Mary Lawrence, co-founder of PUSH spoke at St. Augustine's "Beyond War, A New Economy Is Possible!" event, held in conjunction with other such events across the country on the Anniversary of Dr. King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech and subsequent death.
I am Mary Lawrence, co founder along with Sumner Gray of PUSH: People United to Stop Homelessness. It’s great to be here and I want to thank Central Florida Veterans for Peace and St Augustine People for Peace and Justice for organizing this event. By now, it should be apparent to all of us of the insight of Dr King’s words when he tells us how war destroys our social justice and economic systems. It can never be separated from our daily lives. His words are a call to unity to all the different groups here today. We are all called to work together.
PUSH began in January 2007 with the city’s passing of the "no panhandling" ordinance as a catalyst. Our mission statement reads:
-We are resolved to advocate for the homeless at the city, county and state levels.
-We will provide awareness and action through education and outreach activities.
-We will assist in providing liaison between various agencies, churches and non profit organizations.
-We will work to ensure that any solution to homelessness comprises full services: human basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and additional assistance including but not limited to medical, mental health, job training, substance abuse counseling and child care.
Within a year we had researched not only services and plans in St. Johns County but also around the state and the entire country. And what we learned about St. Johns County was truly alarming. Steel yourselves, you’re not going to like this.
We learned that our lead agency, the Emergency Services Homeless Coalition, wrote our county’s plan in 2005-2006. In comparison with others we had studied, we quickly realized this was not a plan. There was no timeline, no budget, no funding streams. It was just a story. Now, back in 2002, then president Bush created the US Interagency Council on Homelessness to end homelessness in 10 years. All jurisdictions were mandated to come up with plans. Florida held its workshop in 2003; many counties and cities got right to work. Not so here. Now, the homeless coalition claims the document was never accepted by the city nor the county and the state. 6 years later, we still don’t have a plan.
We learned that our mayor has now commissioned a group to form a "third leg" of a ten year plan in conjunction with federal guidelines and that he does not welcome stakeholder input at this time. He wants the meetings to be conducted in secret and is considering forming a non profit to achieve that end.
We learned that the recent homeless point in time count done in January 09 was flawed and that many members of the many camps were never counted and that labor pool clients were most likely counted twice. Regardless, the numbers tell us a total of 1370 homeless, a 10% increase over 2 years ago, yet the foreclosure rate in SJC in just the last year is 130%. Where did all those people go? We learned we have 82 homeless children in our public schools, that 18% of our homeless are veterans and that most of our homeless have been so for a year and mostly due to financial/economic circumstances. 76% of our surveyed homeless citizens work.
We learned that the Green Home store had presented low cost green housing plans for homes for the transitional housing program and that they were ignored and that only 4 standard homes are being built on the property with 400k in grant money.
We learned that our state representative, our sheriff and our mayor granted us time to layout our concerns and then did absolutely nothing despite contacts for follow up.
We learned that contacting the state over fiscal and safety concerns at the homeless coalition’s transitional housing campus in West Augustine can get a one year volunteer fired.
We learned that Neighborhood Stabilization money to the tune of 2.5 million dollars is due to be released in June. 25% of that funding, minus administrative costs, comes to 515,000 and will be used to buy up foreclosed properties, rehab them and turn them over to non profits for very low income rentals. Right now about 6 companies offer low income rentals with average deposit of 300 dollars and average rent over 700 dollars a month.
We learned the Wildflower Clinic in Lincolnville and West Augustine is struggling to keep up with demand for medical and dental care for our poor. The waiting time for a dental appointment is 11 months. They rely on donations and volunteers and can only operate on very limited hours.
We learned the Veterans Council was more interested in the anti war politics of the presenters than in the 2 nationally proven plans we presented to them to help homeless veterans.
We learned that just about every church in the area is doing or wants to do something to ease the circumstances of our homeless and poor but are having trouble bringing coordination to their efforts and are duplicating services all over the county.
We learned St Francis House is too small to handle the numbers and complex needs of the homeless in St Johns County and that recent efforts to relocate the shelter were both unrealistic and hidden from the public for months.
We learned that Food not Bombs servings have grown to 7 nights a week, numbers have doubled and diners now include young people, families and the working poor.
We learned the city of St Augustine has contracts with local labor pools to hire workers on temporary bases so they do not have to pay benefits and that the 56 dollars a day a worker gets will never get them out of that rat race and into low income housing.
Most importantly, we learned, nationwide, that successful programs to end and prevent homelessness involve housing first. Services must surround the housing of individuals and families who are either struggling financially, physically, mentally or otherwise. The barriers while living on the street or in a car are insurmountable. Child care, safety and food are basic needs met before any job search, mental or medical health care can take place. We have it backwards.
This is what PUSH does: we attend everything we can related to homelessness and take notes and report to our members. We notify officials and the public of what’s going on. We follow up on attacks on homeless people, have been to the camps and even held a memorial service for a young homeless Desert Storm veteran who killed himself on the railroad tracks in 2007. We attend all the general Emergency Services Homeless Coalition meetings, church efforts like the well attended one at Memorial Presbyterian Church last fall and any “official” meetings we can. We presented two proven faith based solutions to sheltering and helping the homeless to several area churches. We have unique connections with Food not Bombs, the St Andrews gleaning project and are extending our connections from Hastings to Ponte Vedra. We have conducted surveys, participate in the bi annual homeless count and host speakers on a monthly basis. This month we will host Commissioner Ken Bryan in an open conversation on homelessness. You are all invited to come to the Galimore Center next Thursday night April 9 at 7 PM. We have a dynamic website of activities and resources and I encourage you to sign up for our email list. If you’re really mad about what you’ve heard today, contacts for our elected officials are on our resources page.
Homelessness is directly related to our economy. Our economy is suffering because of many factors, not the least of which is our insane spending on defense. This is OUR city, OUR community, OUR county. In the words of our namesake, St Augustine:
"What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like."
What does St Johns County look like?
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