Shelter to charge homeless for needs

[KamaAina]

http://starbulletin.com/2008/05/31/news/story01.html

The shelter, run by the 30-year-old nonprofit institute, announced yesterday it would require homeless staying longer than three months after June 1 to pay the $90, or about $3 a day. The fee will kick in later this summer at the organization's shelter for men at 350 Sumner St.

The move is aimed at preparing the homeless to budget for rent once they get out, said institute Executive Director Connie Mitchell. She said research shows the payments give homeless pride and help them find a permanent home more quickly....

Terry Brooks, president of Housing Solutions Inc., which houses some 1,500 people in affordable apartments and transitional shelters on Oahu, called the institute's $90 fee "extremely modest."

"It helps IHS just be there. It's a huge operation and it's costly," he said, noting his tenants pay between $300 to almost $1,000 depending on how much they earn and where they live.

:wtf:

The market-rate rent at HaleOKamaAina is only $850, including utilities! I assume the nearly $1,000 figure is for something rather larger than my shoebox studio, but jeez!

Um, doesn't that kind of go against the whole notion of a "shelter"? For that matter, so does the prevalence of long-term residents. Effectively, it is now transitional housing. Oh yes, many residents have disabilities, psychiatric or otherwise, making it a daunting task indeed to find (and keep) permanent housing.

I just do not understand how IHS thinks it's going to get blood out of a turnip. Note: The addresses provided are a block on either side of the cubicle from whence these posts originate, so I'm right in the middle of all this, every day.

[Hydra]

1. Bwhahaha!

Now you have to pay a toll for being homeless?

America- where ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is for sale.

[DaveJ]

2. When I was homeless...

I could not find a shelter that would keep me for more than two days, much less three months before charging $3/day. In our current socio-economic system, I'd say that sounds extremely fair. In a better more civilized world, though, I don't think anyone should fear not having a roof over their head...

At the moment, we are such beasts that our current economy is driven by injecting this fear in people.

[Journeyman]

3. Oahu's keeping pace with Anatole France, I see. . .

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

~ Anatole France, The Red Lily, 1894, chapter 7


You'd think, if they were intent on helping people, they'd find a way to refund some of this money, a sort of "enforced savings plan" if you will. That would truly lighten the load for these unfortunate souls.

[knitter4democracy]

4. That's wrong! That money needs to go elsewhere.

How is someone supposed to save up for affordable housing if they have to pay for shelter?!

[wishlist]

5. Many of them receive VA pensions, SSI and/or Social Security income

$90 a month is not unreasonable for those homeless who have incomes ranging from $500 to $1000 per month plus Medicare or Medicaid or VA medical benefits, which many of them have as I found out working for social services for many years.

[izquierdista]

6. OK, I'll speak up FOR this idea

Let me say first that I had a homeless person staying on my property for a while, first in my guest house, then in a trailer after I tore the guest house down. Before he moved in and did odd jobs for me, he lived in a $99 a week hotel when he had some money, and next to dumpsters when he didn't. I'm sure he could have come up with $3 a day for lodging, for he ALWAYS came up with $5 a day to buy the beer he needed.

But I have to doubt how successful this proposal would be in teaching him to change his spending habits. You see, it was always his habit to make sure that he ended every day with no cash in his pocket, zip, pip, nada. If, in the evening, he had money, he was off to the casino or the bar and stayed until the money was gone. One time he actually hit a $200 jackpot at the grocery store, and it took two or three days before he was back to his normal (broke) state.

What I learned from him is that there are adults in this world that never got past the stage of a 9-year old spending their allowance. A lot of them are homeless because rent is usually by the month, and the wages they can earn for a day's labor have to be saved up to pay for it. The only way I can think of to help people like this is to have a special type of debit card that does their money management for them, allowing them only so much money out in a 24-hour period.

Naaah, I changed my mind, it's not a good idea. It's akin to putting training wheels on a bicycle for a child who is learning to ride. It's all right if the child is normal, but if he has a pathologic vertigo that keeps him from being able to balance, he's never going to learn to balance on two wheels.

[DaveJ]

8. I like your debit card idea...

Some folks will never learn to save, no matter what. Something like that automatic plan should be done for the sake of others around them, who they end up hurting or at least highly bothering.

That said, I can't imagine someone saving anything in a low income situation, where $200 in one day is hitting the jackpot. Compared to many people, he showed great financial discipline stretching $200 for 2 or 3 days.

[lpbk2713]

7. LOL ... Just like the corrupt and evil BushCo government ... "it's for their own good"

:rofl: :rofl:

"The move is aimed at preparing the homeless to budget for rent once they get out", said institute Executive Director Connie Mitchell. She said research shows the payments give homeless pride and help them find a permanent home more quickly....


Damn ... they can rationalize damn near anything.


:rofl: :rofl: