2010 March | haRdLy NOrMal

Archive for March, 2010

Meet Elaine: Why We Need Low Income Housing

Published by March 28th, 2010 in My Big Mouth

I first met Elaine at the Glendale Winter Shelter. She is a very sweet, older woman who has lived on the streets homeless for 20 years. At the shelter, she would come up to us and ask that we help her friends. She never asked for herself, but for those she felt were hurting worse than she was. She was always kind, polite, and never once was a problem to anyone. As I spent more time with Elaine, I noticed she would be kind to people who were not kind to her, always saying “thank you” even when people were turning her away.

The Glendale Winter Shelter closed early this year, leaving around 150 homeless people with no place to go. Around three weeks ago, I was in the PATH Achieve outreach van when we noticed Elaine sleeping on the sidewalk. Near the end of a winter shelter season, we try to help those who are in need of housing the most. Elaine was at the top of our list. She is somewhat naive and can easily be taken advantage of on the streets. There was some money left to hotel voucher a few people while we tried to plug into services. We had tried earlier to connect with Elaine, but it didn’t work. This time she said yes, and we drove to the hotel.

Immediately we noticed a night-and-day improvement. Elaine’s hygiene improved. She was washing her own clothes. Once she had a little dignity, she was like a whole new woman. At first, we didn’t know if she would stay, but she adapted well and started to even ask, “Can you get me a house?”

I remember grocery shopping with her the very first time. She wanted Hawaiian Punch, but didn’t want cups. She said, “I’m homeless, and I usually drink out of the bottle. I don’t want you to spend money on me.” That wrecked me, and of course we bought her cups to use.

Elaine is disabled and cannot work. She receives a little over $900 per month from SSI, but she cannot get food stamps. The hotel voucher money runs out in a few days and she will be back out on the streets, homeless! Section 8 housing is frozen indefinitely, Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) grants are not for chronic homeless, and there is not enough Shelter Plus Care funding to help her (or the thousands like her).

In desperation, a co-worker started to look for low income housing. The lowest we could find is $700 a month for an unfurnished single. We knew it would be a stretch. Living off $200 a month for everything but housing is crazy, but she is a senior and can eat daily at a local senior center, and we would be there to help. Now we needed to come up with security deposit for her to move in.

We had been looking into grant assistance that we can sometimes get for move-in expenses, but all money had dried up. I put out a ‘Hail Mary’ tweet on Twitter, and in no time my good friend David Ruis and the Basileia Community offered to help. You’d think raising money would be the hard part.

We started to fill out the rental application, drove to the Social Security office to get proof of income, and then proceeded to the property manager’s office. All afternoon you could tell Elaine was excited. She kept asking, “When can I move in?”

We arrived at the office. The girl at the first desk started to look at the application and then asked for last known address. We all said in unison, “She’s homeless.” I wish I could have taken a photo of that woman’s face. Her jaw dropped and clearly she was shocked. Right then and there I knew we would soon get an “excuse.” The obvious one was that Elaine’s income is not three times higher than the rent. But this is a month-to-month lease on an apartment complex that should be used to the type of people who have very low incomes.

My favorite part of that horrible moment was when the lady who gave Elaine the excuses somehow had to run out the door to leave for the day, Elaine said to her, “Thank you very much for trying to help me. It was nice to meet you.”

The lady before she abruptly left handed everything to another girl in the office. This second woman seemed very nice, but said she would have to check with someone else. (There were several backroom meetings after we walked in.) She took my co-worker’s credit check deposit money and said she’d get back to us. We never heard back from her, or anyone else at that property management company.

I know first hand how hard it is to go from homeless to housed. Luckily, I am a fighter. But for the thousands of sweet, innocent seniors now homeless there really is very little hope. I cannot tell you the ending to Elaine’s story, or even my own for that matter. I am 49 with no assets. There is a very good chance I will spend my senior years on the streets because there is very little affordable housing for seniors, and even with government assistance I will not be able to afford housing.

Housing alone will not cure homelessness. We must also be community conscious. Elaine would rather live on the streets where she has social contact with people she knows than be housed in a different part of town.

I honestly don’t have the answer here. I sure wish I did. In a day or two if we cannot find low income housing for Elaine, I will be one of the team that drives her back to where we found her on the sidewalk. Imagine dropping your grandmother off to sleep on a sidewalk.

