:: Solutions to the Homeless Problem ::

:: Friday, October 21, 2005 ::

ICH Leads Local Officials to Experience Homeless Life


Dear Philip Mangano,

Here is the comment of Clyde Hendrickson who has been homeless citizen for many years sleeping under tarp next to railroad in Saint Petersburg FL area.

He knew and used 211 services for years, but, apparently, it is not helpful to homeless citizens like himself.

Also, even the shelter beds there are only for about 12% of the homeless citizens; therefore, he has to sleep outdoors.

What is the Homeless Solutions from ICH on this? Do homeless people like Clyde Hendrickson need to sleep outdoors for another 10 years to wait for ICH's End Homelessness in 10 Year solution?

My Homeless Solution is that ICH leads all local homeless issue involved officials to sleep in outdoors under tarp or bridge or in woods like true homeless citizens for a night or two whenever ICH outreaches to hold meeting with local governments, charity organizations and agencies. That way, ICH and all involved officials will feel want to end homelessness in 10 days, not 10 years.

How do you think?

Cheng

--- Clyde Hendrickson wrote:

> Dear Mr. Cheng,
....
> About the 211 service, we have had that here for years.
> I also have link to it on my website. They are good for
> locating assistance except where there is no assistance.
> They can't make anything happen, just tell you about it
> when it does. Florida in general has beds/shelter for only
> about 12 percent of homeless, and assistance goes to
> those in most desperate need first. Single white males are
> not a high priority.
....
> --
> Clyde Hendrickson
> St. Petersburg, FL
:: Mr Cheng 3:24 PM [+] ::
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Empower Business to Provide Housing to Homeless or Working Poor


Dear Professor Culhane,

I read your message from USA Today, and I felt again you may be one of the most qualified person to be able to solve homeless issues all together at federal policy level, and if that happens, you would deserve a Nobel Price.

After more pilot on my Homeless Solutions, it has become very clear that there should be a federal policy to empower business to provide housing to their homeless or working poor employees. Job and housing has proved to be chicken and egg type of situations for homeless. Homeless got a home can not last for long without a job, yet homeless got a job can not keep without a home.

If there is a policy that empowers business, using tax credit or HUD money or the like so that every employee is guaranteed a home like Section 8 Program that employee only has to contribute 1/3 of the pay to the housing cost as soon as hired. The 1/3 housing cost can be deducted pre-tax like employee contributed health insurance that go to rental initially.

Mayor Reid of San Francisco spent weeks in most shelters and came back asked me why there were almost NO Chinese homeless in shelter, given the fact that SF has large Chinese population. I told him, it was because almost all Chinese restaurants owners provide lunch and dinner to employee and a bed in a house at night. So, as soon as hired, the person not only save room and board cost and can save about $1,000+ a month to build up initial personal capital for future development.

I have to admit, discovering this homeless solution is no less exciting than solving any other open questions when at Berkeley, and we always want to and are qualified to do Nobel Prize level of work.

How do you think?

Cheng
p.s. Btw, section 8 tenants are very discriminated by landlords and realtors with my first hand experience helping so many cases. However, if prospective tenant endorsed by "employor", then landlords and realtors would be more than happy to serve. This is very similar to medicaid patients are discriminated by, say, dentists, yet patients with corporate medical insuraces are very welcome by most dentists.

------------------------
Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist who studies homelessness, says that a new federal policy for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina could be extended to thousands of other homeless families. FEMA is offering cash advances of $2,358 to cover three months' rent anywhere in the nation for hurricane survivors. If they don't readily find permanent housing, the government help could be stretched to 18 months.

Short-term rental vouchers are "something homelessness activists have been calling for, for a long time," Culhane says. "Emergency rental assistance would help the vast majority of people avoid homelessness altogether."
:: Mr Cheng 6:25 AM [+] ::
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Help Homeless to Contact United Way


Do you have problem to pay rent? Is your electricity to be shut off due to no money to pay the bill for months? Are you sick and not able to pay for the prescription? No problem, you need to contact United Way as soon as possible because United Way help people facing homeless these three major area, among others.


