Posted on 06/29/2005 7:02:03 AM PDT by Turbopilot
Tenants told last October to get jobs or else
Starting Friday, the Atlanta Housing Authority will begin evicting tenants who are not working, in school or in a work force training program.
The authority, which began notifying residents about the new rule last fall, said it is trying to end concentrated poverty by encouraging public housing tenants to become more self-sufficient.
Critics of the new rules, however, fear the plan will create a new generation of homeless people as a result of thousands of evictions.
"This is going to mean that you will have so many people on the streets homeless because the job market is so bad," said Louise Watley, 72, the former longtime president of the Carver Homes Tenant Association and a public housing advocate.
Housing Authority Executive Director Renee Glover, however, defends the tougher rules.
"We don't desire, or expect, that everybody is going to be turned out on the streets," Glover said. "I am expecting that most people are going to step up to the requirement and achieve it."
Because it has been designated a "Moving to Work" program by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Atlanta Housing Authority has great flexibility to design and test ways to promote self-sufficiency among families receiving assistance. AHA's program has been named CATALYST.
Last October, residents between the ages of 18 to 61 and not disabled who lived in the 13 traditional public housing units and in Section 8 houses were informed they would face eviction if they were not working, going to school or in a work force training program.
According to AHA figures, about 13,935 adults live in traditional public housing and Section 8 housing who are being required to work under the CATALYST requirements.
The AHA reports that of the 2,845 households in government-built dwellings affected by the rules, fewer than half are in compliance. In Section 8 housing, where tenants get federal vouchers to rent private dwellings, only about 3,498 of the 8,826 affected households are complying with the rules.
The new policy is "Draconian," said Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington-based group dedicated to ending the affordable housing crisis.
'That additional push'
"Public housing is the only housing available to those at the lowest income," Crowley said. "We have a huge shortage of places for people to live. When we are attempting to prevent homelessness, to have a housing authority purposely taking people with the least capacity and putting them on the street is wrong."
But Glover said there are jobs for people who want to work. The AHA is working with the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency to encourage residents to seek employment. The agency also administers grants for child care assistance.
"What is needed is that additional push to encourage people to spread their wings," Glover said. "To me, the greater consequence of not working is becoming more dependent on government subsidies."
According to the state Department of Labor, Atlanta's 3 percent unemployment rate is well below the state's 5.2 percent jobless rate.
In the past six months, the work force development agency has trained more than 600 people who live in public housing. Executive Director Deborah Lum said the four-week program offers computer classes, life skills training and resume workshops while specifically training people in everything from customer service to carpentry.
Every Tuesday, the agency hosts a job fair promoting thousands of openings at construction sites, the airport and in customer service.
"Almost 70 percent of our clients are placed, and the 30 percent who aren't placed don't want to work," said Lum, adding that most jobs require background checks and drug tests.
"There are 20,000 jobs at the airport through construction alone. We have a good projection of jobs in the city over the next five or six years."
Claims of no recourse
But Diane Wright, president of the Hollywood Courts resident association, said most of the residents --- mostly single, young women with children --- in her complex are having a hard time getting those jobs.
"A lot of them were working, some got fired. Some got laid off," said Wright, who has lived in Hollywood for 16 years. "CATALYST to me is a way to destroy families. Where are these girls going when they get evicted?"
At midday Tuesday, Hollywood Courts was teeming with women and children. Many claim that they have tried to get jobs and will have no place to go if they get evicted.
"Most people are trying to find jobs, but can't," said Latisha Thomas, 23, who is five months pregnant. "They are being too strict on us. I don't think it is possible for everybody to find a job by their deadline."
Thomas, the mother of two, is not working and said that by the time she enrolls in school, she will have to drop out to have her baby. She is, however, in a twice-a-week literacy program working toward her GED. Watching from a second floor window, Pamela Shanks said that she, her daughter and two grandchildren might end up on the streets.
"I can't get a computer job or work as a secretary," said Shanks, 40. "The only work I can do is in a warehouse or in housekeeping, and I can't even get that. And now these folks want to kick my family out on the streets."
But across town at University Homes, 76-year-old Verna Mobley has little sympathy.
"I think it is the greatest thing that ever happened," Mobley said of the CATALYST program. "This new generation can wear hairdos and walk around smoking dope, but can't pay their rent. I am glad, and all the older people think it is great."
Mobley has lived in Atlanta public housing for 45 years and in University Homes since 1965.
Although she is well above the targeted age that CATALYST requires for working, she still works regularly and on her off days, patrols University Homes' laundry room, keeping outsiders away.
