Thread: Latino Transitional Housing Partnership Aiding Illegals

Latino Transitional Housing Partnership Aiding Illegals
An anonymous reader wrote:

There is a housing program in Washington, DC that houses Latino women and families. While a portion of these program participants are in the country LEGALLY, there are many that are not.

This organization is called: The Latino Transitional Housing Partnership (LTHP). I once worked there for 5 years until I was finally fed up with the policies of the organization. Having worked there is the main reason I wish to remain anonymous in this message. LTHP receives funds directly from the DC and Federal Governments and knowingly houses and provides services to illegal immigrants.

The Program Manager has even gone so far as to instruct participants on how to obtain false social security paperwork in the Mount Pleasant section of the city. This was actually the final straw that caused me to resign.

I know sending an anonymous message does a lot to damage credibility, but what I am telling you is true. They may even tell you themselves. If you were to call under the pretense of referring, a 'client' (202.518.6605) who is undocumented, they may actually tell you that it does not matter.

I have tried to contact FAIR in Washington, DC but the anonymous approach does not seem to warrant much attention. If someone was too take a detailed look into what goes on there, they would find links to other organizations that also provide services to illegal immigrants with government funding.

I do not know if you will alert anyone to this, but I felt it was time to say something.

08 Apr 2008 @ 07:55 am

http://idexer.com/2008/04/08/latino-tra ... egals.html



Third District Shelters

Latino Transitional Housing Partnership
1534 6th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Contact: Alma Nieves (Case Management Supervisor) or Kimberly-Lee Smith Dinn (Program Director)
Phone: (202) 238-9186
Emergency after-hours: (202) 421-8355

Latino Transitional Housing Partnership serves homeless families and single women with no dependents.

Hours of Operation
Office Hours: Mon. through Fri., 9:30 am to 5:30 am

Services

* Bilingual Staff (Spanish/English)
* Employment support
* Educational support
* Full Case Management at referrals when necessary
* Housing relocation
* Tenant advocacy
* Transitional housing

Restrictions
Referrals from agencies preferrred not an emergency shelter; domestic violence and substance abuse without treatment no accepted.

Return to the list of Third District shelters.

http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1239,q,545072.asp

Hogares, or homes in Spanish, is a grassroots initiative to provide housing to recent Latino immigrants at a reasonable price as a means of effectively transitioning them into valuable contributors to local economies. With comfortable, affordable housing comes decreased crime, poverty and malnutrition rates and increased education, health and income rates. Affordable housing for the poor means a better society for everyone.

http://www.hogares-dc.org/

History

In 1996, a group of concerned leaders within the Latino Community of Washington, DC began meeting to brainstorm ways to combat the growing numbers of homeless Latinos in the Columbia Heightsand Mount Pleasant areas. After a long process, a united group of leaders from Mary?s Center for Maternal and Child Care, the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) and the Council of Latino Agencies (CLA) presented a proposal to The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP) in 1997. The proposal created the Latino Transitional Housing Partnership (LTHP). LTHP began operating in 1999 as a program fiscally sponsored by CLA. CLA has a storied history of creating and incubating programs that fill gaps in services and using those programs to build the capacity of existing organizations. In this scenario, they decided to create a new organization to address the issue of homelessness in the burgeoning Latino population in the District of Columbia.

In April of 2002, LAYC assumedfiscal responsibility for LTHP. Since that time, LTHP has grown to be more than just a transitional housing program. Accordingly, LTHP has become Hogares, Inc.

Hogares? programs include the Latino Transitional Housing Partnership, Sin Barreras/Without Boundaries (permanent housing for families), Promoviendo Independencia/Promoting Independence (permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals ? newest program) and Voz a Voz/Voice to Voice (housing counselors specializing in crisis counseling to the Latino community).
http://www.hogares-dc.org/about_hogares_history.html

Decided to look again then found this........


