[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12634-S12635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     ANNUAL MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY OPERATION ON TEMPORARY SHELTER

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, on September 11, 1997, the 
Community on Temporary Shelter [COTS] held its annual meeting in 
Burlington, VT. The keynote speaker was Rita Markley, the director of 
COTS. Through her hard work and dedication to the needs of the homeless 
in Vermont stands as a glowing example of the value of community 
service. Her efforts have made a tremendous difference in the fight to 
end homelessness. It gives me great pleasure to submit, for the Record, 
the text of her remarks.
  The text of the remarks follows:

                            [Sept. 11, 1997]

    Committee on Temporary Shelter Annual Meeting--Where Are We Now

                           (By Rita Markley)

       Good morning and welcome to our annual meeting and 
     volunteer recognition. This is the day when we thank all of 
     you for giving your support to COTS. It's the time when we 
     reflect on what that contribution means and why it matters.
       I think it's too easy these days to forget that there was a 
     time in this country, just 20-25 years ago, when being poor 
     did not mean being homeless. There was a time when retail 
     clerks, gas station attendants, waitresses could afford to 
     pay for their rent and their groceries. Sometimes they even 
     had enough left over for a Saturday afternoon movie. There 
     was a time when the mentally ill were not left to wander 
     America's streets without housing or services. And there was 
     a time, just 15 years ago, when this community did not need a 
     place like COTS because homelessness was something that only 
     happened in big cities.
       There have been enormous economic and social changes during 
     the past 20 years that have displaced and uprooted millions 
     of lives. Across the country and here in Vermont, the number 
     of families and individuals without housing has increased 
     tenfold during the past decade. Not since the Great 
     Depression have there been so many homeless Americans. During 
     the 1980's more than half a million units of low income 
     housing were lost every year to condo conversion, arson and 
     demolition. That rate of loss has been even higher during the 
     1990's. In Chittenden County, rents increased twice as fast 
     as average income during the 80's. Not surprisingly, we now 
     live in a time when homelessness has become so pervasive, so 
     endemic, that we've all but forgotten that it was not always 
     this way. One of my greatest fears is that we will come to 
     accept that this is the way it must be.
       It seems impossible that it was less than 20 years ago that 
     we first began to see vast numbers of families all over this 
     country sleeping in abandoned buildings or huddled in 
     doorways because they couldn't afford a home. Back then, we 
     were deeply shaken by the image of small children doing their 
     homework by flashlight in the backseat of cars, the idea of 
     anyone sleeping under cardboard boxes in public parks was 
     astonishing. Our hearts were broken by newspaper stories of 
     entire families scouring through trash dumpsters for scraps 
     of food.
       In 1997 the problem of homelessness in America remains one 
     of our greatest challenges and yet we hear little or nothing 
     about this issue in the national media. It's as if seeing 
     those anguished images year after year has become so routine 
     that we no longer see them at all. A few months ago my own 
     sister told me that she was tired of seeing the homeless 
     everywhere she went, that she couldn't look at their faces 
     anymore because there were just too many of them, and it made 
     her feel too sad. Either she forgot what I do every day or 
     she wanted me to remind her that turning away from her own 
     compassion means turning away from her humanity. My sister's 
     reaction, though, is not uncommon. The homeless are 
     increasingly invisible, untouchable. And they know it, they 
     feel the distancing every time someone passes them by on the 
     street without looking into their eyes. Even children living 
     in desperate poverty know that they are regarded differently 
     than cleaner, better dressed children. Here's a quote from a 
     15 year old girl that describes their experience poignantly:
       ``It's not like being in jail. It's more like being hidden. 
     It's as if you have been put in a garage somewhere, where, if 
     they don't have room for something but aren't sure if they 
     should throw it out, they put it there in the garage where 
     they don't need to think of it again. That's what it's 
     like.'' (Kozol interview tapes)
       Since the mid-1980's there has been a growing inclination 
     to ignore, conceal and even punish those without homes. Many 
     people in this country have moved from pity to impatience to 
     outright contempt for the homeless.
       In Fort Lauderdale, FL a city councilor proposed spraying 
     trash containers with rat poison to discourage foraging by 
     homeless families. ``The way to get rid of vermin,'' he said, 
     ``is to cut off their food supply.'' (1986) In Santa Barbara, 
     California grocers have sprinkled bleach on food discarded in 
     their dumpsters.
       In Chicago a homeless man was set ablaze while sleeping on 
     a bench early one December morning. Rush hour commuters 
     passed his charred body and possessions for four hours before 
     anyone called the police.
       In the first four months of 1992, 26 homeless people were 
     set on fire while they were sleeping in New York City.
       Who are these faceless, forsaken people that they would 
     provoke such hateful acts? They are the poorest and most 
     vulnerable members of our society: they are the elderly and 
     families with children, they are Korean and Vietnam war 
     veterans, they are the mentally ill who were left to fend for 
     themselves on city streets, they are women and children 
     fleeing from violence. I wonder

