14 PEOPLE NOT HOUSED

These are the official numbers from the City of Akron’s project to house all our homeless people at our tent village:

23 Housed

8 Self-Resolved – these people disappeared.

14 Not Housed

This is those numbers visually:

These are not inconsequential numbers.

31% of our people are currently not housed.

Another 18% have just disappeared. They like to put these people in the “win” column. But they are not wins. It would be like calling high school drop outs a win.

If there wasn’t this ominous, mysterious cloud of doom coming for us, this wouldn’t be surprising or concerning at all.

Let’s be crystal clear why these people aren’t being housed.

Every single one of these people wants to be housed and theoretically can be housed.

For these people there is only one reason they are not yet in a house.

THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN

  • Landlords are backing out.
  • There’s a leak in a roof.
  • Another building is filled with cockroaches.
  • People don’t have phones so they are hard to find.
  • A $400 fine popped up at the last minute and stopped the entire housing process.
  • One person needs assisted living and none is available.

This is absolutely confounding to me.

In the business world the first thing you look to change is the system. You tweak it. You tear it down. It’s the essence of innovation. In the government the system is like a holy grail.

In government the system is the last thing you change. So, there is only one thing left to do. Blame the people. There is backstabbing. There is finger pointing.

Oh the finger pointing.

The problem is always with the other guy. Just if that person would get their act together.

  • That agency is moving too slow.
  • That person needs to work faster.

But mostly they blame the homeless:

  • That homeless person won’t show up to appointments.
  • This homeless person is never around when I show up.
  • They are living beneath themselves.
  • They are not living their best lives.

And of course I am a convenient scapegoat as well.

  • I have increased homelessness 71%
  • I am making homeless people too comfortable in their leaky tents in the middle of the winter

When the system is untouchable the only problem are the people who are failing the system. The system never fails the people.

This would be amusing if it wasn’t so tragic and a matter of life or death.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3

I am told that our new official deadline is Monday, December 3. That is 5 days from today.

No one knows what that means.

But if it means that we will be forced to kick everyone off our land then I’m going to tell you what is going to happen.

These people are going to disappear. They will go back into the woods. They will go back into abandon properties. They’ll go back into drug houses.

But one thing won’t happen: They won’t go into the shelters.

Women won’t go into shelters because they are all filled. There are no beds available at the women’s shelters right now.

And men will not be dehumanized in the men’s shelter. They refuse to pray. They refuse to live around all the drugs. They refuse to leave all their personal items.

Whether people want to believe it or not, these homeless people are strong, proud and have a lot of human dignity.

They would rather die in the streets than be told to pray 3 times a day and go to bed at 8:30.

They just won’t do it.

Human dignity is a hell of a thing.

I know I ask a lot of you. But I have one last big ask before this December 3 deadline.

WOULD YOU PLEASE LET THE MAYOR KNOW YOU THINK IT IS WRONG TO SEND THESE PEOPLE BACK INTO THE STREETS.

You can fill out this simple form and he will get the message. (I’m also sending it to every council person just so they know you still care about this.)

The only fields that are required are your name and the comment box.

Fill out my online form.

If you would prefer, you can also call, email or drop by the mayor. Here is that information:

CALL OR EMAIL THE MAYOR’S OFFICE.

Mayor Dan Horrigan
Suite 200 Municipal Building
166 South High Street
Akron, Ohio 44308

330-375-2345
330-375-2468 (fax)

Mayor@AkronOhio.gov

Tell him that these people have not been housed like they promised.

Tell him that the system needs more option not less options.

Tell him pushing homeless people out into the streets this time of year is especially cruel and downright dangerous.

Tell him to not shut down Akron’s tent village.

We are making progress. We are learning new, innovative ways to help these people.

The current system is broken. It is antiquated and insufficient. The system needs rebuilt.

Our Thanksgiving Day Stand

Sometimes I think we forget the country in which we live.

A group of Americans once wrote:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That is the part we all know. But the next part is crucial:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

If nothing else, we are a country based on the principles of freedom and liberty. All other countries have looked to us in awe and admiration for our bold American ideals.

To that end, we, as Americans, have fought endlessly to push back against tyranny and oppressive government rule.

As patriots, we are not only encouraged to stand up for the oppressed and unrepresented. It is our obligation to God and Country to do so. We cannot somehow rationalize and accept the act of human oppression and subjugation. That must never be an acceptable American trait. Never can we allow ourselves to bend so low as to let our own rot forgotten on our streets.