The Power Of We – Pepsi Refresh SxSW Challenge

Published by March 21st, 2010 in My Big Mouth

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If you have not heard the official announcement – WE WON! The $50,000 does not go to me, but to us. What I mean by that is by voting for InvisiblePeople.tv you voted for your own neighborhood. Homelessness and poverty effects us all.

More so than the money we showed the world WE have a powerful network. WE can affect real change. YOU are all heroes. YOU did this. I want to thank each and every one of you that voted #refreshgary I am so very grateful that you believed in me enough to let your voice be heard.

Pepsi was wonderful in making this happen. I am extremely grateful that Gary Vaynerchuk picked me out of all the choices presented to him. I’m blown away how Beth Kanter, Jessica Gottlieb and Kevin Hendricks rallied everyone to beat the mighty power of Mashable. We were clearly the ‘underdogs’, but thanks to all of you – WE WON!

Beth Kanter teaching me how to work SOBCon party for votes

I must also thank Melissa “The Consumer Queen” Garcia and Sandy Jenney. They were just gorgeous hanging out by the Pepsi booth working together to get votes. Too me, they showed the true spirit of what this “challenge’ should be. The influencer working with the charity to win. Many of you may not know this, but at 11pm they asked their followers to vote for us.

There really are no words to express how grateful I am to every and every one of you. Please know I’m taking this very serious. I have started to put together an advisory team to help with a strategic plan and implementation. I will also be 100% transparent with the funds. I genuinely believe InvisiblePeople.tv is not only at the beginning stages of something big, I believe InvisiblePeople.tv is a nonprofit that benefits us all. I never once felt as if I owned anything. Yes, I may have started it, but it’s all your love and support that keeps InvisiblePeople.tv growing. Together WE are doing things in homeless services and social media that has never been done before! YOU are making this happen, and I am grateful.

Final video produced by Pepsi:

Uncut video:

Video with Gary Vaynerchuk:

@Pepsi, @GaryVee and @invisiblepeople Fighting Homelessness

Published by March 13th, 2010 in My Big Mouth

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This last Thursday I was flying back from Alaska and noticed a few tweets with @invisiblepeople being directed at @garyvee. I didn’t think much of it because I was exhausted. Then I received an email that Gary Vaynerchuk wanted to support InvisiblePeople.tv at Pepsi Refresh SxSW Challenge

Now get this! If we win InvisiblePeople.tv will get $50,000 to continue the fight against homelessness.

@garyvee, @ashong and @hardlynormal after Oprah Radio

As many of you know with your help we have done all this with ‘very little’ operational budget. In fact, almost none! Imagine the impact we could have with $50,000!!!

Pepsi didn’t list all of my grant application. One of the crazy ideas I have this year is to develop an educational space for homeless people to learn social media and online tools/services we all take for granted. Besides the obvious employment and housing assistance, and researching other social services, getting more homeless people on social media will turn up the volume on the voice that needs to be heard.

Voting is simple. Just tweet using the tag #RefreshGary or click RefreshSxSW.com and vote for InvisiblePeople.tv. You can vote once every two hours .

Please vote and vote often. Please help spread the word about the Pepsi Refresh SxSW Challenge. And please say thanks to @garyvee for believing in InvisiblePeople.tv.

There are no words to express how grateful I am for your support.

Hugs,

Mark

The following video played this morning when Pepsi announced the Refresh SxSW Challenge.

special thanks to Scott Parent and Drew Lucas for helping me make this video

South By Southwest Here I Come

Published by March 10th, 2010 in My Big Mouth

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Before I went on the stage at Gnomedex I was beyond terrified. Not because I was going to be in front of people, but because I knew my life was about to change. The pinnacle moment before real change can be very unsettling.

That’s how I feel going into South by Southwest. My life is going to change in a big way. Thing is, I have a feeling many of us will leave Austin transformed by the sheer energy this event has.

On March 13^th, 14^th and 15^th I’ll be hosting a daily nonprofit chat with several of my heroes from 10:30 -11am CST. If you’re in Austin stop by The Beacon, or watch anywhere on WhatGives!? Ustream channel.

Saturday, March 13

Sunday, March 14

Monday, March 15

For more information, or to post questions click here

March 13^th is going to be a big day. Right after the morning show join me for A Conversation About Social Change Through Social Media. Yes, I know I wrote in an earlier post I turn 50. But I was wrong. 15 years sober and I still can’t remember where I parked my car. The good thing is I was wrong in the right direction so I’m still jumping out of a plane sometime in the future.

