A Pre-Yom Kippur Post On Jewish Homelessness

As the recession drags on more people suffer prolonged joblessness. Some of them become homeless. And some of them – more than you might think – are Jews. What does the Jewish community do to help them?

Two weeks ago I wrote a post on homeless Jews. The two key points I made were as follows:

1. Each time I refer someone to a Jewish community agency, they respond by saying they've already tried getting help from that agency to no avail. These Jewish community agencies do not have housing help. They might give a small grant for food assistance or utility assistance, but that's about it.

2. Jewish law mandates helping the poor and that specifically includes housing.

I closed my post with a question: "Are there Jewish resources I don't know about?"

No one seemed to have an answer.

Wednesday and Thursday I spent some time trying to find one. Here is what I learned:

The UJA-Federation of New York funds an agency, Dorot, that helps senior citizens – which it defines as 60-years-old and over – who are facing immediate homelessness or who are already homeless. It has transitional housing, food support and counseling, and it also provides assistance in finding a permanent home.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty has two 55-years-old and up Single Room Occupancy buildings in Sea Gate and another project in Queens for families with young children – even though neither the Federation or the Met Council mentioned these to me.

Yet for those poor Jews who are not senior citizens or families with children but who are facing homelessness, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty has no housing. It provides some food support, and will pay utility bills, help fight eviction, and will also, on a case-by-case basis, pay a client’s rent. While the Met Council told me the amount of rent it will pay per client varied by the needs of each client, clients I’ve spoken with told me they were limited to one or two month’s rent per year. A Council spokesperson used an example of two or three months in a phone conversation with me Thursday.

Whichever representation of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty’s rent support policy is accurate, it does not change a key fact – the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, the New York Jewish community's anti-poverty agency, does not have a Jewish homeless shelter / transitional housing for Jews 59-years-old and younger who are not families with dependent children.

I asked the UJA-Federation if it supported a homeless shelter or transitional housing for Jews 59-years-old and younger. The UJA-Federation was unable to provide names of any transitional housing / homeless shelters for the 59-years-old and younger Jewish population that it funds. As I noted above, it did not appear to know about Seagate or the families-with-children housing in Queens.

In other words, except for those very specific exceptions, no such Jewish community homeless shelters exist.

To its credit, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty’s policy is to do everything possible (within its financial restraints and, it seems, with some other caveats) to prevent homelessness from occurring.

This policy may be successful in normal economic times. But in the recession we are currently in, with the rate of joblessness as high as it is and the rate of job creation so low, vulnerable Jews are more likely to fall into homelessness. And when they do, there is no Jewish address to turn to.

All of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty's housing projects in development are for senior citizens. Nothing else – not for kids on the street, families without children, or singles below 55-years-old exists or is in development.

Government-supported homeless shelters are often dangerous. A high percentage of their clients are mentally ill and/or drug addicted. And, even if this were not true, for Jews who keep Shabbat and kashrut, the public system of shelters makes it nearly impossible to be observant.

On top of that, I’m told case workers often refer people to privately funded shelters. These are often much safer than the public shelters. But for Jews, these private shelters come with a problem public shelters do not have – they are Christian-run and often require clients to attend Christian prayer services daily in order to receive a bed.

The New York Jewish Community provides a lot of help, but the help is geared to meet the short term needs of clients, for the person who has no reserves, lost his job, and needs help for a few months until he finds a new job and has a few paychecks under his belt.

As limiting as that profile is, other Jewish communities – even large Jewish communities – provide less.

But at least two Jewish communities do have homeless shelters.

Chicago has the Sarnoff Levin Residence, a project of ARK. And Cleveland has the Hebrew Shelter Home, which has been in existence for more than 100 years. Besides its homeless clients, HSH also serves as housing for meshulochim, traveling charity collectors. They pay a nominal fee for very short term housing. Clients stay on a longer term basis and are not charged.

The Rochester, New York, Jewish community is planning to open a Jewish homeless shelter, as well.

But the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, the New York Jewish Community’s anti-poverty agency, has no plans to open a Jewish homeless shelter, even though the largest population of homeless Jews in North America are its clients.

When I asked the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty why it did not plan on opening a homeless shelter or supporting a private initiative to open one, I was told it was an issue of money. The economy is bad, fundraising is difficult and the government doesn’t fund sectarian programs.

And that’s the truth behind why so few Jewish communities have Jewish homeless shelters and other similar programs.

Jewish community social services agencies seem to function primarily as conduits for government funds.

An elderly person needs housecleaning help? The Jewish agency gets that person accepted to a government program and then arranges housecleaning – often by jobbing out the Jewish person’s case to a non-Jewish agency. I know of cases where this happened and the housecleaners were sent by a Catholic charity. They knew nothing about kosher food rules, which made their kitchen cleaning problematic. And the Jewish agency did nothing to deal with that.

