Tick Tock Sheptock

I have a couple of good things to report today. First of all, I have landed a part-time job, as indicated by my most recent video. Secondly, DC Government's Dept. of Employment Services (DOES) has begun to collaborate with several homeless advocates in an effort to employ more of the homeless population. The homeless are faced with numerous barriers to employment. The developing world-wide depression only serves to compound the already difficult task of employing the homeless. Therefore, DC Government's willingness to work with the advocacy community when we approached them is a welcome gesture, for what it's worth. As for my job, I must admit that it just fell into my lap. A friend came to me and described the job and the hours. He asked me whether or not I had experience using a floor buffer and told me that the woman doing the hiring was his friend. I began my part-time janitorial job in NE Washington, DC. on April 21st. Some would say that I am under-employed insomuch a...

First of all, I recently landed a new job. The most recent video on the right side of my blog shows me speaking with my new boss. This job, which I began on April 21st, as well as the many meetings and other events that I attend have kept me from doing much blogging lately. (Homeless advocacy involves a lot of meetings and plenty of footwork. The footwork is compounded if you are a homeless homeless advocate who lacks funds for public transportation.) In the little bit of time that I was able to squeeze in for blogging today I decided to copy and paste a slightly edited version of an e-mail that I originally sent as an answer to someone's questions about the Franklin School Shelter closure process. I hope you find it to be interesting. Soon I will blog about my new job as well as efforts by several homeless advocates to collaborate with DC Government and create a comprehensive process for employing the homeless. Until then..... The mayor announced his plan for ending chronic homel...

Spring is here!!!!! Many people are getting spring fever. For some it means that they will tend to the garden. Others will go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. Some will paint the house. Then there are those who will do some spring cleaning. This final group includes DC Government and the DC homeless shelters. For most people the onset of spring is a time of great pleasure. For the homeless it means that they lose their right to shelter. DC Law only gives the homeless a right to shelter if the temperature is 32 and below or 95 and above (including the wind chill factor or heat index). So long as the temperature remains between 33 and 94, there is no right to shelter in our nation's crapital. The homeless are put out of shelter and into the rain quite often. Some shelter employees will allow people to come in if it is raining hard enough. However, they do this at their own discretion and risk, with many insurance policies not covering the shelters during usual off hours except during ...

Breaking with tradition, I'm actually posting some good news about DC mayor Adrian Fenty (a man) and his plans to house the homeless. He too is breaking with tradition by doing something he hasn't done much of until now -- housing families. As of February 25th, 2009, only 1 family (and 414 homeless singles) had been housed through his Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) program. Bear in mind that DC had over 6,200 homeless individuals as of February 25th, 2009. (See my own comment, which I sent in response to Deb's comment, in my previous post. It will tell you where to find stats on the homeless.) I received the following info in my e-mail account recently and decided to post it. However, I take issue with how certain stats are presented. Toward the end of the document, it states that, according to Downtown BID (Business Improvement District), there has been a sharp decline in the number of downtown homeless. It fails to mention that the reason is that the Franklin School S...

There is my blog as well as other blogs about homeless issues. Then there are the frequent news clips about homelessness and the highly contested closure of the Franklin School Shelter. Then there is Michelle Obama's visit to Miriam's Kitchen, a homeless soup kitchen. All in all, the issue of homelessness is taking center stage. As if that weren't enough, there is proof positive that the image-conscious DC mayor Adrian Fenty is running scared. See the story below..... Michelle Obama visited Miriam's Kitchen, which feeds DC's homeless community breakfast and has other helpful programs, on Thursday, March 5th. Her visit, in and of itself, was reason enough for conversation. Nonetheless, the fact that she wasn't accompanied by the mayor is all the more reason for conversation. The homeless community is extremely disgruntled with the mayor. What's more is that they got the chance to speak to the first lady without him being there. He doesn't know what was sa...

I can't count the number of times that the homeless have asked me if I knew where they could get help finding a job. Some have advised me to ask the mayor for jobs for the homeless rather than shelter or housing. Then there are the ones who've suggested that they be allowed to work on an old, dilapidated government building and turn it into affordable housing. (This idea is known as "sweat equity" and has been shot down by the DC Council in the past.) Needless to say, the homeless are an industrious lot of people; but, there seems to be either a shortage of jobs or an inability on the part of DC Government and homeless service providers to connect people to the jobs that are out there. In the past I've even heard the DC Council discuss how employers often need to look outside of DC to find qualified employees due to many DC residents being unskilled. As chance should have it, Mayor Fenty recently visited the DC Jail to promote the Central Detention Facility Employ...

Yesterday I posted a short, undetailed message about a certain DC homeless shelter that was abruptly closed (which I'll soon delete). I have since done my homework and found out what happened and why. So, here it is..... The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP) has not paid CCNV (the Community for Creative Non-Violence) for its services for 2 months. CCNV took action so as to exact payment yesterday. Before I give any further explanation of yesterday's situation, I must first explain everyone's role. The Government of the District of Columbia has a Dept. of Human Services (DHS). DHS has contracted out many of its homeless services to The Community Partnership (TCP) which in turn contracts out to the actual service providers such as CCNV and Catholic Charities. (Those homeless services that don't fall under the purview of TCP are administered by the Coalition for the Homeless, which answers to DHS.) CCNV (the Community for Creative Non-Violence)...