Census: Counting the Homeless in Kalamazoo

"In Kalamazoo, census workers were out Monday, counting the homeless population from 6:00 to 10:00. After a quick prayer, it's time for dinner, a routine that Donna Pearce of the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission is very accustomed to.

“We have an average of 275 individuals here with us each night, so we shelter 70 percent of those sheltered in Kalamazoo,” said Pearce.

On Monday and Tuesday, Pearce is taking part in an effort to make sure every homeless person in Kalamazoo gets counted for the 2010 census, " per WWMT-TV3.

Housing less expensive than sheltering, study says

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

It costs nearly twice as much per month to house a family in an emergency shelter in Kalamazoo than it does to provide transitional or permanent housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Kalamazoo was one of six places nationwide that HUD examined in a study on the cost of first-time homelessness among families. The study, announced Thursday, was conducted over a 18-month period in 2004 and 2005.

Read the full article: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/03/homelessness_costs_more_than_h.html

This study echos what has been shown nationally throughout a variety of research: That the extra support and administrative costs required to shelter a person that is homeless exceed the costs of simply providing housing.

When a person has a solid living situation, it stabilizes their whole live. They are more likely to be self sufficient and hold a steady job. In Kalamazoo, we covered some of the progress of housing the homeless in Kalamazoo in 2009 in our Affordable Housing Partnership video. You can watch it here:

What are the best methods for alleviating poverty?

New York Times Columnist NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF speaks about some concrete ways in which we can alleviate the issue of poverty in America. Here are some of the ways that he states are proven ways to make a difference:

High-quality early childhood programs, before kids get behind. Much-studied examples include the Perry Preschool program in Michigan in the 1960s and the Abecedarian Project in North Carolina in the 1970s. Both worked with impoverished children who had much better outcomes than control groups. For example, those who had been through the Perry program were — as adults, decades later — only half as likely to go on welfare and much less likely to be arrested.

Intensive efforts in the ninth grade (which is well known as education’s Bermuda triangle, swallowing up poor students). A program called Talent Development in Philadelphia gave ninth graders a double dose of math and English and reduced absenteeism and significantly improved performance for at least the next couple of years. Tentative results suggest it is also improving high school graduation rates.

Career academies. These keep students engaged in high school by teaching around career themes and partnering with local employers to give kids work experience. Eight years of follow-up research suggests that graduates are more likely to hold jobs and earn more money.

Jobs programs. One of the most successful is the “jobs-plus” demonstration, which trains people living in public housing to get jobs and gives them extra incentives to keep them. Participants thrive — and the gains continue even years later, after the program ends.

Conclusion: This wave of research suggests that there’s no magic bullet, that helping people is hard, and that even when pilot programs succeed they can be difficult to scale up. But evidence also suggests that we increasingly have the tools to chip away at poverty. We know what to do if we just can summon the political will.

Compare this to the Poverty Reduction Initiatives list of priorities:
http://www.haltpoverty.org/Reducing_Poverty/

What do you think, are these the most concrete ways in which we can significantly reduce poverty?

Civil Rights Commission Releases Report on Migrant Living Conditions in West Michigan

Michigan Civil Rights Commission
2010 Report on the Conditions of
Migrant and Seasonal Farm workers in Michigan

March 22, 2010

Excerpt from Executive Summary:

"First, families were often living in housing that was extremely substandard, including structural defects, lack of clean running water, exposed wires, overcrowding, close proximity to fields (and thus pesticides) and poor sanitation. Because camps are typically inspected pre-occupancy, the most hazardous violations are often not apparent, or may not yet exist, when the inspector is present.

Second, the Commission heard testimony from many farm workers describing discrimination that they had endured. Farm workers related incidents of sex-based discrimination against women, sexual harassment, national origin discrimination and racial discrimination. The Commission received several reports of employers refusing jobs to U.S. citizens or to English-speakers, preferring instead to hire farm workers who do not speak English and are thus believed to be less likely to know they have the right to be treated fairly or to complain about low wages or poor working conditions.

Third, the working conditions faced by migrant and seasonal farm workers were often the topic of their testimony during the forums. Problems described included the lack of drinking water, portable toilets and hand washing facilities available in fields where the hand-harvesting various types of agricultural products is taking place. Some workers said they did not have access to water in the fields at all, while others stated their employer charged them for water. Some stated there were no bathrooms and no breaks offered. Other testimony during the forums described outright wage theft and established that the accepted industry practice of growers paying piece rates to workers often results in workers being paid less than the required minimum hourly wage.

Fourth, for many of Michigan’s migrant farm workers, language barriers present a substantial obstacle to accessing services. Although all organizations that receive federal funding are required to provide equal services for their Limited English Proficient (LEP) clients, many do not. The testimony outlined difficulties encountered when attempting to obtain drivers’
and marriage licenses at some Secretary of State’s offices, in interaction with health care providers, county clerks’ offices, the police, and with local hospitals.

Problems with state and local law enforcement were discussed by several individuals. Allegations included officers overreaching into the area of federal immigration law and stopping people without cause based on their appearance, a form of discrimination often termed racial profiling.
Child farm workers not only have limited legal protections, they also face extremely hazardous working conditions. Several people testified that these conditions have had severe negative impacts on children and their future. Coupled with this, others spoke about the inability to procure childcare while working in the fields for long hours each day.

