■ 16 June 2011 | 5:00 AM
Homelessness and a hotel
As president and CEO of Volunteers of America Chesapeake the nonprofit operating the Lighthouse Center in Virginia Beach and 26 other programs throughout Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., serving more than 9,000 people in need I want to address the continued need for vital services to assist Virginia Beach's growing homeless population.We support developing a convention hotel where The Lighthouse Center currently serves 60 to 100 homeless men and women each day, and we applaud the city's efforts to find a new location for the center. We hope that come October, a permanent location will be confirmed as part of the city's 10-year plan to end homelessness.
The most important goal is to not only help more people including those newly homeless due to the economy but to increase and enhance services like finding affordable housing and employment placement; case management; life skills training; crisis intervention and art therapy and build on our success rate.
Homelessness prevention will also be a main focus because last year, Virginia Beach's homeless population increased by 14.5 percent.
One of our participants said it best: 'We are homeless, not hopeless.' The new facility will help our neighbors transition into permanent housing as productive citizens.
We support efforts to enhance our community as a tourist destination and showcase Virginia Beach as a model for ending homelessness.
Russell K. Snyder
Volunteers of America Chesapeake Inc.
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the latest nugget
From The Virginian-Pilot
© June 16, 2011
After they sent nearly two dozen planes loaded with $12 billion to Iraqin 2004, U.S. officials bragged it was the biggest international airlift of cash ever.
As it turns out, the stunt also appears to have claimed another superlative: biggest theft in U.S. history.
The Defense Department acknowledged this month that after seven years of investigating, it still has not been able to account for more than half of the funds — $6.6 billion — sent in the airlift to help aid reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
And, as the Los Angeles Times reported this week, “federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error.
As the Times reported: “U.S. officials often didn’t have time or staff to keep strict financial controls. Millions of dollars were stuffed in gunnysacks and hauled on pickups to Iraqi agencies or contractors, officials have testified.”
Adding insult to injury, we may end up being on the hook to repay the missing money, even if some did go to the Iraqi government. The lost funds actually belonged to the Iraqis.
Now, they’re pressing for the United States to cover the loss, despite the fact that America has sent more than $61 billion in taxpayer dollars to Iraq since 2003.
Can't blame W Bush eh?
It only happened on his watch, but after all, he's not the president anymore.
That's beautiful man.
Someone has to say it...
...so it may as well be me. As long as you treat homelessness as a government sanctioned program, homelessness will flourish. There will always be people who cash in on anything that's free (to them, anyway). That is not to say that some homelessness is legit but unless you are suffering from some mental disorder, that situation is temporary. How do I know? Would a normal person allow themselves to remain permanently destitute?
Not helping the problem at all are groups of do-gooders who make a living providing services to the homeless through government grants and ending homelessness would mean getting a real job.
First they came…
First they came for the homeless,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't homeless.
Then they came for the poor,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't poor.
Then they came for the elderly,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't elderly.
Then they came for me -
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6
Systemic Problem
Every individual homeless for whatever reason, represents a failure of the system as is presently exists. Can a system which cannot supply enough employment opportunities as needed avoid homelessness and destitution? It might be possible if we spent half as much on our safety net and on skill retraining as we do on our illegal occupations, military adventures and weapons research. Once again, it's about priorities.
I am sure there are those who are homeless by choice
Whether they are truly "cashing in" is debatable.
According to the US Conference of Mayors 2008 report:
About 26% are severely mentally ill, 15% are victims of domestic violence (often women with children), 19% are actually employed, 13% are physically disabled, and 13% are veterans.
Reasons given from that report for single adults and children:
Lack of affordable housing (60%), mental illness (48%), substance abuse (68%), poverty (44%) and unemployment (28%). Obviously there are overlaps in these figures.
But our homeless situation became worse in the late 70's when it became the norm to release mentally ill patients to fend for themselves.
Of course, during this recession, millions of people have lost jobs and houses. Some bounce back and others probably delve into subtance abuse which makes things worse.
But each homeless person has a face and a story, and I would be willing to bet that by far most of them would much rather be working and paying their own way.
Just something to think about.
Something Else to Think About
Volunteers of America Chesapeake seems a decent organization. They claim to be "faith based," but their web site doesn't really say what faith they are based on. Their annual report for 2010 shows that of $22M in revenue, $20M came from government funding and grants. The organization was apparently founded in 1896, and has some co-history with the origins of the Salvation Army.
I would be more comfortable about this group if the source of its funding were mostly private, instead of mostly government.
For all I know VoA Chesapeake does good work, and real people get real help because it exists. As a matter of public policy, though, it is fairly disturbing that an organization such as this is sustained almost exclusively by public funds.
If the will of the people is to perform the work that VoA Chesapeake does, then government itself should do that work, not a "contracted," third party organization.
As it is, the will of the people is not well represented here at all. We don't see VoA Chesapeake as a specific line item in any budget over which we can debate and vote. The group is but one of many claimants on budgeted funding.
Though paid for by taxpayers, it's activities are one step removed from accountability.
In this sense, Mr. King makes a legitimate point: Shovel government money into solving the "homeless problem," and more homelessness is likely to occur.
Not saying that homelessness isn't a real problem, only that government is the worst way to deal with it.
and yet something else to think about...
Maybe the most important book you will ever read:
"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Jared M. Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at University of California, Los Angeles.
from page 425:
"Perhaps the commonest circumstance under which societies fail to perceive a problem is when it takes the form of a slow trend concealed by wide up-and-down fluctuations...Politicians use the term "creeping normalcy" to refer to such slow trends concealed within noisy fluctuations. If the economy, schools, traffic congestion, or anything else is deteriorating only slowly, it's difficulty to recognize that each successive year is on average slightly worse than the year before, so one's baseline standard for what constitutes "normalcy" shifts gradually and imperceptibly. It may take a few decades of a long sequence of such slight year-to-year changes before people realize, with a jolt, that conditions used to be much better several decades ago, and that what is accepted as normalcy has crept downwards."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed
Diamond is talking about environmental change, but this could be applied to any particular problem where you think things were better in the "good old days".
Change for the better is called progress.
Change for the worse is called "creeping normalcy".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeping_normalcy
Not to appear sarcastic
however your statement…"Shovel government money into solving the "homeless problem," and more homelessness is likely to occur…" sounds like people are lining up to become homeless for the great benefits.
Are there some that exploit the system?
Certainly. And it happens at the highest as well as the lowest income levels.
But by and large, the homeless have problems that are not always solvable by stern lectures. They are often children living in cars, mental patients who need help and medication, vets who couldn't deal with life after war, women who are running from brutes, addicts who cannot shake their addiction and recently unemployed who may have lost everything.
Not helping them will not "cure them". It just drives them deeper into trouble.
Not Sarcastic At All...
Point taken, Sir!
Len, I have to ask you this...
And I'm serious -
Who are these people and what the hell happened to this country?