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By KATE BRASER,
Courier & Press staff writer
464-7622 or braserk@courierpress.com
Thursday, December 21, 2006
By LYDIA X. McCOY, Courier &
Press staff writer 464-7431 or
mccoyl@courierpress.com
Monday, December 18, 2006
Letter
to the Editor,
Remembering our neighbors who have died
while homeless
published as
Homeless need our support
(although author's first name was
misspelled; should be "Kat")
Courier & Press staff, Originally
published 01:31 p.m., December 15,
2006; Updated 01:31 p.m., December
15, 2006
By LYDIA X. McCOY Courier & Press staff writer 464-7431 or mccoyl@courierpress.com
April 5, 2006
Source:
Evansville Courier & Press
By LYDIA X. McCOY,
Courier & Press staff writer
464-7431 or mccoyl@courierpress.com
Friday, July 7, 2006
Homelessness advocates celebrate accomplishments
By
Susan Orr
Originally published 12:07 p.m., December 13, 2007 Updated 12:07 p.m.,
December 13, 2007
Group's program makes inroads Homelessness
still a problem
By
Susan Orr
Friday, December 14, 2007
Destination: Home celebrates 2 years
By LYDIA X. McCOY, Courier & Press
staff writer 464-7431 or mccoyl@courierpress.com
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
[bracketed words] are corrections to
the text made by the Webmaster
Evansville [and
Vanderburgh
County are]
two years into
Destination:
Home
- a 10-year plan
to end
homelessness.
On Tuesday,
community
leaders looked
at
accomplishments
and what they
want to achieve
in 2007.
"This is a caring community," said Luzada Hayes, Aurora's
executive director. "I really believe that if we invest in
this, we will be able to end homelessness as we know it
today." Aurora's mission is to end homelessness in the
community, and it works to provide services to the homeless,
promote prevention and educate the community on the issue.
The nonprofit agency was formerly the Evansville Coalition
for the Homeless.
[Destination: Home] accomplishments include:
- Establishing the Commission on Homelessness.
- Creating a discharge policy to prevent individuals
coming out of hospitals, foster homes, correctional
facilities or other publicly funded institutions from [being
released into] homeless.
- Hiring an education specialist to focus on the
promotion of Destination: Home to the community and
coordinating the educational strategies outlined in the
plan.
- Development of PlaySpaces, a healthy place for homeless
children to play in [six] shelters and transitional housing
locations.
Hayes said Evansville is one of about 200 communities
nationwide with plans to end homelessness.
"This is part of a national movement to really create
permanent solutions to homelessness," she said.
Patty Avery, an Aurora board member, said the "beauty of
the plan is it points the way."
"It says if we want to end what's causing homelessness,
instead of just putting a Band-Aid on it, here's how we can
get there."
Now, officials are looking to next year. Avery said for
the plan to work, it has to continue to be a community
effort.
"They may not think it's much," she said. "But if people
in the community bring what they have, we'll be able to do
this without overburdening anyone."
Next year's goals include: a focus on
prevention--establishing a [tool] to [identify] families at
risk of becoming homeless; creating support housing
programs; Compassionate Connections to get the faith-based
community involved; and starting a [Homeless Youth] Council.
"We can do this," Hayes said. "I think for a community
our size, it's not going to be easy, but I think we have a
much greater chance at succeeding than some of the bigger
cities that just have huge numbers to with."
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By LYDIA X. McCOY, Courier & Press
staff writer 464-7431 or mccoyl@courierpress.com
Friday, January 12, 2007
By LYDIA
X. McCOY, Courier & Press staff writer 464-7431 or mccoyl@courierpress.com
Friday, November 17, 2006
By LYDIA X. McCOY,
Courier & Press staff writer
464-7431 or mccoyl@courierpress.com
Friday, October 13, 2006
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-- published in the Evansville Courier &
Press December 21, 2006
Residents' needs would be provided
By SUE ANN HARTIG, Attorney and Executive
Director, Legal Aid Society of Evansville, Inc
To the editor:
If I were granted just one wish for the
coming year, it would be for each
citizen in Vanderburgh County to have
sensitivity to and understanding of our
fellow citizens and the compassion and
grace to want to live in a community
where the needs of each citizen are
provided for.
If that were the case:
- An editorial cartoon showing that job
layoffs, pension plan cuts, catastrophic
illnesses or injuries or the physical
loss of one's home are most often the
cause of homelessness would not be
necessary.
- We would worry about whether families
had nutritious food on the other 363
days of the year, not just on
Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- There would be 365 Days of Caring in
the newspaper, not just 12.
- Social service agencies would have
sufficient staff and resources to carry
out their missions, and agency employees
would be paid competitive wages.
- Every human being would be paid a
living wage. A person could work a
40-hour week job and make enough money
to support a family of four.
- The public schools would have all the
resources needed so that quality
teachers can provide all children a
quality education.
- Affordable medical insurance would
make quality health care and
prescription drugs available to
everyone.
- Plenty of services would be available
to allow elderly and disabled people to
remain safely in their homes.
- Public transportation would be
available for everyone, including the
disabled, seven days a week, 24 four
hours a day.
- Citizens would not be discriminated
against because of sex, race, religion,
disability, sexual orientation or any
other reason.
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Impoverished families need
help with daily life
By SUE ANN HARTIG
special to the Courier & Press
August 13, 2006
Our community mourned the death of a seven- month-old
baby last week.
Perhaps our community should have mourned the fact
that we did not prevent a family of four from having to sleep on a pallet on the
floor at a friend's apartment.
