HHH Has a New Blog

Thanks to the re-design of the Urban Ministry Center website, HHH now has a new blogsite on the UMC website. You can visit the new blog at:

http://www.urbanministrycenter.org/blogs/hhh-blog

HHH Takes On Capitol Hill

Nine members of HHH traveled to Washington, DC to learn and advocate. All members participated in the National Alliance to End Homelessness conference, to gain knowledge of America's best practices for ending homelessness.

For many members, the highlight of the conference was hearing from new HUD secretary Sean Donovan and his vision for HUD playing a role in ending homelessness. Very inspiring!

On the last day of the conference, members took their knowledge and experience to Capitol Hill to meet with the offices of Representatives Myrick and Watt, and Senator Burr.

In addition, members visited Miriam's Kitchen, a local DC soup kitchen and met with members of their new advocacy group to offer encouragement and to learn from their experience. See below for photo shots of the trip to DC.

Robert Munn, Rob Weigle, Michael Norton, and Bobby Gaffney sport HHH clothing line.
The group at a dinner out in Chinatown, joined by DC-ite Ingrid Drake.

Member Dawoud Assad, who grew up in DC, shows off a favorite childhood spot.

Bobby and Robert outside GWU, by Miriam's Kitchen

Members from Homeless Services Network outside Rep. Watt's Office

The conference overlapped with the Homeless U.S.A. Cup, so the group went to support Charlotte's players, which included two members of HHH - Osman Mohammed and Luis Alvarez.

HHH Goes to Raleigh

In light of crushing cuts to the state's mental health system, 10 members of HHH boarded a van to take their case to the state capital on Tuesday, July 21st.

Homelessness and mental illness have a historical link, most notably in the late 1970's and early 1980's when the shutting down of America's mental health hospitals led to a significant rise in people living on the street. Members of HHH wanted to make sure lawmakers understood that their proposed cuts to the mental health system would mean a rise in homelessness and in incarceration. The cuts would cut out most of the case management support services provided to individuals living with mental illness.

The group of 10 split into two smaller groups to ensure we could meet with every member representing Mecklenburg County. While face-to-face meetings did not happen with everyone, at least our information got to every office.

HHH considered the trip a great success. Not only did we being to build relationships with state legislatures and build confidence of members, but in addition, when the budget passed, an additional $990 million was put back into mental health budget. While this still represents a cut, it was much less than originally proposed.

HHH looks forward to future advocacy opportunities.

Beginning a Parntership with the Police

After months of awaiting a response, then a cancelled meeting, HHH finally had a meeting set-up with Police Chief Rodney Monroe, on Wednesday, July 1st. Ten minutes before the meeting was set to begin, three Police Department employees arrived. They explained that they were there to represent Chief Monroe, who would be unable to attend. Ray Tarasovic, Monroe's Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief Harold Medlock, and Sergeant David Moorfield, who oversees the uptown area, joined HHH for our Wednesday meeting.

Their presence brought much interest - we had our largest HHH crowd to date with over 40 people packed in the room.

Much of the time was spent by the police, led Ray Tarasovic, (who could give any politician a run for their money), explaining the police perspective. There was limited time for q & a, much of which was spent on individuals expressing their personal experiences with police.

Deputy Chief Medlock stole the show, winning over the community by sharing his memory of the murder of Angela Davis, who though homeless, was robbed at gunpoint. When she refused to give up her purse, really her only possession, she was shot and killed. Medlock reminded the community that the police are here to protect and that he is haunted by that memory.

The meeting was certainly the beginning of a much longer conversation. Several interesting points arose - why homeless individuals get arrested for trespassing, why the homeless more likely to get locked up then to receive a citation, and that loitering is not actually against the law.

HHH decided to have a smaller group follow-up with a Deputy Chief Medlock to have a more strategic conversation about partnership.

We are still hopeful that one day the homeless community will get to meet with Chief Monroe.