is it an issue? - Homeless Voice

HOMELESS
A THANKSGIVING
POEM
Twas the night of Thanksgiving,
but I just couldn't sleep
I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned-the dark meat and white,
but I fought the temptation
with all of my might.
Tossing and turning
with anticipation,
the thought of a snack
became infatuation.
So, I raced to the kitchen,
flung open the door
and gazed at the fridge,
full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey
and buttered potatoes,
pickles and carrots,
beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling
so plump and so round,
till all of a sudden,
I rose off the ground.
C
osac Quarters Hotel
for the poor, aka
what some people call a shelter
for the homeless. As some of
you may remember when we
first started we lived at a place
that was probably the worst
shelter in America. There were
people stuffed in every area of
the apartments, which later
became a makeshift shelter.
Some windows were missing,
some units had carpet and
some had bare concrete and the
rooms were painted in any
color that was donated. In
some cases rooms were painted
in two colors. The kitchen was
as old as when the oven was
invented. Some rooms had
TV's and some did not. And
some rooms were only 12 by
12 with only a bathroom and in
some case there were two sets
Sandy working hard in our new kitchen
of bunk beds and a cot between
them. The only office we had
was a one-bedroom apartment
where the on call member of
management slept between
boxes of food and newspapers
titled the Homeless Voice lined
the walls. We went from the
worst to the best in a seven(Continued on page 7)
I crashed through the ceiling,
floating into the sky
With a mouthful of pudding
and a handful of pie
But, I managed to yell
as I soared past the trees.......
happy eating to all--pass the cranberries, please!
How’s My
Vending?
Call (954)
925-6466
X101
problems
prevent
keeping
a
roof
over their head. Our
problems don’t let
the rain fall on our
heads because our
roof protects us. We
will call the “rain” a
problem and we will
consider each drop
of rain a different
problem
the
“roof” we will consider a way to keep
the problems under control. The big
question is why does
their roof not protect
them from the rain?
Because their roof
has many holes in it.
IS IT AN ISSUE?
T
his edition of
the Homeless
Voice will address
the major problems
of why people become homeless.
Most people don't
realize that it is not
just one problem that
makes a person
homeless it is usually a multitude of
problems that we
call barriers that
make and keep a
person homeless. It
is not because they
are lazy and the lack
of money is not the
number one reason
why someone is
homeless. You see
when you or I have a
problem we address
the issue and we can
address the issue
because we may
only have one problem. And in most
cases we have a little
money to get us
through our crisis.
However, when a
homeless person is
in crisis they have
many, many barriers
that create a venue
of the streets. Their
We will call “ holes”
lack of handling
their problems because they all hit at
one time with raindrop after rain drop
and this is why we
are devoting a good
portion of this paper
to mental health.
Most homeless people have
many problems sort
of like the rain that
we get when we are
experiencing a hurricane.
And these
problems such as
mental heath issues
are a real big reason
why they are still
homeless.
I hear
(Continued on page 3)
Page 2
Voice
HOMELESS VOICE
If you are not going to support the Homeless for the
upcoming holidays. Let me suggest going to an assisted living facility or a nursing home and bring a
small present to the elderly. This will brighten their
day. Remember, this is Thanks-GIVING.
-Mark
Targett
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Page 3
November, 2003
HOMELESS VOICE
IS IT AN ISSUE?
(Continued from page 1)
thing is that they may have the
ability to work but they never
people all day say, “It is their
stay at a job long
own fault,”
to get the
even when it
What about the person enough
health care benecomes
to
mental health who is already receiving fits because they
always getting
reasons. Is it
social security income are
fired before they
still their own
fault or is it and it suddenly stops get their insurance.
the fault of
because the social
Again,
society?
why
are
they deLet’s just say
security office states
pressed? Is it bewe have a
person who is that the person is doing cause it is a
d e p r e s s e d , better at the time of their chemical imbalance? Is it beand with dep r e s s i o n three-year evaluation. cause they may be
so depressed that
comes many
they went to college to get a dethings, for instance going to
gree for a nurse but then develwork. If they go to work at all
oped Parkinson Disease and so
sometimes they may be so dethey can’t have the job that they
pressed that they wear the same
went to school for. If it is a
clothes for several days and
chemical in-balance and they are
won’t take a shower. Then the
taking medication and the medipeople at their jobsite make fun
cation is not helping them (in
of their personal hygiene and
their own opinion) then they go
that in turn causes more stress so
and self medicate themselves
they go out and pick up some
with crack. Now the crack
drugs or drink to get over the
makes them worse when it is
depression. But we all know
combined with the antithat does not work. Now that
psychotic meds. Maybe they
we established that their depreshave all these problems and
sion interferes with their keeping
should be getting disability but
a job, now we must look at why
now they are on the streets trythey are depressed. Let’s not
ing to survive. How does one
forget that most Americans can’t
apply for disability when they
pay for health care even if they
don't have an address or a telehave good income. People with
phone number to keep important
no insurance have a hard time
medical examines that the social
paying for the medication let
security office requires them to
alone paying the provider. I
go through?
have never run into a psychiaMaybe mom and dad had
trist or a psychologist who will
a house and then dad gets hurt at
see a patient unless they have
work, then the employer finds
the money upfront. One more
someone to replace them because they were out of work so
long. Then because
the doctor is a company workers comp
doctor the doctor
states the patient is
ready to go back to
work.
However
dad can’t find a job because he
is still not able to fully perform
and then of course workers
comp denies any future weekly
checks. So now mom and dad
can’t pay their bills. Dad has a
chemical in-balance to start with
and is depressed so he now develops his old alcohol problem
and because he is drunk he
abuses the kids and mom with
the term we all
hear today titled
“domestic
violence.”
Mom
leaves dad and
thinks she can find
shelter at a domestic violence place
but then realizes there is no
room at the inn so she goes back
to dad who, now she realizes,
never paid the rent or mortgage
because he drank what he had
left because he is more depressed.
What about the person
who is already receiving social
security income and it suddenly
stops because the social security
office states that the person is
doing better at the time of their
three-year evaluation.
Everything might have
been going good for them but all
of a sudden someone in the social security medical department
reads on doctors notes from two
years ago the statement “Mr.
Jones seems to be doing a lot
better on his meds these days.”
Questions on
depression
see page 6
Questions on
bi-polar disorder
see page 9
Sequel Release is a
Cause for Alarm
I
n front of a camera, they beat each other for
food, beer, and money. One bloodied homeless
man pummels his foe into a public toilet. Another homeless man tears out his teeth with pliers
and rocks. Others allow teenagers to urinate on them
and scrub them with a mop, while tied to a tree.
Nothing could stop four filmmakers from
featuring these degrading and blatantly exploitive
sequences into their latest project released this month;
“Bumfights 2: Bumlife,” not even four misdemeanor
convictions, seven felony charges, three civil lawsuits, and condemnation on the floor of the U.S.
House of Representatives. Already banned in some
countries, many will consider this sequel just as
alarming as its predecessor.
The original, “Bumfights: A Cause for Concern,” was released in the summer of 2002. It too is
interwoven with “ruckus” of high school kids, and
She has no idea what even is
wrong with him she just knows
that he is “doing better.”
