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Tag: Unhoused

  • Covenant House Georgia hosts Sleep Out to raise awareness of youth homelessness awareness

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    Sleep Out is a participatory event where Covenant House Georgia supporters give up their beds for one night to sleep outdoors on CHGA’s campus, in support of young people experiencing homelessness and escaping trafficking. Photo by Isaiah Singleton/The Atlanta Voice

    Sleep Out is a participatory event where Covenant House Georgia supporters give up their beds for one night to sleep outdoors on CHGA’s campus, in support of young people experiencing homelessness and escaping trafficking.

    Imagine turning 18 years old and not having a warm bed or a place to call home. This is the case for many youths, not just in Atlanta, but all over the nation. On Thursday, Nov. 20, Covenant House Georgia held their annual Sleep Out event to raise awareness to youth homelessness in Atlanta and around the nation.

    Covenant House Georgia is a non-profit organization that provides emergency shelter and support services for young people, ages 18-24, who are experiencing homelessness or escaping human trafficking in the Atlanta area. Covenant House Georgia is also an LGBTQ+ safe space.

    Sleep Out is a participatory event where Covenant House Georgia supporters give up their beds for one night to sleep outdoors on CHGA’s campus, in support of young people experiencing homelessness and escaping trafficking.

    Photo by Isaiah Singleton/The Atlanta Voice

    When you Sleep Out, participants join a worldwide movement to end youth homelessness! As part of the larger Covenant House International federation of shelters, Covenant House Georgia works in partnership with our peers to plan the best possible event, combining Sleep Out best practices with the unique needs of our Atlanta community

    Some services they offer are Drop-in & emergency shelter, transitional housing, healthcare, educational support, job training.

    According to the Covenant House Georgia, over 3,300 youth experience homelessness in Atlanta. 49% of youth experiencing homelessness have been sexually exploited. 40% of youth experiencing homelessness are LGBTQ+, despite only 7% of the general population of youth identifying as LGBTQ+. Moreover, LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to be victimized than non-LGBTQ+ youth on the streets.

    Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    Additionally, 16-19-year-olds have the highest unemployment rate of any age group, at 12.6% (more than 3x the national average) and higher for at-risk youth. This leaves many without options to escape homelessness.

    Board Chair of Covenant House Georgia, Ben Deutsch, said every child deserves to have a place they call home and a haven.

    “Every child should have a place that they feel safe in,” he said. “Our young people are not invisible or forgotten. This is why the Covenant House Georgia was created and why we continue to sleep out every year to highlight such a critical issue. We will do this in solidarity with 100 young people who will be sleeping inside because of all the arduous work, and all the goodness that you have all done tonight with donations.”

    Covenant House International Director of Programming Kedren Jackson said the sleep-out is not a reenactment of homelessness nor a performance.

    “This is not just for fun; this is not simply to hang out. This is an invitation to move through this space with humility and to see our young people with a different level of clarity and respect,” she said. “Tonight, we may see their humor, leadership, vulnerability, creativity, hesitation, raw emotions, and uncertainty. None of this is random, and it all comes from somewhere.”

    Throughout the event program, participants were able to experience a talent show displayed by former and current youths in the program, a candlelight vigil to remember youths who were lost this year due to homelessness, a tour of the campus, and then the sleep-out event.

    The night ended with everyone camped outside in their sleeping bags by fire pits, mingling until they fell asleep.

    What was thought of as just a sleep-out event to some turned into not only a transformational but also an in-depth, hands-on experience for people. Between hearing from the youths and everyone sitting around the pit fires and sleeping, it turned into more than just sleeping outside; It became a purposeful movement.

    First-timer participant of the sleep out, Vanessa Wright, and her friends said they wanted to find ways to give back to the community.

    “This was something I’ve always wanted to do but never knew where, and one of my friends told me about this and brought me along,” she said. “I am so glad we are doing this, and I’m also grateful it’s not too cold as I thought it might be. This type of thing is important, and more people should know about it and be willing to do things that can be uncomfortable.”

    Another participant, who also happened to have experienced homelessness as a youth, Kenneth Dwight, said he has been doing the sleep-out for a few years now and is happy to be able to contribute. 

