Public housing?

[stacym]

Big Jim - are you really willing to say all public housing = crack houses? I don't want to misinterpret what you said. So any good housing ideas for people in need?

Hypothetically let's just say we're dealing with a 25 year old widow with 2 small children and she has no skills. She's young and able to work - but without a degree or a skill she's in trouble for the moment. Heck - let's say she does have a college degree - in this economy there are plenty of people with degrees and skills but are unable to find a job. Day care for 2 kids while she works will likely cost her close to $1500 per month - so if she does go to work it's got to cover that and much, much more. Do you prefer that she live on the streets with her 2 small children or in her car (if she's got one)? Maybe pimp herself out while the kids sit in the front? That's working right?

 

[IMWylde]

Whatever you want to believe, chode.

I take it you don't live in my neighborhood. You'd sing a different tune if you did.

Has nothing with what I want to believe. It is the representation you put across when you make such obviously biased and inflammatory statements. All chode aside Warwick is not the center of the universe.

Sorry dude.

 

[WiηgC¤mmαηdεя]

Public housing = crack houses

Sorry, but this happens all the time around my parts.

Hey BigJimW,

I'm in Canada and we have a Public Housing program as well.
I have seen what you are referring to where going through one of these neighborhoods, particularly on check day, you find a lot of drug use, needles in the community park, alcohol in heavy use, kids running in packs with no respect for property or their elders, police making several appearances a day due to being called for fights, raids, dropping off the delinquent kids ..... I could go on and on.

I would just like to mention that there are many people in public housing that are there due to making a choice between bad and worse. I have known them myself since my family lived in such a community for over 3 years.
We had been going through a rough patch and separated prior to the birth of our 2nd child and she had applied for housing and was approved for 1/2 a duplex, when we reconciled we talked to them and they approved us staying there under a rental agreement that was 30% of our pretax income which was approx 600.00/month. This was better than we could do renting a smaller apt so we stayed to save up for a down payment on a house.
I will say that we always supervised our children, took them to a park outside the neighborhood daily(weather permitting), limited our contact with the community as much as was practical. We kept our lawn mowed, yard clean and driveway shoveled. Other family's we knew did the same. I did not fear my community and they for the most part left us alone since we minded our own business.

When my wife became mentally ill(postpartum depression, suicidal tenancies, apathy, diagnosed bi polar, seizures and more issues) and had to be hospitalized social services stepped in and said she would not be able to be left alone with our 3 children. I was instructed that in order to work I would have to hire a care worker to assist/monitor her with the housework and care of the children while I was not home. This would have cost a good percentage of what I was bringing in.
We tried having her stay at her parents while under initial treatment and they chose after a week to drop her off at the house and advised me that she was married to me and my problem, not theirs (nice huh?).
When we contacted social services we were advised that they could not subsidize a care worker but they would approve us for a monthly check if I was to quit my job to stay home to care for her and the children, and be able to cover the cost of the many prescriptions she was now on.
The other option proposed to me was that I could divorce her and gotten custody of the kids since they would have subsidized daycare. This would have left her on her own but she probably wouldn't still be with us if I had done that.
If it wasn't for housing and them adjusting our rent much lower we would be in very bad circumstances and am thankful for the programs available to people in hard circumstances making hard choices.

She is better now and can be left with the kids for short periods of time but due to medical issues and continuing seizures her doctors filed paperwork recommending I continue to stay home at this time.
On a positive note a year ago we qualified for a program run by a local Headstart that put us in a duplex with a fenced yard for the kids that is integrated in a "regular" community.

I am looking forward to the day when all three kids are in school and the doctors say she is able to take care of herself so that I can return to work so we can have the car we need and the house we want.

I know this was a long story but I wanted to show that not everyone that lives in public housing is running a crack house, some of us have just hit circumstances that are very difficult and are doing what we have to to put a roof over our kids heads and hoping for a better future.

Highest regards and best wishes,
Wing.

 

[Stephaniems]

Sometimes life is just hard and I'm glad there are things you can get that helped you out. When I was a kid growing up in the projects, it was horrible and almost everyone (adults) did some form of drugs from pills, smoke, drinking in excess, needles you name it it was there, but if these places were not there what would've happend to all us kids in that situation? They kept a roof over all our heads until our parents pulled their heads out and started taking care of things like they should. I just think the programs should do more to permenantly help fix the situation, they are spending money monthly anyway.

Drug use is rampant in these places but what would happen to the kids if there were no projects or government assistance living?