Better then
what?
The week
before or better then
when he first became
disabled?
So the
checks stop coming
and obviously Mr. Jones could
have no savings account because
disability is not nearly enough to
live on without starving or
counting your pennies. So what
happens next? Mr. Jones decides to try to find a job, however because Mr. Jones can’t do
much, no person wants to hire
him or they give him a chance
and then fire him two weeks
later because
he is disabled
and
cannot
do the work.
Mr. Jones has
the same luck
over and over.
People
hire
him then he gets fired once
again. By the way he has lost
his apartment by now. He is
now homeless and can’t get a
job, living in the streets unable
to take showers or wash his
clothes. Lets just say Mr. Jones
is lucky enough to get a bed at a
local shelter and gets himself
clean. He still has got the
stigma from being disabled and
a return telephone number that
stereotypes him labeling him as
a person looking for a job who is
homeless. The employer already has it in his mind about
transportation. They ask themselves, if I hire this person is he
going to make it to work or be
late because of the buses or does
he have past drug addiction and
not a desirable person who can
get a job. So now friends, we
see when it rains it pours and
when it pours it is very hard for
a town to handle the flood let
alone a single person with a
multitude of problems trying to
recover. There is one big difference FEMA does not address
homelessness as a real disaster.
Sean Cononie
Homeless Voice of Florida
scononie@homelessvoice.org
shows a man setting his hair on fire; a man who
smokes crack and defecates on the sidewalk; and a
segment of a man tying, gagging, and marking sleeping homeless men. Billed as the star is “Rufus the
Stunt Bum,” who voluntarily rams his head into fastfood restaurant signs and breaks his best friends leg in
a dangerous brawl.
When the controversy started, its burden was
of little concern to the now millionaires of the “fastest
selling independent movie of all time” according to
co-producers and Las Vegas natives Ray Laticia and
Ty Beeson.
(Continued on page 10)
In this age which believes
that there is a shortcut to
everything, the greatest
lesson to be learned is that
the most difficult way is, in
the long run, the easiest.
-Henry Miller
Voice
Page 4
WORLD NEWS
Remember last year the Homeless Voice had a protest in Washington DC at the Nigerian Embassy? We actually got invited in to the Embassy to
give them our reasons why this young lady should not be stoned to death. Why would a Homeless Agency get involved in this type of incident? This action, that was going to be taken by their government, can never be allowed to happen. To bury a person to their neck and then to
have the towns people throw stones at her head until she dies is barbaric, disgusting and down-right murder itself. When we in America allow
things to happen like this, it creates values in the future. These same values can come back here to the poor. This woman was from a town that
was poverty stricken; and we at the Homeless Voice protect the poor of this State and advocate for those who can’t in other parts of the world.
A
Nigerian Woman Cleared
of Adultery Amina Lawal,
right, holding her daughter
as she conferred with a
lawyer, Mariam Ohinobe,
in a Nigerian court. A
panel of five Islamic
judges voted 4 to 1 Thursday to overturn her sentence of death by stoning.
Amina Lawal held her
daughter, Wasila, in her
lap in the Katsina State
Shariah Court of Appeals
Thursday. Her defense
team stood behind her.
Islamic law is in effect in
Katsina and other north
Nigerian states.
mina
L a wal,
the Nigerian
p e a s a n t
woman whose
case became
known worldwide after she
was sentenced
to death by
stoning
for
adultery, was
acquitted today by the
highest
Islamic court in
her state.
A roar
of
approval
swept through
the
small,
sweltering
courtroom
when a fivemember panel
of
judges
ruled 4 to 1 to
overturn Ms.
Lawal's conviction in a
case that had
heaped worldwide opprobrium on Nigeria, Africa's
most populous
country and
one in which
the split between Muslims
and
Christians has
become
increasingly
sharp.
H e r
veiled
head
bowed, Ms.
Lawal sat quietly, holding
in her lap
what had been
cited as the
chief evidence
of her crime:
her daughter,
Wasila, now
almost 2 years
old. Ms. Lawal was to be
executed as soon as she had
finished weaning the child.
When a judge, Ibrahim Mai-Unguwa, finished
his 60-minute recitation of
the panel's ruling, Wasila let
out an ear-splitting wail, as if
to signal her relief.
Later in the day
came cries of relief from distant corners of the world.
Both Italy and Brazil had
offered asylum to Ms. Lawal.
Mother and child
were ushered into a side
room immediately after the
ruling and escorted out of the
courtroom under heavy police guard.
Hauwa Ibrahim, one
of Ms. Lawal's lawyers,
beamed as she stepped out of
the courtroom. "It is a victory
for justice, it is a victory for
the law, it is a victory for
freedom," she said. "Amina
is free today."
Ms. Lawal, who had
been living at her father's
home pending outcome of
the appeal, was sentenced
under Shariah, or Islamic
law, which has swept across
the country's largely Muslim
north over the last three
years. Human rights groups
condemned her sentence as a
violation of international
treaties against torture, which
Nigeria has signed. . The defense argued that death by
stoning was not allowed under the Nigerian Constitution.
Today's ruling relieves Nigeria's president,
Olusegun Obasanjo, a bornagain Christian from the
heavily Yoruba region in the
south. from having to intervene directly. Mr. Obasanjo
had said that the country's
Constitution would ultimately spare Ms. Lawal's
life, a possibility that carried
the potential for antagonizing
his country's largely Muslim,
ethnic Hausa north.
Ethnic violence is
estimated to have killed
some 10,000 Nigerians
since 1999. Home to 120
million people, Nigeria is
one of the world's biggest
oil exporters and is a critical economic and political
ally of the United States.
Ms. Lawal's March
No one suggested DNA tests.
The court ordered that
Ms. Lawal be executed.
2002 conviction for adultery
was overturned today by the
Katsina State Shariah Court
of Appeals, largely on the
basis of technicalities in the
application of Islamic law. It
remains unclear what impact,
if any, it will have on the
dozens of other Shariah sentences now pending before
Islamic courts, some of
which involve execution by
stoning. Just this week, for
instance, another Shariah
court, also in the north, convicted a man of sodomy and
sentenced him to death by
stoning, Agence FrancePresse reported.
Ms. Lawal, who was
divorced, had admitted to
having had a relationship
with a man she identified as
the father of the child. The
man denied the charge, swore
on the Koran, and was
deemed innocent by the trial
court. No one suggested
DNA tests. The court ordered
that Ms. Lawal be executed.
The Shariah Court of
Appeals here in the state
capital cobbles together the
rituals of British and Islamic
legal systems. The courtroom
is a former state government
building, painted sea blue.
The judges wear caftans and
turbans. Lawyers from both
sides maintain the dress code
left over from British colonial rule: black gowns and
wigs.
Today, in an opinion
read aloud in the regional
language, Hausa, the appeals
panel overturned the original
conviction, largely on the
basis of irregularities. It
found that the lower courts
had been wrong not to allow
Ms. Lawal to retract her earlier confession. Moreover,
the court ruled, the first confession was invalid because it
was uttered only once, instead of four times, as required by Islamic law, and
only one judge presided over
the first trial, instead of the
requisite three.
The panel also cited
more substantive grounds.
