Month: October 2018

This is the speech I made to City Council on Monday, October 28, 2018. 

On Monday, September 17 you voted no on our homeless village. That was 43 days ago.

We have housed 11 people out of 43.

There are 5 people that are what is called “self-resolved.”

• 1 moved in with a friend.
• 1 disappeared.
• 2 are in an abandoned house.
• And 1 is in rehab.

There are 24 days left until Thanksgiving.

27 people are left.

My hope is that you are willing to understand that housing the homeless is a slow and difficult process.

• Fingerprinting takes 30 days.
• Getting an ID takes 3 weeks.
• Getting a social security card takes 10 days.
• There are orientations.
• There are intake processes.
• There are countless meetings and phone calls required for people that don’t have phones and can’t afford a bus ticket.

And that’s just the logistics of housing a homeless person. The psychological condition of treating homelessness is a long, complicated process.

Terri Heckman reported in a recent article that she expects 10-12 people are going to be very difficult to house. She put out a plea in the paper for my supporters to come forward to help house these people.

That’s a big admission. The truth of housing the homeless is that it is more than just available housing inventory.

Homelessness is a condition. It is not just a simple lack of a socially approved dwelling.

In 1935 Dr. Bob and his wife Anne began allowing alcoholics to live in their house on Ardmore Ave here in Akron. The first realization they made was to remain sober, an alcoholic needed another alcoholic to work with. Our program has a similar belief. The homeless helping the homeless is the core of our program. I believe we are creating the beginnings of a new kind of program to help the condition of homelessness. That’s why we are pushing to ask the courts to allow us to continue our work.

I believe history will show that Akron is not only the home of Alcoholics Anonymous but also the home to a new kind of treatment for the condition of homelessness.

I don’t think my wife, Rocky, is going to like me telling this story. But she believes she killed Marty.

Marty is the cat in the picture of this article.

She believes she didn’t take him to the vet soon enough (but she did). Then she believed she didn’t go back to the vet, even though they thought Marty was going to be fine.

This is actually a sensitive topic in our family.

The fact of the matter is: we moved from one house to another house. We got a GIANT Christmas tree that we put in a tiny apartment. It was too much for Marty. Marty didn’t adapt well to the change and Marty passed away.

It wasn’t personal. Rocky didn’t kill Marty. Marty died because of circumstances.

I am hearing messages from a variety of people that are upset with me.

Newspaper people, homeless service providers and most likely city workers. I’ve actually had someone call me and say she was “butt hurt.”

I have one message to all of you: This is not about you. This is about the system. It is about the circumstances and the machine in which we currently function.

I’m not angry at the mayor, the CoC, City Council, The Akron Beacon Journal. And most certainly I’m not mad at homeless service providers.

I’m not angry at anyone. This is the picture I keep in front of my computer monitors:

And this is the bracelet I wear everyday:

If you read everything I say I am talking about systems and the machines of society.

I not talking about individual people. But some of you are reading into this as an attack on you personally.

You are surprised and shocked that anyone is questioning the system. It is not a common occurrence for you. So I think you just assume I’m attacking you the person.

The system is always the problem in history.

It’s not typically individual people that are the problem.

The only individual enemy that comes to mind from history is Bull Connor. He hated the civil rights movement and took extreme actions to stop it. Hitler is another guy.

But in these kinds of things it is rarely about moving against a person. It is pushing against a system. Even Bull Connor and Hitler just made systems that needed corrected.

I suppose if you identify with the system you can make a connection in your mind that I, therefore, am against you.

The only name I ever bring up with any regularity is Terri Heckman. I only quote her simply because she puts herself out there as the voice of the Continuum of Care. But I love Terri probably most of all.

Terri Heckman is a strong person who has a heart of gold.

I have nothing but the greatest respect for her.

While I have a special place in my heart for Terri, I have a tremendous amount of respect for all the homeless workers in Akron.

Do you know why this tent city thing is good to have in Akron? Because the homeless services are already SO good.

