We moved quickly up the street. I stayed a few paces behind him. I watched over my shoulder to see if anyone would see us make entry into the small alleyway. I felt like an international spy making a rendezvous with a foreign agent. I followed him between two old buildings that had been condemned. We stopped at a mattress that had been placed on the ground. He turned with pride and showed me his new home. The bare mattress was under a small opening below the first floor. He explained that the pigeons would not come into the small nook and that way his bed could stay clean. He also explained that the pigeons served as a watchdog for him. They took flight when someone approached him at night.

That very thing is what I was there to talk to him about. The National Coalition for the Homeless has released their 2010 report “Hate Crimes Against The Homeless – America’s Growing Tide of Violence.” This report included a chart entitled “Comparison of FBI Defined Hate Crime Homicides v. Fatal Attacks on Homeless.” It showed that last year 43 homeless people were murdered. In the last eleven years 288 homeless people have been murdered. Homicides classified as “hate crimes” (FBI data) shows that 103 people were murdered in the same time period.

“I’ve been shot with hardballs, paint guns, I’ve been beat in the head…They beat me in the head with an iron pipe,” Doug stated to me as we stood at the edge of the mattress. These are crimes against a citizen, a veteran that went unreported.

Curtis, a homeless man that is currently living in a small wooded lot near the interstate had been attacked in the past also. “Well I’ve had brain surgery you know. I got jumped and don’t remember who it was.” It was reported when he was in the hospital. Status – unsolved crime. He was also attacked this week by “three black guys and one white guy. I didn’t even know them,” he said. Status – unreported.

Why do they not report an attack on them? “Cause why? I can’t. I would get the blame for it,” Curtis stated.

One man in the camp was shocked to hear some of the stories. “Well way don’t they want us here? We fought for our country! Why don’t they want us here?” He said almost crying. I asked him why he wasn’t in the VA hospital. They didn’t have a bed yet. I asked the other veteran if he had been to the VA hospital. “I haven’t earned it yet,” was his reply. He served two tours in Afghanistan and one tour in Iraq. He didn’t earn it yet? I thought: how much more deserving could you be having served three tours in a combat zone? I pushed for an explanation and he said that more people were in greater need than he was. Typical mindset in the homeless camps – always worried about their brother.

Another case taken directly from the report shows another reason homeless people don’t report crimes against them.

CINCINNATI, OHIO – December 27, 2009. Homeless man George Smock was walking in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse when four teenage boys attacked him by drenching him in lighter fluid and setting him on fire. “These people out here are trying to kill us,” Smock said. Police say Smock did not know the boys in the unprovoked attack. Smock and an onlooker were able to extinguish the fire by pouring a sports drink on him before the fire burned through his multiple layers of clothing. Smock shared later “I don’t want to be made out as a snitch”. Smock feels lucky to be alive after his terrifying ordeal.

How can a society allow crimes against their own citizens? The National Coalition for the Homeless had a theory that was published in their report. Quoting directly from this report it stated -

Criminalizing the Homeless Community
There is a documented relationship between increased police action
and the increasing numbers of hate crimes/violent acts against
homeless people. Again, Florida is a good case study. Many cities
in Florida have enacted severe anti-camping, panhandling, antifeeding,
and other criminalization of homelessness laws. Many of
the cities mentioned in NCH’s bi-annual criminalization report are
also cities where hate crimes against homeless individuals have
frequently occurred. In fact, four of the ten meanest cities identified
in Homes Not Handcuffs were cities in Florida.4 Florida is also the
state with the highest number of bias-motivated crimes against
homeless individuals.
One possible explanation for this is the message that criminalizing
homelessness sends to the general public: “Homeless people do not
matter and are not worthy of living in our city.” This message is
blatant in the attitudes many cities have toward homeless people
and can be used as an internal justification for attacking someone
who is homeless

Andrea Cosans a crisis counselor at East Ridge Mental Health stated that some murders of the homeless are committed by “someone who obviously feels threatened by a person that has nothing.” When asked if the murderers feel they are doing themselves or society a favor by killing she responded “I think it’s more like I feel threatened that this can happen to me so if I eradicate them it won’t happen to me.”