We cannot allow ourselves to become numb and blind to the Americans among us who are starving, alone and left stranded on the sides of our streets and under our bridges. The young, the old, all races, all genders, people from all classes. No one is immune to the cruelty of abandonment that has somehow become an acceptable American way of life.

This sin of omission, of doing nothing, must end in America now.

We, the homeless and homeless supporters of Akron, Ohio in the United States of America stand proudly by our right to live and let live quietly on private property. We accept all responsibility to live by the laws of the land and to allow our neighbors to enjoy their quiet right to life.

But simply not having to look at us cannot be an acceptable right of other Americans. Because we are poor and cannot afford traditional housing, that does not make us less than others. You may judge us as living low and in an undignified way. I presume you would have said the same about the Native Americans who came before us and lived in similar tent structures. It must never become an acceptable form of government where the extremely poor must disappear from the sight of other Americans because it somehow makes them feel uneasy.

While the American Constitution makes no guarantee that the government will care for our every need, it does guarantee our American Bill of Rights. These fundamental American Rights provide certain guarantees of personal freedoms and clear limitations of government power.

If there was ever something a founding father would clearly stand for it would be the right of an American citizen to care for fellow Americans that are most in need. On private land. With private funds.

There is no conceivable scenario based on our location and our effectiveness in the last two years where it would be justified to force us to stop caring for and sheltering the homeless of America.

We stand on the right side of history, justice, righteousness and God. Those against us stand on the other side with bureaucracy as their only supporter. Our mission of sheltering the homeless on private land is as American as baseball, apple pie and personal freedom.

We are not a group of people that will go quietly into the night.

We are a group of people that believe this is a fight worth fighting for. We are fighting for justice and the American Way of Life.

We will not quit. We will not stop. This isn’t some passing 15 minutes of fame. This is a fight for human life.

Living on the streets of America as a homeless person is the most brutal and terrifying form of existence in America. It does not have to exist. Further, it must not be the default form of existence as we all navel-gaze wondering what to do next. We must act now.

Our demands are simple and direct: Just let us continue with our work sheltering the most difficult to house homeless people on our private land.

We will work tirelessly with you to create an environment that you find more comforting. We too want progress in our community. We would love tiny homes. We would love to provide electricity to those we shelter.

We now have 2 showers and multiple indoor toilets. We have laundry. We have food. We have clothing. We have computers. And now we are beginning to engage the homeless people we work with on business ideas like bicycle repair and t-shirt screen printing, just to name a few.

Allow us to continue our work. We want to work with you. We want you to be the heroes of the day. We want Akron to be known as the city that taught America how to properly work with homeless Americans just as we did with alcoholics.

This is the outcome we want.

But while we are expecting the best we are planning for the worst.

Right now, Priests, Rabbis and Ministers are gathering to plan non-violent civil disobedience protests if you come for us and force us off our land.

Right now, homeless people are meeting among themselves to form protest camps.

While I can assure you that any protest I lead will be peaceful and non-violent I can also assure you that we will be heard and we will stand for our rights boldly.

There are countless Americans who have come before us that have taught us the powerful ways of non-violent civil disobedience. Right now we are working with activist consultants to plan for the worst.

Please do not shut us down. Please stand with us as we all move forward helping the homeless of our city. We are not looking to have a fight. The best fight is the one never had.

Do the right thing. Look to your morality and your spirituality for guidance. Together we can change the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women in the homeless and drug world

He was shocked out of a deep sleep with her screaming at the tops of her lungs.

It was early morning and still pitch dark. As his eyes slowly focused he could see her holding a golf club over his head. He was about to be teed up as the first hole in an early morning golf scramble.

“You either give me your fucking drugs or this club is coming down on your ugly head,” she screamed.

His heart started pounding. He saw Tom out of the side of his eye making a beeline for the door. “I don’t need this shit even if I have to sleep on the fucking sidewalk,” Tom muttered as he headed out the door.

“I don’t have to give you my drugs. This isn’t your house. This is a bando,” he said.

She was barely 5 feet tall and couldn’t weigh more than 110 pounds soaking wet. But her size didn’t matter. She was all business when she needed to be.

I opened the door. I let you in. That makes it my house. Now give me your fucking drugs.

