Homelessness: The Next Frontier
I have been thinking somewhat about the announced initiative proposed by Mayor Bob Corker to eliminate homelessness in Chattanooga. Yesterday I received a call from a participant in this effort, looking for an old friend of mine, or at least his current email.
I was able to supply the information, as I continue to exchange emails with my friend Tom Hebert. During his ten years or so in Chattanooga Tom managed to shake up a lot of projects with his energy and ideas. Tom lives in Oregon now, involved with two of his long-time enthusiasms, horses and Indian (Native American) activism. He was unwilling to leave these behind, even supposing he was actually chosen for the position. (Part-time coordinator for the Regional Inter-agency Council on Homelessness.) For some reason, he urged the person who sent him the job description to consider me for the job.
Here is my reply to him, covering both his refusal and my reaction to the whole subject:
Tom,
Your email to Judi was vintage Hebert. A distillation of your experience with the Bessie Smith Hall and a pointed recap of the many satisfying interests you have where you are.
Nice touch to recommend me for this position, I value your confidence even while recoiling in horror at the prospect of riding into the vile and bottomless swamp of politically poisoned projects in Chattanooga. You may not be aware that this “initiative” originated with Bob Corker, who is running for Senator in 2006.
“Ending Homelessness in Chattanooga.”
Why does this remind me of CNE (Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise) circa 1987?
“Ending substandard housing in ten years.”
Meanwhile the rotting center of residential Chattanooga continues its multiple decade slide into sub-Third World status. (Excluding downtown, with multi-millions of privately leveraged public money prettifying the cityscape)
O tempore! O mores!
Regards from your pal,
Felix Miller
posted by felix at 9:37 AM
3 Comments:
I agree with your friend that the rest of Chattanooga is moving into a substandard third world direction. Corker actually made his announcement a year ago and must have recently re-announced such. I have a close relative that I believe is still homeless. I am not sure, because I have had no contact or run into my relative since I have been off the radio (1 1/2 years). I worry about the health of people living in the elements over time. Mine has gone down since I have been without insurance (5 months). Imagine being homeless and poor for so long and unable to get a job due to seizures. If you ever know someone who is homeless then you worry each time a news story comes on about them. It seems Corker's announcement may have been timed to coincide with the news story about a homeless man who was beaten and escorted out of Chattanooga and to Camp Jordan Park by two badge-toting members of the CPD.
As for the rest of Chatt-town. Try as I may, I do not think I will ever live in a house, and it really sucks watching apartment communities erode into ghettos (not racial but, run down by a lack of manners and respect being taught) of rude, obnoxious people.
Yep. Many of the homeless are scam artists, such as the guys holding up signs at various freeway entrances, but many are simply the walking wounded of a changing economy. As I remarked in my post, addressing homelessness involves more than tying access to shelters to some sort of short-term counseling. The wreckage of minds involving many of the homeless, whether organic or chemically-induced, makes adequate medical/mental health care key to getting these folks off the street.
The pooor may be with us always, but we can't use that as an excuse not to tackle the problems involved, and not just by warehousing these casualties of society.
See Rolling Stone Issue 966 for an article that sheds light on Bush's latest scam, Social Security, called The Fake Crisis. Princeton Economics Professor Paul Krugman sheds light on how Bush's plan will lead to poor elderly folks who may become homeless in the future.
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