The police officers who arrested Ms. Lawal produced
no witnesses to fornication,
the court said. The court also
gave a nod to what defense
lawyers had called the
"sleeping embryo" theory:
under some interpretations of
Shariah, an embryo can be in
gestation for up to five years,
meaning that Ms. Lawal's
baby could have been fathered by her former husband.
The one dissenting
judge on the panel, Sule
Sada, argued that there was
nothing wrong with the way
Ms. Lawal's confession was
drawn and that her conviction should stand.
Speaking for the
prosecution, the Katsina state
counsel, Nurulhuda Mahmud
Darma, told reporters today:
"Whatever the court determines is our guidance."
The appeals court did
not accept one of the key
substantive arguments offered by the defense. Ms.
Ibrahim had argued that to
consider pregnancy as evidence of a crime inherently
discriminates against women,
and therefore violates an important tenet of Islamic
thought: that men and
women are equal before the
law.
Shariah law governs
everything from prayers and
meals to custody battles and
sexual behavior to spelling
out the punishment for
crimes like robbery and rape.
Twelve of the country's 36
states have put Shariah into
effect since 1999, though the
code does not apply to Christians living in those states.
Ms. Lawal is the second Nigerian woman to be condemned to death for having
sex outside marriage. The
first, Safiya Hussaini, had her
sentence overturned on appeal.
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Page 5
November, 2003
NATIONAL NEWS
'It's
T
he homeless epidemic is the highest in the city history.
That's how bad the situation is."
back with a vengeance.
Experts say the reasons
In the subway, commuters step around scruffy men mak- behind the surge are mostly ecoing the concrete platform or a nomic: loss of jobs, rising rents,
wooden bench their bed for the cutbacks in social programs.
But city officials, while
evening.
On Broadway, the job- not disputing the unprecedented
less peddle used paperbacks to surge, argue that they are keeping
passersby and urge supermarket pace with the demand for shelter.
They point out that not a
shoppers to drop a few coins into
single
family
a water jug.
slept
this
sumFrom the
"I never
mer on the floor
Bronx to the Bowery, the lines at soup thought I'd be at the city's
Emergency Askitchens have never
homeless," he sistance Unit,
been longer - and
the faces of the newsaid. "I was a the bleak intake
center
for
comers have never
been younger.
stable person. I homeless families, and that
"It's beginwas working more families
ning to get like the
were
moved
bad old days," said
for 15 or 16
into permanent
Geraldo
Nieves,
last
owner of Jerry Gro- years. I had a housing
fiscal year than
cery, a BedfordBMW, credit ever before.
Stuyvesant, BrookBut for
lyn, bodega within
cards, every- thousands
of
five blocks of four
people,
the
efshelters.
thing."
forts have obvi" T h i s
ously
fallen
neighborhood has
gotten worse, and the more short, as the city's sagging econhomeless there are, the worse it omy continues to devour jobs and
livelihoods.
gets," he said.
The city has no solid Lost home and BMW
Eddie Martinez, 42, a
number for homeless on the
streets, beyond a first-ever Febru- former waiter from the Bronx,
ary survey that counted 1,780 in lost his job and then spent $3,000
Manhattan alone - a figure that in savings on a futile search for
advocates say is laughably low. work.
He lost his apartment and
Officials plan to conduct another
count, of Manhattan and two then his car. He moved in with
his sister and her family, but with
other boroughs, this fall.
Officials do keep track of four people in two rooms, he
who is staying in the shelters, and couldn't stay long.
"I never thought I'd be
the numbers - especially for families - are up dramatically in the homeless," he said. "I was a stable person. I was working for 15
last year.
As of July, there were an or 16 years. I had a BMW, credit
average of 9,268 families in the cards, everything."
Now Martinez sleeps at
system each night - a record, and
up more than 1,100 from July the Bedford-Atlantic Men's As2002. The number of single sessment Center in Brooklyn, a
adults also jumped, by 495, to 350-bed shelter in a forbidding,
8,000 in July - and it has since Gothic-style armory.
"The shelter was supclimbed to 8,171, according to
the city's Department of Home- posed to help me find a job and a
place to live, but they've done
less Services.
nothing for us," Martinez said.
Economic hardships
"What we've seen under "They throw us out in the mornthis administration is record in- ing and don't let us in until 7 at
creases," said Patrick Markee, night."
He spends those hours
senior policy analyst at the Coalition for the Homeless. "It's now wandering the streets - home to
beginthousands who refuse to stay in
the shelters or are forced out during the day.
George Rodriguez, chairman of Community Board 1 in
the Bronx, said homeless men
have started bedding down in a
cluster near Lincoln Hospital's
front steps. He was so perturbed,
he spoke to the hospital director
about coordinating with city outreach workers to assist the men.
"How do I know there's
more homeless on the street? I've
seen it with my own eyes," Rodriguez said.
The traffic at soup kitchens and drop-in centers also suggests the number of street people
is growing.
The Citizens Advice Bureau's drop-in center at Hunts
Point in the Bronx was at its 75person capacity all summer for
the first time, director Carolyn
McLaughlin said.
At the Manhattan Church
of Christ on E. 80th St., about 35
men and women showed up each
Saturday last year for a shower,
hot food and fresh clothes. Now,
that number is up to 110.
Holy Apostles Soup
Kitchen at Ninth Ave. and 28th
St. in Chelsea, which serves
1,100 meals a day, has seen a
14% increase in clients in the
past two years.
Longer food lines
The homeless themselves
say their ranks are exploding.
Gary Dos Santos, 39, and
Lisa Page, 40, have been on the
streets since 2000, when they lost
their apartment, car and jobs to a
struggle with drugs and alcohol.
From their vantage point
in Central Park's Strawberry
Fields, where they sleep with
their black Labrador, Mary Jane,
the homeless population skyrocketed this summer.
"I'm seeing a lot more
people on the food lines," said
Page, a lanky blond in denim
shorts and tank top who lugs a
full wardrobe in a shopping cart.
"Now, at some places,
there's a cutoff. Like, they won't
serve more than 95. Other places,
you won't get seconds like you
used to."
Outreach workers also
have seen a demographic shift
among the newly homeless.
We are in DESPERATE need of
men's clothing and old sneakers.
Also, we need computers.
Please Call 954-925-6466
ning to get like the bad old
Barbara Winkler lives on midtown
streets.
Lisa Page and Gary Dos Santos (with
their dog, Mary Jane) lost their jobs
and home in 2000.
More and more homeless roam city
streets.
Frank Hodge takes refuge in Penn
Station subway.
"We're seeing larger
families, and that's a scary thing,"
said Debra Carfora of the Salvation Army, which runs three shelters, including the 335-unit Carlton House near Kennedy Airport.
"Instead of a mom with
one or two kids, we're seeing a
mom with four children. That
usually means they were living
independently, and it's the first
time they're in the shelter system," she said.
At Holy Apostles, program coordinator Clyde Kuemmerle is feeding more young
adults, and it's the same at the
Christian Help in Park Slope
(Continued on page 11)
Voice
Page 6
HOMELESS VOICE
Brenda’s Story:
“It was really hard to get out of
bed in the morning.
