Tips: Keep your memories safe

Back when this blog first started, I was fortunate enough to be aware of the situation arising of our becoming homeless. Being a geek, I was able to put together some 'field equipment' bags to keep my geer necessary for blogging close at hand. Laptop for editting entries, camera that used sd flash memory for easier transfers and storage, and a handful of USB sticks to back up data in case my laptop became damaged.

Even with everything, there were still times I failed to backup my files on the laptop before it failed. Elements such as humidity, jarring, and electricity loss all played havoc at critical times that could have cost me a total loss of everything I'd accumulated over time.

Any homeless family having digital cameras or choosing them in the future should make sure to buy two SD flash cards, along with a USB 'reader adaptor' that can let it double up as a 'thumb drive'.

Doing so allows a person to go to any public library and transfer critical files to any online server space, whether free or paid.

Being homeless doesn't mean you've got to lose everything. Don't. Learn to back up your files. Even though it may seem the worst of times, having digital images for later viewing can prove more heartwarming when you realize what you survived through together.

HUD's Fiscal Year Notice of Funding Availabilty

The Federal Register of today, Monday, December 29, 2008, includes the Notice of HUD's Fiscal Year 2009 Notice of Funding Availabililty (NOFA); Policy Requirements and General Section to HUD's FY2009 NOFAs for Discretionary Programs. Please note that everything is subject to Congressional appropriations. Included in the announcement are the following:

NOFAs will be published in 2009 as they are approved for publication and NOT in a combined SuperNOFA (list of competitive programs is included at the end of the FR announcement).

After January 11, 2009, or when Grants.gov is ready in January to assume the functions itself, Grants.gov will be terminating service with the current Grants.gov credential provider ORC. Therefore, everyone must either open a new account with Grants.gov or update their existing account.

The Continuum of Care will once again NOT be using Grants.gov.

Adobe Reader 8.1.3 or updating Reader on Adobe Professional to 8.1.3 is required for Grants.gov compatibility. Versions 8.1.2 and 9.0 will NOT provide the necessary compatibility. Once Version 9.1 is released, it will have addressed the problems inherent in 8.1.2 and 9.0.

Standardized points will be given for Logic Models, which will receive increased importance in funding decisions. Additional training will be given and the scoring is outlined at the end of the announcement. Heavy emphasis will be placed on comparisons between projected and actual numbers for outputs and outcomes. Self-evaluation of each program's management and performance will be required.
Funding will be determined on how well quality applications meet the following components of the HUD strategic framework:

• a. Increase Homeownership Opportunities
• b. Promote Decent Affordable Housing
• c. Strengthen Communities
• d. Ensure Equal Opportunity in Housing
• e. Embrace High Standards of Ethics, Management, and Accountability
• f. Promote Participation of Faith-Based and Other Community Organizations
  

Addressing one or more of the following HUD policy priorities will garner points:

• a. Improving the Knowledge of Homeowners, Homebuyers, and Renters to be Aware of Discriminatory Practices...Rights...Financial Literacy
• b. Encouraging Accessible Design Features
• c. Providing Full and Equal Access to Grassroots Faith-Based and Other Community Orgs. in HUD Program Implementation
• d. Participation of Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) in HUD Programs
• e. Ending Chronic Homelessness
• f. Promoting Energy Star and Green Development
• g. Promoting Assistance to Veterans

They don't however offer an insurance quote to the homeless. For that, click on the link or network with your peers to find available options for your clients.

Cold days still ahead for many on the streets

During the next month, Jacksonville will again 'count' the homeless. Since I've provided my resignation to the Lead Agency, I won't be involved with it this go around, maybe another time.

What I do know are the problems the prior counts had, as well as similiar problems in other cities. Counting the people in day centers, shelters, and other locations as well as those 'moving' during the night count doesn't provide an accurate picture.

Likewise the 'math' used that's acceptable, 'according to studies'. It just sounds so BS to me.

There's the people in the bushes you can't count. The campers. The car sleepers. The ones behind an empty building, or let alone in it. Hospitals, whether in need of a shoulder pain pump or dyalasys treatment...they can't all be counted.

Try adding on an additional 2,500 minimum, and you might get close...because we're talking a metropolitan county with a million residents at last count.

Faith Based Versus Secular Service Providing

There used to be this joke we'd tell each other: A Muslim goes to stay at a Baptist homeless shelter...

The sad thing is it's a real predicament of anyone having a different faith to enter another sect or religious shelter and expect the ability to thrive in programs that are based on conversion.

They say it's not the case, but read the print on the websites. While Christian videos are a great asset themselves for communicating a really appropriate message, they're only truly experienced and can be cherished by someone having a choice.

Requiring someone to accept another's belief system and values, especially of the religious kind as a requirement for providing services, isn't right.

Have you ever heard of a Wiccan becoming stable from homelessness through a Baptist shelter program? Or a Muslim? Or a Jew?

