Mayor Michael Bloomberg of NYC has a solution to the city's homeless problem. He wants to provide a one-way ticket out. He wants to send those worrisome, burdensome people who are victims of unaffordable housing, mental illness and the like, out of the city by any means necessary. I'm talking train, plane or bus and all expenses paid. Oh yeah, baby. And the catch to this one-way solution is that folks have to go back to their hometown. And when I say hometown I mean the place where they learned how to ride a bike for the first time. If they can find a family member in their hometown that will agree to take responsibility of them, NYC will send them to Paris, South Africa, North Cackalacky, wherever.
Apparently, it costs NYC $36,000 to house one family in a homeless shelter. So the word is it's cheaper to send them home. I've certainly noticed an increase in the homeless population in the last year. A few years ago the homeless were almost invisible [or hidden] and panhandling was down quite a bit. But now with rampant unemployment throughout the five boroughs it appears the homeless have reemerged. From where I sit and blog, it looks like Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg got together and decided the only way to remedy the country's budget crisis is to whack off the needy.
Thoughts?
Keith Josef Adkins is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and social commentator.