The next big boondoggle - free housing for the homeless

A lot of people who live on the streets have mental or addiction issues and rather than addressing these problems directly, our government would rather cut them a check (our money), hand them a tranche of Free Government Cheese (our money again) and send them on their (not so) merry way; doing nothing to help the base reason they are homeless in the first place. Now, everyone is going to have the most bestest time playing house. From Yahoo/McClatchy Newspapers:
Obama administration vows to end homelessness
The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan that aspires to end homelessness among some of society's most vulnerable groups within the next decade.

"Opening Doors," a "Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness," calls for ending child and family homelessness in 10 years while wiping out chronic homelessness and homelessness among veterans in five years.

According to the 74-page plan, "Stable housing is the foundation upon which people build their lives � absent a safe, decent, affordable place to live, it is next to impossible to achieve good health, positive educational outcomes or reach one's economic potential."

The plan is a significant breakthrough because there's never been a comprehensive federal effort to end homelessness with a timeline and measureable goals, said Nan Roman , the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

"To me that's really important, because we know that when the Bush administration made a commitment to end chronic homelessness, it really made a huge difference," she said. "It changed how resources were allocated. It caused better coordination, and the result has been that the chronic numbers have gone down. Now they're taking that same approach and they're expanding it to the other homeless populations. I think that's significant."
A noble desire but a very foolish cause. The article states: "a government report showed that nearly 1.6 million people, including more than 170,000 families, spent time in homeless shelters last year as the recession, mounting foreclosures and record unemployment sent people scrambling for shelter" This is 0.3% of the US Population -- one for every three hundred citizens, and the mention is not long-term, it is 'spent time in'. Reasons given were foreclosures (ie: people being able to borrow well beyond their means -- Earth to Barney) and record unemployment (Earth to Obama, Keynes, et. al.) People that work with the homeless often refer to the 35 percenters -- these are the chronic abusers and mental patients so that drops the number down to 0.1% -- one for every thousand citizens. Considering that these people aren't going to respond very well to any kind of palliative care -- from the Houston Chronicle:
They talk, instead, about "the 35 percenters" -- a reference to a 2005 study, funded in part by the city, that found that 35 percent of our homeless are "severely compromised by mental illness, chronic substance abuse, or mental retardation and will require lifelong, highly structured care" such as supervised housing. (Another 55 percent will likely need occasional help, such as access to food pantries, for the rest of their lives.)
Back when I was growing up, there were State and Federal funded institutions where people like this would live. There will always be a percentage of misfits in society and it is our charitable duty to see them given some measure of support as they are incapable of surviving on their own. It needs to be done in an institutional setting to keep the costs down and to maximize access to medical care and psychological treatment. They should not be given a rent-free apartment. During the 'enlightened years' of Johnson's Great Society, these institutions were considered by the cultural elites to be inhumane and, as there was no alternative for them, these poor people were turned out on the streets: You are Free to Go Home... What a sick fscking joke. This is just another huge political entitlement scam, a boondoggle that will treat people badly. As a final note, there is a housing project in Seattle for intransigent alcoholics. It is located next to a favorite restaurant of mine in Chinatown. The Liquor Locusts now hog the front counter and the last two times I have been there, they are changing the atmosphere of the place from a good cheap Cantonese dive to their own clubhouse and the poor staff do not know what to do. The place was almost empty both times I was there. If these alkies want a place to hang out, it should be away from private businesses that will be impacted. They will not be able to tell the difference and it will save a small business. Sorry for the rant but I am feeling very ticked off at the over-reach of this regieme...

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on June 23, 2010 8:23 PM.

Remembering Captain William Allen Kruse was the previous entry in this blog.

Al Gored is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9