In response to an article published
in the June '04 issue of "The Atlantic," NPACH
Executive Director Dr. Brad Paul submitted the following
letter. The letter was published in the magazine's October
issue.
www.theatlantic.com
The Atlantic (Oct. 2004)
Re: "The Abolitionist," by Douglas McGray, June, Atlantic
Philip Mangano’s brand of ‘abolitionism’ may make for impassioned rhetoric, but it does little to appropriately honor our rich history or provide much of a road map out of homelessness. Rather than continue an American tradition of social justice, the Bush administration has focused its efforts on what it calls "chronic" homelessness, suggesting a medical model where an economic one is needed. This is an especially unconscionable "strategy" given the concurrent cuts to housing programs such as Section 8, which serves extremely low income families with children, the elderly and the disabled. It also conveniently shifts attention away from a Larger, equally vulnerable population of people experiencing homelessness: young children.
Without access to programs and services, they will surely become the "chronically homeless" of tomorrow.
Are there cost savings in what the Administration is peddling? Sure. But Dennis Culhane’s insolent observation that outreach workers and emergency shelter managers are "threatened ideologically and financially" by the Administration’s shift in emphasis is loaded with bitter irony. Indeed, although a certain housing "industry" with a financial stake has steadily emerged in tandem with the current policies, providers of emergency shelter are hardly the beneficiaries of such a windfall. In fact, it is Mr. Culhane’s own published research and consulting work that largely underpin the Bush Administration’s homelessness policy, and at the same time guarantee his place on the payroll and in the press. It is also a particularly insipid claim that people who provide emergency services are "threatened," considering that a full one-third of homeless families seeking shelter are turned away for lack of space.
In the end, neither liberal nor compassionate conservatives may offer new thinking on the issue, but to speak of liberal hegemony on national housing policy when the HUD budget has been slashed by 64 percent since 1978 is disingenuous at best. The abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison once cautioned not to "tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm." Sadly, it seems the President’s homelessness czar has taken his good name and done precisely that.
Brad Paul
Executive Director
National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness
Washington, DC 20036