Some thoughts on the homeless

With the year 2000 approaching you would think there would

    be more bold and FRESH thinking about old social problems.

           As Patrick Kennedy points out in his column this morning ( " In

    defense of America's homeless ", Providence Journal, Feb. 3 ) government

    programs -conceived by liberals but crushed by callous conservatives-

    might have helped a lot. It seems to me that HOMELESS PEOPLE began to

    spring up like mushrooms - everywhere - in the Reagan era .

            Homeless shelters do little to take the stress out of homelessness.

      If the homeless person is not mentally ill at the very beginning of

    his or her ordeal, that person soon will be. We cannot expect the

    average  homeless victim to be viewed positively in a job interview. His

    stressed situation - suggesting lack of stability - is all too obvious.

          Every person needs privacy in order to sleep well. And he needs

    to have access to a hot bath and shower facility - and also a convenient

    laundry service.  A phone too is hardly a luxury for a working person .

          A tired, stinking, ragged person is not prepared to enter any

    workplace !

             In 1970 in the Providence area it was possible for a single

    male or female to find a perfectly decent room -complete with cooking

    facilities - for as little as $13.00 per week . And I believe welfare

    checks for single people were about $ 40.00 weekly. Today this almost

    sounds like the good life !

             Where are all those single rooms for rent today ? And what do

    they cost now relative to a weekly welfare check - supposedly the minimum

    which a human being can actually live on in a city like Providence ?

            Would not a draconian rent control program get a lot of homeless

    people off the street ?

          I also think a 21st century revolution in architecture might

    finally solve the homeless problem for good.

           Why can't we try to find cheap new ways to shelter everybody

    and provide the amenities of civilization ? I once heard a married man

    say : " If it weren't for the wife and kids, I could live in a cave ".

          Cave ? A modern cave ? Now there's an idea !