arin's attic | houston: we have a recession

houston: we have a recession

March 27, 2009 @ 09:21 am Blogged, Current Events,
Tagged as: texas,news,economy,houston,homeless

houston downtown

so far, houston has done much better than other areas of the country, but with a national and global economy that are on the fritz, it was only a matter of time before it hit here. it remains to be seen how hard that hit will be…

The full force of the recession is finally hitting Houston. It could lose 44,000 jobs in 2009, according to a recent report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose 101.8 percent last year, including 18.4 percent in December alone. The year-end unemployment rate increased by a quarter, to 5.5 percent. “Houston’s economy is now locked into the national economy,” says Klineberg. The city, he adds, will at last join the rest of the country in its “day of reckoning for living beyond our means.”

For many Houstonians, that means foreclosure and eviction, and a growing number of people and families are suddenly facing homelessness. Houston is not ready to help. Its underfunded and outdated homeless system is already stretched thin by a population 10,000 strong, which gets help to subsist in homelessness but not overcome it — or avoid it in the first place. Briggitte Stevenson, the chief case manager at Star of Hope, calls it a “full circus,” something previously stable, working people — especially families — will be hard-pressed to navigate on their own.

this is the biggest worry. the newly homeless, and those just on the brink of it, have no resources. finding help can be very, very difficult.

Brian Flores is the principal at J. Will Jones Elementary in Midtown, where about 100 of 300 students are considered homeless, including about 30 from The Salvation Army. It is the most the school has seen in his six years there, which Flores says is due to a combination of Hurricane Ike and the economy.

The school often learns about its homeless families from the youngest children.

“Generally, it’s not the older children who tell us. It’s the four-year-old and the five-year-old, because they’re so honest,” he says.

When he or the school’s counselor calls home to ask how they can help, they find parents lost in the disjointed process of trying to find the right help. It may take direction from Flores and the counselor, as well as pointed calls to the right people, to move the process along.

“Oftentimes, they’re thrown into homelessness, and they can’t deal with it. They don’t know how to get help,” Flores says.

of course, those on the bottom most rung of the economic ladder were *already* in trouble. too few homeless shelters, too few transitional programs. it’s all well and good to address health issues, substance abuse problems, etc, but once “cured”, the people are just dumped back on the street…

Houston’s best options are its shelter programs. They are either narrow in focus — AIDS, veterans — or religious in nature, and laden with rules, which many homeless people have a hard time following in the first place. There are people like Kaos, a bullish 20-year-old girl with a black Mohawk, who, as the misspelled name on her massive bicep suggests, just won’t be controlled. “You know what they say,” she says, as she sits in the grass near a food line, stoned, with her boyfriend in her lap. “Rules are meant to be broken.”

But even those making an honest effort to get off the street often have a hard time sticking to the shelter programs — not being able to bring a girlfriend; not being able to sip a beer, even off the grounds; a 5 p.m. curfew; spats with other residents and staff — or stomaching the religion. Houston is the only major city in Texas without a city-sponsored shelter.

Those who do well in the shelters might face the housing problem once they’re through.

Debbie Smiley is a Salvation Army success story. She was homeless and addicted to crack for three years, and she has the battle scars to prove it — she once jumped through a glass window to avoid being raped. She’s been clean for a year, leads AA meetings and recently regained custody of her two kids, who are playing happily in her lap. She doesn’t break down until she considers what will happen when her time in the program is up. Then she rambles and sobs. There is her criminal record. She hasn’t had a job in years.

read further, Houston’s Working Class Gets Bumped into Homelessness and Poverty by the Crashing Economy and Houston’s Working Class Gets Bumped by the Crashing Economy: Hardcore Homeless.

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On 03/28/09, Carol said...

I just read an article the other day about how those at the bottom of the ladder are being hit the hardest. Especially those within developing countries. Already living a life of poverty and now that we’re experiencing a global sh*t hitting the fan, they’re being pushed to the brink.

On 03/28/09, arin721 said...

yes :( and as always, the organizations to first feel the pinch are the charities designed to help those most in need. (yet another reason that i’m opposed to social services being a strictly voluntary thing.)

Check out arin721's latest entry: ed brayton on rachel maddow show