SHARE's Indoor shelters are Back Inside!
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SHARE Shelters
Oct 22, 2011, 12:04:22 AM10/22/11
to SHARE Shelters Updates
NEWS FLASH!!
10/21/11
SHARE/Gates Shelter Sleep Out Over!!!
SHARE's 15 Indoor Shelter Network Re-Opening Tonight!!!
We are happy to announce that our community of 300+ homeless men and
women – many of whom had been displaced to sleeping in front of the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation due to SHARE's financial crisis and
resulting indoor shelter closure - will be going back to sleep inside
their shelters tonight.
On Monday 10/10/11, SHARE's Network of 15 Indoor shelters were closed
due to lack of funding. We decided as a community to stay together and
safe, and do it in a way that would shine a light on the International
Corporations in our community who are profiting at the same time the
social safety net is shredding due to lack of funding. The best way we
knew to shine that light was to stay together and safe while sleeping
in front of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
For the last 11 nights since the closure - usually around 70 of us,
sometimes many more – did just that.
Our shelters are reopening tonight with no help from the world's
largest charity – built on the profits of Microsoft Inc. This
foundation claims their 'intention' is to spend $100 million on
homelessness in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties. We say the road
to hell is paved with good 'intentions' and it is quite a mystery how
effective this funding will be: Not one single dime has or is
anticipated going to King County's largest shelter provider. Heck,
they've never even talked to us!
We are reopening because the $44,000 that the National FEMA Board had
cut from our yearly budget was restored. We are reopening because the
SHARE Shelter Board had a fabulously successful Auction last Sunday
night, that resulted in a $25,000 check delivered yesterday to SHARE.
We thank the King County Local FEMA Board for restoring our $44,000
yearly allotment. They signaled their intention last Friday 10/14, and
reaffirmed it yesterday.
On Sunday 10/16/11, The Shelter Board held the 9th Annual Harvest Time
Auction for SHARE. It was a successful night in that the attendance
was great; according to estimates this event was able to raise about
$30-$35,000. The Shelter Board were able to give us a portion of the
proceeds yesterday, in the amount of $25,000.
Also yesterday, the City of Seattle agreed to reimburse SHARE for all
costs contractually incurred already in this month, on Monday October
24th. (Usually we only get reimbursed once, a month, around the 7th.)
That should keep us going until the FEMA check arrives.
This Friday morning, SHARE's Central Committee met and in
consideration of funds received and anticipated unanimously voted to
re-open all shelters so everyone can get back into their shelters. We
know the key to this victory was sticking together and not giving up.
It has been a long and grueling two weeks. We are happy to be going
back indoors. We thank all our friends ands allies for all their
support. We thank the 99%ers from Occupy Seattle who marched with us
on World International Homeless Action Day. We thank all our Shelter
Hosts who both 'kept the light on' for us, and came out in solidarity
with us.
We thank all the remarkable donors who kept our shelters open for
months past what our original yearly budget anticipated due to their
unexpected generosity. They made the sleepout happen later in the
year, and also last a shorter time.
SHARE thanks Mayor Mike McGinn and Deputy Mayor Darrel Smith for their
creativity, resolve, and problem solving, which contributed to the
safety of our sleep out and our success in getting back inside.
SHARE thanks the Office of Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, who
also demonstrated creativity, resolve and problem solving.
We'd also like to thank the security personnel at the Gates
Foundation. They quietly kept watch on us (as well as our own
security!) as we slept in peace under tarps and blankets. Some even
became friends who we'll miss !!!
For this year, SHARE Shelters will remain inside. The struggle to stay
together and safe next year, though, has already begun. City
bureaucrats are already pushing schemes to shift funding from the
simple, empowering and inexpensive shelter the homeless people of
Seattle desperately need, and to substitute for it much more expensive
shelter (and therefore less of it!) that is funded only if an array of
bureaucratic outcomes and computer tracking of the inhabitants is
performed.
On Monday and Tuesday next week, this battle will be joined at City
Council Meetings, where bureaucrats will push for 'best practices'
that increase bureaucrats' share of the money that should be spent on
the provision of simple shelter. One example of these efforts will
occur in Council Chambers at 9:30 AM Tuesday Morning. That is when a
push will be made to require shelter providers 'to include linkages to
outreach services for unsheltered individuals.'
Outcomes-based funding and service linkages will not solve the problem
of homelessness, when there is not enough affordable housing for all
by thousands of units, and when government on all levels has less
revenue – often due to tax breaks to large corporations.
If Seattle's International Corporations are unwilling to start
practicing charity and justice at home – for everyone including the
left out – the violence and carnage on our streets and alleyways will
just keep getting worse. That's why we'll keep you posted on the
responses we get to our pleas from the nine corporations we have
approached twice this month.
