I remember the major earthquake in May of 1965, in Seattle. I jumped
out of bed and ran around the house like a chicken with its head cut
off. Pictures were falling off the walls, lamps and knickknacks were
dancing off the tables and shelves. I dashed into my 2 year old
daughter's bedroom, snatched her up and ran to the living room. I
stopped, not knowing what I was going to do to protect her.
Today my little girl is 54 years old, and I still can't figure out how
to protect her. Our very foundation, the house we call America is
being shaken this way and that by a monstrous earthquake named Greed.
Everything is falling around our ears, and we can't grab up the pieces
fast enough to prevent it from crashing. My daughter works for a
University. She has worked all of her adult life. She has
Rheumatoid Arthritis and is Diabetic. Most certainly, in her old age,
she will require expensive medical support. Her husband worked all
his adult life, following his return from the Marines, but he
developed Parkinson's and was forced to take medical retirement.
After very expensive surgery, he is able to provide the home support
to his wife and himself. But his medical expenses will most likely
continue increasing the remainder of his life.
What sort of government would yank the rug out from under people who
have played by the rules, paid their fair share...and more... in taxes
and services to that government?
How much longer will America's Working Class continue protecting
Greed's Right to steal their money, health and dignity? It's past
time to mount an all out attack on Greed.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/19/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Additionally, in case you've missed the announcements on various lists,
there are cuts to library services which impact local libraries, regional
talking book libraries, and Bookshare.
Miriam
A homeless person sits near the White House in Washington, D.C. (photo:
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Entire Homelessness Agency Could Be Eliminated by Trump's Budget Cuts
By Alastair Gee, Guardian UK
19 March 17
Shuttering the agency and cutting funds for low-income housing remind
experts of Reagan's deep spending cuts that 'ushered in a new age of
homelessness'
While much of the attention given to Donald Trump's budget proposal has
focused on dramatic cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency and the
state department, amid the many cuts in the plan is the elimination of the
US Interagency Council on Homelessness (Usich).
In addition, Trump's budget would cut billions of dollars of funding for
the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, which helps provide low-income
housing.
Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition,
warned
in a statement that the proposal contained some of the deepest housing cuts
since "President Reagan dramatically reduced funding in the early 1980s.
Reagan's deep spending cuts ushered in a new age of homelessness."
In an interview, she said the reductions might result in 200,000 low-income
people no longer receiving rental assistance, putting them at risk of
losing
the roofs over their heads. About 550,000 people were experiencing
homelessness on one night in 2016.
"At a time when we have reached new heights of an affordable housing
crisis,
and lowest-income people are being impacted most severely, cutting
resources
is the wrong approach to ending homelessness," she said.
The budget proposal is just that and will probably encounter pushback from
Congress.
The plan also envisions cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban
Development of $6.2bn, or a 13% fall from 2016 levels. These include
programs that enable the development of affordable housing.
The cuts are explained in the proposal as reflecting a commitment to
"fiscal
responsibility", and it foresees the slack being taken up by state and
local
governments and the private sector.
Shuttering the Usich, meanwhile, would free up its relatively meager budget
of about $3.5m. Yet keeping it open is "simply a prudent investment", said
Nan Roman, head of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
"This is one of the places where I think it's penny wise and pound
foolish,"
agreed Barbara Poppe, who headed the council under President Barack Obama
until 2014.
The council was formed in 1987 and serves as a bridge between the various
federal agencies with a stake in homelessness, such as the departments of
veterans affairs or health and human services. It also connects localities
both with resources and with each other as they seek to bring people off
the
streets.
Usich "has been essential to the progress we're seeing across the county
that's resulted in cuts to veteran homelessness by one half," Poppe said.
Homelessness in general has also decreased gradually since the recession. A
Usich spokesperson declined to comment.
While localities are taking a greater role in addressing homelessness - Los
Angeles voters approved a $1.2bn bond measure to house homeless people in
the 2016 elections, for instance - they probably cannot make up for federal
investment, especially not if that investment declines further.
"They decided to take this on locally because they already had a federal
deficit situation," Poppe said.
In an email to staffers after the numbers emerged, Ben Carson, the new HUD
secretary, asked them to "take some comfort in knowing that starting
numbers
are rarely final numbers".
Roman, of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, agrees. But she is not
reassured. "It's a very low starting point," she said. "That's
distressing."
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