Finally, racism and other forms of mistreatment directed at farm workers by people in the community were alleged. While some might discount some of this animosity as the result of a bad economy, this can not excuse the mistreatment of migrant and seasonal farm workers who are contributing to Michigan’s agricultural economy."

www.michigan.gov/documents/mdcr/Summary-Concl-NextSteps_as_passed_by_MCRC_315420_7.pdf

Health-care reform welcomed by those who serve the needy of Southwest Michigan

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

The new legislation, by extending health coverage to an estimated 32 million Americans who lack it, would “help people establish a medical home” where they could get comprehensive, preventative care instead of going to the emergency room for minor medical problems, Crawford said.

“They would get the care in the right place in the most effective manner,” she said.
Saith said that because so many Americans don’t have health insurance or are underinsured, the Family Heath Center has seen “a tremendous rise in people with advanced medical conditions. ... They have multi-system diseases at advanced stages and need lots of coordinated care.”

Don Leonard, of Kalamazoo, a 56-year-old patient who was at the Family Health Center on Monday afternoon, said he doesn’t see the legislation having much of an impact on him because he’s already covered by Medicaid.

“But I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who really need it. There’s people who are dying or really sick who don’t have it (health coverage). That’s not right.”

The community in Kalamazoo County is ahead of the curve in offering health insurance options to the uninsured:

In Kalamazoo County, about 3,500 people without health insurance who have a current medical condition have been able to qualify for the Kalamazoo County Health Plan, which gets money from the state and the local United Way, Crawford said.

Under the legislation approved by the House, those people and an undetermined number of others would become insurable with federal funds within 90 days of final passage of the health-care plan, Crawford said. According to an Associated Press report, a high-risk pool would offer this coverage until 2014, when Medicaid would expand significantly.

“There will be more money to cover more people” than the county health plan does, Crawford said. “Adult males are the majority who fall through the gap” now, she added.

Read the Full Article: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/03/health-care_reform_welcomed_by.html

What are the next steps for Health Care reform?

Congress passed a historical bill this weekend to expand health care coverage to over 30 million Americans. What the Health Care Bill will accomplish for lower-income families cannot be understated:

MEDICAID Expands the federal-state Medicaid insurance program for the poor to cover people with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, $29,327 a year for a family of four. Childless adults would be covered for the first time, starting in 2014. The federal government would pay 100 percent of the tab for covering newly eligible individuals through 2016.

Near-poverty Americans not covered by Medicaid: Some 15 million more Americans than currently have it will get health care through Medicaid.

Middle class families who can't afford to buy insurance: Some 15 million will eventually get subsidies.

INSURANCE MARKET REFORMS Major consumer safeguards take effect in 2014. Insurers prohibited from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. Higher premiums for women would be banned. Starting this year, insurers would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, and from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing medical problems. Parents would be able to keep older kids on their policies up to age 26. A new high-risk pool would offer coverage to uninsured people with medical problems until 2014, when the coverage expansion goes into high gear.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/18/1823150_whats-in-the-health-care-reform.html?storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0iuYu01I7

As many are aware, medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy. And among those who filed for bankruptcy, 75 percent reported having some type of medical insurance. But The Washington Post says people in bankruptcy with insurance were nearly $18,000 in the red. And those without insurance had an average of almost $27,000 in medical debt.

This bill is only a first step towards providing affordable health care to all Americans. There will be more tough decisions and more reforms to face in the future. However, surviving for a century of battles on the very topic, it is long overdue.

What are the next steps to assuring all Americans have access to affordable health care?

Low Literacy Affects 14 Percent of American Adults

"When Richard Handziak was hurt on the job in 1998, he was forced to share his secret.

Doctors couldn't understand why he was resistant to filing for worker's compensation. But after meeting with a counselor, Handziak revealed he was reading at a third-grade level.

"I didn't want these people to know I couldn't fill the paperwork out," said Handziak, now a 50-year-old semi-truck driver."

According to an article on literacy in the Lansing State Journal, "Demand for literacy remediation services statewide is high and waiting lists are common..."

www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/99999999/AAAA/3210575/-1/news0302

State Supreme Court to Hear Case Against Underfunded Indigent Defense System

"Michigan was a 19th century pioneer in providing legal aid to poor criminal suspects.

Now, it has one of the nation's stingiest and most fragmented systems for representing the 80 percent of defendants who can't afford a lawyer, a wide range of critics say."

See:

www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100320/NEWS01/303200003/1002/NEWS01/Michigan-pays-big-for-underfunded-indigent-defense

Cass County Woman: Clean and Sober for 100 Days Starts to Turn Her Life Around

According to the Dowagiac Daily News,

"How does an intelligent, vivacious young woman wearing a cross around her neck land in Cass County Family Treatment Court after losing her home and three children?

Jessica, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, took her first drink at 12. At 14, “I not only drank, but I started smoking pot as well.”

Sweet 16? “I became severely addicted to cocaine, along with drinking and using pot every day,” which cost “thousands of dollars.”"

For more on Jessica's story and how Family Treatment Court, Hope's Door (a recovery residence), Southwestern Michigan Community College, and others helped her get a second chance, see:

www.dowagiacnews.com/2010/03/19/meth-addicted-mother-of-three-turning-her-life-around-slowly/

St. Louis Has a New Policy to Protect Rather Than Dispose of the Possessions of the Homeless

"St. Louis (Missouri) has established a policy which now provides sturdy bags and waterproof identification tags to make it easier for homeless residents to store their stuff — and to retrieve it when it does get (thrown out by city clean up crews.)

"We keep an inventory and make arrangements for people to pick up whatever they've left behind," Siedhoff says the Director of Health and Human Services in the city.

It's an unusual policy. Cities are more likely to confiscate and destroy the property of the homeless than to monitor and store it."

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124735830