But the big news I cannot tell you just yet. Something is going to happen at SXSW around 2pm on March 13^th that blows my mind. Honest, this will be huge! So make sure to follow me on twitter so you don’t miss a thing.

So many people to thank who are helping to make this happen. Radar Multimedia and Portnoy Media Group for making the live broadcast from the Beacon Lounge possible. Cause Media Group for being AMAZING! I mean, WhatGives!? just fits! Heather Meeker and the Whrrl team for pushing me to submit a panel. And my favorite foodie Babette for adding me with the rest of the ‘cupcakes’, TechZulu for adding me to their picks, and of course the only Christian site that listed me Church Marketing Sucks.

Storyteller takes look at Anchorage’s homeless – Local NBC

Published by March 9th, 2010 in alaska, My Big Mouth

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The local NBC affiliate KTUU’s reporter Ashton Goodell followed me around one afternoon. This may be the best news package to date. Ashton and crew did an amazing job. But what I love is the story includes the community and different viewpoints.

I love Ashton’s lead: “It’s hard to say exactly what Mark Horvath does.”

By the way, I agree with many of what Ron Alleva’s views. The homeless services system is broken and has been broken for a long time. The short time I spent with Ron is one of the most memorable of the trip. He is very ‘colorful’ and outspoken. I tried to get him on camera but he said no. I hope to visit again and spend more time with Ron and all the Anchorage community. Three days was very short and many of the appointments I had scheduled I could not keep because of the ride along with police.

My hope is that my visit will cause continued focus on a very serious problem.

Alaska’s Homeless As Seen Through The Eyes Of A Police Officer

Published by March 8th, 2010 in alaska, My Big Mouth

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Alaska’s Homeless Problem Is an Alcohol Problem

Until my recent trip to Anchorage, Alaska, I had never heard the term “Chronic Public Inebriate,” yet in Alaska the word “inebriate” is spoken everywhere. It is so grafted in Anchorage’s culture that even the homeless call themselves inebriates. At first it bothered me, but I soon learned that Anchorage’s homeless problem is very complex, caused by severe alcohol addictions.

People who are normal drinkers and have never touched life with an alcoholic often think quitting booze is a choice. Unfortunately, the nature of alcoholism takes away any free will, making the alcoholic as dependent on alcohol as he is on air.

My own life may help illustrate:

I was an abnormal drinker. One night at 14 years old, I drank a half gallon of whisky all by myself. That amount would kill most people. I never passed out, but I did black out. The next day my elbows were the size of softballs, swollen because I must have fallen most of the night. An experience like this should have been a warning, but I continued to drink.

At 17 years old, on New Year’s Eve, the New York State Police found me passed out in a snowbank alongside a freeway. I could have died, yet I remember my only regret was that I never made it to midnight. Again, the seriousness of my problem didn’t sink in. Even though alcohol could have killed me that night, I kept on drinking.

When I worked for Starcom Television, I plowed my Mercedes into a parked Cadillac. I blew a .28, which is three times the legal limit to drive. LAPD had me blow into a breathalyzer twice because they thought their equipment was broken. The officers said they had never seen anyone with such high alcohol content function as normally as I was. Sadly, even though I could have killed someone, I still didn’t think I had a problem, and I still kept on drinking and abusing drugs until I ended up on the streets, homeless. Even then I needed help to get sober. On my own, I would have continued a life of drinking madness.

I was not ready for what I experienced

On my first day in Alaska, I wrote about watching a man stumble down the street so drunk he fell into a snowbank. We called 911, and the man was taken to what the city calls a “sleep -off.” During my first two days, I visited with a few homeless service providers, met and interviewed Mayor Sullivan, and spoke to several people on the streets. The story that kept being told over and over again was not so much the issue of homelessness, but a severe alcohol problem among the Native Alaskans. I was told three of the homeless people found dead were found with empty Listerine bottles next to them. Listerine is 26.9 percent alcohol, making it approximately 54 proof. When stores are closed, or sale is refused, people addicted to alcohol drink Listerine. (Meet Kim on InvisiblePeople.tv)

Seen Through The Eyes Of Sgt. Allen

Honestly, I was not ready. For close to 14 years I have been working in homeless services at some capacity. I have literally walked into tent cities all over America. But I had never seen homelessness through a cop’s lens. In my interview with Mayor Sullivan, the topic of public safety came up, and I must agree with him that homelessness is not only a health issue but a public safety issue.

