HEAR US-Giving voice and visibility to homeless kids

It Can't Hurt

Diane Nilan — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:39:13 GMT

Maybe it will do some good. It can't hurt.

Am I so hope-deprived that I doubt the power of the Internet?

You can help both promote the idea that homeless kids and families need their own four walls, and at the same time restore my faith that homelessness is an issue that people are willing to care about.

I've set up a page on Change.org (change.org/hearus) and have challenged people to VOTE on the issue of homelessness as it affects the invisible families and youth. Plus I'm asking for financial support for our nonprofit organization, HEAR US (www.hearus.us), which gives voice and visibility to homeless kids.

HEAR US has been involved in some amazing endeavors to help homeless families and youth:

We created and are distributing a powerful video that helps homeless kids.
We've worked hard to successfully remove barriers for homeless youth so they can apply for financial aid to go to college.
We have staved off the attempts to narrow the definition of homelessness, and at the same time managed to get Congress talking about this long-ignored problem.
We're going behind bars, helping homeless parents protect their children's educational stability, and more...

So if you care about this issue, click on the widget--the thingie at the top of this post. If you'd like to support HEAR US buy some of our "stuff" that really does make a difference.

Seems to me we are so overdue for change in this country that we can't believe we have the chance to bring it about. But we do, if we act. Feel free to share this invitation with your circle of friends and colleagues.

Doing Without

Diane Nilan — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 23:16:56 GMT

Doing Without

Doing without doesn’t kill most of us. In fact, we have so much that it’s a good exercise in self-denial. For kids, doing without is different. Kids I visited in an unnamed Nevada town are doing without, and will probably survive their lack of heat, toys and TV, too. But it struck me as patently unfair in this affluent, glittery, out-of-balance city that these homeless kids, and lots of others are doing without the basics…

These three girls, with their newborn sister and their mom, stayed at this town’s only emergency shelter for families. The shelter, in a rotation of churches, serves for a week, and then moves to another congregation’s building. The three (yes, three) families can come in at 5 p.m., eat, wash up, and bed down on “roller beds” as the 9-year old called them. Families must leave early every morning, which is fine for these three on school days because school is fun. Mom and infant tromp around looking for infant care so Mom can then look for a job (that needs to pay about $18 an hour so she can afford rent).

As I spoke with the kids, who were most happy to be interviewed for the HEAR US video project, the one theme that recurred was BOREDOM. “There’s nothing to do here, and at the day site (where they can go after school to wait with their mom for the shelter to open) they make us sit in a chair, and we can’t even watch TV,” was the serious complaint. And it’s cold in their “bedroom,” which is not just a comfort issue because of the newborn. The church volunteers apologized and got blankets.

For me, the saddest sign of shelter programs being out of touch with kids’ needs was their policy not to allow kids to celebrate their birthday. Saturday, “Tricia’s” birthday would come and go without the usual fanfare that surrounds 10-year olds’ birthdays. Fortunately a guidance counselor who has befriended this family will see to it that something fun happens. Tricia can’t celebrate with her friends because…the shelter has a policy…

I guess one could think these kids should be happy to have a place to get in from the cold and rain. But that assumes homelessness should be allowed to deprive kids of being kids. They didn’t do anything to deserve their deviant fate. Not that it should matter. They’re still kids…

What’s wrong with this picture? Nevada’s gambling industry in 2005 netted almost 2 billion dollars in PROFITS! The state’s share of that was roughly $885 million. In a clogged, unbalanced trickle-down system, somehow the state’s homelessness expenditures only allow for literally a handful of volunteer-based shelter beds for families and a couple of partially state-funded shelters for men.

This emergency shelter network doesn’t begin to meet the needs of this community. Shelter space in these glittery, greedy playgrounds is not a priority, even for families. So they turn to alternatives—doubling-up with family or friends, moving frequently to stay ahead of disapproving landlords; living in vehicles, most often not equipped for essentials like heat, hygiene, etc.; camping in the woods, trying to avoid detection by property owners or the authorities; or pay out the wazoo for a seedy motel room.

Yes, motels are expensive, but they don’t require security deposits or good credit ratings. Families struggle to eke the $40-50 a night room rate. Some end up working at the motels, getting stuck in this slavery-type quicksand. Some do other things, not always socially acceptable. But, parents can’t be condemned for doing what they can to keep a roof over their family’s heads.

Housing costs—the median in Reno is $300,000, Las Vegas even higher. People freely plunk down billions of dollars on various games of chance. A 10-year old girl can’t celebrate her birthday because she lives in a repressive shelter.

This family has mountains to climb. Mom has an infant who needs child care. She has no income. She also has too many kids to make it easy to find a place to live. She probably has bad credit, eliminating her from public housing possibilities, although the waiting lists are years long anyhow. Sure, the family will find something…when they hit the jackpot.

College Doors Open for Homeless Youth

Diane Nilan — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:12:57 GMT

Her mother died of cancer. Her father was abusive, so â€œBrendaâ€ left home and finished high school from the streets, earning admission to five universities. Her barrierâ€”no parent to fill out financial aid forms. Thanks to a powerful video and a campaign led by Brenda and a handful of determined homeless teens, Congress voted Sept. 7 to open college doors to homeless youth.

