QEJ Applauds NYC Comptroller Audit of DHS Program
QEJ Applauds Comptroller Report
On the Department of Homeless Services’
Work Advantage Program
On July 15, 2010 the New York City Office of the Comptroller released the results of an audit of the Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS) Work Advantage Program (WADV). The report contains conclusions drawn from a review of WADV operations and procedures, as well as recommendations to DHS for correcting the problems that were found.
Queers for Economic Justice applauds Comptroller John Liu and his staff for this report, and hope that this helps bring about changes in the program for homeless New Yorkers.
The Work Advantage (WADV) Program is a subsidized housing program that offers rental subsidies to working homeless families and individuals living in temporary shelters. Once it is determined that a client is eligible for WADV, DHS presents the client with a list of registered apartment units, and after the lease is signed DHS subsidizes the client’s rent in the form of a voucher. The subsidy lasts for one year, and may be renewed for a second year. This program, if administered correctly, can provide the kind of support to help individuals and families move permanently out of the shelter system.
But the Comptroller’s report found several problems with the program, including:
· DHS does not adequately ensure that the WADV program is carried out according to its current guidelines. In part, this is the result of its failure to update and distribute guidelines to DHS staff on a timely basis, which has led to inconsistencies in how they carry out procedures.
· DHS does not adequately deal with landlords and brokers who pressure their tenants to pay additional rent payments outside their lease agreements, otherwise known as side deals.
· DHS does not keep track of, and continues to do business with, landlords who have records of abuses in the WADV program.
· DHS does not have inadequate controls for the maintenance of its case files. These case files contain important information, and DHS has no system in place to keep track of them or prevent their misuse or unauthorized alteration.
The Office of the Comptroller issued a number of recommendations, including that DHS should:
· Ensure that all DHS employees are aware of and abide by all polices and procedures.
· Enforce regulations that prohibit side deals, and refrain from doing business with landlords and brokers who participate in side deals.
· Ensure that shelter clients have accurate information and are informed of their rights.
· Re-examine its current clearance procedures and set stringent thresholds and guidelines with regard to building violations to ensure that apartments with numerous hazardous violations are not registered.
· Emphasize to case workers the importance of obtaining all the required documentation and signatures in the lease-signing process.
Queers for Economic Justice works with LGBT people in the NYC shelter system everyday. We have found that the problems with the WADV program named by the Comptrollers report are in fact an accurate reflection of what our constituents go through with WADV program, and with unscrupulous landlords who are not monitored. We hope that further monitoring happens to ensure the recommendations by the Comptroller are adhered to, so that homeless New Yorkers are given the support they need, are not taken advantage of, and have responsive channels of recourse when abuses occur.
Not only must our shelters be made safe, but so must the housing that people moving out of homelessness are provided.
Queer Left At US Social Forum Pledge A Movement for ‘Safe Self-Determination’
For Immediate Release: June 28, 2010
Press Release
Contacts:
Caitlin Breedlove, Southerners On New Ground: 404-549-8628
Kenyon Farrow, Queers for Economic Justice: 212-564-3608
Joaquin Sanchez, Communications Liaison for the Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly: 917-575-3154
Queers to the Left, to the Left
Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly at the United States Social Forum Broaden LGBTQ Movement Agenda to Include Immigration, Racial and Economic Justice
Detroit - A newly formed national coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, transgender and gender nonconforming groups working for economic justice announced a new agenda for the queer rights movement on Saturday at the United States Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit. This is the second United States Social Forum, which brought together over 15,000 activists, organizers and community members from across the United States and around the world to share strategies for advancing human rights and social justice. The ROOTS Coalition, grantee partners of the ASTRAEA Lesbian Foundation’s Movement Building Program, expands the current agenda beyond marriage equality and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to include the needs of the most vulnerable communities and the structural causes of queer oppression.
Kenyon Farrow, Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice in New York City, explained, “The most vulnerable people in our communities face discrimination from schools, landlords, lenders and employers. This leaves them underemployed, underhoused and without access to formal education. This creates a pipeline into poverty, continuing the legacy of state-sponsored violence against poor people.”
