ECONOMY HITS FOOD BANKS HARD -- AND THEIR CLIENTSSeptember 24, 2010|By Kate Santich, Orlando SentinelBarbara Van Winkle is 68, tethered to an oxygen tank and living in an Orlando trailer park with her 70-year-old husband, who has a heart condition and diabetes.
And though she is more than a half-century too old to be the stereotypical poster child for anti-hunger campaigns, the couple would indeed go hungry without help from Meals on Wheels. As it is, they have to spread the six meals they receive each week across seven days.
"The hospital bills took all our savings," she said. "We can usually just buy some bread so that we can have toast in the mornings." Her husband, Bobby, has gone from a once-strapping pipeline welder of 192 pounds down to a gaunt 125.
Their plight, it turns out, is increasingly common. In Central Florida alone, officials estimate 100,000 people 55 and older lack enough to eat.
For years, the problem has been largely a hidden one — complicated by social isolation; difficulty walking and lifting; lack of transportation; and medications that may affect appetite or digestion. But experts say it has reached critical heights with the worst economy since the Great Depression.
"So often we hear about hunger as a children's issue or a family issue," said Lori Parham, director of AARP Florida. "People don't always think of it as an elder issue, but it is."
In most counties throughout the state, there are waiting lists for the Meals on Wheels programs, which help not only those who lack the mobility to shop and cook for themselves, but those who simply can't afford groceries. In Orange County, 945 seniors are waiting for either home-delivered meals or neighborhood lunch sites where those 60 and older can go for food and socialization.
"A lot of elderly people have lost money out of their retirement [investment] funds," said Marsha Lorenz, president and CEO of Seniors First, which runs the Orange County Meals on Wheels Program. "People who normally wouldn't need assistance are now going to food banks and calling us. They've gotten desperate."
In fact, the current waiting list would be longer if not for the federal stimulus spending, said Cathy Edwards, the nonprofit's chief operating officer. Mostly, it has kept local seniors from feeling the pain of budget cuts from the city of Orlando and Orange County, which each reduced their grants to the program by 7 percent to 10 percent this year. But the stimulus money runs out at the end of the month, meaning Seniors First may have to close some of its meal sites.
"We're trying to keep everything open," Edwards said, "but we don't know yet."
At Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida — the region's largest food bank — nearly a third of the households served belong to seniors. And according to a recent food bank survey, each month about one in every three elderly clients must choose between buying food and paying medical bills. Half must choose between buying food and paying the power bill.
Dave Krepcho, Second Harvest's president and CEO, said the elderly are particularly vulnerable to health problems driven by inadequate nutrition. For one thing, their immune systems are already weakened by age and, often, disease. They're also more likely to be on medication, which may interfere with the absorption of certain nutrients. And their reserves are often insufficient to keep them going for very long if they don't eat.
They also may be missing out on what some consider one of the great joys in life.
"My dad is 87, he's on oxygen, in a wheelchair, and he can't take care of himself anymore," Krepcho said. "But, boy, when it's dinnertime, he's there. It's the high point of his day. It's more than just a basic need."
It's no coincidence, then, that when the AARP convenes its 2010 National Event & Expo next week in Orlando, the powerful seniors group plans to highlight the problem of hunger among the elderly. It's also giving away free one-day tickets to the expo to those who donate nonperishable food items.
Additionally, AARP and others are promoting awareness of SNAP, the federal food-stamp program, and encouraging seniors to sign up. Many, they say, either don't know the program exists or don't know they'll qualify.
"On top of the financial issue, there's a whole dignity issue," Krepcho said. "These people are in their so-called golden years, and they don't want to admit they're having a tough time getting food."
For Barbara and Bobby Van Winkle, there was little choice. Without some help, she said, they wouldn't have made it.
"We're really in a sad situation at this point in our lives — but there's not really anything we can do about it," she said. "And you can't sit around and cry all day."
Kate Santich can be reached at 407-420-5503 or ksantich@orlandosentinel.com.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tent Slums Spring Up in America
By Jeffrey Feldman
From: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25111.htm
March 30, 2010 --- Concentrations of homeless people are nothing new in America, but recent BBC and Los Angeles Times reports depict a rising trend of shanty slums, such as a "city" of newly homeless people living in tents near the Ontario airport in Los Angeles.
If you recall your Steinbeck, the residents of the 20c Hoovervilles were largely tenant farmers thrown off their farms by the owners, who in turn tried mechanized farming to bring down costs and break even. These displaced farmers migrated West where they became agricultural day laborers and settled into shanty camps.
The California tent slum depicted in the BBC report is quite different, because they are not migrant workers, so much as locals who have lost their homes. It is hard to tell if the newly dispossessed are all the victims of the subprime market. More likely, the tent slum population is a mix of new and old homelessness -- perhaps with a few migrant workers in the mix.
(video credit: BBC) at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25111.htm
I do not know if there is a technical point at which a tent city becomes a slum -- a boundary of some sort that gets crossed in terms of population density or length of time in existence or total acreage. But the Los Angeles Times reports that the police are handing out wrist bands to make sure that only locals take up residence in the tent camp by the airport. Non locals have to get out. Passing out armbands to make sure only locals get into the camp has to be crossing a boundary of some kind. And it is not a good one to cross.
