A couple recent articles crystallize why my plan is so important to help the homeless. The first one is something you see and hear almost daily, the Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) crowd. However this time it became absurd!
A local non-profit teamed with with City of Tulsa to use a former nursing home as a shelter for between 50 and 75 households who are on a waiting list for permanent housing. A household could mean an individual, a couple or a family. In addition to housing, residents would receive case management services and assistance with food, medical care, transportation and other basic needs.
It’s a facility that has already been used to house people!! The property is zoned residential multi-family, which allows for apartments! The push back on this particular project is asinine…plain and simple. But that is the landscape which those who are trying to help the homeless have to deal with every….single….day.
Speaking of those folks who work tirelessly to help others (for very little money by the way), The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) came out with their annual study, “State of Nonprofits 2004.” A top concern for both non-profit staff and leadership is burnout.
The before mentioned low-pay is pretty ironic in that it’s hard to earn a livable wage when that is exactly what the end game is for clients of non-profits. There is high turnover of case managers, with the remaining ones having to shoulder more caseloads because of staff shortages.
In larger cities, many non-profit staff have to rely on food-stamps themselves. Then there is this ludicrous situation where the City of Los Angeles is giving police officers a $24,000 annual rent subsidy, which in itself is needed because a lot of officers cannot live in the city they were hired to protect.
But…given the clowns on SCOTUS gave the green light to criminalize homelessness, it’s hard to miss the sardonicism (I Googled it…I am not that smart) that someone getting $24,000 for rent help is, at some point, probably going to arrest someone who is on the street because they cannot afford rent.
These heroes, the staff of non-profits need our help. My plan helps take a lot of the burden and heartache (heartache of not finding assistance for someone experiencing homelessness) off their shoulders so they can focus on important items, acting as Project Managers for the citizens that need to step up to help specific individuals.
As the lunacy continues for those trying to build sites to help house the homeless, other means like scattered housing will become more necessary, as will the assistance of local groups (service organizations, churches and other groups). The fight seems overwhelming but it’s one that WILL BE won….and soon!