Letter to the Editor in Support of the Homeless

Recently, I was engaged in one of my favorite volunteer activities. As a volunteer site coordinator for the volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) program in Berrien County, it is my pleasure to assist working class and low income residents with their annual tax return. One of the things I do in that capacity is review the tax returns prepared by other volunteers to ensure that they are prepared accurately.

In the process of my reviews, I usually have a brief opportunity to chat with our clients. In the review of one client's return, I noticed that she did not have any Michigan renter's credit indicated on her return. Her income indicated to me that she certainly would qualify for that credit. I thought maybe her tax preparer had simply forgotten to ask her a question about her rent. So, I asked her the question:

"Did you pay rent last year?"

Her answer was quite simple:

"I was homeless last year."

You know I had to fight back some emotion at that point. And I looked at her W2 wage and tax statement a little more closely. She had been employed by the shelter where she probably had stayed while homeless.

I suppose that there are as many reasons that a person is homeless as there are homeless people. No two stories are the same.

Coincidentally, the following letter to the editor appears in this week's Niles Daily Star:

Dear editor:

I’m writing about the homeless people in the Niles area.

I have seen a group of people together to stay warm over this cold weekend. We have Polly’s Place for women. Sure would be nice if the city of Niles would have a house for homeless people who lost a job and everything, and also young people who have acted up and were told to get out of the house, still not ready to face the real world.

We are so lucky to have a warm house. Think of these people out in the cold night.

Thank you. Take care.

Nancy Shufelt

Niles

COMMENT:

I don't know Nancy. But, my comment on her letter is THANK-YOU!

You can find her letter online at:

www.nilesstar.com/2011/01/26/the-homeless-need-help/

Muskegon Community Mental Health to Sponsor Exhibit About Society's Treatment of the Mentally Ill

A traveling exhibit designed to raise difficult and compelling questions about mental-health issues is being brought to the community in the fall by Muskegon County’s Community Mental Health department.

A portable version of a major New York State Museum exhibition seen by more than 600,000 visitors during its nine-month run, called “The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic,” attempts to draw attention to people who were committed to mental institutions in the early- to mid-20th century. The exhibit is based on patients’ suitcases discovered after Willard Psychiatric Center in New York’s Finger Lakes region closed in 1995.

The traveling exhibit is set to run Oct. 19-Nov. 30 at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, 425 W. Western (in Muskegon.)

www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2011/02/muskegon_county_community_ment.html

New Report: High Quality Pre-School Makes a Difference

The Citizens Research Council (CRC), a respected Lansing based think-tank, recently released a report on the importance of high quality pre-school programs. The full report is quite extensive. The summary is four pages and an easier read.

The summary says in part:

"High quality early childhood education and preschool programs that implement best practices have been shown to improve school success and graduation rates for disadvantaged children. This paper, one in a series of papers that CRC is publishing on important education issues facing Michigan, describes programs that invest in the “front end” of formal education: kindergarten, Head Start, and Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program. It also describes research on brain development that helps to explain why investing in early education may be a more effective strategy than other strategies that are being pursued.

The educational achievement gap between poor and non-poor children, and between minority and White children, has been at the center of education policy discussions for decades. Although it narrowed from 2005 to 2009, the achievement gap between White and Black fourth grade students in Michigan remains among the largest in the nation. Furthermore, Michigan
institutions of higher learning topped the lists of both public and private colleges and universities with the largest White-Black graduation rate gaps: Wayne State had the largest gap among public universities and Lawrence Technological University had the largest gap among private colleges and universities. Both the K-12 system and higher education are challenged
to address an achievement gap that, for many children, develops prior to school enrollment."


The CRC summary of the pre-school study can be found at:

www.crcmich.org/PUBLICAT/2010s/2011/memo1104.pdf

Niles Resident Remembers March on Washington in August 1963

Brenda Walker Beadenkopf remembers holding a stranger’s hand during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

A white, 15-year-old girl, Beadenkopf gripped the black man’s trembling hand as he shook with exultation while loudly singing to anthems that championed civil rights: “We Shall Overcome,” “A Change is Gonna Come” and “We Shall not be Moved.”

“We were really singing with the angels,” she said. “We were asked to line up along the street — black, white, black, white.”

Beadenkopf remembers Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his powerful message and speaking ability.

“He was telling these people to be co-workers with God,” she said.

“There was not to be an iota of violence, and there wasn’t.”

Beadenkopf, now a resident of Niles, is the daughter of Quaker activist Charles Walker, who alongside King helped organize the civil rights movement. She is currently writing a book about her father, who was a trainer and recruiter for the Freedom Rides and sit-ins and a staff member of the Mississippi Freedom Summer and Kent State projects.

Beadenkopf spoke at a meeting of the Niles Branch NAACP Tuesday night at Niles District Library. The presentation was part of the group’s recognition of Black History Month.

www.dowagiacnews.com/2011/02/16/beadenkopf-recalls-%E2%80%98singing-with-angels%E2%80%99-hearing-king/

Mattawan Food Bank: A Partnership Between Churches, Business, and Individuals

Pat Ainsworth is diabetic and has trouble affording the kind of food she needs to stay healthy.

