NEOCH Work in 2013

Advocacy

  • NEOCH staff worked with other groups to push an expansion of Medicaid in Ohio attending rallies, writing letters and writing editorials to assure that most of our constituents had access to health care.
  • NEOCH was able to successfully settle our lawsuit over voter ID with the State of Ohio to extend it until after the 2016 Presidential election.
  • Held 12 meetings of homeless people to talk about solutions to homelessness. This included meetings with the Cleveland City Council, County Council and State Representatives.  We also held a meeting with the Cleveland Police after the shooting death of two homeless people in East Cleveland in late 2012. We focused on shelter budget cuts and the impact of Sequestration locally on poor people.
  • Worked to improve the conditions in the shelters including improved access to grievances and a posting of the rules for operating a shelter in a public venue.

Public Education

  • As part of our Homeless Memorial Day and candlelight vigil, we read the names of 54 individuals who passed away in 2013 and had some experience with homelessness.
  • Brought attention to the religious community the need for overflow shelters for families because of the dramatic increase this summer in the family homelessness in Cleveland.
  • The Housing Cleveland website which NEOCH co-administers has 27,803 apartment units (49% outside Cleveland) and 4,800 landlords listed on the site.  There were and 157,000 unique users in 2013 conducting almost 773,000 searches with 4,300 units added and 75,800 units modified on the site.
  • We sent staff and Street Voices speakers out to 18 presentations at churches, colleges, and schools in the region. We trained a new class of speakers including two high school students who were homeless. 
  • We found funding for uniforms for the vendors of the Street Newspaper to stabilize this program in which homeless people can write uncensored stories about their issues and sell those words on the streets of Cleveland.  We published four issues in 2013.
  • The Coalition assists with the monthly Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance monthly meetings and featured Ed Rybka and Anthony Brancatelli, CMHA, the director of the State Coalition, and federal elected officials.
  • We hosted a series of affordable housing forums teaching over 150 people about HousingCleveland, Fair Housing, Landlord Tenant issues, veterans homelessness, and permanent supportive housing.

Community Organizing

  • NEOCH organizes a monthly Homeless Congress meeting allowing homeless people to meet with elected officials and work on solutions to homelessness. 
  • Collected and distributed over toys and blankets during the winter season.
  • Published four Street Newspapers providing $28,000 to low income individuals in Cleveland.
  • NEOCH helped to organize the 2013 Homeless Stand Down at the Cleveland Convention Center serving nearly 1,200 homeless people with donations, haircuts, meals, and the important social service providers all in one location.  Co-organized the Hand Up Gala dinner for homeless people for the fourth year providing 230 meals to the hungry.  We are working to organize the women staying at the main women’s shelter in Cleveland.

We also assisted with the Homeless Legal Assistance program with 10 legal clinics in the shelters, but we do not have the numbers on how many people we were able to serve in this program.

Brian Davis

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Chris Knestrickaccomplishments, advocacy, community organizing, public education