************************

There are these alpha women I get to meet here in this community.

One of them once punched me in the face.

She was the only person to ever lay a single finger on me. I am treated so kindly by these homeless people it is embarrassing. (For the record, I have no anger or resentment towards this woman. If anything, I blame the system for failing her in such a colossal way that she has become severely damaged. Her anger is a product of a broken system.)

I often wish sociologists would come down here and study these people. These homeless people have been stripped of virtually all social norms. Everything has been taken from them. They have lost all their possessions, all their family, all their friends. In a way, they have become pure, raw humans.

You get to see what a human looks like when we aren’t dressed in the complexities of modern America.

Homeless women are astounding.

So many of them are strong, fearless and brave.

It makes sense when you think about it. How else are you going to survive?

A friend of mine doing life in prison once wrote me in a letter, “If you act like a victim you will become a victim.”

These women never come across as victims.

And that’s on top of a background that often includes incredible torture and abuse.

I know a beautiful, young homeless woman who was once captured, held in a basement and became a sex slave for a man and his friends. She lived in that basement naked and tied and endlessly raped for weeks until she was able to finally escape.

When that woman walks into our day center it’s like a house on fire.

She’s yelling at people. Other people are yelling at her.

She refuses to leave her bag on the front desk like every single other human being has to do.

If she is able to stay in our facility for 2 hours before we kick her out it’s a good day. She can actually be incredibly kind and sweet. But she can also become a warrior in a flash.

And that’s what this comes down. These women are warriors.

They are often smarter, can be more brutal and more emotionally strong than most men I encounter.

When a “strong” man in this homeless world strikes out he usually attacks the weak and old. They often are cowards.

For women, everyone is bigger than them. They stand up to everyone no matter their size. No matter their reputation.

A woman in the wild is a fierce adversary.

It’s impressive. But it’s not actually different than what I’m seeing in middle class society. Because I can see the incredible strength in the women of the homeless community so clearly and directly, it makes the strength of middle class women easier to see.

Women, across all classes and all sectors of society are often the ones stepping up and doing the hard, brave work needed for their families and their organizations.

But ultimately, in the homeless community, the physical brute force of men becomes no match for the smaller frame of homeless women.

“Lifetime risk for violent victimization for homeless women with mental illness is 97%, making sexual violence a normative experience for this population (Goodman, Fels & Glen, 2006).”

What that means is: if you are a homeless woman you will be beaten. You will be raped.

But the fortitude and resilience of homeless women is something I don’t see discussed in studies of homeless women.

The strength and bravery of homeless women is a power of true inspiration. They are remarkable people in the face of a brutal, cruel world.

 

 

Horrigan: You Stole Their Fallback

One of the reasons I’ve been exploring my own personal spirituality is to help keep my anger from welling up. I’m always looking for the faith, love and hope path.

But as we get closer to you closing down our shelter it becomes more and more difficult to keep my anger and frustration tamped down. It is beginning to boil over.

Let me tell you about the phone call I just had:

One of our former residents is getting evicted from his apartment.

He is getting evicted because, unlike what the isolated powerful like to proclaim: No one WANTS to be homeless. If anything they are STUCK in homelessness.

He was secretly sheltering a friend who just got out of rehab. She was freezing and he offered her a place to stay while she was getting back on her feet.

That’s another dirty little secret you may not know: the newly housed and extremely poor often illegally shelter their friends who are still stranded on the street. They do this even though they know the act is a great risk and at their own peril. Most housing programs make it completely illegal to shelter their friends. It’s called “doubling up.” You will be thrown out of your house for doing it. This is what happened to my friend this week.

(That seems to be the recurring thread of this story: It is at your own peril if you dare to care for the homeless.)

His case worker found out she was staying with him. Now he has a 3 day eviction notice. He is going to be homeless tomorrow.

As he was talking he said to me: “I always had in the back of my mind that if something went wrong, I could always go back to tent village.”

He is going to lose all his things. He is now asking around which abandoned properties I’ve heard of that are safe and not normally raided by the police.

He will be on the run. Hiding from the police. Hiding from danger.

You stole his fall back plan. You are culpable for the stranding of your homeless population. This is on you.

When all you do is destroy and not offer alternatives you are part of the problem. You become the problem.

Our day center is still open… unless you’d like to close that too. He will be coming here for survival gear as he heads back out into the wilderness.

