Homeless Journey

Judge launches pilot program to help homeless

2008-12-08T17:06:00.000-08:00

Judge launches pilot program to help homeless
By: Nate Rau, nrau@nashvillecitypaper.com
Posted: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:55 am

Judge launches pilot program to help homeless | Dan Eisenstein, General Sessions, homeless, plan, Eric Cole, Metro Council

Judge Dan Eisenstein offers one homeless man in his courtroom a 'deal' to keep him out of jail. Matthew Williams/The City Paper

Faced with a month-long jail sentence for a series of citations ranging from criminal trespassing to public drunkenness, “John” walked gingerly to the podium in General Session Judge Dan Eisenstein’s courtroom two days before the Thanksgiving holiday and vowed to do whatever he could to stay off the streets and out of the county lock-up.

“I’m willing to give something a shot, because I’m about ready to lose my life out there on the streets,” John said.

Eisenstein already knew John’s standing in the world. He had been arrested for an array of similar in the past and kept finding his way into the turnstile that is the criminal justice system for Nashville’s homeless.

Instead of sending John back to jail, which likely would have merely been a stopgap before a return trip to his courtroom, Eisenstein offered him a deal. Eisenstein would suspend his sentence for 30 days and put John in touch with mental health professionals who could provide him with therapy and medication.

The offer also included a bed at a local shelter and a caseworker to keep track of his progress.

“Now, I don’t want to see you any more,” Eisenstein said, offering a warning to John. “I’ve seen you here several times. I’m trying to help you, but you have to help me help you.”

The arrangement worked out between John and Eisenstein is part of an effort by the judge to offer help to the chronically homeless instead of ordering another costly jail sentence. When a homeless individual comes in front of Eisenstein he directs them to shelters, medical care, mental health help and other services.

Before the homeless person even appears in court, Eisenstein’s administrative assistant Sandra Campbell attempts to contact their family. Sometimes Campbell tracks down a relative out of state who is surprised to learn their loved one is even alive. In cases like that, Eisenstein provides the person with a bus ticket, paid for by private funds, so they can be reunited with their family.

Sometimes the family member is unable or unwilling to offer any help. During Eisenstein’s alternative sentencing docket this week, three of the seven homeless people appearing before him were reconnected with their family.

“I don’t want to go back to jail. I want to go home,” said “Roxie,” facing a series of charges, after learning her mom would be picking her up the next day.

Program could be expanded

Earlier this month, the Downtown Quality of Life Committee produced a seven-page report detailing initiatives Metro could enact to make life better for those who live in Nashville’s urban core. Although some of the suggestions were cosmetic – better street lighting and parking options – many are directed at addressing Nashville’s homeless problem.

The committee was formed after a controversial Council proposal earlier this year to essentially legislate away panhandling by homeless people in the city’s urban core.

When that failed, the committee began meeting to come up with tangible efforts to help Nashville’s homeless. According to Councilman Erik Cole, who served on the committee, part of the issue is consolidating services — finding a one-stop shop where the homeless can receive the services they need.

Of all the suggestions offered in the committee’s final report, Cole said Eisenstein’s creative sentencing program is the one he would like to pursue first.

“What we need to do is work with existing sentencing, but also provide services if there are organizations that can help,” Cole said.

Eisenstein said he intends to extend his program beyond alternative sentencing and bus tickets to family members.

With financial help from the Nashville Downtown Partnership, Eisenstein plans to launch a pilot program that offers stable housing and potentially jobs as well.

“We’re going to take five people off this docket and Downtown Partnership has agreed to sponsor it and we’re going to be the anchor,” Eisenstein said. “We’re going to help with housing, help reuniting them with family. If they need mental health help, medical help, we’ll do that so that if they’ll have one place to come back and that’ll be through the Downtown Partnership and me. It’ll be more organized.

“You can’t look at the homeless problem as one issue. You have to take each person as they are. It has to be person-to-person.”

Proactive approach encouraged

In addition to Eisenstein’s program, the committee has encouraged a proactive approach to helping the homeless as well.

Eisenstein connects those who agree to alternative sentencing in his docket to a nonprofit group called Park Center. Outreach Project Coordinator Will Connelly includes that individual in a study he’s conducting that calculates an individual’s vulnerability index.

Connelly asks the homeless individuals a series of questions regarding their history on the streets, their substance abuse struggles and their health history. A high score means a person has a high probability of dying on the streets.

The Park Center sends staff onto the streets to conduct the interviews, take photos of those who cooperate and compile a database.

