Our Mission

Founded in 1989, HtH is the oldest all volunteer, action, homeless organization in the state of Texas. The mission is Education and Advocacy around the issues of ending and preventing homelessness.

Urgent Issues

Re-Criminalizing Homelessness — Speak up now!

The Austin city council recently voted to put on its May ballot a vote to reinstate the no camping ban including the no sit/no lie ordinances. Now is the time to contact your mayor and council members particularly those who have supported decriminalizing homelessness, such as Mayor Adler, Kathy Tovo, Ann Kitchen, Greg Casar, Sabino Renteria, and others, we pray.

First call to action is cold weather shelter. Anyone that reads this, our urgent plea is to email our mayor and city council in this urgent time of cold weather. House the Homeless is encouraging to use the Convention Center or other alternatives sites that are already over burdened due to Covid-19 or at capacity.

A second call to action is to not displace unsheltered neighbors from bridges and the four major camp areas without having an immediate plan for alternative shelter/housing.

Finally, advise your mayor and council members that the wording for the May ballot regarding reinstating a camping ban must consider that those with disabilities, the aged, and in fact anyone with no place to go. The no sit/no lie ordinance is absolutely inhumane and unconscionable we must have at least 15 minute respites particularly for those with disabilities and make other provisions.

Federal Minimum Wage Debate

Federal resolve is insufficient; highly recommend Universal Living Wage formula indexed on the cost of housing wherever the person lives and works. 

Excuse Us — Where Is That Crisis, Exactly?

A recent headline reads, “This Is the City Most in Danger of a Housing Crisis, Study Finds.” What they mean is a specific type of housing crisis, defined by certain parameters and formulae.

The page says, “GOBankingRates determined which places are most in danger of a housing crisis based on three factors,” and then proceeds to list not three, but six precisely enumerated factors:

  1. Percentage of homes with mortgage in negative equity
  2. Total number of homes in negative equity
  3. Number of homes at least 90 days late on mortgage payment
  4. Negative equity delinquency rate
  5. Homeowner vacancy rate
  6. Rental vacancy rate

Negative equity is when the person owes more on their mortgage than the market value of the house, so even if they sold it today and turned all the money over to the bank, they would still owe — which is a terrible situation to be in. Being stuck like this influences many life choices. It precludes the opportunity to move away and start over somewhere with a better job market.

In a negative-equity condition, the home “owner” is unable to borrow money for other purchases, and the whole economy goes to hell. As Zillow.com notes:

Negative equity can have a number of other chilling impacts on local housing markets, disproportionately impacting minority communities and owners of lower-valued homes, exacerbating inventory shortages and increasing the likelihood of foreclosure for underwater homeowners.

At the peak of the negative equity crisis in early 2012, nearly a third of all homeowners with a mortgage — 16 million people — had negative equity in their homes. At the end of 2017, roughly 5 million homeowners still were underwater, more than half of them deeply so, with mortgage balances totaling 120 percent or more what their homes were worth.

That sounds bad enough, but it gets worse: 15% of the “underwater” home owners owe at least twice what their homes are currently worth. It must drive people insane, wondering how that is even possible. You’ve been paying the mortgage for years, and now owe more than you did at the beginning. So, if you found someone willing to pony up the market value in cash right now, it would only pay off half of what you owe.

After GOBankingRates published its report, other websites adapted the information and created annoying, time-sucking click-bait versions of it, generally with a title referencing the 54 cities most in danger of a housing crisis (and potentially 54 pages to get through to find your own city). At least GOBankingRates has the decency to place all the bad news on one page.

In the bankers’ analysis, by the way, the five cities most likely headed for a crisis are:

  1. Newark, NJ
  2. Chicago, IL
  3. Hartford, CN
  4. Jacksonville, FL
  5. Baltimore, MD

The math just doesn’t work out

In most of the country, a minimum-wage worker needs two-and-a-half full-time paychecks to rent a one-bedroom apartment. This is based on the “rule of thumb” conjured up by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to represent the percentage of income a family should spend on housing, which is 30%, or almost one-third.

When the baby boomer generation went to school and learned a subject called Home Economics, the governmentally recommended standard for that ratio was 25%. Americans used to be taught that one dollar out of every four was the proper amount to expect to spend on housing. Now we are told that one dollar out of every three is the correct amount. The switching of that recommended proportion is as egregious as any of the history-wiping imagined by George Orwell in his novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

This is the miserable irony of that line about the 54 cities in danger of crisis. There is no place in the United States where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment. If that isn’t a housing crisis, we don’t know what is. Many more than the named 54 cities are in danger of a housing crisis. Many more than 54 cities are already fully in the grip of a housing crisis. This is glaringly obvious from the numbers of people experiencing homelessness, everywhere.

Here, from Zillow Research, is the rundown of the 10 most cruelly, brutally unaffordable rental markets in the land of the free:

  1. Los Angeles, CA
  2. Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL
  3. San Diego, CA
  4. San Francisco, CA
  5. New York, NY
  6. Riverside, CA
  7. San Jose, CA
  8. Boston, MA
  9. Sacramento CA
  10. New Orleans, LA

Now, remember those numbers from a couple of paragraphs ago? How one-fourth was the amount that people used to normally spend buying or renting a place to live, and then how the recommended fraction magically grew to one-third?

In Los Angeles now, the median share of household income spent on rent is 47.6%. That means people are spending very close to HALF their income, just to stay housed. And the crisis is everywhere.

Reactions?

Source: “This Is the City Most in Danger of a Housing Crisis, Study Finds,” GOBankingRates.com, 07/13/18
Source: “Housing Data 101: What is Negative Equity?,” Zillow.com, 07/18/17
Source: “A minimum-wage worker needs 2.5 full-time jobs to afford a one-bedroom apartment in most of the US,” BusinessInsider.com, 06/14/18
Source: “10 Most Affordable Markets for Renters,” Zillow.com, 05/31/18
Photo credit: Richard Masoner/Cyclelicious via Visualhunt/CC BY-SA

Is Austin As Smart As It Thinks It Is?

In Austin and Travis County, the homeless count has grown by 5% in the past year. Almost 3% of public school students declare as homeless, while an unknown number of others are able to conceal the fact.