Indeed, I know a Jewish community whose social services agency jobs out almost every service it claims to provide. All it really does is provide a nominally Jewish address to turn to for help. The help that agency provides, however, is largely referrals to government programs and cleaners sent by Franciscan nuns. At one point, many of the Jewish agency’s staff were non-Jews, as well, and that may still be the case.

I also vividly remember a case from 25 years ago. A family's sole provider lost his job. The family still had a home but it had no money for food. The Jewish community social services agency sent the family to the county's welfare office for emergency support. The problem was, that family had no food and the county office was already closed for the upcoming weekend. In desperation, the family started calling rabbis. The first rabbi they reached was Moshe Feller, the head of Chabad in the Upper Midwest. Rabbi Feller immediately sent the family some money to cover them for the weekend, and he also send bags of food.

New York City needs a Jewish homeless shelter. So do most other Jewish communities in North America. These other Jewish communities also need stepped up food support and interventional programs to prevent homelessness from occurring.

Will Jewish communities step up and meet these needs?

Or will Jewish community leaders stand well dressed and comfortable tonight in their often opulent synagogues, while homeless Jews rush to meet curfew at often dangerous shelters provided by others?

Will God absolve these leaders from the vows they made to serve their communities?

Will Kol Nidrei and the fast atone?

Or will God view the Jewish community’s abandonment of the most vulnerable among it as a sin to severe to forgive?

Comments

[Yochanan Lavie]

An easy fast to all.

[SJ]

Everyone is feeling the pain in the Obama economy.

How is the hope and change workin out for ya?

[Shmarya]

Everyone is feeling the pain in the Obama economy.

How is the hope and change workin out for ya?

Please.

The economic meltdown and deep recession all happened during the Bush Administration.

What both Bush and Obama did is misread how deep the recession was, so stimulus spending was too little.

But don't let the facts get in the way of your very evident bias.

[Minneapolis Man]

On this Yom Kippur eve i would like to thank Smarya for this amazing site!!!

[SJ]

The economic meltdown happened during the Bush Administration, but it was because the leftists in Congress were forcing banks to give too many sub-prime loans.

The keynesian model obviously failed, you can't take x amount of dollars from the economy, give x back, and expect 2x or 5x to come out of it because x is coming from the economy in the first place.

LOL I remember how during the campaign for election 2008 liberals were thinkin Reganomics is wrong because the rich peple is supposedly just going to save the money, and the middle class will spend it. What does Obama do as soon as he's in office? Obama Bails out banks and car companies with zero transparency.

Stimulus is nothing but political payoffs, and wasteful spending. It did not fix the economy.

In the Obama model, the public forgot that it is businesses that create the jobs, not the government.

[Shmarya]

You've obviously spent far too much time listening to idiots like the racist, dishonest buffoon Rush Limbaugh.

You should, instead, spend that time reading honest, intelligent conservatives like David Brooks. (He was on Charley Rose's show last night for the full hour. Try to find an online video of it and watch.)

The Bush Administration refused to enforce SEC regulations, which allowed the economic crisis to happen.

I know something about Bush's failings in enforcement because I covered those failings with food safety and humane slaughter regulations the Bush Administration systematically ignored.

And what I writing has some weight because I was a Regan Republican and a neo-con, until I saw the corruption of George W. Bush.

[ユダヤ人]

Chabad Thank G-D helps the Homeless:

BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
For much of the past year, Cassie Persinger, her three children and their father lived week to week in local hotels, most recently the Armada Inn in Roselawn. Then their money ran out.

A nearby shelter for homeless families, Chabad House, paid for two nights' lodging for them at the Armada before making room for them last week. Home is now Room 2 — two sets of bunk beds, a crib, TV, two chests of drawers — in an emergency shelter.
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/1999/07/01/loc_homeless_have_young.html

Teens Prepare Sushi For the Homeless:
http://www.jewishlarchmont.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1199912/jewish/The-Larchmont-Gazette-Teens-Prepare-Sushi-For-the-Homeless.htm

Close to 500 Homeless individuals attend a BBQ, hosted by the Chabad Student Network . Close to 25 students gave up hours of their weekend to give back to the community. The BBQ was organized by Ariella Singer Vice President of the CSN ( Chabad Student Network) and was sponsored by generous donors in the Ottawa Jewish community.
http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=28313&catid=24

[yudel]

Sorry you are well meaning but so far out of the loop.
There are essentially no shelters for Jews and for the homeless non Jews.

In the boroughs of new york there are thousands of homeless underground Jewish teens.

The only shelter for them is Covenant House which sleeps about 350 kids 18-21 every night.

There is no outreach other than the work Dorot does and the like. There is absolutely no more street outreach and in LA alone the streets are packed with Jewish kids sleeping under freeways and squats.