The National Coalition for the Homeless report also showed that the age of the largest percentage of homeless people attacked was in the forties and the largest percentage of murderers was under twenty. Some cases are referred to as “thrill kills”. Such is the case of Joe Tall, a forty-seven year old homeless man killed in Houston Texas as he slept on a bus stop bench. Tall was found with a bullet shot in his head. Jeremy Lee Pierce, a University of Houston student has been charged with the murder. Pierce was quoted as saying that the homeless are a “blight to society”.

In Redding, California, forty-eight year old Timothy Alcorn was beaten to death by Albert Sanchez, eighteen, John Hadley Thompson, fifteen, and Jared Cory Voss, seventeen. One of the teens stated “it felt good” to beat Alcorn.

It’s not easy being a member of the least, the lost and the forgotten.

8.22.10
DJ McCoy

“I can’t always open doors, but I can get you up to the door. We can knock, we can bang on it, we may be able to tear it down,” stated West Virginia Senator John Unger (D). He appeared concerned about the lack of a cold weather shelter in Martinsburg.

“We only have three months. Everybody is predicting it is going to be severe weather. I can not, I mean I don’t know how anybody can sleep thinking that people are out there stranded with no place to go,” he added.

When pressed about building codes, kitchens, and the cost and time restraint in getting a building up to local code, he had an answer. “You can get the Salvation Army to get in there to give food or the Red Cross to pass out food, and you wouldn’t necessarily need a kitchen or anything. They’ll bring those vans up and park it and do a mass care. And we could pass legislation that says that at a certain time, when the weather drops at a certain level or there’s some type of storm that occurs that the building code could be waived. We could work on getting legislation passed that would allow them to exempt the building code aspect under severe conditions of weather in order to get people out of it.”

“To get people out of it,” now there is an encouraging idea. What do we need to do to make a difference in a life or even save a life? Each year some people freeze to death for lack of shelter. It’s easy to hold a meeting inside a nice clean office, but we all don’t have such a luxury of that office or even a cup of coffee. It is truly a matter of life and death.

In a perfect world we could build shelters, offer wrap-around programs, and complete mental heath services. However we don’t live in a perfect world and time is of the essence right now. This issue is so time-critical that we will need Senators like John Unger to think “out of the box” and come up with short term, emergency housing when the temperature drops below freezing. Currently many cities already have them. Some readers may think that this service is offered everywhere. Unfortunately it is not.

When the subject of committees and mission statements came up, Senator Unger related a story of Mother Teresa. “I really like Mother Teresa’s approach. Mother Teresa saw a child in the street and she picked it up and started caring for the child and others started seeing that. So often we get wrapped up in mission statements.”

Time is running out across the nation for cold weather shelters to be established. Some people, like John Moses, whom we have reported on in the past have moved ahead and built it. “Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,” the Senator stated.

While some organizations are writing mission statements and holding endless meetings, others like Senator Unger, John Moses, and Father Lawrence are making a difference. What will you do?

8.17.10
DJ McCoy

What would you do without freedom? Think about that. To be jailed means you are restricted where you can go, what you can eat, calls you can make, and visitors that you can have. Many homeless people lose their jobs, cars, and finally their homes. Once on the street, some lose their freedom and even worse sometimes lose their lives.

Most that go to jail are there for a “failure to appear” or sometimes “public intoxication”. Most are very minor offenses. The jailhouse door is in constant rotation, a cycle without end. All of these offenses go on their record. Employers shy away from applicants with records. The cost to the taxpayer goes up. Fines are not paid resulting in more jail time. This becomes a daily routine for many homeless individuals.

Meanwhile the general public doesn’t even know about it. They’re busy trying to work overtime, or another job on the side, just so they too don’t become homeless. Drug or alcohol dependent, mental illness or just out of work, it does not matter to the jailer.

Now imagine what it would be like to lose your freedom and have a mental illness. You can’t understand life on the outside. It’s going to get a whole lot rougher on the inside. We seem to use our jails as a one-stop shop. We spend more on housing someone in jail than we do if we put him in a motel or even a wrap around program. Does this make sense to you? I can’t understand why we are not trying to figure a way to fix the problem instead of creating more debt and causing permanent damage to the homeless person. We have to consider all the options. There has got to be a better way.

