2008 Woodie Awards
Response to NYC homelessness problem
Lisa Marie Basile
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: Opinions & Editorials
The number of homeless families have risen. The number of single adults have declined. There are 14,000 homeless children in 9000 homeless families. Many of these individuals stay in shelters that are far from humane.
I wonder of those children trigger a feeling of disgust? Or, are the only people that are "decaying" and "filthy" - who also happen to be littering the streets around our prestigious University - just those who drink and drug, the adults?
That same article states that the city's Independent Budget Office (IBO) spent $603.5 million on homeless shelters between 2004 and 2007.
According to the IBO, they do not provide shelter. Rather, "we are a publicly funded agency dedicated to enhancing understanding of New York City's budget by providing nonpartisan budgetary, economic, and policy analysis for the residents of the city and their elected officials," they said.
So, while these shelters are erected to help ease the pain the homeless are going through, we still have plenty of annoyed people who think the homeless have an unnerving audacity to ask us for money.
Maybe it's because they're doped up. Maybe it's because they lost their families when their addictions got out of hand. And maybe they shouldn't have picked up the drug in the first place, but-and this is medically documented-addiction is a disease, not a choice. According to the National Substance Abuse Treatment Services, the average cost for inpatient programs is 7000 a month. So, the question remains: that bum asking you for some change - has he got $7000?
So, then why does he even bother? Will that 80 cents help him? Of course not. But that's not the issue. Instead of taking a superficial route and explaining unnecessarily that it's not going to help, maybe the problem lies in the people that attend our "prestigious" Universities not looking at the real issues at hand.
Yes, people make mistakes. But if measures were in place to help find some solution, we wouldn't be dealing with the "rotting" people on the corners. For instance, the burden of not having health insurance is one. If your mommy and daddy are paying, and you just so happen to come upon a mean heroine addiction, you're set. But the 9000 NYC homeless individuals, excluding families, aren't. What about education? When the poor are poor, there are limited facilities and resources. In turn, education is not spotlighted. Jobs aren't attained. Psychological issues ensue when people suffer from socio-economical oppression, and homelessness is definitely a derivative of such problems. So, when drug-alcohol-rehabs.org is exclaiming the truth behind the adage, "you get what you pay for," how can you expect to have these homeless people stop doing what they're doing? And how can you complain when you cannot understand the root or conceive a solution?
I wonder of those children trigger a feeling of disgust? Or, are the only people that are "decaying" and "filthy" - who also happen to be littering the streets around our prestigious University - just those who drink and drug, the adults?
That same article states that the city's Independent Budget Office (IBO) spent $603.5 million on homeless shelters between 2004 and 2007.
According to the IBO, they do not provide shelter. Rather, "we are a publicly funded agency dedicated to enhancing understanding of New York City's budget by providing nonpartisan budgetary, economic, and policy analysis for the residents of the city and their elected officials," they said.
So, while these shelters are erected to help ease the pain the homeless are going through, we still have plenty of annoyed people who think the homeless have an unnerving audacity to ask us for money.
Maybe it's because they're doped up. Maybe it's because they lost their families when their addictions got out of hand. And maybe they shouldn't have picked up the drug in the first place, but-and this is medically documented-addiction is a disease, not a choice. According to the National Substance Abuse Treatment Services, the average cost for inpatient programs is 7000 a month. So, the question remains: that bum asking you for some change - has he got $7000?
So, then why does he even bother? Will that 80 cents help him? Of course not. But that's not the issue. Instead of taking a superficial route and explaining unnecessarily that it's not going to help, maybe the problem lies in the people that attend our "prestigious" Universities not looking at the real issues at hand.
Yes, people make mistakes. But if measures were in place to help find some solution, we wouldn't be dealing with the "rotting" people on the corners. For instance, the burden of not having health insurance is one. If your mommy and daddy are paying, and you just so happen to come upon a mean heroine addiction, you're set. But the 9000 NYC homeless individuals, excluding families, aren't. What about education? When the poor are poor, there are limited facilities and resources. In turn, education is not spotlighted. Jobs aren't attained. Psychological issues ensue when people suffer from socio-economical oppression, and homelessness is definitely a derivative of such problems. So, when drug-alcohol-rehabs.org is exclaiming the truth behind the adage, "you get what you pay for," how can you expect to have these homeless people stop doing what they're doing? And how can you complain when you cannot understand the root or conceive a solution?
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