In 2010, John Hieftje and First Ward Council member Sandi Smith both ran for re-election and patted themselves on the back for “doubling beds at the homeless shelter.” If you count a chair as a bed, Hieftje and Smith were telling the truth. In November of 2009, Ann Arbor City Council made an “emergency allocation” of $159,000 to “deal” with homelessness. I wrote about it here. A one-time allocation. Then, City Council suggested Ann Arbor residents “pray to end homelessness.” Suffice it to say, in a city heralded as one of the most politically progressive in the country, our elected officials resemble Ebenezer Scrooges---pre-Ghost of Christmas Future visit. “Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?” Winter 2011? No emergency allocation. Not a peep from John Hieftje, Sandi Smith or any of the other Council members, warm and cozy in their Council chambers, obsessing how to pay for skinning the Larcom Building so it will match the new City Hall, and looking forward to their new Council chambers when renovations are finished.

Homelessness advocates have told stories of city and county officials threatening to pull funding from services for the homeless to retaliate against advocates who are overly vocal on behalf of the needs of the growing homeless population. The panhandling problem in Ann Arbor merited the formation of a special task force, headed by First Ward Council member Sabra Briere. In the many months her special committee has been meeting (if it has) Briere has not shared updates with residents. She is scheduled to update Council in March 2011.

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Marin County’s officials are failing to address the county’s critical need for more permanent emergency shelter housing for homeless families, according to Marin County’s latest grand jury report.

The report, titled “Sheltering the Homeless: A Hole in the Safety Net,” alleges that although families and children appear to be the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population in Marin, the county has done little to provide support for them. The report demands the county implement a permanent emergency shelter program no later than next winter.

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A large encampment of homeless people in Honolulu is once again being told to hit the road. As reported by the New York Times, state redevelopment officials told the 100 residents of the encampment that their homes -- 75 or so tents lining the sidewalks and park near the University of Hawaii medical school in Kakaako -- will be torn down if they're still standing on March 15.

This is not the first time the homeless have been shuffled around in Honolulu -- and it's not likely to be the last. The Times quotes Doran J. Porter, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance in Hawaii, on the ineffectiveness of constantly relocating the homeless population:

"My concern is that they need to have solutions of where these folks are going to go," [Porter] said. "We can't keep kicking them out of one place where they go to another. That's why they are there in the first place: they were kicked out of Waikiki and the beaches. This has been going on for years."

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The city's Department of Homeless services says it fears it is going to have to terminate the Advantage program, which places homeless families in apartments and helps them stay there by paying most of the rent for up to two years.

"The devastating part of this for families is that the governor is proposing to pull the rug from underneath people who are already in the community," said Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond.

If $65 million in Advantage funding is cut from the state budget, the city says it will have to terminate Advantage starting next week, while 3,000 families are looking for apartments through the program.

"Some of them are days away from moving and they are not going to be able to do so because of this cut," said Diamond.

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