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January,
2004
Homelessness, Hunger Worsen
Emergency needs for food, shelter rise for families
By Mary Leonard
Boston Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- The US
Conference of Mayors in December painted a dismal picture of growing
homelessness and hunger among low-income, working families and reported a
dramatic decrease in 2003 in the ability of most of the nation's 25 major
cities to meet these basic needs.
"This survey underscores the impact the economy has had on
everyday Americans," said conference president James A. Garner, the mayor
of Hempstead, N.Y. Garner said a recovering economy will not immediately solve
state and local budget shortfalls or reverse cutbacks in social-service
programs. "We don't expect it to get any better next year."
The conference's annual survey found that in nearly all the
cities, requests for emergency food assistance have increased by an average of
17 percent over last year, and the demand for emergency shelter rose by an
average of 13 percent.
More than half of the cities surveyed reported that emergency
food assistance facilities had to either turn people away or limit the
groceries families could receive on each visit. Of those requesting food help,
59 percent were families and 39 percent were employed, the report said.
In 84 percent of the cities surveyed, shelters reported turning
away homeless families because of too few beds and other resources. Officials
estimated that 30 percent of requests for shelter by homeless people, and 33
percent of the requests by homeless families were unmet, according to the
Conference of Mayors report.
Philip Mangano, an advocate for the homeless in Boston before he
became the Bush administration's point person on the issue last year, said the
pattern of growing needs, reported year after year by the Conference of Mayors,
shows the "insanity" of traditional strategies for temporarily
sheltering the homeless. He called for a new approach based on permanent
housing and directed social services.
"We are all tired of homelessness, and no more so than the
homeless people themselves," Mangano said at a news conference yesterday,
vowing to "end this national disgrace."
Mangano is the chief spokesman for a 10-year administration plan
to attack chronic homelessness by focusing resources and services on the most
vulnerable and costly population-the disabled, mentally ill, and substance
abusers -- and using results-driven techniques to end homelessness, not just
manage it.
At its annual meeting last summer, the Conference of Mayors
endorsed the 10-year plan, and more than 60 cities and counties are now in
stages of developing their own blueprints to bring public agencies, private
foundations, faith-based and secular groups into partnerships to aid the
chronically homeless, Mangano said.
Last week, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced he is establishing a
cabinet-level task force to start that process in Boston. In Atlanta, where the
10-year plan was launched last year, private foundations have pledged $6.2
million to the city initiative, Mangano said.
"Groups that were at the table 20 years ago left because
they didn't see results-oriented solutions," Mangano said. "Now
businesses, corporations, and foundations are coming back because they see
there is a specific intention to end chronic homelessness."
In November, Governor Mitt Romney joined 39 other governors when
he created an interagency council of top officials charged with redirecting
state policies on homelessness. It is being chaired by Lieutenant Governor
Kerry Healey and follows a report from an executive commission that recommended
moving from a system of sheltering the homeless to finding them transitional
housing and support services that would prevent homelessness in the first
place.
When visible on the streets, homelessness can be a political
nightmare for local officials. The Bush administration reactivated the dormant
Interagency Council on Homelessness because there was no coordination of the
millions of federal dollars for mental health services, substance abuse
prevention, job training, and prison release programs that are aimed at the
homeless population but have not reduced it. The administration provided $35
million in new homeless grants to 11 cities this summer, and President Bush
requested $70 million in his 2004 budget.
Advocates for the homeless credit Mangano, the executive
director of the council, with bringing visibility to the issue and using
business models to engage GOP lawmakers and conservative foundations in
long-range problem- solving. "Without question, Philip is getting the
conversation going and bringing in some nontraditional groups," said Joe
Finn, executive director of the Massachusetts Shelter and Housing Alliance, the
job Mangano once held in Boston.
In the annual one-night census of Boston's homeless, conducted
earlier this month, city officials reported that the population of more than
6,000 had fallen 1.1 percent from last year. Menino said that could reflect a
decrease in the number of shelter beds and stricter requirements on homeless
families seeking emergency accommodations in hotels and motels. "Where are
the hidden homeless?" he asked.
The Conference of Mayors reported an 8.3 percent increase in
requests by families for emergency shelter in Boston in 2003, compared to a 19
percent increase in Washington, D.C., a 30 percent increase in Denver, and a
109 percent increase in Louisville, Ky.
The mayors' report noted a 24 percent increase in Boston in
emergency food demands by families, with a 5 percent increase in unmet needs
for groceries.
Ellen Parker, executive director of Project Bread in Boston,
said the statistics suggest that the working poor can't make ends meet.
"The economy is getting better, but I don't think things are getting
better for poor people," she said.
Mary Leonard can be reached
at mleonard@globe.com.
(c) Copyright 2003 Globe
Newspaper Company.
(c) Copyright 2003 The New
York Times Company