Scarlet McCahill, Project HOME’s Community Education & Engagement Special, recently received an A+ from 8th graders at Warren G. Harding Middle School in the Frankfort section of Philadelphia, where she gave a “Homelessness 101” presentation. The students are working on a Need in Deed community project and chose homelessness as their focus topic. Below are some of the responses from the students.
Mira is an alumna of Project HOME. Soft-spoken and always elegantly dressed, she frequently comes back to Project HOME to participate in alumni events, our speakers bureau, and advocacy efforts. On her recent visit, she shared some serious concerns: As she is following the media debate about gun violence, she is worried that the general public is getting a skewed view of mental illness.
The current debate on gun violence is of deep concern to us at Project HOME. The neighborhood where we do our community development work is all too familiar with the crisis of gun violence that has plagued so many Philadelphia neighborhoods. Gunfire is all too common, and shootings and killings are painfully recalled. The tragedy at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, resonates agonizingly with this community, which has also had to bury its children.
So we care deeply about sensible policies that can help curb this crisis. We recognize that violence has many roots, including the lack of common-sense gun laws, but also the lack of adequate schooling and economic opportunity, which feeds into family breakdown, addictions, and desperate choices by young people. Throw in a culture rife with violent entertainment, which corrodes our moral sensibilities, and the persistent legacy of racism, which fuels anger and alienation in many young people, and you have a toxic brew – one that claims its victims. (You can read our 2007 statement on violence here.)
Clearly, Adam Lanza, the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, had serious mental health struggles, as have some other perpetrators of gun violence.
But, as Mira pointed out, we cannot accept a linkage between gun violence and mental illness.
Speaking on WHYY’s “Radio Times” shortly after the Newtown shooting, Joseph Rogers of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania raised the following concern: “The push to link mental illness with violence only creates problems for persons with mental illness. It only scares people away from getting services and help that they need. It creates stigma, creates discrimination.” (You can listen to that interview here.)
Joseph is completely right. In a recent article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the authors report that “the public’s negative attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness are exacerbated by news media accounts of mass shootings involving a shooter with mental illness.” They underscored research that showed that the majority of persons with serious mental health conditions are not violent, and that the relationship between serious mental health issues and gun violence is complex and influenced by factors such as substance use. They raise the concern that deepening prejudice against people with mental health conditions because of media coverage of gun violence could result in more obstacles to mental health treatment.
Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, who is himself in recovery from a mental illness, writes in a recent New York Times article, “The recent tragedies in Newtown and elsewhere are especially abhorrent to those of us in the mental health community, particularly since studies have shown that people with mental illness are 12 times more likely to be victims of violence, and no more likely to be violent, if they are not substance abusers. Nonetheless, horrific acts of violence are inevitably associated with mental illnesses, often because the motivations for them seem unfathomable, and they end up getting sensationalized front page coverage.”
The real narrative in terms of mental illness and violence, according to Temple University’s Mark Salzer (also speaking on “Radio Times”), is that persons with mental illnesses are far more often the victims than the perpetrators. Seventy percent of persons with mental health conditions have been victims of physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Meanwhile, another writer recently pointed out a key element in the current gun debate that is being grossly overlooked: the fact that there are nearly twice as many suicides by guns as there are homicides. So we must consider suicide prevention, which often has linkages to mental health conditions, as a key goal in our efforts to reduce gun violence.
Clearly, the real goal is greater access to effective mental health treatment. And if, in the wake of violent incidents, there can be increased public support for treatment, that is positive. But that call for treatment must not be predicated on myths that link mental health conditions and violence. We must not promote treatment for persons with mental illnesses out of a fear for public safety; our advocacy must be based on the humane understanding that anyone who is struggling deserves help, deserves to lead a whole and healthy life. Advocacy for treatment includes advocacy against discrimination and for the full dignity and humanity of persons who happen to have mental health issues.
“I didn’t want to have people with mental health situations categorized by the violence that is going on today,” Mira says. “People are so quick to say that these things are all because of people with mental illness, and use it as a basis of prejudice against people with mental illness who are trying to work through recovery in life.” She believes that the Project HOME community must play a constructive role in the public debate. We invite all of you to raise your voices, advocating for effective mental health treatment on the one hand, and advocating for policies that address gun violence on the other. And we also invite you to confront those myths and stereotypes, and assert what is at the heart of our mission and values: the dignity of each person. Let's support people in their recovery – and support society in its recovery from violence.
The Vote for Homes Coalition is holding a voter registration training session for all interested volunteers on Tuesday, September 20 from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm at 1515 Fairmount Ave. The session will teach volunteers how to register voters who are homeless, living with disabilities, or are ex-offenders while also detailing the voting rights these populations enjoy. Please RSVP with Jennine Miller at jenninemiller@projecthome.org or 215-232-7272, ext. 3042.
Our good friends at the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania recently published an open letter to all members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation urging them to support housing programs for all Pennsylvanians. The letter, signed by 300 organizations and businesses, was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer and several other newspapers around the state on August 2.
You can add your voice to this important message by contacting your congressional representatives and senators and urge them to work to ensure decent housing for all Pennsylvanians. To get contact information on your legislators, or to send an automatic email, click here.
Open Letter to Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation
Like you, we believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to afford a decent place to live. No child should be homeless. Seniors and people with disabilities should be able to live safely and with dignity.
Since the Great Depression, a network of private sector, community, faith and mission-driven businesses has evolved to address the unmet housing needs of our communities.
This week 300 representatives of this network representing 45,000 homes and a fulltime workforce of 8500 sent you a letter to make sure you understand the disastrous local impact for Pennsylvania’s housing market, job market, families and communities of a deficit reduction plan that cuts housing and homeless programs.