One Community Impact headline reads, “Austin seeks $30 million to scale its homelessness solutions.” It’s confusing, however, because the current bond proposal asks for $250 million for affordable housing.

Ann Howard, Executive Director of the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, makes a good point, saying, “By doing nothing, we’re still incurring huge costs, so it would be smarter for Austin to spend the money to house people.”

This may be the place to explain a concept called “functional zero” in regard to the homelessness rate. It basically means that fewer people become homeless than return to housing. Some would say that “functional zero” belongs in the category of weasel words, a term credited to Theodore Roosevelt, who did not care for them.

Any city, county, or state could achieve “functional zero” by merely keeping the influx into homelessness balanced with the outflow back into housing. In reality, there could still be half a million people experiencing homelessness, but as long as the comings and goings equal each other, “functional zero” can be proclaimed. Don’t fall for it.

Another weaselly concept

Think about this:

More than a third of Travis County households are cost-burdened, in that they spend more than 30 percent — the standard recommended by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — of their total income on housing.

It’s not journalist Emma Freer’s fault of course, but the concept of being “cost-burdened” used to apply to a different number. Back when the school curriculum included Home Economics, young women were taught that a family should not spend more than 25% of its income on housing. Somehow, somewhere along the way, someone decided to raise the bar.

Cynics might say that “cost-burdened” is just another word for “ripped off.” Freer goes on to say,

Fred Fuchs, an attorney at the Texas RioGrande Legal Association and the director of The University of Texas School of Law Housing Clinic, said many Austinites struggle with burdensome late fees, which can sometimes surpass rent, and laws that allow landlords to consider a prospective tenant’s eviction history for up to 10 years. For those already living near the margin, car trouble or an unexpected illness can reasonably lead to an eviction.

Austin’s Quality of Life ordinances

Richard R. Troxell was interviewed for three hours for the City of Austin Audit regarding the “No Sit, No Lie”; “No Solicitation”; and “No Camping” ordinances. These laws are not engraved in stone, and can be dismissed or amended by the citizenry.

Richard is uniquely qualified to speak on the subject. In addition to co-founding House the Homeless, he has been on the National Coalition for the Homeless board since 1997. For seven years during the last presidential administration he, along with Michael Stoops and Brian Davis, met with the Department of Justice to talk, mainly, about so-called Quality of Life ordinances.

Some of the points they made included what enormous disadvantage it is to have a record, if the person ever considers seeking employment. People in hiring positions are trained to reject the applicants with tickets or Class C criminal histories.

The government makes rules requiring the government to pay police to hand out paperwork and fine or arrest people who will then be unemployable. That costs the government even more money in terms of homeless relief. They also point out how wacky that basic operating policy is.

Issuing thousands of arrest warrants pursuant to the “No Sit/No Lie” ordinance could be described by harsher critics as nothing more than a full employment program for police. As far as anybody else is concerned, there is no upside. If offenders are fined, they can’t pay the fines. If they are jailed, that costs the taxpayers money. Plus, when released from jail back into the streets, people have criminal records and become unemployable, and their existence ends up costing society even more dollars.

Let’s get civilized

Richard points out that even outside the homelessness assistance facilities, people waiting for appointments can only sit on the sidewalk or in the gutter. And guess what? All over the city, even housed people can use the opportunity to sit and rest. Not every person is at the peak of health at all times. A senior citizen out for a health-giving walk might need to sit and rest for a few minutes. A parent with kids might need to stop and clean up a spill, or look at a crying child’s scraped knee, or sort through the equipment bag for the spare pacifier.

Looking objectively at a city, from the point of view of a foreigner or even a space alien, surely it is more seemly for people in public venues to sit on benches than to squat on their haunches or sprawl on the ground. Even without knowing the language or anything about the culture, it is a positive sign when human beings in public spaces are able to use outdoor furniture, rather than share the pavement or grass with squirrels, insects, dogs, cats, and other beings. Even though we are all God’s creatures, some of us, thanks to long history and a little thing called civilization, have grown accustomed to sitting on chairs.

A space alien with an objective point of view might even think, “What the hell kind of a way is this to run a so-called civilization? Their cities can afford all kinds of amenities, like the yearly splurge on winter holiday decorations. Bolted-down metal benches may be costly, but they are a one-time expense. Once installed, they stay forever and require no maintenance. They don’t need to be watered, tuned up, repaired, or replaced. What’s wrong with these people?”

If you’re in Austin, sign the petition!

The long and short of it is, right now the good people of Austin have the opportunity to sign a petition titled, “Get Our Homeless Neighbors up off the Sidewalks & Their Feet out of the Gutters.” It asks for benches for people to sit on, like respected and self-respecting human beings. Yes, the petition asks for dignity and fairness. Be among the first to concur!

Reactions?

Source: “Austin seeks $30 million to scale its homelessness solutions,” CommunityImpact.com, 07/26/18
Photo credit: Arturo Yee on Visualhunt/CC BY

So Much Winning in Seattle

The Monkey’s Paw” is an immortal tale because it embodies an unassailable truth: Be careful what you wish for. Amazon has not yet named the next city to be blessed or cursed with the company’s presence. Do the competing cities have any clue about what is in store for the winner?

One thing is for sure. Wherever Amazon HQ2 lands, the number of people experiencing homelessness in that city will increase.

The residents of Seattle were manipulated to want Amazon. Having viewed an Amazon recruitment video, Seattle journalist Dae Shik Kim Hawkins implies that professionals all over America were equally manipulated into relocating to Seattle.

Naturally, the company portrayed the town as yuppie heaven — which it pretty much was, and largely still is. This is partly because the city is adept at rendering its homeless people invisible, and “the most helpless communities are being systematically displaced to make room for others.” The writer says:

Rather than eradicate homelessness at its root, the city’s strategy thus far has been to sweep the homeless from public view; destroying their encampments, issuing tickets for their vehicles, and installing hostile architecture that keeps people from sleeping on benches and in city parks.

In Seattle, site of HQ1, the homeless count is the third largest in the nation. Hawkins correlates the era of displacement with the “Amazon boom” of 2012. There are about 12,000 homeless people in King County, and about half of them are unsheltered. In the first half of this year, 52 members of the community died. Last year, Seattle spent over $10 million on “sweeps.”

