HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT:100's Of Thousands Denied Access To Public Housing Due To Petty Crimes

Roll Back The Rents
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In todays grim tenant/housing news...

Today is the start of National Homeless Week and it is no secret that the Bush agenda will increase the homeless population by hundreds of thousands in the very near future if it is allowed to pass...

Despite the outcry of the elderly, disabled and the poor, the Bush administration continues to pressure the House & Senate to gut the Section 8 program by $1.6 billion for fiscal year 2005 which will result in the displacement of at least 250,000 people from their housing...

In another silent disaster thats been unfolding through the years, Human Rights Watch released a report today claiming that hundreds of thousands of Americans are denied access to public housing over petty crimes...

As outrageous as it sounds, Miami is about to make it a crime to feed the poor...

Plus plenty more...

Roll Back The Rents

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Point of View
From the National Low-Income Housing Coalition

The rumors on the HUD budget are not good. Despite the wholesale rejection by both the Senate and the House Appropriations Committees of the Administration’s proposal to cut the housing voucher program by $1.6 billion, the White House is said to be pressuring the negotiators on the omnibus bill to accept the Administration’s numbers for the program.

Click below for full view point...

http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm9-44.html#1

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Minor Crimes Exclude U.S. Poor from Housing - Group

Mon Nov 15, 5:48 PM ET


U.S. National - Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of poor people are denied access to public housing in the United States because they have criminal records, sometimes for crimes as petty as shoplifting, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday.

The criteria for excluding them are needlessly overbroad and can deny some people public housing for life, regardless of any rehabilitation, the New York-based group said.

"Everyone deserves safe housing, but these policies yield more misery and desperation than public safety," said Corinne Carey, researcher for Human Rights Watch's U.S. program.

Established to protect housing developments from dangerous tenants, such policies automatically exclude applicants with certain criminal records. But people are excluded for often minor and long-ago offenses that have no bearing on public safety, the group said.

According to the report, in Pittsburgh, for example, an arrest for shoplifting leads to automatic exclusion for four years. In Austin, Texas, authorities automatically reject for seven years anyone convicted of possessing a small amount of marijuana, it said.

The group said there is no nationwide data on the number of people excluded because of criminal records.

But the group estimated at least 3.5 million are currently ineligible for public housing. They often end up among the estimated 12.5 million Americans who are homeless, it said.

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Appropriations Work in High Gear

Congress comes back on Tuesday, November 16 for a lame-duck session. It is expected that the session will not last longer than a week, during which time appropriations bills and raising the debt ceiling are on the agenda.

Domestic spending legislation is expected to be gathered into an omnibus bill, but a major disagreement between the House and the Senate over the total cost of the package will make this a difficult bill to pass. The total spending package from the Senate is $8 billion over the spending cap. The House is not over the cap. Resolving this $8 billion difference will be difficult and could result in an across the board cut that would include housing programs.

Click below for full report...

http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm9-44.html#2

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Miami Commission may make feeding the poor a crime:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Noaki Schwartz
Miami Bureau
Posted November 15 2004

Miami -- Don't even think about sharing any of that leftover Thanksgiving dinner with the homeless -- at least not in public.

Exactly two weeks before holiday feasting begins, the Miami City Commission on Thursday may ban feeding the homeless on city property. Those who flout the law by offering a turkey leg or illegal spoonful of mashed potatoes to the needy could get a warning. After the 90-day moratorium, these scofflaws will be fined and could face arrest for repeatedly loitering or obstructing city streets.

In 1992, the city was sued and lost in federal court for its frequent police sweeps and roundups of the homeless. Ten years later, the city was again at odds with advocates when it approved a new law prohibiting the homeless from camping in public places. Those who were found living on city streets under blankets or cardboard would face a $500 fine and 60-day jail term if they turned down a shelter bed.

Around the same time, Commissioner Johnny Winton, whose district includes downtown, started what he called a "battle" to stop public feedings.

"I was sick and tired of the churches from ritzy neighborhoods marching into Miami and opening up shop in the middle of the street and feeding the homeless," he said.

Click below for full story...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-dhomeless15nov15,0,1546761.story?coll=sfla-news-miami

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HUD Releases New Data related to FMRs

In the past few weeks HUD has released two datasets related to the Fair Market Rents (FMRs). The first is HUD’s 50th percentile rent estimates for all FMR areas, released on Friday, October 29. Fiftieth percentile rents can be used as FMRs in public housing agencies in 39 metropolitan areas. They can also sometimes be used in tight markets when voucher holders encounter difficulties in using their vouchers. View these estimates at: http://www.huduser.org/datasets/50per.html.

Also released was a public use data set that approximates the local rent distribution data HUD used to rebenchmark the FY05 FMRs.