[[Page S12635]]

     what kind of outcry there would have been if these acts of 
     violence were inflicted on any other group but the most 
     dispossessed.
       I'd like to read a few letters by some Vermonters who lost 
     their homes this year. They wrote these last April during the 
     HUD crisis when many of our services would have been wiped 
     out by unexpected cuts in funding.
       ``Dear ---- I'd never been homeless before this winter. I 
     was out of work suddenly, lost my apartment and had to find a 
     place to stay. . . I was at the Waystation. . . where I met 
     some people who took care of each other, no matter our 
     differences in lifestyles, skills, education or so called 
     sanity. I have a college degree, many skills and I want to 
     work and to give to the community. What I'm saying is that 
     almost anyone could become homeless after some unexpected 
     misfortune. Whether they can work or not they still need food 
     and clothing, safe shelter, and people who care about them. . 
     . I started to work again last week and my home will be open 
     for anyone who needs a place to stay. I won't forget.''
       ``I lost the comfort of my affordable apartment when the 
     building I lived in was closed because of fire. Also, 49 
     other families were displaced. The renovation of his building 
     will take 18 to 24 months according to the owner. I have not 
     had comfortable housing since that fire on September 7, 1996. 
     My address was 127 St. Paul street where Vermont Transit was 
     located. In the meantime, I'm number 1030 on the Burlington 
     Housing Authority waiting list. What I miss most about my 
     apartment was the peace of mind it gave me. Sincerely, Arlen 
     D.''
       I'm not sure if Arlen knows yet that only 5 of the 
     renovated units will be rented at a rate anywhere near what 
     he can afford.
       We hear a lot these days about building strong communities, 
     and God knows, we've heard no end of how it takes a village 
     to raise a child. But what's missing in all of those 
     discussions is the primacy, the importance and the function 
     of home within any community or village. Think about what 
     home means for all of us. It's the place we gather with 
     family, it's where we sleep and dream and let down our guard 
     at the end of the day. Home is where we keep and cherish what 
     we love: our family, our books and music, whatever it is that 
     we hold dear. It's the place we store all of the things we 
     can't bear to part with: our high school graduation photos, 
     our grandmother's wedding ring, a fifth grade award for 
     spelling. Home is the one place where we can create a safe 
     world within a larger more threatening world.
       Losing a home means that you only keep what you can carry 
     in your hands and on your back. It means leaving behind many 
     of the belongings that remind you what has mattered in your 
     life. It means losing connection with your own history. For 
     children, not having a home is devastating; it means losing 
     their pets, their storybooks and their favorite toys.
       I cannot imagine the damage done when a child is torn from 
     her home, when she sees her family's belongings piled up on 
     the sidewalk, when she has no idea where she will sleep at 
     night. I cannot imagine the pain a seven year old feels when 
     he's called ``shelter trash'' by the other children in his 
     school. What I do know is that without the foundation of 
     home, any efforts to build meaningful community will fail. 
     It's untenable to think a village can raise healthy children 
     when its children are sleeping in emergency shelters and on 
     the streets. I remember what a local businessman said to me 
     once, a pretty conservative guy. He'd written a very large 
     check for COTS. I asked him if he wanted his gift targeted to 
     our job program which is popular with many of our business 
     supporters. He said no, the shelters. He was surprised that I 
     was surprised by his answer. If these folks don't have a 
     place to sleep at night, he explained, a place to take a 
     shower, they're not going to get a job or an apartment no 
