Homeless in the big cities

I suppose some people would say that anything is better than being homeless, but fortunately the New York City City Council doesn't agree. The council announced it intends to bring an end to the practice of sending the city's homeless from shelters to illegal and unsafe boarding houses being run for a profit by unscrupulous owners. This follows two years of pressure from homeless advocacy groups, including Coalition for the Homeless.

Lindsey Davis, a director at the Coalition for the Homeless and the author of the 2008 report, described conditions that she said she had recently observed at overcrowded boarding houses.

In one building, Ms. Davis said, an external wall had collapsed while people were living inside. One room was filled with 12 bunk beds. “There was mold covering the walls, and the floors and ceilings were not structurally sound,” she said, adding that people were sleeping in beds placed within feet of stoves. New York Times.

Another bit of help for New York's homeless comes from singer/songwriter Cyndi Lauper, who is opening a homeless shelter for LGBT youth with funds from her True Colors Fund.  Of the 20,000 young people homeless in New York City, a quarter of them identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered.

In Tampa, FL, it's OK to solicit donations from passing traffic as long as they don't disrupt traffic AND, since a new ordinance was passed in January, they wear reflective vests or risk being cited and fined.  Not everyone who solicits donations is homeless; one mother of two who lost her job is trying to avoid homelessness by alternating her days job-hunting and soliciting donations. Tampa Bay Online.

Now that the risk of dying from hypothermia is diminishing, many homeless people in Washington, D.C. are leaving the shelters, many of which are due to close, and heading back to the streets.  12,000 people are estimated to be homeless in D.C., although that number is expected to climb when the results of the latest homeless census are released.  Washington Post.

Photo of homeless D.C. man from winged photography's photostream at Flickr.

Kicked to the curb, ignored, homeless man dies while others step around him

OK, so everybody knows about this by now, but I have to comment because by tomorrow, the story will be gone.

A homeless man is struck by two others, hits his head, falls unconscious, and dies shortly afterwards. He lays in the middle of the sidewalk in Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C., for twenty minutes before someone calls an ambulance.

That's what happened to 31-year-old Jose Sanchez last Tuesday. People in the neighborhood said they're used to seeing people passed out drunk in the neighborhood, and put Mr. Sanchez in that category.

Sorry, though-- Mr. Sanchez was in the middle of the sidewalk, NOT where people choose to pass out. People stepped around this guy, for God's sake.

But actually, who cares where he was laying.

I have never passed by someone on the street who was not conscious without at least stopping and making a judgment about his or her well-being. Sometimes I speak to the person. Sometimes I tell a cop, or call an ambulance, and sometimes I pass on-- but never without thought.

I think many people are like me, and I think there are many more who would take some kind of action if they had any idea how to do it. But they don't know the protocol, don't know what's polite or impolite, don't know what to do.

So I ask everyone to take a moment, right now, and think about what you would do if you saw a person unconscious on the sidewalk. A little mental practice will make it easier to act.

Murders and freezing deaths haunt homeless communities

The L.A. Times is reporting that police have arrested Benjamin Mathew Martin in the gruesome burning death of John McGraham last October. Apparently the motive was pure personal dislike. I posted about his death and others last year, but so many homeless deaths have continued to occur, it's impossible to keep up with all of them.

A homeless man was one of two people shot to death last Wednesday in Brockton, Massachusetts by a man looking for "non-white" people to kill. Arlindo Goncalvis, like many homeless people, made a few dollar a day collecting cans, which he was doing when he was killed. Mr. Goncalvis was also a musician who carried a keyboard and played around town, where he was well-known. the Daily News Transcript has more about Mr. Goncalvis' life and death.

A homeless man who lived in and watched over a junkyard in Blue Island, ILL was found shot to death last Thursday. Ryan Briggs was 36. the Chicago Sun Times has a little more information, but there's not much info available so far.

On Christmas Eve, 61 year old Yoshio Nakada was found dead on the George Washington University campus in Washington, D.C. where he was well-known. He'd received a number of severe blows to the head and his skull was fractured. Although Mr. Nakada spoke little English, he liked to sing and had recently been attending Quaker services, where he occasionally spoke in his native language. The student newspaper GW Hatchet has a report on the murder's impact on campus.

Woodstock, ILL police are still searching for a motive in the stabbing death of 28 year old Robin Burton, allegedly killed by Kyle Morgan, who brought Mr. Burton to his apartment and then killed him. Morgan's MySpace page, since taken down, seemed to show an interest in serial murders. The Daily Herald is following the story.

Of course not all homeless deaths are the result of murder. Many die quietly from illnesses exacerbated by being homeless. Other-- too many-- die from exposure, and I expect this winter to take a particularly high toll. Tallahassee.com reports that weather was a factor in the death of 42 year old Stacy Bradish, who was sleeping outside in a campsite and could not be awoken the next morning by his friend. Eric Victor Spence was probably trying to get kerosene for his heater when he couldn't go on anymore. he was found dead with an empty gasoline can nearby in the woods in Taylor, MI, the News Herald reports.

Safety is not guaranteed by seeking shelter, however. In early January, five men died in a swift-moving fire at a men's shelter in Paris, Texas. Earlier this week, a homeless man was stabbed-- fortunately not fatally-- at the Worthington St. Shelter operated by Friends of the Homeless here in Springfield, MA, my home city. Overcrowding often leads to short tempers and Worthington St. is packed to the gills.

While the total of homeless deaths will almost surely be higher for 2008 and 2009 than ever before, our information will remain sketchy and anecdotal, because no agency or governmental body tracks these deaths. Each year, dozens of cities participate in the Homeless Persons Memorial Day on or around December 21st, the longest night of the year, but far more cities let these deaths go unremarked.

Photo from the National Coalition for the Homeless: 2007 D.C. memorial service.