Second in a series.
Re: “What About the Homeless? Clarke Asks”
Jim Clark says it is a question of logic as he expanded on the reasons that he was disappointed by the conclusions at last Monday’s City Council meeting.
“If our goal is to reduce homelessness, we are not going to meet that goal by spending the same amount of money as last year even though we have had a 30 percent increase in the number of homeless,” said the City Councilman.
Before addressing a potential solution, Mr. Clarke said that he wanted “to help stimulate, to get moving on (building) affordable housing,” a stillborn topic for the strapped City Council in recent years.
“My idea was that as we developed affordable housing units, we would try to move people off the Rental Assistance Program into these affordable housing units,” Mr. Clarke said.
“The difference is that when you create affordable housing it is a onetime expense as opposed to an ongoing expense.”
For the fiscal year that opens July 1, the budgets for both dimensions of the needy will be unchanged — $614,000 for the Rental Assistance Program and about one-fifth that amount for the homeless.
Said Mr. Clarke: “Let’s hope the economy turns around, and let’s hope the money we spend on homeless services will reduce the homeless population. I am no an expert on homeless services. But if you are going to spend the same amount when the homeless population is growing, the money will not go as far.”