So, what is the problem for desperated people to contact United Way? Many people under desperated situation do NOT have the resouces to contact United Way. Why not call United Way? No phone, Why not go to United Way office to meet them? No car, no bus money. Why many desperated people say United Way does not help, yet United Way said they do in their report? Well, because, they do not have enough resources to wait for the bureautic process of United Way to eventually obtain the help. By the time, they have been evicted and become homeless, the promised help may not arrive in time or not reachable.


So, how do you do to help homeless people? or people as risk to become homeless? You can provide some seed resources to facilitate contacting United Way just like what we did to help An at risk single parent family to apply for rent assistance for September. It took almost a month to eventually got the rent, but it worths.


United Way will act like your agent once you contact them, they will NOT give you help right away, they will call their partner agencies for you, and asked each to help you a bit, e.g. if you need $700 rent to avoid being evicted with your eviction letter from court, one church may pay $200, another may pay $150, yet another may pay $200, and United Way may pay the last $150 and late fee $50. Knowing that, applicants need to keep a good relationship with them and be very proactive to keep contacting them to find out the status and landlord to make sure rent is paid in time ...etc.


United Way may refer many other resources to the applicant like another single parent with 2 kids we supportthat was referred to social service to apply for food stamps and got them later; this is several hundreds dollars help each month, and the food stamps these days is, in fact, a debit card that is charged each 3rd of the month and can be used at supermarket and grocery store like anyother debit card or credit card, so others would not be able to distinquish to upset you.
:: Mr Cheng 4:47 AM [+] ::
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Help Those Katrina Homeless to Help Themselves


Want to help Katrina Homeless? Here is how you can help them cost effectively and massively; yes, one person can help dozens of homeless families to move off homelessness quickly, and government agencies or charity organizations can help hundreds of thousands easily.


The tip is very simple: Help those Katrina homeless to help themselves. When I was working at Goldman Sachs, every morning before work, there were dozens of homeless waiting for me at the Bowling Green Park at Broadway. I gave them sleeping bags, chocolate bars, weather reports, subway pass, clothes ...etc, and more importantly, I gave them some emergency cash assistance from a few dollars to a few hundreds. Many homeless, with my support, were able to go home with bus money, able to find a job with money to buy clothes to interview, able to reunify with their relatives with phone card money, able to go to detox with subway and train money ...etc. Most of the homeless came to gathering in the early morning eventually find their way out of street.


So, at Federal level, how would these hundreds of thousands of de facto homeless caused by Katrina be helped move off homelessness quickly, cost effectively and massively? You have to help them to help themselves. Please note: NOT you help them to move off homelessness, but you give them some seed resources to let them reconnect with their friends or families to move themselves off homelessness by themselves.


Here is a list of things I would give them and why based on my years of hands on experience:

1. Emergency Cash Assistance. If I were government agencies, I would have banks to ship tons of "cash" to Katrina impacted area and each victim given, say, one week need of cash. Why cash? Anyone with hands on experience helping homeless, especially homeless living outdoors, would know that most homeless has NO bank account. Many who had but became homeless and got stuck in foreign city due to wallet lost, no ID's, no atm card. So, cash is the immediate means to empower homeless. Why small amount enough for one week? It is like paycheck, and one week is long enough for many to find other help, and small amount to avoid being robbed.

2. Prepaid Cell Phones. With a cell phone, people can easily stay contacted and communicate with their friends and relatives and stay safe. Homeless can use it to find jobs or rentals, and more importantly stayed connected.

3. Greyhound or Train Pass. Knowing that people when at difficult time will normally seeking help from their families or close friends, once they have contacted whoever willing to help them, they need transportation to move over. With the amount of money to provide Greyhound or Train Pass to Katrina Homeless, the government not only helping them to find their own viable support, yet inject huge amount to help Greyhound and Train operation which often has deficit.

4. Provide Cash Assistant to Hosting Families. Knowing it is much more cost effective to have hosting families using their spared rooms than renting an apartment, it should be encouraged; however, enthusiastic whether friends or relatives families hosting Katrina homeless people would definitely be impacted financially. Therefore, provide cash assistance to hosting families is very important. e.g. I was able to move Chris at OH off homeless quickly due to the fact his friend has spare room but tie with cash, and willing to rent out a room for $25 a week.