    “What’s crazy is I was once in some of these guys’ positions. Going home from home, living out on the streets not having a stable home or resources. It was tough for a while, but I was able to find some stability through my uncle, who took me in,” he said. “Programs like the Covenant House Georgia are crucial because youths not only in Atlanta but all over the country are on the streets being exposed to all kinds of bad things that aren’t growing them, so I’m just happy to help in any way I can because I was once one of them.”

    Before the end of the night, everyone bundled up in their sleeping bags and drifted off to sleep to the sounds of crickets and fire cracking.

    For more information about Covenant House, resources, or to donate, visit https://www.sleepout.org/georgia.

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  • Sacramento County brings voter registration efforts to unhoused residents

    Sacramento County brings voter registration efforts to unhoused residents

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    As election day nears, efforts to get people to vote across the state are in full gear.In Sacramento, advocates for vulnerable communities such as the unsheltered population ensure they’re not left behind this election season.On Tuesday, Sacramento County officials partnered with the nonprofit organization Loaves & Fishes to host a registration drive, where a dozen unsheltered people took the time to ensure they’re ready to vote in the 2024 General Election.The respite center serves around 1,000 people daily through its 60 programs.”These are folks who don’t necessarily have a platform to be heard anywhere so we try to facilitate that for them here, especially through the vote – everyone’s vote matters,” said Naomi Cabral, the development director at Sacramento Loaves & Fishes. In California, residence is not a requirement to be eligible to vote.”Just because you may be experiencing homelessness, doesn’t mean you are not eligible to vote,” said Sacramento County’s Ken Casparis.While options like mail-in ballots are tricky, Sacramento County sends ballots to people living in shelters if they receive their mail at those shelters. “Some unhoused individuals keep PO boxes and use those to receive their ballots,” said Casparis. Voters cannot use a P.O. Box or business address to register to vote but can use a P.O. Box or business address to receive mail.Unhoused registered voters who do not have an address to receive mail can visit vote centers to receive a ballot or register and vote at any county voting center by submitting a general location such as a shelter, a park, or an intersection where they’re sleeping.Sacramento’s latest Point-in-Time count found that 6,615 people experience homelessness on any given night.Currently, there are 603 active registered unhoused voters in Sacramento County.One of those voters is Carla McClein. She signed up at Loaves & Fishes on Tuesday and is ready to make her voice heard.”I believe I can make a change if I vote and say what I disagree with. It just gives me a right,” said McClein.The 59-year-old’s top concern is the economy, as she spends another day on the street.”I would like in my senior years – because my health is not very good – I would like to at least be in a comfortable apartment where I don’t have rent increases and I’m not forced out because I can’t afford rent,” McClein told KCRA. Sacramento County officials have held similar events at Stanford Settlement Neighborhood Center and Mercy Housing. The next registration drive at Sacramento Loaves & Fishes will take place on Oct. 17 from 8 a.m. to noon. For more information about the November election, including key issues and other races on the ballot, check out the KCRA 3 Voter Guide.Find more political news from our national team here.

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    As election day nears, efforts to get people to vote across the state are in full gear.

    In Sacramento, advocates for vulnerable communities such as the unsheltered population ensure they’re not left behind this election season.

    On Tuesday, Sacramento County officials partnered with the nonprofit organization Loaves & Fishes to host a registration drive, where a dozen unsheltered people took the time to ensure they’re ready to vote in the 2024 General Election.

    The respite center serves around 1,000 people daily through its 60 programs.

    “These are folks who don’t necessarily have a platform to be heard anywhere so we try to facilitate that for them here, especially through the vote – everyone’s vote matters,” said Naomi Cabral, the development director at Sacramento Loaves & Fishes.

    In California, residence is not a requirement to be eligible to vote.

    “Just because you may be experiencing homelessness, doesn’t mean you are not eligible to vote,” said Sacramento County’s Ken Casparis.

    While options like mail-in ballots are tricky, Sacramento County sends ballots to people living in shelters if they receive their mail at those shelters.

    “Some unhoused individuals keep PO boxes and use those to receive their ballots,” said Casparis. Voters cannot use a P.O. Box or business address to register to vote but can use a P.O. Box or business address to receive mail.

    Unhoused registered voters who do not have an address to receive mail can visit vote centers to receive a ballot or register and vote at any county voting center by submitting a general location such as a shelter, a park, or an intersection where they’re sleeping.

