Down Right Angry!!!

After reports in the news this past few weeks, I felt that this weeks post should focus on the injustices that we are seeing in the news. I am passionate and down right angry with these reports, as an employee of Preble Street and someone who has worked closely with the homeless population I feel disappointed in this state in which I live. I am embarrassed to have the administration that we do, and disappointed in DHHS, as system that should be working to help and serve those in need, not to criminalize and marginalize these individuals more.

It is preposterous to think that people would actually think that someone would choose to sleep in a homeless shelter! That sleeping in a homeless shelter is an option to save money... As the news over the last few weeks has aided in the demonizing of those who are homeless, it fails to look at the truth of the problem, that we need to be doing more for those who are mentally ill.

"The state has a huge responsibility to serve those people, and yet the state has chosen to pay attention to, and call out the shelter, really the only place that's open, available and accessible to these people to keep them safe," Mark Swann said in response to the States accusations that those seeking General Assistance and vouchers actually have money in the bank. Mark Swann is the executive director of Preble Street, his response to these reports of the top "stayers" at the shelters have large bank accounts that "the state has failed to live up to its responsibility to serve people with serious mental illness. Nobody is staying in shelters or languishing on the streets or in shelters for years and years sometimes, to save money." No one chooses to sleep on mats on the floor, 6 inches apart from strangers, clutching all your belongings, scared that your belongings will disappear if you let them go, and all too often items disappear when clients do fall asleep.

The truth is that those who stay the longest in emergency shelters, such as Oxford Street,  typically have a severe mental illness that prevents them from caring for themselves, and they "are not able-bodied people who are gaming the welfare system" that these reports are making them out to be.  Often, the residents have disability checks going into bank accounts that they don’t know about, don’t have legal access to or are controlled by someone else. When I was doing case management at Preble Street, I had a client who had his disability check directly deposited into his bank account, but due to homelessness and mental illness he lost his identification, birth certificates, and social security card. He also could not remember what bank his check was deposited into. Because he had no identification to prove who he was we had to struggle to get him identification starting with a Birth Certificate, then state ID, and his Social Security card. Once we got that we could then work with the SS office to find where his check was going and to access his checks and bank accounts. This took 9 months to complete, and was immensely frustrating for both the client and myself.  This is not the only story, this story is a success story that took little time to resolve the issue compared to other stories I have heard.

http://news.mpbn.net/post/homeless-money-bank-advocates-weigh-audit-fracas

  I recently started working with Jon Bradley, director of Preble Street, on a project, in our first meeting he had come from this press conference the day before and shared with me a story of a client we both knew very well. Jon recalls trying to get this client into the Logan Place when it first opened. This individual was chronically homeless and chronically mentally ill.  This individual was paranoid of the government and would not access his accounts in fear that the government would harm him. Therefore the money he received sat in his account for years without being used. The man stayed at the OSS feeling safer than than if he accessed his money and got an apartment. Jon recalls trying to help this man for many years, accepting that he was too mentally ill to get him int his own apartment or to agree to have his money managed by payee. Jon and the Preble Street staff did the best they could, and finally this year, this man is now housed in Logan Place. These are just two cases of the clients in which we serve having mental health issues that prevent them from accessing services and having stable housing.

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/03/06/opinion/we-should-be-angry-about-homelessness-not-who-paid-for-shelter-stays/#disqus_thread

The state is oversimplifying the complex nature of homelessness, and that untreated mental illness and substance abuse are often the root causes of chronic homelessness. If you walk into the shelters at night you would find it crowded, people sleeping in chairs, and on mats on the floor just inches apart. These facts of the state in which people are seeking emergency shelter is proof that that state is failing our homeless and mentally ill population.

The recent change in the states philosophy of reimbursement to shelters from General Assistance money, was due to the large number of homeless individuals served by the shelters, now the state administration seeks to reimburse by determining eligibility of those individuals, rather than seeking to look at the entire problem of homelessness and mental health, but by criminalizing those who are homeless and mentally ill. The state reimburses the city $24 per night for people staying at the Oxford Street Homeless Shelter, which has space for 154 adults, many nights there are two to three hundred individuals who stay at the shelters, many are forced to sleep in chairs or in overflow areas in services buildings such as GA, and the Resource Center.  Swan and Bradley are among those who gathered in response to these recent headlines.  They said there is no way to force those clients to pay for services with their own money because their mental illness renders them incapable of comprehending their situation, and the shelters won't turn them away.

Years in a Homeless Shelter, Despite Thousands in the Bank: One Man's Story.  

Brandon - not his real name - died last August of liver disease at age 52. He had recently moved into his own apartment in a subsidized housing project. Before that, his primary residence was Portland's Oxford Street Shelter. He lived there, on and off, for more than a decade. - See more at: http://www.preblestreet.org/in-the-news/Years-in-a-Homeless-Shelter-Despite-Thousands-in-the-Bank-One-Mans-Story/893#sthash.lYqJ9sBM.dpuf

http://news.mpbn.net/post/years-homeless-shelter-despite-thousands-bank-one-mans-story

"I've laid next to a man who thought he was Hitler's grandson," he said. "I've laid next to another person who thought the government was spying on him and was after him. These are the worlds people are living in."

The truth is that the chronically homeless are frequent users of emergency services, crisis response and public safety systems (including jails), which tax government resources more than a night in a shelter. And, although they make up a small percentage of the overall homeless population, they account for 50 percent of shelter use.

I am outraged of these accusations that the homeless are holding onto their assets and choosing to  sleep on the cheap mats at the homeless shelter. This is ridiculous does not make sense! Maybe the Governor and DHHS officials need to go to the shelter themselves for a week, see the people at the shelter lined up, sometimes for hours, in the cold, rain, and heat, just to get a spot to sleep on a mat, six inches from others, and state officials say this is a choice, who would choose this? This is not about money, as LePage administration claims, but it is about those who are in poverty, and those who are mentally ill. Maine is criminalizing their weakest members, when they should be helping them regardless of their status, and illnesses.


“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." - Mahatma Gandhi.


Resources:
http://news.mpbn.net/post/homeless-money-bank-advocates-weigh-audit-fracas
http://www.pressherald.com/2015/02/24/ga-autis-story-here/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSUZrxT1ifY
http://news.mpbn.net/post/years-homeless-shelter-despite-thousands-bank-one-mans-story
http://bangordailynews.com/2015/03/06/opinion/we-should-be-angry-about-homelessness-not-who-paid-for-shelter-stays/#disqus_thread