Click below for full report...

http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm9-44.html#5

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Article Last Updated:
Monday, November 15, 2004 - 3:52:54 PM PST

Displaced tenants find new housing

Cause of blaze at former Naval base still under investigation

By STAFF WRITER

ALAMEDA -- Residents of an apartment complex on the former Naval Air Station that burned Friday night have found alternative housing elsewhere in the city.

A two-alarm fire ripped through four second-story units of an apartment complex used to house formerly homeless women and children. Six units of the 19-unit building were affected by the fire, causing about $250,000 in damage to the structure and $50,000 in damage to contents inside.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Click below for full story...

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~2536348,00.html

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Homeless group wants to bunk in new City Hall
 
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has said "no" to a request to let the homeless sleep inside the new City Hall on cold winter nights.

Monday, November 15, 2004

Homeless group wants to bunk in Seattle's new City Hall
By GORDY HOLT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

As the weather outside grows colder, the politics of homelessness again are heating up. And the city of Seattle and the homeless organization SHARE/WHEEL again are at loggerheads.

This time, however, no one is kicking anyone out. Mayor Greg Nickels is merely saying "no" to a request to use City Hall now that SHARE has decided to leave Sacred Heart Catholic Church on lower Queen Anne.

Conditions deteriorated there, a SHARE spokesman said yesterday, after its 50 members -- mostly men -- had to vacate an upper floor newly rented by the church to a high school group. They moved to the church's basement cafeteria, where another group of 50 men already makes camp.

"One toilet and one urinal for 100 guys? Just won't work," said Mark, a SHARE organizer who would not give his last name.

Click below for full story...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/199679_homeless15.html?source=rss

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Vermont Resolution

In Vermont, the city of Burlington is poised to pass a resolution urging Vermont’s congressional delegation and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns to work to block the Section 8 cuts affecting Burlington and the surrounding area. If HUD does not restore the necessary funding, the resolution says that as many as 207 families will lose their vouchers in the coming year. The resolution projects that the number of voucher losses will double by 2009. The Mayor of Burlington, Peter Clavelle, is also directed by the resolution to advise HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson of the city’s opposition to the cuts.

No Assistance in Flagstaff, AZ

The executive director of the Flagstaff Housing Authority, Mike Gouhin, reported in the Arizona Daily Sun that the programs designed to help homeless families don’t have the necessary federal funds.

There are 265 units of public housing in Flagstaff and no vacancies. There are an additional 560 families on the waiting list. The Section 8 program currently provides rental assistance to 327 with 358 families on the waiting list. Gouhin said that the average stay for families in bothpublic housing and Section 8 is two years, and so families can expect to wait at least that long before a voucher becomes available.

http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm9-44.html#8

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B'Tselem blasts IDF home demolitions
 
Jerusalem Post - Nov 15
Israel has demolished 628 Palestinian housing units as a punitive and deterrent measure against terrorist acts since the beginning of the current intifada but in almost half the cases, a human rights organization charged on Monday, the perpetrator never lived in the demolished unit.

Click below for full story...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1100492202904&p=1006688055060

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Homelessness a focus for many

By LAUREN PHILLIPS
The State News

The State News - Nov 14
Every night at about 6 p.m., men from the Lansing area shuffle into a door marked by a large neon sign, a white cross with the words "Jesus Saves" glowing red through the dark.

They shake off the cold and shed thick layers of winter clothing. They rub their arms and blow into their hands, welcoming the warmth of the shelter from the cold November night as they enter the City Rescue Mission of Lansing, 613 E. Michigan Ave.

They register for the night and gather in the chapel area. After a short chapel service, the men line up as volunteers scoop out multicolored dishes onto their plates. As they eat dinner, there is loud chatter and laughter.

Although each face is different, these men share a common bond - they all are homeless.

"There are between 39,000 and 43,000 homeless in Michigan," said Christina Riddle, executive director of MCAH, an organization that provides technical assistance to shelters around Michigan.

Click below for full story...

http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=26967

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Daly leads S.F.'s Bolshevik revolution
 
San Francisco Chronicle - Nov 15
IT SHOULD COME as no surprise that San Francisco has a permanent housing crisis. It's the one area of public policy where reason can't find a home.

Click below for full story...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/15/EDGD99EORH1.DTL

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Homelessness increasing months after hurricanes
 
Miami Herald - Nov 13
The number of people made homeless by the hurricane quartet that hit Florida is growing: Some are finally abandoning uninhabitable homes.

Click below for full story...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/10169553.htm

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New Report Requests More Housing Funds for Growing Western Towns

The Rural Collaborative, a non-profit housing network in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah, recently published “Home on the Range: Why America’s Rural West Needs More Housing Support.”