 

[transmothra]

All poor people are worthless, entitled addicts. Let's just go ahead and say what we really mean.

I'm really honestly happy that all the people whining and moaning about poor people - because really, that's exactly what this is all about, isn't it? - have never had to go through anything truly devastating, have never been set back by homelessness, extended unemployment or just plain old bad circumstances. Because once you have a real run of bad luck, that's when you start believing all the $#!+ people say about poor people being worthless drains on society - even when you absolutely refuse handouts the entire time you're down and out and keep on trying to do your best and not get in anybody's way. I earnestly wouldn't wish that on anybody, so i'm sincerely glad you pinkies-out "hard-working" (ha!) Upper Crust types haven't ever had to deal with it.

On the subject of earning: this "meritocracy" everyone's so crazy about is insane. The hardest-working rich person i've ever met never worked a tenth as hard as the laziest poor person i've ever known. Nobody earns anything. Hard work means nothing. You get what your friends give to you, and that's that. It's all about who you know, and if you don't know the right people and have no access to the right social circles, you're on a slow boat to nowhere until and unless you can get the opportunity to know somebody who can get you into the kind of work you deserve to have. Especially in the current economy (which btw was flipped by Bush2 from prosperity to a deep, deep recession), when everyone handling your fries at Wendy's has a freakin' CS or IT degree of some sort.

 

[Pav]

I'm laughing at the ridiculous OP relating HUD houses to Obama putting his feet on a desk in the office the he EARNED! Love him or hate him, at least he actually won the election to get in the White House in the first place and didn't do it based on being born into a mega rich politically connected family and then getting the Supreme Court to hand him the office after losing the election.

The lengths people will go to to bash this guy are ridiculously absurd at times. And honestly, it belittles any legitimate criticism Obama does deserve.

 

[Pav]

I guess it was ok for Ford and W Bush to do the same thing eh? Forwarded email debunked!

snopes.com: President Obama with Feet on Desk

Photos of President Obama With His Feet on the Resolute Desk-Truth!

 

[Scarlet Fire]

It should be mentioned that a great number of people who access public housing are disabled and/or senior citizens. I think we can all acknowledge that there is some abuse of the system, however, in my view, the good far outweighs the bad. Unless, of course, one longs for the type of victorian society that finds our poor, disabled, and elderly begging on the street and looking for a warm place to spend the night.

People who have a drug-related conviciton do not qualify for HUD subsidized housing. Personally, I have mixed feelings about that, as many of these people have children who are negatively affected by not having a stable home.

In any case, I suspect those who believe that there should be no subsidized housing at all really have no idea how impactful that would be to our society, or just who would be harmed. It's easy to toss stereotypes around and blather on about personal responsibility, free markets, etc., but that does little to resolve the very real problems that people face each and every day.

As for President Obama placing feet on the desk in the Oval office, given that this is something that other presidents have done, as well, I can't help but wonder what it is about him that makes that somehow unacceptable to some folks. I have a theory about that, however for the purpose of civility, I'll keep it to myself.

 

[BigJimW]

Big Jim - are you really willing to say all public housing = crack houses? I don't want to misinterpret what you said. So any good housing ideas for people in need?

Hypothetically let's just say we're dealing with a 25 year old widow with 2 small children and she has no skills. She's young and able to work - but without a degree or a skill she's in trouble for the moment. Heck - let's say she does have a college degree - in this economy there are plenty of people with degrees and skills but are unable to find a job. Day care for 2 kids while she works will likely cost her close to $1500 per month - so if she does go to work it's got to cover that and much, much more. Do you prefer that she live on the streets with her 2 small children or in her car (if she's got one)? Maybe pimp herself out while the kids sit in the front? That's working right?

Ok, perhaps I did put the cart before the horse in my responses, but let me explain one thing. Yes, At one time I did live in public housing. It was actually a very well run and well kept place. I liked it so much that I got a job working for the Housing Authority for awhile to work with the maintenance team. It was at that point I saw the seedier side to it. You would be surprised (and perhaps sickened) at what you find.

Maybe I did do a knee jerk reaction to this question, and to that I apologize, but when one walks their dog and gets near one of those type of projects and one faces a knife wielding crackhead, you'd see things differently.

Yes, that happened to me about a year ago. It also happened recently to one old guy down the street who I know very well who is now paralyzed from the attack, because the guy was simply taking his morning walk.

I'm not saying it's ALL like this, but lets just say my personal experiances have been less than stellar.