Whatever the actual demographics, the images and the stories are heartbreaking. If ever there was a reason to let go of market orthodoxy, and to re-embrace the American spirit of making things better by the most pragmatic means possible -- this is it. Make it work better, period. No ideology; no grand theories about freedom from government; just come together to help people before we lose a generation to this mounting economic tragedy.
By Jeffrey Feldman
From: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25111.htm
March 30, 2010 --- Concentrations of homeless people are nothing new in America, but recent BBC and Los Angeles Times reports depict a rising trend of shanty slums, such as a "city" of newly homeless people living in tents near the Ontario airport in Los Angeles.
If you recall your Steinbeck, the residents of the 20c Hoovervilles were largely tenant farmers thrown off their farms by the owners, who in turn tried mechanized farming to bring down costs and break even. These displaced farmers migrated West where they became agricultural day laborers and settled into shanty camps.
The California tent slum depicted in the BBC report is quite different, because they are not migrant workers, so much as locals who have lost their homes. It is hard to tell if the newly dispossessed are all the victims of the subprime market. More likely, the tent slum population is a mix of new and old homelessness -- perhaps with a few migrant workers in the mix.
(video credit: BBC) at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25111.htm
I do not know if there is a technical point at which a tent city becomes a slum -- a boundary of some sort that gets crossed in terms of population density or length of time in existence or total acreage. But the Los Angeles Times reports that the police are handing out wrist bands to make sure that only locals take up residence in the tent camp by the airport. Non locals have to get out. Passing out armbands to make sure only locals get into the camp has to be crossing a boundary of some kind. And it is not a good one to cross.
Whatever the actual demographics, the images and the stories are heartbreaking. If ever there was a reason to let go of market orthodoxy, and to re-embrace the American spirit of making things better by the most pragmatic means possible -- this is it. Make it work better, period. No ideology; no grand theories about freedom from government; just come together to help people before we lose a generation to this mounting economic tragedy.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Growing Hunger in America
Growing Hunger in America
by Stephen Lendman / February 10th, 2010
In January 2010, Feeding America (FA, formerly America’s Second Harvest) released its disturbing new report on growing hunger titled, “Hunger in America 2010.” The Chicago-based organization is the nation’s “leading domestic hunger-relief charity,” serving the needy “through a nationwide network of member food banks, over 200 in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.”
Its study is based on interviews with over 62,000 clients served by the FA network, as well as information provided by 37,000 FA agencies — emergency food providers, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters for short-term residents.
FA’s system serves an estimated 37 million people annually, up 46% since 2005, including 33.9 million pantry users, 1.8 million kitchen ones, and 1.3 million in shelters.
About 5.7 million people (or 1 in 50) get emergency food aid from the system in any given week, an increase of 27% since 2005, and one in eight Americans (37 million people, including 14 million children and three million seniors) are food insecure, meaning they don’t get enough to eat. As a result, they need emergency help from food banks throughout the country. The latest data represent “a staggering 46 percent increase since” FA’s 2006 study.
“Indeed, the existence of so many people without secure access to adequate nutritious food represents a serious national concern…. More than one in three client households are experiencing very low food security — or hunger — a 54 percent increase” compared to 2006.
FA calls food insecurity “a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that varies along a continuum of successive stages as it becomes more severe.” In contrast, food security enables “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, health life.”
FA agencies serve households across America:
– 38% of their members are children under 18, compared to 36% in 2005;
– 8% of household members are elderly, down from 10% in 2005;
– about 40% are white; 34% black; 20% Hispanic; and the remainder from other racial groups;
– 36% of households include at least one employed adult, the same as in 2005;
– 71% of households have incomes below the federal poverty level during the month preceding the survey, up from 69% in 2005;
– median monthly household income decreased by 7% from $825 to $770 in 2009 dollars; and
– 10% are homeless, compared to 12% in 2005.
Overall, 75% of client households are food insecure (based on the government’s food security scale), an increase from 70% in 2005; 39% of households have low food security; 36% very low.
Client households with children are 78% food insecure, up from 73% in 2005. “Many clients report having to choose between food and other necessities:”
– 46% between food and paying for utilities, including heating oil, up from 42% in 2005;
– 39% between food and paying rent or mortgages, compared to 35% in 2005;
– 34% between food and medical care, including drugs, up from 32% in 2005;
– 35% between food and transportation; and
– 36% between food and gasoline for a car.
Government-Provided Help
– 41% of households get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aid, up from 35% in 2005;
– 54% of households with children aged up to three get Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) help, compared to 51% in 2005; and
– 62% of households with school-age children participate in federal school lunch programs, unchanged from 2005; 54% participate in school breakfast programs, up from 51% in 2005; 14% participate in the summer food program.
As in 2005, 29% of households report at least one member in poor health. Most clients are grateful for FA help – 92% very or somewhat satisfied and 93% with food quality. The FA network includes about 33,500 food pantries, 4,500 soup kitchens, and 3,600 emergency shelters, up 13% for pantries from 2005, and down 20% for kitchens and shelters.
Faith-based agencies run 72% of pantries, 62% of kitchens, and 39% of shelters. Some also offer other services.
Sources of Food Provided
– food banks account for 75% of pantry distributions, 50% for kitchens, and 41% for shelters;
– religious organizations, government, and direct wholesale and retail purchases are other important sources;
– the Commodity Supplemental Food Program supplies 33% of pantries, 24% of kitchens, and 22% of shelters;
– The Emergency Food Assistance Program supplies 54% of pantries, 34% of kitchens, and 31% of shelters; and
– the Emergency Program on Indian Reservations supplies 2% of pantries, 1% of kitchens, and 2% of shelters.