8.14.10
DJ McCoy

8.10.10 San Antonio, Texas. Councilman John Clamp of District 10 has an idea. He considered proposing to the city that it pass an ordinance similar to the one in Gainesville, Florida. In Gainesville, an ordinance was passed that banned all transactions between a motorist and a pedestrian. This eliminates the possibility of giving food or money to the homeless from your car. It is a crime that carries a $500 fine, or six months in jail, or both. A legal assistant in Gainesville confirmed that the law is in effect and being enforced.

Mario Hune, Chief Advisor on Public Policy for Councilman John Clamp stated: “We have backed away from that,” referring to the Gainesville law. He pointed out that the proposal was never intended for the homeless, but for professional panhandlers.

He also said that San Antonio has a ten million-dollar facility named Haven for Hope that was built to assist the homeless. It is funded through public and private support. Moving people off the streets and into this facility would allow the homeless to receive help in rehab, housing, and other needs. The city wants to see how well Haven for Hope handles the problem first.

If so, this will be an exception as most cities attempt to move the homeless population out of their district. Can it be that Councilman Clamp is truly concerned for the motorists and the homeless? Can Haven for Hope handle the demands of a wrap around program, providing help for those less fortunate? Time will tell.

Haven for Hope was unable to respond to this article on short notice. A follow up to this story will be filed.

8.10.10
DJ McCoy

Today the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty had a webinar entitled “A Place at the Table” to report on the national trend to criminalize food sharing.

After extensive research using newspapers, internet sites such as municode.com, and interviews with providers, they found an alarming trend. Examples of those trends are:

Myrtle Beach, SC. Groups must apply for a permit to feed the homeless.
The permit is free but only four are granted per year.

Cincinnati, OH. City prohibited food sharing in Washington Park.

Gainesville, FL. No more than 130 persons may be fed in a soup kitchen.

Huntington, NY. Police charged volunteers with peddling.

The list can go on. “A Place at the Table” report summed up the situation clearly. Here is an exact quote from the report:

“In 2007, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (the Law Center) worked collaboratively to publish Feeding Intolerance: Prohibitions on Sharing Food with People Experiencing Homelessness. The report drew attention to the disturbing national trend of penalizing the act of sharing food with men, women, and children experiencing homelessness. Three years later, cities are still implementing these measures through ordinances, policies, and tactics that discourage or prohibit individuals and groups from sharing food with homeless persons. Uncomfortable with visible homelessness in their communities and influenced by myths about homeless peoples’ food access, cities use food sharing restrictions to move homeless people out of sight, an action that often exacerbates the challenges people experiencing homelessness face each day.”

I have witnessed many people and groups attempt to start a food bank or cold weather shelter. These were people with good intentions trying to help those less fortunate. After learning of the plight of the homeless, they are moved to action only to run into a wall from city officials and business owners.

Most food programs that I have witnessed have not cost the taxpayers one penny. They are self-sufficient and do not require taxpayer money to operate. Yet somehow we feel the need to still halt the homeless by stopping those that would help them.

Sarah Owen is someone we could learn from. She is the CEO of Community Cooperative Ministries, Inc. She fought against the Fort Myers, Florida, proposed legislation that would have criminalized food sharing. One of the problems was that developers were building up the area. There were high rise, high cost condos being built in view of where the homeless slept and ate. The developers informed the city that the homeless could be a “deal breaker.” The city started proposing a new law and began making arrest in the homeless community.

Ms. Owen stepped up. She invited other non-profit groups and even local politicians to the table. It took a lot of time. The city backed down. Since then the high rise condos sit empty. The developers went out of business due to the downturn in the economy. Some of the people that were against the homeless and those that helped them are now clients to the very programs they opposed.

If we continue to believe that we can end homelessness by pushing the homeless into another town or state we are badly mistaken. A serious, national, wrap around program is needed to solve this problem.

