I wimped out and took the train in to work this morning. Rode my bike in Tuesday and Wednesday because my fare card ran out and then rode in again Thursday because it was nice out. Today it is supposed to be even nicer, but I�m a little sore so I will just have to enjoy the sunshine from out the windows of the train. I can definitely tell the training is helping since I�m getting stronger. Chicago�s nearly constant wind also helps training since I almost always have at least one ride a day into a headwind. The past couple of Saturdays I have been riding with a small group of others that are going to do the ride. That has been fun. Haven�t had too many opportunities to ride with others. One of the gals that will be going has about the same average speed I do so we have been riding and chatting as we go. So far the group hasn�t strayed off the lakeshore path, but since that will be getting more crowded as the weather warms up we will probably need to start biking elsewhere soon.
Work is still busy. Yippee! I�m working on an Annual Progress Report for our Renaissance Care Network housing program. Even though most of these report type things are just a lot of info gathering, it has been neat to do them since I get to see the statistics about how well the program is doing. Future reports will be even more interesting to see since we are moving to evaluating programs based on what happens to people rather than just numbers of what we helped them get. Leah came home finally! She was working as an election monitor in El Salvador and then came home for less than an hour before she was once again on a plane to Washington, DC to lobby against the School of the Americas (or whatever its new name is). While in El Salvador she got E-Coli and was hooked up to multiple IVs is the hospital. For once I wasn�t jealous about all the places she�s been traveling! Melissa was also gone last week. She went to Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat place in Washington State that lives by many of the same tenants as LVC. Sounds like it was a great trip and really relaxing for her. She also got to meet up with one of her housemates from last year who lives in Seattle. Jason had a candidacy interview for his possible return to seminary. He got in later than my bedtime last night so I haven�t gotten the scoop on how it went. I�m hoping great because I think Jason would have a lot to offer as a pastor. Kevin is exploring many possibilities for next year, and like the rest of us can�t really decide which path is the best yet. Hopefully we�ll all figure it out by August (only 5 months away � gasp!).The AFC housing program is busy putting together a long-term subsidy program that is part of a study funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There were only three cities that got the funding (Baltimore and Los Angeles are the other two). The study will give us 167 long-term housing vouchers! We are hoping to add another 40 using other HUD funds we are given. The study (called Housing and Health) is hoping to prove that housing can have a positive impact on prevention and health maintenance. It is similar to another housing research project we have, Chicago Housing for Health Project (CHHP).
Long-term subsidies are a big deal. You may remember from back when we were working on changes to the short-term subsidies how I was complaining that so many people needed so much more than the 5-months of assistance we can provide with the short-term program. Long-term subsidies give us that option. Chicago has a tight housing market that is nearly impossible for people with low incomes to afford (I�ve complained about that a lot too!). These subsidies will allow them to pay just 30% of their income towards rent, with the subsidy making up the difference between that amount and fair market rent for the apartment. Another nice thing is that since the program is based in apartments rather than residential programs, clients do not have to meet sobriety requirements, a problem many of our current CHHP clients have had in trying to get housing.
I�ve also still been working on some of our prevention programs. Chicago is waiting to hear how much CDC funding for prevention we will get. AFC doesn�t actually apply for the funding, but we helped a lot of the agencies get their applications together. The CDC changed their funding process so many agencies lost funding, but others may get a lot more than they had before. I think 6 of the agencies we work with had a site visit from the CDC, so hopefully they will get funded!
Had a neat Easter dinner with Melissa, Kevin and a couple of Mel�s friends. We had been given a coupon for a free ham, which Jason picked up on his way home one day. The sucker was 10 pounds! Melissa, Kevin and I were the only ones home to start it cooking. Watching us trying to figure out what to do with this thing would have made a great video for Candid Camera. Melissa and I aren�t particularly keen on playing with a dead hunk of animal. None of us knew how to cook it. After many phone calls to Melissa�s mom, perusal of the cookbooks, and several funny faces we managed to throw some pineapple and brown sugar on the thing and stuff it in the oven for a few hours. Didn�t turn out all that bad! We also had asparagus, potatoes, rolls, cantaloupe, and a beef dish brought by Melissa�s friends. We were supposed to have glazed carrots, but we found them in the microwave after dinner! For dessert Melissa made a yummy strawberry crumble from the huge chunk of frozen strawberries in our freezer.
Rode 40 miles on Saturday! I will be so glad when it is warm. Some of these bike rides have been REALLY cold. Is it April or January here? Anyway, I was so excited about riding over 100 miles each of the last two weeks and then I realized I have to do all of that in one day and then get up the next morning and do it again � groan. Hopefully I�ll make it!
Take a pictoral tour of the "Hey house"!
We had a snack n� yak meeting last night (where we meet as a house with a couple members of the local support committee). Our topic for the night was a revisitation of conflict resolution. We didn�t get into any fist-fights so we must be doing ok :) Actually, I felt like we had some good discussions and I felt good coming out of the meeting. One of the problems I raised was a feeling I had that we would often have great discussions then not carry through on them. Last night I felt we left with a specific plan for when we were going to next meet to carry out what we talked about tonight. We�ll have lots more time to talk to each other, as this weekend is retreat. We are going to a camp in Wisconsin.
You know you are a mid-westerner when an exciting piece of news is the weather, but hey it really was awesome this week! A couple of weeks ago I came home and asked my housemates �is it April or is it January?� We had temperatures near freezing, it was cloudy, and generally just a typical January day. This weekend I came home and said �is it April or is it July?� as our high temperatures soared into the upper 80s! Beautiful sunshine too (unfortunately I enjoyed that sun a little too much and I have a great farmers burn). The forecast this week is supposed to be more like April �norms� with rain and 50s.
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