“Food prices are so high. How can you afford to eat?” she asked. “That sugar-free stuff is expensive. I don’t know how the government expects you to live.”

Lucky for Ainsworth, the Mattawan Community Food Bank gives away a ton of food each month — literally.

Inside a pole barn across from Mattawan Community Church, what used to be a walk-in pantry has grown to the size of a small grocery store.

On the third Saturday of each month, three Mattawan churches, Access First Credit Union and several local businesses come together to provide indigent Mattawan area families with much-needed food and supplies.

www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/02/mattawan_comes_together_at_its.html

More on Homelessness Study in Berrien County

They may not be the stereotypical scruffy, bearded men, holding signs on a street corner, but they are struggling to find shelter just the same.

This year the Homeless Resource Network, in conjunction with Emergency Shelter Services in Benton Harbor, counted 594 homeless people in Berrien County — the highest number since the network began the count several years ago.

For this study, homelessness was broadened to include not just those living on the street but also people in unsafe or temporary housing.

There were 21 homeless adults counted in the Niles and Buchanan area, while Brandywine High School and Niles High School has 35 and 23 homeless students respectively.

The count took place Jan. 26 and was done throughout the county. The statistics were then forwarded to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to be used to determine funding for area agencies.

The Emergency Shelter’s executive director, Alysia Babcock, said the total number of homeless people is significantly up from 2008 when they counted 257 and 2009 and 2010 when there were fewer than 100 counted.

www.nilesstar.com/2011/02/17/the-changing-face-of-homelessness/

Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen Loses Federal Grant

The Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen, always strapped for cash, won't get federal grant money through the city's grant program this year, the soup kitchen's director says.

The thousands of dollars slated for the soup kitchen will instead go to city recreation programs.

The city is completely within its right to take grant money promised to one program and direct it to another, said Merry Stover, executive director for the nonprofit The Soup Kitchen Inc.

But in the nonprofit world, that's just not how things are done, Stover said. As an 18-year veteran of nonprofit management, Stover said she has never seen anything like it.

heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/02/16/local_news/3502601.txt


NOTE: For full disclosure, I serve as Board Treasurer on the Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen Board.

Annual Homeless Count in Berrien County More Than Doubles, Most Are Children

The Homeless Resource Network, led by a Benton Harbor-based agency for homeless people, counted more homeless people in Berrien County this year than it has since it began doing the count in 2007 - and that's a good and bad thing.

The Emergency Shelter Services agency counted 594 homeless people. For the count, homelessness is broadly defined to include the absolutely homeless or people living in unsafe or temporary housing.

The annual count day was Jan. 26, a Wednesday. It was done during daylight hours.

The total is dramatically up from the 257 in 2008 and from fewer than 100 in 2009 and 2010, said the agency's executive director, Alysia Babcock. The agency operates a shelter for women and children in Benton Harbor and also offers outreach and housing voucher programs.

The 594 is made up of 158 homeless men, 73 homeless women and 363 children of school age.

The largest concentration of homeless men was in Benton Harbor. The largest concentration of homeless women was in Coloma and Watervliet.

For homeless children, the highest concentrations were in Buchanan Community Schools, with 60; New Buffalo Area Schools, 43; and Eau Claire Public Schools, 38.

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/02/08/local_news/3420830.txt

Taxes Too High? Associated Press Says: Federal taxes Lowest Since 1950

Taxes too high?

Actually, as a share of the nation's economy, Uncle Sam's take this year will be the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way.

And for the third straight year, American families and businesses will pay less in federal taxes than they did under former President George W. Bush, thanks to a weak economy and a growing number of tax breaks for the wealthy and poor alike.

Income tax payments this year will be nearly 13 percent lower than they were in 2008, the last full year of the Bush presidency. Corporate taxes will be lower by a third, according to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The poor economy is largely to blame, with corporate profits down and unemployment up. But so is a tax code that grows each year with new deductions, credits and exemptions. The result is that families making as much as $50,000 can avoid paying federal income taxes, if they have at least two dependent children. Low-income families can actually make a profit from the income tax, and the wealthy can significantly cut their payments...

custom.yahoo.com/taxes/article-112061-0c8961e7-144f-45ba-920f-8df98fd4d028-by-one-measure-federal-taxes-lowest-since-1950

Kids Count: More Michigan Children In or Near Poverty

First the bad news: An annual report released today says more children in Michigan live in or near poverty at a time when many support services for kids face budget cuts.

In addition, the state saw a 25 percent jump in confirmed victims of abuse and neglect between 2000 and 2009 - most due to neglect made worse by poverty.

The Kids Count in Michigan Project found that about one in every five children in Michigan live in poverty. The rate is nearly one out of every two black kids, and more than one out of three Hispanic children.

www.mlive.com/health/index.ssf/2011/02/report_child_poverty_neglect_r.html