Homelessness -- February 8, 2023

Premise: if I can think of this, so can much smarter folks in Washington, DC, and my hunch the wheels are already in motion. 

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Following the SOTU address last night, February 8, 2023: 

Following the speech, a memorandum listing 25 priorities starting circulating in social media. Number 25 had to do with President Biden's personal interest: cancer. Number 24 was simple to articulate: homelessness. 

It is time for a new federal executive department or independent government agency: Agency for Homeless Affairs (HA)

• carve out the "hardware" portion of HA from existing HUD resources;
• carve out the "software" portion of HA from existing HHS resources;

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Second thoughts: later afternoon, early evening, February 7, 2023:

Some background.

Cabinet-level agencies at this site. There are fourteen. Focus on four:

• DOD
• VA: a carve-out in 1988 when the DOD failed in one of its missions, to oversee issues affecting veterans.
  
• HUD: responsible for the "homeless."  One estimate: 600,000 across the US. Has remained fairly stable.
  
• HHS: 

In perspective:

• number of abortions in US annually -- somewhere between 650,000 and one million. 
• southwest land border encounters, per month, from less than 50K per month in 2020 to trending toward 275,000 per month in 2023. 
• the vast majority of these "encounters" will end up homeless for at least a portion of their stay in America.
  

Think of it this way:

• HUD: hardware
• HHS: software

Federal executive departments at this site. 

Government department and agencies at this site. Updated by the Federal Register, as of September, 2022, there 438. When one runs through that list, there is a gaping omission.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100–527) changed the former Veterans Administration, an independent government agency established in 1930, into a Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs.

It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on 25 October 1988, however came into effect under the term of his successor, George H. W. Bush, on 15 March 1989.

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First thoughts: February 7, 2023.

I'm spending the week in Portland, OR, visiting our 3-year-old grandsons.

Portland gets a lot of bad press. One can't "judge" a city in the northern tier of the United States during the winter, so I won't.

I visit Portland not less than two times a year. So far, I've been here three times in eight months. 

Many years ago when we first moved to the Dallas / Ft Worth area, I was struck by the number of huge -- and I mean huge -- churches in the area. I arrived ahead of my wife and I knew she would be put-off by these huge churches, which to her represents the "southern Bible Belt" (which it does) and a very, very conservative mindset (which it does) and for her, a racist ideology (I don't know, but my wife is very insightful and very, very well-read).  

Six months after living in the Dallas / Ft Worth area, I no longer noticed the churches. They are still there, but they are so much part of the environment they disappear into the trees, McMansions, and quarter-mile wide intersections.

I thought of that when driving through Portland yesterday -- not sightseeing but running errands -- when my daughter pointed out the changing character of a homeless encampment by which we passed. She said at one time it was one of the larger homeless camps in the area. It's still huge, of course, but had she not pointed it out, I would not have noticed. It simply blended into the east Portland purlieus. Seriously. 

Downtown: 

I took the Blue Line into downtown Portland, yesterday and then again today. There is now security on the entire line -- something I had never seen before. It was my impression there were almost no unsavory riders on the train, but it could simply be due to the blustery, rainy whether. Those folks, I assume, are hunkered down in their tents.

Speaking of which, the tents -- at least in the outlying areas -- have gotten a lot nicer. Run a few extension cords for space heaters, or better yet, put in a few diesel generators and the rent would go way up. LOL.

[Update: I understand there's now a city program for providing REI-like tents for the homeless. Whoo-hoo.]

By the way, if one wants to move some of the more undesirable camps from certain locations downtown, it could easily be managed:

• find large open fields, or better yet, abandoned warehouses, at least one half-mile but not more than two miles from the MAX (light rail); in the big scheme of things, the homeless population is not that huge that it can't be made more humane;
• there are youth basketball / indoor soccer facilities in north Texas the size of two or three a/c hangers that could handle the entire homeless population in Portland
  
• install a diesel generator or two, donated by the local power utilities;
• install trailer-home hook-ups for electricity, donated by EV charging companies (as a condition for operating in the city); I spent one summer in Williston, ND, working for MDU; in less than a week we wired a brand-new "trailer camp." Two professionals and two untrained college kids. 80-hours of professional wages and 80-hours of minimum wage. Mr MDU could have paid for it and his annual salary would have been minimally impacted;
  
• placement of Port-a-Potties, donated by Waste Management and construction companies (again, as a condition ...)
• one hot meal a day, provided by any number of go-good operations already up-and-running in the city;
• amenities: a weekly traveling library; free wi-fi; a 24-hour coffee / snacks kiosk / with postal services (yes, it could be done; I've lived in military tent cities at the end of the world);
  
