Disappeared News

“
The reality of this position is that (it gets) no budget, no money — you’re told to just come in and end homelessness. There’s so much more to be done. We’re in the middle of a full-blown crisis, especially on Oahu. — Colin Kippen, outgoing state homeless coordinator, quoted in Civil Beat article
”

by Larry Geller

The pull-quote above speaks for itself.

That’s never prevented me from adding some words of my own.

Colin Kippen did wonders with his zero-budget allowance. He can get a recommendation from me, if he wants it, for his next job application.

It’s clear, though, that his budget is pretty much equal to what the state has invested so far in solving its compound crisis, which consists, at least, of:

• A lack of interest in creating affordable housing, resulting in a gap of tens of thousands of units between supply and demand
• A lack of compassion or even basic humanity towards the need of every citizen for food, shelter and employment
• Failure to create a minimum wage law that approaches what would be a living wage, so that people could pay their rent
• Failure to enact rent controls or stabilization or even to discuss it
• Doing everything, it seems, except what would work (e.g., Housing First)

I should add:

• Failure to give its homeless coordinator even one cent with which to do his job.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/28/2015 03:57:00 PM