I just
wanted to hide under the covers
and not talk to anyone. I didn’t
feel much like eating and I lost a
lot of weight. Nothing seemed
fun anymore. I was tired all the
time, yet I wasn’t sleeping well
at night. But I knew that I had to
keep going because I’ve got kids
and a job. It just felt so impossible, like nothing was going to
change or get better.
“I started missing days
from work, and a friend noticed
something wasn’t right. She
talked to me about the time that
she had been really depressed
and had gotten help from her
doctor.
“I called my doctor and
talked about how I was feeling.
She had me come in for a
checkup and gave me the name
of a psychiatrist, who is an expert in treating depression.
“Now, I’m seeing the
psychiatrist once a month and
taking medicine for depression.
I’m also seeing someone else for
“talk” therapy, which helps me
learn ways to deal with illness in
my everyday life.
“Everything didn’t get
better overnight, but I find myself more able to enjoy life and
my children.”
M
any people who have depression know something is
wrong but don’t know what to do
about it. This booklet can help. It
tells you about four steps you can
take to understand and get help for
depression.
Four steps to understand and get
help for depression:
Look for signs of depression.
Understand that depression is a
real illness.
See your doctor. Get a checkup
and talk about how you are feeling.
Get treatment for your depression.
You can feel better.
Step 1 Look for signs of depression
Read the following list.
Put a check mark by each sign that
sounds like you:
I am really sad most of the time.
I don’t enjoy doing the things I’ve
always enjoyed doing.
I don’t sleep well at night and am
very restless.
I am always tired. I find it hard to
get out of bed.
I don’t feel like eating much.
I feel like eating all the time.
I have lots of aches and pains that
don’t go away.
I have little to no sexual energy.
I find it hard to focus and am very
forgetful.
I am mad at everybody and everything.
I feel upset and fearful, but can’t
figure out why.
I don’t feel like talking to people.
I feel like there isn’t much point to living, nothing good is going to
happen to me.
I don’t like myself very much. I feel bad most of the time.
I think about death a lot. I even think about how I might kill myself.
If you checked several boxes, call your doctor. Take the list to show
the doctor. You may need to get a checkup and find out if you have
depression.
Suicide
Sometimes depression can cause people to feel like killing themselves.
If you are thinking about killing yourself or know someone who is
talking about it, get help:
• Call 911.
• Go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.
• Call and talk to your doctor now.
Ask a friend or family member to take you to the hospital or call your
doctor.
Step 2 Understand that depression is a real illness.
Depression is a serious medical illness that involves the brain. Depression is not something that you have “made up in your head.” It’s
more than just feeling “down in the dumps” or “blue” for a few days.
It’s feeling “down” and “low” and “hopeless” for weeks at a time.
About 19 million Americans have depression. It can happen to anyone, no matter what age you are or where you came from.
Depression can make it very hard for you to care for yourself, your
family, or even hold down a job. But, there is hope. Depression can
be treated and you can feel better.
What causes depression?
You may want to know why you feel “depressed.” There may be several causes.
Depression may happen because of changes in your brain.
Depression runs in some families. This means that someone in your
family such as a grandparent, parent, aunt, uncle, cousin, sister or
brother may have depression.
Sometimes painful events or losses
such as deaths can lead to depression.
Sometimes the cause of depression is not clear.
Step 3 See your doctor.
Don’t wait. Talk to your doctor
about how you are feeling. Get a
medical checkup to rule out any
other illnesses that might be causing
signs of depression. Ask if you
need to see someone who can
evaluate and treat depression.
If you don’t have a doctor, check
your local phone book. Go to the
government services pages (they
may be blue in color) and look for
“health clinics” or “community
health centers.” Call one near you
and ask for help.
Step 4 Get treatment for your depression. You can feel better.
There are two common types of
treatment for depression: (1)
medicine and (2) “talk” therapy.
Ask your doctor which type is best
for you. Some people need both
treatments to feel better.
Medicine
•
Rob’s Story:
“Things in my life were going
all right. I had just gotten my
GED and was starting a new
job in a week. My family was
really proud of me. But inside,
I was feeling terrible.
“At first I was feeling
sad all the time, even though I
had no reason to be. Then the
sadness turned into anger, and I
started having fights with my
family and friends. I felt really
bad about myself, like I wasn’t
good enough for anyone. It got
so bad that I wished I would go
to bed and never wake up.
“My older brother, who
I always looked up to, saw that
I wasn’t acting like my usual
self. He told me straight out
that I seemed depressed and
that I should talk to a doctor
about it. I hate going to the
doctor. I thought, “No way am
I going in for this.”
“But after a few weeks,
I started having problems at
work too. Sometimes I wouldn’t show up because I wasn’t
able to sleep the night before.
When I got fired, I knew I had
to listen to my brother and get
help.
“I saw a doctor at the
health clinic. He told me I had
a common illness called depression and that treatment could
help. So I started to see someone at the clinic each week for
“talk” therapy. This treatment
helps me learn to control depression in my everyday life. It
has taken some time, but I’m
finally feeling like myself
again.”
Medicines for depression are
called “antidepressants.”
Your
regular doctor or a psychiatrist (a
medical doctor trained in helping
people with depression) can prescribe them for you.
• Antidepressants may take a few
weeks to work. Be sure to tell the
doctor how you are feeling. If you
are not feeling better, you may need
to try different medicines to find out
what works best for you.
Medicines sometimes cause unwanted “side effects.” You may
feel tired, have blurred vision, or feel sick to your stomach. Tell
the doctor if you have these or any other side effects.
“Talk” therapy
“Talk” therapy involves talking to someone such as a psychologist,
social worker, or counselor. It helps you learn to change how depression makes you think, feel, and act. Ask your doctor or psychiatrist
who you should go to for talk therapy.
You can feel better.
How to help someone who may have depression
If you know someone who seems depressed and may need help, here
are some things you can do:
• Tell the person that you are concerned about him or her.
• Share this newspaper with the person.
• Talk to the person about seeing a doctor.
• Take the person to see the doctor.
• If the doctor offers the name and phone number of a psychiatrist
or someone for “talk” therapy, call the number and help the person
make an appointment.
• Take the person to the appointment.
• “Be there” for the person after ho or she starts treatment.
Contact any of the places listed in this article “For more information.”
For more information: Go To Page 10
Page 7
November, 2003
HOMELESS VOICE
(Continued from page 1)
year period. That was then and
this is now.
