Reply to Bowser Spreads the Wealth opens homeless shelters in each DC ward

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thinking about what homeless people will do after the temporary shelter would make too much sense. So no, they haven't thought of that. [/quote]

What makes you think that? [/quote]
The initial shallow, lazy and shortsighted plan. 
It would make so much more sense to invest in current bad neighborhoods by subsidizing businesses, mortgages for local residents, clean ups etc.  but it's hard. Speeding them out and unloading the headache onto other responsible citizens is a lot easier. 
[/quote]

Have you read the analysis of the budget? There is some good information here: http://www.dcfpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FY-2016-Proposed-Overview.pdf

I will point directly to the following.

1) Permanent supportive housing for people who have significant barriers to self-sufficiency - increasing spending by 20% from current levels (250 individuals, 110 families). For homeless families, this includes the wraparound services that many are suggesting to be necessary.
2) Rental assistance - 150 families and 150 individuals, for use after Rapid Re-Housing runs out (I am personally skeptical of RRH as a program in DC because I have heard absolute horror stories from clients and colleagues about how it is administered, so I think there is room for a lot of improvement there).
3) Improvements in the way that TANF is administered/extension of those benefits. One of the main criticisms of DC's TANF program is that the program goals and interventions being executed are often more time consuming than the timeframe laid out by the program allows. People come into TANF with very minimal skills and need to complete education and job training skills before they are able to enter the work force. Also, given that there are a limited number of jobs, in many cases, even if a person is trying to find a job every day per their individual plan created with their case worker, their benefits frequently end before they land something.

I had a really wonderful conversation last week with a young woman who received TANF (and other benefits) when her daughter was born. She was a high school graduate, and she used the TANF program to get certified as a nursing assistant. Her benefits ran out a few weeks before she was able to find a job, and because she has local family who were able to help support her and her daughter, she did not become homeless, but she was pretty quick to point out that her status as a high school graduate and her mom having an extra bedroom in her apartment are things that are not available to a lot of TANF recipients. If you have to get the GED before the CNA certification AND you don't have anywhere to go, it's just not enough time. Money this year is going to start fixing those problems.

To be clear, I don't think any of this is a magic bullet, but I do think that these reforms are necessary and have the potential to be effective. What is certainly NOT effective is a) the way we are doing things now and b) doing nothing at all.[/quote]

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