    Sacramento’s latest Point-in-Time count found that 6,615 people experience homelessness on any given night.

    Currently, there are 603 active registered unhoused voters in Sacramento County.

    One of those voters is Carla McClein. She signed up at Loaves & Fishes on Tuesday and is ready to make her voice heard.

    “I believe I can make a change if I vote and say what I disagree with. It just gives me a right,” said McClein.

    The 59-year-old’s top concern is the economy, as she spends another day on the street.

    “I would like in my senior years – because my health is not very good – I would like to at least be in a comfortable apartment where I don’t have rent increases and I’m not forced out because I can’t afford rent,” McClein told KCRA.

    Sacramento County officials have held similar events at Stanford Settlement Neighborhood Center and Mercy Housing.

    The next registration drive at Sacramento Loaves & Fishes will take place on Oct. 17 from 8 a.m. to noon.

    For more information about the November election, including key issues and other races on the ballot, check out the KCRA 3 Voter Guide.

    Find more political news from our national team here.

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  • City, others invest millions into new plan to assist Atlanta’s unhoused

    City, others invest millions into new plan to assist Atlanta’s unhoused

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    Dozens of people gathered outside of Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta for the press conference on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Partners for HOME CEO Cathryn Vassell, Georgia State University President Dr. M. Brian Blake, Frank Fernandez of Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, and members of the Atlanta City Council gathered on the corner of Peachtree Street near Woodruff Park for the special announcement. 

    The park, a regular stop for the city’s homeless and unhoused alike, was surrounded by Atlanta Police and people in suits and casual dress. New York City native and Atlanta resident Demetrius Overton wondered if it all meant anything.

    “You don’t see a lot of these people around here any other time,” Overton, 38, said. “They preach that good song, but does anyone hear it.”

    Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens (left) and Partners for HOME CEO Cathryn Vassell. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    The Mayor was the first to speak and announced a major investment in the effort to combat what remains a major issue in Atlanta: homelessness. A public-private investment of $150 million will build hundreds of units for the city’s homeless. 

    “This is something that the city must take the lead on,” Dickens said during his remarks. He added that this would be the single largest investment in homelessness in the city’s history. 

    Dickens said this investment wouldn’t just be for short-term fixes for units, similar to what was created with The Melody project last year. It would be for the long haul. 

    Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    “We are here today to talk about something we all see and are touched about,” Dickens said. 

    The details of the million-dollar investment include multiple projects, according to renderings that were set up near where the Mayor and others spoke. According to Vassell, there are also plans to continue raising money for further investment.

    “We must move like we have never moved before,” said Vassell, who said Partners for HOME have “rehoused” thousands of families over the past couple of years.

    Following the event, Dickens (left) greeted a man who called out to him moments before the press conference began. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    “This is a crisis in our country, and until we get a hold of it, we will continue to see unhoused people coming into our community,” Vassell said.

    The two projects, Waterworks and 405 Cooper Rapid Housing, will be located in underserved communities on the city’s Westside. According to Dickens, waterworks will consist of two buildings and 100 total units that are expected to break ground in the fall. 405 Cooper, located in Mechanicsville, will combine 70 for-sale townhomes with 100 units for the unhoused.

    Fernandez, who said he saw people sleeping on the street on his walk over to Woodruff Park Tuesday morning, added, “This commitment says a lot about who we are as a city.” 

    The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta contributed $10 million to Partners for HOME for this project. According to its website, partners for HOME, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that was started in 2015, aims to bring together government, nonprofit, business, and community stakeholders to make homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring.

    Vassell wants to raise another $43 million of private funds for the projects but added that this cannot just be a collaboration between these entities. Taking from the Mayor’s “Group project” slogan, Vassell said there also needs to be investment from county, state, and behavioral health organizations. 

    “This investment is courageous, ambitious, and audacious,” she said. 

