We the following homeless and formerly homeless people of Richmond, do hereby request the Richmond City Council to dissolve "The Richmond Area Homeless Task Force" and create a new process.
City Council adopted a resolution in November, 1995 asking the City to work together with others to initiate a long-term planning process to propose solutions to "problems associated with homelessness," and to report to City Council in 90 days. The City Administration responded by creating the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force that sent City Council copies of the minutes of the meetings of the Task Force. Much of the work of the Task Force has involved plans to create a nonprofit organization that the Task Force has referred to as the "ENTITY", for coordination of homeless services and would seek to minimize duplication of homeless services. The coordination body would collect statistics and information of homeless people. Another possible function of the coordination body could be to serve as a conduit for public and private donations, including federal and state grants for assistance to homeless people. Homeless and formerly homeless representatives on the Task Force have expressed concern that persons standing in the background have sought to use private charitable contributions to control the use of public funds as to the location of homeless shelters and services. The homeless community fears that the ENTITY could control or have influence over incoming contributions of homeless services and could influence the location of services for the homeless. Representatives of the homeless community on the Task Force fear that the direction the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force has taken is directly and indirectly developing policies and initiating services to move homeless people from the downtown area.
Listed are some of the actions of the Task Force:
1.) LOSS OF $144,000.00 for homeless services: not recoverable.
During the 1996 HUD/NOFA process, Richmond had a committee to rank applications for homeless projects. A ranking committee of ten members was selected by a nominating committee chosen at a public meeting. Four of the members of the ranking committee were homeless or formerly homeless. During the ranking process it became apparent that only the top few ranked applications could be funded with the federally allocated sum. The City Administration wanted some of the HUD funding to be used for seed money for administrative costs for an "ENTITY" (homeless coordination body). The "ENTITY" had been ranked only forth by the ranking committee. The amount of funding requested by the top three ranked providers would have meant that if they received their requested funding, the ENTITY would likely have received none of this HUD?NOFA funding. The City Administration, through the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force, tried to change the rankings to help fund the "ENTITY." The homeless community raised concern, including whether the "ENTITY" met HUD requirements. The City Administration sought another avenue. Instead of the Task Force changing the rankings, the City Administration asked the third-ranked applicant (SRO) to step down from third ranking to fifth. When SRO offered to step down only to fourth, the City Administration sent a negative 231 letter to HUD for the SRO application. This letter effectively guaranteed SRO Housing would not recieve any of the HUD/NOFA funding and by default moved the Entity up in ranking to third, within the limits of the 1996 funding. (The executive director of SRO had objected to use of this HUD funding of the ENTITY because he had said the HUD funding should be used for direct services).
HUD denied the funding for the "ENTITY" because it would not provide direct services.
$144,000.00 was lost to the Richmond area in homeless services.
A 13 page domcument of "Recommendations for the Development of a Nonprofit Homeless Services Coordination Organization" that stated it was "Presented by the Entity Subcommittee of the Homeless Services Task Force" was distributed in March, 1997 to Leadership Metro Richmond and to officials of Henrico and Chesterfield Counties. This document listed ten members of the subcommittee, all white. These ten all-white members of this subcommittee were the co-chairs, Timothy Kaine (City Councilman) and Nancy Warman (Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church) and Donald Gehring (Virginia Commonwealth University), Joseph Spiedel (Virginia Mental Health and Retardation Department/ State ACCESS Director), Grey Wyatt (Perly's Restaurant and Downtown Business Association), Joel Ford (Freedom House/executive Director), Matthew J. Hilgeford (ASWAN Co-Convener), Dale Johnson-Raney (Richmond Behavioral Health Authority / ACCESS), Kelly Lane (Citizen Representative), and Raymond Pardue (St. Joseph's Villa /Flagler House). The absence of African Americans on the subcommittee to develop the "ENTITY" which is developing policy for a community population that is overwhelmingly African American and some of the specifics in the document were hotly contested by Mr. Hilgeford, Co-Convener of ASWAN (A Society Without a Name, For People Without a Home) and the only formerly homeless representative invited to sit on the subcommittee at that time.
3.) Dr. Musgrove, (Deputy City Manager), as Task Force co-chairman, temporarily determined that the chairman of the civic committee of the Baptist Ministers Conference for Richmond and Vicinty was not a member of the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force.
After objections that the subcommittee was all white, the subcommittee later added African-American members, including Rev. Eddie Perry, chairman of the civic committee of the Baptist Ministers Conference for Richmond and Vicinity, and added more representation from the homeless community. But, even though the minutes of one of the meetings of the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force showed that Rev. Perry had been in attendance, he did not receive a later notice of a meeting of the Task Force. When he asked why, he was told that it had been determined that he was not a member of the Task Force. It was explained that Dr. Musgrove was the person with authority to make the determination as to who was a member of the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force.
4.) The Task Force Overruled a Recommendation for One-Third of the "ENTITY's" board to be homeless or formerly homeless.