Doubtful.

Again, the fat of being homeless

Over the last few days I've been picking up on blogs run by service providers arguing about people giving money to the homeless. In one instance in California, a tradition started by an attorney years ago of handing out literally 1,400 or so $10.00 bills was ranted about.

That's petty, and it's pretty much the same mantra of people getting a paycheck and potential job loss fear when their main objective is to help any homeless family break the cycle. What's next, arguing it's inappropriate for people to donate toys for a homeless shelter's children?

I mean, COME ON!

It's being greedy. Gift giving being questioned? "It could be used for this, it could be used for that".

It's called guilt trips. It's also called 'opening your yap and getting caught when you forgot who was reading'.

While I've advocated for homeless families and unaccompanied youth, there's plenty of residents in my community experiencing homelessness. Under no circumstances do I have the right to question anyone providing gifts to any of them, single male or female especially.

The sad thing is there's plenty of back patters for this kind of rhetoric, and without advocates to be open to stand up at times for those not underneath their 'interests', we risk our own interests of being compromised by this type of mentality.

Homelessness will continue to exist, for some time over the next century, contrary to what hype is given by any agency or lobbyist. It's not going away. But what we can do today is work for tomorrow being less harrowing and more promising for years to come...until we do in fact beat this problem worldwide.

Even when it comes to the diet of people experiencing homelessness, all potential solutions need to be looked at. Orovo, low carb diets, increases of federal funding to USDA Food Distributions...all of these even though not seeming viable need to be investigated and reported on by local advocates of every community to their lead agencies, those showing promise pursued, and success stories blogged about for the rest of the world to realize WHAT IS WORKING!

Through sharing, we can all improve the lives of all of our residents, both sheltered and unsheltered worldwide.

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all a wonderful and joyful Christmas time!This picture sums up a summer Christmas for me. A miniscule smidgen of cake consumed alongside copious slices of watermelon for a late tea, followed by a gentle stroll around the farm just after the sun had gone down. It was cool enough to have a hot Christmas lunch with roast potatoes, bread sauce and the whole caboodle, so we indulged

The pinch that won't save you an inch, or your life

Getting fat while standing in a meal line when you're homeless is a fact of life. Starches are the biggest problem, sometimes an entire plate being composed of them. It's survival and it can be deadly as well with the threat of diabetes being more real than ever within the homeless communities.

I've had the chance of talking to a number of service providers about how to address this issue, all of them only being able to look to the day when a person is out of the homeless cycle and able to prepare meals for themselves. At that point it's possible to prescribe or use over the counter diet pills, while attempting to adjust a person's learned behavior in regards to eating disorders.

Which is what most homeless transitioning out are experiencing that nobody talks about. Eating disorders are both for the heavy and skinny. When you're homeless you're more apt to overeat when foods available, knowing that it may not be there the next day.

See a nice muffin or piece of fruit with seconds available, and you're liable to see people trying to trade food for goods...not to stash it in bags, but to in most cases immediately ingest it. It's conditioning. It's sad. And it's a fact of life.

And in the end, it'll catch up on ya. No pun intended.

Christmas Trees

At last I am starting to feel a bit Christmas-y. It's the scent of pine that does it. First of all we cut some branches of a wonderful, almost lemoney smelling, pine for the children's nativity scene, which has taken over the fireplace. It's way too hot to gather around a log fire here, so the fire place has been turned into a stage for Mary and Joseph, who are tortuously making their way day by

Funny things I've seen in during my time while homeless

I sometimes go through some of the 'quick logs' I took at different times with my first handheld PDA, and get a chuckle at some of the stuff I noted in my surroundings. Things I'd forget totally if I hadn't jotted them down.

There's a ton of images that come to mind, most of them will sound really sick to people not having been involved with the homeless community directly. But if you have, you know the feeling...sometimes.

Living in a family dorm that had single women living in one of the rooms brings to mind of some of them walking to the shared bathroom they had. Some were mothers, some were single girls just coming into adult. Bathrobes at times, oversized shirts as nightgowns, and the occasional cheap lingerie between the two. No matter what, sometimes a woman's gotta be a girl when given the chance.

There was also this one guy in particular who came to eat in a daily meal line at night, probably after work. Young guy in his early 20s, goth type, leather pants with buckles up each leg and tons of zippers for whatever reason being in style. Chains from here to there all around and in any direction.

Then there were the sad images as well. Of one person I was involved with in a peer support group who was living outside and 'sleeping hard'. He'd come and go and show up about twice a month for food or meetings. His disorder was so deep in it not being treated, that he hadn't removed his shoes in a month.

He was to the point of not being able to walk, at which point I told him to lay back on the bench of the picnic table he was sitting at. I removed his shoes, then worked at removing the socks that were encrusted with blood and dead skin. Being colorblind I don't know if they were green, but it was severe enough I told him to get in to see the doctor immediately.

