This Can't Be

According to this Washington Times article, the Bush administration's plan to reduce homelessness appears to be working. Here's some of the details:
The homeless counts, taken in one-day tallies in shelters and streets at varying dates across the country, are "not an aberration," said Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and President Bush's point man on the issue. "They are part of a national trend."

The goal of the 10-year plans is to put the most dysfunctional homeless people in the country, that 10 percent to 20 percent who are continually on the street with addiction or mental problems, quickly into permanent "supportive" housing with counseling services to help them get healthy. Those chronic cases are a tremendous financial burden on their communities in hospital, jail and other services, hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece annually in some instances. The savings from stabilizing these homeless people in more cost-effective supportive housing can be used to extend services to all the homeless, say Mr. Mangano and other proponents of the plans.
Makes sense to me. Getting people help so they can fend for themselves isn't just good policy; it's the morally right thing to do.

The only thing that I don't get is this: If you listen to Democrats, you'd believe that the Bush Administration only cares about rich people. The treatment of these homeless people seems humane and intelligent.



Posted Monday, May 22, 2006 12:53 AM

Comment 1 by mary at 23-May-06 06:19 PM
Perhaps that's what the new Detention Centers will be used for. Maybe the counts went down in the cities mentioned because they are on the rise in California. In the 1980's Reagen set the mentally ill free from Institutions, they can not be locked up without their consent. So how does he propose to put them into "supportive" housing now? Federal Funding has been cut to Social Services in CA. People working in the field have lost jobs. The medical clinics are closing, unable to pay staff and cost of doing business. (they have to, by law, provide care for illegal immigrants, free) This means the Senior Citizen on a fixed budget, no longer has a local affordable place to get health care. There is already a lot of support systems for the alcoholic and drug addicted. The treatment seldom "sticks". It would be nice to see single mothers, children, the elderly non addicted getting priority treatment to get off the streets. There are already 400 Iraqi War Vets that are homeless. Mostly women that were raped by their peers.

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