Cleveland sends their homeless to Akron. Medina sends its homeless to Akron. All the counties around us know that we are great homeless service providers.

But that’s why we need to keep pushing.

We can’t stop and rest on our laurels. We need to do better.

The bar we have to meet isn’t with others. The bar has to be with ourselves.

The way we can move the bar up is by expanding the legal playing field in which we work.

Politicians are simply working in a lane that is the law. They aren’t evil people. If the law changes and expands the lane then we can all work in that bigger lane.

You should know, if you haven’t figured it out yet, that I am transparent and I don’t lay down.

If you come at me I’m going to push back. It’s just what I do. I am a person who refuses to sit down and shut up.

And now I feel like I’m on a spiritual mission. I feel like this no longer has anything to do with me. I am just a tool that God is using to help the homeless. Like I’m a nonviolent Joan of Arc for the homeless.

For what it’s worth, here is what I tend to hear from supporters and the public:

• The homeless need more help.
• Private people should be able to help them.
• People living on the street in a country like America is absurd and a tragedy that needs fixed.

That is the entire premise of everything we are doing.

It’s not that there is some evil empire conspiring to hurt homeless people. That’s never been part of the narrative.

And I also know that people want happy stories. They want to hear good news. They are tired of negative stories.

So, when people say things like we increased homelessness by 71% and we aren’t being grateful for all the kindness the city has bestowed on us: It doesn’t play well to the public.

If I was your PR person I would say something like:

We, the homeless service providers of Akron, house hundreds of people every year. In fact, so far this year we have housed XXX number of people. We provide food, showers, shelter, laundry, mental health and physical health services… just to name a few.

We are revered by all the surrounding counties.

But, as is the case in anything, we know we can do better. We know people are living in the woods. We know we must continue to reach these people and engage them in creative ways to bring them back into society. Many of these people have valuable skills and life experiences that would make them great community members if we could reach them.

We are thankful that people like the people at The Homeless Charity, and Sage, want to be part of this system. We are working very closely with them. In fact, we come to The Homeless Charity day center multiple times a week to work with homeless individuals there.

Tents are not the level of service we want to provide. But if these folks have found something in their village that appeals to them we want to understand that and figure out how we can incorporate that in our overall services.

Funds are limited so if private individuals want to participate in the homeless process we want to take them up on their offer and work with them to keep helping the homeless population.

We are thankful for what Sage and The Homeless Charity is doing. And we are excited to work more with them and others to solve homelessness in Akron.

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

Look for the common ground. You don’t need to be scared of me. I am not a threat. I am merely fixing a hole that happens to exist in the system.

Would I prefer if people weren’t in tents: HELL YES!!

But you don’t have the money to build something better and neither do we. So we are doing the thing we can do for a system that needs to continue to be worked on.

It’s the system I’m pushing against. It is not you.

I want you to understand that. I love you. I respect you. And I am incredibly thankful for the services that you do.

 

 

 

As Akron connives to shut down our tent community, Eugene Oregon council OKs a new tent homeless camp at former a City Hall lot.

We like to talk the talk of being a city of the future that people would want to move to. But the old ways are so entrenched in the minds of the powerful.

One of the key aspects of our future in our charity is servicing tent communities throughout Akron.

People in power like to talk about how they don’t like people living in tents. But what they mean is they don’t like to see people in living in tents.

As is the case of this tent community they just shut down:

This camp is on the east side. You would never be able to find it if you didn’t know where to look. It’s on public land in an area that was once a railroad.

Some of these people have been there for years.

But the city found it and now they have decided to come by and take this encampment down. Why now?

I would hate to think there is now a war on the homeless happening in Akron. That there is some sort of retribution happening.

I need to confirm it, but there is another camp that has been around for years that has also allegedly been taken down this month.

To think we have done a single solitary thing to get people out of tents is delusional. In fact, all we have done is made things worse.

Just as one example, woman after woman after woman are coming to us right now because all the women’s shelters are booked up. Women have no place to go. And because we are not supposed to be allowing people into our camp we are turning women back into the streets.