“Queer people are immigrants, the working-poor; we are hard working single-mothers, domestic workers and bus drivers, journalists and educators. We live in rural communities, the big cities, the reservations and on the gulf coast. Immigrant rights, reproductive justice, environmental racism, indigenous sovereignty, the economic recession and ecological destruction are all issues that affect our communities,” added Paulina Hernandez, Co-Director of Southerners On New Ground, a southern regional organization based in Atlanta, GA.
The coalition released the “Queer and Trans Peoples’ Resolution for Safe Self-Determination,” statement generated through a collective process called the People’s Movement Assembly. Over 500 people over the course of the USSF worked together to produce a set of principles for Safe Self Determination. According to the statement, Safe Self-Determination is defined as a call to action to hold government systems accountable for ALL forms of state sponsored violence enacted upon queer, trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, gender non-conforming people; to fight for specific and concrete human rights and overall system transformation, deconstructing the US and global capitalist economy while building alternative economies, infrastructure and interdependence among groups rooted in the most vulnerable communities. (For the full text, follow the link: http://pma2010.org/node/210)
In the closing ceremonies, the more than 15,000 participants of USSF committed to upholding the resolutions produced by the 52 People’s Movement Assemblies that took place over the course of the week, including the Queer and Trans Peoples’ Movement Assembly.
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Low-Income LGBTQ New Yorkers Reveal “A Fabulous Attitude” in New Report
The Welfare Warriors’ Research Collaborative (WWRC) of Queers for Economic Justice celebrate Pride by releasing the findings of a three-year community participatory action research project, “A Fabulous Attitude: Low Income LGBTGNC People Surviving & Thriving on Love, Knowledge & Shelter.”
WWRC co-researchers conducted surveys with 171 low-income LGBT and gender nonconforming (GNC) people, gathering information about the economics of peoples’ lives, struggles with social services and police, as well as the many ways people generate justice. They also video recorded 10 storytelling interviews and audio recorded hundreds of hours of our research meetings, both of which were analyzed as data for this report. Some of the findings in the report are:
- Most of the people who participated in our survey (69%) have been homeless at some point in their lives. The majority (58%) currently live in a shelter, on the street or subway, or in temporary living situations.
- Survey takers manage intense targeting by police: over half have been stopped for questioning and almost half have been arrested. Further, 29% have been strip-searched and 19% have been physically assaulted by police at least once.
- Over 70% of survey takers rely on government financial and health benefits. Yet almost half report discrimination in a government or community agency - ranging from verbal harrassment to physical assault - and two-fifths of those were denied services. Staff or employees were involved in over 50% of incidents, police in over 40% and guards in 20%.
As these statistics begin to indicate, the report shows that low-income queers are dealing with issues of government and nonprofit violence, both inside and outside LGBT organizations. The struggles go beyond making ends meet; violences of poverty, racism, policing, and ablism pervade the lives of low income LGBTGNC New Yorkers.
At the same time, low income LGBTGNC communities give back and fight back. 113 responders described the 271 groups and organizations they are part of and 58% take action on their own and with others to resist daily injustices and build the communities they want to live in. Recommendations and desires included in the report include promoting community ethics, ending the use of the law against our communities, and taking action together for economic, housing, racial, sexual, and gender justice.
WWRC findings contribute to the ongoing call for attention to the ways racism and economic injustice intersect with homophobia and transphobia. This is necessary because of the ways LGBT issues continue to be framed in mainstream political and research agendas primarily in terms of sexuality, and to some extent gender, while ignoring racialized and classed dimensions of peoples’ everyday lives. Further, because low-income LGBTGNC people draw on their identities to survive and resist discriminatory and dehumanizing treatment, it is crucial to see and honor each other as members of multiple communities.
Download the full report here.
An accompanying documentary produced by the Welfare Warriors’ Research Collaborative will be screening in NYC and around the country. Portions will be made available online soon.
QEJ Latest Achievements/ Race Update!
QEJ LATEST ACHIEVEMENTS & PROGRAMMATIC UPDATES:
1) Amber Hollibaugh–QEJ Board Member–delivers QEJ’s Tidal Wave Report to the Whitehouse! QEJ is proud to announce that the Obama administration now has several copies of QEJ’s Tidal Wave Report–a collection of much of the existing data on LGBTQ people, poverty, health-care, housing, disability, and other economic justice issues with particular attention to dynamics of race, gender, geographic location, and immigration status. It is especially important as the 2010 Census gets into full swing, that the federal government has some empirical picture of our lives and needs.