Happy Thanksgiving, mayor.

Sage

CoC: I am not your enemy.

Our marketing agency was at its peak around 2008.

We had about 25 employees. We’d do the things all flush with cash tech companies would do. We took limos to other states to go gambling. Every new employee would be asked what their favorite drink was and we would supply it free of charge. We had dogs come to work. We paid for all their healthcare.

But then one day our biggest client, Charter Communications, pulled out. Then another big client pulled out. And then another and another and another.

When you are going through a recession as a business owner you are trying to predict the future. How long is this going to last? If the recovery comes soon and you let all your people go you will lose all your intellectual capital and won’t be able to ride the wave back up.

And then there are the people. Moms, dads. Young people. Firing them when no one is hiring is brutal. And of course in America they don’t just lose their income. They lose their healthcare.

You feel terrible having to fire people. And then you feel terrible that you feel terrible while you inflict this economic and healthcare attack on these people.

I feel like I developed a form of PTSD during that time. It forever changed my view of business and capitalism.

My point is: I know what it feels like to make a big client happy.

I would have done (and tried to do) anything to save those clients from leaving. But I couldn’t. They left. All but 2 left.

The people with money hold all the power. You are entirely beholden to them. Their power is terrifying.

***************

I could be reading this wrong. But it just feels like you, as an organization, want to make the city super happy.

From the 2018 Akron city budget:

Emergency and Transitional Housing
Emergency Shelter Grant Program provides funding
for sheltering the homeless. Funding awarded on a
request for proposal basis to eligible, non-profit
providers for emergency shelter housing and for
intermediate term housing and homeless prevention
services for homeless individuals and families.

$20,000 Community Development
$505,000 Emergency Shelter Grant

Homeless Prevention
Provisions for Homeless Prevention Program.
$150,000 Community Development

And then there is the federal money:

Akron City Council denies zoning change, releases ‘action plan’ for homeless encampment | cleveland.com
Annually, Summit County is awarded about $8 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and HOME Investment Partnership and Emergency Solutions Block Grants to combat homelessness. The money is  disbursed through the COC agencies.

Here is how the money was dispersed in 2016.

No one wants to upset the money apple cart.

So, when a guy in a cowboy hat comes on the scene and starts doing new things it causes a disturbance in the force.

And it gets harder when your big client starts calling you telling you they are pissed.

The last thing you want is a voicemail from the mayor saying “we need to talk.”

So, the natural response is when the city calls and says “Jump!”  You say, “How high?”

Now, that’s not to say you love tents. If there is one thing we can all agree on… no one is in love with tents.

But I know for a fact that there are differences of opinion among CoC members in tiny transitional houses.

You know better than me how difficult some people are to house. They become almost unhousable.

You know what it’s like to try to get a landlord to house an arsonist / meth manufacturer.

But that’s where I come in. I want to be the person that provides transitional housing for the hardest people. I want the arsonists. I want the former meth manufacturers. I want the sex offenders. The harder the better. I want the people the rest of society has deemed less than human. And I want to be the person that takes people off of the street and shelters them while you work on the very difficult task of finding housing for these people.

Look at this brutal war Keith Stahl had to go through to put up Stoney Pointe, a beautiful facility created to help house the homeless:

He faced many, many personal attacks that he probably would prefer I don’t discuss publicly.

Housing the homeless is so hard from so many angles.

The homeless have so many issues that they are difficult to get into housing. And then there is this massive wave of Not In My Backyard sentiment.

The Catholics have been great to us. But the Catholics right next door to us are finding loving your neighbor a true challenge.

My skill is that of an entrepreneur and storyteller. Don’t you see how we have built a wave of positive public sentiment for helping the homeless? Don’t you want to be part of that?

We have almost entirely removed the public hatred of the homeless. If anything the public has shown a huge wave of love and support.

Let’s use that love and compassion to move forward in dealing with the hardest to house people in our community.

So you don’t like tents. Fine! Then what DO you like? What can we do together?

You know full well that we need new transitional services to shelter people. You know that’s true. So, let’s figure out what we can all agree on.

We can be innovative. We can take risks.

And the fact of the matter is: You are the ones in control. The city might be upset. But they aren’t going to fire you. They are going to listen to you. They are going to work with you. They can handle the truth.

