tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post8475136106458381193..comments2023-10-25T06:16:12.993-05:00Comments on Let's Be Clear: DC Homeless living - and dying - at the feet of powerDebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-3396372695858839782009-08-27T13:20:46.819-05:002009-08-27T13:20:46.819-05:00Anonymous...Welcome! I agree with everything you&...Anonymous...Welcome! I agree with everything you've said with the small exception that the "Landlords are white and Jewish and any other color but black." Increasingly, they are Black as well and doing the same thing as the others (I had one, the issue eventually worked itself out).<br /><br />And not only are the homeless being priced out, but middle-class, every day people are as well. Land-grab schemes in NE DC are putting more and more people out on the streets. A building at Rhode Island and 3rd that the occupants <i>thought</i> they'd bought, has been taken over by the attorneys who know how to inject enough legalese into documents to boggle the minds of Every Day - decidedly Black and Latino - middle class families who've lived there for years. Now, they have to find new homes in this economy (their deadline to get out is looming, if not already passed) -all while gentrification claims yet another neighborhood.<br /><br />Like the lack of universal health care, homelessness in a country bent on imperialism abroad, is a human tragedy of major proportions IMHO.DebChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-18072783516778317012009-08-25T15:25:56.827-05:002009-08-25T15:25:56.827-05:00The US Marshall Services evicts over (600) familie...The US Marshall Services evicts over (600) families a month in the District of Columbia. The US Marshall's are black, the eviction crew are black, we have a black mayor. The families being evicted are black families. Landlords are white and Jewish and any other color but black. The black Mayor has refused to build more shelters for these families. The landlord and tenant court in the morning looks like South Africa, not America. This is apatheid all over again in the Nation's capitol. One out of every (3) homeless citizens in the District of Columbia, there is a vacant apartment some where in the Columbia Height community that the homeless person can't afford to rent. THIS IS APARTHEID, DC. The Mayor can't govern a city of homeless people. This city will soon explode into chaos. There needs to be programs set in place to prevent homelessness. The unemployment rate is 11% people are out of work, they can't pay the rent. Emergency Rental Assistance Programs will only pay back rents if you have a job. If you don't have a job ERAP will sit back and keep the money and watch your family placed on the streets. This policy needs to change and lanldords need to have more compassion in a time of crisis and chaos.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-36857878290341426462009-06-10T19:34:50.885-05:002009-06-10T19:34:50.885-05:00I've had that feeling myself! :-)I've had that feeling myself! :-)DebChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-74540763695670878612009-06-10T17:38:19.990-05:002009-06-10T17:38:19.990-05:00Okay, I am beginning to believe that we share a br...Okay, I am beginning to believe that we share a brain or something.eanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-74643535185162371352009-06-09T21:58:12.258-05:002009-06-09T21:58:12.258-05:00Actually ea, the question is right on point!! I w...Actually ea, the question is right on point!! I was sitting with some of the guys and Brenda in the park while a Russian TV station interviewed Eric back in April and we were talking about exactly that!<br /><br />Better Believe Steve shared, that soon-to-be released DC prisoners have way more job training and housing assistance opportunities set up for them than the homeless do. They were joking about how they needed to get locked up, maybe they'd have a better chance at getting a job and permanent supportive housing!! We all laughed, but it wasn't funny that able-bodied, unincarcerated men and women of sound mind with no addictions cannot get the help they are seeking.<br /><br />It is, I agree an issue of social perspectives and resource <i>re-allocation</i> (cuz all that cash is going somewhere!!). Most of us don't want to own our negative attitudes about and poor treatment of, the homeless in this country. As someone recently described them (might've Been Eric!), they are "the invisibles" among us - and we prefer to keep it that way. <br /><br />The most often used refrain that I hear is,"Hell, if we can eat, work and take care of ourselves - why can't they?" Never any mention, mind you, of the disparities built into the system and our prison industrial complex which certainly play a huge part in who is homeless and who is not.<br /><br />As long as there's a seemingly endless supply of barely-regulated cash available to the foxes guarding the henhouse, we'll still be talking about homelessness in America many, many years from now. This, from the National Alliance to End Homelessness:<br /><br /><b>Today, May 7, President Obama released his budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2010. The budget included funding proposals for housing and homeless programs. For more information about the President's FY 2010 budget proposal, click here. Highlights of the funding for homeless programs include:<br />• $1.8 billion for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants, an increase of $117 million over FY 2009;<br />•$46.3 billion for HUD programs, an 11 percent increase;<br />•$1 billion for a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund;<br />•$68 million for the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program, an $8 million increase over the FY 2009 level;<br />•$19 million for a new DC Housing First Initiative to provide supportive housing to homeless individuals and families;<br />•$26 million for a pilot program to prevent homelessness for veterans.</b><br /><br />That's a lot of damn money!DebChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-75420329681025697132009-06-09T21:13:55.160-05:002009-06-09T21:13:55.160-05:00Any wonder why prison looks good to some people? ...Any wonder why prison looks good to some people? That question is a little tangential to the story, but it opens up a discussion about resource allocation, social perspectives, and more stuff.eanoreply@blogger.com