FA’s president and CEO, Vicki Escarra said:
Clearly, the economic recession, resulting in dramatically increasing unemployment nationwide, has driven unprecedented, sharp increases in the need for emergency food assistance and enrollment in federal nutrition programs. Hunger in America 2010 exposes the absolutely tragic reality of just how many people in our nation don’t have enough to eat. Millions of our clients are families with children finding themselves in need of food assistance for the very first time. It’s morally reprehensible that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world where one in six people are struggling to make choices between food and other basic services.
In November 2009, the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) reported that 49 million Americans, including 17 million children, are food insecure; that is, they “had difficulty providing enough food for all their (family) members due to a lack of resources. The prevalence of food insecurity was… the highest observed since nationally representative food security surveys were initiated in 1995.”
In September 2009, the US Census Bureau reported rising poverty, falling incomes, and growing numbers of uninsured US households. Even by the Bureau’s conservative estimates, 39.8 million Americans were impoverished, the highest level since 1960, and 17.1 million lived in extreme poverty at below one-half the official threshold.
A revised October 2009 Census analysis showed 47.4 million (15.8% of the population, including one-fifth of the elderly) below the poverty line, much higher than the above figure and rising.
The official poverty level for a family of four is $21,203, a way outdated threshold developed over 40 years ago. In 2007, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said a family of four in Peoria, IL needed $42,900 to be above poverty. In Chicago, it was $49,000 and in New York nearly $72,000. The same reality exists in large and smaller cities throughout America.
A recent Brookings Institute report titled, “The Effects of the Recession on Child Poverty” was equally disturbing, showing one in five US children under age 18 in families below the official poverty level, based on September 2009 Census data. According to Brookings’ Julia Isaacs:
Census 2008 information “lag considerably behind current economic conditions. Job losses and wage reductions occurring in 2009 were obviously not captured. In addition, many adverse events in 2008 were only partially captured.”
As a result, current conditions are far worse than reported and will keep deteriorating ahead, for at least several years according to Isaacs. She called the situation “sobering.”
It showed in late November when reported food stamp usage was at record levels, and according to a study by Cornell University’s Thomas Hirschl and Washington University in St. Louis’ Mark Rank, half the children in America will need food stamps at some point in their childhood, 90% for black children.
Despite a growing national crisis, Obama proposed less, not more, saying “our fiscal situation remains unacceptable,” not growing poverty, homelessness, hunger and despair at levels not seen since the 1930s.
On February 1, he sent Congress a budget freezing social spending for three years, a de facto cut in real terms. At the same time, he lets Wall Street keep pillaging, plans more wealth transfers to the rich, and proposed the largest ever defense and homeland security budgets, leaving little for cash-strapped states and growing millions of desperate people out of luck and on their own.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. Contact him at: lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM-1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests. All programs are archived for easy listening. Read other articles by Stephen, or visit Stephen's website.
This article was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 9:00am and is filed under Hunger, Poverty
by Stephen Lendman / February 10th, 2010
In January 2010, Feeding America (FA, formerly America’s Second Harvest) released its disturbing new report on growing hunger titled, “Hunger in America 2010.” The Chicago-based organization is the nation’s “leading domestic hunger-relief charity,” serving the needy “through a nationwide network of member food banks, over 200 in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.”
Its study is based on interviews with over 62,000 clients served by the FA network, as well as information provided by 37,000 FA agencies — emergency food providers, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters for short-term residents.
FA’s system serves an estimated 37 million people annually, up 46% since 2005, including 33.9 million pantry users, 1.8 million kitchen ones, and 1.3 million in shelters.
About 5.7 million people (or 1 in 50) get emergency food aid from the system in any given week, an increase of 27% since 2005, and one in eight Americans (37 million people, including 14 million children and three million seniors) are food insecure, meaning they don’t get enough to eat. As a result, they need emergency help from food banks throughout the country. The latest data represent “a staggering 46 percent increase since” FA’s 2006 study.
“Indeed, the existence of so many people without secure access to adequate nutritious food represents a serious national concern…. More than one in three client households are experiencing very low food security — or hunger — a 54 percent increase” compared to 2006.
FA calls food insecurity “a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that varies along a continuum of successive stages as it becomes more severe.” In contrast, food security enables “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, health life.”
FA agencies serve households across America:
– 38% of their members are children under 18, compared to 36% in 2005;
– 8% of household members are elderly, down from 10% in 2005;
– about 40% are white; 34% black; 20% Hispanic; and the remainder from other racial groups;
– 36% of households include at least one employed adult, the same as in 2005;
– 71% of households have incomes below the federal poverty level during the month preceding the survey, up from 69% in 2005;
– median monthly household income decreased by 7% from $825 to $770 in 2009 dollars; and
– 10% are homeless, compared to 12% in 2005.
Overall, 75% of client households are food insecure (based on the government’s food security scale), an increase from 70% in 2005; 39% of households have low food security; 36% very low.
Client households with children are 78% food insecure, up from 73% in 2005. “Many clients report having to choose between food and other necessities:”
– 46% between food and paying for utilities, including heating oil, up from 42% in 2005;
– 39% between food and paying rent or mortgages, compared to 35% in 2005;
– 34% between food and medical care, including drugs, up from 32% in 2005;
– 35% between food and transportation; and
– 36% between food and gasoline for a car.