This is something to be
Thankful for:
Thanks to the public who
built the only non-funded shelter
in the community that is a major
provider. And we cannot forget
to thank the homeless who raised
the money to make such a beautiful place come to be. One of the
ways to get a homeless person to
recover from their problems is to
teach them and to keep them
busy so their addictions don't
keep on running their lives. So
how do we do that? We do it
with every room filled with
enough channels, about 120
channels of cable TV; with a
VCR attached so they can watch
learning life skill videos as well
as watching their favorite movies. Each room is equipped with
an unlimited long distance telephone line so they can start building relationships with their lost
families who have given up on
them. A voice mail so they can
get messages from prospective
employers. Their telephones are
also equipped with a life skills
voice mail system that has a
menu to answer some questions
or to help them with depression
or suicidal thoughts. Not only
can they watch their movies from
their room we have set up 12
inch TVs throughout the building
so they can plug in a set of headphones and check out a free
movie if they did not like what
their roommates were watching
on TV. They can also check out
tapes that teach them everyday
skills. A new computer lab business center is being developed
because the last one was hit by
lightning and caused several units
to go off line. Some people say
why should a shelter have all
these amenities in life? Lets not
forget when we say the word
shelter we mean a roof over their
head. After all we really are a
hotel for the poor, some people
pay a few cents upon arrival and
some pay a few dollars. The
ones who can't pay or work for
their rooms are paid by our Cosac
Rewards Program. According to
all experts in the homeless community they claim that many people are homeless because of the
lack of affordable housing, and
that is why we created Cosac
Quarters hotel for the poor. Not
only is it cheap housing but it
comes with all the extras to allow
someone to recover from their
poverty plight. These amenities
not only provide some entertainment but it really does keep them
busy. Even for the mental health
consumers we are in the process
of getting the games for their
TVs to keep their mind in thinking patterns and to get them off
of their depression. We also
have purchased many board
games so they can play Christian
trivial pursuit or regular trivial
pursuit, they can play checkers
and cards. The good thing about
trivial pursuit is that we don’t use
the board, we make it a learning
class so they can be given hints
to let them use the process of
elimination explaining how to
read the question and to pick the
best answer which helps them
take tests correctly. We read the
question and take apart the question and help them understand
how to pick the best answer after
we break it down. It is amazing
how fun it can be to learn and
that goes for me as well. I have
learned so much from these
games. I think I slept in my high
school history class so in the long
run staff learns as well. On a real
positive note you would be surprised to see how much we also
learn from the clients who know
a lot more sometimes then we do.
Our Old Kitchen:
Our old kitchen was just
two freezers, and we had to shop
daily to feed the people. Now we
have over 10 freezers between
the kitchen and our new warehouse as well as a walk in
cooler.
We had
a fourburner
stove
a n d
I Buy at Top Prices.
E-mail Me What
You Would Like To
Sell. I Like Older
Comics.
comicsbuyrsell@aol.com
954-614-7326
only two worked and now we
have 10 burners four ovens, a
pizza oven, a grill, a fryer and
a dishwasher just like every
body else. This makes it especially easier for holidays
like Thanksgiving. We used
to serve spaghetti four times a
week and hot dogs and beans
the rest of the week. Now we
give them hash browns eggs
cereal for breakfast, lunch is
left over dinner from the
night before and the dinner
can be meat loaf, chicken
with veggies, fried fish to
steaks that we get donated.
We have grown so
much and this is why
I can say that I personally have a lot to
be thankful for the
holidays.
Programs To Help
People Recover:
In the past
we had really nothing more than church
and NA and AA
meetings that were
done when we had
time. That was then this is now.
Now since we are zoned commercial we can do some commercial services that still don't really
make us a shelter like the city
claims we are. We say we are a
low-income hotel for the poor.
Under the city’s zoning laws we
can do a lot of services that they
say we can't do. But we still
bring in the outside services so
the city does not accuse our
agency itself doing the services.
For instance we now actually
have a professional relapse prevention meeting, we also have a
coping skill class every week
which helps them pick other responses for their problems instead of picking up a bottle to
find that that answer is the wrong
one for their problem. We are a
Christian agency but do not make
them go to services but we still
offer Christian counseling services for people who want to use
God to help them through their
problems.
Even the non-Christians
use this service. We have developed a social security disability
program to help them file their
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Then
claims. You would be so surprised to see how many clients
should be receiving disability
benefits and are not because they
had no address and no one to
help them through the process.
This, too, is an outside
agency that we helped create. A
lot of the services that are provided are new agencies that we
laid out the business plan for and
made them a self sustaining outside agency that we are not in
control of but they are willing to
come in and do the services.
This is the same thing as home
health care or a caseworker coming to a person’s home to give
them services. The big part of
the homeless population can't
stay with one doctor to get their
disability benefits. With all the
health problems that the homeless have and the lack of the correct medical treatment it is very
hard for them to get the disability
benefits so we had to step in and
come up with another plan. A
plan that would give medical
treatments and a plan that would
be able to chart all the medical
problems they have to help make
their disability case stronger.
We also needed a medical staff
that understood all the problems
(Continued on page 8)
Voice
Page 8
HOMELESS VOICE
(Continued from page 7)
homeless people have. So many
medical providers have a hard
time dealing with homeless people because sometimes it takes
extra patience to deal with the
extra baggage they have such as
drug addiction and mental health
issues as well as not doing what
the medical doctor wants them to
do. Some doctors don't want to
prescribe AIDS medication to
mental health clients because
they are afraid they will take
them wrong and they are afraid
of the extra liability so they just
refuse to prescribe the needed
drugs. We have seen this two
times over a three year period
and had to fight for the rights of
one of our clients Carol Massed,
when the doctor said in his own
words, "She will take them
wrong because of her mental illness and I will not be responsible." A lot of doctors don't want
the extra calls that our clients
sometimes make because they
can be very time consuming. But
now we have one psychiatrist,
one medical doctor, one nurse
practitioner, and two nurses that
are doubled trained to handle
mental health issues as a well as
medical issues. We helped develop medical teams that would
see the clients who had Medicare
and Medicaid At the same time,
clients with no coverage could be
seen at no cost to the client. It is
like a free health care plan for the
clients who live with us. The
hospitals should be pleased to
free up their ER's from the common cold that homeless people
have to see an ER doctor for because they have no coverage or
can’t afford a regular doctor. A
few months ago we wrote about
the emergency medical training
that all our staff got certified for.
lems?” Most
Now staff
of their ancan actuswers
were
ally work
very similar to
on somethe resistance
one who
we get. 100
is in the
percent of the
process of
agencies
having a
stated
that
heart atthey were latack
to
beled as
“
childunconvenbirth. We
t i o n a l ” .
have the
About half the
tool
to
agencies redefibulate
ported
that
a
heart
there was althat is in
ways constant
crisis as
conflict about
well
as
referrals. The
ad minisfunded agentrating
oxygen to
Our Friend Named John cies did not
want to share
a person
information with the non funded
who is having a heart attack.
Why does the Homeless agency about who they were
Voice get such a bad rap from sending other than the name and
government and other provid- a small history of the clients past
services; but when the funded
ers?
