God bless us, everyone.
"Mass. scrambling to find housing for its homeless; As numbers hit a record high, state fills shelters, far-off motel rooms" by Megan Woolhouse and David Abel | Globe Staff, December 02, 2013
GREENFIELD — Record numbers of homeless families are overwhelming the state’s emergency shelter system, filling motel rooms at the cost to taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars a year.
An average of nearly 2,100 families a night — an all-time high — were temporarily housed in motel rooms in October, just about equaling the number of families in emergency shelters across the state, according to be the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
This in year five of an alleged economic recovery.
The demand for shelter is so great that the state has been temporarily sending homeless families from Boston to motels in Western Massachusetts, although state officials said many have been relocated back again, closer to home.
Aaron Gornstein, the undersecretary for housing, said the surge has followed cuts in state and federal housing subsidies, soaring rents in Greater Boston, and still-high rates of unemployment and underemployment, particularly among lower-income workers.
“The state as a whole has recovered from the Great Recession faster than most other states, but in many ways we’re still struggling,” Gornstein said. “Federal budget cuts have made the situation worse.”
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Same Old Horse $hit
It's served every day of the week.
A recent report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development said the number of homeless people in shelters and living on the streets in Massachusetts has risen 14 percent since 2010 to nearly 20,000 in January 2013, even as homelessness has declined nationally.
???????
Recovered faster but rose?
What is wrong with this swirling steamer on the plate?
This jump in homelessness is another example of an uneven recovery. Even as stocks soar to new heights and real estate values rebound, many of the state’s poorest residents remain without jobs and homes four years after the last recession. The problems have been compounded by the dramatic federal spending cuts, known as sequestration, which have cut housing and food subsidies.
As if those were the answer to everything.
“There’s no question, this is a continuing legacy of the Great Recession,” said Michael Goodman, a professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “There’s more we can do to help, but it’s not likely, given where federal policy is. That suggests it’s going to be a very long winter for many.”
In more ways than one, and I no longer have the power to talk about it.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Charitable Po$t
Turns out it is all a tax break.
In the Western Massachusetts community of Greenfield, taxicabs pull up to the Quality Inn, but instead of tourists or business travelers with wheeled luggage, homeless families toting belongings in trash bags emerge....
Welcome!
The Globe went out for the ride and talked to one before heading back.
Massachusetts has one of the most extensive shelter systems in the country. Unlike most states, it offers emergency housing to anyone who qualifies. Many end up in shelters or living in homes that board families in rooms, known as congregate housing.
Motels are one of the state’s most expensive options at $82 a night, almost as much as congregate housing’s $100 a night cost. In the past five years, state spending on motels has exploded to more than $46 million from about $1 million in 2008, according to state records.
I don't know what the answers are, but this is tax money I'm for spending. No one in America should be homeless. It's a national disgrace.
The average motel stay, state housing officials said, is about seven months, although some families live in motels for a year waiting for affordable housing.
Libby Hayes, executive director of Homes for Families, a Boston advocacy group, said it is not surprising that low-income workers with fewer skills cannot make ends meet since even college graduates are struggling to find work.
In this age of recovery?
“The economy is not working,” Hayes said. “How do we expect people from the lowest income tier to make it if people who have had opportunities can’t?”
The recent jump in homeless people signals that people have run out of alternatives, said Randy Albelda, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Many families were able to stay off the streets by living off savings, doubling up with family members, or sleeping on friends’ couches, Albelda said. But eventually their money or relatives’ good will “just runs out.”
Does it?
“Families close to the edge have not been able to pull back from the edge in this recovery,” Albelda said. “That’s in part because the recovery has not affected the bottom 30 to 40 percent of people.”
More like the bottom 99%, whether they admit it or not.
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I was told the state was putting an end to such things.
"Soaring rents are putting many families in peril; Harvard study finds some in Mass., US spend half of income on housing" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, December 09, 2013
Rapidly rising rents in Massachusetts and across the country are making housing unaffordable for a significant share of families and pushing many into homelessness, according to a study released Monday by Harvard University.
Massachusetts has the sixth-highest median rent in the nation as the supply of rental housing has failed to keep up with the surge in renters following the recent housing collapse and foreclosure crisis, according to the study from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. More than one in four renters here and nationally must spend more than half their income on their housing, a level the report described as “unimaginable just a decade ago.”
“These are troubling trends,” said Eric Belsky, executive director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. “In this kind of situation, you worry about people’s ability to get into any kind of rental housing.”
The median rent in Massachusetts has climbed to $1,000 a month, according to the study. Hawaii had the highest median rent, $1,300, followed by Washington, D.C., at just below $1,200. And while median rents nationally have risen 7 percent to $861 a month in 2012 from $802 in 2000, median renters’ incomes have fallen from $3,106 to $2,711 in the same period, the report said.
All during an alleged time of recovery. May God grant we never go into a propaganda pre$$ acknowledged recession.
Another study of the local housing market, released in October, found that rents in Greater Boston were the third highest among the nation’s metropolitan areas. Rents in Greater Boston averaged $1,800, compared to $1,300 a decade earlier, according to the study by Northeastern University researchers.
The climbing costs of rental housing are falling most heavily on the poor....
As they always do.
As rising rents take bigger shares of income, federal and state governments, including Massachusetts, have cut funding for housing subsidies, such as the federal Section 8 voucher program.
