be here to share my story of recovery with others. Since November 1, 2008, I have not found it necessary to use heroin or other illegal drugs and only prescribed narcotic medication when necessary.
 
   The abstinence from heroin use has been a fairly simple decision for me given the knowledge of the harm and destruction it has caused me both physically and mentally. The diseases I created in my liver through precarious I.V. drug use over the last 38 years are evident in my physical appearance and my abilities today. Daily I awaken, and retire at night, with a feeling of lethargy. My ability to think with clarity and make decisions without hesitation has been affected. I refer to it as my “..foggy, drug – affected mind”.
 
   The mental anguish and humility create isolationism to not let others know I suffer like this, until I try to express or converse in detail. - i.e.: While I am clear at present what I want to say here and how I want to express it, I am reaching for the words that I could recall before by referring to a thesaurus. This is why sometimes it may take longer to write a simple letter. First, I want to say something exactly how I feel it and second, I do not want to say something that may be misunderstood and taken wrong. Anguish, humility, frustration and embarrassment are just some of the mental nuisances that create a feeling of guilt. Others may consider this commonplace in everyone’s life. The guilt is there for me because I know of the harm done to myself for continuing to use drugs and alcohol for so many years. When I do ‘get it right’, I allow my ego to take over and I have learned, in sobriety, this is just Edging God Out of the glory of my recovery.
  
    I only share all of this because I pray it may help others to think about the decision to use, or continue to use such toxins that will negatively affect them later in life; if it has not already. My God gave me the ability to love and share with others as a beacon of His love for them. The guilt and resentment created, by me, through long – term drug use reflected the wrong picture of my God’s reason for placing me in others lives, it has also left me feeling empty and alone in this world before now. I am grateful my God so loves me that today I have several individuals that express unconditional care and concern by trying to help me regain my direction in this life. I say “this life” because I feel this is only a temporary assignment until I fulfill God’s original intent, which was to live and share happiness with Him in Eternity.
 
    I write these contributions with the desire that others will become more understanding and compassionate to those suffering from addiction, and for those who have found recovery to be more empathetic to others that have reached the extremes of degradation I did. It took me a long time to reach this point in life to finally decide I was finished, but I know there is a reason I have suffered. If my suffering was nothing more than an example to show other addicts what would happen from continued drug use, or help others to see it more clearly, it is worth it to me. My God does not make mistakes. I have lived the life He intended for me from the day I was created, by Him. I will remain loyal to Him and walk the paths He places in front of me. I have not worked this program to perfection; I am making progress. I cannot expect to undo what I have done in almost 40 years of destruction in just a few short months. I have made some mistakes, but I am still sober and still learning.
 
   This morning I prayed to my God to give me the strength to carry on with the assignment He has given and the clarity to see it, without hesitating. I feel I can accomplish this by surrendering to His will for me daily and allowing Him to direct my life as He desires. No man has ever walked this earth and lived a perfect life. Even Jesus Christ questioned God why He would forsake Him, but submitted to His authority knowing it was God’s plan. I was created for His pleasure and I want to make Him happy. Because of the free will He has given me, I may be unsteady at times, but those individuals He placed in my life today I consider His angels. I know they have been sent here to guide me, as long as I let them.
 
   I pray somebody that reads this finds their God and takes the time to consider the path He has prepared for them. Decisions are not an easy task and they are a part of the free will we possess. But I hope, just for today, they reach deep in their heart and make the right decision. I thank the employees and volunteers of Mobile Loaves and Fishes for giving a human touch reflecting God’s love especially David, Kay, and Alan, and Austin Recovery for showing me, “I am not alone.”  The Solution? ; “Let go and let God.” I pray my God will continue to bless each and everyone with love, happiness, and understanding. He has me, “one day at a time”.
 
“ God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…”

~ gary

Video Chronicles of a Street Retreat with the #Homeless

Tony Speaks Powerfully on Impact of Mobile Loaves & Fishes on the #Homeless

Chance Heck & Matt Briones, students at the University of Texas at Austin, created this powerful video about Tony Carmona and the impact of Mobile Loaves & Fishes on his life as a project for their Advanced Documentary Class and it was selected for the UT Documentary Center's Student Showcase.  Tony and his wife Linda and their 28 year old son Gordy have been a part of MLF's radical Habitat on Wheels (www.mlfnow.org/HOW) housing initiative for over four years.  Enjoy!

-Alan

Mobile Loaves and Fishes: Tony from Chance Heck on Vimeo.