I suppose there is also the possibility that you just don’t like me. That you resent me for stepping into your territory. But this isn’t about me or you or the city. If this is part of the equation please try to forgive me. All I’m trying to do is work on the tragic truth that there are people living on the streets and no one deserves that kind of brutality. I didn’t come here to hurt you. All I care about is the homeless.

**********************

I know you shudder at these blog posts. I truly feel bad that I likely am causing you stress. But no matter what you think, you have to know that I respect you. I am thankful for you. Summit County has a lot to be proud of. But the work isn’t done. We need to keep doing more and doing better.

You can do this. The landscape of homelessness is changing all across America. The cost of living is too high even in Akron. And the national services have been gutted for the last 30 years.

We must evolve. We can’t stop growing.

Take care,

Sage

 

ABJ: Letters to the Editor, Nov. 7: More to life than jobs, taxes and money; Horrigan’s reaction to homeless charity is disturbing

Mayor not listening

Regarding Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan’s Oct. 30 commentary, ″While Sage Lewis postures,″ Horrigan needs to be addressed because attempting to belittle Lewis because of a bruised ego or hurt feelings is pathetic and cowardly.

Mayor, you’ve presented readers with a disturbingly paternalistic view on Akron’s homeless citizens. You also seem to have little grasp of the actual problem, regardless of how many visits you make to shelters. It might behoove you to stop being uppity to people who are trying to help and actually listen to what they’re telling you. You want to criticize these citizens for living in tents because “living in tents is beneath human dignity,” but who are you to tell anyone else what slights their dignity? Some are likely living the most dignified life their circumstances will allow.

You don’t get to decide what Sage Lewis’ intentions and assistance should look like. Like you, he’s doing the best he can with what he’s got. He may not be an expert on the issue of homelessness, but I’d pit his knowledge and experience with it over yours any day.

You don’t want people to think you’re putting people out on the street at Thanksgiving, but isn’t this literally what you are demanding? Sure, the timing is bad — not a nefarious government plot — but the chips are falling where you wanted them to land and now you’re whining about the optics.

If this is how you talk to people who don’t agree with you, it’s no wonder you’re having trouble with Lewis. Grow up. You’re just the mayor, get over yourself.

K.A. McMullen, Akron

ABJ: Jeff Rowes and Diana Simpson: Sage Lewis and the freedom to help those most in need

Jeff Rowes and Diana Simpson: Sage Lewis and the freedom to help those most in need – Opinion – Akron Beacon Journal – Akron, OH

In America, as elsewhere since ancient times, good samaritans have used their land to shelter those in need. The Underground Railroad relied on private homes to shuttle escaped slaves to freedom, and property owners during the Great Depression let the homeless build encampments on their land.

Following this tradition, today, Akron native Sage Lewis has pioneered a fresh-thinking tent community behind his commercial property in the Middlebury neighborhood. Lewis’ nonprofit, The Homeless Charity, provides tents, food, a community day center, other amenities and the support many need to make the transition to permanent housing. The Homeless Charity serves dozens each day on private land for roughly $4 per person.

But Lewis’ tent community is in jeopardy.

Last month the City Council rejected The Homeless Charity’s zoning permit. The city believes that tents are never adequate shelter and are out of step with their surroundings. The city expects the tents to be gone by Thanksgiving.

That is why we filed a constitutional lawsuit this week to defend Lewis’ right to use his property to rescue the destitute and forgotten. The Ohio Constitution has among the strongest protections for property in the country. Not only that, the Ohio Bill of Rights guarantees the right to “seek and obtain safety.” These freedoms mean that Akron cannot evict the homeless from private property where they stay with the owner’s permission.

We recognize that some property is inappropriate for a tent village. We’re not asking the courts to allow tents anywhere. The sole question for the court is whether Akron can deny Lewis this worthwhile use of his commercial property.

Lewis never expected to lead a constitutional charge. In fact, he befriended the homeless by accident. In 2015, Lewis ran for mayor and needed signatures for the ballot. As he walked the streets, Lewis met some homeless folks. They stopped being stereotypes and became real people with understandable, often heartbreaking, struggles. He hired the homeless for his auctioneering business. He then allowed them to open a thrift store on the first floor of his business to peddle unsold items.