Snitch culture

Hawkins describes a new smartphone application that sounds like a nifty idea on the surface; a way to report to the city if a traffic light is out of order, and so forth. But zealous citizens also use “Find It, Fix It” to report homeless camps and people asleep in vehicles. In other words, the app has “warped into a powerful instrument for high-tech community patrolling” that makes it super-convenient for annoyed citizens to punish people experiencing homelessness.

It became especially appreciated by residents of a particular upscale neighborhood. The Ballard Alliance, headed by Mike Stewart, took it upon themselves to get the locals riled up about homelessness, but not in any useful or constructive way. Hawkins says,

Stewart’s idea was to use this app to bombard the inboxes of city officials with homeless-encampment sightings around their neighborhood, hoping to create a sense of urgency for the city to remove homeless people from Ballard.

According to August Drake-Ericson, of the Seattle Homeless Encampment Response team, last year the city registered 12,500 homeless-oriented complaints, averaging more than 30 per day, and mostly originating from the new app. When anonymity can be maintained, the idea of being a ratfink is more attractive.

Crisis sometimes produces comical headlines, which happened in July. Examples: “Seattle mayor suggests rental assistance, car repairs could help some homeless” and “Seattle authorities luring homeless off the streets with plane tickets, rent.” Rent money could help the homeless. Who knew?

This is a mayoral plan, christened “one-time diversion spending,” and designed to keep people from slipping into homelessness. In real life, it’s no joke. Often, a one-time expense will tip the scales for an individual or a family. If you need a car to get to work, or else lose your job, and something happens to the car, and you have to choose between fixing the car or paying the rent, that scenario can throw a person into the streets.

It’s also the exact type of one-time financial emergency that friendly intervention, in the form of cash, can actually help. A month or two of rent, donated at the right time, can save the city a lot more than that, later on.

In June, the city council passed a tax on the full-time employees of the biggest local businesses, including, of course, Amazon. Originally, it was supposed to generate $75 million per year for affordable housing and homelessness services, but the corporations wangled it down to $45 million.

That much could be expected. In the kabuki theater of negotiation, the initial demand is always unreasonably high, in order to give the other side a partial win, in the name of compromise.

It didn’t work. The corporations, organized under the umbrella of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, waged an aggressive pressure campaign, and a few weeks after it had been passed, the tax was repealed. Writer/activist Hawkins added a few words about the irony of Find It, Fix It:

If anything needs to be fixed here, it’s the fact that a city with so many resources is not using its financial might and technological prestige to help the vulnerable few.

Reactions?

Source: “An App for Ejecting the Homeless,” TheAtlantic.com, 07/02/18
Source: “Seattle mayor suggests rental assistance, car repairs could help some homeless,” KOMONews.com, 07/02/18
Source: “Seattle authorities luring homeless off the streets with plane tickets, rent payments,” WFIN.com, 07/02/18
Photo credit: Backbone Campaign on Visualhunt/CC BY

Of Plants and Potties

There is more to say about Amazon’s headhunting expedition in search of a city in which to establish its second headquarters (which is an oxymoron, but never mind that). No, the problem is that wherever HQ2 lands, it will create a housing shortage, and a housing shortage inevitably creates more homelessness.

Only a week ago, the headline at the National Association of Home Builders announced, “Housing Starts Fall 12.3 Percent As Tariffs Draw Increased Concern,” and the first sentence stated,

Total housing starts fell 12.3 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million units, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Commerce Department… Meanwhile, the multifamily sector — which includes apartment buildings and condos — dropped 19.8 percent to 315,000.

NAHB Chair Randy Noel told journalist Elizabeth Thompson,

We have been warning the administration for months that the ongoing increases in lumber prices stemming from both the tariffs and profiteering this year are having a strong impact on builders’ ability to meet growing consumer demand.

Federal government policies have not only decreased the number of available construction workers, but have jacked up the cost of imported lumber. In only a few months, the higher price of wood added almost $9,000 to the cost of a new single-family house. The largest portion of this market is always single-family homes, which in and of itself does not do much toward housing the people who cannot afford to buy houses.

“Hosting Amazon isn’t all puppies and rainbows.”

That quotation is from Steve Nicholas, of the Institute for Sustainable Communities, who for eight years was Seattle’s sustainability director. He goes on to say,

Skyrocketing prices are not only rendering Seattle housing out of reach for many but also exacerbating the challenge of homelessness: Seattle now has the country’s third-largest population of homeless people.

Among other recommendations, Nicholas urges the winning HQ2 city to prioritize the preservation and creation of affordable housing. No disrespect, but it doesn’t take a college degree or a white-collar job description to come up with such an excellent idea. Anyone who is being “moved along” from a street-corner or “swept” from an encampment of cardboard and plastic dwellings can nail that one. None of this bodes well for impoverished people in a state of bare survival.

Sometimes you have to wonder about the language that news is framed in. For instance, Jonathan O’Connell says of Seattle, “Amazon has contributed $30 billion to the local economy and as much as $55 billion more in spinoff benefits.” Doesn’t “contribute” mean something like “give” or “donate”? Because if we’re talking about payroll here, that’s not a gift.

It’s one party paying another party to perform labor, which is the way these things are usually done, and not especially laudable in itself. O’Connell goes on to quote the corporation’s real estate guy:

Next year, Amazon will complete its most prominent addition — three glass biospheres featuring about 40,000 plants, “a unique environment for employees to come and collaborate and innovate,” Schoettler said.

That’s all well and good for the 40,000 plants, but what about the estimated 12,000 people experiencing homelessness? And speaking of large numbers, the Amazon HQ has registered 4,000 employee-owned dogs. How many tons of dog poop does that constitute per week, and where does it wind up?

Meanwhile, how is the situation around restroom facilities for people who survive in public? Seattle.gov offers a helpful interactive hygiene services map denoting the city’s public restrooms, and showers and laundry services supplied by organizations for those who don’t have their own.

Why then, only a year ago, was Dyer Oxley moved to write,

People relieving themselves on sidewalks or in parks is commonplace… The King County Council recently had to convene a special panel just to discuss how bad the environment around the courthouse has become. A big part of that is people are defecating and urinating in the streets around the building.