10/21/11
SHARE/Gates Shelter Sleep Out Over!!!
SHARE's 15 Indoor Shelter Network Re-Opening Tonight!!!
We are happy to announce that our community of 300+ homeless men and
women – many of whom had been displaced to sleeping in front of the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation due to SHARE's financial crisis and
resulting indoor shelter closure - will be going back to sleep inside
their shelters tonight.
On Monday 10/10/11, SHARE's Network of 15 Indoor shelters were closed
due to lack of funding. We decided as a community to stay together and
safe, and do it in a way that would shine a light on the International
Corporations in our community who are profiting at the same time the
social safety net is shredding due to lack of funding. The best way we
knew to shine that light was to stay together and safe while sleeping
in front of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
For the last 11 nights since the closure - usually around 70 of us,
sometimes many more – did just that.
Our shelters are reopening tonight with no help from the world's
largest charity – built on the profits of Microsoft Inc. This
foundation claims their 'intention' is to spend $100 million on
homelessness in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties. We say the road
to hell is paved with good 'intentions' and it is quite a mystery how
effective this funding will be: Not one single dime has or is
anticipated going to King County's largest shelter provider. Heck,
they've never even talked to us!
We are reopening because the $44,000 that the National FEMA Board had
cut from our yearly budget was restored. We are reopening because the
SHARE Shelter Board had a fabulously successful Auction last Sunday
night, that resulted in a $25,000 check delivered yesterday to SHARE.
We thank the King County Local FEMA Board for restoring our $44,000
yearly allotment. They signaled their intention last Friday 10/14, and
reaffirmed it yesterday.
On Sunday 10/16/11, The Shelter Board held the 9th Annual Harvest Time
Auction for SHARE. It was a successful night in that the attendance
was great; according to estimates this event was able to raise about
$30-$35,000. The Shelter Board were able to give us a portion of the
proceeds yesterday, in the amount of $25,000.
Also yesterday, the City of Seattle agreed to reimburse SHARE for all
costs contractually incurred already in this month, on Monday October
24th. (Usually we only get reimbursed once, a month, around the 7th.)
That should keep us going until the FEMA check arrives.
This Friday morning, SHARE's Central Committee met and in
consideration of funds received and anticipated unanimously voted to
re-open all shelters so everyone can get back into their shelters. We
know the key to this victory was sticking together and not giving up.
It has been a long and grueling two weeks. We are happy to be going
back indoors. We thank all our friends ands allies for all their
support. We thank the 99%ers from Occupy Seattle who marched with us
on World International Homeless Action Day. We thank all our Shelter
Hosts who both 'kept the light on' for us, and came out in solidarity
with us.
We thank all the remarkable donors who kept our shelters open for
months past what our original yearly budget anticipated due to their
unexpected generosity. They made the sleepout happen later in the
year, and also last a shorter time.
SHARE thanks Mayor Mike McGinn and Deputy Mayor Darrel Smith for their
creativity, resolve, and problem solving, which contributed to the
safety of our sleep out and our success in getting back inside.
SHARE thanks the Office of Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, who
also demonstrated creativity, resolve and problem solving.
We'd also like to thank the security personnel at the Gates
Foundation. They quietly kept watch on us (as well as our own
security!) as we slept in peace under tarps and blankets. Some even
became friends who we'll miss !!!
For this year, SHARE Shelters will remain inside. The struggle to stay
together and safe next year, though, has already begun. City
bureaucrats are already pushing schemes to shift funding from the
simple, empowering and inexpensive shelter the homeless people of
Seattle desperately need, and to substitute for it much more expensive
shelter (and therefore less of it!) that is funded only if an array of
bureaucratic outcomes and computer tracking of the inhabitants is
performed.
On Monday and Tuesday next week, this battle will be joined at City
Council Meetings, where bureaucrats will push for 'best practices'
that increase bureaucrats' share of the money that should be spent on
the provision of simple shelter. One example of these efforts will
occur in Council Chambers at 9:30 AM Tuesday Morning. That is when a
push will be made to require shelter providers 'to include linkages to
outreach services for unsheltered individuals.'
Outcomes-based funding and service linkages will not solve the problem
of homelessness, when there is not enough affordable housing for all
by thousands of units, and when government on all levels has less
revenue – often due to tax breaks to large corporations.
If Seattle's International Corporations are unwilling to start
practicing charity and justice at home – for everyone including the
left out – the violence and carnage on our streets and alleyways will
just keep getting worse. That's why we'll keep you posted on the
responses we get to our pleas from the nine corporations we have
approached twice this month.
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