Warning: Disturbing Images

Today, I want you to meet David.  More importantly, I want you to meet David’s feet.  I talked about David in last week’s post, and David has even been mentioned in the Enquirer.

But I don’t know if you really understand David’s feet.  Frostbite sounds bad, but not horrifying.  I think David’s feet are horrifying.  Horrifying because they display the needless injuries inflicted on everyday people who can’t afford medical care.  Horrifying because they are the result of honest work, not substance abuse or living on the streets.  In fact, David lost his job because of the injury, not vice versa.

I’ve posted pictures before to show you what we do at the Respite.  You’ve seen clients after healing and recuperation, after housing and health.  Here are pictures of what an earlier stage in that process looks like:

Can you say "no" to healthcare for the homeless. . .

. . . after seeing how bad it really can be?

People say, "I don't want my tax dollars to be a free ride for someone who's just lazy."

See any lazy people here?

It’s easy to write off the issue of homelessness through stereotypes.  It’s not as easy to deny urgently needed medical care because of assumptions about past actions or potential for the future.  The health care needs of homeless individuals in our community are serious and growing.  People like David need help now or they risk drastic consequences.

Read Full Post »

How We Identify with Homelessness

Reading other blogs about homelessness is a curious thing.  There are blogs by those who are or have been homeless, those who work or volunteer with a homeless clientele, and blogs about other topics that mention homelessness once in a while (typically when the author has an encounter with a homeless person).

The most frequently commented upon blog articles seem to be those about an individual’s first night of homelessness.  I admit, I frequently leave comments on these articles myself.

Why is it that we’re so sympathetic to the person who experiences their first day of homelessness, but callous toward the person who has been homeless for months or years?  It’s a matter of perspective.  The person spending a stray night in a homeless shelter could well be us, we think.  

What if we lost our jobs and had a concurrent major illness?  What if a loved one (or ones) passed away suddenly?  What if . . . whatever combination of tragedies it might take.  I think we’ve all had thoughts that it could be us.  For some it might take more tragedies than others, but the possibility is there.

In considering the chronically homeless person, we’re less sympathetic.  Why?  Because we believe we cannot sink to that level.  We would pull ourselves out or find help somehow.

We may be able to make the leap to understanding who someone (even ourselves) can become homeless, but we believe that if you’re homeless for more than a few weeks, well, you must just be lazy.  Or ignorant.  Or an addict.  Why don’t they just get jobs after all?  Or just apply for the loads of benefits we finance through our taxes?  Or get social security?

We fail to consider the psychological effects of life on the streets.  It takes many of our clients several days to warm up to staff at the Respite and our mission is to help them.  Imagine how difficult they find it to reconnect with family and friends.

And all those “free benefits”?  True, they’re out there.  But how long can you afford to wait?  It can take weeks to qualify for food stamps, months to gain tenant-based rental assistance, and years to be awarded social security disability.

As for employment, would you hire someone who admitted to being homeless?  How about someone who claimed to have stable housing, but was mysteriously never home when you called?  Would you hire someone with dirty fingernails or ragged clothing?  Maybe you would.  Then again, maybe you’d prefer to hire the clean-cut teenager who made the honor roll last quarter.

Are we really as impervious as we believe?  Or is the hard truth that homelessness, once it happens, can be nearly impossible to escape?  How many of these truths do we ignore because they are simply too frightening to accept?

The ultimate truth is surely more complex, but everytime I read comment-loaded articles about an individual’s first terrifying night as a homeless person, I wonder.

Read Full Post »

Sleeping in a Homeless Shelter

I was tag surfing today, checking out other blog articles on homelessness and found a great description of one woman’s first day at a homeless shelter.  It contains many of the details I’ve heard from Respite clients (about their stay at “traditional” emergency shelters, not a respite facility), along with the fear, worry, and unease inherent to the situation. 

As you can tell from the woman’s description, a typical shelter is no place for someone to try to recover after being hospitalized, having surgery, or being released from an emergency room.  There are showers and a place to sleep, but in the wee hours of the morning, each person must return to the streets.  For an injured person, this would surely contribute to repeat hospitalizations and ER visits.