I never saw him again, nor heard word of him from peers or people I still have contact with. Within two weeks my family and I would be placed in our home and break this cycle of homelessness.

Those images still sometimes make me chuckle...as well as pray for those still experiencing homelessness. Whether as a single or as a homeless family, they are always in my prayers at night.

Things in homes that homeless don't have

You may see homes with Moen faucets, but I've never seen one in a shelter.

You may see homes with wireless networks, but I've never seen a family room in a shelter with a cable connection.

You may see homes with garages and cars inside, but I've never seen a shelter with adequate parking to protect what little some families have.

You may see homes with lights flashing this month outside in patterns that move, but I've never seen a shelter to house a homeless family that was 'green' to save dollars for better uses.

I've seen it all, from kids in cardboard boxes under trestles to the man on the corner defecating. I've seen the violence, the pain, the anguish, and the woman in a hotel room with eleven children inside it.

Look to hope and look to each other to see what we can do together to look for tomorrow's answer.

Today...it hasn't been found.

They come and they go, and they come again

Chronic homelessness is one of the more common descriptions given the majority of residents in metropolitan communities experiencing homelessness. While new entrants to the scene are tackled as quickly as possibly feasable, it's the repetitive user of service providers that seems to tax both local services as well as increase negative stereotyping of the homeless in general.

The man on the corner seen for years. The single woman with multiple children in tow, the number increasing every other year. The young adult couch surfers having exhausted their network's contacts and standing in line after absent for three years in meal lines.

My own city has literally thousands of people who are at least considered 'Cyclic', and majority of those considered 'chronic'. Either exhausting time limits consecutively at one shelter to another or failure to thrive in placed transitional housing, these are the sections of the homeless community which are tracked the least yet cause the most duplication of services as well as strain to hearts hoping their efforts pay off 'this time'.

Housing is becoming less of an issue day by day in many communities throughout the United States. Granted, we've got a long way to go but we're in a better situation than we were a decade ago. The real issue is mental health screening as well as services necessary for people to thrive. But then, you can only lead a horse to water...you can't force them to drink.

The simplest way would be to ultimately criminalize homelessness, at a certain point and degree...using mental health services as the fix. Sounds extreme, but when you consider the problem of many chronically homeless you have to address the root.

Drugs and alcohol or even inappropriate behavior aren't the root causes, and in most cases it's not values. It's perspective of the person, desire, drive, and other matters inside the mind of someone actually homeless.

We talk of Baker Acting people for their own good. We talk of people placed in observation for 3 to 10 days for proper diagnosis and treatment started, when people aren't able to make the decision to help themselves. The same litmus tests should be used towards people experiencing multiple cycles of homelessness...services have failed where in many cases they have...what can be done to help improve the quality of life for someone unable to make the choice to do so initially?

Harsh, extreme, but practical at the same time...and not said lightly. I myself have experienced homelessness through different decades, as a single and head of a family. The one thing that helped me break the cycle of homelessness?

Acquiring mental health services. Without having begun learning how to address my own inappropriate behavior, I would have been back on the street or couch surfing at this time. Without them, people meander until falling again through the cracks. Singles, couples, and women with children.

Communities can sit back and watch any homeless family at a service provider such as a shelter. Chances are if they sat in that same spot, they'd see the majority of those family members return as a single unit again within two years. Rather than "3 strikes your out!", we should be looking at "3 strikes and you're IN!".

In for mandatory observation and treatment plans of mental health service providers.

You know I'm right. You're just afraid to admit it publicly.

If you read and enjoyed this entry and have care for the needs of others in your community experiencing homelessness, rather than a handout this season consider purchasing one single gift of choice...wrapping it...and simply hand it to someone you see in the streets or nearby shelters. MBT shoes are something to look at, since any single or a homeless family can definitely put them to good use.

Best, and happy holidays to you and yours.

Christmas Heat

Feeling Hot hot hot!It’s 38 degrees C out there and was hotter yesterday – summer has come blasting in, making it hard to think of Christmas. Baking and spicy scents of cinnamon pervading the house just don’t really work when you are melting in the shade. Candles, firelight and warming spiced food are so much part of the Christmas atmosphere to me that it is hard to get in the mood

Camping Rediscovered - Part 2

My husband is fond of quoting his father’s adage “Any fool can be uncomfortable”. This means that camping for him is not a matter of roughing it, but more about assembling the barest minimum of comforts and then adding some more. As we are at the beginning of our camping career we haven’t got anything like the amount of equipment that would create a home from home, and not enough space in the car

Camping Rediscovered - Part 1

This has been a week of discovering the joys and discomforts of camping. Having never spent a night under canvas since my teens, I suddenly had two consecutive bookings for a night out in nature.The first was my son’s class camp, that I was inveigled along to, as a parent helper: a night away with 24 kids and only just enough tents at a campsite on the beach, with 30 loaves of bread and a ton of