“We’re trying to get in touch with people and instead of saying to our guy who goes out in the streets, ‘OK go to Riverfront Park and find people,’ we tell him to find these 12 people and he’s got their photos and information,” Connelly said.

Cole said the committee determined that a proactive approach like Eisenstein’s program and the Park Center’s outreach efforts would be the best way to go. The question is how Metro can get behind the new initiatives.

“We try to appeal to people on two levels,” Connelly said. “The first is to appeal to their heart and say, these people have issues they have a high probability of dying on the streets.

“The second is to appeal to their logic and say, this is an issue that’s costing money and being proactive actually saves money in the long run. I think what the judge is doing is commendable. He’s trying to be creative and he’s trying to help.”

Editor’s Note: This story uses aliases for the homeless individuals who cooperated with the alterative sentencing program.

Organizations gather to help the homeless

2008-12-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

I think I saw Jesus at Municipal Auditorium Tuesday.

I had the privilege of being a volunteer at the Homeless Connect Project where hundreds of Nashville’s homeless community gathered to meet, face to face, with over 40 agencies and organizations that provided services that ranged from health care to assistance with housing to even haircuts.

As I greeted our citizens who came through the front door to receive much needed help and support, I remembered why I truly love living in Nashville.

As I was leaving to return to work, I walked by an area staffed by the folks from the Campus for Human Development. What I saw was over 20 stations that were set up, literally, to wash the feet of the homeless who walked, many from a long distance, to get to Municipal Auditorium.

Thinking back, I did see Jesus.
Denver Schimming, GOODLETTSVILLE 37072, DKSCHIMMING@COMCAST.NET

Volunteers find an understanding of homelessness

2008-12-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

When you ask little kids at this time of the year if they're looking forward to Christmas, you probably will see their small faces light up as they nod and look directly at you with expecting eyes.

When you ask the same question of a little girl that is homeless, she's likely to attempt a smile and lower her head slightly to avoid eye contact. That's what happened to one of the volunteers at Tuesday's Project Homeless Connect, which was Nashville's first event of this magnitude.
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"It broke my heart," the volunteer who told me about it said as he recalled the little girl's reaction. "She doesn't even know where she'll be on Christmas."

The little girl was one of more than 1,000 homeless individuals and families who showed up at the Municipal Auditorium Tuesday at Nashville's inaugural Project Homeless Connect, where they received services from 50 participating provider agencies, which all were available to them for one day under one roof.

Homelessness is an evocative term, with a lot of stigma attached to it. It is easy to see the homeless man standing drunk in a corner of downtown asking for money and forget about the little girl who doesn't know where she will sleep on Christmas night.
Project has stepped up recruitment

However, a recent research project by political science professor Tom Knecht and sociology professor Lisa Martinez, both from the University of Denver, showed that volunteering can change attitudes. The two researchers surveyed volunteers before and after their participation in Denver's Project Homeless Connect about their feelings and attitudes toward homeless people.

The results clearly showed that after Project Homeless Connect, volunteers were less likely to say that homelessness was a personal choice or the result of substance abuse or mental illness. Stereotypes had clearly eroded after volunteering for the homeless. Of course, there is a Catch-22 involved: People who subscribe to such stereotypes are less likely to volunteer.

But Project Homeless Connect is more than just a one-stop shop. The event, which is meanwhile regularly held by 200 cities in the United States, Canada and Australia, will change how business is done when it comes to helping the homeless. Other cities, such as San Francisco, which launched Project Homeless Connect under Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004, have been able to recruit hundreds of volunteers.

The results have been so phenomenal that cities nationwide now hold the event on an annual basis, many of them even twice a year. The Metro Homelessness Commission, which organized Nashville's Project Homeless Connect, intends to repeat the event in about six months. The need, as was shown on Tuesday where nearly 250 volunteers pitched in to assist 1,078 homeless individuals, is definitely here.

Project Homeless Connect has been shown to lower barriers and remove obstacles by bringing together agencies and community volunteers across the city. During one day, every service provider is focused on solving problems that so far have kept the poorest of the poor living in the streets.

This united focus provides more than services to the homeless. It offers hope, a commodity many of these poor people have lost along the way.

What is more, Project Homeless Connect gives people in the community a chance to make a difference — in one day.

Homeless won't leave pets to get off streets

2008-12-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

Homeless won't leave pets to get off streets

By Jennifer Brooks • THE TENNESSEAN • November 17, 2008
The leaves are falling, the nights are cold and Carolyn Garton would like nothing better than to move out of her makeshift shelter in Tent City and into a nice, warm house.

But not without her Sunshine.