     matter what kind of training they have. They'll be trapped. 
     First things first, he said.
       This past year we helped put first things first for more 
     that a thousand homeless families and individuals. They came 
     to COTS because they had no place left to turn. They came 
     from Burlington, Essex, Colchester, Shelburne, Ferrisburgh, 
     Williston, Milton, Westford, Underhill, South Burlington and 
     Jericho. And for every one of them COTS offered not just a 
     refuge but a chance to reclaim their own lives. We provided 
     voc counseling, job placement services, budgeting assistance, 
     unremitting encouragement, and workshops on everything from 
     nutrition to conflict resolution. For the children, we made 
     certain that every child at our shelter had a brand new 
     backpack, fresh notebooks and pencils for school.
       None of the work we did, none of the achievements, would be 
     possible without all of you gathered here today. You 
     volunteer for our phonathon, and donate expert legal, 
     financial and human resource advise to COTS. You answer the 
     phones, spend time with the children at our shelter, and 
     repair our computers. You provide us with graphics and design 
     work that we could never otherwise afford. And you bring us 
     brownies and cookies and flowers because you know the work we 
     do is sometimes heartbreaking.
       During the HUD crisis this spring, you came forward with 
     calls, letters, and connections. I want especially to thank 
     Gretchen Morse who was my shrewd political advisor and moral 
     support during the worst days I've ever had in the 5 years 
     I've worked at COTS. I am deeply grateful to Lucy Samara who 
     traveled to Montpelier, alerted the entire religious 
     community about the crisis, and then worked the phones every 
     night like a seasoned politician. She was extraordinary. It 
     terrifies me to think what could have happened without her 
     leadership and initiative. I'd like to thank Barbara Snelling 
     for her eloquent support at the statehouse. And thank you to 
     Doug Racine and the entire Chittenden delegation with special 
     thanks to Jan Backus and Helen Reihle. I am also very 
     grateful to Con Hogan for his advocacy within the Dean 
     Administration. And most of all, I want to thank Senator 
     Leahy for standing up to HUD. I deeply appreciate all of the 
     business owners, the religious leaders, our friends up at UVM 
     who called or wrote on our behalf. Finally, I want to thank 
     those of you without homes who had the courage to put your 
     stories on paper.
       Someone from Senator Leahy's staff told me that it was 
     astounding what a diverse range of people called to voice 
     their concerns about COTS. She said it was the most unlikely 
     array of people she could possibly imagine. I told her to 
     come to a COTS walkathon if she wanted to see unlikely 
     combinations of people. This year we had Trey Anastasio from 
     the band Phish walking beside a big deal lawyer from Green 
     Mountain Power and they were walking just a few feet ahead of 
     4 Sisters of Mercy, one of whom was chatting with a liberal 
     progressive or maybe and anarchist who was walking just in 
     front of a conservative businessman who was strolling along 
     with a recovering alcoholic who stayed at COTS Waystation 5 
     years ago. Heading up the rear was former governor Tom Salmon 
     and leading the walk were Barbara Snelling and Patrick Leahy. 
     How is this possible?
       I believe that when you give your time and support to COTS, 
     you are doing far more than writing a check or working on 
     whatever task is at hand. I believe that what you are really 
     doing is taking a stand, a stand against indifference. When 
     you support COTS you are holding firm with us in the 
     unwavering conviction that every human being has value; and 
     that no one should be discarded or left behind (or set on 
     fire) just because they are poor. When you give your time to 
     COTS, when you help ensure that there is shelter and support 
     for those who have nothing, you reaffirm humanity. That's a 
     tremendous gift to give. And I thank you.

                          ____________________