Much has been said about the safety net, as it should be. With unemployment, homelessness, foreclosure and housing instability rising, people are suffering.
The economic impact of these investments has gotten less attention. Cutting housing and homeless programs is pennywise and pound foolish – it will actually cost us more than we save.
Last year, for example, PA received almost $500M from HUD capital programs like CDBG and HOME. They generated an additional $1 billion in economic impact – jobs and new money – from the purchase of construction supplies and services, local spending, wages, tax revenue and ultimately the increase in property values surrounding the new or rehabbed home. That’s double the return on investment.
Low Income Housing Tax Credit syndication brought in over $200 million of private capital to PA last year to help finance affordable rental apartments, generating nearly ten times the public dollars on the table. This is money well spent.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Housing counseling, another program on the chopping block, has been proven to help owners in default successfully negotiate with lenders to prevent foreclosure. In fact, bankers have gone to bat to save it. Foreclosures strip equity from all our homes and neighborhoods, costing far more than counseling.
We can pay now or pay later.
For people experiencing homelessness, permanent supportive housing actually saves taxpayers money by reducing costs to other expensive systems, like corrections, hospitals, and emergency shelter. Studies show that chronically homeless people who live on the street cycle in and out of shelters, jails, hospitals, and actually cost taxpayers more than providing a permanent home.
We, the undersigned, understand that governments, like families, have to cut back in these difficult times. But when families make cuts, the last thing that goes is the mortgage, because, above all, we need our home.
And here’s the kicker, HUD is only 3% of the total federal budget. Cutting HUD hurts us all more than it helps the bottom line. We urge you to invest in a home within reach of every Pennsylvanian.
Learn more about the great work of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania at www.housingalliancepa.org.
We share with you this posting from the blog of our partner organization Philabundance.
It’s a short talk by Jessica Jackley, co-founder of KIVA, an innovative and inspirational program that empowers poor communities around the world using microcredit. It’s an example of a positive and effective approach to solving poverty based on affirming people’s dignity and potential. She speaks eloquently of breaking the barrier of “us versus them” and building relationships and community – values dear to us at Project H.O.M.E.
Thanks to Philabundance for posting this and for spreading a hopeful vision. http://www.philabundance.org/2010/12/14/us-vs-them/
For more information on Philabundance, go to www.philabundance.org.
Over the past two weeks, Project H.O.M.E. and our friends and allies have been in full-gear advocacy mode, working to defend the rights and dignity of our homeless sisters and brothers.
We were stunned when we heard that Councilman Frank DiCicco introduced a bill in City Council to amend the City’s 1999 Sidewalk Behavior Ordinance (bill #110386). The impact of his amendments would be to empower police officers to cite or arrest persons who are homeless on the streets of Center City without the previously mandated provision of social services. When we reviewed the bill, it was clear to us that in effect, it criminalizes homelessness and profoundly changes an important aspect of the City’s approach to homelessness.
We have formed the SOLUTIONS NOT CITATIONS campaign, with two key messages: Homelessness is Not a Crime and Keep the Focus on Real Solutions. You can read our full position paper online.
We have had meetings and phone calls with almost all of the Council members on the Streets and Services committee, which will hear the bill tomorrow. Meanwhile, over 1,300 persons have sent letters to all City Council members and to Mayor Nutter.
Two of the six committee members have stated they will vote against the bill, and two others are leaning toward voting against it. So we have a good chance to win this fight.
But we need to keep busy these next two days.
This is not the time for us to recast homelessness as a criminal problem and to waste precious city resources on ill-advised, inhumane, and counterproductive measure like Councilman DiCicco’s bill. We’re better than that. Fortunately, many of our City Council representatives know this, so we are hopeful the bill can be stopped.
Let’s not take a step backwards in the struggle against homelessness. We must build on our track record of success and finish the job of ending chronic homelessness.
You can follow our campaign on Facebook.
Please help Philadelphia do the smart and right thing for people who are living on our streets.
The 100,000 Homes Campaign is a national grassroots effort to place America’s most vulnerable, long-term homeless individuals into 100,000 homes by July 2013. Mayor Nutter, Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Office of Supportive Housing, along with Project H.O.M.E., the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Horizon House, Bethesda Project, Broad Street Ministry, and Pathways to Housing are all partners in Philadelphia’s local campaign.
As Philadelphia joins this dynamic effort, we need your help! The success of the 100,000 Homes Campaign depends on the partnership of volunteers, especially during Outreach Week (May 15-20). That week, teams of volunteers will take to the streets to survey persons who are homeless. The goal is to create a by-name registry of people living on our streets, to prioritize people who have been out there the longest and have the most severe needs. What we learn together during this week will help us reduce chronic homelessness in Philadelphia.
Outreach Week is right around the corner. We’ve got social workers, case managers, students, CEOs, certified peer specialists, academics, and many others on our team who share the belief that we can end homelessness in Philadelphia!
We’re well on our way to our volunteer goal, but we need your help. For Philadelphia Outreach Week to reach as many individuals experiencing homelessness as possible, we need more volunteers.
To volunteer, click here. And please spread the word to others who may want to join our team.
If each person reading this recruits one change agent/concerned citizen, we’ll be in great shape.
Please contact Jake Bowling at jbowling@mhasp.org or at 267-507-3816 if you have any questions about Philadelphia’s campaign. Let us know of any volunteer groups, agencies, faith communities, or other groups that would benefit from a presentation about 100K Homes.
For more information on the campaign, go to www.100khomesphilly.org. Also, find us on Facebook (100K Homes Philly).
For more information about the national campaign, visit www.100khomes.org.