Seattle should revisit the public bathrooms idea, and do it right this time. Assign personnel at the bathrooms to ward off illegal behavior and keep them clean. Don’t just set them and forget them. Public bathrooms are not just a means of diverting the public nuisance. Residents and tourists have bladders, too.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is unable to think of any more practical use for his excess billions than to start his own space program. But perhaps he is not entirely oblivious to these matters. Who knows, maybe the plan is to collect all the poop and send it to the asteroid belt.

Reactions?

Source: “Housing Starts Fall 12.3 Percent As Tariffs Draw Increased Concern,” NAHB.org, 07/18/18
Source: “You’ve Won Amazon’s HQ2. Now the Hard Part Begins,” Governing.com, 06/26/18
Source: “What would happen if Amazon brought 50,000 workers to your city? Ask Seattle,” WashingtonPost.com, 10/19/17
Source: “Seattle should bring back public bathrooms,” MyNorthwesto.com, 07/12/18
Photo credit: Ashlyn Gehrett on Visualhunt/CC BY-ND

Heat Treatment

New York City’s official government page says that when the temperature is more than 10 degrees above the “average high temperature for the region,” or the heat lasts for “prolonged periods” and is accompanied by high humidity, that is extreme heat. Since New York is made of asphalt, concrete, and metal, it traps heat like an oven, and might easily be 10 degrees hotter than the outlying areas.

While the heat wave is an inconvenience for many New Yorkers, it can pose significant dangers for the thousands of homeless people living on the streets or in shelters without air-conditioning… It is important to note that homeless individuals and families always have a right to shelter in New York City regardless of the weather, but there are expanded outreach and intake rules when Code Red is in effect.

So wrote Jacquelyn Simone for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where summer weather started a bit early this year. Code Red is of course the condition of heat danger, the opposite of Code Blue which is the freezing hazard in winter.

She notes that under extreme heat conditions, the City has cooling centers in air-conditioned public places, found by calling 311 or going on the Web to Cooling Center Finder. Many of the locations are wheelchair-accessible, and the site advises checking in advance each time, because not all are open every day.

Elsewhere

In Albany, New York, the Capital City Rescue Mission is equipped with central air conditioning, two large ice machines, and a freezer full of ice cream and popsicles. The director, Perry Jones, related how the winter had brought the “code blue” condition many times, and expects the summer to bring many “code red” days.

People who were present when a reporter visited, spoke of being hospitalized for heat exhaustion, and of the rare relief of finding shade under a tree or a bridge, and of volunteering to spread the word about the Mission’s cool refuge.

In Newark, New Jersey, people experiencing homelessness tend to congregate in the rail station, public library, and two city parks. The Central Ward shelter that helped with their needs ran out of money and had to close, earlier this month, displacing about 180 residents. Thanks to the generosity of corporate donors it was able to reopen almost immediately, and the donation will keep the facility going until the end of this month.

What you can do

During that closure in Newark, Facebook spread the word, and local people came around to donate water and snacks at a nearby park. Disseminating such information through social media is something that a person can do even if unable to do anything else.

And informing yourself is very helpful, too. Become cognizant of what kind of aid is available in your city. Work with local authorities and organizations to create better facilities. Do you even know where people experiencing homelessness can get free water, or take a shower? You might even print up little slips of paper with useful information, to give out.

If you see a person who seems to be in distress from the heat, (if it seems safe) ask the person if they are all right, if they need help, or if they have somewhere to go. Maybe even just a gift of bus fare would help, if the buses are air-conditioned. On a rare occasion you might see the need to call 911 for emergency assistance.

Get personal, and find out what this particular individual needs. Maybe in their unique survival situation, the thing that would help most is an umbrella to keep the sun off. You don’t know until you ask.

Of course, there is the obvious. Buy a bottle or a case of water to distribute, and don’t forget, people might have pets who need water too. Give out cups or bags of ice. Distribute sunscreen to prevent sunburn, or aloe vera lotion to sooth it. One of the aggravations of having limited access to water is the difficulty of washing sticky hands, or removing spills onto clothing. Distribute individually packaged wet wipes.

In Austin, Texas, House the Homeless is giving out baseball-style caps with sunflaps to protect vulnerable necks from sun damage. This is a great idea that more cities and groups could adopt, along with other measures to prevent heat stroke, heat exhaustion, skin cancer, and dehydration. And of course, and most helpfully, we can all do more to end homelessness and make this a non-problem.

Reactions?

Source: “Extreme Heat,” NYC.gov
Source: “Help Homeless New Yorkers Stay Safe During the Heat,” CoalitionForTheHomeless.org, 06/18/18
Source: “Local shelters getting ready to help the homeless beat the heat,” News10.com, 06/29/18
Source: “Homeless shelter that closed in sweltering heat reopens (for now),” NJ.com, 07/05/18
Photo credit: Marco Verch (wuestenigel) on Visualhunt/CC BY

A Slow Emergency

When conditions of deprivation in third-world countries are discussed, one familiar trope is the procession of women carrying vessels on their heads, who walk miles every day just to get some water. And yet, in most of the world’s allegedly advanced metropolitan capitals, people can’t get water.

The May edition of the House the Homeless newsletter foretold the coming of the hot season, and now North America is in the thick of it. Well over half a million Americans experience homelessness on any given night or — more to the point in summertime — on any given day. The newsletter included a note from HtH Content Director Steve O’Keefe reminding us that in some places, animal cruelty statutes are more protective of non-human species than they are of human beings. The Humane Society says,

Animal neglect situations are those in which the animal’s caretaker or owner fails to provide food, water, shelter, or veterinary care sufficient for survival…. Many states have a provision specifically addressing animal neglect written into their animal cruelty laws…

And yet the United States contains millions of people who don’t have enough food, water, shelter or medical care to survive. Humans suffer and die every day from the lack of those things. When law enforcement officials encounter neglected and abused animals, the surrounding humans are held responsible and blamed. When law enforcement officers encounter neglected and abused humans, they themselves are blamed, and often end up in even worse circumstances and with criminal records.

For an example of extreme protest against this reality, see an essay written by Cheryl Jones, founder of the American Homeless Families Foundation, titled “US Government Treats Our Wounded Homeless Veterans Worse Than Animals!”

The science

The human body is 60% water; the brain is between 70% and 80% water, depending on who answers the question. Water has several exit routes from the body, and needs to be constantly replaced. Medical authorities recommend drinking a liter or two every day. Most people don’t drink enough of it even when they have the opportunity.