Government-Provided Help
– 41% of households get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aid, up from 35% in 2005;
– 54% of households with children aged up to three get Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) help, compared to 51% in 2005; and
– 62% of households with school-age children participate in federal school lunch programs, unchanged from 2005; 54% participate in school breakfast programs, up from 51% in 2005; 14% participate in the summer food program.
As in 2005, 29% of households report at least one member in poor health. Most clients are grateful for FA help – 92% very or somewhat satisfied and 93% with food quality. The FA network includes about 33,500 food pantries, 4,500 soup kitchens, and 3,600 emergency shelters, up 13% for pantries from 2005, and down 20% for kitchens and shelters.
Faith-based agencies run 72% of pantries, 62% of kitchens, and 39% of shelters. Some also offer other services.
Sources of Food Provided
– food banks account for 75% of pantry distributions, 50% for kitchens, and 41% for shelters;
– religious organizations, government, and direct wholesale and retail purchases are other important sources;
– the Commodity Supplemental Food Program supplies 33% of pantries, 24% of kitchens, and 22% of shelters;
– The Emergency Food Assistance Program supplies 54% of pantries, 34% of kitchens, and 31% of shelters; and
– the Emergency Program on Indian Reservations supplies 2% of pantries, 1% of kitchens, and 2% of shelters.
FA’s president and CEO, Vicki Escarra said:
Clearly, the economic recession, resulting in dramatically increasing unemployment nationwide, has driven unprecedented, sharp increases in the need for emergency food assistance and enrollment in federal nutrition programs. Hunger in America 2010 exposes the absolutely tragic reality of just how many people in our nation don’t have enough to eat. Millions of our clients are families with children finding themselves in need of food assistance for the very first time. It’s morally reprehensible that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world where one in six people are struggling to make choices between food and other basic services.
In November 2009, the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) reported that 49 million Americans, including 17 million children, are food insecure; that is, they “had difficulty providing enough food for all their (family) members due to a lack of resources. The prevalence of food insecurity was… the highest observed since nationally representative food security surveys were initiated in 1995.”
In September 2009, the US Census Bureau reported rising poverty, falling incomes, and growing numbers of uninsured US households. Even by the Bureau’s conservative estimates, 39.8 million Americans were impoverished, the highest level since 1960, and 17.1 million lived in extreme poverty at below one-half the official threshold.
A revised October 2009 Census analysis showed 47.4 million (15.8% of the population, including one-fifth of the elderly) below the poverty line, much higher than the above figure and rising.
The official poverty level for a family of four is $21,203, a way outdated threshold developed over 40 years ago. In 2007, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said a family of four in Peoria, IL needed $42,900 to be above poverty. In Chicago, it was $49,000 and in New York nearly $72,000. The same reality exists in large and smaller cities throughout America.
A recent Brookings Institute report titled, “The Effects of the Recession on Child Poverty” was equally disturbing, showing one in five US children under age 18 in families below the official poverty level, based on September 2009 Census data. According to Brookings’ Julia Isaacs:
Census 2008 information “lag considerably behind current economic conditions. Job losses and wage reductions occurring in 2009 were obviously not captured. In addition, many adverse events in 2008 were only partially captured.”
As a result, current conditions are far worse than reported and will keep deteriorating ahead, for at least several years according to Isaacs. She called the situation “sobering.”
It showed in late November when reported food stamp usage was at record levels, and according to a study by Cornell University’s Thomas Hirschl and Washington University in St. Louis’ Mark Rank, half the children in America will need food stamps at some point in their childhood, 90% for black children.
Despite a growing national crisis, Obama proposed less, not more, saying “our fiscal situation remains unacceptable,” not growing poverty, homelessness, hunger and despair at levels not seen since the 1930s.
On February 1, he sent Congress a budget freezing social spending for three years, a de facto cut in real terms. At the same time, he lets Wall Street keep pillaging, plans more wealth transfers to the rich, and proposed the largest ever defense and homeland security budgets, leaving little for cash-strapped states and growing millions of desperate people out of luck and on their own.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. Contact him at: lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM-1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests. All programs are archived for easy listening. Read other articles by Stephen, or visit Stephen's website.
This article was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 9:00am and is filed under Hunger, Poverty
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Homeless and Struggling In New Orleans
Homeless and Struggling In New Orleans
On the Fourth Anniversary of Katrina, New Orleans is Still Far From Recovery
by Jordan Flaherty / August 25th, 2009
Crawling through a hole in a fence and walking through an open doorway, Shamus Rohn and Mike Miller lead the way into an abandoned Midcity hospital. They are outreach workers for the New Orleans organization UNITY for the Homeless, and they do this all day long; searching empty houses and buildings for homeless people, so they can offer services and support. “We joke about having turned criminal trespass into a fulltime job,” says Rohn.
Up a darkened stairway and through the detritus of a building that looks like its been scavenged for anything of value to sell, Rohn and Miller enter a sundrenched room. Inside is Michael Palmer, a 57-year-old white former construction worker and merchant seaman who has made a home here. Palmer – his friends call him Mickey – is in some ways lucky. He found a room with a door that locks. He salvaged some furniture from other parts of the hospital, so he has a bed, a couch, and a rug. Best of all, he has a fourth-floor room with a balcony. “Of all the homeless,” he says, “I probably have the best view.”
