Tallahassee’s premier homelessness workers

So tomorrow I am meeting with the Director and Deputy Director of the Big Bend Homeless Coalition- the two women who seem to be in charge of all homeless services rendered in Tallahassee. I’ll be asking them everything I can to understand how the whole system works- funding, donations, volunteers, I’ll have to think of questions today. Also about this document they sent me called the 10 Year Plan- apparently a plan we have to end homelessness in ten years. Interesting, huh? The meeting is at 8:30 tomorrow morning and I’ve been spending nights awake and waking up at 4pm (summertime…) so what will I do? Force myself to sleep, I guess.

big week!

A lot will happen this week in terms of my homelessness exploration. It began with a newfound sense of despair because my BBHC (Big Bend Homeless Coalition) volunteer application had been in for a week and no reply. At Stephanie Shepherd’s suggestion (Deputy Director of BBHC), I e-mailed the two volunteer volunteer coordinators (sic) requesting that I could have a one-on-one volunteer orientation session rather than wait for the next group session on June 19th, although now that’s not so far away. It had been a while and I was losing hope. Also I decided to have a look at Talgov.com to find what the local government is doing. You can find relevant pages by pasting into Google ‘homeless site:talgov.com’ without the quotes. I find a brief description of the “Mayor’s initiative” for homelessness research. So I send them an e-mail asking “Are the results posted online?” “What are your conclusions?” etc. The reply:

Our Solution:
Thank you for your inquiry to AskTalgov.
Your inquiry has been forwarded to staff with the City’s Community Development Department, so they may respond directly to you regarding your questions. You may also wish to review the website maintained by the Big Bend Homeless Coalition at: http://www.bigbendhc.org/ .

Later I receive from someone else (the staff member),

Dear Ms. Rashad, I am forwarding your request for information to Ms. Stephanie Shepherd, the assistant director of the Big Bend Homeless Coalition. The Coalition along with the Mayor’s office facilitated the workgroup responsible for compiling a final report on ending homelessness.

Ms. Shepherd, as noted below, Ms. Rashad is interested in obtaining information about the task force and any initiatives or products issued by the task force. Thanks for your assistance with this matter.

[Holliday, Patricia]

Great! So I just made a big huge capital circle (heh heh). I quickly e-mailed Ms. Shepherd telling her what had happened and not to worry about it. She thought it was funny like I did, but decided to set up a meeting with me, her, and Kim Freeman, director of the BBHC! Holy crap! I made it to a meeting all the way to the top… wow. I think Ms. Shepherd figured I would quit running around asking different people for the same thing if she just pulled me in so I’m working on making a large bunch of questions. I wasn’t expecting this and feel I’m going in empty-handed. I still know very little about homelessness. At the least, I want to know the big picture structure of homelessness care in Tallahassee, so I have something to present to the high schools I go to when encouraging them to fundraise and volunteer for the BBHC. That’s big thing one.

Big thing two is that one of the volunteer coordinators got back to me to schedule a meeting. Maybe at Ms. Shepherd’s request?

I’ve been speaking with TEAM and I may not be able to work with them since they are an organization of constituent religious congregations, none of which I am a member of. But that’s no big deal.

I need to schedule those two meetings and prepare. What to ask? Geez… I guess I’m almost in.

Closing remarks: I’ve found a wonderful community of homelessness enthusiasts on WordPress, mostly people ‘high up’ in their organizations. So whoever you are, if you read this please leave a comment or message me. Especially if you work with the homeless or are from the Tallahassee area! By the way, ‘Capital Circle’ is a major road encompassing Tallahassee, and Rashad is a guy’s name. And I am a Mr. Time to send some thank you e-mails and schedule some meetings!

Cheers.

Getting in the system

So now It’s time to figure out what specifically I want to do with and for the homeless of Tallahassee. Sure the BBHC can probably give me tasks they need done, but I’m going to get some direction first. One thing is research- look into data and programs to make recommendations to the BBHC. This is an example of what volunteers can do in the Volunteer Manual. The second thing I want to try is to raise awareness. For example, maybe someone interested in this area who doesn’t know where to begin will find this blog and get a head start. A bigger goal is to reach out to the high schools. Third, actual on-site work I do will probably involve tutoring kids/childcare.