Running a homeless shelter is definitely a balancing game.  If you provide more services, you serve fewer people.  If you try to serve everyone, you can’t provide as much help for each individual.  At the Center for Respite Care, we provide medical recovery and 24-hour shelter.  We have high success rates for our population, but we are limited to serving fourteen people at a time.  Luckily, there are other agencies in Cincinnati that create something of a safety net, but we do sometimes turn people away because we don’t have the resources to serve them.  On the upside, we’re the only agency in Cincinnati that providing this service and can hopefully expand our size in the future. 

If you’ve never heard of the Center for Respite Care (or other similar respite care provider for the homeless), I’d urge you to visit our website: www.homelessrespite.org.

Read Full Post »

Another Homeless Song: Chapman’s “Revolution”

It’s Friday again – our song this week is Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution,” again from LaDonna.  Millie, our nurse manager, wanted to share “Trying to Find My Place in the World,” but we couldn’t track it down on YouTube.  If anyone knows the artist for that piece, leave us a comment and I’ll post the song next week.

Meanwhile, “Revolution” is a fair description of day-to-day life for many low-income and homeless men and women who spend many a long hour waiting in line to secure benefits.  As a result of the recent economic downturn, cash-strapped agencies try to help a growing number of people with dwindling resources.  This can result in longer wait times for those who need help the most. 

For Respite clients who break the cycle of homelessness, being housed really is a revolution.  And it takes a personal revolution to work through issues of mental illness, addiction, and abuse.  That’s why we’re so proud of clients like Mike!

Read Full Post »

Outstanding Utility Bills Challenge Tenant Applicants

Driving to the Center for Respite Care this morning was interesting.  A large thunderstorm knocked down trees and powerlines in certain parts of Cincinnati last night (including our neighborhood, Avondale) and when I finally made it through several busy intersections without traffic lights, past cones, and around Duke Energy trucks, I knew today would be no ordinary day.  We truly take our electricity for granted.

Homeless people don’t take electricity for granted because, obviously, they usually have extremely limited access to it.  However, energy concerns continue to effect homeless men and women long after their immediate housing concerns are resolved.  Why?  Because outstanding utility bills can prevent them from securing permanent housing.  While there are agencies that will help with outstanding bills, they are not able to help everyone. 

Depending on the depth of security checks a landlord performs, outstanding utility bills can have the same effect as a bad credit rating or eviction history.  Furthermore, anyone who has such a bill cannot have a utility in their name until it is paid off.  The best short-term fix is to find an apartment that has utilities included.  Even this inclusion, of course, won’t prevent a landlord from turning down these applicants.

Returning to society is something of a choice at first, but it also takes hard work, determination, and time to overcome all the obstacles and consequences of a life that has lead to homelessness.  Health issues can be improved and sometimes even resolved, but there are so many tiny details of living in society that can take months and even years to resolve.  Can you think of others?

Read Full Post »

Are the Homeless Lazy?

The homeless are people, first of all, and some people are lazy.  To say, however that all homeless people are lazy is unkind.  I watch many of my clients expend huge amounts of time and energy just to reclaim some basics: filling prescriptions, obtaining a birth certificate or social security card, or applying for food stamps.  Getting a set of glasses, for one client, took about six hours because she had a long bus wait and a long bus ride each way.  That’s a long time to go without a meal!

We really should look at the individual because there are different homeless people out there, not just one big group of “lazy homeless people.”  It’s an unfair stereotype, really.

The clients here at the Center for Respite Care are homeless and sick, so they have to navigate crazy bus schedules, medical/social work appointments, and answering some bigger questions about what comes next.  I won’t deny laziness in some, but I refuse to label them as a group.  If you met a lazy accountant, would you assume that all other accountants are lazy?  I hope that you would not.  Take the same approach with homeless people.

In the Center for Respite Care lobby, there is a sign that reads, “Homelessness is a situation, not an identity.”  None of us are immune to this situation, either, and realizing this helps build compassion.  I’m not saying there aren’t lazy homeless people, I’m saying that there are lazy people in all walks of life.  That doesn’t mean we can’t feel compassion for them.