Mickey has lived here for six months. He’s been homeless since shortly after Katrina, and this is by far the best place he’s stayed in that time. “I’ve lived on the street,” he says. “I’ve slept in a cardboard box.” He is a proud man, thin and muscled with a fresh shave, clean clothes and a trim mustache. He credits a nearby church, which lets him shave and shower.
But Palmer would like to be able to pay rent again. “My apartment was around $450. I could afford $450. I can’t afford $700 or $800 and that’s what the places have gone up to.” Keeping himself together, well-dressed and fresh, Mickey is trying to go back to the life he had. “I have never lived on the dole of the state,” he says proudly. “I’ve never been on welfare, never collected food stamps.” Palmer rented an apartment before Katrina. He did repairs and construction. “I had my own business,” he says. “I had a pickup truck with all my tools, and all that went under water.”
Palmer is one of thousands of homeless people living in New Orleans’ storm damaged and abandoned homes and buildings. Four years after Katrina, recovery and rebuilding has come slow to this city, and there are many boarded-up homes to choose from. The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center counts 65,888 abandoned residential addresses in New Orleans, and this number doesn’t include any of the many non-residential buildings, like the hospital Mickey stays in. Overall, about a third of the addresses in the city are vacant or abandoned, the highest rate in the nation. UNITY for the Homeless is the only organization surveying these spaces, and Miller and Rohn are the only fulltime staff on the project. They have surveyed 1,330 buildings – a small fraction of the total number of empty structures. Of those, 564 were unsecured. Nearly 40% of them showed signs of use, including a total of 270 bedrolls or mattresses.
Using conservative estimates, UNITY estimates at least 6,000 squatters, and a total of about 11,000 homeless individuals in the city.
UNITY workers have also found that not all people living in New Orleans’ abandoned homes are squatters. In the last three months alone, they have found nine homeowners living in their own toxic, flood-damaged, often completely unrepaired homes. These are people living in buildings — identified as abandoned and not fit for human habitation — that they (or extended family members) actually own.
The abandoned building dwellers they’ve found are generally older than the overall homeless population, with high rates of disability and illness. The average age of folks they have found is 45, and the oldest was 90. Over 70% report or show signs of psychiatric disorders, and 42% show signs of disabling medical illnesses and problems. Disabling means “people that are facing death if not treated properly,” clarifies Rohn. “We’re not talking about something like high blood pressure.”
Life in Abandoned Homes
“This leg here bent backwards and the muscle came up,” says Naomi Burkhalter, an elderly Black woman in a wheelchair, sitting outside of the abandoned house she lives in and gesturing to her badly twisted leg. She was injured during Katrina, and can’t walk. She stays in a flood-damaged house in New Orleans’ Gert Town neighborhood, with no electricity or running water. She says the owner – who cannot afford to repair the home – knows she lives there, along with two other women. When they need water, they fill bottles up from neighbors. When she needs to get in and out of her house, she crawls, very slowly dragging herself up and down the steps with her hands, leaving her wheelchair outside and hoping no one takes it. Miss Naomi worked at a shrimp company and rented an apartment before Katrina. Now, between her injury and higher rents, she can no longer afford her former home. “My rent was 350 dollars,” she explains. “But when I came back, my rent was up to $1200.” Burkhalter has been homeless since then.
UNITY has received funding from the federal government for 752 housing vouchers specifically to help house the city’s homeless population. They have put people on a list, with those in the most danger of dying if they don’t get help on the top of the list. However, the vouchers still have not arrived, and at least 16 people from the list have already died while waiting. “The stress and trauma that these people have endured cannot be overstated,” says Martha Kegel, executive director of UNITY. “The neighborhood infrastructure that so many people depended on is gone.”
This problem was exacerbated by the demolition of thousands of units of public housing, an act which not only took away the community that many people found brought them comfort and safety, but has also made affordable rentals for poor New Orleanians even harder to find. Section 8 subsidized housing has been offered as a solution for those displaced from public housing and other poor renters, but a new study from Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) shows that discrimination keeps many people from finding quality housing through the program. According to the report, 82% of landlords in the city either refused to accept Section 8 vouchers, or added insurmountable requirements.
The study found that both discrimination on the part of landlords (99% of Section 8 voucher holders in Orleans parish are Black) and mismanagement on the part of the housing agency were barriers. One prospective landlord told a tester for GNOFHAC that he wouldn’t rent to Section 8 holders, “until Black ministers…start teaching morals and ethics to their own, so they don’t have litters of pups like animals, and they’re not milking the system.”
The mismanagement from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) was also a big problem for prospective landlords. “I faxed HANO the needed information 12 times for the rent I was never paid” said one landlord. Another housing provider said, “I called every day for a month and never got a call back.”
Last month, more than a hundred members of STAND for Dignity, a grassroots membership project of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, protested outside of the offices of HANO, decrying their lack of action. A single mother named Ayesha told the crowd that she had been on the Section 8 waiting list for eight years, and still hasn’t received any help. She is paying 80% of her income on rent, and has been forced to go months at a time without water, gas or lights. George Tucker, another member of STAND, and also (like Mickey Palmer) a former merchant mariner, told the assembled crowd his story of being evicted from his apartment because HANO lost his paperwork. Because of bureaucratic carelessness, he was homeless for thirteen months. “This governmental crookedness is not new,” he said. “But it cannot continue without consequences.”