Clients

The population primarily being served by Hogares, homeless Latino families and single women, present barriers to housing that are different in both type and scope than in more traditional homeless service programs. The barriers identified are as follows:

* Language barrier/English as a second language - This impacts ability to gain education, training and living wage employment.
* Lack of culturally competent, available and affordable child care - Although affordable child care does exist in the community, there are not enough slots available for LTHP participants. Consequently, this impacts the participant's ability to be employed, participate in program-related activities and job training.
* Immigration status - This impacts the participant's ability to receive any benefits, including food stamps and other short-term governmental assistance. Other effects include a limited ability for participants to gain living wage employment that often leads to receiving substandard wages without benefits such as health care. In addition, obtaining housing becomes difficult, since it is often challenging to prove income without proper documentation.
* Mental Health Issues - For this population, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression are major factors in their mental health, especially for participants coming from war-torn areas and who may have left family behind to come to the United States.
* Life Skills/Cultural Issues - This category encompasses many things outside of the usual budgeting/daily living issues addressed by most transitional housing organizations. In general, it concerns making the adjustment from living in the participant's country of origin to living in the United States, as things that may be expected or acceptable in one culture may not be in another.
* Revitalization/Gentrification - Exorbitant housing redevelopment in predominantly Latino neighborhoods has led to residents no longer being able to afford the increasing rents. This has led to eviction as well as overcrowding, and/or subsequent substandard living arrangements in the remaining affordable units.
* Substandard Wages/Over employment - Approximately 80% of program participants are employed at program entry, but because of many of the issues outlined above, one job cannot meet the living expenses of the participant. Also, participants often have commitments to family members in their home country to send money home. This places an additional burden on the participant that results in over employment, minimal time to spend with children, as well as a diminished opportunity in receiving life skills, case management and other types of assistance which may be necessary to increase job skills or education.

Given these barriers to permanent housing, and given that many families and individuals ask for assistance only when their informal support systems are not adequate enough to meet their needs, Hogares? programs must have high-level engagement and understanding of the needs as its core value in serving homeless Latino families and single women. During recent years we have served an increasing number of immigrant families from Africa.

http://www.hogares-dc.org/about_hogares_clients.html


So the answer is yes; they serve the illegal immigrants also. The story is true!

This is a disgrace cause I know many Americans who are not getting this special treatment and are struggling in need. We should have services like this for the poor but they should be American citizens not foreign nationals and not of a specific racial or ethnic origin only. If this was whites only you would have heard the screams of racism at the tops of every mountain; hill and slope. Considering this is all paid for by our taxpaying dollars most likely it should be shut down or told to include only American citizens who are legal or legal immigrants.

The person who wrote the plaint above is probably a legal Latin immigrant or citizen. There are Latin people who are socially concerned who are silently fed up with the ethics of the leadership of certain vocal Latin organizations. I hope that tis gets dealt with. There are similar problems here in New England.

In 1996, a group of concerned leaders within the Latino Community of Washington, DC began meeting to brainstorm ways to combat the growing numbers of homeless Latinos in the Columbia Heightsand Mount Pleasant areas. After a long process, a united group of leaders from Mary?s Center for Maternal and Child Care, the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) and the Council of Latino Agencies (CLA) presented a proposal to The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP) in 1997. The proposal created the Latino Transitional Housing Partnership (LTHP). LTHP began operating in 1999 as a program fiscally sponsored by CLA. CLA has a storied history of creating and incubating programs that fill gaps in services and using those programs to build the capacity of existing organizations. In this scenario, they decided to create a new organization to address the issue of homelessness in the burgeoning Latino population in the District of Columbia.

I wonder how many American citizens this organization helps. Sounds like all of the other Latino Organizations (LaRaza, MALDEF, LULAC) to me, if you are not Hispanic, you're out of luck. Also receiving US taxpayers' money. DC is full of homeless people, mostly African-American males. You can't enjoy the parks in DC anymore due to the homeless people sleeping or sitting on the park benches. They are sleeping all over, not just in the parks. I can't believe that our government helps the illegals find housing and the homeless American citizens receives no help.

...someone should be faxing that information to ICE.

REMEMBER "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration." - Melanie a 13 yr old Texas assault victim of ILLEGALS.