State and local budget cuts are leading to increased vulnerability and may ultimately lead to increases in homelessness. This conclusion appears today in a new brief from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
A key finding in the brief, entitled Economy Bytes: Effect of State and Local Budget Cuts on Homelessness, is the identification of nine states where an elevated level of vulnerability exists. This designation reflects:
- a homelessness rate higher than the national rate,
- multiple risk factors for increasing homelessness, and
- cuts to either public sector jobs or public assistance.
Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, DC.. Four states among these nine have the highest levels of vulnerability because they made cuts to both public sector jobs and public assistance. These four states are Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, and Washington, DC .
U.S. map showing areas of increased vulnerability to becoming homeless. Courtesy of National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The brief, which is the third in the Economy Bytesseries, also details how in the past two fiscal years (2010 and 2011), 24 states and the District of Columbia made cuts to public assistance and 34 made cuts to public sector jobs.
Today, in a related news event, the Senate passed and the President signed the Budget Control Act of 2011. What will that mean for future U.S. budgeting? What will happen next? Here’s a concise summation from the National Alliance to End Homelessness:
… the Act sets up a bipartisan committee, comprised of senators and representatives selected by each chamber’s leadership, tasked with reducing the deficit by an additional $1.5 trillion over 10 years. This committee must agree on where the necessary spending cuts or revenue increases will come from by November 23, 2011, and the committee’s plans must be approved by both the House and Senate by December 23, 2011. If a deal is not reached by December 23, cuts will automatically be triggered that would cut spending across the board (defense and non-defense spending) by $1.2 trillion spread evenly over 10 years. Programs targeted toward low-income individuals and families would largely be exempt from these automatic cuts, though the specifics of this provision remain unclear.
A moral budget prioritizes programs that provide for those who are poor and vulnerable.
Let us work toward a moral budget that keeps people in appropriate, safe and healthy housing and allows families to live together.
This video news clip from Colorado Springs details local fears of how upcoming budget cuts could affect every sector of their community, including those on disability:
Fresh Start Sale for HMHI: How to donate and participate
Click the images and they will enlarge for easier viewing of the text.
One of a child’s exciting “moments” of the year is anticipating back-to-school. The year ahead is a blank slate–surely ready to reveal new wonders! But for nearly 20,000 students in the Quad Cities–and for our 100 HMHI children–who come from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free & reduced meals and fees, there’s also some anxiety.
Will I have the supplies that the teacher expects me to have? Will my mom be able to afford the clothing and shoes I need for school? Children without the basics experience shame and embarrassment, particularly when their peers notice what they lack.
Every year we try to help our participating families to acquire the back-to-school basics that they must have. The school supply lists are lengthy, and our single parent families are stretched to equip their children adequately–particularly when they have two or more students in schools.
You can assist us by dropping off school supplies during office hours [Monday-Friday, 8 AM-4 PM] at our office at
1228 E. 12th Street, Davenport, Iowa; 563/326-1330 (Phone)
These are supplies our HMHI children need that are in short supply:
- Dry Erase Markers
- Bookbags
- Small bottles of hand sanitizer
- 1 quart Ziploc baggies
- Highlighters
- Spiral notebooks
- Paper towels
- Composition notebooks
- 3×5 index cards
- Post it notes
- 1″ – 3 ring binders
- Plastic tab divider pages
- Graph paper
- 3 subject notebooks
- Scientific Calculators
- Calculators
- USB flash drives
Most of our students are also expected to have these supplies:
- 24 pk crayons
- 4 oz. bottles of Elmer’s glue
- Glue sticks
- 8 pk washable markers
- #2 pencils
- Pocket folders
- Fiskar scissors
- Boxes of Kleenex
- Wide ruled loose leaf paper
- Colored pencils
- Pencil tip erasers
- Big pink erasers
Image credit: David Lassman/ The Post-Standard as seen on Syracuse.com
Fresh Start Sale donation drop-off site opens
Donation Drop off site: 313 W Kimberly Road. Click photo to enlarge, for easier viewing
Our new donation drop-off site is now open for the Fresh Start Sale. We welcome you to bring items that you would like to donate for our sale to
313 W. Kimberly Road in Davenport, Iowa
The donation drop-off site hours are
9:00 AM -3:00 PM on Mondays, Thursdays & Saturdays
Tax receipts will be provided on-site. The new donation drop-off site opened today, July 7 and will remain open until the week prior to the August 2011 sale.
The building is conveniently located across from North Park Mall. Although the building address is West Kimberly, you access the building from Main Street.
The entrance to the building is on the south side. If you have heavy items to deliver, there is a ramp that allows access for your vehicle to approach the front entrance. A huge parking lot in front of that ramp will give you easy access to the building, so that you can carry in small items. Please alert the volunteers who are staffing the donation drop off site if you need assistance.
Donations of new and gently-used furniture, household goods, home decor, small appliances, jewelry, crafting materials and other items are welcome. We do not include clothing or shoes at the sale.
All proceeds of the sale support the housing and services for the HMHI families. The Fresh Start Sale is our major annual fund-raising activity. We appreciate your support!
We hope that the new donation drop off center will make it easy for you to donate your no-longer-needed and gently-used items to benefit less-fortunate families.
wider shot, includes area surrounding our donation drop-off site. Click to enlarge: West 37th Street becomes North Main Street.
Government standards consider a family of four impoverished if they take in less than $22,000 a year. Couple that with government projections of unemployment, and the poverty rate for kids in the U.S. will soon hit 25 percent, according to recent estimates.
“Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression,” says PressTV.
As you saw in a previous blog post here, in Seminole County Florida– near Orlando–so many kids have lost their homes that school busses now stop at dozens of cheap motels where families crowd into rooms, living week to week.