2) The Shelter Organizing Project prepares a report on their experiences of City shelters. QEJ has stepped up its organizing efforts in with LGBTQ people in NYC shelters, and is gathering stories from shelter residents to prepare a report as one step towards a campaign for safety for queer, trans and gender nonconforming shelter residents.
3) The Welfare Justice Campaign (which QEJ is a coalition partner) continues to push the Human Resources Administration to begin implementing best-practice guidelines around gender-non-conforming and LGBTQ welfare applicants after a 5-year push by the Welfare Justice Campaign, which QEJ is a coalition partner.
4) The National Public Education Project’s very popular Act Queer! Teleconference Calls has had over 500 participants in its first year! It serves as a platform for engaged discussion around LGBTQ people and jobs, welfare, incarceration, immigration, the economic recession and other issues & QEJ Plans to reignite the local and national queer economic justice network with a renewed focus on forming alliances with economic justice advocates. Next Call: May 27th at 2pm EST will focus on The REAL ID Act, Local Jobs for America Act, and upcoming TANF Re-authorization. Details coming soon!
5) QEJ will be presenting at the Allied Media Conference and the US Social Forum in Detroit this June! Our Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative will be screening its new documentary at the AMC, while QEJ is also working with the other organizations of the Astraea Movement Building Program to convene dozens of other queer and trans organizations from around the to build a national strategy for future coalition work.
6) The Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative’s new report “A Fabulous Attitude: Low-Income LGBTGNC People Surviving & Thriving on Love, Shelter, & Knowledge,” to be released later this month.
The Amazingly Queer Race for Economic Justice is a fundraiser benefiting Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ). Questions? Please contact us at race@q4ej.org.
Act Queer! Teleconference: Research in Queer Organizing
Research is something many grassroots movements shun, given its history of pathologizing low-income, queer and trans people, people of color, the disabled, etc.
And yet, there is a wealth of research happening by grassroots organizations, and researchers interested in the strength & resilience of communities.
What are the research strategies being utilized by different queer and progressive groups? What has been successful and what has failed in the past? When complete, where and how is this research distributed? How can the movements engage research towards creating a vision of social justice?
The April 29th call focused on the grassroots research of several organizations:
To hear each presenter press play on the audio. Read materials from each presenter just below the audio player.
Michelle Billies, Dwayne Bibb and Kagendo Murungi, Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative (New York, NY)
- Their report should be released this summer, stay tuned!
Shira Hassan, Young Women’s Empowerment Project (Chicago, IL)
- Download their report entitled Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Methods Used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal here!
Juan Battle, Social Justice Sexuality Initiative (New York, NY)
- Take his survey here!
Download QEJ’s most recent report entitled Tidal Wave: LGBT Poverty & Hardship in a Time of Economic Crisis.
If you have questions, comments, or know of other resources or events related to this topic, please feel free to post in the comments section!
The purpose of Act Queer! is to connect grassroots LGBTQ racial and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice research, organizing and advocacy.
Building a Queer Left
QEJ is working on a new research report through the Building a Queer Left project (BQL). The BQL project seeks to build a progressive and radical coalition of organizations who approach their work in queer communities through a racial and economic justice framework. This coalition is determined to identify what issues are present within the “other” gay agenda.
The creation of an organizational directory is one of the tasks of the BQL coalition. This directory will feature organizations/groups/projects that are organizing around issues affecting our queer communities. This directory will be available to the public and can be used as a tool for grant proposals, referrals and coalition-building. We hope to complete this report by the end of the summer. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: QEJ Moves & Amazingly Queer Race Date Announced!
Dear Friend,
QEJ has some great news!
NEW SPACE
We’re moving! QEJ is excited to announce we are relocating our offices from our current space to a new location on 147 West 24th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011. Sound familiar? We are moving into the same building where FIERCE! currently resides, and Sylvia Rivera Law Project is also moving this month!
QEJ’s base is growing. We were in dire need for a space to accommodate the growing base of Shelter Project facilitators and Welfare Warrior organizers. But we were also thrilled to be closer to several of our closest comrade queer organizations.
