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Earlier this week, the Coalition for the Homeless released its State of the Homeless report. The report showed increases in the number of homeless in shelters (up 11.1%), number of homeless families in shelters (up 17.6%) and number of homeless children (up 18.1%). The Coalition said, "From the beginning we have supported Mayor Bloomberg’s goal of ending chronic homelessness as well as his emphasis on permanent housing over temporary shelter for homeless families. But these numbers make it clear that the Mayor’s five year plan needs a mid-course correction."
The Coalition noted that some problems were inherent in the city's housing program Housing Stability Plus that reduces the amount of rental assistance and requires recipients to stay on welfare - and not work - among other problems. Besides reforming Housing Stability Plus, the Coalition recommends the city should expand housing assistance, such as targeting more city-funded apartment to homeless families and individuals.
Mayor Bloomberg said on his radio show, "Numbers are up. Disappointed. Trying to address it. You know, big problem... And if the economy slows down, it's going to be even more of a challenge." The Coalition for the Homeless' Mary Brosnahan told the Daily News, "
It's refreshing that the mayor is willing to acknowledge that there are real problems in his homeless strategy."
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The even sadder truth is that, nationwide, most of the homeless men are veterans... many of who need the kind of mental health care that the republican congress and George-the-AWOL cut from the Veterans Administration. In New Haven alone, a staff of one full time psychiatrist, two full time psychologists and one part time psychologist was cut to one full time and one part time psychologist.
Yeah... nice talk. Who really supports our troops?
His homeless policy is one of his biggest failures. Vastly expanded housing assistance, truly secure shelters, increased use of the Doe Fund model, and more assertive intervention against the use of the subways and subways stations as a makeshift, mobile shelter system would go a very long way towards reducing the problem. Reducing NYC's cost of living through significant cuts to our highest in the nation tax burden and through targeted infrastructure upgrades wouldn't hurt either.
Actually, most homeless men are not veterans. According to the National Coalition of Homeless Veterans, the figure is 33%.
I'm not that familiar with Congress' spending patterns regarding the Veterans Administration, but the General Accounting Office reported that VA allocations for veterans' mental health services in 2005 and 2006 were supposed to be $100 million and $200 million higher than 2004 levels, respectively. The GAO study found that not only could it not be determined how much of these increased funds actually went towards mental health services, but that the VA could not even spend the extra money it had earmarked fast enough to fulfill those allocations. My quick take on the GAO's abstract is that the VA appears to be throwing money at its mental health services budget faster than it can be spent, and certainly faster than the money can be tracked to make sure it's being disbursed as intended.