Tonight is Homeless Memorial Day. We are asked to increase our carbon footprint by burning a light in the window, and show our solidarity for the Democrat presidential platform with a poster that states, “Health care is a human right.†The program is sponsored by the Homeless Initiative, which is a part of Asheville city government.
The article in the Asheville Citizen-Times generated a nice cross section of commentary from the public, ranging from a request that hair dressers donate their services to the homeless, to dissatisfaction with having to work two jobs so some people can work none.
Here’s a copy of our Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness. Don’t worry if the numbers don’t stack up. The main thrust of the Homeless Initiative is to count the homeless and get them into a database.
To date, the Homeless Initiative has gotten 228 people into subsidized housing with Housing First. According to the initiative’s director Amy Sawyer, some of these people are now working and paying their rent. Sawyer did not have the numbers.
As for me, I don’t want to work two jobs to pay somebody to drink his soul into a grave. I think government encourages people to act like babies through its system of program-growing. I also think libertarians have an opportunity to show that the private sector is capable of caring for the needy. Like Jeff Dreibus, who posted on the thread, I, too, am crazy as a bedbug and manage to stay employed.