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    Donnell Suggs

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  • City, Camp Resolution remain at odds amid new correspondence

    City, Camp Resolution remain at odds amid new correspondence

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    Advocates for the people living at Sacramento’s Camp Resolution want city leaders to rescind a March letter to the camp’s operator stating that they would be shutting the encampment down. This comes despite word the city planned to ease its efforts to shut down the site.“Today, the City of Sacramento notified Safe Ground Sacramento that it would hold off on the termination if various conditions were met,” a city spokesperson wrote in an online statement Thursday.The statement also included a link to a letter, dated May 2nd, between Assistant City Manager Mario Lara and Safe Ground Sacramento Executive Director Mark Merin. In it, Lara writes “the City is willing to hold in abeyance the requirement to vacate provided that Safe Ground Sacramento brings the property into compliance with the variance issued by the Water Board on Jan. 13, 2022, which allows habitation only in vehicles parked on the paved portion of the site.” Merin told KCRA 3 Thursday evening that while the notice seemed to be a positive development, the letter did not supersede a March letter sent by the city to him stating the occupants of Camp Resolution must be out by mid-May. “They’ve got to go all the way and rescind the notice,” he said. “The lease is extremely important.”The agreement between Safe Ground Sacramento and the city mandates that trailers must be off the ground for people living at the site. The land is approved to be a safe-parking site only due to concerns about soil contamination. Merin said it is his understanding that the crux of the current issue is that some of the camp’s residents are camping on unpaved parts of the property. The lease, however, also dictates the camp cannot be shut down until the occupants are in permanent housing.“The city – everybody, the city council, the city manager – has an opportunity to do something really good, really novel, really neat, that could serve as a model for going forward,” Merin said. “Instead of tripping over a technicality, they should rescind the notice and let’s get going. Let’s work on the real issue here.”Merin said the camp is working for the dozens of people who currently live there but acknowledges that building more permanent housing in the form of low-income housing could be a good next step for the site. In the meantime, he said, occupants need to be allowed to stay at Camp Resolution until they have housing. And an attorney for residents is ready to go to court to ensure they can stay.Anthony Prince, the attorney representing the Sacramento Homeless Union and the occupants of Camp Resolution, said Thursday the residents are anxious and concerned about the city’s actions and that the back-and-forth over the last few weeks.“There’s no reason to trust that the city is going to keep its word,” he said. “It’s broken its word already.”Prince acknowledged Thursday’s letter but reiterated that negotiations between the camp and the city cannot take place until the March letter is tossed out. He said he notified city officials Thursday that they have until Monday, May 6 to rescind the termination of their lease notice or he planned to take legal action to keep the camp open.“We’re willing to talk to them. We’re willing to discuss anything they want to talk about: variances, putting some kind of modification in the agreement,” he said. Those conversations can only come once the March letter is rescinded, Prince said.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    Advocates for the people living at Sacramento’s Camp Resolution want city leaders to rescind a March letter to the camp’s operator stating that they would be shutting the encampment down.

    This comes despite word the city planned to ease its efforts to shut down the site.

    “Today, the City of Sacramento notified Safe Ground Sacramento that it would hold off on the termination if various conditions were met,” a city spokesperson wrote in an online statement Thursday.

    The statement also included a link to a letter, dated May 2nd, between Assistant City Manager Mario Lara and Safe Ground Sacramento Executive Director Mark Merin.

    In it, Lara writes “the City is willing to hold in abeyance the requirement to vacate provided that Safe Ground Sacramento brings the property into compliance with the variance issued by the Water Board on Jan. 13, 2022, which allows habitation only in vehicles parked on the paved portion of the site.”

    Merin told KCRA 3 Thursday evening that while the notice seemed to be a positive development, the letter did not supersede a March letter sent by the city to him stating the occupants of Camp Resolution must be out by mid-May.

    “They’ve got to go all the way and rescind the notice,” he said. “The lease is extremely important.”

    The agreement between Safe Ground Sacramento and the city mandates that trailers must be off the ground for people living at the site. The land is approved to be a safe-parking site only due to concerns about soil contamination.

    Merin said it is his understanding that the crux of the current issue is that some of the camp’s residents are camping on unpaved parts of the property. The lease, however, also dictates the camp cannot be shut down until the occupants are in permanent housing.

    “The city – everybody, the city council, the city manager – has an opportunity to do something really good, really novel, really neat, that could serve as a model for going forward,” Merin said. “Instead of tripping over a technicality, they should rescind the notice and let’s get going. Let’s work on the real issue here.”

