Austin's New Homeless Plan
The Austin City Council approved a plan proposed by Mobile Loaves and Fishes, a non-profit organization, to locate RV's and trailers in an undeveloped area of East Austin to house Austin's homeless. While the program, called the Park Place Village, has good intentions, the real question is will this solve any of the problems in Austin?
The goal of Mobile Loaves and Fishes is to end the homeless problem. But, does giving incentives for homeless the best plan? By giving incentives, such as housing, the homeless and hobos will naturally be even more attracted to our lovely sancturary city. Right now, the taxpayers will not have to foot the bill. But, the City Council is also amenable to granting a bond to assist Mobile Loaves and Fishes with the trailer park compound. What happens when the number of homeless exceed the room available in the trailer park? More than likely, the Austin taxpayers will be asked to pitch in to subsidize the incentives given to people who do not intend to contribute to society in a positive way.
My uncle was an alcoholic and homeless for nearly 20 years before he died. He went from one handout to the next, usually taking advantage of family members, only to fund his bad habits. No amount of counselling or rehab would change his attitudes.
I fear that if we give further taxpayer-funded and non-profit funded incentives that promote homelessness, the citizens of Austin will see even more homeless people, and the bad habits that goes with them, than we can count. This almost makes me want to move to Williamson County to get out of Austin's tax base.
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4 comments:
I guess that since they will have a place to live they will no longer be homeless, just wards/tennants of ML&F trailer park. So in that sense I suppose the homeless population will go down. Right?????
I don't know if y'all watch South Park, but there was one episode where the homeless took over the town and the kids had to devise a plan to relocate them ("Night of the Living Homeless"). They came up with a very funny solution where they convinced the homeless that California is "super cool for the homeless" by singing a modified version of "California Love." I think we should give that a try first before handing them the keys to a trailer park, lol. I was reading the Austin Chronicle during lunch today and one socialist was already whining about the plan because the trailer park is too far from the nearest bus stop (1/3 mi.), ugh.
Using the word incentive is interesting. I guess youre right! That's to good of an incentive to pass up, Im going to immediately quit my job, become homeless, so I can go live in park place. Whatever! Park Place is intended to be a safe place, and a stepping stone inorder to once again be what you would call a member of society. It was rushed thru because of the downtown business alliance and the city council's need to have a shiny looking downtown. I really don't consider park place to be an incentive or even a throw back to the homeless, but finally a way of constitutionally recognizing a redress of grievance.
There are an estimated 4,000-6,000 homeless individuals living in Austin right now. This program would have helped only 150. That's just a drop in the bucket. The city needs a more comprehensive plan that incorporates federal funding, not a leper colony at the edge of town, if they are going to manage a downtown cleanup.
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