Homelessness is NOT a Simple Problem

We've recently been hearing about advocates for the homeless speaking out against abuse they claim those they advocate on behalf of suffer at the hands of the Providence Police Department.  Demanding to meet with the mayor, who they insist must take action on the matter, advocates gathered Thursday afternoon for a protest on Fulton St. along Kennedy Plaza, spurring conversation on the topic within the city and all over our airwaves.

For some people it's easy to look at the homeless population and come to certain conclusions.  "Homeless people are drug addicts." or "They're choosing to be homeless because it's easy and they're lazy" or my personal favorite line "There are plenty of jobs out there".  While it's certainly true of homelessness and social safety nets as it is of every system ever set up anywhere, there certainly ARE abuses of the system.  However, characterizing the entire population as lazy drug addicts who would prefer to beg than work and are turning down job offers in an applicant friendly job market is not only incredibly ignorant of the job situation in this area, but also over simplifying the problem, and only serving to further the issue, not help solve it.

We must all start with the understanding that a) Homlessness is something we'd all like to eradicate, and b) there are paths to that solution.  Once we get past the initial point, which is where some people get hung up, with both sides pointing fingers at each other as if anyone wants to fight towards no solution.  We DO ALL want to solve this problem.  Both sides of the aisle.  They just both take philosophically different routes, and neither is correct.

In order to solve any problem, you must understand it's causes. While there are abusers of the system who would rather float along than get real jobs, that's not the main cause of homelessness in this or any other state.  If it was, criminalizing homelessness might be a great answer.  But it just isn't.  The bulk of homeless people are there as the result of hard times economically, mental disease/condition, or drug addiction-perhaps a combination, or a domino effect where losing one's job and finances lead to drugs, lead to addiction, and now you're fighting out of a deeper hole than most people are capable of.

The real problem with our social safety nets is not that there are too many, or that there aren't enough restrictions.  Quite the opposite.  The real problem is that individually, one can only access enough help to exist.  And it can often be difficult, requiring repeated visits to a social worker, acquiring documents, making phone calls, etc.  Social workers are over worked, difficult to get ahold of, an missing just one appointment can mean months of delay in getting the help you need.  This is a system that actually caters to the abusers.  The abusers of the system have time to sit around cutting through red tape, they can drop everything at a moment's notice to go meet a social worker and keep their aid, they may even have vehicles to get to these places, making it that much easier.  By contrast, a single mom of 2 who is homeless after her husband died in a car crash, losing their only vehicle, with limited job skills as her job was once caring for her kids while her husband works, might have a more difficult time fulfilling certain requirements.

She might have a low skill minimum wage job she can't get time off of for various meetings, or her kids' doctor appointments, or whatever.  Making an appointment to keep a hundred or a couple hundred in food stamps might cost her that job.  Riding the bus places adds hours on to your trip, so she's already limited in where and when she can travel to job interviews, look for apartments, or anything else to help herself and her family.

I spent a year working at Crossroads while in college, and we used to see first hand all the time both sides.  You see the people struggling, who need that extra hand to get back to where they want to be, where they used to be, or where they should be.  But you also see people abusing the system terribly.  And your hands are tied, you simply can't do anything about it.

I believe that if we continued federally funding social safety net programs, but made approval a much more localized process, primarily the responsibility of the social worker, we'd save a great deal of money.  I think if social workers were allowed to help individuals more than current limits allow, and were able to act as the red tape for the approval process, they could cut out the percentage of people abusing the system, give real help to those trying to get off of government help, and with the same pool of money make a MUCH larger impact than they currently do.  The inability to abuse the system should push the optional homeless population back into the work force as well, or at very least out of the city and state, to a place they can more easily abuse the system.

In this manner, we're limiting the potential for abuse by taking away the ability to simply learn acceptable answers and fill out forms, we're assigning personal responsibility to the social worker in the assistance they're issuing, and helping tie them to the success of their clientele.  Help would be available, but not easily abused.  Social workers would need to be held to a high ethical standard, overseen as far as the assistance they issued, and potentially higher qualifications would need to be sought for new workers, but within the first 6-12 months I'd expect their workload to decrease, and the intrinsic rewards of their job (nobody gets into social work for the money) to drastically increase, making their job that much better as they watched themselves making real, life changing impact in the lives of those who truly need it.

I believe this to be a great solution to the homelessness problem everywhere, not just here in Providence.  Maybe you disagree, and maybe I'm wrong, but one thing I'm certainly right about is that it's not so simple.  The issue of homelessness isn't a cut and dry choice of the homeless themselves.  It's not a mark of laziness, it's not a mark of stupidity, and it's not an open door to ridicule, harass, or arrest people.  We cannot let the desires of the few to abuse the system turn us into heartless and cold monsters who no longer help those who need it.

Redefining the Term "Sanctuary City/State"

Since early 2011 when Lincoln Chafee opened the front doors of our state to illegal immigrants by rescinding the Illegal Immigration Control Order-or e-verify order-Governor Carcieri had previously signed, Rhode Island has been known as a Sanctuary State, and Providence within it as a Sanctuary City.  That is, a state or city whose policies shelter illegal immigrants from federal deportation.  Even criminal illegal immigrants in some instances, while our tax dollars feed and shelter them as they sit sometimes for years in our jail system, awaiting deportation that we’ll never allow.

Later in 2011 we moved farther down the road of becoming a sanctuary state by allowing illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates at state public colleges, becoming just the third state behind Maryland and Connecticut to do so.  Over the years since, local politicians have looked into allowing illegal immigrants driver’s licenses, with a bill being introduced this past January to that effect, claiming it would somehow make the roads safer.

Last month when a national map outlining American sanctuaries for illegal immigrants was published and made national news, we were reminded of our status in Rhode Island as one of just two sanctuary states in this country (with the other being North Dakota). Last week however, we learned our local mayors are working to truly redefine the term, building highways from Central America that end in Providence.  

Mayor Elorza was in Guatemala last week, shaking hands in an effort to encourage the direct flights to TF Green from Guatemala, and increased traffic into the Port of Providence directly from there as well.  Elorza says it’s to increase tourism and trade.  Given the fact Guatemala’s GDP per capita is about $3,500 and their gross national income per capita is about 7,000 “PPP” (which according to one site translated to something like 2,000 USD) I can’t imagine there’s going to be a whole lot of tourism coming to spend thousands here.  So are we really going there to secure trade agreements for coffee, sugar, and bananas, Guatemala’s top three exports?

I can’t imagine we are.  What Mayor Elorza and those of his ilk have done, and seem to be in the process of doing, is try to put us on a path to de facto citizenship for illegal immigrants in this city and state.  They’ve ensured there’s no concern of deportation, that illegals can secure a job, and are hoping to even ensure they can secure a license.  And what’s truly shocking is that they haven’t done it to do some service to the Guatemalan people.  They’re doing it to get re-elected.  Any human interest is merely a side bonus.  

Some assume voter fraud, while others suggest a potential future path to legal voting by illegal immigrants.  But one way or another what is becoming very apparent is that before most of us even knew what the term “sanctuary state” meant let alone that we are one, we’re about to find ourselves at a point where the next battle is whether or not illegals can legally vote, and formally reward the politicians who paved the highway for them to get here.  Is that the kind of state we want to live in?  The kind of city?  One where even our local politicians ignore the needs of their constituents while schmoozing even more corrupt politicians half a world away in order to import potential voters that keep them in office?  Haven’t we had enough of that on a national scale, from our DC politicians?

Let’s bear in mind while Elorza is visiting his future constituents in Central America, his current constituents on the East Side were still suffering a rash of break-ins, the pools in the city were closing in the middle of the summer’s final heat wave, and local companies with huge growth potential like TeeSpring are packing their bags and heading for greener pastures without so much as a phone call from the mayor’s office to entice them to keep their jobs here.

Those of you that agree should make sure your voices are heard, on local radio, in the opinion pages of local papers, and even in conversation amongst your friends before you turn around and realize it’s too late, you’re now drastically outnumbered due to what will surely become Providence’s new number one import: democratic voters.

Welcome!

I've created this blog to work with other citizens of Rhode Island so that we can post and comment on current events, happening here in Rhode Island, and also nationally.  While we'd like to focus on local events, local news, and local politics, obviously very often a national story takes over the headlines and requires a little local perspective.  We encourage that.

We're happy to have you here as readers.  If you're looking to contribute here, please contact us and we'll set that up based upon your writing skills and interest.

Thanks again for your visit.  We hope you enjoy the reading.