"She's my baby. God brought her to me," said Garton, pulling Sunshine into a hug. The black and tan shepherd mix thumped her tail and wriggled closer to lick her owner's chin.

Garton, who's known around Tent City as Mama Bear, has been homeless for two years. Sunshine's been by her side for most of it.

"She was brought to me at a hard time in my life," said Garton, who took in the abandoned puppy on a bleak, rainy day a year and a half ago. A look around their camp shows the lengths she's gone to provide for her pet. Sunshine has her own pillow and a nest of blankets in the tent they share. Volunteers have donated kibble, veterinary care and flea drops — enough to ensure that the homeless pet is living at least as comfortably as her homeless person.
Animals give love, purpose

Tent City is the oldest and most visible of Nashville's many homeless encampments. Tucked into no-man's land between the river, the railroad tracks and the highway overpasses, the encampment has been plagued by bad publicity, crime and pressure from urban redevelopment.

The city is desperate to shut the place down and relocate residents to better housing. But subsidized housing is scarce, waiting lists are long, and landlords willing to take in a homeless tenant with a pet are nearly nonexistent.

But for many of the homeless, giving up a pet to get into housing is simply not an option.

"Having a pet when you're homeless takes on an added significance," said Steve Samra, an outreach worker with Park Center who has been working with Tent City residents. "It's very hard for them to see a stray dog walk past them."

Laurie Green, one of the volunteers who provides free food and medical care to homeless pets, agreed.

"It's one homeless soul on the street to another," said Green, founder of the Southern Alliance for Animal Welfare.

"They're told by so many people that they're worthless. They're treated like either they're invisible or something to walk past fast. A dog is something that will love them unconditionally.

"These animals give people a purpose," she added. "It gives them a reason to stay on their meds, to get up in the morning."
Tent City closing halted

At last count, there were 32 people living in Tent City. There were also about eight dogs and almost 20 cats. The homeless pets are just one of the many reasons why Nashville officials have suspended their plans to shutter Tent City some time in the near future.

"It's an enormous barrier," said Councilman Erik Cole, a member of the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission, which is wrestling with the Tent City issue.

"Landlords often have no-pet policies. Some would argue that these people shouldn't have pets, but that's not human nature. … These people have taken responsibility for these animals and their welfare. That's a virtue we ought to be able to reward."

Living on the street, or in a tent, isn't an ideal situation for humans or animals. But the alternative for pets is the pound, and the alternative for humans is a life of even deeper loneliness.

But at Tent City, residents know their neighbors, and they know their pets.

A big, goofy Rottweiler mix named T guards the entrance to the camp, barking a greeting to visitors from a salvaged couch in his owner's yard.

"I got him when he was 6 weeks old. The guy who had him was feeding him bread and water," said his owner, known around the camp only as Cowboy. That was three years ago, and T has grown into a happy dog who lives to play football with an old knit cap.

"He's my pride and joy," Cowboy said. "I'd rather give up my old lady than give up my dog. I'm serious."
Some willing to leave

In the shadow of the highway overpass, a young woman shows off her 6-month-old calico cat, Brooklyn Dixie. She rescued the kitten after someone tossed her and her littermates out of a moving car from the bridge above. Brooklyn Dixie was the only survivor.

The woman won't give her name, but she will show off the tattoo on the small of her back of her cat's face and name.

In another corner of the camp, an elderly spaniel named Sheba sits on a ragged armchair outside her owner's tent and barks hoarsely at anyone who comes near — unless they stop to scratch her behind the ears.

Dewey Marsh stroked Foxy Roxie, a half-grown gray cat who keeps his campground clear of rats. He's fond of the cat, but if a slot in one of the subsidized housing programs opens up, Marsh said he'd take the house and trust the others in Tent City to look after Foxy.

"We're all waiting on housing," he said.

For some Tent City residents, the wait is over. Howard Allen and Ann Denton-Allen married under the bridge in Tent City in April, found work and have since moved out into a trailer of their own — a real home.

But moving out of Tent City meant giving up their pets — a miniature dachshund and an elderly Siamese cat. Green found foster homes for both pets, sparing the Allens the stress of caring for the animals while they were working to get themselves on their feet.

"It's a struggle, finding transportation, food. It's a weekly struggle to make the rent," Denton-Allen said.

"We wouldn't have been able to care for our animals. We had beautiful, wonderful animals. … But someone else is taking care of them now."

Inescapable Orange

2008-12-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

Something for my wishlist. A Poverty and Justice Bible

2008-12-04T13:53:00.001-08:00

It's mine for now.