Read Full Post »

How to Make a Furniture Donation in Cincinnati

Homeless people typically don’t have much furniture.  Even those homeless men and women who once had apartments typically lose their belongings upon eviction.  I’ve had a lot of calls about furniture donations lately, and wanted to address the best way to donate your gently used furniture to the Center for Respite Care or another agency serving the homeless in Cincinnati. 

The Center for Respite Care uses furniture as part of Respite Permanent Housing, but we don’t accept furniture donations for our homeless clients.  Why not?  Because space is at a premium in our facility and even with a storage unit, we just don’t have the space or the manpower to process furniture donations. 

This is where New Life Furniture comes in.  New Life is a nonprofit in Cincinnati that assists families in need by providing gently used furniture to help make their house a home.  Every weekend, this great group picks up donations of gently used furniture and delivers them to those in need.  They’ve been an amazing help to our clients (see their May 3, 2008 blog entry at the last link), who enter our housing program often with only a tiny amount of clothing and personal items.  Without the help of Tim and Holly, the founders of New Life, we would have little means of furnishing apartments for all the clients in RPH.

If you have furniture to donate, please consider New Life Furniture!  Remember to check their list of acceptable items and donate only those items that are still in good working condition, without rips or tears.

Read Full Post »

A Change of Mind: Turning Points for the Homeless

Cincinnati weather has been crazy lately!  This morning, I had to wait for tornado sirens to go off just to leave the house.  The blackened sky was an ominous threat to everyone’s rush hour commute.  (Plus, I left my umbrella at work!)  Now, our clients are hanging out on the porch, basking in brilliant sunlight.  It’s amazing how quickly our sky can change.

Watching this transformation made me think about the clients here because many of them undergo similar “night and day” changes in the short time they are with us. 

Homelessness is a lonely way to live.  It really is.  When our clients arrive at the Center for Respite Care, how do they know that they can trust us?  They can, of course, but they don’t always know that.  And so they are mistrustful at first. 

Over time, we get to see more of our client’s personalities.  They learn that we’re here to help break down the barriers and help them pull the pieces of their lives back together. 

In some ways, we’re lucky.  Other shelters with different funding and different objectives host the homeless for limited, if any, daytime hours.  They don’t know if clients will come back and they don’t get the chance to sit and chat with their clients as much as we do.  Our clients are recovering from acute medical issues, so they stay at our facilities 24 hours a day minus a few appointments and trips to the store.

Every day I watch these transformations, and it’s amazing.  Just the difference in physical appearance from when these men and women arrive until when they leave is enough to prove lives are being changed.

It’s a decision on their part, too.  Not every client experiences this transformation, but one strength of our program is that the time spent here is truly a respite.  They have a chance to sit down and think about their choices, values, strengths, and weaknesses.  They’re away from their normal surroundings and companions.  For some, that makes all the difference because while our primary goal is physical healing, we don’t want our clients to just heal and walk out the door.  We want them to find themselves along the way.

Read Full Post »

Starve a Cold. Feed a Fever.

The following is a guest post from Michael, author of the SLO Homeless blog.  Michael was once homeless himself and provides his perspective on homeless medical needs, recovery, etc. below.  Be sure to visit Michael’s blog as well!

 

There is no cure for the common cold. That’s just the reality of life. The best a person can hope to do is go to the local pharmacy and buy one of the many over the counter remedies – which only make it easier to cope with the symptoms at best. If the symptoms are a bit more severe, the person may take a day or two off from work and “sleep it off.”

 

For the millions of American’s who just happen to be a part of this nation’s homeless population, even the common cold can make an already stressful life all the more harsh.

 

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless fact sheet, Health Care and Homelessness,

 

“Poor health is closely associated with homelessness. For families struggling to pay the rent, a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with a lost job, depletion of savings to pay for care, and eventual eviction.”

 

However, for those who are homeless, health care issues do not stop there.

 

While many communities offer some form of government sponsored indigent health care services for their local homeless, lack of adequate funding severely limits the quality of medical services available to the homeless – particularly for those who have chronic health issues. For those who have on-going medical needs for such conditions as diabetes, respiratory or cardiac diseases, addiction disorders, and mental heath issues, the lack of stable housing makes it a near impossibility to keep their conditions from worsening.

