Hampton Branch Library
Aggressive Corrections to Homeless Article
RECEIVED Wed., Dec. 22, 2004
Dear Chronicle,
So how much Christmas cheer did your reporter have before filing his alleged story on the homeless ["No Homeless in Our Time?," News, Dec. 17]? Here's a sampling of what wasn't reported:
* There are 20,000 homeless people in Austin and its surrounding environs;
* 6,709 of these meet the new federal criteria for chronic homeless;
* 1,917 meet the criteria but are turned away due to lack of resources;
* To be "chronically homeless" one must be an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, or one who has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years;
* Disabling condition is a diagnosable substance disorder, serious mental illness, developmental disability, or chronic physical illness or disability, including two or more of these conditions;
* 755 shelter beds available for 90 days to those lucky enough to get them;
* 388 transitional/permanent housing units for those lucky enough to get them;
* In the Austin area, the chronic homeless account for about 33.5% of the homeless population and receive about 32.6% of the available funding, which completely screws up the "New York" reform model;
* Ratio of staff to chronic homeless ~ 1-to-86;
* Homeless funding: $17,960,000/20,000 homeless = $809.30 per capita, $67.45/month, or $2.25/day;
* Chronic homeless funding: $5,067,000/6,709 chronic homeless = about $756.74/capita, $63.06/month, or $2.10/day; and
* Implementation of "reforms" by DAA executive that seem openly hostile suggests less than optimum outcome of aid for chronically homeless.
So how much Christmas cheer did your reporter have before filing his alleged story on the homeless ["No Homeless in Our Time?," News, Dec. 17]? Here's a sampling of what wasn't reported:
* There are 20,000 homeless people in Austin and its surrounding environs;
* 6,709 of these meet the new federal criteria for chronic homeless;
* 1,917 meet the criteria but are turned away due to lack of resources;
* To be "chronically homeless" one must be an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, or one who has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years;
* Disabling condition is a diagnosable substance disorder, serious mental illness, developmental disability, or chronic physical illness or disability, including two or more of these conditions;
* 755 shelter beds available for 90 days to those lucky enough to get them;
* 388 transitional/permanent housing units for those lucky enough to get them;
* In the Austin area, the chronic homeless account for about 33.5% of the homeless population and receive about 32.6% of the available funding, which completely screws up the "New York" reform model;
* Ratio of staff to chronic homeless ~ 1-to-86;
* Homeless funding: $17,960,000/20,000 homeless = $809.30 per capita, $67.45/month, or $2.25/day;
* Chronic homeless funding: $5,067,000/6,709 chronic homeless = about $756.74/capita, $63.06/month, or $2.10/day; and
* Implementation of "reforms" by DAA executive that seem openly hostile suggests less than optimum outcome of aid for chronically homeless.
Merry Christmas to the "value laden,"
Ricky Bird
Ricky Bird
[News Editor Michael King responds: Bastrop's Ricky Bird, self-appointed authority on all matters homeless, finds it amusing to insult anyone else who presumes to discuss the subject without his permission. In a previous letter on another subject, he condemns those whose "politics is to spit on your allies and imply that those disagreeing with you are fools or corrupted." Yet that is the only style of argument he employs. For the record, his figure of 20,000 area homeless depends on counting "20,378 duplicated homeless individuals" who were provided services (in the Homeless Task Force survey he attached) as each an independent case of homelessness. That initial incorrect presumption undermines all his subsequent arithmetic. Certainly the local problem of homelessness is serious and the survey represents an important step in addressing the specific problem of chronic homelessness. Wild and hostile exaggerations of either the numbers or other people's motives are not much help.]