Bring US homeless in from the cold

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/nov/16/homeless-crisis-america

Last week's United Nations' findings on America's homeless crisis couldn't have been more timely or more depressing. Three years into the post-housing bubble era, special rapporteur Raquel Rolnik detailed a growing crisis in which the poorest of the poor are, literally, left out in the cold while hundreds of billions of dollars are being pumped into propping up the broader pillars of the economy.

The combination of 16 million workers unemployed with an unprecedented housing market meltdown and collapse in state and local finances has magnified the misery of homelessness in the world's richest country.

The crisis is multi-layered: for the long-term homeless, for those with mental health and drug addiction problems, for women and children fleeing domestic violence, for military veterans experiencing PTSD, as local and state services are slashed the likelihood that they will end up sleeping on park benches or under bridges grows. In California, for example, domestic violence shelters have suffered disproportionately high cuts in recent months as the governor and legislators look for ways to fill huge holes in the state's budget. In other states, mental health services for the indigent and poor have been decimated. Peruse local newspapers, and you'll see stories such as the one in last week's Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, detailing cuts to services for pregnant women with drug abuse problems. Mental health advocates in Ohio have recently documented multi-million dollar cuts to housing services for the state's mentally ill.

At the same time as social services for the mentally ill and drug addicted shrink, for low income families reliant on housing subsidies from city housing authorities around the country the crisis means more are likely to be turned away from programmes or given rent assistance so small that, in effect, it's useless. And, even if they don't end up homeless, many tens of thousands will end up in utterly overcrowded, squalid conditions. In Los Angeles, city council president Eric Garcetti recently told me, the least-bad solution that the housing authority hit upon, in order to avoid having to cut families off entirely, was to restrict the assistance offered to subsidies for the rental of one-bedroom apartments. Thus, no matter the size of the family, LA's default will be to locate them in single bedroom units. In Jacksonville, Florida, homeless advocates report that over 100 low-income families lost their housing vouchers over the summer. In New York City, millions of dollars are being cut from homeless prevention programmes and legal services for tenants facing eviction. And in Washington DC, the nation's capital, homeless services are facing a $20m reduction in the next fiscal year.

[unlegendary]

1. Do your part for free markets.

Well in the name of free markets the next time you see a well heeled puke involved in a bad car wreck or his or her house is on fire be a free marketer and demand payment before dialing 911 for them. When they complain just tell them you're doing your part for free markets.
What? You have no cash on hand, but you have multiple broken bones and your car is about to explode from leaking gasoline? Sorry pal.. I don't take credit cards, but will take that $50000 Rolex if it still works.. Don't worry.. I'll just cut your hand off if you can't slip it off your wrist in time. This ain't no damned welfare state ya know.

[Naturyl]

2. Programs for the needy are always among the first things to go

Whenever budgets get tight, the "optional" stuff is cut first - and in American society, helping the needy is definitely an optional "luxury."

The massive war spending, if course, is non-negotiable. It's a matter of priorities - namely the abysmally backward priorities of Americans.

[cutlassmama]

4. The hand of the rich hardly ever reach down to benefit the poor.

[butterfly77]

3. Kick,Kick,Kick&Recommended..