judecorp | Criminalize the symptoms while you spread the disease.

I'd like to personally thank each and every person in Franklin County who voted for the current City Council and County bozos.

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

More people, including families with young children, might be on the streets next year as Columbus shelters deal with getting $834,000 less than they requested from the city and Franklin County.

"We can't do something with nothing," said Colleen Bain-Gold, vice president of housing for the YWCA.

The Community Shelter Board expects to receive $524,750 less than it requested from the city and $74,750 less from the county for the Rebuilding Lives plan. That could result in fewer beds for the homeless, the elimination of day services at shelters and a loss of up to 100 apartments for disabled and mentally ill people, said Barbara Poppe, the board's executive director. It also could mean the end of job-hunting workshops at three shelters and less money to search for men and women living under bridges and in bushes.

In addition, the group will be faced with nearly $235,000 in cuts from the county for prevention and outreach, hurting families on the brink of eviction, Poppe said. "It couldn't have come at a worse time.

"Family homelessness is up 15 percent over last year, requests for prevention services are up 25 percent, and Franklin County Job and Family Services is projected to serve 2,500 fewer households -- 88 percent of which need help with housing -- through its emergency-assistance program in 2003."

The shelter board had asked the City Council and county commissioners for $849,750 each, but both are dealing with money crunches. The county has committed $775,000 to Rebuilding Lives, and the city is looking at providing $325,000.

Wanda Eveans said that if she had put off relocating to Columbus until next summer, she might not be living in a three-bedroom apartment on the North Side now. The 44-year-old single mother and her two children found shelter through the YWCA Interfaith Hospitality Network one week after moving from Tennessee.

With help from the YWCA and Salvation Army, Eveans also has a job through a temporary-employment agency.

Finances already are tight for the shelters. The shelter board has given them an additional $220,000 this year to keep a roof over the heads of the increasing numbers of homeless men, women and families turning to them this winter. They are seeing an average of 45 families a day, compared with 39 a day last year.

"As the economy takes a nose dive, we are suddenly being pushed beyond our limits," said Karen Schwarzwalder, president and chief executive officer of the YWCA.

In addition, Faith Mission on 8th Avenue might not receive $130,000 it was expecting from the state. If the shelter board can't come up with the money, Faith Mission will have to cut day services as the Open Shelter did in April. It is now open 24 hours a day.

The shelter board also might not get the $254,075 it is counting on from United Way of Central Ohio, which expects to fall 11 percent short of its $55.1 million goal this year.

"Things don't bode well for the future," said John Bickley, president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Central Ohio.

Rebuilding Lives would be hit hardest by the cuts. Its goals are to reconfigure the city's homeless shelters to provide more emergency services and, eventually, fewer beds and to create 800 apartments for chronically homeless people by 2004 at a cost of $35 million.

To offset the shortage, the shelter board has laid off one person, cut its budget by 9.4 percent and has asked the 17 groups, including shelters, that it funds to cut their budgets by 3.5 percent.

That still would leave the board with a $600,000 shortfall in 2003.

Councilwoman Charleta B. Tavares said the city, county, United Way and community need to help the shelter board come up with enough money to keep open the 315 apartments that already are part of Rebuilding Lives. "It's not fair to hurt those at rock bottom with the brunt of the cuts," Tavares said.

She said there is no way the board will be able to stick to its goal of adding 485 apartments by 2004.

That's discouraging news to Denise Lawson, 41, who has been living on the streets and with her mother on and off for years.

"The tougher the times," she said, "the tougher our lives."

epyle@dispatch.com

What does this mean for me? Well, I'm one of Faith Mission on 8th Avenue's day programs. Work that out, you little mathematician!

How about we put up a wall between the houses and the highway, and then you can go your way and I can go my way?

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: Ani DiFranco - Tis of Thee