Sufficient advice is available on how to avoid heat-related death, but people are not always in a position to follow good advice. While the happily housed and cheerfully oblivious are urged to stimulate their desire for water by brewing exotic unsweetened teas, or adding costly little flasks of natural flavor, unhoused people don’t need to whet their appetite for water. The thirst and the genuine medical need are present. Too often, the water is not.

Exposure-related problems include heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Some “rough sleepers” stay awake and alert at night for safety reasons, but fall asleep in open areas during the day, and add sunburn to their list of ailments. Overexposure to the sun is a well-known cause of cancer.

Dehydration and health destruction

Ongoing dehydration has scary and expensive health consequences, including digestive and metabolic problems, blood clots, seizures, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, immune deficiency, high blood pressure, joint pain, susceptibility to asthma and allergies, and bad breath.

In the short term, it affects mood and cognition. Alertness, concentration, and short-term memory can be disrupted. Dehydration can cause confusion and fogginess, inability to mentally focus, muscle cramps, weakness, chills and fever, headache, depression, and fatigue.

Here is an important and compassionate thing to remember: When a person is forced to survive in public, she or he might appear to be drunk or drugged, when the real problem severe and chronic dehydration.

What is the answer? The charitable giving of bottled water must have its limits. Citizens already scream about the amount of trash that accumulates in homeless camps. Every disposable container contributes toward the death of the oceans. Handing out plastic bottles is far from the best answer. People need containers they can hang on to, and sources to fill those containers.

Drinking water needs to be available to the public at all times and in many locations. It matters not what architectural landmarks a city boasts, or how many operas and ballets it supports. If the people don’t have access to water, the single most necessary element of life, the place can’t really be considered fit for human habitation.

Many countries share the shame

In Great Britain, which supposedly has been civilized for centuries, there was a commotion just last month in the city of Birmingham. A group of volunteers distributed water which, reportedly, the recipients literally fought over. A detail that adds insult to injury is that Birmingham had numerous public fountains in the past.

Many cities, behaving disgracefully, have shut down public water sources. The journalists who compiled this story quoted a woman named Sarah:

If I go into a shop or cafe and try and ask for a glass of water, they always say no. If people think you’re homeless, they just won’t help you. If someone who didn’t look homeless went in and asked for water, they’d get it. It’s so frustrating.

Security guards are always on the look-out for you. They think you’re scum. They’ll make sure you’re not in their place for too long, or just boot you out straight away so it’s hard to find shade for a long time. Even in parks and that there’s always someone to tell you to move on.

Suppose that, by some incredible stroke of luck, an unhoused person has access to a dependable source of clean drinking water, enough to drink a health-compatible amount. And what if there is no nearby location where it is legal to perform nature’s other functions? Cosmic jokes to play on people experiencing homelessness — the Universe never runs out of them.

Reactions?

Source: “The Dangers of Chronic Dehydration,” NuuvoHealth.com, 08/11/17
Source: “Heatwave leaves homeless ‘fighting’ over water,” BBC.com. 06/29/18
Source: “Animal Neglect,” humanesociety.org
Source: “US Government Treats Our Wounded Homeless Veterans Worse Than Animals!,” linkedin.com, 10/05/14
Photo credit: International Livestock Research Institute on Visualhunt/CC BY-SA

Coping With the 800-Pound Gorilla

Q: What do you call an 800-pound gorilla in your living room?
A: Sir.

It’s the oldest joke in the book, and not so funny when, as in Seattle, several gorillas (with names like Amazon, Tableau, Microsoft, Google, Expedia, Facebook, and LinkedIn) are lounging around on the parlor sofas with their feet up on the coffee table. What happens when mega corporations take over a city? They pretty much have to be called “Sir,” and, in civic matters, they tend to get their way.

As we discussed, the homeless population of Seattle has increased by 4% in the past year. Of all U.S. cities, Seattle contains the third largest group of people experiencing homelessness — not by proportion, but by actual count.

Amazingly, Amazon owns more office space in the city than the total owned by all of the next 40 largest employers combined. Even though this is commercial real estate rather than living space, Amazon’s near-monopoly is seen as contributing to homelessness in the area.

Jonathan O’Connell cautions the cities who strive to become Amazon’s HQ2, cities where officials want the luring of Amazon to be an item on their resume. They are tempted to offer all kinds of enticements and exceptions and treats, as well as forgiveness for sins not yet committed. O’Connell wrote:

In Seattle, that meant rehabbing an area of more than 350 acres at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars in ongoing transportation and infrastructure upgrades expanding public transit, road networks, parks and utilities.

Rents in King County have more than doubled in the past 20 years, and gone up 65 percent since 2009. Seattle spends more than $60 million annually to address homelessness, up from $39 million four years ago.

On an average day, Seattle gains almost 60 people. Landlords openly advertise the favors they are willing to do, but only for those employed by Amazon, Google, or Microsoft. Low-income workers with jobs in the city have had to move farther and farther away, costing them additional gas and other transportation fees. Also, with more cars driving more miles every day, air pollution increases.

Bellwether Housing, a nonprofit that manages 2,000 affordable housing units, cites a vacancy rate that hovers around 1%. There is a glimmer of light. O’Connell says:

As Amazon’s boom has continued, the city approved a rule this year requiring landlords to accept the first viable renter who applies — rather than cherry-picking a tech worker. The government also adopted an inclusionary zoning policy requiring developers to set aside some new units at below-market rates or pay into a fund to develop other affordable units.

Late last year, journalist Drew Atkins wrote:

In over eight years of meetings with voters, Seattle city councilmember Mike O’Brien has never heard a nice story about Amazon. O’Brien has listened to the company get linked to nearly every major problem facing the city.

Amazon’s negative reputation in Seattle has roots in its philanthropy. Or its lack thereof.

Currently, Amazon lists 70 local charities that it has supported, but the giant corporation had to be shamed into it. Until the light of public scrutiny was cast in their direction, Amazon was not even supporting United Way. Even now, and unlike similar corporations, they don’t reveal the size of their gifts. For all anybody knows, they gave 70 charities $10 apiece.

