Urban Exile: Head of Shelter Association Claims Homelessness Is A “Lifestyle”
by Erika McNamara
Detroit organizations that assist the homeless in the city report that the number of homeless individuals is on the increase and the shelters are at over capacity. The number of people requiring assistance this year is estimated to be way over the 22,000 plus people that were homeless last year in Detroit. There is an ever increasing need for space at many of the places that act as refuges for the homeless. Many reasons are attributed to this increase: foreclosure, no jobs, cuts in benefits, etc. There is no question that this winter there will be a record number of people that need help in the state of Michigan. Many of the shelters and centers that assisted these individuals in the past are not able to keep up with the demand. Many, because of funding issues, are closed. However, just because the shelters are over capacity or closed does not mean that the number of homeless people decreases.
Here in Ann Arbor there is a group of people—very enthusiastic people—ready and willing to open a 24/7 warming shelter. Occupy Ann Arbor very aptly describes the homeless as the true 99%. Volunteers from this organization are coming forward to make a change for the better, and create a place for the homeless to go and get warm. However, as per usual, and really to no surprise, roadblocks are being set in place by politicos and other people of influence.
Not having proper professionals in management positions to operate the proposed warming center appears to be the sticking point. The Mayor stated that there can be a lot of problems with this type of place and that a “concern would be that this type of facility needs professional management.”
So I am curious, then, what would be considered “professional management” in the opinion of Mayor Heiftje, et al? Is there some type of college degree required to run a place where the homeless can get warm in the winter? Would the Mayor be qualified to run the place with his undergraduate degree in Political Science
Mayor Heiftje has also told the media that other cities the size of Ann Arbor do not have warming centers during the day. Wrong. Cities smaller than Ann Arbor have warming centers. Westland, Michigan has one and so does Roseville, Michigan. Even tiny Monroe, Michigan has a warming shelter. The Mayor’s solution to homelessness is to get his facts wrong, and then conclude that Ann Arbor is not going to have a daytime warming center until all other cities of equal and proportional size have one too? Moreover, wouldn’t it be a feather in his cap then to be able to say that Ann Arbor is place that cares about the well-being of citizens because we provide a daytime warming center.
Mr. Heat Miser Mayor your argument is a misleading non-sequitur.
According to tax documents, in 2009, Ellen Schulmeister earned over $80,000 as the executive director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, which runs the Delonis Center. Schulmeister told the media that providing the homeless with a place to stay warm for the next few winter months is just a way to “feed a lifestyle of homelessness.”
I am more than a little baffled by this statement. In essence, the head of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, whose net pay has risen every year since 2007, is saying that those who are homeless today always wanted to be homeless, just like some people always wanted to be doctors or lawyers. How often do you hear a six-year-old say, “Yeah, that’s right, I want to be homeless when I grow up so I can lead the homeless lifestyle.” I’d be interested to hear Schulmeister explain just what the “homeless lifestyle” entails.
Her statement is utterly ridiculous.
Are there individuals out there gaming the system, addicts, and able-bodied? Sure. However, when I lived in a really nice apartment in Lansing, a softball throw from the capitol building, the guy in the apartment across the hall from mine overdosed on heroin. It is not just the homeless in shelters who overdose on drugs. It is statistically impossible that every person receiving assistance, or who wants to be warm in the winter is scamming the system and living the high life of homelessness.
Schulmeister’s rather scandalous statement smacks of an administrator who works in the “homeless business” system—a woman who is burned out. This is not the first time that Schumeister has discouraged others from assisting people who want to be fed and warm. It is a curious thing when someone in charge of a human services safety net organization continues to dissuade others from helping.
I also a wonder why Hieftje and Schulmeister are using misinformation and scare tactics to dissuade the Occupy Ann Arbor people—a group of well meaning individuals. Incredibly, Schumeister fails to see the flaw in her argument against “non-professionals” running a warming center, because of possible problems with homeless individuals abusing drugs and alcohol. The Delonis Center is run by professionals. So how is it then that someone overdosed on heroin in the Center’s bathroom?
The Mayor and Schulmeister have doubts that volunteers could run a warming center. They may want to check out Harvard Square Homeless Shelter at Harvard University. This is a shelter that runs during the five coldest months of the year, at night, and is entirely staffed by student volunteers! So much for Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan being the Harvard of the Midwest. According to the city’s mayor and Schumeister Ann Arbor just cannot compete, even in the volunteer department. The Shelter Association, with a self-proclaimed mission of “ending homelessness one person at a time,” is headed by a woman who thinks homelessness is a “lifestyle.”
The bottom line is that Ann Arbor City Council has no real commitment to ending homelessness, and perhaps this is why the Mayor is against a group of volunteers opening up a warming shelter. Obviously, once again there is a huge disconnect between the people who sit in those comfy chairs in the City Council chamber and at the headquarters of the Washtenaw County Shelter Association, and the people who stand, sleep, and sit outside on the ground in the winter.
Between 2007-2009, Ellen Schulmeister’s organization spent about $220,000 housing themselves in warm, cozy office space. Ann Arbor’s growing homeless population, meanwhile, still has no 24/7 warming shelter.
@Joe do you know anything about the Catholic Church? If you do, you know that it is a multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation where decisions are made based on religious doctrine, not public health concerns, or even public policy. Church groups may openly discriminate against individuals, groups, etc…while doling out services. Government can (and should) provide a more comprehensive social service umbrella.
@A2 A church is not just Sunday’s’go to meeting type places. There are religious orders, people way better than I can ever hope to be, that take care of many of the people that are mentioned in your referenced survey. In fact, just up the road a piece is the Saint Louis center (http://www.stlouiscenter.org/). What they do there is simply amazing.