 

Additionally, a lack of accessibility to proper nutrition, regular hygiene care and even sleep, often times means that the homeless have a less robust auto-immune system. This places them at risk of contracting numerous bacterial and viral infections.

 

Among those homeless who utilize local homeless shelters, the incidence of upper respiratory infections is higher than those of their non-homeless counterparts. Since most homeless shelters utilize a dormitory style methodology for providing shelter, this forces the clientele into close proximity with others. Consequently, if one or two of the homeless have an upper respiratory infection, there is a high probability that the majority of the clientele will also develop the infection. It is not unusual for many homeless to develop “shelter cough.”

 

There is a higher price to be paid by the community when there is a lack of proper medical services for the area’s homeless.

 

Although most of a community’s homeless are aware of the availability of medical services, many of them do not utilize these services immediately upon becoming sick. This is often times a result of the distances that must be traveled to obtain these services. In some communities, the homeless support services agencies are located in a more remote or industrialized section of the municipality while medical services may perhaps be located on the “other side of town.”

 

As a result, a medical condition – which had it been treated at the onset – worsens until the person finds themselves with no other option but a visit to the emergency room. In the long term, these emergency room visits cost the community more in taxpayer dollars than it would to fund preventative and supportive medical services.

 

Moreover, since the homeless are unable to pay for emergency room visits, the hospital is required to “write off” the costs. This writing off of costs isn’t completely dismissed however. They are ultimately passed on to the rest of the community as hospitals are required to increase their prices to cover their operational expenses.

 

With the ubiquity of prepaid services these days, it might be wise for us as a society to take that approach when it comes to providing adequate medical services to our nations’ homeless.

 

It’s up to us. We can choose to take the more cost effective route and “pre-pay” for those services; or we can choose to pay after the fact. But, have no doubt about it – the invoice will have to be paid for one way or another.

 

It’s been my experience that it’s less expensive to get it right the first time, than it is to have pay the extra costs the second time around.

Read Full Post »

Housing the Homeless: Behind the Scenes

The Center for Respite Care has a newly-launched permanent housing program (Respite Permanent Housing or RPH)that provides scattered-site placements for clients with disabilities.  Fourteen of twenty available slots have currently been filled with clients that are working with our case manager and/or housing counselor to become self-sufficient.

Once clients obtain employment or Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Income (SSI/SSDI), they transition off the program.  Along the way, they are taught skills in budgeting, basic daily living (cleaning, cooking, bus transportation, etc.), and life skills.

I sat down with Kathy Miller, our Housing Coordinator, to get a behind-the-scenes look at life on the front lines of RPH.

Q: So, why is there a need for the services you provide?  Let’s start with housing.

A: Well, the clients in my program are disabled.  The majority are unable to work, have applied for SSI or SSDI, or are looking for employment.  This isn’t a permanent housing program: our primary goal is self-sufficiency.

Q: Ok, and as far as social service needs, what kinds of skills do you teach?

A: We cover basic daily living skills including budgeting, making a grocery list, and using public transportation.  Our funds and resources are limited, but we do devote a case manager or housing coordinator to each client to help them develop a case management plan. 

Q: I think a lot of our readers will wonder why an adult would need to learn these skills.  Can you explain?

A: Our clients have different histories, but many have always depended on someone else to take care of them, so their skills are limited.  It may have been a parent early on and later a spouse.  Some have been homeless for so long that they forgot those skills, or the world has simply changed to the point where they need to relearn them.”

Q: What are some other barriers clients face?

A: Communication is a big issue.  Clients are often isolated from family and friends for so long that they lose communication skills.  There’s a different level of slang and communication on the streets than there is in other parts of society. 

Our housing team is an indefatigable duo (as in just two!) that take care of all these services for our clients.  They select appropriate clients from Respite, recruit understanding landlords, oversee the distribution of donated furniture and kitchen supplies, organize moving days, make follow-up visits, case plans, and everything in between. 

Read Full Post »