From WESA (emphasis added):
As winter homeless shelters fill around Pittsburgh, City Council may look to zoning changes to allow for legally authorized homeless encampments. A bill set to be introduced Monday would create a new zoning use called a "temporary managed community" — areas that could host homeless encampments, with support staff, heat and food.
“We know [shelters are] full right now. … it’s just heartbreaking,” said the bill's sponsor, Councilor Deb Gross. “We want to make sure that we're not the obstacle for trying to achieve a temporary managed community.” ...
But overall, Gross said, the city desperately needs to create more affordable and transitional housing options. “People cannot live in the city of Pittsburgh on a disability check,” she said. “You cannot live indoors anywhere if you are on some of the lower levels of Social Security income.” ...
It's obvious in my law practice that inadequate SSI benefits and delayed Social Security disability benefits cause a lot of homelessness.
8 comments:
"Cause a lot of homelessness."
Really?
How about the over 9 million people on DIB are all homeless? Majority homeless? 85% are disabled workers, about 12% DACs and 2.5% disable widows, so I guess they are all in tents. I actually argue that it stops a lot of homelessness.
How many homeless SSI folks were homeless before getting SSI? They have no work history for DIB, or have gone over a decade without work, so how were they getting by then?
Poverty has been around since the days we lived in caves. Someone got the backstrap and someone got the scraps. You cannot legislate it, and I am tired of paying for it.
I have worked for SSA (T2) for over 30 years and volunteered at a homeless shelter for 10 years. The vast majority of DIB claimants who originally said they were homeless were sleeping inside at a friend's or relative's place. Technically they had no home but they were on a couch or in a spare bedroom.
The homeless shelter forbid drug use and required that the homeless be working towards an income (job or disability) and pursuing new housing after they had an income. They'd help subsidize rent, pay deposits, etc to get the person going. This has been very successful for those who want a home. The mentally ill and drug users that didn't want to follow the shelter's rules either never went to the shelter or left after they heard about the rules. Those that live on the street here are there by choice. Addiction or mental illness may greatly influence their choice but there are beds and programs to help those who decide they want it. The lack of money may have pushed them to the streets but the choice to stay there was made by them.
Happy Thanksgiving to you to. Your concern for your fellow humans is outstanding. Please spare me the comments that you worked hard for everything you have. Take that as a blessing that not everyone is capable of.
So hopefully the city will get there act together and provide more affordable housing for those with less income.
@342 It's not the job of the city to provide housing. They can make it easier for developers to build low income housing. But most homeless on the street aren't going to go into low income housing when they refuse shelters now.
It’s also not the job of Social Security. Based on your take, sounds like there is no answer. Leave it as is, it’s a choice in the end.
@313 An answer could include expanding mental health care and treating addictions. There are likely local policies that have been more successful that should be tried on a larger scale. So far most policies haven't been successful.
I wonder why no one else thought of that?
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