According to the aforementioned report 25% of requests for emergency food assistance went unmet in 2009. If the government can’t provide what is needed, then we should welcome any church, group, organization, or individual that wants to take the time, effort, and money to feed those in need.

As the report points out:

“Such restrictions also raise human rights concerns. The right to food is a recognized human right, explicitly addressed in over 120 instruments of international law since 1920 and included in the
domestic constitutions of 22 nations. The International Convention on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR) explains that states have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill
Certain rights. For the right to food this means a state, or nation, must not take action resulting in
preventing access to food, must ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive someone of
their access to food, and must take proactive action to increase access to food.”

I have said many times that the homeless are the last segregated class. There is not enough affordable housing, there are not enough family shelters, and now we want to restrict even feeding them. Where does it stop?

We must finish this film. We must educate our country about what is happening. I believe we have come so far and accomplished so much that we must continue. We have uncovered a major story. We still need a few investors. If you can help, please call or email us.

7.29.10
DJ McCoy

We have reported in the past on issues facing the homeless. I want to invite you to The National Coalition for the Homeless and National Law Center webinar. It seems those most in need are being denied the very basic of needs in some places. Here is a copy of the email they sent out today. I hope you can join in.

Don’t miss out on our free webinar on A Place at the Table! Join us Tomorrow, Thursday, July 29, 2010 from 3:30-4:30 EDT. RSVP Now!

NCH and the National Law Center will host a webinar to discuss topics explored in the recently released report,A Place at the Table: Prohibitions on Sharing Food with People Experiencing Homelessness. The report focuses on cities that have created ordinances, policies, and tactics to limit groups from sharing food with homeless people, and highlights alternatives to those restrictions.

Webinar presenters will include:
• Sarah Owens, Chief Executive Officer of Community Cooperative Ministries, Inc., a group which advocated against city legislation that would have criminalized food sharing in Ft. Myers, FL.
• Jonathan Lee, Founder of Swipes for the Homeless, a program that donates unused university student meals to homeless people.
• Donna Leuchten, NCH, and Sarah Shubitowski, the Law Center, Co-authors of A Place at the Table.

The goal of the webinar is to provide local advocates with practical tips, advice, and support to work collaboratively with the city government to address food sharing concerns. Additionally, it will give participants a closer look at an innovative and replicable program that engages students in addressing hunger in their communities.

7.28.10
DJ McCoy

David Ross, one of the founders of M.O.V.V. (Men of Vision and Valor) has worked hard the last few days on the case of Terry Price. Rumors were rampant on the street that he had died. Through the help of the homeless we were able to locate Terry’s backpack. David and I searched it and found some names. We called in to Chrissa and she started finding phone numbers for the names.

I started calling. One name led me to his sister. She was not aware that her bother had been injured. As you can imagine she really went through a hard time trying to find him and not knowing if he was even alive.

A man who heard someone calling for help found Terry in the river. We reported that two children found Terry but further investigation discovered it was by their father. There was so much speculation. No one knew where he was and rumor spread that he had died. That’s when we dispatched a team to find him and the truth.

David Ross was quickly recruited and the search began. Terry’s friends kept stopping us on the street for any news we had. The hospitals couldn’t confirm or deny that he was or had been in their facilities. Hippa laws would not allow that. Mean while the search continued at any means possible. Many sources were called and some offered “off the record” information.

We soon had Terry tracked down to a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. As plans were underway to find more information, Terry appeared back in Martinsburg with a broken neck, broken back, split sternum, and other injuries. Some people were in tears when they saw him.

I told him I had been working with his sister and I was sure she wanted to talk with him. I dialed the number and told her I had someone with me that wanted to talk to her. I handed him the phone and gave him some time alone. There were tears in his eyes when he handed the phone back. He told me his sister was sending money for him to go back to Washington DC so he could be with her.

A few minutes later his mother called my phone. She wanted any news I could give her. I could feel the pain of a mother that was desperately trying to find information on her son. She didn’t know what to say when I told her that he was right beside me. I handed him the phone again. After speaking with her he looked at me, “My mother said ‘Thank you’,” he said.