This started long before the recession. This has been going on endlessly and went very down hill when Father Bruce Ritter was wrongly accused of untoward sexual behavior at Covenant House.

There was in the 80's street outreach and a drop in shelter as well as mentoring program for frum kids and other jewish kids that worked the entire metro area and had an office on Coney Island Avenue.

The Jewish Family Institute.

It died of course because very few people wanted to fund it and of course others wanted to deny there was a problem. The city would not fund it because it was Jewish.

They did incredible work. Heroic rescues. Risked their lives literally, were attacked and targeted for murder, et. al. but when Covenant House lost Ritter they too lost their funding.

Have an easy fast......

[Shmarya]

Posted by: ユダヤ人 | September 17, 2010 at 02:41 PM

Some Chabad Houses do help homeless Jews but many others do not.

I just heard of a case yesterday where a Chabad House did not help someone about to become homeless and I know of another case where the Chabad center is misrepresenting what Chabad does nationwide.

That said, many do help and should be commended for that.

[harold]

Some Chabad Houses do help homeless Jews but many others do not

I guess it is a function of the local branch's resource both financial and capability of the shliach.

[SJ]

Shmarya it wasn't a matter of regulation or deregulation it was a matter of too many sub prime loans for Wall Street to handle.

[SJ]

Shmarya it wasn't a matter of regulation or deregulation it was a matter of too many sub prime loans for Wall Street to handle.

[Maverick]

@SJ

Why the recession happened is largely irrelevant. The priority at hand is helping the people hurt by it. In this case we are focusing on Jews who have lost their homes, as they have precious little resources to help them. Please take action to help them and remember them in your prayers.

Gmar Chatima Tova to all.

[jay]

SJ-- you really need to learn some facts. Only 10% of the subprime loans were based on mandatory regulation. Seventy percent came from mortgage brokers- NOT banks. They were not required to issue subprime loans. Banks such as Goldman knew 2 years before the crash that subprimes were going to fail and insured against losses through AIG and the taxpayer. By the way- it was BUSH who created TARP and lied through his teeth about an impending economic crash because of the derivatives his administration promoted.

[chabadnik attorney]

Gemar Chasima Tovah.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

You and I can make a difference.

B"H and though our collective efforts and energy helping even 1 destitute Jew in need we will make a difference HUGE difference in that 1 persons life.

Let us all try do whatever this coming year to contribute to Tikkun Olam and Ahavas Yisroel inspite of the fact that many frummies look at non frumies like non Jews aka Goyim.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

At the outset I will first state that I agree with this idea. (And if I had the money, I would open and run such a place)

But there are some logistical issues that I feel need to be addressed.

a. How do you tell who is or isn't Jewish ? - Not all people who are homeless carry their "papers" around. How would you test people if they are Jewish?

But the main issue is:

b. What if a person came and they wern't Jewish - would you turn them away? What if it was late at night, and all the other shelters were closed or full?

c. Why limit your charity to one kind of person/religion, and not the other?

Yes,I am aware of budgetary constraints and logictics, but if you are aiming for such an achievement, then your aim must be true, and your target must be clear.

May I suggest that for many reasons these type of establishments be open for all, while being built on the premise that they are religious Jew freindly, so that people are able to keep Shabbos and Yomtov and Kosher properly if they WISH TO, but not HAVE TO, and that non-Jews are just as welcome.

That is the world I would like to live in. And that is the way MY Jewish religious beliefs logically direct me.

-> Jews & Gentiles working together to make this world a better place, and a "Keylih" (Vessel) for G-D in the material realm.

It may seem a little idealistic, but this is the only way I see as moving forward in the right direction.

Best Regards to all.

[SJ]

Jay

1) mortgage brokers don't place their own loans they are intermediaries.

2) I'm conservative before I'm a Republican. I'm againt both the Bush and Obama bailouts.

[SJ]

* against.

[um]

Jews throughout Williamsburg snapped up caffeine suppositories today, hours before the start of the Yom Kippur fast that would deprive them of the jolt — and hunger suppression — that coffee typically provides.

[Adam Neira]

Homelessness is a scourge. I'm sure there are many, many spare rooms in houses and apartments in Jewish owned homes all around the world. If wealthier people with spare space could offer accommodation to people short of shelter much of the problem would be solved. When one has a safe, clean, stable space on which to rest their head at night they are able to get on with their lives. Shelter is a fundamental need of all human beings. It is not just the government who can assist with this social problem. Prayers to all the homeless people of America.

[A. Nuran]

The destruction of the middle and working classes began under Reagan. It was explicit. It was conscious. It was planned. It continued under Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama.

We have seen 30 solid years of tax policies which created the largest transfer of wealth in history. We now have a wealth and income distribution which is more unequal than most of South America. And it's getting worse. From the poor and the middle class to the very richest.

