by Debbie Brady
Denver’s social experiment--the 10 year plan to end homelessness--has run its course. Ten years ago in 2005, then Mayor Hickenlooper created a new City agency, Denver’s Road Home. This agency was charged with ending homelessness in Denver in ten years. This effort has proved to be a dismal failure. There are many more unhoused folks in the City now than there were 10 years ago.
In fact, according to a recent Denver City Auditor’s report, Denver’s Road Home has spent $63 million and because of poor record keeping, has no idea of the results of this expenditure. Denver’s Road Home required all nonprofit agencies receiving money from the City to report regularly on the results of their efforts, but Denver’s Road Home failed to compile this information. As a result they have no idea of which agencies’ efforts were successful and which were not.
How many housing units could have been built for $63 million?
This is no way to run a railroad, let alone a City agency.
Bennie Milliner, the Executive Director of Denver’s Road Home, said at a recent meeting of the Denver Homeless Commission, that the report unfairly pointed fingers at the service providers. I have read the report and if fingers were pointed, it was at Denver’s Road Home.
I was homeless in Denver for three years, from 2009 to 2011, in the middle of this social experiment, and I think I have a pretty good idea of where most of those millions were spent.
Most of this money went to support what I call, “The Homeless Industrial Complex.” While it is true that these service providers are nonprofits, the people in charge of these charities often earn fairly substantial salaries. They also employ many people charged with keeping the unwashed masses in line. By in line, I mean the homeless spend much of their time standing in line for food or shelter, while they must also toe the line for the often arrogant guards and officials who run these places or they get thrown out. There is very little incentive to end homelessness here, when the result of a successful effort would be the loss of employment for many of them.
Those who are not up to surviving on the streets and are lucky enough to get into a shelter, are in many cases warehoused in bug infested and sometimes unsafe crowded dormitories. There they languish with very little effort to move them from shelters into homes; some of these places more resemble prisons then safe havens. There are some exceptions that truly care and work to help move people move into homes and decent paying jobs.
I’m not going to name names here, but if you work in either of these kinds of places, you know who you are.
I spent one month in a prison-like shelter before a Veterans Administration caseworker moved me into one of the exceptions, where I spent seven months until I was able to move under a roof of my own.
I love my place and intend to die here. If not for the V.A. and HUD I would still be on the streets or in a shelter. I was lucky. I just hope my luck holds a few more years, that’s all I need, I’m an old lady and I’ll be gone soon.
I’ve seen the worst and the best of these non profit homeless shelters. One thing I noticed about them though was that most of the staff drove some pretty nice cars. You notice these things when you are standing across the street from the parking lot waiting for a bus.
I’m not going to talk about the rest of my homeless experience, living on the streets and in the woods, because I think I may have broken some laws that the statute of limitations hasn’t run out on yet.
The unhoused who cannot stomach living in shelters, brave the elements living on the street. These folks are regularly harassed by police and the business owners’ private cops who see them as a nuisance. In fact, laws have been passed that make it illegal to perform routine acts of survival in public. There are no public places where these folks are allowed to pee, poop, rest or sleep. They are considered outlaws because they dare to exist. The politicians and the tycoons who control them just want these people to disappear; they don’t care where they disappear to as long as they are not disrupting commerce downtown.
Even for those folks who can stomach living in a shelter, according to last year’s Point In Time (PIT) survey of the homeless in Denver, there is only one shelter bed for every four homeless people living in Denver. We all know the PIT survey is always way low. This kind of reminds me of George W Bush in New Orleans after Katrina. I can just see him now, saying, “You’re doing a hell of a job Bennie.”
Many business owners contribute millions of dollars to maintain this failed system. Why? These guys are supposed to be financial experts. Why don’t they demand more bang for their bucks?
It has been proven in many places worldwide that the most inexpensive way to end homelessness is to provide the unhoused with homes, a place where they can perform simple acts of survival behind a locked door. Why is this so hard for these poobahs to understand? Instead, we have people getting thrown in jail for daring to try to survive in public, people languishing in shelters which are often bug infested and unsafe, and the business owners complaining about unhoused people costing them money by disrupting commerce downtown. All of these so-called solutions to homelessness cost the city, state and federal governments a lot of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. For what?
One of the biggest issues contributing to this situation is our paltry minimum wage. Many of the people who are homeless work full time at minimum wage jobs, but are still unable to afford housing in Denver’s out-of-control housing market. Because of this, there are way too many families with children living on the streets or crowded into very small living spaces. If they are not trying to survive on the streets, they can find themselves camped out with relatives or crammed into overpriced motel rooms, where they are often unwelcome.