The subcommittee to develop the coordination body (ENTITY) voted by an overwhelming majority, with the support of Councilman Kaine to have one third homeless and/or formerly homeless representation on the board of directors of the "ENTITY." In the middle of July (not the usual fouth Friday of the month) the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force held a special meeting with telephone notice. Because no written invitations were sent, it was likely that some members would not know about the special meeting. In fact, none of the ASWAN representatives on the Task Force were aware of the special meeting. Rev. Perry was not invited at all to this meeting, apparently because Dr. Musgrove had determined that he was not a member of the Task Force. At this special meeting, at which Councilman Kaine was also not present, and at which there were no representaives from the homeless community, the Task force refused the subcommittee's recommendation for one third homeless or formerly homeless representation on the board of directors of the ENTITY (coordination body). At the next meeting, John M. Felts, a Co-Convener of ASWAN, demanded a re-vote. Councilman Kaine was not present at that meeting either, and Rev. Perry had again not been invited. Mr. Felts' motion to reconsider the issue of the proposal for one third representation from the homeless community on the ENTITY board of directors failed by one vote.
5.) Homeless representatives ruled out of order after motion is made to invite Rev. A. Lincoln James, Rev. Darrel Rollins, Rev. Patrick J. Wilson, and Dr. Robert L. Taylor, prominent African American clergy, to become members of the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force:
After Rev. Perry found out that he was not considered a member of the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force, he attended a meeting of the subcommittee to give notice that he would not continue as a member of the subcommittee that was working on proposals to develop a coordinating body for homeless services while not a member of the Task Force. In response, at the September 1997 meeting of the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force, Dr. Musgrove assured Rev. Perry that he was a member of the Task Force. At that meeting, Mr. Hilgeford, as a representative of the homeless community raised objections to what had seemed the removal of Rev. Perry from the Task Force, and made a motion to increase the African American clergy's participation on the Task Force. Mr. Hilgeford nominated the following clergy members to be added to the Task Force: Rev. A. Lincoln James, Rev. Darrel Rollins, Rev. Partick J. Wilson, Dr. Robert L. Taylor, and Rev. Henry Garrand. Dr. Musgrove ruled the motion out of order and stated that he "dictated" who would be on the Task Force and who wouldn't be.
6.) Casting the Homeless Out of Downtown-Duplication of Daytime Services:
As early as the summer of 1997, the City Administration has had a working group inside City Hall to develop plans to build a new homeless shelter on 17th Street. In October 1997, ASWAN obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act about this working group, including a document from City Manager Robert C. Bobb, and a document from Councilman Kaine. These two documents, taken together, contained details about plans for a building for homeless shelter and services at 17th Street, but the City Administration had not provided the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force with either of those documents. The document by Councilman Kaine indicated that the proposed building on 17th Street would provide 3 daily cafeteria served meals, living room, sleeping shelter, case managemant (counselors), job counseling, medical services, public benefits intake, mental health counseling, etc. This proposal would duplicate daytime services now provided to homeless people in the vicinity of downtown. Councilman Kaine's proposal would seek to move these daytime services next to the City Jail, out of sight, in Fulton Bottom down at the bottom of a arduous incline, away from downtown's social service providers. This is an effort to reduce the visibility of homeless people in downtown Richmond.
7.) Dr. Musgrove is Co-Chairman of The Richmond Area Homeless Task, But, In Another Capacity, Officially Proposed to Require Most Churches That Feed the Poverty Stricken to Pay a $1,000 Fee to Seek City Permission to Feed More Than 30 Homeless Persons.
The objections by the faith community to zoning restrictions on places of worship that feed the homeless is well known. It is less well known that Dr. Musgrove made the motion on the Richmond Planning Commission to ask for introduction of three amendments to Richmond's Zoning Ordinance, one involving feeding of the homeless by places of worship.
Under the church feeding ordinance (until City Council agreed not to enforce it) area churches wanting to feed more than 30 homeless persons per week in most zones in the City would be required to purchase a Conditional Use Permit, which would cost $1,000 and would have to be approved by City Council. Until hundreds of citizens came to City Hall and convinced City Council to agree it would repeal this ordinance and not enforce it in the meantime, a church starting a meals program for the poverty stricken, or continuing a meals program for the homeless outside the B-4 zone could not give out the 31st peanut butter sandwich to a hungry child of a homeless mother without violating the ordiannce.
The prior law was to monitor CARITAS, and had not been enforced on other churches for five years. The law was so restrictive that when the city attempted to enforce it in the Stuart Circle Parish case, it was stayed by a federal judge. Some City Council member defended the new law on grounds tha the old law was even more restrictive, but the old law had been stalled. The church feeding ordinance passed by City Council on July 28, 1997 sought to make prejudiced restrictions on feeding the homeless enforceable.
Dr. George Musgrove, (Deputy city Manager) and Co-Chairman of the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force, who officially made the motion on the Richmond Planning Commission in June 1997 to propose that this ordinanace be introduced at a City Council meeting.
The homeless community feels that two of Dr. Musgrove's roles have been in disaccord.
The undersigned homeless and formerly homeless persons of the Richmond area, because of the above problems, request the Richmond City Council to dissolve the Richmond Area Homeless Task Force and to start a new process.
There are 216 signed names to this petition, majority of the signed names are currently homeless and are using services provided at the Daily Planet. Additional names will be submitted at City Council at a later date.
ASWAN Main Page:
http://www16.brinkster.com/6499/aswan