Last week, at least partly in response to criticism from folks like the members of STAND, HANO announced that they would accept new applications for Section 8 vouchers, for the first time in six years. The period that they will accept applications in is only a week long – from September 6 through 12.
Fear and Harassment
“My best friend died three weeks ago in this chair,” says Mickey Palmer gesturing next to him in his room in the abandoned hospital. “There was two other people staying here with me. One gentleman got in an accident about two months ago and he’s paralyzed in the hospital. Another friend of mine OD’ed and died here three weeks ago. My best friend. So I’m here alone.”
Palmer also fears police harassment. “The police hate homeless people,” he declares. “They’ll arrest me on drunk in public,” he says. “I haven’t had a drink in months.” Gesturing around the room that he has made into a home, he adds, “Of course, this is illegal. If I get caught I can not only be evicted, but incarcerated. I could go to jail for trespassing.”
This fear drives the homeless further underground, and makes it even harder for organizations like UNITY to find them and offer help. “Our city has a long history of police criminalization of homelessness, so people have reason to hide,” explains Martha Kegel.
Despite the size and scope of this problem, help has been hard to come by, from either the city, state, or federal government. “I’m not a politician and I’m not politically savvy,” says Palmer. “But I don’t think they care.”
In a rare step forward last month, both houses of Louisiana’s legislature unanimously passed a bill creating a statewide agency – to be almost entirely funded by the federal government – to address the issue of homelessness. However, Governor Jindal vetoed the bill. Jindal also vetoed funding for the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, further reducing medical and mental health services in the city – another factor that has made life hard for many homeless folks in the city. As rates of mental illness rise in the city, we now have less treatment available then ever before.
For people like Mickey, caught in a city with few good paying jobs, much more expensive housing, and ever-decreasing social services, there are not many options. “At one time we were part of the city and part of the workforce,” Mickey says. “But people cannot afford the housing in New Orleans anymore. I find most of the people I know, my friends, they can’t afford the rent.”
Like most people in his position, Palmer has felt hopelessness at his plight. “I try not to get depressed, he says, nervously flicking his lighter. “But this can get you depressed. Coming back here last night got me a little depressed.”
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting on post-Katrina New Orleans has been published and broadcast in outlets including Die Zeit (in Germany), Clarin (in Argentina), Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and Democracy Now!. He can be reached at: neworleans@leftturn.org. Read other articles by Jordan, or visit Jordan's website.
On the Fourth Anniversary of Katrina, New Orleans is Still Far From Recovery
by Jordan Flaherty / August 25th, 2009
Crawling through a hole in a fence and walking through an open doorway, Shamus Rohn and Mike Miller lead the way into an abandoned Midcity hospital. They are outreach workers for the New Orleans organization UNITY for the Homeless, and they do this all day long; searching empty houses and buildings for homeless people, so they can offer services and support. “We joke about having turned criminal trespass into a fulltime job,” says Rohn.
Up a darkened stairway and through the detritus of a building that looks like its been scavenged for anything of value to sell, Rohn and Miller enter a sundrenched room. Inside is Michael Palmer, a 57-year-old white former construction worker and merchant seaman who has made a home here. Palmer – his friends call him Mickey – is in some ways lucky. He found a room with a door that locks. He salvaged some furniture from other parts of the hospital, so he has a bed, a couch, and a rug. Best of all, he has a fourth-floor room with a balcony. “Of all the homeless,” he says, “I probably have the best view.”
Mickey has lived here for six months. He’s been homeless since shortly after Katrina, and this is by far the best place he’s stayed in that time. “I’ve lived on the street,” he says. “I’ve slept in a cardboard box.” He is a proud man, thin and muscled with a fresh shave, clean clothes and a trim mustache. He credits a nearby church, which lets him shave and shower.
But Palmer would like to be able to pay rent again. “My apartment was around $450. I could afford $450. I can’t afford $700 or $800 and that’s what the places have gone up to.” Keeping himself together, well-dressed and fresh, Mickey is trying to go back to the life he had. “I have never lived on the dole of the state,” he says proudly. “I’ve never been on welfare, never collected food stamps.” Palmer rented an apartment before Katrina. He did repairs and construction. “I had my own business,” he says. “I had a pickup truck with all my tools, and all that went under water.”
Palmer is one of thousands of homeless people living in New Orleans’ storm damaged and abandoned homes and buildings. Four years after Katrina, recovery and rebuilding has come slow to this city, and there are many boarded-up homes to choose from. The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center counts 65,888 abandoned residential addresses in New Orleans, and this number doesn’t include any of the many non-residential buildings, like the hospital Mickey stays in. Overall, about a third of the addresses in the city are vacant or abandoned, the highest rate in the nation. UNITY for the Homeless is the only organization surveying these spaces, and Miller and Rohn are the only fulltime staff on the project. They have surveyed 1,330 buildings – a small fraction of the total number of empty structures. Of those, 564 were unsecured. Nearly 40% of them showed signs of use, including a total of 270 bedrolls or mattresses.
Using conservative estimates, UNITY estimates at least 6,000 squatters, and a total of about 11,000 homeless individuals in the city.