With all these improve- agency called the nonfunded
ments we still have a bad image agency they wanted a complete
from the people who don't like to history of the client they were
see the homeless selling this pa- about to take. Thank God we
per you are reading. I still have found the other agencies had the
not figured out why we still are same problems. For a while we
given a bad rap. If we stopped thought it was just us, but we still
You think all the
selling this paper they all would feel bad.
respect us but they forget that this politicians would be happy we
paper funds the shelter they all are here because we don't use tax
use. From cities, to hospitals, to money to run the largest homeother agencies that have no space less provider in the community.
available, to the Broward Coali- You think they would be thanktion for the Homeless, they all ing us for giving their community
use us but because we sell this a place to keep the scores of
paper that the National Coalition homeless people from walking
has fully endorsed, not one of their streets, night or day, which
them want to give us the respect brings down property values.
we deserve. It is not because we Look at the words in the sentence
want to get respect because it before this one, thanking and givshows professionalism; we just ing. We do not need to be
want respect to improve working thanked for what we do when we
conditions so we all can help the give our hearts to the people left
homeless bet- in the streets. We just want to
ter. Since this work together. But besides all
does hurt staff the politics in the world of helpfeelings I took ing people, lets talk for a few
the liberty to minutes about what Thanksgivcontact
many ing is all about. Look what we
other programs have to be thankful for. What am
in America that I thankful for? I am thankful for
were not funded the people who have poured their
by the govern- hearts and funds into this agency
ment and they making it the only place that
all funded them- takes the ones who can't qualify
selves. I asked for the other shelters. I am
them, “Does the thankful to the homeless who
fact that you have worked their little butts off
don’t take gov- when the rest of the world states
ernment funding they are lazy by giving them the
give you prob- stereotype names and name call-
ing by saying these famous
words, "Go out and get a job." I
am thankful that God has His
Hands in this place because there
is no way possible that we could
have made this possible. How
does a bunch of people who have
no idea what they are doing create an agency like this. So God
we are thankful that You have
given us what we need to pull
this off. And then there are times
in the night when a real special
person comes to us who is in real
bad shape and they just need a
day off the streets. Or a family
comes to us when they have nowhere else to go and we either
pay for a hotel or put them in an
apartment. And these times I say
I am so thankful we are here, because if we weren't where would
these people go? That is a feeling I can't explain. Then of
course there is my friend named
John, who would make anybody
thankful after just talking to him
for a few seconds. If you want to
know about John just give us a
call and we will send you a copy
of an article that the sun-sentinel
did on December 19th 1999. If
you go on our web at
www.homelessvoice.org and on
the home page left hand side
click In the news. Once you get
to the page that has the other
news go to the story that states
“My Friend Named John.” I think
after reading that story you will
understand how anybody would
feel, once they helped someone
in crisis.
What the futures holds
for giving thanks next year?
We are still in our major
campaign to get our mortgage
paid off. We still have a long
way to go but we plan real hard
to pay off the complete mortgage
by the end of 2004 or if we can't
our next major goal is to get
someone to give us a private
mortgage of about 900,000.00 at
7 percent. If we do either plan
we can become more useful and
our expansion plans will go much
further. I ask each and every one
of you to help us out as much as
you can. I herby give you permission to organize any type of
fund raising event as long as we
agree to the type of project. Last
year someone wanted to do a
strip contest at a strip bar, we
thanked them but told them we
did not think we needed to have a
strip contest. For things you may
want to use in reference to fund
raising events, please call us.
We need to still sell about
20 tables at $1000.00 each to
churches and corporate sponsors so go ahead and ask your
church to help. Ask your
w e need reporters
Call the Hom eless
Voice at 9 5 4 -4 1 0 -6 2 7 5
(Continued on page 12)
Page 9
November, 2003
HOMELESS VOICE
Are you feeling really “down” sometimes and really “up” other times?
Are these mood changes causing problems at work, school, or home?
If yes, you may have bipolar disorder, also called manic-depressive illness.
James’ Story:
“I’ve had times of feeling
“down” and sad most of my
life. I used to skip school a lot
when I felt like this because I
just couldn’t get out of bed. At
first I didn’t take these feelings
very seriously.
“I also had times when I felt
really terrific, like I could do
anything. I felt really “wound
up” and I didn’t need much
sleep.
Sometimes friends
would tell me I was talking too
fast. But everyone around me
seemed to be going too slow.
“My job was getting
more stressful each week, and
the “up” and “down” times
were coming more often. My
wife and friends said that I was
acting very different from my
usual self. I kept telling them
that everything was fine, there
was no problem, and to leave
me alone.
“Then, all of a sudden,
I couldn’t keep it together. I
stopped going to work and
stayed in bed for days at a time.
I felt like my life wasn’t worth
living anymore. My wife made
an appointment for me to see
our family doctor and went
with me. The doctor checked
me out and then sent me to a
psychiatrist, who is an expert in
treating the kinds of problems I
was having.
“The psychiatrist talked
with me about how I’d been
feeling and acting over the last
six months. We also talked
about the fact that my grandmother had serious ups and
downs like me. I wasn’t real
familiar with “bipolar disorder,” but it sure sounded like
what I was going through. It
was a great relief to finally
know that the ups and downs
really were periods of “mania”
and “depression” caused by an
illness that can be treated.
“For four months now, I’ve
been taking a medicine to keep
my moods stable and I see my
psychiatrist once a month. I
also see someone else for “talk”
therapy, which helps me learn
how to deal with this illness in
my everyday life.
“The first several
weeks were hard before the
medicine and talk therapy
started to work. But now, my
mood changes are much less
severe and don’t happen as often. I’m able to go to work
each day, and I’m starting to
enjoy things again with my
family and friends.”
Many people who have bipolar
disorder don’t know they have it.
This article can help. It tells you
about four steps you can take to
understand and get help for bipolar disorder.
Four steps to understand and get
help for bipolar disorder:
Look for signs of bipolar disorder.
Understand that bipolar disorder is
a real illness.
See your doctor. Get a checkup
and talk about how you are feeling.
Get treatment for your bipolar
disorder. You can feel
better.
Step 1 Look for signs of bipolar
disorder.
Read the following lists.
Put a check mark by each sign that
sounds like you now or in the past:
Signs of mania (ups)
I feel like I’m on top of the world.
I feel powerful. I can do anything
I want, nothing can stop me.
I have lots of energy.
I don’t seem to need much sleep.
I feel restless all the time.
I feel really mad.
I have a lot of sexual energy.
I can’t focus on anything for very
long.
I sometimes can’t stop talking and
I talk really fast.
I’m spending lots of money on
things I don’t need and can’t afford.
Friends tell me that I’ve been acting differently. They tell me that
I’m starting fights, talking louder,
and getting more angry.
Signs of depression (downs)
I am really sad most of the time.
I don’t enjoy doing the things I’ve
always enjoyed doing.
I don’t sleep well at night and am
very restless.
I am always tired. I find it hard to
get out of bed.
I don’t feel like eating much.
I feel like eating all the time.
I have lots of aches and pains that
don’t go away.
I have little to no sexual energy.
I find it hard to focus and am very
forgetful.
I am mad at everybody and everything.
I feel upset and fearful, but can’t
figure out why.
I don’t feel like talking to people.
I feel like there isn’t much point to
living, nothing good is going to
happen to me.
I don’t like myself very much. I
feel bad most of the time.
I think about death a lot. I even
think about how I might kill myself.
Other signs of bipolar disorder
I go back and forth between feel-
ing really “up” and feeling really
“down.”
My ups and downs cause problems
at work and at home.
If you checked several boxes in
these lists, call your doctor.
Take the lists to show your doctor. You may need to get a
checkup and find out if you have
bipolar disorder.
Step 2 Understand that bipolar
disorder is a real illness.
Bipolar disorder is more than the
usual ups and downs of life. It is a
serious illness that involves the
brain. The up feelings are called
mania and the down feelings are
called depression.
Most people with bipolar disorder
go back and forth between mania
and depression. Some people have
both feelings at the same time,
which is called a mixed state.