A mother working full time for minimum wage makes
$206 gross a week. A tank of gas for her old car costs $36. Day care for the
baby costs $80. That leaves $49. A father may be disabled, and Social Security
gives him $515 a month to support himself and his family. Add his $119 to her
$495 and they have $169 a week left for rent, utilities and groceries. Could you
make that budget balance?
Or maybe the mother is a waitress and makes $2.13 an
hour plus tips. That could be less than minimum wage on a slow week.
A working mom could take the bus to work, but she
might have to be at the transfer station Downtown at 6 a.m. in order to get the
baby to day care and get to work by 7:30 a.m.
She then works all day ,with a 30-minute lunch and
two 15-minute breaks, and gets off at 4:30 p.m. and spends another 90 minutes
picking up the baby from day care and getting home on the bus.
After a 12-hour day, she is too tired to cook and
clean and help the older child with homework. Would you spend three hours a day
to get your child to day care and get to a minimum wage job that provides no
retirement benefits and no affordable health insurance?
Maybe a family's car broke down and they paid the
$600 repair bill so they have no money for the rent or utilities for the month.
Maybe the family was evicted.
We are told "affordable housing" (rent and utilities)
should not exceed 30 percent of our income. Rent for the first family of four
that I mentioned should cost no more than $369 a month. Could you find a decent
three-bedroom apartment or house with rent and utilities for that amount?
Maybe a relative was sick and needed care so mom
missed work one time too many and was fired. Or mom got to work late three times
because the car wouldn't start again or the bus was late again or the baby was
sick again. Mom was fired.
Maybe mom was a victim of stalking and domestic
violence from an old boyfriend and had to quit her job to be safe.
Mom certainly isn't going to be able to take off work
to go to the parent-teacher meeting or participate in any of the school events.
Maybe a man gets out of prison, having served his
time as a model prisoner and having earned his GED. But because there is a
felony on his record, he cannot find an employer who will hire him or a landlord
to rent to him so he can be reunited with his wife and children and become a
productive member of society.
Maybe dad was making good money before he got sick or
was injured, but he is very young and had not worked enough quarters to qualify
for Social Security Disability, so there are no checks for the children.
Did you know that Housing and Urban Development does
not count the family in the friends apartment as "homeless"? They are just
considered "doubled up," so they don't qualify to use HUD's services to get on
their feet again.
Many people in poverty work hard and simply need a
break. They do not need additional barriers created for them. Can't we as a
community give them that break?
The United Way of Southwestern Indiana is getting
ready to kick off its campaign in September. The employers are running their
campaigns right now. Let's all reach deep into our pockets and support United
Way and its member agencies, and call United Way and volunteer.
Aurora, Inc. has prepared "Destination Home: A Ten
Year Journey to End Homelessness in Evansville and Vanderburgh County. " Please
read that document, sign and return the Individual or Organizational Endorsement
of Support on page 43 or 44, and participate, advocate and contribute to ending
homelessness.
Some of us have been lucky enough to get training on
Ruby Payne's "Bridges Out of Poverty Strategies for Professionals and
Communities."
If you get a chance to attend a Bridges training with
your church, neighborhood association or employer, please take part. And go to
the "aha! Process" Web site
to get a taste of the ideas.
But let's go further than that. Let's ask that jobs
pay a decent wage, that jobs come with retirement benefits and that jobs come
with affordable health insurance.
Let's make sure employer rules allow for
circumstances beyond the employee's control such as a sick child or lack of
transportation.
Let's make sure there is affordable transportation
and affordable day care for everyone in our community. Let's think of the
tenants as well as the landlords when we make policies about evictions. Let's be
accepting of the disabilities some people have. And let's not stop working until
everyone has a decent place to live and no one is homeless and no one is doubled
up.
Let's not forget that but for a job loss, an illness
or an injury, we, too, could be sleeping with our family on a pallet on the
floor of a friend's apartment.
Sue Ann Hartig is an attorney and Executive Director
of the Legal Aid Society of Evansville, Inc.
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Homeless shelters get 'a lot of
chicken'
By JACOB BENNETT Courier & Press staff writer
464-7434 or
bennettj@courierpress.com
August 5, 2006
A grandmother's chance encounter
resulted in 3,000 pounds of chicken for the area's homeless shelters.
The skinless, boneless chicken
arrived by truck Friday at Aurora Inc. in Evansville, in 60 boxes, each
containing 10 five-pound bags. It was a gift from the Tyson Foods plant in
Robards, Ky.
"The shelters were like, 'That's
a lot of chicken,'" said Kat Isbell, education specialist at Aurora Inc., which
works with other organizations in Evansville to end homelessness.
Tyson sent the food because of
Isbell's grandmother, Evelyn Stone, 89, of Griffin, Ind., who received a
pacemaker in May at Deaconess Hospital.
While in the hospital, Stone met
a volunteer named Juanita Dixon, who is married to a Tyson employee, and told
Dixon about her granddaughter and the homeless programs in the city.
Ten shelters received as much
chicken as they could hold in their freezers. Hannah House, for example, got
nine boxes. Ozanam Family Shelter asked for one.
The gift was a big help to the
shelters, many of which have seen record numbers of visitors in the last few
years.
Barb Miller, executive director
of Albion Fellows Bacon Center, a domestic violence shelter, said the number of
visits at the center has increased by 50 percent since 2003.
Evansville has about 400 people
sleeping in shelters on a given night.
"This is a fabulous donation,"
Miller said. "Meat is expensive to purchase for our shelter. We're really
excited about it."
Stone choked up when she learned
of the donation, Isbell said.
"It is a good feeling to think
that I, in my elderly years, had some little thing to do with helping someone in
need," Stone said in a statement. "I give the Lord the praise. I know he had a
part in it."
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