The tents began popping up in January 2017. A few days into the new year, Summit County Metro Parks evicted 40-50 homeless adults from forest campsites to allow for construction on the Freedom Trail. Facing freezing temperatures and nowhere to go, some asked Lewis for permission to camp in his back lot. They had a rough start. People lit fires, drank, made noise and caused problems. Much of the controversy over the community today concerns mischief from the early days that no longer occurs.

Having learned important lessons, Lewis imposed structure. First, every resident undergoes drug, alcohol and mental health assessments. Sobriety is mandatory. Next, the community is self-governed by the elected “Tri-Council,” which enforces the Code of Conduct.

The community makes everyone safer. Elsewhere, the homeless face terrible risks of murder, sexual assault, battery, theft and weather extremes. The residents — and especially women, gay men, and the elderly — report feeling much safer than on the streets or in traditional shelters. The resident-run security team operates around the clock and includes female members.

The community also provides stability. Traditional shelters force people out each morning and do not guarantee a bed that night. They also restrict how many nights a person can stay, separate couples, pressure the homeless into religious observance and grant no privacy.

At Lewis’, by contrast, no one must vacate in the morning, no one is kicked out for staying too long, couples can be together, there is no religious mission, and tents provide privacy.

The homeless have voted with their feet. Forty-four people now sleep at Lewis’, and there is often a waiting list of 20 or more. The fact that Sage’s model has such appeal, despite housing people only in tents, should inspire more creative thinking about traditional approaches to homelessness.

Lewis recognizes that tents are not a long-term solution for anyone. The Homeless Charity is acquiring more property to house the homeless indoors, but that process takes time. Until then, tents are the best temporary shelter for many people.

And now, as the holidays and holiday season weather approach, we should be grateful that freedom includes the freedom to help those most in need of help.

Rowes and Simpson are attorneys with the Institute for Justice, which represents Sage Lewis and The Homeless Charity.

ABJ: Dan Horrigan: Let’s clean up the picture on the Homeless Charity

I’m not often compelled to pen op/ed pieces, but the current narrative and public posturing by Sage Lewis and the recently transplanted, slick, out-of-town lawyers from the Institute for Justice need to be addressed.

Their fictional narrative suggests that the big bad city government: (1) doesn’t do enough to help the homeless; (2) doesn’t care about the plight of vulnerable people; (3) will soon put people out on the streets, right at Thanksgiving no less; (4) and is preventing persons from exercising their right to do with their property as they see fit.

Now, here are the facts. Almost two years ago, the Homeless Charity began violating the city’s zoning, and other ordinances by establishing a campground for the homeless to live in tents on its property located on 15 Broad St. From the outset, I and my staff made a collective decision to not take immediate enforcement action to give time to find a legal and proper path forward that would be beneficial to those living there.

As part of this process, I visited our city’s largest homeless shelters, Haven of Rest, Battered Women’s Shelter and Access, Inc., to get a true picture of the level of care this community provides. On every visit, I came away very impressed, not only by the care, but also by the resources available through them and other Continuum of Care partners who have significant expertise and experience in assisting the homeless.

Ultimately, we as a city came to some important conclusions: First, there was capacity to house all of the people at 15 Broad St. The Battered Women’s Shelter was willing to donate a house immediately; Sage Lewis did not take them up on that offer. Second, living in tents is simply beneath human dignity and should not continue. We should never be comfortable with our neighbors living in conditions we would never accept for ourselves.

While in the end, Akron City Council (rightly) decided not to approve a change in zoning for tents at 15 Broad St., the city, in coordination with the Continuum of Care, had a plan of action and was immediately ready to assist. I and my staff even met with Sage Lewis and a member of the Homeless Charity board to help create a mutually agreed upon memorandum of understanding, in order to help the people at 15 Broad St. make the transition to safe housing options.

Unfortunately, still to this date, we have not yet gotten an agreement from the Homeless Charity on the terms of this memorandum. I do, however, remain open to working collaboratively and in good faith with those who wish to advance and expand needed homeless services, like the addition of a day center, for example.

For all the posturing, loud impassioned speeches, blog posts, public requests for donations and edgy movie posters depicting him as some type of savior, Sage Lewis has made little progress on actually moving the needle on homelessness. Just because he attracts homeless people does not make him an expert in homelessness. In fact, when this type of communal no-barrier tent living crops up in a community, it exacerbates the homeless problem. Look at Seattle, a city that is living proof that tents are not the solution.