Women and gay young men are the most endangered people who live on the streets. But there seems to be no line we draw where anyone is safe from being thrown out onto the street. Government never says “enough is enough” when it comes to allowing any human to be spit out on the streets.

But our work continues.

However, it has to be in a much more covert way with how we help these people.

We have to create the Homeless Underground. 

It is illegal for the homeless to shelter themselves or for private citizens to shelter the homeless.

We have to work in the shadows quietly and privately to take care of the homeless living in the woods. If they are discovered, their homes will most certainly be taken down and destroyed.

We have a small group of high school seniors who are organizing an underground camp cleanup. It’s at an undisclosed location at an undisclosed time.

But the thing we need most for this is trash bags.

Again, the city will not provide us with trash bags or trash service. We have to do it all privately and secretly.

This clean up will be happening in the next couple weeks.

If you are able, we REALLY could use large trash bags.

We’ll take care of the rest. We’ll dispose of the trash and clean it up.

But we can’t do this work without trash bags.

If you are able, please drop off trash bags at the right side of the building at 15 Broad Street in Akron.

It is nearly impossible for a person living in a tent in the woods to handle trash. The only place they can dispose of it is illegally in neighbor’s dumpsters. It becomes an overwhelming job very quickly.

As always, thank you for your never ending support.

The homeless are a sector of society that government clearly wishes would just disappear. But we the people are the ones that see the wrongs being done. We see the needs that must be addressed.

We will do the work even if the city doesn’t want us to do it.

We will  do what needs to be done.

If you would like to deliver us trash bags we have an Amazon wishlist here:

http://a.co/jlexeN7

They can be sent to:

The Homeless Charity
15 Broad St.
Akron, Oh 44305

 

 

 

 

On Monday, September 17 – 29 Days Ago – Akron City Council voted 8 to 4 to shut down our tent city.

“We support people living in safe housing indoors, not tents,” said City Planner Jason Segedy, who crafted the action plan after consulting the CoC. Segedy added that he and the CoC are committed to working with Lewis to move the needle on homelessness, and not just for people living in tents at 15 Broad St.

That’s from here: Tent city’s homeless residents must vacate by Thanksgiving

All along this journey the city has confidently said there is housing for everyone that needs it. Literally that’s what they said.

Akron City Council votes to end homeless camp, find housing for dozens | fox8.com

Heckman said there are enough available beds in the county to accommodate those affected, many of whom have mental health or substance abuse issues. The action plan calls on Continuum of Care to meet with each person and develop housing options for each.

The Continuum of Care also said that our Tent City is the cause of homelessness increasing 71%.

Mar-Quetta Boddie, Rebecca Callahan, Keith Stahl and Fred Berry: Second Chance Village is not a solution to homelessness

This past year we have seen an increase in homelessness. In exploring the cause of this increase, it appears the growth and development of the Second Chance Village is a primary factor. Since the opening of the village, our unsheltered homeless population grew by 71 percent in one year.

This isn’t simple victim blaming. This is blaming the Good Samaritan.

This is the mindset of an addict that sees no problem with their behavior.

Not one time have I heard anyone in the city or the Continuum of Care say they have a problem.

As of today, through incredible diligence and determination by the homeless workers of Akron we have housed 6 people.

DESTINY – HOUSED!
JOSEPH (CJ) – HOUSED!
JOYCE – HOUSED!
JARED – HOUSED!
ZAK – HOUSED!
ERAN “Red” – HOUSED!

I am beyond excited for these people.

And because of you in our donation drive, we have been able to pay for things like back electric bills, moving expenses and things they need for their houses.

It’s truly incredible.

But there is another side to all of this.

It has taken 29 days to house 6 people. That’s just over 1 person every 5 days.

And truth be told, that’s amazing work, if you think about it. Here are people that have lived on the streets for months, if not years, and we are putting them into houses to the tune of 1 a week. That’s an impressive feat.

But that’s not the bar we have to achieve.