Because Israel, Wall Street, the war machine, well-connected corporations, and lavish political lifestyles must be funded first.
The result, housing advocates say, has been rising homelessness in states with fast-rising rents. A recent Department of Housing and Urban Development report said the number of homeless people in shelters and living on streets in Massachusetts has risen 14 percent since 2010 to nearly 20,000 in January 2013, even as homelessness declined nationally.
And this is a state that is supposed to have it better than everyone else.
In Massachusetts, the number of families in the state’s emergency shelter system rose to an all- time high last month, averaging more than 4,000 a night. The state spent a record $46 million last fiscal year to house families in need of emergency assistance in motels, up from about $1 million in 2008....
John Drew, executive director of Action for Boston Community Development, a nonprofit social service agency, said the situation is only likely to get harder....
“Everyone is sitting back and watching the market-driven economy,” Drew said. “There is no housing policy. Nothing that leads you to feel comfortable at all, to say, ‘We have a way out of here.’ ”
State officials defend their policy efforts, calling them comprehensive but constrained by funding limitations.
I'm so sick of that lame-a$$ excuse spewing forth from officialdom.
Related: My Baby Takes the Late Night Train
Oh, just found $20 million, huh?
Also see: White Makes T See Red
Just told they lost $75.
Massachusetts is one of four states to offer state-subsidized public housing, and this year alone increased the number of units the program funds by 3,000, said Aaron Gornstein, state’s undersecretary for housing.
The state also has built or is in the process of building 4,500 affordable rental units this year, Gornstein said. Earlier this month, Governor Deval Patrick signed a $1.4 billion bonding bill to finance the rehabilitation and construction of more public and affordable housing.
Even good intentions benefit banksters in this $y$tem.
“We just have to keep focusing on helping families access affordable housing with the resources we have,” Gornstein said, “and make the best use of the existing resources that the Legislature has provided to us.”
*****************
Libby Hayes, executive director of Homes for Families, a Boston advocacy group, said the state’s efforts have been to put a “Band-Aid on a big gaping wound.” Patrick, she added, has not aggressively addressed the issue as a rising tide of families fill state shelters and motels.
Those people making campaign contributions?
Okay then.
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Give 'em a blanket:
"The blanket project is not merely the latest outreach program run by St. Paul’s, the seat of Massachusetts’ Episcopal diocese. Part of the church’s mission has long been to serve the city’s homeless, through worship services, weekly meals, and other activities and programs."“It’s the homeless helping the homeless.”
Related:
In bitter cold, Boston counts its homeless
Site creates new marketplace for homeless artists
Homeless children get star treatment at party
Globe tells you how you can get a home:
"Meghan Keith adopted a technique — the blind mailing — long favored by real estate brokers but generally not used by buyers. The Keiths, after three months of searching, were ready to try the unconventional. Meghan Keith canvassed neighborhoods by car, noting homes she liked on her iPhone. Using online directories and town records, she zeroed in on properties that were affordable and owned by older couples. Then, with about 100 potential targets in Topsfield and Danvers, she launched the letter-writing blitz.... In many Massachusetts communities, the number of properties for sale remains too low to meet demand, sparking fierce bidding wars for the most desirable homes."
And that is how property values are artificially inflated in this era of fraudulent foreclosures, to keep up housing prices because the stock market is under-girded by property values.
"Number of homeless drops again" by Hope Yen | Associated Press, November 22, 2013
WASHINGTON — The number of homeless people in the United States declined for a third straight year, helped by sharp dropoffs in veterans and chronic homelessness, according to a government survey released Thursday....
How can that be? Just my government lying to me again, isn't it?
Nearly two-thirds of those experiencing homelessness were living in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while the remainder lived under bridges, in cars, or in abandoned buildings, the survey found.
Five states — California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts — accounted for more than half of the homeless population.
And we are supposed to be leading the alleged recovery!
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"Court tosses out strict NYC homeless shelter rules" by Jonathan Lemire | Associated Press, November 27, 2013
NEW YORK — New York state’s highest appeals court struck down Tuesday a city plan to impose strict new requirements on people trying to enter homeless shelters.
That's one way of reducing the count. Relabel 'em!
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration aimed to require that homeless adults prove they had no other housing options in order to gain admittance to a city-run shelter.
Guilty until proven innocent (unless you are a looting banker).
The Court of Appeals ruled against that policy, affirming a lower court’s decision on a lawsuit brought by the city council and its speaker, Christine Quinn.
‘‘We are extremely pleased with today’s decision, which prevents the Department of Homeless Services from implementing a policy that would have kept thousands of homeless men and women out of shelter,’’ Quinn said.
And she was supposed to be Bloomy's girl!
The rule requiring proof of homelessness has long applied to homeless families, but the Department of Homeless Services tried to expand it to individuals in 2011.
That plan never went into effect, due to the City Council’s lawsuit. The shelter population has surged under Bloomberg’s tenure, to more than 50,000.
See: NYC homeless shelters keep 50,000 people a night
The most in decades, and ‘‘the state of homelessness in New York City has never been worse,’’ at least since the Great Depression. But there is a recovery out there that is gaining steam and momentum.
Homeless advocates praised the ruling. They said the current policy already strands homeless families and would have been even harsher on single adults because they are more likely to have substance abuse or mental health problems that could make it more difficult to prove their housing status.
The Bloomberg administration criticized the appeals court’s ruling.
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Time to get inside, fortunately for me.