Meanwhile, the Continuum of Care group continues to quietly and diligently work with residents of 15 Broad St. daily to get roofs over their heads and access to helpful services. And they are making great progress. These leaders are the true heroes. These servants, day-in and day-out, tend to our most vulnerable populations with little to no media attention or fanfare.

If Sage Lewis was truly looking out for the long-term well-being of the homeless, he would make amends with the Continuum of Care, which has decades of experience in serving the homeless, and has true resources, including residential housing, that could be put to immediate use. He would consider using all the public donations he’s gathering to retrofit his own property into indoor residential living, which is perfectly legal to do, and requires no conditional zoning approval from the city. He would stop misinforming people that the city will be kicking everyone out of their homes on Thanksgiving.

And most important, if he truly wanted what was best, he would be proactively trying to lift these people out of the cycle of homelessness, not using them in a long, dramatic, drawn-out process that has somehow managed to get him national attention, while keeping the people truly in need in a state of perpetual homelessness.

When Lewis’ 15 minutes of fame are up, and his out-of-town attorneys have moved on to the next media-seeking opportunity, the city and the patient and warm-hearted Continuum of Care professionals will still be here, ready to help those most in need.

Horrigan is the mayor of Akron.

ABJ: Mayor’s divisive tone

Mayor’s divisive tone

Like many people, I was taken aback at the divisive tone that Mayor Dan Horrigan adopted in his Oct. 30 commentary ″While Sage Lewis postures.″ In the piece, Horrigan blasts, by name, Lewis, the founder of the Homeless Charity, for fighting for his right to shelter people experiencing homelessness. Among other things, Horrigan suggests that Lewis is motivated by fame and a love of publicity and does not care about the well-being of the people he serves. Echoing the tired “outside agitator” rhetoric that people also leveled against the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Horrigan also condemns Lewis’ “recently transplanted, slick, out-of-town lawyers” for filing a constitutional lawsuit on the charity’s behalf.

As with any contested policy issue, there are strong feelings on both sides. Horrigan believes that his preferred policy is both lawful and the best course of action; the Homeless Charity and other nonprofits disagree. Disagreement is healthy. But productive policy conversations mean debating the policy, not accusing people who disagree of acting in bad faith.

Horrigan had the opportunity to emphasize the positive things being done in the community by traditional service providers. Or he could have focused on the merits of his policy preferences. Instead, giving the local nonprofit organizations passing reference, he went gratuitously negative, spending the bulk of the commentary impugning, without any factual basis, the personal motives of the founder of a local charity.

Public sector leadership is not a leader overreacting to every petty slight he or she perceives or every instance of dissent. Rather, it is working to bridge divides and bring the community together in a joint effort to make it stronger.

In a time of divisive and overheated political rhetoric, we should expect our local leaders to model civil discourse. Horrigan failed to do so here.

Joseph W. Mead, Akron

Assistant professor at Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Understanding Meth Users

I have a couple ideas I want to share with you about the drug community. One I have in mind is understanding drug dealers.

But today I want to talk about meth.

In Northeast Ohio meth is, BY FAR, the biggest drug in your neighborhood.

When the news reports on meth use they like to show before and after pictures like this:

It is true that meth users sometimes pick at their faces and their arms and hands.

They often times are constantly in motion. So picking at their skin definitely can happen.

But the fact of the matter is: there are meth users that you’d never guess were using meth.

Suburban moms are using meth.

Here’s an article from one of these people: I Don’t Look Like A Meth Addict – Sober Mommies

She opens her article with:

I am the mother of an amazing eight-year-old girl. I am a fabulous dressing, master’s degree holding, funny divorcee.

She goes on to write:

I smoke meth. I get high at home and at work. I get high before I go to the grocery store, the mall, the pool and the beach. I’m high in the Catholic school parking lot.

Here is a graph of why people use meth:

It’s from this article: Sex and Gender Differences in Substance Use | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Are Super Moms Turning to Meth to Do It All? – ABC News
“Speed [one of the drug’s nicknames] is a drug that people get into for functional utility,” said Dr. Drew Pinsky, a substance abuse expert and an ABCNEWS’ contributor. “Women today have unique circumstances. They’re expected to be all things, all the time, and that’s unrealistic. Not only are they juggling job and kids, but they are supposed to look good, and keep the weight off.”

The History of Crystal Methamphetamine – Drug-Free World
Methamphetamine went into wide use during World War II, when both sides used it to keep troops awake.

