The homelessness continuum

OPINION:

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Homelessness. No matter where you live in America, it’s an issue. Always has been.

Don’t even waste your time fantasizing. American Indians couldn’t imagine telling the “Property Brothers” to find them a tipi for five in the heavily populated environs of the Bay Colony.

Don’t try to picture enslaved African-Americans informing “massa” or the overseer they’d prefer an open-concept shanty with a wood-burning stove that doesn’t block their view of the “Big House.”

Such preferences are considered today for the homeless. Each child has his own bedroom, and mom, dad or both have separate sleeping quarters — as if such arrangements will lead to happily ever after familyhood. Marriage isn’t necessary.

The standard nowadays days is “ask and ye shall receive,” either directly from the government or an organization receiving government funds.

Marion Barry, prior to becoming mayor for life, was tarred and feathered for lodging the homeless in hotels along New York Avenue NE, the gateway to the nation’s capital.

Ronald Reagan caught bipartisan grief for the city’s “homeless crisis” and leased a community college facility for $1 per year to calm the storm.

The shelter, at 2nd and D streets NW, still stands, and housing advocates claim the “homeless crisis” remains, too.

In the same vein, the current mayor, Muriel Bowser, is following Barry’s lead. The city is still spending taxpayer money on hotels and motels to house the homeless. It’s not a family-friendly sight, as you might imagine, and unfortunate families should not have to live like that.

One of the major reasons such supposed short-term solutions have become permanent policies is because what began as a cottage industry in the mid-1970s has become big business in Washington — good for the hotel-motel industry, good for advocates, good for politicians and unbelievably great for poverty pimps.

Sadly, there’s no endgame for homelessness. Politicians talk a good game, pledging to end chronic homeless by 2020.

Well, Election Day for the midterms is in November, around the corner, and 2020 is essentially around the very next bend.

So, consider this as an example of the cog: “Homelessness should be brief, rare, and nonrecurring. D.C. has made record investments in homelessness services in recent years, but it is still not enough. DCFPI works on issues along the homelessness services continuum — from access to shelters to funding for programs such as Permanent Supportive Housing and Targeted Affordable Housing.” So says the influential D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.

If those few words propose an endgame to you, please explain.

• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.