Amid all of the political pandering to "the middle class", with "middle class tax cuts" and a "Commission on the Middle Class" led by the Vice President, and the whirlwind of rhetoric abuot "helping the middle class" from both parties in Washington, something seems to have gotten lost. Something seems missing, somehow, as if its fallen through the cracks.
The Rich? Every hour the news channels treat us to new stories about The [suddenly less] Rich, and how they're faring, and where they screwed up, and what new oversight, taxes, and regulation they may/should/will be subject to in the future. The Rich are still very much in view.
So, who have we forgotten then? Oh yes, The Poor! Nobody is actually poor anymore, are they? ...at least, no one worth bothering about. Amid the Trillion Dollars of relief for bankers, automakers, homeowners, small business, and everyone else with their hands out, let us consider a modest new approach to helping the least among us...
Libertarians like myself arent normally predisposed to offer ideas for new government social programs, and spending to create new 'benefits' for individuals. However, in the current orgy of giveaways now wending its way through Congress, I find it particularly reprehensible that when weighing the economic difficulties of the 'Haves' and 'Have Nots', the politicians are scampering to help the 'Haves' to 'Have More' (presumably to secure their votes), and the 'Have Nots' are written off as not part of the equation.
Between the $800 Billion financial bailout package, and the $900 Billion economic stimulus package, $1.7 Trillion ($1,700,000,0000,000) will hemmorage from the U.S. Treasury, with most of it, like the first $350 Billion already lost, to no discernable effect. Suppose that just One Percent (1%) of this largess - $17 Billion - were devoted to pure direct assistance to the "Lower Class", in focused, trackable, monitored, life-changing ways? [Let us note that this is $1 Billion less than the $18 Billion in bonuses awarded to Wall Street executives for their exemplary performance in 2008, which, in the end, was also paid for with your tax dollars.]
HELPING THE POOR "HUNKER UP" THROUGH THE RECESSION
Within Shaun Donovan's HUD, let's create a 'Domestic Opportunity Office for Rehabilitation Services' ("DOORS"), charged with responsibility for permanently changing the lives of One Million of America's poorest families, and One Million homeless Americans.
The DOORS Program would offer Domestic Rehabilitation Stipends of $1,000 per month (tax free, and not counted as 'income' under other benefit eligibility computations) to each of 1,000,000 participating poor familes, in return for opening their homes to a [screened] participating homeless person.
This commitment of $12 Billion per year could be offset through cuts in other, existing antipoverty and homelessness programs that have failed to produce any meaningful outcomes. Conversely, it could be funded with a dedicated tax of One Percent (1%) on all new consumer debt, on the premise that a society wracked with excess consumption can certainly afford to extend 'a leg up' to those at the greatest disadvantage.
Taking 1,000,000 homeless people off the streets and park benches would, of course, have benefits in economic development in cities across the country. Washington, D.C. is just one of the many whose downtown urban core has become a giant outdoor flophouse, to the detriment of residents, merchants, and tourists, alike. Compensating 1,000,000 poor families for taking them in to provide intermediate-term 'domestic care', of, say, six months to 36 months, would dramatically improve the immediate lives and future prospects of millions of underprivileged children. Poor families suddenly able to afford computers, broadband internet, books, travel, cars, recreation, and better nutrition will better equip the next generation for new lives, outside transgenerational poverty.
The logic of engaging poor families to rehabilitate the homeless is profound. Instead of cold impersonal shelters, group homes lacking in oversight, and other failed relics of the prior art, a new ethos of interpersonal caring and personal responsibility can be allowed to take root. A form of 'adult foster care', the domestic rehabilitation initiative would move resources into households with the greatest need for upward mobility.
The program would select the most responsible and stable poor families; married couples with children, who can offer a spare room, a nightly supper, a hot shower, clean clothing, telephone and online communication, access to public transportation, and other personal assistance, to the 'guest' they will be compensated in caring for.
The application process will involve up front and monthly follow-up, in- home visits by a local Domestic Rehabilitation Coordinator, with robust live digital documentation. These Coordinators would be recruited from among graduate students in the behavioral sciences, as their community service contribution in return for federal tuition assistance (as per the Obama Administration policy to increase tax credits for higher education). By keeping the door-to-door oversight out of the hands of professional social workers and municipal poverty bureaucrats, the graft, corruption, negligence, complacency, disrespect, and contempt for clients often reported in bottom level social programs can hopefully be kept out of the system. The assembly-line mentality obvious among the minions at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the County Health Department, or the State Employment Service/Bureau of Unemployment Compensation is precisely the mindset that enthusiastic young grad students - changed out every two to three years - can be expected to avoid.