Most problems don’t get solved in this world because we maintain an “Us versus Them” mentality.

“I can look down on meth heads, aka “tweakers” because they are ghetto trash.”

Once we separate ourselves from each other then we have absolved all our responsibility of our own community. Judging others just makes life easier.

The only reason I wanted to tell you about “meth mommies” is because I am hoping to help you find compassion for all meth users.

I am surrounded by meth users.

If I had to guess I would say 70% of the people in our village are active meth users. To be clear: we have a zero tolerance of using drugs or alcohol on the property. So, people are going outside, getting meth and then coming back.

But don’t think its just homeless people using meth. 99% of all meth users live in houses. Akron is drowning in meth. It is everywhere.

Here’s the thing: I have developed a special place in my heart for meth users. They remind me of little squirrels. Running this way and that. Scurrying around cleaning, organizing and chatting.

Oh the chatting.

Meth users LOVE to talk.

I’m listening to a guy right now talking to another guy. The talker is probably on meth. He doesn’t stay with us. He just drops by sometimes. The other guy is a guy that I know is totally clean. He has a close relationship with God, which seems to help some overcome the compulsion of drugs and alcohol for some. This guy on meth just talks and talks and talks. It’s REALLY hard to get a word in edgewise with a person on meth.

But I will take a meth user over an alcoholic any day of the week. Meth users are still on this planet. Drinkers are on a whole other planet. There is no amount of rationality in the world to convince a drinker that they are wrong. Drinkers fight. Meth users clean. Drinkers yell and cry. Meth users want to tell you about the most beautiful rock they just found on a walk… for an hour!

The worst part of meth users is the shame.

They are almost all completely embarrassed by the fact they they are a tweaker.

Every other drug addict looks down on a meth user.

They are judged by everybody.

But usually the reason people use meth is to cope.

Truck drivers use meth to stay awake, for example.

But the coping often times goes deeper than that.

I’ve had people tell me that they can’t muster the courage to have a conversation with a stranger unless they are on meth.

I also once asked a high ranking cop what he thought we should do to get people to stop using meth. His advice was to convince them to never use meth to begin with. He said he focuses on 13 year olds.

Meth becomes your backbone. You eventually can’t navigate life without it.

But when you are on it you are superhuman. You can stay up for 72 hours straight. And you aren’t just sitting around watching TV. You are working.

One of the things that the city loves to throw in our face was that in the very early months we once had a meth user decide to build a shed WITH POWER TOOLS at 3am. It happened one night over a year ago and I’m still hearing about it.

We actually had to enact a village rule that you are not allowed to rake leaves after 9pm and not before 8am. Meth users LOVE to rake leaves. All. Night. Long.

I once had a meth user detail my truck. I paid him $40 and he worked on it for 8 hours straight. I’m pretty sure he never took a single break.

It’s really hard to convince a meth user they should stop using meth. It becomes their life. And they are functioning in life.

I want them to quit meth.

I quit drinking 15 years ago and I LOVE being sober. But the fact of the matter is: dealing with your emotions in the short term is way harder sober than when you are drinking. I could drink away all my problems in a half hour if I really needed to escape. Now I usually have to carry that pain with me for hours and sometimes days. 15 years later I’m getting better at relieving my anxiety and stress naturally. But no matter how good I’m at it it will never be as fast and as all erasing as a case of beer.

But being sober is THE BEST.

I didn’t realize how all absorbing drinking was for me.

Since I’ve quit drinking I’ve developed hobbies. And I don’t have to suffer for an entire day hung over and sick.

I will never drink again. It’s a limiting life.

I want to try to share that thinking with my friends that are on meth.

They carry a lot of shame with themselves. And they have a hard time navigating the non-drug world, sometimes.

The fact of the matter is, I don’t have a clear reasoning for a lot of these people why they should quit meth. It has become their entire lives. Quitting meth is pretty much like quitting their lives. All their friends are on meth. And their work habits all revolve around using meth.

But there is a clarity and beauty in sobriety.

My instinct is that they use meth because they hate themselves and they don’t feel adequate. I totally get that feeling.

I just try to be a friend to them. I treat them like a friend. I care about them like a friend. I am their friend.

Compassion and care is an incredibly powerful force. If others accept them for who they are it increases the likelihood that someday they might be able to accept themselves.

 

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