We have seen industry "outsourced", "right sized", "down sized" and "off-shored" to the point where we no longer have an industrial base. We can't even make trains any more.

Every possible source of new jobs has been stripped away and sent South or overseas. Our taxes have paid the Relocation Tax Credits to defray the multinationals' cost for our own destruction. Our trade policies encourage it from NAFTA, GATT, FTA to the WTO. Those high-skilled knowledge jobs? Sent away as quickly as they appear. And when there's work which has to be done here the H1-B, L-1, J-1 and H-2 visa programs make sure that our workers are displaced by foreigners who are indentured and so cannot negotiate a higher wage.

Even the tiny, mostly symbolic steps some in the Obama Administration proposed to alter this evil course have been rejected. Every Republican and the Right Wing of the Democrats has bitterly opposed anything that might make life a little better for the vast majority.

[Ahavah]

In our community everyone at the Federation is Jewish - except the licensed social worker. The Jewish Family Services account never has more than about $1200 dollars in it and the emergency/benevolence fund is not advertised and nobody donates to it. Just about everyone who needs help is referred to Catholic social services or some other christian-based or advocacy group or government program.

This community is simply not interested in making sure our elderly, un- and under-employed, or our sick are adequately provided with care and money. Considering this is a university town with a great number of professors, doctors and attorneys in the community, it is disgraceful. Yet when the situation is mentioned to the leadership, it is brushed off as not important. Fundraising for supporting the poor isn't "sexy," I guess.

But more to the point, it shows that there is no more social contract in Jewish communities in particular and American communities in general. That's why the tea-partiers are screeching that unemployment, welfare, and social security should be scrapped. Never mind that there are at least 7 unemployed people for every job opening (a conservative estimate) and if you count people forced into reduced hours or part time against their will, the number is more like 20 (again, conservatively). Where are all these people going to find living wage jobs? Nowhere, class.

Extended families are going to have to care for their own elderly, siblings, kids and grandkids - and that is going to mean multi-generation households, doubling up, and even more overcrowding in Jewish homes because neither the Federations nor the government agencies are going to step up to the plate and take care of Jewish people as they should. This is simply a new reality that each individual family is going to have to deal with. There simply isn't going to be any help "out there," which is why communities need to start forming their own solutions. And if they won't, well, then families are on their own. And that's going to lead to a lot of assimilation.

[marc brenner]

I thinking ok killing myself.Have been an executive for 30 years.I need guidence
ASAP

[Shmarya]

Call a suicide hotline ASAP and/or call your doctor ASAP.

If you're homeless or about to be, there is help out there. What city are you in?

[rachael]

I think it needed for a Jew to help another Jew, their are no provisions as such yet and i would like to start a non profit organization to help Jews in need, unlike Chabad who will not help in need or met council......if anyone one else is interested in helping write

[Brenne Meirowtiz]

I could have told you all this 2 years ago. I have exhausted all ways to find help through any Jewish Agency in NY well as other states. I am a 50 year old frum woman with health problems. I have been taken in by a family here and there, but nothing long term. Although, I hold several degrees, I still cannot get a job. To help myself, I taught myself Internet Marketing, but the money is not enough to sustain me yet. It is shameful! We pray after each meal that none of us would ever be in this situation, but alas, we are. Even Chabad, a multi-million $$$ corporation will not help. I have vowed to begin a volunteer fund to help people in the same situation once I get out of my own.

[Make Money Online Forum]

This community is simply not interested in making sure our elderly, un- and under-employed, or our sick are adequately provided with care and money. Considering this is a university town with a great number of professors, doctors and attorneys in the community, it is disgraceful. Yet when the situation is mentioned to the leadership, it is brushed off as not important. Fundraising for supporting the poor isn't "sexy," I guess.

[Ever Green Articles]

The economic meltdown happened during the Bush Administration, but it was because the leftists in Congress were forcing banks to give too many sub-prime loans.

The keynesian model obviously failed, you can't take x amount of dollars from the economy, give x back, and expect 2x or 5x to come out of it because x is coming from the economy in the first place.

LOL I remember how during the campaign for election 2008 liberals were thinkin Reganomics is wrong because the rich peple is supposedly just going to save the money, and the middle class will spend it. What does Obama do as soon as he's in office? Obama Bails out banks and car companies with zero transparency.

[hindi sms]

Extended families are going to have to care for their own elderly, siblings, kids and grandkids - and that is going to mean multi-generation households, doubling up, and even more overcrowding in Jewish homes because neither the Federations nor the government agencies are going to step up to the plate and take care of Jewish people as they should. This is simply a new reality that each individual family is going to have to deal with. There simply isn't going to be any help "out there," which is why communities need to start forming their own solutions. And if they won't, well, then families are on their own. And that's going to lead to a lot of assimilation.