This is again, no way, to run a railroad.
I suppose I could go on and on, bitching about the stupidity of this mess, but the fact of the matter is, no one who is in a position to do something is listening.
In fact, according to a recent Denver City Auditor’s report, Denver’s Road Home has spent $63 million and because of poor record keeping, has no idea of the results of this expenditure. Denver’s Road Home required all nonprofit agencies receiving money from the City to report regularly on the results of their efforts, but Denver’s Road Home failed to compile this information. As a result they have no idea of which agencies’ efforts were successful and which were not.
How many housing units could have been built for $63 million?
This is no way to run a railroad, let alone a City agency.
Bennie Milliner, the Executive Director of Denver’s Road Home, said at a recent meeting of the Denver Homeless Commission, that the report unfairly pointed fingers at the service providers. I have read the report and if fingers were pointed, it was at Denver’s Road Home.
I was homeless in Denver for three years, from 2009 to 2011, in the middle of this social experiment, and I think I have a pretty good idea of where most of those millions were spent.
Most of this money went to support what I call, “The Homeless Industrial Complex.” While it is true that these service providers are nonprofits, the people in charge of these charities often earn fairly substantial salaries. They also employ many people charged with keeping the unwashed masses in line. By in line, I mean the homeless spend much of their time standing in line for food or shelter, while they must also toe the line for the often arrogant guards and officials who run these places or they get thrown out. There is very little incentive to end homelessness here, when the result of a successful effort would be the loss of employment for many of them.
Those who are not up to surviving on the streets and are lucky enough to get into a shelter, are in many cases warehoused in bug infested and sometimes unsafe crowded dormitories. There they languish with very little effort to move them from shelters into homes; some of these places more resemble prisons then safe havens. There are some exceptions that truly care and work to help move people move into homes and decent paying jobs.
I’m not going to name names here, but if you work in either of these kinds of places, you know who you are.
I spent one month in a prison-like shelter before a Veterans Administration caseworker moved me into one of the exceptions, where I spent seven months until I was able to move under a roof of my own.
I love my place and intend to die here. If not for the V.A. and HUD I would still be on the streets or in a shelter. I was lucky. I just hope my luck holds a few more years, that’s all I need, I’m an old lady and I’ll be gone soon.
I’ve seen the worst and the best of these non profit homeless shelters. One thing I noticed about them though was that most of the staff drove some pretty nice cars. You notice these things when you are standing across the street from the parking lot waiting for a bus.
I’m not going to talk about the rest of my homeless experience, living on the streets and in the woods, because I think I may have broken some laws that the statute of limitations hasn’t run out on yet.
The unhoused who cannot stomach living in shelters, brave the elements living on the street. These folks are regularly harassed by police and the business owners’ private cops who see them as a nuisance. In fact, laws have been passed that make it illegal to perform routine acts of survival in public. There are no public places where these folks are allowed to pee, poop, rest or sleep. They are considered outlaws because they dare to exist. The politicians and the tycoons who control them just want these people to disappear; they don’t care where they disappear to as long as they are not disrupting commerce downtown.
Even for those folks who can stomach living in a shelter, according to last year’s Point In Time (PIT) survey of the homeless in Denver, there is only one shelter bed for every four homeless people living in Denver. We all know the PIT survey is always way low. This kind of reminds me of George W Bush in New Orleans after Katrina. I can just see him now, saying, “You’re doing a hell of a job Bennie.”
Many business owners contribute millions of dollars to maintain this failed system. Why? These guys are supposed to be financial experts. Why don’t they demand more bang for their bucks?
It has been proven in many places worldwide that the most inexpensive way to end homelessness is to provide the unhoused with homes, a place where they can perform simple acts of survival behind a locked door. Why is this so hard for these poobahs to understand? Instead, we have people getting thrown in jail for daring to try to survive in public, people languishing in shelters which are often bug infested and unsafe, and the business owners complaining about unhoused people costing them money by disrupting commerce downtown. All of these so-called solutions to homelessness cost the city, state and federal governments a lot of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. For what?
One of the biggest issues contributing to this situation is our paltry minimum wage. Many of the people who are homeless work full time at minimum wage jobs, but are still unable to afford housing in Denver’s out-of-control housing market. Because of this, there are way too many families with children living on the streets or crowded into very small living spaces. If they are not trying to survive on the streets, they can find themselves camped out with relatives or crammed into overpriced motel rooms, where they are often unwelcome.
This is again, no way, to run a railroad.
I suppose I could go on and on, bitching about the stupidity of this mess, but the fact of the matter is, no one who is in a position to do something is listening.