Candidate homeless participants would be selected through a compulsory national registration of the homeless, providing every homeless person in America with a face-to-face interview, incorporating both evaluation and counselling. Many homeless are eligible for benefits under Social Security Disability or other existing programs, which they are unaware of or were never previously offered the means to apply for. This mandatory universal Homeless Registry would incorporate photo, fingerprint, and DNA identification, and an online mechanism to help people reunite with homeless loved ones from whom they have become separated. Many of the homeless have long lost friends or relatives who would care for them if made aware of their situation.
Obviously, this Registration would also remove from the streets many wanted fugitives who should be in custody, and many illegal immigrants who would no longer be homeless if simply sent 'home'. Many more are incapacitated by medical or mental conditions for which institutional care options may actually be available. Finally, the Registration would put names and faces to the problem, and reliable numbers, which local governments could no longer ignore. The resulting database, in addition to reuniting long lost family members, could be mined by charitable NGOs, to empower them in implementing their own new solutions to homelessness in America.
A strong Veteran's Preference provision in the domestic rehabilitation initiative would seek to bring every last homeless veteran in from the cold, to match them up with VA medical benefits and mental health services to which they are entitled, and to otherwise help them to reintegrate into civilian society.
Will this rescue every derelict from under every bridge in the country? No, many have intractable mental and emotional problems or have become permanently acclimated to an outdoor lifestyle. In these cases, the best that might be hoped for is that compulsory Registration would provide many with access to a monthly disability check or other benefits they might not otherwise obtain. Some will go [back] to jail or prison, some will be deported. Sad though these alternatives may be, they are superior outcomes to the status quo. However, for the million helpless people to be given homes, and hope, it will make all the difference in the world.
Will this move every poor family up into the affluent "Middle Class"? No, an extra $1,000 coming in each month cant compensate heartbroken parents for an errant child lost to crack cocaine, prostitution, or gang activity, or fix the life of an unwed pregnant teenage daughter. It wont overcome the impediments of adult illiteracy, domestic violence, or alcoholism, which will likely disqualify many from participating. But an extra paycheck in a million homes - together with the responsibility for another's care that it will convey - will have a subtle but powerful impact on the rates of divorce (marriage being a prerequisite to the stipend), high school dropout (truancy being a disqualification), and additional unplanned pregnancy (living space being at a greater premium in the household) among the Lower Class community.
Beyond the $12 Billion in annual direct outlays for the stipend, $5 Billion would be allocated to generate and maintain the proposed National Homeless Registry, to train and support the Domestic Rehabilitation Coordinator caseworkers with expense reimbursement, and to provide other, non-cash support for the homeless and family participants in the program. For example, the children of participating families might become eligible for Community College tuition grants; the homeless might be given Vocational Education, and families might be financially rewarded for the successful transition of their homeless guest to a stable independent lifestyle.
These federal funds might be significantly leveraged by voluntary local resources - including faith based initiatives, harnessed charities (such as the Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries), and Community Fund drives by the local business community. Downtown merchants everywhere are eager to see meaningful action on homelessness, and will give generously to an effort seen as a new approach with a reasonable likelyhood of success. If the program were targeted to only those cities/counties which offered the most robust plans for matching resources, strong bridges to the host communities could built in the process. For example, a local Vo/Tech school might be marshalled by the community organizers to provide complementary tuition to participants. A major law firm in each city could volunteer to provide pro-bono legal assistance to those families and homeless in the program. A regional health care system could commit to establish a dedicated walk-in free clinic specializing in the unique medical/mental issues of this unique population.
"A Million Families for A Million Homeless" wont fix all of the ills in society, but $12,000 a year in additional [tax free] income could be the difference between Lower Class and Middle Class to many distressed households. Paying them to care for those in even worse circumstances than themselves - instead of dissipating scarce funding through institutions and bureaucracies, is an approach not yet tried.
Our history is full of failure on the issues of poverty and homelessness. In the 1970s, the "War on Poverty" met the same ignoble end as the "War on Terror" is meeting today, and which the "War on Drugs" will undoubtedly meet in the near future. Instead of 'a flurry of initial activity', and 'self-congratulations by the politicians', followed by 'death by a thousand paper cuts in the runaway bureaucracy' which these "war" approaches have all represented, its time for a legitimate, community centered movement to help those among us most in need. Whether a "Middle Class" family has to give up its second or third car, or skip this summer's vacation, or send kids to a less expensive college is really not going to determine the aggregate wealth of future society. Lifting people out of homelessness and poverty, into that Middle Class, will.
Feel free to send this to your Congressman.