All of these people must be housed by Thanksgiving. Through no basis in research or understanding the homeless population, that’s the random deadline the city has given us.

As of today, our pace needs to be to house 1 person every single day until Thanksgiving. And not just Monday through Friday. We have to house a person 7 days a week to meet this deadline.

I’m now hearing rumblings that “well, we might not actually be able to house all these people by Thanksgiving. Some of them might need to spend a “few days” in a shelter.”

This is a situation where those in charge are happy with the way things are and they don’t want to see anything change.

Change is scary. And change for people in the non-profit world is terrifying.

These are all truly good people.

But they have become beholden to a bureaucratic system where government funnels them millions of dollars every year to maintain the status quo.

This is why people become resentful of government. They don’t innovate. They don’t adjust. They just maintain… Usually while asking for more money.

These are people who, while very good intentioned, have never seen the business end of the capitalist system.

Bureaucracy is insulated from the invisible hand of capitalistic natural selection. This is the world I have been forged in for the last 2 decades.

If you aren’t a better and cheaper solution than the other guy you will die. It’s just that simple.

Bureaucracy, for the most part, has never experienced that kind of raw survival of the fittest.

So when guys like me and Dave Murray, with his tiny houses, come along we instantly get shot down. They will do anything, include lie and blame us for hurting the homeless. When in reality they are just terrified that the truth might get exposed.

That housing the homeless is incredibly difficult.

To say that all a homeless person is missing is a house is to say that all an obese person is missing is more salad in their diet. Theoretically that’s true. But the underlying reasons for obesity and homelessness are a complicated mess of emotions, psychology and mental health issues.

If there were 5000 empty apartments ready to house our 43 people I’m telling you the process would go no faster than what it is going right now.

• There is finger printing.
• There are background checks.
• There are birth certificates, IDs and social security cards to get.
• There are statements for the social security office to get.
• There are intake processes.
• There are orientations to get into programs.
• There are countless trips to countless government offices to take.

Then there is the driving around looking at apartments.

This is all done with people who make ZERO dollars a day and have significant mental health issues AND have lived wild in the woods sometimes for years.

I’ve seen a woman sleep in the grass beside a railroad crossing with her dog even though she had a house.

These are feral humans. They are wild and completely suspicious of a system that spit them out onto the violent, cold streets of America months or even years ago.

This isn’t just about putting people into houses.

This is about treating a condition called Homelessness. It has as many moving parts as treating alcoholism or any other behavioral-based condition.

For the leaders of homeless services to say that we just need to get people into houses is insulting to the homeless and is an outright lie to keep their millions of dollars flowing into them.

They know perfectly well what a complicated process it is to house the homeless.

• What if you have 2 dogs?
• What if you have an arson charge on your record?
• What if you have a meth manufacturing charge on your record?
• What if you are a sex offender?
• What if you are so riddled with anxiety that you can’t imagine ever moving indoors?
• What if your spouse has a bad record? Will you move without them?

They know this is a mess.

But to keep the money people happy they just keep blaming people like me for increasing homelessness and repeating the party line that “we have houses for everyone that needs them.”  (And may I say, that line is a total lie in and of itself. There is not a single county in America that has enough housing for the poor and extremely poor of their communities. We have 20,000 people on our low income housing waiting list here in Akron.)

 

Now let me just stop right here for a minute.

 

Perhaps you feel the frustration I feel through the words I’m writing here.

While I’m frustrated, I am not hateful.

I have no hate in my heart for any of these people.

If anything, I have pity for them. They are scared addicts of a steady supply of government money.

“What happens if a guy like Sage changes the system?”

“What happens if a guy like Sage shows the government that we don’t have the homeless situation handled? That we aren’t doing everything we can to help these people?”

Truth be told, I don’t know what will happen.

But this is who I am. I’m a change agent.

I was leading the digital marketing revolution in 1999 when people barely knew anything about online marketing.

I come at problems from a new perspective. I’m a trouble maker for industries that see no reason to change. This is what I bring to planet earth. It’s my “gift.” (I’m quite sure many people see it as an annoying fault. But change is inevitable, no matter how painful it might be.)