HEAR US president Diane Nilan is quick to give credit to Congresswoman Judy Biggert, IL-13, who championed this cause for the past 3 years, proclaiming â€œMrs. Biggert has shown amazing perseverance to help homeless kids get an education!â€ Nilan approached Mrs. Biggert after a discussion with retired IL State Representative Mary Lou Cowlishaw (Naperville).

â€œIâ€™ve talked with so many teens who would have loved to get into college but couldnâ€™t,â€ shares Nilan. â€œI canâ€™t imagine struggling to get through high school living on the streets, studying hard, and being told you canâ€™t go to college.â€ Nilanâ€™s national nonprofit organization, HEAR US, has pushed for this and other educational opportunities for homeless children, youth and families.

Nilan also bestows credit on Laura Vazquez, Northern Illinois University communications professor, for her video expertise. The woman are now working on a feature-length documentary on homeless families and youth following release of their acclaimed production, My Own Four Walls, featuring homeless kids from non-urban areas across the nation.

â€œLife Filled with Benchesâ€ is a short HEAR US documentary (on MOFW) of 2 Harrisburg, PA teens, Chery and Ben. Nilan shot it while on a 20,000 mile odyssey in 2006 to film My Own Four Walls. Vazquez filmed FAFSA Fix in June as she joined Nilan, Ben, Chery, and a delegation of Ohio youth to drum up support for Mrs. Biggertâ€™s FAFSA Fix.

Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY), couldnâ€™t be more excited. â€œHaving a relentless advocate like Mrs. Biggert has made all the difference for countless teens and children across the nation,â€ exclaims Duffield who has spearheaded these efforts for years. â€œHaving Lauraâ€™s video to let teens tell their story, giving much-needed voice and visibility to this long-overlooked issue.â€

HEAR US, NAEHCY, and supporters from across the nation are glad for this victory because they have ambitious legislative goals. Congresswoman Biggert again is leading the way to improve how schools assist homeless students with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Improvements Act of 2007, HR 3205. The FAFSA Fix was a good warm-up. The Nilan-Vazquez documentary, My Own Four Walls, lets homeless kids powerfully tell their stories. Now to see who is paying attention...

Peril of Ignoring Floodwaters

Diane Nilan — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:55:48 GMT

Remember 2 years ago as Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast? Remember the finger-pointing, vitriolic blame flying between New Orleans officials, governors, the president, and disaster agencies? Remember the nationâ€™s collective sense of outrage when the receding floodwaters left an embarrassing stench of previously ignored abject poverty?

The well-deserved blame for failure to maintain levees and floodgates around New Orleans was rightfully allotted to local, state and federal officials. Floods and the ensuing aftermath reek devastation, which is why Congress should be paying attention to relatively insignificant (in terms of congressional decisions) legislation, S 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA) Act, a bill addressing homelessness which as it stands ignores families.

One congressional staffer, explaining why the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, doesnâ€™t want to expand its definition of homelessness to include families, teens, and non-disabled adults, responded that they donâ€™t want to â€œopen the floodgate.â€

Floating behind the floodgate are millions of human beings, young and old, who donâ€™t fit the definition of â€œchronically homelessâ€ as ineptly deemed by HUD, the federal agency in charge of housing this nationâ€™s housing-challenged families and individuals. When the torrent rises is not a time for narrowing the Beltway scope of homelessness to feign success.

This floodâ€”an ever-growing body of disenfranchised children and adults across the country, in rural areas, small and midsized towns, as well as big citiesâ€”has washed away hope for most because they find they fail to qualify for what little help may exist, much like homeowners who find their insurance policies donâ€™t cover â€œacts of God,â€ i.e. flooding.

The flood waters are rising on those displaced by the sub-prime mortgage debacle, those who lost their homes, credit worthiness, bank accounts, and lives they once knew. Yes, they can move in with family or friends, avoiding the obvious â€œhomelessâ€ label for now. Then theyâ€™ll take rooms at a local extended stay motel, which is almost like having your own place to live, except for the cost. HUD wonâ€™t consider them homeless though, not till they hit the streets for a year or more and are determined to have a disability.

But before they deteriorate sufficiently, the newly non-homeless population will fade into the landscape like yesterdayâ€™s bungalows. Theyâ€™ll join the millions with moldy credit ratings that render them unhousable, and will discover the hidden truthsâ€”that public housing is a myth, that employers often check credit before hiring workers, and that some schools often illegally require home-less residents to prove residency.

Welcome to the world of homelessness, where HUD, in their ever-expanding sense of imperviousness, dismisses the need to provide housing assistance for the growing number of families and individuals who donâ€™t â€œqualifyâ€ for homeless. Itâ€™s no wonder the flood behind the gates is rising.

Seems to me that itâ€™s way past time to address the crumbling levees and floodgates of homelessness before they fail even further....Congress, with untapped goodwill and the resources to back it up can begin to overhaul the agency responsible for providing housing. A good place to start is to amend S 1518 to include, not exclude, all homeless adults and children.