One of the few joys of this job is seeing a relieved mother and a happy sister who are finally able to rest.
Peace in a family once again.

A small crowd had gathered to see if it really was Terry. The homeless tried to hug him. Some cried. David Ross pulled up. “I’m going home! It was close Dave,” he said as David approached. Dave talked to him from the book of Psalms: Coming up out of a pit, putting him on solid ground. Terry listened and agreed. “I’m having nightmares every night about this fall,” he confided in David.

I know Terry will be okay. He is returning to his family and he has David Ross to help him. This is good news for Terry. The local homeless community will miss him. They will miss his smile, his encouragement, and his compassion.

This story has ended on a happy note, but this project has not been an easy one. I would like to take a moment to set the record straight on some things about this film. I have been asked and sometimes even mocked about when the film will be finished. This is a very complicated story. It is a national story that requires a lot of research and travel. It takes time to follow all the leads. Time is money.

We have gone broke several times. So far we have financed this project out of our own pockets with the exception of a two investors and one license agreement. I have worked and lived with the homeless over the last two years. All of my money and savings has been invested into it. I work seven days a week and on many weeks have worked over seventy hours.

I don’t mind that people think I’m crazy – maybe I am. I just am tired of being told I’m not doing it right or I’m not doing enough. I have been advised to step back and stop moving the story in the direction it is heading. I guess I may have lived too close to the flame but I do believe that we can do better. I do believe that every homeless person deserves help. Meanwhile the homeless are still hungry and in need.

I have reduced our monthly cost on this film to $7,000. That may seem like a lot, but remember we are recording a complete stand-alone CD album. We are writing a complete stand-alone book and we are filming nationwide. Besides we only have about two more months to go.

So what have I done? Why am I not finished yet? Well, I have shot this film, oversaw the contracts, oversaw the music production, wrote a book, travelled the nation, researched the issue, shot the stills for a gallery exhibition, met and lived with the homeless, and many more small tasks. How much is the outside investor amount? $3,500

I know I might appear to be upset, but it’s hard to witness the hardships that the homeless go through knowing that much of it we could end immediately. People are dying out here. Can we go back and say the same thing we have been saying for years? “Soon we will have a cold weather shelter,” “Soon this will be fixed,” “Soon you will be treated fairly.” Soon, soon, soon…

I believe that if you could see the homeless in this condition it would change your mind.

I think a homeless man who was interviewed while Terry was still missing, summed it up best when he stated: “It’s messed up Jeff and you know it is! I’m so sick of it, I’m so sick of the **** rhetoric of we’re going to do this or we’re going to do that and nothing is being done. Or we got a plan for this. How many more people have got to die before someone says there is a problem?”

Listen to the conversation here: interview
*Warning! This clip is unedited for content. It does contain offensive language.

Here is what I know –
1. People don’t always survive this. People die out here.
2. The public needs to be educated about this issue.

That is where the film comes in. Am I doing this to win an Academy Award? No. This film does not even qualify for nomination. Why have I put everything in this? All my money and time? Because my camera is the voice of those oppressed. I am not God’s gift to the homeless. I am not their savior. I am just an average Joe letting them tell their story to my pen and camera. The film and book are their voice. The voice that will reach mass audiences. The voice that changes things and saves lives!

I need your help. If you would like to donate to this worthy case you can do so by clicking on the Donate button on the top right of our blog. If you can volunteer email me at filmmaker90266@yahoo.com. If you can invest in a Limited Partnership call me for details at 304-676-4200 or McCoy@oceangateentertainment.com. Investors recover their money first, then it’s a 50/50 split between investors and the production company. If you can help raise the funds needed to finish this project or would like to work as or with a producer contact Ryan at rhardy@oceangateentertainment.com.

We can make a difference.

7.21.10
DJ McCoy

Remember Terry? I wrote about him a few weeks ago. He was the homeless veteran that we have been trying to get into rehab at the V.A. hospital. The V.A. did not have room at this time. I haven’t seen Terry for a few days and thought he may have moved deeper into the woods.