More than 2 million Americans
have bipolar disorder. It can happen to anyone, no matter what age
you are or where you come from.
What causes bipolar disorder?
You may want to know why you
feel these extreme ups and downs.
There may be several causes.
Bipolar disorder may happen because of changes in your brain.
Bipolar disorder tends to run in
families. This means that someone in your family such as a
grandparent, parent, aunt, uncle,
sister, or brother may have bipolar
disorder.
Sometimes the cause of bipolar disorder is not clear.
Bipolar disorder is a serious illness, but it can be treated. You
can feel better.
Step 3 See your doctor.
Don’t wait. Talk to your doctor
about how you are feeling. Get a
medical checkup to rule out any
other illnesses that might be causing your mood changes. Ask your
doctor to send you to a psychiatrist
(a medical doctor trained in helping people with bipolar disorder.)
If you don’t have a doctor, check
your local phone book. Go to the
government services pages (they
may be blue in color) and look for
“health clinics” or “community
health centers.” Call one near you
and ask for help.
Step 4 Get treatment for your bipolar disorder. You can feel better.
There are two common types of
treatment for bipolar disorder: (1)
medicine and (2) “talk” therapy.
Having both kinds of treatment
usually works best. It is important
to get help because bipolar disorder can get worse without treatment. Bipolar disorder is a longterm illness that needs to be
treated throughout a person’s lifetime.
Medicine
See the psychiatrist your doctor
suggests. He or she can prescribe
medicines that work to control
your moods. These medicines are
called “mood stabilizers.” You
also may need to take other medicines to help treat your illness.
The medicines may take a few
weeks to work. Be sure to tell
your psychiatrist how you are feeling. If you are not feeling better,
you may need to try different
medicines to find out what works
best for you.
Medicines sometimes have
unwanted “side effects.”
You may feel tired, have
blurred vision, or feel sick
to your stomach. Tell
your psychiatrist if you
have these or any other
side effects.
“Talk” therapy
“Talk” therapy involves talking to
someone such as a psychologist,
social worker, or counselor. It
helps you learn to change how
bipolar disorder makes you think,
feel, and act. Ask your doctor or
psychiatrist who you should go to
for talk therapy.
You can feel better.
How to help someone who with
severe mood changes
If you know someone who is having severe mood changes
and may need help, here are some
things you can do:
• Tell the person that you are
concerned about him or her.
• Share this newspaper with the
person.
• Talk to the person about seeing a doctor.
• Take the person to see the
doctor.
• If the doctor offers the name
and phone number of a psychiatrist or someone for “talk” therapy, call the number and help the
person make an appointment.
• Take the person to the appointment.
• “Be there” for the person after he or she starts treatment.
• Contact any of the places
listed in this article “For more
information.”
• For more information: Go
To Page 10
Voice
Page 10
NATIONAL NEWS
profiteering. Though the site said
Sales were steady until explicitly “No Bum Footage,” If I
famed “news” radio host Howard had learned one thing it was that
Stern exulted the movie as these kids never really mean
“Jackass to the extreme . . . I’m what they say. I recently emailed
shocked and I’m not shocked by the producers explaining to them
much. You gotta see this.” At- that I dressed up like a cop, tacktention then spread like brushfire led sleeping homeless people,
to nearly every major national tied them up and gagged them,
media station and paper, and kicked them a few times, and
within a week it had gained inter- then painted them. I, of course,
national attention as people in insured them that I paid each $5
Europe and the Middle East and got them to sign release
started placing in orders over the forms, after the attacks that is. In
net at www.bumfights.com. the same day I received their reSales rose sharply to 300,000 sponse: “Sounds great. Send it
in. By the
copies of the
show
$19.99 videotape This video includes scenes way,
love
to
the
in a few weeks,
of twenty year olds
bums.
We
along with other
driving around in their love
the
merchandise including
thou- SUV asking homeless men bums.”
Some
say
sands of “Rufus
kids
the Stunt Bum” for directions, punching that
can’t separate
sweaters.
them, and then
reality with
The legal
driving away
fiction
and
course turned out
laughing hysterically. in-turn has
to be more of an
fueled youth
annoyance to the
filmmakers than any sort of bar- violence. But this video isn’t
rier, and maybe not even that fiction. Kids get the idea that this
considering the extended media harassment is ok, older teens recoverage it gained from the alize they probably won’t get
eight-month process. As the case caught, and twenty year olds condisintegrated each step of the coct projects in which they too
way; charges dropped and down- can make money off of similar
graded, the four filmmakers exploitations. Like the producers
ended up sentenced to a three- of a new video in Canada, with a
year probation, $500 fine, and flashy website like bum250 hours of community service fights.com called “Crazy Pricks.”
for the homeless. I wonder if the This video includes scenes of
two would consider this sequel twenty year olds driving around
viable hours. I pity the social in their SUV asking homeless
worker that gets stuck with these men for directions, punching
them, and then driving away
two.
So over the hurdles with laughing hysterically.
So it is no surprise that
the first trial, the filmmakers will
unlikely face another; fully aware two most recent cases that octhat activist watchdogs and media curred last August involved camwill be looking for any possible corders. In Chicago, four teenagslip-up to prey on. All of this ers videotaped themselves beatleading to the ultimate conclu- ing up and urinating on homeless
sion; that though maybe in bad people. In Cleveland, teenagers
taste, there is nothing illegal videotaped themselves shocking
about this sort of filming, or use homeless men
of people who suffer from mental in their genitals
disorders, drug addictions, alco- with stun guns.
holism, or just down and out bad “I’ve never seen
anything like it
luck. So what now?
People like myself may in 18 years, exnow even participate in this cept on TV,”
(Continued from page 3)
If You Are
Suicidal call
888-256-HELP,
let the Homeless
Voice help you.
said Sgt. Ray Burner, whose seen
the tapes of the Cleveland incident. “Did you ever see the
movie ‘Jackass?’ Well, that’s
essentially what we’re talking
about.”
So what began as two
kids goofing around trying to
make some money has turned
into a loose-knit terrorist network
of pranksters. Leaving the risky
work to kids getting paid anywhere from $10-100 for footage.
This al-quiedanesque strategy
makes it impossible for any real
investigations to swell, with
crimes spread across a vast geography. Leaving us to only wonder: How deep does this run?
The answer is not an
easy one. Homeless people don’t
have a cell phone to call 911,
many are not considered reasonable witnesses because they suffer from alcoholism or mental
illness, police don’t specifically
track hate crimes against those
experiencing homelessness, and
all the while municipalities
across the country are passing
anti-vagrancy/homeless laws
pushing the most vulnerable
population into the shadows and
isolated situations. In the case of
the original “Bumfights,” no investigation was ever sought until
a nurse had realized that Rufus
Hannah and his friend had been
admitted to the hospital several
times during filming. In the end,
homeless people are usually
hopeless of justice or protection.
The National
Coalition for the Homeless
(NCH) released a four year study
(1999-2002) on hate crimes and
National Institute of Mental Health
(NIMH)
Free call: 1-800-421-4211
Toll call: 301-443-4513
Hearing impaired (TTY): 301-443-8431
Web site: http://www.nimh.nih.gov
E-mail: nimhinfo@nih.gov
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI)
Free call: 1-800-950-6264
Toll call: 703-524-7600
Web site: http://www.nami.org
National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association (NDMDA)
Free call: 1-800-826-3632
violence committed against
the homeless and noticed an
alarming trend in abuses.