In a comprehensive and very digestible article about the Seattle situation, April Glaser quotes Rachel Fyall, professor of public policy and an expert on housing, who defines Amazon as the biggest player in the housing market crisis, and goes on to suggest the potential helpfulness of involving the financial big dogs in municipal planning processes.

This would be in return for paying some taxes once in a while, a civic duty that corporations are loath to perform. Glaser says the contribution to urban planning could include…

[…] supporting different kinds of housing initiatives for people who are at risk of being displaced or policies that would help those currently in Seattle from being forced to leave, or enter homelessness, while zoning and construction catch up.

 

Or, it could be a total train wreck. In too many places, and under too many circumstances, letting corporations pay to play has turned out to be a poor choice. Give them an inch, they take a mile. The more breaks and exemptions they get, the more they want. The opportunity for corruption is dazzling, and the outcomes can range from dismal to abysmal.

Glaser suggests that too often it’s all about public relations or optics, rather than “a thoughtful approach to philanthropic giving.” She winds up with a ironic or possibly snarky reference to an Amazon-backed shelter project that has had problems:

Well-paid tech employees moving to Seattle will continue to require housing, prices will continue to rise, and more families and individuals who aren’t a part of the city’s white-collar workforce are likely to end up on the street. A few of the relatively lucky ones may even find a bed at Mary’s Place.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “What would happen if Amazon brought 50,000 workers to your city? Ask Seattle,” WashingtonPost.com, 10/19/17
Source: “How Amazon earned Seattle’s scorn — and whether it’s deserved,” Crosscut.com, 10/29/17
Source: “We’d Spend Hours Each Week Unpacking and Throwing the Food Away,” Slate.com, 05/22/18
Photo credit: Joe Wolf (JoeInSouthernCA) on Visualhunt/CC BY-ND

Success Story or Cautionary Tale?

A spokesperson for the National Association of Home Builders says:

American tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber have caused housing prices in the United States to jump by an average of $9,000 per home… For every $1,000 increase in the price of a house, 150,000 people are priced out of the market.

What do people do, who can’t buy a house? They rent as nice a place as they can afford, which turns out to be more than a lot of other potential renters can afford. Soon, a certain number of those lower-income people are no longer able to even aspire to be tenants, let alone homeowners, ever.

Inevitably the homelessness statistics grow. And why would developers build for poor people, when they can build for well-paid tenants who are just not quite rich enough to join the owner class?

Whose turn is it?

When Amazon formulated its plan to build a new capital, 238 municipal areas filled out applications. The corporation winnowed them down to 20 candidates (19 American, one Canadian). Many news stories about the competition for the new facility were written before tariffs on lumber, steel, and aluminum were announced, so the calculations and considerations on both sides were made without that information in hand.

Affecting both the construction of the planned second headquarters, and the housing situation in the entire area, this cost increase must generally throw a giant monkey-wrench into any projections. Of course, in the finalist cities, best- and worst-case scenarios are being pitched, and everyone has urgent questions.

If only there were a city with a similar Amazon headquarters, that we could look to for an example of the likely consequences.

There is! The original Amazon super-duper store already exists in Seattle, Washington. Amazon is, in fact, Seattle’s largest private employer. Ben Casselman wrote in the Seattle Times:

The boom has been good for Seattle’s economy, which has experienced years of steady job growth, low unemployment and, unlike much of the country, strong wage gains. But it has also become a far less affordable place to live.

City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant compared Amazon’s effect on Seattle with that of Boeing, another mega corporation that exerts huge local influence, using the phrase “a race to the bottom for the living standards of workers.” She told the press:

Amazon has similarly been using its monopoly power to gobble up swathes of prime Seattle real estate, and extract plum deals from the city’s Democratic establishment. This political establishment has, in the meanwhile, overseen an explosion in homelessness and an acute crisis in affordable housing.

Needless to say, the same also goes on when other parties are in charge of municipal administration. Sawant spoke of such practices as systematic economic extortion and the crushing of labor unions.

It should be remembered that regardless of how corrupt some labor organizations eventually became, they account for a large portion of America’s success. It is fashionable now to credit Henry Ford with inventing the eight-hour day and the five-day week, but he was at best an early adopter. Unions had already existed for years, and eventually they ensured that much of the workforce would come to share in the dignity of not being worked to death.

A discouraging word

Meanwhile, Seattle’s homeless population has increased 4% in a year, to more than 12,000. For Slate.com, April Glaser wrote:

Seattle declared the rise in homelessness in the city a state of emergency more than two years ago, with the medical examiner’s office counting 169 homeless deaths in 2017, an increase of 33 deaths from the year before and more than double the number of homeless deaths from 2012.

Although Seattle is only the 18th largest American city, it ranks #3 in the sheer number of people experiencing homelessness. Of the top 10 homelessness cities, by a strange coincidence, five of them are also on another list — the roster of 20 cities still in the running to be Amazon’s new headquarters.

If a city already has a huge number of unhoused people and Amazon moves in, what happens? No guessing is involved. In Seattle, the corporation’s presence has not demonstrably reduced the number of people experiencing homelessness. In seven years, rents went up 42%. In five years, the median house price doubled. And that was before the new tariffs were announced.

To make matters worse, factions in Seattle tried to pass a new corporate tax whose revenues would have been used to fund services for people experiencing homelessness. In May of last year, all the City Council members voted for it. Amazon called it a “tax on job creation” and exerted pressure by halting construction on a new office building.

The following month, seven our of nine council members rescinded their votes. And apparently, Amazon has been complaining about the inadequacy of the transportation infrastructure and the lack of affordable housing in proximity to its Seattle digs.

John Burbank, Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, holds that anything resembling a boom “has primarily benefitted tech workers at the top and left everyone else with higher rents, higher property taxes, traffic congestion and a bitter taste in our mouths.” He wrote:

Amazon has been a sociopathic roommate, sucking up our resources and refusing to participate in daily upkeep. Amazon comes to Seattle, creates problems, doesn’t help to fix them, then starts to expand elsewhere over problems it created!

Burbank adds some ominous charts and explains the dismal tax situation in Seattle. Reader comments, as usual, provide additional perspectives. So do their wagers. According to the betting website Oddsshark.com, the hot contenders are Austin, Boston, and Northern Virginia.

Reactions?

