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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
In related news...is this true?

"The city estimates there were 1,311 homeless families in 2015, a sharp rise from 800 six years ago."
http://www.thegeorgetowndish.com/thedish/planned-shelter-sites-spark-initial-debate[/quote]

I don't know if it is true, but it's certainly the case that, if your city has the most/best free housing in the greater area, more people who want or need free housing will find their way to your city. [/quote]

You mean, homeless people have brains ????????[/quote]

A few years back, in a different town, when I lived in a poor section of town, a lady who lived next door on Section 8 subsidy was sitting out on her porch drinking one night, and she told me all about her deal in quite a bit of detail - it was her, two boyfriends (though one was in jail on assault charges), her 3 kids, and her sister - they were all involved in doing residency fraud and false identities in multiple jurisdictions, collecting every benefit they could, lying to social workers about living arrangements and support, bartering away benefits so that they could get beer money, misrepresenting their situation, all kinds of stuff.  They were all in their 20s, none of them had worked a real job in years, other than the other boyfriend selling weed and other hustles on the side.  They did nothing but party.  I'm not saying all folks are like that and in fact most of them aren't, but there are definitely some grifters out there who would think nothing of lying, cheating and deceiving in order to get a free apartment.  It was also common practice for cops to pick up homeless folks and put them on a bus with a one-way ticket to a town that was "more amenable to the homeless."   This stuff happens.[/quote]

I have known folks like this from when I was growing up. I also know it going the other direction (in this case, not homeless housing but subsidized housing). I was living in one of what I thought was one of the nicest complexes in downtown Bethesda, and my neighbor who came from way more money than my family has ever seen explained that, since she was starting her own business and consequently had little income, her rent was subsidized by the government. (Her dad had worked it out for her.).

The system can so easily be gamed. (Especially on a larger level with the mayor's buddies.) Without some reasonable level of transparency, there's no chance. And I absolutely don't trust DC government.[/quote]

Yes, when I lived in NYC, knew folks in arts and publishing.  Loaded parents who arranged for them to live in affordable housing based on their salaries, then paid for their credit card bills every month.  [/quote]

Gaming the rent control system in NYC is an art form.[/quote]

these are not rent control buildings.  these are affordable housing buildings where only residents with certain incomes can live.  wholly different[/quote]

What rational is there to support putting low income housing and shelters in expensive areas except that she thinks we all need to share the burden? [b]That is not enough rationale. [/b]I think she will eventually turn the Ward 3 shelter into permanent low income housing. [/quote]

A Ward 3 resident here.  Actually, it is "enough" rationale from a political perspective. Other Wards want all Wards to share in the "solution" to this problem - and these other Wards (who had more to do with her being elected than Ward 3) are making noise that they are unfairly shouldering the burden.  They are not entirely wrong and if I lived in those Wards, I would be saying the same thing.  Sure, it makes very little financial sense, but that is not the issue here. And truth be told, Ward 3 is stable, affluent and in demand (and that will remain the case).  Certain neighborhoods in other Wards are on the cusp or are in the infancy of gentrification and contuining to concetrate these projects in those places can have a chiling impact on a neighborhood turning around.   I have my concerns like the rest of you but we live in an urban area and we cannot always insulate ourselves from urban issues. [/quote]

It's like when a couple of small Ward 3 schools were kicked out of their longtime feeder rights to Deal, largely for symbolic purposes.  The numbers will have virtually no impact on Deal overcrowding, but DPCS felt politically that someone in Ward 3 had to be the sacrificial lamb ("collateral damage, in the words of one redistricting committee member), to show that all wards were feeling some pain.[/quote]

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