UNITY workers have also found that not all people living in New Orleans’ abandoned homes are squatters. In the last three months alone, they have found nine homeowners living in their own toxic, flood-damaged, often completely unrepaired homes. These are people living in buildings — identified as abandoned and not fit for human habitation — that they (or extended family members) actually own.
The abandoned building dwellers they’ve found are generally older than the overall homeless population, with high rates of disability and illness. The average age of folks they have found is 45, and the oldest was 90. Over 70% report or show signs of psychiatric disorders, and 42% show signs of disabling medical illnesses and problems. Disabling means “people that are facing death if not treated properly,” clarifies Rohn. “We’re not talking about something like high blood pressure.”
Life in Abandoned Homes
“This leg here bent backwards and the muscle came up,” says Naomi Burkhalter, an elderly Black woman in a wheelchair, sitting outside of the abandoned house she lives in and gesturing to her badly twisted leg. She was injured during Katrina, and can’t walk. She stays in a flood-damaged house in New Orleans’ Gert Town neighborhood, with no electricity or running water. She says the owner – who cannot afford to repair the home – knows she lives there, along with two other women. When they need water, they fill bottles up from neighbors. When she needs to get in and out of her house, she crawls, very slowly dragging herself up and down the steps with her hands, leaving her wheelchair outside and hoping no one takes it. Miss Naomi worked at a shrimp company and rented an apartment before Katrina. Now, between her injury and higher rents, she can no longer afford her former home. “My rent was 350 dollars,” she explains. “But when I came back, my rent was up to $1200.” Burkhalter has been homeless since then.
UNITY has received funding from the federal government for 752 housing vouchers specifically to help house the city’s homeless population. They have put people on a list, with those in the most danger of dying if they don’t get help on the top of the list. However, the vouchers still have not arrived, and at least 16 people from the list have already died while waiting. “The stress and trauma that these people have endured cannot be overstated,” says Martha Kegel, executive director of UNITY. “The neighborhood infrastructure that so many people depended on is gone.”
This problem was exacerbated by the demolition of thousands of units of public housing, an act which not only took away the community that many people found brought them comfort and safety, but has also made affordable rentals for poor New Orleanians even harder to find. Section 8 subsidized housing has been offered as a solution for those displaced from public housing and other poor renters, but a new study from Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) shows that discrimination keeps many people from finding quality housing through the program. According to the report, 82% of landlords in the city either refused to accept Section 8 vouchers, or added insurmountable requirements.
The study found that both discrimination on the part of landlords (99% of Section 8 voucher holders in Orleans parish are Black) and mismanagement on the part of the housing agency were barriers. One prospective landlord told a tester for GNOFHAC that he wouldn’t rent to Section 8 holders, “until Black ministers…start teaching morals and ethics to their own, so they don’t have litters of pups like animals, and they’re not milking the system.”
The mismanagement from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) was also a big problem for prospective landlords. “I faxed HANO the needed information 12 times for the rent I was never paid” said one landlord. Another housing provider said, “I called every day for a month and never got a call back.”
Last month, more than a hundred members of STAND for Dignity, a grassroots membership project of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, protested outside of the offices of HANO, decrying their lack of action. A single mother named Ayesha told the crowd that she had been on the Section 8 waiting list for eight years, and still hasn’t received any help. She is paying 80% of her income on rent, and has been forced to go months at a time without water, gas or lights. George Tucker, another member of STAND, and also (like Mickey Palmer) a former merchant mariner, told the assembled crowd his story of being evicted from his apartment because HANO lost his paperwork. Because of bureaucratic carelessness, he was homeless for thirteen months. “This governmental crookedness is not new,” he said. “But it cannot continue without consequences.”
Last week, at least partly in response to criticism from folks like the members of STAND, HANO announced that they would accept new applications for Section 8 vouchers, for the first time in six years. The period that they will accept applications in is only a week long – from September 6 through 12.
Fear and Harassment
“My best friend died three weeks ago in this chair,” says Mickey Palmer gesturing next to him in his room in the abandoned hospital. “There was two other people staying here with me. One gentleman got in an accident about two months ago and he’s paralyzed in the hospital. Another friend of mine OD’ed and died here three weeks ago. My best friend. So I’m here alone.”
Palmer also fears police harassment. “The police hate homeless people,” he declares. “They’ll arrest me on drunk in public,” he says. “I haven’t had a drink in months.” Gesturing around the room that he has made into a home, he adds, “Of course, this is illegal. If I get caught I can not only be evicted, but incarcerated. I could go to jail for trespassing.”
This fear drives the homeless further underground, and makes it even harder for organizations like UNITY to find them and offer help. “Our city has a long history of police criminalization of homelessness, so people have reason to hide,” explains Martha Kegel.
Despite the size and scope of this problem, help has been hard to come by, from either the city, state, or federal government. “I’m not a politician and I’m not politically savvy,” says Palmer. “But I don’t think they care.”
In a rare step forward last month, both houses of Louisiana’s legislature unanimously passed a bill creating a statewide agency – to be almost entirely funded by the federal government – to address the issue of homelessness. However, Governor Jindal vetoed the bill. Jindal also vetoed funding for the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, further reducing medical and mental health services in the city – another factor that has made life hard for many homeless folks in the city. As rates of mental illness rise in the city, we now have less treatment available then ever before.
