Posted on 11/29/2016 11:45:12 AM PST by mbarker12474
As Costs to Shelter Homeless Grow, D.C. Mayor Wants Non-City Residents Out Posted on November 29, 2016
Steve Burns WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) As costs continue soaring to house the District’s homeless population, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Tuesday said the District should put an end to housing non-District residents in the city’s homeless shelters.
“If we are serving everybody else’s residents, we can’t serve our own,” Bowser said during a Mayor-Council breakfast Tuesday morning. “We have an obligation to serve our residents, but we cannot serve the entire region.”
City officials say costs are expanding rapidly as the homeless population grows. DHS Director Dr. Laura Zeilinger said the city is paying $80,000 a night in motel costs to house the homeless population that can’t fit in city shelters.
“It is incredibly costly in a way that we are not going to be able to afford in the long run,” Zeilinger said.
The debate exposed what may be a generational divide on the Council, as one newer Councilmember, Robert White, disagreed with the Mayor’s sentiment, comparing the issue to the concept of sanctuary cities.
“We have an obligation to people, even if they happen to sometimes live across the border,” White said. “I think homelessness doesn’t know jurisdictions.”
Councilmember Jack Evans, who is in his 24th year on the Council, said the city has been down this road before in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“We had people from all over the region using our shelters, we ran out of capacity, and the amount of money we were spending ballooned enormously,” Evans said.
The District went nearly bankrupt by 1995, and was placed under the supervision of a federal Control Board for six years.
“Listen to the history, and understand where we have been,” Councilmember Anita Bonds said. “We can run out of money. Bottom line, that’s what will happen with our government if we try to take care of the region.”
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: CNN) Filed Under: WMAL News Now
Hey, why don’t they just call them refugees and they can soak the American people for $6000 a month like they do with the illegals all over the country?
How can they be residents of anything? They are HOMELESS. They don’t have a residence.
Oh, I love this! YES, YES, let’s do stop serving those who are not LEGAL Residents!
I’d never would have assumed that the Mayor of DC could both agree with me and set a rational approach to Illegal Immigration!
Expect to hear more stories about the homeless now that Trump is President
Homeless residents?
Wowser, Bowser!
My thought exactly. But then we’re expecting rationality from the irrational.
Well if they would stop inviting all of of the illegal immigrants and Muslim infiltrators into our country to vote, he probably wouldn't have this problem now would he?
If you are homeless you have no residence. Therefore you cannot be a resident. So all homeless are non-residents. Close the shelters and give ‘em all a bus ticket to someplace warm and a box lunch.
How do the homeless prove residency?
If you shelter and feed them... they will come.
I wonder if DC is legally obligated to house everyone who is homeless, like New York City. We have to keep tourists sheltered, even, if they are left without a place to stay. The situation here is getting out of control, as I’m sure DC’s is also. It’s all over the country in the Obama economy.
I’ll help that family from Chicago pack up and get out on 20 January. It’s something.
exactly my thought.
For eight years we have heard nothing of the homeless. What could possibly have happened to cause their return?
I suppose eight consecutive “Summer’s of Recovery” just weren’t enough to get the ballooning homeless population over the hump. Trump will be blamed.
Good question how to show residency. Ask for ID? Heck hard core homeless don’t have an ID. Ask them where they are from and spend tax dollars to send them back?? What if they have been homeless in the District for years but never got an ID or any way of showing they have lived there????
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