Click below for full report...

http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm9-44.html#14

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Cherry Street Mission Passes Capacity
 
ABC Toledo Ohio - Nov 15

It's only November but the shelter is already having trouble helping everyone in need.

Officials with the Cherry Street Mission say they're trying to find more room to serve the city's homeless population. They say they're already running at about 120% of their first floor capacity, which is between 82 and 87 men each night.

The Cherry Street Mission recently doubled its capacity to help more men, but officials say it isn't enough.

Click below for full story...

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/news/CherryStreet.html

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NEOC, HUD dispute gets another push
 
Lincoln Journal Star - Nov 15
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has given the state Legislature an additional six months to tighten access to records of housing discrimination investigations.

Click below for full story...

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/11/15/local/doc41981af42d03d342112715.txt

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Homelessness is way of life for mission volunteer
 
Porterville Recorder Online - Nov 13
Imagine waking up every morning and not being able to go to the restroom to splash hot water on your face. Imagine living down in the Tule River. One local woman doesn't have to use her imagination. It's her life.

Click below for full story...

http://myopr.com/articles/2004/11/13/news/local_state/news01.txt

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The Criminalization of Homelessness

http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm9-44.html#15

The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has released Illegal to be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States, a comprehensive study of homeless civil rights violations. This study is also a survey of current laws that criminalize homeless people and ranks the top “meanest” cities and states in the country.

This report also documents laws specifically enacted to target homeless people – including anti-camping, anti-panhandling, and loitering laws – but also looks at police abuse of existing laws in an overly broad fashion in order to move homeless people into jails or at least out of sight.

The report is available at: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/crimreport/index.html

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The voice behind the movement
 
King County Journal - Nov 15
Survival is a political act, says homeless advocate Anitra Freeman -- and that includes the tent city projects in Seattle and the suburbs. And love them or hate them, the roving encampments appear to be here for the duration.

Click below for full story...

http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/178465

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Street living is the focus of awareness week
 
Detroit Free Press 

November 15, 2004

BY NATE TRELA
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

It's been a rough year for people who live on the streets in Macomb County.

In September, a group of teens was arrested after homeless men living under a bridge in Clinton Township told police the boys threw rocks at them -- the first reported random violence against homeless people in the county in recent memory.

And at least five homeless people died during the last six months -- including one who rolled into the Clinton River and drowned as he slept under a bridge in Mt. Clemens and another who died from liver disease as he lay in a dumpster in Warren.

Physical attacks against homeless people in Detroit are hard to track, McPhaul said, because police are usually only contacted when serious injuries happen.

"But you'll see kids hollering at homeless people. Just go down Third Street, and you can see the negative attitudes toward the homeless," she said

Click below for full story...

http://www.freep.com/news/locmac/vigil15e_20041115.htm

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Homeless get helping hand 

Oakland Press - Nov 14
For information, visit http://www.commongroundsanctuary.org or call (248) 547-2260. At age 14, Ali was on the streets - living in a park and contemplating robbery so he could eat.

Click below for full story...

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/111504/loc_20041115024.shtml

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Local Groups Respond to FMRs

As reported last week in Memo (November 5) the period for public comments on the FY05 FMRs officially closed on November 5. Since then NLIHC has received copies of the public comments submitted by a number of local and national groups, and has posted them online (http://www.nlihc.org/2005fmrs/finalcomments.htm). There have also been a number of news stories on the issue.

Most local comments were succinct, documenting the local need for housing and how the FY05 FMRs undercut the effectiveness of federal housing programs in meeting these needs. Given the haphazard way in which the proposed and final FY05 FMRs were released, few local groups had a chance to do significant analysis of their local market.

Click below for full report...

http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm9-44.html#10

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City: No shelter here 

Pawtucket Times - Nov 15
PAWTUCKET -- With one snowstorm already this month and more cold weather to come, anti-poverty activists say what Pawtucket needs most is a homeless shelter of its own.

Click below for full story...

http://www.pawtuckettimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13363974&BRD=1713&PAG=461&dept_id=24491&rfi=6

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Article Last Updated: Monday, November 15, 2004 - 3:53:01 PM PST

Seniors must move after weekend fire

By STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- A Saturday evening fire at a senior housing complex in West Oakland forced a handful of residents to move into a new building Sunday.

Oakland Fire Battalion Chief James Williams said the blaze at St. Andrew's Manor, 3250 San Pablo Ave., burned the bedroom contents of an apartment in the multi-unit building.

Firefighters were called to the building just after 7 p.m. and the fire was declared under control at about 7:30 p.m. Five fire engines, two fire trucks and one fire chief responded to the blaze.

Six people in the building were treated for smoke inhalation. Two were transported to local hospitals where they were treated and released.

Click below for full story...

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1726%257E2536350,00.html


Roll Back The Rents
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