I went to the Sheriff’s office to get a background check as part of the volunteer application. The office is off Pensacola street and on my way there… I passed the BBHC! Apparently their headquarters are right next to the Sheriff’s office so after I got the paperwork done I paid them a visit. Not much the lady at the desk could tell me since she was only an interim administrator (she said). But it was exciting to be somewhere- it felt like the first real step. She explained that we the BBHC didn’t have a full-time volunteer coordinator but only two volunteer volunteer coordinators, and that is why it takes so long for them to reply to e-mails.

They have mandatory volunteer orientations. I missed the one on May 27th and there’s an upcoming one on June 19th. That’s in a while; hopefully I can start sooner. Anyways, five days later I pick up my background check (clean!), tack it onto my application, and turn it in to the BBHC. Now I’m at the BBHC talking to Stephanie Shepherd herself (she is really pretty) who says my application will be sent to LeMay DeVane, HOPE director. Apparently most volunteers are sent to HOPE (rather than the BBHC offices) to help that program.

So I have a way to get into the system, but the process has been really slow because the volunteer coordinators are probably really busy. I might pay another visit to the BBHC office to see if they have any oddjobs I can do. I wish I had someone in the BBHC to mentor me or actively guide me through the process! I can’t go to them and ask if they could hurry up please. So while I wait, maybe I’ll look into the other organizations and information I wanted to get.

Consulting the list of services, there are nine emergency/transitional housing sites which are probably worth listing- The Shelter, Haven of Rest Christian Home for Men, Capital City Youth Services (for runaways/homeless 10-17), Refuge House (sexual and domestic violence victims), ECHO’s Bethany Family Apartments, Brehon House (pregnant women 18+ or who have one child three years or younger), Lutheran Social Services’ Inn Between Program, HOPE Community, and Promise Land Ministries. There are lots of other services (medical, food, clothing… ) but for homelessness I can start with those shelters. Refuge house and Brehon house probably aren’t as relevant as The Shelter, Haven, ECHO, and HOPE. CCYS- do we have a lot of runaways and independent homeless children? Maybe I can go to those and learn about how they work and if they communicate with the BBHC. Does the BBHC provide them with funding?

Anyways that was the service part; the information part would be pretty much interviewing the homeless. But that would only be the street homeless, many of whom are chronically homeless. Remember, there’s a big difference between the chronically and the transient homeless. Transient homeless are of much greater number but also, it seems, much easier to lead to permanent housing. The chronically homeless include the mentally ill and addicts. Can I go and just chat with them? Sounds like a pretty regular college adventure. Maybe I’ll save some money for food, find a central homeless hangout, and have a big cookout or something to meet everyone. Burgers would only require buns, lettuce, cheese, tomato, ketchup, mustard, paper plates, and trash bags, right? And some friends to help set it up. Would we get in trouble with the police?

So finally, I am still working on balancing all homeless benefit organizations in Tallahassee. There are a lot that seem to work independently and provide roughly the same services, i.e. an emergency shelter for a few people and meals. For example, the Good Samaritan Network was pretty hard to find online, and where else am I going to look than the internet? I haven’t yet looked into government funding and programs, but when I do I’ll probably start at Talgov.com. Also, I briefly found this thing called TEAM Tallahassee, an alliance of faith-based organizations that collaborate on Tallahassee’s social problems. But they don’t have any information about their findings or conclusions online, so maybe they will respond to my e-mail letting me know how to get in the loop.

It begins.

I remember how great thing were in Deerlake, where me and all my savvy friends shared our lives on Xanga. Every night I would go on Xanga reading about how everyone’s day was, even though I had been a part of it. I would anxiously and nervously hope to find myself mentioned- in a good way. What better measure of popularity?

It’s been some years since then and I’m back to blogging. Not about my daily life.. well, kind of. This is simply my description/rant area of figuring out everything concerning homelessness in Tallahassee. I’ve been living in Tallahassee for about 16 years now. I went to elementary, middle, and high school here and now I’m in college. Being raised here, I’ve always felt that I knew Tallahassee for all it was. Basically I reduced Tallahassee to what I experienced in my day-to-day. But there’s more. What am I missing? Neighborhoods I never lived in, schools I never attended, another university, a community college. There’s probably the good and the bad. I was never exposed to much crime where I grew up, but it must be there. So? What have I been missing?

I decided to start my exploration with the homeless. Where are they? How many are there? Where do they come from? Where do they go? What happens to them when they die? What happens to them when they’re born? This chronicles my search for answers.

