Reply to Let's join forces to scrap the current homeless shelter plan and start over

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OK, without blaming the homeless here, have you all considered that the reason for putting a shelter in Ward 3 is for basic fairness for people who live in other wards?

Go ahead and acknowledge all the terrible things you want about the homeless.

Then ask yourself:  if they are so bad, is it fair that they all go in one area of town - whether it is Ward 7, Ward 5, or Ward 3.

Of course not.   If you believe that a homeless shelter will cause problems - crime, drug dealers, school overcrowding, whatever the concern may be - then no  taxpaying, homeowning, citizens of the District - regardless of what ward they live in - should be forced to deal with 100% of the negative externalities.

There is no perfect solution here, but given the above, the most equitable solution is to spread out the homeless families in small shelters all over the city.

So reframe your thinking - putting a shelter in Ward 3 is not about what the homeless families want (or arguably about what they need), but it is about basic equity and about what taxpayers and homeowners all over the city want - to not have 100% of the burden of the homeless in their community.[/quote]

Sorry, but how is it good public policy to take extreme social problems, including drug abuse, street crime, etc., and introduce them into heretofore relatively safe areas that haven't had those problems?  It's like saying that since Ward 8 is plagued with a lot of violent crime, DC should provide free Uber rides to street criminals so they can  ply their predatory trade in neighborhoods with low crime rates, just to spread crime around in the name of "fairness".  (That is, assuming that the Uber drivers aren't robbed on the way across town.)  It's really a hare-brained scheme, motivated by DC's version of the politics of resentment, Bowser's way of stoking the base.  But not even our former Mayor-for-Life tried anything quite so foolish as this.[/quote]

People keep ignoring the diversity argument.  Having diverse communities makes us as a city stronger.  Even if it becomes as bad as DC general, which I hope it doesn't, the impact from the diversity could justify it if for nothing else that the restorative justice and addressing the institutional racism in the system. Our political institutions keep the poor and people of color out of places like Ward 3 and its long overdue to let others in. [/quote]

Well my African American neighbors here in ward 3 strongly disagree.  And I am the child of foreigners who arrived in the US impoverished and built a life here while raising their family here.  I have been very welcomed into ward 3.  "Restorative justice" to displace people to a new area for a maximum of 120 days, with difficult cross town transport options and little hope of being even moderately well run.  That's laughable.  You're simply pissed at the wealth disparity and value "sticking it the rich" vindictively is more important than finding a plan that might actually work.  You don't give a darn about the homeless families, or whether they or ward three permanent residents experience greater "diversity."  Spiteful much?[/quote]

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