Two midwest cities are stepping up and helping out veterans that don’t have homes.
On Sept. 16, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a plan to end homelessness among former service members living in the Windy City by 2015. A $5 million program providing housing and other assistance to veterans will be funded through a federal grant, along with $800,000 from the city’s 2015 budget. Chicago will also donate four acres of land for new housing facilities.
In a press conference, Emanuel said, “By the end of 2015, there will not be a homeless veteran in the city of Chicago.”
Emanuel spoke at Hope Manor I, a supportive housing complex for veterans that provides free places to live for up to 50 homeless veterans and affordable housing for 30 more veterans. On the first floor of the building, veterans and their families can take job-training and employment-readiness classes, learn how to use a computer, attend peer support groups and benefit from counseling and case management services. Residents can also gather in a multi-purpose room designed to foster a sense of community among them.
During the press conference, Emanuel announced that a new center Hope Manor for Families — a facility that will accommodate entire families — will open soon.
Since Hope Manor I opened, two other similar facilities have started welcoming needy vets: Hope Manor II and Veterans New Beginnings. According to Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago took a census of its homeless veterans in January — a “point-in-time count” measuring how many people were out on the streets on one night. The researchers found 721 homeless veterans — 465 lived in shelters and 256 had no place to call home.
The same day that Emanuel announced this program, another Midwestern mayor publicly committed his administration to the cause of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015: Mayor Carl Brewer of Wichita, Kansas. KSN TV reports that Brewer announced at a City Council meeting, “Veteran homelessness is not an intractable social problem that can’t be solved”
“By focusing our resources and renewing our communities’ commitment to this issue, we can end veteran homelessness in our city and our country. I’m proud to join mayors across the country as we work toward the important goal of honoring the service of our veterans by making sure all of them have a home to call their own,” said Brewer.
According to KSN TV, since 2010 when the federal government launched Opening Doors (a comprehensive plan to end homelessness) homelessness among veterans in America has decreased by 24 percent.
If the plans of these mayors succeed, Chicago and Wichita could join Phoenix, Los Angeles and other cities who are striving to make homelessness among veterans a thing of the past.
MORE: Giving Homeless Vets A Helping Hand — And A New Uniform
Tag: ending homelessness
When San Jose’s Homeless Work to Clean Up Their Community, They Receive Food, Housing, and Even Jobs
Now this is an idea that can potentially transform communities.
In San Jose, California, the homeless are being hired to clean the city streets in exchange for food, housing and job placement, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
This program comes from a novel partnership between Groundwerx, a group that provides cleaning services to downtown San Jose, and the Downtown Streets Team, a nonprofit that works to combat homelessness in Silicon Valley. According to KTVU, this is a new initiative for the north California city and is being tested for a year.
MORE: This Innovative Program Found Housing for 200 Homeless Veterans in Just 100 Days
Everyone wins with this approach since it helps reduce the city’s litter while providing much-needed assistance to people who are down on their luck. Although the program only launched earlier this month, the Mercury News reports that it’s already seen its share of success stories. Participants such as Chester Shattuck, 53, who helped clean San Jose’s downtown, was finally able to find housing after being on the streets for four years.
Not only that, but participants are also learning all-important job skills, too. Former high school peer counselor Marcellous McDonald told the publication that thanks to the regularity of his job as a trash collector and working with others who also want to get back on track, he was able to find his footing and secure employment with Levi’s Stadium, which is home to the San Francisco 49ers football team.
It’s initiatives like these that prove those without homes need a second chance. “People can be iffy about the homeless, and we are here to show that we don’t want to be homeless anymore,” McDonald said. “I might have lost my way, but I am getting there. Some people are slow to get back at it, some people pick up right where they left off.”
DON’T MISS: Utah Is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 With This One Simple Idea
Minnesota Looks to a Historic Structure to Help End Veteran Homelessness
First, the building served as a fort. Its second life? A Civil War induction station. Next, it was the Military Intelligence Service Language School during World War II, where soldiers learned Japanese. For its fourth incarnation, the fort was decommissioned and turned over to the Minnesota Historical Society and became a military museum. Now, the historic structure is being called to service once again — this time as housing for homeless veterans.
Fort Snelling, which sits at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, was built in the 1820s. To ready the structure for its new purpose, construction workers broke ground on May 29 to begin converting five of its historic buildings into 58 affordable housing units for homeless military veterans and their families — the CommonBond Veteran’s Housing.
Studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units are available. The complex will include medical and psychological health offices, job training services, and academic support. Residents will work with counselors to help get their lives back on track.
Collaboration between public and private groups, including United Health Group, the Home Depot Foundation, Neighborhood Works America, and many others raised the $17.2 million required for the project, which should be completed by spring 2015.
“I’m very proud of the progress that we have made. After years of hard work, Minnesota now has the lowest homeless rate for veterans in the country,” Senator Al Franken told Reg Chapman of CBS Minnesota. Minnesota has 320 homeless veterans, and state leaders have set a goal to end homelessness among veterans in the state by 2015.
Formerly homeless Marine Corps Vietnam veteran Jerry Readmond, who now serves as an advocate for homeless veterans, told Chapman, “We’re all trained in the military how to survive but when we come home we have to start surviving all over again.”
This new use of the old fort should make that quest for survival easier.
MORE: The City of Miami Steps Up for Its Homeless Service Members
Watch The Magic Trick That’s Both Heartwarming and Baffling at the Same Time
Using magic to solve hunger sounds completely ridiculous, but a YouTube star is certainly making it look like it’s possible.
In the video below, Magician Rob Anderson walks around the streets of Las Vegas and asks homeless people to indulge in his magic trick involving an empty paper bag. At first, they look skeptical but after they agree to place an item of food into the bag, Anderson does whatever magic voodoo he does and — presto, chango! — several more packages of the same food appear. In fact, there’s so much food coming from the bag that they can’t even catch it all.
Anderson calls himself a professional magician who also makes light-hearted pranking videos, but as he says about his aim: “I make videos that make you feel good.”
MORE: Donations Pour in After Video of Homeless Man “Winning” the Lottery Goes Viral
While solving hunger takes much more effort than a few shakes of a paper bag, it’s certainly joyous to see the faces of these people light up after seeing their stash of food multiply as if out of thin air.
Across this country, millions of people do not have money for food or a home. Solving this problem is a serious undertaking, and that’s why there’s also a need to bring joy — and yes, a little magic — to the world.
How You Can Help the Homeless with a Push of a Button
A San Francisco-based startup has created a new online platform called HandUp that allows donors to directly help a homeless person through text messaging or web donations.
Here’s how it works: When a homeless person signs up on HandUp, they get an online profile that lists their needs, such as food, clothing or medical care. Check out HandUp member, Alvin, from the video above. After being hit by a car, he lost his front teeth and now needs dental work. He says with a new smile, he’ll try to find a job in retail so he can also finally buy the Christmas presents he owes his daughter. Donors can help Alvin — or any of the other 100 homeless people on the site — by signing up for HandUp’s secure SMS system or through the website. 100 percent of donations go straight to the member’s HandUp account. Credits can than be redeemed through HandUp’s partner, Project Homeless Connect, where members can pick up their listed necessities.
MORE: How Can We Beat Homelessness? Predict It Before It Happens
John Moore/Getty Images
Co-founder Rose Broome told Fast Company that she started the site after realizing she wanted a more efficient way to help the homeless: “Last year, I saw a woman sleeping on the sidewalk and it hit me — why can’t I push a button and transfer resources from my phone?” Since its launch, more than 100 homeless San Franciscans have set up profiles on the site. While the service is only in San Francisco, HandUp has plans to expand their service nationwide, meaning it could soon be easier than ever to help someone in need.
Utah Is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 With This One Simple Idea
Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 74 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. How’d they do it?
The state is giving away apartments, no strings attached. In 2005, Utah calculated the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for an average homeless person was $16,670, while the cost of providing an apartment and social worker would be $11,000. Each participant works with a caseworker to become self-sufficient, but if they fail, they still get to keep their apartment.
MORE: How much food could be rescued if college dining halls saved their leftovers?
Other states are eager to emulate Utah’s results. Wyoming has seen its homeless population more than double in the past three years, and it only provides shelter for 26 percent of them, the lowest rate in the country. City officials in Casper, Wyoming, now plan to launch a pilot program using the methods of Utah’s Housing First program. There’s no telling how far the idea might go.
For NationSwell’s in-depth look at Housing First, click here.
AND: If you want to hire someone to help the homeless, why not the formerly homeless?
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Utah had reduced its rate of homelessness by 78 percent. It’s been reduced by 74 percent.