For people like Mickey, caught in a city with few good paying jobs, much more expensive housing, and ever-decreasing social services, there are not many options. “At one time we were part of the city and part of the workforce,” Mickey says. “But people cannot afford the housing in New Orleans anymore. I find most of the people I know, my friends, they can’t afford the rent.”
Like most people in his position, Palmer has felt hopelessness at his plight. “I try not to get depressed, he says, nervously flicking his lighter. “But this can get you depressed. Coming back here last night got me a little depressed.”
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting on post-Katrina New Orleans has been published and broadcast in outlets including Die Zeit (in Germany), Clarin (in Argentina), Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and Democracy Now!. He can be reached at: neworleans@leftturn.org. Read other articles by Jordan, or visit Jordan's website.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Traded two tables for a tent today
I traded my landlord two folding tables for a tent today. It was a good deal. I got rid of two things I didn't need and got something I might. Looks like we are nowhere near bottom and could get considerably worse.
Fed offers bleak economic outlook: The Federal Reserve cut its economic outlook for 2009 on Wednesday and warned that the United States economy would face an "unusually gradual and prolonged" period of recovery as the country struggles to climb out of a deep global downturn
10,000 Americans Going Into Foreclosure Every Day
It's Time to Treat America's Homeowners as Well as We've Been Treating Wall Street's Bankers
By Arianna Huffington
The New Depression
By Martin Jacques
The business and political elite are flying blind. This is the mother of all economic crises. It has barely started and remains completely out of control.
Fed offers bleak economic outlook: The Federal Reserve cut its economic outlook for 2009 on Wednesday and warned that the United States economy would face an "unusually gradual and prolonged" period of recovery as the country struggles to climb out of a deep global downturn
10,000 Americans Going Into Foreclosure Every Day
It's Time to Treat America's Homeowners as Well as We've Been Treating Wall Street's Bankers
By Arianna Huffington
The New Depression
By Martin Jacques
The business and political elite are flying blind. This is the mother of all economic crises. It has barely started and remains completely out of control.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Email from Katrina Thanks, Kat
Hello there, I came across your website on google search. I looked through it and I just wanted to send you an email and share my homeless story.
My name is Kat and I live in my car with my boyfriend and my two dogs. Last year my boyfriend and I were kicked out of our roomates house because she was a druggie and turned her house into a crack house basically. My boyfriend and I don't do drugs at all and our roomate and us butted heads because of this a lot. We didnt have any place to go and didnt have a job at the time (we got laid off). We started looking for jobs and found one with a guy who owned an ice cream shop. He knew we were homeless and offered us to live with him and he would pay us by rent basically. Well this is around the time we also found out that I am pregnant. So we lived with our boss and he didnt pay us but just let us stay with him and we had to work 40-50 hours a week, do all the house chores and figure out a way to pay for our gas and food. Well we got food stamps which really helped. Then our boss, decides to move and gives us less than a few days notice that he needs us out to move out and sell his house. So, right now I am 5 months pregnant, still going to a community college, trying to find a job (since he closed his business and didnt pay us) and figure out how to survive in this economy. My boyfriend and I live in our car again with our 2 dogs. Our food stamps have been lowered since we have no job and no address anymore. Its been a very hard and difficult year for us, and we have been putting so many applications in to so many places and we havent heard anything back yet. We have been to a few job interviews but still havent heard anything from them. I just am so desperate for a job but who hires a girl who definitly looks pregnant?? Im so scared but I still have a little bit of hope left. My boyfriend and I are staying close and keeping each other from falling into a deep depression. We are both 21 years old and we are really trying but so many people are on a hiring freeze right now!! I pray every day that something will come up and change our lives...until then I will keep hoping!
Katrina
My mailing address is 10014 June Dr Apt 2 St. Ann MO 63074, its my boyfriends brothers address he lets us use it.
My name is Kat and I live in my car with my boyfriend and my two dogs. Last year my boyfriend and I were kicked out of our roomates house because she was a druggie and turned her house into a crack house basically. My boyfriend and I don't do drugs at all and our roomate and us butted heads because of this a lot. We didnt have any place to go and didnt have a job at the time (we got laid off). We started looking for jobs and found one with a guy who owned an ice cream shop. He knew we were homeless and offered us to live with him and he would pay us by rent basically. Well this is around the time we also found out that I am pregnant. So we lived with our boss and he didnt pay us but just let us stay with him and we had to work 40-50 hours a week, do all the house chores and figure out a way to pay for our gas and food. Well we got food stamps which really helped. Then our boss, decides to move and gives us less than a few days notice that he needs us out to move out and sell his house. So, right now I am 5 months pregnant, still going to a community college, trying to find a job (since he closed his business and didnt pay us) and figure out how to survive in this economy. My boyfriend and I live in our car again with our 2 dogs. Our food stamps have been lowered since we have no job and no address anymore. Its been a very hard and difficult year for us, and we have been putting so many applications in to so many places and we havent heard anything back yet. We have been to a few job interviews but still havent heard anything from them. I just am so desperate for a job but who hires a girl who definitly looks pregnant?? Im so scared but I still have a little bit of hope left. My boyfriend and I are staying close and keeping each other from falling into a deep depression. We are both 21 years old and we are really trying but so many people are on a hiring freeze right now!! I pray every day that something will come up and change our lives...until then I will keep hoping!
Katrina
My mailing address is 10014 June Dr Apt 2 St. Ann MO 63074, its my boyfriends brothers address he lets us use it.
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