Posted on 01/19/2005 10:31:09 AM PST by Indy Pendance
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Americans celebrate President Bush's second inauguration, the capital city's 8,000 homeless people will be mostly invisible.
City officials and voluntary agencies are making efforts to get homeless people off the streets and out of the high security zone where inauguration events are taking place.
Most mobile soup kitchens and feeding centers will not be operating within the zone on Thursday, while many shelters are staying open for 24 hours to keep the homeless indoors -- welcome news for the homeless in sub-freezing temperatures.
Like all members of the public without tickets, homeless people are not allowed in the restricted area. But agencies providing food have obtained special clearances to operate their vans in the no traffic zone in the city center.
Alvin Dixon, who earns a few dollars selling "Street Sense," a newspaper written by and about the homeless, said he hoped to boost sales during the inauguration, though not to the Republican loyalists spending thousands of dollars on hotel rooms and thousands more attending glittering balls.
At a meeting of Street Sense vendors last Friday, Dixon and others were advised to focus their selling efforts on demonstrators coming to town to protest the inauguration.
The District of Columbia estimates that between 16,000 and 17,000 city residents are homeless at some point each year, and about half that on any given day. During the warmer months, some 500 people live on the streets.
At the Franklin School men's shelter, located around four blocks from the White House, there is rarely a spare bed, said Chapman Todd of Catholic Charities, which operates 11 shelters in the city.
"If it's not full, it's very close to full every night. We've seen high usage in all our shelters. Demand seems to be higher than it's been in recent years," he said.
HOMELESSNESS RISING
In 2002, the first Bush administration adopted a goal of ending chronic homelessness within 10 years. However Congress has failed to authorize funds to advance the program.
Nationally, homelessness is rising, according to a report last month from the U.S. Conference of Mayors which found that 70 percent of 27 cities it surveyed reported a 6 percent increase in requests for emergency shelter in 2004. In 2003, the report found a 13 percent increase.
"President Bush has not talked very much about this issue," said Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "It has not been one of his signature issues."
White House officials have said Bush will propose deep cuts in this year's budget to be unveiled Feb. 7 in the $4.7 billion federal community development block grant program, which cities rely on to help pay for low-cost housing among other programs.
But with housing prices constantly rising in the city, the problem continues to grow.
"We're seeing more families becoming homeless. That's folks who have jobs or part-time employment but can no longer afford homes," said Cornell Chappelle of the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness.
He, like virtually all those working on the issue, said the only solution to homelessness was developing affordable housing for low-paid working people.
Dixon said he lost his home after suffering a nervous breakdown following the death of his son.
"I stayed with friends and relatives and spent some nights sleeping in a car on the streets," he said. "The hardest thing is the feelings of inadequacy, not being self-sufficient and having to rely on other people."
If Alvin can sell his "newspaper", why can't he just go out and get a regular job???? Maybe then he wouldn't be homeless!!!
Versus when they were featured front and center during Clinton's inauguration celebrations.
nice research. proves our point.
Well, they're plenty visible here in Philly. I have to run the "bum gauntlet" every weekday to & from my office building. I've see the same people for the past 3 years...they don't even curse at me anymore when I ignore them, they know I ain't givin'!!!
They sure drank rum those 8 years of Klintoon, but no stories ran.
Invisible?
What's that stealth smell?
"Hum! Copycats!"
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