Our move is happening this weekend, April 3rd, so please note the new address. Our phone number, staff extensions and fax will remain the same.
AMAZINGLY QUEER RACE 2010
You’ve been emailing. You’ve been calling. Yes, the 4th Annual Amazingly Queer Race for Economic Justice is happening Saturday, May 22, 2010! We’ll have more of the same—queer racing, queer challenges, queer prizes, and of course…LOTS OF QUEERS! We’ll be setting up to register teams soon—we’ll email with instructions very soon! In the meantime, email all questions about the race to race@q4ej.org.
See you all at the new space, or at the Amzingly Queer Race!
Jay, Kenyon, Reina, Rios, & Sierra
Act Queer! Teleconference: Movement Building in Queer Organizing
Many of the mainstream LGBTQ organizations focus on single issue, electoral and policy based organizing/advocacy. Whereas the work done by many of the radical, grassroots LGBTQ groups focuses on grassroots strategies, with a heavy focus on movement building. Often we’re told this work doesn’t have impact, or doesn’t have measurable goals. What is movement building and why is it a cornerstone of the grassroots movement? What are the strategies being utilized by different queer groups to build the movement? What has been successful and what has failed in the past?
The March 18th call served as an introduction to and description of movement building within LGBTQ organizing.
To hear each presenter, press play on the audio player. Read materials from each presenter just below the audio player.
Moderator: Suzanne Pharr, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (New York, NY)
Presenters include:
Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, Intersections/Intersecciones Consulting (San Francisco, CA)
- Recent blog post written by Lisa that discusses movement building.
- Zemsky and Mann - Building Organizations in a Movement Moment (pdf)
Patty Berne, Sins Invalid (San Francisco, CA)
Coya Artichoker, Two-Spirit First Nation Collective (Minneapolis, MN)
Paulina Hernandez, Southerners on New Ground (Atlanta, GA)
If you have questions, comments, or know of other resources or events related to this topic, please feel free to post in the comments section!
Our friends at EMERJ let us know that they have their movement building strategy posted online. Check it out by clicking here!
The purpose of Act Queer! is to connect grassroots LGBTQ racial and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice research, organizing and advocacy.
Update: Thank You for Helping QEJ Through Its Crisis
Dear Friend,
Last week we reached out to our supporters because we needed your help. QEJ faced a major cash flow crisis due to political fighting in Albany which stalled $40,000 in funding we were awarded in late summer of 2009.
Thanks to the generosity of supporters like you, we raised $18,000, also meeting the matching gift of $11,000 created by friends of QEJ . Because of this support, we did not have to furlough staff and shut down operations. This funding will help us continue to our unique work organizing and advocating for the thousands of those in our community who are homeless, poor, working class, and largely people of color marginalized from the mainstream LGBT community.
We at QEJ are so deeply humbled and overwhelmed by this outpouring support. To our friends and communities, THANK YOU for standing with us and supporting QEJ’s work for justice. This support will help QEJ continue our essential operations in the weeks ahead. To show you our appreciation, QEJ staff made a short video to thank all of you for helping us in this critical time. Click here to see our message.
You should know that QEJs efforts to expedite the release of the grant also paid off, as we finally received the contract this week from Albany to receive our long-awaited funding. This will set us back on track in the next month when we should receive the money.
A compounding factor for with the cash flow crisis was the fact that QEJ was also told that we had move by the end of this month. Our landlords did not renew their lease with the building and we were in a position of looking for a new home for QEJ while dealing with the immediate crisis, facing the real possibility of being without a home in addition to furloughing our staff. Thankfully this worst case scenario did not come to pass! We found a new space that will help us to further serve our constituencies better. Details about our move will be coming next week.
Again, THANK YOU so much for your generosity, good-will and support. QEJ is lucky to have you as our ally in our fight for a more socially just world. We could not be more grateful to have you as our supporter.
With much appreciation,
Kenyon Farrow
Executive Director
P.S. - You know it took us more than one take to make this video. And just for you, we prepared another video of our outtakes. Click here to see our case of the giggles.
Update on QEJ’s financial crisis and next steps: What you can do NOW to sustain QEJ!
