December 9, 1997

ASWAN (A Society Without A Name, For People Without A Home) focus is to protect the fundamental rights of the homeless. Many of our members are currently or formerly homeless. They all have voting and veto privileges. Members of our group who haven't experienced homelessness are considered non-voting advisors. To date, ASWAN has held over 70 meetings.

Our group efforts in helping the homeless community this year has included opposing restrictions on feeding the homeless, legally challenging zoning laws that restrict homeless shelters and services in downtown, soliciting tens of thousands of dollars from City Council for an area service providers's programs in financial jeopardy, soliciting thousands of dollars for down payment for the street center new location in the downtown area, organization of a "monster hill walk" from l7th Street to Broad Street to show how much hardship would be caused to homeless people from the plans to locate a major homeless facility on l7th Street, and distribution of thousands of ASWAN NEWS CUTS and flyers to seek public support behind the homeless community. ASWAN members serve on a variety of committees and boards dealing with homeless issues. ASWAN is now constructing a new Internet site that contains ASWAN NEWS CUT, letters, proposals, and petitions at our temporarily address (http://felts.freespaces.com/aswan).

The reasoning behind ASWAN's position regarding a possible future coordinating body is strongly supported in the homeless community. That reasoning is to protect the interests of those directly affected. The decision to reduce from a prior recommendation of one-third homeless and/or former homeless participation on the governing body of a possible future coordinating body has caused us to vigorously oppose going forward to approve the concept as it appears today. We would fight against this forming of an "Entity" coordinating body, even if we have to put the city zoning changes on a back burner for awhile, in order to seek to stop this process.

At one time, a buy-in for the coordinating body from the homeless representatives was deemed possible after the Homeless Task Force subcommittee accepted some of our recommendations. Then something very wrong happened, a special meeting by the Task Force on July 7, 1997 was held, which was the only time in over a year homeless representatives on the Homeless Task Force did not receive any written notices of a Task Force meeting. It was later explained that due to short notice members were notified by telephone. In the absence of homeless representatives, the Homeless Task Force trashed all recommendations from ASWAN concerning board composition on the proposed coordinating body, including a recommendation from the subcommittee for one-third representation of homeless and formerly homeless seats.

Title 24 (in HUD requirements of an area Continuum of Care process) first mentions homeless participation, as if it was most important. It also mentions the need for community involvement, listing service providers, church representatives, civil organizations, and neighborhood groups, but does not list business representatives as a requirement of this process. We at ASWAN do not have a problem with business being a part of the process, but for business to have more seats than any group or population, doesn't serve the interests of those who are directly affected, but the interest of the ones who openly supported the most prejudiced zoning law ever imposed on the homeless in Richmond as in taking away the last by-right zone for homeless services and shelters in Richmond, and who supported zoning restrictions on church feeding of the homeless to a small number of those currently being fed.

Why? If business representatives were not listed as requirement for a Continuum of Care process and many of them are more likely to vote against the interest of the homeless as in efforts of moving homeless people out of downtown and would vote in what they see as their own interests while ignoring homeless rights and dignity?

Remarkable achievements has been made in the homeless community. Never before has the homeless community been more organized, involved, and speaking on their own behalf. At the same time, changes have been introduced to reduce homeless participation on the ranking committee to rank area service providers to administer the HUD NOFA funding, from 40% in l996, to about 30% in l997, to 18% on a proposed coordination body, while these seats lost to the homeless community are now being proposed to be given to the business sector. Approval for a future coordination body after these awful (to the homeless) board composition changes would generate a deeper split and mistrust between the homeless community and other stakeholders.

Attached is a petition signed by many homeless and formerly homeless people that has been sent to City Council, calling on City Council to dissolve this Task Force and to start a new process that would increase participation from the African-American clergy, who encouraged hundreds of people to come to City Hall in support of the right of churches to provide regular meals programs for homeless people without regulation by City government. In the attached petition, a detailed statement of the problems that have developed during this process, from the perspective of the homeless representatives on the Task Force, were presented, and endorsed by many homeless people. ASWAN calls on the Task Force to stop this effort to approve a coordinating body that would reduce by 54% the participation of the homeless community from 40% in l996 to l8% in l998 or some later year in our ranking of service providers for the HUD NOFA process.

Sincerely,

ASWAN (A Society Without A Name, For People Without A Home)

By
George E. Booth
John M. Felts
Matthew J. Hilgeford
Mark Logan

ASWAN Co-Conveners