And interesting, in the news, to drive home my point about churches being forsaken: one of the best places for support for sexual trafficing victims has been the Catholic Church. Well, until now. It seems the US government can’t stand some of the Catholics’ views, therefore will foresake the victims.
Of course, why do we need to fund HHS?
@Joe, on our new site, DetroitPolitico, there is a piece posted about the rise in homelessness in Detroit. The information came from the 2011 U.S. Conference of Mayors in DC. This comes from that piece:
At the December 2011 U.S. Conference of Mayors, elected leaders from around the United States sounded an alarm over deepening economic woes after a survey of 29 cities from Los Angeles to Washington showed worrying rises in homelessness and poverty-related food aid.
Detroit has been particularly hard hit. According to information in the survey: “The survey cities reported that, on average, 26 percent of homeless adults were severely mentally ill, 16 percent were physically disabled, 15 percent were employed, 13 percent were victims of domestic violence, 13 percent were veterans, and four percent were HIV Positive.”
Knowing who is homeless should help you understand that churches are not prepared to deal with HIV, mental illness, physical disability issues and domestic violence.
As for Capitalism, you missed Econ. 101, my friend. Capitalism is predicated on the fact that there will always be unemployment. It is COMMUNISM that guarantees employment to all (in response to a capitalistic system).
Finally, Ann Arbor’s Mayor is not only miserly, he is dishonest when he tries to tell people there are no day shelters in similarly sized cities.
@money&buildings: Thankfully, my fourth kid is a girl, so I will have some sliver of hope of being visited by one of my kids while housed in a nursing home.
Of course, what am I saying, there is no way for nursing homes to be able to exist in twenty years (There was an interview on NPR, how we’re headed back to the forties, where the old were taken care of in the home). I have two uncles I care for that are in a home. They saved their entire life, paid cash for their cars (never married, never left their home (except for being in the Army during WWII), they worked hard, and just saved). If they knew how much “the home” cost, they’d probably check out early. That Depression era level of saving doesn’t happen in today’s society.
I think government has been cutting off churches for one reason after another and charity is being replaced by feel-good taxes, just to deal with the issue.
The human condition is one of suffering. There will always be suffering. Suffering can even be a good thing for good reasons (think Lent).
But enough jobs to go around? There are infinite jobs out there. A capitalist society is built upon ambition. Come on, windows get dirty, shoes get smudged, progressives need blogs, computers get viruses–added to people are too busy to give. But put “people are too busy” with the “mundane things in life” and you have a service industry.
@Brandon: the article points to the Ann Arbor mayor being miserly, which would be “government.” The Delonis Center is owned by Washtenaw County. Common law has recognized that churches would do the heavy lifting. During the American Civil War, there were church sponsored groups that cared for the soldiers on both sides (Christian or Sanitory Commission).
[…] And this excellent article about us was published on Friday. Check it out: http://www.a2politico.com/?p=11887 […]
@Joe
“Government” is not housing people. The Delonis Shelter is run by the Shelter Association, a non-profit. For hundreds of years, our common law has recognized that non-profit entities can do things that government and corporations cannot, or are unwilling to do, and realize a net benefit for society. Of course, the Shelter Association does receive public funds, but its non-profit status allows it to also receive private dollars that likely would not be in the offing if “government” was the sole entity.
goodness me. don’t know where to begin, joe hood. i’ve asked
3 libertarians on separate occasions how a lib. government
would handle taking care of those who, for whatever reasons,
can’t take care of themselves. the 3 answers i rec’d: 1-the
church 2-charity 3-families should take care of their own
(this man pointed out laughingly that he and his brother
should be taking care of their father, but don’t).
as long as a capitalist society doesn’t have enough jobs to go
around, people will suffer. there are many other reasons for
suffering also. isn’t it clear by now that gov. is the only
possible body capable of eliminating suffering? the solutions
offered above have never come close to making sure there is no
suffering. the US has the means, but not the will.
we’re on the planet for a nano-second. what’s the harm in
making certain suffering ends altogether for our brief stay?
Thank you so very much for this beautiful and well-researched artice!
It has been really frustrating to be saying “people are freezing” and to get in return “liability” or some other crap like that. “Liability” somehow replaces responsibility perhaps
similarly to how paper bills replace value.
This might be jumping into the progressive deep end but why is government housing people? Why can’t churches do this? We have government to do things we can’t do, like maintain a road structure (which Ann Arbor can not). I can somewhat see the reasoning about the “homeless lifestyle,” like feeding someone versus teaching them to fish. A homeless person’s path to any sort of enlightenment is not going to happen when all we’re trying to do is help them out for the night. This is just a vicious cycle collects more homeless people (or sends them to the next town with the warming center).
@Karen, one could argue that if the new City Hall had not gone over-budget, and a new underground parking garage had not been built, if City Council actually cared about hunger, homelessness and poverty in our community – except as a form of political grandstanding, there would be multiple shelters and warming centers. We have a City Council headed by Marie Antoinette and populated by French nobility. Jane Lumm’s election, I hope, marks the beginning of a revolution.
The Shelter building, which is owned by the county, was plagued by cost overruns and ended up costing $500 per foot. If the county had not insisted on building in the floodway and floodplain there would be plenty of money to build a warming center.
@timjbd No offense, but you HAVE to get rid of that crappy Blackberry. 🙂 I’ll find the story and link to it. Thanks for the tip.
The Free Press recently did a report on the explosion of homeless school children in Snyderland. I’d link it but I’m using my crappy Blackberry.
Maybe Schulmeister can explain her position to those kids when they get home from school to their cardboard boxes in the woods.