"I still get up everyday and go to work. I like to work. Why should I not work?" Mobley said. "But it is quite a few up there who are not working. Sure, they can go to work. If you are the head of your household, you should be working."
Returning has rules
Using federal Hope VI money, Glover has torn down several crime-ridden, dangerous and oppressive housing projects and replaced them with mixed-income apartments with swimming pools, tennis courts and manicured lawns.
The notorious Techwood Homes became Centennial Place. Carver Homes is now the lush Villages at Carver. East Lake Meadows, once known as "Little Vietnam," is now a golf course community called the Villages of East Lake.
The old Perry Homes is being transferred into West Highlands, where an 18-hole golf course will anchor the $300 million to $400 million project in southwest Atlanta. It will include a charter school, library, a YMCA and 2,211 housing units on 462 acres.
But not everyone who lived in one of the so-called "projects" was welcomed back.
Once a complex is razed, anyone who previously lived there has the option of coming back. But fewer than 50 percent of the units are earmarked for them, and moving back in comes with rules.
There is a criminal background check. No staying home and refusing to work. No lease violations. No history of trouble.
CATALYST, in effect, is an extension of the rules, touching on the people who live in the 13 yet-to-be-converted complexes and in Section 8 properties.
"We believe, fundamentally that human potential is unlimited," Glover said. "The worst thing you can do is set expectations at a lower level. I am expecting positive outcomes."
Last time I was there San Francisco was full of homeless people.
In Athens (the real one I mean) if you couldn't prove that you had a profession you were executed, a policy Heroditus heartily approved of.
I think they have a Panhandler's Union in San Francisco.
1. She doesn't have time for work, but managed to find time to do the hokey pokey
2. No men in sight while several generations of females are sucking on the gubmint teat
3. I can't do what I want to do, so I just ain't gonna do nothin'
(Side-note - Mama sweated her arse off in warehouses for over 20 years 'cause it paid BETTER that flippin' burgers or secretarial work)
Did I find them all, Turbo? Do I get a prize?
Gubermint cheese perhaps?
:)
In Athens (the real one I mean) if you couldn't prove that you had a profession you were executed, a policy Heroditus heartily approved of.
***
I believe St. Paul in one of his letters to Timothy said that those who don't work don't eat...or something like that.
This was also the policy among the early Jamestown settlers here too.
Fantastic. Then our entire state and federal homelessness programs can be reduced to supplying, upon request, one free one-way bus ticket to San Francisco. Let the "union" handle things from there.
Another fine example of social engineering. Total failure and zillions spent. Gooberment at it's finest. Thanks alot.:(
What about my gubmint cheese? Who gets my gubmint cheese!
Sorry, that's insensitive to the lactose-intolerant, and PETA has determined that the production of cheese is somehow cruel to cows. But if you file the proper forms with the federal Department of Peace, Love, and Harmony, you can expect your first crate of Government Tofu in six to eight weeks.
Many would speculate that welfare came about as a means (invented by the (Democrats) to continue to keep blacks oppressed following the civil rights movements.
At the risk of sounding like a cold-hearted FReeper, give them 2 options:
1. Work
2. Starve
Government, by it's interference in the workings of the natural world, now pay stupid, lazy and chronic underachivers to reproduce, daily creating a larger group of parasites for the shrinking productive class to support.
(No, I'm not talking about elderly or disabled folks...just the ones that CAN work, but WON'T)
But don't you dare try to tell her that! I wish I had a dollar for every young pregnant girl who, upon being confronted with the irresponsibility of having children without the means to support them, suddenly got a don't-tell-me-what-I-can-and-can't-do-who-do-you-think-you-are attitude. The fact that many people tolerate (and some even promote) a culture among young people today that creates this problem just turns my stomach.
Oh, and my normal reaction to the don't-tell-me-what-I-can-and-can't-do-who-do-you-think-you-are attitude? I'm the one with the college degree and the job...
Government Tofu! Hoorah! LOL!
"Dollars to donuts Mrs. Crowley lives in a gated community."
Most likely. Folks who support Section 8, do not live next door to it. Been there, done that. I have the bruises to show for it.
The woman is 40 years old and has 2 grandchildren... that smacks of something wrong right there.
How about work farms - dormitories or similar housing, and farm work, so they can grow their own food? It could even be private charities that do this. Of course, no drugs or alcohol.
That way the people who are off the scale would not be homeless, they would learn basic work skills, and be at least somewhat responsible for their own upkeep.
If the gov't spent less on lose-lose projects, people would have more of their own money to spend and donate to charities as they see fit. Non-profit charities would be able to have more money and get creative with actually helping people, not just maintaining them in their hopelessness. Which is what most gov't funded programs do.
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