This report can be found on
www.nationalhomeless.org.
In many cases, young people
– in some cases, packs of
them – were responsible for
the attacks. In the past four years
212 hate crimes and violent acts
have been reported. Of the 212
attacks, non-homeless attackers
have killed 123 homeless people.
The oldest seventy four years
old; the youngest four months
old, homeless people have been
pelted with paint balls, beheaded,
set on fire, clubbed with 2 by 4s,
doused with lye, stabbed, and
other varieties of execution; indiscriminate and vicious solely
because these people have no
home.
In response to this serious trend, longawaited sequel, and the start-ups
of look-alike production companies, the NCH along with over
400 other organizations are requesting a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation
into the scope and extent of violent acts against homeless people.
As of now, no one really knows
how far this problem reaches into
our culture. But in a country
where such lucrative abusive
business is legal, I often wonder
what Howard Stern finds so
shocking.
For the full report on
how the film was made, legal
proceedings, and press reports
visit www.nationalhomeless.org
Chris Herring is a 19-year old
Civil Rights Intern at the National Coalition for the Homeless
and can be reached at cherring@nationalhomeless.org.
By Christopher Herring
Toll call: 312-642-0049
Web site: http://www.ndmda.org
National Foundation for Depressive
Illness, Inc. (NAFDI)
Free call: 1-800-2391265
Toll call: 212-268-4260
Web site: http://www.depression.org
National Mental Health Association
(NMHA)
Free call: 1-800-969-6642
Toll call: 703-684-7722
Free call- hearing impaired (TTY): 1-800433-5959
Web site: http://www.nmha.org
Page 11
November, 2003
HOBO JUNGLE
(Continued from page 5)
soup kitchen in Brooklyn.
"We've seen a lot of new
faces," said director Sister Mary
Maloney. "You can tell who are
the people who have never been
homeless before. ... They're very
quiet, they're ashamed."
Alexander Lorient, 31,
fits that bill.
Last summer, Lorient
was renting a room in the Bronx
and earning $6.50 an hour as a
dishwasher at a fancy midtown
steakhouse.
Then he got pushed onto
the subway tracks and was laid
up for two weeks. When he returned to work, they handed him
$36 and his walking papers.
Unable to find a new job,
he fell behind on his rent and was
evicted. On Sept. 5, he joined the
ranks of the city's homeless.
Now he spends his nights
at Bedford-Atlantic.
"Before, I didn't understand how homeless people
would sleep on the street instead
of the shelter - but now I do," he
said.
Asked to describe what it
is like to become homeless, Lorient didn't have to search for
words.
"It's hell on Earth," he
said.
With Madeleine Baran, Melissa
Grace and Fernanda Santos
Big effort, bigger bucks
City officials do not dispute that homelessness in New
York has reached an all-time
high.
But Bloomberg administration staffers argue they are
doing more than ever to get people off the streets and back into
their own homes, even as the
city's economy drains jobs.
They point out:
· More homeless families —
5,539 — were moved into permanent housing last year than ever
before. The moves came as
Mayor Bloomberg increased by
110% the number of subsidies
and public housing apartments
available to homeless families.
· While still high, the number of
homeless families has remained
basically flat, around 9,200, since
January, as more families are
moved into permanent housing.
· Police transported 5,460 people
to shelters last year, an increase
of 140% over the year before.
They also arrested 2,776
homeless people for lying in
doorways and other, more serious
crimes — three times more than
in 2000.
"Everything we do is
about moving people out of
homelessness and into permanent
housing," said Linda Gibbs, commissioner of the Department of
Homeless Services.
But all this comes at a
price. Last year, the city spent
$391 million in city, state and
federal dollars on sheltering an
average of 9,230 homeless families every night — more than
double the $190 million spent in
1998, when the average population was 4,516 families per night.
That doesn't include the
millions of dollars to place the
homeless in permanent housing
— although much of that is reimbursed by the feds.
David Saltonstall
ON THE ROAD
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FIND THE WORDS BELOW
Bucket
Caps
Cars
Children
Coins
Collectors
Dollars
Donation
Families
Help
Do not wait for
leaders; do it
alone, person to
person.
Mother Teresa,
1910 - 1997
Homeless
Newspapers
Public
Rain
Shelter
Smile
Sun
Thanks
Traffic
Tshirt
Vendor
Wind
I CHOSE…
TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY
I could have saved a life that day But I chose to look the other way. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, I had the time, and I was there. But I didn’t want to seem a fool, Or argue over a Safety Rule. I knew he’d done the job before, If I called it wrong, he might get sore. The chances didn’t seem that bad, I’ve done the same, he knew I had. So I shook my head and walked on by, He knew the risks as well as I. He took the chance, I closed an eye, And with that act, I let him die. I could have saved a life that day, But I chose to look the other way. Now every time I see his wife, • Talk to your Human Resource Manager
about how you can donate money to help
the homeless thru a payroll deduction for
the COSAC Foundation
American Express Will Match Any
Donation Their Employee Makes
(Continued from page 8)
employer to help. This will make our July 2004 dinner a success. We need corporate sponsors, we need private mortgages, or even better, one hell of a mortgage
paper burning ceremony, and we need your help. Please continue to support us
and if you don’t have the money to help us, simply pray for us. One way or another we will get this done. On a special note God, we give you praise and thanks
for giving us what we needed to make this possible. Our campaign still exists we
still need another……………
HELP PAY OFF OUR MORTGAGE
We need just
42,050 people to send in a check for $20.00,
Or
16,820 people to send in a check for $50.00,
Or
8,410 people to send in a check for $100.00,
Or
841 people to send in a check for $1,000, Or
Just one wonderful person or
business to send a check for
the entire $841,000.00
Remember the donation is tax
deductible!!
Please send your checks to:
The COSAC Building Fund
P.O. Box 292-577
Davie, Florida 33329
We do thank you
Do not buy a paper
from him.
This man
was arrested.
He is not authorized to ask for donations
for the Homeless Voice or
Helping People In America.
If you see
this man wearing one of our shirts please call our Loss Prevention Department at 954-214-8529. If for some reason you cannot get a hold of us you may call the Police.
He sometimes wears a black stocking on his head.
He uses these intersections but May use more
than what is listed:
Commercial -411
Commercial and 31 St.
Commercial and Powerline
Oakland and 441
Oakland and 31st
McNab and University Drive
Commercial and University
Commercial and Rock Island
McNab and Rock Island
Cypress and Powerline
McNab and 31st
Keep in mind
that he may even try to go to Dade
in the future.
This Issue, Vendors should be wearing a bright yellow shirt with
‘Homeless Voice’ in black on the front and back No other shirt colors
should be used. If you see any other color shirts with this issue, please
call LOSS PREVENTION at 954-920-1277
P le a se H e lp …
T h e R a in is D ro w n in g U s
D O N AT E O N L IN E … @
b y u s in g
w w w.H o m e le s s Vo ic e .o rg