End Homelessness

Bush's Shameful Homelessness Legacy

Published October 29, 2008 @ 11:45AM PST

Ross Douthat at the Atlantic wrote Monday about the Bush Administration's "success" in curtailing homelessness through Housing First (the latest approach to ending homelessness that I've described here). He lauds the success of Bush's initiative and asks the nagging question: will conservatives want to take credit for such a "radical" and "liberal" policy that has been (gasp!) successful?!

First of all, I wouldn't be so quick to laud Bush's homeless policies during his eight years in office. Sure, HUD claimed this past July that chronic homelessness plummeted thirty percent from 2005 to 2007. However, it has been widely reported that the methodology for counting homeless individuals changed during this period. Populations that had been counted previously - like people living on couches or in cars - were not longer considered "homeless" by the federal government, so they were no longer included in the count. 

In fact, HUD added several additional hoops for those compiling the data to hop through. According to BeyondChron:

Instead of the old method of letting the local counters determine if someone is homeless, HUD required that each homeless person be interviewed before being added to the list. Any homeless person who declined to be interviewed was not counted. Of course any homeless person not in the social service network also didn’t end up in the tally.

It seems to me, that when your methodology for counting homeless individuals is changed mid-study, you no longer have two similar sets of data. Therefore, comparing the 2005 count to the assessment taken in 2007 is like comparing apples to oranges.

Yet, these are the numbers the Bush Administration continues to use in support of their argument that chronic homelessness has fallen 30 percent under Dubya's watch.

To be clear, it's not that I don't think Housing First has been effective. Individual cities and counties have reported significant declines in their chronic homeless population since adopting this model. I simply ask that anytime someone cites a 30 percent drop in homelessness as a significant achievement of the Bush Administration, they include a large, bold asterisk. 

Furthermore, Bush's lack of policies and poor policies have resulted in significant increases in the overall homeless homeless population. Even bureaucrats are conflicted over their support for Bush's feigned "success" and the reality of our nation's homeless crisis. When we look beyond chronic homelessness - at men, women, children, families, disabled individuals, veterans, etc. - we see that this systemic issue has become significantly worse in the past year

So conservatives needn't worry about whether to take credit for Bush's alleged "success." When we consider the shifting methodology for counting the chronic homeless numbers and the numbers of homeless people growing right before our eyes, "success" probably won't be the word we use to decribe Bush's homeless legacy.

Comments

  1. Liberal Democrat

    Part of the cause of homelessness appears a minimum wage that does not allowmany people to afford an apartment. I advocate a minimum wage of $10 an hour. Another reason for homelessness involves many people who cannot afford health care. I advocate single payer universal healthcare.

    I have an opinion poll that people can answer that involves universal single payer universal healthcare and the minimum wag at

    http://poll.democratz.org

    Tell me your opinions and pass the word to other people. Thank you.


    Posted by Liberal Democrat on 10/30/2008 @ 12:52PM PST

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  2. Vicki Trusselli

    I agree with the comment above. Homelessness is caused or the result of many reasons which include wages, health care and mental illness and loss of jobs. A comment was made by a realtor yesterday where I pay my rent. My partner went to pay our rent and the lady asked about me. My partner told her I was voting and she asked how was I voting. My partner told her for the R people which meant The Real People not the R people. She responded "Oh at least she is voting, but I do not want a democrat in office because they would be giving money away to the lazy people on the street." I was glad my partner was there and not me. I would have responded back regarding the bail out of the wall street freeloaders. We have grown into a nation where greed, money and lies are the norm. We have a documentary about homeless veterans in the Austin, Texas area.
    "The Discarded". Lets have freedom and create affordable housing for people not condos for the rich. vicsflick
    http://oneeyeopenproductions.tripod.com

    Posted by Vicki Trusselli on 11/01/2008 @ 08:29AM PST

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Shannon Moriarty Shannon Moriarty
Boston, MA

Shannon traces her passion for the issue of homelessness back to the summer she worked in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, which has the highest concentration of homelessness in the Bay Area. Since then, has worked in shelters in the Triangle region of North Carolina and now in the greater Boston area.

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