Well, “my search for answers” is kind of a glorification of what I’m doing. It will probably chronicle my poor first attempt at investigative and gonzo “journalism.” Now that I have a “potential failure” disclaimer out of the way, I want to jump right in.

I figure I’d start with a research phase, i.e. Google. This led me to the BBHC- Big Bend Homeless Coalition website, which looks like the central overhead for homeless aid organizations in Tallahassee. Good start. The BBHC has several documents, the first of which is Homelessness in Tallahassee. This is pretty much exactly what I set out to find; a quick list of facts about the homeless in Tallahassee. Basic facts: a 2005 street count and survey (summarized here) included 739 homeless individuals. 398 were adults, 341 children, about a quarter were veterans, and about a quarter were chronically homeless. Based on this data, an estimated three to four thousand experience homelessness throughout the year. Over 1,000 are estimated to be homeless daily in the Big Bend area. Trends: homeless population is getting younger, and there is a greater tendency to have homeless families and children. The top four reasons cited are lack of affordable housing, unemployment/underemployment, family breakdown, and lack of public transportation. Ending with some housing estimates: “Average rent for a two bedroom apartment in Tallahassee is $687 per month; at Minimum Wage, it requires 86 hours of work per week to afford a place to live; In Tallahassee, to afford the average two bedroom apartment, someone would have to earh $13.21 per hour. This is considered the ‘Housing Wage’ in our community.”

This is great for five minutes of exploration, I feel like an expert already. “Did you know that there are several hundred permanently homeless but several thousand transient homeless in Tallahassee? Yeah that’s right, I am a homeless expert.” Transient homeless. If I had a wife and two kids and I had a full-time job and my wife had a part-time job (because we can’t pay for daycare and there’s no one to watch the kids) and we both get paid minimum wage, I can imagine how missing a single paycheck means missing rent. So we are evicted, stuff our clothes in the car and live out of it for a month of two. Maybe we eat fast food and use their restrooms to wash up until we find another place cheap enough to stay. That’s my best guess as to how transient homelessness begins.

Now, on to how Tallahassee helps its homeless. The BBHC has a page for HOPE- Housing Opportunities and Personal Empowerment. They describe a “continuum of care” which provides services to those within any degree of homelessness. Let’s see what HOPE is about.

HOPE tries to lead the homeless to self-sufficiency. This sounds good because it isn’t a “hand out” and so isn’t subject to the arguments of big social programs, right? It will house a total of 164 people. 164? Out of the total 3,000-4,000? Here’s an excerpt:

“HOPE will distinguish Tallahassee as one of the few cities to create an environment that will pool and coordinate its resources in order to help end cycles of homelessness for families and individuals and move them into independent living. HOPE’s mission is to end homelessness, not just treat the symptoms. HOPE will model its services after successful centers in Miami and Homestead. Since 1995 those centers have served more than 40,000 people, a majority of whom move permanently away from homelessness – a major improvement over the typical approach, which yields a success rate of only 5 to 10 percent. More than just tending to the daily needs of the homeless, HOPE Community will help its residents find solutions to end their homelessness.”

It leaves 2729 W. Pensacola Street as the address. I can stop by there since it’s on the way to campus, close to the infamous Tallahassee Plane Crash of 2008. One argument the BBHC makes is that investing in HOPE will return a calculated $300 million over 20 years, by turning the homeless from tax consumers to tax payers. The bottom of the HOPE page has an interesting fine print- “A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE 1-800-435-7352 WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.” That is probably public record establishing HOPE/BBHC as a legitimate 501(c)3.

Whoa cool! There’s an Emergency Services Brochure in the Resources section that lists all the resources in Tallahassee for the poor and struggling (as of January 2006). Places for medical care, StarMetro’s bus pass program, job training and placement, rent and utility assistance, social security cards and benefits, emergency/transitional housing, drop-in centers (places to stay for the night, wash up, or get some food, I think), meal sites, food and clothing, education services, mental health services, and substance abuse services. Also listed are the closest bus routes for all 57 locations. This is a really awesome list.

All that’s left of interest to me on the BBHC site is volunteering info. It lists that you can donate (of course) and some volunteer positions they need filled, like family case manager, receptionist, etc. For any questions, volunteer@BigBendHC.org, 576-5566 phone, 577-0586 fax, www.BigBendHC.org. That’s what I’ll try.

Okay, so I’m done exploring this webpage for now. Soon maybe I’ll work on getting in touch with the BBHC for some volunteering. Good day!