Not Bread Lines but Housing Lines

[Broomstick]

The Duchess was predicting breadlines in the US, but I think the foodstamp program has that licked - the breadlines don't exist because the hungry get a plastic card to swipe at the grocery store.

Housing, however, is another problem. I want to emphasize that the 30,000 people involved in the event on the YouTube video linked are NOT applying for housing - they are applying to get on the WAITING LIST for housing and their area in fact has NO, repeat NO subsidized housing units available.

[Kodiak]

His words at the end of the broadcast brought tears to my eyes: Aren't we better than that?

[Themightytom]

Easily the biggest cause of homelessness. All my HMIS statistics show "No affordable housing" as the cause of homelessness. About a third of my clients this past year have had jobs OR receive a fixed income of greater than $800 a month and we still can't shift them because rent is too high. The public housing wait in our city is 2 years long (Except for the elderly housing because er... the life expectancy is awkwardly low.)

NIMBY is killing us over here, its so pervasive that not only do we have issues finding spaces to PUT public housing, the topic is perceived so negatively that the mayor finds it politically advantageous to ignore it, or redirect funds away from the program. She actually rationalized diverting funds from public housing to put up art sculptures because by "beautifying the city, we attract more business."

Which is a crock, because we'd attract more businesses if we got the guys to stop living in their dumpsters.

Last year our main HUD affiliate had a lottery to give out like six PH spaces we were awarded for ::cough cough: successful outcomes from my program ::cough cough:: and there were a good two hundred people waiting in front at 8 to get their names in even though the place didn't open until 9.

[General Zod]

I thought subsidized housing has had massive waiting lists for the past few decades?

[Big Phil]

I thought subsidized housing has had massive waiting lists for the past few decades?

It has... the only thing new here is the volume of applicants, and the desperation with which they were applying.

[Kanastrous]

Having seen and inspected a number of public housing installations in Los Angeles, I have zero difficulty understanding where the NIMBYs are coming from.

Of course I acknowledge the need for that housing, but I also see why no one who isn't forced to would want to be anywhere near it.

[Themightytom]

Having seen and inspected a number of public housing installations in Los Angeles, I have zero difficulty understanding where the NIMBYs are coming from.

Of course I acknowledge the need for that housing, but I also see why no one who isn't forced to would want to be anywhere near it.

The lengthy waiting period presorts who actually gets in though both skimming off the people who would be in it temporarily, and facilitating so much Debacle in one's life that by the time they GET the housing they've lost custody of kids, been associating with drug addicts and criminals for years and been forced to make some pretty awful decisions to get by.

I have a divorced mother whose ex beat the crap out of her regularly who is currently stripping because its the only way she can make money fast enough to POSSIBLY get out of the shelter and into suitable housing before she permanently loses custody of her children.
She's... not doing so good with the PTSD at work, she's in an industry that kind of encourages her to get drunk and while she's holding on, its only a matter of time before she's one of "those people" instead of the almost college graduate she was three years ago.