A selection of articles from this week’s national and international press concerning those impacted by homelessness.
NYC Homeless Families Must Pay Rent
Even the homeless can’t escape the high price of a night in New York City. City officials this month began charging rent to working families staying in public homeless shelters.
The policy stems from a 1997 state law that hasn’t been enforced until now. Under that law, shelter managers started to require families to pay a portion of their income, depending on the shelter and family size, according to The New York Times. Residents could be expected to pay up to half their earnings.
Some shelter residents say the new rule will ruin their chances of saving enough money to get an apartment.
One single mother living in a Manhattan shelter tells the Times she got a letter saying she had to give up $336 of the $800 she makes each month as a cashier. Vanessa Dacosta makes $8.40 an hour at Sbarro. She got a letter under her door at the shelter a few weeks ago saying she’d have to fork up nearly half of what she was bringing in.
For Dacosta, who pays nearly $100 a week for child care for her 2-year-old, paying the shelter is hardly an expense she can afford.
“It’s not right,” Dacosta told the Times. “I pay my baby sitter, I buy diapers, and I’m trying to save money so I can get out of here. I don’t want to be in the shelter forever.”
But the city says it’s got to find a way to cover the costs of state housing aid. Officials had to pay back $2.4 million in 2007 that they said should have been paid by residents of homeless shelters who could afford it.
“I think it’s hard to argue that families that can contribute to their shelter cost shouldn’t,” Robert Hess, the city’s commissioner of homeless services, told the Times. “I don’t see this playing out in an adverse way. Our objective is not for families to remain in shelter. Our objective is to move families back into their own homes and into the community.”
It’s not clear why the more than decade-old law hasn’t been enforced until now, the Times reports.
Homeless “Real World”
An abandoned project to create a reality show based on six homeless Denver residents is being taken up once more. The four independent producers who created “Homeless Real World” are now reworking their footage and searching for a new distributor, according to broadcastingcable.com.
The show is based around the popular MTV show “The Real World,” which follows people around documenting their day-to-day lives, including finding income and shelter, relationships, health issues, and love.
Supporters Save Chicago Street Newspaper
StreetWise, Chicago’s well-known street newspaper, almost closed its doors last month. But no longer – the paper needed an emergency $75,000 to keep operations running, and managed to quickly raise more than $185,000 from donors, including a congressman.
“The situation is very optimistic now, as the public has come out in support of StreetWise in ways we never imagined,” said StreetWise Executive Director Bruce Crane. StreetWise has been in existence for 16 years and provides jobs to more than 200 vendors a month.
Mobile Shelter Distributed to LA Homeless
A Los Angeles charity has created a mobile shelter to help homeless individuals live more comfortably on the street. Known as “Everyone Deserves A Roof,” or EDAR, the shelter is a dry, safe tent-like enclosure for sleeping, raised off the concrete, with privacy and storage space.
An EDAR looks like a square canvas enclosure on wheels. They are given free to homeless residents (resources permitting), and were created by media executive and philanthropist Peter Samuelson.
Recipients are given a toll-free number to let the charity know how the unit is working and where they are located.