We at HMHI also serve families who would otherwise be forced to live in motels. Our program offers them a safe place to live and provides them the opportunity to become independent.
American families have dropped out of the middle class in record numbers. The combination of lost jobs and millions of foreclosures means that many more than we’ve seen in recent decades are suffering from hunger and homelessness. That means many more children are poor.
FACTS & FIGURES via PressTV
According to a revised report by the Census Bureau, overall poverty in 2009 stood at 15.7 percent, or 47.8 million people. MSNBC
One in five American children lives in poverty and one in four American child is on food stamps. Economic Collapse
More than 16.7 million children live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Elca.org
Critics say the poverty line does not take into consideration certain factors such as rent or the median price of a home. If it did, the percentage of Americans living under the poverty line would raise to 30 percent. Wise Geek
Image Credit: Prodigaldog on Flickr, used with permission.
HMHI families see a Davenport, IA River Bandits game
A perfect evening for River Bandits' ballgame!
Our participating families are relieved to receive a secure place to live. With your help, HMHI can provide them with that and a few other foundational needs. Nevertheless, their lives continue to entail difficulties. They are working hard to accomplish the goals that will allow them to reach housing independence and financial wellbeing. It is not easy, and there is very little for the “extras” that can make summertime special.
Thanks to a generous supporter, who gifted HMHI with tickets to a River Bandits baseball game, our families had the opportunity to attend a home game on Monday. What a wonderful opportunity for fun for our participants who were able to take advantage of this offer!
Fans enjoy the River Bandits' game!
Can you spot our participating families? Of course not! They look like many other families in the Quad Cities. And, like many families, our participants really enjoyed that special summertime event: a baseball game!
Children without homes share their pain
homeless children
The heartbreak of homelessness is keenly felt by anyone without shelter. But, when children lose their family home, the heartbreak is particularly tragic.
The 60 Minutes segment –”Hard Times Generation–Homeless Kids”–documents the rise of homelessness in our nation. Originally airing in March, the segment that focuses on homeless families in Florida reran yesterday, and you can watch it here:
But the situation is by no means unique to that area of the country.
At HMHI, we’ve been sheltering children for over 20 years. Economic times are even more difficult now than when we started, but–with your help–we continue to help families right here in Iowa.
Clifford and fans connect at the HMHI Night at the Family Museum
HMHI’s first-ever Night at the Family Museum was a fund-raiser that pleased on June 11! We had the Family Museum in Bettendorf to our own special evening of family interaction and fun from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. and not a second of that time was wasted.
The museum exhibits promoted family interactive activities.
The museum itself is filled with active and interactive fun for all that kept our guests busy and entertained.
The museum exhibits awed all ages!
The personal appearance by Clifford the Big Red Dog, who wowed the little ones, was a special treat, highlighting the evening.
Families enjoyed supper together amidst the activities.
But our volunteer balloon artist Karen Habenicht was just as popular. She prepared balloon souvenirs for each child, created to match each one’s interests, favorites and preferences. And she sang and entertained the children as she blew and bent the balloons into amazingly intricate shapes and creatures.
Volunteers Connie Cervantes and Amy Crist arranged and served food, included in the admission price.
Our staff and volunteers had prepared the Family Museum with special decorations, gift books of Clifford, and information about our program at HMHI.
Karen Habenicht, volunteer balloon artist, entranced the children and sent each one home with a personally-crafted creation.
All the proceeds from this $5 all-inclusive admission event will go to help HMHI help families who need homes, so the evening’s fun benefited a great cause. We gratefully acknowledge the event sponsors: Royal Neighbors, J. H. Laas Company and Celeste Dolan.
HMHI's helium balloons decorated that beautiful museum entrance.
The Development Committee of the HMHI Board took the lead in arranging our Family Night at the Museum event. Members of the planning committee for this event are Connie Cervantes, Amy Crist, Michelle Kronfeld, Mike Laas, Kay Sigardson Poor and Janice Vrablec.
They’re already musing about repeating this wonderful evening next year. Clifford must travel to another town, but we know the Family Museum will have something just as wonderful to see in his place. If you attended Friday, we hope we’ll see you again.
So if you missed this enchanting evening, you may have another opportunity to thrill the special children in your life while helping less fortunate children.
HMHI and Clifford invite you to fun at the Family Museum
Clifford and the whole family will have fun at the Family Museum in Bettendorf on June 11 from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM. This special evening at the museum will include access to the exciting exhibits and activities there. But, even more exciting–we’ll entertain special guests, such as balloon artists. And, we’ll provide hot dogs and treats for all! All this for the special value admission price of only $5.
The proceeds will go to support the work of Humility of Mary Housing, Inc–a nonprofit organization that provides transitional housing to single-parent homeless families. Your entertainment value will also help families less fortunate.
We’d love to see you and your family at the Family Museum in Betterdorf on Saturday evening! Come, join us!
Call in your reservation to attend at 563 326-1330.
HMHI Family wins Healthy Family Challenge contest!
Shanna Wanton, one of our participants, came out a winner again this month. A contest aficionado, she and her family were selected as one of the three winning families in the Family Makeover Challenge, a contest she entered at Hy-Vee that promotes healthy lifestyle changes.
For winning, Shanna and her family will receive eight weeks of free membership at the YMCA. And, while they are there, her family will have the extra benefit of personal trainers to work with them! In addition, the winners will also receive free classes from a dietitian at Hy-Vee that will help them improve their food choices. The eight week challenge is designed to help them improve their fitness, nutrition and achieve their weight management goals.
In the video clip (below) you’ll see Shanna’s interview on the Paula Sands Live segment that aired October 11:
For more information, check out the project website: Bettendorfmakover.com