    Merin said the camp is working for the dozens of people who currently live there but acknowledges that building more permanent housing in the form of low-income housing could be a good next step for the site. In the meantime, he said, occupants need to be allowed to stay at Camp Resolution until they have housing.

    And an attorney for residents is ready to go to court to ensure they can stay.

    Anthony Prince, the attorney representing the Sacramento Homeless Union and the occupants of Camp Resolution, said Thursday the residents are anxious and concerned about the city’s actions and that the back-and-forth over the last few weeks.

    “There’s no reason to trust that the city is going to keep its word,” he said. “It’s broken its word already.”

    Prince acknowledged Thursday’s letter but reiterated that negotiations between the camp and the city cannot take place until the March letter is tossed out. He said he notified city officials Thursday that they have until Monday, May 6 to rescind the termination of their lease notice or he planned to take legal action to keep the camp open.

    “We’re willing to talk to them. We’re willing to discuss anything they want to talk about: variances, putting some kind of modification in the agreement,” he said.

    Those conversations can only come once the March letter is rescinded, Prince said.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.

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  • Manor Lords Players Can’t Get Families To Stop Being Homeless

    Manor Lords Players Can’t Get Families To Stop Being Homeless

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    As its name suggests, Manor Lords is a city builder about managing a medieval village. You help it grow, fight off bandits, and eventually take part in larger military campaigns. But none of it amounts to a hill of beans if you can’t get families to move in and help your society grow, and some players seem to be struggling on that front. “I have houses, the homeless people won’t take them,” one player wrote in the Discord. “Approval is NOT the issue here. I was at 90% before the homeless people arrived.”

    Why Fallout: New Vegas Is Still Canon After The TV Show

    The most-wishlisted game on Steam ahead of its Early Access launch today, Manor Lords has exploded to over 150,000 concurrent players without even including all of those playing through Game Pass PC. That pushed it ahead of Helldivers 2 in terms of total current players and made it the top seller on Steam in front of Counter-Strike 2. All good news for the developers at Slavic Magic and their publisher, Hooded Horse, and all of it apparently contributing to a record number of unhoused peasants.

    Screenshot: Slavic Magic / Hooded Horse

    Players start off with just a few groups of villagers, some basic resources, and a single ox. At first they work in camps to harvest resources and make lumber. Eventually they are supposed to move from the camps into homes players have built with them, leading to a virtuous cycle of industrious workers, expanding villages, and satisfied populaces. Except that some players can’t seem to get their serfs to oblige. It sounds frustrating, but also hilarious.

    “So I’ve build my first couple of houses but families don’t move in,” wrote one player on Steam. “Instead, I still get the homeless warnings…” Some are wondering if it’s a bug. “I ALWAYS have 5 people who are constantly homeless, despite me having more than enough burgage plots I can’t do anything about it,” wrote a player on the Manor Lords subreddit. “I swear to god I encountered some bug, my 5 original families do not move into the built burgage’s, but any new family that comes to town has moved in, so now I have 4 families moved in and 5 homeless, even though I HAVE enough burgage and half is empty,” a third wrote on Discord.

    Screenshot shows players talking about homelessness on Discord and Reddit

    Screenshot: Reddit / Discord / Kotaku

    So what’s going on here? Are there gremlins in the Manor Lords Early Access code, or do players just need a few days to figure out the nuances of the realism-driven management sim? “We’ve seen the same reports,” Hooded Horse spokesperson Joe Robinson told Kotaku in an email. “While on the surface they can appear to be the same top-level issue, there are a few things that could be going on. Some are by design, but others are connected to known bugs that are already being addressed.”

    One current cause of homelessness is a known bug that prevents burnt-down homes from being rebuilt. Another more devilish glitch is that upgrading the starting family camps will cause them to never move to nearby burgage plots until you demolish the camps. Finally, even if you solve the homelessness issue, the corresponding negative modifier can keep hanging around for a bit. “We’re investigating a possible bug where the malus outstays its welcome, so we’re not sure on that one,” Robinson said.

    This is just the first day of Manor Lords’ Early Access journey as player feedback helps Slavic Magic deliver on the ambitious promise of its medieval strategy game. I’m sure players will discover even weirder bugs and idiosyncrasies as they try to unravel what makes Manor Lords tick and I can’t wait to find out what they are.

    .

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    Ethan Gach

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