Sergeant Allen of the Anchorage police department allowed me to ride along with him to give a 12-hour warning at an illegal homeless camp. We met at a substation along with a local NBC news crew. Although I have ridden in police cars more than most, this was my first time being in the front seat. Sgt. Allen gave me the vest to put on, and a dispatch call came in for a drunk driver. He said there was not enough time for the rules and asked me to fill out a waiver. I simply asked for the do’s and don’ts. Sgt. Allen responded, “If I get out of the car I want you to get out of the car. If shooting starts, I want you to run in the opposite direction!” That’s easy enough, I thought, as the reality of what was about to happen set in.

There is very little room in the front seat of a police car. Added to that, I was wearing a vest and winter coat! I could hardly move. It was kind of eerie driving through Anchorage’s “hood.” People were just standing on the curb, up to no good. I knew what they were doing, and Sgt. Allen knew all of them by name. We drove around for a little bit then headed off to meet three more officers to visit the tent camps. This next video was shot on at the first camp we visited.

I started to see a new side to homelessness. A side I knew was there, but had never experienced. As I walked into the camps, and as I talked to Sgt. Allen and his team, I started to see how dangerous and unsafe homeless camps are. Not all homeless camps. Nickelsville, for example, was self-governed and kept clean and orderly. But Nickelsville is rare. As I started to see homelessness as a public safety issue, I also started to feel for the people living in these camps. They’d have to move with nowhere to go. The one man who was ‘home’ didn’t want to go on video. He told me his story, and it broke my heart. He didn’t have any place to go, and I could feel his fear. He pointed at a twelve-pack of empty beer cans, telling me that was what had ruined his life. He couldn’t stop drinking no matter how hard he tried, and he had lost everything. He had lost his job and his family, and now he was out in the cold with no place to go.

I have to tell you first hand that I was very impressed with Sgt. Allen and the Anchorage police. They have a hard job, and they were professional and showed compassion at all times. I know cops often get a bad rap, but I’ve seen compassion when working with Glendale Police and Greensboro Police.

After we left the camps, Sgt. Allen drove around Fairview, the section of Anchorage that has the most trouble. We found a man passed out next to a liquor store. I was impressed by how Sgt. Allen was firm, yet treated this man with respect. Sgt, Allen helped the man into the police car, and we drove to the “sleep-off” center. This is a section near the jail that is basically a large room with mats on the floor and a few chain link fences for separation. There is no official booking. A breathalyzer is given, and the person is then allowed to sleep until the alcohol wears off. I was told many of the “inebriates,” as they are called, blow a .30 or higher and are still functioning. Unfortunately, this system is nonstop and far from a real solution. This man we brought in had been there the night before, and would probably be there the night after, and so on.

No sooner did we get in the car and start driving than we saw a man nosedive into the blacktop right in front of the car. I was trying to record a sound bite when this happened. As the tape starts, watch my eyes notice the man. I tried to recover the sound bite, but I think I was in shock and overwhelmed with everything. The second video is another attempt, but it was extremely hard for me to make progress. Sgt Allen, on the other hand, was cool, calm and professional. He makes many good points from his perspective.

second take

The community is taking steps in the right direction. While I was there, the city changed a few zoning laws, paving the way for a “housing first” model to be established. I am also encouraged that homeless services providers from across the city are working together to find a solution. But the problem is severe. Being candid, I’ve never seen anything like it. Being that the issue is alcohol dependence at its worst, the normal recovery models may not work. I’ve read about wet shelters saving money and lives, so maybe that is the model of hope for Anchorage. I do know now that I very much want to visit and interview people running a successful wet shelter.

The people of Anchorage are some of the nicest I’ve ever experienced. I just pray that they can work out the issues between themselves and come up with a viable solution before more people die from alcohol. There is no easy solution to the complex issue of homelessness. It’s impossible to make everyone happy, yet a compromise must be made and action must be taken soon.