Source: “Trump’s lumber tariffs make home ownership too expensive for more than a million Americans,” CBC.ca, 06/22/18
Source: “What Amazon’s HQ2 could mean for winning city’s rents,” SeattleTimes.com, 04/25/18
Source: “Sawant: Homeless ‘explosion’ in Seattle happened as Amazon gobbled up prime real estate,” KIRO7.com, 09/07/17
Source: “‘We’d Spend Hours Each Week Unpacking and Throwing the Food Away”,” Slate.com, 05/22/18
Source: “After losing fight to levy ‘Amazon tax,’ Seattle is back to square one on helping homeless,” USAToday.com, 06/17/18
Source: “Let Amazon Hike Up Rents Somewhere Else,” EOIOnline.org, 09/08/17
Image: Pat Hartman for House the Homeless

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Luring the Big One

Austin, Texas, where House the Homeless is located, has something in common with 18 other American cities and Toronto, Canada. All are finalists in a competition where victory could result in chaos and misery.

Last September, the marketing behemoth known as Amazon revealed its intention to establish a second headquarters. More than 200 cities originally applied for consideration.

Amazon said it would spend at least $5 billion to construct its palace of commerce, and would potentially employ around 50,000 people. What’s not to like? As it turns out, plenty.

Every city in the running already has unhoused people, and what happens when an extra 50,000 either arrive from elsewhere, or suddenly get jobs that enable them to afford pricier housing? Chances are, before too long a lot of people can no longer afford to live there at all.

Dire predictions

The real estate website Zillow projected the likely rent increases in several cities. Nashville rents would probably rise 3.3% per year. That may not sound like much, but it would amount to an average rise of $400 per month within 10 years. Boston and Los Angeles would be even worse, while Denver, where rents have already grown alarmingly in the recent past, would probably escalate close to 6% each year.

Journalist Marco della Cava points out that, paradoxically, the smaller candidates like Raleigh and Columbus would be better equipped than the larger cities to cope with an influx of 50,000 Amazon workers. In Indianapolis, for instance, Zillow would expect the effect on rents to range from negligible to nonexistent.

On the other hand, real estate speculators are always panting to jump into the flip game, buying and selling lots, houses, condos, and apartment buildings with the carefree abandon of kids playing a video game. In neighborhoods, rapid gentrification extracts a huge toll. Lower-income families are squeezed into doubling up, inhabiting inferior quarters like garages, becoming homeless, or leaving the area.

In Boston, a spokesperson reminded newspaper readers that, even with Amazon not in the picture, the city is projected to need at least 160,000 housing units before the year 2030. Apparently, the federal government puts obstacles in the way of letting cities figure out how to raise funds for new housing.

Reluctance and objections

In many cities, commuter traffic is already nightmarish. In terms of highways and public transit systems, their infrastructures are not prepared to handle any increase. The prospect of school overcrowding is not attractive to parents. Utilities can’t keep up, and at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, the need for services takes a sudden leap.

In Seattle, Amazon is said to have been very stingy with philanthropic donations to local charities until a public shaming campaign was mounted. Rumor has it that Amazon gives back grudgingly, and doesn’t want to talk about it.

Pushback occurs here and there. Virginia produced a group called Our Revolution Arlington, which works to prevent the possibility of Amazon relocating in its borders. Depending on who tells the story, the Coalition for Nashville Neighborhoods is either presenting obstacles or protecting the city.

For USA Today, Elizabeth Weise quoted Matthew Gardner, of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy:

It seems pretty clear now that whoever “wins” the HQ2 battle is very likely going to be giving Amazon a free pass on a wide variety of state and local taxes for some period of time.

Come hither

Amazon chose Seattle for its first headquarters for compelling financial reasons. According to federal law (which may soon change) a mail-order company would only pay sales tax in states where they had actual physical buildings. Also, Washington charges no personal state income tax, which approximates a pay raise for employees, without the corporation needing to give out an extra dime.

From whichever city wins its contest, Amazon is looking for a cushy deal. When 238 cities asked for the chance, Danny Westneat wrote that the responses…

[…] amply demonstrate our capitulation to corporate influence in politics… Some City Halls seem willing to go beyond just throwing money at Amazon. They’re turning over the keys to the democracy.

 

Chula Vista offered to donate $100 million worth of land, and forego property taxes for three decades, which would save the corporation around $300 million. Fresno was willing to “put Amazon inside the government” by letting it mold the city to its liking.

Tax would be paid to the city, but Amazon would get to decide how the money was spent. A new fire truck, or a sculpture for a courtyard frequented by executives? Amazon would decide. Chicago offered to let the workers pay their projected $1.32 billion worth of income taxes directly to Amazon, and Newark somehow cast a bold $7 billion lure. (Chicago, Newark, Nashville and Boston are still in the running.)

For the satirical McSweeney’s.net, Michael Maiello envisions the letter that Satan might write to Amazon big boss Jeff Bezos. He favorably compares Hell to Philadelphia, which is one of the actual candidates, and asserts that Hell’s labor statutes are business-friendly. Among other enticements, he promises no taxes, and throws in a free building with living gargoyles perched along the roofline.

Hell can easily accommodate a structure housing 8 million square feet of Class A office space. We can even build it for you for free, using the labors of the legion of the damned, whose numbers total in the hundreds of billions.

For Amazon’s delivery service, the imaginary ruler of Hell suggests using not drones, but demons:

I know you’re worried about access to airports. Good news: every airport in the world, especially those in the United States, serve as gateways to Hell… Who do you think trains TSA workers?

The Father of Lies ends his invitational letter with a poignant plea:

You know deep down in your dark heart that Amazon belongs in Hell. It’s time to come home, Jeff.

Reactions?

Source: “What Amazon’s HQ2 could mean for winning city’s rents,” SeattleTimes.com, 04/25/18
Source: “Amazon headquarters finalists: Some say winning would come at too high a price,” USAToday.com, 01/25/18
Source: “After losing fight to levy ‘Amazon tax,’ Seattle is back to square one on helping homeless,” USAToday.com, 06/17/18
Source: “This City Hall, brought to you by Amazon,” SeattleTimes.com, 11/24/17
Source: “Satan Makes His Pitch to Amazon.com,” McSweeneys.net, 09/14/17
Photo credit: kiewic via Flickr

High-Profile Event Brought Attention

House the Homeless has been looking at the party of the year, the celebration in Windsor, U.K., on May 19, of the marriage of Meghan Markle to Prince Harry. The police had been preparing since the beginning of the year, when a council leader called for removal from the area of all the people experiencing homelessness.