Dear Friend,
As you may already know, earlier this week, QEJ faced the real possibility of having to furlough our staff, suspend vital services for its constituents and temporarily close its doors today. This was due to a cash flow crisis created by the delay in the release of a promised $40,000 grant by New York State that has been stalled for months due to political fighting in Albany.
To meet this crisis head-on, we at QEJ mobilized quickly. We cut expenses, our Board gave what they could, QEJ reached out to close friends and a generous Foundation began the process of advancing a grant to us. But we needed to be liquid immediately.
As a last recourse, QEJ turned to our base for help as your on-line gifts go directly to QEJ. Thanks to individuals like you, since Monday, QEJ has been able to raise $9,000 so far. We at QEJ are so deeply humbled and overwhelmed by this outpouring support. To our friends and communities, THANK YOU for standing with us and supporting QEJ’s work for justice. This support will help QEJ continue its bare essential operations in the weeks ahead.
Now, our goal is to reach at least $11,000, as friends of QEJ have pooled their resources and promised to match up to $11,000 to meet the crisis if we can raise that ourselves. QEJ needs your help in a final push to raise that $2,000 difference.
With additional support from you, we will be able to secure this generous match, and with enough support, QEJ can be fully operational. Please consider making a gift today of $100 to help us reach our goal. Gifts of any size are deeply appreciated and will go a long way in supporting QEJ as the leading national voice on behalf of low-income and poor LGBTQ people.
QEJ is just just short of reaching our goal. Please help QEJ maximize our efforts to sustain QEJ and its work until the New York State grant is distributed. Thank you for your generosity and consideration.
And thank you, so much, for helping QEJ continue our critical work for the most marginal within the LGBTQ community and our unique voice for sexual & gender liberation and economic justice. One of QEJ’s greatest resources is our supporters, and we are so fortunate to have YOU as our partner in the fight for a more socially just world.
With the utmost gratitude,
Kenyon Farrow
Executive Director
P.S. You can further support QEJ by forwarding this e-mail on to your friends, loved ones and communities and asking them to donate to QEJ as well. Thank you again for your consideration.
Emergency: QEJ Urgently Needs Your Support TODAY!
Dear Friend–
On behalf of Queers for Economic Justice, I write to respectfully ask that you consider making an emergency gift of $100 to QEJ today to help us meet an unexpected financial crisis. Your gift will also count towards a matching gift of up to $11,000 created to meet this crisis. To those who have already given, thank you so much for your support.
Why QEJ is seeking your help
Over the past few months, the fighting in Albany has held nonprofit groups hostage by stalling disbursements of promised grants. This has left QEJ $40,000 in the hole, as we were expecting our grant by now. QEJ is a lean organization, and so this delay is nothing short of devastating. We have no alternative but to turn to our supporters in this most dire time.
Why QEJ needs your immediate support
Without your support today, we cannot make payroll this friday and continue our important work on behalf of the most marginal people in the LGBTQ community, including:
· Ongoing support groups in shelters for homeless LGBTQ people in New York City
· Advocacy on behalf of LGBTQ people on welfare
· Public education on the effects of the economy on poor LGBTQ people
Your gift will count now more than ever. Click here to make a difference.
What QEJ is doing to meet this crisis head-on
• We’re working with our allies in Albany to expedite the release of our grant. One of our Foundation partners is also advancing a grant to us. However, both efforts take time, and we need immediate support
• Our Board has given what they can and is reaching out to secure support
• We’ve cut down on all but the most essential expenses
• A group of QEJ’s friends promised to pool their money and make a gift of up to $11,000 if we can match it. Since Monday, thanks to supporters like you, we’ve raised $7,230. We are humbled by such generosity, but still need your help to reach our goal by this Friday.
Your gift matters now more than ever
Please consider making an emergency gift of $100 to QEJ by clicking here. We are grateful for anything you are able to give, and all gifts, regardless of size, will allow us to continue our critical work for poor and low-income queers. On behalf of the Staff, Board, and constituencies we serve, thank you so much for your good-will and solidarity during his critical time.
With deepest appreciation,
Kenyon Farrow
Executive Director
P.S. You can further support QEJ by forwarding this e-mail on to your friends, loved ones and communities and asking them to donate to QEJ as well. Thank you again for your consideration.