Tougher Times Ahead

I was touched by this story of hardship that ran in todays paper. It would seem that despite having worked all of their lives, playing by the rules and being honest, the folks in the sotry about being homeless has touched off a firestorm of debate in the comments section.

In my regular job, I work in a seniors-only, tax credit, income restricted apartment building and the one phrase I hear more often than any other is, "We have a waiting list." Folks who meet the requirements are stuck with the fact that there is a list of people months-long and the really morbid irony about it is, they have to wait until our current residents either die or become so fraile that they can no longer care for themselves and they either go to an assisted living facility, a nursing home, to their own family or, some other provision is made because they can no longer live by themselves.

I guess that's at least one of the reasons why they call them the "golden years" because if you don't have a lot of gold, you're not going to like the choices you have.

Our apartment building is about 122 units large and believe me, with the number of people retiring or being classified as "elderly," I will bet you right now that we could build a new property 4 or 5 times the size of what we currently have and once word get's around that it's going up, we'd very likely be 100% leased out before the project is ever finished with more folks banging on the door, trying to get themselves or their family member in. I see folks trying to do whatever they can to see if they can hurry the process along or, get themselves higher on the waiting list, but as I understand it, there is a certain way the waiting list must be administered so as not to have or give the appearence of being unfair. Of course, a lot of folks might consider it unfair that they have to wait, but there's exactly nothing I can do about it. That's what happens when you have a limited supply of anything and a demand that can't be met overnight.

I'll tell you what else I'm seeing-a few of the adult residents are letting their adult children stay with them because not only are times tough, but then we come back to that old "what's a Mother to do?" Do you demand adherence to a policy forcing a Mother to turn her back on her own child or, do you look the other way because you know how tough it is right now and realize that sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones?

Of course, when you add these facts to the other truth in Virginia Beach as well as Norfolk that we're just about out of land available for development and there's a finite amount of Section-8 vouchers available, and more and more people becoming "seniors" every day, all you have to do is couple these with the long, slow and expensive proposition of getting older and eventually dying in America and you'll see that we have plenty of problems, not enough funding to address them and not only is government running out of money to stem the tide, they're also running out of workable ideas-I think we're at the point that in desperation, the crazy ideas might be worth a try. I can tell you that the ever-increasing amount of regulatons coming down from Washington isn't doing much to promote the idea of companies investing in building more rental properties unless of course there is a healthy investment in a "public/private partnership" from the taxpayers and these days, it's all "upscale" housing with an upscale pricetag seniors can't afford on a fixed income.

I can tell you myself, that even when you apply the old rule of "family should help" that opens a whole new can of worms. Not only are families scattered to the four winds these days, I have often heard it said that "there can't be two queens in the same castle" and if you've ever lived with family, you have to know that is the God's own truth. There also can't be two kings, either.

Decent, affordable housing is something that is badly needed-this story illustrates that better than anything I could imagine. Our Mayor Sessoms in Virginia Beach promised in his last campaign to push for "affordable housing as a component of all new housing developments" but I haven't seen too much of that at all. No, this city government would rather spend millions we don't really have on hotels-just sweep the homeless under the rug.

You know, when you have a government pushing millions for a hotel we don't need over the obvious need for some form of safe housing that people like the ones talked about in this story obviously need and need it right away, You know, the story also pointed out that it's illegal to sleep in your car but I would simply have to ask how any policeman who counts him or herself as a member of the human race could even begin to consider the very idea of writing someone a summons for being homeless and having nowhere else to slee BUT the inside of their car? Shoo them along to appiese some property owner, sure. Try to give them some help with finding a line on a place to stay, hey, "to serve and protect," right? But actually writing them a ticket with a fine and court costs for being homeless?

That's the worst case of "kick 'em when they're down" I could possibly imagine.

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