We must never give up on people

Remember the self-disclosure of my own alcoholism at the beginning of this post? Well, this August I will have fifteen years completely clean and sober. People can change for the better. But I’m only sober today because someone cared enough to love me when I could not love myself. Please, never give up on people – even those of us who have trouble with alcohol.

Interview With Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan

Published by March 6th, 2010 in My Big Mouth

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I was really honored that Mayor Sullivan took the time out of his busy schedule to speak with me this week. Anchorage, Alaska has a very serious homeless problem, and making matters worse a very serious alcohol abuse problem. I was told official number of deaths in 2009 of homeless people was 12 – 14. Most all were alcohol related. What has not been officially reported was the number of deaths of people found in hotels, so the number of deaths is much higher.

How serious is the problem? Several of the people were found dead with Listerine bottles next to the body. Original formula Listerine is 26.9 percent alcohol, making it approximately 54 proof. When stores are closed, or sale is refused, people addicted to alcohol drink Listerine.

My next post I will write about my own addiction to alcohol 20 and 30 years ago to help give some perceptive. I also rode along with Anchorage Police and I am still trying to process everything I experienced. I will write about that, too, and add a video made with Sgt Allen.

I wish I had answers for this community. The people of Anchorage are some of the nicest I have ever met. From what I saw (I was there three days) Mayor Sullivan is taking some right steps to solve a huge problem. But talk is talk and the community must work together to turn talk into action. After this interview Mayor Sullivan allowed me to join a homeless task force meeting. To be honest, I got emotional in the meeting. Not because I was there, but because I kept on thinking about what would happen in Los Angeles if all the homeless service providers and politicians got in a room and worked out real solutions.

I rolled 2nd camera and that video can be found here

Anchorage Press wrote a story about my visit

First Day In Alaska

Published by March 2nd, 2010 in My Big Mouth

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It is days like this I really wish I had paid more attention in English class. So much happened I want to share with you, yet I just don’t know how to express it in written word.

We started the day at the Anchorage Rescue Mission. I started to play with Whrrl again. Lots of great improvements. I still wish I could check in multiple times for same story. I interviewed Dave Williams, Program Director, and you can watch here. I really enjoyed my tour and getting to meet Dave.

Ed O’Neill then picked us up to visit camps. But first stop was a meeting with Assembly Member Debbie Ossiander . If I had known I wouldn’t have worn my “Animal” shirt. It was very interesting seeing the political process in works and I was honored to be included.

Ed is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He once owned 20 liquor stores and now runs a nonprofit called Anchorage Responsible Beverage Retailers Association that is funded by the liquor stores he sold. Basically they go to homeless camps and clean up the mess while also trying to help people get out of homelessness. They also protect the general public. ARBRA is really amazing and unique nonprofit community support model. Here is a short interview with Ed at one of the nearly two dozen camps around Anchorage.

Ed drove us around trying to visit camps. During the day no one is home so we didn’t meet anyone at the 2 camps we visited. I did have the honor of meeting Bernice on the side of a busy road. She has severe mental illness and was extremely grateful for the gift of socks and gloves. Thanks to all of you that helped support this trip for making that happen. Special thanks to Hertz.

Luke we met panhandling. I still cannot wrap my mind around living outside in this weather. But the story that is the main reason I am here I saw play out in real life. We stopped at a park and I met a nice older man with a female confined to a wheelchair. They are also sleeping outside and have been homeless 11 years. They were very nice but did not want to go on video. I always respect people and my first priority is to make a friend. I really wish you could have seen the woman put on the new gloves. She was so happy. While talking another homeless man pointed out a ‘native’ trying to walk down the street. Alcohol is a huge issue here and this man could hardly walk. He went behind a van so I could not see him fall, but I noticed he wasn’t coming into view so I walked over. He was collapsed in a snow bank. I ran over to see if he was ok and Ed followed. The man was barely conscious and mumbled something about his back. Ed called 911 which is the right thing to do. Left alone in the snow this man probably would have died. The police arrived quickly, but by this time the man had gotten up and had stumbled around the corner only to fall down in another snow bank. The officer loaded the man into a police car and I am told this is called a ‘sleep over’ where drunks are given an overnight stay.

As I type this I cannot get the image of this man out of my mind. What if we were not there? How many other drunks are falling into snow banks tonight? My heart is broken from what I experienced today. Sadly, there is no easy or quick solution for Anchorage’s complex homelessness problem! More people will continue to die unless real action is taken.