He who uses the word “socialist†is a name-caller. Yet, it is implicit that the Buncombe County Commissioners owe us all “permanent, supportive housing, employment, education, health care benefits, and support services.†We don’t want to help people become self-sufficient so much as we want to form another committee to oversee how the homeless are counted. It will enhance recognition of the administrative structure.
Mayor Terry Bellamy demanded that city staff get to the bottom of why “homeless people are choosing to live in Asheville.†The Homeless Initiative’s coordinator, Amy Sawyer, said homelessness is down. There’s just a perception that it is up. The new wave of homeless people is families, single moms with children, who had been renting from overly speculative landlords. Still, a lot more people seem to be walking around, huddling in blankets, littering, and leaving excrement on sidewalks on the west end of town. One shelter has a lottery to determine who gets to sleep there.
Nuff said already.