• provide security with time and services donated by the police unions who are always looking for ways to boost their stature in the community;
• and, then, the coup de grace, budget miscellaneous expenses and pay for these miscellaneous expenses with federal grant money raised by quadrupling the tax on "share buybacks." 
• miscellaneous expenses (much of the following could be managed by Salvation Army stores, or Goodwill (the fact that they aren't also speaks volumes):
• toiletries including feminine hygiene products;
• toilet paper and wet wipes;
• "Purell"
• underwear, socks, 
• weekly transportation to shower facilities -- now, wouldn't that be great? 
• "St Jude" marketing; fund-raising
  

Wouldn't it be great if we could regionalize this? A multi-billionaire would partner with a university for a four-year capstone project in return for a tuition-free education:

• Pacific Northwest: Bill Gates and University of Washington
• Southwest: Tim Cook and UC-Berkeley
• South: Elon Musk -- UT-Austin
• Midwest: the Koch brothers, Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett -- U of M or U of MI (Madison)
• Northeast: Bloomberg and CUNY or The New School (NYC)
• Southeast: Bob Iger and University of Miami (Florida)

Folks might scoff at the "diesel generator" angle, but I've spent time in African nations in which entire towns "ran off" a single generator, or larger cities, used multiple generators as back-up emergency power.

I won't listen to any "pushback" until the naysayer has read Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey at least twice. 

Wow, once you start "managing" the problem, everything starts to work:

• public health: needle exchange; condoms; HIV medication; immunizations; TB (tuberculosis) testing;
• social work: the entire service network;
• basic adult education; 
• income tax services; 
• voting booths; voting registration;
  
• EVs golf carts to transport residents to public transportation;
• the homeless would get pre-paid passes on public transportation, paid for by car companies; public transportation would have another revenue stream. 

The fact none of this is being done, speaks volumes about the seriousness of those speaking to the challenge.

The premise: a civilized society gives the most unfortunate "more than enough" to be humane without giving these less unfortunate so much it discourages upward mobility. When Hillary Clinton was 25 years old, she would have had the energy and expertise and idealism to see this through. Now, she has no energy and no idealism left .. but she has the expertise and the connections .. if only ...  

Correlate: the problem doesn't have to be solved "overnight." But after forty years of this -- since the Vietnam War era -- certainly "we" could have shown a lot more progress;

Powell Books:

• most incredible bookstore in the world, some might argue; I wouldn't disagree;
• I was most impressed by the fact that no homeless folks are camped out there; don't know why; didn't ask;
• the store was not particularly busy but it was 10:00 a.m. on a blustery, drizzly morning in the middle of winter;
• I was most disappointed with the coffee shop; I had planned to buy my books and then hang out there all day;
• the coffee shop has been completely renovated since I was last there more than three years ago;
• the coffee shop in Powell's Books was incredibly welcoming; one of the nicer coffee shops I had / have seen in quite some time;
• there were no customers in the coffee shop -- none, nada, zilch
• then I looked at the menu:
• coffee: $3.50 / cup -- no selection of coffees; they probably had a selection, I simply didn't see the selection if it existed;
• they offered about eight food items; six were ex-ed out with black grease market; one sandwich for $8.95 was offered;
• I did not go in.
• literally around the corner, a Starbucks with a 4.3-star rating on Google maps; a Starbucks a bit farther away had a 3.8-star rating.

Starbucks Coffee

• surprise, surprise. One of the nicer Starbucks I've been in and because downtown is "empty" during the winter in Portland, I practically had the place to myself. It could easily seat 32 folks with 6-foot Covid-19 spacing -- I mean this place was cavernous ...
• coffee and a bacon-egg-cheese sandwich, heated -- cost me less than $9.00.
• this will be both breakfast and lunch;
• c'mon man: find a less expensive breakfast and lunch in a downtown US city over 100,000 in population -- and I get rewards.

I quit looking at my rewards over a year ago when Starbucks changed their reward program -- but two weeks ago, a barista in north Texas pointed out I had 155 points -- enough points to get me through the next six weeks of winter forecast by P. Phil (link here for those who can't spell his name either).

• music for keeping Portland weird in this Starbucks: 60's rock. Are you kidding me?
• speaking of which, did you all hear who "won" Song of the Year" earlier this week at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. LOL. Made my day. How old is she, Bonnie? 73 years old. She was stunned, she mouthed "I don't believe it" when the award was announced. Lives in Burbank, CA. This is like living in Southlake, TX.
• those nominated who did not win need to ask for a recount; but I know what happened -- the other four split the 75% of voters who did not vote for Ms Raitt. What a riot! 
  

Name the two of the following who have won a Grammy: Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Lopez, Diana Ross.