5. Provide Cash Allowance to buy a Car. In this country, without car is like without leg. For each Katrina homeless families who need car, you want to provide some cash help to buy a car. Tracy gave Chris $200 to buy a used Geo Prism 90 and that gave Chris viable vision of moving off homelessness immediately.

6. Create a Private Yahoo Support Group for each Katrina Homeless. With this wonderful and powerful, yet free, Internet tool, one can cost effectively create one private support group for each Katrina Homeless individual or family, and invite their friends or family or colleagues to join remotely with email address, and continue to support these hundreds of thousands of unfortunated people. I have managed hundreds of such private support groups and am the only computer expert with hands on experience using Yahoo Group to successfully help hundreds of homeless concurrently nationwide. I know it works great and cost effectively and can save our governments, Federal, State or Local, and homeless agencies or even individual lots of resources and time and mental burden.

With above tips, we empower the Katrina Homeless to help themselves move off homelessness quickly and continue to move up.


If you do not have money or resource to help Katrina Homeless individual or families, you can still help them a lot by sending this Homeless Solutions to everyone you know and all your family members, friends or colleagues would be learning how to help Katrina Homeless or even general homeless very cost effectively.
:: Mr Cheng 11:41 PM [+] ::
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Do NOT Evict Your Tenant


Danny called me today and told me he was in the process of evicting his ehs1804 tenant, a single father with a daughter who have owed him $6,000. I asked him if he needed the money to pay mortgage of condo, he said No, the condo is paid off. I asked him if he needed the money to pay his garage bills, he said No. I asked him if he needed the money to pay his $700 per month PSE&G a/c bills, he said No. In fact, he is a millionaire going to Rutgers church every Sunday.


I asked him isn't that Bible tell you to help your little brother? He said he had run out of patience. I asked him what would happen if the tenant could not pay rent? He said he will evict the tenant and the daughter. They would have to pay $450 atterney fee, and animal control cost to remove the dog. They would have to worry about to move all his stuff out, or by law, all the property left would be the landlord's. The tenant also has to worry about the daughter can not go back to Edison School because he would not sign the paper.


Well, this really made me upset because, according to many homeless families came to me, their stuff were "taken by their landlord". Well, when a family can not afford to pay rent and under eviction, where can they move their stuff? Some told me they managed to move their stuff to storage, but months later, they could not pay the rent of the storage, all stuff were auctioned off by the storage.


I told Danny to have his tenant to send me email, and I would created a private Yahoo support group to help his tenant to catch up the rent to get by. Isn't this funny? Your friend is evicting his tenant, and you try to help the tenant pay the rent?
:: Mr Cheng 5:25 AM [+] ::
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Do Not Charge Homeless to Obtain ID's Back


Posted by Mr. Cheng with (374) Comments


Many homeless people I helped had a similar problem that they lost their ID's, and it costs them to get a replacement yet have no money to apply for. Without ID's such as birth certificate, social security card, state ID's ...etc, it is hard for homeless on street to find a job. For example, in order to apply for birth certificate, one has to contact the Vital Records Office of the born state, and I have helped a homeless citizen living outdoors at Florida not able to come up $26 fee to obtain birth certificate back from Michigan State. And even worse, it took him weeks to wait for a foundation in Texas which claimed can help the fee but never deliver. As you can see the difficulty the $26 fee the Vital Records Office charges can impact a homeless citizen.


There are many other difficulties of homeless when they lost their ID's, yet can not afford to reapply for them. Look at how difficult Tracy trying to help a homeless person at New York City but able to get emergency cash assistance over thru Western Union due to the fact the homeless person did not have ID's.


We also gone thru the hassel to get a Greyhound bus ticket to a homeless person got stuck in New York City whose car was stolen when traveling to the city and lost all his ID's. Since the sponsor purchased a one way ticket to Malcom GA over phone for the homeless person to pickup, yet he had no ID's to identify himself. Eventually, we had to issue a password to Greyhound so that he could pick up the ticket with the password.
:: Mr Cheng 2:29 AM [+] ::
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Housing First to Homeless on the Street


Posted by Mr. Cheng with (237) Comments


Some New York City homeless sent me Pathways To Housing link and told me this was exactly the help they needed to move out of street. And, recently, I also saw this link highly recommended byThe Homeless Guy's blog. The only problem is that it is only at NYC, and started in Washington DC, and the housing is for homeless with mental illness. According to my years of hands-on experience, I also feel that it is very effective to provide housing to homeless people on the street. Without a place to call home, it is very hard for homeless to try to move themselves out of street. Here is a recent communication with Social Welware Policy Professor at Univ of Penn, Dennis Culhane, and I think next step up would be sharing all the Homeless Solutions with ICH.

