Quote (Comus @ May 17 2015 11:11am)
So you're saying we are not even addressing the homeless problem?
Somehow saying nothing is wrong and we are on the right path actually might be the Earth moving comment we're looking for.
Some individuals are addressing the homeless problem, but it is an informal response and on a city-by-city basis.
Our biggest homeless single's homeless shelter is under attack and having to move because of the gentrification force 3CDC, which is a private city management corporation here in Cincinnati, something that I'm pretty sure is illegal, and at the very least anti-democratic. The woman's shelter was closed down and had to relocate somewhere else after winning a dozen court battles but not having enough money or pro bono lawyers to continue going to court over frivolous suit after frivolous suit. The particular place we have that is a large 12-step program based residential site for veterans who are experiencing homelessness and abusing drugs and alcohol is hanging in well, but veterans are a little harder to beat up on than homeless people and domestically abused women, 3CDC's favorite targets so far among the poor blacks they've been able to wait out of their leases and evict to destroy their buildings. You know, progress mang.
But helping the homeless is pretty much a dead end job that goes no where and pays nothing.
Most of our (not me but the people working on this) efforts are privately funded, and as a result, we have people on every corner holding signs asking for change.
3CDC is run by Kroger, Macys, Proctor & Gamble, Chiquita, Great American Insurance, 5/3 Bank, and the other giants that call Cincinnati home. It is as corporatist of a government as I can imagine that would just let the giants have full control. It is mostly at the consent of the mayor who has a "pocket veto" of being able to control the agenda. There is a current effort to de-power the mayor going on from some of the more willful new City Councilmen, who came in on a sweep and seem to be full of merit. I actually voted for several Republicans for city council because they were so much better in qualifications and what they had done.
http://cincihomeless.org/about/publications/ ---> Some good info on the case study of our city. Cincinnati is a good social sciences lab, good crossroad of cultures between East and West. A lot of social experiments have been done here because of that. PBS channel 48 started here in the pilot because Cincinnati and Ohio in general is such a microcosm of America.
This post was edited by Skinned on May 17 2015 10:35am