I see no reason why we need to build multi-million dollar buildings for the homeless that make developers wealthy when we have countless houses we’re just tearing down.

I see no reason why we can’t ask the homeless what they want instead of people who have never missed a single utility bill dictating the services homeless people get.

I see no reason why we can’t admit that getting people into housing is as hard as telling your uncle he needs to stop drinking so much.

This is an intervention.

I’m not here because I hate anyone. I’m here because I love everyone.

I love the homeless service workers that work insanely hard for these people.

I love the politicians that are just trying to do the right thing for their city.

I love the homeless service leaders that are just trying to keep their organizations afloat in a turbulent era.

I truly get where they are all coming from.

And, I hope it goes without saying, I love the homeless most of all. Had it not been for the endless support of my mother and my wife I feel quite confident I’d likely be out in the woods with these people.

I would rather die than be told to pray. I would rather die than be told to go to bed at 8:30pm. I would rather die than be stripped of dignity and be forced to shower in gang shower facilities.

Without a doubt, I would be one of the people that homeless leaders would accuse of “not wanting to be housed.”

“Sage just wants to live in the woods. He doesn’t want help.”

NO! I want to be treated like a human being. I am a person, not the animal you are forcing me to become.

I get the homeless. I will not quit the homeless.

Together we will all learn what being homeless means and what the homeless need.

We have not come to an end. We have just begun.

In the next 38 days, the city has committed to housing the remaining 38 people living at our facility. This feels like Schindler’s List to me. This is just a small drop in the bucket of a sea of never ending homeless people that will need help.

But, damn it! I’ll take it. House these people:

ANDREW – Not Housed
ANTHONY – Not Housed
BRIAN – Not Housed
CHARLA – Not Housed
CRAIG – Not Housed
CRYSTAL – Not Housed
DANIEL – Not Housed
DARRELL – Not Housed
DAVE – Not Housed
DION – Not Housed
DONNIE – Not Housed
DUANE – Not Housed
ETHAN – Not Housed
GARY – Not Housed
GEORGE – Not Housed
HUGH – Not Housed
JACK – Not Housed
JAMES – Not Housed
KATE – Not Housed
KENNY – Not Housed
KEVIN – Not Housed
MARK B – Not Housed
MARK W – Not Housed
MARY – Not Housed
NIKITA – Not Housed
PATTY – Not Housed
REBECCA – Not Housed
REINA – Not Housed
RICHARD C – Not Housed
RICHARD G – Not Housed
RICHARD R – Not Housed
ROBERT (Sully) – Not Housed
ROCHELLE – Not Housed
SONYA – Not Housed
TRAE – Not Housed
TYLOR – Not Housed
VIRGINIA – Not Housed

 

If you have spent any time with me you will have learned that I tend to do things with not a lot of detailed thought.
Anybody that lets 40 some people set up tents in his backyard and create their own governmental system based on the principle of “Let’s see what happens” tends to be a “fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants” kind of guy.
I prefer to build the plane mid-air instead of building it on the ground. It’s just more fun that way. (not to mention more efficient and effective, imo)
So, in that vein I am excited to announce the:

ADOPT-A-VILLAGER PROGRAM

The idea is that we will line up a volunteer with a villager. Kind of like the big brother / big sister program.
This could be useful as all of our villagers are being rapidly pushed out of their community and, hopefully, put in housing.
It’s important to understand that you only have to do what you are comfortable doing. You can spend as little or as much time with your villager. And if the relationship doesn’t work out you are welcome to just let us know that you’ve gotten busy and can’t help any more.
But all of these people are going to need things like:

• Moving their things into their apartment
• Finding free or cheap furniture and household items (we probably can get a lot of that stuff)
• Driving various places in the transition
  • Doctors
  • Local city driving
  • Picking up various things
• Moral support

