Tackling homelessness a big decision for commissioners

[William769]

LEE COUNTY: A 10 year plan to end homelessness for good in Lee County is set to begin. Commissioners will decide whether or not to spend the money to develop a master plan. But some believe it's not going to work unless something else happens - something money can't buy.

Whether it's under the Matanzas Pass Bridge, out on Fort Myers Beach, or right on the benches in Centennial Park, evidence of Lee County's homelessness is everywhere.

Reverend Robert Walker has been helping the homeless for 38 years by providing food, clothing and shelter.

"There are probably 12 to 15 to 20,000 homeless," said Walker. "The first rule is no work, no eat, no sleep. You must be productive. Don't have a job? We have something for you - you do it."

http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=12985&z=3&p=

[jwirr]

1. In the book "The Protestant Work Ethic" John Calvin talks the same

line. However, his point is that if a government insists that the poor work then it MUST provide jobs for them to do. He also exempted the poor widows and the disabled from required work.

I have been poor most of my life and I have been exempted from work policies that interfered with my taking care of my severely disabled daughter for 45 years. (It made sense to let me do the care for about $.33 an hour rather than hire someone else to do it.) None the less most of that time I had low paying jobs during the hours she was in school or at a DAC. Work is not bad - it can give a person an outlet from their present situation and it can also give them a boost in self-esteem. Work that is forced on someone as a punishment is always bad.

[Warpy]

2. The Rev needs to get his head out of his bible and take a good look

at the people he's demanding work for a living.

Many of them are people who would have been housed in state mental institutions prior to the late 70s. Others have bodies so wracked by disease or substance abuse they are incapable of working. Still others are mentally retarded. Others are so haunted by war that they are incapable of focusing on a job.

Homeless people who can work do work. It is much better to be able to buy food than it is to have to root for restaurant leavings with cig butts squashed into them.

Jesus didn't give the multitudes fishing poles and plows, he gave them loaves and fishes. Perhaps the good Reverend needs to revisit that story.

[William769]

3. Agreed.

[Cleita]

6. Good points Warpy, but there is something to be said for

creating work programs for the physically fit as well. FDR did this during the depression when he created the Civilian Conservation Corps.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps. One of my cousins benefitted from this program. When he graduated from high school during the depression with no hope of college (for rich kids only) or a job he entered the corp. Then WWII came along and he went into the army and between the corp and the army learned the skills that would give hims jobs in civilian life that he would use the rest of his life enabling him to get married, have children and buy a house. Sometimes all that's needed is a helping hand.

Another DUer and I was talking about this last week on the phone. Why not give the homeless and unemployed who are physically fit a job instead of welfare? There is always work to do. Couldn't they be sent out to do community service for the elderly and handicapped among other jobs. Many elderly including my friend and I could use some help doing yard work, and maintenance, yet we can't afford to pay for it. Wouldn't it tackle two problems first for the unemployed and second for the elderly on SS if they could petition the city or county for these services and then they could give a jobless, homeless person a job to do it?

[Cleita]

4. Good for them for attempting to tackle this in their community.

I remember a time when people could be poor but they weren't homeless unless they chose to be like hobos who liked to ride the rails. Destroying the social services for mentally ill caused a lot of the homelessness in the beginning, then it attacked the working poor and now the lack of jobs due to outsourcing is escalating the problem. Subtance abuse is not the cause of this but a symptom and should be seen as such, not that these people asked for it as the conservatives would have you believe.

We could go back to having very few homeless again if we only go back to those programs that were broken back in the late 1970's by Republican elected officials most notably Ronald Reagan, both when he was governor of California and then President of the United States. This of course would mean that all those tax cuts for corporations and for the rich would have to be rescinded.

[bobbolink]

5. So, "Reverend", people who can't work can just go...

jump off a bridge?

So, if you're 85, or physically incapacitated, you're dead to the dear "Reverend"?

How..... Jesus-like....

:puke:

[Cleita]

7. He is missing the whole picture here isn't he?

Although I'm not going to fault him for trying. Even tackling a part of the problem helps IMHO. Unfortunately, a lot of people, especially the family values crowd, think that the elderly, sick and handicapped should be looked after by family. They fail to see that young families are struggling to raise children themselves and couldn't take on the burden of elderly or handicapped, chronically ill parents or relatives and give them the care they need. Yes, the reverend does need to get his head out of the bible as Warpy said.

[bobbolink]

8. Yup, those of us without familes aren't worth thinking about.

As I was just explaining to someone else, I'm seeing more and more that this is the legacy of Raygun's crap, which resulted in that "tough love" shit that people find so easy.

I recommend this "reverend" watch "Housing First"!!!