I met with Tony Green from the local Knights of Columbus and we decided that we would search the entire area until we found him. Right before I was due to start the search, I was informed that Terry had fallen off a bridge and landed on his head. Two children that were playing found him floating in the water. He had to be flown out of state and he was paralyzed from the neck down.

Several attempts have been made to confirm his medical condition, but due to Hippa laws we have been unable to find out more. If he is indeed paralyzed this will be a prime example of why we need a wrap around program. Here was a man that needed help, wanted help, and had asked for help, but there was no place to go.

How is it possible that the government has billions of dollars in programs and it’s not reaching the lowest level on the street? Where is the problem? Is it a lack of knowledge? How many more must die, be jailed or attacked before we get serious about this problem?

In the sixties some people marched for civil rights. Some Presidents embraced the idea. Some people died for it. They made a difference. They paid a great price. At the time the nation was slow to move forward. Today young people wonder how we could have ever been segregated.

I believe the homeless situation is just as great a cause as the civil rights movement. I believe that someday a new generation will look back and wonder how we ever tolerated such a lack of action and compassion.

Terry was a homeless man that had a great heart, a quick smile, and friendly attitude. He is and will be missed in the homeless community that he was flown out of.

7.14.10
DJ McCoy

Remember Elizabeth? She’s had a tough life. She lost her children to the state. Her husband beat her and moved her into a street life that included prostitution, drug dealing, and drug use. She became a drug addict and worked the streets to survive each day.

She is also one of the main characters of our film. I have filmed her in different stages of the roller coaster life she lived. We drove her to a rehab house in Washington D.C. and she came out twenty-eight days later clean and looking good. She filed for divorce and we brought her back to Martinsburg. She soon fell back into her old life.

Many people wanted to give up on her. They felt that she was a lost cause. “Can’t throw good money after bad,” “This is what she wants.” I heard all kinds of excuses. Some of us didn’t give up. Mary Gunderson raised money for a bus fare and sent her to Idaho. Elizabeth moved in with her mother and started life all over again.

Elizabeth called and told me that she is off the streets. She is drug free since January and is in college to become a paralegal! From there she wants to go to law school! Most people looked at Elizabeth as a hopeless, drug-using prostitute. In reality, Elizabeth is a very intelligent, caring girl who had a series of events in her life that left her on the outside looking in.

“They are wonderful people, they are angels in my book” she said to me when asked about the people that believed in her and helped her with food or clothing and even a hotel room from time to time. That’s not all – she is also a very caring person. She called and asked for a favor. Was it money or new clothes for her to start school? No. It was for her friend; a girl that was left behind from her old life, trapped in a cycle of prostitution, drugs, and homelessness. Elizabeth like so many other people that are or have been homeless constantly look back to see where the other least, lost, and forgotten people are.

Now we are at a new road. This time we are watching Elizabeth get her life back and move on to become a productive citizen again, while reaching out to help a friend find her way. Will we give up on her friend if the going gets tough? Will we believe that she just isn’t worth the effort or that she deserves the mess she’s in? Or will we help her, by reaching out to her time and time again until she becomes an “Elizabeth” story. The choice is yours. Just remember you can make a difference.

7.10.10
DJ McCoy

It seems like a miracle from God. I wasn’t sure we would make it. Once again we ran out of money. I was hoping something would come through, but it wasn’t. At the 11th hour Jackie K. made a short-term, interest free loan to the project and kept us in production! Thanks Jackie.

Most people don’t understand that it takes a great deal of money to produce a film. We also have the original music CD and a book underway. We also work in the field with the homeless. It all takes time and money. Somehow we keep moving along believing that this film will change and even save lives. It will be worth all the hardship. The stronger the breeze the tougher the trees. I feel like the toughest oak in the forest.

Catholic Charities has purchased and moved into a new building in Martinsburg, WV. It has taken months and a lot of money but they made it. Congratulations to all the workers, the church, and Bishop Bransfield for work, effort, money, and a job well done.

Today some of the homeless asked if they could volunteer. They’re hungry, tired and hot, but they want to come in and help move furniture and supplies inside. Just like always they are quick to help and want to be valued. Stay tuned to our web site – more changes and news are coming.

7.1.10
DJ McCoy