And who knows what else.
Moving is one of the most stressful things you can do in life… in the best of circumstances. It’s going to likely be a pretty tense couple months for some of these folks.
So… if you are interested, the way to get involved is to join this Facebook Messenger group:
Click this link: https://m.me/join/AbaiGgk8ln9AW_fo
I’ll post a list of villagers that are interested in being part of this program over there. And then we can work as a group to get these people into housing.
This could be a really meaningful journey for both you and the villager you connect with.
Thank you!
Sage

If you aren’t familiar, today in Akron was “On The Table”.  It’s this thing where people all over the city get together and talk about different issues in the city.
Not coincidentally, we discussed homelessness at our “On the Table” at The Homeless Charity.
All the people (except for me) in our meeting are homeless or were previously homeless.
They came up with 3 initiatives they feel could significantly change how we work with the homeless in Akron.
These are the ideas they came up with:

Homeless Recovery

They astutely observed that Akron is THE recovery community in America. We are the home of AA.
It doesn’t matter if you are homeless or if you are a stockbroker… recovery is recovery..
They had the idea that we should consider homelessness the same way we consider addiction. It is a condition that can be overcome.
This is a powerful idea because it looks at treating the whole person.
The idea that a homeless person is just missing a house is short-sighted and simplistic. Being homeless is a multi-dimensional condition that needs treatment from many different angles.
Literally, these people are trying to recover from homelessness.
There will be slip-ups and missteps. But with the right treatment plan they should be able to recover from homelessness.

Sweat Equity For Homes

Most homeless have little to no money. This makes getting into housing that requires a deposit and first month’s rent incredibly difficult.
They had the idea that people should rent houses or rooms in houses for sweat equity.
The homeless person would enter into an agreement with the landlord that they would work on the property in exchange for a place to live.
The Homeless Charity could help broker that deal if both parties needed.
The Homeless Charity has already bought a house and is looking to buy more. A portion of our residents are sweat equity people. Some people pay to help pay for utilities and taxes. And other people work to make the house better.

Homeless Underground Railroad

This is the idea that excites me the most.
The profound observation of this idea is that the homeless realize that Akron is not ready to help the homeless. Places like Seattle are more enlightened. They have multiple camps to work with the homeless.
But Akron is not yet ready to deal with the truths of homelessness.
They believe that there will always be a portion of homeless that will need to live in the woods. We can minimize this population. But some people need to be in the woods for a time.
They said that society has to understand that these people are in the woods as their strength. For a wide variety of reasons they need to be in that place for some time.
But just because these people are in the woods does not mean they don’t need support. They need Port-a-potties and trash service and food and supplies. These people need support services.
There are also people that are ready to begin the re-entry process of getting back into society. These people need things like the tent community the city of Akron chose to shut down.
But since this is not currently possible in Akron we need to look at different options.
They had the idea that people, organizations and churches could adopt a homeless person. They would actually take these people in and give them shelter, food and support. They were very adamant that this is not a good idea for everyone.
They said that the “Recovery Community” would be a good candidates to take a person in. The “Recovery Community” are people that were formerly homeless.
They also said that “hard-core” religious might be good candidates for this program.
But they strongly cautioned average people from this program. They had the idea that maybe we could have training and orientation classes if you wanted to try taking a person in.
They also thought that The Homeless Charity could be a support service for anyone that took in a homeless person.
And then they had the idea of doing a kind of virtual adoption. Where a person could adopt a homeless person through donations and that sort of thing. They both could write each other and so forth. But the donor wouldn’t need to work with the person in-person.
Overall, they felt that much of this program would need to be hidden like the actual underground railroad. They felt that if anyone was caught sheltering a homeless person they would likely be found out and fined.
***************************
In one sense, it was a little sad that these people know that they are not accepted in society. And it is basically illegal for them to exist.
But on the other hand, it was really amazing to see them optimistically coming up with really cool and innovative ways for people to work with them, if a person chose to do so.
Finally, the group was so excited about this meeting that they want to make this a regular meeting. They want to call it the “Homeless Not Helpless” Initiative.
I really feel like these ideas of merit and could make a big impact in homelessness in Akron.