If DC only has 221 temporarily displaced people, why can't the city just house and hire them?

[Anonymous]

I like the idea. We ought to be able to treat, house and hire 221 people. If you think it is more complicated than that, you must be a paint by numbers type of person.

[Anonymous]

Because they’re crazy?

[Anonymous]

Cynically, if you give them a stipend in cash, I suspect you will only need to pay for a few months. They aren't going to make the best choices with the money.

[Anonymous]

If it’s truly only 221 people, why does DC need so many shelter beds. Something isn’t right. What definition of homeless / un sheltered is the mayor using??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it’s truly only 221 people, why does DC need so many shelter beds. Something isn’t right. What definition of homeless / un sheltered is the mayor using??

Ding ding ding! Not sure why this is hard for people to understand. The mayor made an incredibly made an incredibly misleading statement at best and, at worst, straight up lied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it’s truly only 221 people, why does DC need so many shelter beds. Something isn’t right. What definition of homeless / un sheltered is the mayor using??

Ding ding ding! Not sure why this is hard for people to understand. The mayor made an incredibly made an incredibly misleading statement at best and, at worst, straight up lied.

Is there another category of people who are using the shelter beds intended for the homeless?

[Anonymous]

Just re-read the title of this thread. It is only 221 TEMPORARILY displaced people.The others must be permanently (?) or long term displaced.

[Anonymous]

It is not just 221 people, and how in the world do you manage such a program? Who gets the 50k? Do you have to be a resident if DC to qualify for this 59k, and if so, what are the residency requirements? Many of the homeless are not from DC, but migrated to DC from other areas because of the city’s social welfare programs in comparison to their own. Also, why give the homeless 50k, why stop there. What are the other eligibility requirements? Are new high school or college graduates eligible for the 50k if their parents are no longer obligated to house them and tell them go get your 50k handout from true city and get your own living quarters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not just 221 people, and how in the world do you manage such a program? Who gets the 50k? Do you have to be a resident if DC to qualify for this 59k, and if so, what are the residency requirements? Many of the homeless are not from DC, but migrated to DC from other areas because of the city’s social welfare programs in comparison to their own. Also, why give the homeless 50k, why stop there. What are the other eligibility requirements? Are new high school or college graduates eligible for the 50k if their parents are no longer obligated to house them and tell them go get your 50k handout from true city and get your own living quarters?

I think this is great. Initially take only the 221 which DC homeless services has identified according to the mayor. Why are you worrying about high school graduates or residency. DC does not require residency for anything else. You can vote here now without being a DC resident. Enroll the 221 in program OP described and how could things possibly get any worse.

Andy by the way, being a college graduate or high school graduate does not make you homeless. With thinking like that, no wonder our city has such intractable problems with no solutions in sight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I answered my own question… no there are far more than 221 homeless people in DC. The mayor is talking about people who are literally on the streets and not going to a shelter at night. Shame on her for giving a misleading answer like that.

Did anyone see the Congressional hearing where Rep. Timmons mentioned 5,000 homeless (the number that's usually given), and Bowser acted like she didn't have any idea what he was talking about and said it was only a few hundred? Then the two of them started arguing about that? The worst part is Timmons was trying to talk about Congress working together with D.C. to provide funds to address the problem, but Bowser wasted time arguing about it because she wanted to push deceptive numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Mayor says that 221 temporarily displaced people live within DC. Why can't DC just round all of them up over the course of a week, hire them into various DC govt jobs, house them in 221 subsidized units or hotels and the ones who refuse enroll into this new social contract would immediately be enrolled into in house treatment for whatever ails them. ALL AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE. It would still be less expensive than running the homeless programs we are currently.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dc-mayor-bowser-grilled-claim-city-221-homeless-people-what-you-talking-about

"Do you agree that we have a major, major problem in Washington, D.C., as it relates to homelessness?" Timmons asked.

"We have 221 people, as of today's count, who are living on the street," Bowser responded.

You could simply pay them an allowance of $50K annually and you would only spend 10 million which is currently less than our homeless budget.

I don’t think it’s only lack of money that keeps them unhoused. For many it’s the underlying mental health and addiction issues that are a bigger barrier to finding and staying in safe housing. I don’t think it’s just about sending them for CDL training and calling it a day.

But you would know who they are as you are paying them and providing them with a W-2 form. So you could make treatment or education a part of the program. Paying you to get treatment in essence. Make that a requirement for the $50K. Once you get through a percentage of treatment, you get job skills. Like learning how to boot a car.

We cannot be such a dumb city that we cannot solve a homeless crisis consisting of 221 people.

I’m interested in where you live. Most of the homeless people in my neighborhood are clearly drug users and have significant mental health challenges. It’s not as east as just signing them up for a treatment plan and giving them a job.

Not all of the homeless people are drug users. Those that are. Enroll them into in patient treatment full time. Until they are capable of moving into other programs. But those who are not drug users, the bulk of the 221 persons, employ them and let's turn them back into citizens proud to call DC home. Do you mean to tell me that we cannot give a lift to 221 people?

You can’t force someone into treatment. The ones left are on the streets because they want to keep using and are therefore ineligible for most programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I answered my own question… no there are far more than 221 homeless people in DC. The mayor is talking about people who are literally on the streets and not going to a shelter at night. Shame on her for giving a misleading answer like that.

Did anyone see the Congressional hearing where Rep. Timmons mentioned 5,000 homeless (the number that's usually given), and Bowser acted like she didn't have any idea what he was talking about and said it was only a few hundred? Then the two of them started arguing about that? The worst part is Timmons was trying to talk about Congress working together with D.C. to provide funds to address the problem, but Bowser wasted time arguing about it because she wanted to push deceptive numbers.

So the mayor doesn’t want funding for additional people? What info sources did each of them cite for their numbers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some homeless people don't want to live in a home. Nor do they want a job.

Many have severe mental illness and would have to be involuntarily locked up in order to get them off the street.

I'm sure many people could be helped.

[Anonymous]

DC publishes a census of homelessness every year I think. Not sure it’s fair to criticize the mayor if she was talking about a specific category.

The homeless people whose presence bothers the rest of us, because of behavior that feels unsafe or menacing or just like a nuisance, is probably the hardest group to successfully get into housing because they tend to have mental illness and substance abuse problems.

The bulk of the homeless count is probably families and single people who are just trying to get back on their feet. Couch surfing, living in temporary shelters or cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some homeless people don't want to live in a home. Nor do they want a job.

This. You could give them $50K or $100K and they would still choose to be unemployed and live on the streets.