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:37:58 -0500
From: culhane@mail.med.upenn.edu
To: "Mr. Cheng"
Subject: Re: Dear Prof Culhane, Nice to talk to you and here is my message ...

You are doing amazing things.

Do forward this to the Philip Mangano and Mary Ellen Hombs at the US
Interagency Council On Homelessness. I don't have their email addresses with
me, but they would be interested in hearing this incredible story.

Dennis

Quoting "Mr. Cheng" :

> Dear Professor Culhane,
>
> I just came across the following and thought about writing to you
> again...
>
> "Costs for housing the homeless aren't cheap, but Dennis Culhane,
> professor of social welfare policy at the University of Pennsylvania,
> found that such programs as Pathways actually save money.
>
> He determined that the cost to society for the average mentally ill
> person on the street was $40,500 per person annually in social and
> health services. Pathways' apartments and services, according to
> Tsemberis, cost only $22,000 per person each year."
>
> We have been providing the condo at Edison NJ that walk to train
> station to NYC to move homeless off homelessness, more or less the way
> Pathways have been doing, except that we target general homeless, not
> only mental ill homeless. We have treated the homeless as "friends
> visiting us" or "new immigrants", NOT homeless. In fact, we introduced
> them to neighbors as "our friends", NOT homeless, and we told them once
> they move in, they are no longer homeless.
>
> We provide some grocery, take them to buffet, bookstores and go out
> with our families trying to make them "our family friends". Once they
> moved in, they will be no difference from other tenants who renting the
> condos, except they do not pay rent nor utilities...etc.
>
> Their first goal would be just sleep, eat and recover. Normally,
> after weeks, they would be recovered and become energetic again like
> other normal people. Then, they will try to reconnect with their
> families and friends, and many of them would help them, after knowing a
> group of strangers willing to help them.
>
> Once they found some part time jobs, we find deposit and first month
> rent for them to move to their own place near their jobs, and continue
> to support till months later they pay their own rent fully and even
> found better full time job.
>
> We do not apply for any government grant nor do we have non profit
> organization. We use free Yahoo!Group to coordinate by creating a
> private support group for each homeless and invite dozens of friends,
> family members or colleagues to join and support.
>
> We also proactively renting out the condo to people don't have
> perfect credit from Harlem NY and not did credit check. Once they start
> paying rent late, we would be involved by helping them find a job or
> get a car ...etc to help them move up, instead of evicting them. We let
> them use deposit to pay rent and give them rent credit; some even owe
> rent for months and just pay whatever they can. The philosophy behind
> this is to keep the poor tenants with us and stay at the same condo as
> long as possible to prevent them from becoming homeless since,
> according to our experience, moving cost eats up poor people's saving.
> So, years later, they will become more financially independent since we
> never increase rent. Then, we help them to buy a townhouse as if we
> help our friends to, and they will finally move out.
>
> By doing so, we do not lose money as landlord because the condo is
> always 100% occupied, and no credit check cost, no annual realtor fee,
> no annual atterney fee, and maintenance is low since low turnaround
> required no painting, carpet replacing ...etc.
>
> Recently, we got DIRECT BUS set up from Edison NJ to NYC Chinatown,
> Midtown and Downtown, only $158 a month. This, to certain extend,
> realized my proposal to migrate NYC homeless to rural area like
> Hazleton PA with affordable DIRECT BUS connection in between. Edison is
> perfect base for my Homeless Solutions because it is populated with
> Chinese who believe buying home, and many has surplus rooms which rent
> out as low as $300 a month, this helps a lot to move homeless off
> homelessness.
>
> Cheng
:: Mr Cheng 4:55 PM [+] ::
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