This rude and cruel demand stirred up a lot more controversy than had previously existed, and stimulated the creation of a movement. It succeeded in focusing public attention, which mostly consisted of backlash against the restrictive law’n’order contingent.

Many people — and not just those experiencing homelessness — were stung by what they saw as unfairness. In the weeks and days leading up to the festive occasion, rough sleepers were encouraged to move their belongings, and preferably also themselves, to alternate locations. There were warnings that terrorists could pose as panhandlers, which is silly on its face because a terrorist could as easily dress up like a duchess.

Arguments were stimulated, about whether, for example, anyone should spend so much for a dress, even if it is her own money, when so many people are homeless. These branched out into disputes over whether the royal family is a net economic loss or gain, for the country as a whole.

Making news

The publicity obliged Theresa May to comment, which in this case meant a plainly stated “I don’t agree” to the local politician who tried to raise the alarm. But the Prime Minister threw in something for both sides:

I think it is important that councils work hard to ensure that they are providing accommodation for those people who are homeless, and where there are issues of people who are aggressively begging on the streets then it’s important that councils work with the police to deal with that aggressive begging.

So the alarmists who feared a crime wave got their way too. Apparently, reasonable but persistent attention was paid, over a period of months, to both the optics and the reality of the situation. A rather low-rent website claimed that police had been clearing the area, pre-wedding, with “as much force as possible.” Its preview said:

The wedding will be one of the most heavily guarded events of all time. Dogs and mounted patrols will be on duty, a no-fly zone will be in effect, and airport-style X ray scanners will be used for wedding visitors, along with bag searches.

And the homeless will apparently be far away, unable to take away or distract from the magic of the moment.

At the same time, the local police commissioner told the press that many of the street people had mental health issues and were very vulnerable. But this was in the context of hoping that they would accept the opportunity to be removed from the chaos of the crowds.

In America, The New York Times got interested, and published a piece titled “Call to Remove Homeless People (All 8) Before Royal Wedding Stirs Anger.” Ceylan Yeginsu reported that according to government figures, there were only eight people experiencing homelessness in the jurisdiction.

The local charities reacted by noting that many people spend their days on the streets and nights in temporary spaces. The real winners here were the rough sleepers themselves, whose voices were heard through media interviews. For instance, Stacey Crawford told the reporter,

If they’re going to move us, it should be into a permanent home, not out of sight for a day just so that rich people can throw a party. If this bloke had a problem with me and wants me gone, then he should come and tell me to my face. Rich blokes always get others to do their dirty work.

In some quarters, the wedding gossip revolved more around homelessness than the upper-class guests or the designer clothes they planned to wear, which can only be a good thing. As far back as January, comedian Russell Brand had been speaking for a charity he puts energy into, Slough Homeless Our Concern, or SHOC, asking that a town next to Windsor create a new shelter by signing over an already-existing building. A petition he created for this purpose has collected nearly 160,000 signatures and is still open.

Wedding Preparation

As always, the royal procession would move through the streets. Much like technology buffs lining up for a new version of a smartphone, or music lovers determined to secure concert tickets, many housed people planned to sleep outside the night before, and claim a front-row vantage point to view the spectacle.

For others, the irony of this double standard was insultingly obvious, and they made a plan for the night of May 18 that was more in the nature of a demonstration of solidarity with the rough sleepers who were displaced. The “Royal Sleepover” was planned via social media. Organizer Chris Boyd told the press,

The idea that we could, or would want to, sweep the homeless under the carpet for a lavish Royal Wedding is, for me, utterly appalling.

He secured police cooperation, or at least tolerance, ahead of time. Along with making a show of solidarity and empathy, he aimed to collect signatures for a petition asking the government to recognize shelter as a basic human right. Two days before the wedding, the petition had garnered almost 2,000 names.

As the date approached, the Thames Valley Police, through spokesperson Melanie Adams, repeated the party line, that the removal of homeless people and their possessions was totally voluntary and the outdoor population was by no means “targeted.” Everyone in the vicinity of the wedding procession and celebration would be vulnerable to possible search and seizure of their belongings. A representative of the Windsor Homeless Project reassured the locals that no well-behaved person would be forcibly removed from the area.

But how bad did things get? Apparently, no outrageous acts were committed on the day itself. Another Facebook event called “No Jacket Required” has been created, where a people were encouraged to “come as you are” near the site of the wedding and protest homelessness. Meanwhile, a charity called The Ark Project had planned to park its 10-bed, double-decker bus right outside the castle, but the police identified it as a commercial vehicle and impounded it over “an issue with the driver’s license” and charged the organization £1,500 (about $2,000) to retrieve the vehicle from impound.

Talking about Philadephia a couple of years back, Laura Weinbaum of Project HOME advanced a theory about a possible good outcome that can result from the disruptive influence of big civic events:

Many people who go without shelter may find it difficult to make a long-term commitment to coming inside, so being able to do so in a more limited way can ease the transition. “What we have found often with these short-term interventions is they do encourage people to come in in a different way,” she said. “Once people are into the system, if they are interested in the next step and the next step and the next step hopefully that will be made available to them.”

Reactions?

Source: “Prime Minister Theresa May Weighs In On Removing Homeless From Windsor,” NPR.org, 01/04/18
Source: “Royal Snub! Homeless Squatters Being Kicked Out Of Areas Near Wedding,” RadarOnline.com, 05/18/18
Source: “Call to Remove Homeless People (All 8) Before Royal Wedding Stirs Anger,” NYTimes.com, 01/06/18
Source: “Royal Wedding: 1,100 activists to stage Windsor homelessness protest TOMORROW night,” Express.co.uk, 05/17/18
Source: “Police sweep homeless people’s belongings from Windsor for royal wedding,” PageSix.com, 05/18/18
Source: “Royal wedding 2018: Windsor homeless bus impounded by police,” BBC.com, 05/18/18
Source: “Most Cities Evict Their Homeless Before Big Events. Philly Is Trying Something New,” ThinkProgress.org, 07/25/16
Photo credit: Karen Roe on Visualhunt/CC BY