How One GOP Plutocrat Helped Make 20,000 Kids Homeless

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/how-one-gop-plutocrat-helped-make-20000-kids-homeless


A series of ads placed in New York's subways by Coalition for the Homeless highlights skyrocketing rates of child and family homelessness in the city.

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Here is a guide to how the Bloomberg administration managed to increase family homelessness while using up a lot of public money.

1. Cut access to federal aid.

For decades, Republican and Democratic mayors kept family homelessness down by giving homeless parents and their kids priority access to federal housing subsidies and rental vouchers. But in 2004, as part of the mayor's five-year plan to combat homelessness, the administration knocked homeless families from the top of the massive waiting list for federal rent subsidies. Administration officials, offering no empirical proof, claimed that poor people were scamming the system by moving into shelters in order to get Section 8 vouchers. (Like many conservative fantasies involving scheming minorities, it's no doubt true that someone, somewhere, cheated -- but studies show this was not a widespread problem straining the system.)

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2. Cut and run.

Still, the administration touted the program as a success, defending it against homelessness advocates and city officials who pushed the mayor to give families priority in federal housing assistance. So it was strange that when the governor of New York cut half of Advantage's funding in March 2011, the Bloomberg administration refused to make up the difference and just killed the program. Around that time the mayor suggested that poor families were pretending to be homeless to scam Advantage subsidies.“You never know what motivates people," he said on his radio show. “One theory is that some people have been coming into the homeless system, the shelter system, in order to qualify for a program that helps you move out of the homeless system.”

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3. Spend money on temporary solutions.

Instead, the administration is just frantically opening up more and more emergency shelters. The AP reports that 10 new shelters for single adults and families have opened in recent months to deal with the crisis. The administration plans five more before the year is over.

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4. Refuse to change course .

The New York City Council has outlined a plan to revive programs proven to reduce homelessness. As Christine Quinn, Annabel Palma and Coalition for the Homeless director Mary Brosnahan wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed, "That means returning to the proven strategy of setting aside a reasonable share of open slots in public housing and marshaling valuable federal housing vouchers for those trapped in the shelter system. In addition, a new rental assistance program, modeled on the successful federal voucher program, must be created."

[ck4829]

1. I also heard that Bloomberg charges rent for the employed homeless to stay in shelters

I don't know if he did it or proposed it, but just wrong either way.

[MrYikes]

2. I think they like Romney's idea

Self deportation to any other state. And Cartman will even provide the bus.